Coffee 7-30-11

Welcome! Come in, find a seat. Join us for some fresh , hot, coffee and fellowship. How about some blueberry cake? The berries were picked this week. Good stuff! Looks like July is pretty much in the books. This summer is flying by like a greyhound after a rabbit. Maybe Aug can be a more relaxed month.....ohhh, but not if you're doing an installation! I know of one new AHS going in not too far from here. Speaking of which, his coal came yesterday along with another 5 yrs worth for my buddy Charlie. Two TT's of Kimmels pea. It took a while to arrange it, but all's well that ends well. Charlie built forks for his Case backhoe. They do the job! But, man-o-man, if that Case were a 100 amp entrance panel, it's a darn good thing they are built to take 120 amps. To carry a ton and a quarter out beyond the bucket is asking a lot of the machine.

Hope you all have a smooth weekend.

Psssst..... Freetown Fred.... It's Saturday!

Morning Freddy! Wow, time for coffee already. It cooled down to 78F after a longggg HOT-HOT HOT day. Another 100+ day behind us.
Speakin of installs, Coal Berner and VigIIPeaburner are here visiting with us, and they brought along a newly-rebuilt EFM HighBoy with them.
It will be placed in the storage room of my Workshop until we prepare the house for it.

Yeah! Thank goodness for front-end loaders, that are built American tough! My little tractor is always complaining about me doing something like putting 10 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket, or 200lbs of coal in a 100lb feed sack, etc.....

Hey F.Fred, wake up! The day is half over!

Good morning all,

Man that cakes looks sooo good!

It's looking like the DC area is a good place to be from right now because of the heat - 107* with the heat index yesterday along the river. I hope someone is watering my plants at home. I don’t suppose the hot air being generated in the Capital is helping much.

It's much nicer here in the North GA mountains but still hot enough that any outside work needs to be completed before 10. I'm waiting for the sun now so I can get back to my last project for this trip. We are improving a dry creek bed my dad dug many years ago to control the runoff following heavy rains. Their house is on the side of a hill and gets a lot of heavy rain from hurricanes late in the summer. It's not hard but rather time consuming as each rock is hand placed. Well, I see the first light peeping over the mountains so I’d better get busy. I hope all is well with you’ll, take care, Lisa

Oh yeah, does anyone have a bee hive? I’m thinking of getting one for set up in the spring.

double post - sorry

Yep - tis the season for blueberries. Just picked 3 pints for the neighbors. We don't have a tenth of what we normally have out there, but the ones that made it are still good ... and big!

Yeah, you'd think MA would be tropical with all the hot air coming off Beacon Hill every day!



Bought the wifey a '90 Yamaha RT100 off Craigslist for $300. She's been bugging me to get the RD200 running ... so I told her I'm not touching it until she gets some time under her belt off road. Clutching & shifting need to be second nature when you venture out on the streets of Massachusetts. People drive with their noses in the air, along with their eyes - gotta be on top of your game. This will be a good way to build her skills so she doesn't get killed out there.

Needed a bit of work, as expected for the price. Fork seals leak, rear wheel bearings smoked, shift shaft slops around & the case cover that the shaft rides in is cracked, chain/sprockets smoked, and someone put a 170 main jet in when it's supposed to have a 130. I put in a 140, now it will actually accelerate! Looks like that worn out chain got tossed off one too many times & cracked the boss that supports the shift shaft. Makes shifting very difficult, then with a dragging clutch, almost impossible. I inspected the clutch & found someone installed too many steels! Supposed to go: Friction, steel, friction ... always start & end with a friction plate. But someone had an extra steel directly on the metal clutch hub - that explained the grabby clutch! The wifey still did damn good in light of all these problems. Once it's all fixed, it'll be as good as new .... mechanically anyway. It's already 100x better now with the clutch back to normal, Amsoil in the gearbox, & the carb tuned properly.

Once all the parts come in & I finish that, I just need to put my XL350 together & then it will be time to start ..... (start echo voice) THE JIMMY/BLAZER PROJECT! Yep - the Jimmy's heart will beat on in another body. A much more reliable body. Should have a story to tell by next Saturday I'm thinking .....

Here's the RT! Couldn't get a picture of it together. It was apart the minute I took it out of the truck! Everything has to be perfect with bikes here.

Good morning all, that cake sure does look good, it's also a reminder that the wife & I have to get to picking more to get us thru this winter. Rule of thumb for me with a heavy load was always get it low as soon as possible & go slow, less distance to fall the better. Be grabbing a cup to go if you don't mind, in the same boat as most now, so hot & humid you gotta hit the outside stuff early, only problem here is the skeeters are up & waiting. Hope everyone has a safe & not too hot of a weekend, stay hydrated.

Blueberry cake??? Great choice & the coffee as usual is outstanding Freddy. A little mind bender---How many Saturdays in a week?? AAhhh, you youngsters don't have a clue This 12 hr part time working with the young horses has so far turned into 20 hrs--gets me off my old ass & I love it Sounds like everybody is doing what needs to get done Have a good week end all--here's two more of my new recruits. The little paint will be for outriding.

Good morning! The humidity has finally left town, the coffee is hot, and my wife is making banana muffins. Our son (Ivan Robert) is officially one week old this morning, and he gifted us a few hours of uninterrupted sleep last night. He was slow to start nursing, but that didn't last long. I weighed him this morning and he is nearly back to his birth weight. Things are going well for all of us, and we are starting to get into a "groove". I figured one thing out, he likes it warm! I guess it is time to go into the basement and put his room on its own zone...

Pictures of the little guy:

Outstanding Rob. Thank God the child looks like his mother. Mornin Ivan, here's one for you.

Babies are the best. Enjoy them.
I'm off on the MoMo to Cherry Springs for the night.
Should be good weather and stars. The ride up and back
is the best part. Have a good weekend.

DVC500 at last wrote:Morning Freddy! Wow, time for coffee already. It cooled down to 78F after a longggg HOT-HOT HOT day. Another 100+ day behind us.
Speakin of installs, Coal Berner and VigIIPeaburner are here visiting with us, and they brought along a newly-rebuilt EFM HighBoy with them.
It will be placed in the storage room of my Workshop until we prepare the house for it.

Yeah! Thank goodness for front-end loaders, that are built American tough! My little tractor is always complaining about me doing something like putting 10 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket, or 200lbs of coal in a 100lb feed sack, etc.....

Hey F.Fred, wake up! The day is half over!

I know those guys!

Hey Chris - Did that Highboy come with a "suit"?

Good Afternoon, to all. Forecast is for slightly cooler temperatures here today. I'll be working on my trailer tires. I was headed to UAE for some pea coal yesterday and suffered a trailer tire blow out in Dillsburg, PA. Limped to a full service garage and was able to get a used trailer tire installed in short order. He didn't have a new tires in the size I needed. Consider continuing on the the coal mines but decided to turn around and come home. Good thing I did because when I stopped a the Gettysburg Outlets for a break, a second tire was flat. Upon closer look the valve stem was broken. Did a quick web search for trailer tires and found they are hard to locate. Anyone have a good source for ST225/75D15 radial tire in load range E?

Meeting later with a new forum member that lives nearby. He wants to see my boiler setup. Stay cool to all.

Hello Everyone,

Gosh, what a difference a day or two makes, so hot & steamy last two days, no air movement at all. Today it feels like I am in a different part of the world.

Great looking baby Rob Looks like a C-section baby even though we know mom delivered natural. Take care and enjoy.

Yanche, if you can wait a few days, I may be able to source you a tire & rim from a Marine Equipment Supply Warehouse. My mom is the purchasing agent. They sell Load-Rite and I usually can get hardware & tires from her at slightly over cost. No guarantees but I'll try if you can wait through next week.

Take care.

Yanche, that size is not commonly stocked in a 10 ply load rating. You could try a local tire shop and see if they could get some on a stock order, or just order them direct. Try http://www.tires-easy.com and Pete's Tire Barn, 978-633-3763

Edit: Also consider upgrading to brass/stainless valve stems. I too have been stranded by a leaking $0.99 valve stem.

http://www.gemplers.com/product/171388/TR501-15-S ... Tire-Valve