Life On The Hill

[DevilsBrew]

Don't you find it kind of odd that we are wearing shorts while watching the leaves change and drop?

[pa_friendly_guy]

When I work outside I never wear shorts. Actually I never wear short pants at all, never liked them much. Its a personal choice. I prefer blue jeans, they are comfortable, they fit well, they protect your legs from jaggers and poison ivy, they keep your legs from getting sun burned, I feel they are the best. My neighbors wear short pants a lot, that's OK for them, I will take the comfort of Jeans. My one neighbor takes that idea one step farther and only wears Bid Overalls you never see him in anything else. To each their own I guess.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Had some excitement on the Hill a week or so ago. Had a storm come through , blew over a huge pine tree from across the road. It sheared off a pole, had wires all over the ground. West Penn [ our power company that is now owned by First Energy ] came out after a day or so later to take a look, the guy said that they had a lot of people out of power, and it would take several hours to replace the pole, so they would work on easier fixes first and get to us when they could. He put up emergency tape across the road so no one would drive into the tree across the road and left. There was a huge mess up around where I had planted the decorative grass and butterfly bushes. We were with out power for 2 1/2 days. I was worried about the freezer and ref, we did not open the door on either one and came through alright. Some minor damage to the stuff in the freezer door but the meat was alright. We have oil lamps and I have a crank radio, and with a fire in the fire place we survived quite nicely. When I got up after the storm [ I knew the power was off because I had the call of nature during the night ] I suggested that I fire up my rocket stove cooker and boil some water for tea etc. My wife said she had a better idea. She said lets go out for breakfast. That was a better idea, so we enjoyed a very nice breakfast at Kings Restaurant. The next day the neighbors, who still had power, invited us down for breakfast. It was a lovely visit with friends. Friday night I listened to the local High School team win their 1st play off game, Saturday I listened to the Prairie Home Companion, and then listened to the Pitt Game. All in All we survived very well with out power for 2 1/2 days. I am somewhat prepared for power outages, but I still don't have a generator. Two of my neighbors have them, Don offered me his, I told him no, and he gave it to a neighbor with well water to run his pump. Len is the other guy who has a generator, he asked if I could come up and help him get it started. The gas was maybe 2 years old, he did not have any starter fluid, and he is 78 years old. So I went up and helped him pull. It started after a few pulls and a bit of starter fluid, sputtered a bit and then shut off. Another neighbor came over to see what we were doing, he and I both pulled that thing till I thought our arms would fall off. During the process Len and decided to turn the switch from off to the on position, that is when it started and sputtered a bit and then quite. He finally decided that maybe I would run better if he turned the valve to the gas tank open. Well, that certainly made a BIG difference, it started right up after that. After taking my cap off and hitting him over the head with it, we all had a good laugh. Its no sin to be stupid, just Damned inconvenient. Any way, we survived the power outage pretty well, and I now have stories to tell.

[GrahamB]

Glad to hear you made through okay Guy. I think it does us good to occasionally live on our whits for a day or two. That also reminds me to get a generator for our well pump.

[mannytheseacow]

Sounds like quite the good time, Guy, though it may not have seemed that way at the time! Ya know, some people will drive a long distance and pay a fair sum of money to "rought it".... and here you got to do it for free!

I can definitely identify with your generator story. I once took my buddy's dirtbike for a ride. I got several miles from his house back in the twillies and it died on me. I kicked it and kicked it.... damn thing wouldn't start. I pushed it most of the way back before I realized that I never turned the gas on. It's amazing I got so far from the house just on what was in the carburetor. At least there was a few of you to point fingers at each other!

[Lollykoko]

Glad to hear you got through the power outage okay, Guy. Did your wife ever let you fire up the rocket stove?

[pa_friendly_guy]

Nope, She never did. We went out to eat every meal. I don't think she likes the idea of cooking over a rocket stove burner.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Had another bit of excitement here on the Hill last week. I was sucking up leaves with the mower and vac system. The thing often gets plugged up if the leaves are too thick, or too wet, or if a stick gets sucked into the system. I check the mower deck 1st, if the plug is there I remove it and I am good to go. If it is plugged farther up the system I have to stop, turn off the mower, remove the rear door on the cart, climb inside the cart and reach into the large hose at the front of the cart and remove the plug by hand. It is sort of a pain, especially if the cart is fairly full of leaves. I was making good time, the system was working well for me, I was going slow because the leaves were heavy. The system plugged up on me so I stopped the mower near the wall out back, there is a slight grade there. It was plugged up in the hose so I took the door off and crawled into the cart which was about 1/2 full of leaves. I was just about to reach my hand inside the hose to remove the plug when the mower let loose and started to coast backwards, I was not worried about the wall, but there is a huge drop off behind that that I was worried about. I was just starting to think about what I was going to do when the cart jack knifed and up set, with me in it. I was not hurt but it tore the rubber hose in half and bent the hitch on the cart pretty good. The rubber hose is very sturdy and came with the tractor 30 years ago. I have patched it before, but the hose you buy today is no where near the quality of the old one. Turns out a 3 lb coffee can fits inside the hose and if you add 2 hose clamps you are good to go. I happened to have a coffee can, so I went to the hardware store and bought 2 large hose clamps. Because the hose is so old and beat up a bit it was hard to get the coffee can in, but I finally got the done. The metal clamp on the vac where the leaves leave the unit is much heavier metal because it has to hold the extra force of the leaves shooting out. I attached that and started sucking leaves again. I didn't go 10 ft before the hose came off the unit. The hose was bulged out and didn't fit right the old clamp would not fit around it anymore. So back to the hardware store, got another hose clamp and came back to put in on. This time I made it maybe 50 yards before it blow off and leaves came down all over me. At that point I put the Tractor into the garage and decided I would fix it tomorrow. In the morning I got a couple of clamps and used them to hold the old heavier clamp tight enough to get the bolt in and starte. At that point I was able to get it tight enough to hold. I have now sucked up 39 cart loads of leaves. Each cart holds about the same as a small PU Truck like a Ford Ranger. It tough to keep old equipment operating well. But this system has seaved me well for low these many years now. I just keep patching it together.

[Lollykoko]

Thirty nine cart loads of leaves?
Where do you take them, Guy? Are you filling up a ravine on the property?

[pa_friendly_guy]

Another story about using old equipment. Today I was again sucking up leaves, it was going well, I had sucked up 6 loads and was out by the wall again. This time the wheel fell off the cart and it rolled onto its side. The patch I had made with the coffee can came apart and the metal rod that acts like an axil was pulled out from the 3 metal guides it goes through. The carter pin that held the wheel on just gave out from metal fatigue. I went into the garage and got a jack and some short 4X4s and a couple of 2X4s. I up righted the cart and started to jack up the cart. I got the one side out of the dirt, then I took the jack to the other side and jacked it up and blocked it up so I could get the axil pounded back into place. I couldn't get the 3 pieces lined up right and still pound the axil too. So I asked my wife if she could help. She pounded as I took a crow bar and tried to line up everything. After much to do, and many tries we finally got it back into place, re-jacked the cart and got the tire back on. I could not have done it by my self. I re-bent the coffee can to fit and re-attached the clamp and decided to call it a day. It was getting dark, I was tired, and I had again kept an old piece of equipment running. Oh, when I was fixing the one tire, the carter pin holding the other tire on broke, the wheel didn't come off but still, the metal was just worn out. I do love it when I am able to fix something. Makes me feel special.