Most of what I did yesterday (time wise) was in one way or another connected to an engine.
I started out the day (pre-breakfast, post-coffee and "dirt" [detoxer]) butchering another chicken. I finished the job this morning with butchering the very last one and slipping "Blackie" in with the Golden Comets. Now I can clean the old coop (though I seriously doubt I have the energy to do it today) and move the newer birds in. Once I do that, I will need to clean the OTHER coop and THEN I can get my meat birds!
We have been eating the old birds which I have been killing off on at a one a day rate for a little over a week now and they are rather tough. Could be worse though flavor-wise. Due to the single-chicken at a time routine I have been following, I have just been skinning them out rather than taking the time to heat water and then pluck them. I'm getting pretty familiar with the best way to skin out a chicken...
Shortly after breakfast yesterday, Mama and I took Grandpa to a doctor's appointment. The heart doctor is Cuban. He walked into the room and started speaking and I thought, "Cuban. He sounds exactly like Desi Arnaz [aka Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy if you didn't know that... ;]."
Grandpa is doing pretty good, so he doesn't need to go back for another six months according to Dr. A. He did put him back onto one medicine that he had taken him off of, but not all three. It should help the swelling in his feet as well as lower his blood pressure just a bit. (A desired effect.)
We stopped in at a garden/hardware store on the way home and picked up some more green bean seed, a pretty plant (I forget the name), and some parsnip seed. I like parsnips, even if Grandpa doesn't. :)
When we got home we ate lunch...then I went out and check on my bees. Katherine took some pictures...
From there I went into a "diagnostic" on the car. The passenger floor board has been getting wet, so Mama talked to Daddy about it (he's in Dixie right now) and he told her something and when she relayed it to me, I got a little mixed up about what had been said...so I'm particularly glad that after perusing the book I gave him a call. (Oh, by the way, the issue is assumed to be connected to the A/C unit.) I learned the difference (more or less) between the A/C compressor and the A/C evaporator--which I never did actually lay eyes on, but anyway...
Tying up my hair like Rosie the Riveter, I started out by lifting the hood and peering into the depths of the engine while reading in the book. Then I called Daddy and changed tactics. I crawled into the front floor board on my back (which I didn't know I was capable of doing) and unscrewed this and that and developed a general idea of where what I thought I was after was located. Daddy had said that perhaps I could get to the drain from the inside. No go. I did manage to help clean up some of the water from the carpet though. The back of my shirt got quite damp.
Daddy had also said that if I couldn't get to it from the inside to put the car up on the ramps. So, I went a-searching for them, thinking I knew exactly where they were--which I did...more or less. They were within the same vicinity, but just so happened to have the little VW Rabbit on them. Hmph. That isn't going to work. So I crawled back into the floor board to replace the screws and called Daddy in that position. He suggested something that made me say, "That would be interesting..." and I heard Aunt Terry (who is also down in Dixie at the moment) laugh. I had already tried crawling under the car, but as it is closer to the ground than my bed (which I cannot get under), I nixed that idea in a second.
The next part of the day is that which Savannah quite enjoyed telling on me about. I walked into to the house and declared, "I have a request (Savannah would put the accent on the "re" which would probably be accurate)...I need you to drive the car over me."
Before you start gasping in horror, let me explain that I wasn't asking her to actually run over me, but to drive the car into the garage, over the well pit--with ME down in it. Who knew that a well, in the garage, would double for a grease monkey pit? Maybe it wasn't such an...interesting...idea after all.
So anyway, I crawled down in there (with two ladders--one to get in and the step ladder to actually stand on down there--though I actually stood on both of them for the most part) and felt a little nervous as Savannah drove over me. (As Daddy had kidded, "You can pretend to be a GI in the foxhole while a tank drives over you." Not really a funny idea, particularly when I recall that two young soldiers actually did get run over and killed by a tank during training back when we were stationed at Fort Polk. I guess if your foxhole is deep enough and you were hunkered down a tank could drive over the top of you safely.)
I flashed my light up into the engine compartment identifying this, that, and the other...and trying not to bump my head on the tranny. Not spotting the evaporator (which according to Daddy looks something like a small radiator), I asked Savannah to go get my computer and look up the location of the A/C evaporator in this particular make and model of vehicle. She did, and sliding my computer where I could see it, showed me a diagram she had found. After peering at the diagram for a bit and looking over my head a little more, I determined that I couldn't actually see the evaporator, but those "tube thingys" with a rubber elbow protruding under them was what I was looking for. I had Savannah hold my flashlight (she had to lay on her back and stick her arm under the car, over the pit) while I went to work. The elbow itself popped off fairly easily and then I took the coat hanger I had been supplied with and snaked the drain. I cannot say whether or not I actually unblocked it (assuming it was blocked) because it was dry as a bone in there as the A/C hadn't been run for several days (aka, the last time it was out). Daddy had told me that I might get a snoot full of water if I unblocked it, but my logic (which could be faulty) thinks that any water that might have been in it wasn't any more because it was a) in the carpet and b) the vehicle hadn't been run (except to back it out and into the garage) for several days, giving ample time to both drain and evaporate.
Savannah backed the car out and I emerged from the well pit, hands blacked from the axle and engine components. All in all, despite the attempt at a crick in my neck, I rather enjoyed the escapade and felt ridiculous that I should have experienced any apprehension concerning the car being driven over me. One sister was driving and the other guiding...nothing to fear there. :)
I went in, washed up--to a degree--took my final "killer" for the day, grabbed an apple out of the fridge for later (I ended up eating two in the next few hours), put my sandals back on, and strode off to the barn. There I inserted my ear plugs and greased up the mower. Soon she roared to life and I took off to mow the front yard and the road. I left the back mostly un-mowed because, after all, I am feeding bees and that clover that is beautifully dotting the landscape (and feeding nitrogen into the soil) is part of their food. (I actually startled Mama later in the day because I was up at the top of the rise, down on my elbows and knees watching a bee working a clover blossom and she didn't know I was there; so when she walked up the row in the garden to see me in the tall grass, I gave her a start. I have a bad habit of that...)
Yesterday was one of those full, dirty days in which I am particularly thankful for hot running water at the close of the day.
I started out the day (pre-breakfast, post-coffee and "dirt" [detoxer]) butchering another chicken. I finished the job this morning with butchering the very last one and slipping "Blackie" in with the Golden Comets. Now I can clean the old coop (though I seriously doubt I have the energy to do it today) and move the newer birds in. Once I do that, I will need to clean the OTHER coop and THEN I can get my meat birds!
We have been eating the old birds which I have been killing off on at a one a day rate for a little over a week now and they are rather tough. Could be worse though flavor-wise. Due to the single-chicken at a time routine I have been following, I have just been skinning them out rather than taking the time to heat water and then pluck them. I'm getting pretty familiar with the best way to skin out a chicken...
Shortly after breakfast yesterday, Mama and I took Grandpa to a doctor's appointment. The heart doctor is Cuban. He walked into the room and started speaking and I thought, "Cuban. He sounds exactly like Desi Arnaz [aka Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy if you didn't know that... ;]."
Grandpa is doing pretty good, so he doesn't need to go back for another six months according to Dr. A. He did put him back onto one medicine that he had taken him off of, but not all three. It should help the swelling in his feet as well as lower his blood pressure just a bit. (A desired effect.)
We stopped in at a garden/hardware store on the way home and picked up some more green bean seed, a pretty plant (I forget the name), and some parsnip seed. I like parsnips, even if Grandpa doesn't. :)
When we got home we ate lunch...then I went out and check on my bees. Katherine took some pictures...
From there I went into a "diagnostic" on the car. The passenger floor board has been getting wet, so Mama talked to Daddy about it (he's in Dixie right now) and he told her something and when she relayed it to me, I got a little mixed up about what had been said...so I'm particularly glad that after perusing the book I gave him a call. (Oh, by the way, the issue is assumed to be connected to the A/C unit.) I learned the difference (more or less) between the A/C compressor and the A/C evaporator--which I never did actually lay eyes on, but anyway...
Tying up my hair like Rosie the Riveter, I started out by lifting the hood and peering into the depths of the engine while reading in the book. Then I called Daddy and changed tactics. I crawled into the front floor board on my back (which I didn't know I was capable of doing) and unscrewed this and that and developed a general idea of where what I thought I was after was located. Daddy had said that perhaps I could get to the drain from the inside. No go. I did manage to help clean up some of the water from the carpet though. The back of my shirt got quite damp.
Daddy had also said that if I couldn't get to it from the inside to put the car up on the ramps. So, I went a-searching for them, thinking I knew exactly where they were--which I did...more or less. They were within the same vicinity, but just so happened to have the little VW Rabbit on them. Hmph. That isn't going to work. So I crawled back into the floor board to replace the screws and called Daddy in that position. He suggested something that made me say, "That would be interesting..." and I heard Aunt Terry (who is also down in Dixie at the moment) laugh. I had already tried crawling under the car, but as it is closer to the ground than my bed (which I cannot get under), I nixed that idea in a second.
The next part of the day is that which Savannah quite enjoyed telling on me about. I walked into to the house and declared, "I have a request (Savannah would put the accent on the "re" which would probably be accurate)...I need you to drive the car over me."
Before you start gasping in horror, let me explain that I wasn't asking her to actually run over me, but to drive the car into the garage, over the well pit--with ME down in it. Who knew that a well, in the garage, would double for a grease monkey pit? Maybe it wasn't such an...interesting...idea after all.
So anyway, I crawled down in there (with two ladders--one to get in and the step ladder to actually stand on down there--though I actually stood on both of them for the most part) and felt a little nervous as Savannah drove over me. (As Daddy had kidded, "You can pretend to be a GI in the foxhole while a tank drives over you." Not really a funny idea, particularly when I recall that two young soldiers actually did get run over and killed by a tank during training back when we were stationed at Fort Polk. I guess if your foxhole is deep enough and you were hunkered down a tank could drive over the top of you safely.)
I flashed my light up into the engine compartment identifying this, that, and the other...and trying not to bump my head on the tranny. Not spotting the evaporator (which according to Daddy looks something like a small radiator), I asked Savannah to go get my computer and look up the location of the A/C evaporator in this particular make and model of vehicle. She did, and sliding my computer where I could see it, showed me a diagram she had found. After peering at the diagram for a bit and looking over my head a little more, I determined that I couldn't actually see the evaporator, but those "tube thingys" with a rubber elbow protruding under them was what I was looking for. I had Savannah hold my flashlight (she had to lay on her back and stick her arm under the car, over the pit) while I went to work. The elbow itself popped off fairly easily and then I took the coat hanger I had been supplied with and snaked the drain. I cannot say whether or not I actually unblocked it (assuming it was blocked) because it was dry as a bone in there as the A/C hadn't been run for several days (aka, the last time it was out). Daddy had told me that I might get a snoot full of water if I unblocked it, but my logic (which could be faulty) thinks that any water that might have been in it wasn't any more because it was a) in the carpet and b) the vehicle hadn't been run (except to back it out and into the garage) for several days, giving ample time to both drain and evaporate.
Savannah backed the car out and I emerged from the well pit, hands blacked from the axle and engine components. All in all, despite the attempt at a crick in my neck, I rather enjoyed the escapade and felt ridiculous that I should have experienced any apprehension concerning the car being driven over me. One sister was driving and the other guiding...nothing to fear there. :)
I went in, washed up--to a degree--took my final "killer" for the day, grabbed an apple out of the fridge for later (I ended up eating two in the next few hours), put my sandals back on, and strode off to the barn. There I inserted my ear plugs and greased up the mower. Soon she roared to life and I took off to mow the front yard and the road. I left the back mostly un-mowed because, after all, I am feeding bees and that clover that is beautifully dotting the landscape (and feeding nitrogen into the soil) is part of their food. (I actually startled Mama later in the day because I was up at the top of the rise, down on my elbows and knees watching a bee working a clover blossom and she didn't know I was there; so when she walked up the row in the garden to see me in the tall grass, I gave her a start. I have a bad habit of that...)
Yesterday was one of those full, dirty days in which I am particularly thankful for hot running water at the close of the day.
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