Hot Rocks

There's few things I'll drop everything for,

and currently one of them is free rocks.

It's all about the infrastructure...

But it has to be worth our while.

Rallying up the kids early is no easy feat.

This ad was up for about 40 minutes,

which is late in the free rock and brick game.

The kids powered it out.

I was a slave driver in the hot sun.

Wrong day for their friend to hang out...

Our wheelbarrow was slow 

in comparison to their bobcat mover.

The kids pittered out as the trailer filled up.

Stay in school boys...

The trailer had no sides,

and it was getting heavy.

Not easy letting the remainder go.

A quick trailer drop off sounded good.

Plans changed on the drive down.

That's not how we roll.

The short break was reinvigorating, 

and when your dirty lets finish the job!

The lava rocks were spread thick,

maybe too thick,

but they'll recede into the silty dirt quickly.

This will definitely keep the dust down.

It also looks a bit more professional,

while saving our shoes.

Free involved a ton of labor.

Thanks Jim for the hook-up!

TP

Poop rocks

For the past month or two,

the Cradle Robber has been collecting dust.

Not that it isn't on the STD list,

I'm just distracted lately.

So distracted that I missed out on this eBay score.

I found this thing one evening,

or most likely early morning judging from the time stamp,

and had made sure to put it on my watch list.

It's just a simple single point 4-banger distributor, 

Not the hot rod dual point version from the box.

This would have really upgraded the ignition system,

replacing the stock manual advance distributor,

and all the levers.

Totally spaced out,

and didn't throw in a sufficient bid,

thinking I would try to snipe it at the end.

Nope.

I've reasoned that the winner had bid over $100,

so I doubt I would have won it for $83.

The thing that drives up prices,

is a bidding war. 

Good to know deals are out there,

even if this one still stings.

TP

brick by brick

I'm sure you guys are eager to know the brickwork progress.

Sunday Jakob and I jammed out to get some free bricks.

Just like the picture...

A weird deal,

no number or address,

just a street name.

We got there first,

I thought we had it sealed,

until another guy barreled in and started taking some.

We scurried and got as many bricks as fast as we could.

Dang craigslisters...

Not too big a deal,

We still got 2/3 the pile,

while also learning a little business lesson.

At lunch I found another ad.

More bricks!

We missed these,

probably taken by the same guy!

We spent all Sunday laying these damn things.

That wasn't the plan.

The rain had helped soften up the hardpack,

and it was hard to stop.

Jaxon was the master chipper,

hammering off the cement.

Jakob smoothed the dirt out.

A finely tuned machine.

It's hard to see a difference here.

The right row of bricks was removed,

any extra dirt was sifted and spread out,

and now it's an inch or more higher,

as it sloped down.

There's still a lot that could be done,

but the visual from the alley looks clean,

instead of a never ending project.

TP 

Dirty Dozen

First of the month,

Gotta start it off right.

Earlier this week,

finally got the Cradle Robber out of it's stall.

Mechanically not much was needed,

some brake and clutch adjustment.

The issue was this never ending brick project.

I had inconveniently dumped the bricks around the fence line,

layering enough chit so they wouldn't open all the way.

Over the past weekend we had a little luck,

and found a stash of mostly clean bricks,

allowing a quick lay up.

Really it's a quicker lay-up.

The dirt still needs to be dug down level,

otherwise it's not as good a skating surface.

Yeah priorities.

If you noticed,

we raised the swinging gate to compensate for the brick height.

So yeah not too exciting,

but it'll be nice in the long run.

Every evening we/I try to get about an hour in.

Even a dozen bricks covers that much more area.

A great workout...

So now even though the truck is free,

gotta keep chugging along.

TP

Tin Can Alley

Tried to take the cradle robber for a quick spin yesterday

Poor car wasn't to thrilled to be neglected for a couple weeks,

Then expect to just get up and go.

The banger took some time to warm up,

more importantly it took the last bit of gas in the tank.

I got up the alley,

and a new sound appeared.

While it sounded like the exhaust pipe fell off,

It was only a small hole.

A good reason to take the kids off weed duty,

and show them a quick fix.

There's a reason to stash all those old hose clamps.

Emptied out some of the smashed up out of round ones.

Jakob knew right away what was going on.

Sounded like a new muffler!

That's how we do it...

TP

Clutter

It's may be obvious I like a little clutter.

Sure it gets a bit out of control, 

but funny enough,

I know where most everything is.

The reasoning is clutter is a system of layers.

Each layer is a specific project that happened since the last super-clean.

It's easier to remember the timeline of past projects,

then an unmarked drawer or tray.

Here's a case why it works for me.

Last month or more I started a little project.

The goal was to install the two distributor advance rods,

specific to the model A controls.

Without the spark advance,

the hot rod isn't fully driveable.

The job seemed easy enough,

but that's when the warning flags appear.

The dang steering wheel would not budge.

The pulley puller failed,

even with oil and a soft hammer.

It took weeks to finally drill and tap custom holes,

then use a bolt-on puller.

During this time I did a little clean-up,

and other projects got in the way.

By the time the wheel was off,

the important pieces were missing.

I looked all over,

using the search as a good time to organize.

The one bar that Macey liked to play with was easily found.

The other bar and pieces had vanished.

I even offered a $10 finders fee to the kids.

No luck.

By total accident,

I found the last rod where it was supposed to be,

in the back of the pickup bed,

wedged down in the corner.

Yes I had looked in that area.

Then guess what.

The little pieces were in this organizer thing I never use.

All alone,

safely tucked away.

Holey Chit.

I had scanned that area countless times.

Tons of little bolts and knick knacks cover that work bench.

Nothing ever gets lost.

Basically the time I put stuff away for safe keeping,

it was harder to find.

What did I learn?

If it works don't fix it?

TP