Coffee 5-28-16

Welcome to the Memorial Day weekend coffee. Come on in, share a moment with us as we remember the people who died while serving in our armed forces. They gave their very lives to insure we have the freedoms we enjoy. Thank you Uncle Vic! I'm sure we can all mention a neighbor or a loved one.

The coffee is hot, as the weather will be later today. They are predicting 92 degrees for this afternoon. That would be a record high for the day. We'd better have pancakes for breakfast. If we have eggs, they might overcook on the plates!

My girls are coming up from Boston for the weekend. It'll be good to see them. My younger girl might be moving back to this area. Between having a boyfriend here and the high price of living in Boston, she is giving thought to moving. She's been in Bean Town for 20 years....crazy...where does the time go?

Hug your loved ones & enjoy the weekend.

Nice Freddy. This week-end always brings much reflection & gratitude to this old farmer. Enjoy it people.

They are predicting 92 degrees for this afternoon.

My central A/C quit last evening .. absolutely dead. Even if I could afford it, the chances of getting an A/C tech were zero and they would rip me off. 21 years old and never serviced is a record to be proud of. Main breaker ... no, breaker in the outside wall ... no ... pinned it down to condensate pump not being plugged in and the little tank was full... thank God. Life is not pleasant around here when it is 92F and there is no air.

Morning all... I spent the last two days up on my roof replacing it. My wife has been after me to complete the remodel of the 2nd spare bedroom. Why I don't know as nobody has ever stayed over in the 5 years we have been here!!!! The house was built in 1895 as a "patch house" with an expected life span of 25 years. It has been added on with a kitchen addition, a back porch and the front porch. These patch houses were originally built with a small cover over the front door. It was built with trees milled on site with a portable saw mill from locust wood which is a light wood but has some unbelievable static load properties. It was very popular for pillers and posts in the coal mines with heavy oak as the cross members. Ours is the only one left on a street that had these guys jammed right up next to each other for three or four blocks. The siding is a 1940's vintage shingle with something sparkly in the granuals on the surface. I will probably tear them off to get back to the original wood lap siding and see what's going on there. The west side siding shingles are curling really bad and starting to develop some holes due to deterioration. Gotta do something before long. Those sparkly granuals are probably something toxic or radioactive

So far I have repaired the walls, rewired the room, compounded the cracks and holes, repainted the walls and ceiling in all three bedrooms and started putting down laminate flooring over the original wide plank floor boards. Then what to my wondering eyes should appear? A roof leak right in the room I am working on

We have a steep slope going to alow slope roof for the bedrooms. I've done roofing before and this is a small house so I decided to tackle it myself. However it has been bou coup years!!! The pitched portion is shingled and the flat is rolled roofiing. I looked at it and decided I was going to replace the shingle part to find where the leak was at and what the hey I can do the whole roof!!! When I pulled off the transition from slop to flat, the reason for the leak became obvious. Whoever it was in the past brought the rolled roofing right up to the transition point and stopped!!!! They brought the roofing shingles down to the rolled roofing and put some roofing cement on it.

Well after tearing off the shingles on the back portion of the house I ran two courses of rolled roofing up about a foot onto the slope. I cemented it all down good and then shingled from the transition all the way up. Two other guys helped me with this part of the roof. One guy had to go out of town and the other guy already had something else. I got a guy from church to help me that had never done roofing before. Time to learn.

Then it was time to do the front. I put up four roof jacks and 2x6 walkboards for the tear off. The tear off went good. Then came the reshingle and all I can guess is that at 64 years old I have lost my nerve about working 25-30 feet off the ground on a slippery sloped roof.

Did you know it is hard to shingle when you are trying to hold on to nothing available on a pitched roof? It's a small roof which I should have been able to knock out in about 6 hours including the tearoff. It's 3/4 done and I couldn't understand what was the problem. Yesterday afternoon when it took me almost 5 minutes to get off the roof from the peak tear off it hit me. I was skittish and going uber slow.

On top of all that I burned myself up in the 92 degree heat yesterday. Had I been at anywhere normal speed I could have gotten the roof done and down before the sunburn. I thought Momma would be upset with the mess in the yard when I told her I'm not cleaning up until I get the exhaust fixed on the truck ( monday) but she was as happy as she could be. I separated the Y pipe coming down from the engine from the long pipe going to the catalytic convertor when I bottomed out the truck going across the gully in front of our house. I was going to pull the truck right next to the house so I could shovel off and the debris go right into the truck.

That little idea is going to cost me .

The blue tarp in the second photo is covering my coal bin. It holds exactly 1 ton of pea and nut mix or just a little over a ton of pea. It is right outside the kitchen door so four steps, load the hod and then back inside. The house has three chimneys. The one you can see in the photo is for the oil burner. One to the right out of the shot on the kitchen "addition" was for the coal cook stove which we don't have. There is a third chimney for the vig 2310 over the roof on the left rear corner. It's in the dining room and before anyone says anyting about the trees it drafts great!!! Original to the house built in 1895. The one stove cranked up will heat the entire house including the 3 upstairs bedrooms until it gets stupid cold.

Just some unsolicited advice for anyone on the north side of 60.....,. we have no place being up on a roof.

Just some unsolicited advice for anyone on the north side of 60.....,. we have no place being up on a roof.

Take care there rev., old men thinking they are still young men, that story is as old as time. I know your pension scheme is better than mine but we need you around here for a while longer.

BTW Freddy, 92F! Don't give me it's still muddy and I can't get the i-miev out ... I need entertainment.

Yes, Memorial Day. A big "Thank You" to those who gave.

On the home front, things have been getting a little out of hand around here because of the overtime demands at work. A three day weekend is what the doctor ordered! Lawn needs moving, new screen door, fields need planting/mowing, chicken tractors need building, need to get the big coal boiler out of my shop and into the green house so the end walls can be finished. The lions need to be bred and the tigers tamed. I told the wife that the rivers getting rerouted will have to wait until next weekend.

Just a quick cup and I'm out. Did a 15 hour day yesterday thanks to the heat blast we got. Today is all about moving wood at the new property. Finally got the news that the bank appraisal came in so I can go sign my life away the week after next. Dear Lord what have I done?!
And then Sunday I'm on call so that should be fun.....
That's as far out as I've planned. If all goes as expected, I'll drop into a coma by Monday and be up in time to go back to work tuesday.

blrman07 wrote:at 64 years old I have lost my nerve about working 25-30 feet off the ground on a slippery sloped roof.

Just about the time I turned 60 I came up with a new rule for myself: I no longer go on a roof that is steeper than a 5/12 pitch. Yours looks to be 7 or 8/12! I'll carry shingles up the ladder for you, but I'm not getting on your roof!

Mornin everyone. Thank you to all the veterans. Already very warm here, supposed to be in the upper 80's today with a chance of rain. Nothing much happening here, just making sure the pets have plenty of water to fight the heat.

Take care and be safe all

Freddy wrote:

blrman07 wrote:at 64 years old I have lost my nerve about working 25-30 feet off the ground on a slippery sloped roof.

Just about the time I turned 60 I came up with a new rule for myself: I no longer go on a roof that is steeper than a 5/12 pitch. Yours looks to be 7 or 8/12! I'll carry shingles up the ladder for you, but I'm not getting on your roof!

I had two people that were supposed to do this roof for me. Both were no call no shows. I really shouldn't have done it but by that time I was mad and decided that if it takes me all week, it will just take all week. If it rains it rains. Not like I don't have experience fixing the ceilings.!!! Wife just wants to make sure I don't fall off the roof. I won't fall off the roof but I might pass out from the heat. 92 again here today. I worked up there about an hour and said that's enough. I'll go back up when it hits about 4 when those nice huge trees to the west throw shade over the whole roof. That will give me about 4 hours which if all goes well I should be able to finish

Well, I just had a lesson on how fragile life is. My wife and I were on our way home when a motorcycle collided with a huge front end loader about 500' in front of us. There were two cars in front of us so obstructed our view of the accident, all I saw was a bunch of parts fly and the rider & motorcycle land in the field next to us. It looked like the motorcycle tried to pass the loader, which was turning left into a farm driveway. We called 911 and I was dumbfounded when they asked me for the nearest address. All of the mailboxes I could see had no visible numbers! I had to go back a couple hundred feet to find a house number.

Check your mailbox & house numbers folks, it could be very important in the event of an accident and someone trying to call it in.

AND.. SUDDENLY it's SUMMER !!

First and foremost, my deep and heartfelt thanks to those who served in the armed services.

Two weekends ago I was on the 'Spring-Fling'.. a 'dust 'em off and take 'em out of the garage' weekend tour in Dayton OH.
At home here in Michigan, it SNOWED on Saturday morning.. In Dayton it stayed about 38-39* all day.

Starting last Monday, we've been in the HUMID 80's. We've had a threat of thunderstorms, but all have gone around us, with just a few showers overnight. Pretty ideal weather.. But if I plant any seedlings it is GUARANTEED to freeze/frost to kill the plants.. I have to wait till June to plant..

I cried my eyes out posting my message on the 'Coffee' about Smitty's and FFred's cat and dog passing.. it was exhausting just to write the message.. I hope the fond memories have been an effective salve for the hurt..

My right shoulder is improving rapidly. The Rotator Cuff surgery performed on April 6th seems to be healing/mending very well. My mobility is vastly improved in just the last week or so, and I've started with the strength training therapy. It's rather amazing how weak a joint can become from a month of immobility. My month in a sling took two weeks to recover from. I can now use my right hand and arm to brush my teeth, shampoo my few hairs, and get into and out of a tee-shirt with a slow and cautious pace.

Hug your loved ones, two-legged and four-legged..

Greg L

Remember those that served, and the ones that gave all! BLRman, why did you go with asphalt shingles? Steel roofs are so much easier, last longer, and actually look nice. Plus you have good footing on them, good sneakers, as long as they aren't wet(raining). So started to practice haying, friend asked me to have off a pasture, that use to keep his draft horses in. really a bit early not thick, tall enough, but to keep him happy I mowed, ted, during week, windrowed last night, will bale it today. Maybe a total of about 90 Bales hay.

wilder11354 wrote: BLRman, why did you go with asphalt shingles? Steel roofs are so much easier, last longer, and actually look nice. Plus you have good footing on them, good sneakers, as long as they aren't wet(raining). .....

rule of thumb::::::
3-tab shingles: $2.50-$4.50 sq ft
steel roof: $5-$10 sq ft

Lets get practical. At 64 years old when your doing it by yourself on a 8+:12 pitch it's much easier to wrassle 1/2 bundle of 3 tab and nail it down than it is to haul up an 8 foot long panel. Like it said in Dirty Harry....."A mans gots to know his limitations."

Yep a steel roof will last 50 plus years and shingles will go around 20-25. I put up 25 year shingles and a reasonable expectation is around 18 years. In 18 years I'll be 83 and if I'm still around here I'll pay somebody to put up a new roof. With a 50 year roof I would be 115 so lets be practical......I ain't gonna care whether the roof is good or not on the house.

Oh yeah.....a side note. I thought the roof was hot but didn't realize I burned my buttocks. Two nice little burn spots where burns shouldn't be. Did that on the second day when it hit 94 outside. Hot enough to burn skin through the jeans

Glad you checked in Larry, I was concerned about you. At 94F a 21 year old should not be doing a roof.