Saturday, July 21, 2012

Prius Adventure

Wow! What a day! Farmers' Market was really entertaining today.  A woman sat and played a harp so beautifully that it was like being in heaven.  Then after Market, I discovered my car wouldn't start.  Let me tell those of you who are Prius owners, it is no picnic when the Prius will not start especially on a Saturday afternoon.  Once I discovered that the car wouldn't start I made a few quick calls to the dealership wit no results because everyone had left 10-15 minutes earlier. So I was on my own.

It had to be the battery as I was pretty sure that when I turned the car off it had half a tank of gas.  The dealer told me that the battery is in the back of the car down where the tire tools are.  However, when there is no electricity to this car the back tail gate won't raise.  But there is an emergency switch for the back hatch down very low along the edge.  To get to all this stuff I had to unload all my Farmers' Market stuff from the car, climb in and start pulling up the carpet and the lid to the tire followed by the cover for the battery.  Then we had to figure out where the emergency switch for the back lid was.

While it seemed like hours standing in the 90 degree sun for over an hour while we were doing all this, we finally got the battery charged and the car is running as good as ever now.  Word to the wise:  don't let anyone sit in the car and check things out if they are not a Prius owner.  The car was accidentally turned on and sat there for about 3 hours going nowhere working on electric.  Not good. I, too, am a smarter person from this experience.  I have learned that if a hybrid car breaks down on Saturday after 12 noon, I might as well find a ride home and wait until Monday as there is no one available to work on the car.  Good luck Prius owners as your car's mileage creeps up over 100,000 and the warranty expires.  No one is willing to do the extra mile for a car that they feel has outlived its life.

UPDATE:  My Prius has developed a personality.  We can no longer sit in the driver's seat once the ignition is turned off.  To do so results in the car not starting.  I now carry jumper cables with me and it is standard practice to ask for a jump if I have sat in the car for more than 15 minutes.  What a bummer!

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

I am so excited!!! I have a Bluefaced Leicester ram lamb awaiting my arrival in Nebraska to bring him home to Indiana.  Will the weather please cool down so that I can make this trip?  I think he will bring a nice influx of beautiful fibers to my Border/Bluefaced Leicester girls.  His lambs will be more than 65% BFL.  This will be awesome!
Wow! I helped make history! Please read on.



Anyway, I  contributed to this by doing records for the 1940 census to enable those looking for generations passed can find them.  Roots...it's what it's all about.