Coffee 3-24-2012

Good morning! Come in, come in, join us for some caffeine & friendship. The coffee is piping hot & there are fresh apple turnovers for breakfast. Two of them will get you to noontime better than any old bowl of cereal.

What a confusing week! Record breaking heat for two days, and now it's back below freezing. They're saying maybe snow for us next week sometime. I'm hoping this weather confuses the black flies and they have a poor year because of it. With some luck, those two days of 85* made then hatch, and tonight's frost kills 'em all!

I read that Garfield the cat has the high price of gas figured out. Gas is expensive because we are low on oil. We are low on oil simply because no one could check the oil. You see, our oil is in ALaska, & Texas, but our dipsticks are in Washington DC.

Get your lawn mowers ready....it won't be long.

The AA is still burning, but not using much coal. I'm only going to empty ashes once this week.

Hug your loved ones & enjoy the weekend.

Outstanding turnovers Freddy. My compliments. Maple Fest in Marathon this week-end.I think I'll go into Town & work on my social skills. Both lawn tractors are ready to go & the new 8N is all set, just waiting for 1 new rear rim.--Calling for 32* Sun night--15* Mon. & 29* Tues. HMMMM glad I've kept the old 50-93 idling along. Have a good week end all.

I don't know what happened. I was up before the sun. That NEVER happens! Had yesterdays left over coffee and buttery English muffins. Mmmmmm Did laundry (woke the chickens up doing so), started the coal hot water heater in the basement, started the Warm Morning with scrap wood and brush to take the chill off. Coal would be too much. Looking like I might need the electric stove for the coffee water this morn. If I get the Warm Morning hot enough to boil the kettle I'll have to open windows. The way I start and stop my coal appliances I should start a box or book matches club. Planning on planting some in starter trays and in a 3 x 8 bed I prepped in the high hoop house yesterday. Mixed rabbit poo, sea weed, and screened top soil from my yard waste from the way back machine. I hope stuff will grow in it. Tuesday and Wednesday supposed to be freezing so don't dare plant anything outside yet.

Morning everyone,

No cold snap expected here - we turned on the AC but that was more in response to the pollen and allergies then the heat although we did hit 80*. I spent last evening raking and putting out weed control and iron sulfate before the approaching rains. I also got what I hope is a nifty rabbit/deer repellant in my Hostas bed. It's a pill that you bury near the root ball and it makes the plant taste like hot red pepper. Since it's absorbed by the plant it doesn't wash off and you never have to reapply. I guess I'll see how it works or I may just be the one that fall off the turnip truck.

I have my last bee class today and then a month to get it my hive set up before my bees arrive sometime in late April. Then I get to discover if the class was worth the effort and I become Lisa the beekeeper or Lisa the beekiller. On thing is guaranteed it will be interesting.

Oh yeah, I'm just about finished with my spring maintenance. This year I noticed a lot of rust flakes on the upper back wall of my stove. I will sand it this afternoon and treat it with a rust killer. It's kind of strange since I've not seen it before. Maybe it's because I never had to run the stove really hot this winter. Who knows. Anyway, a container of damp rid and I'm ready until the fall.

I hope you all have beautiful weather and that you get everything done on the day's to do list, take care, Lisa

Lisa, go see "The Mysterious Island" Journey 2...... movie

maybe you could raise those kind of bee's and save the world from fossil fuel depleation..

Good Morning Everyone,
I was thinking about hitting the maple festival that Freetown has mentioned then I plugged it into my GPS. As much as I love Maple syrup 9 hours plus round trip it a bit too much. Got a wedding to go to today and changing over to good weather tires this morning. Other then that should be a reasonable weekend. Enjoy the coffee all and have a good weekend.

Coffee was good this morning, as it has been raining since 4:00am. We really needed it to wash the pollen away. Just walking from the house to the workshop, I had to use my snowshovel to clear a path thru the knee-deep pollen.
I mowed our grass twice already this year. I'm now tuning up our 80 yr-old neighbors riding mower, so she can start cutting her grass.

Lisa..... pls post pics of the bee hive(s) when you get it set up. I'm very interested. When I was in the Military, I used to help an old farmer bring in his honey combs in, so he can extract the honey. It was fun.

Good morning all, already had my morning pot of coffee but an apple turnover could convince me to brew another. Went to a Shriner's fund raiser last evening & had a good time, ran into a guy I haven't seen since my wild biker days, glad we both got out of that mindset but at the early time we were in it wasn't so wild. Cooled down to the 60s last night, got the first grass cutting done yesterday so now we have two rainy days ahead. Got too hot too fast one of my dogs brought in a baby turtle the other day, it's about two months early for that, a lot of the farmers have already seeded, I hope we don't get another real cold spell for their sake. Enjoy your day.

Morning all. I have some coffee from Brazil a friend dropped off. They grind it to powder though? Using it with some normal grind 50/50. tasty though. Fred, I too have kept one of my two stoves idling along these last few days. The Cylinder Herald on the middle chimney spent the last 3 days chewing on seconds I had in 5 gal buckets from the cookstove. Todays its back to 30's this morning and a high of 50. but the next few days are calling for cold nights in the teens! Crazy that it was 84 a couple days ago. have a great weekend all. Time to start my seedlings in the old sunporch.

What a week! I'd be the happiest guy on the planet if the weather stayed like this 365 days a year.

Mosquitos have been out in full force though - I got chowed on the past few days ... so if your around MA and see piles of mosquitos dead due to alcohol poisoning, you now know why.

Forsynthias are starting to yellow already! About a month early! Too bad in a few days temps will be back in the 20's early in the morning. Probably going to kill off everything that's sprouted up 4 weeks ahead of schedule.

Busy busy busy with the warm weather! Finally fixed a bad vacuum leak on the Marquis. Fixed the fuel issue with the Blazer. I installed an inline pump, but the problem ended up being the power supply to the original pump. Ran the power into the fuse block, and we haven't had it stall since!

Also spent a couple days tearing down my Government Motors "Wonder of Engineering" - aka Chevy Silverado 1500 with 52k on it. Had to replace BOTH lower ball joints. They've had lots of play in them since I hit 40k miles. Go figure - they're 4 times the size of the uppers ... but they failed first?? Not complaining, as the whole upper control arm needs to be swapped out when those go. Of course nothing is greaseable so no surprise they fail so quick. Boy if there was a GM engineer without their ears ringing these past few days .... I cursed every one of them!! GM has decided that rivets weren't enough to keep backyard mechanics out of their front ends, so they pressed in these ball joints. I had to slam this thing with a 4 lb. sledge & an air chisel before it finally popped out! The proper way would have been to remove the whole lower control arm and bring it to the press ... but I was all set with that. I will say the lower control arm held up well to some SERIOUS abuse. Guess that's why I'm in such a good mood today - took out LOTS of frustration on it!

I then had to make attachments for my ball joint press out of an old exhaust pipe and a thick aluminum piece from a boat trailer in order to install the new *GREASEABLE* (wow!) Moogs. Just about bent my 12 year old Harbor Freight press I bought back when I was living in Phoenix! Also have to put Loctite 680 retaining compound on them, which was supplied with each one. I didn't like how the circlip stood a 1/4" inch above the control arm ... but as hard as that thing was to get in, I doubt it'll be moving anytime soon.

Then, I decided to upgrade the suspension to some Bilsteins. We have them in the Marquis, and they absolutely transformed the ride & handling of that car to levels I never thought possible! So I picked up a chinese "heavy duty" press off eBay to replace the front struts that are now used on the new body style 4x4's. Well, the damn thing bent ... and the spring didn't even flinch! SO off to the local shop I go with both of them the next morning. He takes one look at them and says their press can't handle anything this heavy. So I grabbed a container of lube .. and went to the dealer. OWW! At first the service writer seemed to have a lack of understanding as to what exactly I was there for .. but I showed him the stock struts and the Bilsteins in the trunk of the Marquis and said I want THIS into THIS. He understood then. Had to leave them there & drive 35 minutes back home, finish up the ball joints & wait for the phone call. They called around 13:00 ... so back out there ... an hour :10 minutes driving & $90 for both. Ouch ... but what was I gonna do. At least it's done. But the charge was actually $85 .. but $5 shop supplies. Shop supplies??? You mean the 6 flimsy nuts they included to replace ones 3 times the size that came with the truck? Ok .... plus the guy put the speed nuts on backwards. Found that out after getting that 30lb assembly into position .... so had to pull it back out & flip them around, which was a pain in the ass.

But it's all done. Just got to install rear shocks today - was too beat to finish the job that day. The truck now feels like the day it left the showroom .... minus the pulsating brakes.

Good morning everyone, yep the summer of 2012 is over.. at least the first chapter. We had record highs in the mid 80's, but this morning it's 55* and drizzly..

The Bradford Pears, Weeping Cherrys, and the Acer Rubrum are looking very fancy.. but it's supposed to be down to 29" on Monday night.. I hope the buds survive that freeze.



LOKI had to get in the last photo. He's been testing the water in the pond,, I'm trying to keep him out, a wet dog in the house isn't pleasant.. and today it's not warm enough that he'd dry very fast outdoors.. especiall in the drizzle.

Freddy, my ashpan hasn't been emptied for 8 or 9 days.. it's about half full, mostly a fine powdery ash.. looks more like a hand fed's ash than a stoker's . I'll bet that pan is going to be HEAVY.. not much air in that pile..

I managed to get most of my coal into the coal storage building,



I Think I've still got 6-10 tons? to put into the building, it's not all gonna fit, so I'll cover the remaining with a tarp and use it as I can.

Smitty: there is no better shock than a Bilstein.. I agree, that can absolutly tranform a car or truck..

Greg L

Beautiful yard Greg! I just have one question .................. why did you lime your coal & your roof in the 3rd pic? Nice puppy too!



Welp - the Wonder of Engineering is done! Took all of 10 minutes to install both rear shocks. What a difference from struts!

While doing that, I was about to curse GM engineers once again ........ but they tricked me! I'm looking at this huge, oddball-sized nut (like a 25 or 26 mm) on the top shock brace that's millimeters from the frame, and inaccessible by anything but a large adjustable wrench. I'm like WTF did they do this for!! Then I find out the thing is WELDED THERE! Sorry guys (engineers) - nice work on that one! I was VERY pleased with that design!

Also had time to do plugs & cap/rotor on the Marquis. Have a look at the pic of these plugs! Talk about EPA LEAN! It's a wonder the thing even moves. Looks like it's starting to show signs of oil leakage in #7, and coolant leakage in a few other even-numbered cylinders. All that is minor though. Still probably get another 5 years minimum out of this engine. She's got almost 189k on her now - 9 years of dedicated service and counting.

Also finished up neighbors Suzuki Volusia. New tires front & rear reusing old tubes (pat myself on the back for not pinching them), front brakes and speedometer sensor/harness, and carb removal for a gas leak. Turns out the last time he had the carb off, a tiny o-ring sealing the accelerator pump stream went flying into space somewhere. Happened to find a small SAE one in my kit that sealed it up perfect. Was a good time to give the jets, floats, & air passages a good blast before reassembly. Took for a ride up the road, and within a few miles it started sputtering & smoking. Come to find out, when he first fired the bike up after sitting all winter, the float stuck open & filled the crankcase with gas. So now with an extra quart or more of fluid in the sump, it started pumping the fuel/oil mix out the breather, and into the airbox & intake by the gallon!

How's that for some EPA irony - they mandate ethanol in fuel to save the environment ... but because of that, we burned a couple quarts of oil & leaked the rest all over the precious earth as it poured out of the airbox! And all the gasoline/ethanol mixed with the oil went right into the atmosphere. Good work EPA!

Oh almost forgot. The Wonder of Engineering isn't really done yet. Still have an electrical short in the passenger side running lamps that is now powered through a jumper instead of a fuse ....

... and then there's this:

Smitty, You need to borrow my buddies 30 ton press. It's that beast in the middle with "00934" on it. It has a 10 HP three phase motor driving it. One stomp on the foot peddle and it'll press or unpress the most stubborn anything! It makes it's 16" stroke in about 3 seconds, yet is easy to go slow.

Back to March we go. Frost this morning. Snow changing to rain today they say.

Greg, your yard is pretty as a picture. Thanks for sharing.

WOW yeah .... 30 tons should git 'er dun!