It was after 7am and I noticed that the birds weren't out of the coop yet so I went out to find that the line had snapped to open it. I pulled the metal guard off and then tried using a different line but it snapped right away. I opened the door and thought about how to fix it better.

Mid morning I got started on the axle change out on my truck. I got the brakes off, disc removed, tie rod separated, and then I found that I didn't have a 1 3/8" socket or wrench. I tried to use my big crescent wrench but it wouldn't fit well enough. I searched EVERYWHERE on the farm but came up bupkis. @stryeyz had gone to the school to help out for field day so I had to wait until she got home to go get the tool I needed.

So I took about 5 minutes to throw at the board and on my third throw I got a 180!!!! This is only my second 180 ever and this one stacked in perfectly.

2 throws later I got this 140! I threw a few more times and called it good with those badass scores.

I had to dig around in my parts bins and finally found the correct pulley from an old printer or vcr or something. I also used thicker rope so it won't snap. The pulley works perfectly to hold the line gently and allow it to slide smoothly.

I wanted to try an melt some silver bits into larger chunks so I tossed .5 toz, .3 toz, and .2 toz in the wells of the graphite then put it in the kiln and ramped the temp up to 1100C.

Apparently that wasn't high enough temp to melt the silver. It was worth the attempt. Apparently I need an actual glory hole or smelting oven to melt it properly. I have to look up pmc and see what temps it requires.

My cabbage are getting nice and big.

I was curious how high the water was down stream on the little creek and when I climbed down to the blockage which is a huge stump I was able to dig a good bit out and got the water level to lower by about 5 inches. This helped to drop the water level in the tunnel and all the way upstream to near my bridge. I need to lever the stump out or cut it out with the chainsaw.

The tree shows the water mark and how much I lowered the level.

It was about 1pm when @stryeyz got home and I right away went to North 40 where I was able to get a wrench the right size which worked perfectly to remove the axle nut.

Made myself a cable puller to get the axle to pull out easily.

Amazing how much faster it all went back together than came apart, The nice new axle in place and I took it for a test drive down the road....

AAAANNNNDDDDDD the grinding was still there!!!!

So I parked the truck and climbed back under to look again at everything and THERE IT WAS!!!! My WHOLE PROBLEM THE ENTIRE TIME was a stupid heat shield lining the gas tank had bent up and was grinding on the driveshaft. Stupid aluminum heat shield was well hidden and I only found it due to the grind marks on the driveshaft that I could see. I bent it all back flat and went out for a test drive and just like that it was was no longer sounding like a junk yard.

Mid afternoon I rolled the garden cart down to the potato garden and filled it with weeds that I pulled from the rows and the inside of the fence.

It was overfilled by the time I was done and then hauled it to the animals who all dove into it and soon had it all devoured.

I picked 3 cabbage from the garden which weighed 5.5 pounds total. I still have about 10 large ones that will be picked in the next week.

I was surprised I didn't have it downloaded already so I went and got Spaceballs so we could watch it with the boys. @stryeyz and I said most lines with the movie. Such a classic.

Grilled cabbage on the Blackstone made our rice bowls super tasty.

Random bug on one of the columbine flowers.

Headed out to soak but only got a half hour. I was super tired and worn out so got to bed early.

Today is the boys' last day of school which is a half day so i will be picking them up at 11. I HAVE to work in the greenhouse as the cucs and tomatoes must have lines tied up, I have plenty more weeding to do, and I have to tend my sore knees.

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Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce

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