done been eat up with beggar lice..!!

I spent about 20 minutes picking these things off my leg hair. And not sure I'm even gonna try to save the socks. But I will clean up my brand new $59 "on sale" tennis shoes.

After wading thru a back yard of nearly knee high beggar lice weeds earlier this week, out behind one of my dad's old Sh*t-hole rent houses, I was looking for some scrap iron and an old fireplace I had stored back there 16 years ago. I found the scrap and fireplace, but these little hanger-oners found me.

These were the original "natural" version of the Velcro (hook & loop) connection design, as I recall reading somewhere.

Anyway...

Nephew Joe sold his pickup truck for $550 (see prior post).

Littlefoot landed a high school science teacher job at a suburb just north of FTW. Long days as she has 6 classes a day, but she is enjoying it.

I had an interview in Dallas yesterday with an outfit from DC (District of Corruption)...they are gonna be doing a rehab on an old apt project in Irving. Lotta asbestos abatement, rip everything out down to the studs, new AC/plbg/elect....new gable trussed roofs to cover up the old flat roof system. Gotta build a new, ground-up, office/club bldg and swimming pool.

It's a HUD job, but I've done one or two of them over the years. Hope I get the nod and make the cut....supposed to start Oct 1...and runs 10-12 months. A paycheck again...if only for a year would be sweet.

Still hotter'n hell here....was 110 yesterday here late afternoon....damn, I've been living her in TX since I was 1 yr old....and I ain't NEVER felt it this bad, this long.. for summertime.

Not much else to say nowadays.

We are planning a very fast trip to TR this coming weekend....drive down Fri late afternoon...drive back Monday. Looks like it's cooled off a tiny bit down there...but it's still always at least 10 degrees cooler there than up here per weatherunderground.com.

At least gas prices are down a tad...still oughta be alot lower now. When oil per barrel was at $112 gas was right at $4...now oil has been in the low $80's for a couple weeks...gas SHOULD be down to $3 even now...but it's around $3.38 here.

Later y'all..!!

Packard Shack & LED lgts - in the making ...(& still hot)

I started building a free standing carport/shed at the beginning of summer...but the hot weather has slowed that process waaaayy down. At the time I had two 1948 & 1949 Packards to house in there.....but now only one.

My nephew Joe was "sweet talked" into spending the night here so we could get an early start on getting the roof rafters up. Went fast with me on the ground and him on the ladder...done with this stage by 9:30AM. Next is 1x4 nailers run cross-ways and then the tin. I used 20 ga metal studs for rafters.

Joe is trying to sell an old truck that was passed down to him from an older brother. '84 Ford F150 short bed with a 302V8 auto. He only wants $650 for it, as it needs a tad bit of TLC, but will start and run. We had to go find a battery for it today...got a good deal on a 1yr warrantee 600cca batt for $30. Hopefully someone will nab this thing off Craigslist.

I've also been fiddlin' around with making some 12V LED lights for use at the cabin, as under cabinet lights for the countertop. I saw these LED flexible strips online somewhere for $3 each. Cut a stick of 1-1/2" PVC pipe in half, used spray glue to hold a piece of wrinkled mylar space blanket stuff in for a reflective surface....now I need to figure out a simple switch...maybe a 12V rocker switch for automotive use type device>?

THIS IS A ROUGH PROTOTYPE HERE...not pretty, but I bet it'll work fine.

(snickers okay...but no guffaws and horselaughs, pls)

These pics were not turned sideways when they were downloaded (uploaded?)..Maybe "Oldfool" can offer some ideas...he helped alot last time with the moving of pics for me.

Anyway....TR has been way too hot for a trip...(even though, right NOW it's 108 here and 98 near Camel's Hump in TR) ...I guess the rainy season ain't gonna happen down there this year....I sure hope it does. Shoulda started by now.

Adios for now, y'alluns.

B-foot

MISERABLE HEAT...and other stuff.

Hello peeps....and sheeps.

I was cruising Craigslist last wknd...and found a 55 gallon barrel of K-1 Kerosene...so I emailed the guy and got it down to $180 cash. Un-opened drum of K-1 that he bought in Feb and did not use. I had to go to his place of work in far North Dallas to get it. Borrowed my dad's F150 pickup, as it could not be handled by the T0wn Car (although I've hauled alot of stuff with the old TC).




Got it home and my smallish Aggie brain came up with a method to unload this 480# barrel from of the truck....and it worked like a charm. The pic doesn't show my large ass in front of the barrel as we slowly rolled it down the landscape timbers and I stood it up at the bottom of the ramp. Nephew Joe holding the tie-down straps hooked to the bumper hitch to make sure it came down easy....worked fine.!!

I made some calls and found I coulda got this same "red dyed" K-1 Kero locally (not dallas) for $4.80 per gallon ...if I brought my own barrel and got at least 55 gallons. At $180 mine worked out to $3.27...PLUS "gettin it" costs.

hmm....paid $180 cash, refilled my dad's truck $34...paid nephew Joe $20 for his mostly windshield time....not sure if I made a good deal or not. If it had been the clear K-1...non red dyed stuff it woulda been better as kero heaters don't need wick changing as often with the clear K-1....but that costs $40+tax for 5 gals in the wintertime here.

AND I did some research and Kero oughta be kept in a cool, dark place for best life of 1-2 yrs....I don't think this one was. (not gonna bring it into the house when it's 110 in the shade daily) I need to add some diesel extender to it....almost the same fuel.

The '49 Packard I sold to a feller in Houston...finally got picked up a few days ago.....fresh WW tires the buyer had shipped up to me so I pulled the wheels and had them installed at Discount Tire for him. Sure looked sweet.

$1000 worth of WW tires on a car he paid $2000 for .....some folks working in the off shore oil patch gots $$....ain't jealous.....good for him.

(He's already got it running now....simple ignition part replaced..$10 part)

And here's my brilliant idea for keeping the ball o'fire Diablo heat from curling the dashboard off the old '85 F250.....a $4 Wally world camp-space blanket over the windshield and part of the top of the cab. Has a nice metallic rattle in the breeze...but ain't blown off yet. Need a giant one for the roof of the house....well, not that giant.

Caren and I, today, went to an early showing of "Cowboys and Aliens" movie today....at 10:50 AM....It was us two...and 3 others in the theater....wow....dark and coool...and a great movie..!!

When we got home we saw the door standing half open into the house....I realized that I shut it when we left( I thought)....put the key in and locked it. BUT the door was NOT pulled and latched shut...and had probably been half open for a couple of hours....luckily, I had hooked the screen door shut from the outside (got one outside to keep it from blowing open if I'm outside piddling)...otherwise we'da been searching for "Jack"....the Pug, all afternoon.

Took our 3 small window unit AC's forever to catch up....still a tad warmish in here at 10:15 tonite. (central unit went out 2 summers ago)...it was up to 112 or so here today. again.

This heat is a killer...but whatcha gonna do.? Stay inside and eat Vienna sausage is my suggestion.

Hope all y'alluns is staying luke-warm....and maybe even COOL>!!

Adios

B.F. & L.F.

Old 2006 pics..STUCK on a Terlingua back road

This ain't all of 'em....all stray feral cats...if you feed them they will STAY and multiply!Old pic during cabin const...back when I had a paycheck and a nice road truck. I had a new friend that was a great help in getting this thing built (along with his brother Jackie)..."Ricky" was up on the roof doing metal roof decking. Ricky was a guy that spent his entire adult life in the TX State Prison system.

He had only been out a few months after 26 yrs in the Pen (since he was 18-19yrs)...and had some wild stories to tell about life "on the inside". He was amazed at things like cell phones, matchlight charcoal, etc...things we did not have when he went in....Ricky's ashes are spread out on the bluff near the cabin now...He met a gal he fell for hard in FTW, she was a crack whore-type and got him on it too. He was robbing a donut shop early one morning a year after these pics were taken....when he took a shotgun blast to the gut. Gone...Poof!!

During Caren's first trip down here, after working one day on the place, we took a drive down some uncharted back roads, and it was getting late in the day.


Well, sure enough....we came to a dry washed out ditch crossing and as any guy with a belly half full o' whiskey and a Powerstroke 4x4 Ford....you're not "bullet proof"...but you are "unstoppable!" (at least in your own mind). But we got temporarily stopped. I backed up a bit, and hit it harder in 4x4 and we made it through....but eventually we came to a shut gate in the road and had to turn around.

It was on this same washout, on the return trip, that we got stuck for good this time....reciever hitch ball stuck holding the rear axle up so we couldn't move forward. ..sunk the hitch down to where it was resting on a rock. Held in place....Me and Ricky dug away at it, but with the hitch on top of the rock...we weren't gonna get it out. And it was pretty dark by now...several miles off the paved highway and no houses in the area.

NO....Caren did not get run over, but she dove under the rear axle one one side and Ricky on the other trying to dig out the rock from the bottom of the hitch.
I was about 50 lbs lighter than I am today (only 280# then) ...but still too big to slip under the truck.

Finally they got the rock out enough to where I could plow away from the ditch.........here's my "happy dance"


Ricky and me celebrating....(I sure miss Ol' Ricky)

It was then I knew this gal was a "Keeper"..!

Back at the cabin

Here's me captured in a tender moment with my grand nephew (?...my niece's kid)? a couple of weeks ago.


ADIOS FOR NOW....Y'all.

Bigfoot

Trip to Bryan/College Station last wknd..

Wish I could remember to load these pics in reverse order as blogger puts last uploads at top.......anyhoo... Sunday AM, before we headed back north to FTW, my son and I designed and he made this sign for the cabin with the plazma cutter. Design on the computer and the machine does the rest.

Here's the end of a very heavy welding table he made while we were there..1" thick steel top planks...with a built in bottle opener on every corner (can't see in this pic)
And this is his new plasma cutter hobby toy...could be a good sideline biz.(cost 1/2 as much as my first house)...but he saved up and paid for it himself.
He got this $3000 (new) USA made Quincy compressor on Craigslist for $800. Still gotta run the 220 power for it.
And here's his camping rig...used to be my truck but I handed it down...4x4, Powerstroke, 5 speed. He custom fabbed rear stabilizer outrigger supports to chain camper down to frame, same with special running rails with front tabs for hold down chain and turnbuckles.

He's a good, no a GREAT kid....27 yrs old, level headed, smart, hard working, focused and very mechanical...Don't know where he got all that...cause I ain't nothin like that. Guess it's true and about things "skipping a generation"..?? Caren's son is a great kid too, but she didn't get a chance to take any pics.

It's the dog days of summer, only thing is our "dog" (Jack the ripper)....stays inside all day, and only sleeps,naps,eats,craps...more like a stuffed Pug. While the army of Kats and Kittens attack me like a Jihadist movement when I go out, as they are always hongreee,!! These are all half wild cats, fur full of grassburrs and they love to eat grasshoppers and lizards. (pics later).

Caren and I made a quick trip to Bryan/College Station last wknd. My son lives in Bryan, got his Aggie Degree in Const Mgmt (no jobs in that field now) and works as an AC tech (5-6 yrs now with this co....10 yrs total as tech). Caren's younger son goes to TAMU and she got to see him a couple of times too.

Looks like South Brewster Co (parts of it anyway) got some rain lately...maybe the rainy season is just beginning to start....but it usually gets going in late July.

Seeya later gator.

Largefoots

waiting for the Terlingua rainy season

current interior pic...2011

"BEFORE"...in 2006...my '49 Packard



"AFTER"...today

Flat tires, dead battery, won't start, but does turnover after charging the battery. I had it running and inspected in 2007.

Finally getting down to selling one of the Packards. This is proof positive that cars ALWAYS lose money (except for the craze over old muscle cars lately)....$6,000 of cost now selling happily for $2000. This 1949 model has simply become a storage unit with misc crap stuffed in the car, and the numerous kittens that have taken over our place love to climb up underneath and sleep on top of the big flat topped straight eight 288 motor.

There is a guy coming up from Houston tomorrow to buy this and haul it back home. We'll use half the cash to pay down the 2011 property taxes for this place here in north TX. Not due until Dec of course...but at least it'll be a lesser hit when that comes due. Funny how no income forces you to get rid of things you "used to" think you couldn't do without..huh?

I still have the '48 tan colored Packard, but it's a keeper. All original CA car, still starts and runs, but I need to get it into some covered storage.

Caren and I are looking forward to another trip to South Brewster Co....but only after the extreme heat eases up down there. 115 degrees every day...doesn't sound like a place to drive 8 hours to for "fun". We'd probably end up spending hours each day hanging out at the Legion trying to stay cool.

Even with low grade gas prices lately down to $3.40 here...it would still cost $200+ for gas alone to make the round trip to Terlingua in the 20+ mpg town car.

Late July - early Aug should be getting into prime time for heading west. Call me a wuss.....but I can't seem to handle the high heat like I used to could.

The garden here is pretty much toast...after a good start and several nice medium/smallish fruit, the tomatoes slowed down to nothing now, withered, but still alive. Pepper plants slowed to very little production, Watermelon plant never made a melon, and cuke plants made one usable cuke and a few that died or yellowed on the vine at small sizes. I water these things with rain tank water every day...but I think the 100+ degree days and hot dry winds have taken their toll. Or..it could be the Chemtrails??

Dang..wish I could sell some cats....we think we have about 12+feral cats hanging around here now...(maybe I could contact some Chinese Buffet place?

seeya..

Bigfoot

Nothing exciting to report...106 here yesterday - MID JUNE..??

First..lookie here...a 1913 era political cartoon depicting the set up of the Federal Reserve...not anymore Federal than FedEx...but most of the sheeple actually to think the Fed Re is a part of the US CorpGovt....NOT! It is simply a private club of the biggest, wealthiest, greediest private banks.
Looks like they had to invent a new"boogie-man" from the mountains of the middle east goat herders...since they have killed Osama too many times now. (gotta keep the Dept of Homeland Security and the always "on" TERROR THREAT for the US)
The two parties that are no different..whomever pays the most gets the laws passed to help their corporation. Two headed monster...has been since the 60's.
On a lighter note...my son has a buddy that bought a really sharp, clean looking older Chevy 4x4 with a 454, and 4 wheel drive, etc. He bought it on Ebay, went to Alabama to get it and it broke down on the drive home. Turns out, it is a great LOOKING truck, but mechanically it was a rust bucket.
He's got it in his dad's shop and giving it a mechanical makeover. That's a 1991 Cummins diesel motor with rebuilt auto tranny sitting between those rails now. And he's reworking the nearly wornout front end steering, etc. OUghta be a real Hoss when he's done.
My brother who had the liver swap-out last summer, finally got back to work at Lockheed a few weeks ago. Caren made this "sick liver" cake for him to give him today when the family gets together at my parents' house for Dad's day today. Really turned out nice, if you can say a sick liver looks "nice">?
It was 106 here yesterday with a gusty hot wind. This is still nice though, compared to the miserable living hell our friends out Terlingua way are dealing with on a daily basis.

Happy Dad's Day to all you dads out there...!!!

Bigfoot.