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One of the first things done when we got home was to change the angle on the solar panels to their
summer position. Because the sun is lower on the horizon in winter we set the panels almost vertical. (It also helps the snow to slide off.) By the time we return in the spring it's time to reset them to the summer position to get the most benefit from the angle of the summer sun.
All it involves it removing two small bolts then re-positioning them and the brace in the upper holes in the frame.
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The battery was low on the pickup so I hooked up our portable battery charger (our 65 watt solar panel).
It was having issues last fall so when I parked it I knew I'd have some work to do this spring. Turns out the alternator's voltage regulator went bad and burned out the fusible link. I replaced the fusible link with a 50 amp breaker but have not replaced the regulator yet. That will have to wait for our return.
We have several stumps that need removal in the yard so I thought I'd take some photos of how we do it. This one has about a 14 inch base. It's been dead for several years now. the first thing I did was dig out around the base a little bit.
I then anchored one end of the chain to another stump about ten feet away. I need to remove this one too so at this point I don't care if it holds or not.
I hooked the chains to my 4-ton rated come-along.
As I applied tension my "anchor" stump gave up first. That didn't really bother me since it had to come up anyway.
My new anchor was a live tree a little farther away. I placed some 2X4's around the base then fastened the chain around them. That's to protect the tree from the anchor chain.
The first stump finally gave way. Now I have a couple of more holes to fill in.
Our old chicken run needed to come out too. Later in the summer the grass would have grown through the wire and made it nearly impossible to pull the wire up and away from the ground.
I rolled up the old wire sections and threw them on the burn pile. Once the dead grass is burned away I can flatten it and haul it to the dump.
Scott's Power Ranger costume came in finally and he was one happy little boy. We ordered a size 4 and they sent one for years 8-12. He is still happy with it though so I guess we'll keep it.
We are doing some major spring cleaning around here. This is the front corner of the Shack where we store extra stuff. The more you have the more cluttered it gets and this is pretty bad..
A couple of hours of work is shown here. I bunch of stuff is in the trash pile outside the shack and a trailer load is waiting fr a trip to the Salvation Army donation box..
My daughter and SIL needed a new clutch put in their pickup so I made a trip down to Kalispell.
All the pieces removed and the flywheel needs to be machined.
Since it was late int eh afternoon that meant another trip to Kalispell the next day. While I was working on it the next day my mother called to tell me that my stepfather had died after losing his battle to cancer. So ... it's off to Kansas we go.
It was Susan's birthday so we stoppd for a quick birthday party on the way through Kalispell. This is Scott's dad with his son (Scott's little brother).
One of Scott's uncles.
A couple of hours later we are on the road to Kansas again. Scott is "reading" a Spiderman comic book."
A few miles outside of Kalispell on Hwy. 93.
Still in Montana!
In Montana still!!!!
When we stopped at a rest area Scott just kind of exploded out of the car. Here he's playing a game of Hide and Seek with me.
Nebraska had some problems with excessive surface water.
We drove the last 150 miles with horrible noises emanating from the front of the Expedition. I initially thought it was a wheel bearing then thought it was brakes. It needed new front brakes anyway so I put a set of brake pads, both new rotors, and the left front brake line on then tried driving it. The noise was still there. I then replaced the left front wheel bearing/hub assembly. At $200.00 for the bearing assembly and about $250.00 in brake parts the arrival in Kansas was kind of expensive. The problem is that I still have the noise and am hampered on properly diagnosing it due to not having a good place to work. Oh well. I'll get back on it tomorrow.
The funeral went well with a large crowd present. My stepfather was pretty well known. He was a good man in a world where good men are in short supply. He will be missed.
New rotor, brake line and brake pads on the left side ...
New pads and rotor on the right side. The brake line was replaced last summer.
It hasn't been all work since our arrival. Here we tied the bikes off across from the entrance to the
Emporia zoo.
While Scott likes seeing the animals he also likes playing on some of the playground equipment. The spider web is one of his favorites.
We also went to the Oak Park Mall on Sunday Afternoon. They have an indoor carousel that the kids and adult can ride. He alternated between the carousel and the play area next to it. The play area has plastic cars the kids can climb on and lots of kids. He played for a couple of hours until the mall closed then we went over to McDonalds and he played in the playland for another hour.
This is at the Sonic drive-in in Emporia after a week of rain.
Obviously the kids were having a blast. We didn't bring any extra clothes for Scott so Susan rode her bike over to the Dollar General store a couple of blocks over and bought him some dry clothing to wear.
One of our major purchases was a new bicycle for me. My old mountain bike was left in Nevada along with hers. We're getting tired of packing so much to head south each fall so we left our bicycles there. She had another one in MT but I didn't so we were going to buy me a new bike when we got back to MT. Since we never had a chance in MT we decided to get one here in Kansas. We've been giving it a good workout around town but I can't wait to put some serious miles on it soon.
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