Thursday December 27, 2007

Been a while. Bit of fun with snowy roads and bent cars.

Let's see. Gas is at 2.87 as of noon today. Had a very white Christmas and not too cold either, temps in the upper teens/low 20's, which, added all together, made for some slippery roads which Jon & Patty and Evan found out much to their sorrow. At least the cars are all still drivable, but they will need some more attention and a bit of work to make them presentable once again.

Got some nice pics of the snowy roads. The roads in these pics are actually fairly clear, but there has been no wind to knock the snow from the tree branches yet, which makes the landscape look like a Winter Wonderland. Took these thru the windshield while driving, most didn't turn out but a few don't look too bad.

Have a Happy New Year!

Wednesday December 19, 2007

We won. The new network is up and running smoothly. The worst problems were those on Saturday, and by the end of Tuesday they were fixed and behind us.

I have a huge stack of network switches in 24 and 48, copper and fiber, gig and 10/100 ports, Intel, Avaya Cajun, and Extreme Summit, sitting around my desk. Still have more to fetch from the closets and still need to inventory them all for the trade-in. Next up: the Wireless Lan. We were going to start work on it this week, but after working approx 90 hours last week everyone decided to push that back until after Jan 1. I'm still working with the design engineers discussing options, but we won't get serious until Jan 3.

Gas. On 12/12 2.719, on 12/15 2.749, 12/18 (noon) 2.799, 12/19 (noon) 2.889. Must put gas in Gladiator on way home tonight, hoping that it drops back a little by then.

Hear there has been a bit of car trouble in Bemidji. RumJohn lost a window to vandalism and Cricky got a big door ding from a car sliding into it. All relatively minor PITA problems.

Just got back from paying my Electric bill. The Co-op isn't going to raise the rates for 2008, no, not at all. Instead, they are adding a "power cost rider" surcharge of .0064 to the bill. Means my bill will go up about $8 a month, but no, they are not going to have any price increases. The increase doesn't piss me off, well, I'm not happy about it, but what really pisses me off is that they say they are not increasing the cost of power. BULLSHIT!! They are, but they are just calling it by a different name, I suspect to avoid some regulation or maybe to make us feel good.

I can understand and accept that the cost of power in general is rising. I can accept that the cost of gasoline is rising. I can accept that that cost of electricity is rising. What I refuse to accept is the mind games they are trying to play with us. If you need to raise the price of the electricity, then say so and do it. If you are going to raise the price of gas, then do it. This bit about raising the price on Tuesday by .10 then drop it on Wednesday by .05 is ridiculous. Raise it by .10 and leave it there for a month or two.

Forgot to mention that Matt's tractor and plow are working pretty good now. We put a new (homemade) gasket on the pump and it leaks less. The pump casing has a crack and it weeps there, but in one hour plus of plowing it lost less than a gallon of oil. At $6 per gallon it's still cheaper than paying someone else to plow, and we can look at rebuilding one of the other two hydraulic pumps we have when the weather warms up. Besides, Matt's having a lot of fun with it.

I'm buying the neighbors tractor. When Roger got his tractor a couple of years ago I told him that if he decided to sell it I wanted a shot at it. It just looks like a tractor should look (in my mind). I don't even know what it is (I suspect that it is a McCormick W-6), but I like the way it looks. He has finally decided to sell, and I made my first payment on it last week. It is buried in the barn, all winterized and stored away, and I can't get it out until Spring, but I should have it paid for by then. Going to go look at it this weekend. When I heard that it was for sale I jumped first, didn't want to give him a chance to change his mind or let someone else have a shot at it.

Well, gotta get busy. Conference call coming up in a few moments on the SAN design we are working on.

Sunday December 9, 2007

So far, so bad.

This is the big weekend. We are migrating the network at the hospital from Extreme data switches to Cisco Data switches. We figured that it would take an hour to migrate the first location. 2 hours later we were still struggling to get the phone system to boot up. After about 6 restarts, it finally came up almost three hours into the project. So, then we started on the main building.

We have an Avaya S8500 system with an ESS that is supposed to provide failover capability. We moved our entire server room over onto the Cisco network with very minor bobbles and then went to move the phone system over. Not only did it NOT fail over to the ESS, when the server came up it couldn't find its IPSI or MedPro or CLAN cards. After 3 hours on the phone with non-english-speaking Avaya techs (from India, I presume) at $180/30 minutes and NO progress, we finally moved the phone system back to an Extreme standalone switch and then jumpered that into the new network, and the system finally came up. Got home at 4 AM this morning.

We are going to move on to other phases of the project and leave the phone system jumpered thru the Extreme switch for now, and then try Monday to get in touch with support engineers that speak english and know Cisco Networks and Avaya Phones and see if we can come up with a solution. One good point: The network is NOTICEABLY faster on the Cisco switches. One other point: we know that the Avaya phone system does NOT fail over under all circumstances. We paid lots of money for a new phone system that was supposed to be better and more reliable and more flexible than our old Definity G3 duplicated xsystem, and we have none of the above.

Maybe our next upgrade will be to a Cisco phone system.

Gas: 2.73 this morning. Temp: -24F when I got home at 4 AM. Don't talk to me about global warming unless you are willing to stand outside in t-shirt and shorts for 30 minutes. After that I might listen.

Tuesday December 4, 2007

Gas: all but one station at 2.77. So we are back where we were at the end of October.

Got about 8 inches of snow Saturday and Saturday nite, the roads still are not clean and neither is my driveway. Matt worked most of Sunday and part of Monday afternoon on installing his loader on his tractor. It's works good EXCEPT that apparently the rear shaft seal is leaking on the pump. Looks like he made about three passes before he ran thru 2 gallons of oil. So this afternoon he is going to see if another pump will fit or if he can replace the seal.

Saturday December 1, 2007

Gas: back at 2.89 - 2.93, although I've seen a few stations like Twin Lakes and Shallow Lake at 2.99.

Snowing pretty good, since noon. Maybe 4 inches so far? Drifts in the yard well over a foot now. Don't think we will be going anywhere for a while. Might get another 6 inches overnight.

Good thing we're not working today/tonight on the network migration as originally planned. We decided yesterday to push it back a week to allow more prep time to get it right.

Watching a video tape "The Best of Stars on Ice." Just seemed appropriate tonight.

Tuesday November 27, 2007

Gas: went from 2.89 to 2.99 last night/this morning.

Got a good inch of snow and sub-zero temps last night. Most of the snow blew away in the wind.

Monday November 26, 2007

Great Weekend. Put a new battery in Cricky on T-Day, plus had lots of good food. Worked some on Friday, had a problem PC in the ER at work and there was no-one else around, so I took care of it. Got all the parts ripped of the parts van on Saturday and it was shipped back to its owner on Sunday. We got the bumpers, seat belts, doors, hinges, latches, ceiling console, windshield visor, spare tire carrier, and interior lights off of it. Spent Sunday putting up Christmas lights in the yard, we got the tree out front re-lighted plus put some lights around the front door. Most we've done in years.

Gotta remember to pickup a fuel filter for the 89 Horizon and a thermostat for the Gladiator this afternoon, that should solve all of their current problems. Hopefully.

Well, lot's to do at work, the new network switches arrived Friday, all sitting around the office. Need to get them distributed to their closets so we have room to work.

Friday November 23, 2007

Gas 2.89 now. Drove to Bemidji on T-Day. Feels like Winter is coming, low was about 10F last night and high yesterday about 25F. Today a bit warmer (28F) but windier.

Tuesday November 20, 2007

Drove to Bemidji Monday. I find it very interesting that all the stations in GR are between 2.94 and 2.96, with one at 2.94 and one at 2.96 and the rest at 2.95, but the stations in Bemidji are between 3.01 and 2.96 and two stations next to each other will have different prices. Hmmm.

Busy week here, short because of T-Day and so I'm hopping right now. Too much to do and not enough time to do it.

Later!!

Wednesday November 14, 2007

Drove to Minnetonka and back Tuesday, Averaged 12mpg with headwinds both directions. Thank God for the new headlight setup and windshield, since most of the trip was made before sunup and after sunset.

Gas prices are still at 3.09 in GR, with a couple of stations at 3.08. I used to stop at Hinkley for cheap gas, they had 3.19 at the stations next to the freeway. Drove on down to Pine where it was at 3.05 and filled up, and then filled up again at Pine on the way back. Gas in the Twin Cities appeared to be pretty much in the 3.05 area.

Sunday November 11, 2007

My how time flies!

Gas: by Saturday evening all were at 3.09, managed to fill both van's at 3.05 before all the stations were at the new price.

Got a new, larger propane tank to match the new propane furnace, filled it Thursday 262.6 gallons at $2 per gallon. We'll see how it goes.

Bought another car and another tractor Saturday. Well, sorta. I bought a 1986 Chevy G20 conversion van all except the drivetrain. Guy is dropping it off here in the next couple of weeks, I pull off all the doors and other parts I want, then he hauls the shell and drivetrain away so he can sell the engine and tranny. There is a little rust on the doors, but nothing like the rust on the Gladiator. Plan on rebuilding these doors then installing them on the Gladiator. Also has a tire rack on the back that I can replace my rotted out one with. Has a few other parts I can get off of it. Also bought another old AC WC. Someone started to rebuild the engine but stopped before they put it together, all the parts appear to be there, and it has a front blade and hydraulics. We will start by putting the blade on our running AC WC and then go from there with it.

Time to get busy now, it's 30F outside but supposed to get near 50F today and I have a lot of work I want to get done today.

Monday November 5, 2007

Snowing off and on today, too warm for it to stick, although I hear rumors that some places in the area had as much as 2 inches at one time.

As I was running errands at 5PM I noticed that some gas stations were dropping prices from 2.96 to 2.91; by 5:30 all but one station was at 2.91. Filled up the Gladiator. Filled up Stripez on Saturday at 2.96, ouch. But, when they are on empty ya gotta put gas in.

Darn PPC 6700 is really acting up. Part of the touch screen has died, right in the center. Tried a hard reset, but then couldn't complete the screen align, it was stuck in a loop. Finally located a utility (from CodeFactory) designed for people with vision problems to allow them to bypass the touch screen alignment. I'm waiting for the local UniCel store to decide what to do with the PPC, but I can't go without it, too many people need to talk to me and I keep too much data on it. Having a bad touchscreen makes it much harder to use, but at least it is better than nothing, I know since I went most of the day without it while trying to find a way past the alignment screen. So now the center of the screen is dead and the rest of the screen is not aligned, so it can be EXTREMELY difficult to navigate some screens, but at least I can look at my spreadsheets and notes and make calls from my contacts list (I can also dial from the keyboard if I have to). I've only had it a couple of months now. When I google "6700 screen align" I see that I'm not the only person to experience these problems.

We did get the snow tires installed on the Gladiator, also got the quad hi-beam adapter installed. The daytime running light adapter requires something to activate it, I can actually turn on the lights by running my hand along the wire, presumably I'm inducing a current when I do that. The instructions recommend taping a loop around a spark plug wire which would induce a current, or by tapping it into any source that provides a signal when the engine is running such as the oil pressure gauge. I will need to pull the doghouse off to access a plug wire, so that didn't happen Sunday afternoon, although the rest of the hookup is completed. Matt worked on trying to swap the dimmer switch, but it requires some special wrench (I didn't look at it) which I don't have, so he couldn't complete that and just put it back together.

Between having the headlights properly aligned (first time since we've owned it, 3 years?) and having the quad hi-beams it is almost nice to drive at night. If I can get the holes in the body patched it would look a lot nicer and be a bit warmer inside, and if I can figure out why it is so sensitive to crosswinds and fix that it will be a pleasure to drive day or night. Should try new shocks next, after that will look for a rear sway bar, I know they are available.

Still waiting for the Horizon to get fixed. Matt worked on it Saturday, the engine is now back together and it has brakes, but the fuel lines are rotted out and need to be replaced. Matt also removed the back bumper; the drivers side supports were totally rusted off and apparently there is no place to bolt the bumper to. He was going to replace the bumper with the bumper from the '83, but the problem is not the bumper but the body. So now he needs to find good steel and weld on a plate that the bumper can bolt to. And I was hoping that it would be easier to fix the '89 Horizon than to fix the '83 Horizon. Well, I still don't have a tranny for the '83, but maybe I should start looking.

Sunday November 4, 2007

Snow is in tonight's forecast! Only half an inch. Time to put the snow tires on the Gladiator. Matt and I got the headlights aligned last night, discovered that there is a big flat, level slab in Warba, made a target, and did it. Worked great.

Bought a new dimmer switch for the Gladiator a couple of days ago, haven't put it in since I have to drop the steering column to do it, but since I bought it the headlights have worked flawlessly. The morning before I bought the switch I flipped from hi to low dozens of times and more than half the time the lights would go out during the change. Since the new switch has been sitting in the van (not installed!) I have flipped the lights dozens of times and they have never missed. You can't tell me that the Gladiator is an inanimate object!

I have to go work on a network for a private client this morning (in a few moments), I'm hoping that I can get done soon enough that I can get back home, change the tires, install the dimmer switch, and install the new quad relay and alway-on light relay before it begins snowing (forecast for early afternoon).

Friday November 2, 2007

Less than a week and I am really behind. I did my last post on Monday morning, when I went home Monday afternoon gas was at 2.84. By Thursday morning it was down to 2.82, and I filled up. By Thursday noon gas was at 2.98, this morning it has backed off to 2.97. And the Horizon isn't ready yet.

Just read a story at MSNBC about the "Baptist Church" in Topeka, KS that pickets funerals with signs saying "God Hates Fags", "God Hates You", "Thank God For Dead Soldiers", and other similar sayings. And they don't do this just in Topeka, but in Maryland, South Carolina, Arkansas, Nebraska, California, Illinois, and other places around the continent (they currently have pickets planned for funerals in Utah and Massachusetts). Just looking at their website makes me sick from all the hate splashed all over it.

Winter may be finally on its way. 10/30 was a really nice, warm, fall day. If I'd had any steaks around I would have barbecued, but I didn't. Then 10/31 was cold and windy and damp. Snow is in the forecast with lows in the teens and highs in the 20's in the next few days.

Monday October 29, 2007

Gas went up to $2.79 last Monday, then by Wednesday dropped to 2.78, then to 2.75, then 2.72 Saturday, and some stations are at 2.71 now. Hmmmm.

Actually got a couple of things accomplished this weekend. Got the oil changed on the Gladiator. Got the front door knob replaced. Got the headlight pigtails replaced on the Gladiator. Got the Speedometer working better on the Gladiator.

That speedometer has been driving me crazy. '93 Chevy G20. Speedometer worked ok and was accurate EXCEPT that when stopped idling (at a stop light, for instance) the needle would suddenly flip around and peg on the back side, so when you start rolling the needle would remain jammed up against the back of the peg. Then, at 60 mph the needle would suddenly jump back to "60". Or, you could come to a full stop and the needle MIGHT flip back to "0", or it might not, in which case you try again.

I figured it was probably a bad electrical connection since that van is full of them. Went thru all the wire connections between the dash and the tranny and cleaned them up, cleaned up the grounds, even added a new ground to the dash from the battery. No change. Since a new speedometer is rather spendy, I've been just living with it for the last couple of years.

Last week I had an epiphany. I thought "what if" I modified the speedometer so that the needle wouldn't hit the peg. So, I took apart the dash and discovered that the peg is exactly that, a little plastic peg snapped into a hole in the speedometer face. I pulled the peg out (it snaps right back in) and went for a drive and IT WORKS! When at rest the needle rests about where the peg was, but I don't care, I'm not moving at "0" MPH. When I start rolling the needle goes to the correct speed. I'm happy.

Now I need to look for a new dimmer switch For about the 4th time, this morning on the way to work when I switched from Low to High I had no headlights until I switched back to low and then back to high. Very disconcerting. Can't think of what else it might be besides a bad switch, although I don't know if there is a relay in the circuit. I should check on that first I suppose.

Thursday October 18, 2007

Gas: 2.73 in GR, 2.68 in Bemidji last night when I filled up. Hope this isn't the sign of a new trend.

Heat: We have it. $2100 got us a very nice 95% 70,000 btu propane furnace. Quiet, warm, properly installed by Centsible Heating & AC.

Rain: We have it. 2.5 inches and counting since this morning. The yard is beginning to look like the swamp it is supposed to be. Standing water even on what we consider the high ground in the yard. And it is supposed to continue to rain like this thru the night and into tomorrow. Wow. Wet.

Monday October 8, 2007

Been crazy last couple of weeks. Rain every other day it seems, and some new problem to tackle. Gas has been at $2.64 here for a week now. The Gladiator's check engine light was fixed when the EGR solenoid was replaced, the coolant leak was fixed by replacing the heater core and the heater return hose. Now have to align Stripez and put new front tires on it.

Got two quotes for a new furnace, have to find out why they are so different. One for $2400 and a 90,000 btu furnace, the other for $1800 and a 70,000 btu furnace.

Built a new front for the shop out of OSB and 2x4's this weekend. Covered it and the shed with some oil-based stain I had. Still need to finish roofing the shed.

Got the windshield replaced on the Gladiator, put a set of TriplEdge wiper blades on it. According to their advertising they are supposed to "provide(s) drivers with years of no squeak, no streak vision". Maybe. I'm almost ready to switch back to the Anco Winter Wiper blades I have always used. The TriplEdge's squeak worse than the Anco's ever did. At least when the glass is very wet the Anco blades don't squeak, no matter how wet the glass is the TriplEdge squeak horribly. As far as streaking, don't know. The TriplEdge don't streak now, and the Anco's don't streak when new, but the silicone TriplEdge are supposed to never need to be replaced because the silicone doesn't deteriorate like rubber does. The TriplEdge cost a buck less than the Anco's at Wally World, so I thought I would give them a try. After two weeks the trial is just about over. I think after next payday I will replace them.

Other than the wiper blades, driving the Gladiator at night is a whole new experience. The old windshield was badly pitted and scratched (what do you expect after 200,000 miles) and I wanted to replace it anyways, but the expense was too much. But after it cracked and the cracks grew and kept on growing by a couple of inches per day I had to do something. Glad I did. Almost $400, but what a difference.

Raining pretty good outside right now, chance of flooding.

Oh yeah, Vista. On my dual-boot PC I'm always using Vista now, have another PC setup next to me running XP. What Vista does, it does well. What it doesn't do makes it a pain in the rear, and makes me run a second PC with XP. The biggest problem is the lack of compatibilty. Had to wait for the new version of Nero 8 to come out before I could do some burning, my Nero 7 isn't compatible. None of our Clinical software is compatible with Vista. Little things, like having to manually install the Telnet Client because it is not included with the default install. Having to copy NTBackup from XP because the Vista backup is not compatible with NTBackup.

I am NOT using IE 7. I tried to, but when I get errors opening up most websites and couldn't do anything I said enough was enough. I've set Firefox to be my default browser for now, which is OK since I prefer it anyways.

Personal opinion: I think Vista MAY be OK for the average home or business user. The Power User or SysAdmin should wait a while or be prepared to run two PC's. If you run special software for your industry then wait until your industry software is Vista compatible.

Office 2007: I'm using it, but under protest. It has features I don't like. It is full of contradictions. It appears to be designed to be friendly for the average user, but it has features that the power user would like to use if they weren't so deeply buried. The lack of customization for the Ribbon is the worst part. I rarely use a lot of the features that are on the Ribbon, but I can't remove them or put the features I want on there, so I need to use the menu all the time. Fortunately it appears that most of the shortcut key strokes still work. I used to customize the heck out of my menu bar so I would have one click access to the features I used the most, but that is not possible with the Ribbon.

There are some features I like. I have a macro that I run in Access every day, when I ran the Macro the first time a dialog box opened asking me if I wanted to run it regularly. It helped me set up a recurring task that runs the macro for me when I open the task. Wonderful! The error messages that I get in Access 2003 about unsafe macros were always a pain, but in Access 2007 the message came up once, I told it what to do, and I haven't seen the message since. Very nice, after three years I've been sick of that message.

Friday September 21, 2007

Gas: 2.76

Rain: 7/8" between 6am 9/20 and 6am 9/21.

Woke up about midnight, thought the paparazzi had invaded. Bright lights flashing. Lot's of lightning in all directions including overhead, continuous rumble of thunder. Pretty spectacular. This morning at 5:30 it wasn't as close, but there was still lightning all around and if you listened close you could hear the thunder.

Last night was pouring rain on the way home, then about Blackberry something went BANG on the windshield and left a big star and then it started hailing pretty good, about quarter size, lasted all the way home. I'm still not certain if it was hail or something else that broke the windshield, but the hail did start immediately after the windshield got hit. Will have to get new windshield before end of October.

Thursday September 20, 2007

Gas: 2.77 most stations today. Vendor up from Duluth today, he's filling up while here.

Raining pretty good again, maybe .5" this morning according to wx site.

Well, I'm finally viable with Vista I think. I'm working from it now. Had to disable IE7 and I'm using Firefox for compatibility reasons. Got the AD tools and Exchange tools working. Still can't run some software, need to setup a virtual PC to run those apps.

I do like some new features, miss some old ones, as usual. I'm beginning to get used to Office 2007 also. If it had been my job I would have done the new versions differently, but that's why I don't get the big bucks.

Wednesday September 19, 2007

Gas: most stations are at 2.78 now.

Rain: Left home for town at 5pm, rain gage empty. Arrived back home about 9pm, 5/8" rain. This morning, about 1-1/8" rain. Tornado warning, flash flood warning. Pretty wet outside. Wondering how the BWCA fared, storm went thru it after it was done here, and I don't think it was getting smaller.

Tuesday September 18, 2007

Gas: I paid 2.79 this morning, at noon I see a couple of stations at 2.78. It's good to see a bit of competition around here.

Vger: is dead. Vger will be broken up for parts and scrapped. For six months I have been fighting its problems with no resolution, and while I continue to do that new problems continue to break out. At least I can salvage the new parts I have installed and use them on other vehicles.

Got .75" rain last night during a pretty good thunderstorm. Talked to someone who didn't get a sprinkle but saw the lightning both north and south of him.

Wednesday September 12, 2007

Gas: 2.86

Vger is driving me nuts. Anything over 1/3 throttle and the engine chokes. You can actually see and feel it, when I press the pedal past 1/3 the car starts slowing down, when I back off again it speeds up. Takes several miles and a downhill grade to get up to 60 mph. I've replaced the O2 sensor, MAP sensor, Fuel Filter, Fuel Injector. Timing is OK, Fuel pressure is OK, Compression is OK, no exhaust back pressure.

Frustrating. While the 2.5L is no racehorse, I at least used to be able to manage highway traffic, now I can't. Heck, the '92 Voyager can run circles around the 88 Voyager. Admitted, I haven't driven the 88 regularly lately. Back in April '07 the clutch blew, didn't get that fixed until June, then right after that (50 miles?) the timing belt blew, got that fixed and ever since it has been gutless. Checked the belt timing, it's dead on (because another mechanic put the timing belt on incorrectly on my Turbo causing Big Problems).

And, while I used to consistently get 22-24 mpg, I now get 18-20 mpg. Heck, the '92 Voyager gets 22 mpg rock solid with the same engine. So, I checked the spark plugs, maybe it's running really rich? Nope, the plugs (new after the timing belt was replaced) are almost bone white.

Fortunately, the Gladiator is still hanging in there, although the check engine light continues to turn on occasionally and it still needs a new heater core. Consistently gets 15 mpg.

Traded the A-C RC for an A-C WC. We have that running pretty good now, still need to sort out the charging system. Engine was frozen when we got it, took a lot of oil and a lot of bumping to get it loose, then had to remove and wash out the gas tank and carb.

Still haven't had a chance to work on the Pontiac's, probably won't now until next spring. I will need to drain the block on the 455 and add antifreeze. Need to do that to the 77 Catalina also. Had 29 degrees this morning, had to scrape the frost off the windshield.

Whups, gotta get busy, someone wants a vlan changed!!

Tuesday September 11, 2007

Rant time.

Lately I have been noticing a lot of bumper stickers and yard signs proclaiming that "War is not the answer". I beg to differ.

Of course, it depends on the question. If the question is whether or not to have dessert, then no, of course war is not the answer. But, if the question is whether or not you and I are allowed to live, work, and worship according to our beliefs, and the other guy wants to enforce his beliefs at the expense of everyone else's lives, then yes, I think that war is the answer.

I have trouble understanding how someone can live in the USA, how, having experienced the horrors of 9/11/2001, having experienced the freedom of living and working and worshiping where and how they wish, and, seeing how the victims of the oppression are forced to live, can stand up and say that "War is not the answer". I just don't understand it.

But, regardless of whether or not I understand it, they have the freedom, here in the USA, to express their opinion. Perhaps they would like to move to Iran and try expressing their opinions?

To those who are daily fighting this war: I salute you and I ask God's blessing upon you for doing what I cannot do.

Remember 9/11/2001!!
http://www.nps.gov/remembrance/statue/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks

Tuesday August 28, 2007

Gas: 2.89.

Didn't get the motors swapped but got lots of other stuff done. Next weekend is Mass Exodus, and still have some cleanup work to do, including the engine swap and re-arranging the cars.

I have determined that I will need to make some mods to the engine bay of DaVench before I can put the 455 in, the new HEI distributor won't clear the firewall, and I don't like the idea of just dinging the firewall with a BFH to allow the distributor to fit.

Wednesday August 22, 2007

Gas: 2.87, going back up now.

I'm renting an engine hoist over the weekend, going to yank a few motors and get rid of a few cars. Hopefully.

Later!!!

Monday August 13, 2007

Gas: 2.64 this morning when I filled up. Saturday in Bemidji it was at 2.79 when GR was at 2.65. Hmmm.

It was a blast. I will try to upload more photos. Unfortunately, I filled up my memory card so several photos I thought I had I actually didn't and I couldn't re-take them. Such is life.

Now for the Itasca County Fair.

NCMFAAA 2007

August 10, 11, 12, 2007.

The Club's Avery Steam Traction Engine, I believe there may be one other like it still in existence.

This Waterloo Boy restoration was just completed in time for the show by the owner, a club member.

Allis Chalmers Road Patrol, a light road grader.  Owned by a club member.

This member converted an Allis Chalmers RC into a forklift that he uses around his own shop as well as on the club grounds.

A custom Ford with a flathead V8 engine.

This is one better, a custom Ford with a Lincoln Flathead V12.

This Ford retired from a Golf Course.

International Titan.  I think the first time I saw it was after it had been fully restored, that was 15+ years ago.

This is a little home-built job that I think is a couple of years old.  As I recall, it has a Briggs Lawn tractor engine and tranny.

Matt driving a friends Allis Chalmers "B".

A toy custom made by the owner for his grandkids.  If my memory is correct, it started out as a John Deere 318 Garden Tractor.  It now has a diesel engine and narrow front.

The draft horse club joins us for an exhibition of their own.

The contraption next to the hay wagon is a "Sno-Loader"  When it works, it scoops up a bale and throws it on the trailer by spring action.  I have seen it work three or four times in a row, but usually, it misses or drops or breaks the bales.

Wish I could have captured the whole thing, but this team has just finished demonstrating cutting a square corner.

Some of the many miniature engines shown.