On Friday morning I was up at 5:30AM and not feeling that great. I got my post up and got out the elderberry and took some. Then I worked on the cases for the Christmas movies before getting a shower. My helper friend arrived at 8AM and did some chores and errands.
At 11AM the Senior van showed up way early, again. I had to send it away, to come back later as my helper was still here. Fortunately the wind and rain had temporarily tapered off when I went outside.
My oldest brother called and said they were on their way, to arrive about noon with the repaired tractor.
I went out and sat in the car just before they got to the farm and this is what the temp was on the car dash.
The tractor had left on May 30, 2025 to go out to get it running again. There was a mechanic in CT my older brother knew who was willing to take it on. It had been gone for 6½ months. It was supposed to be returned in October.
But with one thing and another, it took the mechanic far longer, and was, of course, more costly. Sigh….
He’d repaired the arms on the bucket, replaced all the hydraulic hoses for the bucket and made a new set up for them so they are easily accessible. The frozen clutch had been the main problem and that had been fixed. It also got a tune-up and some other small repairs.
I was glad it was back home before the real snow hit. We’d need it to move snow if it gets bad. They left at 12:20PM leaving me 10 minutes to get ready for the Senior van to take me to the afternoon event.
It was still raining and very windy and when I got to the Senior center, I was the only one for the event. The Senior center people were calling everyone who signed up to make sure more were coming. We ended up with 10 or 12 people.
It was a pretty interesting talk. The NACA was the precursor to NASA and started in 1915 and ran until 1958 when it was taken over by the newly formed NASA.
It was started because when we went into WWI we had very, very few airplanes and the Europeans had thousands or hundreds, depending on country. So the NACA was to be for the developing of aircraft.
It had amazing growth and once it won a prestigious trophy, the Robert J. Collier Trophy, it finally got serious backing from the government. It won the trophy 4 times in its 40+ year run.
It was cool to learn about how the US developed the airplanes during that period.
When I got home it was really nice to see the tractor sitting by the barn. I also noticed the constant rain and high temperatures had melted most of our snow. I hope that doesn’t mean we won’t have a white Christmas. It’s been a really long time since we had one. There’s a chance of snow on Wednesday, but it’s not really going to be cold enough to have a white Christmas, I don’t think.
I sat and watched Christmas movies the rest of the day. I’m hoping I’m not coming down with a cold. I have been drinking lots of ThroatCoat tea (slippery elm), doing the elderberry, and taking Vitamin C and Zinc. I took it really easy on Friday and plan to do so on Saturday. I just have to wrap presents and finish making the butternut soup.
It’s to be a sunny day and not too cold Saturday night, so I am hoping I am well enough to go to the Solstice party.