Good morning!!!!

[Eric Salop]

Good morning all. Looks like we are entering a dry and sunny spell for the rest of the week. A few things to get from town, will be nice to walk in without needing to take a waterproof coat.

Wild cherries are starting to fill out. This relatively wet spring and summer has been good for many different hedgerow trees, birds will be in for a treat come late summer and autumn.

Popgadget, nice work on lining up those Flitch plate holes. Did you drill 2 holes fully through from each end, then others half way from each side ?

 

[Thomas]

64F cloudy low 80's for high good chance late day t storms.

Outside chores done E muffin time.
Plans for today...do some trimming,town for critter food,if rain holds off quick spin on the mower,other than that take the day as it comes.

Enjoy your day all.

 

[wngsprd]

74 going to 92...slight chance of a storm.

BEF, nice you are getting the mower in good shape and taking it to your dad.

Eric, our wild cherries have been ripe and the birds love them, but they are much smaller...blackcherry. The birds drop the seeds in the fields and they are fast to sprout and grow. Our pear tree has just finished making almost a record amount of fruit. So much that I've taken buckets of pears to the woods for the deer, and set up a trail cam near the tree...the fruit on the ground under the tree, near our house, has been shared by deer with spotted fawn in the day and night, foxes, possum, raccoon, squirrels, rabbits, and a coyote that seems to miss the prey animals by just minutes each night.

Got my walking mileage up to 4.5 yesterday. I'm hoping by the time my 6 weeks are up, I'll be ready for the mountains.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 69F @ 4:15AM. Plenty of sunshine. High 98F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.

A few weeks ago I received a new soft start kit for the air conditioner, and yesterday morning I decided to try to install it. The instructions were confusing, as they're written in general terms to cover a lot of different air conditioners. I did the best I could with them,, but the compressor motor was pretty unhappy with the result. Got a call back from their tech support, emailed them some photos, and am now waiting to hear back from the Austrailian manufacturer. In the mean time, I took the soft start parts off and things are back working again.

Can't keep a good man down, eh, Billy? But now you're makin' the rest of us look bad...

Do you eat those cherries, Eric? Seems like they'd make a nice pie if there are enough of them.

Did you have any problems with the magdrill not sticking to the steel, Paul? I was thinking of renting one to bore out the bosses on my old FEL pivots, but was told the steel in the arms probably wasn't thick enough for the magnets to hold the drill in place.

Hope you get the belt situation under control, David. I'm still on the set that came with the flail, but I don't put nearly the hours on mine that you do on yours. Should probably have a spare set on hand, but I'm thinking I should replace it with something larger, maybe even a hydraulic one I can mount on the FEL so I'm not trampling the grass before it can be cut. Nice upgrade on the avatar, too!

Around 5:30 last night I heard the sound of the CalFire spotter plane overhead, followed shortly by the baritone drone of a borate bomber. A new fire had just started in the Feather River Canyon, a stone's throw from where the Camp Fire ignited almost three years ago, and only a dozen miles as the borate bomber flies from here. The road nearest the fire was damaged by winter runoff that year and was never repaired, and now authorities are having trouble getting men and equipment in to contain this new fire. Reports overnight have it at 10-15 acres, and it's showing a lot of light to one of the new fire cams in the area. I've been watching it for the last hour and a half, and it's grown considerably brighter. Seems like my bad feeling from yesterday might have been a premonition after all. They've given it a name, the Dixie Fire, for the road closest to it.

Happy Hump Day!

 

[Popgadget]

Popgadget, nice work on lining up those Flitch plate holes. Did you drill 2 holes fully through from each end, then others half way from each side ?

Drilled them all straight through from one side. I used a magnetic drill press, and leveled and squared it for each hole. Used a conventional twist bit for the full stroke of the drill press and then finished with an auger bit using the first hole as a guide. There were a couple of holes that we couldn’t use the drill press on because of clearance with the floor joists above. For those I made a 2” thick block with drill bushings clamped in place to keep the bit square and used the auger bit all the way through. The drill press weighed 75lbs, so it was no fun mounting that many times, but the result was worth it. This is in my son’s house which is the original farm house on my property.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning
It’s a foggy 70 and going to 85 today.

We got the last bolts in yesterday, and removed the lolly columns. Great news was there was no movement at all as the columns were loosened. This should be the last of my involvement in his major kitchen remodel. The beam will now get covered by another hand hewn one that is hollowed out, so the end result will be an exposed old beam.

Made good progress on the last speaker until the supply chain catches up. Decided that while I t wasn’t completely dry out, at the rate the grass was growing, it was going to be better to mow, than to gamble on it getting drier before it got too tall. So I greased the Progressive mower and put it to work, finished up with the Lazer and was done before dark.
Final project for the night was to fix neighbor’s three way switch wiring. It’s always fun to be the third one in on a job like that. The problem started when he replaced a 4 way switch with a double pole switch, figured they were the same because they both had 4 terminals. Then he and his dad went into each other device, moving wires around. Ended up having to disconnect everything and ring out the wiring to sort it out. But at the end of the day it all worked.
Went home and ate the other half of the sandwich I had for lunch and fell asleep in front of the TV.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning!!!! 69F @ 4:15AM. Plenty of sunshine. High 98F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.

A few weeks ago I received a new soft start kit for the air conditioner, and yesterday morning I decided to try to install it. The instructions were confusing, as they're written in general terms to cover a lot of different air conditioners. I did the best I could with them,, but the compressor motor was pretty unhappy with the result. Got a call back from their tech support, emailed them some photos, and am now waiting to hear back from the Austrailian manufacturer. In the mean time, I took the soft start parts off and things are back working again.
…….

Did you have any problems with the magdrill not sticking to the steel, Paul? I was thinking of renting one to bore out the bosses on my old FEL pivots, but was told the steel in the arms probably wasn't thick enough for the magnets to hold the drill in place.

I’ve installed several of those Hyper Engineering Sure Start devices, and I agree that the instructions are not very clear, but the information that you need to get it right is all there. Just carefully follow the schematic, using the pictures a a rough guide. They do work really well though.

The drill press stuck very well, I was actually able to twist the plates by jacking against the drill press to level it. If the tubing of your loader frame is too thin, you could weld a 1/2” plate to it to mount the drill, then grind the welds off when you are done. Like so many tasks, the setup to do it right takes longer than the job itself. But less time than doing it wrong………..

 

[RedNeckGeek]

I’ve installed several of those Hyper Engineering Sure Start devices, and I agree that the instructions are not very clear, but the information that you need to get it right is all there. Just carefully follow the schematic, using the pictures a a rough guide. They do work really well though.

Last year I installed a soft start kit from Carrier on the A/C unit, and it didn't improve the problem at all. It was still on it when I tried to install the Sure Start, and that was part of the confusion. Yesterday I removed both the Carrier parts and the Sure Start, and the A/C is working fine now. I think this morning I'll have another go at the Sure Start. The schematic should be easier to follow without the extra Carrier parts in the way.

 

[Popgadget]

Last year I installed a soft start kit from Carrier on the A/C unit, and it didn't improve the problem at all. It was still on it when I tried to install the Sure Start, and that was part of the confusion. Yesterday I removed both the Carrier parts and the Sure Start, and the A/C is working fine now. I think this morning I'll have another go at the Sure Start. The schematic should be easier to follow without the extra Carrier parts in the way.

I think that you’ve identified the problem, From the instructions-

“3) Prior to installation, be sure all start capacitors & start relays, along with hard-starters and/or any other related devices, are removed.”

 

[toppop52]

Good morning! 69˚F heading to mid 90s. Yesterday I got half the tin on the side of the barn before I saw a storm heading in my direction. The sky was turning black. I took off for the drive home and the winds were really strong shaking the Ranger and traffic slowed to 35mph in the torrential rain. Mom said at her house there was no rain but the wind was really strong and she could barley close the side door to the garage. I am suspecting there is more wind damage and missing tin to the barn as I was not able to seal it up. Oh no. No rain at home.

A lot of "BreakThrough" Covid cases being reported. 333 in Austin. Don't know if the reported 5% of vaccinated will still get covid or if it is a higher % outside of the study. Is your area in reporting breakthrough cases?

There have been a few reported, all were asymptomatic or very mild symptoms.