My latest Adventure, update 7/11/21

[bigdog9191999]

so we were trying to get things taken care of and mowed ( so the village wouldnt complain) so had to do some digging into the ol tractor.














but it was of no luck.. even after fussing about, she didnt want to roll over well enough to try and start, and just dont have time to keep fussing. so we called in reinforcements ( dads cousin has a blueberry farm a couple miles away, and another family friend does some work for her so she sent him down with the tractor to get us hooked up)















also got to ride home in a buddies car ( same one that has dads lemans currently)

 

[bigdog9191999]

so i am gonna loosely dive into dads situation. on may 10th (friday) he got an ambulance ride to the er/critical care (where he would remain for about a day) the following day they figured out what was going on. he ended up having an aneurism in the artery just out of the top of the heart. this filled the paracortical sac around the heart. both of these things should/could have killed him, but somehow it stopped leaking on its own, to the point that he could have surgery to make repairs sunday morning. ( a VERY VERY long weekend!! )

he made surgery well, and started recovering in the icu. to shorten things up it was 3 weeks to the day that he became well enough to downgraded from the icu. and has been in a rehab type facility since. recovery has been very slow (four steps forward one back sort of thing) and he is still working to get off the ventilator (which means he cannot talk back). and will be quite some time ( months) before he would look to come home, if at all, IF he survives to that point.


so all this with regular trips to visit with him, deal with trying to get her moms house cleaned out and sold, while working full time.. and trying to fix vehicles, and look after 3 1/2 households ( ours, my mom/dads place (shes physically limited), her moms, and her mom in the camper in our drive ( also physically limited).

 

[bigdog9191999]

So curt washed Dad's lemans ( I had driven his truck to work, as I needed it for a couple things on the way home )









With her mom moved out I made sure to get all the "important" things out of the house. This is the first time these two rifles have been together in probably 10 years! ( Both ours, we let her have one at the house to have a noisemaker she could handle)














Was clear to the end of May before I had a chance to actually wash the bike so I could ride it.















And a pic of the Sony a350 that came from my mom that I will be sharing some pics I took soon below.

 

[bigdog9191999]

Been a bit warm so we decided to try and get the forward ac unit going in the camper. Because,, yah!!


Got a portable we had around set up to help till we got the proper one going.


















Got a used unit. Got it swapped. And still no work. So now the holiday is about over will be getting back on getting that fixed ( people open to help)

 

[bigdog9191999]

So finally also had a chance to look into the Denali. And short story the water pump failed and was leaking spectacularly , so got that swapped out, tested and good to go right!!




Also did valve covers As was hoping plugged pcv was contributing to oil consumption. The pretty red was cheaper on Amazon, so whatever.










Drove it to see dad, and ...... Oil leak! Engine oil cooling line rusted under the plastic holder. So..... Back apart. ( I had cut it apart here)












I also did the soap test on the wheels/tires that came with the pickup. Yah, gonna have a little work to do.

 

[bigdog9191999]

A couple pics of the interior of Dad's car after cleaning. ( The chrome has never shines like this. As he never cared that much. Function over form kinda guy).















Little brother drove Dad's car to town to grab some things for Mom and nailed a deer.












Curt and Denny came over and made it drivable again. At least. It too worried as mom and I discussed selling it to my brother as it will be some time before Dad drives again, if at all, and they still have her caliber.

 

[bigdog9191999]

And as if to mock me, apparently while fixing the oil cooler lines, it flexed the tank plastic enough, now the radiator is spewing gloriously!!

So after much thought, I am going to do a block off for the cooler lines, and delete them, and swap in the radiator from the parted out avalanche.




As for the camera. Here are several random pics of animals, plants, and bugs that I have enjoyed taking recently!!




after taking a look at this post, needing to reduce pic size to post them here really hurt image quality, but they are still decent pics.

 

[bigdog9191999]

 

[bigdog9191999]

 

[bigdog9191999]

ok guys this will be bit of an odd update, literally the day after the last update on 7-8-24 ( as seen quoted below) dad ended up passing away. so to say things have been a bit out of sorts and alot busy is a severe understatement. and i appreciate the condolences in advance. we had a very good relationship and have had many talks about mortality ect, and we as a family are recovering from everything , but are otherwise doing pretty well. there have been other good things happen and this denali, ugghhhhh...

i will be adding posts below, but they will be a little wonky as i am typing out on a work pc, then editing pics in with my phone after.

so i am gonna loosely dive into dads situation. on may 10th (friday) he got an ambulance ride to the er/critical care (where he would remain for about a day) the following day they figured out what was going on. he ended up having an aneurism in the artery just out of the top of the heart. this filled the paracortical sac around the heart. both of these things should/could have killed him, but somehow it stopped leaking on its own, to the point that he could have surgery to make repairs sunday morning. ( a VERY VERY long weekend!! )

he made surgery well, and started recovering in the icu. to shorten things up it was 3 weeks to the day that he became well enough to downgraded from the icu. and has been in a rehab type facility since. recovery has been very slow (four steps forward one back sort of thing) and he is still working to get off the ventilator (which means he cannot talk back). and will be quite some time ( months) before he would look to come home, if at all, IF he survives to that point.


so all this with regular trips to visit with him, deal with trying to get her moms house cleaned out and sold, while working full time.. and trying to fix vehicles, and look after 3 1/2 households ( ours, my mom/dads place (shes physically limited), her moms, and her mom in the camper in our drive ( also physically limited).

he was a mechanic and wrecker service for 30+ years, so we convened a convoy of trucks to lead the procession ( led by the county sheriff that was also a friend ) and and i drove the truck that took him for his last ride. it is our family friend that we have both driven for and was also like a son to him, and he drove dads car. ( pictured at the funeral home the evening prior at the wake)