Wildfire and Other Things

What a month. Through August and the first two weeks in September it's been busy. I must have made two dozen trips evacuating other people's animals from the mountains. Wildfire. Every time there is a wildfire in California my mother phones me and asks "is everything OK?" Usually the fire is nowhere near us, well except this time, and she didn't call. Needless to say I get quite a few calls from my mother during wildfire season. The last drought caused a lot of tree kills due to the bark beetles, as I mentioned in a previous post, and often leads to an intense fire season.

It was quite the season this year and it was a near run thing at my place in the mountains. After the break is a photograph from the road up at about the 5000' elevation. The red dot is the approximate location of my place up there. The fire also threatened a small community at the base of the mountains.

Almost There

What with my truck being sidelined and having other things to take care of I fell off on my schedule to get my horse trailer finished. I'm almost there. I have finished all the sheet metal work and primed and painted the interior. I'll be painting the exterior this weekend. The uprights and the main frame of the roof was fabricated from 14 Gauge 1 1/2" square tubing, and the roof bows were made using 1" 14 Gauge square tubing. A diagram is shown after the break.

What Fresh Hell...

Well I see that the CDC is playing with mask guidance again. "Vaccinated individuals should wear a mask indoors." What? Are the vaccinated carriers? Heaven help women named Claire or some such. Covid Claire would stink as a moniker. So as not to appear as sexist Covid Charlie would not be fun either.

Now according to the CDC, at least to the people down in the basement who probably do all of the good work, the US has had approximately 140 million cases of Covid-19. You can read about the disease burden here at the CDC site. I arbitrarily increased the value based upon the current case numbers and the presented under-report value.

Approximately 60% of the population has been vaccinated. Now I'm assuming people got the vaccine to prevent getting Covid and not getting the vaccine if they already had the disease. If that's the case then what's the big problem? We've probably got over a 90% immunity. Sure we will continue to get cases as not everyone is immune yet, and I'm sure there will be some cases of re-infection. After all, immunity is usually not considered perpetual.

Unless of course something is being left out. No, that wouldn't happen. I don't believe in conspiracies, but I am also highly skeptical when it comes to coincidences.

Some Notes on Rebuilding Engines

Well, it's done. The engine for my truck is rebuilt and I have installed it. I thought I would take the opportunity to go over some of the things I have learned over time about rebuilding engines. My very first rebuild was a one lung motorcycle engine, and I had an owners manual and some basic tools. I think I was 13 at the time. Back then, an owners manual gave you the instructions needed to do that kind of job. Today, not so much. I think they give you instructions on putting air in the tires with a warning not to suck on the inflator while depressing the air trigger.

My Truck Got Hit By My Dog

I've been working on my truck, it has a sad. I had started to get an odd sound on occasion at the torque converter region of the truck so I took a look...

I inspected the flex plate and saw it needed to be replaced. Much to my surprise as I was in the process of lowering the engine to get at the upper transmission to engine bolts the whole transmission fell out. The case had broken some time in the past. So time for a remanufactured transmission. Which also means a new radiator and auxiliary transmission fluid cooler. I am also installing an auxiliary engine oil cooler while I'm at it.

Since I had all this free time I decided to refresh the motor. I put in a reman crankshaft, new bearings all around, new oil pump and screen, new water pump and fan clutch, and a new crank balancer. While I was at it I replaced all the sensors on the block. By the time I'm done I'll have put about $3200 into it which includes the price of the reman transmission. It seems like a lot for this truck but have you priced used heavy duty 4WD trucks lately? We're talking plywood. Prices seem to have jumped 50-75% in the last 6 months.

I think what I'll do is give this truck a flat bed conversion, give it a new paint job to match the horse trailer and make it my horse rig. These are my last horses so once they're in the Pasture of Dreams I'll just sell the whole thing, trailer, truck, and various accoutrements.

But It's a Manly Sort of Heat

What the hell does that mean? The same thing as "but it's a dry heat." Once it is over 115 degrees Fahrenheit all bets are off, it's just hot as hell. 

Now our esteemed Governor in Sacramento, Governor Hair Gel, claims we have plenty of electrical generating capacity in the state. SCE and PG&E beg to differ though. They have implemented a Peak Pricing Extravaganza, which means bend over. It seems Governor Hair Gel sees any electricity shortages as the fault of consumers. Similarly, a water shortage is not due to a storage capacity problem.

My wife is a very pragmatic woman, when there is a "rolling outage" her solution to the issue is "Husband of Mine, Do Your Thing." OK.

Every time I see our Governor on the TV I get this earworm. His hair was perfect...

Sometimes Life is A Country Western Song

 No, my dog didn't get run over but life intrudes.

I'll be back later.