Projects in Kansas

We will soon be on the move again. Were going back home to our boat in Guatemala. We are still in Kansas at our little house out on the prairie. See what changed there with us gone. Last time we had a mess there. Water in the boat over the floor. Lots of damage to the boat. We are wrapping up our art shows with the brick walk show in the old frontier town of Hays this week. I have one painting hanging there in the Art Center Gallery. That is big to me to know it’s there. Here at our little house we had Damage when we got here from a dust storm before we got back here. Every one here saying the worst they had ever seen. I’m old now and hearing the worst I ever seen applies to how hot, how cold, wet, dry, long, short but every one agrees it was bad. With winds gust near a hundred and it being dry out here with the fields open. There was a lot of wind damage and dust where you would not expect it. Out here most of what you prepare for is wind damage. Old farm truck that look good and well taken care of that the driver door won’t shut right. The wind slammed it open too hard and warped something. We had roof damage but our little utility building just blew apart we keep the lawn morrow in. One of the reason we are back here now was doctor appointments. My dry eyes and my knees. I can’t get down on my knees and work. We needed to lay 40 blocks so Pam did it. Slow but we got it done in 3 days fighting the weather. In my time I could lay 100 blocks in a day if I had a helper. Three days with me being Pam’s helper is good I guess with us getting older. Ether way we got it done. We need money so bad I told Pam with her new skills we could advertise and go in the business of laying block now. Her comment was unprintable.

TOO MUCH WORK!

I guess with that we will keep trying to sell some art. Getting a book sold is still not happening. I still need to paint a cover for the book and even if we have it formatted now how do we get it published. Every one we talk to says it is impossible to make any money now with a book. You have to be satisfied with seeing your name in print. Seeing my name in print is not me. We are still looking for a way to make money so we can keep on living traveling and doing stuff. The adventure goes on. Posting soon on the art show coming up. Never giving up is being tested but for today were still hanging in there.

 

Antique Tractors

This week Pam and I did something that goes with where we are. Out on the prairie in farm country. We went to a an antique tractor pull. Some of these tractors I drover one like it back on the farm as a kid. I’m old now but they are so small in today’s world. Remember when I was born in 1946 there were still people using mules. How the world has changed.

Here is a 1942 Case, notice the hand crank in it’s holder to get it stared.

Here Pam is standing in front of a tractor I can’t pronounce it’s name. I never seen one but they must have been popular in the 40s out here. One thing that changed in those years is how equipment hooked up to these old tractors. Most just have a draw bar and no hydraulics. I pulled an old Oliver turn plow on wheels in my day with an arm with teeth you could drop to a sprocket on the wheels and it would lift the plow when you wanted the plow up. It took planning to have the plow up before you needed to turn around or you got in a tight place or you would be walking to the barn to get a hand jack.

Here Pam is getting in to the pull. Looking to see if she seen some one that might let her drive one. If we had a farm out here I’m sure she would have her own tractor maybe her own combine. If you meet a combine coming down the road changing fields here they take the whole road and have to pull in a field to let you by. As close as we come out here is our riding lawn more she has all but taken over. Get her a big hat and dress for her lawn mowing day. Our lawn mower is old I put it together from junk. We never have any money but it looks good and works good. It’s an old Snapper that looks like a little tractor.

1952 Chevy

If you are a car and truck buff this is the place to be. Here an old man drove his old truck to the pull. It’s maybe the most complete old truck I have seen in a while. One thing is the original transmission. It’s a stick shift 3 speed in the floor not a truck 4 speed. Very rare. I have drove these old trucks and they are not up to the modern world but to me they represent a more simple time. This was bought new in 1952.

This is an old hit and miss John Deer with a huge fly wheel on the side that the RPM is so low it sounds like it’s in a hard pull like it’s skipping. If you can count fast you can count ever time it fires. It sounds like you are saying “tuck tuck tuck tuck” fast as you can. There was an old country song years ago about a man so smart he could get the skip our of a John Deer tractor. John Deer is big out here and the tractors comely have 800HP today. These old hit and miss had 12HP to the bigger tractors had 25HP. What a change. Being our here with these farmers and their families feels like simpler times. The adventure goes on. We have a lot going on. Maybe getting closer to publishing a book and two art shows coming up with one of my painting hanging in an art gallery in Hays, KS, the old cowboy town that made the west famous. With all this we are planning our trip back to our old sailboat Pamela Ann, we built we hope is safe in a river in Guatemala. 

                                                       “SO MUCH TO DO, SO LITTLE TIME”

 

Found In Kansas

I have read and heard about the maddening wind out on the prairie before we ever came out here. Being out here I can see how it could have affected the early settlers. It has been blowing for weeks now. It snowed again last week. The temperature hit 80F last week then it snowed again and like I said the wind came with the snow. It’s the very few trees out here thing I guess. It can blow for days at 40MPH gusting to 50 or 60. We are working on when we can go back to our sailboat we left up a river in Central America. But for now I had doctor appointments arranged before we came back and they say I need stuff. It’s me being old I guess. My biggest problem is arthritis in my knees. They say I need new knees. I went for an eye exam for dry eyes and he ask me how long it had been since I seen an eye doctor. I told him maybe 30 years. He said your sight is bad and it has come on so slow you don’t realize it. You have cataracts on both eyes and need surgery. I told him I function really well. I can see. He said. “You just think your doing well. Get that done and you will see what you’re missing. Now if I do on ether our bank accounts is on life support now and this is a real problem. On the other hand with us coming out here part of us coming was we had an art show scheduled. It was canceled with the weather being so bad but now that is rescheduled and we have that to go to in Hutchinson, Kansas and one of my painting has been chosen out of the 250 that was submitted in a contest. Also to do an art show in Hays, Kansas.

The painting that was chosen for the art contest.

This is turning out to be good. Along with this, a book we wrote is being formatted so it can be hopefully get it published soon. A long with this Pam is working so anyone can buy our art on line soon. Maybe some of this will breath life back in our bank accounts some day. But until that happens, we are living good and eating well. Plenty to eat and a dry place to sleep is living well to us. We went to a scrap yard out here this week to sell some metal our son had at his place and remember this is where the famous cowboys once roamed. There we saw and old steam engine setting in the bushes. Some one had brought it there to be scarped and maybe there just letting it set there for now.

Old steam engine

These junk yards out here are museums to people like me. Old trucks and farm equipment.

An old oil delivery truck. It might still run?

What a different life we live out here from our life traveling around on our sailboat to other countries. The adventure goes on. This weekend we are going to an antique tractor pull Kansas style.