weather and tractor errata

We have had major flooding in Killeen since Tuesday and last evening a tornado missed our house by just ¼ mile. It passed west of us after starting on the ground at Rancier and Twin Creek. I heard it, but did not see it. It sounded as though a freight train were traveling on 60 ^th Street. I was pretty sure that was a tornado. The sirens did not sound. The power went off, of course.

At least five people have died due to the rain. Flooding effected all major streets, and cars as well as walkers were swept away. Some folks are still missing. One car over toward Priest drive is still under water and too far from shore to hook a cable on it. We have exceeded the record rainfall for the month of May and have had more than half the annual rainfall already. The lake is up 12 feet since Tuesday, I think. At the start of the year it was 8 feet low. We have two more days of rain predicted and it rained hard this morning in the wee hours. It is not raining right this minute though. The ground is saturated so any rain tends to cause a flood. My yard has standing water in it of course.

The bolt is still stuck in the engine of the 8N tractor. I am going to see if I can drill it out enough to just recut the threads. Worst case, short of breaking a tap, is to enlarge the hole from 7/16 to ½ inch and just use a larger bolt in that one hole. Fortunately I have lots of different size left handed bits and maybe a miracle will happen and the bolt will finally come out. I have squirted a lot of PB Blaster and some Kroil penetrating oil yet the bolt has remained fast stuck. I have been working on it for a month so far. It does keep me off the street. Yesterday (Friday) I had the day off and much of it was used working on the tractor and dodging rain squalls.

It sure has greened up nicely.

Tractor Boy