Early Rod Run Drizzles Out

      “Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar”

    But not the Wabash Cannonball.  The jingle has to come from the car-owners’ pockets.  The rumble and the roar come from 100+ rods built for performance as well as beauty.  (Rods restored to original stock condition don’t make much noise.)  The cars that come to race do rumble and roar, and squeal, too.

     But alas! For the second straight year, Mother Nature refused either to cooperate or to spoil the proceedings of the Atwood Early Rod Run with appreciable amounts of much-needed moisture.  But spoil it She did.   Last year, the testosterone motivated, nitrous-fueled machines got to make about one run down the converted airstrip before a nasty-looking cloud and wind gust sent multi-millions of dollars of chrome and paint fleeing for shelter from ruinous hail.  It turned out to be a Pecos Bill thunderstorm, mostly blow, with no hail after all.  But it curtailed the drag racing.

     Mother Nature chose a different method of spoiling the 2014 show—light drizzle.  The mist began to fall about noon and desisted about 3 p.m.  The downtown crowd was somewhat diminished by the cool wet.  A few of the rods vulnerable to water (some convertibles and open-cab jobs) departed with the arrival of the first drops, but many more stayed put into the afternoon, so the proceeding wasn’t entirely stifled.  Indoor dining facilities enjoyed a boom, while outdoor food vendors and the beer garden suffered.  

     The decision to cancel was made at 2 pm.  The early cancellation saved some labor.  The starting tree didn’t get set up.  The lanes to handle spectator traffic (steel poles and plastic flag rope) stayed in the shed.  The seating crew had already hauled some twelve grandstands from the fair grounds to the air strip.  The Lions suffer a loss.  Their biggest fund-raiser is charging $3 per head admission fees for spectators to park and watch the rods pair off and race each other for a few hundred yards on the airport runway.        

    

      The Saturday evening barbecue had good attendance.

     The blight that got the drag racing seemed to get to the dance, too.  Long time band “The Benders” had to cancel out late in the week when one member resigned and another fell ill.  The “Atomic Drifters” were in town to play in the aftermath of the Friday night fireworks.  They agreed to stay on and provide the music for Saturday night.  They were okay, but they weren’t “The Benders, the Benders, the Benders.”

     Some real characters showed up for the dance, anyway.

    

     Sunday was much nicer, but only about half of the 245 cars that showed up for Saturday remained.

 

    Note the flipper hubcaps below.

    A few characters showed up at the car show, too.

     Well, there’s always next year.

Chim-Chimney

     Chim chimney, chim chim cher-ee

     A sweep is a lucky as lucky can be.

    A good thing, too.  Who would want to mount this contraption without a healthy dose of luck on his side?

      Time to clean the chimney (maybe we won’t need a fire after the first week of May).  So here is how it happened.

     The two sections of scaffolding on the ground left me about 10 feet short of the chimney top.  Old truck to the rescue.

      A bit of a hassle getting the scaffold into the truck and then set up.  Be sure to set the brakes (on the scaffold—no emergency brake on the truck).

     Then, more heavy lifting to get the planks to the top. 

                                                                                                                 

     Now back up to the chimney while avoiding the flag stones marking the septic tank accesses.  Not entirely successful on that one—one replacement stone required.  One slight dent in the chimney, too, but no real damage.

    I was still a little short after the four-foot boost the truck bed provided, so on with the ladder.  The ladder is secured to the scaffold with a ratchet strap.

     Down to the business of sweeping.  The former owner of this house had a set of brushes, but, he lent them to a friend who lent them to another friend, and where are they now?  So I had to borrow a brush from another friend who used to be in the business of chimney sweeping.

    Pull the top off the chimney and brush it out first.

       Then ram the brush down the main chimney.

     Of course, time to gawk around from the lofty perch.

     And check out the lilacs.

      And reach the goal.

     There are less romantic things to be done, like take out the stove pipe in the basement and clean it, brush soot and ashes into the stove, empty the stove, put everything back together, take down the Rube Goldberg elevator, return the brushes and the truck.  End of chimney sweep adventure.  Another brush with life. 

Deck Steps

     After getting the concrete work done it was time to tackle the steps.   The pencil marks represent lots of internet research, head-scratching, card board prototype and a half-dozen attempts before I got a stringer good enough to use for a pattern.

      It took a lot of cutting using the skill saw and a handsaw to finish the cuts.  Another problem was how to attach the step to the rim joist so it doesn’t all come tumbling down.

     I didn’t care too much for this bracket since it didn’t allow for wood-to-wood contact.  You’ll never guess why I chose it—it was the cheapest!  By drilling through the rim joist using holes in the bracket as a guide, I could then run a screw from the back side of the joist and hit the step stringer through the metal bracket.  So, there are three screws holding each stringer, not just the bracket.

     Keeping each step stringer at the same height, level, and square taxed me, but like anything else, develop a routine and just do it.       

       

     Now comes the really hard part (gulp)—buying the actual decking.  The dealer called and wanted to deliver in the middle of my fever bout.  I eventually took delivery and wrote a check.

     This is about half the pile.  Next step, install.  First, cut and try to lay the first piece square. That’s the “knowledge” part.  The wisdom part—HOW do you get it square?  I didn’t totally succeed in that quest, but it will have to do.

     And away we go! Jackie Gleason.

Getting close!

     Now the test of truth—will looking at or walking along the steps make you seasick with waves and breakers?

     We’ll get there some day.    

Deck Revisited

       Last December I reported on the nascent efforts to build a mammoth deck.  I didn’t realize it was a mammoth at the time.

     Here it is nearly six months later, and the deck still isn’t finished.  Part of the problem has to be my Scot heritage.  I didn’t know I had a Scottish ancestor either, but it must be so.

     When we visited Scotland oh so many years ago, we toured the castle on the hill overlooking Edinburgh.  A highlight was the firing of the cannon at 1 p.m.  Why did they fire the cannon at one instead of twelve noon? The guide asked the question, and provided the answer: “Typical Scots’ meanness,” meaning stinginess or thrift.  If they fired at twelve noon, they would have to fire twelve times.  Wait till one and expend only one shell.

      Something there is in me that hates to turn loose of a greenback. (At my age, I need to get over that and soon.  Better I spend it than my kids!)  Pressure treated dimension lumber is expensive.  With double 2 X 8’s for support beams

2 X 6’s for joists,

and 2 X 12’s for rim joist,

making the support structure was expensive.  That finally all got done in January.  Next came the varmint block, or “hardware cloth.”

      Next, the step challenge.  In exploring the cost of permanent-finish railing, it became apparent that running a continuous set of steps would be less-expensive (cheaper) than putting up a railing.  This step idea didn’t work.

  It required running 2 X 4’s, two per step, the full length of the deck.  No savings there.  Code requires a step stringer every foot when using composite decking.  That requires 2 X 12’s and a pad to rest the stringers on.

     A new piece of sidewalk is necessary to accommodate the “new” front door location.

      Most of the step stringer pad, I could do with the little mixer and Sakcrete.

      But the sidewalk was a little too large for the old mixer and the old man crew of one.  Bring on the Ready-mix and a crew of two.

      Next week, the steps.

April 2014

     Spring has sprung.  Oh fickle April.

      Nothing wrong with your eyes or the photograph. Whiteout on Sunday April 13, 2014.

So we went to “Fiddler on the Roof” presented by Colby Community College with lots of help from community players.

     A half dozen young men in the cast are or have been part of the barbershop group, so I thought we should go.  Bravely (foolhardily?) we ventured out into the snow storm.  A check of the radar showed no snow in Colby. Sure enough, about ten miles south and we were out of the snow.

     Dan and his three sons all joined the barbershop group last fall.  He played the would-be, soon-to-be-jilted, suitor for the oldest daughter.  His wife Lois played the violin and clarinet in the three-piece orchestra (keyboard and bass).  Son John was the fiddler, Brock a townsman.

      Matt played the rabbi, Luke (Dan’s youngest son), the rabbi’s son, and Andy the show’s star, the impoverished father of four daughters  Those folks worked hard and did a good job..  It was a pleasant way to while away an unpleasant weather afternoon.  

      In other news, Neighbor Lee called to say the Dutch kissing dolls were safe.  What?!  They almost got decapitated, he said. 

     He was driving along when he noticed a cloud of dust emanating from our CRP patch.  Then he saw the three guys living on the Ratliff place out in the yard looking around, so he stopped in to see what was up.  They heard a loud boom and they thought one of their trailers must have blown up a water heater or something.

     The cloud of dust was from a blade from old number 117 hitting the ground.  They figured the blade must have struck the tower to make that loud a noise. 

     I went up to rescue the dolls.  There were guys there “inspecting” they told me.  They had reinstalled the gate and were in the process of locking it.  They didn’t want me to go in there, but I told them I would just grab the dolls and get out.  So they waited for me.  I didn’t have time to check on the tulips.  Que sera sera.

      I planted a bunch of trees (replacements) and was too tired to sneak up there and take a look after they left.  

    Back to Kansas and the deck.

    I am hopeful I can finish that story one of these days.