[AKC]

Came home with one goal in mind - "Get that tip out of the pocket."

First, some pics while the light was good;

Here's 'Anela without the stakes.

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A shot of the bed wood a few weeks after the treatment. (looks like it could use some more...)

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Here's the cowl off, and the dirt piles. Sorry the dirt shots are rotated, you'll get the idea.

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And now...

My nemesis...

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This is the wood upright that was in that one.

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The other tip that I finally got to wiggle loose.

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As it seemed there would be no saving the tip stuck in the bed pocket, I reamed out the two side holes and put a bolt in to give me something to pry against. Cheap bolt, but still a 1/2" bolt.

A block of aluminum as a fulcrum and my longest pry bar. That bolt bent like it was made of lead. Still had some throw on the bar, and that sucker wouldn't budge. I'm putting almost full body weight into this.

After trying to think out a better leverage situation, I decided to give it another try, bouncing the bar with all the weight I could put on it.

Success! It sounded like a stuck Pitman arm letting go. Fortunately it didn't go flying anywhere.

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Yeah, the tip is toast. I'm going to keep it as a reminder. Perseverance.

The pocket is actually in pretty good shape. A little scraping and it should clean up well. It seems that some of the tips had weep holes in them, and some didn't. This was one of those. That would explain the wood soup...

I'm kinda leaning toward the steel uprights, 31" is the perfect length, and I can trim them down for the rear stakes. Paint them white and get some boards.

ETA - I'm just going to go ahead and get both the steel uprights and the new tips. The tips are so cheap, why not? It's another trip out to Santa Fe Springs to get the stakes and tips, may as well make it worthwhile. That way I'll have them when I want to do some wood uprights later on down the road.

I'll probably run her without them for now, and assemble stake parts over time.

Still little steps, there's plenty to keep busy.