Back To Regular Work

The kids did great today in school! They got their stuff done before lunch. That makes a happy family (well, it's one of the things that make a happy family anyway). Lou is happy-giddy-gay-hysterical every time we get to the table to eat - he is nuts and crazy. Jabbering a way, he waits to eat.

What feels like normal lately, we have had rain half the day. There were a couple periods of massive downpours, too. I took this shot across the mountain - what a muddy waterfall (this was as clear as I could get it because it was cloudy):


Boring car stuff...

I started this morning thinking that I would have the two Pathfinders working in a matter of a couple hours, but I am not smart enough to realize that This Is Haiti. The tensioner on the alternator belt was missing a bolt and I snapped the bolt on the tensioner for the water pump and fan. Not only that, but one of the three new belts was too big. And I hadn't even made it to the other Pathfinder yet. The other one just had two belts that were too big - no broken or missing bolts. So, I had to send for new belts.

I checked those vehicles for functioning light bulbs and replaced a few and both need driver's side headlights. Once I was done with that, I took a break and started pulling good parts off the four-wheeler that went down the mountain. I went home for lunch (which is so nice to be able to do!) and then went back to the shop to work on the good four-wheeler (well...better four-wheeler). I got the oil changed again and changed the filter this time with the trashed four-wheeler, so hopefully it is all pretty clean.

Whenever I start working on the four-wheeler, I get tons of interruptions. While I was changing the oil on the four-wheeler, Chris came back from town with the Nativa. It was steaming and smoking something fierce from the engine bay and the coolant overflow bottle was boiling. I was going to wait until it cooled off, but he had to move it (and I didn't see where he put it) because at just about the same time, the Stakebed came to be under the cover of the shop are because it was full of school books. I don't yet know where these books came from or what they were for, but we struggled to keep them dry. So I just continued to work on the four-wheeler.

I got it running well and wired up (hot-wired because we don't have the key). I took the kids for spins around the grounds and found some new parts to check out and replace. Things seem to be pretty good on it. The frame is a little bent and it was welded once or twice. The top motor mount is not hooked up and appears to be a little off. I'll have to lift the motor if possible to get it to line up and fit. I noticed that the front wheel bearings seem bad too. It was a lot of fun to drive around. I have to get the front plastic on though because the mud sprayed me pretty good.