ALL ABOOOAAARRRRD!!!

One of the things that I was very happy to bring home with me from Grandma's house was an American Flyer S-gauge train set built in 1953. While I am sure that it was originally purchased for my older brothers, I fondly remember playing with it as a child. Below is a picture of the engine.

Unfortunately after I unpacked it it was clear that the cord to the power supply/transformer needed to be replaced as it was literally crumbling. After disassembling it, soldering the wires, etc I plugged it in and there was power to the track. Then the train proceeded to hum, click, spark and do everything but move. Following a little bit of internet reseach I found a fellow in New York that was more than happy to correspond with me a few times and give me a some pointers on what may be wrong and how I might get it working again. He also emailed me a copy of the original 60 page instruction manual on how the train worked that was extremely helpful. With this info I proceeded to do a thorough cleaning of the track and metal electrified wheels, and then take apart the engine so I could clean, lubricate and fix a couple of pieces that were broken. If you look a the video below you'll see the fruits of my labors.

There is something very soothing about sitting in the middle of the track and watching it go round and round. My family thinks I am crazy. My next thing to do is buy some more track and switches on ebay and set up a layout on a 4'x8' ft sheet of plywood. Hopefully I'll get it done before Christmas so I'll have something to do with my train crazy grandson. Ah, retirement is sweet.

Sometimes I Amaze Even Myself

So about 10 days ago our big screen TV finally went kaput after 11 years of faithful service. I still say it was the best money I ever spent. Pretty much all the experts say that when a TV is that old that it is not worth the money to try and repair as something else will eventually go wrong and you'll be out the $500 average service call. I pretty much had resigned myself to having to buy a new plasma or lcd TV (oh darn). HOWEVER, being a true Torgesen, dropping that kind of cash tends to give me severe pains, so I looked for an alternative.

I went on to Google and described the symtoms that my TV was having, (would not turn on, red light on in the back.) After a bit of searching I came across a discussion thread where several others had the same problem after 10-11 years. Fortunately a service person was also contributing and described two components on the massive PC board that are often the cause of this malfunction. Two or three people had tried the fix and it had worked for them.

So I ordered the parts off the internet as I wanted to give it a try (nothing to lose!) A few days later they arrived and I started to look at what I needed to do. In the first place the back of the TV is a rat's nest of wires, components, etc. So I have to disconnect several things and partially slide the PC board out to get access, then clip off the old components. I had practiced soldering on some copper wire so that hopefully I wouldn't wreck anything. Then with the help of Mom (holding the board so I could get at it) and Brooke (holding the component in place), I then proceeded to solder the pieces onto the exposed leads that I had left from the old ones.

Then came the moment of truth... plugging it in. Amazingly enough it fired right up and after connecting the antenna, the picture came in great. So now I've got it running for a few hours to make sure it keeps going before moving it back into the house. Total cost... parts $5, shipping $10, soldering pencil and solder $15... total cost to repair $30. Now that's a sense of accomplishment!!

Squirelly Squirrel

Seems we have an univited guest at our bird feeder this year. I'm going to have to put on my thinking cap to figure out how to out smart him!

Don't Have a Heart Attack

Hi Everybody,

Now don't keel over since we're updating the blog today. We just finished our Spring Break Trip to Denver and Salem and wanted to post a few of our favorite pictures...

In front of Denver's famous Casa Bonita restaurant

Flying a kite at Gleneden Beach

Grandma's favorite thing to do

OK... so no more complaining about not updating the blog!!!

Miss Us?

Don't worry. We didn't get attacked by bears or anything.
We just don't know how to blog.

More to come soon....hopefully.

Odds 'n Ends

Well things are definitely cooling down her in Boise. The leaves are falling, the furnace is on, and the blankets are out. When the cold weather hits, where do our thoughts turn?....CHILI!!!! Teresa and I are both big fans of Wendy's chili, so I found an knock-off recipe on the internet and it turned out fantastic. Nothing better than some chopped romaine and shredded cheese, topped with some chili and sour cream. Best dinner ever. So we must have been bored today because we went and bought a cup of Wendy's and decided to do a blind taste test. Teresa was the victim. First she compared the two with her eyes open to see if she could identify the right one... that was easy.

Then I put a blindfold on her and that was not so easy. She guessed that mine was the Wendy's chili. So for all you chili fans, I've included the recipe, that's out on Recipezaar.

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (29 ounce) can kidney beans (with liquid)
1 (29 ounce) can pinto beans (with liquid)
1 cup diced onion (, 1 medium onion)
1/2 cup diced green chili pepper (, 2 chilies or a small can of green chilies)
1/4 cup diced celery (, 1 stalk)

1 can diced tomatoes
2-3 teaspoons cumin powder
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups water
Directions
- Brown the ground beef in a skillet over medium heat.
- Drain off the fat.
- In a large pot, combine the beef plus all the remaining ingredients, and bring to a simmer over low heat.
- Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2 to 3 hours.

So enough with the chili. Another one of our favorite things to do is to go out to the Parade of Homes and check them out. Seems like whenever we do we want to come back and do something to the house. This time we decided to paint the shelf over the fireplace. After much deliberation we finally decided on a certain shade of red.

I think it turned out just right. Mom thinks that it has a little too much rust in it. Cast your votes!

We're Goin' to the Dunes, Dunes, Dunes

Teresa had a couple of days off this week, so we decided to head down to Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park for a quick overnight trip. We wanted to try out some new gear so we left Thursday afternoon in spite of some not so rosey weather forecasts. Turned out to be not so bad after all... a little windy at times, but that's to be expected along with a little bit of rain.

First thing we did when we got there was set up the tent. Got a new one this summer for backpacking that is a little larger than most. Turned out to be really comfortable... nice and dry and roomy.Next on the agenda was dinner. Here's a picture of me boiling water with my "pocket rocket". Only takes a couple of minutes to boil water and does in fact sound a bit like a rocket engine. We decided to do "freezer bag" cooking this trip (see my favorite web sites below). We had spaghetti, along with chicken & rice for dinner and breakfast rice w/dried apricots for breakfast. Even the boss thought it was all good as is evidenced by the picture below.We brought some wood from home so that night was spent around the campfire. No marshmallows like we did with Hannah when she was here visiting, but still nice to just sit around and stare at the flames. I guess we're all just pyromaniacs at heart.

The next morning we took a hike up the dunes which was very pleasant because the sand was a little firmer than ususal due to the rain.

All in all was a fun time. Since we missed the VP debate Thursday night, we caught the unbiased debrief (not!) on the Dennis Miller and Sean Hannity shows on the ride home.

Hannah in the Kitchen

Yesterday Grandpa made Hannah a play oven out of a cardboard box. Maybe Zach would like one too!

Then later Hannah helped Grandma make some pumpkin spice mini-muffins for Nursery.

She did a very good job measuring and smelling all of the ingredients.

Grizzley Adams???

So I let my beard grow a little longer after High Adventure. Here I am about a week ago...

Since Teresa really didn't like it too much we settled on something a little less scraggley. We'll see how long it lasts!

Big Daddy Still Has The Juice!

Well, I just got back from High Adventure yesterday having spent a week in the White Cloud Mountains with nine boys and 3 other adults. We had a great time doing lots of hiking (exhausting), fishing (not me), swimming (it was FREEZING), and eating (best part of the trip.) We left Monday morning at 4AM, driving four hours to a spot 30 miles east and 20 miles south of Stanley, Idaho. There we met up with an outfitter who packed in on horseback our food, tents, stoves, and laterns. We all packed in our personal gear of about 30 pounds each. We got on the trail at 9:00, finally arriving at Hatchet Lake at 5:00 after 8 hours of solid uphill hiking. We started at 6000 ft and ended at around 8600 ft. The camp spot was beautiful which you can see in the picture below. Our tents are over on the left hand side of the picture.

Tuesday was spent on a couple of mile side trip to Frog Lake (yes, there are frogs everywhere.) Wednesday was another long day, hiking through the Boulder Chain Lakes up to the top of Windy Devil Pass. That's the picture of me at 10,000 ft at the top of the blog. To get to it you hike past a chain of seven lakes (hence the name) each slighly higher than the last, all being connected by a stream, which we had to cross several times. On the way back to camp in the afternoon the boys took a swim in each of the lakes to prove how tough they were . You cannot imagine how cold they were, with several still having snow along the edge. Thursday was another fishing, and swimming day. I brought along my washers game and the boys liked it a lot. Needless to say I was the tournament champion. The last picture was on the hike out, which only took 5 hours instead of the 8 going in. All in all we had a great time. I didn't kill anyone, which is always a good thing.

Going to Boulder Lake

Here's our latest adventure at Boulder Lake, just outside of McCall. It was about a 2 mile uphill climb in... we only got lost once! After we were done hiking we went over to McCall to jetski for the afternoon. Teresa was a wimp at first, but then she really revved it up, maxxing out the speed on the machine. It was a great birthday for John!

Zachary

Here is a picture of Teresa with Zachary.

Hannah

Here we are with Hannah when we went to visit the kids in Palo Alto.