The barn and the coop are both clean, a fresh bale of alfalfa is in the feed closet, and Pam's new tomato plants are fenced. A morning's work.
But the thing I'm happiest about....
For weeks Sally has been hard to start in the morning. Once I get it started it will fire right up the rest of the day but some mornings I come close to draining the battery before it fires up. It was pretty obvious there was no gas in the carb and the excessive cranking time was necessary to get fuel pumped up into the cab.
I mentioned that at the coffee shop yesterday and George had an answer right off.
George is in his 80's and a nice old man. He's lived here all his life and does small engine repair. He's also a car guy and swaps crazy big engines into his pickup trucks and sets them up with raucous exhaust systems. And rides a motorcycle. But mostly he's just a good ol' boy from Veneta.
George said the problem is the gas cap. They make the vent holes so small that the least little bit of rust or dirt clogs it and then as the engine draws fuel from the tank a vacuum builds up. Turn the engine off and that vacuum sucks the fuel out of the carb, the fuel line, and even out of the fuel pump if there's enough vacuum.
So when I got home from the coffee shop I took the gas cap off. This morning I went out to test George's diagnosis and....it started right up with about 2 seconds of cranking.
I've ordered a new gas cap! And will give George his well-earned props Monday morning.
Some old guys have a lot of knowledge worth tapping.
Sue suggested peace as the word to express what I talked about in the last post. That English word means the absence of conflict but its Hebrew equivalent, shalom, comes pretty darn close to what I had in mind.
Harmony, wholeness, completeness.
Yeah, that comes pretty close.
Our Kia Sorento has 160,000 miles on it. It still starts, runs, drives, and stops, but at this point the end is in sight, so I keep my eye out for a particularly good deal that would work as a replacement. We've debated whether the next vehicle should be an SUV/crossover or a pickup truck. We want enough power that we can pull the teardrop up the steep grades of I-5 to the south or anywhere else we decide to go and that means a 6 cyl. not the 4 cyl. that's increasingly the norm for SUV's. Pickups are nice and usually have more power but the mpg is normally lower and prices stay higher because they don't depreciate at the same rate as other vehicles. (We won't buy new.)
This showed up. I've been keeping my eye on it since it was listed. Vehicles on BaT that fly under the radar and don't get the bids they warrant usually go RNM (Reserve Not Met) but this is a no reserve auction. It's also a very nice truck and values for a #3 - which this is easily - are high but still lower than a recently used truck.
I expect it to bring "all the money" but if Someone thinks it would be good for us....!
I've just had a FB conversation with the husband half of the sweetest couple you'll ever meet. His wife is a citizen of Mexico and lives there. She was in the States on a work/study visa when they meet and married. When her visa expired she went back to Mexico (!) so they've had only the visits he can make every couple of months for a few days at a time. They're committed to doing everything by the book and have been working their way through the immigration system for (I think) almost a year now. I asked and he just told me they are very close. They have a lawyer here helping them with the paperwork and now all they're waiting on is a date for her interview with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
Their story is the most heart-wrenching, inspiring, and admirable that I've heard in a long time. I told him I'm going to keep praying for them until he tells me I don't need to anymore. I hope that is VERY soon. Two young, cute lovers doing everything right. God will honor that!
No comments:
Post a Comment