Wood Chips, Horse Apples & The Year In Review

December 17, 2011

In addition to trying to get the rest of the bulbs in the ground, we've been trying to get more wood chips hauled in so we can have about a 4-6 inch layer over the areas we want to garden and make into flower beds. So far we've hauled in 3 loads of wood chips with our dump bed powerstroke. This has been one of the handiest trucks I've ever had. It isn't much to look at but it sure comes in handy when you want to haul off trash, or haul in a load of wood chips. Sure saves a lot of work.

I've been getting the wood chips from the Lovington Convenience center. I can get them from Hobbs also, but the ones in Hobbs traditionally have been quite large chips. I guess it's their chipper because the ones in Lovington are chipped into much smaller chips. The only disadvantage getting them in Lovington is that I have to load the truck by hand. But I look at it as my exercise time, because it is really quite a workout. It takes me about an hour or maybe a little over an hour to get the truck completely loaded. I still want to get about 3 to 4 more loads and then we should be just about through with the wood chips.

Yesterday we went to Hobbs' En Sueno Bed & Breakfast & Rockin' Horse Stables to get a load of horse apples (manure). I took the tractor with us so we could load the truck a little easier. Our Kubota is perfect for working around the house and just the right size to maneuver in tight spots, but is a wee bit short to be able to dump the front bucket into the truck easily. But, it can be done and we did it.

While in Hobbs I noticed the truck making a grinding noise when I brake to stop. Soooooo, I guess I have a brake job in the near future. I still need to get a couple more loads of wood chips and I'd like to get one more load of horse bullets, but I'll have to get the brakes fixed before I drive it anymore.

This is a picture of our wood chip & horse apple pile:

A few days ago I pruned our peach tree. Usually when I prune a tree, Patsi gives me a hard time for cutting so many branches off. But this time she didn't scold me because we did the same thing last year and had a good crop of peaches, which is kind of unusual for this area. Hopefully we'll have another good crop of peaches again this coming year. Here is what it looks like now:

I planted more tulips and daffodils today, about 120+ tulips and 120+ daffodils. I only have about 80 daffodils left and 20+ tulips. It's taken me about 3 months to get them all planted, planting them whenever I had the time and the inclination to do so. It's been fun and we anxiously await spring to see if they are going to all bloom. If they all bloom we'll have a beautiful sight. I can't wait......but it will get here soon enough. Seems like the older I get, the faster time flies. LOL

Christmas is nearly here and Thanksgiving is already gone. This year has flown by. We made a couple of trips to Payson, Az to see a homeopathic doctor. I had been having quite a few sinus headaches (or that's what I attributed it to) and upon a friends recommendation we decided to go see him. Glad we did, because he helped immensely and all without drugs. His wife and daughter are LMT massage therapists and along with Dr. Lalman you get a complete treatment. I no longer have headaches like I used to have. It's a long trip to Payson, but well worth it.

We made three trips to Colorado this past summer. The first and last trip were 4 wheeling trips to South Fork and Ouray. They were really fun trips and we got to see some fantastic country, good friends and family.

The crew at South Fork

Going downhill near Ouray

In between the two 4 wheeling trips we met Patsi's brother Rodney and his wife Hiroko at Idaho Springs, Co. We took our 5th wheel camper and stayed at a very nice campground, right next to a stream. Beautiful place. Her other brother Stanley, and his son Kiichi also met us there. The whole reason for the trip was the Harada family reunion which was held in Fort Collins. So, we got to see most the family.

On top of Mt. Evans, Elevation 14,265'

We bought the New Mexi-Can, a 1968 Streamline travel trailer, from a guy in Sacramento, Ca. Went to pick it up the last part of August. Got it home and went to work on it. I had to strip the inside to replace the floor and possibly the black water tank. I spent about 3 weeks drilling out thousands of rivets to get the inside cleaned out so I could begin replacing the floor and rebuilding the inside.

After getting the inside stripped out, I had lots of other projects waiting on me that I needed to attend to, so I had to drop the trailer and begin to work on some other things. Such as:

• Wire Patsi's greenhouse with wall sockets, and install ceiling fan
• Get my welders hooked up
• Rearrange the shop
• Winterize our faucets
• Plant 1000+ tulips and daffodils
• Haul wood chips for garden mulch
• Build a stove for the shop

I got most everything on the list accomplished and maybe a few other things thrown in there for good measure. I even found a 1941 Chevy COE (cab over engine) truck on the internet. I drove to Plattsmouth, Ne, which is just south of Omaha to pick it up. I left on a Monday, October 24 and made it back by Wednesday morning. It was a long fast trip but we have the cab to use on our Powerstroke when I get ready to build our hauler for the 4 wheelers & vintage travel trailer.

Loading the 41 Chevy near Plattsmouth, Ne

I don't think I'll run out of projects anytime soon as I have a few waiting in the wings. So, as long as my health is good and the good Lord lets me, I'll keep busy working in the yard, garden, shop and house doing things I love. 

Until next time............

Overthehump

Gosh, it's already winter!!!!

Normally for the past 20+ years or so it hasn't really become very cold until January and February. But not this winter. MAN...it started getting cold the latter part of October. And this past week we've had two winter blasts which have really put us in the deep freeze.

Patsi and I have been trying to get all the plants put up, her greenhouse warm and cozy for the plants to spend the winter, and spreading wood chip mulch over all the flower beds, plant tulips and daffodils, and generally just getting ready for winter. We sure didn't expect to have to endure this cold this quick. Luckily we have everything nearly all buttoned up for winter.

Our new tulip beds (this was before it got cold)

Garlic is planted in the spot where the trunk shadow falls. Across the rock bed on the hill there are 300+ tulips and daffodils planted.

Daffodills left of the mums (that don't have any blooms now) and tulips on the right.

Tulips & daffodils planted between curb and sidewalk (450-500).

and yes.....it gonna cover the whole east side of our lot. Sure hope they all come up.

Early this morning after it got down to 12 F, it finally dawned on me that I had not done anything for the water manifold that I have in the shop. I was really expecting to open the shop door and see water spraying up in the air. Luckily that wasn't the case, so now I have a heater near the water pipes until this cold spell passes. The only trouble is that it is projected to be below freezing for the next week or so. So I guess winter is really here.

Started working on the 96 Ford PowerStroke this afternoon....changing out the water pump. I should have already had this done but kept putting it off for one reason or another. I've had the new water pump for 4 months or so, but just never could seem to get motivated to get it put in. I guess I finally got tired of it taking up space in my shop.

I should finish it tomorrow. I'll get the anti-freeze back in it and then it will relegated to the drive way....outside - again.

The New Mexi-Can will take its place and I'll get started back to work on it again. I really need to get the  tanks replaced and repaired, get the floor replaced and start putting the inside back together. It's gonna be FUN!!

I still have lots to organize, stuff to move around, cabinets to build and still have to install some more outlets, but I'll get a little bit here and a little bit there until....someday it might all be done.

Naw....doubt that day will ever come. LOL

Until next time......

Overthehump

Smoking the bird & infusing the pig

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE......

We're spending the day at home and doing all the cooking because we'll be having Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow at my sister, Karen's house. I'm smoking a turkey today and just got it on this morning about 8am. 

The old fireplace isn't part of the smoker. A friend of mine gave me this old fireplace and I envisioned it being a great piece as an outdoor fireplace on our patio that we still have to build.

Turkey is wrapped to steam for a few hours. I'll take the foil off later and let the turkey get a little crispiness on the skin. I used the recipe from this site to brine the bird,  

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/out-of-this-world-turkey-brine/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 2 gallons water
• 1 1/2 cups canning salt
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 
  
• Directions

1. In a large bucket or container large enough to hold your turkey, mix together the water, salt, garlic, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Store in a refrigerator, and soak turkey for 2 days before smoking or roasting.

I'll put on the spiral cut ham later today just to infuse a little extra flavor into it. I'll probably make a couple of Buttermilk Chess pies later today also. So, we're just having a laid back Thanksgiving day watching the tube and cooking a few things for tomorrow.


Patsi & I have a lot to be thankful for. We have been so blessed. I met Patsi 31 years ago and we've been together ever since. We dated 3 years before we got married. We are best friends, love to do things together, but we also have our own likes and dislikes. 


I like to go to the races and get into all the action, noise, and dirt. Patsi is more content working on crafts of puttering in her garden or the yard. Patsi likes crafts and art as do I, but our crafts and art are completely different. We have similar tastes. I'm so thankful to have been blessed with a beautiful wife that I get along with and she is the most understanding person. 


A couple of years ago we built a shop in our backyard which has been dubbed as my man cave. We have a house across the alley that we bought for Patsi's parents. Since they have both passed, Patsi uses that house as her woman cave. She is Stampin' Up representative and holds custom card classes over there. She can go over there and work on cards for hours on end, just as I can get lost in projects in the shop.


We've both been blessed with being able to retire. Patsi retired from Chevron 3 1/2 years ago and I retired in March of this year. Patsi thought she'd probably be off about 6 months or so and then go back to work. But, according to her, she hasn't even thought about going to work again. She keeps busy, being on the board of Faith In Action, a local non profit organization that helps people with prescription drugs they can't afford, card making, member of Master Gardener, and busy landscaping in our yard.

This is the rock planter Patsi built this past summer

  

Here it is with flowers and morning glories climbing up the side

Here is the flowers by the mail box that Patsi planted

This is the other bed that she planted and takes care of

Here is the hill I built earlier this spring. Just a few flowers on it at this time.

Here's a couple of shots above with it in full bloom

This is how it looks today with a new cover of wood chip mulch. I've planted in the neighborhood of 300 or so tulips and daffodils on the hill and in the new bed in front of the tree.

This bed just north of the hill is one I've just nearly finished working on. I plan on planting about 500 bulbs of tulips, daffodils, crocus, and iris's. So, if they all come up this spring, we should have quite a show of color on the east side of our house.

I guess to sum it all up, we love working around our house, working on our projects, love to travel, love spending time with our friends and family, and at times we love to do nothing. We are very grateful for all of our blessings and our wish is for everyone to be as blessed as we are. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Until next time.........

Overthehump

Rocket Heater for the Shop?????

11/20/2011

The truck pictured at the top of this blog is inspiration for the 41 Chevy COE I went to pick up last month. For the moment I've parked the 41 Chevy in my old shop and will tackle that project in due time. In the mean time we have plenty to do.

I've been mulling over and over in my head about what kind of heat to have in the shop. It is beginning to get cold and I'm going to need some heat in there. I want to move the New Mexi-Can into the shop to work on it this winter, and will need some warmth.

Last week after seeing them on the internet and researching, watching videos on youtube, I decided to build a rocket stove heater for the shop. The concept is that the air draws in at the top of the J-tube, pull the air and flame into the bottom of the J and up the chimney. It sort of gives it a blow torch effect which in turn, heats up the top of the outside barrel and radiates the heat to all the surrounding areas.

The cool thing about the rocket stove is that the exhaust gas out of the bottom of the heat chamber and out the exhaust tube is fairly cool, which makes the fire hazard from hot gases and sparks negligible.

The above is the J-tube I built. I added the barrel (which was an old piece of casing a friend had given me. Below is the j-tube with the outer barrel (casing) installed.

The only problem was it didn't work well enough to heat up our huge shop. So back to the drawing board.

After studying more, I decided I didn't make the chimney large enough. I probably should have used 8" pipe. But I don't really want to tear this one apart or make a larger one, so I'm trying to figure out how to make this one work. When I figure out a way to make it work for our needs I'll post it here.

Last week I also had to finish planting all our tulip bulbs. I had planted 200+/- tulips on the hill I built this past spring and had another 100 or so to plant. I thought I'd have some left for another bed I'm preparing but I used all of them on the hill. I think I've got 50 daffodils planted on the hill also. So, this coming spring it should be covered in blooms.

Patsi was in Hobbs last Wednesday when I was planting them. Realizing I would need some more for the other bed I'm preparing, I called her and asked her to stop by Lowe's to see if they still had some tulip bulbs on sale. They still had some and they were still on sale, only now they were on sale @ 85% off. So, she picked up another 200 tulip bulbs and another 100 daffodil bulbs.

Hopefully, we'll have a splash of color on the east side of our house come this spring.

It's Sunday and we just returned from a day trip to Albuquerque to visit with Patsi's brother, Stanley and his family. We had a great time visiting with Stan & Suki and even got to visit with Kiichi in Socorro on the way home. Kiichi is enrolled in New Mexico Tech studying materials engineering. This is his second semester and it has to be a killer one. He is taking 18 hours. I don't think he has any spare time at the moment.

Today I went to Hobbs to look for a burner so I could test the rocket stove out and see if it would work with a different type of fuel. I ended up buying a plain old weed burner. Got it home and had to go buy some propane so I could test it. When I got it all hooked up and lit the burner, it roared to life. The burner put out tons of heat. I had it blowing fire into the bottom of the j-tube and after 30 minutes the thermometer I had on top of the stove was at 550 degrees and climbing. The bottom of the j-tube was cherry red, so I believe this will heat the shop fairly well. I'll work on getting my waste oil burner built and try it also. At any rate, I should be able to have some heat in the shop when it really gets cold. Yea!!!!

We plan on spending Thanksgiving with family and more than likely eat toooooo muuuucccchhh!!!!

We wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and all those that have to travel we pray you have a safe journey.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Until next time.....

Overthehump

Stone carving in a trailer???

This past weekend I attended a stone carving workshop in Hobbs sponsored by Southwest Stone Carving Association at Sadler and Son Monument Works. Stone carving doesn't have a thing to do with rebuilding a trailer but I have never done any carving of any sort and have always wanted to learn. So, when the opportunity arose, I signed up and had a blast.

Class started Friday at 8:00am. We had 6 students to start but by the end of the day we 9 or ten with a couple more planning on showing up on Saturday. Edward Fleming from Galesteo, NM, John Griffin from Albuquerque, NM, and Kat Watson from Questa, NM were our instructors. All were accomplished sculptors and were a great help for all of our questions and blank looks on our faces as we began our workshop. Well, at least I had a blank look on my face.

For my project I was going to try to carve a Chachapoya Indian stone face like this one

I got my piece of stone and started carving, chipping and filing. It ended up looking like this

Well, it's sort of close. I think mine has been on an American diet. He turned out a little obese. LOL  I even carve a surprise on the bottom of the stone. The only problem is that I finished this one the first day and we still had two more days to go. So, I had to find another project to take up the next two days. 

After searching on the net for different ideas, I found an owl that Patsi really liked, so I thought I'd try that is a piece of alabaster. The owl that was my pattern looked like this

The piece of alabaster that I picked wasn't quite thick enough to get the barrel shape of my model, so I ended up doing a double sided owl that turned out like this

He turned into a horned owl and I left him with a couple of rough edges, so he is smooth on both sides and one edge with the left side raw stone and some of the raw stone showing on the top as well.  I still need to sand him quite a bit and polish him but I think both turned out ok for my 1st try. The stone will look really cool once it is polished, plus I had a great time and met some great people. David and his wife, Cindy, were great hosts. The instructors, Ed, Kat, and John were great and were always ready to help with any problem you had. A fantastic weekend and I learned that stone carving isn't quite as complicated or hard as I thought it might be. That's not to say that it is easy, it just seems to be a little easier once you learn some of the techniques. Before the workshop I assumed it was all hammer and chisel, but that is far from the case.

Tomorrow it's back to work on my projects, here around the house, getting ready for winter and getting back on the trailer.

Until next time.......

Overthehump

Fast & Furious............TRIP!!

I just got back from picking up the 1941 Chevy COE (cabover engine) and it was one looooonng, faaast trip. I left Monday morning and drove to Lincoln, Ne which was 792 miles for that day.

Going through the Oklahoma panhandle I passed through Hooker, Ok. Here's their gift shop

Special gift shop for Hooker's residents

Tyrone was the next town down the road....Hmmmm???

Tuesday I drove from Lincoln, to Plattsmouth, Ne to pick the truck up at Jake's (the guy I bought the truck from) house. Jake had to work and he couldn't meet me so I was on my own. I guess he trusted me after talking to me on the phone because he asked me to leave the money in the glove box of a black Honda that was next to the truck. He had left the title in the glove box so the paper work was done.

Preparing to load the truck. 

Truck loaded but not tied down.

Someone had added a wooden deck bed on the back but the boards were only nailed down, so I thought it would be best if I removed all the boards that weren't really secure and tie them to the trailer with straps. I think it was about 9:30am when I got everything tied down, the money in the glove box and the Honda locked. Nice doing business with a trusting person. I didn't even get to meet him (he had to be at work), I only got to talk with him on the phone.

Headed south on Hwy 75 toward Topeka, Ks. While enroute I called Mike Collins in Edmond, Ok. I thought I'd stop by and visit with him briefly since it was on the way. Mike was home and was going to be around when I would be going through Edmond. I got there about 4:30 pm and we visited for about an hour and a half. We could have visited of hours but I had to get back on the road. I had made a reservation at the La Quinta in Amarillo so I needed to be there before midnight. I did make it before midnight and got a pretty good nights rest. 

I was up by 5 am. Ate breakfats at Denny's which was right next to the motel and got on the road by 6:15 am. Stopped in Lubbock to get diesel at Sam's. Made it home by 9 am. 

I finished stripping all the wood off the bed and unloaded the truck. 

Now I'm gonna rest..........

Until next time

Overthehump

It's all about balance.....

Patsi and I did a bit of gardening yesterday and today.  We planted about a dozen mums, about 25 tulips and 20 daffodils. It wouldn't have been too bad except for all the grass we had to dig out prior to planting anything. Bermuda grass is the pits. But once we got through it looked really nice.

Daffodils planted behind the mums and tulips planted in the front.

Should look really nice in the spring.

This is the hill I built this summer.

How it looked with all the sunflowers.

Had some really huge sunflowers!

Actually did some work to the trailer today. Started cleaning out the channels where the floor fits between the upper shell and the frame. It had numerous (as you can see in the picture) staples that stapled the shell to the floor with the carpet in between.

Practiced on my cabinet building skill by trying to build a box for the composting toilet I'm putting in the shop. Let's just say my cabinet building skills will have to improve substantially if I want the cabinets in the trailer to look really nice. lol I've got a few more things I can practice on before I have to build anything for the New Mexi-can.

I don't think I've mentioned my other project in this blog. Last year I bought a 1996 Ford Powerstroke flatbed truck with the intention of putting the cab from the 1946 International truck that Patsi got from the farm on the Powerstroke frame. 

But Patsi would like to restore the old IH back to the original, like it was used on the farm. 

So, we've been looking for a Cabover Engine truck to replace the cab on the Powerstroke. The 1950 Chevy pictured below is one we found in Albuquerque. 

But Patsi liked a 47 GMC that I found on the internet, plus I liked the look a lot also. The 47 GMC is pictured below:

This one was located in Kansas, but after talking to the guy it had quite a few of rusted out places. He said he had a 46 Chevy which looks basically the same except the bottom part of the grill is vertical instead of horizontal and the lights set on top of the fender instead of being built into the front of the fender. Like this one that we just bought tonight.

This one is supposed to even run. But it doesn't really matter since I won't be using the drive train from this truck. The only thing I'll use is the cab. I'm sure there will be lots of fabricating once I get started on this project. So, I've got a very full plate. It'll be a lot of fun building the vintage atv hauler to pull our vintage camper and it will be a lot of fun going places once we get finished with the projects. Wish me luck. I'll most likely need it. LOL

So, we have all these projects we're working on and we just balance our time to devote some to one project and then move on to another, then to another. Not really getting burned out of working on one all the time but having plenty to do and never getting bored.

Until next time.....

Overthehump