It's been a while, but finally started on the Nano camper.

Yeah, I know. Mom dies and I fall off the face of the earth. Well, not exactly.

It took a month to get my emotional act back together. Mom declared me the executrix of her will and that had some priorities that are good to know when handling the remains and unpaid bills of the dead. Her funeral was on a very hot day and I made sure it didn't drag on too long. Just about everyone there was over fifty-five and heat with lots of humidity is hard on us older folk. Stayed behind after the others had left and helped to fill in Mom's grave with a borrowed shovel until the backhoe arrived.

What have I been up to?

Working on the Nano camper (keeping my hands busy) has been good therapy. Got the bruises, nicks, and tar-stained fingers to prove that building a tiny camper isn't as easy as it sounds. Three weeks into this project and the walls are finally up. The roof is on and tarred. The interior will probably take another month with the paneling, wiring, plumbing, and installing of a small made-for-a-tent wood stove.

Went with the econo tin from Home Depot as the exterior siding instead of wood paneling. Much lighter than treated plywood. I can cut it with an electric saw, too. Today I cut out some of the tin and install the windows and door off my old slide-in camper. Tarring the remaining tiny exterior gaps will come at the end of the project before I move inside to complete that work.

Stopped by Mom's grave the other day. The rains have made the dirt collapse around the wooden box her coffin is in. Going out to that dangerous cemetary soon and shovel in more dirt to fill in the holes. Need to get some lawn grass seed as well to stop the ugly erosion. Have to be heavily armed when at the cemetary. I just missed a police officer being shot and nearly killed by an outlaw that ran into the cemetary. Just missed that stressful event by minutes. Thank you, God, I wasn't there.

Even in death, I care for you, Mom. Even if it means dealing with outlaws. I miss you a lot, Mom, at times. But you are better off where you are now than here on this side trapped in a body with a brain having one stroke then another caused by dying kidneys in the final 24 hours of your life.

Hoot, hoot, Mom.

----------------------------

I cancelled my ISP (internet service provider), so now I have to rely on the library Internet computer to post here. Needless to say, that will happen as I'm passing by on my way to Home Depot to buy more materials for the Nano camper. Gas prices are too high to make a lot of trips away from the house. Money has to go where it is needed.

Mom is passing away slowly.

She is passing around 500 mL of urine per day, sometimes less than that. Kidney failure happens at its own rate.

She is lethargic and can barely speak. The only time she is clear in her speech is when she asks me where my deceased father is. In heaven, I tell her, waiting on her.

The doctor gave her 2 weeks to live (a week ago), I figure a month to six weeks. Mom is tough. But, I don't know. Will play it one day at a time and prepare the best I can for her passing. It's not easy watching her die. Thank goodness for the hospice nurses and their love and care.

Have gotten all the bills in my name now. Throwing out old junk like a table top Christmas tree that's pushing 25 years old. Fire hazard, if there ever was one with it's electric lights and dried out paper decorations. Wanting to get this old house ready for a tear down next year after I get rid of a lot of stuff and put the rest in storage. Planning on spending the next twelve months real busy.

Nursing Home Nearly Killed Mom...by policy.

So Mom has a heart attack on June 9. Goes into the hospital and is treated for the heart attack and a bladder infection. A week later, she's released and goes into a local nursing home for therapy. And that's where the horror story starts.

The first day Mom has shortness of breath and requests oxygen. None is given. Her 02 levels are okay says the nurse. I tell the RN that oxygen helps her to feel comfortable. Totally ignored.

By Sunday afternoon, Mom is in terrible pain from a growing bladder infection that is spreading to her kidneys. I inform the staff. On Monday the pill arrives as Mom suffers the terrible back pain of the kidney infection. The pill arrives at noon, so a nurse tells me, but they wait to 4:00 pm to give it to her.

Mom appears to have the symptoms of fibromyalgia, so I won't let her start therapy. I tell the nurse until her pain is managed better I'm not pushing her into therapy. That the kind of pain she's in could trigger another heart attack. Mom can't even stand the weight of the blankets on her feet. An aide handles her too roughly while bathing her, so I flat out tell the nurse that from now on I bathe her.

By Tuesday, Mom is getting weaker. She doesn't have much of an appetite and the hospital food isn't that good. She's on a pain medication that makes her hallucinate bugs on the bed to my cats dropping out of the ceiling and floating around the room. She's picking at the food I'm trying to feed her because she can't feed herself.

By Wednesday morning at 6:00 am, Mom is coughing up a clear mucus that turns to a light tan color by 8:00 am. She informs me that she can't swallow anymore. I inform the nurse and a chest x-ray is ordered. Mom is in terrible pain and asks me to get her out there.

Now the really bad part starts...

I go to the nurse's station fed up that it's taking too long for the chest x-ray and inform them that I'm taking Mom out of there. Going to call an ambulance as soon as I get Mom ready.

Her nurse and the head nurse come in. I am informed that it is against company policy for them to call an ambulance for a patient that leaves without the doctor approving it. Okay, so I'll call for the ambulance. Oh, no, I can't do that they tell me. Why? I ask. The ambulance won't come unless the doctor releases the patient. And the hospital where I am taking Mom will not accept her. The only recourse is to discharge her and take Mom in my sweltering hot pick up truck over to the hospital in it. It's about 130 degrees inside my pickup by the way. It's June in a Mississippi sun parked in a asphalt parking lot 130 degrees hot.

I almost believed them, too. Must have been the uniforms. I moved my truck up to the front door to get Mom. It's too hot in the truck for a 93 year old woman who recently had a heart attack.

Anyway, something in my spirit begins to doubt these two. This can't be true. I'm trying to save her life. I get a hold of AMR wheelchair services and they tell me that they will gladly pick Mom up and take her to the hospital but a staff member at the nursing home has to make the call to them before they will. I go back inside and asked two staff members to make the call, but they refused. Against the nursing home policy again. But, I said reminding them, you said they wouldn't come, but they are willing to come out to take Mom to the hospital. They ignored me.

I go outside to my truck fuming mad, fist pounding teary eyed upset, my most dangerous side. I call AMR again and beg desperately with the dispatcher for AMR to come get my mother out of the nursing home and take her straight to the hospital she was released from. I was asked if she had trouble breathing and I said yes. You could hear the congestion in her lungs when she coughed up the phlegm. Five minutes later the ambulance arrives and off goes Mom back to the hospital.

And would you believe the nursing home still refuses to cooperate in saving her life by holding us up in getting her to the hospital? When an ambulance picks up a patient at a nursing home, something called a pink sheet is given to the ambulance driver. The nursing home staff refused to turn it over. Mom and I are moved as one then the other ambulance driver go back to get the pink sheet. They get their pink sheet. One of the nurses is now in trouble with AMR for refusing to turn it over, too. It's illegal what was going on with the way they handled me pulling Mom out of the nursing home and I hope that nursing home gets fined for it.

At the hospital...

A urine sample is pulled and it's the color of tomato juice. Thick and full of pus. I cried like a little kid in the ER when I saw it. I didn't know Mom was that sick.

Now's she's going into three days at the hospital that I was told would not accept her back receiving oxygen treatments to remove the excess fluid build up in her lungs as well as medicines for her kidney, bladder, and lung infection.

I got sick, too. Have spent Thursday, Friday, and today laid up in the bed with a terrible cold and severe back pain. The only reason I could rest though is because Mom is out of that nursing home. As long as I live, she'll never go back into another one, too. I'll stay at her side and help her.

Got to go now, the bug is giving me a bad coughing fit.

The Stock Market is falling. The Stock Market is falling.

We ain't seen nuttin' yet. Wait till October. The NWO's history points to October and April as months of failing and falling over.

Mom, Greece, GD2, and riots in the streets.

Poor Mom. Too weak to get into the bath tub and sometimes to weak to sit in her chair and eat her meals. Her nurse called in another nurse to teach me how to care for Mom as she grows weaker and weaker. Bathing her in the hospital bed is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Nell is a great instructor. Prepping for the Greece bail out from the European Union. I don't mean free money for Greece. I mean walking away and going back to their old currency. Oh, boy! Talk about Great Depression 2 coming down world wide. With the USA getting onto $16 trillion in debt (we'll never be able to pay all of it back), our Gross National Product numbers can't keep up with just the interest amounts on the debt. We're falling. We're falling. Time to get ready. Looking at some real estate along a river nearby for purchasing, if the price gets right. I want to get out of the city and live way out in the woods. Was predicted that when the USA dollar is worth 70 cents or less, there will be rioting in the streets. Jackson, MS., with all of its weekly murders and gang war fare, will have plenty of riots as the trained to be helpless war for more free food and benefits.

Keeping up with Greece's financial turmoil....

I've been keeping up with Greece's financial chaos that's been going on for quite a while. The way I figure it when Greece dumps their current government, gets rid of their currency, and simply tries to start from scratch, that's when the world's economic problems will get much worse. It's lining up financially that 2013 is going to be one bad year for anyone with a job. Dare I say that a world wide Great Depression 2 might kick in. The pin has got to get pulled somewhere to tumble the world into GD2 and it looks like Greece is that pin.

I am so glad that I actually like survival training. Those skills and knowledge of edible plants and medicinal plants might come in handy. Always enjoyed hunting and fishing. Ordered a scope mount for my old .22 rifle the other day. Need to load up on some .22 ammo, too, before it's too late. Downloading a lot of books into Kindle or buying hard copy books concerning ditch medicine, jungle medicine, and old time medicine and dentistry. My mom's weekly RN told me that you can add sugar and iodine and make a great antiseptic from it. I knew sugar was antibacterial, so it was kept in my bug out bag.

Adding a bug out cart to my bug out bag. It's actually a deer hauler that is to be converted to a covered bug out cart. Can carry more food, water, and my hiker's tent with a bug out cart. My old deer hauler will be used for around the yard or hauling fire wood. Going to convert the new deer hauler into a type of rickshaw type carrier by adding 1/2" conduit pipe to the handle. I do take camping seriously and bugging out with modern gear is like a forced camping trip.

Other than that, I did repair the main drain to all the sinks today. Old cast iron line had corroded so bad that nothing was getting through. Two bottles of Liquid Plumber in the past week let me know that this wasn't a gob of hardened grease or a dead squirrel blocking up the line. Replaced the old line with PVC 2" pipe and it's good to go. It will be a happy day when this old dump of a house is torn completely down.

Do you listen to Alex Jones or conspiracy radio?

Sometimes at night, I'll turn on the shortwave to 4840 and there's old Alex screaming how the New World Order is molesting little kids at air ports. He makes the TSA agents sound like gestapo or something. If it were truly that bad at air line terminals, wouldn't people protest? Are we, Americans, truly sheeple as Alex keeps suggesting?

Then Alex pushes the tangy tangerine weight loss product that has helped him lose over forty pounds. Pushes multi-vitamins and other health products. I've noticed there is a growing number of radio personalities pushing health and weight loss products. TSA and tangy tangerine. I have to shake my head in a state of disbelief.

I use to listen to Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM, but after he left for good, George Noory took over. All that New Age crap George pushes is annoying. I rarely listen to George Noory anymore.

Pastor Bob Martin's Challenge radio program is good (4840 on shortwave). He's like a calmer version of Alex Jones. He damns the NWO (New World Order), too, but leaves it up the listener to make up their own mind about FEMA camps (aka Fusion centers) and the conspiracy theories like chemtrails, fluoride, and GMO (genetically modified) seed. Like me, he anticipates another great disaster for the USA similar to Katrina and 9/11. Martin especially hates the abortion on demand of human life. God, as our Father, is obligated to punish his wayward children. The USA was undoubtedly blessed by God in the centuries past, but the USA has become an ungrateful child and proves it with this imperialistic attitude. I pray the punishment isn't nuclear in nature. Floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes are horrible. Droughts and record snow falls are killers. But, nuclear bombs or nuclear plants melting down is the worse.

Just watched some YouTube clips of the movie The Book of Eli. Someone over at survivalistboards.com suggested the movie as a good example of what to expect in a post apocalyptic event. Has me sort of bummed out. All that violence and dry, dusty feeling the movie clips left me with in my spirit doesn't help. Watching Mom die slowly from congestive heart failure doesn't help either. I make plans, but nothing has worked out lately. I have to stick closer and closer to Mom now. She's in pain all the time from old age. Seriously don't expect her to see next Christmas.

I'll deal with it.

Mom's not doing so well...Nano camper is postponed.

These things happen, so I'll have to roll with it. The new medication Mom was on made her very ill. Lowered her blood pressure too much and acted as a severe laxative at the same time. She's so weak that I stay pretty close to her. She's off two of the new medications and rests frequently. Ate breakfast in bed this morning and that's rare for her to do that. Ordered her an adult version of a sippy cup today so she can drink her coffee in bed without me holding the cup for her. She is in bed about twenty hours a day now and frequently commments of weakness when she's up.

Oh, well. I'll keep saving some money and keep on making plans for the Nano camper. It might be autumn before it's built, but that's okay. Mom comes first. If she passes away, well, that camper will be built, but designed differently.

Mom is Top Priority

Can't start on the Nano camper this week. Mom has terrible swelling in her legs and is really weak. Wants to nap all the time and is whiny when she doesn't get her way. I ignore most of it. Mom's left leg is practically useless, but she can stand feebly on it with a little assistance.

With an X-ray and sonar scan looking for bloodclots to help the doctor understand the sudden weakness in her left leg, I'm staying close to her. He put her on a fluid pill to take away some of the swelling in her lower legs. She puffed up a lot the past week.

Well, I have a lot of work piling up, so will have to come up with a plan to get it all done. Two large trees down in the back yard need cutting up and moving. The Nano camper and farm cutting have to be done, too. There is always house work. The garden has to go in in a couple of weeks, too. It's going to be one busy spring around here caring for my dying mother and everything else that has to be done.

Starting on the Nano Camper Next Week!!!

If it's not raining, that is. Going to put in a good floor and floor supports first. Water proof them well and build up from there. Late March and early April are going to be devoted to the Nano camper hull building.

Late April's time will be used to cut up the two large hackberry trees felled within the past two weeks laying in the back yard. Plan to store the wood at the end of the driveway so whoever it gets donated to next winter won't have such a hassle to get to it. Hackberry wood is a medium grade firewood. The dried fruit and seed can be ground up and used as a spice.

Great Plains Rat Snakes are our friends.

Great Plains Rat Snake

I'm in the old washhouse the other night and see a large grayish- brown with dark brown splotchy marking of a snake laying all coiled up in a relaxed mode on top of the refridgerator in there. Yikes! It was a very long snake. I backed up a bit in the dim light. Couldn't tell if it was a rattler or a rat snake. Went back the next morning and it was still coiled up where it had been. I wondered if it was sick. I know little about snakes lounging around habits. It appeared to be a rat snake, so I left it alone.

Today, I go back to check on it and it's gone. I look around and it pokes out it's head from under the shelves and flicks out it's tongue a few times. Telling the snake it had no reason to fear me because rat snakes are always welcomed in any shed or barn I own, positive it sensed no fear phermones in the air.

A little research on the Internet and it's discovered to be a Great Plains rat snake. A docile snake by nature that is often kept as a pet as well as it's cousin the corn snake. They make great trainer snakes for people who want to learn how to handle snakes because they are docile and rarely attack unless provoked. They have curved teeth and kill by constriction.

So, I'm leaving the long snake alone. Rat Boy, as I've named him though it might be a female, is welcomed in all of my sheds as well as black runners, garter snakes, and chicken snakes---all known rat and mouse eaters. When I was a kid, I watched a king snake kill and eat a water moccasin down in the pond.

A Night of Tornadoes

Got the weather alert function on my multi-function survival radio set to ON/ALERT tonight. It's way too hot for early March and that usually means tornadoes or hard straight line winds.

Last April, a tornado got within a half a mile of the house and it severely damaged two oaks in the backyard. They dropped large limbs a few months later. Got them all cut up and waiting by my outside fire pit. If a tornado a half a mile away does that to mature trees, I don't want the dangerous thing in the yard.

Praying for folks tonight in the paths of tornadoes.

Prepping for the Nano Camper

Going out next week to clear out an old garden spot and make it the camper spot for the Nano camper. With the pastures mowed (a top priority), now it's time to move on to other projects before two weeks pass when I have to cut the pastures again. The first growth broomstraw is nearly a foot tall in some places.

It was 84 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday. No wonder the work was a bit tiring on the sunny hill side. Have to get use to the hotter temperatures again early.

Work. Work. Work. I love it.

The Toro is up and ready for some cutting.

Toro Twin Pack

The blades and belt arrived for the Toro. The old belt is still in pretty good shape, so it stays on the cutting deck till it's too old. The blades are wicked sharp and mounted easily. Raised the cutting deck as high as I could because I mainly cut broomstraw with the Toro. Broomstraw is a lot tougher than yard grass. Maintenance wise, it's been a really good day. Tested the upgrade and all worked well.

Mom's therapy is running good, too. She loves all her therapists. They are all very kind and patient with her.

Gonna Be a Chainsaw Day

Ordered a new belt and two new blades for the Toro. Ouchers at $135, but it's necessary. At least I don't have to pay a shop to do it for me. Dropping the deck wasn't that hard either.

One day this week heading back to my farm and cut down saplings growing up in the pastures. These saplings are tough on bush hog blades, so the steel blades of a hefty riding mower doesn't have much of a chance.

Laid in bed last night thinking of all the fence work I have to to on my farm. Where do I start? How much is the projected cost? When can I get started? Simply, pick a corner and start there. Work the street side first and work back to the creek. Have got forty years of brush and trees to clear out of the fence line, too. Might have to buy another chainsaw when all this work is done.

Mom has therapy today. She's doing very well for a 93 year old woman. Has lots of upper body strength. Legs and hips are weak though. To be expected. We both take supplements like SAM-e to aid in joint health. Sam-e is a miracle supplement. Takes away the inflammation I use to get when I lifted too much weight on blown knees. Pricey at $30 to $40 a box, but the relief from the aches and pains of middle-age make it worth the price.

Rainy Day Plans and Projects

cold, rainy day down south

Hadn't counted on this cold, rainy day. My Toro riding mower needs to have the deck dropped so I can get to the belt. It needs replacing. Also having some rear switch problems. Had to unplug a safety switch that cuts off the engine when you back up without turning off the cutting blades. Fortunately, found a wiring diagram online and will study it tonight and draw out my own schematic to get a better grasp of what to look for.

Got the front pasture cut on my farm and it looks so much better. Have half of the the upper pasture cut and will cut the other half next week after making repairs to the mower.

Have about a dozen full grown yuccas to move before I can start to get the tin needed for the Nano camper. That project will start mid-March.

Moving on with Nano camper and farm work

Tore down the Homelite chainsaw and cleaned it up really well. Put the chain back on and it's ready to go. Will have to cut up the fallen mimosa tree and cut up saplings so I can get the tin off the roof for the Nano camper. Tomorrow it's grease the Toro to get it ready for mowing fields.

This month is farm work month. Next month is build the Nano camper. April is maintenance work on all equipment and cutting down and up a tree in the backyard that's dying and shedding huge limbs. I hurry when I have to walk around it.

Mom starts her physical therapy again this week. She's 93, but she's going strong. The therapy keeps her agile and her mind sharper. She's even agreed to get an electric scooter, so she can go shopping again with me or scoot across the farm with. FINALLY!!! YIPPEE!!! We've been trying to get her to get an electric scooter for years.

Tin Roofs, Mimosa Trees, and Merciless Chainsaws

The camper is going to have a tin roof. It's stronger than a metal skin made from aluminum sheathing and won't leak like a painted wood roof. The tin is located down on my farm and is currently the porch on the abandoned farm house the tornadoes and termites have pretty much made a meal of.

The mimosa tree had split into three large limbs growing off of one trunk. Decided to cut the main trunk with the notch and cut through. Did that and nothing happened. Tree didn't lean and fall. Seems the middle branch had grown into the tin roof by about three inches. Had to chip at it with the chainsaw, but the sparks let me know I was cutting tin.

Took a break, drank some water, and looked at the situation a bit refreshed. Decided to cut the far left limb first. This would put stress on the tree to pull to the right. As I was cutting up the left limb, I heard a loud CRACK! Dropping the chainsaw, I took off running because I had no idea which way the tree might fall. It fell the other way. Mom was watching and thought it was funny how fast I could run when a tree is falling and I'm not sure where it will land.

Had a brother-n-law killed by a falling tree he was cutting down with a chainsaw. He spent the last months of his life on machines and tubes before finally dying in a comatose state Thanksgiving week of 1980. He was in his mid-twenties with a wife and two small sons. The tree he was cutting split, fell, and took him and the chainsaw down a slope and into a small pond. He was trapped under water long enough to suffer severe brain damage.

Yeah, I think about the terrible day in the late summer of 1980 just about every time I pick up a chain saw. My dad nearly cut off his left hand with a chainsaw when the small limb and brush attached to it slapped backwards after being cut throwing the chainsaw back towards him at an angle. The chainsaw grazed across the top of his left hand he was holding the brush with. He bled terribly before applying a lot of pressure. I drove him to the hospital and it took a lot of stitches to close the chewed flesh. I got "kissed" by a chainsaw on my right leg a couple of years ago. The tree had fallen and I stepped back in such a way that the chainsaw swung on my wrist to the left and grazed my jeans. Nipped a bit of skin and ripped the jeans up. Shook me up, too. Yeah, I'll admit it. Shook me up pretty good. A chainsaw is the most unforgiving piece of equipment you can use.

Got the 15 year old Homelite Super 2 XL chainsaw up and running.

The primer bulb had disintergrated with age, so I rigged up a needleless syringe (for giving cats their liquid medication) with a small, stiff, narrow piece of plastic tubing from a can of carburetor cleaner spray. Stuck the tubing into the end of the syringe so it can pull in a few CCs of fuel from the gas tank to squirt into the primer hose unattached from the fuel cap. Attached the hose back on the cap and screwed the fuel cap back on snug. Half choke, ignition on, pull, pull, pull, and it cranks up. Burned off all the old gas still in the carburetor with a lot of smoke, but it runs great with fresh fuel.



The primer bulb on this one in the video is on the side. Mine is located right on top of the fuel cap. But, they both sound the same.

Also, had to take the old spark plug and using a tiny jeweler's file, scraped off all the dried gunk on the terminal end. A couple of minutes later it is shiny as if it was brand new, I reset the gap to .032" and put a little anti-sieze around the threads and put it back on the chainsaw firmly capped.

The cheapest primer bulb found on the 'Net was around $20 at Amazon (with shipping). I knew there had to be a cheaper way to solve this problem. Took off the fuel cap and looked at the primer tube and asked myself what exactly is going on with the primer bulb, attached tube, and the port in the carburetor anyway? How are they synced? Can there be a work around? YES!

Cut up the remainder of the tree limbs left by the tornado that passed by the house last April with the old Homelite to clear out any remaining old gas with fresh, treated gas. Got a little firepit in the backyard by the tiny work shed and sometimes beans are cooked on it. Camp beans are tasty.

Well, all there needs to be done now is tune the H and L on the CS 370 carburetor and all three chainsaws are running good as new. Thank you, God, for ICS schools back in the 1990s. That little course in small engine repair and the motorcycle repair course has saved me a lot of cash and trips back and forth to small engine shops.

It was a slow morning that turned into a really good afternoon.

Had to Buy a New Carburetor for the Toro -- $110

I am so grateful to God that I know how to install a carburetor on a small engine. The shop costs probably would have added another $75 at least. Will keep the old carburetor and kit it out now that I finally found a source with reliable parts. Doesn't hurt to have a spare carburetor around for a small engine anyway.

Poor Mom. Has a sore left foot.

Mom knocked her heavy wooden fold up tray on her foot yesterday. With the powerful blood thinners she takes, she swoll up and bruised very easily. Fortunately, she didn't break any bones in her fragile feet. So, no going out to my farm the next few days. I was really looking forward to it, too. Have a pile of brush to haul off and some cleaning up to do around the old place.

Small Engine Repair: How to Check a Solenoid Fuel Shut Off Valve on a Ko...

Easy method to check for a fuel solenoid problem.

Carburetor Blues --- Kit it or Buy it?

Well, I removed the Toro's carburetor today. Disassembled, it looked okay interior wise. Just a drop of varnish in the bottom of the float bowl. Plastic parts looked a bit yellowed from five years of gas passing through it. The inlet needle looked a bit worn, but a carburetor kit will have a new one as well as new springs, gaskets, and instructions.

Contacted a local lawn mower dealer by email concerning the Nikki carburetor but haven't heard anything back, so I'll call them tomorrow afternoon and ask them to check their email. Need the Toro up and running by the middle of February. If it's not, I'll rent a small tractor and mow my farm. It won't need cutting again till late March or early April anyway. After that, it will need mowing every three weeks to stay ahead of the broomstraw and briers.

I've got three major projects going on right now... Mom, the Nano camper, and the Toro get the miss out of there. The chainsaws only needed a good cleaning and their H and L fuel settings tweaked a bit. Got a 1996 Homelite chainsaw (16") I'm thinking of tearing down and rebuilding, too. Got to find the fuel cap with bulb first at a very reasonable price. Homelites are easy to rebuild.

If push comes to shove, I might have to do a top end valve job on the Toro. The intake valve might be gunked up or needs a good polishing. They get sooted up sometimes from years of use of this Ethanol 85 Octane crap gas. I'd need a gasket kit for that, too. If the valves are not seating correctly, I lose compression and extra air is sucked in and leans out the fuel mixture. Might cause a backfire through the intake if the fuel mix is a bit rich or the timing is off.

Busy Days Now and a Busier Month Planned for February

The riding mower still has a miss in the engine even with the tune up, new battery, and new fuel filter, so tomorrow I'm going to open the pilot screw a bit and enrich the fuel mixture. Thank goodness for Penn Foster's small engine course from 1991. Called ICS (International Correspondence School) back then. If that doesn't get the miss smoothed out, I'll have to take the carburetor off and re-kit it. The gaskets are five years old and this ethanol gas (E85)is tough on gaskets. Makes them dry out or swell and this interferes with gas proportions with the air intake. Even with the fuel treatments, it's still a good idea to know how to kit a carburetor.

Get the miss out of the engine and all it will need is the blades sharpened and the axles greased.

All the chainsaw needs is the fuel High and Low speed needles adjusted. Still lagging a bit when the engine is cold. Need to adjust the idle speed, too. I don't really like having the chain spinning it's deadly teeth around the blade when I'm holding it while pulling a vine or branch out of the way. Have had enough close calls with these unforgiving machines called chainsaws.

Have I forgotten the Nano camper? Nope. Was outside a little while ago praying to God for guidance in getting it built. Have the roof material picked out, the flooring material, and siding. Already have the wiring, gas line, and other safety items ready to go. Will start back in March to have it ready by late April for camping. I need the Nano camper, so it's going to get built.

Found a flow chart for diagnosing sick carburetors. Flow Chart for Sick Carburetors

Souped Up Garden Tiller Racing.

This looks like fun!!!!

Steady Working and Steady Progress

Spring got here early in 2012. Had to mow the yard a couple of weeks ago and trim the hedge. Taking my old chainsaw tomorrow and tearing it down, cleaning the carburetor, and tuning it up. Need to examine the pull cord and all the goes with chainsaw maintenance. My riding mower gets tuned up on Monday, if all works out well. There is a new miss in the engine, so I'm going through the fuel system first in the list of troubleshooting options. It's probably the fuel filter getting clogged up and it's time for new spark plugs anyway.

Mom and I are going down to my farm more often since the temperatures are warmer. Cleared out the overgrowth around the main gate and plan to put up a new gate in February with new posts. Run some more barbwire. There is so much work to do out there with fences to repair or replace and everything else that comes with owning property.

2012 is going to be one busy year for me.

How to Make a Shortwave Radio Antenna for Less Than $1.00

I own a couple of small short wave radios. When the weather is cloudy, can't even hear the stations out of Tennessee. Will be making this antenna tonight to improve signal strength.

My Poor Old 2005 Dell Bit the Dust Last Night

Well, the hard drive's ability to find C:\ is totally gone. The FAT's (file allocation table) is lost somewhere in the deep dark sectors. It's not registering at boot up, in other words. Tried several emergency boot up disks, but none helped. So ... time for a new hard drive.

Poor old Dell's hard drive crashed and burned last night.

This old hard drive in the Dell is at least seven years old and from my Penn Foster PC repair and maintenance classes, hard drives have a way of crashing and burning once they hit six years old. Glad I know how to replace them. Will set me back a couple of hundred to three hundred dollars because I'm upgrading to Windows 7 while I'm at it. Will take a little cash out of each paycheck for a few months and set it aside for a summer project.

Keeping both crashed hard drives and will experiment with data retrieval software someday. If you work on computers, it's good to know how to retrieve data from a blown hard drive. Might look good on a resume one day when I get done with caring for Mom and get back out into the real working world again. Actually, for a while, thinking of working two jobs to build up my savings again. I can spend money, but I can save it, too.

While I have the Dell in tear down, I can replace the broken CD ROM with a DVD burner that the Camo computer couldn't use because of it's mobo's age.

Got the New Glasses---back on line.

Crunched my old pair a couple of weeks ago. Literally. Needed an eye exam anyway, so took care of two situations at once.

This is going to be one busy week if the rain holds off. With the mild winter, planning on doing some work down on my farm to get ready for the heavy work that will start in February. The grass and weeds that usually don't start growing till late February are growing now. Had to mow the yards and trim the hedges last week, but that's life in the Deep South. One winter, it's freezing temperatures shutting down entire cities and the next winter, it's so warm, you are mowing your yard in the dead of it.

Good to be back.