At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Alright obed, we need a pic of you wearing that snazzy helmet.

Here ya go Jay.

Obed

 

[Obed]

The kitchen sink drain was leaking a tiny bit. I removed a plastic gasket and cleaned some gunk off of it. I reconnected the plastic drain pipe to the sink and snugged the nut hand tight. That seems to have fixed the leak --- for now.

 

[Obed]

I think your moving the torch or gun to fast esp if your useing a 3 wire speed on that machine. You need to be "weaving or stiching" the weld very slowly at that speed. I normally use about a 5-7 speed on that machine on the thickstuff i weld, maybe more like a 6, on thin stuff i am useing like a 3. I am no expert but i do have the same machine that you have. I use figure 8's when i weld and not circles or random patterns.

clemsonfor,

I was able get penetration with the speed setting on 5 for my practice welds on a flat plate. However, when I tried welding the T-joint on the 5 setting, the bead just built up on top instead of penetrating. Slowing down to 3 enabled me to get penetration.

Based on a passing remark in my welding book, I have a theory as to why my welds aren't penetrating the thicker metal on the faster wire speeds. According to my welding book, increasing the wire speed is supposed to increase the current and improve the penetration. On the thicker metal, I believe I am maxxing out the welder's current output. Thus, increasing the wire speed on the thicker metal isn't resulting in higher current like it is supposed to because the current output has already maxxed out. Thus higher speeds just mean the wire comes out faster than the available current can heat up the plate.

I'll try figure 8's and see how that goes. I've just been zig-zagging back and forth across the seam without any set pattern.

Obed

 

[J F]

Here ya go Jay.

Obed

Good stuff man. :thumbsup:

Keep at it, as I know you will conquer whatever you take on.

 

[clemsonfor]

Here ya go Jay.

Obed

Have you caught that cardboard on fire yet!!!!!

 

[Diamondpilot]

Off subject, but what did you end up doing to store your grease gun? You said you might use my pvc and kitty litter setup. I was greasing my mower today and was thinking about it....

Chris

 

[Obed]

Have you caught that cardboard on fire yet!!!!!

Not yet. I haven't caught the sawhorses on fire yet either ...

 

[Obed]

Off subject, but what did you end up doing to store your grease gun? You said you might use my pvc and kitty litter setup. I was greasing my mower today and was thinking about it....Chris

Chris I haven't done anything yet. I do think I'll copy your PVC pipe grease gun holder when I get around to it.
Obed

 

[Obed]

I've been wanting an illuminated light switch for our basement stairs for a while. I finally got around to buying one and installing it. Now there's no more groping around the insulation in the dark while trying to find the light switch.



Installing this switch is an example of where it can be handy to be a DIYer. I probably would not go to the expense to hire an electrician to do this sort of little job.

 

[ENG18LT]

Those switches are handy. I just never remember to pick up one or two when I am at the store.

 

[Obed]

I bucked up a little firewood yesterday. The weather turned out glorious although there was some light rain a couple times earlier in the day.



I got to use a Northern Tools $5 stump vice for the first time when I sharpened the chain.



I have several pine logs at the front of my log pile. There are more than I thought. It takes just as much time and effort to cut up pine as it does oak with half of the heat output. If I had a convenient place to drag off the pine logs I would do so. However, I don't. By the time I dragged them off to an out of the way place, I about could have cut them up and split them. So I'll just cut them up, split them, and burn them in the fireplace.

 

[MotorSeven]

Obed, I'm not sure if this has been asked before. Since we also lived in one for several years do you ever miss the camper? Sometimes we do, not enough to chuck it all and go back in time, but it did have it's good points Simplicity has it's merits.........

 

[Obed]

Obed, I'm not sure if this has been asked before. Since we also lived in one for several years do you ever miss the camper? Sometimes we do, not enough to chuck it all and go back in time, but it did have it's good points Simplicity has it's merits.........

Rick,
That's an excellent question. Yes and no.

While living in the camper, I loved the simplicity. I didn't have to mow the lawn every week. I didn't have to paint the house, sweep the porch and concrete, weed the flowers, trim the bushes, etc. There was some maintenance required on the camper. We had to fix some plumbing, deal with cold weather water pipe issues, etc. Every couple of months I was on top of the camper trying to fix a new roof leak. The leaking roof was a big headache. However, we only had one bathroom to maintain and clean, one kitchen sink, and a total of 360 SF of living space to take care of. I had LOTS of time to do whatever I wanted. I could play golf, go mountain biking, get involved in community work as much as I wanted.

On the flip side, when living in a camper your are always the "oddball". People don't know exactly what to do with you. Some people are hesitant to spend time getting to know you figuring you might leave town at any time. Having people over is a challenge because you just can't fit many people in a camper. Caulking the roof every 6 or 8 weeks gets old pretty quick. It would be one thing if you know you are actually fixing the roof. Our camper had a flat roof so water was constantly looking for a new hole in the caulk. It wasn't possible to "fix" the roof; you could only "patch" it.

Also, our daughter was born while we were still living in the camper and building our house. She lived in the camper for her first year and that really wasn't hard at all. I'm afraid that the camper would be quite small now that our girl is 3 years old and running all over the place. And being a father doesn't lend itself well to all the playing I used to be able to do before being a dad. Being a dad is much more wonderful than all the golf and mountain biking a person could do. I hadn't played golf for years anyway before our daughter was born anyway so that part is no big deal.

Since I need to be at home more than I used to due to the daddy duties, it's just fine to mow the lawn, cut firewood, maintain the property, etc. instead of playing. But some of the property maintenance is still like playing anyway. I enjoy cutting firewood. It's satisfying to build a porch or add an illuminated light switch in the basement stairwell.

I think living in a camper, a modest house, or a mansion really is just window dressing. If you are unhappy living in a camper, you'll be unhappy living in a mansion. The important things in life are to experience a meaningful relationship with God, spend lots of time with your family, treat others like you'd like to be treated, be responsible, and don't worry about things that are outside of your control. I've been blessed and am really enjoying life right now, but my enjoyment has very little to do with where I live.

Obed

 

[clemsonfor]

you can say that again!!

I thought the double post issue was suppose to be getting resolved....like a year ago!!

 

[MotorSeven]

Yes, that's pretty much how I sum it up. Les & I both get the itch to get on the road and travel, but with a "farm" it's not so easy finding a farmsitter:laughing: Hmmm, there's a nich...FarmSitter.com:thumbsup:

 

[Obed]

Yes, that's pretty much how I sum it up. Les & I both get the itch to get on the road and travel, but with a "farm" it's not so easy finding a farmsitter:laughing: Hmmm, there's a nich...FarmSitter.com:thumbsup:

Yep, once you have animals (farm animals and/or pets), taking trips gets much harder to do. My dad has worked out a win-win with his Menonite neighbors that live next door. The neighbors get to pasture some of their cows on my dad's land in exchange for helping my dad take care of his cattle.

Obed

 

[Obed]

My wife has planted her garden. She decided to "cut back" on her garden this summer season. So she only planted okra, squash, green beens, butter peas, tomatos, bell peppers, watermelon, cantelope, and a few other things I can't remember. So much for "cutting back"... she just couldn't help herself.

 

[Tororider]

I think living in a camper, a modest house, or a mansion really is just window dressing. If you are unhappy living in a camper, you'll be unhappy living in a mansion. The important things in life are to experience a meaningful relationship with God, spend lots of time with your family, treat others like you'd like to be treated, be responsible, and don't worry about things that are outside of your control. I've been blessed and am really enjoying life right now, but my enjoyment has very little to do with where I live.

Obed

Can't say it much better than that my friend.

 

[Obed]

I'm enjoying how green things are with all the rain we've had this spring.



I really like this view. The garden area can be seen in the background.

Last fall we poisoned and reseeded much of the lawn that had weeds in it that we suspect came from the straw we used when we first planted the grass. Now we have a bunch of clover in the grass. I suspect the grass seed we bought had lots of unwanted clover seeds in it. Can't win for loosin'! You cant really see the clover in these pictures because the grass was freshly cut. However, the clover is there and turns much of the lawn white as the clover flowers.

 

[srossman]

you can always spray your lawn with 2-4-d to kill off the clover. I think that it takes at least two growing seasons to get a lawn looking nice. I redid half my lawn last spring, and this year, it looks better, but I still have some clover and other weeds that I'll be working on getting rid of through the year.