At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Obed, I think if you used a ladder stabilizer you may not have to buy a taller ladder. I use a simple one and it does make the ladder much more stable. The down side is that you have more weight on the top end. It will also keep your ladder of the gutters on your shorter walls. Look at the Louisville Adjustable Ladder Stand-off. I got my simple one at Lowes.

Bart

Bart,
That's a great idea! It might do the trick. I really like the idea of having the ladder lean against the brick instead of the slippery aluminum gutters. Today I noticed that the friction of the ladder against the brick prevented the ladder from wanting to slide sideways at the top. When the ladder was leaning against the gutters, the top could move sideways much easier. I mays have to check out those ladder stabilizers. Thanks for the idea!
Obed

 

[CurlyDave]

Obed:

Your gutter cleaning pictures look like a circus act without a safety net.

You definitely need a better (and safer) method.

Think about a man lift, or hiring someone to do it.

 

[Obed]

Obed, I think if you used a ladder stabilizer you may not have to buy a taller ladder. I use a simple one and it does make the ladder much more stable. The down side is that you have more weight on the top end. It will also keep your ladder of the gutters on your shorter walls. Look at the Louisville Adjustable Ladder Stand-off. I got my simple one at Lowes.

Bart

Bart,
That's a great idea! It might do the trick. I really like the idea of having the ladder lean against the brick instead of the slippery aluminum gutters. Today I noticed that the friction of the ladder against the brick prevented the ladder from wanting to slide sideways at the top. When the ladder was leaning against the gutters, the top could move sideways much easier. I may have to check out those ladder stabilizers. Thanks for the idea!
Obed

 

[dcyrilc]

My wife installed an aluminum angle bracket support for the kitchen bar top. The countertop installers did not install a support at the end of the counter. I'm not sure why. I'm not sure if it was an oversight or if something was preventing them from doing it at the time. My wife may have told them not to install a support there because she wanted to have it done the way she would like it.

My wife didn't like how it would look by just installing an aluminum angle bracket so she fashioned a piece of moulding to go cover the angle bracket. I personally would have lived with the angle bracket but I'm not particularly attuned to aesthetics.

Is that a sofa I see in the background?:thumbsup: Looks like you found one.

 

[dstig1]

Dave,
Those are some good suggestions. I think I'll just leave the ends of the gutter drain pipes wide open. However, I believe I'll put grates on the ends of the two pipes that connect to the foundation drain tiles. Those pipes shouldn't have tons of water flowing out of them like, unlike the gutter drains. Thus, the drain tile pipes won't self clean out if critters build nests in them. However, unlike the gutter drains, the drain tile drains will not have a lot of leaves and hopefully very little other debris so I think that putting grates on the ends of them will be ok.

Obed

Makes good sense to me. I'd agree with both your ideas (screening the footing drains and leving the gutters open) for the reasons you note. You can always add screening to the gutter drains later and clearing them out will be an easier process than having to do it on the footing lines.

I'd still say you should add a wye with a cleanout where the downspout enters the drain line at grade. Will make life easier down the road.

 

[patrick_g]

Standby generators: PTO type can work fine but... when using your generator you don't have a tractor. I migrated through a number of generator solutions over the years and now have a propane fired automatic generator. Again, tractors can be made into generators but they wont be automatic. If the power goes out while you are away for a few days, then what. Food safety may be compromised. Power comes back on and everything is frozen again and you probably won't know it unless you get sick and then you might not realize the cause.

An hour meter (keeps track of total hours it is energized) can be hooked up to your electricity and you can check to see if the reading is about right. If it is a couple days too low you had a two day outage.

Gas generators are OK too but built-in fuel tanks are too small and modern fuel degrades all too fast so you have to keep draining the tank (tanks if you use an aux tank to increase run time) to burn the gas in your vehicles before it goes bad and refilling the gen tank with fresh fuel. Stabil helps but only lengthens the cycle time, you still need to do it. Propane does not degrade so you don't have to fuss with it.

Diesel gensets are super for LOOOOONG runtime applications (especially the 1800 RPM type) but for typical automatic backup generators in residential service the short runs are not a diesels forte. Propane is very very clean and short runs are no problem. My automatic propane fired genset runs for 12 min every Monday morning which keeps everything ready to go over the long term. No one that I have personal knowledge of has ever had any maint on this sort of genset except toping off the oil during extended runs and changing the oil and filter which is super easy as the MFG gave me terrific convenient access.

I'm sure the genset will eventually age and something will wear out or require non-routine maint but that could be many years or a few decades down the road. The genset could easily outlive me. I too hate the proliferation of little engines and their time consuming upkeep but sometimes there isn't much way around it. I can run a PTO powered water pump but it is not convenient to have the tractor tied down to be a pump so I have a 6 HP 2 inch water pump. I have a pressure washer with its own engine and that could be a tractor PTO solution as well. I have a ride on trencher that is essentially a small backhoe (13 inch bucket) on wheels (it is its own trailer) and can maneuver itself on a jobsite. IT has its own pull start gas engine. I like the arrangement as I like to be able to use box blade and FEL bucket on the tractor and still have the backhoe equivalent as a separate capability.

I confess I do have a PTO driven 3PH mounted cement mixer instead of one with its own gas engine (OK I have an electric cement mixer too and and a 17500 Watt gas generator on my welding trailer but don't like having to make multiple trips afield to get all the equipment there to set fixtures in concrete... so the PTO/3PH mixer.

Time was my only back up power was a small Honda generator and I got by fairly well but my needs were much more modest. A small Honda generator on a 100 ft (or more of) extension cord is so quiet that running it overnight to power electric blankets in sub zero temps with no tent was imminently doable and probably not a job for a PTO driven genset unless you trailer your tractor to the mountains with you on a winter camp-out.

Whatever you cobble up make sure it is not physically possible to connect the generator output to the grid. It is not enough that with proper discipline you can choose between the grid or the generator and not have a melt down, you need to make it not possible otherwise Mr. Murphy will come gunning for you.

Pat

 

[Obed]

Is that a sofa I see in the background?:thumbsup: Looks like you found one.

Cyril,
What you saw is a love seat that we had in our storage trailer. We have not found any living room furniture. I have to admit that my wife has not been looking very hard on Craigslist recently. We own a piano that has been at a friends house in NC for the last 13 years. The piano that will probably get moved here by a piano moving company in June. My wife would like, if possible, to see the piano in the living room before buying living room furniture. We might do some furniture shopping in Hickory NC on the way to visit friends.

We did find this solid wood desk on Craigslist. We paid $150 which I consider to be quite a bargain. I love the desk. I don't know how old it is. It is very well made. It has intricate craftmanship. I'm not sure you could even buy a new desk like it today. I've never had a nice desk and am really enjoying this desk. I typically work 2 days a week from home so I spend a lot of time at the desk. Plus, I do most of my TBN posts from the desk.

Obed

 

[dave1949]

Cyril,


We did find this solid wood desk on Craigslist.

Obed

That is a nice desk. Watch out for heat from your laptop, it could toast the finish on the desk. Just like toasted thigh syndrome
Dave.

 

[Obed]

Standby generators: PTO type can work fine but... when using your generator you don't have a tractor. I migrated through a number of generator solutions over the years and now have a propane fired automatic generator. ... Pat

Pat,
Your comments all have validity. For my situation, I expect to rarely need a generator. We've been living onsite here for 1 1/2 years including the time spent in the camper. During that time, I only remember one power outage that lasted more than a few minutes. A couple months ago the power went out for a span of between 30 minutes and two hours; I don't remember the exact amount of time. As such, I think I can live without being able to use the tractor long enough to run the fridge, freezer, and well pump. If I do need to use the tractor for some task, I think it will be ok for me to unhook the PTO from the generator for a period of time. We can heat the house with the fireplace if it is winter.

The biggest inconvenience of losing power for us would be the loss of the well water. But that can be dealt with using a 5 gallon water jug we have. I normally keep some water in that jug just in case. I have a shower at work I can use. And my wife is a female. She doesn't stink.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Obed:

Your gutter cleaning pictures look like a circus act without a safety net.

You definitely need a better (and safer) method.

Think about a man lift, or hiring someone to do it.

Curly Dave,
You're right; I need a safer method. Actually, the act on the roof with the rope was quite safe although it might not seem that way. We have enough rock climbing experience to know what we were doing. However, the ladder contortion tricks I performed had more risk to them than I would like to admit.

BTW, I love the hat you are wearing in your avatar (I'm assuming that's you and not some brawny actor).

Obed