Un-bearing-able

October 24, 2007 (5:23am)

35º F, Clear, WNW Wind, 5 mph.

Good morning,

Not as cool as yesterday, but the wind is a bit biting. It really is cool to hear it whistle through the metal roofing. Sounds like a howling blizzard raging outside. Produces all kinds of pictures of the mind. Had rain later yesterday afternoon, but that ended sometime during the night. It was enough to chase me inside.

I got the old furnace out of the main house and the new one hung on the wall, after coming home from Eli’s and before the rains came. The new furnace weighs about half of the old one and is a bit smaller physically. The old came off and the new on, much easier than I expected. When I pulled out the old exhaust pipe, I disrupted the lives of about a gad-zillion lady bugs, one mouse family, and a paper wasp colony. Not real sad about that either. Some grumpy about how they were allowed to get there in the first place however. The outer pipe support was just fastened to the outside of the log wall, with out any regard to the contour of the surface, leaving huge gaps every 6-8" an inch or so deep! I will need to cut that to a flat surface, trimming back the logs some, then inserting a piece of plywood or some such to provide a good base for the exhaust. Probably will caulk the heck out of it too, hopefully to keep at least some of the lady bugs out.

The bearing for the steering column came yesterday mid-morning. It was the wrong one! The one sent was straight roller bearing and the one needed were barrel roller bearings. Everyone was a bit grumpy with the wrong bearings coming. So much came to a standstill as far as much progress being made yesterday. I did get the new oil pressure gauge mounted on the dashboard though. Planned on doing that later, but as long as there was time, in it went and one less thing to do later.

I also started to construct the front mount for the loader. Starting with a 3"x3"x¼” angle 28" long. Laid out the two hole that will tie it to the tractor, along with two “ears” that will go vertically along side of the pan. I need to dig two 7/16" hole into the angle and cut some clearance for the front axle mount above them, before I can test mount it and layout the two ears. Each ear will also need a couple of 7/16" holes in each too.

Eli and I put our heads together and decided that a couple of pieces of angle will be welded to the rear of the sub-frame to provide a purchase to push against the bracket on the rear axle. That will not happen until the front is tied on and we can get a measurement of the distance needed. The end result should be that I will need to remove only four bolts to take the loader off of the tractor, plus the hoses and a couple of brackets on pins.

The stock they have on hand is impressive. Lots of dollars tied up in the storerooms. Sure could have some fun finding uses for it! Kind of a king-sized erector set in the rough. Monday he also got a 4"x6" piece of tubing and some other iron. Not too sure what he needs it for, but am sure he didn’t buy it just to have on hand.

Mick finally got the leaks fixed on our furnace. It was moved outside, much to his pleasure, and now will be filled with water to make sure all of the leaks are repaired and everything stays where it is supposed to be. Filling it with water should add another half-ton to the weight of the furnace. Suspect the antifreeze solution that will also be added to the system will cost more than 50 cents too!

Eli’s wife, Pat, got a call from the hospital yesterday indicating her surgery was postponed until November 5th as there was and emergency case that had to fill her surgery slot. She is some grumpy about waiting as she had more or less prepared herself for today. Can’t really blame her. I asked Eli how he was doing. He answer was rather expected - gotta’ do what you gotta’ do. I can tell he is very worried though.

Margriet baked bread and a sour-cream apple pie yesterday while I was gone. Boy the house sure smelled good when I walked in! The pie and the bread are excellent! The bread turned out to her satisfaction too. I think she has gotten to know the quirks of this oven. Had some of the bread for supper last night with gravy over it, along with chicken and kohlrabi for supper. Of course apple pie for dessert. Will take some of the apple pie for the guys today too. Really think we should open a restaurant here as the food is sooo good!

I installed a new virus scanner on this machine. Seems the folks have finally gotten the installing part down. This was the easiest installation I have done of all the scanners in the past. Not sure if it is the operating system or the virus scanner, or both that have improved. What ever, it was easy. The old one ran out yesterday, so got my money’s worth from it.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><