Category: Christmas

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Prep for Welding (Post #636) 12/23/2023

Filler hose

In this post I explore the rust under the passenger side fender well. It was my intension to WELD this weekend. Unfortunately I absent-mindedly did not turn off the shielding gas and the tank was empty. Major bummer.

So I took time to get the fender ready. I also cut my patches. I also installed the new gas tank filler hoses and my new gas cap. How exciting! It wasn’t.

I cut the fender rust out of the part where the body mount is. Turned out it was just the outer skin that had rust. I cleaned up the rusty metal underneath and will paint it with the magic rust-encapsulating-paint before I weld the patch for the fender back in place. Why Land Rover didn’t bother to try and keep rust out of there is still a mystery to me. It’s like they WANT their vehicles to rust out. What kind of a sales strategy is that?

I’ll need to get more shielding gas this week. However there is really NO RUSH because Christmas is this week and the house will be filled with people and very little in the way of rust repair will get done.

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Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering and Merry Christmas from the Okierover family.

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Christmas Snow, No Pudding For You (Post #309) 12/27/2012

Merry Christmas everyone.

I had thoughts of posting another series of posts on the 12 days of OkieRover Christmas and the Festivus holiday tradition of the Airing of Grievances but was just not motivated to do so this year. School was hard on me this semester and my writing energy was hammered by the class.

Also, one of our four-legged children has been down all week and her injuries have me mostly depressed. We are treating her with drugs and hope she can heal. I hate it when we have an injured pet.

After a lovely Christmas dinner at the children’s aunt and uncles house. We took my Father-in-law home (that’s him in the A-Driver position). The roads were no where near as bad as previous years. The most trouble we had was getting the doors on the Range Rover to open with the handles. UGGGH! That is not going to be a fun job to fix. I also heard some suspension noise from the left front. I’m guessing springs will be coming sooner rather than later. And that shock mount I found that was busted will need some welding.

My wife’s sister Aunt SuSu (Susan) and brother-in-law John cook a mean turkey and SuSu’s dressing rivals only that of my wife. SuSu’s banana pudding was pretty good too. My oldest daughter Fireball still has the market cornered on banana pudding. But with the weather such as it was and her with a bun in the oven with only 5 minutes left on the timer, J-man with a wonky back and single digit wind chills they wisely stayed home with my favorite holiday banana pudding. Insert unhappy face here.

The Ford Exploder they drive is 4×4 but has the wrong tires on it for any prayer of staying un-stuck. If you remember the infamous Snowpocalypse of 2009 I had to extracted them from a snow drift in our neighborhood with the then front-wheel drive Range Rover. If you recall, I had a then unknown broken rear axle shaft. The Best 4x4xfar even when limping on a single axle.

It has been a long time since the four of us were in the Range Rover together. I asked RovErica to take some action pictures. The three of them then began mocking me with every turn, exaggerating the effect of the minimal G-forces being exerted on us at 15-20 mph. Good times, good times.

RovErica then got everyone in the back to ham it up for some snaps. It seems like we see the kids only when they need something these days. I guess I was the same way when I was their age. Now I understand the looks on my father’s face and the tone of his voice when I called home “just to say hi” and to let them know “I was still alive”. His tone to me when I hadn’t called home in three weeks pushed all the Catholic guilt buttons on the console. I’d be a basket case if we didn’t have cell phones.

Thanks for reading, Merry Christmas, and Happy Rovering to you all.

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191,191 (Post #277) 12/23/2011

191,191 miles. Its a mileage palindrome. I know that is a lot of miles on a truck. All in all, she’s in pretty good condition considering that. However, I think I still need some undercarriage work. A new set of springs and shocks and a new steering damper would probably make things a lot nicer.

There was a threat of snow ever so briefly this week, so I got her out this weekend for some work and to test the starting issues I had this month. It was a beautiful weekend 61F and just a slight breeze. And with a successful road trial I drove her to work and back, too.

She did pretty good. As you can see she hauled some fire wood for us. It was interesting to me how different the ride was with a load in her. This makes me rethink my spring selection. Probably going with the “medium duty” springs. I don’t haul a lot but would like to know if I did I’d be good to go.

While I was out this week, I also stopped by the furniture store and grabbed a set of chairs we ordered with our new table. The kid that loaded the box was funny. He was so worried about putting the box in the back seat.

I had to finally say, “Its a truck, just set the box on the seat.”
“Its a Range Rover.”
“Its just a truck son, put the box back there.” 

I have to respect that he didn’t want to damage anything. I’m sure he’s run into some snobby lady that didn’t like the way he loaded something in their Range Rover or Lexus or Mercedes. And with that lesson he’s learned to be careful. I wasn’t hard on him, just matter of fact about it.

When I pulled into the neighborhood for the last time I could hear some sounds underneath. It was definitely related to the speed I was going. Sounded like something rubbing, whomp, whomp, whomp, and it would increase in frequency when I sped up.

So I guess I’ll have to try and sort that out this weekend. I hope it’s simple like last time and just something I forgot to button up tightly.  hope its nothing silly like a rear end about to quit.

Its that time of year again. This year I don’t think I’ll be doing a 12 days of Christmas post. I’m still a little burned out from the school work this semester and I have enjoyed my brain being idled. But if I get some energy I’ll get one going.

So from my family to yours, Merry Christmas, thanks for reading and happy rovering.

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Christmas and New Years (Post #122) 12/24/2008


As another year comes to an end I wanted to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

It’s been a long year for my Land Rovers. With fuel prices reaching the highest they have in the history of automobiles you and I stood our ground and drove a little less. With a little bit of love I’ve managed to keep them both on the road. Our Discovery took us through the entire Southwest of America on our summer vacation, while the Range Rover got my daughter to school and work most days.

Here’s to next year hoping it brings us each another year with our beloved Land Rovers.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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