Coffee 8-27-2011

Funny how I forgot how I did this last Sat. Anyhow, coffees hot , ready & Freetown strong. Oatmeal this AM for this old guy, all are welcome to have at it--yep sting,raisons at one's descretion. I guess everybody is just in waiting mode with Irene. Be patient my friends--We don't want to make Mother Nature any angrier then I'm sure she already is Be safe all. I know it will be good to have Freddy back next Sat.

Morning Fred,

Great minds DO think a like or maybe we are both just early risers. I'll move my post over here and maybe some kind site moderator will delete the entry.

Good morning all, mmm Boy, oatmeal with raisins - my favorite. Is there fresh farm milk, too? I'm so excited; great tasting and good for you, too. I haven't had that in a while. Well, we are still waiting for Irene to make her appearance but nothing so far. It does look like it's starting to rain out side but not very hard, yet. Bummer, I'm at the point where I just want it over; sort of the same feeling I had waiting for my first child to be born.

I was going to change the oil in the car this morning but if it's raining I'll need to stick inside, I guess. Hey, I just thought of something to do other then actually clean the house ! I still haven't put those tin ceiling tiles on the heat shield behind the stove. I think I'll wander over to the HD for some liquid nail and do that today. What a concept! It's only been 5 years. I better jump to it and get to the HD before those who waited for the last minute to get their emergency supplies wake up and storm the place.

If you are in the path of this storm, take one more walk around your place and see if you missed any lose items that can be thrown around in an 80 mph wind. Did you think to bring in the bird feeders? It's weird how you are blind to what you see everyday. Take care, Lisa

Hell Lisa, I've been trying to figure out how to add COFFEE in the topic heading & then I read your menu & was saddling up one of the horses & I was headed that way. Mornin back at you.

Good morning! Irene may be pounding the Carolina's, but it is sure a beautiful morning up here in Northern NY. Ivan slept through last night in a few 3 hour blocks, which is a FIRST. Mom and dad were glad to get the sleep.

First on my to-do list this morning is a tire repair. Yesterday I pulled in the driveway and heard tick tick tick; I thought it sounded like a nail or a big stone stuck in a tire. A quick look look revealed a large screw right in the middle of the thread...of a brand new Firestone. Off to the farm this morning to dig out my old plug kit, should be an easy fix. I sure hope this is the end of the automotive issues for this week, on Thursday I had to replace 15' worth of brake lines on my plow truck. Oh well, 12 years on the factory ones wasn't a bad run.

The lawn has come back strong after sitting dormant for most of July. I might have to fire up the big John Deere before Irene comes to town. Before anyone asks, I did get my gas cans and beer fridge restocked.

Good morning all, no offense but I think I'll just stay home with my own coffee this weekend, as I get older I hate driving in the rain, hope everyone stays dry (as possible) & safe. If there is any good in this it's that now it's a category 1 storm so a little less wind but it sounds like with the slow movement there will be more rain. Either way there may be a good bit of damage, lets hope not this ole country has seen more than it's fair share this year & we still have more to come.

markviii wrote: Off to the farm this morning to dig out my old plug kit, should be an easy fix.

Soo... plugging slow leaks in your tire is something you can do at home? I would never have thought about doing that. We have taken our house hold trash to the landfill ourselves for years and pick up about 2 or 3 nails a year. Fixing them adds up and cuts into the savings we get by doing the trash ourselves; not to mention the time involved with taking the car by the gas station. So are there any tricks to doing this or any special equipment I need? We do have a small air compressor. Please share with me all you know. Thanks, Lisa

Sure, you need a tubeless tire plug kit, we have this one: http://www.gemplers.com/product/G60040/Safety-Sea ... Tires-100T If you are just doing an occasional repair to a lawn mower tire or a car tire, you should be fine with a regular-duty kit at your local NAPA store. If the tire is punctured in the sidwall it is toast, but a punture in the tread is usually an easy repair. Put 20-30 lbs of air in the tire, remove the nail or screw, ream the hole with the tool provided, thread the plug on insertion needle, push the plug into the puncture until the tool bottoms out, turn the tool 90 degrees and pull it out. Cut the plug off flush with the tread and inflate the tire to the proper pressure.

Technically the best repair is a blow-out patch on the inside of the tire, but I have only done that with large holes that would require multiple plugs. I have probably plugged over 100 tires on the farm, tractor trailer tires, skidsteer tires, large flotation tires, etc...never had one problem with a repair.

Freetown Fred, you're a fixture here now too, good job! Oatmeal is better than Capn' Crunch! I just woke up, havin some coffee and wondering if this building will be standing 24 hrs from now. Lisa, I guess you were OK going to HD real early, I was there yesterday and it was getting hectic. Went past a Costco in the same complex and it was mobbed. Irene is mean I don't like Irene.
I spent all day trying to prep this place while the owners are pretty nonchalant. This is the Boy Scout Motto: be prepared. Like having a generator? That's my biggest worry, if the power goes out for many days. No water, no coffee, no oatmeal.

I got to the basement work yesterday, since they had their addition put on there are issues with water collecting against the new foundation and it has been gushing out the low inside cellar door frame during extended rains. I took the frame out yesterday and saw that it was cast into the cellar masonry. Over the years it rotted out and I saw it sat on dirt. That's why I went to HD, to get UGL Fast Plug and bug spray. I took a chip on the windshield on the way there. ( Was that fate? If I left ten seconds later would that high velocity pebble have still been fired off the tire of that oil truck?)
Anyway, I worked the hydraulic cement into the doorway, and into the corner where the water seeps. Not easy since the corner there is saturated with fuel oil from days gone by. Then I went out and dug a 100' swale to lead water away from the front of the house. Dug one in back with my poor man's backhoe (roto-tiller), after doing battle with a ground bee's nest. They were little non-stinging bees as far as I could tell. Gutters all clear, hope this passes without damage.

Lisa, nothing more fun than patching a tire. They have kits that include a tool that looks like a giant sewing needle, a roughing file,a sticky sheet of patch "ropes", and a tube of rubber cement. Let out the air, find your puncture, run the file into it, thread the patch through the needle, and really saturate it with rubber cement. Then carefully press the patch through the hole and back out again just enough to set the patch in place. Clip it off and you can refill the tire.
OK, gotta go take down the bird feeder!

It is finally Saturday. I just gat back from Maine yesterday, I did not see any sign of Freddy the Mainiac, not even bread crumbs leading into the woods but rumor has it he was down in Mass making blueberry muffins for someone special on the vineyard but this is only rumor.

Wednesday afternoon we lost power for a couple of hours. This was enough to kill the fire in the Keystoker. The Achilles’ heel of the Keystoker is that when you lose power you lose fire. In the winter with a big fire you may have thirty minutes but in the summer time five minutes can do you in. I was not home so I got a call from the wife asking where the switch was to turn it off so that it would not run all the unburned coal through. She said she would rough it until I got home Friday to make her fire for hot water. So I get home Friday to a very pissed off wife who is asking what ever happened to the battery backup I talked about a few years ago and I tell her I can’t justify spending $500 on something that would be needed once a year at best, then she says she will save money to buy a standby generator but we have a generator for the tractor but she can’t hook it up. I then tell her that a wife that could start a coal fire would not cost anything and that my 70 year old mom could start a coal fire; it was one of those times that I was both right and wrong at the same time, but like George Washington I cannot tell a lie. The upshot to the whole story is when I went down in the cellar to make fire she came down on her own to watch so I showed her step by step how I do it. I hope it sank in, it is not rocket science it has more to do with patience than anything and getting a feel for when is it the right time to add the coal and flip the switch. Maybe she will get a chance to try out her skills one of these days.

The clouds are starting to roll in this morning. I have an eye appointment at noon and then maybe cut a little grass after that. The forecast is for rain starting tonight.

markviii wrote:Technically the best repair is a blow-out patch on the inside of the tire, but I have only done that with large holes that would require multiple plugs. I have probably plugged over 100 tires on the farm, tractor trailer tires, skidsteer tires, large flotation tires, etc...never had one problem with a repair.

I had a new tire get a nail and I took it back where I bought the tires and had a patch applied on the inside. This is considered the correct way to fix it. The guy who fixed it said he has more confidence in a plug than a patch even though plugs are considered “temporary” fixes. For me if the tire is less than half wore out I patch it and if it is more than half wore out it gets a plug

Have a good weekend and for those out east be safe and hope Irene has mercy on everyone.

I then tell her that a wife that could start a coal fire would not cost anything and that my 70 year old mom could start a coal fire; it was one of those times that I was both right and wrong at the same time, but like George Washington I cannot tell a lie.

Wow - another week gone & I feel like I got nothing done. Every time I try to get that engine out of the Blazer, it rains. When it's sunny, something comes up or I have to mow. Never fails.

Had to head out again today no thanks to Home Depot & their crappy circline fluorescents. At least it went smoothly, unlike yesterday when I went to fill up my drum. Last night I noticed my ceiling fan light flickering ... again. Then it turned purple like a welders arc & blew out this morning. This is the same one that I fried the ballast in during the '08 ice storm with the chinese generator. I had wrote the date on it: 4/'09 ... so that comes out to under 3,000 hours. I expect nothing less from that oversized junk sale. Was a "Commercial Electric" brand. What an ironic name. If anyone used these lights in a commercial setting, they'd go out of business!

Can't help but notice the cops are still out for blood around the state of MA. Never seen so many! Guess our governor spent too much of our taxes this year - YET AGAIN - & needs to drum up more revenue. If you live here, or are passing through, make sure all your lights work, & your sticker & plates are valid. Toss on the seatbelt & don't speed! Don't give 'em a reason! If you have out-of-state tags, you'd better not sneeze the wrong way while driving! Better go under the limit & let everyone pass you. Best advice I could give is DON'T DRIVE IN MA! It's not worth it.

I'm all ready for the storm. Not expecting too much. Probably lose power for a couple days, maybe have to cut up some trees - nothing big, but we'll see. News sure is making a big deal about it though. I'm ready anyway. Got my fuel, & my concrete mickey mouse job in the driveway hardened up enough overnight. Should keep it from getting washed out, & at least keep all the sand out of my driveway. Not much else I can do. If trees start falling, they're going to wipe out the barn & part of the house. Not much you can do except take pictures & call the insurance company. God knows I've paid my fair share to those jerks! At least I never had the time or money to put a roof on the barn, so if it goes down that's a few grand less I'll be out. Probably going to lose the rest of it if we get any big gusts. That will save the work of stripping it at least, if it doesn't collapse ...

Bring it, Irene!

Good day all,
We still have some bacon and eggs if anyone shows up!!! We are just sitting around waiting for the end of life as we know it!! The outer bands have invaded!!! It has been nice knowing you all!!! What hype!!! Let's all have a beer and enjoy the wind!!! Just think, I gave up a load going to Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Red Deer for this storm!!
Smitty, the cops all over are getting like that!!!

http://www.globemagazine.com/story/713

Explains why he can't balance the budget .....

Irene's here .... and she's a little pissed!

Guess I'd better dig out the generator ....