Christmas Day Trip 2014

 After opening grifes on Christmas morning
We were wanting to go were there was snow, so we drove up to  Union Creek area.

No snow to speak of, so we checked out the Rogue River in and around the area.

This is Daniel and Rochelle, to the right at
nature bridge over look.

Looking down the river from picture below you can see the water bubbling up on the left side middle.

The river in the summer time when water is low it will go underground for about 200 feet and come back up  in the spot.

It is all fenced off, so no one can fall in.

There must have been a few who have fall in.

I have only hear of a child who fell in and came out the other side with bruses and scratch but lived.
It look like it had flooded over the banks in the last 2 day before be were thee.

The Big Wreck

Left rear stuck in wheel well.

At about 4 week into school one of my big buses was T boned.

Bus was traveling on a straight peace of road that crossed an intersection that had a stop sign for the cross traffic.
The bus had the right of way with no stop sign for the bus.
Now the blazer looking car coming on to the intersection , no one seem to know how fast but I would guess between 35 and 45 mph.

Another pic. of broken spring.

Broke leaf spring.

On right is fuel tank in tank cage and tires on left side.

The bus was empty, heading out after 1st AM and going to pick up its 2nd AM and was about 3 minutes from picking up his first student.
We think the bus was moving between 35  and 40 mph.
By the time the bus driver saw the car coming the bus was about 50 feet from intersection.
and the car did not brake at all, no skid mark at all.
And no skid marks for the bus, only the one moving side ways.

The place the power pole hit and damage top, without breaking glass

So now the the car hit the side of the bus on the right side between the fuel tank and the rear tires.
With the tires on the left side of the car trying to drive over the hood of the car, and dragging it alone.
The bus broke traction and slid completely around facing the opposite direction, pointing back down the road from were it had just came from.
But first the bus hit a power pole and cut if of even with the ground and mashing the bumper and top of the bus with out breaking the windshield and ended up parked in the ditch, just like you parked  it there.  No one hurt, all walked away, but the power was out for about 6 hours for the locals.
Now my 19 year old bus it totaled, with a cost $20,000.00 to fix, it is not going to be repaired.
One of the safest vehicles on the road take a hit, save everyone. (I did start the motor and drove it about 10 feet to get it hooked up to the tow truck)

Happy B Day Alex

Alex's birthday was had on September 27.
He is all of 6 years old, and is going to 1st grade and will be a big boy.


You can see that He is throwing some moves on the camera. With a peace sign throw in to show he has peaceful intenses.

And of coarse his favorite  cousin was able to be there Dominc.
Dominc is watching Alex's back, so no one can seek up on them.

All had a great time, lots of cake and gifts.

I Had A Borning Time. Honing

I did something that I had always waited to do myself and instead of paying someone else to do it.

This is the Hone head that goes into the cylinder and grinds away the metal.

So the normal way you do this is remove the motor, take all the parts off, completely removing everything  because it is always hot tanked and some of the part can be damaged in the hot tanking.
With the plan of looking like it did when the block was first cast from steel in the beginning.
And the machine shop people do not like to work on dirty engine blocks, they would like to be able to eat off of it, before they start machining, the other reason is be able to see any damage or cracks that may be hidden.  So the two way to do this is with a Boring bar or Preseason Hone.

Piston upside down in cylinder

Hones stones, 2 type of grit 80 and 180

 Because the cylinder is under 3 inches a boring bar will not fit.
So in has to be honed.
The bar tool cuts the metal and the hone grinds it away a little at a time.

This is the Feeler gauge in the cylinder with piston  .0015 thick.

The hone is turn with a 3/4 inch drill motor and turned at below 300 RPM to to keep it cool.
And then as you turn it slowly, you have to add honing fluid to help wash away the stone and metal particles.
I pulled the head off engine and remove the pistons and oil pan.
Place a pan under the engine to cache the stuff that fall out.
I had to remove 0.020 inch of metal to install .20 over piston, that is about the thickness of 3 or 4 sheet of copy paper.
I did this to old way, witch is to hone a little and then take your new piston and stick it in the cylinder upside down with .0015 thick "feeler gauge" (feeler gauge is flat metal that is the perifit thickens).
The other way it to buy a "bore gauge" that has a dial on it, that tells you how big the cylinder is.
So the ideal is to be able to slide the piston down into the hole with the feeler gauge in the hole at the same time. You start out, you can not get the feeler gauge in the cylinder then it goes in but it stick really bad.
Then in the end, you are able to push it all the way down with out sticking, needs to  move pretty easy and pull the gauge and it slide easy as will.
The last is to finish hone to get a slight angle 45 degree on the surface to help it break in better.
The last part is to wash out the metal and stone parities away and clean the bottom end as will.
I changed oil the first 100 miles and I change it again at about 1000 mile to get the last of the dirty stuff.
Right now I have 300 mile on the motor and it runs really good with lots more power then it every had. It was going to cost about $200 to have the work done, the hone cost $150. so I saved little and learn a lot, and the next job will be almost free.

Geocaching Were Alien and Gaint Bee Hive Hide Out

This must be a skeletal head of an alien that crashed land on the back side of table rock.
Been here many years.
Really it is the hip bone from a cow or elk.

There is about 30+ geocaches in this area behind table rock, called the Table rock reserve, not sure why it is there, but I think the BLM is holding on to it because it has some history or geology interest.
Any way it is open to the publice to walk around on but you must stay on the trails?
This has rased a big question on my mind.
There is no trails that I could tell, one road that runs back to a old pond site.
So I just walk all over it looking for caches.
I did find a large agate and some bit of petrified wood.
I did find about 25 geocaches in the area.

I did find this poor old guy scatted all over the place, as you can see here are some of his bones.
Looks like they have been out there for about 5 years from the looks of them.

So I started picking up one here and another over there and pretty soon it looked like I had enough of HIM to put back together.
The the bone were pretty clean and the sun had bleach them pretty good, but I had some rubber work gloves in the pack so I was wearing them as I was building our friend.

The head was gone and the lower legs as well.
But think about 60 % is here.
And I think I got ever thing in the right place for the most part.

Then as I work my way around the area I did find this big bee hive rock.
There was a cache at the base on the back side.
It is about 90 feet high and you can climb up the back side to the top.
Not much to see from the top, it is a fun climb any ways.


I did the find on New Years 2014 day off, it took about 3 to 4 different time to find most of the caches.

Diving At The Swing Bridge On I.V.

 Made my secound dive for the summer of 2014 at the boy scout camp swing bridge on the Illinois River.
The temp was nice about 80 degrees and water temp about 60 degrees.
The vise was about 40 feet.
I seem to go in a big circle when I start out, and the compass kept sticking, so I came up a coup of time to get going up the steam.
But it was a good dive and I cleaned up the river some what, as you can see from the stuff I brought up.

As can be see I found a buch of stuff.
Lots of bottles and cans, I did find a big pieces of boken glass, I could not bring it  up without cutting  myself so I mashed it between two rocks in to little tinny little pieses, and buried it under some rocks.
Also I did find a $10.00 bill rolling alone the bottom, I made some money on this dive.
I made a short 2nd dive testing some new dive gear in 8 foot of water and I found nice pair sun glass.
Got down to 65 feet and got a 50 minute on an 80 cu. tank.

Toys Of The Past, Erector Set

When I was about 5 years old my parents got me my first Erector Set.
It was all metal and came with lots of little screws/bolts and nuts to hold every thing together.
It had flat metal pieces that was 3/4 inch wide and came in many lengths, 2 holes long to 20 holes long.
And other pieces, that were like panels with lots of holes space out about 3/4 inch apart so you could bolt these all together into different shapes.
I think this was one of the first new toy I got, most of the time I would get used or repair toys, and that was okay, because I did not care if was new or old, just as long as I could call it my toy.
My old Erector set was just that is was called the "Erector Set" this one in the picture is a 725 kit that my Mom found and put in a case with lots of pieces.
My old set I had, last time I saw it, was in a little metal box that it came with and some how it had gotton water in it, so it had pretty much rusted away.
I don't think that the, laws would allow kids to play with a toy of the type, today.
The screws and nut and some of the other pieces would really cause choking problems.
And most of the metal parts were galvanized or chromed, with lots of sharp edges and pointy thing, and the galvanizing can't be good to put into you mouth, and touching all the time.
I had other build type toys, but, this one I must have spent days playing and building.
Found the old set in the attic of the shop, must have went up there when Mom past away.
I did build something, and the screws and nuts seem a lot smaller then I remember or my hands and fingers were much smaller back in 1963, so that could be it.
I would build army tanks, radar station, cars and lots of other item, most what I would see traveling.

Here it is, a Radar station, it was lots of fun, really small parts.

Little Gray Back Camping

Robyn and Tyson

I made it up to the Gray Back camper ground one night. It  is located on Caves Highway going up to the Oregon Caves, next to milage post 9, gray back creek run the length  of the camping area.
Very open camp sites and lots of room.
The temp the day I got there was running  in the 80 to 90 degrees area, but it was mid July.
The creek is low enough that the little kids can play in it without being wash away or scaring them.
Up the creek is a swimming hole with a rope for the little one to swing out on.
From here, Oregon caves is up the road about 8 miles,  I.V. swing bridge is about 20 miles way and the Oregon cost is about 70+ miles.
And the  city of Cave Junction is about 9 miles down the hill, so if ice or other items are needed, even a DQ run would work.
Robyn and Rochelle and 7 kid were all camping, this day.

First Dive of 2014

Made the drive to Applegate lake, and at one of the creek inlets the water is really clear and most of the times it is about 35 feet to the bottom.
So I get there and checking it out and see that the water has drop way down low.
I gear up and which seem to take forever, when it is hot, about 80* but the wet suit seem to make it about 110*.
So I had to pack my gear about 175 feet to the water and left the tank and BC in the water and got the rest of the stuff, fins, boots, gloves, masket and 2 lays of wet suit.
An I alway spend a few minuts testing every thing in the chest deep water, and play with reg and mask and any thing else that I can touch and move.
The dive last 50 minutes, deth 23 feet, used 1800 pounds of air on a 72 cu/ft steely tank.
Vise was about 20 feet.
You see the treasures, 2 sun glasses, rest thingy, Bose blue tooth, necklace. ear post and big lighter.
The one glass a nice a little girly looking, but how cares.
This dive #95.

The Pink dive tank

The day finds 2 sun glass, necklace, rist band, bose blue tooth and post thing.

The 4th of July 2014

A great little 4th of July we had, the weather was a little warm about 80*.
The day was good, slept  in to almost 7 AM and lazed around to about 6 PM we took  off to go to Molly's for the evening.
One of Molly's friend has a big pot luck / barbecue at there house in Central Point, the house face on to a little park about 5 acres in size.
Really is a nice touch for the home to be here, most of the area is green grass that is will taken care of and nice is flat with young trees bordering around the four sides.
The way the house are laid out, they shades the edges so there is always a place to get out of the sun.
It seem to keep the sound in the area much lower because it is absorbed by the grass and trees..
So some time later about 8 PM or so the fire work start coming out on the street right in front of the house, and the smoke get really thick and the smell seem to plug up your noses, so that you don't even smell the Sufi any more and the other smell that make up the 4th that create members when the order drifts into your face, we flash back to that one 4th of July that we seem to never forget and is always is there, and comes around any time that order is there.
So, down the street about 5 houses this neighbor, take on the 4th, so seems, all by himself.
Must spend a bucket of money to buy the fire works and the permit from the city to do this big fire show.
It just as good as the fair ground put one.
The show seem to go on and on, with big rocket shot and lots of big shots going in big bust and fans that cover the complete sky.
This show is free, to all and all the neighbors come and place law chair in the grass and blanks are spread out and family hanging out together and lots good laughing and hand holding and lots big smiles on all the face that met and see.
I only got a few pictures, I did try to hard with the fire works, but some record of being there.

Rochelle and Sarpha

The back of (right to left) Daniel, Paul, John and Domic.

The Problem With My Knee

The 5K Pear Blossom race took place on April 14, I had started training for this after Thanksgiving 2013 on a borrowed treadmill.
The training on a treadmill really stinks, the worst type of training that I have ever done, soooo borrowing.
I had done a 5K in February with pretty good time, 32 + minutes for an old 57 year old man.

The knee was feeling a little bit sore, that week but it was still strong.
The started at 7AM and I took about 10 steps and crossed the 1st starting pad, and my left knee POP real hard just about inch below the knee cap.
I could  not go forward, just stood there then I started hopping back torrid the 1st aid station.
A coup of 1st aiders came and help me back to the  tent, they put a ice pack on my knee and sit there about 30 minutes.
I got so I could hop with it,  pretty good, so I made my way back 2 block to the car, that was a longest 2 blocks, took about 15 minutes and didn't hurt at all to drive.
Monday, I met up with Mike S. and He thought is was the meniscus, it had torren, but had to do a MRI.
Had the MRI in about 2 weeks,
Back to see Mike S. and look at the MRI and He was right, I had a terror.
Set a date with Dr. Bents on May 15 for knee surgery, and did the surgery.
Took the 2 stitches out in 14 day and all looks and felt pretty good.
There telling me that I should not run any more 5K's and keep the long bike rides to short ones.
The bike ride make the knee feel much better, so I'm working on that, been doing 5 and 10 mile rides and it seem to keeps working that way.   Biking is the way to go for now.

Not very good pictures, 2 little holes, is all that was needed.
Only missed 4 day of work.
This all took about 2 months to do and $4000.

Molly And The Animals

I believe these are Molly's Animals.
It has been some time since she has play with them, but they are in really good shape.
Been cleaning out the attic in the shop.
There is stuff that goes back almost 20 years.
I had to do a battle with the ants, that had build a home in one of the sowing bags.
There was nothing for them to eat, but there sure like that bag of buttons, zippers and thread and ribbon.
Every time I move it and inch or two, they would come swarming out, so i got a stick and pushed it to the other side and let it fall, then I jumped down and pick up the bag with a long stick and walked it out, along ways out.
Rochelle put a garden hose on it, to soak in down for about hour.
I came back to check and they had made a trail back to the shop, it was about 150 feet away.
So i got the big guns out, the got this ant killer stuff, called TERRO it has Borax in it.
Seem pretty safe, I uses borax hand cleaner at work.
We'll see how will it works.
Now that the bag is gone, I put the bag of ants in the trash can and wheeled it down to the end of the driver way, it will get pick up Monday.
The ant seem to be going away more less, give it some time to see.

A Little Cover Bridge

 This is a little cover bridge in an area off Highway 140 about 20 miles from White City, Oregon.
It is about 30 feet long and about 15 feet wide.
This area is call Lake Creek, much like Wimer with one store and a gas station.
A very beautiful area, it would be a nice area to live in, if it was not so far out.

 If the date is right, this is one of the oldest  cover bridges in Oregon.
There is a sign that talks about this, but the date seem that could be off a coup of years.

 Lots of big ranches in the area, many 1000 of acres in sizes, most of it is cow and hay farms.
So the Walch family has the little park that is  maintained by them.
A little stage to the right and a creek behind that, that runs under the bridge.
And about 10 tables and 3 or 4 barbaric units.
The gate is to keep the cows out of the area.
And it is Free, most of the county parks around here has a day fee of $6 to $10 dollars.

More of the Walch park.
Very green, as you can see they keep it watered.

What brought me out here was some geocaches and looking for another way to get up on this mountain, so I hear that there could be some thunder egg type rocks.
No luck on the rocks, but I did find 3 geocaches and this cool little park/wayside.

Caching Up on the Blog

Been some time, will a long time, so I'm trying to keep this thing alive, we will see what happens.
I going to do a little caching up with some thing thats happened and that I feel are important
 and would like to see in the blog.
This is like a jounal and am going to print it out one of these days and made a book looking item.

This is Dawson J. D Ford, the newest male to carry the Ford name on, born July 5, 2013 in Portland, Oregon.( old news) His B-day is about 2 weeks away.

Dawson look like He is going to have lot of hair.

 The to Rabbet Ears near Crater Lake, a big rock for sure. Found a coup of caches near here.
As you can see I was there July 20, 2013. Really hard to cache how big these two rocks are.
This was about 2.5 hour drive, but it was really cool and the caches helped make it worth the time and a good day off the coach. The road was not to bad, I drove the Red Metor to this, the drive to the look out was a lot rougher and should not be done in any type of low car, my many years driving on dirt roads/skills helped, I was able to get across some of the bigger water bars, but it was pretty tricky and had to be done just right or the car would hit and stick and brake things, and thats not good way out there. Would have been a day and half walk out with no cell tower hits.

Dan on a side road looking at Rabbet Ears.

I also found some Petrefied wood in the area.

This is from a near by fire look out.

Look up this is about 400 to 500 feet up this face.

Had a little snow this year Feb 19, 2013

Made it to Miller lake, about a 4 mile one way bike ride up hill. 5/2013

The Gray Back Mt. Highest, 2 year to get there.

From the top, highest in Josephine county. 7055 feet. Over 10 mile hike.

1st and last 5K for 2014 the next one knock out my knee.good time 32.30 minutes .

Robyn that morning after Tysen L. was born.

Tysen L. Sutherland born Jan 10, 2014 in Medford Oregon.