abandoned missile silo

This old missile silo is in Kansas where I call home, it was started back in the fifty's and my dad hauled dirt out of the hole back in the day with a old diamond reo truck. He said that the hole was really deep and the road up out of it was so steep that when he was coming out with one of the many loads, the motor mounts actually broke because of the stress..  (could have been that the old truck was wore out also :O)     He took me down there when I was around 11 yrs old the first time.  Its changed alot since then. The huge over head door where the missile was is gone now. The main big door is open most of the way now, and alot of the inner wires and metal has been stripped away.

This picture below is the exhaust tunnel outflow from the rocket when it would launch. there used to be a huge steel door welded in place over this hole but has been long removed i imagine for  the scrap value.  Its deep and full of water.

This is looking down into the exhaust hole. the picture doesn't do it justice for the size or the depth.

This is in the control room at the other end of a 150 foot tunnel. This is where they would have pushed the button that would have ended our world as we know it. There was a kitchen, bathroom, living quarters, storage rooms and of course the room for all the controls for the running of the missile silo.

Not sure about this bed frame but it looks about right for the time period.

just on of the many wench and cable rooms that is around the site. would really like to have seen how big they were.

This is a water pump house about a mile down the road from the site. There are actually 2 of them sitting there by the creek. Not much left inside anymore.

A few assorted pics

your guessed it lol  its the moooooon!!!   

and a rainbooooow  :O)

and one very fat cat lol

You said for me to post something matt, so there you go.  

nature in the city

I stopped at the post office and saw the liqueur store lady looking up at the roof of her store, I looked but couldn't make out what she was so interested in. I walked over and low and behold this is what I saw up under that loose piece of tin. Apparently the starling had made a nest up there and the bull snake had found it sitting on its eggs.  soooo.

as you can see it had squeezed the life from it and was trying to swallow it. After several attempts it gave up. Don't know if it was too big or if it decided that it couldn't swallow it under that piece of time wrapped around a couple of nails or what the deal was but it left it behind and never returned.

 Sad for the bird but that's nature.    

Alternative transportation

2007 Honda XR650L Enduro

Street legal for the highway or I can hit the back country roads :O)

I didn't want to spend the money but I decided that it would make life allot easier and cheaper to have this to run around on checking things out and going to town for groceries and such.  Last year I only had the RV for transportation and when i needed to go to town I had to load up everything up just to go to town for a day.  It was a major pain in the butt and it was in no way cheap on gas.

I also got myself into trouble twice by exploring some back roads, one time for sure I wasn't too sure if I was going to be a permanent fixture out there or not.  This way, I can do some scouting for places to park for 2 weeks at a time and I can take a gold pan along and do some sample panning to possible find a really good spot for prospecting as well.  I am sure that there will be days that I will want to just goof off and just go see where a road will lead too.  So I guess I get to have my cake and eat it too :O) one of the rare times that I get to do that lol 

transmission work

This is my transmission out of the rv, yes it was in many many pieces.  A couple of times lol  But all is well now for it is in and working great.  Thanks ever so much Clayton :O)  couldn't and wouldn't of did it without you. 

there are tiny steel balls, springs galore, allot of bands and clutches that have to go just so so...  little pistons that really are not mans friends.  Things that have to be aligned just right or its NOT going back together..  And then there is a screen that has to go in one way and only one way or your    ummm well, Screwed  lol    oh yea, learning curves are to be highly expected :O)  like removing the trans pump lol   Sorry clayt  :O)  But I did just stand there and tell you that you had better turn the bolt on the other side to even it up lol   We know better next time .

many many pieces and this doesn't show hardly any of them actually.

and this is what you don't want to see inside a automatic turbo 400 transmission.   Makes up pucker up pretty tight :O)

All in all, it went pretty good for never being inside a turbo 400 tranny before,  learned allot of stuff in the last few days  :O)  Going to pack the wheel bearings on the trailer tomorrow and then things will mostly be ready to head back to Colorado for the summer.

  time for leaving is getting close and I am getting pretty excited about going :O)

old house and a thunderstorm

I was driving around on the back roads one day and came upon this old house, don't know what it is about these old rock houses but I sure like them.

Went inside and this was in a room upstairs, It looked like they just walked out the door and never looked back with all of the furniture and stuff that is still in the old house.

This old piano was down stairs and it still worked lol  not very well but it still made noise lol  needs to be tuned pretty badly.

this storm blew up just east of my place the whole afternoon and into the evening, was a pretty rough storm for some over that way. 

The lightning was pretty awesome on this side of it, storms like these never cease to amaze me.

I used to be  a storm chaser/spotter and it was always a adrenaline rush to be able to see these storms up close and personal. Never wanted to see anyone hurt but loved to see the big storms.  About drove into a tornado one dark night so no more night chasing for me.   I wouldn't mind chasing again but with the price of gas today.....     I don't think so lol  not with my old Chevy pu that gets 12 miles per gallon!!!   

update with pics lol

This is a old hog feeder that i got from a neighbor, cut the bottom off it and its ready here in the pic for a hole to bury it in for the pressure tank and pipes.

This was the first time I run the water well after having it drilled, the water run cloudy for maybe 10 minutes then cleared right up and ran cold and clear.  The stone that the water is running into I found at a old house site a while back.  going to make a bird water er out of it. Going to look pretty cool I think, will post a pic of it when done.

This is Dale and his trencher. Might be a old trencher but it sure is allot better than a dang shovel lol   actually, its a really nice older machine. wish it was mine.  Got my eye on another one, not as big or as new lol 

This is the after everything was tested and put in the ground then covered up. you can see the well casing and the hog feeder buried almost to the top.  Need to redo the hing on the back of it so it will open alittle bigger but it works as is also.  Going to get  some sheet insulation, 3 inch thick stuff and cut it to the shape of it. Just to have that little bit extra in case the winters get really cold around here. Nothing worse than froze water lines and trying to fix them in bitter cold weather lol

ahhhhh   :O)   water on demand any time I so wish lol   gotta love running water!!!!   Going to be making a solar shower pretty soon, I am sure the neighbors will wonder just what kinda weirdo has moved into their midst ...  :O)    some posts, a few sheets of barn tin, a barrel to fill with water and a spigot to hang a shower head from (coffee can with holes punches in it)   lol  I made one back in the day at my aunt carols place. They didn't have running water in the house so you either took a sponge bath or went to the pond and went swimming.  I made the same kinda set up when I was 12 for them.  It was a pretty sweet deal actually.  we all used it for  along time. 

This is just a rock I found along side a county road, the road grader pealed it up while redoing the road side ditch. I am surprised he didn't try to put it on the road and use it for road gravel lol   You would have to see our gravel roads around here to understand completely :O)    Thought it was pretty cool and I have a idea on what to do with it. Even if I don't do what I'm thinking about its still cool yard art.

Waiting for the rains to quit again and dry up so I can get the trench footing dug and filled with concrete.  shouldn't take long to do that, then I start forming up for the concrete floor.  Will be taking more pics when that all takes place.  Shouldn't be long now before I start framing the house.  I hope it wont be long anyway :O)