i collected new camping gear for a couple weeks and now it was time to use it all.  i got off early from work, picked up autumn, and convoyed to cyclone with capitalj in tow.  we made great time getting there, and about 30 mins later my sister and her clan made their arrival.  we all set up and soon were enjoying the 95 degree weather.  i jumped at digging the firepit.  evidently my sister paula and her husband dont do this when they camp, but i prefer to make my own pit, as appossed to using someone elses.  i dug it a foot deep and about 5 foot around.  then i gathered the largest rocks i could find.  when i couldnt find enough i enlisted the help of my best friend J, which waded big sugar creek and dug them from the bed of the creek.  it was a beautiful firepit. 
the last residents left a huge log that was burned threw the middle, so i sat it right in the middle, ron and I threw twigs in it, then took the embers from the old campfire (previous campers), and started the fire.  theres something special about starting a fire without fuel or flame, IMO. 
i brought a truck load of dead wood for the night, but since im me, i knew we'd need more.  just before dark i started my gathering process.  after dark i had my nephew Van help me by holding the flash light as we crossed the creek.  he ended up being a great help and since he was using a headlight he ate alot of gnats.  he helped me gather on saturday also.
we fished for awhile, but the fishing wasnt so good.  i caught a couple really small bass, ron caught more than me, but smaller than mine, and Ike, my 8 yr old nephew caught the biggest bass, about 9" long.  autumn fished alot, but didnt do good, since she was using a lure because i forgot the worms on the kitchen counter.
we had the best and biggest fire at the camp grounds, which if any of you know me, thats not hard to believe.  he ate brats and potato salad.  after the kids and paula turned in for the night, the men went hunting crawdads.  we caught a good sized pot full, and boiled them.  i showed ron how to catch them by hand and he had a blast.  he later told me that he had never done it.  after eating the tails, i asked J to help roll a huge log, about 3 foot in diameter by 6 ft long onto the fire.  ron had to help get it onto the fire.  it had been cut 3/4 of the way threw with a chainsaw three times, and as it burned it started to take a wild shape.
saturday we swam, fished, ate and drank.  J and brodie had to leave, but the rest of us braved the crazy hot weather.  there was little to no wind and we all sweated like crazy.  i was the designated cook for saturday evening.  i had presliced potatos and paula seasoned and wrapped them into foil and i cooked them on the fire.  i also cooked boneless pork ribs and chops.  i brought hickory with me and threw that in to add some flavor.  afterwards we all relaxed.  that night we all crashed at 10pm.  the group next to us got too loud and at about 2 am, after they had woke me up twice i yelled, in my most mean voice, "shut-up!  i then heard a guy laugh and ask, "who said that?", then a girl reply, "our neighbor guy".  about 2 minutes later they all went into their tents and went to sleep.  i think its the first time i ever said shut up and it work. 
sunday morning very early we had a thunderstorm rumble threw.   lightning and very loud thunder had autumn a bit scared, but she knew we were alright, luckily the new tent held the rain out, and the air mattress kept us off the ground.  when the sun rose we ate blueberry pancakes (thanks to paulas cooking) and hashbrowns ( i graded potatos before i left).  we all hung out til 11am then went our seperate ways. 
we had a great time and i really love being around my friends and my sister and her clan.  as soon as the weather gets a lil cooler we are gonna plan another trip.

ive got pictures uploaded in my album called camping.  hope you enjoy

my dad called yesterday with some great news.  he talked to our banker and she told him that he can deed over some acrage to me without screwing up his mortgage.  i told him 3 acres would be too hard for me to keep up, so i am opting for 2 acres instead.  all i need to do now is wait for paula (my sister) to finish drawing the prints, me to figure out how much money i need to turn-key my future house, a $500 survey to divide the 2 acres off of my dads 40, and a perk test to find out what kind of septic system i will need.
the coolest thing about it is that i dont owe.  i paid off my last bank loan, and now only have to pay rent and utilities.  on top of that, the 2 acres are worth approx. 10-12k each.  from what i understand, when you get a loan to build a house the bank wants about 20% collteral.  i plan on building this house for under $80k.  which means that with the land as collateral i should be golden for anything up to 100k.  i am very excited about this and have been working my ass off to get all the estimated costs on paper.
i have drawn up a floor plan that has a very big garage with huge work space, 2.5 bath, seperate laundry room with a laundry chute from upsstairs, a vaulted kithen, dining, living room, with 6 sky lights.  also a big walk in closet in the master bathroom with a skylight.  autumn will have a very big bedroom with a huge walk in closet.  her closet wikll be almost as big as the room she has now.  in all this house will be made to save energy and be built to add on for the future. 
i plan on having 6 skylights in the living,dining, kitchen area, 1 over the landing in the stairs, and 1 in the master bathroom to save on paying for lighting.  i am gonna have an outdoor wood furnace, which will be plumbed into my heating vents, and my hot water heater, reducing my electric costs.  also, i have put 2 windows in the future door spots for when i add on. 
i will have a huge office down stairs, which will double as a guest bedroom, so when my oldest daughter comes over, she will have more than enough privacy, and a better place to sleep.  i plan on doing alot of the work myself, which will reduce the overall costs. 
 

My parents have been trying for the last few years to get me to build a house on the family land.  I always answer with the same old response of, i really dont want to own land, i dont want to pay property taxes, and someday when my daughter is grown id like to move somewhere far away from here.  well, in the last year ive gotten closer to them, and have been helping them with their home repairs, and the subject keeps coming up. 
it seems they have been looking at "kit" home prices and think its affordable and that i would end up paying less to own than the $700 rent i pay now.  after talking to my best friend, who built and owns his 1400 sq. ft. house, he told me that he pays less than $600 a month, and about $100 in prop. taxes every year. 
My parents want to give me an acre to build on, which is land that my grandfather owned before he died.  My mom wants me to come up with a general floor plan and an estimate of square footage i would need so she can crunch the numbers.  the beautiful thing about this is that i can build the house almost by myself, side, sheetrock, and roof it all by myself, and pay myself to do it.  its very tempting and i am going to start looking at the numbers.
i have always thought that living on my gradfathers land would be neat, and now, perhaps it can be something that i can leave to my daughter.  the fourth generation of my blood to live on that land.  its all in the thought process right now, but sometime soon, it might start turning into a reality.
wish me luck

A chronological history of a 1975 K5 Blazer, set to music.
starting just days after i bought the truck in July of 1997, this journey will show the viewer the road the Blazer follows in it's quest to survive & make it to the next stage of it's evolution...which begins in 2009.
The Mutant-Blazer version 1.0
 

Last weekend while house sitting my parents house, i started work on my rear axle (14 bolt full-floater).  I am currently swapping over from the OEM drum brakes to the 3/4 ton disk style.  This upgrade will shed a bunch of unwanted wieght aswell as give me better stopping ability (not to mention they are self-cleaning, and easier to work on). 
it all started by removing the axle shaft, the wheel, the drum assembly and finally the inner backing plate.  once that is done all that is left is the bare spindle.
 
from there i installed the disk brake caliper brackets that i ordered from Ruff Stuff.  i really like the quality of these brackets, and feel confident that they will pass the test when it comes time.
 
the toughest part of the project was seperating the hub from the drum.  i planned on replacing the wheel studs anyhow, so i just hit them with a small sledge until the whole unit split apart. 

once you have the hub free of the drum, put the drum in the recycle pile and remove all the bearings, races and the dust seal from the hub.  i then installed the outer bearing and race, installed the snap ring that holds them captive, and then installed the inner race,  next it was time to press the hub into the new rotor. 
the new rotor is from the front of a  1983 K20 (3/4 ton) 4x4.  to press fit them together i used the wheel studs and tightened the the lug nut on in a criss-cross pattern to insure an equal fit.  Next was the inner bearing and dust seal.  Make sure and use a good quality bearing grease that has good water repellant qualities.  Slip the rotor assembly on the spindle and use the lock nuts to keep it on.  once that is done the caliper & pads can be installed.  I used calipers from the same truck as the rotor (83 K20 3/4 ton 4x4) and picked the calipers with the larger piston (there were 2 choices). 

Not counting the brackets I have a little over $200 in just one side of the swap (not counting the brackets).  Since i'm not independantly wealthy I could only afford to do one side.  I am proud of my work, as everything except the original hub and the locking hub nuts are brand new.  I had to eat the caliper core charge, since i had no used ones. 
heres a list of all my new parts. (not counting the brackets)
83 k20 rotor, inner/outer bearing, races dust seal
83 k20 brake caliper (i chose the bigger piston), pads, banjo nut, guide pins, brake kit (has the piston side pad to piston holder) and rubber hose.
8 new wheel studs
 
while all of this was goin on i also had to replace a bad pinion bearing in the case.  I did that ($29 bearing) and also removed the carrier and had my uncle Dave spot weld them together.  with them tacked i was able to take them to the 138modified shop (a fancy way of saying Capitalj's garage) and fully weld them together Pirate style.  this will basically be a spool and give my rear tires 100% lock up.

This is known as "the orb of traction" in the pirate4x4 forum.
all that is left now is too mesh the gears, do the swap on the drivers side, and run the plumbing.  i've read that i might need to use a proportioning valve to make the brake system work at its best, ill cross that bridge when needed. 
 
 
 
 

it started with a x-mas gift from my boss.  he had me pick out the game i wanted to see.  I picked my team (stl.blues) on the road vs. the blackhawks of chicago.  I called my friend "decavolt" in chicago and checked with him to see if he was up for a game, and of course to see if i could crash at his pad.  it was on.  all i had to do was wait until the 21st of January for the game.
In the meantime, i hooked up with a dude (Jenk21) from pirate4x4 and midwestern4x4 forums and worked out a deal on some 4x4 parts for the mutantK5.  Jenks lives to the west of chicago and made me a smoking deal on a couple of Heavy-duty dana 44's (3/4 ton) and some misc. parts to do the rear disk brake swap. 
I left joplin at 645 am on weds. the 21st.  drove the 9.5 hrs to chicago, stopping twice, once for gas, once to unleash my bladder.  when i got there the city had clear streets, but the side streets and allies had a fair amount of snow.  Deca and Kate only had a green beer in the house, so we both (deca and I) decided to have a scotch on the rocks while kate had a wine i think.  we both got dressed and took off walking.  we used the bus to get to the first bar.  i drank a couple of sierra nevadas (beer) and ate a wonderful turkey-burger.  from there we walked down the street to another bar and i drank 2 beers that had a funny name, but were considered the "bass-ale" of ireland.  they were awesome to say the least.  from there we hit a bus and went to the game.
the seat were the best ive ever had.  we were 6 rows off the ice, and slightly to the right of the goaltender.  since i had a mohawk and wearing a road jersey of St. louis i really wasnt expecting people to be nice to me.  to my chigrin the very hot Milf next to was very talkative and the blackhawks fans were great to me.  we drank another scotch at the game, and a few more beers.  the blues won 2-0 even tho they have a horrible record and being last in their division.  after the game we went to another bar and i attempted to eat a huge "clutch" burger, but it was too much for me. i also drank more beers.  Kate walked to the bar, (we called her after the game was over) and we all sat and talked and drank merrily.  from there we walked back to the pad. 
i really dont remember much of the walk home.  even tho it was about 10* or less there, it didnt seem very cold.  maybe its because i work outside or maybe the booze, but the cold never was a factor.  we got back to the pad and talked for a few then we all crashed.  i woke up with the sun shining outside.  drank a cup and a half of coffee and hit the road. 
i drove to Jenks shop and we talked, i drank a couple of beers, unloaded the firewood i had for wieght in the bed, loaded up the diffs and parts, and said my goodbyes.  i got home at around 1am and took the next day off. 
all in all i had a great trip.  i got some killer parts for my rig, saw an awesome game of hockey, and hung out with some of the coolest cats in chicago.
next on tap....stl. cardinals vs. the chicago cubs in chicago......