Wednesday, February 1, 2023
It has been a bit of hit-or-miss, with a few delays, and hard-to-find parts… but the engine rebuild for our “Tony Truck” Peterbilt is making headway. Jake will return this evening and the plan is to have the engine bolted into the frame by the end of the day. That will mark another milestone along the way to the finish line.
The block is coming together. It has 4 pistons inserted at this stage.
Jake is working on preparing a piston to slide into the cylinder liner. Looking on are Brandon and Hudson (L) and Marty Mason, (R).
Now that the pistons are installed as well as the water pump, this Cat engine block is ready to lift into position in the truck’s frame.
It will be a good thing to hear that engine fire up again. Jake has been very diligent to work on this as often as he is available. It sure seems like he has been doing a very good job at this rebuild. So, we look forward to a time when Brandon will soon drive this truck out of the shop. And it will be nice to have access to our shop again for other winter-time shop work.
We have been experiencing some colder nights and days this week. After a relatively warm weekend (50s), we have been having nights in the teens, and days in the 20s this week. The cold has not caused much distress because there has not been a stiff wind along with it. I always say I’d prefer winter days at 20ºF ( as long as there is no wind!). The roads and driveway stay cleaner that way.
Brandon has been delivering some corn to market at GPC at Washington. When he has a hard time locating delivery appointments at GPC, he goes to ADM at Newburgh. He is using the Pete, and boy oh boy, does it need a good wash job. He has been out on the road on some days that were pretty messy on the highway. Today, the skies are sunny and the roads are dry. February will be a busy delivery month for corn. Not for soybeans… because we are officially MT(empty) of soybeans in our bins.
John has been doing some reorganizing in the farm office storage room. Some of the old boxes of receipts from 15+years ago got pitched today. There were other items that we will no longer use, and those got pitched out also. The back room is now quite a bit cleaner with less clutter. Looks pretty nice, really.
In other news, it is tournament time in Indiana for HS girls’ basketball. It seems like the season went by so fast… how can it be tourney time already? The first stage of the tourney in Indiana is called the ‘sectional’. There are 64 of those around the state, 16 of which are in our Class 2A. Various sectionals have between 4 to 8 teams, and our sectional is one of the most difficult in the state. Among the 8 teams, there are 3 that are state-ranked, including North Knox, who is currently ranked #1. Our South Knox Lady Spartans did receive some votes during the season, but never made it to the top 10. It will be a tough Sectional, but not an impossible dream. They played NK pretty close during the season. Good luck tonight as the SK team begins sectional play vs. Sullivan.
Today, I’m 8 weeks post-op for my knee replacement. It seems to be getting a bit better… it has become easier to get some sleep at night. The knee is still a bit swollen, and warm. It generally feels ‘stiff’, but it is not a problem to walk around. I’m even improving at going up and down stairs. Going down stairs was really hard to do 2 weeks ago. Now, it’s a bit easier, about like going up stairs. I have been faithfully doing my rehab exercises just as I’ve been told to do. I think I had imagined that this recovery would go faster than it has. But it is what it is, and I believe I am making progress, albeit more slowly than I expected.
Enjoy your winter days.
