Happy New Year to Everyone!!!
We partied with friends to usher in the New Year. It was decided to celebrate an early time
zone New Year so everyone could leave early.
I woke up in the middle of the night with a cough. The rest of the week was spent holding down
my easy chair.
The deer hunting season has sadly ended at 5:17 p.m. Sunday,
January 5, 2014. It was a very wet and
cold ending with nothing seen all day.
Neither Leslie or I harvested a deer on our property. We tried.
Oh Yeah! Leslie especially has
been in the woods as much as she was able to.
She was determined to bag something.
As for me, my time in the woods has been recently limited to afternoon
hunts. Our woods have been devoid of
hoofed ungulates during hunting hours since the opening of the season. Luckily we were given a deer from a good
friend. This will help us get through
the year. There are a few squirrels in
those woods that I plan to harvest.
Before the rain started on Sunday I was working in the shop
for a while. I had to cut a piece of plywood
for Leslie to use with her Wii console.
After finishing that I moved the hammer back under the 2-ton hoist so I
could lift the flywheel/shaft off the frame.
There was a half washer brazed onto the back end of the spider. This had to be ground off to allow the shaft
to turn. I can’t for the life of me
understand why it was brazed on there in the first place. It didn’t take as much work to get it off as
I had anticipated. The shaft was hoisted
back up onto the frame and I was ready to put the bearing caps on the
shaft. They were tight the first time I
tried so I cut a couple sheets of thick paper to use a gasket on both
caps. The shaft turns pretty easily now
and after tightening it all back up I flooded the caps with oil to lube the
shaft. Oil flowed pretty freely out of
the bearings but it took long enough for me to know that it will be oiled well
while the machine is running.
One of the last things to do is to get the ram guide on
properly. The area that the guide attaches
needed to be painted so that was done while it was still in the 50’s
outside. That was all that could be done
for the day.
My cat came into the shop and I noticed that her face looked
really swollen on her left side. She had
a small cut by her ear for a couple days that seemed to stay open but now she
was scratching the fire out of it. After
trying to look at it she ran off. I knew
she’d be back for food, so at supper time I caught her and put her in the house
inside a cage. With the extreme cold
overnight I didn’t want her to deal with that along with whatever infection she
has going on. Hopefully it can be
treated easily. Another trip to the
animal hospital. It’s always something
with these darn critters.
Took her in to the animal hospital on 1/6/14 as soon as I got home from work. It turned out to be an abscess on the cats face. They had to put her out, drain and clean the wound. She gets to come home with a cone around her neck ans has to be kept inside for 10 days. So I bring in a rabbit hutch from the barn and stuff her inside for the duration. Luckily she's got a good disposition. Can't wait for her to get the stitches out and let her outside again.
Leaving on a good note...at the time I posted this, I have the hammer about ready to go. It has a small electrical issue that has to be addressed. Seams like 2014 came in like a lion, lets hope the lamb stays with us the rest of the year.
