Extra Early Coffee for the Ides of January

Good morning everyone.. we're at about 20*, windy and snow.. we got about 3" last night.. The Axeman is humming along, making heat.. I fed it 100% UAE coal this week,, that stuff is LOW ash.. I only emptied the pan every 2-3 days.. an only 'cause it is easier when it's lighter, I could probably go 4-5 days before it's truely full...

That french toast sounds good,, I'm gonna have to see if I have the makin's of some here.. or maybe go out for b'fst ? Naw I've been out already, the roads are snow covered, slushy and rutted,, the county is scrimping on road maintenace this morning...

1/2 the winter.. hmm,, seems like it just got started..

take care.. stay warm..

Greg L

French toast sounds good. I have just enough ingredients, tasteless factory bread, factory eggs, 1/2" of factory milk left in the gallon, and plenty of "I Can't Believe It's Not Chemicals Butter". A little honey left. Plenty of basement coal left, but I have to face the fact that there's a great deal of fines in it. Have to make a sifter one of these days.
should be able to work without distractions today, made a wood vanity top and coated it with marine epoxy yesterday. I'll top coat it with varnish, gotta extend the drain and drop in a sink. Faucet has a new-fangled cable-operated pop-up; looks like trouble to me.
Also have to fix the garage door opener, $40 for $8 worth of nylon replacement gears, but hope to get lots more use out of the old Sears.

WOAH - You guys got up early!

We hit a low of 5° last night. The house never went below 66°, which I believe is a record as far as single digit temps go. Usually that cold just works it's way in here through my crappy windows, half-assed plumbing & porous 2nd floor. Sun is blazing out there right now at a balmy 24.8°. Need some sunglasses! Everything's white! I think we ended up with about 2'. More on the way next week I hear ...

Not too much happening around here. Got a '95 Kawasaki Vulcan 88 (1500cc V-twin) in here that I'm working on now. This bike sure was NOT designed by mechanics, I'll tell ya that!! Took me about 2 hours to get the carbs out & apart ... and there's only 2 of them! Jeesh! The floats are in this round assembly which attaches both carbs together. Getting to them requires dismantling many linkages for the choke & throttle butterflies. Pain in the ass! Engine has hydraulic valve adjusters, so they've got the motor about 1/8" from the frame. No room to do much. Anything internal that needs fixing requires engine removal. I was supposed to do a rebuild on this one until I started pricing parts. The owner had sticker shock, which I can't blame him, so just gonna git 'er running as best I can.

Whelp, time to fire up the kero heater & oil furnace out there to warm that bike up.

Some pix for your enjoyment - See ya!

jpete wrote:My company stabbed me in the back by announcing they were sending my job to Mexico.

I hope they have the same luck GE is having. A bunch of jobs in this area were said to be in jeopardy a year or two ago when GE announced it had built a Mexican facility. Well, here it is a year or two later & GE is wishing it had not done it. Undependable help, uncaring workers & quality control is rejecting a huge percentage of the work. Jobs are coming back here to get done right. I heard a lot of the Mexican workers will get their paycheck and then disappear for two weeks. They come back & GE is desperate enough to rehire them.....then when they get their paycheck they disappear for two weeks LOL.

Cold temperatures here as well, it was 2° at 5 AM, 4° at 6 AM. It's 33° now. Burned up a bit of coal overnight!

Big progress on the EFM this week, stoker is all assembled and I am working on the piping.

Pictures!!

I remember my job getting sent to Mexico way back in '93. Was working for Bose assembling speakers for home entertainment. They decided the line would be cheaper to run down there, so off it went.

Thats where my job went at the beginning of this re-de-pression... Mexico. The same job I was doing by myself, got divided up amonst 4 Mexicans. It took them a full year to get up to speed, just to maintain what I had previously done.

I just got in from plowing more snow around the property. Building a big snow mound for the kids. I Wasn't watching the gauges, and ran the damn tractor out of diesel! I shut her off quickly when she started loosing rpms and coughing a little, and I realized what happened. Filled up the tank where she stopped, then tried cranking, and cranking, and cranking, hoping I didn't loose the prime. She was coughing every few seconds, so I knew the lines still had a little fuel in them. Held the throttle on full open, and she slowly burped the air out and the rpms started rising WHOOO-HOOOO !!!! I was hoping the ol' gal wouldn't let me down, and she didn't.

Chris,PAY ATTENTION,you lucked out--to friggin cold to be pulling the wrenches out

I'm late today. Was busy all day. Got a couple of friends and their kids together an all went sledding this AM. I think about nine kids all together. Had a great time. Then home to warm up and get some lunch then around to work for some OT. My former employer (Thomas & Betts) sold our business to Belden Cable in Dec. and business has been booming since Jan. 1. Well, I better get back to work. Breaks over.

That's funny. My boys have been singing the "Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy" song for about a week now.

Don't forget log for girls!

Presently recording the Ren & Stimpy Marathon on da' Direct TV. About the dumbest thing I've ever laughed my rear end off to! Royal Canadian Quilted Yaksmen ?...Yak Shaving Day?...Those two Morons as Firefighters?...I love it !

I was showing my wife "Powdered Toast Man" last night.

"Cling tenaciously to my buttocks!"