Monday, September 6, 2004
02:49 a.m.
Ever since I left home to go to college in Duluth, I've made every attempt to call my mom on Sunday. Sunday has always been a "family day" for us, whether it was to go skiing in the winter, or hiking in the summer, or to take in a movie or go grocery shopping in nearby Rochester, Minnesota.
But instead of me calling her, mom called me today. And that usually means that she had a lot to tell me, and didn't want me to miss it. That usually translates to: I have a funny story and I don't want to forget any details.
So she told me about how my little sister and her husband were finishing up their second play this weekend. Their first play was done last weekend in Spring Valley, Minnesota (our childhood hometown), and their second was done this weekend in Postville, Iowa (my sister and her husband's current hometown.
My mom couldn't say enough nice things about the plays. And she was able to see the latter play, entitled "The Curse" with my older sister and another friend and actor (Master Thespian) with the Brave Community Theatre.
They drove back from Postville Saturday night, and then my older sister stopped on Sunday to pick up half a cow and half a pig at Buster's Meat Processing. Now, for all you "city-fied" people, it is common for many small-town and country folk to pick up large amounts of meat to be frozen in large freezers. For most, there is a large cost savings of buying large amounts of meat. But for my sister, she is in part sick of the constant recalls of meat at the large retail stores and likes to know where her meat is coming from. We have all known Buster all our lives. We went to school with his kids, and we... being small town and country people... trust Buster like family.
That being said, even though she doesn't cook very well, my older sister does know the difference between good food and garbage. And while eating a meal at my mom's house, she was amazed at how good the meat tasted. My mom said, "It's from Busters."
When my sister replied, "I don't remember it tasting this good."
My mom noted, "Oh yes it did."
My sister headed back to Savage with the boys Sunday afternoon. They unpacked, she eventually put the kids to bed and layed down in bed with her husband.
After a few minutes, she shot out of bed. "Oh my god! I forgot to unpack the meat!"
She ran out to the van in what she was wearing to bed, and was relived to find that the meat was still in its frozen, solid form. And while she was running back and forth from the house on her four trips between the van and the freezer in the house, she was thinking about how bad it could have been: 400-some odd pounds of bloody, ripe meat found in the back of a hot mini-van.
As my mom was telling me this, we were laughing at ourselves picturing the headlines: 400 POUNDS OF MEAT FOUND ROTTING IN DUMPSTER or BLOOD TRAIL LEADS TO LOCAL WOMAN'S HOUSE or LOCAL COUPLE'S VAN SMELLS LIKE SOMETHING DIED
And there's only one thing you can do to get the smell out of said mini-van. Drive it off a cliff.
Monday, August 30, 2004
03:49 a.m.
It really needs to stop raining for a while in Kansas right now. Mother Nature has been dumping water on us almost every day, or night. And many of the counties surrounding Kansas City are under an immediate flood watch as soon as it looks like we're getting over an inch.
I was hoping to get a bunch of landscaping work done this month, since August is usually a dry month. Of course, last summer I was chasing Tornados all over Missouri. The first of which hit about ten miles from my house. Maybe I'll just shut my mouth and put up with a little rain.
A few weekends ago I went out with a few friends to this new bar in the Westport district of Kansas City. The main floor was a wash of crappy memorobilia from a local radio disc jockey. The music was too loud, and the service wasn't very good. And then we went upstairs to use the bathroom.
The second floor was a virtual "homage" to trailer trash. The entire floor had fake wood paneling up, velvet paintings, and beer sold in cans at the end from an old refridgerator. There were crappy old couches, and people I could have swore were imported to the bar to play the roles of trailer trash, just hanging out in their home.
On the one wall were two doors leading to the bathrooms. They were the plastic doors off of "Mini-Biffies," or portable toilets usually found on construction sites or outside large concerts and events. What a riot!
The only thing I had trouble with was that the beer in a can they were selling out of this trailer sadly included some of my favorites. There was PBR, Hamms, Old Shoe and other beers that made Minnesota and Wisconsin famous. And I beg to differ. Those are working man's beers, and I would not place them in the "trailer trash" category.
In that category, I would place the following in no particular order: Busch Light Draft, Natural Light and maybe Schlitz. Well, maybe not.
I don't know. I need some scotch.
Saturday, July 24, 2004
03:36 p.m.
Well, so much for getting the tractor back together. I'm back on the road, but that's not the reason I wasn't able to finish up.
I did get the parts I thought I needed, then found that the previous owner (probably) stripped out two of the bolts. This explains why one of the bolts was obviously wrong, but it also explains why nothing seemed to fit right, coming off or coming back on. Each of the 15 bolt fittings will need to be scrubbed out, and I will probably still need to double up the head gasket and/or add a ton of gasket sealer. Kevin, a fellow truck op just told me today about something called a "heli-coil" I can use, where I will need to drill out the stripped out threads. Then, the heli-coil (sp?) will slip down into that hole where it is essentially cemented into place. It is threaded, and therefore you can use the original bolts. And since one, maybe two of the bolts are stripped out, too I'm hoping to win an online auction of all 15 bolts so I can replace the two I need.
I'm also going to need to start at the beginning again with timing. The oil filter and filter holder needs to be cleaned out. After that, I hope to at least get it running again. But we'll just have to see how it turns out.
When I initially took the head off, I did manage to free up just enough time to sandblast the top of the block and put a few coats of heat-tolerant paint. I may do the same, time permitting, to the oil filter canister when I take it apart to clean out the crud.
And I'm thinking that, time permitting, while I'm on the road I should start looking at and pricing some NEW tractors. My neighbor is really happy with his Mahindra, and I continue to hear a lot of good things about New Holland. Having a newer, more reliable tractor would be nice. But if I can, I really want to do everything I can to save this older cub. Despite all of the problems created or not fixed by the one or two previous owners, this little tractor mowed and pulled and ran like nothing else.
When I finally took it all apart to see what was wrong, I just couldn't believe how much junk and crud had been collecting inside. But I think with some care, and some help from others on the farmallcub forum, along with some other friends with experience in this, I'm pretty sure I can piece it all back together to get her running even better than new.
I've seen some successful rebuilds, and there's just nothing prettier, in showrooms, in the yards and in the fields. And I've also seen the ones that rot away in some backyard. At some point, if the timing is right, they just get parted out and cease to exist. And that's sad, too.
Most of these tractors (and millions of others) have put in fifty years of hard labor. And with a little "TLC," there's no reason why all of these machines won't live another 50-years.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
02:11 a.m.
With help from my friend John, we finally got the floor level in my barn. And we got a good path started around the sides where the water will drain. By next weekend (whether I'm here or not), John is going to take away some of the fill on another project he's working on.
He would have gotten the other loads done, too, except that the lights had gone out on the old dump truck he was using. So I spent part of the day fixing it for him (well, I thought they were fixed). After we got the old truck back to the farm, we worked on it for a few more minutes before we "sort-of" got it working again.
Among the many other things I need to get done around the homestead, I'm hoping to pick up the head gasket set I ordered for my old tractor, so I can get it back together. I could have swore that I blew some valves, but it just turned out it was full of crap inside the head.
Once I get that accomplished, I should be able to get my lawn under control. And that's not easy, since my neighbor's pond is beginning to let loose a little, and I have a pretty steady creek running through my yard.
You wouldn't believe all the stuff showing up at my doorstep. The other day, I carried four frogs down to the creek, about eight toads to the neighbor's yard (so they wouldn't get mowed over) and a box turtle was hiding behind my lawn mower (he was really lucky I didn't roll over him that morning).
Sunday, July 11, 2004
07:28 p.m.
Some of you have been following the progress I've been making on my barn, and while I don't exactly have the most updated of pictures, I thought I'd give you the latest:
Since this picture was taken, the roof was finished, and there is a ditch to move rainwater around the barn in place so it doesn't flood inside the shed.
It is a 40' X 60' pole shed with 16' walls (maybe 20' to the peak of the roof?). And as you can see, in proportion to the wheelbarrel out front, it's a pretty big building.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
06:44 p.m.
This was quite an incredible week. With the help of my brother, Mom, and older sister, we were able to take my nephews on a fishing trip up to northern Minnesota. Weather was perfect, fishing wasn't too bad, and I'd have to say that my Uncle John and Aunt Pat have done quite a nice job on creating their own little Utopia up on Christine Lake.
No fishing trip ever happens without some type of fish story. And my oldest nephew sure takes the cake on this one:
He and I were just heading in for the night, and I told him he had just a few more casts left before we got back to the dock. When he pulled up his pole, I saw he had lost his nightcrawler.
Before he threw, I asked him, "Aren't you going to put some bait on your hook?"
He said, "Nope."
About thirty seconds later, he was pulling in a 2 and a half pound Northern Pike... without using any bait!
Now I've seen fish get snagged before, but I actually took the little snelling hook out of his mouth. He had swallowed it. His northern made my sad little perch look like a minnow. I was outfished by a six-year-old. And he wasn't even using any bait. Bah!
I have to hand it to the lad. He sure isn't afraid of anything having to do with fishing. He can cast like a pro, and he reaches into the leaches and strings them up like he's stringing popcorn for the Christmas Tree. Now if we can just teach him to keep still and sing a little softer (he sings all day whether you ask or not).
Everyone but my sister Rachel managed to catch a fish. But she will one of these years. It may be a while, let's say when the boys can fully take care of themselves, but it won't be too long.
My brother Drew, who lives a non-stop schedule and a whirlwind life (even more so than mine) almost becomes a whole new person every time we take a fishing trip.
For me, it's a chance to unwind and stop living by my watch for a while. And I've noticed he does a lot of the same. He still gets a lot accomplished for the day, but he really seems to live in the moment when we're up there.
My mom and my sister seemed to live well up at the cabin, too. My mom can't wait to get out on the lake, and my sister usually can't wait to get into a book or just take a nap and enjoy the silence for a while. With two boys constantly screaming, I'm really surprised she hasn't become a top customer for some earplug company. I know I would have all kinds and colors of earplugs if I were in her place. Those kids have lungs.
We took a tractor ride (like a hayride, but without hay on the wagon), and a short little ride on the four-wheelers. The DNR has been "cracking down," or should I say "going a little too far out of their jurisdiction" and threatening to hand out $500 fines for anyone driving four-wheelers on some of the roads up there. They've gone too far, and have been picking on the 4-wheeler owners up there because they're nice people. If they were white trash, had up a lot of no-trespassing signs, and were missing teeth, the officers would probably leave them alone because they'd be afraid of them. But instead they've been picking on these people. And it's too bad. It's the only real convenient way to get from place to place up there, and it's definitely the only way to find any decent berry-picking places without walking 15-miles a day.
What stinks is that the people who live on their lake have to maintain their road (plow it in the winter, sometime have to clean up the grade around and at their driveways), so it basically is their road, minus the "easement."
Luckily, as far as snowmobiles go up there, it's still something of a free-for-all. There is a 50-mph speed limit, but on the trails up there, you can't really go any faster than that anyway. Minnesota just has way too many laws in the books. To hunt, or fish, or 4-wheel, or snowmobile, you almost have to be a legal specialist to understand it all. It's a good thing they haven't cracked down on riding horses or taking dogsleds on all those trails. But given the chance, they probably will.
Friday, June 18, 2004
02:04 a.m.
I thought I'd add another picture from my scrapbook to my blog here:
Eamon Zekkou of Global TV and I pose for a picture at SuperBowl XXXVIII in Houston, TX.
Photo by Ed Holmes of Global TV.
This picture is also located in the relayhouse.com scrapbook, but I thought here I could explain the picture a little more.
Eamon and I are standing in front of one of the many television production trailers being used by NFL Films to provide live feeds of the Superbowl.
The specific trailer we are standing in front of is being used specifically to send footage to the over two dozen countries around the world (non U.S.).
This last year, the SuperBowl was held at Houston's Reliant Stadium. In the background, you can see Houston's famous dome (I think it's where George Strait held a great concert this year... I saw some of it on CMT...).
Friday, June 18, 2004
01:26 a.m.
I managed to get caught up on my paperwork today, and I got some of our website updated. That's a mountain of work, and I've barely chopped away a few large boulders.
The rain gods are still blessing Kansas with more than enough rain... every day... so I'm still awaiting a roof for my barn. Wind and rain have kept the guys from going back up there for the past week or so.
I have managed to find enough dry time to dig a ditch around the barn to get a bunch of water to flow out, instead of into the barn. I have a lot more digging to do to get it right. At some point, when it really is dry for several days, I should be able to bring in a loader to move the rest of the dirt around.
This weekend is the Davies picnic, and I'm going to try to make it. The next is my niece's baptism, and I'm going to try harder to make that. And while we're still keeping busy, with everything going on in California, Washington D.C. and New York the next few weeks, we may be getting a few less calls for a while. Of course, now that I write and say that our phones will probably start ringing off the hook again. It's great to be busy, but I wonder sometimes how my boss and his wife get so much done. Whenever I'm at the satellite ranch in Minnesota, the phones are always ringing. I've answered phones there quite a few times, and it's sometimes like going through my rolodex and talking to everyone in there. It's quite amazing. But I quickly start to understand why they have so much help to keep their business and the "We Can Ride" program running every day. (Along with all the Hippotherapy and other programs they help operate.)
My grandma is another pretty amazing person. She's been keeping the Davies picnic going, a picnic held in Denmark Township (most of them at her farm) for sixty years now. The Davies picnic is a tradition going on more than a hundred years, dating back to when our family settled there... I believe... in the mid-19th century.
According to my great-aunt Doris, our family members were considered Torries (British Sympathisers) and were basically forced out of New England, where they escaped through Canada, came back into the U.S., and set up farmsteads in what is now Denmark Township north of Hastings, Minnesota.
The only other thing we knew about these Davies ancestors is that they were long known for making felt, for hats and clothes. And this probably traced back to their ancestors in Wales.
On my dad's side, of course, were the polar opposites of the people from my mom's side of the family. There were many "Daughters of the American Revolution" on my dad's side of the family. And what that means, more obviously, is that they didn't like the British. But it also means that their names and traditions traced back for many generations. I believe when my Aunt Lucia last traced our family history back, it goes back to the 16th Century. On that side of the family, somehow we are related to the great Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). I hope I have an ounce of that talent. Heck, I liked him long before I knew I was related to him.
Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain, I intend on spending a full day in the sun. I have my straw hat, my long sleeve shirt and my overalls. I should probably get a full charge on my cell phone, too. Chances are, since I'll be trying to work in the yard, people will be calling me all day.
Sunday, June 13, 2004
03:38 p.m.
I had a few issues yesterday in getting the correct picture to load, so I had to try again a few times. Once I get some more exciting pictures, I'll be sure to upload them to the site here.
I'm hoping that in a few days I'll be able to post some pictures of my new barn. It's so huge, I'm having trouble getting some perspective. And in Kansas, there is no perspective. When people drive up to my house for the first time, they'll say, "Wow, your neighbors are right behind you." But when you walk up to the back fenceline, where the house is about 25-feet from the fence, you look back to my house, and see that it is a few football fields away.
That's part of the reason why I'm putting an orchard behind my house. Once the trees start to grow up, they'll start to block out the neighbor's house, and make it feel like it should, which is much farther away than it looks.
The other reason I'm putting in an orchard is, 'cause I live in the country, and I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches.
I got a new wheel on my motorcycle, and I should be able to get it back on for a ride tonight or tomorrow morning. I need to get some riding in, so I can start taking my bike on the road with me.
My good friend Danny, who is a welding genius, just got a part fixed for my Snapper mower. So chances are that tomorrow I will be knee-deep in grass again once I get that put back together.
I was also able to pick up a new oil pan gasket for my farmall tractor. That's a messy job, but I'd sure like to get that done, too. Right now, the tractor leaks so much oil I'm almost afraid to run it without calling HazMat.
We had some pretty big storms last night. Hopefully we can get in a few nice days for once. It's rained so much this past month, it's been almost impossible to get anything done.
Saturday, June 12, 2004
09:44 p.m.
What an unbelievably hot day. This is one of those days when I start to worry a little bit about the temperature inside the equipment racks.
I've shut off all of the non-essential equipment, and cranked up two of the air conditioners to their highest setting. Normally, only one air conditioner on low is not only more than enough to cool the truck, but I usually end up opening the door.
I have one more air conditioner I can turn on, but I will be sitting here in a sweatshirt if I do that. Of course, when it comes to my comfort or taking care of equipment, the equipment comes first. That's part of the reason why I carry a winter jacket with me year-round. That, and a guy never knows when he might be sent to Canada or Alaska.
Speaking of Canada, and my favorite people... the canadians... I thought I would add a little more for you guys who have been reading my page, and that's pictures:
Here's a picture located in a couple of places on our company website. It was taken by a friend, E.J. Nolan of Houston, TX. We were taking pictures for a Canadian broadcast of the SuperBowl. What a trip!
