Month: March 2024

Mud room 99% done

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We are now using it officially. There are two little things left to complete the entire job and honestly they are going to wait. I need to trim out the window and I need to add another outlet on the other side of the door. Both of those things are not a rush and the power thing requires me to kill power to the entire house/old house out at the pole in the front yard. So no one can be home when I do that. Mr Rainman got the shelf wood supports installed and the short side shelves installed. We had to wait for the metal brackets to arrive before the shelves over the doors could be placed. Luckily, the brackets came with both long and short screws so I did not have to make a special trip to town to get short black screws that go directly into the shelf. I bought too much cedar closet lining. I was thinking it would go on both walls but after installing it on one side the smell was pretty overpowering so I decided one side was good enough. I am ordering a little UV light bug trap also and will give that a try and see if we cannot keep the bugs under control. We built a custom shelf for the new food dryer from leftover wood scraps. I had to adjust the lumen output on the overhead light from 3400 lumen to 5200. The shelves cut down on the light but using a 1×2’ LED light has made all the difference. The room is not dark. Yesterday, I got all of the metal supports and last two shelves installed.

I spent today finishing emptying out the laundry room and moving all of the raw alpaca fiber bins out to the mud room. There are still a couple of pair of boots but the laundry room is fairly empty now. It is quite nice and now needs a deep clean! I ordered a couple of rubber shoe mats and a foot stool so you can sit down if you need to put your shoes on. Not necessary for rubbers but if we have to break out the snow boots you definitely need a place to sit down to lace them up. I ordered an extension cord today for the dryer also, the cord was too short to get to the outlet.

Mr Rainman had a good idea, he said to buy bagged pea gravel to fill in the old planter spots. It’s washed and we probably only need 6-8 bags. It will be easy to move and easy to install. As soon as the local stores start selling their spring yard stuff I will get some. I also need to get some stepping stones so that Annmarie can get to the cat shelf in her socks. Now you have to cross six feet of sharp gravel to feed the cats. We used to just toss it on the back porch! It is the one downfall to the mud room, you cannot just open the door and feed the outside cats. It is a small price to pay for the mud room. I love it!

Old truck, new project

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I had been talking to Annmarie for years about getting the old truck running. Six flat tires and not having run in over 30 years was a pretty strong deterrent that kept me from moving forward. Well the daughter’s boyfriend likes to mechanic and likes old Chevy trucks. He offered to come over and work on it this weekend. This meant that I had to offer a measly amount of assistance. On the plus side he was able to move the fan on the motor initially with no issues. So after three trips to the parts store, an online order and a solid day we have managed to discover a few things about the truck.

It is old and dirty. The Gingerman hauled the trash can over to the truck and just scooped out trash and stuff from the cab into the can. He then took the leaf blower and fired it up and blew out the cab and motor compartment. At one point he had to go get a metal rake to rake the weeds and leaves around the truck so he could crawl under to jack it up. It was sitting so low, due to flat tires, that he could not remove the oil filter or get to the oil pan plug. I spent about three hours just wiping mud and dirt out of the cab. This time allowed me to compose a list of needed items:

  • 6-new tires (all flat, and front are different size than rear)
  • Windshield gasket (it’s cracked and disintegrating, piles of bugs near the holes)
  • Side door window seals (they are nonexistent and the windows are just rattling around in the door)
  • Door seals (cracked and falling apart, letting weather into the cab)
  • Interior light bulb
  • Side mirrors
  • Sun visor
  • Horn is missing from steering column
  • Brake pedal cover (for anyone who has had a wet shoe and tried to hit the brakes they will know this is essential)
  • Floor mats (I want cheap and so far I am not seeing it, more research)
  • Door window/handle gaskets
  • Boot gaskets for the shifter/E brake/dump bed handle
  • Choke needs a new handle
  • None of the vents move, they have metal cable and its rusted together but I can live without heat
  • Seat covers (seat is cracked and pinpoint pressure causes a tear)
  • Engine belts need replaced also, I think there are two maybe three.
  • Brake lines need purged and filled, master cylinder may need a new gasket.
  • Fuel tank will need flushed and checked for leaks.

The truck is a 1957 Chevy 1 ton, dual rear wheel, 2 WD, with a flat hydraulic lift bed. It has a V8 engine 256 HP which I am told is unusual and it has the same type of engine they put in Corvettes which explains some of the weird hanging hardware for the spark plug wires. It has an oil based air filter that uses 50W oil. This means the entire engine is coated with about 1/8” of caked on dirt and oil. Cleaning that off is going to have to wait until we have gotten the thing running. They put 8 inch 19.5” tires on the front and 7 inch 18” tires on the rear. We could not figure out why.

A few things are a must, door window seals, windshield seal, seat covers and floor mats. There is no question that those need to happen. Oh and the side mirrors, I may want those if I am trying to get around a tight spot.

The engine had no oil in it. So we are uncertain if its due to a bad gasket or it got drained out. Once we get the correct oil filter then we will fill it up and see if the oil leaks out. At most hopefully, it only needs an oil pan gasket. On the plus side the left blinker works and the starter engaged for a split second so the ignition switch works and the starter works! We also installed a dead man switch for the battery under the hood. I had one laying around for an old tractor we sold. This way I can just isolate the battery when we are not going to use the truck.

We really want the truck running so I can efficiently move dirt, rocks, gravel and compost around. Doing it one tractor bucket at a time does not work when you have to go any distance. We have now started down this path so the plan is to continue until we have a working vehicle. I will order tires this week and get that out of the way. It will be the largest single purchase. The goal is to put less than $4000 into it, so far we have spent $592.50.

All things need a name. I am going to call it the “Little Dumper”.