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We sold the house in the city. Bought 1.6 acres between Denison and Ambrose Texas. That was almost two years ago. Weæ±*e doing all the work ourselves, 4150 sf slab, 89 cu yards concrete we hired out the pour and finish. I found 2600 ft of 11 1/2 X 3 1/4 fourteen gauge C purlins in assorted...

I had a need for a temporary power pole. And I had an abandoned power pole in the fence line. Nothing but a thing

I dug a lot of post holes with the old JCB. I put a 165 gallon tank on top to help with crowd (down pressure). It helped. I even made a bracket that hung out front of the auger frame to hold 250 lb tractor weights to get down pressure, it to helped. But it was very awkward and I was afraid of...

RNG I can see you sitting in a tracked skid steer with a/c and stereo mowing. Left hand moving about two inches to change direction, right hand doing nothing at all. Weæ±*e talking $70,000.00 dream but with lottery winnings who cares? Don, I was working at 80% by afternoon. I figure using the...

I recommend renting a Tak with a tooth bucket for a week, $1,500.00 be my guess. Most of the machines these days except for the Bobcats are hand controls, intuitive if you致e operated an FEL on a tractor. That way you get to learn what it can do for you. The biggest issue for most people is...

Morning Kyle, the unit is from Oklahoma. The Choctaw Nation has a program that helps homeowners that are members of the Nation on the purchase of a storm cellar or safe room. My first option was a safe room that I made myself but Glenda is claustrophobic. We went to Hanauser in Mead where...

The unit weighs 21,000 lbs. We hope we never need it. The neighbors understand that it will never have a lock on it even though we winter in Yuma Az.

I知 part Choctaw and they have a program to help members who live in tornado alley get a storm cellar. We got one that can hold 20 people in a pinch. I saved some money by doing the excavating and back fill.

I can spell better than that. The same gremlins that turn my apostrophes to gobble gook seem to like changing whole words too. Sorry

Almost all of the attachments will work on any skid steer. Some of the older ones need a little adjustment (cutting torch). But for the most part you can rent a hammer and install it on your machine, performance depends upon your auxiliary hydraulic output. So you would want to have the most...

In my limited experience the best digging skid steer is the Takeuchie (sp). I can稚 explain it but even with the narrower tracks they just dig. I know part of it is the radial lift. I致e used a few brands and probably the hardest thing to do is dig out four inches level in one pass like...

I have the Volvo version of the JCB. I currently have 5 1/2 smooth bucket, 6 tooth bucket, Bobcat auger attachment with 12” auger Pengo teeth, 9 clay auger, extension so I can go 10’ deep with augers, concrete bucket (holds half cu yard). Forks, gin pole with electric winch. There are tons of...

I would be the last one to mention the temperatures and sunshine here in Yuma. But today we had sun shades installed on the motorhome for days like tomorrow when the temps will be in the seventies but feel much hotter in the direct sunshine.

It could be one track. The common method of splicing the track is inside of a bracket. On my door I tacked them together. If you go to TSC, HD, or Lowes the track will be in max 12 foot lengths. If you got to a local steel building supply they will have them in 20 lengths. The track will be...

Okay Don, this is a great committee repair. The track is available at the box stores and or Tractor Supply. Pull the trim pieces for access to the track. You might have to remove both doors but you might have to remove only one. Find the retainer, usually a bolt or screw, pull it and then...

I figured Ron and Don would mention the second photo, Jinman痴 place and get together.

Back in the day TBN in Texas had a mascot

51 and I think it was actually raining this morning in Yuma, I’ll have to check.

Ron you did it again, thanks. As for the car, got home from Nam and bought a 68 TR4A IRS brand new Jan 69, original nylons lasted 3,000 miles, at least ten grins per mile, then there was the 59 CJ5 with the small block, Super T10, and new clutches every 1000 miles or so, got where I could do a...

It is the right shoulder, the left one was fixed about 8 years ago. The image office is supposed to call and do their thing this week and then we meet with the surgeon and get this show on the road. Last March the surgeon in Texas said I had a totally severed rotator cuff and the only option was...

I love a gay man. He is a son. 51 this morning in Yuma going to low sixties, coldest day of the week. Chances of substantial rain this week, maybe a quarter of an inch. I知 wanting to replace the hot rod on the back of the coach with a pic from my iPhone, any advice on vectoring photo would...

Rescue tractor becomes service tractor, when that hits the airport TSA agents will want more money.

I am working on my new shop and considered the roll ups for the main door. This is just a small blacksmith/welding shop 16 feet wide and 40 feet long. The door is at the north end of the building. I am spitting distance from the Red River. I have not figured out why the Okies never maintain...

Sorry for getting out of line Don. I think I should put up a thread on the new door on my new welding/blacksmith shop. It might help to see how I designed it to avoid most of the common issues with sliding barn doors. Weæ±*e in Yuma now, getting shoulder fixed and chilling in the sunshine.

I think I just paid fifty plus dollars at TSC for the latest and greatest version of that tool. I user it for raking and cleaning leaves at the new place. When I went looking for it I knew what I wanted because I had used one cleaning horse droppings in stalls.

Post the pics. As for the tractor key....one of the issues that keep me away from clubbing and grouping invariably they are taken over by do nothings that know everything. There are doers and then there are talk about it do nothings that not only have to dominate a conversation but control...

The hiccup on that is the funds always have strings. And those strings tie not only the parents but also the kids in knots. And it never seems to end until death do part. I was lucky, parents never had much so they couldn’t help even though I know they wanted to.

I hadn稚 thought about the beauty angle. My biggest concern was the birds being scared off by their reflection, might have to paint it camo before I leave, fool the squirrels

Bird your experience with Jack reminds me of a situation we had some years ago. For some reason I didn稚 hear the phone ring and it was sometime later when I listened to the message. It was my wife on her way to work. 滴arvey you remember all the times when we壇 stop and help someone and...

In Nam the street food was hepatitis sandwiches, French roll, crunchy, chewey, so delicious, stuff, the meat looked like rat or monkey but tasted like, well, rat snake or chicken.

Late eighties I built and sold rick racks that I had designed. Almost five years ago I came across one of them and took some photos, client had me doing a gate and had the rick rack I had made for his father. Sprinkler pipe is known as schedule ten. I used sch 10 1 1/2 pipe (1 7/8 O. D. 1. Cut...

Freezing rain right now, chance of turning to rain later this afternoon. They’re suggesting snow and ice before tomorrow night, gotta luv it. If all of the gun fire the other night, they ran out of fireworks long before midnight, was aimed at an 85 degree angle north the bullets landed well...

I picked up the container late April and had it delivered to Thereabouts. The photo was taken May 2nd. Second photo was taken today. I have some more screws to install and do the door lock and it痴 basically ready for us to leave for Yuma for the winter. I wake up most mornings and pinch...

Ditto!!!

You do know that is not a viable excuse for not having the Christmas decorations packed and put away by the First.

The welding/blacksmith shop is coming together. The main door is on the north side so I went with a sliding door. The lock will be a Master hockey puck lock on the left side. Anyone casing it will be a little confused with the lock there. And the hockey puck lock will make them want to go...

Dozer decided today the bucket was the perfect solar-oven-wind-break. Feels like was in the twenties until lunch and never got out of the lower thirties today

Go with the metal pull down ladder version. I installed one of those when we sold the house in Wylie and the difference is absolutely huge, it’s like walking up a staircase vs a rickety ladder. I would think scabbing on 2 X 4s on existing trusses would provide you the strength you need. That...

The first one I did with the double top rail and design inside it we used family initials made into brands. I値l see if I can find some photos of it. I don稚 know what the design will be, right now weæ±*e just trying to get it all closed up so we can haul butt to Yuma for the winter.

Hey Don, do you recognize the fence?

The last time I got a “cut” I quickly grabbed a paper towel off the seat of the truck and wrapped the injury tight with black electrical tape. That was about noon. When my wife finally talked me into letting her look at it we ended up in the emergency room, 9:30 that night. They glued it back in...

Merry Christmas!!! Everyone needs a two year old great grandchild to make it real

Double doggone darn, my old friends are becoming teenagers.........

Welcome to our world. I suspect I picked up the bug at the hospital. For a couple of days my belly hurt like I had been on a hundred sit ups at a time regimen, just from coughing. Just about the time I think it痴 over I値l have a coughing fit. Trying to figure out if thinking about the cough is...

We got home from the hospital just before dark. Lucille, the truck, was sitting on the select fill pad for the future bardominium and with the rain forecast I knew she would be difficult to extract from the clay/sand combination until afternoon. So I moved her over to the steel area and...

Okay, an update. We just walked around the floor (fifth) with a couple of physical therapists, I’m good to go. We’re waiting on the doc to show up and give me the “get the helloutahere”. All the tests are looking positive from the techs perspective but the doc has the last word. The blood...

Some of the old guys can relate to this. At Thereabouts we have no WIFI, but in the hospital, lots of it.

I found my cedar TBN the other day, I don’t know what happened to the sandstone version. A side note on the chicken roof thing, I’ve rolled 1 3/8” top rail with the swedged ends using the Harbor Freight roller for making the frame work for chicken roofs made with chicken wire. But the easiest...

How many of the old gang still has their TBN t-shirts and hats? I forgot about the t-shirts but while going through the container looking for a welding jacket we found them. That takes us back a day or three.......

Okay Ron, I know that I fell and hurt the bad shoulder a little more but that is no reason for you to fall and hurt the recently surgery shoulder. BTW, I thought y誕ll up there in the cold country had cleated-for-ice-house slippers for icy days.....

Neighbor has a 2535 and it acts like the seat safety switch or something like it is keeping it from starting. Anyone know the safety switches and their location on this tractor?

27 degrees here north and east of Denison this morning, 45 high. We got the bois d arc (Osage orange) fire going good this afternoon. The wind was blowing away from us and since it looked like that was the pattern until tomorrow afternoon I went for it. I don稚 want the poison ivy vines that are...

That’s ol o, as in ole OH

Well, things are a happening. I haven稚 posted much and been very involved mostly because I致e non-tractor lifing. That changed today. If you look at my profile you will see that instead of JCB 165HF my tractor is a Volvo MC85C. The Volvo is built on the JCB assembly line, I知 a mono boom...

The barns in the previous pics are some I worked on for my bud about ten or so years ago. What I知 doing now is for us. I placed a 40 container that has some of my tools but is mostly full of furniture and stuff from our house in Wylie. I installed a power line down guy and anchor at each...

Monday I was forming up for a 1 1/4 yd pour when I got a call. It was a bud who said he had some iron for me to use on our new barndominium. I called a bud close by the job site to check it out. He called me back and insisted that I grab his dual tandem gooseneck and come down and get it...

Lucille all jacked up. 2002 3500HD Classic with 496 cu in gas motor and an attitude when seventy year old kid climbs behind the wheel. She has 93,000 miles on her and the brakes looked original. Some might remember Lucy, the C5500 welding rig, she was the kind of truck you marry. Lucille on...

Glenda asked me if I had heard anything about Ron’s surgery this morning. “I’ll look on TBN and see how he’s doing” was my reply. This is the tough part. Then it will be all down hill from there. I’m really looking forward to my surgery in November, I hope. Yesterday I did the brakes on...

I guess the hieroglyphics has something to do with Apple

Old member checking in. I知 going to try to post a photo of our new place outside of Denison Texas, We call it Thereabouts, between Memory Ln and Reality Ln, closest town is Cherry Mound, closest town with a store, Denison. I致e tried to post photos with dialog on IRV2 and had no success because...

ThereaboutsTexas.com got hijacked some months ago. I haven’t taken the time to work out with internet gods to get it back. Right now I’m working off of 1 to 2 bar AT&T cell service and devices are screaming for backup, need WIFI for that. But I own the domain name and I’m sure we’ll get it...

We have just begun.

It must be an Apple thing.

You can sure tell it痴 Georgetown, oh deer! Don and Karen moving to the city while Glenda and myself are moving to the country. Our house in Wylie will be on the market next week. We致e been living on our acre and a half here east of Denison almost a month now. We bought the land and with it...

If I got the story straight, Muhammad's dad's version, Muhammad and Ibrahim had the Kubotabynet forum and dad told them that one of two things was going to happen. Either Kubota would buy the site or file a cease and desist. The boys built a parallel forum and when the cease and desist came...

I had to smile at the no politics line. Back in the day Ozarker was a conservative on another more political forum. He was a gun nut ultra conservative I am a two tour Nam vet socialist. We were today before today was kewel. One day in the middle of a left right brawl he mentioned TBN and...

There is this thing called "easements". It gives authorities and utilities access in emergencies and maintenance of their equipment because stuff happens. You own the property, you must maintain it. But you are restricted to what you can do on the easement. You are not allowed to build on it...

Her name is Lucille. Lucy was the kind of truck you marry. Lucille is that date you never forget. 502 big block that sounds angry.

Been doing that for many years. My clue came from learning long distance bicycle racers carry mustard condiment packs for when cramps come, suck a does of mustard without breaking stride I found out that drinking a bottle or three of Smart Water during a hard day along with regular water cures...

November 2002 Lucy came into our lives. In many threads here on TBN where crazy met happenstance you will see her in the photo logs. She has done her share. Today she went to a new home, 273,000 miles and she's still cuts a fine figure for a red head.

I think the big difference Don was my spider found out I didn't taste good. There are advantages to being the mean one......

That was a good drive. Miss Glenda got to see what it's like to ride distance in the Tracker. We did a 250 mile round trip and the Tracker passed with flying colors. I'm still not sure I want to leave the Winnebago in Yuma and bring the Tracker back to Dallas this fall though for Doctor's...

Ron's IPad is newer but mine is bigger, easier to load up photos. It seems we not only had a great dinner but I found a momento from our working. It seems a spider bit me on the forearm yesterday. Found the evidence last night and this morning it's a little more defined. BTW, Ron doesn't grab...

Ron Hall shows up, work follows

I once had a willow root plug a four inch sewer line. Going through the line it was like a piece of electrical tape. Inside it did what willow roots do. This photo is of some exposed willow roots on the Verde River Camp Verde Arizona.

Where do you get a grapple like that without feeling like you just got stuck?

Why go through the trouble with making a great Happy Birthday and New Year salutation for First Dayers when Ron has done such a great job already, DITTO!!!!!!! 53 working its way up to 65 with light moisture and a Cowboy win in the forecast.

Merry Christmas Happy Holidays to all. These like all moments are special.

A Dallas man's heart stopped as he ran a 5K — leaving his life in the hands of nurses also running the race | Flower Mound | Dallas News I saw this morning and immediately did a "thank you" because it is a familiar story to TBN'rs, we're glad you're with us txdon.

Ron, you just made Glenda cry with joy and this old man need an eye wipe of the all man hidden kind. That is as great a Christmas present as you can get in our book. We'll be seeing you guys again next month. Thanks again for making a special season even better.

We're sitting here in the dark with the power out at our house Wylie Texas. I don't think it is weather related because best thing (Glenda) got an alert earlier to not be surprised with power interuptions due to a project around the corner. Things are all a tither here because of the...

Asian Lady Beetle Infestation of Structures | Entomology Those lady bugs aren't lady bugs but Asian lady bugs

Ron we'll be thinking of you today and tomorrow with the wind chill in the teens and twenties. See you in January.

First fire of the season in the fireplace insert. It's in the mid to high forties but damp, the worst kind of cold. I've been in Jane doing my best diesel mechanic imitation and when I got home felt the need for a fire.

If newbies find that thread interesting they ought to check out the one where Don and me followed the wive's advice and built the snake gate. Then there was Mikim's gate and Jinman's elevator install. Some people shouldn't be allowed to play when other's have cameras.......

We've got about a 1/4" here in norte Texas so far, they're estimating 2" total by Monday afternoon. That Ron, ton of fun, we'll be having a lot of that on the road later on. Today will be in the bowels of Jane, motorhome, getting that 5.9 Cummins back together. 50 years ago I got a badge that...

You know that means we've been friends for over 12 years now, double doggone darn, seems like forever....... When Don says stuck, he means stuck. His Kubota tractor and two 4 X 4 Dodge dualies in a chain gang couldn't move Lucy. But a crawler with pyramid tracks made it look like nothing but...

Golf Kills!!! See photo for proof. For years I've just relocated the chicken (Texas Rat) snakes I've caught around and in the chicken house. I heard somewhere that golf balls work just as good as ceramic eggs for the elimination of snakey egg thieves. A month or so ago I had two nest boxes...

Yesterday we went by the Pond project to pick up a couple of turkeys. They had ordered three and received four and wanted us to take two. It's been ten years and the place is marked forever, or until a new owner changes the decor.

A week ago I was picking up a couple of round bales at a friend's place. He had a Mahindra with remotes at the back and it had a bat wing mower that we had to bring the wings up so we could change out remotes so we could use the front loader with hay spears. Mahindra needs to go to John Deere...

One of my good friends wanted an anvil. He found the one he wanted but to get it he had to buy the whole collection. Collector had no interest in blacksmithing, he just loved anvils. So I'm helping my bud move the ones he doesn't want. They are all quality old anvils. If you see something...

Items For Sale At Auction - Retirement/Estate Auction in Caddo Mills, Tx Public Auction Sale: Retirement/Estate Auction - Caddo Mills, Tx I knew the old man who died ten or so years ago. He worked at the aircraft plant in Greenville but before that he was a rural blacksmith. His son who is...

We lost our cat at the Red Barn RV Park on east 380 Friday the fifth morning. He got spooked and took off. His name is Chewey and my wife and his dog miss him something fierce. He's wearing a collar that has a tag with his name and my cell number on it. But it is a breakaway collar so it...

The Wylie FD asked me to help them out with a project. Back in the day when they were mostly volunteers that was nothing but a thing. They would ask and I would deliver. But things change, we now have three fire stations and tons of firemen and lots of equipment. The Wylie FD has won state...

We decided to put this thread up in Rural Living because this is where most of us know Jinman. As most of you know for the past year of so Jim has had some serious health issues. His beautiful home has three levels and it is great except it isn't handicap friendly and Jim's mobility has been...

Yesterday afternoon two nice young men from Houston came up to visit. They are interested in working in Haiti and using Ubuntublox. Immediately after getting out of the truck the younger one asked me, "are we still in Texas? I'm cold here." It was 95 when they left Houston and it was in the...

The first thing that had to be fab'd up and installed was the angle iron track on the concrete across the drive. Texas Don and Mikim made it look easy. Then Mikim had to paint the rails for the gate to ride on inside the fence. We discovered that Mike hates cleaning paint brushes, won't do it.

Mike's original plan was a very simple gate that fit seamlessly in the entryway. When he realized that he couldn't purchase economically the steel equivalents to the existing wood he decided to turn me loose, with reins of course. This is what the finished gate looks like except for the ranch...

Mikim sent me an email with a design for his concrete pour for his new slide gate. I sent him back some modifications. What followed that was one of those one stone killing many bird events. Mike and Bernice got my expertise. My wife got her week out in the fifth wheel adventure, and maybe...

That's because two weeks ago I had to replace the thirty year old water line from the meter to the house. It was only 35' or so but it was almost three feet deep and in the infamous gumbo clay here in North Texas. I call it "DeMudder". It's a light weight anvil device for shocking the clay...

A friend of mine is the director of Human Rights Initiative in Dallas. They do good things for immigrants. He mentioned their break room table was broken but they still had the glass top. I decided to do something for them. All aluminum tig'd with Lincoln 205 ac/dc, no pedal, air cooled...

Good news, it is done and doing well in Parker Az last I heard. Originally the pickup was set up with diodes for using the pickup lights from the Peterbilt through the RV. Sometimes the diodes went out and it was an issue. So the last thing I did was install three way toggle switches in a...

Every now and then I see a question here about securing a sliding barn door. This is the way I do mine. I have a couple of rules when it comes to security. Thieves are lazy so we add a little work. Thieves are stupid so we make it where they have to think. Photo 85. Look at the door, it...

I have a new bud that is a heckuva mechanic. The only thing slower than his speech is his movement. But he makes every word and physical effort count. He likes the truck bed. The other evening we were cussing and discussing it, mostly the irritation of an old scratch start heliarc system...

The basket gate is at the powder coaters so I am doing a fill in job for a friend. He wanted an all aluminum Razr bed for his 2012 Silverado pickemup. We have hot chicks for welding inspectors.

I have a large plastic tool box that I've had for twenty years now just for carrying my welding hood. It keeps them from getting broken and it keeps them dry. Well, it used to keep them dry. A couple of weeks ago I used the tool box for a work bench, just to drill a couple of three sixteenths...

I like playing with pipe, character flaw I will admit. I'm building a special metal fence (over in projects) and thought this would be the right time to do something I've wanted to do for some time now. I started with a bucket of bent 1" pipe (1 3/8" O.D.). I have a hydraulic Hossfield and...

It was a one day job. Client had purchased a new toy hauler and needed their 12' high overheads raised to 15'. I picked up the new pipe, 4 5/8" for two of the gates and 2 7/8" for the last one. The idea is to cut the overhead at the top of the existing posts. Then trim the post square and...

A fun thing about this is making sure everything is coated the right color. The two pieces in the one picture have to be done different colors. The big piece is a splicer for the rails so it will be the light rail color. The smaller bracket will be holding the rail to the post so it will be...

D Magazine : How to Rebuild Haiti Using Trash It was a little like building Don And Karen's bridge if we had Austin and Washington D.C giving advice.

Looked in that nest box and there was a small chicken snake, reached in and grabbed it wondering if that was the way Eddie Walker would do it. OOps! She got me twice while I adjusted the grip.

August/Sept of 2011 and all of March of this year I stayed at the Haiti Communitere compound in Port AU Prince. Their workshop while primitive was good enough for me to make the equipment I needed to make while there. Even more importantly, it was good enough for the Haitian community to use...

From Trash to Home, Sweet Home | NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/02/27/plastic-bag-house-could-be-answer-for-haiti/

I had rotator cuff surgery for two tears incurred when I fell onto a plow. The surgery was 12/27. I've been off the oxycodiene for about three days, occasional tylenol now. Yesterday we made a stand for the keyboard so I can type, sling is above the keyboard, works great. I'm 63, no pills of...

Harvey, I think you need to start a "Harvey in Haiti" thread in the Rural Living Forum, that's pretty rural. I saw your welding post, only by doing a search on your name. Questions to answer: Where are you staying? How long are you going to be there? Have you started making the blocks? Are you...

I arrived in Port Au Prince the 11th of August. My immediate goal is to build two Ubuntu-blox machines. One of the reasons I'm posting this part of this adventure here is it involves a lot of the topics I've seen discussed on welding forums many times. I don't have ideal circumstances...

Haiti is international isn't it? Yup, next week my two oldest grandsons and myself are going to be in Haiti demonstrating the Ubuntu-Blox machine and method for building a house for the rich and famous. Then we hope to get out amongst it and participate in other's endeavors. You can follow us...

jovoto / empowering creatives / ideas If you are in to neat ideas and off the wall solutions to the world's problems then you might find this site interesting. While you are there take a look at my entry "recycled plastic block houses" and rate it for me. Follow your conscience, good sense...

Ubuntu-Blox on facebook. We are building the first home made with these blocks on the SMU campus for SMU Engineering & Humanity Week - Home What we have is a manual machine that compresses trash plastic to make building blocks to build housing. It was intended for developing nations but...

Some of y'all might like this. Just playing with the forge and Hossfield to make something a little different. The color was chosen and applied by a friend of mine in Lavon Texas. Marcus Spence is the owner of Aerofinish and an artist.

Some here might have remembered last November I came up with an idea of using plastic trash to build homes, not just houses, homes. I haven't been here or any place else much because it has an energy and time consuming adventure. I can't claim credit for the success we are experiencing because...

Monday we set some posts and hung a gate in southern OK. A fence contractor provided a 763 Bobcat with a hydraulic auger with a 9" Beltec rock auger BELLTEC Industries :: Bullet Tooth Rock Auger It went through the fractured rock first foot or so okay but stopped digging at the solid...

If you're interested you can click on my signature and scroll down to the bottom topic.

Welding Galvanized Steel -- Safely ｩ Sperko Engineering Services, Inc.,1999, Welding of Galvanized Products Welding of galvanized steel is done almost exactly the same way as welding of the bare steel of the same composition; the same welding processes, volts, amps, travel speed, etc. can be...

Yeah, I know. I do things differently The four inch EMT gate is done but I don't know whether I'll go up to Oklahoma to install it or if my bud will have a local install it. So I made some tractor hinges for it just in case. 1/4 X 2" bar stack cut one foot long. Using my Riley McMillen...

One of my many character flaws involves the way I secure things. I guess a lot of my perverted perspective comes from the lack of respect I have for thieves. My sliding shop door is an exampe of that. If you look at it closely there are some things that just aren't right. The most obvious of...

A bud of mine wants a farm gate for his hunting land in southern Oklahoma. He has a TSC type gate and wants something a little more substantial. We started off with ten pieces of ten feet long four inch EMT. The neat thing about the four inch is I have a tool for coping it. This isn't my...

Catchy title, eh? I had a nice lady call me the other day wanting to know if I did window guards. I told her I didn't because people died when there was a fire and window guards were in place. "I don't mean that kind of window guard" she said. "I want a window in my privacy fence so my dogs...

This is the one I use the most often these days. Here it's got a two by attached with a router for milling tenons on cedar rails for fence. It's a piece of quarter wall 2 X 2 tubing with two stubs welded to it. I can clamp just about anything to it and with the truck as the anchor I can put...

Doggone, it's early, got up at three forty five cst. Tomorrow's the big day. Our schedule today is we fly out of Dallas-Ft Worth at seven thirty this morning to Detroit. We have an hour or so lay over in Detroit and then we catch a bush plane to Appleton. We get there about twelve thirty...

You can still make things. Earlier this year I had a friend ask me to make him another one of these. His had been borrowed and then lost by the friend that borrowed it. This one is mine. It's moved over a thousand cubic yards of concrete over the years. It's great for filling post holes...

I'm a contractor. All the time I have to figure out a price and then I have to justify it to first myself and then to the client. I'll be the first to admit that most of the time I'm not the cheapest, sometimes by a long shot. The price isn't something to get mad about as far as I am...

The other day young son called and asked if I knew someone who could straighten up their brick mail box because the HOA was having fits about it leaning. He had a couple of quotes, three to four hundred dollars. I told him I would look at it. As most of you know I have hitch receivers built...

Last Saturday evening we called in a suspected dwi on our way home. First he/she caused me to stand on the brakes to avoid a collision when they pulled out from a state park. Then they wouldn't go over forty in a sixty for about five miles, constantly tapping their brakes too. Nine at night...

I haven't left for the big tractor playground in the sky yet. We got the patent 7,707,794 on the bracket system. I had to name it for powerpoint presentations to industry so I named it after the dumbest son of a gun I know, They're Harvey Connectors. We're back in the city now so I can get on...

I finally got the patent on the building system TexasDon used to build his carport/garage. Now I'm working on a press release for the trade magazines. I need the numbers on the lateral strength of fourteen gauge formed C channel or purlin 2" X 4". I know pipe is strong/weak three hundred and...

Yeah, I know. Leo died four years ago a little earlier this month. At his funeral I pointed out that what Leo did best was he believed in people. Person after person stood up and testified that they were better at something or another because Leo believed in them. One of the things that Leo...

The old folks here know the story, a tbn member created harveylacey.com and posted mostly stories from tbn. His name was Leo Frisk. Leo died three years ago I never got around to doing anything with the website except paying for the server and domain name. Well thanks to another tbn member...

I had a bud call me from the Richie Bros auction in Ft Worth. He said D8N's that went for $110 to 125,000 a year ago went for the middle forties this year. D3's went for the low to middle twenties and the same size Case, 450's, went for the low teens. He bought some stuff and claimed he stole...

I know. Most of y'all thought I had went to the big project in the sky since it's been so long since I've posted a project here. I've been doing stuff. It's just been little stuff. The kind of stuff that keeps the bills paid in these tough times. TBN is still my home page on the puter. And...

Yesterday wasn't an ordinary day for me. When I called my daughter a couple of weeks ago and told her what I was going to be doing on her birthday she exclaimed, "that's great. Glenda gets to take you shopping." "I get a new tractor?" I asked. "No" she said. "But you don't get on to a...

Bud called about giving him a helping hand installing an antenna. He needed fifty feet of antenna for the wi-fi internet service. The internet service not only wanted a bundle for supplying the antenna, they were backed up on installations. He found a used one on Craigs list. So yesterday I...

I found this one friday night. Glenda and me sat there glued to the small picture on the computer for the full hour and sixteen plus minutes. If you only do one thing with those you love make it watch this video with them. YouTube - Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Anyone who has been around me more than five minutes has probably heard me say, "I'd rather be lucky than good. Anyone can be good, that only takes effort." The reason I say that is because I always get lucky on projects and most of the time they turn out the way I want or even better...

Navistar It seems navistar is buying GM's medium and heavy duty truck business.

We got back from vacation and went straight to Eddies for the Octoberfest get together. Since then we've stretched and tied in about eleven hundred feet of eight feet high fence. The posts and braces were done by others. We stretched and tied in one strand of barbwire top and bottom. Posts...

Jake Norman died yesterday. He was a good man. We'll be going to his funeral in south east Texas Wednesday. Hug someone close to you for us. Jake was a coonass. That's a rare breed and an acquired taste. But once you learn to appreciate it, you're hooked. It was Jake who introduced me to...

Post-Wife-Retirement-Life file is my new role as the post-artist. Artist of course being the person who does for the doing because they have a significant other with a real job. My wife retired the 23rd of June. One of the misconceptions about retirement is one becomes more busy doing things...

A TBN member and friend/client/vendor asked me to help him with a handrail for his new home. We decided on the hammered tubing from King Architectural Metals wrought iron metal balusters finials casting steel ornamental forged gate fence stairs Access control We used the one by two for top...

Thirty one years ago in a swap meet in southern California, back then, back there, drive in theatres were swap meets on weekends, I bought a box of toys. In that box was four Thunderbird AMT store 1/25th scale store models. As it was explained to me the dealers had these models on the show...

I hit the USPTO site and the patent application has been published. It isn't the patent. But it is a milestone closer to having the patent awarded than we were about eighteen months ago initiating the patent process. United States Patent Application: 0070062150

One of my friends invited me to help him and his family prepare the site, drill the piers, form and pour the beams for their new pier and beam home. The site in outside of Terrel, Texas and the soil is sandy loam. He got a Kubota with the property.

Many of you know I have a website. Almost all of it was derived from posts here on TBN. It was converted over to the website by Leo Frisk who passed away almost a year ago from cancer. I haven't done anything with it even though Leo gave me all the passwords etc. Bobby Goodwin and myself...

He's doing fine. It's been about a year and a half since I last talked to him I believe. As most of you know he's had some health problems. Today he was on my mind and so I called and he answered. He's sounding great and things are looking up.

I've never laughed so hard in my life. YouTube - Don't Mess With The Bunny

I had one and a half inches in my rain gauge this morning. This is a good thing.

Yesterday my daughter daughtered. Kamryn Ashley put in her appearance. She showed up 7 lbs and 11 oz, was twenty and a half inches long. Here she is with her hairiest grandpa, her momma, and doing her first opera, and her father and big brother. One look and I called her a thirty. That's a...

For the last couple of weeks I've been wondering if I was a third of the half of a man I used to be. Seriously, I was thinking that fifty eight was the age everyone had warned me about. You know the one where it all stops but the crying. Manual labor seemed to be killing me. Like I said...

An engineering firm called a couple of weeks ago. Said something about needing a creative mind on a job. Me? It seems there's this hill.....

The fourteenth my youngest grandchild will be two. He already has every toy available. Today I found what I believe will be the perfect present for a two year old. Here's where I need the help..... What do you think?

The best fence for horses that I've found is V Mesh. It provides a net approach to horse containment. When a horse hits the fabric the impact is spread over a large area, along the fence, along the body of the horse. The biggest problem with V Mesh when it comes to installation is getting it...

Yesterday evening the client interupted my welding. "Harvey we're being invaded by bees!!!" I flipped back the hood to see a swarm of bees around his small Bradford Pear tree. "They won't bother us while they're swarming." I went back to welding. It was a pretty awesome sight once they...

Don wanted a carport and he wanted to use my connector building system. So here's what we're going to do, am doing. We're going to have an online discussion where he'll use my connectors and I'll provide advice and ideas as his building goes up. He's convinced himself, not me, that he's only...

Ozarker, aka X Terminator, aka Jim Valentine was first and foremost a patriot. He was also a tractor nut with an ozark degree to confirm his lunacy for things country. Jim was slightly less conservative than I am liberal. We enjoyed many an online debate. If a topic could be divided on a...

I lost my bud LWFrisk which sorta changes the way I post on projects from now on. You see I used to post pictures and prose here on an ongoing project and Leo would capture it and post it on harveylacey.com. Harveylacey.com was Leo's passion. It was his baby. He's been fighting cancer since...

When I got in tonight there was an email from Lisa (tractorwidow) informing me that Leo (LWFrisk) passed away last night.

We've got television, internet, and telephone all from Verizon. It's a little hard to get used to let me tell you. I just checked my up speed, 14,778.3 KB. I'm paying for fifteen K up. I think I'll call and complain about the slow transmission. I use photobucket for some of my photo...

Almost thirty years ago I was playing with dirt track cars in Southern California. Budget was tight and I needed a trailer. With a street stock-figure eight car you need a tilt trailer. They're low to the ground and invariably when it comes time to load up at the end of an evening of racing...

The TBN'rs that showed up for our barn raising probably remembered the red horse of Scott's. They also remember all the five foot two by four non climb all over the place. Last month while he was in Wisconsin for Thanksgiving Red, a thorough bred mare evidently had a discussion with the horses...

Here's the link I know there's a bunch of people who watch the show and might find the report interesting. I did.

When you're fifty seven this is something to brag about. And I did it without medication!

It's good to be sitting at my desk looking at my computer screen. We had a terrific three week six thousand and three mile vacation. Now we're facing the glad-sad to be backsees. Tomorrow we'll be back at the pond. The guys have already called and are chomping at the bit to get back on it...

I was informed the other day (yup, vacation will be over tomorrow) that we'll be going with a geothermo HVAC system with the pond we're preserving as the heat sink. So-o-o-o I need to learn as much as possible in the next couple of days about geo thermo theory as I can. I'm facing possible...

I guess seeing couples meet and marry over the internet should tell us what we know in our hearts. The internet is another neighborhood not unlike the ones we participate in each day at work or home. One of the real pleasures in my life has been the TBN community. Probably the most...

It's been awhile in the making. And the inspiration for the whole thing started with two influences. One was a friend wanting me to come up with some new products his factory could manufacture. The other was all the interest shown here on TBN by members wanting a chance to build a metal...

And he's my grandson.

Okeedon asked but I'm sure he's not the only one to wonder why I do so much mixing on site with a nine cubic foot mixer. For me it's about control, quality, quanity, and time versus both of those. It's also more economical. Buying Portland cement, sand, and gravel and mixing myself versus...

I've been working on a project for the last couple of weeks that some of you might find enteresting. I went to give the customer an estimate on a fence and ended up committing to saving a pond. In two weeks the customer has taken about three hundred pictures and I've taken about a hundred or...

As some of old guys know, I do things. The third of July I turned fifty seven. Not older'n water. But I am old enough to remember when we had dirt and we had water and no one even thought about mixing them and having mud. So I decided to celebrate my day in the fun with a solo parachute...

For some time now I've been working on a system to enable someone with minimal construction skills to build their own shop-shed-barn with only a cordless drill and a metal saw, skill, sawsall, portaband, chop, etc. So last week I started building a portable loafing shed using prototype parts...

Where\'s Hollywood? I've made another rock star. First you start with a hardheaded son of a buck.

This morning I had twenty six emails with 53K attachments from legitimate appearing sources. I've already picked up a new one while surfing TBN. Yesterday I bet I got in excess of fifty hits of the same stuff. I know I can tick people off. But I believe it's something less personal. Anyone...

Bud bumped a tree with his factory bucket first thing out of the gate. The tree bumped back.

Sometimes somethings need enhancement. In fact there's whole industries built around this concept. Well I got called on to do a little of that myself. As you can see "Pete" is rather flat back where most of us have, well, a bulge or two.

$300.00 Quick Attach forks for Hayseed\'s Kubota I built this for Hayseed. The material cost was three hundred dollars, two fifty for the fork assembly at a scrap yard and fifty dollars worth of "etc". (We swapped labor. He did my Monster Garage audition video and I'm still trying to catch up.)

Sometimes a little cat can be a big dawg!

Yesterday afternoon I was interupted by a visitor.

As some of you know unique projects occasionally find me. Here's one that chewed up five days.

You coming to the spring fling thing aka Norte Tejas redux deluxe? It'd be nice to have your come by. You need a memory stone of your very own.

I want to make the kinds of gates this guy does. http://vulcan-forge.com/Tree

Wanna see it again?

This is my grandson testing Lucy to see if she tastes as good as she looks.

Yup, that got your attention http://www.reale.com.br/massa.htm It's pretty tuff stuff. It didn't take me long to grab a face mask when rabbeting it. And I've just about resigned myself to wear gloves handling it. The splinters aren't nice. This is the set up in the shop. The router table...

I've got at least two thousand dollars in carving, cutting, and specialty tools I've purchased at our local Woodcraft store in Farmer's Branch over the years. It's one of those places that you know going in isn't Harbor Freight. You're going to pay three prices. Two of those are for service...

Double doggone darn James! I thought I had a common dream with you. "That is ugly!" came out of miss Glenda's mouth. So I guess I'm stuck with the old Garland Texas International CXT. I do have to admit though I'm not sure what I'd buy for a strut truck. For the ultimate getaround zipper...

One of my brother in laws was telling a friend that he had an in on tractor information. We all are his in. So help me help bro in law look good. We need the oil capacities for the motor, trans, and rearends. It's a 1967 model. Bro in law monitors this site (keeping me honest ya think?)...

Tonight on our way home from Oklahoma we passed a sign for a place of business. I said, "I want to do that on my next birthday." My wife said, "you're crazy!" By the time we got home we had Scott my adopted son, my son in law Matt, my son John, and maybe my son in law Rex all committed to...

Today the cell went off. I looked down at the screen. It was my old bud Ron. I said "hello old man." "Hi harv. This is Sue." "Everything alright?" I asked. "Yeah. Ron's in the hospital but he's okay. He should be home today or tomorrow." "What happened?" I asked, still in a state of...

That when my camera is broken the opportunity for the neatest pictures show up? Last Saturday as I'm setting up to weld on a tractor on a large construction site I notice a twenty yard end dump going up. I watch as it gets up about seventy to eighty percent and then it starts to lean. I...

I realize I'm singing to the choir but for any newbie out there that hasn't done such a project I thought I'd do a little how to. First one must draw out the TBN fella on the tractor on some eighth inch aluminum plate with a Sharpie. Then a little plasma arc cut and one has a pattern that will...