Casual Coffee 4-14-12

Welcome! Come in, join us for a spell. Tis a good morning for blueberry muffins. There's a frost outside this morning and the oven will take the chill off. It's been chilly all week but starting today, much warmer. Ohhh, the grass is going to take off. I'll bet we'll need to mow in a week or two. That's OK. I fixed the flat tire on the mower.
I had an interesting little job yesterday.... repair a collapsible casket cart. They managed to break an aluminum arm.... I hope the body didn't go flying! No biggie...prepare it, weld it, file it back to shape & reassemble. Man...this thing has seen some use...it could use new bearings too!

If oil were cheaper I'd shut down the AA and make hot water with oil, but, it's looking like I may burn coal into the warm weather. I dunno....still toying with some other way to make domestic hot water.

Hope you all have a smooth weekend!

Good choice Freddy, thank you. Gonna be playing w/ bush hog this week end. Got to figure something w/ PTO shaft length wise or scrap it & start from scratch. Gotta get the old farmin ingenuity brains cells kick started. Got 2 blueberry farms real close by & this frost every morning is making people nervous--70 & 80's the next few days then back to 50's--WTF. Most everybody has gotten their oats in this past week, corn is next at some point. Have a good week end all. Yep, the old Hitzer just keeps idling along & doing a fine job. Opened 2 bags of Santa--no excessive moisture, rocks or other unidentifiable content. Just good old Blaschack NUT

Finally the weekend is here. I am taking all next week off because I am me and I deserve it, why not?

We have frost this morning and have had frost for the past several mornings. I am surprised when I see all the big stores with tender plants in the garden department already. In many parts of Pennsylvania you don’t want to plant tomatoes until Memorial Day but don’t tell that to Bonnie, distributors of fine plants to Wal-Mart, Home Depot and the like. I will be starting my tomatoes from seed starting this weekend. Onions are in and the spring seeds are planted and a few lettuce plants, maybe I can pick up some cabbage plants and other cole crops to plant this weekend. While on the subject of gardening, we could use some rain around here, it is a bit dry.

Speaking of rain I hope today is dry because the Reading Anthracite community day is today. I am planning on seeing what they have for show and tell. After that it will be a week of trying to play catch up with projects around here, and the grass needs cut as well. The crisis continues…

This is for my brother-in-law who passed away unexpectedly last week at 51, rest in peace.

Good Morning All,
Blueberry muffins sound heavenly, I can almost smell them baking now. Sorry about your B-I-L Gaw my Dad died at 51 far to young. Especially since I am lookin down that barrel myself now! No frost here this morning but it is only 34 so still kinda chilly. The bear came to visit last night so first order of business is to clean up his mess. My girls are on Spring vacation this week so I will take some time off to hang out with them. We might hit the Bronx Zoo but other then that no one can come up with any fun ideas. Any thoughts?? Well the debris awaits me. Have a good one all. NWB

Nice video gaw. Sorry to hear about your BIL my friend.

Freddy wrote: I dunno....still toying with some other way to make domestic hot water.

Solar Panels equal electricity. Electric HWH?

Morning all, I typed up a big long coffee-morning post, then hit submit, and got the dreaded "Web page is not Responding". Of course my post was lost.
Looks like we will be in the high 70s today. DVC500 was running for last 2 days, when that cold front came thru.

Good morning, Glenn, sorry to hear about your Brother in Law, 51 is really young !! A surprise health issue ? Accident?

Freddy, you can put up some solar water heating panels, and store solar heated water, and use oil as a backup for the week-long periods of too-little sun.

Or as suggested, use some of that solar electricity to heat water. I think your power company will pay you more than the oil will cost to make hot water.

It's warming up out here in Michigan, last night only down to the low 40's, and forcast for the 60's, maybe low 70's in a day or two. With rain showers.

My AA 260 is still plugging along, uses about a 5 gallon bucket a day, maybe a bit more . Can't complain, it's cheaper than propane.

I'm spreading black dirt and seeding my crop-failure of a back yard.. I hope the grass will take root this time..

Well, time to check the weather radar and see if I'm going to get wet this morning.

Greg

Sorry about that bad news GAW. Seems the good ones always go first, and the *censored* live forever. Another one to add to the Laws of Life thread ...

My secret deal is in the works, although going slower than I anticipated. This deal is going to anger some .... ... but others will understand my reasons for doing it.

Yesterday I pulled out my uncle's old Troy-Bilt rototiller. Looks to be at least 30 years old, and not run for 20. Boy, if you ever need a reminder that our manufacturing base has been evaporated, you just need to look at this machine -- all solid metal everywhere. Not one piece of plastic, except on the points. Rugged, heavy, metal, & Made in USA - can't say that about a damn thing anymore.

Had to yank the head off & work some magic with some Permatex The Right Stuff. That is the best sealer, bar none, on the planet. Strong as hell. If I had a mold big enough, I could cast my own tires with this stuff!

The machine also had no spark, and a severely clogged/rusted carburetor. Cleaned the carb as best I could. The pin for the floats is rusted solid, so I couldn't disassemble that for a good cleaning ... so it pisses gas everywhere. Also yanked the flywheel and took some emery to the points, reinstalled them, & set the gap. Threw it all back together & she started on the second pull .......... and proceeded to scream right up to 11,000 rpm!! Reminded me of that runaway diesel vid Theo posted a while back! In my haste to hear the thing run, I failed to inspect the governor arm. It was jammed up against all kinds of bent brackets, etc. I couldn't even force it to idle by hand! So I tried fumbling with it while she screamed away ... but the exhaust was getting pretty damn hot by this point, and I couldn't get my hand within 6" of the thing. Then, she started popping & shooting flames out the exhaust. I though the valves had started to float, but then one final fireball & she died. Piston came to a stop, but I could here something still spinning for about 30 seconds. Yep - sheared the keyway! Guess I went too easy with the impact gun when I re-installed the flywheel. Yanked it all apart again, & no damage at all except the keyway - got lucky there! A trip to the store ( which gave me an excuse to fire up the RD ... which also pissed gas everywhere for a few seconds ...)to pick up a new keyway & a new filter to replace the one that turned to powder just by looking at it, & I had it running & moving around the yard under it's own power before sunset. Going to have to fiddle with the carb a bit more, and if I can't rig it, I guess I'll have to replace it. Total cost invested by me: $11.

SMITTY wrote:Yesterday I pulled out my uncle's old Troy-Bilt rototiller.

Those old Troy-Bilts were built right! Now-a-days, they are built just like the rest of the junk gas powered yard Machines, and prolly right along side them on the same assembly line.

I've got English homework to do but I'll probably end up outside working on my mower deck. I haven't looked at it too closely yet but I noticed that the friction material for the blade brake(?) is worn right down to nothing.

Anyone ever replace something like that?

I have to go right through this whole thing. Toward the end of last season, blade engagement got really hard and half the time, it would throw the belt when you did it.

SMITTY wrote:Sorry about that bad news GAW. Seems the good ones always go first, and the *censored* live forever. Another one to add to the Laws of Life thread ...

My secret deal is in the works, although going slower than I anticipated. This deal is going to anger some .... ... but others will understand my reasons for doing it.

Oh Smitty, please don't tell us that you are buying a Prius....................................

I have my dad's old Troy built rototiller. He bought the one with the 7 1/2 hp Kohler engine over 30 years ago. Yep it starts right up year after year. I keep it in the shed and add lead and marine Stay-Bill to each tank. It gets a little dusty and the roll pin keeps coming out of thedriveshaft but that is still one of the best built machines made.

Glenn let me add my condolences to the list.

Hopefully I can get this truck out of the shop today in enough time to get home and get some projects underway. Looks like we want to get the 580c and try to remove a big maple stump from outside our pool fence. We want to remove the stump and then install a fire pit in the hole. Then surround it with benches for summertime use. The grandkids like their fire and especially the semores. I'd much rather sit outside in the summer than sit by the boob tube. Maybe I can trench in an electric line for a fireside fridge so I don't have to keep going into the house for the cold ones......

Freddy, definitely go with some solar water panels. 3 panels circulating into an indirect tank and you and the wife will be set. You have to have some circulating pumps laying around the estate somewhere. In fact you could probably get away with just circulating water for the summer time and then just drain it down when you fire up the AA for the season.

Enjoy the nice weather this weekend.

Rick

That'd be the day, Rick! I wouldn't drive one of those if the government GAVE me one for free!

You shall all know the secret by the next Coffee ....

009to090 wrote:Now-a-days, they are built just like the rest of the junk gas powered yard Machines, and prolly right along side them on the same assembly line.

Yep - I notice many similarities in all those products. All built by MTD - a company which has driven quality right into the toilet.

Another thing I noticed is that even John Deere cheaps out. That G110 tractor I paid an arm & a leg for back in '05, shares the same ignition key & many other parts with ... SEARS CRAFTSMAN!

Smitty not the....
Good food nice weather April Vacation Cape Cod...
Girls in shorts...
Twins T minus 6 weeks...
Gotta do the rear disks on the GMC...
Lots of rot so everything will be new except for that backer plate...
I really don't want to pull the axles...
Supposedly there is a split backer plate so one does not have to pull the axles...
Already bleed on the axle so all should go well now...

Glenn, sorry to hear of your brother in law. Way too young. *sigh*

Time for more coffee.... heyyy... Smitty said next coffee we'd know the secret...OK... what's up?

Solar hot water.... I happen to have a half dozen 3' by 8' copper solar water panels and a spare 30 gallon indirect tank & pumps........what I don't have is roof space! LOL

My secret deal is in the works, although going slower than I anticipated. This deal is going to anger some .... ... but others will understand my reasons for doing it. Lets see if anyone can guess what SMITTY'S secret deal might be before he let's the cat out of the bag I'am going to guess he is buying a beverage company,,,,,, How do I get just one part ( or a sentence ) of a thread to quote and not the whole thread ?