It’s Broken

This week saw two failures, one affecting the house and the other my John Deere LX176. Just when things were going well…

I had been using the John Deere LX 176 to clean out the end of our alley after last week’s snow. Our garage access is off the alley and I wanted to have a clear approach.

I was about finished when I started to smell a burning belt and heard “chunking” noises from under the tractor. Earlier in the year I had ordered a replacement belt, as I knew the old belt had little life left in it, but I had hoped to get through the winter before changing it.

I did get back to the garage and took a look underneath. (It is getting colder and I had to fire up my torpedo-style kerosene heater to warm up the garage a bit so I could work in relative comfort.) The belt was definitely shot, so I started to remove it. I found more than I bargained for as two pulleys that route-and-tension the belt had failed. This probably caused the belt to self-destruct.

The flat-back pulley looked OK but, while spinning it, I discovered the bearings were bad and the unit did not spin without abnormal resistance and noise.

This meant I had to order parts, which are still available for this John Deere model from the 1980s. Coming in at about $35.00 for the pair, it is not an expensive repair but the work is still a pain. As I write this, one pulley has arrived and I am waiting on the second. I could have used the tractor after this last snow, but used the snow blower to clean up the sidewalks and around the mailboxes. This is slower and more work. Hopefully the second pulley will arrive soon and I will have the rig back in service — before the next snow fall!

Wednesday night Pam called me to look at the south (back) door. This one gets the most use as it is the door we use to get to the garage, catio, and let the dogs out for their runs. The antique door would not open, no matter how hard one tried to twist the knobs.

I ended up taking the door off its hinges, not an easy task on a 120-year-old solid door. However, eventually I was able to remove the antique mortise lockset.

I had worked on this lockset shortly after we moved in, replacing the spring that closes the bolt.

The activating shaft goes through the square hole at the upper right, and over the years the side plates have worn to the point where the shaft wobbles in the assembly.

Just in case you are curious about what is inside the mechanism, here is a photo with the side plate removed. You can clearly see the spring I replaced 3 years ago. (I brought this mechanism to the local Mennonite hardware store, and the young gentleman at the counter said, “What’s that?” Not an auspicious beginning to looking for replacement parts.)

You can see that rust, corrosion, and wear have taken their toll. It is a simple mechanism, but was mass produced to meet a price point. We never did have a key that fit this lock. Due to the difficulty in finding and maintaining antique parts, a new lockset is on order and should be in early next week. I expect I will need to “tweak” the door to get the new lockset to fit, but that should be a minor issue. I hope.

This morning’s task was to do a final clean-up of the snow we had received on Thursday and Friday. It was not a heavy snow but still managed to cover us with 3 – 4 inches of the white stuff.

In the winter we cut a path from the east porch to 7th street as delivery people (UPS, FedEx, and Post Office) prefer this approach to the house. That path is what I am working on in the above photo.

Switching to other topics, I need to include a kitten update. Below is a photo Pam took of Vienna and Stirling taking a nap together.

We continue to enjoy the kitten’s activities and antics. They’re getting used to the house; we’re even seeing them more often in the laundry room, which is where the dog beds are located. So far we have had no dog – cat incidents.

Photo Archive

This week’s selection has a definite water / nautical theme. The photo below features Mt. Hood, Oregon, as a backdrop to loading docks on the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon.

The above photo was taken at Astoria, Oregon, where the Columbia River empties into the Pacific Ocean.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Pam’s Penny

Thoughts on cookie cutters.

When opening a little-used box of cookie cutters for holiday baking, I suppose it’s inevitable memories come flooding back by association. I have an accumulation of cookie cutters: from childhood (my mother’s contribution), a few miscellaneous cutters from pet treat baking kits, hearts purchased recently. (One of the heart cutters was stamped into new cement here at Heart House a few years ago.)

The childhood memories are strong surrounding cookie cutters. Interesting, these childhood memories. They are more frequent in my older years and with my Midwest location. Go figure.

Cookie baking at “903” in Onalaska highlighted everything that was right (and wrong) about that house. Right in the sense that Mom seemed to be actually happy during holiday baking. I remember Mom singing carols, and singing harmony along with her, while mixing ingredients. And oh yes, exotic ingredients like dates and maraschino cherries made their appearance. Sugar cookies, date-filled Trilby’s, thumbprint cookies, even homemade peanut brittle (and much more) came out of that holiday kitchen.

The kitchen itself [in that dumpy and tiny tract house] exemplified the “wrong” part in this childhood memory. The square footage was small, and into this area was stuffed an eat-in table for six, a refrigerator, oven and washing machine (!). Father MOP frequently said a house was just for eating and sleeping — no worries the bedrooms were the size of walk-in closets, the bathroom shared space with the furnace, and the kitchen was totally inadequate.

Cookie cutters sure do take me back. Bittersweet.

Happy Trails (and happy holiday baking).

Addendum: Becky mentioned the reindeer and angel cutters in her comment. Pam still has those cutters! Here is a photo of them: