Good morning!!!!

[txdon]

Drew that bumper is only 1.5' on each side of the hitch. Is there any impact protection or would a hit bend your frame?

 

[Looking4new]

Good morning, the lower temp was 61 and we are going to see 75°F. Quite a bit cooler than the past two days. Wind ENE 10 to 20 mph. partly cloudy sky.

BEF, that wreck looks nasty. How is the driver?

Today is sorting and bag packing day. Back to the yard tomorrow morning about 4 A.M. It takes me about 3.5 to 4 hours to get there, then locate the tractor and check it out all this done BEFORE I load my stuff into it. By noon I should have all my stuff AND the stuff the yard orders for me sorted out. (There are cleaning supplies for removing tar + a complete filter change for the tractor and at least a half a dozen 3" and 4" cam lock gaskets.) The company insists on an oil and filter change every ten thousand kilometres. I do about 50,000 kilometres in the 4 months I am 'out'. They get one oil and filter change in the 50 thousand. We are too busy to tie up a tractor and a set of trains over oil changes. (There are only the two of us that go northwest). We do stay on top of repairs. The synthetic oil we use is good for about 30,000 kilometres, so if I get it done by 25 thousand I don't think the Cummins ISX 15 [it is the performance 15 that I run] 550 hp will object. The first work order the truck gets when I get back to the yard is: overdue for service.

When I talked to the foreman at the end of April he had only 4 million Litres (1,028,251 US gallons) to spray, so that means I have 2 million Litres to haul at 42,000 Litres (11,111 US gallons) / load.
He is talking about working at a slower rate and taking all the weekends off. That doesn't mean the tanker drivers get the weekends off, we still have to go and get the oil and bring it back to him. I am not complaining, I am there for the money and money is what I make. 40 grand taxable income in 4 months + per diem is nothing to sneeze at. It is an excellent living for a single truck driver.
My gig is NOT a married guys game, you want to be home every weekend? Get another job, 'cause this job is not for you.
My stepson looks after this place and for insurance purposes is a live body in the house. He also pays whatever cash bills need paying while I am gone out of the joint account I've set up.
I have 7 dead trees that need to come down this summer (they are threatening the house), Junior will set that up and email me the quote, I will say yay or nay and tell him when the cash is in the account. The good thing is that the feller only has to drop them and leave them in the bush.

I will try and get on here at some point.

Have a safe summer all

 

[Looking4new]

Drew that bumper is only 1.5' on each side of the hitch. Is there any impact protection or would a hit bend your frame?

Drew, you NEED a full width bumper AND a frame hitch. The receiver is mounted to the frame rails.

 

[Rich B1]

Good morning! Already up to 75°, high is supposed to be 90° or so again. Slight chance of some rain tonight. We need it.

Went to the store yesterday for some odds and ends. Seems every yard that has been mowed in the last week is brown. Our yard had brown areas, but still mostly green. We are holding off on mowing.

Got to deal with a couple more trapped raccoons. We are having a real problem with them this year.

Race to attend tonight, not sure what tomorrow will bring

Everyone stay safe out there!

 

[txdon]

Drew, full width bumper. Just get Popgadget to extend that bumper to the edges of the RV and then attach this.

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Door-Parts/Redline/D3-96.html

 

[scott_vt]

Good Morning All,
Cloudy and much cooler today, 55 now but may warm slightly ! That heat was unbelievable yesterday, tough to work in that heat !

Looking4new, good luck with those trees, not worth damaging the house, I am ok with taking them down along the hedgerow, felling into field but nothing that could damage the house if I miscalculate !

Mostly_gas, hope your wife is feeling better !

Today Im hoping to do some work on the brake job on my 1930 Ford Model A, along with some other chores that need to be done !

 

[LouNY]

This outfit lists several sensor systems as well as camera systems for RV's and other vehicles.
Parking Sensors

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 62F @ 6:15AM. Sunny. High 93F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
No rain in the 10-day, but it's gonna be a hot weekend.

I was headed out the door yesterday morning at 7:30 to get the gate open for the roofers when I heard a big Diesel truck coming down the driveway. Octavio and his crew of four brought three trucks, one with a dump bed and two others pulling large dump trailers. They had them full of roof tiles by noon, cleaning off most of the north side and a good bit of the south side as well. They'll probably finish the tear off on Monday. I think the roof metal shows up Tuesday, along with the machine to roll the gutters. Might get it all done next week.

My SoCal friends were on their way to a motorcycle camp out yesterday when the van they were in broke the serpentine belt. Driver got a ride to the nearest town, found the parts he needed, and was back on the road in just a couple of hours. Easy to find parts for that IH 7.3 Diesel.

Got in another three hours of weed whacking yesterday. Cut down on the amount of line I was winding on and had less trouble with jamming, but still had the line break off inside the head a couple of times, especially when trying to cut down weeds with thick stalks. Think I'll just go after those with a shovel from now on and save myself some aggravation. There's a good chance I'll finish today. Ran into a large patch of yellow star thistle that is difficult to weed eat, so might just spray it with glyphosate and call it good. As long as I get to it before it goes to seed.

Screened another 150 vans yesterday, and at this point I'm pretty sure my new one won't be white. Still another 150 to go, though, so you never know. After having my bodyshop neighbor look over the photos of the damaged one, I'm feeling better about buying it. But the price needs to reflect the damage, and I'm not wild about the dark gray metallic color.

Hope everyone enjoys a nice weekend...

 

[Looking4new]

RNG, if you can get about 10 or 15 grand knocked off MSRP and no add ons would you go for it?

 

[rswyan]

82F already and sunny @ 10:15, heading up to around 89F for the high today ... AGAIN ...

As Rich notes: slight chance of stray thunderstorm this afternoon/evening. I'm not holding my breath.

Grass on the front lawn has slowed way, way down, grass down here around the house has grown a bit due to more shade, could stand to be cut.

Drinking warmed-up coffee from yesterday which is actually tasting quite good. Fresh coffee brewing.

Woman arrived safely at Her destination.

I managed to stay up all day and got quite a bit done despite the heat.

Cleaned up east side of patio around back.

Ended up going to bed around midnight, woke up around 01:30 though with really bad leg cramps. Slept like a log after that thankfully.

Got seeds in pots that I had worked on previously moved around back, also planted another 13 seeds of a couple of varieties.

The Casper pumpkin seeds that I got from Burgess came in a good sized packet. Upon closer inspection I noticed it was marked with the number of seeds in the packet (something Eden Brothers doesn't do): 60 ...

That is a huge amount of seeds for the price ... compared to Eden Brothers. But Eden does have quite a selection.

Leaves of the squash plants were getting heavily chewed on by striped cucumber beetles I think. Some of the leaves were looking like Swiss cheese. Got the jug of Neem oil solution and tracked down The Woman's little hand-held sprayer (downstairs in the dish drying rack by the stationary tubs ... because of course it was ...) and gave the plants a couple of good soakings.

Probably should spray the rhubarb plants while I'm at it - they always seem to get heavily chewed on, not that it really hurts them ... just more a matter of eliminating pests that can wind up on other plants that can be decimated.

Speaking of rhubarb, I did get two more rhubarb plants planted in the ground and watered in last evening, still one to go:

Also gave the two blueberry plants that were planted last year a drink, they seem to be doing well inside their cages.

Got FEL greased yesterday afternoon, did a little compost screening after that, around another 10 buckets added to the screened pile.

Have one FF hydraulic fitting on the FEL that is leaking pretty badly, need to see if I have another one up in the shop to swap out.

Considering the heat, I'll be looking for outdoor work in the shade today.

Agenda for the rest of the day:

Water and fertilize azaleas and rhododendrons in northeast planting bed.

Same for the original two blueberry plants.

Plant one of the new blueberry plants, mainly because the place in the bed where it goes is prepped ... and it will be in shade for another hour or so.

The second blueberry plant is looking kind of dicey at this point. They both got hit with that late frost/freeze we had and the second one lost all it's leaves ... not sure if it's going to come around or not.

Spray glyphosate around the flower bed.

Maybe get some of the asparagus planted in pots.

Divide and repot the Siberian Iris The Woman which is severely root-bound.

Fire up the AC up in the shop and work on the blades for the Kubota MMM, also see if I can locate the trip wire for the live trap which I think I took up there the other day to straighten out. Couldn't find it yesterday when I looked.

Plus whatever else comes up.

Hope everyone is having a great Saturday ...