AND another lesson in how to do it like a woman...accepting help.

Having the problem of the furnace fan diagnosed, I started the day by pulling the fan unit out of the furnace, removing the belt and taking off the bearing housing. Now all I needed to do was get the bearing off the shaft. There was no way I could do this. It was seized, frozen, stuck, tighter than a tick. I mustered all my puny strength and tools but to no avail. As I sat looking at it, trying to come up with a smarter solution, the phone rang. My neighbor, James, had heard of my challenge and, as he was going to be out my way, offered to stop by to help.

He's a wheat farmer and as a farmer has to keep huge heavy equipment in running condition. He's not only smart but big and strong. Sometimes doing it like a woman means accepting help when it's offered. In this case, his assistance was just what I needed.

His truck is loaded with an array of implements and within minutes he had the bearing off the shaft. With an incredible wealth of knowledge about bearings and all things mechanical, he offered up all sorts of information as his hands deftly cleaned and reworked the bearing parts. Before long he had it back together and on the shaft. The fan turned like a dream and he was off to his next project. I suddenly had a huge sense of gratitude.

I too was off to town for the new belt and parts to replace a broken vibration dampener.

After installing the belt and muscling the unit back into the furnace I held my breath as I turned on the power. The big fan whirled into action pumping warm air throughout the house. I was saved! Thank you James.

Yesterday I felt so relieved and self-satisfied when my simple repair of the furnace fan worked. The temperatures and winds are brutally harsh so I really need the furnace to function and keep us safely warm. This evening with the thermometer reading 25 degrees F. (and falling) the bearings seized on the squirrel cage fan. At 6:30 pm the local auto parts store is closed and I'm beginning to feel very vulnerable.

I rounded up some lubrication, gloves, rags and the big flashlight to see if I could work some magic. The fairy dust seems to be missing from my magic wand.

I slid the whole unit out and it drops off the tracks onto the floor. Oh oh. I figured I'll worry about how I was going to lift it back up into place after I'd given it a good cleaning and lubing. This is when I realized that the bearings are shot (they were so hot I heard sizzling noises when I sprayed them with oil) and the belt is broken. Thankfully it has Napa stamped on it because I have no idea where I'm going to find bearings.

I went upstairs to the kitchen and stood pondering at the sink as I let hot water run over my hands. The temperature outdoors was now 17 degrees F. The dogs were both quietly staring at me. I think I might have been talking out loud to myself. I reassured them (and myself) that we were going to be fine.

I rounded up a couple of space heaters, filled a hot water bottle, closed doors to unused rooms and gathered the three of us into my bedroom for the evening. Now the dogs are snoring and I've made myself a list for tomorrow's parts run (fairy dust included). I'm going to deserve a big reward tomorrow evening when I have this furnace repaired and the house warming. Maybe ice cream with Kahlua.

It's 10 degrees F. I'm going to bed.

Something not right? Start with the simple approach first.

This morning I heard the furnace fan go on and then abruptly off. This isn't how it's suppose to work so I immediately knew there was a problem. This furnace has to make it through the winter and especially through the next few days as we're predicted to have temperatures dipping in the single digits. I'm not liking this furnace...a lot.

I took the front door off the furnace and used the big flashlight with hopes it would expose a small problem. The belt was intact. I could move the big squirrel cage type fan but with difficulty. I figured oiling the shafts couldn't hurt so that's what I did. It worked! It was just having to work too hard for the little motor to turn the large fan.

As a mechanic I was taught to start the problem solving process by looking at the simple causes and solutions first. Good advice.

This is the first Christmas at the ranch so there are undoubtedly going to be some firsts. First tree, first Christmas stockings and first disasters. Well, not exactly disasters. I’ll call them failures. I’ll save the word disaster for after Christmas presents have been opened.

The Christmas tree fell over this morning. It left its mooring. It took it’s pretty little decorations and lights to the floor. This wouldn’t feel like such a failing except that I cleverly hung the tree from the ceiling.

The ranch has nine foot ceilings in the great room and the tree is a hefty one at almost eight feet. My daughter and I together installed the hook in a beam in the ceiling and together lifted the tree to attach the lanard to the hook. The twine I used was just too wimpy to handle the weight so it snapped. Since the tree is hanging in a pot of water there wasn’t anything at the base to keep it upright.

It truly is a great idea to hang a tree. No adjusting for perfect vertical. No falling over in the flimsy stand…oh wait…it did fall over. Time to bring out the proper twine or in this case, wire. Heavy wire. Time to do it like a woman.

Like I said, it took two of us to muscle it into place but this morning it’s just me and the spiny spruce. Let me think…smarter..not stronger. Stronger just isn’t an option.

Once I had attached the heavy wire to the tree I doubled the wire over and twisted it to secure a loop at the top. I made it a little shorter than before so this way I could add two wire ties to the loop allowing me to tighten and therefore lift the tree into place. Sort of like using a winch. Okay, so I had to hide the wire ties with a festive bow and ribbon but I feel that this method will hold. Next year I’ll be prepared for hanging a tree with a much heavier cord….red and white would look pretty.

I woke up at 3:30 on a cold and blustery morning to the acrid smell of deisel. We have an older oil furnace that had been dripping tiny amounts of fuel from the pump. I’d been catching it in a large can and returning it to the fuel tank. This smell was disconcerting so I got up. I would have preferred to stay snuggled in bed but my little “fix-it" voice urged me up and out. I went down to the basement and found the can overflowing and the drip making the noise of a frenzied drummer. Yuck it’s a mess and yuck it’s a problem I don’t have the knowledge to fix. No, I have the knowledge I’m just not going to fix it holding a flashlight, wearing a night shirt alone in the basement that gives us the jibblies. I know better than to wake my daughter. I changed out the can and went back to bed to make a list.

First, call the furnace man Dave. He’s wonderful and talks to me like I’m interested. I am.

Second, go into town first thing in the morning and buy some cat litter to soak up the fuel and a funnel to start loading this copious amount into a gas can.

Third, relax. I had already started to investigate other heating options and planned on swapping out this expensive furnace in the future. I just didn’t know the future had arrived so inconveniently at the start of a long dark winter. I found if I turned the thermostat up really high then the dripping decreased. Having done all I could do I went back to sleep.

Dave, who is a man of his word, arrived later in the day to repair the problem. His startled little jump upon seeing the stream of determined drips told me that it wasn’t going to be easy or cheap. The seal around the pump shaft was gone. We both agreed that putting an expensive new pump or burner on the old furnace didn’t make sense. He wasn’t even sure he could find the parts. He’d research it and get back to me. We spent some time going over my options but first he wanted me to move the caught fuel away from the furnace. Good thinking Dave.

Dave is methodical and articulate so I stood and listened. He explained why a heat pump, my first choice, doesn’t work well in this part of the world. It gets too cold and a heat pump becomes inefficient below 25 degrees. I don’t have natural gas available and propane is expensive and throws me back in to the jaws of the petroleum guzzling lion. He suggests a new electric forced air furnace that could easily hook up to the ducting that’s already in place. Sounds great but there’s just one little and pricey hitch. I need to have my electrical service to the house completely redone. This will cost between 2500.00 to 4500.00 dollars. Ah, the future has just smacked me in the face and screamed “deal with it".

I could be freaked out by all of this but I’m not. My daughter is standing beside me with words of encouragement and cash. Dave is honest and reliable. I’ve adapted by modifying my routine. Make coffee, feed the animals and go down into the basement and swap out the full can of fuel with an empty one.

I’m out of Gripple wire joiners and I have a broken hot wire that needs to be reconnected. There is about 24 inches of gap so I have a plan.

Project:
Reconnect pasture hot wire

Tools:
Pliers
Gloves
16 gauge aluminum wire

By making hooks in each end of the fencing wire I could use them to wrap wire around and across the gap. I pulled the two lengths taut and wrapped a couple of lengths of wire between each hook. This gave me plenty of connection for current to flow.

This might be a good time to talk about hot wire fencing.

I live in an expansive landscape with little barrier for wind. As a consequence, the tumble weeds can freely travel the landscape until hitting my fencing. This can short out the flow of current and make the wire useless as a deterent for those pesky animals wanting to escape to freedom. It’s important to keep grasses, weeds and free wheeling tumbleweeds from touching the wires. At this time of year it’s a constant job to walk the fence line and clear debris that wants to cling to the fence. What I’m looking for is wire that is strung without impediment and current flowing freely. I usually get a chance to test this by accidentally touching somewhere along the line…yeeowch! Unfortunately this day I was also touching my mule at the same time. It took a couple of apples and reasurrance before she’d approach with any trust the rest of the day.

Time to do it like a woman and order from enasco.com some more Gripple joiners.

I did a faux treatment to my kitchen walls. A yellow base and a light brown second coat rubbed over it created an orange effect. Some would call that shocking. That’s not the kind of shocking I’m talking about. My kitchen wall behind the sink was registering on my volt meter about 90 volts. THAT’S shocking.

I was applying mastic to the wall in preparation for tile when I discovered this bit of news. I got a shock every time my bare finger came in contact with it. I tried five or six times in different places because I was incredulous. Yep, as I touch it again, that’s an electrical problem alright.

I was applying new expensive tile to a hot wall. Rather than stop, I continued hoping that I could find and fix the problem later. After this discovery, I shut down all electrical power to the house before ever leaving. More than one person told me I could have the whole place down around my ears if I didn’t fix it. Ya think?!

Here’s where employing my daughter’s help was again invaluable. Anyone who’s tried rewiring an old house will agree that it really takes two people. One to yell up from the basement, “Pull harder" and one person to yell angrily back, “I AM and it’s not moving!" We weren’t having any fun.

By determining that it was just that wall that had the current in it, I set about tracing the wire that fed power to the outlets and lights. After turning off the circuit, I cut the wire coming from the circuit breaker and proceeded to pull the old wire down from the end of the run. But wait. I stood in the basement holding the end of the old wire in my hand. “You know, it would have been so much smarter to have attached the new wire to this first and then pulled it through." Duh.

There is a tool called fish tape that helps thread wire through such places. I didn’t have one. We accomplished getting the new wire into place with a device called the fish wife tool. Yelling and screaming back and forth to one another, my daughter and I were able to run the wire through the unseen path and reconnecting to switches and outlets in new junction boxes.

There is still a light above the sink that needs new wire and a fixture. T o approach this project we are waiting for the day when the hurt from the first experience isn’t quite as fresh in our minds.

Tools:
Wire stripper
Wire cutter
Philips screwdriver
Tape
Volt meter
Try to have a fish tape on hand