Weekend In The rearview Mirror 8/5/19

It has been a rough weekend in America and this time it hit very close to home. We have been and are continuing to pray for many families that are dealing with tragedy they had no idea was coming. God, pull us together in you.

Bro. Larry Lamb
Pastor Larry Lamb from Sweeny, Texas is having surgery this morning. Please pray that it is successful and that he has a speedy recovery. He and his church have been so good to pray for us, please help us return the favor.

Our Weekend
This weekend goes all the way back to Thursday morning so get ready for a long post with lots of pictures too.

House Stuff
"There is always something to do when you own a house"

A truer statement has never been uttered by a homeowner. So, most of Thursday and Friday and a slice of Saturday were "homeowner" days with a little tent revival preparation and general maintenance thrown in.

The mower we purchased in Oklahoma is working out great, but Dad noticed it was mowing low/high side to side. Everything on the deck seemed correct so the next thing to check was the tires. On visual inspection, one front tire was low, but neither tire showed any air pressure and would not take any air. What?

On closer inspection, we could see bits of thorns in the tread, but no air escaped with the thorns removed. When I removed the tires before tent revival in Middletown, one was definitely lower than the other, plus they were incredibly heavy. 

I took them to WalMart, purchased two tires and warned the tire guy that the old ones may be full of Fix A Flat. Nope, it was not Fix A Flat, it was rubber! I found out that in some places if your mowing area is prone to thorns and other hazards, it is common to fill the front tires completely with rubber instead of constantly plugging and replacing tires.

That would be no problem for me at all, but evidently, one tire did not get full and it was riding low enough that it was throwing the cut off. No one gave me much hope of getting the tires off and reusing the rims.

I waded into the first one with a Sawzall and stupidity. A sometimes deadly and sometimes effective combination.

Piece by piece I got it down to the rim and while I was gone to Boston, Dad figured out how to get the edge pieces off the rim.

  

Knowing more about it made cutting the second one easier Thursday morning. I cut the first tire off in the barn and the little bits of rubber covered my face and head. My skin reacted like fire.

This time I cut the second tire off outside and covered my face and head.

Ready.

No banks were robbed in the process. It was also much quicker the second time.

Dad got the edge pieces off and back to WalMart we went. With new tires on the rims and aired up equally we tested the mower in the midday sun.

Perfect! I saved the actual mowing until Friday morning when it was cooler.

Thursday evening we had a nice supper with Steve and Karen.

Friday morning I mowed. Here is the mower afterward all clean, gassed up and ready to go again.

Friday lunch we finally made it to Acapulco and then made a big stop at Rural King and Home Depot for all kinds of stuff. We stayed busy all day with house stuff, barn stuff, bus stuff and other stuff.

Kelly prepared a wonderful meal in Odie's house on Friday evening.

Saturday had even more adventures. I mentioned at the end of May that I had a dust cover fall off one of the tent trailer wheels and I put it back on at a rest area in Illinois.

When I stopped, I noticed the little cap was missing from the centerpiece of the front left wheel. On closer inspection, it was knocked off by the dust cover on the hub. I just had that dust cover off, so that was a surprise. 

I had to jack up the trailer at the rest area and remove the tire to get the dust cover back on. With Kelly Jo's expert supervision, the job was completed in a few minutes.

There is a possibility that I did not get it back on correctly last week OR that I bent it while taking it off and it will not stay on. I will watch it closely today while we travel. I think I may have a spare.

The dust cover stayed on from there to Independence, Iowa to Wichita, Kansas to Colorado Springs, Colorado to Amber, Oklahoma to Elco, Illinois and then came off again just south of Cincinnati, Ohio. That was an hour from home. 

The temperature on that wheel was the same as all the other wheels, so it had not lost grease and gotten hot. I put it back on and when I pulled into the Ranch and one hour later, it was off again.

Saturday morning was time to deal with that. I jacked it up, removed the wheel, filled the hub with grease, cleaned up the wheel cover, put on a new dust cover and reinstalled the wheel.

For my information in the future, the dust cover is 2.75 OD. It does not matter that the trailer guy I talked to first said that there has never been a trailer axle with a dust cover that is 2.75 OD.😀

I cleaned up the old dust cover and I cannot see anything wrong with it, but hopefully, the replacement takes care of the problem.

With that finished, it was time to change the bus generator oil again. Every second or third oil change, I clean the tray the generator sets on and this was the time. I had sprayed cleaner on it before working on the trailer, so that part was easy.

The next part was not so easy. I changed the air filter last time (July 2019) so this time I was cleaning the air filter canister. I noticed that the hose from the filter to the engine was off the fitting that goes to the engine. I did not take a picture of the loose hose, but here it is with the hose reattached.

The arrow is pointing to the air filter canister and the end that was off is circled. Yes, it is at the back of the generator.

It was a bear to get back on. I had to take several things loose in order to put it all back together and for a while, I despaired that I would ever get it. This fat boy does not fit in the back of the generator compartment.

I need the generator to be in top condition later this week. When we arrive in Central City, Kentucky on Friday we will probably run it until we leave over one week later. That made this little problem a big problem. By God's grace, I got it on. Whew!

After that, I made a trip to Home Depot to gather things for a project I will describe later and then it was time to move the bus to Anchor of Hope where we are preaching this week. I cranked it up, did the work of an evangelist, turned the bus around and less than 30 minutes later I was pulling into the church.

I unloaded all the equipment and set it up. Kelly Jo and Odie had gone to Hillsboro for Kelly Jo's Dad's birthday. 

They came in about 7:00 and we finished our soundcheck.

Revival kicked off Sunday with two good services. We always know the services are going to be good here, but I was much in prayer concerning Sunday's sermons. God honored His Word and helped His people. Praise God for it!

Odie took a few pictures Sunday and I will share some of them here.

We enjoyed a little salsa with Pastor EJ Lamb and his family along with some of Kelly Jo's family after church Sunday night. You know that was good!

Odie went home after church last night and we will probably take the bus to the barn this morning. I do not want to be involved in any big projects while preaching revival, but I have a few small things I need to do at the barn before we leave Thursday.

Come be with us in revival if you can. We will be at Anchor of Hope Monday through Wednesday at 7:00 PM. 

Thank you for reading.

Davy