Good morning!!!!

[RedNeckGeek]

Don, that looks like a maths question from schooldays - If a farmer has a 14 bar cattle grid laid on 5 cross pieces and his son has a 4" trenching shovel that takes 15 seconds per scoop, how many glasses of lemonade will it take to empty the whole grid ?

I'm guessing that grate is 12' long, and with Eric's count that yields 168' of "trench". Looks like Don wants it a foot deep. By way of comparison, it took me a week of six hour days to shovel out 1300' of trench when the phone line went in here, but that was 2' deep. So that's 42 hours for a 2600' trench a foot deep, but Don's trench is "only" 0.06 of that in length, so it shouldn't take any more than 2.71 hours. But my dirt had already been loosened by a trenching machine that wasn't much good at getting it out of the trench. That mattock seems to be telling us that Don's dirt is very well used to the space between the rails, and might not be as willing to part company with its present location quite so easily. If that's the case, it would probably take me at least a half hour per rail for digging, and at least that again for leaning on the shovel looking at the dirt still down there wondering why it wasn't coming out fast enough.:laughing: So I'd be sure to spread that project over at least two days, and probably make it three, just to prolong the agony.:laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Buckeye do you have a way to message him besides TBN?

No, I've sent messages on tbn.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

I have a new diamond metal saw blade I put on my 4.5 inch Dewalt grinder/cut off tool and hope to try that out today.
Found that using abrasive wheels on hardened steel was like trying to break out of jail with a finger file....slow going.

Let us know how that diamond wheel works out for you, Drew. I've used them on tile and concrete, and they work wonders!

As for the beach adventure with your truck, maybe pack a couple a Bubbas in the bed just in case you bury the thing. They'll help with traction until you do, too! :laughing:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Don, good timing on seeing your grapple pix. If you get a chance, I'd be interested in a photo of how your 3rd function valve is attached to your tractor (same request for buckeye, since you both have L30 series tractors).

This is 3rd function, part L2299 on my L40. Joystick has button to activate, then you use the two buttons on the side to control.

Block on side of tractor with valve. Hard to get a good pic, should have removed the cover.

View from bottom

Connector wiring from joystick

Hose disconnects above the normal 4 disconnects, white caps,

Front disconnects, which I don't have yet since I don't have a grapple yet.


List price was $900 when I bought, but was not broken out on my invoice. Glad I had it done when I bought, a good bit of stuff.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning! 59F @ 8:00AM. Generally cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower. High near 60F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

The weatherman's "slight chance" was turned into a sure thing by the radar map, but so far there's been no measureable accumulation. Not likely to be, either, as it seems to moving off to the north.

David, how did you choose the drone that you ended up with? I saw an advertisement yesterday for the new Mavic, and when I went to DJI's web site to check it out I found a bewildering selection of models. Their Buying Guides page was no help at all: Over two dozen articles when I was hoping for just a comparison chart...

Well, yesterday's trip to the mechanic's was extraordinarily unproductive. I arrived at about 11:30, thinking that would be plenty late enough to ensure someone would be there. Nope, not a sole in site, and since there is no cell service there, I ended up playing solitaire on my phone for 45 minutes until one of the employees arrived to unlock the doors. The mechanic was supposed to have his soda blasting outfit rigged for use, but nothing had been done. So I busied myself installing the latch onto the fiberglass poptop and using some RV specific sealant on the seal for the lens and the attaching bolts for the latch. Believe it or not those six bolts took a couple of hours, as the holes had to be cut through the layer of insulation and headliner, and I had to work very carefully with a razor knife so as not to make the cuts too big.

The good news is that by the time I'd finished the mechanic had found all the pieces for his soda blaster, but the bad news is he learned that one of the hoses was clogged. I got it going after a bit and finished the intake manifold, but only a minute or two into cleaning the steel fuel lines it clogged again. This time no amount of tapping, flexing or staring into the soda hopper helped, so I asked him for permission to take the valve body apart. He took over at that point and found that the feed stem down in the hopper had clogged because the air supply was contaminated with water and caused the soda to aggregate and clog the intake holes. At that point he mumbled something about using the other compressor instead that had a better filter on it, but by then it was getting late and I'd had enough.



A big part of my frustration stems from not being able to find anything needed to complete a task. A good example is looking for a simple 10mm combination wrench. It was somewhere in the bottom of the tool tray in one of the boxes pictured above, and took about 10 minutes of digging to locate. As I cleaned up the soda blast equipment, I had to wind my way through all the junk inside one of the shop buildings, then find a spot to pile the equipment. There was a single file path from the back door to the front, each side piled high with crap and no room for anything. So I just piled it higher, with no hope of ever finding any of it again. I knew you folks would never believe such a tale, so on the last trip in I shot a little video. I'm having trouble getting it posted to a sharing site, but when I do I'll share a link. Truely something worthy of a hoarder TV series episode!

Enjoy the weekend, all!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Looks cleaner than dad's workbench

 

[sodamo]

65°F and .86 inches rain last 24 hours. Need the rain. Looks like it will be a wet day.

So if I take this opportunity to hone my skills with my new aerial tractor in the living room I guess the results could be awesome or disastrous. with only single 10 minute flight so far lots of honing needed.
An inside day for sure unless the wx changes.
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[rswyan]

39F and cloudy @ 12:30 ...

Got several inches of snow yesterday afternoon ... it's starting to melt, but the ground is still covered.

Got the 20G Long set up and running ... moved a sponge filter from a 10G tank I emptied and the water temp is now 76F, so it should be good to go.

Just need to figure out who is going in there and then move them. That might involve building a fish trap, so I don't have to screw around with trying to net them in a planted tank full of rocks.

Gonna make a trip up to Rift Lake Aquatics later and scope them out, it's the first time I've been there so I'm sure it will be interesting.

 

[rswyan]

Beautiful fish.

Thanks.

Back in the '70's I worked at a pet shop and raised cichlids at home, including Discus.

Kewl ... :thumbsup:

For tanks I had lot's of loboy 20's a few 50's, a 55 and a bunch of 10's. I usually bred them in the 10's.

My current inventory is (1) 100G Long, (2) 55G, (2) 20G Longs (loboy), and 4 10G's ...

I'm starting to get a little more focused on what I want to do and the direction I want to go in, in terms of species.

The 100G Long will get used as a display tank ... and may get built into a wall that divides two rooms (family room and fish room) so that it can be seen from both rooms. Not for sure on that yet, but it's under consideration as to whether I want to mess with it or not. Likely a Lake Malawi tank - either mbuna or haps/peacocks ... The rattier of the 55's will probably get used as a sump filter for 100G Long.

The other 55 will get used as a breeding set up for full-size Julidochromis - probably regani ("Kipili"/"marksmithi" and/or "Kachese"), possibly as a Tang community tank.

The two 20G Longs will be "species-only" for dwarf Julidochromis - transcriptus and ornatus

Three of the 10G's will get used as grow outs and the 4th as a hospital/quarantine tank.

Also want to do Julidochromis dickfeldi ("Midnight") but it would require additional tanks.

Of course, all of it is dependent on finding decent stock at reasonable prices. And finding decent tanks for a song.

Speaking of which, there was a 125G on CL yesterday that looked to be in great shape (no mineral deposits or cloudiness on the glass, full of water with a couple of Oscars in it) No stand (which I really don't care about) ... but with glass covers, lights, and two HOB filters ... for $100. (They were moving out of state and needed it gone)

Only problem was that it was up in Detroit ... :laughing:

My method for "increasing the tank size" with a full brood of Discus was to set up the 50 and get it operating smoothly for a few weeks so it was stable. Then draw the water down enough in the 50 and the 10 so I could set the 10 gallon aquarium inside the 50 gently then gradually fill the 10 and the 50 gallon back up such that there was virtually no disturbance. Then when all the fish eventually swam out of the 10, remove the 10. Never got any complaints from the fish.

Yeah ... that sounds very workable.

I really don't like netting fish or otherwise disturbing them if I don't have to.

A full tank of Discus can be darn pretty.

Yup ... I've seen some videos of some really large ones breeding in a bare tank that a guy posted on another forum. They were very beautiful fish and it was neat to watch the interactions (there were around 6 - 8 discus in the tank)

 

[sodamo]

David, you should feel good about getting that solar panel project done, quite a big job, and now you are set for what, ten years? 20? Do the newer ones last longer?
Did you ever get that Chinese diesel gen to run right?

.

Thank you, Drew, I do. Took a bit longer than I would have liked, a month, but quite happy with the outcome.
PV warranty is still 25 years and at 70 yo that may well be a lifetime warranty. My perspective is that we have no idea what the replacement technology might be 10, 15, 20 years down the road. In a similar discussion with a friend a couple years ago, I reasoned it would be silly to replace the old tech with same just due to warranty.

The gen runs, but right might be a stretch, wife's washer and some other electrics don't like the output. Hopefully my new panels/batteries minimize the need.

Sorry to hear about your fruit trees