Jim spent the afternoon working on drilling holes in all the angles that he had cut for the upper staircase - he said he probably drilled 150 holes through that thick steel!
He came home late afternoon and we headed out to Lowe's before church. We picked up the conduit that Jim will need to wire up the lights in the woodworking shop as well as some fittings.
After church, we had car issues. Jim has been using the older 4Runner as his winter/work car. We had hoped it would just get us through last winter but it did great and got us through this winter too. Jim knew that there was an issue with the back brake - he thought it was the emergency brake sticking. When we went to leave church, the back tire was totally frozen in place and wouldn't move. Unfortunately, Jim didn't have all his tools with him and it was freezing out. He found a piece of metal rod and had to lay under the car and tap on the area to loosen it. It took a bit, but he finally got it and we were able to make it home.
This morning, Mother Nature played a late April Fool's joke on us. Even though the calendar says it's spring, we woke up to a very snowy day. I had an early morning doctor appointment - one that was in a city accessible only by going over the mountains. So Jim got up and drove me (is he the best husband or what?).
Once we got home, Jim decided to work at his desk until after lunch because it was still really cold and snowy. Then he got a phone call from the delivery driver saying that he couldn't find our address to deliver our flooring! That's right, the flooring that was scheduled to come tomorrow was here. Jim held firm and told the driver that he couldn't accept delivery today - the driver said he would call his dispatcher and call Jim back. Which he didn't.
We have a locked chain at the end of the driveway so no one could get up, but Jim started worrying that maybe the guy just dumped the flooring at the end of the driveway. He decided to go check it out.
However, the brake issue happened again, even though Jim didn't set the emergency brake. Now it's really blustery and there is probably 4" of snow in the apartment parking lot so he can get no traction to try and break it loose. A neighbor came out and gave him a hammer which he used to beat on the brake for awhile. Again, he's laying on the snow in the parking lot trying to get it working. After what felt like a long time to me and probably 5 times that to Jim, he was finally able to break it loose and drive to the property.
Thankfully, there was no flooring thrown out at the end of the driveway. Jim headed up to put the 4Runner in the garage to see if he could see what the problem was. But the newer 4Runner is in the garage at the moment - when he tried to move it, the battery was dead. Mere mortals would have probably given up at this point, but Jim just perseveres!
He had to jump the 4Runner and he got it running and moved it outside. When he went to move the other 4Runner into the garage, the brake was frozen again. So poor Jim once again is lying in the snow. Eventually he got it broken loose and moved into the garage.
I came and picked him up in my car and we came home so that Jim could change into his work clothes and eat some lunch. Then he took my car back to the property.
Car work will certainly be much easier when we can clear out the auto bay of storage items and Jim can get the car lift. He just has to make do for the moment and use his jack and jack stands to make the first repair in the shop!
But the good news is that Jim was able to get the back tire and drum off - no easy task as you can see from the picture below. He discovered what the problem was - the axle seal was leaking and had made a mess all over the brake shoes and inside the brake drum. The heat from applying the brakes had basically baked it on.
Jim used lacquer remover and cleaned everything off. It won't fix the problem of the leaky seal but the brakes are now working for the short term.
Typically, since it's now spring, he would get the other 4Runner back on the road which requires insurance and license plates (you can suspend both in NY). However, with the lovely spring weather we are having, that hasn't happened yet. So now that he has the work car running, that should get us through for awhile. It's been a great work car - much more functional than a pick-up truck for the majority of things.
Since he was already in car repair mode, he tried to see if he could get the back latch working - but unfortunately all three bolts that hold it on were totally rusted and broke. A job to continue another day. This is why Jim hates driving cars in the winter - rust!
The carriage house looks peaceful under its blanket of snow...
 |
| High 29/Low 14 - SNOW!! |
No comments:
Post a Comment