Horse Trailer Rescue And Other Stuff

Sara and Dan broke down in the pickup pulling the gooseneck horse trailer with the horse in it last night around 11. They had been to an evening horseshow. They were able to limp into the T/A truckstop in Mount Vernon.After several phone calls, I was able to diagnose the problem as a failed alternator which drained the battery which caused the lights not to work which caused the motor to run sporadically.

Knowing the battery was probably ok, I got the Suburban fired up and drove to Mount Vernon, planning to switch out batteries, I planned to put the battery in the pickup in the Suburban and the Suburban battery in the pickup. As the battery in the pickup wore down from not being charged, the battery in the Suburban would be charging. When we needed to, we would just pull over on the shoulder and switch out batteries again. The downside is working on the side of a highway at night with only flashlights for illumination. Luckily, Sara and Dan had parked under a light at the T/A truckstop so we could see what we were doing. We still needed flashlights for these 60 year old eyes.On older vehicles (like almost all the vehicles I own -- hey they are all paid for, licensed, titled, tagged and insured and I have no car payments!), the battery can be disconnected while the truck is running (don't try that on a truck with computer or electronic ingition and fuel injector). I kept the suburban running while we switched batteries because I wasn't sure if the pick up battery would have enough juice to start the Suburban.

It was lightning and thundering while we were working on the trucks in the truckstop. That brought the heat down. Sara was worrying about Margo, the horse in the trailer, who kept stomping her feet and occasionally kicking at something in the trailer. Finally, we got everything switched and the pickup started. I told Sara and Dan to roll the windows down (power windows), not to run the air or radio and disconnect the trailer lights. I didn't want to put any more demand on the battery that the headlights and spark plugs took. (You've seen NASCAR drivers do this when the charging system fails. Except they have back up charging systems. Occasionally you see them have to switch out a battery in the pits. They do it a lot faster than Dan and I did last night.)

We took off down the highway. Sara and Dan in the lead pulling the trailer with Margo and no trailer lights (Sara has the back of that trailer full of reflective tape, you can see it even without tail lights) and I following close behind in the Suburban with my four-way flashers on.

We made the trip home without having to switch batteriess. Sara and Dan unloaded and fed the horses, and I drove the Suburban back to Springfield.

Sophie's birthday was Saturday also. Big birthday party at Jim and Kristin's house and later that evening a bar-be-que at Peggy and Pride's, just down the street. I was feeling sort of heat sick so I just stuck to drinking water. I was glad I did.

The parties were wonderful, Sophie and all her cousins went swimming in the kiddie pool. Neighbor Jack and I cooled our heels in the big pool. Sadie's getting baptized this morning. Everyone's at church except for me and Jack.

I am waiting for Dan to bring in the pickup so we can bring it to our private mechanic to check it out. I realized last night when I was driving to the truckstop that I had no backup vehicle that could pull the horse trailer. I think the horsefarmer has the right kind of hitch in his big Ford Diesel F900 thousand (it's a big truck). I may have to rig up a hitch on the B's Nest truck to be a back up truck. It's the right color.Finally got the back porch project finished, it turned out nice! We had tiled the old back porch and hadn't yet finished tiling (or even started tiling) the new footprint of the new porch.

My son-in-law and I, with the help of the grandsons, commenced tiling, grouting and sealing the back porch. We finished up yesterday. It is nice to have a project completed (been doing this since November, 2007).

Why did it take so long? Hey, I told you I was a busy man!

Hey, speaking of horses....this just in from my little brother Ed. He's the one my other brother John, Longrooffan, calls "jeepjunkie" -- check out his yellow jeep.