June 15 through July 6, 2013 - Trip to Kansas

We took a quick trip to Kansas to spend some time with my mother and sister.  We've been planning it for awhile and thought we'd head out at the end of the week but some things happened and we moved it up a few days.  Still ...

There was laundry to be done before we left along with some other chores such as having the yard mowed and trimmed and ...

Changing the oil and filter on the Cherokee.  Here I'm using my "poor boy" automobile ramps.  I stacked some 2X6's then drove the front tires up on them.   That gave me enough room to change the oil and filter and grease the front end.

The trip there was long (1625 miles) and boring.  Here we've crossed into Kansas.  The wheat is ready to harvest and the wind seldom let up. 

The city had an open house for the city zoo. One station was set up by the fire department.  They had a hose rigged up and a house-fire to extinguish.  The "flames" were shutters that the kids aimed the water at to put out the "fire."  The smallest kids (like Scott) had an assist from a real fireman.

Then it was time to ride the kid's train.  In the seats in front of and behind Scott and Susan are my grand-nephews and niece. My mother is in the seat two rows behind Scott.

We went to three baseball games the kids were playing in.  Scott slept through the first two.

We went on a "Rails-to-Trails" ride one day.  This is in a little town that was hit hard by a tornado many years ago.  There are a few houses left along with the old school and a building that used to be the bank.  It still had the outside walls and the old bricked in safe with a steel door.  Naturally it was one of the hottest days so far and we were constantly watching for signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.  Plus, the trail veered off from our intended destination so it ended up being a lot farther than anticipated.  We stopped at a farmhouse to get more water before we reached our destination.

 

Two views of the bank.  The safe/vault is the brick structure in the back corner.

 

The wind blew some limbs down in my mother's back yard so we cut them up and stacked them for pick-up by the alley.  My mother set up the wading pool and slide for Scott to play in while we worked.  I used my stepfather's electric chainsaw to cut the limbs up.  I've never used one before.  It cut well but you really have to watch out for the cord.

One evening we went to Wal Mart.  Scott got into the shampoo bottle and smeared shampoo all over his head.  I took him to the bathroom where we washed it all out.  That took awhile since he had it smeared about a quarter-inch thick!  That same evening before bedtime he found a bottle of baby powder and tried to powder one of the cats in the basement.  He got more in himself than the cat and looked like a mime when we caught up with him!

Eventually we hit the road again to go to my sister's house in Colorado.  Scott is suited up for a long ride!  We spent a day there then headed home.  We made a side trip to see a friend who was camping at a lake in Wyoming.  We never did find him so we ended up spending the night in Casper at a motel.

We were weary of travel by now.  Scott had had about all the long-distance driving he wanted so we cut the day short and camped in a state park in Montana the last night on the road.  This is the first time we used this tent.  We bought it for a kayak trip we plan on going on at Lake Mead later this year.  We wanted something that could stand up to the wind there that kept shredding our other tents.  This one is undoubtedly the best tent we've ever owned.

We finally made it home on July 4th.  The grass was tall and the weeds had about overtaken the garden.  We'll have plenty to keep us busy for awhile.

There was a half-grown snowshoe rabbit along the road near our cabin.  He stopped long enough for me to take his picture.

We bought a set of kayak racks for the Cherokee.  They make life much simpler when transporting kayaks!  It would have been nice if the instructions for putting together the racks had been more detailed.  All they included was a very poor quality photo of the parts and assembled racks.

Susan picked up a barbecue grill cover to put over the wash tubs and wringer.  It's much easier than using a tarp and hopefully will last longer too!

The chickens had been busy while we were gone.  I had enough eggs in the laying boxes to fill a two-gallon bucket.  Unfortunately I have no way of telling which are good by looking at them.  The quick method is to put them in water to see if they float.  Those that do are discarded (none have failed the test so far).  Scott was helping wash them.  We still break each one into a cup just in case one is bad.

I needed to clean the chicken house and the easiest way to keep the chickens outside of the "house" is to scatter some feed in the enclosed run.

 That kept them busy outside while I (with Scott's help) cleaned out the inside.

I dumped the old straw on the garden in a section we're leaving fallow this year.  I'll till them in sometime later in the week.

The weeds did well while we were gone.  Susan is cleaning them out of this section while I hoed them in another section of the garden.

Scott was playing in the sand pile while we worked in the garden.  When I hooked up the pump to pump water from the main tank to the garden tanks he helped hold the hose.  He did well, (putting most of the water in the tanks), then when Susan went to pick him up he looked at her innocently and said, "I'm wet."  (A fact that was obvious!)  He also had a huge smile on his face.  There isn't much that he likes better than playing in the water.

I bought a CVA .50 Magnum, in-line muzzleloader at a yard sale in Kansas.  I couldn't get the breech plug out there but there was no sign of rust anywhere so I took a chance and purchased the gun.  He wanted $150.00 for the rifle and accessories (about $70.00 worth of bullets, primers, etc.).  I got him down to $100.00 before buying it.  I had to put the barrel in a vice and use a wrench on my screwdriver to get the breech plug out.  Mostly they had just over tightened the plug.  The barrel still had an obstruction though so I pushed it on out using the ramrod.

The obstruction looked like a couple of Pyrodex pellets that didn't fire.  It was early evening by then so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to shoot it.  The barrel is in pristine condition so I'm happy with my purchase. 

It's going to take us a few days to get caught up with the mowing and other projects neglected while we were gone.  At least we had plenty of rain and the grass is still green and the woods around the cabin are still wet.  The fire danger can get pretty high by this time of year.

14 - 25 September, 2012 - Silverwood, Harvest Time, Trip Preps

My book is in the computer at Paladin Press now.  For an overview and ordering information use the link below.  Thanks.

Creating the Low-Budget Homestead

We're 1500 miles from home today.  We left on Saturday (a week ago) to see people in Colorado, Kansas, Texas and then back to Colorado.  You'll note that this is being posted a few days after the last day of the blog coverage.  The only excuse is that we've been a little busy!

The 15th we went to Silverwood with some of the kids.  This is Scott on his first horse ride at Silverwood with his grandma beside him and his mother and aunt behind.  He was making motor sounds as he rode.

Now he's on the children's roller coaster.  We spent the entire day there and he was one tired little boy when we left for home.  The parents, aunt and uncle left for Kalispell in one car and Susan and I and Scott drove home in our Cherokee.  It was a long day but fun.  Of course us big kids did some riding too.

We had to do some work on the trailer before we left on our trip.  I needed to make a better tailgate for it so I got the welder and bed rails out and went to work.  The last time we had it on the highway the bar across the back fell off with our license plate attached.  We never did find it so we had to buy a replacement.  That cost us $20.00.  This time I bolted it to the left fender on the trailer and made a stronger tailgate for the trailer.  Susan painted it black after I finished.

The temperature gauge on the U-Haul keeps showing hotter and hotter the longer we drive it.  I've pulled over and tested the temperature with a thermometer and never found a problem so we finally just bought an aftermarket, mechanical gauge and I installed it.  I installed it in the thermostat housing just under the thermostats (it has two).  So far it looks like there is no overheating problem.  Most likely the sender for the factory gauge is malfunctioning. 

When it was time to refill the radiator I couldn't find my funnel so I made one out of the top of a two liter pop bottle.   It worked okay.

I also changed the oil and filter and greased it.  I added 3 pints of gear oil to the transmission to top it off but the rear differential was okay.  Getting the lights all working was a bit of a chore.  We had three clearance lights out and the right front turn signal/park light wasn't working right.  I had to replace the entire light assemblies on the clearance lights (I keep spares on hand).  I thought I had a bad ground on the park/turn signal light because when you turned on the headlights the right turn indicator light glowed dimly (a classic indicator of a bad ground wire).  I ended up being a bad ground on the light socket.  Those I don't keep on hand so I scrounged around on one of our "retired" vehicles and found a socket I could wire in.  That got the truck lights fixed.

Now the trailer lights needed attention.  None of them worked!  To make a long story shorter, the connectors in the trailer harness plug were loose and I had one bad bulb.  Susan already had the U-Haul packed and the trailer loaded so we were finally ready to hit the road the next morning.

I bought some blades for a disk at an estate sale awhile back.  I'd planned on using them for targets (gongs) and finally got the first one ready.  I hung it between a couple of trees and proceeded to give it a beating.  It's at 25 yards from the firing line and we use only 22's and handguns on it.   We wear safety glasses at all times (everyone on the line including spectators) in case of ricochets.  It's a lot more fun shooting when you don't have to stop and replace targets.

The garden is ready for harvest.  We've already dug some of the potatoes but hadn't gotten to the peas yet.  We let most of them dry on the vine.  Susan calls it the lazy man's way to get seed for next year and she's right!  The pods and seeds are dried so all you have to do is put the pods in a bucket and shell them when  you have time (probably during the winter while we're watching a movie on television).  We were a little late this year.  Some of the pods had burst open already.  We'll be seeing some volunteer peas in that area next year!  We should have several pounds of dried peas when we get them shelled.  That's plenty for planting next year even after eating our share.

It's nice that Scott is getting old enough to entertain himself for short times while we work in the garden.  He played on the tiller for quite awhile, making motor sounds as his imagination took him on trips across the garden.  He helps when we dig potatoes too.  We put them in a bucket then dump the bucket in the wheel barrow then he takes them out of the wheel barrow and puts them in our buckets.  We still have some training to do when it comes to potato harvesting.

Susan did her laundry just before we left (I did mine the day before) and Scott helped take the clean clothes off the line.  Getting in the basket and covering himself up was his idea.

On the way south we stopped at Paladin Press in Boulder, Colorado to meet the people who published my book. They gave us a tour of their facilities.  It was cool to meet the people who actually put my book together.

I have more pictures taken on the road but we're working with a jet pack and are limited to four gigs per month.  Since this is the first month using it we're being cautious about how fast we use up or allotment.  When we get home I may do one post of just travel pictures.