Good morning!!!!

[daugen]

coming home I stopped in the road to let a very large critter go by. Great big blue thing, with all this apparatus on the back,
sitting nose to side of road, trying to get across busy road. I had no one behind me, so I stopped and flashed lights. Had to do it a second time and then he
started moving slowly across the road, from one field to the next, with some large tillage device on back, all folded out. He waved at the other side and thankfully the traffic had cooperated. Not like there are any "excuse me, I'd like to get across" blinkers on a big tractor...Guessing this was a T7 or T8 New Holland.
Too preoccupied to get camera out. Looking behind me to make sure no one was driving into the back of me obliviously even with flashers on.

 

[sodamo]

70°F and .01 inches rain.

Get my serviced, non leaking generator put back together then move into place and hooked up. Might even count how many nuts and bolts

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[toppop52]

64 and cloudy, might hit 70 today. Warm for 3 days then chili weather for awhile.

CT Scan was unremarkable. They got the measurements for the valve, other valves were healthy. All other organs were nominal with some side branch abnormality on the pancreas, but likely isn’t a tumor according to radiology.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Done
Not as bad as I expected

New vs old
View attachment 626562

Are you fixing up the Diesel generator to sell, David, or to keep as a spare?

Looks like the same stuff I use on the BMW motorcycles (Continental brand). After two or three years of ethanol laced gas, it gets hard and starts to flake off inside. Simple enough to change, but I wish I could just run on E0 all the time, but it's just not available in very many places anymore.:muttering:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

8x8.5x40 is 21 cords. A high cube would hold a little more.

It is a high cube, 9' 6" tall on the outside.

I'll be palletizing the wood on pallets that are roughly 4'x4'. So that's 20 pallets, and if my plans for hoops over the top work out so I can stack another layer, 40 pallets. A cord is 4x4x8 = 128 cu. ft., but my cut length for the wood is only 18", so each pallet holds 3x4x4 = 48 cu. ft. ~ .375 cord/pallet. That works out to 7.5 cords/layer, or 15 cords if the stack works. I've got close to that already bucked and stacked, but it still needs to be split and palletized. But I need enough rain to end fire season before I can start cutting up the surplus racks I'll be using for the steel hoops. PG&E doesn't need any help in burning down the state because they're doing a fine job all on their own.:shocked:

 

[jbrumberg]

Randy- I am happy to read that your CT scan was unremarkable.

 

[toppop52]

Randy- I am happy to read that your CT scan was unremarkable.

Thanks, me too!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG, nice container...looks level, too, which must be a challenge at your place.

The pad is pretty level along the length of the container, but about a 1/2" off side-to-side. The fella that dropped it off said that I'd have trouble opening both doors at the same time if the pad wasn't a plane, but it could tolerate being not perfectly level. So naturally, the first thing I did was open both doors at the same time. That's when I found out the plane isn't perfect, and had some trouble getting one of the door sets closed again. I played around with a two ton toe jack and a farm jack lifting one corner to level, but just throwing gravel under it wasn't enough to hold it up. So next time I'm in town I'll get a variety of concrete blocks, then dig down to undisturbed dirt at each corner and get the whole thing level. FWIW, I don't weigh enough to lift a corner with the the 48" farm jack.:laughing:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG that is one deluxe wood store ! If you have time to fill it before the next hot wildfire comes your way, you may end up with a lifetimes supply of charcoal for the BBQ

You're not the first to suggest that, Eric. One of the reasons I ended up with a container is that it could be made ember proof. This one has five vents near the roof on each side, and though each has a steel grate over it with 1/8" holes, I'll be covering them on the outside with 1/32" stainless steel mesh. If an ember can't get in, and there's no fuel around the container itself, chances are very good there'll be no charcoal in my future (I use propane in the BBQ). And I'll do my best to outlive the 15 cord supply it'll hold.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG will your fire truck fit in the container?

The interior dimensions of the container are 39 3/8 x 7 8 1/8 x 8 10? while the truck measures 24' 4" x 7' 8" x 7' 6" (LxWxH).

So technically yes, but I wouldn't be able to get out of the truck to shut the container doors.:laughing:

This also means I'll need to cut the pallets down if they're more than 48" x 48".:duh:

 

[sodamo]

RNG. Actually, this will be my primary generator, has been most of the year now. While I like the propane Kohler, it is just too expensive to run as primary. LP is $5/g here and not as efficient as the diesel. My prime rationale going with a propane backup was to add a non haul-able fuel option for wife. Once I get everything configured I’ll look at different run schedules, but current thinking is something of a 75/25 mix diesel/propane. I have to call for diesel delivery, propane is on a schedule. Would still like supplier to set me up with larger tank.

Jay, correct, was able to reuse the tees. Thankfully as I had bought new line but no fittings. The line is a 3.5mm fabric covered rubber commonly used in German cars. These sat at top of head so some heat degradation I suspect.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Met with both managers yesterday, likely be reporting to one of them soon. Manager for my current role is just being promoted to manager (she has been on the bigger team, but this is her first management position). Manager for new role has been a manager about 14 months, he performed the role I'm looking at for 10 years before becoming manager. I can do either job, and there is a 3rd job I might look at that is outside the management chain I am in now...

FWIW, hawkeye, the last two managers I had were new. One was promoted into the position when my then manager was also advanced, the other was a former Air Force colonel that was hired to start a new IT group. Neither were very good managers, the first because of inexperience, the second because he knew little to nothing about IT and wouldn't take no for an answer. Both were excellent motivators to get me to seriously consider retirement, so in that sense, you could say they were at least good for that.:laughing:

 

[sodamo]

No word yet on Tundra. Maybe today.

While wife was getting Pilot serviced she looked at the Honda Ridgeline. Likes it.

Surprisingly several good major reviews online, even beating out Ranger, Tacoma, Gladiator in some.

If honest, my bigger truck needs are very few, always made out with our Tacomas or S10. Towing is rated 5k which would be sufficient for my trailer. I don’t trailer my tractor.

Looking at trim levels, the Honda is about 2/3 price of Tundra in similar trim. Of course would want a new bed cap.

Could be an interesting exercise in aging, should we get a Ridgeline in same colors as Pilot to go to garage and not be sure which vehicle we got in. LOL

 

[jbrumberg]

David- FWIW My BIL really likes his Honda Ridgeline.

 

[toppop52]

RNG, check this out.

 

[jbrumberg]

There is a home built from those shipping containers near here.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 60F @ 10:30AM. Plentiful sunshine. High around 70F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.
The Red Flag Warning expired yesterday at 11AM, but another one started this morning. The power came back on sometime late afternoon, but since I wasn't checking the meter very often and the helicopter that ran the line was so far up in the air I didn't think it was doing an inspection. Then the power was shut off again at 5:10 this morning. I know because I heard a clunk somewhere in the house that woke me up, probably the solenoid in the propane stove opening, and looked up to see no time being projected onto the ceiling. Got the iPhone out and had very poor cellular reception, text messages only.

Sounds like you're getting the hang of that supervision job, Ted. Keep up the good work!:thumbsup:

I'd planned to check/adjust the valves on the generator this morning. It had 339 hours on it when I bought it; I've never checked the valves as it was supposed to have been done at 300 hours. It's been a little reluctant to start the past couple of mornings, and a tight valve might be the cause. But I needed a cold motor and daylight to do it, so I tried to get back to sleep and failed miserably. Gave up after an hour, fired up a Luci light, and started the day. Tried to use the iPhone as a hot spot, but still no reception. That got me wondering about the land line, and it was nice to find it still working. Found the shop manual for the generator, and the valve adjustment procedure, and other than having to remove a few plastic covers, it didn't look complicated. By that time there was some light in the sky, so I strapped on a headlamp and got the generator disconnected and the service doors open. Spark plug out, covers off, there are the valves, with simple screw and jamb nut adjusters. The instructions said to find TDC by pulling the cord and looking through a timing window, but even with the plug out the crank kept over rotating and I never did find the timing mark. Came back inside to try to find a video, and reception was still bad, so just came back out and put it all back together so I'd have power to use the satellite connection and watch the video. They used a screwdriver down the spark plug hole to find TDC, but they didn't mention the over rotation problem. I'd pulled another cover off which revealed the flywheel, and had a little luck using holes in it to nudge the crank, but since by then the generator was hot, that'll have to wait for tomorrow morning. During all that fooling around, I did notice that there was some clearance in the exhaust valve, so I didn't feel like I was taking much of a chance in continuing to run the generator. Hopefully tomorrow the power will be back on so I can put the genny on the lift table instead of having to sit on the cold concrete.

The cord between the generator and the house runs under the garage door, and when I closed it enough pressure was put on the plug that one leg of the 240 volts dropped out. That left some things working in the house, and not others. Going back to the last thing I did, which was to close the door, showed the cord to be very tight and the plug coming out of the receptacle at an angle. Yeah, it was turning out to be one of those days.

Not sure what I'll do for the rest of the day, at this point I'm kinda afraid to touch anything else!:laughing:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG, check this out.
View attachment 626652

Yeah, lots of that going on out here, too. It requires a building permit as soon as the first truss goes up, though.:grumpy:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

This article may help explain the lousy reception today. The power has been off so much lately, even if the cell towers have backup power, batteries and fuel tanks are very likely depleted by now.

 

[Bird]

An overcast, drizzly 46ºF for today’s low temperature; the drizzle continues and it is 48ºF presently, and I anticipate a drizzly afternoon high ~50ºF.

Jay, it's been the same here all day until about 2 minutes ago when the real rain arrived. We drove around a good bit before noon and had to keep the wipers on the slowest intermittent speed the whole time. Tuesdays, Rosa's Café and Tortilla factory (Rosas Cafe) has a 3 taco special with beans and rice that's hard to beat for $4.95, so we stopped for that. Today is the last (19th) day for Margaret's sister to be here from West Virginia. Got to leave here about 5:45 a.m. in the morning to take her to the airport to go home. And it's supposed to be a rainy night tonight and day tomorrow.