Fjord running - well almost

October 30, 2007 (5:10am)

27º F, Clear, No Wind.

Good morning,

We are in a warming trend - 18º F Sunday morning and almost 10º F warmer this morning. More to come, so says the weatherman. This is crazy! Feels more like May than the end of October. Probably a good thing, as I have many projects to get done before the really cold weather sets in for the winter.

Saturday and Sunday nights I had a terrible time sleeping through the night. I woke up something before 1:00 A.M. and could not get to sleep again. After trying for a couple of hours, finally got up for a couple of hours. Yesterday I went back to bed to “snooze” for an hour, but woke up 2½ hours later, so getting a very late start working at Eli’s. I would like to finish Fjord this week and get it home.

Sunday was a really neat day. Bethlehem celebrated 115 years of being a congregation. It started as a Swedish Lutheran church with services in Swedish for some time. Bethlehem has had it’s up’s and down’s during it’s history, nearly ceasing to exist several times, due to lack of pastor or folks to worship. From what I can gather, the high point was during the middle 1920's and into the early 1930's. At present it is on the grow, taking in more folks than those who are dying or moving away. At present it is a nice mix of young families along with us old folks. Some are third generation member families.

The pastor’s wife gave us a history of Bethlehem created for their centennial celebration and is interesting to read. After the church was built for a number of years, the basement was built under it. A few years later, central heating was installed consisting of a monster wood fired furnace, nearly filling the basement. The furnace eventually was converted to coal burning and finally oil burning. Not too many years ago, it was removed and a modern gas furnace was installed. That allowed a fellowship hall, kitchen, and bathrooms to fill the basement as it is today. The first indoor bathroom and water/sewer connections were made in 1957. That really surprised me, being that late, as the church is in town. Guess the Swedes were more hardy than I thought. There are a lot of other goodies in the document and I will read it through rather than the skimming I have done so far.

The potluck was held at the Florence Community Center, part of the fire station, ane we really had a good time. As with all Lutheran churches, the gals of the church sure know how to cook and the guys know how to eat. There was (I emphasize was) a good selection of hotdishes, salads, and desserts to choose from. Several folks incouraged me and a couple others to at least have one serving of each dessert so as not to offend anyone. I gave it a good shot, but I am afraid I offended a couple of gals. I ate too much, but enjoyed every bite! Margriet had baked bread on Saturday so on came along. It sure didn’t last very long! About two-thirds of the congregation was in attendance. A really nice turnout and a good bunch of folks to get to know.

Yesterday I got Fjord pretty much together and ready to try to start a bit after noon. Everything was checked and rechecked. The engine turned over as it was supposed to, but it would not start. After a couple of hours of troubleshooting, we discovered that all four plug wire were bad and no spark was getting to the sparkplugs. After my attempts, Eli and Mick took over and found the problem. I would have eventually arrived at the same conclusion, but they did it much faster. I would had to dust off skills I hadn’t used in 25 years or so. The plug wires were new, but carbon tracers. Apparently I broke them all somehow putting the harness together. They did some calling around and found a set at the parts store in Crystal Falls (a friend of Mick’s), so since it was about time for me to leave for the day, cleaned up and stopped on the way home to pick them up. Today Fjord will run!!

After Fjord is running, the loader goes on, the rear tires filled with “beet juice,” and it should be pretty much ready to come home. Once here, there are several things I still need to do, but not needing the expertise of Eli and Mick to complete. Suspect there will always be something I want/need to do on it though. Isn’t that the fun part of the deal? The entire lighting system, what is left of it, needs to be replaced and up graded to 12 volts is probably the first place for me to start. I also need to learn how to operate it too before the snows come.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><