In this house that we are currently renting, the nasty carpet was an attractor of dust, animal hair, dirt, and who knows what. Eventually we asked the landlords if they minded if we pulled it and refinished the original wood floor underneath. After all, people pay big money for oak floors, right? This is even aged oak. Vintage, even. That's better than saying "old" - makes it seem cooler, somehow. So I pulled the carpet, and the pad, from the living room and the hallway. It was NASTY! Smelled like dust and must and feet and I don't know what else. So even with the floor "unfinished" it was an improvement. You can see what it looked like - nasty, dirty, and with some patchy fading in spots old varnish.


When the place was carpeted, it must have been before selling. The floor had a lot of water stains on it, and somebody painted the house interior (white paint) with no drop cloths. There were even a few footprints where a bare foot had stepped in a partial drip and made replicas across the floor. So it was going to have to be sanded. I did a bit with a hand held belt sander, but it wasn't until this weekend I got serious. I rented a floor buffer and bought several "sanding screens". That's basically just a screen with grit on it. Kicked the dogs outside, put on a mask left over from my days in the fire department (if it stops a tuberculosis spore it should stop a piece of old oak dust, right?) and made some dust. And some more dust. Eventually it was all sanded down. Looked nice all blonde colored, but some of the water staining was still showing through.


So - the next task is to stain it. I figure since I can't get rid of all the dark water stains, I'll just confuse the issue by staining the ENTIRE floor. Paint it on, let it sit for a few minutes, then go back and wipe it off with a paper towel. Rubber gloves are my friend, so I can let the towels get totally soaked with stain, and I just got smart and grabbed my kneepads I wear under my fighting armor. It is a pretty dark color although it gets a bit lighter as it dries. Note the shelves in the background. They aren't actually white, but I made a LOT of dust. Oh well..... when I'm done then it will be a major dust removal. I'm thinking of getting the compressor, and bringing the air hose to blow off all the little wind up toys....

This is about my 93 pound, 3 or 4 year old Husky mix female, named Andi. She basically "blew out her knee" in mid December. With the torn ACL (or in dogs, the CCL - Cranial Cruciate Ligament, as in the one that faces the head of the animal) the knee joint is unsupported. It causes her to be walking on a joint that is not stable - it is like the leg gets all flexy in the middle, so she can't really trust it. Couple that with the fact that it lets the tibia slide forward and whack the patella (the lower leg hits the kneecap) and it makes an awful click/clack sound as she sort of wiggles her way around.

We ordered a brace from OrthoPets for her. It arrived today. The brace is made from plastic molded onto a plaster model of the dog's leg, that the prosthetist made from a fiberglass cast that I made of the dog and mailed off to the lab in Denver. The joints are the same ones used in human prosthesis - kind of a rubber that gives a little bit of spring. Velcro, padding, and medical grade foam line it for comfort. Lighter, better fit, and a MUCH better joint than the one I made from leather and aluminum. I should hope so - since it has added up to about $650 once you count the medical grade fiberglass material to make the cast (vet aisle at the farm and ranch supply store just outside Spokane.... rednecks do their own doctoring), shipping the cast out, the fed ex shipment back, as well as the actual device's cost. But, if it allows the joint to be stabilized without surgery, so that the scar tissue can grow. The surgery most commonly done (called "traditional repair" or "Lateral Suture Stabilization") does what the brace does - but with nylon fishing line inside the knee - it holds it while letting it move in the normal range of motion and you hope the scar tissue builds up around it to hold it all together. Like the vet said - her football career is over, but that doesn't mean I have to get her a little doggy wheelchair (OrthoPets makes those too). Took 7 days for them to make the thing, and I have had really good communication with them. I don't know how MANY of these they have going on at one time, but the quality and workmanship seems really good.

The dog doesn't like it, right off the bat. It makes the leg a little bit stiff and she has to get used to it. She also still makes a bit of the click/clack noise, but not quite as much, and she is not wiggling her way around on basically 3 and a fraction legs - she is using all 4 again, and actually walking around. She was following me around the upstairs begging for scraps (I had a turkey hotdog in my hands that I was giving her pieces of). Give her a few days and I think she will be much more mobile. We are supposed to ease her into wearing the brace - kind of like getting used to contacts. An hour at a time, a few times a day, and work up to longer. They included a suggested schedule in with the brace.

Attached is a close up shot - with the brace on her right stifle (rear knee joint on a dog is called a stifle - I don't know why). She is also wearing her soft harness - the harness allows me to lift her up with the handles on the top side so she is not putting strain on the legs going up and down the steps into the backyard. I don't think she likes the harness much, but she accepts the extra help going up the stairs. If we don't grab her she will go up the steps on her own.... but that is a sure way to let her undo any of the buildup of scar tissue in the joint that will eventually (we hope) stabilize the joint from the inside. There are other surgeries that cut and then reconnect the bone of the lower let in such a way that the joint doesn't NEED the cruciate ligaments to stabilize it - they change the angle of the top of the tibia and then screw a metal plate to hold the bone together. I don't want to do such an invasive process on the dog (nor spend $2,500 on the TPLO surgery), nor the cheaper ($1,200) fibular tie-back that the vet I took her to specializes in - it doesn't have as good a track record.

IF the brace can stabilize the joint, and let scar tissue build up to help out, then the dog can get back to a normal life without surgery. I can always have surgery done later IF this does not work. As long as the joints are not sliding and banging around, there should not be pain. I'm a fan of not having to cut on an animal if it is not necessary. There is a slow period of recovery if you don't do surgery.... but there is a slow recovery if you hack the bones, put them back together in a configuration that is different, and hold them together with metal plates and screws.... If it was MY knee, I might try the brace only option for awhile, too.

...specifically old ones that don't work well. I don't blame her - I LOVE old cars - but they have to function. The weather here in Spokane is somewhat "harsh" these last two winters. Getting around on the roads is sometimes a real challenge. I'm building up an old 4x4 Eagle for my winter ride. We really needed something for my Robin, as well. So....


That, in the picture, is a 2003 Volkswagon Passat. It has the normally aspirated 2.8 liter V-6, 5 speed automatic transmission, and all the fancy things for a winter car like heated seats, heated mirrors, heated windshield washers, and of course - all wheel drive via the VW "4 Motion" system. The Passat (German for "Tradewind") of this year is based on the Audi A4 platform, and the 4motion system is a Torsen T2 differential. The 30 valve V-6 makes 193 hp @6000 rpm and 210 ft/lb of torque @3200 rpm. Supposed top speed of 143 mph - I think I'll take the wikipedia article's word on that.

Big cargo capacity when you flip/tumble the rear seats forward. The bottom of the rear seat tilts forward, and the seat back drops down into the space left. They lock together making a perfectly flat floor. There are also cargo tie downs in the back, and a pair of 12 volt power sockets - so if you have one of those fancy electric powered coolers you can stow it in the back, sling a web strap around it to keep it contained, and plug it in so that your wine and cheese stay at the right temperature for the picnic.

At 3,100 pounds it feels much more solid, but moves surprisingly well. Road feel is good, but not punishing, and the leather seats are very nice. It remembers where you adjusted the seat (up/down/tilt/forward/back) as well as where the side mirrors were pointing. It can remember 3 different drivers, so when Robin gets in, she pushes a button and it reconfigures the seats and mirrors for her. It even re adjusts the mirror on the right side to point down further when you put the car in reverse, and back up when you put it in drive. Fancy!

I just do it like a dog chases cars. Well, like a dog who can drive and occasional hits the racetrack. A week ago I saw a column of smoke just off the main drag so I pulled into the neighborhood. A car was blazing merrily in the driveway just in front of a house, Spokane FD had arrived and was JUST dismounting the truck. They pulled lines as I was walking up, pulling my iPhone to shoot a little amateur video. Unfortunately I caught only about 2 seconds of video (when in a hurry it is easy to touch the ON button twice.... but that means you turned it on, and then OFF right after). I did get a good still. Look at the house - the white droopy thing hanging off the roof used to be a vinyl rain gutter. Since I was heading out to my property to do some work, and it being the 4th of July weekend and the possibility of getting my OWN calls, I was in uniform as well. I came to where the car owner was - who was having some type of seizure - and worked with a neighbor (a nurse) to keep him safe until the medics showed up, and then stuck around to help while they got lines in, drugs onboard, and we all grabbed him and got him on the gurney and then I left.(click the picture for a larger one).

It has been about 16 months since I last hit a deer. Two weeks ago I got another one. When you hit a deer with a Land Rover, you knock it forward (like using a 1 wood in golf - a very flat face). When you hit one with a Saturn, the very low and sloping hood and windshield act more like a sand wedge, and fling it up and over the car. In both cases the deer ended up very dead. I had to sell the Land Rover (I'm was just not that good a bodyman). I have learned since then.... and Saturns are tough. The hood, one headlight, some metal bits in front - those were damaged.

The tupperware fenders flexed, but don't show damage. The antenna was bent back.

Trip to the local Pull and Save got me another headlight, some brackets that were bent in front, an antenna, and a few bit parts. No hood though.

After two weeks of hunting for a cheap (under $40) used hood I bout a new one (aftermarket - from china) for $139 plus tax. Total cost of the replacement bits probably ran about $200. Paint should be another twenty or so.

The big Carpenter bus came with a rather "rough" conversion. It was something used as a bit of a base camp from some river guides at a rafting company. Not the requirements for the highest levels of fit and finish. But, it did come with a wood stove in it. The door was rusted shut, and it had a lot of rust flaking off inside. But, being a few hundred pounds of steel, it had enough to slough off a few pounds. To the right is the stove in the old bus. It actually is a "certified" stove, complete with the appropriate data plates and information on the back.

I utilized a dolly, a ramp, brute strength, and some innovative use of rope in some sort-of-block-and-tackle arrangements to get it OUT of the Carpenter and IN to the Bluebird that is still "home" while the slow process of building up the big bus takes place. After rust breakers, wd-40, more brute strength, a hammer, and a few well chosen 4 letter words, I took the old stove pipe from my older, inefficient stove of last winter (too hot, and too fast of a burn) and got it setup. Freeze warnings last night had me covering the tomato plants outside, and thinking of a stove inside. With just a few bits of wood in it, it burned for hours and hours with a cheerful glow. I think this could run overnight if I loaded it up before going to bed (I'll make sure to change out the batteries in my carbon monoxide detector before I do that, though - just in case). I guess I better split a bunch of wood from my piles of dry logs, and make sure that the ones for this little stove are short. The monster stove in the shop takes just about anything (it can handle 24 inch long logs) where this guy would do best with about 14 inchers.

"I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves." (Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday., in writing about Daylight Savings Time)