Six.

Six.

Jackson is already six years old.

Wow!

Here is the birthday crown Jackson wore during class and two of the cupcakes he brought into the classroom for everyone to enjoy.

Before dinner, Jackson plans his attack.

The two birthday cakes. One is for Jackson while the other is for Brent. Care to guess which cake is which?

The birthday boys make short work of the candles.
Happy Birthday Jackson and Brent!

The New Project

The people that know about these things say that the first step to overcoming an addiction is admitting you have a problem. With that in mind...

'Hello, My name is Jeremy. I have a Jeeping problem.'

I have posted before about the 1972 J2000 truck that I picked up a couple of years ago in trade for a well-used winch. That truck has kept me busy tinkering around with repairs and modifications, but in the depths of my mind I knew that the truck would never become a reliable offroading vehicle. I wanted something that had some power, increased ground clearance, and the ability to carry Jack and myself on some adventures in relative safety.

Out of the blue, I found a Jeep that fits the bill!

The new project is a 1984 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Yes, it's large. And yes, it's ORANGE!

A friend in the local Jeep club had purchased this beast several years ago. Due to changing interests in his life he decided that he was tired of seeing the Jeep waste away in his driveway. I grabbed the Jeep up for a super cheap price (about what the J2000 cost me, but in cash this time). The previous owner even tossed in a few items as a bonus - I received new rocker panels to replace the rusty pieces, new door and window surrounds, a new fuel level sender, and many more parts. The total value of the extra parts alone exceeded $1000. I could part out this Jeep and it's parts and make four times what I paid for it...

But I won't. Because I am addicted...I love Jeeps, especially the older iron that just needs a little help getting into shape so it can continue on the journey of dirt road exploration.

I'm sure there will be more posts about the rescue of this latest Jeep project, but for now I'll leave you with some more pictures of "Big Orange".

Updating

I've been told that this blog needs to be updated more often. So update I will!

The biggest news lately is from the previous post. Jack started school! Getting things sorted out and ready for his school year have taken up a large portion of Mommy's time. Then more time was spent fretting about how Jack would handle school and being away from his Mommy, Daddy, or Grandma for a whole day. Not to worry - he did fine!

In news more recent than Easter, the family visited the beach this summer. Grandma and Grandpa Causey rented a house in Sandbridge (Va. Beach) and we spent a week relaxing and visiting with them and The Northern Family. Fun was had building sandcastles, riding the surf, and just generally goofing off.

The First Day of School

Our little boy is growing up! Today was the first day of school. Jackson started Kindergarten!

Daddy went to work so he could be distracted from thinking about his little guy out in the big bad world all by himself. Mommy held things together pretty well. Jack? Well he just did his thing and had fun at school! He created some things with Play-Doh, met a few new friends, minded his manners, and had a good day.

First day of school=done. Twelve more years to go. I hope the enthusiasm remains!

Easter!

P. O. (Previous Owner)

This is a quick rant about the person that owned the J2000 before me.

In the world of car forums, the previous owners of a vehicle is known by the abbreviation "PO". Usually the PO is an individual that is relatively unknown by the current owner, and thus becomes the recipient of a large amount of trash talk and ill will (a typical post on a forum will look something like this - "That stupid PO installed a set of 100 watt driving lights by wiring directly to the fuse panel instead of using a relay" - or something to that effect).

Well, the PO of my current project truck models the image of a previous owner as the completely lazy, idiotic dolt. You've seen my previous post about the door handle that was crudely carved from 2"x4" and then screwed into the door panel with three inch long lag screws. The same level of care was employed to complete the task of painting the dash. The J2000 came from the factory with a coat of a rather ugly shade of metallic green. Apparently the PO didn't like this green on the interior of his truck and decided to change the hue. From the looks of things when I got the truck it appears the only prep that the PO did before painting the dash was to shake the spray can.

The entire dash was rattle canned a red/burgandy color. The ENTIRE dash, including the chrome knobs, the white steering column, the silver surrounds, and the windshield weather strip. No masking was involved. Just a couple waves of the arm while the can was spraying.

Today I decided I was tired of looking at the peeling flakes of red on the top of the dashboard. I sanded off the loose stuff and masked the dash and windshield. I tried a can of semi-gloss white spray paint but it wouldn't spray. I rooted around the 'shop' for another can of paint and all I could find was flat black. Hmmm... that might be cool.

After painting the top of the dash I was looking at the rest of the interior and figured that while I was at it, I should go ahead and do the rest of the dash. So I did.

Here's a before photo of the flaky red paint. It looked much worse in person, trust me!

Here are two after shots. Still not a beautiful paint job, but at least it is uniform and much cleaner looking!

More randomness

Vermont flowers with a few effects applied...

Storm's abrewin'...