So much to be thankful for...

We have so much to be thankful for, why do we only have one day in the year designated for being thankful?  I try to be thankful every day, not just one!
  Today I am thankful for a loving God, and his forgiveness of our sins, and for a country in which we are free to worship Him as we see fit.  I am thankful for a loving family...
  I am thankful for very nice weather, as it has given us time to get a lot of outside work finished up before Winter... (We have been spending the past couple of days working in the shop, as we are building a wall and insulating the front half so we can keep it heated in the winter...)
 I am thankful that the car I have been working on is almost done, and seams to be working well! I will be taking it for a drive tomorrow... :-)

 There are so many things to be thankful for, how can anybody be a grouch?   Mom and Dad are currently watching "Pollyanna", one of our favorite movies, and also probably the most appropriate Thanksgiving movie we have... 

 For those of you who may be wondering what those pictures at the end of my last post were, here is another picture that should pretty well explain it:

Kind of a long story, but I will try to shorten it as much as possible:   I was at the junkyard in Mandan the other day, getting some parts for my Dodge Intrepid, and saw this car sitting out front.  I asked how much they wanted for it, but didn't really think about it too much as I had other things on my mind...  The next day or two I just couldn't get it out of the back of my mind, so I decided to go up and take another look at it, and ended up bringing it back home with me...
 It's an '08 Dodge Charger, that used to belong to the McHenry county sheriff's department, until one of the officers ran over some large obstacle while following a suspect in some less than desirable driving conditions...   The car consequently needs a new engine, engine mounting frame, radiator, radiator mounting brackets, A/C condenser, and I'm not even sure what all else...    I haven't really had time to tear into it too much, as I have spent all of my spare time fixing up the Intrepid. :-)

  That's all for now -- Remember to be thankful!
     Andrew B.

A party, beer, a hot car, and the police!

Hello all,
  If you read the title of this post, you might think I was in some sort of trouble... Rest assured, I am not! Keep reading for an explanation of all of the above...   But first, an update on my project I posted about in my last post:

"Look Ma, no headlights!"

I have been working on the Intrepid quite a bit, and believe I am nearing completion... I just need a special tool to get the camshaft timing set correctly -- I ordered one online, but it hasn't arrived yet... Here are a couple of pictures of the current state of affairs:

Here you can see the engine, mostly put back together...

The remaining parts!

Anybody need a good car? :-) I did get my other Intrepid (the silver one) sold a week and a half ago, for which I am very thankful! I will need to sell this one too, as soon as I get it working properly, as I need some money for my next project, which is a -- WAIT! That is supposed to be a surprise! More on that later... ;-)

 Last Saturday was my 21st Birthday! Wow, where does time fly? It's hard to believe I can be that old already, it seams not that long ago that I was a little kid...    We had a fun day; playing games, watching good movies, and opening presents... My brother Jacob's birthday is one week before mine, so we usually have a combined birthday party -- or a whole week long one! :-) This year the party ended up being on my Birthday, as Mom and I went to Fargo on Jacob's birthday... That's another story...

  Some of the presents my wonderful family gave me:

An expansion to one of my favorite games, "Agricola"  Thanks Cora!

A very nice Bible cover, and a new bible to go in it!

A "Courageous" movie T-shirt! Thanks Mom!

A lighted hockey puck!   Thanks Jacob!  I am sure we will have a lot of fun with that!

What better gift for a 21 year old, than a six pack of beer?  A six pack of ROOT BEER! (Thanks Dad, both for the gift, and for your good example!)

A magnetic parts\tool tray... Thanks Dad!

And a very nice tie!  Thanks Mom!

We had fun playing the board game "Automobile", watching a new movie Cora gave me, and other things... It was a good day!

  I think I will cut this here, and start another post so this doesn't get so long... In the mean time you can all guess what these might mean:

Andrew B.

The consequences of carelessness...

Dear readers,
  Today I came across a good example of the consequences of carelessness, and thought I would share the lesson with all of you... :-)
  As you may well know, I have been making a little business of buying cars in need of repair, fixing them up, and then reselling them for a profit... I really enjoy working in the shop, and the joy of making something work again is almost as good as the extra money it brings in... :-)  My latest project is a 2002 Dodge Intrepid, which I just picked up last Sunday. The previous owner had done some work to the engine, as it had had a broken rocker arm, which then ruined the camshaft. While it did run when I bought it, it still had some engine problems, including what sounded like noisy lifters, and it wouldn't idle smoothly...
 After changing the oil, and checking the oil pressure with a gauge, (because the oil pressure light on the dash was flickering,) I came to the conclusion that the only thing wrong was the lifter noise, which might go away on it's own... That was until I checked the dipstick again, and found that there was coolant getting into the crankcase --  NOT GOOD...
  I got some time to work on the engine this afternoon, and got it torn down far enough to find the problem. Apparently, when the previous owner replaced the camshaft, (which requires removal of the head,) he was not very careful while putting the head back on, and messed up the head gasket:

The offending corner:

Yes, that is supposed to be flat!

Now, simply because of the carelessness of the last person to work on this car, I had to tear the engine all apart again, and will have the fun job of trying to clean all of the watery, oily goo out of the engine... Ugh! Hopefully it didn't do any permanent damage in the mean time...  

 So, the lesson for the day:  "Whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability"
 
    Andrew B.

Almost done...

Hello all,
I have been quite busy helping out another farmer with his corn and sunflower harvest. My job has mostly been to drive the grain cart, first alongside the combine to pick up a load of grain, then to the end of the field to dump into the waiting trucks...
We are done with the corn now, and getting close to done with the sunflowers... We should be finished by late Wednesday or early Thursday afternoon. :-)
I am actually writing this on my iPod as I am waiting for the combine to get full... Unfortunately, the sunflowers are not yielding as good as could be expected, so I get a little extra time once in a while. ;-)
Got to go,
Andrew B.

Busy with work...

Hello all,
   Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this blog, but I have been quite busy again... Between keeping the cows in the fence, working on the semi-truck, working on one of my cars, etc. there just hasn't been much time to write here...    Now I am helping a nearby farmer with his corn harvest, so I will be quite busy for the next couple of weeks over there...   I am grateful for the chance to make a little extra money though... :-) 
  I don't remember if I have posted a picture of my latest project, so I will post one here:

It's a 2002 Dodge Intrepid, which had a number of problems when I purchased it, although the most serious one was a problem with the transmission...  I ended up replacing a part in the transmission, which seams to have fixed the problem...  So now I have another working car... :-) 

 Best get to bed,

  Andrew B.

Excelsior: Ever Higher

 Hello again!  I have once again been quite busy with the Fall field work, and haven't taken the time to post here, but I guess you have probably noticed that. :-)

 Today I just wanted to do a little promotional for "Excelsior!", a recently released Christian short film produced by two families who are both friends of mine... :-)  I actually haven't seen the full film yet, but the trailer looks interesting:



They are also hosting a DVD giveaway over at the Official Excelsior Blog, be sure to check it out!  Thanks for looking!

   Andrew B.

Pictures from the Threshing Bee!

I am back again, after a week long absence... :-)

  We had a good time at the threshing bee again, as I always enjoy looking at the old equipment and machines... This year there was the new addition of an old fashioned Blacksmith shop:

This year's featured tractor, the 1923 SAMSON Model M:

Jacob really enjoyed looking at this nicely restored Chevrolet Impala:

One of the classic Rumely Oil Pull tractors:

Who could that be driving the early 30's Unstyled B? :-)

A really nice 1925 Model T Ford:

After the parade, I helped out with the Corn husking demonstration:

Here is a compilation of several video clips from the Threshing Bee:

Hope you enjoy all of the pictures!
    Andrew B.