My step-dad has always been an avid hunter. Due to his hips suffering a lifetime (He turns 70 this year.) of wear and tear, he had given up his passion, deer hunting. About 4 months ago I received an opportunity to do something that might allow him to resume deer hunting.
This year has been an extremely busy and trying year for me. It started off with a brown recluse spider bite on Christmas day of last year. I was off work and in pain for almost 2 months as the spider bite rotted out a hole almost 2 ½ inches across on my left hip. I returned to work right in the middle of tearing down a generator that we were replacing the water wheel and wicket gates on.
After we had the generator torn apart and the old parts sent off for refurbishment or replacement I was sent to another plant to prepare four combustion turbines for the summer run. Part of the preparations involved servicing the two large transformers that connect the generators to the transmission grid. During this process it was discovered that all but one of the 700 mcm copper cables connecting the generators to the transformers had failed. The copper in these size cables is almost 2 inches in diameter. The cables are ran underground through buried conduit and vaults. (I turned 50 years old this year and handling and bending that size cable has become very hard for me to do anymore.) It took almost a month and a half to pull and bend the new replacement cables.
By the time we were half way through pulling the new cables it was July already. The summer time temperatures had become very hot out in the substation with nothing but a power line over head for shade. In the middle of pulling the new cables it was discovered that the generator field (The rotating part of a generator.) had failed so I had to pull off the cable installation and assist in pulling the field and sending it off for refurbishment.
After we sent the field off I went back to pulling in the new cables. My old heart didn"™t stand up to all the hard work in the hot sun, I developed an irregular heart beat. My heart was beating at 170 beats per minute and wouldn"™t slow down. (I have had the heart problem my entire life but the episodes had always lasted only a matter of minutes, this time it went on for hours.) I wound up at the emergency room. The treatment turned out to be simple and effective. I was back at work the next day and didn"™t miss any days work.
About the time we started replacing the failed cables, my wife"™s health began to fail. Due to a bad combination of blood pressure medications her liver began to fail. Our local doctor didn"™t understand what was going on and finally sent us to an Oncologist Hematologist for tests. He sent us to a liver specialist. The liver specialist wanted my wife to have a liver transplant but I was beginning to see some improvement in my wife"™s health as most of the blood pressure medications worked their way out of her system.
We had the 4am emergency room trips and the $700 visits to the specialists and all the poking and prodding but the final result has been a now healthy wife and my spider bite has healed. (The new skin that grew back over the rotted spot has now become tougher and some of the feeling has returned.) We have probably spent well over $20,000 this year due to the spider bite and my wife"™s treatments. But with all the overtime I have worked this year our bank account is now more than it was at the beginning of the year.
When we had all the cables replaced and the repaired field re-installed the weather had became very hot. The electricity demand was at record levels so the dispatchers wanted the generation from the Combustion Turbines so one of the fellows I work with and I began running the combustion turbines. It was almost a full month of 17 and 18 hour days, 5 and 6 days a week. The turbines are 36 years old and it is always a struggle to keep them running and on-line. You start working on them at 7am in order to have them on-line by 11am and then run them till around 10pm, then you do it all over again the next day.
After the hot weather had broken we received the new water-wheel, wicket gates and refurbished parts for the Generator we had torn down at Remmel dam. We spent 10 weeks rebuilding the generator. It shouldn"™t have taken but about 5 or 6 weeks but some of the new parts didn"™t fit. The generators were built in 1923, way back when about every thing was hand made and hand fitted. I spent almost 2 full weeks just hand fitting the new wicket gates to the refurbished crown plate and bottom ring. After 10 weeks of 6 10-hour work days I put the generator back on line. The only remaining project I have scheduled this year is a Trash-gate replacement at Remmel dam next week; it shouldn"™t take more than 4 days of hard work.
Now to the blessing, in early September I ran across a heck of a deal on a four wheeler to replace my old 1999 Honda 300 four wheeler. I bought a 2004 Honda Rancher that had been stored since it was brand new. It only had 118 miles on it and had not even had one complete tank of gas ran through it. (The fellow that had bought it decided to get a girl-friend to go along with his new four-wheeler and his wife didn"™t take too kindly to that. The divorce judge gave the four-wheeler to the wife and the payments to the husband. The wife didn"™t have a use for the four-wheeler so she had stored it in her yard shed ever since it was new. She decided she wanted the storage space for something else so she decided to sell the four-wheeler. I bought the four-wheeler for $3800, with all the extras it has on it, it sells for a little over $6000 new.)
I began thinking of what to do with my old four-wheeler. I decided to fix everything wrong with it and give it to my Step-Dad so he would be able to go deer hunting again. I began working on it around the first of October. I took it down to the bare frame and rebuilt it from the ground up. By the 2nd week of November the four-wheeler was like new. I then began building a trailer that the four-wheeler could be delivered on. I spent a week building the trailer from scratch and completed it one day before Thanksgiving. (I built the 5x8 trailer with a dove tail and a drop down tail-gate for easy loading and un-loading, I also built the trailer with a step and hand rail so that my step-dad can easily get up on and down off the trailer.)
I delivered the trailer and four-wheeler the day after Thanksgiving, my mom and step-dad live in Louisiana. I wired their truck and mini-van for trailer lights Friday and then did chores for them Saturday and then spent a relaxing Sunday morning with them before driving the 4 hours back home Sunday evening.
My step-dad went deer hunting today, the first time since two years ago when he came here to hunt with me. He killed a nice small buck two years ago on our hunt. I hope he kills a trophy buck today.
One of the greatest blessings there anyone can receive, is to be able to give.
Thanks
mr-pirk
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A proud owner of a Flying Vee. Bestowed by the fine Gentleman VC1111 himself.
I am glad that you and your wife are healthy and that you were able to help your step-dad to hunt again. And yes it is such a blessing to be able to give to those who have a want or a need.
Believe it or not, I was just thinking about you this AM. Wondering what has become of Mr. Pirk. Through it all, the good times outweigh the bad times. God is good.
Hey Mr Pirk, Good to see you posting. Sounds like you have been pretty occupied lately. Praise God for the blessings you and Mrs Pirk have recieved with your health and finances. Hope that your getting some time to deer hunt . .at least on your place this yr.
What part of Louisiana does your in-laws hail from?
__________________ And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
I was blessed Thanksgiving day
