Russell's Adventures: March 2009

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Biking Kicked my Butt!

We took the bike trailer out for it's maiden voyage, with Maddie in it of course. Would be dumb to just haul it around without her in it, though it would be lighter. Anyways, we only went once around the bike trial and it KICK MY (Robin) BUTT! Yup gonna have to work on that! More pics. to come!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

BIKE TRAILER!!!!

Today we got a bike trailer! We got it at Fleet Farm, it's an In-Step, a branch of the Schwinn company. It's not a REI chariot or a burley but it will allow us to bike all summer, let me bike and get groceries! I'm excited! Pictures will be coming! Summer adventures are sure! Laurie you are MORE than welcome to use it this summer when you come and visit!

INSURANCE!!!!

Finally Mark and I have insurance. Maddie has been covered with Minnesota Care since we moved back to MN, but Mark and I haven't been covered since we left his job in Oregon. We are insured with Minnesota Assitance, we will have small copays but I don't think we will have to pay anything other than that. It's not awesome and we will be excited when the day comes we can afford to find our own health care without relying on the state/government, but it is what it is and we are thankful for it. Thank you Jesus for Insurance. I can get some questionable spots checked out on my body, cavaities filled, and get Mark and I can both get physicals. Thank you Lord for this blessing!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

So...here's the 302 V8 engine block.

We've had it all apart for a long time now and Monday we got a ton of the parts we ordered for it and just today we got the new core plugs and new camshaft bearings in it...although, they weren't in it in these pictures.

This is the intake after I cleaned it up slightly in the parts cleaner...

...This is the intake just about as clean as it can get after I sandblasted it.

Here's the oil pan...I sandblasted that too...I like sandblasting, if you couldn't tell, it's a lot of fun! Then we put primer on it...eventually we'll paint it Ford blue.

These are the original valve covers...it took a ton of wire brush scraping and parts cleaning solution in the parts cleaner to get them looking this good again.

Here's sorta what our engine sould look like when we're done with it...this is another 302, but ours is older and we're doing a much more thorough rebuild and spending a lot more of the customer's money than this one.