New Car -- Continuing on South

We spent a week in Lake Village, AR at Lake Chicot State Park -- a nice park that was nearly empty except for us.  A little too cool -- some nights around 32 and although many sunny days reached 60, not quite as warm as we (Margo) wanted.   We would have moved on earlier, but as we reached Lake Village, Tuesday evening, January 27th, the front brakes on the 1991 Cutlass Ciera Oldsmobile began grinding badly.  
  We stopped at a couple of repair shops, who looked at the rusty undercarriage and said they couldn't, wouldn't or shouldn't fix the brakes.  We knew that in WI or MN we could get them fixed, but here rusty means work, and without experience they were unwilling to try. 
   So we shopped cars, first settling on a 2007 Pontiac Torrent -- very nice suv, 100k miles and only $5,000.  However it had been sitting in the dealer lot, and when he went to take it out for a spin, the electric assist power steering didn't work.  A week of tinkering and diagnosing it (things go like molasses in the winter here), finally found it was bad and he had to fix it and add another $1000 to the price -- and a few weeks more time (he planned to get a junk yard part).   
   So some more looking around and we settled on a 2011 Impala with 119K miles for $5800.  Very clean, absolutely no rust.  The same dealer (the only one in Lake Village where we were stuck) bought two of them from a Federal Govt auction (local prison) where they had been used by prison officials. 
   We got rid of the Olds in the deal ($200 off the price which started at $7k and ended at $5800).   I bought and installed a trailer hitch and so on Saturday, Feb 4th we hooked up the camper and drove 300 or so miles south to Chicot State Park in LA (yes they have the same name).   The Impala pulled very nicely, trailer hardly noticeable behind.  
   We had planned on staying in LA for a few weeks where the highs are 70s and lows 50s.  Actually a little too warm for comfort with sudden change.  LA is one of those cut taxes on the rich and business states that Bobby Jindal starting in 2008, and with his next 8 years of very much lower state income (no cutting taxes did not bring in more revenue), park, schools, roads etc., have all been drastically underfunded and show it drastically too.  
  We had been here in 2009, and it appears that nothing has been done since in the park except to sweep the bathrooms (but not really clean them).  Weekly garbage pickup, prisoners used to do what cleaning that is done (at least in some of the parks), and pretty shabby overall.   It was full with fishermen and others on Saturday, but as they left Sunday, today we drove around the campsites in the 6000+ acre park and found a "better" place with bathrooms that were under construction when we were here in 2009, and so are still decent, although in need of some TLC.  
   Plan to stay here until next Monday, and then move on.  Every day we update what we are doing with photos on Facebook, so if you are interested in following us visually, get one of those free Facebook accounts and follow us.  
    https://www.facebook.com/russell.b.hanson
Internet service is somewhat abbreviated (meaning slow and very much restricted -- so photos and videos are not easily seen), but text and mail is OK.  
  Some photos from AR and LA -- very highly compressed to make it so we can upload them. 

73F and Sunny

Monday was another day in Chicot State Park in SE Arkansas.  73F after 40F overnight.  Not windy today so much nicer that the past few days.   We are getting comfortable with the camper, the camp and everything except the car.   The 1991 Olds got this far and started having brake trouble with the front brakes.  The local shops won't fix it -- too rusted out they say, although it is not that bad for WI and MN, it is fatal here.    So we started looking for a replacement -- an older rust-free vehicle from down here that will pull a trailer.   We found one we liked, priced OK, but the dealer said he had to get the power steering (electrical) fixed.    

Now about a week later, it finally got taken to the GM dealer who may anyday now take a look at it.   The deep south runs on its own schedule -- which is like molasses running on a cold day.     Today we looked at other vehicles, but nothing seemed quite right, and then as we were just getting into Greenville MS, where there were many used car dealers, the front brakes gave out totally.  Instead of just groaning and scraping, they quit working and the light came on.  Added some fluid and it appears to leak back out again soon.  The back brakes do work and stop the car OK, but it feels unsafe, and it surely is not a good thing to drive it much -- even to look for a replacement.    

So we signed up for 2 more days at Chicot -- sunny and warm through Wednesday, and plan to annoy the dealer a little more about getting the steering repaired.   He offered us a Blazer -- 2001, 200,000 miles, decent condition, 4-wheel drive,  no rust, trailer hitch, and sound mechanically for $2500.  However, the a/c works fine, but not the heater!   Seems not to be a problem here.  He also offered a one-owner 2000 4-wheel drive Pickup Truck with a v-8, new tires, very decent mechanically and nice inside for $5000.  Not really what we want either.  

Another dealer had a Ford Fusion 2011, 150k miles, nice looking, and sound for $5000.  Salvage title though.   The local used car dealers go to auctions in central AR and buy cars, touch them up and resell them.   We would like to get something we like rather than just something to get us from point A to point B, but not spend a lot.   An interesting and maybe impossible quest, but as we still have back brakes, it goes on until the windmill falls over or we get caught in the blades.    The internet here is so slow I can't even format this post.  

No new paragraphs, nothing but raw text!   Takes me back to the days when I had a dial up modem and connection.  Need to drive over to the McDonalds to get decent WIFI.  

  

Minnesota through Arkansas Days 1-7 on the Road

We left Wisconsin Sunday afternoon, January 22, headed out on the 2017 Road Trip to Louisiana.  Cold, snow, and winter -- unbroken until March maple syrup season seemed too long to endure.  

So we hooked up the 91 Olds (the only car with a trailer hitch) and the 1990 Jayco pop-up tent camper, all loaded with tools, camping, sleeping stuff and headed south to Pine Island MN for the first leg of the trip.  

"If the Olds works OK to Pine Island, we will take it south," I told Margo, "but if we get there and it has trouble, we will buy one of those rust free 10 year old cars down there to replace it."  

  Here is the daily log from my Facebook pages:

Just at freezing and a small coating of white frosty snow at the Pine Island MN house as we get ready to drive to Branson MO today. Listening on the radio to the Packers lose yesterday as drove from the Farm here (120 miles) we tested out the combination of the 91 Olds and 90 Jayco camper. Seemed to pull fine even at 65mph on Hwy 52. Nothing to make us nervous about continuing. 

So we are preparing for a few weeks away. 

Many Amish in southern IA and northern MO.  The snow disappeared by mid Iowa.  

The first open ponds are always exciting -- Missouri

There is just enough snowy frost on the car and driveway to hint of slick morning driving, so will stick to the main roads and go slow. 

Did find out that the cigarette lighter socket was dead, so couldn't plug in the gps -- but our first route is just drive to Hwy 35 and take it to Branson. 

Branson is supposed to be 53F for a high today and the forecast south after that is a week of sunny days and 60s if we go another day's travel south.

Checked in at the almost newly remodeled Budget Inn on the south side of Sedalia, MO for the night. Nice room, fresh everything, but no chairs and no bedside lamp and no clothes hangers. Very slow wi-fi. 

Budget Inn $66 OK

Sedalia is just about 600 south of the Farm. We drove 118 miles Sunday to Pine Island, MN and started at 7:30 this morning headed for Branson. However about 5:30pm as it got dark, we pulled into this motel (which we stayed in many years ago under the name of Starlight). $66 total for the night. Adequate. 

We took Hwy 14 to I35 and then through Des Moines IA and switched to 2-lane Hwy 65 (a nice peaceful and decent road through IA and MO as far as we have traveled. 

No snow on the ground after Ames, Iowa and open ponds by 100 miles into MO with about 41F and sunny by late afternoon--felt very nice. 

On the way here, as we crossed from IA into MO, the right front brake was noticeably noisy when we went very slowly through an old downtown street--noise went away if I stepped lightly on the brake pedal. Not a problem, I figured as we cruised on down Hwy 65 for another 40 miles, and then a sudden wrenching sound and continuous rumbling. "Flat tire" I wondered although it rode OK. Pulling over as soon as I found a shoulder on top of a hill checked everything and no flats or obvious problems. The brake had gotten sort of spongy too as it noise started, so I figured something in the brake broke (i.e. pad came loose or something). 

Drove slowly (30 mph) along about a mile headed for the next town a few miles ahead with the throbbing/grinding noise and suddenly a clunk, a piece of the car flew out the back, and the noise quit totally and all sounded fine. I didn't try to turn the rig around to find out what came out--but it was about the size of a bratworst I thought. 

Anyway, the brakes worked mostly, but grinding and pulsing that seemed to be coming from the front right. 

We drove on a few more hours, ignoring it as we still had decent brakes (not perfect, but adequate). My guess is a brake pad broke loose or something on the caliper broke -- so the front right brake is mostly not working, but not really bothering. If we make another day OK, and setup camp somewhere, I will pull off the wheel and see what is wrong -- and likely take it in somewhere for a front brake job. 

We got about 18 miles per gallon pulling the camper, vs about 28 we get without it--running about 60-65 mph. 

A decent day all in all!

Tuesday:

Very nice at 70F, but a little cool at 32F even with the windows zipped, the heater on.  

Chicot State Park along the Mississippi River backwaters

70F this afternoon as we cruised into Lake Village and parked the camper at Chicot State park, sort of the SE corner of AR, across the Mississippi from Greenville, MS, and just north of Louisiana. 

Decided to stay here a couple of days as it started feeling to hot for us (and we found the car air conditioner doesn't work this year). Supposed to be sunny for a full week, with 50s-60s and lows in the 30s, so that seems about right. 

The brake is grinding on the Olds, so visited Lake Village to find a repair shop. Stopped at a Truck repair place and asked Melvin, a mechanic about my age, where I could take the car to get front brake work. 

We do that too, over at our auto shop, Wayne Edwards Parts and services. Then we started talking about a 91 Olds from MN and what the part that flew out the back might be. A brake pad? or ? And then about MN salt, rust and those kind of problems. 

The folks here in the south are always perturbed by older Northern cars, as they get to work on mostly rust-free cars down here. Anyway, at 9 am, I drive it into the shop and Melvin (a black man about my age or maybe less) will see what flew off, and whether or not what is left is easily fixed. He was wearing a spiffy blue uniform with the Wayne Edwards Logo and his name, Melvin. He thought Russ Hanson was a good MN name. 

Melvin liked to talk, and so I learned he came from W Virginia, where salt is used too, but nothing like MN and WI! 

Inoperable Rust

A 2007 Torrent with 100k miles for $5000?

Or a lower priced model?

We drove over to the main repair shop and told the lady behind the desk we were sent over by Melvin to set up a 9 am front brake check/repair appointment. "Well, if Mel sent you over, we better do it," drawled the pleasant lady behind the desk. Everyone in the shop and most of the folks in town are black. The town is on Hwy 65, the route we took from Des Moine IA south. Today we turned over 1000 miles! 

Pecan trees, pines, cypress, bayous, holly, magnolias, pansies cotton fields, and along the Mississippi miles of flat, flat, very flat wet fields. A neighbor here is fishing for white perch -- no luck tonight.

Well, Melvin took a look at the rusty bottom and sort of threw up his hands. "My impact wrench wouldn't even remove the nuts holding the wheel on. And the bolts holding the caliper, which looks bad and should be replaced, is likely to break off when I try to take it out." 

I know up north the mechanics are used to this stuff, and I even have my own 3/4 heavy duty socket wrench with the 3-foot pipe extension to take off the nuts (and had done that on the two passenger side wheels just before we left).

Part of the trip south was keeping in mind that we might want to try to find a rust-free older vehicle here to bring back. 

"I could spend a day or more and a $1000 if nothing breaks and I can get the parts, but if it breaks then even more work" commented Mel, obviously not looking forward to a day of rusty work.

Then Wayne Edwards, the owner of the shop came over, a fellow about my size and shape agreed, "questionable whether you want fix it up."

"So do you have something for sale that would pull a 1000lb load trailer?" I asked. 

"Two 2011 Impala's from the state prison with 100,000 miles and good shape and a nice 2007 Pontiac Torrent with 100,000 miles." 

He showed me the Torrent (the others were at a different location). Absolutely rust free, very clean, smooth running, but the electric steering had just stopped working. "I have to take it to the GM dealer in town and get the computer code read out so we know what is wrong before I can sell it. Price is $4995 and in very good condition! Adding a trailer hitch is about $300. I will know more about the steering tomorrow -- maybe just a fuse or something"

"I will bring Margo over tomorrow afternoon and we will check it out then, and if she likes it, and you can take the 91 Olds in trade for decent amount, we probably are interested." 

"No trade in!!!!!!!," he replied, "but the junk dealer is across the road."

It is amazing when you look under a 10 year old car from AR, and don't see any rust. interior is immaculate, and so we will stay here at the park into next week and see what develops. The alternate plans are -- do nothing and keep driving the Olds; get rid of the Olds and rent a vehicle; or move to Lake Village AR and take the bus.

I gave Wayne and Melvin each a bottle of maple syrup from Wisconsin in return for the physical exam that resulted in one of those "just sew 'em back up--cancer has spread too much and nothing we can do." Back in MN, where the Mayo Clinic of car mechanics work, a different prognosis and treatment would be likely.

Tulip tree ready to bloom

Camelias!

Paid for campsite through the weekend as we consider the automobile dilemma. Margo looked over the Torrent and thought it was OK, so tomorrow we visit Wayne and see if we can reach a deal with trailer hitch added. Otherwise we did look at other cars today too--photo of one here. 

A nice day with some blooms here and there to view.

Worrying tonight about the 91 Olds disposal if we buy a different car. The title is still in MN and we are down here, so can't sell it and pass on the title--even need that for junking it I think. 

So right now the plan is to buy a hammer and chisel, then chisel of the VIN (identification numbers), wipe it clean for fingerprints, and drive it into the Mississippi at one of the scenic overlooks like they do on those TV cop shows with the accelerator stuck down. 

Or maybe one one of the back roads where hillbillies live in AR and there are already 100 old cars in the woods. Just stick a Confederate flag on it first and let it return to nature.

Cones for Sweet Gum tree

Pecan harvesting (picking up from the ground by hand) underway

32F, sunny, calm and no snow here in Chicot State Park on the edge of the Mississippi River. Big vees of various colored noisily honking high flying birds, robins, blackbirds, a cardinal, squirrels and the usual assortment of squawking, pecking, hooting, and other rackety birds wake us early. 

The land around here is absolutely flat and likely to give you wet feet if you stray off the roads and paths. The only hill is the big levee just out of the park to keep the wet side wet and the dry side dry should the Missippissippissipi get some runoff from Wisconsin and MN. 

No farming underway as the soil is drenched from rains last week. 

Today is car shopping for us. We plan to try a few local spots looking for that ideal vehicle -- under 100,000 miles, absolutely no rust or damage, mechanically sound, trailer hitchable (most don't have them unless they are pickups or SUV's--so must be able to add one), excellent gas mileage, no more than 10 years old, and in the $3k - 6k range. Something we can immediately hook on to the camper and go another 300 miles south next week where instead of 32F overnight with 50F in the camper, it will be 42F overnight and 60F in the camper in the early morning. 

Maybe still buy the Torrent, but we need to study some more after I spent the evening checking out the Torrent complaints online -- excellent vehicle if the computer and sensors would ever let it run for a while without turning things off or scaring the driver with warning messages-- mostly in something called "Stabiltrak" lights coming on for things like not putting the groceries in the exact center of the back seat. Also as the 2007 one has a steering failure right now (the electric motor assist) have to see if it is fixed. Read up on that too--and not a big complaint as it is a replaceable unit. 

Anyway, shopping for cars is on the agenda. It is very much like dating, or maybe electing a president, you take in a few impressions, facts and with a car and date --a trial run, and then make a decision that for most people,

lasts a long time. It is easy to make a bad decision because the saleperson is out to sell to folks who live far away and can't come back to complain. You have to be careful of those salespeople who say 100,000 miles and when you actually look at the gauge it is 200,000 miles -- some folks seem unable to tell the truth ever. 

At the moment, I am hopeful that my very great need for change doesn't push me into a decision I regret. However, unlike electing a president, I don't have to wait 4 years to make a change. Over the 55 years I have had a car or truck, I have really only bought about half a dozen starting with my 1937 Chev Truck at age 14, so this is still a stressful time for me. It is why I am still married to my first wife--too stressful to think about change.

Not much luck at car shopping today-- too expensive, too old, too worn out, etc. Wayne didn't have the steering fixed on the Torrent -- "looks like the computer has to be re-programmed, and the earliest I can get it in to the GM dealer is next Monday morning. I got it after it had been vandalized -- one side had the lights broken the windows broken and scratched--not an accident, but a vandal. So it has new lights, windows, etc., on the passenger side and a new paint job there. Nothing structural. Anyway, when we had it in the body shop, I left it with the door open and the battery went dead and then the power steering electric motor quit." He called the GM dealer in the next town 22 miles away -- who told him to bring it up and they would try to "reprogram it." I wonder if it was previously used by a cult of Southern Trumpist Baptists and needs to be de-programmed rather than re-programmed so I can drive it. 

The Impala's Wayne had for sale are federal prison cars --2011 Impala's bought at an auction, but a few thousand more--and cars rather than the sort of suv-ish Torrent and messy to add a trailer hitch--looks like I would have to hack-saw some of the plastic bumper away. 

Spent some time looking online at adding a trailer hitch -- extremely simple for the Torrent--a plug in for the wiring and with the right hitch -- bolt holes already threaded and a snap out plastic bumper insert. Probably an hour to put it on myself and the hitch costs about $125 but takes a couple of days to order. 

So Monday at 1 pm, we can stop in and see if it is still for sale and we decide to buy it, or if we just hook up the Olds and camper and head to our next stop in Ville Platte, LA 300 miles south. 

The Olds runs smoothly until you want to stop and then grinds and crunches to a stop. My strategy is pulling it into low (automatic transmission) as I ease up to a stop sign so I don't scare all the folks nearby as the brakes moan to a stop. Driving it back home via the Freeway wouldn't be much of a problem as only about 3 stops per day. The brakes do work, but metal on metal is surely not likely to last very long. 

Friday was laundry day; food shopping day; and car shopping day. The first two went fine.

33F, clear, calm and an expected high of 54F today with tomorrow expected to be 60F at Chicot State Park on the backwaters of the Mississippi River in the nearly deep south. 

Many trees, bushes and plants with green shiny leaves all winter here including giant Magnolias, LIve Oaks (I think), Holly, Camelias (beginning to bloom) and others, especially right along the lake shore where the never-freezing ox-bow lake moderates the climate a little. We appear to be out of the floodable area thanks to the high levee between us and the River. 

Today, I think we will venture the 25 miles to Greenville MS where Riverboat Gambling is actually on a Riverboat, and there is a bigger town to look for a used car. If you imagine walking into the casino at Danbury WI across a large wide gangplank, and then once inside see the same thing only with a slight nautical look, you will get the idea. We were there in 2010 and did well other than the mortgage we had to place on our MN house when Margo put it all on Red. 

In the evening we headed to the laundromat here in Lake Village. Now you have to know about the small city here. It has moved almost 100% from the old rather quaint downtown to a strip along Hwy 65. The few blocks of big old brick stores downtown are virtually all empty on both sides of mainstreet which ends at the lake, a park and a tall statue of some Confederate general. Down here the losing side put up endless amounts of statues to remind folks that they fought for what was right, and don't forget it -- slavery, racism and later Jim Crow laws, only now replaced by Trump/Pence signs here and there while the population is at least half black, and very friendly, helpful black folks at that.

"1861-1865 CSA 

TO THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS OF CHICOT

COUNTY, THE RECORD OF WHOSE SUBLIME 

SELF SACRIFICE AND UNDYING DEVOTION 

IS THE PROUD HERITAGE 

OF A LOYAL POSTERITY." 1910

The signs of poverty are prevalent in the whole town from small old decaying lived in houses to boarded up buildings. However along Hwy 65 we see the McDonalds and the stripmall mentality that has completely killed the old downtown.

A Visit to the Laundromat

Having gone through the week's set of clothes we brought along, it was time to hit the laundromat. The park has a nice laundromat building but it is shut down for winter when the only visitors they get are weekend fishermen and boaters and a few straggling northerners who think 30 - 60s are paradise. 

The Laundromat is behind the very nice US Postoffice, in an old freshly painted large red brick building. Very nice looking until we get inside where 3 black bachelor's are washing and drying clothes--one young man (20s), one about 45 and one as old as me, waiting on the dryers to finish. It is 5:00 pm. 

The inside is old, dingy, with rows of washers and dryers that one is uncertain whether the machines will work or not. Using the laundromat strategy of opening each machine and checking if it feels warm (same for the dryers) from a recent batch is the best way to know if it works. We loaded two and set on the bench along the wall and listened to the two older men talk in a very southern accent. 

Having worked with all sorts of accents and people from all around the world while at Mayo Clinic, I am much better at understanding folks than Margo. 

The two men were talking about the younger man's work on the tows pulling barges up and down the Mississippi river, something he had done for years, but now appeared to have moved on. Being curious about the life and job, I asked "We're from MN, near St Paul. Have you ever gone that far north?" 

"Yes, been everywhere on the River including some of the side routes -- into Chicago, on the Arkansas and other routes. Got a nieces that lives in Hennipen -- way too cold up there!' The accent was heavy! 

Anyway the two talked about river boat work until the younger man's clothes were all hung and neatly folded. "Like these flannel lined work pants," he commented which started a thread of flannel shirts and how to get a decent one. 

Then the younger man left and the older man asked "what brings you here?" and I gave my story of the broken brakes and looking for a new car, and he gave me some advice -- and was unbelieving of an undercarriage that was so rusty it the car shop wouldn't do a brake job. 

"My 87 Ford truck is still fixable," he said as I took him out to see the 91 Olds. His truck didn't have any rust on the body and looked quite nice underneath. 

"When you headed back?" he asked. 

"In March to make maple syrup." And as he didn't know what that was, I explained it and gave him a bottle to take home from the case we brought along to sweeten up the neighbors and auto repair folks we meet along the way. 

Friendly folks, who live in an area where good jobs are scarce, and people are used to doing without.

Beautiful sunny morning; birds are tweeting, boaters on the Lake and Margo is up about. Have been worrying about her back, sleeping in the camper and whether or not she will have problems. She won't admit to anything wrong so I count the pain pills in the bottle each evening to see if they are going down faster than usual. She is not complaining, seems to be enjoying things, although maybe a touch of hypothermia when the mornings are 32F outside and 45F inside. This trip was an experiment to see if we could still do the old style roughing it camping we were used to or if we needed to upgrade to a hard shell RV with furnace, bathroom, and amenities.

Here we use the very nice bathroom and shower facility -- and with only one other camper in the park, no crowds. The other camper is one of those big pull behind ones that are more comfortable than your own home. 

We use an electric blanket and an electric space heater to keep the cold at bay -- although with single layer thin canvas walls heating the inside is not very successful in the mornings before the sun comes in. 

We got down here and realized we didn't have the step up into the camper. Trying to find one with a railing to make it easier than to take a run and jump in or hop out. 

The car parts places in town said "you need to go to an RV dealer" and point out they are an hour or more away, and we are limiting our travels right now. So I think a camper spare tire might work for the step for now. Probably should try to remove the rustly bolts holding it on today anyway.

With a beautiful Saturday morning, and deciding to actually stay at the park and enjoy the weather today, I decided it was time to really inspect the brakes close up. 

Melvin had complained he couldn't get the wheel lug nuts off with his air impact wrench, so I took off the right front wheel with my penetrating oil, 3/4 Craftsman socket with the 3-foot pipe extension. 

Came off easily. However I forgot my maul and couldn't budge the wheel to come loose from the hub. So left the lug nuts a little loose and told Margo to go out and drive around awhile making lots of turns (but not using the brakes) to see if the hub might break loose from driving it while I jacked up the camper and loosened the wheels nuts on it--just in case of a flat tire there. 

She balked -- no spirit of adventure, I guess. Having closely inspected the undercarriage, I made a firm decision not to drive it back home, not to get it fixed, but just rid ourselves of the car Aunt Lou (God rest her soul) bought cheaply almost new in 1992 because it was returned under the WI Lemon Law and the dealer was mostly unable to get the computer to behave consistently.

We bought it from her the summer of 2009 when she passed away and Margo was staying with her to help out -- Lou couldn't drive anymore and wanted to reward Margo. The Olds then was 18 years old and had 50,000 miles. Margo paid $500 for it and it gave us 7 years of a great ride and good service (after I replaced the computer with a newer version). It likely would continue doing well except for the need for a whole undercarriage transplant.

So, the plan is to push Wayne into getting the Torrent steering fixed (just the computer he says). We studied it some more close up and it is really clean and nice inside, outside and underneath and runs wonderfully except for steering like the M Farmall. Great tires, great ride, and the brakes work fine). Monday at 1 pm, we will find out what the GM dealer says -- a computer re-program is what the over-the-phone dealer diagnosis was after an hour of readouts and phone and tester device readouts. Not really a good sign when the computer runs amuck!!! 

The main problem down here is that southern Arkansas runs on a different schedule, sort of laid back with nothing much in a hurry. We have been here only a few days, and haven't accommodated ourselves yet -- between the stress of car problems that I completely cover up not to worry Margo, and our intentions to go a little more south, and the unwinding from the Farm schedule of everyday up at 5:30 to milk the cows and clean the barns and work on the buildings to a real retired folks schedule, it is our problem more than Wayne's. 

I reassembled the car and came in to get the computer and go back out and sip a mint julep under the shady Magnolia tree here on the banks of the Old Mississippi, while the penetrating oil does its job and before I swim across the bayou to borrow a maul from the cotton farmer working on his giant land leveler machine across the way.

2017 Trip South Planning

  After 5 long years in the labor camps of the US Siberian woodlands,  Margo and I are planning to spend a few weeks in the Southern States beginning next week.   
  For many years from the 1990s through 2011, we spent a week at first each winter, then after retirement in 2005, up to 6 weeks somewhere along the southern tier of states.  Far enough down to be in the 60s during the day and 40s at night, but not down there where the folks from the north get so thick they are a burden with their Fargoesque brogues. 
   In 2012 I had knee problems and a new knee put in.  In 2013, Margo was fighting cancer and me Myasthenia gravis. Then a couple of back surgeries with Margo left her quite weak and wobbly, so we hunkered down and stayed in the North, spending some time in our Pine Island MN house (130 miles south of the Farm in Wisconsin)--but not really any warmer. 
   Now, with Margo doing better, we decided to try it again.  Part of the difficulty is we haven't given up the sort of roughing it camping style, at least we haven't given it up mentally.    
  We like quiet state parks (most of them are if they aren't right on the ocean during winter), and using our pop-up canvas walled camper.  That means going far enough to be comfortable in it. 
   The beds are not like home, the steps up and down getting in and out need care, the bathrooms aren't even down the hall, but down the row of campsites.  I am eager to try it and see how well we cope.  If it doesn't work out, we will trade the Olds and old camper in for something with more amenities and something that will pull it.  
   Anyway right now we are planning on being on the road Monday, starting from Pine Island, MN with the goal of reaching Branson, MO the first day -- about 550 miles.  Branson, the big music tourism showplace is in off season, with lots of motels and competitive rates.  The next day we should be far enough south to set up the camper overnight.  
   The car is almost ready. Tried taking the camper for a drive to Cushing and back, but the trailer lights plug and the car one wouldn't quite fit--so had to get a new one to put on the camper. 

 Warning--- A discussion of sec and mating  follows:   The two plugs that won't mate.  The top one is outside a female, three inside male plugs and a female on the right. It is on the trailer.  The one in the trunk is supposed to slip gently into this one.  Even K-Y jelly didn't help.  

The plug below is overall a male on the top with 3 female sockets and a male plug.  The second part of it is 4 female sockets.   I think this must be what is called transgender -- or maybe mixed gender.   

The parts woman at autoparts are us made me blush furiously as she tried to explain the variation in sizes of male and female parts, and finally we decided I would just to an organ transplant on the trailer end so the mating would be accomplished for the trip.  

The 1991 Olds attached to the early 1990 Jayco tent camper. Jayco 

2016 Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society (Jan 19, 2017)

     Today was the 2016 Christmas Party for the Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society.  We have been around since 2000, and have settled on having our Christmas parties in January so we have something to break up the winter.  The Wolf Creek Church is a great place to have it, with a kitchen, serving counter, gracious hosts, and a feeling of history in the 1922 building.  (95 years old--creeping up on 100).  

     The weather was sunny, 44F, with the January thaw in place leaving a layer of wet mud on the sandy parking lot -- one of the few times of the year that the Sterling Barrens sands feels muddy. 

     When I went to school here, we always hoped for a January or February thaw that melted enough snow to fill the low area along the River Road next to the cemetery with water which turned into a skating pond.  Most years it was only a week or two in March before the ground thawed and the water percolated into the sand, but once in a while it lasted and we could skate (if we could find some skates from an aunt or uncle to borrow). 

    The pot-luck part of the party is better than a restaurant as we get a variety of home made hot dishes, salads and desserts.  We brought a ham and that friend Neil gave us as a thank you for bow hunting in our woods. Too big for a couple of old folks, but fine for 20 people at a Christmas party!

    The program was informal, learning about Wolf Creek from each other.  Orlow Widvey (94?) came to Wolf Creek when he was 4 years old, and told us about the people and stores he remembered. 

We learned a little about Nevers Dam and the Blair cabins (at Riverside Auto) and Duane Doolittle, secretary and treasurer of the Wolf Creek Cemetery Society gave us some history of the cemetery -- started about 1865 and still thriving. 

  We ate from noon - 1pm; learned from 1pm - 2pm; and then went outside to play for recess.  

   A good time was had by all!   

20 folks came out in the 44F sunny weather to enjoy a great potluck lunch, visiting and learn about the history of Wolf Creek

The tables are in the "big room" (grades 5-8) of the 1922 Wolf Creek School House.  The floors are original hardwood, the walls have been recovered and the ceiling lowered. 

Orlow Widvey came to Wolf Creek 90 years ago when he was 4 years old, and went to this school in the 1920s.  He told us about the neighborhood when he was young.  Mostly just the store, bar, dam and folks who lived in the area.  Retherfords, Fisks, Dahls, Louis', Montys, Fors, Lagoos, Blairs, and others.  

Margie Mattson, in front, was a student teacher at Wolf Creek for a week in 1955-- from the Polk County Normal (teacher's) college.  She taught the Hanson boys, but we must have behaved that week as I don't remember anything.  I mostly remember the times I did something wrong rather than when I was good.  

Visiting and waiting in line for lunch

Desserts

Some photos of Old Wolf Creek, around since 1831 when it was an Indian Trading post. 

Looking to the far back left, the opening into the "little room" grades 1-4, now the church sanctuary with pews from the 1890s first made for the Cushing Methodist Church, then to the Eureka Methodist Church and now at the Wolf Creek Methodist Church. 

How Cold Is It?

This week, winter finally caught up with us on the Farm here in NW Wisconsin.  The warmest fall in my memory and most meterologists, continued a few days into December, but finally with my 70th birthday, December 10th, temperatures have continued to drop each day with this morning -15F.  

  On the 9th of December, my real birthday according to Mom who said that I was born at 11:55pm on the 9th rather than 12:05 AM on the 10th as Dr. Jacob Arthur Riegel wrote on my birth certificate info, I was in Mayo Clinic having a 15 minute second cataract removal operation -- right eye this time a month after the left eye. 

   Bought a cheap pair of reading glasses to see close and can see in the distance very well with brighter vision too -- sort of like taking the 1955 TV to the repairman and getting it rejuvenated (yep, they did that to sort of shock the TV into another year or two of brighter images as it aged).  
  No more fogging lenses as I go in and out in the winter; no more worrying about breaking glasses in outdoor activities.  However, as a severely nearsighted person, I do miss being able to read without glasses.  When I fall asleep while reading, it is with my glasses on and so sooner or later I wake up again as I roll over and hear a crunch. 
  This week, with 4 inches of snow, decided to get the Cub Cadet snow blower tractor out and make sure it worked.  The battery was weak this summer, so I kept it on a battery maintainer.  However at 0F, it wouldn't turn over at all, even with the booster-charger attached.  So with Scott's help, got the badly buried battery out, traded for a new top-of-the line $36 one at Menards, and then got it pried and bolted back into place. It is taller than the old one, so the mounting strap/wire no longer worked -- a bungy cord now holds it from jiggling around.  

  Started up immediately, and did the driveway.  The first few runs each fall are hard on the machine and driver as the snow usually comes with rain at first and leaves everything frozen in ruts that the blower bounces along over, casting the first stones of winter.   Did a decent job and now, with the maintainer keeping it peak charged, all 360 cold cranking amps (zero degree) should be ready.  I wonder how many turns of the starter are in 360 cold cranking amps?  With the modern hot spark of electronic ignition, starting seems to be easier than good old days of pans of coals, hot water carburetor baths, and cans of ether.  
   We get several Christmas cards each day.  Haven't sent ours out yet, but have good intentions.  We are saving the cards to open and read on Christmas Eve, when we will eggnog our way into the right mood to read the ups and downs, operations, children's successes and trips of our friends and neighbors.  Sort of a binge of catching up with folks we haven't heard from since last Christmas, and may not have seen for 30 years or more.   Rather nice to remember old friends from old jobs and neighborhoods.  
  Nowadays, some of those old friends and relatives are on Facebook, and we are more in contact than we were when we knew them as neighbors.  We use Facebook as a sort of diary of each day here on the Farm.  A few photos, a few comments, the temperature and so on. My attempt was to do a full year of at least one post per day, but actually did more like two per day with photos.  My theory is that writing a public diary with photos is a way of aiding my own memory.  
  I have been doing Facebook since 2007 -- and I can go back (rather painfully as Facebook does not seem to want to make it easy to look back--but everything is there), and find out when maple syrup season began, ended, and whether there was snow on the ground etc.  
My memory for when my real memory fades in photos and in words. You have to have a free account on Facebook to see the posts, but they are "public" meaning not only my friends can see them, but anyone who wants to and has an account.  The link is -- Russ's Facebook pages

  I also run several other Facebook presences including 
   Sterling Eureka and Laketown Historical Society
   Polk County Wisconsin Genealogical Society
   Luck Area Historical Society
   Backyard Maple Syruping
   St Croix River Road Ramble
   Sterling Old Settler's Picnic
The first ones are for organizations and we try to put something on them each week. The last two are for events that happen each year and are active around the event time.  They are quite effective in getting free publicity for the groups and events. 
The world changes how we communicate and taking advantage of the changes can bring us closer to others.  I like it that my relatives and friends in Sweden and Norway too post what it is like there.  I belong to a group of folks who all claim ancestry from the same island chain (Vikna) on the Norwegian coast. It connects those of us who emigrated with those who didn't.  
  In my young days, I was a Ham Radio bug, and that was the only way common folks could connect with others around the world other than mail service that sometimes took months per exchange. KA0KZF, what we called a "technician" license.  That meant lots of theory of electronics, radio and knowledge of the rules and regulations, but only passing a 5 word per minute Morse code speed.  And then you only talked to fellow hams who mostly wanted to talk about their radio equipment.  
   Change, in my mind, is what makes life interesting.  Grandpa PH said "No one will ever live through more change than I have -- starting with oxen, we have a man on the moon in my years on earth."  He didn't quite live to see the man on the moon, but he knew it would happen.   The biggest changes in my lifetime are in medicine and in computers.  Medicine ushered in the antibiotic age, the surgery age, and the coming of medications that actually worked.  Computers went from idea through giant radio tubes, transistors, chips and became pervasive and made things like cell phones available.  My parents thought that TV was the big change in the lives of children, but I think it was merely an extension of Radio that came in while they were young. 
  Change is good--it is what makes life worth living. My new eyes took 15 minutes to put in, cure my nearsightedness along with my astigmatism.  Not long ago, cataracts meant blindness.  Then they meant "coke bottle" glasses.  By the 80s when Dad had it done, a long surgery, and overnight stay, and results that were good, but never quite normal.  My doctor says the next step includes bifocals in the lens, or maybe lenses that focus just like a young person's own eyes; and maybe a zoom lens after that?  
  

   

Winterizing on the Farm and Tractor Troubles

With the warm weather coming to an end (probably the warmest November and warmest overall Autumn I can remember), decided to get to the winterizing.

Tulip bed around the old mailbox in the yard.  When it was hard for Mom to walk down to the road mailbox, the post office allowed her to have one in the yard.  We turned it into a flower bed.

Spent the morning spreading hay to mulch the strawberries, blueberries, tulip bed, septic tank and the drainfield. Most years snow does this, but it is better to be prepared.

Two months ago, I bought a Leyland 344, 1972 diesel tractor from my brother. He had it many years and was ready to get rid of it as he still has two other tractors and it was having some problems.

Snow blower and Leyland both in the machine shed shared by two Farmalls, a lumber pile, corn planter, corn elevator and a much more tools including a full blacksmith setup scattered about.  

So I bought it as a more powerful tractor for the farm. It is about 50 hp, has 3 point hitch, and although older, runs pretty good and has the things an old guy wants, power steering, live PTO, and live hydraulics, all missing on my other tractors.

Diesels are notorious as hard starting in winter. As I hadn't started the Leyland tractor for several weeks -- it started fine in 50F temperatures we have been having, yesterday I thought I would try starting it at 30F.

It turned over a little, but the battery quickly gave out and it never fired at all. So today I followed brother Marv's instruction (it was his tractor) and plugged in the water hose block heater and the battery charger and left them for three hours and then it started up fine. I don't plan on using it for a winter tractor, but was curious if I could--and most tractors should have a monthly start to keep them functional.

The Super C Farmall didn't get its start this year. It wouldn't start, even when Scott pulled it up and down the road. No spark. So I pulled out the battery and the wiring harnesses, hidden away under the steering posts had been invaded and chewed up by a mouse. I have normally cranked this tractor, as the starter bearings are bad, so decided to give it a rejuvenation.

New starter, new battery cables, new on/off switch, new plugs, new points, and new wiring where the mouse had been. Still in the process of working on it -- but the new starter certainly turns over fine even with the 6-volt battery (one year old). So that tractor is a few days and a few parts from being ready.

The 350 Farmall is back in the garage waiting for some more work and the loader I bought from Sister-in-law Connie. Had planned to get that going (it runs OK, but the gas tank needs cleaning, and the steering hydraulic hose leaks, and a few other annoyances as well as it needs new engine rings. But as it is planned to be a loader tractor, the rings can wait. I let it spin over a minute or two so the engine would not rust in place.

Anyway, to get back to the winterizing, tried the Cub Cadet and found out the battery was dead even with my battery maintainer connected. The battery is old, but with a maintainer I had hoped to stall off a new one until next year. It appears the maintainer has given up maintaining, so a new battery and new maintainer are next. The snowblower is really the only winter tractor

I need to run unless I am hauling wood.

I have the 9N Ford which starts good even in winter with a shot of ether in the manifold for hauling wood and with the back blade for cleaning the driveway, but I use that at the maple syrup farm 2 miles away.

The rest of the winterizing is in the house with some plastics on a few of the oldest windows, and some furnace tuning. Ready for the brunt of cold weather ahead soon.

Margo is keeping it warm inside busy baking cookies with help from our son Scott, who likes cooking. They make 5 or 6 batches of one type of cookie each day. This week they made mint chip, peanut butter topped with a Hershey kiss, and pecan balls. They took a few hundred to the open house at the Luck Museum as treats.

Deer hunting story part 2

A few years ago I began a deer hunting story that was continued.  I finished it today.  You need to begin at the beginning, so start at this link.  Deer Hunting Story Part 1   and then continue back here. 

“So where did you hit the deer?” asked Byron, wondering if my hunting story would ever get finished so he could start his.  
“Well, I didn’t find that out until much later.  After I saw the deer floating out in Rogers Lake, I had to figure out how to get it out.  Marv and I had done some fishing that summer at the lake when we worked the afternoon shift at Dresser plastic factory and Dad didn’t have any morning jobs on the farm.”
“That job at UFE was pretty boring.  We sat at the hand plastic molding press, with the cement block wall right behind the machine and used our arms to close the mold, swing over the very hot injector, lock it in place, wait a short time, then swing it back and open the mold, all day long, a straight eight hour shift with 10 minutes for a break and sandwich,” commented Marv.  
“Yeah it was 100 degrees in the building.  I remember we each were allowed a fan – that helped a little.  Got $1.35 per hour – about $50 per week to save for college.  Think we worked there for 3 months – must have made about $600 – about half of the college cost, “ I added. 
“I worked at Stokely’s every summer during college,” said Ev, “got about twice that much with the 90 hour weeks and higher pay.  Enough to pay for a year of college.  And I was so tired of 7 days a week and long hours, even college looked good to me by September.”  
“Do you remember when we went on strike?” added Dad, who also worked one summer and part time other summers on the field crew at Stokely’s too.
“Get back to the deer story,” complained Byron. 
“Well, I walked down along Wolf Creek, walked across at the big beaver dam and found Marv hunting on his 40.”
“I had my 55 Chev Belair, that I earned from working at the Nelson Pea Viner when I was 16 parked at Grandpa’s house.  Figured we might be lucky and Mack Fors’ boat would still be at the lake, so we drove up, opened Uncle Marice’s gate and back to the top of the hill where I parked it.”
“Probably where Rogers’ Hotel was located.  All that is left is a hole in the ground and a lilac bush.  When Dad bought it the building was still standing.  Big wide old white pine boards.   We tore it down and I used some of it in fixing up the barn on the farm,” said Dad referring it his father who had originally bought Uncle Maurice’s farm on Rogers Lake. 
“Did you know Thomas Rogers was killed by being gored by a bull?  His kids divided up the land, several hundred acres, and Clara, who married Charles Marriette, moved down the creek and built the buildings where Grandpa Gene lives now,” said local historian Russ. 
“We scrambled down the snowy hill to the edge of the lake. Mac’s old boat was there tipped upside down with the oars under it.  We got it launched along the trail of old boards that sort of made a path through the thick cattails to the edge of the lake.  I remember if was froze over along the edge, but most of it was still open.  We sort of shoved an oared it out to the open water and then rowed out to the middle where the buck was floating high in the water, looped a rope over his horns and started rowing back when we noticed the boat was leaking pretty badly.”
“Yah, you gotta put those old wood boats in the water for a week to swell up before you use them every spring or they leak like a sieve,” commented Dad.  “We used to saw out some thin ½ inch basswood planks for boats when I was a kid and my dad had his big sawmill. Big wide planks for the sides and a flat bottom with a few ribs.  Could make one in a day even with hand tools.  They were light, watertight after they swelled up, and lasted several years if you painted them and kept them in the water all summer.”
“There was an old coffee can in the bottom, so Russ bailed while I rowed as fast as I could until we got on the shore.  By then we had both stepped into the lake edges and our boots were soaking wet inside, and it was really cold outside too.”
“I remember we dragged it up on the shore to hard ground on the hillside and you did the gutting,” I said.  “You had done it before, and I hadn’t.   I remember the deer insides were warm, and felt good to my frozen wet fingers.”
“So where did you shoot it?” asked Ev.  
“It was really odd” said Marv, “no bullet holes in the deer at all, and even when we skun it out later, no holes in the skin.  Almost like the deer died of a heart attack from seeing Russ whale away with his gun.”
“It was all bled out inside, so it was hit good.  Just no entry or exit wound.  We didn’t find a bullet inside either, but we didn’t really look through the guts and we left the heart, lungs, and innards,” I said. 
“It was decent sized 6 point buck.  Sort of short fork, but husky horns” said Ev who every Sunday sat at the dinner table at Mom’s across from the mounted deer horns on the wall. 
“So did you ever get a theory on how you shot it?” asked Byron.
“Yes, you remember how I told you that when I shot, the buck sort of jumped in the air did a bunch of gyrations and twisting around before taking off after I shot him from the rear?  Well, I think I shot him right in the bung hole, and with his gyrations the bullet went right up through the twists and turns of his intestines, into the stomach and then out into the heart, where it probably lodged.  Only way I match the lack of holes and the inside damage.   Probably that doesn’t happen every day, but that is what happened.”

“Do you remember the big buck I shot on the sand – back in ’67,” began Byron, before the rest of the folks could digest the bullet story.