Feeding

With an arctic front going through town, I decided we better start supplementing the horses. Grass this time of year doesn't have much protein to it. And if they want to stay warm, their bellies better be full. 

The other day I brought them a mineral tub mixed with molasses. Seemed to be a welcome treat.

The front really moved in Sunday afternoon. It is supposed to get down to 15 below or so tonight and then warm back up again. 

So I ran out to feed them before the cold really sets in. 

This is the winter water tank that Jack uses. Totally free standing and easy to move around. I've got to say that I was pretty skeptical, but the idea is to fill it with water and the sun warms it and the thick poly exterior keeps it insulated. 

After 30 hours of single digit weather, it was still thawed out. I'm impressed. 

Just keep it full. The lid bobs around and helps keep the heat in. The horses just have to bump it with their noses. 

Buck has it figured out. 

I fed the horses heavy. Grass hay on frozen ground, they can have all they want.

I enjoy feeding. It's good to have something dependent upon you. Brings out the cowboy in a guy. I was reminded of all the times I ran down to Chuck's ranch in the Campbell County prairie to feed cows on my way to Wright. Good times. Fun to look back on. We keep trucking!

To Listen

Then we can do whatever He tells us.

           https://youtu.be/vtxnzsX5SCI         

Pool Time

I'm not real good at pool, but I do like to play it. We had a table in the basement in Gillette. Having an open room in our Buffalo basement, I've been keeping my eye out for a pool table to put there. Lo and behold, the Lord provides. 

I spotted this treasure in the basement of the parish hall. It belongs to the Knights of Columbus, who are the second owners and hauled it down here sometime in the 1970s. Since they hadn't used it in years, they graciously donated it to our cause. 

It's a 9' Brunswick and is in really good shape. I'd like to know what year it was made. I'm guessing the 1960s.

So I called my buddy Jared and we got to work. Neither one of us had ever moved a pool table before. But I had watched a YouTube video and he was trusting. 

We first took the bumper assembly off in two pieces. 

Then pulled the tacks holding the felt and folded it up. 

Moving the slates is where the real challenge begins.

Breaking out the old filler, we exposed the screws that held them down. 

Throughout this process, we tried to be neat and tidy.

They pulled apart pretty easy. This is a three slate assembly, which is pretty common on standard tables. This one also had dowels, which is fine as long as you don't lift up on them as you're pulling them apart. Looks like the last guy found this out the hard way. 

It was good to get to this point. But there was still plenty of work to be done.

Hauling them out was probably the toughest part of the project. A good 200 lbs a piece, I'd say. 

We also brought along the cues and any other accessories lying around. 

Giddy up. 

Then we made room in the 1957 rectory. 

Definitely tight coming down the stairwell. 

When disassembling a pool table, you start at the top and work your way down. When reassembling, you start at the bottom and work your way up. 

We treated all the wood as we went back together. 

Shined up pretty good. 

Again, the slates were a challenge. This time we just slid them down the stairs. 

The first step was to join them back together and get some screws started. 

This was the most important part of the project. You don't level the legs of a pool table, but the individual slates themselves. 

Once we had it all shimmed up and level all around, we screwed the slates down tight. 

The filled in the seams with bondo and sanded it down good. 

Not bad. We were pleased with the way it all lined up. 

Now for the felt. This would be a good time to replace the felt, but we didn't have any nor did we have the time. When reusing old felt, just follow the fold marks and put it right where it was before. We used staples verses tacks on the reinstall. 

Then placed the bumper assemblies on and snugged it all down tight. 

We cleaned up and hung the cues on the wall. Nice old Brunswick sticks. 

All the original balls were accounted for. We put a bit of a shine on them. 

Then Jared racked 'em. 

And I broke the first game on our new old pool table. 

This table is fast! And the extra foot than I'm used to playing on makes it challenging. Jared gave me a pretty good lesson.

Bring it.

All throughout this nine hour excursion, the Sawyer Brown song lyrics kept ringing in my head: We work hard to have a little fun... That's us. This definitely was a lot of work and hopefully we can have a little fun with it as time goes on. Shooting stick is fun, but it also creates an environment to chat about the deeper things in life. Special thanks to the Knights of Columbus for their generosity and to Jared for his strong back. Let's ranch. 

Cutting Torch

Our new sign has been working good, but not the mailbox. It is too close to the driveway. I didn't want to put it on the other side because you'd have to walk through the snow to get to it. After awhile, though, it really looked like the other side was the place to be. So with the help of a cutting torch, we got it changed.

It's not worth waiting until the mailbox slides down the side of someone's pickup before we move it. 

A cutting torch was my tool of choice. The oxygen/acetylene combination is a primitive form of metal fabrication that can't be replaced.  

Grandpa drilled into us kids' head, only turn the acetylene valve on one turn! I've heard this elsewhere and the idea is because if you ever have a fire, the acetylene valve is the one that needs turned off quickly. This is also because you don't need a lot of volume of this gas when cutting like you do the oxygen. Open wide the oxygen tank. The norm is to run the oxygen pressure around 40 psi and the acetylene at about 15 psi. I've got to be careful working around Dad because I'll barely get a cut done and he'll have my bottles shut back off. No sense in leaving them on if you're not using them, though. Most torch set ups have a leak somewhere and there's no need wasting gas. 

Give the acetylene valve on the torch body a crack and strike the flame. Run it open until the flame parts from the tip about a 1/4 inch. 

Then slowly open the oxygen valve until the blue flame cones settle nicely on the tip. Pull your cutting lever to ensure that they don't change when it is triggered. 

When cutting, you have to keep the heat localized before you are able to cut. When cutting off something like this, and you are wanting to preserve the integrity of both pieces of metal, you have to focus the flame on the weld only. This takes a little finesse and it also takes longer to heat up a weld than the edge of a piece of strap iron. 

If you take your time you can make a clean cut that doesn't need a lot of clean up. 

Looks good on the other end too. 

Like my cousin always said, Bryce is a good grinder. 

Not bad. A little nick in the pipe from the torch. 

When cleaning up this angel iron, I just make sure all the cutting slag is gone. If there is some old weld left, that is fine. You're gonna reweld it anyway. 

Getting the welder out to the sign was my hold up. Thankfully, Dick Bradshaw came through once again. This time with a heavy 220 extension cord. 

I just held it in place, with the box still attached, and gave it a tack. 

Then pulled the box and welded it up. 

Shot it with a little paint, turned the box around, and we're back in business. 

I like cutting torches. Grandpa said that they were the first breakthrough in allowing metal works to be done on the farm rather than at the blacksmith. Change the tip, and you can use them to weld as well. Gas welding was the first way I learned to weld. A oxy acetylene set up is about the most versital tool in the shop. As long as you're not out of gas, you can be ready for about any project that comes your way.