Quiet mood

October 23, 2007 (5:25am)

23º F, Clear, SSW Wind, 2 mph.

Good morning,

The grass is white outside this morning. No not from snow (Dang!), just hoar frost from the cool night. It does look nice though. The moon was out last night, with the clear sky, it really looked nice outside. You could almost read the paper in the moonlight, but not quite. Not a full moon.

It was a short day at Eli’s as I thought it would be. The bearing has not come in yet for the steering shaft, expect that today. Eli has several projects going, that need to be done yesterday or the day before, so didn’t get to breaking the rear tire from the rim. He did start to make a tool to break it with, using a splitting wedge. He is bending it over at nearly a 90º angle. Not too sure what he has in mind, but will find out. I told him it looked like he was making a wedge to split crotch wood!

I did get the battery in place, but the carrier I bought will not work. There just isn’t enough room for it. I will need to manufacture something. The hold-down will work though. About a third of the original battery tray has rusted away, thanx to battery acid, so expect the remaining part is not much better either. Made one years ago, that worked out fairly well, so probably can do the same now. Would have liked to have the plastic on though, as the acid doesn’t affect it.

I also got the exhaust pipe clamp on. The old one, not original, was more or less wired in place and really holding nothing. Least of all, exhaust gasses. Also discovered the exhaust pipe/muffler isn’t stock, so really doesn’t fit that well in place. I almost bought a new one while at Fleet, less than $30.00 for the whole assembly, but didn’t. Probably will next time there.

Eli and I are still trying to figure out how the front end loader goes on and works. We have it figured out how to install, but the working part is something else. It doesn’t seem there is anything to apply forward pushing pressure, other than from the front mount at the front of the engine. That doesn’t seem to be a good deal at all. I spent a considerable amount of time on the web, trying to find some information on it. I found three different manufacturer’s parts and assembly manuals and all of them are firmly attached to the rear axle for pushing. This one, Freeman, I could not find any manuals and the pictures of existing loaders don’t show any detail to help any. The three I did find, do show the front attaching bracket and all are different in construction, so we probably will use some of each to come up with a better one. Have to do some puzzling on that I think.

Eli confided in me that his wife is having surgery on Wednesday to remove a growth in her lung that is getting bigger and now also has a lump on one breast. For a Finlander that keeps things to himself, I really was surprised he told me about it. He is very frustrated with the doctors who did take a biopsy a bit ago, but don’t know what is there from it. He also is some scared, though not trying to show it of course. To say the least, he and his wife, Pat, are in our daily prayer time and am forwarding it to our prayer chains. The mood in the shop was rather muted yesterday and I am sure that is the reason, besides my being very tired after the weekend.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><