Wild game day

October 12, 2007 (4:23am)

30º F, Partly Cloudy, N Wind, 3 mph.

Good morning,

Snow flurries are predicted until 10:00 A.M. this morning. Guess there is still some moisture in the area today. It rained, misted, or sunshined all day yesterday. Again a rather strong wind for most of the day too. Supposedly, today is supposed to clear a bit, but stay cool - more like normal. Yesterday morning, walking out of the main house, I looked to the northwest and there was a huge, beautiful rainbow in the sky. A full one, from horizon to horizon. I could see both ends of it. It was beautiful and of course, no camera.

I continue to be impressed by this little woodstove being able to keep this house warm with so little wood being burned or attention. Put a piece of firewood in and more or less forget it for a few hours. Still a good sizes lump of hot coals in it this morning. House is still as warm as we try to keep it normally during the day. We are still working on the wood that was piled in the lean-to at the doorway. Don’t think we have used more than ⅓ of what was there when we bought the place. Of course it hasn’t been cold yet.

I did make it to Eli’s yesterday and spent a few hours working on Fjord. It seems we needed more practice at disassembling and reassembling the steering box. Had it apart and together a couple more times yesterday. Don’t think we need parts cleaner, just handling the parts so often, and dirt is transferred to our hands!

Putting in the thrust bearing was accomplished without too any problems. After everything was tightened down, I slipped the steering wheel on to make sure everything worked correctly - well almost. The steering wheel would not slip past the threads for the steering wheel nut! The nut Eli got for it was ¾”-16 tpi and the steering wheel was 11/16"-20 tpi! Could not find a hammer big enough to make it fit - so .... apart came the steering system one more time. After taking everything apart, including all of those little ball bearings from the recirculating sector gear. Didn’t want to do that. There was enough metal to turn it down more and to cut new threads - then back together again.

The “sleeve” bearing at the top of the steering shaft, changed to a ball bearing in the new replacement. When I took it out, it came apart, spilling the race into a bucket with some drain fluids in it and some of the little ball bearings onto the floor. I recovered all but one, the Eli and his son got in the act. Took us about half an hour before we found the last one. We could not figure out how the bearing was to go together again and stay in one piece. After a couple attempts as different ways to assemble it, Eli finally spotted a snap ring which also had come out, but none of us knew it was there or missing. Even had to reassemble that bearing twice before getting it to stay together. Not one of Ford’s better ideas. Eventually it did go together and finally bolted onto the tractor. It even worked!

Trying to get the front wheels to align is a different story. Not a precise science. The two steering arms are adjusted by turning their shafts in an eccentric mounting. I think we are close, but it appears the two front wheels are pointing out. Think they should be in a bit, but will measure it up today. Not a real exact set-up, but Fjord isn’t a watch either, so it works. With each time of reassembly, it got easier and easier to do. We did spend nearly 5 hours doing what should probably have taken an hour or so. Fjord and I are getting to know each other pretty well.

On the way home, I passed one of the local sport shops with a ¾ ton 4x4 pickup out front with a black bear on it. It was a pretty good sized bear. It’s rump was even with the outside of the box on one side and it’s front shoulders even with the box on the other side. Sure glad I didn’t need to drag it out of the woods! This was the first bear shot that I actually have seen in the flesh. There have been a number of them shot in the area.

After pulling into the driveway, there was a flock of about 8-9 turkeys in the middle. They ran in front of the truck just as fast as they could. After about 50 yards, half of them turned into the woods and the remaining half went another 50 yards before they turned into the woods. If I had sped up the truck, we could have had turkey road kill for dinner!Let them go their way, but it was funny to watch them run as fast as their legs could carry them from behind.

Yesterday, about day break, I was sitting here and heard a raspy kind of noise. Couldn’t figure out what it was at first, but it finally dawned on me that it was the sound of a wild turkey calling. Looked out the window and sure enough, one lone turkey just outside. I didn’t see any others and it looked to be a hen. Kind of cool!

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><