Goat, Trip, Ranger - Fixed, Log-Splitter

The last trip that Pastor Rob went on about a week ago yielded a gift. That gift was a goat. Yesterday, they had one of the workers butcher the goat and Kayla and Carter wanted to watch. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I think that Carter learned a little more respect for life by watching it and Kayla just confirmed the respect that she already had. It was interesting to watch how they did it and interested as well to think that this happens to many goats each and every day because they are a primary food source here in Haiti.

Pastor Rob and I took a little road trip two days ago and I got some interesting pictures. Here is one of a tree with watermelon-sized fruit hanging from it (I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself):



We have a few events coming up today and tomorrow. This evening we’ll be eating dinner as a group and then going to Pastor Rob and Patti’s place to watch the kids present a play. They practiced a little bit yesterday for it. Then, tomorrow, Christmas Day, we’ll be doing a meal together again at about 2:30. But before that, we’ll be delivering Christmas gifts to people in the hospital. We have bags of hygiene supplies for the people who are staying in the hospital. I’ll try to get pictures of this and the kids play as well.

Boring Car Stuff…

I got the Ford Ranger running yesterday. When the suspension broke, it took out the oil filter. They found a new one and filled it up with oil. Somehow in the process of driving back home, they over-filled the engine with oil. That oil was all throughout the intake, including the intercooler. I took it all out of the car and cleaned it all up with gasoline, brake cleaner, and carb cleaner. I drained the oil and replaced the oil with the correct amount. It started real hard (the battery was pretty warn down from having the hazard lights on for so long), but it started nonetheless. I took it for a little drive to “get the lead out” and it seems to be just fine. I’ll be keeping an eye out on it because there may be a small oil leak. I also put touchup paint on the spot where the cow-catcher from the Landcruiser wore a hole in the paint.

I worked on a log splitter that they have here yesterday as well. It ran enough to cut a couple logs and then it quit. We have a generator here with nearly the same engine and so Mr. Kyrk and I spent about an hour replacing various parts and we got it to work again. We took it to an area and split wood for about an hour (I like working with wood – there may be a little lumberjack inside of me). We used the four-wheeler to pull it up from a shed to the shop and to pull it around. It sure is nice to have that four-wheeler!