Coffee 4-6-13

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 5:34 am

Good day! Please, come in, pull up a stool & join us for a coffee and a chat. I think maybe, just maybe, Spring is getting a foothold. This week had had frost at night, but just barely, and the days gave been very windy and into the 40's. Even though the wind makes it feel cold, snow is almost gone, mud isn't too bad, and once I see a robin I will know for sure. Where is that little rascal?

Well, it's been a week since Uncle Billy passed. We've tried to stay busy, and have, but grief takes time. One thing came up that I never knew. Bill is the first person that we've known that will have to have a tax return filed after death. Seems weird, but, yes, you do pay taxes when you're dead! But.... we can not file them until Jan 1st of 2014. I never knew that the government held up finalizing estates in that way. I always knew it might be a matter of months before an estate was settled, but I didn't know it might be over 11 months! If a rich person dies in January they might have had enough income to trigger a return. As it is, Bill jusssssst barley made enough in 3 months to make a tax return mandatory. What a pain!

The Axeman Anderson is still burning. I'm going to guess another month at least. I might do the same as last Fall & use electric heaters for a few weeks. I think it does come a point that the AA just isn't as efficient as it might be. It's silly to burn 25 pounds a day to just take a morning chill off the house.

OK! Hope you all have a smooth weekend. Is the Masters Golf game this weekend? Go Tiger!


 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 6:45 am

Mornin all. Thanx for the coffee Freddy:) Nothing much going on here on the hill. YES, this wind the last few days has really dried things out. I might hook the roller to the 8N & get some of these divots back where they belong. Also got a slew of ash to spread & roll on the drive way. We'll see how motivated I get. LOL Have a good week end people. Marathon Maple Fest next week end--big doin's up this way.

 
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Keepaeyeonit
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Post by Keepaeyeonit » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 7:05 am

Good morning Freddy,It's hard at times but as time goes on It's seems to get easier and If you ever need to talk(or chat) your in good company here.The temps seem to be getting up in the 50* and 60*s so I put the fire to bed for the year but I did burn a pack of Eco bricks and as like wood started them at 9:00 pm last night and by 6:00 am ash is all that was left :lol:.
We got a new family member this week
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she is a 8 wk old red Border Collie it took three years for us to get in ready to get another Border Collie (after 14 years with Sasha we needed a break but I would not have done any thing different nor trade it for the world)so let the fun begin :) Well I have a full plate for today so all you"ll all take care and have a good weekend,Keepaeyeonit

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 7:18 am

Good morning! Nice to have you back Freddy...last weekend just wasn't the same without you. Fred did a fine job, but I think he put something extra in the coffee. toothy

19 degrees here, I am still burning plenty of coal. Nice sunrise at least, so hopefully it warms up later. I will be spending the morning in the basement...my new water softener is assembled and programed, just waiting to be slid into position. Of course the old valves in the house are either seized up or leak by, so I am cutting some of them out and replacing all the piping from the pressure tank to the softener. I'd like to keep going and replace all the cold-water piping in the house (some of it is galvanized :cry: ), but that is a battle for another day. I will pipe in some extra take-off's in the new piping to make the future re-pipe easier.

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 7:49 am

Keepaeyeonit wrote:We got a new family member this week
Congrats on the new addition. She's a beauty!

 
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I'm On Fire
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Post by I'm On Fire » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 8:05 am

Good morning. Coffee sounds great. I already ate breakfast. Had to go to work so I stopped off at McDonald's for a hash brown. Dumb me rolled up to the job 15 minutes after I left my house. Needless to say, I'm two hours early. Parking lot is empty. That's OK, I'm sitting here on YouTube watching IL2 Cliffs of Dover gameplay videos. Thanks to SteveZee I'm addicted to this game. Which is good. I've been looking for a good flight sim. Looks like the weather is trying to change, it was 64* yesterday. Of course it's still hitting the 20's at night so the DS is still fired up...for now.

 
titleist1
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Post by titleist1 » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 8:11 am

Morning all....just coffee & a stale donut or two for me today. I have to make a run to the dump and to the scrap yard to clean up some stuff I have accumulated over the winter.

I think I'll be shutting down the stoker and cleaning it out for the season either today if I have time or tomorrow. We're supposed to get to the 70's a day or two this week so I'll let the furnace or kitchen oven warm us for this shoulder season. I have about 5 buckets of coal left which will be enough to test out the coal vac system from the outside bin when I get it built this summer.


 
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I'm On Fire
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Post by I'm On Fire » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 8:25 am

titleist1 wrote:Morning all....just coffee & a stale donut or two for me today. I have to make a run to the dump and to the scrap yard to clean up some stuff I have accumulated over the winter.

I think I'll be shutting down the stoker and cleaning it out for the season either today if I have time or tomorrow. We're supposed to get to the 70's a day or two this week so I'll let the furnace or kitchen oven warm us for this shoulder season. I have about 5 buckets of coal left which will be enough to test out the coal vac system from the outside bin when I get it built this summer.
That's like me, I have 5 bags of nut left, But I have 1/2 ton of pea from last season. I'll just switch over if I need to.

 
samhill
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Post by samhill » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 8:33 am

Good morning all, don't ya just hate it when the wife changes the E-Mail but doesn't bother to tell you. Freddy, as you well know things take time & can't be rushed. Keepaeyeonit, good looking friend you got there, soon it will be like he's always been part of the family. Later today my Black Lab/Border Collie mix will take the wife & I to some kind of program for adopted kids, must be pretty big it's at a local mall & they wanted 6 AM therapy dogs & 6 more at noon. All he's been around so far are elderly so we'll see if we can keep him calm with kids. Days are getting to the 50s & 60s here but nights are still in the 20s. Shut the coal off & went to propain, didn't get more coal so that I can paint the block wall without moving much. Hope everyone enjoys the day & stays safe.

 
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buffalo bob
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Post by buffalo bob » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 8:53 am

morning all coffee just fine this am..not ready for breakfast yet , I like to work up an appitite first..hitzer still running here, but have her dialed back some, 27 here this am. well have a good day all and spring has sprung.....

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 9:09 am

Good Morning! last night was the last night of below freezing weather, at least according to the 10-day forecast. It has been in the high 40's to mid 50's
during the day for the last week, so hopefully spring is here. Mother nature usually gets in one last snow sometime in April.. we'll see.

I bought buttermilk yesterday.. You KNOW what that means!! Real, from-scratch buttermilk pancakes !! And real Maple syrup that my steel-fabrication
buddy is evaporating from this stand of tapped maples.. YUM! YUM! Along with Freddies coffee, that's a breakfast a millionaire can't pay for!!

I think this week the maple sap tapping will end, I'm sure the trees will bud this week, we'll see.

Here's a photo of his sugar evaporator:
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The new evaporator in the Sugar Shack.

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Sugar shack crew.

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It is a pretty neat evaporator, the sap travels a back and forth path getting progressively higher sugar content then is just tapped off the last pan. When it's running steady, one guy can keep the syrup tap open a dribble, and tap off about a gallon an hour.. It really eats the split wood, but the fire needs the heat to boil all that sap in the pans. No way to use coal in it,, I looked. And it needs a fast hot fire, not a slow steady coal fire..

Not sure waht I'm doing this weekend, might get some outside work done,, the grass will be turning green and growing soon..sigh..

Take care everyone..

Greg L

 
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SMITTY
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Post by SMITTY » Sat. Apr. 06, 2013 11:30 am

Woood ...... speaking of that ... that's why I'm late to coffee this morning. Had to hook up my beat up cart & go scavenge some wood this morning. Luckily I didn't have to go far, as the 10 large storms we've had over the past 4 years provided plenty to pick from. Forgot what a pain in the ass this is. Loaded up the cart, then brought it to the house to cut it into Mark III-sized logs. I've got 5 bags of nut left, but with the forecast calling for 60's the next few days it would have been foolish to relight just for one day. Not used to seeing smoke pouring out of my chimney. Basement is a mess of splinters and bark, & the house reeks too. :lol: House went from 70° yesterday as the outdoor temps hit 58°, to 58° IN the house this morning, as it hit 28° last night. :mad:

A good morning exercise though ... but I could've done without it.

Finally started to investigate the floppy shift lever the wifey has been dealing with the past 2 years in the Marquis. Figured I'd kill 2 birds with one stone, and yanked the instrument cluster too, so I can lube up the works inside. Was getting pretty noisy. After some swearing while trying to remove 3 bolts from the column with an allen wrench and a dental mirror to see WTF I was doing, I finally got the busted spring out ... or should I say, all 8 pieces of the spring. :lol: Can't complain after 200,748 miles & 27 years of service. I'd like to see any car built in the last 15 years pull that off! Had to weld the plastic ring back together for the shift indicator. Damn plastic gets brittle after 27 years!

Fixed one of the loose doors with a canister from my asthma medication (inhaler). Drilled a hole to blow the gas out, cut the ends off, cut in half, then wrapped it around the door strike pin. Works mint!

Welp, time to get back at it. Swamped with work - that's the first sign of spring! Later folks!

Oh ... had to test drive it through a school zone to make sure the speedometer works. It does! >>>

Attachments

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Marquis shifter spring.jpg

The shifter spring - all 8 of it ...

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Marquis strike pin, inhaler.jpg

Inhaler strike pin, LOL

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NoSmoke
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Post by NoSmoke » Sun. Apr. 07, 2013 4:36 am

Sorry to hear about Uncle Bill Freddy. We are told in the bible to respect our elders, though it never said it would always be easy, and you and your wife did that and did it well.

Myself, I am still burning wood, but on April 1st decided to shut off the propane boiler and thus my radiant floor heat. All I can say is...Brrrrrrrrrr! If the wood fire goes out in the middle of the night, we are waking up to 58 degree temperatures. We combat that with some electric heaters on the cold nights, but as you mention, it just does not make fiscal sense to burn propane for chilly mornings.

Other then that, it has been really busy here. Lambs are arriving every day, some days in two's and three's (twins and triplets) as well as being busy at the shipyard. It is a sad thing, but "wars and rumors of war" are good for shipbuilding when you build US Navy Destroyers. I cannot say too much about capability of these ships we build, but if any one is friends with North Korea's leader named Kim, you might want to mention to the 29 year old Brat that just one US Navy Destroyer could blow his country to oblivion. They are called Destroyers for a reason...

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Apr. 07, 2013 7:43 am

Off to help a neighbor gather the last of this yrs. sap, tree's are budding here on the hill, boil it down & clean up the sugar shack for the season--that gets me my gallon for the year. Nice set up your buddy's got Greg:) Real nice season this year. My neighbor only puts up a dozen or so gallons for family & friends, but the big dogs been running the roads with full tanks 3--4 times a day. Marathon Maple Fest will have plenty available this year come next week end :)

 
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jpete
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Post by jpete » Sun. Apr. 07, 2013 10:16 am

Easy day today. Just a tune up on my FIL's F150. Monday I have two job interviews, Tuesday will be a trip to the scrap yard with some copper my step father gave me and Tuesday is the "Big 4-3". :D

Supposed to be low to mid 70's here on Tuesday but rain coming in behind it will drop things back to the 50's so I've got at least another week on the Mark II.

Fine by me.

Have a good day everyone!


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