Month: September 2017

Well. We had planned to go to Sanderling this Saturday morning but it is raining steadily here plus there is a 100 percent chance of rain at The Lot. Change of plans…do what we can around the house today and try for a one-day round trip tomorrow.

This is the peak of “color” season so we want to get out and enjoy the scenery before the leaves fall off the trees. Plus we need to get one more load of wood home, bring back the old Honda, and start bringing home tools such as the chainsaw, rakes, and other gear that we don’t over-winter on-site.

Around the house, I’ve upgraded my Macintosh computer system, replacing my old 2001 Mac Pro with a late 2013 Mac Pro. It is nice to have the higher speeds and run all the latest software. Apple stopped supporting the old system some time ago so it was time to update.

Late 2013 Mac Pro (Internet file)

Our internet speeds are dependent on the number of people in our area who are on-line simultaneously; the only area provider over-subscribes the lines and response time can get really slow. At least now the computer speed is not the bottleneck it was – but – there are times when the service is frustrating.

There are not many other projects going on at the moment. I put the utility trailer back together; a new tire replaced the one that blew out on my trip home from Omaha with the OC-3 and the stake sides have been put back in their pockets. We had work done on the new Honda; a wheel alignment appointment turned up other problems with the front sway bar and a non-Honda wheel, not concentric, was causing a vibration in the steering wheel. All these issues have been fixed but we also had to replace two tires that had strange wear patterns as a result of these issues. Not cheap; we have a good independent mechanic shop that does the work I don’t want to take on and I am confident the repairs were done correctly. Just money, right?

All told it was a quiet week, work is about normal and we are getting used to the detours required until the new bridge into Glenwood Springs is finished. If we get up to The Lot tomorrow for a one-day-quick-trip, I may have a few fall color photos to add to this post. If not, photos will be in the next post.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Routine for me as well. Bru’s 8th birthday is Monday, all three dogs go to the vet on Tuesday for annual checkups. Blondie has a lump on her neck that needs to be checked out – she had a lump on her side last year that needed to be surgically removed.

We were in the initial stages of planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest in October, but events are changing, and it looks like we will reschedule that into the Spring.  In the Spring, Felicity can come here to watch the pets/house in exchange for us using her house in Vancouver, Washington as a trip base. A bit disappointed we won’t be traveling in October, but it makes financial sense to wait. Motel prices for overnights keep going up and up, particularly if traveling with dogs.

Happy Trails.

There isn’t a lot of news this time but I’ll cover what there is. Main items – my mother is home and we continue to work on The Lot.

Last weekend Pam and I went to The Lot and put in a few hours of work. Our agenda was not full; all we really wanted to get done was spread chips from my last chipping session and bring home a load of firewood. These tasks were finished and I managed to work in another chipping session, chipping a pile of brush I had stacked a couple weeks ago. Those chips were also spread on a walking path.

This weekend we will be home as I have an office function to attend; our annual appreciation dinner is scheduled for this Saturday, the 16th.

My mother is back in her own home after her medical episode, but with 24-hour care. Mom seems to be happy to be home but objects to the 24 hour coverage she is getting. (Given her medical history I think the coverage is a good thing.) At any rate, my brother Jon and sister Sienna oversaw some modifications to the home, such as installing a shower in the main level bathroom and putting a bed where the dining table used to be on the main floor. These changes will make it easier for Mom to live on a single level rather than having to go up and down steps to get to a bathroom, shower, or bed. We’ll see how this works out long-term.

Good news from friends and family in Florida; everybody we know came through with no major hurricane damage although Jeff Hayes (Pam’s classmate and friend) lost power for a week. With temperatures getting back into the 90 degree range and high humidity, the loss of air conditioning made sleeping very difficult. We breathed a sigh of relief after receiving word from my niece, Jennifer, who lives near Florida’s west coast (Gulf side) and learned they had not even lost electrical power. They had some damage due to storm winds but nothing as serious as in southern parts of the state. We hope it is a long time before anther storm of this magnitude hits Florida – but – the water in the Atlantic is very warm this year.

The mountains in Southwestern Colorado received a dusting of snow the other night. Is it that time of year again? Fall colors are becoming more prevalent with the peak coming in about two weeks. Although the timing is normal for the change of seasons, it seems this summer was much too short for Fall to be upon us already!

One event that brought a chuckle, even though it was a serious accident: A load of hogs overturned on Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs (where both of us work). Considering we are dealing with a 90+ day bridge closure into the city, it’s amusing to see a road closure of another sort. Here’s a photo from the local paper:

Accident on I-70 left hogs walking around

I’ve begun creating a Gallery page for the Oliver OC-3 tractor. Not much there yet as I’ve not had time to do any work on it, but I have assembled a few photos and old ads that I found on the internet.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Snow. Ugh. Flurries are in the forecast for next weekend’s color viewing at Sanderling. Time to start wrapping up operations in the high country, bringing home pantry items that might freeze, emptying tanks on the RV.

I wonder if the local cat population knows something about the weather that we don’t? I almost always have some wild kittens at my Fall/Winter feeders from Summer litters.  This year somewhere between 8-10 feral kittens are already hanging out in the garage at night, near the food and water center. I will try to feed as many of them as survive through the Winter plus provide warmth and shelter.  But, if they all stick around, I will need the help of the local shelter to have them spayed and neutered.  When the kittens are older next Spring, I can try to find barn or ranch homes for them.  That type of outdoor life is not an easy one for cats, and there is a high mortality rate.  But the mean streets of De Beque provide death traps as well — such as when cats climb into machinery and are injured, or are hit by cars. Feral cats have been a constant in De Beque, ever since we moved here 11 years ago.

Happy Trails.

A while back I mentioned I would be looking for a small crawler tractor to use on The Lot for pulling around the brush chipper and firewood trailer. Well, now I have one that I really didn’t want.

I bid on this particular tractor thinking my bid was low and I would not win the bidding. Oops! I received a call from the auction house, located in Omaha, informing me that I had the high bid and when would I be coming to get it? I drove to Omaha on Sunday, August 26, and brought the tractor home on Monday, August 27.

1953 Oliver OC3 at home

Tractor, bucket, and blade at auction site

Loading OC3

Loaded up, ready to head home

Pam is NOT happy about this and has dubbed the tractor “The Spirit of De Beque”  and threatens to turn it into yard art, complete with flowers on the seat. It was not a good move on my part to bid on a unit I could not examine myself but now that I have it I am going to try and get it running.

What I have is a 1953 Oliver OC-3 crawler tractor equipped with a Ware (brand name) 3WI bucket loader and bulldozer blade. While it might be nice to have these items I don’t really need or want them; I just wanted a basic tractor. However, checking eBay I see the loader and blade selling for several hundred dollars and it may be I can sell these parts to help pay for repairs.

Loading in Omaha was accomplished using a forklift. The bucket and blade were loaded into the back of the F-150 and the tractor on my utility trailer. The trip home was uneventful, if not real fast.

Once home I used my 8N Ford tractor to pull the OC-3 off the trailer;  a neighbor who owns a skid-steer helped me unload the bucket and blade.

There is a ton load of work to be done. Biggest problem is that the engine is missing a critical part, the magneto that supplies “spark” to the spark plugs. I did not realize this when I placed my bid or I would have bid a lot less. Rebuilt magnetos are available for about $325.00, ouch. On the positive side there is oil in the crankcase and the engine can be turned with the aid of a wrench so the engine is not frozen. I think I could get it running if I had a good magneto.

Does this mean the tractor could be useful at that point? Probably not; a lot of maintenance is required for a tractor that has been sitting outside for an unknown period of time. Some of the tasks include installing a battery, rewiring the basic electrical system, replace radiator hoses, repair and adjust the clutch linkage, replace all hydraulic hoses, grease and lubricate all pivot points and rollers. These are just some of the tasks that need to be completed provided I can get the engine to fire. It will be some time before the tractor will be ready to do any work, if ever.

Work on this rig will be a common theme in future posts and I plan to start a dedicated web page in my “Toys” section on my web site. I’m sure readers of these notes will be hanging on every word…. 🙂

In other news, work continues at The Lot. We are nearing the end of the season with only a few more work weekends planned. Fall colors are already present and night time temps have dropped into the mid-40s. Normally I bring The Box home in early October by which time low temps are consistently below freezing.

More chipping has been done, pretty much finishing Homestead Acre. This weekend we plan to spread the chips from this chipping session, a job that requires shoveling and raking to finish. We will bring back a load of firewood, probably the second to last of the season. (I have more than one load stacked up.) Work on other parts of The Lot has resulted in quite a few piles of both firewood and brush stacked here and there. (I need the OC-3 running to get the chipper to some of these brush piles.)

Photos of my last trip:

Sidelight accentuates rock’s red tinge

Trees cut, now to haul out and pile

Ready to load up and take home

Large pile of wood for chipping, base of Grassy Ridge

Even with a hit-and-miss summer schedule, spending fewer days on The Lot than planned, quite a bit was accomplished. Probably more surface area was cleared than in many past years, including Homestead Acre and The Grassy Ridge. Plenty of firewood was moved out, about three cords, which is enough for our friend Kathy to get through the winter; this is about our regular annual harvest.

This time of year is the best time to be in the high country. During my last trip I saw antelope, deer, and spotted a badger. The badger photo is not very crisp as I took it from inside my car at maximum zoom with my iPhone, but I do have to say these critters have attractive faces.

Badger face

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Two Cents Worth:

Did Fields mention The Spirit of De Beque weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 pounds? Dangerous. Unnecessary.

Fall aspen changing color in the high country is equally as beautiful as fresh green Spring in the high country. Looking forward to it.

Happy Trails.