Van’s Ignition Switch Replacement and a Ride In the Hills

Monday September 19, 2022 Guerneville CA.

It was supposed to rain again today but it didn’t.

But there were some nice clouds in the sky for the first part of the day.cllouds1

 

Old van’s ignition switch replacement

That was my project for the day. I thought it would be an easy job to just take the old switch off and install the new one,…………..but.

That’s not the way it went.

I got the wire socket off with the wires and was able to get the new switch attached to that.switch2

 

The mistake I made was putting the new key cylinder in before I installed the unit in the dash. With the  new key cylinder installed the unit would not go through the hole in the dash.

Now I had to figure out how to get the key cylinder out of the unit. I tried several things but just couldn’t do it. Off to the internet for me and I finally figured it out and was able to get the key cylinder off and the new unit installed in the dash.ignition3

 

Time for a break and some chair hopping around the yard sitting in the sunshine and I got a nap in there somewhere too.

Checking for storm damage

In the evening I decided to go up into the hills on the dirt bike and see how many trees fell across the roads during yesterday’s rain.

This was an easy one.roadwork4

 

Another easy one, just some little branches.limbs5

 

I stopped here at the overlook for a break and to enjoy the view.bike6

 

Then I rode on over to this trail and walked out it about a half mile or so.trail7

 

And then back to the beginning where I sat and enjoyed the day for a spell.trail8

 

Checking the waterfall

I was wondering if there was enough rain yesterday to make the waterfall flow, so I rode on other to have a look see.

Here’s the waterfall but no water flowing yet, other than a dribble.trail9

 

I hopped back on the dirt bike and headed down the trail for home and got there just before dark.forest

 

Nice day.

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Wet Dirt Bike Ride and Some Heavy Rains, First of the Season

Sunday September 18, 2022 Guerneville CA.

Rainy day

We got our first seasonal rain, maybe a little early but that’s ok.

It let up a little bit so I was able to get out to feed the chickens.rain1

 

Going for a ride in the rain

It continued to rain until about 3:30 when it let up and stopped for a bit. I checked the satellite view of the weather and it looked like there was a small break in the clouds so I decided to go for a dirt bike ride. I found my rain jacket but not my rain pants, but what the heck,  jeans worked ok when I was a kid. Just get a bit wet but a warm house was near if I did.

I used to go out for hikes all day during the rains when I was a bit younger and I didn’t have any good rain gear then.

Took what I got

I took a chance knowing it would start to rain again and I’d get a bit wet. I was hopping for at least about a half hour of no rain, but I’d take what I got and I did.

Downed trees on the trail

I was riding up this trail when I ran into these downed trees. It wasn’t raining, except under the trees as the rain water hadn’t settled out of them yet, but it wasn’t too hard, yet.logs2

 

I needed some exercise so I decided to at least clear a way through the downed trees so I could pass on by. That wasn’t too hard to do.trail3

 

I rode on up to this turn around spot and headed for the trail area for short walk.ridge4

 

Walked out this trail

While I was walking out this trail a bit the rain started to pick back up so I headed back to the dirt bike to continue my ride around the hills.trail5

 

I stopped here for a bit when the rain slowed again for a look see.bike6

 

That’s fog coming out of the wet forest.view7

 

Rains picking up

And then the rain picked back up again coming down a bit harder so I headed for home going the long way. I was almost at the end of this road when I had to stop for this downed log. Too much for me to deal with so I turned around and went back and took another road and ran into another downed tree, so turned round again and tried another road.log8

 

Wet but home

It was raining pretty good when I got home and yes, my pants were real wet so I changed them into dry ones.

Raining good now, but more was to come shortly.rain9

 

It’s really pouring now

It started to pour big time. Too bad I got home just a bit too soon as this would have been good to experience up in the hills.rain10

 

See, lots of water coming off the house roof. It did this for about ten minutes before it let up and eventually mostly stopped for the day.water11

 

Rain gauge

I checked the bucket I use for a rain gauge and it had about three inches of rain in it, not bad for a first rain and there’s more to come in the next couple of days or so.guage13

 

The poor chickens have been in the pen  mostly all day keeping dry so I let them out to graze.chickens

 

Rat Control report

Not much good to report, except the rats are doing well eating the plaster of Paris spiked bait. They don’t seem to detect there’s something bad in it and are coming in to eat it even more and even more tonight with all the rain.

Here’s a bunch of them. All young ones, I thinkrats

 

There’s these three that are living in my attic, I think, and have been eating the bait since I started and got through the baking soda with no real problems.rat

 

And these other two young ones that  have also been here all along doing just fine so far.two

 

They are really pigging out tonight so maybe something will work. We’ll see.

Nice day.

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