Friday, January 24, 2025

Gate Latch

The problem with dual swinging gates is that they have a hard time staying parallel. I knew of this before we hung our new corral entrance gates, but the Wyoming wind said that it needed to be addressed sooner rather than later. 


Dad said that the one good thing about the swaying gates is that they tell you which way the wind is blowing. Unacceptable. 


To remedy this problem, we got ahold of some 3 1/2" tubing, which slips nicely over 2 7/8".


The plan was to cut it in half lengthways. A little trick to drawing a straight line down the middle of pipe is resting a piece of angle iron on it. 


Just follow your line with a cutting torch. 


Good deal. 


For heavy grinding like this I bring out ole Bertha.


That'll work. 


The idea was that the half pipe would cradle over the two top rails and keep the gates parallel while at rest.  Then when in need, simply lift the one end up and open the gates. 


So on one side we put a simple three piece hinge. 


For the other, we needed a handle. So we dug around in the barn and found some of Grandpa's old Percheron horse shoes. 


To work with these guys we brought out ole Betsy. 


We first cradled the shoes around the pipe and welded them on. Then we heated them up to bend them level. The iron alone on these shoes takes quite a bit to heat up. And keeping both sides hot enough to bend upright is a pretty tall order. 


Got it. 


We put a shoe on each side. To get in, first unlock the chain that does the heavy hold of the gates. Then, simply lift up the end of the bar with the shoes and move the gates freely. 


Muy bien. 

Mom was not liking the look of uneven gates from our house on the hill. Problem solved. I don't see any drawbacks from this gate latch. When it's open, the end of the bar is vulnerable, but is so far off of the ground that I don't think anything will bother it. Time will tell. But a straight gate makes for a jolly rancher. Bring it. 

Sunday, January 19, 2025

Feeding

With an arctic front going through town, I decided we better start supplementing the horses. Grass this time of year doesn't have much protein to it. And if they want to stay warm, their bellies better be full. 


The other day I brought them a mineral tub mixed with molasses. Seemed to be a welcome treat.


The front really moved in Sunday afternoon. It is supposed to get down to 15 below or so tonight and then warm back up again. 


So I ran out to feed them before the cold really sets in. 


This is the winter water tank that Jack uses. Totally free standing and easy to move around. I've got to say that I was pretty skeptical, but the idea is to fill it with water and the sun warms it and the thick poly exterior keeps it insulated. 


After 30 hours of single digit weather, it was still thawed out. I'm impressed. 


Just keep it full. The lid bobs around and helps keep the heat in. The horses just have to bump it with their noses. 


Buck has it figured out. 


I fed the horses heavy. Grass hay on frozen ground, they can have all they want.

I enjoy feeding. It's good to have something dependent upon you. Brings out the cowboy in a guy. I was reminded of all the times I ran down to Chuck's ranch in the Campbell County prairie to feed cows on my way to Wright. Good times. Fun to look back on. We keep trucking!

To Listen

Then we can do whatever He tells us.




Saturday, January 18, 2025

Pool Time

I'm not real good at pool, but I do like to play it. We had a table in the basement in Gillette. Having an open room in our Buffalo basement, I've been keeping my eye out for a pool table to put there. Lo and behold, the Lord provides. 


I spotted this treasure in the basement of the parish hall. It belongs to the Knights of Columbus, who are the second owners and hauled it down here sometime in the 1970s. Since they hadn't used it in years, they graciously donated it to our cause. 


It's a 9' Brunswick and is in really good shape. I'd like to know what year it was made. I'm guessing the 1960s.


So I called my buddy Jared and we got to work. Neither one of us had ever moved a pool table before. But I had watched a YouTube video and he was trusting. 


We first took the bumper assembly off in two pieces. 


Then pulled the tacks holding the felt and folded it up. 


Moving the slates is where the real challenge begins.


Breaking out the old filler, we exposed the screws that held them down. 


Throughout this process, we tried to be neat and tidy.


They pulled apart pretty easy. This is a three slate assembly, which is pretty common on standard tables. This one also had dowels, which is fine as long as you don't lift up on them as you're pulling them apart. Looks like the last guy found this out the hard way. 


It was good to get to this point. But there was still plenty of work to be done.


Hauling them out was probably the toughest part of the project. A good 200 lbs a piece, I'd say. 


We also brought along the cues and any other accessories lying around. 


Giddy up. 


Then we made room in the 1957 rectory. 


Definitely tight coming down the stairwell. 


When disassembling a pool table, you start at the top and work your way down. When reassembling, you start at the bottom and work your way up. 


We treated all the wood as we went back together. 


Shined up pretty good. 


Again, the slates were a challenge. This time we just slid them down the stairs. 


The first step was to join them back together and get some screws started. 


This was the most important part of the project. You don't level the legs of a pool table, but the individual slates themselves. 


Once we had it all shimmed up and level all around, we screwed the slates down tight. 


The filled in the seams with bondo and sanded it down good. 


Not bad. We were pleased with the way it all lined up. 


Now for the felt. This would be a good time to replace the felt, but we didn't have any nor did we have the time. When reusing old felt, just follow the fold marks and put it right where it was before. We used staples verses tacks on the reinstall. 


Then placed the bumper assemblies on and snugged it all down tight. 


We cleaned up and hung the cues on the wall. Nice old Brunswick sticks. 


All the original balls were accounted for. We put a bit of a shine on them. 


Then Jared racked 'em. 


And I broke the first game on our new old pool table. 


This table is fast! And the extra foot than I'm used to playing on makes it challenging. Jared gave me a pretty good lesson.


Bring it.

All throughout this nine hour excursion, the Sawyer Brown song lyrics kept ringing in my head: We work hard to have a little fun... That's us. This definitely was a lot of work and hopefully we can have a little fun with it as time goes on. Shooting stick is fun, but it also creates an environment to chat about the deeper things in life. Special thanks to the Knights of Columbus for their generosity and to Jared for his strong back. Let's ranch. 

Hoof Trimming

Proper horse foot care is more that making sure their hooves don’t get too long. Keeping them properly manicured for shoes or running barefo...