Thursday, July 30, 2009

The Mosquito and the Plumber's Crack

I have been taking a break for a while and it hasn't been entirely by choice.
First of all we put out our nets for a few days and got enough salmon for four families.Around a 130 or so.
It's always good to have the freezer full of fresh salmon.
Our operation was slobbered over by everyone on the beach for a mile.Folks like the idea of using a wench for pulling the nets in and out. They also liked my pressurized water system. It allows us to spray the fish clean before we vacuum seal them.I always have my generator running and the freezer plugged in. It gives us a place to freeze the fish as well as being able to have nice steaks and ice cream in camp.
Fish camp went very smoothly again this year.
My neighbor gave me an old 1986 ford one ton diesel 4X4. It had a recently installed engine and a lot of other new goodies.He couldn't get the transmission to shift. I told him many times to replace the little slave cylinder on the clutch and it would be fine.He wouldn't listen so I asked him how much he would sell it for. He just gave it to me to get it out of his yard. How Kool is that!!
Lin started right off the bat not liking the looks of "Old Rusty".
It took me 20 minutes to get the clutch working. I have had to put vaseline on my teeth and gums to keep them from drying out, from all of the grinning.
"Old Rusty" is a flat bed crew cab with a 4 speed transmission.
I have just finished a month rebuilding all four wheels with brakes, seals, bearings etc.I installed a new tie-rod, batteries, windshield, emergency brake cables, heater and radiator hoses and speedometer gears and cable. I had to replace the light switch, turning switch, dimmer switch and rewire the dome light. It seemed that ever time I replaced something, I would find three more things that were worn out.
During one of my projects of working on the front wheels, I found that if one fails to spray mosquito spray on every inch, the industrious little critters would find and set up camp on it.I usually covered about everywhere I could think of. I figured if I missed a place, they would surely let me know.
Well... when I was all bent over wrestling the front brake, they found that little place just below where my shirt wouldn't quite reach and where the top of my pants also wouldn't quite reach. I suppose I was too busy to notice all of the action going on back there.The result was a great bunch of the most itchy bites I have ever had.There was none of this "don't scratch the bites".
Lin found a lot of humor in my agony. She offered to put some lemon juice back there, but I couldn't trust her not to "accidentally" dribble some on down to "old Glory".The thought of having lemon juice along with the bites almost sent me into deep depression.
I tried backing up against a tree and rubbing like a bear, but that still wasn't enough.I would wake up at night clawing at the things like a sick cat. The more I clawed, the worse they got.
After many days and nights of no sleep, they finally began to slack up a bit.
My old "hind end" looks like I just got over a small battle with "small pox's".
I know there is a moral to that story, but I try not to figure out what it might be. Everytime I think about it, I can feel the itch beginning to return, so I try to forget as much as I can.
I am going to have to cut this blog short so I can get a few scratches in before lin catches me doing it again!
Poor old Bubba