Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

Sometimes a picture of me setting up a camera shot is more interesting than the camera shot itself. This was taken on my little drive on Tuesday, when I went out and "got a little mud on the tires" (a country song?). I mentioned yesterday that I noticed that the Jeep had a vibration at highway speed on the way home, so I crawled under it to see if I could find anything wrong. There was evidence that the rear seal on the transfer case was leaking, which probably is indicating a driveshaft issue....most likely a failing universal joint. It's going in the shop Monday morning. I could probably fix it myself, but it will be a whole lot easier to do with it up on a lift, and it may require a special tool of some kind to replace that T-case seal. It's probably had this problem for a while, but Pete (the previous owner) just drove it around town, so it wasn't noticeable. At any rate, it's getting fixed. I want to be able to drive it on long highway trips, and I want it to be right. I also ordered a pair of storage bags, that strap to the Jeep's roll bar on each side, to carry all the odds and ends that you should have with you on long trips. They were on sale during Amazon's Big Deal Days, which ended last evening. They looked pretty cool, and I think that they'll work just fine. One thing about Jeeps on trips....there is never enough storage space for all the stuff you need to bring along....

20 hours ago | [YT] | 66

Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

I went out for a backroad drive yesterday afternoon. I didn't video the drive itself, but I did shoot a Firefighter Story video about something that happened a few years ago at a location along the route. This pic makes it look like the road is pretty good, and it was in this spot, but overall it was rough and rocky, and I was in four-wheel-drive for much of the way. I came back on the highway, and it was the first time that I'd driven the Jeep at highway speeds. I noticed that it has a vibration at anything over 55 mph. It may just be a rear tire out of balance, but it feels more like something in the driveline....maybe a universal joint starting to go bad. Whatever it is, it needs to be fixed before I take it on any long highway trips. I'll look at it today and see if I can figure it out. We've had quite a bit of rain this Monsoon season, and the forest really looks green and happy. I'll get back out there and shoot some video to share that with you. It's been unseasonably warm, so the leaves aren't turning yet, but that will be coming within the next few weeks, and I plan to bring you video of that too. It feels really good to have a Jeep again. As the sticker in the second pic says, I'm calling it an "Emotional Support Vehicle," and I freely admit that I am totally smitten with it....

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1 day ago (edited) | [YT] | 79

Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

I added another "yellow tool" to my tool collection....a Dewalt random-orbit sander. Why? I already have three electric sanders, but they are all for wood, you know, carpentry-type stuff. This one is for auto body work, sanding vehicles to get them ready for painting. Stuff like that. I was talking with the vehicle wrap guy, and he was telling me what I needed to do with the bad paint on the Jeep's hood to get it smooth enough so he could wrap it. It involved a LOT of sanding, and he told me that the electric sanders that I had just wouldn't do the job. He showed me what he used, and he said if I got the correct type of sander, it would make life a whole lot easier. I listened, and I ordered this one from our friends at Amazon. I started using it on the hood yesterday afternoon. Yeah, it's still going to take a lot of sanding. And after this job, I still have to do the van. I've been hand-sanding that, and every time I work on it, I think that my arms are going to fall off. Hand-sanding is hard work, and this sander will undoubtedly be a good investment if I'm going to be doing this kind of stuff. On another topic, the roofers showed up as promised yesterday morning, and they found and fixed what was causing my roof leak. So they say. I guess we'll know for sure the next time it rains real hard. I've got my fingers crossed....

2 days ago | [YT] | 41

Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

It's finally cooling off a little bit here, although temps are still running well above normal for this time of year. The mornings are just cool enough now that I'm turning my fireplace on for a little while in the morning to take the chill off in the living room. It's supposed to get quite a bit cooler later this week....down to more seasonal levels. It's Fall now....it's about time. Pic 2 is the one I showed you yesterday. One of you viewer/friends pointed out that there is a face in the rock. I hadn't noticed it before, but they were right. It takes a little imagination, but it's there, and Pic 3 will give you a little help making it out. And finally, the roofers will be here first thing this morning to remove my rooftop a/c unit, to find and fix my roof leak. I'm still perplexed at how it could go for 15 months after they replaced the roofing without leaking a drop, then just start pouring in like it did. As I've said before, I'm just fortunate that the leak was directly over the kitchen sink, so the sink caught most of it. Although I still had to put towels around it to catch the splatter. John, the owner of the roofing company, was up there last Thursday, and he told me that they've done dozens of roofs like mine, and he had no idea what was causing this leak. That makes two of us....

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3 days ago | [YT] | 71

Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

I'm late posting this morning. I slept in, and I didn't wake up until after 6:00....very unusual for me. For this morning's Sunday scenery shot, it looks like we're back up on the Mogollon Rim, but we're not. This spot is an overlook on the south edge of Houston Mesa, just north of town. You're looking east, toward the town of Star Valley, just east of Payson. I was here yesterday. At the bottom-right of the pic you can see Houston Mesa Road, which passes just beneath this overlook. If you want to see more about this place, and why it's special to me, check out the video I uploaded last evening....and watch it to the end, there are some cool visitors at the end. This was the first time that I've taken my new (to me) Jeep out on anything serious, and I found out that it doesn't have the ground clearance that my last Jeep did. But it does have skidplates, and the big rocks found them a few times. As always, I want to wish all of you a calm, peaceful, and Blessed Sunday, and I thank you for taking the time out of your own busy lives to watch my videos, read my posts, and to let me share these adventures that I call my life with you....

4 days ago | [YT] | 92

Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

The sign shop installed my window signage yesterday. I like how the bottom part turned out, with the red YouTube button and all, but I'm not so keen about the top part. It looked better in the concept picture than it actually came out. I'll probably have them re-do it....maybe change to a different design. Being on glass, it's very easy to remove, and I'm kinda fussy about how I want it to look. The second pic is the little "Pete's Jeep" that I had them put on the windshield. I went over and showed Pete (the previous owner), and told him that was what I named it, that I would always think of it as his Jeep, and that I just considered myself to be it's current caretaker. Pete liked that. He drove that Jeep for fifteen years, and he had a very hard time giving it up (due to his failing eyesight). Jeeps'll do that to you. I know. I've been there. I still have a few more equipment items to add to it before I declare it to be ready for long trips, but it's fine for short jaunts now. I may even take it out today. If I do, I'll put it on camera, and bring y'all along....

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5 days ago | [YT] | 23

Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

I haven't talked about the van for a while, but it's still around, patiently waiting it's turn for my attention. The Jeep is obviously the new "shiny thing," and I still have a few more things to do to it....but then I'll get back to the list of stuff on the van, to get it ready for future road trips. I'm really wanting to get out there for a change of scenery, and to be Van Boy for a bit. The roofers came by yesterday morning to find out why my roof is leaking again, and I showed them video of it, so they could see how bad it actually was....and it was bad. They didn't see anything obvious up there (I didn't either), but when they used my garden hose, they WERE able to make it leak again. So they know WHERE it's leaking, but not WHY. They're going to have to remove the air conditioner to access the spot, so they're going to come back again with a full crew Monday morning to do that. Fortunately there is no rain in the forecast between now and then. My house is fifty years old, and I expect that things are going to happen, but it seems weird that the new roof job was fine for fifteen months, then suddenly and spontaneously developed a gusher of a leak. The roofers thought it was weird as well....

6 days ago | [YT] | 7

Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

A couple of videos back, I installed this dashboard phone holder/storage tray in the Jeep. Then, in my last video, I tried using it as a camera holder for a talk-to-you clip while I was driving, and I am really impressed with how well it worked for that. The distance away from me is perfect (second pic), and it doesn't move or bounce around during normal driving. Very cool. This will be my go-to setup for these type of video segments from now on. If you've been following the channel for a long time, you may remember me talking about the chronic roof leak problem that I had around the rooftop a/c unit right above my kitchen. I battled it for years. Well....I had the roof stripped and the shingles replaced up there in June of 2025, and I hadn't had a single problem since then. Until now. We had a major series of storms roll through earlier this week, the remnants of a couple of Mexican hurricanes, and something failed up there. My roof leak is back, and it's worse than ever. As before, the only good thing is that the leak is directly above the kitchen sink, but from the amout of water that was coming down, I imagine that the drywall ceiling has significant damage this time. I even thought that I might have gotten hit by lightning, and that it blew a big hole in the roof....but I went up there and looked, and I didn't see anything obvious. The roofers will be here tomorrow morning to fix it, so I guess we'll find out what happened when they get here and check it out....

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1 week ago | [YT] | 1

Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

We had a big thunderstorm come through yesterday evening, and after it moved on, it left this beautiful double rainbow. This pic was taken from the arcadia door in my living room, and the white-looking stuff on the tree on the right is actually a bumper crop of berries. That is a female Alligator Juniper, and this year it is just covered in these pale blue berries. Alligator Junipers come in both male and female versions, and I have this female and two males in my yard. With all the rain that we've had this summer, the berry crop is good this year. Don't pay any attention to the weeds under the tree. I'm way behind in my weed pulling, and the Elk haven't been helping me with weed mitigation, like they usually do. They will probably be here at some point, as they like these berries, and they'll eat all of them that they can get to. It'll leave the tree looking pretty funny, with berries only on the upper part, where the Elk can't reach them. My session at Noley's yesterday went well. I only had a small crowd, and all of them were "regulars," so I didn't have to stick to script. We talked about lightning, and some of the odd lightning-related things that we've seen over the years. At one point I was telling a little story, and I said something that struck one lady as particularly funny, and she laughed so hard that she snorted. She was all embarrassed by it, but the rest of us thought that it was hilarious, and we all had a good laugh at her expense. She was pretty good-natured about it, and she said that she hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. That's why I do what I do....to educate people, to entertain them, and to make them smile. Yesterday I was able to do all three....

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 4

Chuck Jacobs - Arizona

I had this big ol' guy on my street last evening, along with six of his ladies, two of whom decided to hang around my place for a while, and help me with some yard work (second pic). This is the time of year when the big bulls start assembling their harems for the upcoming rutting (breeding) season....and it looks like this guy has a good start. It's been two months today since my wife passed, and I'm gradually getting used to my life as it is now. As a part of the deep cleaning and "mini-remodel" project in my upstairs bathroom, I cleaned out a bunch of her "girl paraphernalia," and it was surprisingly difficult to throw some of that stuff away, even though I knew that it had absolutely no value to anyone. I got the project about 90% complete, and the shower is usable again, so I won't need to go downstairs to take my morning shower....and that makes things a little more convenient. And finally, today is Noley's day, so once again I'll be over there from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, blabbin' about history and stuff. We'll see where the discussion takes us today....

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1 week ago | [YT] | 1