Good morning!!!!

[kenmbz]

Morning all, going up to 45 and sun is out.
Worked on pole saw yesterday and got the oiler pump working again. The M18 attachment seems to always need maintenance and really needs to be clean to operate properly. When it works it does the job and have a lot of hours on it.

Got tractor front end greased and need to tend to one nipple as it is getting tough to get grease in.

RNG - I have the 3m Worktunes with BT and only need to turn off tractor or saw to answer calls/speak to people.

David - sounds like good progress on eyes, life is good
LS feel better.

The other night with the moon almost full.

 

[Popgadget]

Still testing out the mini split but so far it is working perfectly.

If your experience is the same as mine with a similar unit you won’t be disappointed. I don’t even have the Hyper Heat and it was making great heat in the single digits, which is as low as it’s been since I installed it. AC works great as well.

 

[sodamo]

61°F and 1.63 inches rain and raining

The gals took much pleasure in beating us again.

Another day of reduced activity. Not that difficult given the weather, but my mind tends to wander to the ever growing list of things that need attention. Oh well, they aren’t going anywhere.

Looking forward to reading how Drew makes improvements to his newly acquired home on wheels. I sense an adventure ahead. Wonder how we can get him a travel companion?

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[Popgadget]

Seemed like I was stopping way too often to answer the phone yesterday. Lots of fun when you're operating a tractor: Kill the ignition, pop off the earmuffs, undo the seatbelt, fish the phone out of the pocket, and work the phone with gloves on to answer the call before it goes to voice mail.

My solution was to put a Bluetooth stereo in the cab of the tractor. I usually stream music to it, and can answer the phone when it rings.
For open station equipment I got the 3M Bluetooth work tunes, but generally use a Bose Quiet Comfort noise cancelling headset with Bluetooth.
The Bose is definitely more fragile, but the audio quality and noise cancellation is light years better than the 3M, so I use them on a machine, but not for tasks like running a saw.

 

[rswyan]

33F with abundant bright sunshine @ 11:15, heading up to around 44F for the high.

Got hopper feeder refilled yesterday, will refill the deer feeder later today since it's gotten chilly again.

Got the hole drilled for the dust collection port drilled out on one of the side boards for the portable downdraft sanding table.

Also got short set of saw horses put together.

Hooked Shop Vac up to the belt/disc sander and took that for a spin, working a section of 2 x 12 which will be used as a base plate for the HF hose reel that is used to store the 10 gauge extension cord.

Some additional cleaning/organizing done out in the garage.

Tore into the shower valve, discovered that it's apparently easy to pooch the seats by cocking it if you're not real careful with the seat wrench I have.

The wrench is 90 degrees and has a continuous taper on both ends, hex on one, square on the other. The Depot has a Husky wrench with a T-handle with stepped ends that looks like it might be a better device ... might have to pick one of those up and give it whirl.

At any rate I cleaned up the now-knicked seats with a stone and reinstalled. No soap, still leaks.

So at that point I ran down to the local Ace to see if they had the seats. Yes they do ... but only with new stems @ $18+ a pop.

Guy down there suggested bevel washers so I grabbed an assortment of those and headed back to the house and tore down the valve again.

Still dripping even with the bevel washers.

So took it apart again and did a close examination of the new seats vs the original one I took out and discovered that they are slightly different: the new seats are slightly taller and have a bigger gap between where the threads end and where the flanged mating surface is that seals against the valve body. Not sure if that makes any real difference or not ... but it is the only seat that Danco offers for Gerber valves so they ought to work (in theory)

At point I decided to have a closer look at the area of the valve body where the seats flange form their seals and discovered that appeared to to be some corrosion and pitting in one spot on the hot side of the valve.

This wasn't easy to do, since the crapper sits right next to the tub and it isn't easy to get down there close and low enough to see into the valve.

So at that point I worked over the seating area with a wire brush for cleaning 3/4 female copper.

Then wrapped the new seats with some teflon tape, stuck them back in, reassembled the valve and turned the water back on.

It's been almost 12 hours since I pressurized the lines and not a single drip so far ... although I haven't cracked either the hot or cold side of the valve yet.

Figured I'd just enjoy the no-drip situation for a while ... before I tempt fate and open them up ...

I have two sets of new seats coming from Amazon which should be here Monday.

But if it ain't leaking, I sure ain't gonna tear it apart just to put them in.

Hopefully the remainder of the day today will involve other activities which are more fun.

Like figuring out where in the #$%^ I set down my Bluetooth ear muffs.

I did find another can of red enamel in my travels down in the basement yesterday, will likely use that for the dust collection drum ...instead of spending additional money on another can of paint which is an exact match. Close enough.

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday ...

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Last time I needed to replace my hearing protection earmuffs I got the bluetooth version...now I can answer the phone while it's in my pocket by pressing a button on the ear cup. The pair I bought doesn't have a mike, so have to yell until I get the phone out of my pocket, but can answer a call quickly so it doesn't go to voice mail. Also, can listen to tunes, of course.

I have a pair of muffs that do that, too, but the charge doesn't last long enough to get through a day of use. By the end of yesterday, doing the drill to get to the phone was almost muscle memory...

 

[Looking4new]

Good to hear recovery process is starting off well! You really don’t need to pick up anything heavier than you tablet or a sandwich for the next week…

or a box of beer.

rs, it is good to hear you got the drip stopped.

I got all the plowing done, including the new one that I only have until the 20th.
One lady I plow for has a shed roof that dumps onto the path that I push the snow over a bank. She had forewarned me that the shed roof had unloaded, the pile was four feet high and twelve feet long. I already had a full bucket of snow I was pushing when I got to that pile, stuffed it into low range (I plow in the mid range normally), stomped on the power divider pedal and shoved all of it over the bank. Made her snort a little, but that just helps to keep her running smooth.
I managed to drop both front wheels into the ditch (2' deep) just to the east of my driveway. I pried myself out with the bucket. Zero damage.
Now for the you tube rabbit hole.

 

[m7040]

Picked up the IMAC after the wipe and install MacOS Ventura, chrome and Webroot. So what I did not realize my wireless keyboard and mouse will not allow me to log in because they are not set up yet and I don't have plug in USB keyboard and mouse. So either back to get that done or go get the wired ones to set up

 

[Joel/ak]

Woke up at 530 to get to the arena for my daughter's game. Hate early games....

She did good but we still lost. My kid made alot of shots on goal but that tender was good.

 

[sodamo]

I also get those sneezing fits. Never counted them. Most often they seem to be triggered by the sun, but have had at night also, so who knows.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good late morning/afternoon. Low was 17°, going up to 49° today, 54° tomorrow. Some high cloud cover this afternoon, but no precip until Mon and Tues ----- snow expected.

Started with the coughing as soon as I got into bed last night. Tried to "suppress" the coughing to no avail..... woke up the wifey a couple times (Not a good thing to do). Kept tossing and turning. Finally got up and did a coughing binge in the bathroom, cleared out the nose as best as could be, emptied any excess fluid, and tried sleeping again.... sometime about two hours later, fell asleep.

Hopefully, today will be the upswing.... cleared a bunch of fancy colorful stuff out of the nose this morning..... so far so good... no stuffiness and just occasional cough..... I hope I'm not just being duped again.....

Sorry for the vivid description......

Don, I bought one of these for the Ipad. It allows you to use a pen drive for storage. Not sure if it's something you can use. It was $10 off of Ebay.

I have a ton of photos on one drive, the full service manual for the tractor, etc.. on others. Works well for our purposes.

I think it is time to go lie down again.... We have been making the dog food since 07:00 this morning. This crud is just consuming all my energy.

 

[KilroyJC]

Good Morning!!!! 40F @ 4:45AM. A mix of clouds and sun. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 61F. Winds NNW at 10 to 15 mph.

Thanks for sharing your Sprinter experience, Frits. Normally I'm a used car kinda guy, but with the prices of used vehicles of this type not differing significantly from new, I'd be crazy to buy used. But it's been surprisingly difficult to find a plane Jane van. I just need cruise control and a trailer hitch as options, and while I see an occaissional van equipped with a cruise control, finding one with a hitch is very rare. No wonder, as Ford wants close to $1k for a hitch and integrated trailer brake system.

Good to read that the procedure went well, David. Hope you're back to 100% soon.

Sounds like an allergic reaction of some sort, Ted. Hope it doesn't happen again.

I thought the new House stopped the new IRS agents from being hired, KJC. The power of the purse. But best we not discuss such things here...

Oddly, having no debit hurts your credit rating, Drew. Banks only want to loan money to people that don't need to borrow. Yet I've read you can get a better price on a vehicle if you agree to finance it. Then just pay off the loan early. Gotta make sure there's no early payment penalty, though.

I did get the burn pile going yesterday, a little too good. The wind picked up and the flames got longer than I was comfortable with, so out came the hose and a lot of water to damp it down. Once the flashy fuels were consumed I just kept piling more stuff on for the rest of the day. Got through maybe a third of the next pile. Getting lots of practice shaking dirt out of the grapple, as a lot got mixed in with the wood in this pile.

Seemed like I was stopping way too often to answer the phone yesterday. Lots of fun when you're operating a tractor: Kill the ignition, pop off the earmuffs, undo the seatbelt, fish the phone out of the pocket, and work the phone with gloves on to answer the call before it goes to voice mail. But I finally got through to a well digger and got a service call set up for next week. Also learned that the insurance adjuster found where to buy new roof tile that is supposed to match what's already on the roof. Gave me the name of an outfit in town that she said had samples, but a phone call confirmed they don't, so those are on order. It's almost certain the tiles on the roof are faded and new ones won't match, but the adjuster insists we jump through all the hoops. Realtor also found a fixer house he thinks is perfect for me. Only $700k I don't think so...

View attachment 783411
The mound of ash was as big as the RTV at sunset last night, and there should be a nice bed of coals to feed more wood to this morning. So that's what I'll be up to today, hopefully without the phone calls.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

house stuff has to get past senate and veto. no negotiating power thanks to that KY dude

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

David, looking up towards the sun usually gets me sneezing at least a couple times.... The wifey would never believe me (told her this years ago) until my son has the same issue. Then she believes us.... must be hereditary?

 

[KilroyJC]

Good Morning.
Nice day here today.
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I think that I forgot to check in yesterday, but it wasn’t a busy day. Spent most of it disassembling and cleaning an old Ellis dividing head that I’ve had for a long time. I pulled it out for a small job and thought it was pretty forlorn looking. Amazing tight, easy but looking abandoned and unloved. I didn’t take any pictures, I’ll try to remember when I get back over to the shop today. Did the job,and then went to work on the dividing head.
Loaded the crock pot with meatballs and tomato sauce for dinner with the band, we had a great time, first get together in a few weeks.
Afterwards walked over to the house and went for a walk with Zoe.
Why are dogs always happy to see you?

Not sure what today will bring, neighbor has been asking a lot of questions about why his forklift won’t start, it’s a Nissan propane powered unit, might wander over there and see what’s up.

Drew, let me know if you need a ride to pick up the RV, I’ve been around quite a bit lately.

Cutting some gears?

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Kilroy, never had any sneezes past about 20.... you must have been plain wore out after 46!

 

[KilroyJC]

Kilroy, never had any sneezes past about 20.... you must have been plain wore out after 46!

Oh it definitely was gettin old by #30. . .

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Rip, you know if there aren't any pictures, it didn't happen

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Dennis, love your granddad's house. If I had that it would be getting restored and updated. Want to sell off a small chunk?

 

[KilroyJC]

Good Update!

a couple hours ago, we got a Winter Red Alert notice, just before taking mom shopping. So when we got back and unloaded our groceries, I got the quad ready. So I expect we will get rain. . .

i also stuffed the stove with wood and kindling and tinder to light off when we get home from dinner, plus brought in two more bags of wood, too.

(And before anyone asks: I have the winch mounted on a receiver mount and it is wired for power front and rear, so I can swap ends as necessary)(plow is only wired for the front )

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Joel/ak, welcome to the GM thread! You have a tough daughter playing hockey!