August 17-23, 2026

Weather | 8/17, p. cloudy, 63°, 81° | 8/18, cloudy, 63°, xx° | 8/19, xx°, xx° | 8/20, xx°, xx° | 8/21, xx°, xx° | 8/22, xx°, xx° | 8/23, xx°, xx° |

• Monday, 8/17: Canning Pickles & Removing Pickup Wiper Motor
  • Mary picked more cucumbers from the near garden. She then washed and prepared all of the cucumbers, except for a few that we ate in an evening salad.
  • Mary canned six quarts of pickles. All jars sealed perfectly.
  • She collected 12 worms and six worm eggs off the garden plants.
  • I drove to Lewistown and bought a package of 25 amp mini spade fuses.
  • I tore open the cowling under the wipers to gain access to the wiper motor. It's a drawn out exercise, but with the help of some YouTube videos, I knew appropriate steps required. An old battery cable puller that Dad owned worked perfectly for removing the wiper arms. The wiper motor wiring cannot be unplugged without first removing the entire wiper mechanism, called the wiper transmission...nice GM engineering!
  • Once I had the wiring disconnected, I turned on and off the wiper switch, then checked the new fuse. It didn't blow, which probably indicates a faulty wiper motor, not a short in the wire harness to the wiper motor. I then labeled all of my bolts, clips, and parts with masking tape, putting like parts into sandwich bags.
  • The missing plastic cowling puts a huge gap at the base of the pickup's windshield, so I moved three mothball bottles into that area. I also added two moth balls per plastic bottle stored in the pickup to dissuade mice from fooling around. I put two mothballs in the area under the air filter, which makes for a total of 66 new mothballs in plastic bottles in and under the pickup. It makes for a strong smelling truck, but helps to back up vermin.
  • In the evening, I ordered a new wiper motor for the pickup. Mary helped me find a new one that will be sent from New Jersey. It was through eBay and at half the price of those on the RockAuto website.
  • We haven't had the pickup's windshield washer for over a year, due to a leak. I looked into how to remove the windshield washer container in this pickup. It's a mess, because it's crammed under the battery tray on the inside of the driver's side front fender. To get to it, you first remove an engine compartment brace, the battery, the battery tray, the driver's front tire, and then that tire's plastic wheel well. Gee...could GM bury it any deeper in the vehicle? The windshield will stay dry a little longer.