Hi All!
Made it up to NH at the beginning of August!
All safe and sound but missed the Admiral’s annual Doctor appointment and needed to reschedule it.
Got here just ahead of what was left of Debbie meandered through the region. Couple of really rainy days but not much wind for us.
The pond looks beautiful!
Hit the ground running the moment we got here.
Our younger daughter Lydia’s friend Kate and her 30 year old 300K mile short school bus made it up here but was experiencing some electrical issues as the batteries would run down attempting to start the old diesel engine. She had a mobile mechanic come out to her while she was down in Boston visiting her Mom. The mechanic changed out the alternator and replaced one of the two batteries. When she got here to NH as we arrived she was still having the same problem. Huh?
After unloading all my tools our UHaul trailer I took a look ….
Found there was water in the fuel filter… changing out the fuel/water separator on an old F350 type van modified into a school bus with supplemental Air Conditioning is A PITA. Found it was full of water. The drain valve on the filter it totally inaccessible too! Once that was done we got it to fire right up. Ran at high idle for 10 minutes to help purge the system then had to re-remove the filter to check for more water (none found) and re-reinstall the filter. Went to restart it with the interior ‘dog house’ off and noticed a “cavalcade” of sparks coming from the starter solenoid!!!

Whoa! Crawled underneath and found that the power lead was unsecured to the solenoid stud…no nut, no washer and a good bit of arc damage to the cable end and stud…. I personally think this was the real cause of her starting problems and drained batteries while she was down in Boston…the water in the fuel didn’t help either. At the same time as the sparks were noticed I found that the right hand exhaust manifold to tubing interface coupling was not sealed and belching hot fumes into the compartment … given the virtually nonexistent seal of the doghouse to the passenger compartment it’s a wonder Kate (and my daughter) hadn’t fumigated themselves. Good thing they are cheap and have been running around with the windows open to avoid running the air conditioning!!! Small mercies! I worked at it for a while and managed to reduce it to about a third of what it had been but couldn’t do more with the limited mechanizing tools I have here in NH. (The tools I brought up are more geared to carpenters and dirt work.) I recommended she get to a professional shop to have it fixed an ONLY drive withe the windows open AND WITH A CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR. She arranged with her dad in Wisconsin to have his shop look at it once she got there. I also fixed her windshield wipers… the switch faile in the on position so she had been pulling/inserting the fuse under the dash to operate them. I don’t have the specialized column access tools so I rigged up a dash switch and in-line fuse to the fuse block as a temporary solution.
Thought I was done at that point as she drove west to Wisconsin… Now I could get over to Burlington VT to help my older daughter Sarah move apartments. As the Admiral, younger daughter Lydia and I traveled with the van and UHaul in tow we got a desperate phone call from Kate. Her bus had made a loud bang wand was belching smoke everywhere!!! Sheeze, she couldn’t catch a break! After making sure she was getting out of the vehicle and up wind off the shoulder we rerouted ourselves to her location which was only about 30 minutes from our route. Once there I figured out that she’d had a catastrophic failure of her power steering pump assembly. Contacted a truck towing company and waited for it to arrive and load it up. Dragged it all back to the house and called it a night. Again dealing with getting and changing out a literally blown power steering unit was beyond what tools I have here in NH so Kate called the mobile mechanic again. He came out while the Admiral and I went to VT to help move the older daughter. Meanwhile, The mechanic upon finding out about the starter connection issue was very apologetic and replaced the Power Steering pump at part cost which was nice of him given that no one can know for certain what is/can/will go wrong on a 300K mile 30 year old school bus. My daughter stayed with Kate at our home while the work was being done but time was slipping away and Kate’s band tour was going to start… so Lydia drove Kate down to the Manchester Airport for a flight out to be in place for the tour start.
In Vermont the Admiral and I packed up the apartment as it was now past the weekend Sarah had to be at work… boy do girls have a lot of stuff!!!

Had to rent a 10 foot UHaul box truck in addition to the small UHaul trailer we brought! It was fun (albeit tiring) to get a chance to help her over the two days there. Finally made it back home to NH.
Then it was making a first pass at attacking our own storage unit stuff. A van and light trailer load was moved out and into the basement. A couple days of sorting reduced it by a third…at least it was progress!
Concurrently I decided to give it another go with possibly getting a plumber to replace out cropped out 25+ year old combi boiler …. They came back with quotes for systems that were enough to take your breath away…. So after a week lost to that I was back to doing it myself. Placed the preliminary part orders with Lowe’s and HomeDepot and have started to get the parts in. Meanwhile it good we are used to spending long trips on Over Easy or there would be a lot of cold showers,,,,More on that later….
Along with the storage unit and plumbing projects we have made some progress on the driveway and landscaping projects with the purchase of a used John Deere (JD) 318 mini tractor with a small front end Loader as well as a used Harbor Freight (Central Machinery) portable trailerable back hoe. Both are in excellent condition and we were able to get them at great prices. The JD was local to us so that was relatively easy. The back hoe was more of a challenge as they are harder to find than a hens tooth! The Admiral found the perfect one with very low hours and a mechanical gripper thumb (comes in handy when moving rocks and Timbers) but it was over in Vermont north of Burlington. As we’d missed out on the one or two other candidates I jumped on it and lugged a car carrier trailer (from UHaul of course) and drove the 3 & 1/2 hours over to look at it, buy it and the drive another 3&1/2 hours back. The seller took off a couple hundred bucks and even threw in a small snow plow blade that should fit to the JD! My daughter Lydia was in that area finishing a short backpacking trip so she came over to help load it and followed me home.
I’m only really planning on keeping them both so I can get the yard projects done at my schedule without concerns about extended rental fees and the vagaries of New England weather. If I get a start on the yar projects this year I’ll feel good about it. I can finish them next year if need be. (A good portion of the rationale for the yard projects is to make a proper parking space of Over Easy when we’re up here)
We’ve made a couple of trips to the storage unit with Lydia. At her suggestion we’ve now been doing the sorting and shedding at the unit. It’s been more productive that way. Smart cookie she is!
The Admiral managed to ‘prang’ her left ankle the other day. An extension cord reel dropped on it. It was ok until it wasn’t… a Trip to the ER later with a set of X-rays and she is ok but is gonna be sore for a week or two. Gratefully nothings actually broken.
On the second floor balcony remove/replace project the Admiral and I are thinking of changing it from a full in-kind replacement to maybe just a short depth “Juliet” type. A lot less work (no 4 foot deep support footings and first floor deck reinforcement columns and beams to bring it up to current code requirements). Instead we will add a permanent wider & deeper sloped (snow shedding) metal awning to better cover the first deck which is where we spend most of our time anyway. Sort of a win/win and a less complex project.
Took a day off yesterday and went sailing on our little Sunfish with Lydia. It was a perfect day!
It’s been a busy month since we arrived and we’ve got to get get back at it…
Best Regards,
Over Easy
