Coffee 8-18-12

Here's hoping Freddy & Marty are having a good time working their butts off up north. I got the house open & coffee is on. You're all on your own. My neighbor is doing an absolute auction on his 475 acre beefer/horse farm right next to me, so I'm going to go see what kind of wealthy ass CITY land developers I'm going to have to deal with in the future. Remember to wash out your mugs & last one out please lock up the house. Have a great week-end. Strikes me that some people here are giving some serious thought to the upcoming burning season, after all, that is what we're all about 48* here on the hill earlier

Hey! Replacement Freddy! Doing a fine job. Just some coffee for me today, I will catch something else along the way. Going out to mount the rim boards on my greenhouse. Going to take almost a 100 of the 5" carriage bolts to do the trick. Looking hard for an aching back

Hey Freetown, did you see all those frozen pies and muffins in the freezer? It looks like Freddy buys in bulk at Cosco and just heats one up and takes a picture of it and tells us he made it from scratch. One even has listed “genuine artificial Maine blueberries” on the label.

A cold front moved through giving us some rain but not a lot, at least not yet. This afternoon and evening is to be nice and we are planning on going to Knoble’s this evening until closing.

Freetown Fred, that would be a shame if all that land got developed. I hate to see farms get developed. Thanks to a large Amish population and other large agricultural interests around here most of the farm land remains as farm land. What ever happened to developing old industrial sites or old reclaimed ditches like Love canal? What a great idea if only they buried the barrels deeper.

Y’all have a great weekend I have to get back to doing nothing.

Good luck at the auction Fred, hopefully you'll get someone that's interested in farming farmland instead of developing or the next thing ya know you'll have to put sewage lines in & even city water. Gaw I know what you mean by " genuine artificial" stuff there seems to be more of that daily.

What really pisses me off is that the Amish, which we have an abundance of have more then once made offers to divide that property up into 3 parcels amongst themselves--fair bids might I add--the actual owerner is a money hungry schmuck from Long Island (sorry guys) & could care less about our Towns efforts to keep this area as agricultural as possible--I hope he gets screwed being this is an absolute auction.

Hey Fred - when the yuppies pull up in their Mercedes or BMW convoy, fire up a nice batch of 2-stroke in the truck & do some laps around the compound! Don't let them yuppies stay, or your taxes will go through the roof!
Maybe toss a few tires on the fire too! Yelling YEEEEEEHAAAA & smashing bottles helps too, while firing several rounds off in the backyard. Could also decorate the yard with an engine or transmission .. or 3!

I've got the Focus all ready for it's new parts. 95% of the parts came in already. Was pissed to learn I needed a cam seal for the new head, but lucky for me, the local store had one in stock ... and that also gave me the opportunity to buy a couple odds and ends I forgot about .... like OIL and a filter! That would've been nice after all this work! I ended up finding a complete piston, rings, wrist pin, & rod assembly on eBay for $98. With any luck it will be all assembled, so all I'll have to do is install the old bearings in the big end & pound her in.

Ran around all day like crazy trying to get things done. My plan was to finish my buddy's CB650 that's been here for 2.5 months, since the parts arrived yesterday. That got shot to *censored*. A buddy of mine needs a favor with my trailer, so I had to yank it out of the dirt it settled into after sitting 3 years with a gaggle of BW80's & an engine block sitting inside. Started removing the wheels and I thought they would just crumble into rust .... so after repacking the bearings, I broke the tire off the rim, cut the valve stem off, & wire-wheeled all that flaky paint & chunking rust off the wheel, & gave it a new coat of primer/paint. Of course, wouldn't you know a massive thunderstorm rolled through before I could finish! Had to tarp the exposed hub & run for cover! Today I'll get to the other side ... but now the humidity is 95% - that should be fantastic for paint ...

I've got to get on my heating situation fast. Winter is coming quick! I've got another heating unit here that I need to install (more on that another day) ... but I also have 12 pallets of the wrong sized coal for it sitting here. Not sure what I'm going to do. Can't seem to get anyone over here to help get this bohemoth down my rickety stairs (need at least 3 bodies), so it may just sit in my kitchen until next season. We'll see ...

My buddy made the trek out here to the normal section of MA in his new Camaro the other day, so I could fill that pretty aluminum block with 8 quarts of Amsoil Signature Series. Expensive stuff, but there's a reason for that. Cost him well north of $100 with the filter, but that oil can stay there for a year or 15,000. Ends up cheaper in the long run. Of course, when he left, I demanded the Camaro mark it's territory .... Haven't seen a car since the 60's do a burnout this effortlessly with zero assistance from the brake.

SMITTY wrote:Hey Fred - when the yuppies pull up in their Mercedes or BMW convoy, fire up a nice batch of 2-stroke in the truck & do some laps around the compound! Don't let them yuppies stay, or your taxes will go through the roof!
Maybe toss a few tires on the fire too! Yelling YEEEEEEHAAAA & smashing bottles helps too, while firing several rounds off in the backyard. Could also decorate the yard with an engine or transmission .. or 3!

I absolutely agree with Smitty. Make the area "ugly" and hard to look at. Loud LOUD music helps too. Maybe the Amish will get it for a song and a dance.
I finished my Folgers, now time to go mow.

Thank God that obnoxious Freddy isn't here for once. I always have to keep my mouth shut with all those half-ass projects he does.

Hey Fred, I don't know what an absolute auction is but I hope statistics help you out. Something like 3 million people have left NYS since 2000. Soon you might have the state all to yourself Who is gonna put in a huge development when there's no population to support it? I doubt that rich Lawn Guylant guy is selling at peak real estate value; he's probably trying to get out from under the investment.

Just paint up a sign that says: "FUTURE SITE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK MINIMUM SECURITY VIOLENT PSYCHIATRIC OFFENDER ASYLUM", and put it near the auction.
My brother's next door neighbors, who we knew for years, had hunting land in Bethel, NY; near the Woodstock site. They mostly just camped there. 135 acres of spectacular sweet NYS rolling farmland. They had to sell a few years ago because of the deal they had going between three owners, and it broke their hearts.
A developer came in and dug up the land and really wrecked it. The developer speculated that houses would sell because of the proximity to Monticello. The whole project went bust.

Morning Fred and folks. Blueberry Festival weekend downeast Maine here. It's a great weekend for this area. Big parade and then streets blocked off and vendors and all sorts of shows and all things Blueberry! Last night my nephew's band kicked it off at Machias Square Garden aka The Thirsty Moose pub. We whooped it up for a few hours until this old fart needed to get home. Today starts the weekend festival. Place will crawling with folks from all over. Our own little woodstock.

Tonight is the infamous Blackfly Ball over at the old grange hall. That will be a cool time with a bunch of different bands playing and lots of styles of music too. It's looking like the weather might even cooperate for once too! Have a great weekend everybody!

http://www.machiasblueberry.com/

Hey Fred,
I need to jump in here too. You have got to keep those bloody NY yuppies out at all cost. They are here in my town by the dozen. Weekenders mostly and the most obnoxious group of self centered folk you ever had the misfortune of meeting. They move in and want to change things to suit their needs. They go to our local pond and ignor the rules! The ones that move in full time are the worst. Want to chnge the bus routes so their kids don't have to ride so long. It doesn't matter what that would do to the rest of the kids. LOTS OF LAWYERS TOO!! I could go on for hours. Good luck my friend, hopefully the Amish will get the property after all at a lower price. Wouldn't that fry his bacon!!

Steve, freddy is safe at his location. Even the forest animals speak French up there Fred told me! Great weekend to be outside everywhere......Do they serve the Blueberry Pie with homemade French Vanilla?

Good Morning !!

Freetown Fred, You should be able to stir up some 'stinky stuff' to keep the bids low ! The amish may end up owning that land anyway, and for a lot less than the offers from years ago.

I don't understand why it's an absolute auction, the banks forclosing? or other legal shenanigans?? Usually auctions allow the land owner to put a minimum reserve price on the land. !

We had the cold front ocme through on Thursday, and very little rain came with it.. the temps are in the mid 70's . and it was about 49* overnight last night.

This weekend is the 'Woodward Dream Cruise'.. 15-20 miles of Woodward avenue becomes an old car/Hot Rod highway.. Note how I put old car and hot rod separate.. I'm not a fan of hot rods.. I like preserving the original old cars as they were built.. complete with all the warts, pimples, and other flaws.. that's what made the auto industry great: industrial experimentation, and the best survived and prospered, the poorly made or overpriced died.

So many 'Hot Rods' are not old at all, they are fiberglass replicas of old body-styles. They are just fakes to me.. I respect the work and engineering, but to use a modern made to order chassis, drive train and engine from the '80's in a car that is suppose to be from the '30's.. well it's just wrong to me. And it's not that I'm old,, I grew up in the 60's and 70's, hot-rodding cars !! I just learned a new appreciation for the original cars, and how hard it is to preserve and restore cars to original condition..

Much like the old tractor guys, the old iron have a lot less options, power features, PTO's etc, etc. But We all still like to restore and run 'em..

WNY is a colector of mustangs, he came over to the Woodward Dream Cruise, and stopped by at the farm.. I'm only about 35 minutes from the northern end of the Dream Cruise. I had been to his place in 2007 when I deliverd the LiesureLine Hyfire I, So we talked cars, coal, house rebuilding and soon he had to leave for the Cruise.. He got a quick '$.50' tour of the place. Maybe he'll get his coal boiler project going again !

I've been working in the shop, another truck automatic transmission. almost done, the owner will come by this afternoon to pick it up.

Well, the first and second cup of coffee are inside me now, I guess I have no excuse, I must get out to the shop and get the last of the linkages and driveshafts installed on the trans. and bolt up the Torqueconverter. I always drag my feet at the end of the project.. opening one up to discover what broke is fun,, but the drudgery of reinstalling it is just work..

Freetown, I'll burn an old tire of you here, maybe the smoke will come far enough east to chase off the New York land barrons !!

Greg L

whistlenut wrote:Steve, freddy is safe at his location. Even the forest animals speak French up there Fred told me! Great weekend to be outside everywhere......Do they serve the Blueberry Pie with homemade French Vanilla?

You bet Whistle, They'll serve it with just about anything you can think of! They even have a pie eating contest for the kids to get messy.

Funny how that goes with Freddie up there in the North Woods. It's true there are many French speaking folks up in Aroostock county. We go north and Acadian's come south. Old Orchard beach and that whole area of southern coastal Maine is called the Quebec Riviera.

Old Orchard is a LOT of eye candy for us old guys....heck for everyone! The French women are absolutely stunning. I had to stop riding the bike over there.....I was destined to crash into something. Cell phones are distracting? Sure, but not like the beach TOYS! I need a transfusion to keep everything supplied with blood! Funny, it was the very same issue for the last 50 years! It is hard to believe they can make clothing that skimpy and charge good money for it! I'm sure even the Great Whites swimming around the Cape are staying away for the same reason. Lunch on a seal.....or something else.....better just stay away!

Back to the Blueberries.....and having the Grange involved cements the quality of the food. Deserts to die for......and I mean that literally!! Maine: Life the way it should be!

If Freetown Fred sees this, I'll bet he will add another "Turbo" to the 8-N and try to reclaim his youth on that few miles of sand.....He's a medic, so he has the blood issue under control.....and I hear he LOVES Lobster, too!

THe hell w/ the lobster, I'm heading for the skimpy cloths--by the way--gamblin debts is why yhe 475 acres are being sold. Seen a bunch of Good-fellow dudes in limo's cruising the roadds this week--sooo, he'll either get screwed or shot--I can only hope