Coffee 2-15-14

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 8:50 am

coalnewbie wrote:
955 Cat....isn't that a track loader?
Yes and the greatest and your point being? In that situation no track would have meant no go. 5 galls an hour well I've never measured it but I would not be surprised why do you think they had to give it away. Does anyone have a coal conversion kit. :x
No point, just a question. They are very uncommon in my area. A wheel loader with skidder chains is also pretty mean in the snow.


 
CapeCoaler
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Post by CapeCoaler » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 12:09 pm

When in Doubt...
Go with overkill... ;)

 
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Post by coalnewbie » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 12:38 pm

When in Doubt...
Go with overkill... ;)
There you go, I knew you were a smart man.

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 12:44 pm

Many years ago, I got back from a trip and we'd had 15" of snow, and followed by wind. needless to say the roads and my driveway were impassible.. I did manage to get down my road, but the entrance to my drive was over 5' deep, from the county plow trucks and the drift that had formed there.. I put my truck on a side street, waded through the snow in my flight uniform!! NOT much fun..
As I passed the first door of the barn, I went in, plugged in the block heater to the JD 450 dozer. put a charger [it was waiting] on the batteries. and staggered into the house. took a HOT shower to thaw. got dressed in my Carhart one piece body suit.. I'd never worn it before. seemed like the day for it..

Went out and fired up the old JD.. what a great engine they have.. I exercised the hydraulics. flexed the clutches [dry clutch model] and then disconnected everything, got a shovel and dug out the sides of the barn so the doors could slide open, and then started having fun.
A Dozer doesn't push snow fast enough to get it to 'roll' off the blade, regardless of angle of the blade.. So I just lined up the dozer, put the blade down, picked it up 1" and started forward, within a few yards. I couldn't see ahead anymore, so I looked to the left or right, kept the dozer pointed in the right direction. I eventually had to turn a bit and push the mountain of snow off to the side, the pile had fallen back on the hood of the dozer and into my lap.
I pushed and pushed. seemed like it took forever, a dozer is not fast. but I'm sure if I was using any 'less' to move the snow, It would have got stuck or taken longer because it couldn't push the mountain of snow.

It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad we don't get snow like that very often.

Greg L

That dozer is at a friend's now.. If I need to, I'll fire up the 5 yard Komastu wheel loader, that should be fun to move snow with !! :shock:

 
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NWBuilder
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Post by NWBuilder » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 12:56 pm

Greg you have the best toys!!

 
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Carbon12
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Post by Carbon12 » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 1:29 pm

Yes he does! I wonder how many of us he'd be willing to adopt to help him with chores and to exercise his toys??? :D If you have a plane, let me know,....I need to finish my Private Pilot's license. :D :D

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 2:18 pm

Nope, no plane, did 'that' for a living for; hmmm math, 36 years.. had to 'retire'. too many health issues, eyesight degradation, cancer after-effects, etc.. I can't hold a 1st class medical or any FAA medical anymore..

As for the 'toys' aka necessary tools :) When a deal comes along, I try to take advantage of it. A good price, add some of my labor, I learn new stuff about new 'toys' and I then have some neat stuff around the farm..
someday, the estate auction held here will be a lot of fun for like-minded people. !!
Maybe I'll do the auction before it's an 'estate' auction ! :shock:

I've grown up with tools in my hands, working on cars, lawn equipment, trucks, tractors. trailers, etc. so all that is 'natural' for me.. and fun most of the time.. however, changing a hydraulic hose at -10* real, with a 20mph wind,, that's NOT fun.. thankfully that hasn't had to be done anytime recently.

I went to college with the intentions of becoming a medical doctor, the human body is a fascinating machine !! and the tools those MD mechanics get to use are pretty cool too !! Life, growing up, earning a living, etc got in the way.. and I really, really needed a mentor to help me along.. I didn't have the self-esteem to approach either my doctors, or any others for 'help' and advise.. I wish I had..
And one of the things I do, and have done many times in my life it to 'mentor' young people who have the drive to do something with their lives.. I don't have any kids of my own, but I have DOZENS of surrogate kids. One of life's greatest pleasures is to hear from one of them and know you helped them along, a tidbit of advise here and there, a job for the summer,, a cheap car to get them by, then have them 'work off' the car, with chores and jobs, that 'surprise' they learn a new skill doing, and a new understanding of how things work... wow.. I'm getting all misty-eyed , but I have some wonderful 'surrogate kids.'

I thought about going back to school when I couldn't fly anymore, but I was prepared for an early retirement.. Hell I tried and wanted to retire 8 years ago!! .. but the realestate market collapse made my retirement account rather skimpy. :mad:

Well time to clean off the solar panels.. speaking of mentors.. Freddy mentored me with my solar projects.. And FReetown Fred.. aka 'anonymous age' mentored me, and via emails, PM's and the occasional phone call got me through the slate tile job on this house.. Rob, Yanche, Matt, Flyer5, Richard[the mayor], JC,
DAMN, I know I'm missing dozens of you guys and gals on the forum.. all have mentored me on various areas of interest.. I'm sorry to those I missed on the short list. OH, Gambler, he's not been around much lately, i'll have to email him, he's a strong guy, Smitty, he gets me moving and laughing daily. Steve Zee, Beemerboy? now that guy has some steel in him.
Funny, 80-90% of my friends are either from this forum, the Antique car clubs, or Diesel truck clubs.

OK, time to sweep the snow off the solar panels the sun poked through the clouds a few minutes ago and thumbed it's nose at me, most of the panels have 2" of snow on them.. not making any electricity that way !

Greg L


 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 2:34 pm

Oh, I was blessed by having a grandfather who was a well respected gunsmith, his wife my grandmother and often babysitter, an english teacher, my father could do virtually anything, we built houses together, rebuilt cars. compared books we'd both read,
I really miss my father, he's been gone for ten years now..

Count your blessings, even when you are up to your nose in the smelly stuff of life.. !!!

Greg L

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 2:49 pm

I hear that missin one's Father Greg--amazing how smart mine became as the yrs progressed:)Native American Pa State Trooper, USCG rescue swimmer. Christ, he was patrolling Rt 1 when it was the only N-S route we had on an old Indian MC. Plus he was kinda grumpy--I wonder if I had anything to do with that part? :clap: toothy

 
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Cap
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Post by Cap » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 4:36 pm

Hello Everyone,
Just catching up here today and I find a few nice posts there by Greg. I enjoy occasional reads from guys I admire. Good stuff Greg!
And you know I love hearing you talk bout flying. But all of the cool yard equipment is very neat too! Hope you are feeling well.

My back is healing nicely. Still some lower stiffness but that has always been there. I'm guessing I'll be back working full time a week from Monday. In other news a hospital facilities manager offered me a job to be his HVAC/R guy. I do that work now for an owner of 28 Pizza Huts. Still sitting on the fence here. Not sure I want be his only HVAC guy in an old hospital. The learning curve starting a new job at an unfamilar facility can be very difficult. I need to go back and revisit the hospital to see what's really involved.

Where's Yanche been? Am I just missing his posts?

 
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Rick 386
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Post by Rick 386 » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 8:25 pm

What a week and weekend it has been.

Spent the beginning of the week up in Maine Snowmobiling. Get this, we left there because it was supposed to snow here and there. We knoew if we didn't leave, we would have been there until Saturday at the earliest to leave.

So get home in enough time to plow out the house and shop. Spent Friday getting caught up with paperwork and a few small repairs.

Saturday rolls around and I'm heading to work. I notice the truck is pulling to the right. Get to the shop and see the smoke coming off the right front wheel. Damned stuck caliper. Order the caliper, rotor, and new pads. Get the parts and I was always taught to keep the brakes the same on each axle. So also got a new rotor for the left front. Go to remove the left front brakes and everything is rusted all to hell. THANK YOU VERY MUCH PENNDOT ANMD YOUR DAMN BRINING OF THE ROADS !!! So now the left front caliper needs replacing. Can't get it until Sunday.

Get the caliper Sunday but now they are talking more snow. I have no where to put it. Our driveway is a long one and between 2 fields. So whenever we get snow and the wind blows, the driveway drifts over. So I have a 4.5' berm of snow on the east side. Time to get out the backhoe to widen the driveway. There goes the afternoon. Which reminds me, I need to replace that broken back window on the cab. It got damn cold in there today. Cab heater will not work without the window !!!!!

Long week and weekend. I'll be glad to get back to work Monday....... At least I can fix the truck...

Rick

Rick

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 9:01 pm

Hi Cap, thanks for the compliment. I'm happy to hear you are mending well. About the possible new position, maybe having only one location to take care of would be a good thing?
I spoke to Yanche on the phone a few weeks back, not sure if he's posting much on the forum right now, has a lot going on outside of the coal burning world.

Rick: I used to have a 1000' long driveway, field on one side, line of trees and a field on the other, the trees acted like a snow fence, it was always drifted..
I know your pain !

Take care
Greg L

 
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Yanche
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Post by Yanche » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 10:09 pm

Cap, Yanche is still here. Just been busy with other things. Took a detour from the fun stuff after I had a prostate cancer biopsy. Had to spend weeks educating myself about prostate cancer, it's causes, risks and treatment options. Since my Gleason score was only 6, I elected not to have any treatment. Prostate cancer is often slow growing and you die from something else. Avoids the side effects of the treatments. I went on a diet and lost 30lbs. Feel much better now. My other big interest is my Lions Club. The charitable 501(c)(3) foundation I created for them just purchased a new children's vision screening camera. A high tech camera that takes a IR scan of the child's eyes. Then the data processing chip in the camera compare what it sees to a standard. A report is generated and sent to the parent. The parent then hopefully takes the kid for professionally administered medical eye exam. I'm putting together an entire system, a custom web site for parents to register their children and a post test data processing system to e-mail or US mail the results to parents. We typically screen 30-50, 3 to 5 year old kids at a day care facility. Lots of challenges trying to get squirming kids to look at the camera, even it's just for a second. Absolutely gratify work. We had one child who would have lost the use of one eye had we not screened him. His father was an ophthalmologist, the mother a elementary school teacher. Neither had any clue how bad there son's eyes were. They were so grateful. Coal heat just takes a back seat and just keeps Julie and I warm.

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 10:19 pm

NICE Y :)

 
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Post by Flyer5 » Sun. Feb. 16, 2014 10:33 pm

Well it officially been too cold for too long. Both water hydrants have frozen now around my barn. The first to freeze is down about 36" that happened about 2weeks ago. Now the one in the barn that is down at least 42" . I have a nelson waterer in the stall that has a 6"Pvc pipe that is down below grade about 7' and is heated at the top so as long as the feed pipes don't freeze it should be OK. We need some sun.


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