Coffee 4-13-13

Good day my good friends! Come in, stay a spell. Share a thought. <sip> Ahhhhh, that first sip is the best. Real half & half, real sugar. Mmmmmm

I trust most of you are feeling a bit of Spring by now. For us here in Maine, it's the winter that just won't quit. We got a coating of sleet yesterday that changed to snow and it snowed all night. Not a whole lot piled up, but the roads were slippery all night and now everything is white. Looks like the AA will be running another month.

MSRP.... Invoice.... What a scam new car sales are! They have done a superb job of making us feel good if we can "buy a car at invoice price". Well, after playing their game, we bought a new car this week. If we are to believe the numbers, Mitsubishi "gave" us 16 grand, then the Feds another $7,500 or so. Our price before the federal credit was less than one half of "invoice". This new car may not be the smartest thing we've ever done, but it'll be an interesting experiment & I don't think we will get hurt in the end. So....what is it? In one more way we will be sending less money to the Arabs....it's all electric! It's a 2012 Mitsubishi Miev. My plans to build an electric car just got scrapped.

Hope you all have a smooth weekend!

That's a cute little car. Just be sure you carry an extension cord with you. It'd suck having the battery die going to the store.

Coffee sure is good. Thanks. I'm off to work. Scheduled to work every weekend this month. Like you I started my stove last night. I cleaned it out then relit with pea. It was cold yesterday, high of 42*. The little lady said the furnace came on a bunch of times while I was at work yesterday. So I had her shut it off as there is no oil in the tank. Figured it best to relight the stove. Other than working this weekend we've got nothing else planned.

I went out at 5am and splurged on a genuine Dunkin Donuts Coffee this morning and a old fashioned donut (cant do this everyday so I'm going to Saviour every bite)
I've been reading up on windmills and I think one of us needs to try throwing together some scrapes and see what all the hubbubs' about
the windmill itself seems like a fairly easy and inexpensive thing to make, I just have no clue about the turbine or how to store/tie in the energy it makes... back to reading

dcrane wrote:I've been reading up on windmills

I've got a 5,500 watt one in my back yard that needs a home. It's been decommissioned for 2 years now. Sadly, I had poor information and there actually isn't enough wind here to make it work well. This one has no batteries. It's made to be connected to the grid.

Good morning Freddy and the rest of the gang,Freddy at least you can generate some of your own power to help with the recharge so that will be a big help plus it will help with your solar payback .Power is somewhat cheep here in Ohio but once the Feds get on with there exporting plans and converting all the power plants to NG I'm sure that will all change for the better but I'm sure it's not our better .Have a safe weekend and take care. Keepaeyeonit

I'd build a little chimney on that little thing and throw a generator in the back for emergencies. Sort of defeats the purpose, I suppose ... Just don't venture out too far ... especially in the cold

Still straight-out here, which is a MUCH NEEDED thing. Couldn't even spare any for a tank of gas. Now I might be able to afford a half tank!

Damn this weather! We got a little teaser last week with temps close to 70° - 67° was the high. Now, for the past 36 hours we haven't been above 36°!! It's 33° now. Damn you mother nature!

Finally got that Murray tractor transmission together. That pissed me off - ordered from a place down in AL called Outdoor Network - great prices, but not too happy with them. Right on their main page, there's a pic of the shift keys I needed for that Peerlesss 930 series tranny. So I order them. They get here, I install them, and the thing gets stuck in 6th. They looked different than the old ones, so I assembled the tranny using no sealer and only 4 bolts. Then took a 1/4" drive extension, chucked it in the drill, then put a socket on the input shaft with a hose clamp on the key to lock the socket to the shaft. Test results ... FAIL. So I take the keys out, call the place, and they say I ordered the wrong keys! Umm .. exsqueeze me??? Your page says "keys for 930 series" right there! They wanted to whack me shipping the correct parts out, on top of my shipping the old ones back! I got a little irritated ... but they waived the shipping charges on the replacement parts. Don't like accusations, especially when I'm giving them my money! Won't be going back there again.

Yesterday I spent the day trying to get my buddy's boat to run. I did a water pump impeller a few days back. Had to wait for some lower unit oil to arrive ... but upon testing, the damn thing wouldn't start. Coincidently, this was the first year he brought the boat to a dealer for storage. Hmmmm ..... My buddy tells me he ran the engine out of fuel before bringing it down there. When I drain his carbs, the fuel was not only stale, but looked to have a 10:1 premix ratio!! Possible unethical business practices ... or my buddy was thinking of the year BEFORE. Guess I'll never know. Fired it up inside the barn in a trash can full of water. Still having trouble breathing after that one. Watching the camera footage, I disappear into a thick cloud of 2-stroke smoke! LOL!!

Speaking of 2-strokes .... I get this Stihl weedwacker to fix. Guy says it's misfiring. So I note the tank full of premix that smells ok ... and I fire it up. Boy, sure sounds funny! Come to find out, this is a 4-stroke that takes premix!! Very strange. Look for it soon - I guarantee within the next couple years this will be the norm for all manufacturers to placate the EPA. But I thought they didn't like PREMIX???? What a scam ....

Here's a Youtube vid on that engine. Pretty interesting design ... but you won't see one in my barn!!

Rock out to the fake "Jump" by Van Halen remake! Bwahahaha!!

Great JOE Freddy--thanx. Runnin late this AM--Maple Fest in Marathon this week-end--have a good week end all:)

I was at the Natick(MA) Mall Monday and they have a Tesla dealership there. Now THAT'S an electric car I could drive!

Think the Feds will help me get starting price of $69k down to a reasonable level?

http://www.teslamotors.com/models

OK. Time to get serious....where's the coffee?

Thanks for the coffee Freddy, it hits the spot after taking the dog out for his morning 'walk'. It's drizzle mixed with snow and sleet.. yuk. And I was planning on workng on the roof today.. hopefully it will stop soon, weather radar show only a narrow band of precip..

That electric car is neat, and you can charge it for 'free', sort of.

i'm sure you will get plenty of suggestions on how to extend the vehicle's range.. I think a small genset ductaped to the roof is the best and easiest method. or maybe a motorcycle sized trailer with a genset, those Honda gensets are QUIET !
Seriously though, I'm looking forward to hearing how it works out for you and Marty, might be a perfect vehicle for errands.

Freetown: do you ferment maple syrup and make some kind of liquor? Sugar cane is fermented to make Rum right? so what does Maple sugar make?

Time for more coffee.

Greg L

morning all well after a cup of gooood joe we went to feed the chickens and found them all out of their coop . the door wide open,well we now have 5 chickens something got one of them last nite, I think it was a coon.had its throat ripped out, none of the good meat was eaten..coons are smart bastards I know of onethat opened a minnow bucket to get the bread stored in it,,last summer every morning we would see the humming bird feeder complety dry yep coon,caught that bastard in a trap..well have a nice day gotta go figure a way to better secure the doornon the coop have a slide bolt on it now,maybe hasp and hinge with a snap hook on it , any ideas???

Good Morning all, still a chill in the air with more rain here but it's better than that other stuff. Guess today will be more of going thru stuff in the garage that is unless the wife has better ideas. Just a thought there Freddy, maybe shorten that windmill of your & mount to a little tag along trailer, if your moving your supplying electric, sure would be a head turner. Hope all stay safe & warm.

Whew I had me a long night, last night. A good nighttime bonfire. Cut down 5 40ft blue spruce trees and had just a couple limbs to burn The pile was about 8ft long 4ft wide and about 3 to 4 ft high. One or 2 neighbors stopped in just to make sure it wasnt the homestead. Figured it was the best time after the 2inches of rain we just got. Anywho now the inground dog fence project starts for the Mrs. What makes momma happy makes me happy. Have a good weekend.

Hi everyone, late Tea today, for me. Busy, busy, busy.
The stoves are shut down for the year. It was 90f last week. No spring whatsoever. From sleet/snow, directly to a week in the 90's. Amazing....

Last saturday I drove 753 miles (round trip) to get a new toy. See attached pics.

We also got new puppy from one of the neighbors dog's litter. It is 90% Black lab, and a smidgen of Aussie Border Collie mixed in. He is 2 months old, and already is retrieving for me. His favorite past time, is to bring me my slippers one at a time, and then he brings me my sneakers, and then my boots, and then the kids sneakers... etc.... until the shoe rack is empty.

Hey Freddy, does that car say TONKA or MATCHBOX on the front of it?

Have a good weekend all

Great news about the puppy Chris !! Sorry about Mikos,
So all the modern cars look the same,, what make/model is that 'wagon' ??
OR is that new toy not the wagon but what's inside the wagon?? Ya got me confused.

It stopped snowing and it melted, so outside I go..

Greg L.

Oh yeah! The new toy, another DVC500, fit inside my Outback. I was even able to rachet-strap in in so it wouldn't shift. My goodness, what a smooooth ride an extra 500lbs makes in the car!
I was contemplating getting the DVC500 with my trailer, but after measuring the inside of the cargo area, I knew it would fit.

LsFarm wrote:Great news about the puppy Chris !! Sorry about Mikos,
So all the modern cars look the same,, what make/model is that 'wagon' ??
OR is that new toy not the wagon but what's inside the wagon?? Ya got me confused.

It stopped snowing and it melted, so outside I go..

Greg L.