Coffee 6-23-12

Good Sunday morning and a nice cool one at that. I missed the blueberry pancakes yesterday but we had blueberry pie!

Yesterday was a vet appointment for three dogs and a family picnic in the afternoon. Today I hope to make some pickled beets as well as get a few other things done. (good luck with that)

Freddy, I defiantly would have replaced the shock but when I found the nut frozen I may have opted to get another 100,000 miles out of it.

Rumor has it freetown fred bought himself rich yesterday at the auction. Now you can retire Fred.

009to090; The neighbors were doing the hay thing last week, I’m lucky, dogs and cats don’t eat hay. For those in NEPA the local news aired a story of a farmer from somewhere up there who was working on a round bailer and he told his wife to hold the brake or something like that and she turned it on! There is one for your list of things not to do. “Don’t take your wife along to fix the hay bailer” Reports were that he was flown to a hospital and later listed in good condition. I have no idea who this poor fellow is but I hope everything is OK and maybe some friends or neighbors finished bailing his hay; that would have been nice.

Knock on wood but the hornet and wasp activity had been low around here this year so far. I see a lot of Lisa’s honey bees on the clover when I mow. I don’t know where the closest hives are to me, maybe they are coming up from Virginia.

SMITTY; buying four new Bilsteins is the same as buying a new car. The Olds had the factory original Bilsteins when I bought it. I didn’t like the ride but put up with it for about six years and earlier this spring I put new shocks on. Bilstein did not fit the budget but I got a good deal on some Monroes that are doing a good job so far. Three of the old Bilsteins were very weak and the fourth was basically a trumpet slide. I drive old second hand vehicles for myself and wore out trucks for work so I found that a couple of beers smoothes the ride out better than anything else.
You’re missing the point with those new pollution control carbs. They work so well because you can’t pollute the air if the engine doesn’t run. You buy the weed whacker and hang it in the garage, that’s it, it is not made to run.

Nice move Dann, sheds today whole houses tomorrow.

Y’all have a good week.

Good morning. I must say...the chicken I smoked/slow roasted yesterday came out wonderful. I don't go nuts with the smoke, about an hour with apple wood at the start is enough...the rest is just low heat. 4 hours at about 240 degrees, you could pull the thigh bone right out. I may have overdone the beer and sun, but that is all part of the experience.

In other news, there is going to be something new parked alongside my shop next week. My dad bought a 29' speedboat on Friday. It is an '89 Formula with twin 454 Mercruiser engines. It came from NH (Lake Winnipesaukee) and appears very well cared for. With a quick buff job the boat will look like new, it even came with a 2008 Aluminum trailer. I imagine this beast will burn 10-15 gallons per hour depending on how hard it is pushed. I am going to start by getting a set of winters for it and seeing if Mercruiser's recommendation of Straight 40 engine oil is still valid.

Rob R. wrote:this beast will burn 10-15 gallons per hour

Or mile. LOL Yowza! Those bad boys don't get measure by miles per gallon, they get measured by smiles per gallon. Man oh man.... what a machine!


I just finished installing the second shock absorber. That one wasn't so bad. The top bolt politely broke making things much easier. The bottom nut I pre-treated with "Kroil", the best darn penetrating oil ever invented. After letting it soak for 10 minutes & hammered an 11/16" six point socket onto the 3/4" nut & I'll be a son of a gun, it came off! No heat, no blood, easy peezy. Heeheee! Sadly, I worry about the frame. I'm going after it with "Chassis saver" anti rust stuff, but, I dunno. I'm thinking one, maube two more years & it's time to put 'er down. *sigh*

Lisa! 40 pounds of honey? Yeeehaaa! You're already the sweetest person on the board, now you're just being exduberous. (That's a new word, just made up, to explain a human that's sweeter than most.) I hope you're Dad's day are as comfortable as can be. It's an honor and privilege to care for those that are nearing the final days. Cry when you need, smile when you can.

Yeah the GM Bilsteins are nothing like the real German ones. GM loves to cut corners, so I'm 100% certain they told Bilstein to forget everything they know, and just "build them like THIS" ... which was still miles ahead of any shock GM used prior. I got 50k miles out of my struts - that's GM quality for ya right there. $30k for the truck for crap ball joints, crap brakes, and crraaaap shocks/struts. But I digress ....

TWIN big blocks! YEAH!! Lots of fun! Just remember the general rule of thumb on the water is 1 gallon per hour for every 10hp at full throttle .... so if you got 1,000 HP between the 2, that's 200 gallons an hour, wide open. But man that's sooo worth it!

I remember the general manager of a bike shop I worked at in Phoenix had a boat like that. Thing was like 50' long, low & slender, with twin SUPERCHARGED & MODIFIED 454's out back. He had these 4 blade stainless steel props put on at like $700 each back in '99. Well, he was showin' off for some hotties at Lake Havasu, and ran the props into the dirt! Base of the blade was like 5/8" thick solid stainless, and it sheared it off like a pulltab on a beer can!! Blew all the gears out of the outdrive too! Man that was funny. We were all laughing at the guy (he was a dickhead). All money and no brains, one mechanic said.



Geesh in my selfishness I didn't even wish you well, Lisa. Guess I should slow down & READ these posts! Hang in there. Your dad is in our prayers.

SMITTY wrote:TWIN big blocks! YEAH!! Lots of fun! Just remember the general rule of thumb on the water is 1 gallon per hour for every 10hp at full throttle .... so if you got 1,000 HP between the 2, that's 200 gallons an hour, wide open. But man that's sooo worth it!

I don't have a picture of the boat, but it is a Formula 292 SR1 if you want to look it up. Obviously fuel consumption at max speed is ridiculous, but at cruising speed it is a lot less. A friend of mine has a 42ft speedboat with two supercharged 454's, he said it burns 20 gallons per hour at 30-40 MPH. Good thing the season is short...

Good thing your father sold all that livestock/ equip.

The top field by hunting cabin is Hayed. Low yeild, 114 bales of clover/canary grass. Further fields out are where buckwheat is planted. Think i saw a few popping out of cuts fron seeding the other week. Squares in field are neighbors, using his baler, half of hay is his. Seems to have plans when its time to hay, so if they get rained on, thier still his. if he doesn't get them i will get someone to buy them for mulch.

See someone said Lisa has honeybees? wonder how far from Montose she is and worth bringing a hive up for buckwheat blossoms.? Hmm Well everyone have a good week.

Damn wilder, even in Freetown we've got kickers to get them sq. bales in the wagon. BUT, there were many yrs gone by I didn't & my back often reminds me. Our local highway guys love our bad bales at $1.00 a pop.

Yeah, why didn't he kick em up into a wagon? Ohhhh Boyyyy I got some not-so-great memories when I was a kid, of riding in the wagon, arrainging the stack, and dodging the flying bales!

Lots of hay cutting going on around here, hay wagons been going by all day.

Wood'nCoal wrote:Lots of hay cutting going on around here, hay wagons been going by all day.

Grew up in Frankford TWSP. Kemah Lake Rd. Friend of mine lives up on Partridge Road? in stillwater west of school, off county road which takes you back towards blue haven lakes(road closed now NPS), but can go right and if follow base of ridge come out on 206 by Blue Ribbon (McKewons). Not nearly as many farms there anymore compared to when i grew up in area. Still call Sussex county Gods country of NJ.

Kicker on baler needed bearings owner took it off because he's not mechanically inclined. told him last winter i would fix it in exchange for using it this spring. was even gonna put a hydraulic steer on kicker. Oh well.....

wilder11354 wrote:

Wood'nCoal wrote:Lots of hay cutting going on around here, hay wagons been going by all day.

Grew up in Frankford TWSP. Kemah Lake Rd. Friend of mine lives up on Partridge Road? in stillwater west of school, off county road which takes you back towards blue haven lakes(road closed now NPS), but can go right and if follow base of ridge come out on 206 by Blue Ribbon (McKewons). Not nearly as many farms there anymore compared to when i grew up in area. Still call Sussex county Gods country of NJ.

Kicker on baler needed bearings owner took it off because he's not mechanically inclined. told him last winter i would fix it in exchange for using it this spring. was even gonna put a hydraulic steer on kicker. Oh well.....

I know those places.

Must be a Jersey thing. I don't.

More like a Sussex County thing, Fred.

More mechanical fun today. Wrestled that tranny/transfer case out of the trooper, got the transfer case all disassembled, & found how this thing failed. There's a needle bearing setup riding underneath the 4-low gear/main tranny output shaft. Well, since it drove about 700 miles with a tablespoon of lube in the case, the nylon melted, and sent needle bearings into all the gears, taking chunks with them which then went into other gears before falling into a nice pile at the bottom, mixed with a tablespoon of scorched motor oil. Boy did that reek!

The fun part was trying to get the gear assembly off that shaft. My Harbor Freight 3-jaw puller let out a loud CRUNCH!, and then relieved itself of the 3rd jaw. So I broke out my puller I bought off JC Whitney back in '90 - this thing is beat so bad the shaft is bent 4 different directions in 4". It worked though ... but now it takes a 19mm socket instead of an 18mm -- a few too many hammer whacks I guess. I had to heat that gear until it turned blue, then beat the ever-livin' *censored* out of it with the hammer, then hammer it on tighter with the impact, heat some more, beat *censored*, repeat. Didn't think it was gonna happen, but it finally came off, smoking like a bastard. In between all this I had to yank another carb off my neighbors Echo weedwacker & see what I need for parts, then a buddy stopped by & we spent a couple hours watching Youtube videos.

You know, you start on one video of a certain subject - say motorcycles .... and somehow it always ends up on gynecological procedures & exams. Anyway ....