Lunchtime

Lunch is a crucial meal of the day. You don't have a lot of time to spare and you don't want to just eat whatever you can find, so it's one of the harder meals to prepare well for. Such was the dilemma for me, until I got turned onto the George Foreman style grills.

This bad boy came into my possession after visiting my carnivore buddy in Montana. He had the real deal, but I found this knockoff electric two sided griddle that serves the same purpose. 

You can cook anything in them, but ground beef patties work the best. What I do for lunch, is make a 1/3 of this package into a hamburger patty and then put the rest back in the fridge to use the next time around.

Works great. Keeps it sealed up and ready for action.

When I come over at noon, I just pinch off another 1/3.

Pound it into a patty and throw it on the grill. I like to spray the grill with Pam first, helps with the cleanup. 

Close the lid and wait for the green light to come on. It only takes about three minutes to cook. 

Bam!

After you unplug it is a good time to get some cheese melting. 

Grab a bun and some Cool Ranch Doritos and you're good to go. 

Super slick. With this cooking set up, I can walk in the house and be comfortably done eating within 30min. Leaving just enough time for a 15min siesta. Aside from that, this makes for an ideal sized lunch. No bloating from eating too much, and no getting hungry at 3:00 from not eating enough. Gotta love ground beef. I could eat a hamburger for any meal of the day. But a fresh cooked burger at lunchtime can't be beat. Don't just take my word for it, though. Give it a go. 

Let's do This

Life comes through death.

           https://youtu.be/qhd0q1bGJYo         

 

Burnt Hollow

Dave and I wanted to go for a little day ride, but there's not a lot of public land around Gillette to choose from. North of town I know of two areas, Weston and Burnt Hollow. Weston is mainly for motor sports, though there are plenty of trails to choose from. Burnt Hollow is a good area, but you've just got to find your way. Perfect for a couple of horseback explorers. 

Dave and Chief wasted no time in getting acquainted. 

Burnt Hollow is about 15 miles north of Gillette on Hwy 59. There are two hike/ride in entrances. The south one I had been on, so we entered through the north gate. 

Kind of no man's land out here. Beautiful though. Early spring can be the most desolate time of year. 

People were once here though. Public ground like this is still leased out to ranchers to graze cattle or sheep on. 

A little worse for wear. No doubt it was essential in its day. Watering livestock in this kind of country is the biggest challenge. 

There's creek beds all over. Not that they ever ran water continuously. But during a good ole Campbell County thunderstorm, the fishing is probably pretty good. 

No problem for Dave and Chief. 

You can see a long ways from some of these peaks. 

Great spring exercise for the horses. 

Jim Craig

Gnarly old trees too. 

This is probably the main water source around here. Reservoirs work well with run off. But with an open winter... we'll have to see. 

Back to the ranch. 

Fun time. Interesting country. Good company. Can't ask for more. This was time well wasted. Sometimes it's ok to be unproductive. Grandpa always said to make sure to stop and smell the roses. No better way to do that than on horseback. Rides like this sure make you appreciate public ground. I'm not an anti-private land guy by any means. Personal ownership can bring out the best in mankind and in creation. Not everyone is able own land though. So thanks be to God for public spaces. Man needs room to roam. It's good for the soul. Whether you live downtown or down the road, get out and blow the stink off. Your wife will thank you for it. 

Testimony of Works

Works speak for themselves.

           https://youtu.be/HpT7iMpB82w         

Novena for Moisture

Nobody likes a drought, especially ranchers. Not wanting to wait and see if it was going to be a dry spring or not, we went ahead with our spring novena for moisture. God has blessed us through it in the past, so we had recourse to it once again. 

It has been a very dry, warm winter. Which hasn't been bad, as long as it rains in the spring. Well, on the 10th day of our novena, it started raining!

All glory to God! We have been praying this prayer for moisture for the last nine days. Some people haven't stopped praying it since the last intentional novena we did two years ago. Maybe we should just do it every first week of March from here on out. 

On the way down to the Durham Ranch in Wright for a Mass of thanksgiving, the skies really opened up. Praise God!

John had his butcher shop fixed up nice for Mass. I bet we had 15 people in attendance. 

No better way to close out a novena than with the Eucharistic Celebration. 

Of course, red meat at the Open Range afterwards was a nice touch too. 

Novenas are nine days of focused prayer for a specific intention. Its roots go back to the nine days the disciples spent in prayer between the Ascension of our Lord and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 1:14). This tradition of Christian prayer continues to bear tremendous fruit in peoples lives. Often that fruit goes well beyond the petition at hand. The deeper purpose of a novena is to prepare our hearts to receive the gift of God. In the act of praying, we often grow deeper in our dependance upon the Father. Confidence comes as we repeatedly pray, Oh God, our Heavenly Father, you promised to give your children whatever they ask for in the name of Jesus your son (John 16:23). That's bold, but true. I'm very thankful for the rain. But I'm even more grateful for the increase of faith in our Father who keeps His promises. 

Father's Will

Jesus is God.

           https://youtu.be/SQq4l5qd6A8         

Packing Bearings

My first job out of high school was working at my uncle's trailer sales and service business in Helena Montana. Over the course of that seven year stint, I packed a lot of wheel bearings. It was a dirty job, but I always enjoyed it. 

Packing wheel bearings is standard trailer maintenance. Not every year for sure, but maybe every 10k miles or so. A lot of these new trailers have easy-lube hubs, which allows a guy to keep fresh grease on them periodically. That does have drawbacks, in that the hub capacity can only hold so much grease. Once full, out the seal it goes. Dave wanted to get a fresh start on this tandem axle trailer of his. 

The first step is to pop the dust cap off. Try your best to not beat on the cap. A chisel right next to the hub works the best. 

She's full. There are a lot of different nut keepers these days. Used to be just cotter pins. 

This one had a fancy snap rig style keeper. It just pops off. 

Once you back the nut off, the outside bearing pops right out. 

This is not uncommon with easy-lubes. It's still salvageable, but going to take some tending to. 

The grease on the bearings themselves is pretty clean, with no sign of dirt or water. So we are not going to clean them with solvent. Rather, just pack new grease in them. 

First step is to pop the old seal out. I find a crowbar works the best. 

After you remove the inner bearing, it's good to get rid of all the old grease stored up in the cavity. 

A good multipurpose grease serves well for wheel bearings. 

Just put a blob in one hand and keep pressing the bearing into it with your other hand, until the old grease starts to purge out of the top side. Then she's packed. 

Once packed, it's time to install the new seal. Good seals will have a spring around the inner lip. These should be for sure used on easy-lube hubs. 

It's best to pack grease around the inside of the seal on this spring style, so the impact of installing the new seal doesn't cause the spring to jump out. This is also a good opportunity to lube the actual seal surface, where it meets the spindle. 

Using a hammer to install the new seal works pretty good, even if it is a claw hammer! Just barely start one point in the hub and tap your way around the rest of it. She'll seat fine. 

That hub was pretty greasy. So spraying some brake cleaner on a rag and wiping it down good works well. 

Should work. 

All that grease is pretty easy to tend to with some solvent or gasoline. 

The brake shoes you really want to scrub down if they are greased up. 

Again, brake clean works well here too. 

Then use a wire brush to really work it out. 

Not bad. But grease is deceiving. It can go deep in a brake shoe, and once warmed up can work it's way to the surface and make your wheel skid or not brake well at all. An old farmer trick is to soak the shoes in diesel fuel over night. After removing them, light them on fire, burning out all the old grease. Brake pads are heat resistant, though I would not let them burn too long. Works good in a pinch, though.

Having your hubs torn down is a good time to check the brake magnets. Most utility trailers run electric brakes. When power is sent to them, they magnetize to different degrees, causing the arm to drag, camming the brake lever over, which pushes the shoes against the drum. If a wrench will stick to them when powered up, they're good. 

Here you can see how easy-lube hubs work. From the zerk, grease is pushed through the spindle to a back hole, getting grease to the inside bearing without removing the hub. You can see how easy it is to blow out a seal. I recommend no more then 5 pumps from a gun a year. And after 5 years of that, your hub capacity is full and your seal is gonna go. Time to repack them. 

Reinstallation is just reverse order. Make sure and rotate your hub as the new seal is going over the spindle surface. 

This is about the only technical part. Use a wrench/pliers to set the bearing down hard. Rotate the hub several times back and forth to seat the bearings. Then back it off and move it it until it just makes solid contact. No torquing it down. With the old cotter pin style, you would have to move the nut back or forth to find the nearest hole. In that case you always run a nut looser rather than tighter. A tapered bearing and race will always meet up if loose. Too tight and they'll create friction and go out. 

This new clip style allows you to set the nut wherever it is best. Which again, is right at the point of contact after the bearings have been seated. 

Push her on and you’re good to go. 

Again, don't hammer directly on the dust cap. Tap around the lip until it seats against the hub. 

Done.

Most people are capable of packing their own trailer wheel bearings. I find it fun. If you remember anything from this, don't run them too tight. A little maintenance goes a long ways. The last thing you want is to start a grass fire because a bearing went out and you are throwing sparks in the ditch. Besides, you don't want to break down and be late to the dance. You can pack your own trailer wheel bearings. Just be prepared to get dirty.