tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97222792009-11-05T12:03:09.737-08:00Before I started building my house, I flew my Quicksilver MX quite a bit. When my house is finished, I'll build a runway and fly from my house. These are stories and photos that chronicle the restoration and flying experiences of my Quicksilver 1983 MX and my 1984 Phantom X1 and most recently, my home constuction!Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.comBlogger364125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-45246292355272174132009-11-05T05:58:00.000-08:002009-11-05T12:03:09.877-08:00

Tonight is the first of eight performances of the "Cotton Patch Gospel", the last published work of the late Harry Chapin. I have been practicing as a guitarist in the orchestra and I hope I'm ready. I'll let y'all know how it goes.On another note, I lost my cell phone. I don't have service, but I had all my contact phone numbers on it and I used it as my alarm clock. Since my Cannon camera

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-64957477420680070582009-10-11T21:52:00.000-07:002009-10-12T14:12:46.730-07:00

Wrenched some more on Wes' car on Saturday. Had to remove the lifting chain from the new engine, put the hoist in the truck, go out to the back 40 and set the old engine on the ground, next to the Cougar parts car. Went back to Wes' Tbird and proceeded to bolt the engine to the transmission and the torque converter to the flywheel. In retrospect, it was the easiest hookup I've ever done. Just

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-45041049260032689722009-10-07T05:08:00.000-07:002009-10-07T05:10:43.074-07:00

After Wes's engine spun a rod bearing and started to knock a couple of months ago, We picked up a used one with 86000 miles on it. Hopefully it will work well. Here, Wes is installing the flywheel that we forgot to do while the engine was on the ground. At the moment, the engine is sitting in the engine compartment, but hasn't been bolted in yet. Wes and I will continue next time he visits.

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-30982833147373033482009-07-26T21:01:00.000-07:002009-07-27T05:14:44.103-07:00

I worked on clearing the airstrip about 2 hours today. Progress is certainly being made. I stopped at a local equipment rental place on Saturday and learned that I could rent a tracked Bobcat skid-steer with a bucket for $225 a day. If I pick it up at closing time on a Friday, I don't have to return it until they open on Monday. I think this is what I'll do instead of hire someone with a

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-43458131744477127492009-07-23T20:46:00.000-07:002009-07-24T05:42:18.791-07:00

On June 30th, the spot that will be my runway looked like the pictures below. I've been putting in some hours clearing this small spot in hopes that it will serve as my ultralight runway. After this weekend, I'll post a picture of my progress, but it is substantial. I have only owned this property for about two years and I've been concentrating mostly on building my home. I've discovered that

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-42854104782708975882009-07-15T18:48:00.000-07:002009-07-16T13:23:00.357-07:00

Well, I've been doing a bit of reflecting on my time spent at Mark Smith's fly-in. It's really strange. Many of the people who were at the fly-in I've met before. I remember their faces but not their names. When you have to ask, it can be embarrassing. If you still don't remember, it can sometimes be so awkward that you decide not to ask again. During the year I communicate with them through the

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-1255898212129552542009-07-08T19:03:00.000-07:002009-07-09T05:14:44.155-07:00

At Mark's fly-in, Dwight told me that I needed to set aside one day a week to work on my runway. I'm beginning to think that he's right. Up to now it's been house, house, house. I think I need to direct some of my work toward the ultimate end of flying. The fly-in re-ignited the flame. All I really need to do is cut down a five or six dozen trees and mow the lawn and I possibly could have 300

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-88703796497016078082009-07-07T18:18:00.000-07:002009-07-08T05:25:35.941-07:00

When re-installing the new EGR tube, I had to remove the DPFE sensor from the old tube to put on the new tube. Wouldn't you know, the plastic was old and brittle and broke where it connects to the vacuum likes. That will be another $35 or so plus the car will throw the check engine light until I put the new sensor on.When testing that everything electrical worked, I discovered that neither the

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-76638591535669578962009-07-06T19:56:00.000-07:002009-07-08T05:29:32.968-07:00

This 4th of July weekend was relatively productive for me. On Friday, I worked on the last bit of roofing that need to be finished. I'm still not done. It gets tricky working 20 feet above the level of the deck. I have just a few more pieces of roofing material to install. After the roofing material is all done, I have some flashing to install where the walls meet the roof. After that, the roof

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-50297132932043936572009-06-28T20:28:00.000-07:002009-07-08T14:00:48.636-07:00

So, I know this blog started as a way to document my ultralight flying adventures (hence the name), but for the last two to three years I've been tied up with some personal junk in my life. I've been building a house, not contracting it out, but building it myself. Until you get to a certain point with a house, it is the ONLY priority you can have, especially since my accommodations were less

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-41643364912437532212009-06-23T19:20:00.000-07:002009-06-23T19:41:03.068-07:00

I'm finally getting around to finishing the last bit of the roofing left from last year. I had to stop last November when it stopped getting warm enough to make the roofing material lay flat. As a result, the east roof on the house has wrinkles in it. Not to worry, much of the future porch roof will cover the wrinkled present roof.As you can see from the pictures, I have the under-eave soffit

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-21271230352853523612009-06-22T11:45:00.000-07:002009-06-29T09:41:33.089-07:00

My son is carrying on the fine tradition of learning how mechanical things work and how to fix them. Today he installed a fuel pump on his Thunderbird. When he was visiting this weekend (I picked him up because his car wasn't running) we discussed and re-discussed all the things that could possibly be wrong with his car. When I inspected it on Friday, my initial thought was a bad fuel pump,

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-62604330881979189682009-06-15T19:07:00.000-07:002009-06-16T07:10:32.398-07:00

I've been toying around with different deck designs and shown below is what I have decided on. The south portion of the deck, which will extend down the south wall of the house, is not shown. The south portion will also have a small upper level for entrance/egress from the second floor. The rafters for the roof on the east portion of the deck are 16 foot long 2x6's on 12" centers. They will

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-15999385044410686842009-05-18T19:14:00.000-07:002009-06-29T09:48:00.569-07:00

When I came home from work on Tuesday, I was surprised to find three people loading up all of the sheet steel from the demolished barn. I contacted them a few weeks ago and since they hadn't shown up, I assumed they weren't interested. I'm happy that was not the case! The area looks much better now. Not only did they clean up the metal, they enlarged my burn pile by throwing the rotted old wood

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-25285885380530135712009-05-11T19:39:00.000-07:002009-05-15T08:30:18.640-07:00

My son Wes and my Daughter Kristy spent 5 days with me during Holy week. I took Wednesday and Thursday off and Friday was a holiday. We worked together as a team to get much work done! We hauled 2 cubic yards of crushed rock to the ravine in my driveway. At $25 per yard, I ran out of money before the ravine was filled, but it's a start.Wes and I made a big dent in demolishing the old metal and

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-56111928439265220542009-03-30T19:52:00.000-07:002009-04-04T14:21:35.193-07:00

Today didn't start out so well. Between Wednesday and Saturday I got over 12 inches of rain! All this water had to go somewhere, and it decided to go down my driveway. My gravel driveway that is.This morning when I got in the car to go to work I was surpirsed to find a gully right down the spot where I drive. I was aware that it was starting to wash away, but not to this extent. As I was

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-24616337680927325292009-03-08T19:21:00.000-07:002009-03-09T05:15:13.960-07:00

It seems like I have been on the go for many weeks now. Thursday I had music practice for an upcoming prison ministry event, Friday I played at another ministry reunion group, and Saturday we played at a church groundbreaking event! This week will be the only week since the end of November that I will only have one appointment scheduled after work, which is today. A friend of mine (Frank) is in

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-91398200085804532422009-03-01T22:14:00.000-08:002009-03-02T05:14:43.044-08:00

This weekend we experienced two seasons in two days. Friday night and Saturday morning we had Spring, with severe thunderstorms with damaging winds, hail and tornados. On Sunday morning I woke up to snow. I was up as 6AM and there was plenty on the ground. It snowed hard all morning and into the afternoon we had heavy showers. I ended up with about 3" on the vehicles with a bit less on the ground

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-71483430320799715012009-02-08T14:12:00.000-08:002009-02-11T09:03:20.245-08:00

Since I got the priority of my TV taken care of (previous post), I've been making decent progress. I finished up the electrical and insulation on the bottom floor (except for stairwell). I installed a temporary sink in the bathroom that will eventually be used in the upstairs bath. It is really nice to be able to brush my teeth in a warm bathroom instead of a sub-freezing stairwell! I also framed

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-77960790646708543532009-01-04T15:00:00.000-08:002009-02-11T09:03:58.965-08:00

I visited all the electronic stores before Christmas, wishing I could afford a new Plasma or LCD TV. I was currently watching on a 13" with pretty crappy color. I decided that I just didn't want to go any more in debt and decided to save my money and buy one next Christmas. I ended up buying a regular TV antenna to allow me to get more channels through my digital converter box. I temporarily

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-52499612974830199382008-12-20T21:57:00.000-08:002008-12-22T09:03:51.797-08:00

I know it seems that my priorities may be out of order, but before the interior of the house gets completely finished, I'm going to build the deck. It will be a great place to invite people over and hang out, but it will serve a more practical purpose. It will be much easier to install the siding from a level, elevated platform.Eventually, the deck will be two levels, opening up the second story

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-13706393097438444432008-12-20T19:23:00.000-08:002008-12-22T08:49:18.500-08:00

Today, I framed up and installed the window that will be in the kitchen over the counter. It looks pretty good and lets a bunch of light in. Now I can finish all the wiring and finish up the insulation on the ground level main house. It will be nice to have more room to live in than just the bedroom.

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-81666207562923393682008-11-30T19:15:00.000-08:002008-12-03T08:33:08.587-08:00

As previously mentioned, I had only one more piece of roofing to install to complete the roof over the stairwell. It was cold and windy today. The cold makes the roofing material stiff and hard to work with. The sun shone through once in a while and it was enough to allow me to do the work, but not warm enough to keep it from being miserable! I installed the last piece and installed four "cap

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-67107243114964242132008-11-16T14:32:00.000-08:002008-12-12T22:46:17.294-08:00

Yesterday it was cloudy, cold and windy. The sun shone through once in a while, but it wasn't long enough to warm up the roofing material so it would lay flat. I nailed on the strips where the roofing cement would hold the material down and generally prepared everything so that I could install the roofing today. It was sunny and about 55 degrees today. Not really warm enough to allow the material

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9722279.post-52902945287449206252008-10-13T05:17:00.000-07:002008-10-13T05:33:14.425-07:00

My son Wes turned 16 in July. In 2005 I bought a Thunderbird for him when he was of driving age. Shortly after I bought it, the transmission died. I am a very big fan of these particular autos. I've owned 2 Mercury Cougars and besides this particular Tbird, two others [See February 2005 for a pic of my 1994 5-speed Thuderbird SC]. My second Cougar's engine blew up 25000 miles after I rebuilt it

Rusty ULgr.weldon@yahoo.com0