Saturday, November 29, 2014

Fixing Things

With the truck out of service for a bit, some chores just have to get done such as hauling the household trash. I had done this last week as well but neglected to take a picture. See how easily a trash can fits in the sidecar? It. obviously, takes multiple trips to get the same job done but it's easier than trying to do it with the car. The 25 watt silicone pad that I'm going to be installing under the Ural battery came in this week from Amazon. That will be an easy afternoon project.

The weather around here made a brief foray down to -20°F last night (so I'm told) but it had warmed up again to -6°F by mid-morning. Ran a couple of errands this afternoon on the Ural and it is still running great. It seems to like cold temperatures. My attempts to start the truck eventually succeeded after 2 quarts of Diesel 9-1-1 fuel supplement and replacing the fuel filter. The original filter had a lot of wax caked on it. Hopefully, sitting in a warm garage will allow the fuel to re-liquefy and let the anti-gelling additive to do its job.

This seemed to be the weekend when things decided to stop working. Besides the truck, the Kitchen Aid mixer decided to stop working (micro-switch needed cleaning) and the kitchen faucet ended up needing to be replaced. I liked the way the new faucet looks and it works better than the old one where the hose pulls out.

I'm glad that we didn't have anyone over to celebrate Thanksgiving. It would have been more stressful when things stop working. 

13 comments:

  1. I really like the new faucet!

    That's an excellent photo of your trash detail. Not as glamorous, but I used to put the trash cans on top of my Jeep Cherokee and drive them down the long drive in the winter. I enjoyed the challenge of not tipping them off!

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    1. No scenic, artful photos here. Just hauling trash. Last week I had a bunch of stuff tied to the rear rack as well.

      I like the utility of the faucet and though it would've been nice if the faucet was even higher, it would look a bit too commercial.

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  2. I like the faucet too. I was thinking of something like that when we remodel the kitchen. Speaking of things not working, my phone gave up the ghost on thanksgiving. I was hoping a reset was all that was needed, but, nope, had to be replaced. She's been a good phone for almost 3 years. :(

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    1. Why wai 'till a remodel? This took maybe 20 minutes to install (with the bulk of the effort by my son).

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  3. Funny how things always seem to break down in groups. We also had to part with two electrical items (one of them a bread baking machine..) in November.

    It looks very natural for the Ural to haul the trash. Seems to be quite the multi purpose vehicle.

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    1. I hope the flurry of broken things has ended. And, the Ural is very utilitarian.

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  4. That is a novel use of an Ural, but is a lot better than walking the cans down the drive. For some reason that rig looks really good sitting in the snow.

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    1. We don't have the option of walking the cans down the drive. Curbside trash pickup is only available within the city limits. Everywhere else, folks have to haul their own.

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  5. Wow, have you been busy. I feel lazy now, all we've been doing is shopping. I guess we are lucky nothing has broken.

    The garbage can in the Ural, how utilitarian. They sure can do a lot of things.

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    1. There are more than a few sidecar rigs that have platform or truck toolbox in place of the sidecar. No passengers but a pile of stuff.

      A friend up here is thinking about some sort of shelter for camping in.

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  6. I've only seen a couple of the "utility" cargo area on sidecar rigs around here but it does seem very practical, especially so for some situations.

    I couldn't agree more, household breakdowns while entertaining are about as bad as it can get.

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    1. The Ural is proving to be a very utilitarian vehicle. More so than the Beemer w/ sidecar. The 2WD, though rarely needed, makes getting around effortless. Today (Sunday) we have about 4" of fresh snow on the driveway and road and getting up and through it was no problem at all. It would've been a challenge with the BMW.

      I gotta admit that I like the look and the function of the new faucet better than the old one. So that is an improvement.

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