So.....it has been a while since I posted anything. There is sooooo much to do this year. Hay season is coming up, the greenhouse needs attention, gardens are so far behind in planting yet... And I blew out my spare tire about a week or so ago. Not a car tire, my tire---the one strapped to my gut. The kind that makes ya look real sexy in a horizontal striped shirt. (not!) The E.R. team rushed me into surgery last week for a patch and trim job on my stomach. Recovery is going well! However I am not allowed to lift or carry anything over 15 pounds...or roughly 6 kilos.....for the next month or more. If you are a farm worker you know that kinda ruins a lot options for getting stuff done. And so I found myself bored outta my gourd with nothing to do today. Oh, wait---I could finaly refurbish the electric hot plate for my smoker. Its not heavy and I had all the parts and stuff...AND plenty of time to kill...so why not?? Plus we needed it in working order because its too darn hot out to fire up the oven/range. It needed new internal wires for the burner element and one of the on/off switch wires had burnt up. The power cable itself was rotted out pretty bad. This model of hot plate was made in the early 50's. So its easily serviceable. Woohoo! I tore the unit apart, scuffed and sanded off the rust and (likely) lead based paint. Right down to bare metal. Then I gave it a new paint job. Nothing fancy, just some black and white spray paint. It didn't need to be high temp special stuff because the element is shielded from the case twice. Convenient! While the new paint cured I replaced the old burnt wires inside the unit. A toaster that died months ago donated its power cord. I had saved the toaster for that cord because its 14 gauge wires are specifically rated for high amperage loads that toasters and hot plates require. The new internal wires came from parts of a wire harness from a dead old microwave... I'm a pack rat with stuff like that. haha
