other dog

That's the truth!

I used to run from Lynchburg, Va. to the Pittsburgh area a lot when I was driving. A lot. And the usual route- at least until they invented those E-logs it was the usual route- was I-64 over to Sam Black Church, rt. 60 west to Charmco, WV, then rt. 20 up to Nettie and rt. 39 to Summersville, then rt. 19 to I-79 to points north. Same thing coming back to Lynchburg, just in the opposite direction. Just before you started down the big hill to Charmco there was a fancy looking yellow and brown R model sitting behind a building on the left. You couldn't see it all that good, and there was just a brief period where you could see it at all. I tried many times to get a drive-by picture of it. I'm sure I posted some here, but I never got a "good" picture. And last night when I was looking at the "Mystery Hole" I looked on the street view on google maps for that R model- and there it was. That truck's been sitting right there for many years. I can only imagine the pride somebody must have had in that unit when it was running. Then I went back up towards Nettie to see if I could see the old GMC that they used for a yard dog at Happy Trucking. I guess there are some things I miss.

well then... I got the bill for the new stew pot stand. As it is with everything anymore, it was three times as much as I was expecting it to be. I would have made one myself out of one of these old truck wheels i've got laying around if i'd known it was going to cost me $200. The same folks were surprisingly cheap when they made a lid for my favorite grill though, and a rear bumper for that Dodge pickup I had. I took it back to get them to tweak it a little bit- this is the old one that fits the smaller pot. The new one doesn't quite go in far enough, but if I biggerized the hole the smaller pot would fall through. I'm going to get them to lower the new one a couple of inches, and cut out a half-moon piece in front where I put the wood in. That's about a 5 minute job, so maybe they won't charge extra for doing that.

Yes, Jon Krakauer wrote the book. He wrote a lot of good books, I read "Into Thin Air" several times, they made a TV movie about that one too.

It's called a bow saw, the bar is actually the only difference in those two saws. You could interchange them if you wanted. They used to be really popular for cutting pulpwood, the main advantage is that the bar itself is so thin it wouldn't get pinched, at least not as easily anyway. The main disadvantage is that they are notorious for "kickback", I know people that have their faces scarred up today from using one, and one is a professional logger. That's the one I haven't gotten started, and I might not even fool with it. The other one has the "anti kickback" safety feature by the handle, but it's not connected to anything. I think that's why they don't even make them anymore, because they're dangerous. But it's the cat's ass for firewood cutting, when my father in law ran that saw he pretty much just set those two prongs on the ground and tilted the saw forward and could cut firewood with one hand.

Yep, I remember taking broken tools back to Sears and they would would just throw it in the bin and get you a new one, no questions asked.

I was helping- I guess my former sister in law?..or still my sister in law?..I'm not sure, she was the sister of my wife who passed away in 2005- anyhow, her and her husband are apparently calling it quits after many years and we were helping her move last night because she had to be out of her former home by 11:59 pm. She had these 2 chain saws that belonged to her dad, and she told me if I could use them to take them. I really don't have any need for them since I haven't burned firewood in years but I grabbed them before she changed her mind. They're too good to just let them go to waste. My father in law passed away 7 years ago, and they probably hadn't been started since long before that. I dumped the old gas out and put new gas in them and got one of them started already, but no luck on the other one yet. I helped him cut many loads of firewood with these saws, I had an XL12 Homelite myself, and a 925. The XL12 was one of the best saws ever made in my opinion, mine burned up when my shed burned down.

True that!

I took a picture of a helicopter at the Truckers Parade Against Cancer last year and it looked like the propeller was stopped, it's still on the computer. I might have posted it on pictures of the week here, I don't know.

One of my earliest tool memories is hearing that a BFH and a long handle punch were two of the most important tools to have.

I have a book here somewhere that he wrote about his life, mostly about the early years before he "hit the big time". One of my favorite stories in it was about when he won his first race. He stopped at a steakhouse with all his crew to celebrate with steaks. They were still in the jeans and T shirts that they were wearing at the track, and they sat down and ordered steak for everyone. They waited and waited for their food and while they were waiting a wedding party came in and sat down. In just a few minutes the waiters started bring out steaks- for the wedding party. Needless to say they were highly pissed. I think it was Cale that said "those look like our steaks". I know it was Cale that walked over and picked up a steak off of one of their plates with his hands and took a bite out of it, then he said "tastes like our steaks too". That's how the fight started.

The numbers this morning. I like what John Kennedy from Louisiana said about the border- he said it was a man made crisis, and the man's name was joe Biden.

The wheels are pretty small. I'd have to cut that metal piece off to put bigger ones on it. I might have to find a longer axle shaft and put duals on it, because if the ground is even a little bit soft it's gonna get stuck.

I think that's gonna work just fine.

All finished decorating, time to start undecorating now- as soon as break's over.

I'm on Facebook, but I don't know how to post a link from my phone. But this is what my page looks like.

I was going to get one like that, I already looked at them at Lowe's. But Randy- that's dispatcher Randy, not Randy Y, Randy M, or Randyp- dropped by to pick up some stew and he said he had one I could have for free, so naturally I told him I'd take it. I think I can make it work. I could have really used it when we were moving, but oh well, we got it done.

I went and retrieved that hand truck yesterday, and it's a nice one. Very heavy, no cheap junk here. I might have to make a little pallet of some sort for the pot to sit on so it won't tip over forward if I make a sudden stop, but that shouldn't be too hard. It would be good to put the oxygen and acetylene tanks on too, it even has the hooks to wind the hose up on. Too bad, I don't have a set of torches anyway.

Zina says hey, and Merry Christmas! I know the world is crazy now, but it would be great if you could make it to Macungie again.

Oh, they live next door. They would do it for free, but I did give them each a bowl of stew 🍲

Happy birthday!

Yep, I saw that on the news earlier today.

It's quite tasty too!

Merry Christmas everyone! I put the new bigger stew pot in service Friday. It's a lot heavier than the old stew pot, I need a hand truck to move it from the shed to the stand. I hauled it on the wagon, but it's really top heavy. Fortunately, a friend has a hand truck he said he would give me. I'm going to get it this afternoon. I made a full tank of stew in it, then we jarred it and put some in Tupperware and gifted it to people. Took 12 quarts to family in Cumberland, and gave 3 quarts to the guy who's giving me the hand truck- that's why he's giving it to me. I asked him how much he wanted for it and he said I'd already paid for it. It was good, the pot holds 36 quarts and we containerized 35 1/2 quarts. Even gave the mail man a quart. The dogs didn't get any though. One time I saw a big Mack truck in Gladys, and one time I saw a big Mack truck when I was on the way to Cumberland.