Cubey's Adventures in Living

Beavers Bend - Broken Bow, OK

Cubey — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:23:10 +0000

Finally let out yesterday and came to Beavers Bend State Park just outside of Broken Bow, OK. Plan to stay here for at least then next week. I may or may not stay a few extra days beyond that until the 2nd of next month. But so far I have paid for 7 nights. Weather has been very nice and hopefully will stay that way. Due to the remote nature and terrain of the park, I have to go to the top of the dam to get cellular signal to get online. Here are some photos I have thus far taken of my visit here.

I love the tengt I bought so far. It is the perfect size for my needs. Well, okay, it could be a few inches longer so that my toes don’t fit the end of the tent but that’s kind of nit picking. Check out the photos below of my setup.

I guess thats all for now. The sun is setting so I guess I’m going to sit here atop the dam and enjoy it (views from the dam shown above from earlier today).

Camp oven & reading light

Cubey — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:27:06 +0000

I went out to the local flea market where a regular seller has a booth (whom I have bought stuff from several times in the past). His prices are above thrift store/yard sale prices but then again he carries good quality stuff. Anyhow, he had an old Coleman folding camping oven for sale for quite a long time. I inspected the oven and it’s pretty good for it’s age aside from some bending to the metal of the burner section and burning of the paint from normal use on the bottom. He had it marked $15 so I asked him what’s the least he’d take and he said $10, so I got it. One way you KNOW it’s really old, check out the photo of the inside of the door. *LOL*

I also picked up a used(?) in the box “Innovage Robotic LED Reading Light II” for $0.53 from a thrift store. Sure. it uses AG13 button cells but the ones in it still work. AG13s can be gotten pretty cheap, assuming they last a good while in the light. If the one ones last in it even a few hours, the light was worth paying $0.53 for.

Diagnosis

Cubey — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:15:35 +0000

I didn’t get much sleep last night, I guess due to worrying about the car. I got it about 8am and got to the garage about 9am. They quoted me $705.38 parts & labor to replace 2 Front Quick Strut Assemblies ($237.58 each, $475.16 for 2), $5 shop supplies, $130.66 labor to install two quick strut assemblies (plus road test and other adjustments/checks suspension wise), $49.95 for a 4-wheel alignment and another $5.00 for hazardous materials (labor related) With $39.61 tax it comes out to $705.38.

This seems to be a somewhat accurate parts wise. And the labor is fair (about 3-4 hours of labor). However, I did find the exact same Front Quick Strut Assembly (Part # 171615 as listed on their estimate) from OReilly for $165 each ($330 for two, plus tax). But then I’d still have to pay labor to someone, plus an alignment of about $50-60. I think I will forget about getting it fixed for now. It’s only a soft clunk. In time (6 months or even longer) it will probably be noisier but by then I should have some money saved up to get it done without going flat broke. If it starts making noises when I go over hard bumps, then I know it’s time for sure to get it done.

But for now, it can wait.

Got tires for the car, but…

Cubey — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:29:32 +0000

I bought a new set of 215/60-16 Fuzion HRi tires from a local discount tire store and had them mounted and all that good stuff. Then I went over to Wal-Mart to get new wiper blades and upon leaving, I noticed the car was making a faint “clunk” type sound when I turned the wheel. I had the music down for some reason or another so I heard it. Every time I turned the wheel slighly to the left it did it. I called the tire place back and they said to return so they could look at it. They came up with the conclusion that it was the rack & pinion and quoted me $800-900 including ball joints and an alignment. I had them give me a written estimate.

Then I went over to a garage I trust and discussed it with them. They began to quote me for a rack & pinion but then I showed the mechanic there the problem that was occuring. A soft “clunk” sound when I turn the wheel. He exclaimed “that’s not the rack & pinion”. He went on to explain that it sounds like it’s a spring/strut issue. If I’m remembering correctly, he said it probably has to do with the spring “popping” under tension when I turn the wheel due to a bearing plate issue. The reason I’m in the dark about it still is by the time I got done at the tire place, I arrived at the garage at about 5:35pm and they must close at 6pm since they told me to come back tomorrow and seemed like they were ready to get out of there soon.

So, I will be taking the car back in tomorrow for them to look it over and get me a PROPER estimate. I was very worried about this but now I’m less concerned by the symptoms. If it was a rack & pinion problem, it would have problems with steering, but it doesn’t. It just softly clunks when turning, not driving straight (as far as I can tell). But they’ll check for rack leaks and all that tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

It’s been a while…

Cubey — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:11:28 +0000

Wow, it’s been a while since I last posted on here. A fair amount has happened since my last entry. I sold the portable washing machine, nearly finished the trailer except for tires and decided I couldn’t afford the gas to tow it or even to drive my 1997 Ford E150 conversion van very far. I traded the van off for $3,500 trade allowance and paid an extra $1,265 cash (including TT&L) for a 2003 Ford Taurus station wagon. It has more miles than the van (145k vs 123k) but it’s mostly highway miles obviously for such a new car. It has many dings from rocks on the hood so the other day I bought some paint from Wal-Mart that matches the car and touched it up.

This evening I went back for some clear coat to put over the now well dried paint and found a 2 bike carrier on clearance for only $17! What luck! I just decided last night to get one of them in the future to carry my bicycle on rather than buying a trailer hitch and a hitch-mount bike carrier which would have cost me nearly $200 to do. So now I’m all set for a new bike carrier for only $18.70 with tax.

For now I will be keeping the 1967 Shasta Astroflyte trailer. I may decide to sell it later on if I don’t decide to come back and live in it.

Portable laundromat

Cubey — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:24:13 +0000

Last week I came across a “Welbilt Portable Laundromat” for $20 at a thrift store. Plugged it up and it seemed to work so I figured I’d take a chance on it. Seems to work perfectly. They go for $80-$100 on ebay easy. It washes but doesn’t spin dry and heat dries but is only 120v/1560W so it doesn’t work very well vs a normal dryer. Since it doesn’t spin dry in the wash cycle everything comes out soaking wet and requires hard ringing out of excess water. Even if you do this, the dryer isn’t enough to dry even a few articles of clothing without having to run for 2 or more ours which seems like a waste of the motor’s life so I plan to mainly use it for washing. Its quite large and I’m not even sure I will keep it due to that but I’ll think on it a few months before I decide to sell it or not. I certainly won’t be out any money if I do sell it however.

Olympian Heater Installed

Cubey — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:07:03 +0000

I was bored the other day and decided I had put off installing the Olympian heater I recently purchased on eBay long enough. So I went out, removed the bits of wood from the Coleman heater installation, and cut down a new piece of hardboard, sanded it a bit around the edges, cut a hole for the LP hose to come through, painted it to match the wall, mounted the hardboard and then the heater. All that was left was to hook up the LP hose to the heater and test it for leaks. All is well. Now I have a nice catalytic heater wall mounted and ready for use.

Funny TV quotes

Cubey — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:29:10 +0000

Some random funny quotes from a couple of TV shows:

Malcolm in the Middle:

Reese: Did I hear her right? Milk comes out of those things?
Malcolm: That’s what they’re for …….
Reese: Oh my god! Women are the cows of people!

Mystery Science Theater 3000:

Pearl: i’d like to give you a hump
Observer: Well, Pearl… whatever you feelings you might have for me…….
Pearl: on your back!
Observer: That’s sexual harrassment!
Pearl: a latex hump!
Observer: Now see here!!!

Yard sale find

Cubey — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 01:31:45 +0000

I was out and about today not really looking for yard sales per say but on the way back toward I stopped by one and found a used Coleman 800w (1600w peak) inverter in the case with battery clamps for $10. They let me take it to the van to try it out (far out of their sight..) but of course upon testing it and finding it working, I went back and paid for it.

It seems they let water get into the case and the screws rusted badly and mucked up the inside if the inverter and my have dissolved the glue around the transformers but it still works. I cleaned it out carefully with a dry q-tip as best I could and changed out the 3 fuses located inside. I don’t think I’ll need an 800w inverter very often but its good to have on hand anyway for the price.

Heater

Cubey — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 16:04:52 +0000

I typically hate bidding on auctions since I end up losing most of the time it seems like. That or I forget about the item so I don’t bid. I managed to remember to watch and bit on an Olympian 3100 heater on ebay and won it for the modest price of $60 shipped (including insurance). Not bad at all! The last one on ebay went for $122 plus shipping. Now I have a propane heater I can safely run overnight when I’m sleeping as this one has an low oxygen cut-off sensor unlike the Coleman one I already have. I will keep the Coleman one as an extra to use for that extra bit of heat I may need but I won’t leave it going overnight. The Coleman one is designed to run from 1lb bottles (but can run from a 20lb with an adapter hose) so I can use it in the tent if I so desire due to it being so portable.