 |
Recently
I succumbed to the allure of a "sale" and purchased a shop crane or
engine hoist. This is probably not the most quality tool ever
built, but for the price and how often I expect to use it - it should
work. I borrowed Fred's last time I played the engine swapping
game. It worked well and I was very grateful to have it.
While I don't plan to pull the engine out of the bronco again, It is
nice to have a tool that can lift heavy loads. On a side note, I see these photos of me (and here I need a hair cut) I just can't get over how thin things are getting up top. From my typical point of view I don't see just how thin things really are. |
| Ethen
and Kyle have recently come into a desire to earn extra money. I
think they may have started to enjoy the spending of it from allowances
and are now wanting to save up for bigger items. I am not sure if
giving them the taste for spending money is a good thing or not.
On the one hand I am hoping that it will lead to a desire to work to
earn money, on the other hand they really don't spend it well. I
only hope that making money mistakes with little consequences (being at
home) will lead to lessons that carry over into life. If they
loose all of their money now there is no real issue as they still have
food and shelter taken care of. It is when they loose all of
their money later that the consequences can be drastic. As part of their desire to earn money - and our efforts to install a zip line I tasked them with digging some holes in the yard for the installation of a zip line. The holes were to be 48 inches deep and 24 inches in diameter. They actually performed admirably. They didn't complete them fully but they did produce holes that measured 44 inches deep and 22 inches in diameter. This is a tough job to do by hand, |
|
|
These photos
don't really do the hole justice, but they had not finished digging it
yet. This one was actually Ethen's hole. They would dig a
little and then they would soak it with water and come back the next
day a do it again. After Ethen finished his hole, and I had a day off from work, we took the opportunity to stand up one of the poles. |
| Not
only was this an opportunity to stand up one of the posts, it was also
an opportunity to use the newly acquired shop crane as well.
After going through this experience - standing up the pole - I have
come to the conclusion that I don't own enough equipment, tools, or
have the necessary crew to do this type of work. |
|
|
This pole is 14
feet 2 inches tall. I was planning to have the pole 4 feet
underground leaving about 10 feet standing up right. I never put
a pencil to paper, but in my mind I thought I could use this crane and
put the post in the ground. Truth be told, the standing up of the
post went pretty close to how I had planned it with one exception. |
| After
getting the post up so high, I ran out of vertical capacity on my
crane. I had to re-rig the pole a few times and shorten the chain
on the hook, as well as use a shorter choker to grab the post
with. I had planned to use the chain that is in the donkey
trailer, but I forgot that it was at AJ's house now. Without this
extra chain, and shackles (one is also in the donkey), I had to
improvise. |
|
|
This
improvising required the use of a come-a-long wrapped tightly around
the post and then grabbing it with the hook on the crane. I have
to admit, that just before this post stood up in the hole by itself, I
was having trouble stabilizing it between lifts and re-rigging.
The come-a-long worked, but was very heavy. I probably should
have used a ladder to re-secure it every time, but I didn't. I
kept moving the crane closer and closer to the hole as the center of
gravity of the post also moved closer and close to the hole. I could not move the crane with the poles weight on it as the tires just dug deep into the dirt. |
| We
didn't get any photos of it, but I moved the crane 90 degrees around
the post and was able to finally set it int he hole. This is
where things really got dicey and the cameras quit clicking as we were
just hoping the post would cooperate and just go in the hole. It also didn't help very much that we had 20-30 mph winds with guts up to 40 mph. The post never seemed to be bothered by the wind much and there was only once the crane swayed a bit and Terra had to jump on it to keep the center of gravity between the legs. |
|
|
Once we were
able to get the post in the ground we poured concrete around the base
then piled up dirt around the base and mounded it up. Here I
finally decided to put on a hat. When we first started out
standing up the pole, I wasn't committed to doing it yet. I was just going to clean up the hole, then I was just going to move the post into position, then I was just going to see how the crane handled it. Then... finally I just did it. In my mind I had planned to put on a long sleeve shirt and a hat before attempting to stand up the post. Well I didn't, and now I have a sunburned scalp. After seeing the photos earlier in this letter I understand why. I need to start wearing a hat more often than I do. I guess that because I wear a hard hat at work when I am out in the sun, I forget just how much I really need to wear one when I am in the sun at home. When I attempt to stand up the other pole, (4.5 feet longer) I think I will enlist a friend with a backhoe for the job. My crane just wasn't big enough for this and the other pole would be more than I can handle. |
| This
photo is a bit old, but The school had a veterans day program for the
community veterans. Karren and Jim came down for it. Here
is Jim holding a photo of him when he was in the military a few years
back. I think they really enjoyed the event, and I am glad they
made the trip. |
|
|
Terra's aunt
died a few weeks ago. It is her father's last sister. She
lived in Louisiana. Come to find out her husband worked in the
pulp and paper industry. He had come out to McNary to work in the
lumber mill there. Twila (Terra's aunt) married this guy and when
the lumber mill in McNary shut down they moved to where other similar
type jobs were. She died on a Thursday and her funeral was on the
following Monday. Terra and her father flew out on Sunday and
back on Monday night to make the funeral. Here is the rest of us
going to church while Terra and here dad went to the airport. We visited Twila & Scrappy when we lived in Arkansas. Actually Terra's parents went with us while they were out visiting. Terra's dad was able to see a few of his high school classmates at the funeral as they all migrated to the area for work. They retired there and some were still alive and remembered Terra's dad (Terry). I think Terra is glad that she made the trip back to the south. |
| Here is another photo of the Veteran's Day lunch at Pomerene School. I also was able to attend. At this point all of our children attended the same school. Kyle has recently moved to Benson Middle School and Next year Ethen will start high school in Benson. This was one of the last events that all of the kids participated in while all attending the same school. It has been a good school for them. |
|
Return to Start Page