The Fourth, The Fires, The Smoke and The Jeep.

All sort of one and the same really. The old yellow girl has had a rough couple of weeks. I was on a very long, very steep downhill descent in low range and noticed at the bottom a wisp of smoke. By the time I made it back to town it was a pillar of momentous proportions. 11 miles later the smoke had died out some but was still puffing under acceleration and shifting. I did the Rislone treatment but that only seemed to make it worse. After it had sat for nearly a week I started it today and drove it to VC with no smoke that I could see. Maybe there was a delay in the treatment. Far as I can tell I have oil pouring down the valve stems. Not much that can be done now short of an overhaul. I have access to a big shop here and could do it but have decided not to unless something big dies in the motor. Using a qt of oil for every 10 gallons of gas. Guess that makes me a terrorist. To make it worse when I started it this morning it made it 100yds and died. The electric fuel pump quit. I was able to fix it, with a rock. Bang bang and we were off and running again.


We were in the fourth of July parade in Ennis. Dressed up as a miner and the missus was a prim and proper church girl. We set up a bar scene on a hay wagon and played poker with a pair of saloon girls while the church crew looked on in disapproval. The wagon was pulled by four Percheron horses, four abreast. Quite impressive, exciting too as on of the horses hadn't been in harness for a while due to injury and got the others excited. He was hopping his back feet whenever the team was asked to slow down and this hopping would detach him and his buddy from the wagon but not the other horses. Good fun. In the picture below the butt head is on the left side.




The fourth of July fireworks were great fun. We were able to go up to the Preservation shops and watch the fireworks from essentially ground zero. The launching would rattle your bones. Too bad they started so many fires... After that barn burned we never got to see the end of the show. I suppose that was nearly as much fun as the fireworks, provided it wasn't your barn.