Neighbor L (of D&L, not S&L) tripped over a dog and broke her knee. She spent all this afternoon in a hospital, and I just came back from feeding their horses. Needless to say I did not take the Jeep to the shop. Good thing, too, because I sort of made a list of the things I needed to do in the next Jeepless week or two and some of them weren’t going to happen without wheels. For example…
Landlady’s place is low on firewood. Normally there’s no urgency about this; She was here last weekend and won’t be back for two weeks. But this is the last day between now and then I’m certain of having a way to haul wood. I also had to figure out how I was going to get the wood to the Jeep, since normally I just back it up to the woodshed but until it’s repaired the Lair is off-limits. So I strapped an old plastic tub to my handcart and brought a couple of loads up the ridge path that way. This afternoon before going to D&L’s I topped off her woodbox and also maxed out the chicken water jugs. Then when I got back to the vicinity of home I pulled out anything I wouldn’t want to leave with strangers…
…including the gear bag which has most of the Jeep tools as well as boonie stuff like ropes, blanket, pads and helmet. Don’t need people pawing through that.
It never really warmed up today; it briefly hit 40 but now it’s back down near freezing in the shade and not a lot better in the sun, plus a really cold wind. Tomorrow and for the rest of the week it’s supposed to be better, which is good because I’ll be on foot a lot.
Awful injury. Hope she heals without too much pain
Maybe you need to scrounge a boonie bike with fat tires as backup transportation. Could you manage one with the prosthetic leg?
While you are hauling things on foot the back brace may be really helpful.
Bike?
https://www.radpowerbikes.com/products/radwagon-electric-cargo-bike?variant=5032655749151.
We can always dream.
Heck with the friggin’ bike. Let’s start a GoFundMe page to get him a Sherp:
https://jalopnik.com/the-russians-make-the-best-truck-in-the-universe-for-5-1758030433
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf0q3HciM5U
Of course, we’ll also need to start another GoFundMe page to pay for replacement tires…
I tried a bike when driving in public became, er, problematical. It wasn’t anything special, a cheap 10-speed that was lying around. Didn’t work for me, too much soft sand and too many steep hills. This was over 10 years ago when I was working in town and really needed wheels the cops wouldn’t hassle me over. So I sent away for a cheap Chinese bike motor – that would have sort of worked with better equipment but it became a race to see which would shake apart first, the bike or the motor. None of that stuff was meant for rough country. I had to travel with a backpack of tools and a trip where they weren’t needed was an event worth celebrating.
After that I quit the job and hunkered down. Starved and froze for a while, sometimes, till I learned how to get by and things got better.
Also yeah, I’ve been wearing the brace.
Mark: 😀 That might be excessive even by my standards, and as you suggest it would take getting Jeff Bezos to subscribe to the blog just to keep it in tires.
Won’t say it isn’t a looming problem, though. Last summer Landlady and I discussed what to do when the Jeep inevitably dies. In my perfect world I’d replace it with one of those ATVs that look like a golf cart with a serious attitude problem but they cost the world. She did some research and found that pretty much anything 4-wheel-drive costs the world. I’d be happy with a beat-up vanilla Toyota pickup but it has to be 4WD and anything with a front diff is gonna be expensive. So it’s important that I keep the Jeep going until the transmission inevitably pukes – which day may not be that far off.
Vintage farm tractor? In most states no drivers license required.
Ah, but with one of those, it wouldn’t matter if the wash was running!
}:-]
Hi Joel , those older jeep cherokees ( the square ones ) come in 4 wheel drive had a 1990 cost 3500 in 2000 , also had a 2 wheel drive 91′ I got for 500 , Patrick
Patrick again , jeep also made a 4 wheel drive p/up in those years called a comanche , fairly cheap also.
When you end up looking for a replacement Jeep:
https://tinyurl.com/ydgzxcam
Autotempest is a used car aggregator, much like Drudge is a news aggregator.