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It doesn't take long before they're following Mom most of the time. A week or two?

We resisted getting one for 20 years. When we finally did we realized they're far more useful than we expected. As long as I have rural property I'll likely have one. I wish there were reasonably priced electric UTVs and ATVs. On a property like ours the trips are short. The gas engine rarely...

Measure the distance from the pin the loader arm pivots on (by the operator station) to the pins where the bucket or skid steer quick attach frame mounts on the loader frame. Call that distance A. Then measure from the loader arm pivot to the estimated center of gravity of the load on the forks...

This looks useful: Foxtail control in pastures and hayground

Unfortunately I had to do that for the last few years due to lack of room. It's a big implement when its off the tractor. The rods look ok still. Some of the gray paint is fading. When I do park the tractor inside with the BH mounted I tie the outriggers up otherwise they sag. The travel locks...

I have a Stihl MS460 that I usually run a 24" bar on. I have used a 32" bar for large trees. I have a 36" for it but haven't used it. I think 36" would cut slow. The 460 is a pretty healthy 77cc saw so you're probably looking in the 80cc class, like a 500i. Or a 90cc class saw like a 660. The...

The foxtail's worst where I mowed in June last year right before the fire district shut down mowing for the summer. The grass was still a bit green then. The parts that got mowed in September stayed in timothy and orchard grass. Of course there could be other factors besides mowing but I think...

I've also got foxtail in some of the pastures that I want to get rid of.

You can look at a parts list to see if the blade bolts are all the same part number or some are different. I would expect the blade bolts to all be right handed as there's not really any loosening force on them that depends on the direction of rotation. The nuts are tightened down on to a...

Lately I have been in the full throttle camp, except when I need slower string speed around fences or other obstacles. I find that I get more time on a tank of fuel. I suspect that my carb runs rich at mid throttle openings. Two stroke power equipment like string trimmers, blowers and chain...

That was one factor why I didn't get one, although the failure rate may be overblown. Mostly I just like two strokes. The 4-mix oils the engine by circulating incoming fuel/oil/air mix through the bottom end, past the cam and followers and through the valve cover. It's not a lot of oil but it's...

I see a lot of hay being shipped down I-5. What's it cost to run a semi load to the bay area? Do you contract the truck yourself and have a buyer in CA, or sell to a local broker who handles it all?

I've seen basements in a few old (early 1900s or earlier) California houses. But once they started building subdivisions after WWII they stopped digging basements. I've always thought it was purely for cost reasons. Now I'm seeing them come back in some situations. In town there's a lot of $3...

I used to think we wern't but then I realized that the carbon in ethanol came from the air recently, like this year or last year. The carbon in gasoline had been safely buried for millions of years. Burning it adds to the total carbon in the air; burning ethanol made from plants just recycles...

If it leaks and causes water damage they might get a claim.

Stihl recommends a 18" bar for the 261. I feel their recommendations tend towards the longest practical as people often shop by numbers. I think 16" is about right for a 261. BUT that is assuming that you are at least sometimes burying the bar all the way. Some people like a super long bar so...

Once they have built nests they're going to want to stay until the chick fledge. The time to exclude them is before they nest. Or you can remove nests as they build them. BTW swallows are federally protected. It looks like it's ok to discourage them and even to remove nests but not if they have...

Wow that looks nice! I'd start by finding ways to seal the building so the birds can't get in. You don't need to close it up as tight as is needed to keep out mice or rats. Just tight enough to keep them from flying in. That's judging from evicting swifts who wanted to nest in my garage in...

I have a tractor and forks but usually I pay the extra $50 or whatever for lift gate. I live on a narrow winding road so they have to put it on a smaller truck to get to my house anyhow.

If you can find it, renewable diesel is far higher cetane than bio or petroleum based diesel. Switching made my Branson with DPF run noticeably better. It starts easier, runs smoother and the exhaust smells less. In my 2022 Silverado HD there's no difference that I notice. R80 (the 20% is...

We know someone in Sonoma who had an apple orchard. He's pulling it out and turning his place into a "horse property". Says it will be worth more when he or his heirs eventually sell it, and less work in the mean time.

Usually you have to pay extra for lift gate service. You do that when you purchase the implement. You can have them back up to a space on your driveway where they can put the implement. Then you can unpack it if it's in a crate or frame and hitch it to the tractor. If you pick it up at the...

You can get a boom for the three point hitch: https://www.agrisupply.com/boom-pole-500-1000-lb-capacity/p/103831/

There's a lot of ways to get NWS info, and they have way more than what's in radio broadcasts. I use some apps on a phone or tablet to get NWS forecasts, weather radar and even forecast models that go as far as 16 days out. There are also apps that present what appears to be private weather...

Mine did the same thing, mostly on one side. I let some beet juice out. Even with the special gauge I find that I have to rinse out the gauge immediately or the beet juice will start drying inside. I carry a pan of warm water out to the tractor.

Same with me. All mowers should have a flexible top linkage. Sometimes they do and the bolts are too tight for them to flex (mine came that way from the dealer). The hydraulic top link is useful too but the flexible link on the mower is key for uneven terrain.

Does it have a lift pump? That may be getting weak. Though they usually fail entirely. The shop manual may have a spec for fuel flow into the injection pump. If yours is below spec then that would narrow down the search space.

Mine on my Branson 3725 sure does. It starts clicking when the ignition key is turned on.

That's a nice big opening in the deck. Wish mine had that. I'm going to try that, using a bigger hammer than I had last time. It's at my Oregon property so I have to bring any tools with me when I go there. I've thought about that. If I had a full set of equipment it'd be easier to do, but I...

It doesn't show on the diagram but bolt #33 doesn't have any flats. It's a thin round head. Also it's got a key that keeps it from turning.

I'm guessing that you replace yours more than once every 20 years. The unit looked in decent shape from above but I was in a hurry and didn't check the blades. They're worn to the point that they're just rounded off steel bars with no hint there was ever an edge. I doubt they have ever been...

I was thinking heat. Would a decent hand held propane torch do or do I need Oxy-Acetylene? I've used propane torches on stuck fasteners with success before but the fasteners were a lot smaller. There's no room for a normal gear puller unless I remove the blade carrier entirely. Then I could get...

The used brush hog I acquired last year has badly worn blades. I was able to remove the 600 ft-lb blade nuts but I could not get the bolts out of the carrier. Bolt #33 is stuck in part #30. It's a shouldered bolt with a 1 1/8 threaded portion and about 1 3/8 shoulder that fits in the carrier...

My condolences.

What would be really nice is bulkhead fittings in a bracket that's bolted to the tractor. Then the couplers are supported which makes it easier to connect/disconnect.

The whole house RO system that will be going in my house in Oregon will cost about double what you've been quoted. Part of that is the storage tank system and part is capacity so it can water a garden but I think a lot of it is in special RO equipment to remove boron. Boron is the only real...

USDA publishes prices for a lot of things including pasture leases. https://app.usda-reports.penguinlabs.net/?year=2024&crop=rent_cash_pastureland&statistic=expense_dollars_acre of course average per state is still a large area.

Yes. WU keeps making the app worse and they claim ownership of data you upload to them. We moved our personal weather station to the ambient weather network. For forecasts I use the Carrot and National Wx apps.

In Oregon and California when it was legalized a lot of people bought land and started grow operations. I think a lot of them lacked marijuana experience or even farming experience. With the increase in supply prices dropped. In Oregon avg bud went from $10/g retail in 2019 to $3.50/g in 2024...

The difference is that the search engine is serving up links to actual source documents. Which you can read and decide for yourself if they're trustworthy. AI rewrites the original, often synthesizing multiple sources. Without knowing the sources you have no framework to determine the...

It's legal in California. You have to get a permit. here's the laws for each state: https://worldwaterreserve.com/is-it-illegal-to-collect-rainwater/ Check with the local conservation district. There may be incentives that you can take advantage of, or you can at least find out what's legal...

I avoid it as much as possible. I'm not being a Luddite; my career was in tech. I have a pretty good understanding of how current "AI" works. Current AI LLMs have a lot of problems: -they're trained on material illegally scraped from the internet in violation of copyright law -they're set up...

What make/model locator do you guys with their own locators recommend?

I hate the ones that all go off when one goes off. That makes it hard to find the one that's malfunctioning. Or to figure out where the fire is if there is one. If just one goes off, it will wake me up just fine. It'll wake my wife and she's hard of hearing. We replaced all the...

It doesn't fall apart and drop parts in the cylinder like the fake Stihl ones and it costs less than the real Stihl version.

I've used the Husqvarna ones too.

These have been out for a while: Tractor Attachment Manufacturer | Lane Shark USA there are other manufacturers who make similar units.

My nearly bay area PG&E bill was $0.46/kw all in last month. The plan we're on give us credits on the distribution side that cover the generation cost to within a few dollars. We don't have solar so it's probably a different plan than yours.

I also like the pro saws. They're not that much more expensive than the farm/ranch saws and are a lot nicer to operate. Lighter, easier to start, more power, and built better. However I think the 261 is a little small for a 20" bar, assuming that you're going to be using the full length. I'd go...

I hope not! We want to escape Silicon Valley and not have it follow us. It's already bad enough that Silicon Valley attitudes and ideas are going national. The Southern Oregon economy doesn't have anything like Silicon Valley's wealth generation. There are some people from SV who work remote...

30 years ago building a house here wasn't terribly expensive either! That was before the tech boom made some people rich, enough to have a significant effect on housing and a lot more. That's driven a lot of it. Other parts of California have other expense drivers. A friend of mine has a house...

Construction costs have gone up a lot in parts of California. In 2019 I asked the contractor that was renovating our house what it would cost to replace it if it burned down. He said about $400/sqft. These days I'm hearing more like $800/sqft. This is for a house that's mid range at best, not a...

Is the outside lever an inching lever and not a position control lever like the inside lever probably is? (most new tractors have position control levers). An inching lever works like a rear remote without detents or float.

35 hours sounds high for those items. They're kits, designed to be installed easily. They might take me 35 hours but I'm slow and have not done those before like the guy installing them probably has. You being a pro are probably a faster mechanic than I am. OTOH if you make more than $168/hr...

It's kind of a sleazy trick to sell it "at invoice" and then add the profit back in via a new fee. They're hoping you're too dumb to realize what they're doing. Yea in the end it doesn't matter how they get to the number but that would still piss me off.

Dremel, cutting wheel and chisel is what I have used to remove inner races. Take your time with the cutting wheel, they don't like to be pushed. Any side pressure will make them break. Another way is to weld something to the race that you can then grab with a puller that pushes against the...

Having an alarm screaming for the entire outage would be extremely annoying. Maybe a light instead?

The crew that erected my shop in Oregon left about 10 lbs of screws and nails on the ground. I spent about four hours running around with a Harbor Freight floor magnet to try to get them all.

I think the regular Pioneer 1000 is a three seater. The 1000-5 is a five seater. The cost difference looks like it's significant. Even the regular one is expensive. Our Pioneer 700 has been good for us. The oil filter change is a pain but other than that it's not too hard to maintain. Make...

I didn't work in sales but I've been in enough executive meetings to know why upper management likes salesforce- it gives them a quick view into where each customer is and what each rep is doing. It takes less time than talking to the reps.

Also it's often easier to get permits for a remodel, which can be a big deal in places where permits take a lot of time and money. I used to see this a lot in parts of the SF bay area.

I don't need to run the engine at full rpm to operate my HST Branson. I find that it's the loader response that determines what rpm I run the engine at when doing loader work, and not the transmission. If I'm not using the loader and working in tight quaters I can let the tractor idle. The...

Not in this case but sometimes companies offer low or zero interest loans but no cash discount. Kubota was doing that when I was tractor shopping about six years ago. VW had a similar deal when my wife bought one a while ago. Super cheap loan but no cash discount. Rather than paying cash like...

"should", but here's some of the things we have seen personally: Some insurers play games where they will cover Dr X at office A but not if they see you at their other office B. If you don't check you only find out when you get the bill. So you have to check every provider at every office. The...

God knows what's in the pool water. It's open to the air where critters can eliminate in it. I've drunk from streams in the mountains but even in the high country now there there's Giardia and you need to filter. Get it tested and find out what it takes to treat it. Otherwise you're just...

An HST has infinitely variable speeds (between the high and low for the range). You can get just the right mowing speed. Changing speed is simple. With a power shuttle you can at least change gears without stopping unlike a non sychro gear tractor, but you are still stuck with the speed that...

If a bigger tractor can't fit as many places can you get a winch with a longer lead to make up for it? Or just winch more? My big logs may be larger than yours but I have maxed out my Branson's 2200lb loader capacity a number of times. That's 2200 at full lift, I forget the breakout but it's...

My dealer is 3+ hours drive one way. I have been there twice in six years, once to test drive and once to pick up a used backhoe attachment. They ship the parts I need, which has mostly been maintenance stuff like filters. To me having a dealer close isn't that big a factor.

JIC except where you connect to something with a different type of fitting. It's really common in the US and works well.

I've had good service from my Branson but the parts situation is not great, and mine's more common than the xx30 series. They didn't sell many of those. I think most of the LSes have turbos, which will help at altitude. Bransons use mechanical injection while just about everyone else uses...

That's true in many cases. Also the support from the government has been going on for so long that people forget it's from the government. It just becomes how things work. For example government price supports for commodity crops. That's a huge part of the federal agriculture bill every year...

My Oregon place is on farm insurance. The agent warned me when I was filling out the forms that a wood stove would cost extra. Turned out to be all of $30! Our California insurance isn't all that expensive (for California). And we haven't been canceled yet. So many people in my local mountains...

I self-insure when the cost of the problem I'm insuring against is not too high. I don't buy extended warranties (a form of insurance) because I can afford to fix my car's engine or transmission if they fail. But if my house burns down, it will be really expensive to pay out of pocket to...

You can check for sale and antique tractor auctions in your area to get an idea of their value. I think Leyland is a UK manufacturer unlike AC which was US based. If it's rare it may be more collectable but also harder to get parts for.

I've thought about buying one there an registering it there. I went to the dealer here mostly to check out the construction on the brand in general. There's an Oregon trailer maker Eagle who has some advertised for a good price but their knife edges are reverse cut, which makes them steeper. I...

I think the minimum HP requirement for the WM-8 is way too low. I would not want much less than the 32 pto HP I have now. I could use more, even when sticking to material 4" or less.

I'm going to be needing a trailer soon for hauling my stuff up to Oregon, and then for use there. Tractor, implements, UTV, splitter, etc. Also I plan to be needing a trailer there for hauling cars, tractors and implements, moving hay, and hauling long or unwieldy stuff like irrigation pipe. But...

I was pushed into management a couple times. I hated it. I had a hard time being responsible for people's careers. I've always been an independent employee who tells my manager what I need to be doing, and I had difficultly realizing that not everyone is that self-directed. I ended up in...

Splitters with a lift cost at least twice what your typical horizontal/vertical splitter costs. Some people like using the H/V type in vertical mode but many like me find that it takes a lot of upper body strength. My legs are a lot stronger, so for me it's better to lift rounds up to a...

Could it be the relief valve? Like because some downstream hydraulic control like rear remotes is dead headed?

I had the same experience here in CA. All the used trailer chippers were either expensive and beat up, or really expensive and not so beat up. I think they command a premim as wihoyou My tractor's 32hp at the PTO and it is slow when chipping stuff over about 4". Much above that and it depends...

Many of the larger Woodmaxx units like have the rotor geared up via a belt drive. The rotor on my 8H runs at 1150 rpm vs 540. Some of the Woodland Mills chippers have blades that cover half of the throat, and alternate them. So while there's four blades any one part of a branch only gets hit...

On my Branson the linked HST/throttle is a simple cable.

I looked at the EPA's list of regulations they may potentially roll back. It's right on their web site. The only one I can find that would apply to diesel vehicles is for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3, which would have begun with model year 2027. It's a...

With three faucets I would go straight to the recirculating pump solution. That will get you hot water to all the faucets at about the same cost. A tank or on demand heater will still have a run from the heater to the faucets, even if it's closer than the main tank. So there will still be a...

That's normal for heat pumps.They don't have a lot of excess capacity like gas furnaces do.

We just had the low voltage stuff done on our house that's under construction. I had them run cat 6 from the demarc where the fiber internet comes in to where I will put my router, to where the TV goes in the living room, to where I am going to mount long range wifi antennas to reach the gate...

California's current wild turkeys were actually introduced from Texas, by Cal Fish and Game no less. Our native ones had been wiped out. The first time I saw wild turkeys in CA was in the mid '80s. Now they're everywhere. They're becoming a nusiance in some suburban areas close to open space...

I hope they don't do away with DST, or worse, make it permanent. The time change does not bother me and I like it being light enough to do stuff outside by a reasonable time in the winter. Not getting light for another hour in the morning in winter, or getting light an hour earlier in summer...

A lot of things other than climate change can differentially affect animal species. We had a lot of brush rabbits when we moved here. Then we got an indoor/outdoor cat whose favorite food was rabbit. She decimated the population and it never recovered. As I have cleared brush we are seeing...

My criteria were: available lightly used, 10k towing capacity at a minimum, diesel engine, automatic 4wd mode, independent front suspension, and a 6'9" regular bed. Diesel lets me use renewable diesel which is common here in CA and being rolled out to other west coast states. I have been really...

When its too short to roll up I just fold it up and tie it by hand.

Most seals and bearings are generic industrial ones which any bearing shop should be able to order if you can bring the old part in.

The UK's system used to be good but in the last couple decades the politicians have been trying to kill it by underfunding it. The US could start by beefing up oversight of insurance companies and banning PBMs. They're just a middleman there to siphon off money. With three dominant insurance...

The truck automatics I'm familiar with (GM and Toyota) have a manual mode that simply limits how high a gear the trans will shift into. I.e. if it's a 10 speed and you put it in L5 it won't shift past 5th but it can still use 1-4 as needed. The Toyota didn't change the shift programming. The GM...

Run away! You should be. Door to door solar companies are usually sleazy. Some of the lease terms are really awful. Having leased solar can make it much harder to sell the house. Most leases have really expensive buy out provisions and a lot of buyers don't want to be locked into a potentially...

"natural" as in before the last 150 years of fire suppression, when native people burned? or "natural" as in the mess we have now? Is there a prescribed burn association locally that you can work with to do burns?

For forecasts I use the carrot weather app, another app National Wx that gives access to NWS forecasts, sat photos and models, and the NWS point forecast web site. Lately I have been watching the weather closely in the winter to see if my frequent travels to Oregon will be affected by snow. For...

Sometimes it helps to position the thing whose pivot you're lubing in a different position. So the load is on a different side of the bushing. The zerk cleaning tool looks useful, but it fixes a different problem than grease not getting to one side of the bushing.

That's a good option if it's available. It wasn't for us when I retired. We found our current plan on the ACA marketplace. If you qualify for subsidies that's especially good but even if you don't it's a useful place to find and compare plans. Well the California one is anyhow. Your state may be...

It seems like a lot of the added complexity also increases productivity. For example the bale monitor. Yea you could get out and check the bales to see if the tension needs to be turned up or feel the windrows to see if they're dry enough, but you have to stop baling to do that. There's also a...

Did the area you're looking in get a lot of buyers during Covid? I know people who panic bought rural properties, moved there and then came back to the city pretty quick. One went back to NYC after a single upstate NY winter.

My former employer contacted me last week and asked if I'd be willing to do some consulting. I actually thought about it for a few minutes before saying no.

I had a '82 for a while. The worst thing about it was the suspension. It had hardly any travel.

California mexican food is often good for sure. But my first exposure to mexican food was in Arizona and I learned to like chiles. A lot. California tends to be more varied with a lot of fresh vegetables while the southwest is more into chiles.

This! California mexican food is good but the southwest and particularly NM does it better.

Sorry I wasn't clear- I meant for after I move. Yes you're right I can maybe hire someone local before that. But there's not a lot of plow guys since it doesn't snow that often, so they can be hard to find when it does.

The place we bought in Oregon got about 10-12" of snow last week. We were up there and were able to drive up the driveway when there was about 8" but then it snowed more over night. A contractor in a 4wd truck got stuck after we left and then the GC brought a skid steer in to clear it. No one...

No matter where the electricity is generated, it's cheaper and cleaner to make a lot of it in a power plant than in thousands of individual vehicles. Even when you factor in the larger amount of minerals like copper that go into an EV. And especially when you think of the tons of fuel that an...

I'm sure there's some of that but it's also a fashion thing. Large wheels and tires with small sidewalls are in. I was waiting around at a Mercedes dealer for a used Chevy truck to arrive from another lot so I could test drive it, and I checked out the vehicles in the lot. A lot of SUVs with 35...

When specing the solar and batteries for our new house I told the vendors absolutely no Tesla products. There's a big mailing list for folks where I live in the mountains in CA. Every time there's a wide spread power outage there's a lot of posts from people trying to get their Tesla system to...

Even if it's EFI you should be able to push/pull start it. You're just replacing the starter motor's functionality. It may be a challenge to get enough traction to turn the high compression diesel motor over.

I used to be a motorcycle referee for bicycle road races. Moto refs use FRS radios and headsets inside the helmet. Most used Baofeng UV-5s. A motorcycle helmet at speed is a fairly noisy environment due to engine and wind noise but it seemed to work ok most of the time. Sometimes in hilly areas...

Do both saw use the same type of chain? I think they both ship with .325 chain in many markets in the US but not all.

Before the pandemic decent condition small used CTLs with mulchers were in the $60k range. I thought about buying one, using it on my land and then selling it. If nothing too expensive needed fixing then it wouldn't cost too much. But it's a gamble. Now they're a lot more expensive.

You're 17 times more likely to die in a fire in a Cybertruck than in a Pinto: It's Official: the Cybertruck is More Explosive than the Ford Pinto - FuelArc News

When I first started working in cryptography in the '90s I wanted a German WWII enigma machine. Back then they were $20k or so which was way more than I wanted to spend. Now it's more like 10x that for an early three rotor one (the most common and lowest value) and I can't even find a price for...

The Bridgestones that came on my Tundra were terrible- like ball bearings on glass in the wet and they wore out in 15k miles. I think the tire manufactures make special extra cheap tires for some OE applications.

I downsized my car from 19" to 18" and my GX460 from 18" to 17" mostly for that reason. It wasn't a huge difference in ride on either but was noticable. The GX got more off road oriented tires at the same time which somewhat negated the diameter change. My truck came with 20" tires which is...

This week we drove to our place in Oregon. The whole area got a lot of snow, passes were closed for time and had chain controls when open, etc. The GX460 (basically a 4runner with V8 and full time four wheel drive) did great. Packed snow, ice, fresh powder, whatever. I didn't even lock the...

I cut those cap ratchet things off too.

Did Ram lengthen the wheelbase in the newer model? I know GM did. That will make it not turn as tight even if the overall length is the same.

I've seen tests where they say the Rams have the best ride. They have coil springs which may have something to do with it. But they also have a significantly lower payload capacity, at least for the 3/4 tons I was paying attention to. So it may be more that the springs are softer than the type...

I have some light bars in longer lengths. They do help the saw balance some.

I ended up buying a lightly used Chevy from a dealer in SoCal and driving it home yesterday. The ride is a little better than the one I test drove though that might just be the roads I was on. Most of the time the ride's fine but it does not like sharp edged bumps or poorly laid concrete...

The Cybertruck is expensive, terrible as a truck or even a functional vehicle, and hideous to look at. Also its looks say "look at me! I spent a lot of money!" and I'm tired of people like that. OTOH I know a guy in Oregon who drives a lot for work and loves his Ford Lighting E-pickup. He's not...

My land is really steep. There are parts I can't operate on because they're far too steep. I had my Branson set up with slightly smaller diameter wheels and tires from the next model down in the lineup, wheel spacers, and rimguard in the rear tires. It's pretty stable. One thing to keep in...

The last time I needed a tow AAA didn't have anyone available. I called a local company that we'd used before and they send a truck right out. It was up in the mountains too. I think we still have a AAA membership but I'm not sure why. The tow was because I went around a corner in my VW Golf R...

The truck I drove was a crew cab short bed diesel, which is the configuration I'd be looking at as its the most common in used trucks and suits my needs. The Tundra I have is 2wd. I want a 4wd truck for when we move to Oregon as it snows there and going anywhere in winter means going over...

I haven't driven a 3/4 or 1 ton pickup since the '80s. My trucks have been 1/2 tons or less. I test drove a recent model Chevy 3/4 ton today. It was nice but I felt every bump. I realize the extra carrying capacity requires stiffer springs but it rode stiffer than I expected. Do all modern HD...

They're both Continually Variable Transmissions, in the generic sense of changing ratios without steps across a range. In the automotive world and some others, "CVT" has become associated with one particular type of CVT that uses belts or chains and variable size pulleys. But that's not the only...

Where I am in California it's rare to get below freezing and when it does it's only a few degrees. At least that's true so far. The plumbing is done with no thought for freezing- pipes left exposed, regular hose bibs instead of freeze proof hydrants or bibs with the valve inside the building...

Here's a great explanation of how we know what past climates were like: Here's How Scientists Reconstruct Earth's Past Climates This is an interesting graphic from that article: Note the time is on a reverse log scale. The colors show different methods of measuring past climate. Also the...

You don't shift a gear you just let up on the pedal some to slow the ground speed.

They also did not include the high output Ford. Or the '23 on higher output Duramax. I'm not trying to put down any brand, just posting data about the actual low rpm power of the different engine configurations and bore/stoke ratios. Clearly all the engines make more than enough power for their...

I think with modern turbo engines, tuning has a greater effect on low rpm power (what most people mean by "torque") than bore and stroke. I was curious so I dug up the bore/stroke numbers for the three HD pickup engines, and their power curves: Bore x Stroke: Cummins 6.7: 107x124...

With an HST or the IHMT the pedal position sets the ground speed independent of the engine speed, with the cavat that the linked pedal and throttle will raise the throttle if needed, and the IHMT's A/B switch settings which can limit rpm and travel speed. So instead of clutching and shifting...

Diamond C has a really nice flip up winch mount. Maybe you can borrow the design.

Those dual clutch transmissions are really nice. We have a couple VWs with them. I'm told that in Europe a lot of trucks have computer controlled single clutch automatics. Like a PDK or DSG except they shift slower. All the reliability and efficiency of a manual except no needs to operate the...

It's cloud point you are worried about. That's where crystals of paraffin start to form. Those will clog the filters. "#2 diesel fuel has a cloud point that can range from -18 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit" Reaching the Cloud Point | Diesel Pro Power It depends in part on how much paraffin is in...

It's cheap. A lot of fittings made for farm use have NPT threads. For example it's hard to find AG couplers (ISO 5675) that aren't NPT. LocTite 545 is what's worked best for me.

I agree the problem description sounds like it's the starter solenoid.

A lot of people use them for camping, mostly to power electric coolers. I have seen some SoCal folks recently using them to run their fridges and lights during their power outages. Even though we have a generator my wife bought a small Jackery on sale. It's been more useful than I expected. Not...

It's the payments that have gone up 88%, not prices, and half of that is due to interest rates rising quite a bit since 2020. It's in the report. The average California house is expensive for sure, but the house price rise is not as much as the headline would have you believe. There's a lot of...

As a native Californian I find hurricanes and especially tornadoes terrifying. We don't get those. I have some understanding of fire having spent a few years on fire crews. I used to enjoy earthquakes until the '89 one which was the first that actually had me worried. Here's a pic of a burned...

For the fires in LA, the houses were the fuel. Once a few houses catch fire, with the strong wind, the fire is self-perpetuating until it runs out of houses. This has happened many times in the last decade: Paradise CA, outside Denver, Santa Rosa, Redding, Southern Oregon are just the ones I can...

Ventless heaters put the water vapor generated by burning into the air. That may not be what you want. Some folks with mini splits in wood shops have made a case holds furnace filters to filter the intake air on the mini split head. If you use enough filters it doesn't make the fan work too hard.

For my chain chokers I'm using 9/32 G100 chain. It's rated for 4300lbs overhead lifting, proof tested to twice that and ultimate strength is four times the overhead rating. My winch is rated to pull at 7700 lbs. It cost a little more than cheaper grades but it's lighter. The place I bought it...

This is already happening in southern Oregon. Firs are dying off at lower elevations and needing to be removed. They were at the limit of high temps and low water. Temps have gotten higher. Some argue they were invasive due to forestry practices and historically were not found that low, but they...

I have the thumb on my BH150. I assume that it's stronger than any force I can apply with the hydraulics alone.

There's a thread somewhere on this site from a few years back where experienced people (not me! I'm still a beginner) discussed self releasing snatch blocks including mods. I found it very useful. Cable chokers are a lot lighter than chain, even high strength smaller link chain. It makes a...

I'm ATT. Whatever company you use it's usually a better deal to buy the phone yourself and get a prepaid plan. I buy older model phones, often used or refurbished. My ATT prepaid costs $35/month and has far more data than I'll ever need.

To tension the cable I think it's safer to put the tractor stationary at the top of the hill and winch something heavy up to it. I use a UTV with a driver in it. The drum tension adjustment is critical. Too tight and it's hard to pull cable, especially up hill or a lot of cable (long ways from...

I don't know what types of chain they use but I'd be surprised if it wasn't a common type and size of industrial roller chain. You can measure the chain and go buy the same type(s) of industrial chain in bulk. Grind the rivets off a link to shorten and attach with a master link. Make sure the...

Probably your local ag extension agent can offer advice. Marijuana often has extensive permitting and regulatory requirements. And the market's extremely variable. For example in Oregon after they legalized it a lot of people got into growing. As a result the price plummeted and a lot of people...

For me it depends on what's around for the tree to hang up on. We have thick woods here. I probably could have gotten a Uniforest 45M instead of the 35M as my Branson is heavy for its power and has loaded tires too. The 35M does not stress the engine at all. The Uniforest has a longer cable...

Loosening the tension on the lever makes a huge improvement in the smoothness of small movements. I had to back mine off three times before it was loose enough to work right. The throttle lever has a similar friction device and mine was also too tight. You have to disassemble the instrument...

If you use the built in WPA2 security for wifi that would protect from other people reading the traffic or using your network. It's perhaps not nation-state attacker level of security but it's plenty to keep neighbors off your wifi. The neighbors may however be able to see that you have a...

There's two cats in this pic: The visible cat Max was a rescue from the feral cat colony at my mom's old place. He was one of two that were small enough that I could grab them. He's 14 now. He greets me at the door when I come home and "helps" me unlace my shoes. His favorite thing is hanging...

When someone says things like "failing fiat money" I realize they're posturing, not discussing. But I'll answer anyhow for the people who have open minds. What you get with a fiat currency is stability. If I sell you a ton of hay, the $250 or whatever I get from that is still going to be worth...

Another good source of info is Matt Levine's newsletter Bloomberg - Are you a robot? He writes about a lot of other stuff in finance besides crypto but it's all interesting.

Web3 is Going Just Great is a great source. Very well researched.

It is. Or a little more accurately, it's like the tulip mania in the the 1600s. When people are buying just because it's going up and there's either no intrinsic value or very little, it's a mania. Cryptocurrencies are not anonymous. The ledger is public! Unless your operational security is...

V8 Tundras hold their value well, because they have a reputation for reliability. Gas mileage is not great though. Many newer 1/2 ton trucks have short 5.5 foot beds. I prefer a 6.5 (or better, 6.75) foot bed so I can get 8' lumber in diagonally with the tailgate up. Sheet goods can be carried...

I thought SoCal got rain this fall. I guess you're too far inland or weren't in the path. We got 3.8 inches today. There was a tornado in my area too. We're not supposed to get those, just earthquakes and fires.

I'd go with the fridge company.

If they sell you a loan, they also profit from that. They buy the loan at x% and then sell it to the buyer at y%, where y > x by 1-3 points.

I've replaced them on cars. Usually there is a large cap on top of the tank that holds the sensor. The ones I've seen unscrew but they might not all work that way. The sensor is a float on an arm with a rheostat. Best way to find it is to look at the service manual or parts diagram.

I'll leave that in case someone read it already but I was wrong- that's for a different model (on the same brochure, so its confusing). The PT5 uses the tractors hydraulics. It says it needs only 3.7 gpm. I can't find any info on the Yanmar PB setup, but it's an open center system. Those have...

The PT5 docs says it has its own self contained hydraulics, driven off the PTO. Which is good because the tractor's hydraulic system isn't powerful enough to run a flail or rotary mower. The PT5 can have either type.

The tank's minimal docs say they're pre set at 40 psi from the factory. I think I'd leave it alone.

Hopefully it fits. The one I bought that was supposed to fit the 5105 doesn't. The original has threaded inserts on the seat back that the frame bolts into. While the new one has a lot of inserts in the base and has two that appear to match the two in the base on the original, it doesn't have...

Four post lifts are usually lower clearance than the typical overhead two post type that are in a lot of commercial shops. If you don't raise the vehicle high or it's low or both, you're probably fine.

I don't know if you need Tyvek and spray foam. The Tyvek is for air sealing and spray foam would also accomplish that. But some metal building constructors don't want to put spray foam directly on the metal. Maybe the wrap is for that. You may want to have the inside finished with liner metal...

If you're heating the building you likely want sectional doors. Roll up doors have a big gap at the top when they are down. The insulated ones don't have as much insulation as insulated sectional doors. I think good sectionals also seal better on the sides than roll ups. They can get the tracks...

Depends on what you're doing. If it's something like a wood shop you may not. I'm putting five of them in my 40x80 building. Two in the 24x40 farm equipment shed part and three in the 56x40 shop part. The two doors on the equipment shed means I won't have to move a bunch of stuff to get...

Pretty much the entire CA coast is unstable. It's on a fault and the land side is being uplifted. The geology in the coastal mountains where we live is mostly weak sandstone that was seabed in relatively recent time, geologically speaking. Highway 1 is spectacular for nearly its entire length...

My wife's not used to full size trucks. We bought a Tundra that has parking sensors and rear camera. She's still not super comfortable driving it on our very narrow mountain road but backing into a narrow door at the feed store isn't a problem for her with the sensors and camera. Unfortunately...

Only if it's off grid. Then you need batteries. Depending on the array and battery size you may want to schedule power hungry tasks for when the panels are making lots of power, so they don't cut back because the batteries are full. On grid without batteries, the grid is your battery. If your...

size chart: Hydraulic Agricultural ISO 5675 Quick Couplers - Summit Hydraulics ISO 5675 is commonly called "ag couplers". Yours looks like half inch.

If it was drilled into a cylinder a sleeve would fix it unless the sleeves were the ones with seals on the ends to keep coolant out. Then you'd need to plug the hole. You could do that with epoxy if you can get tools in through the water jacket. Or cut a larger hole in the outside of the water...

Google has a tool to calculate the payback of a solar system. I ran their model for our place in Oregon and it said that solar would cost us $8k over 20 years- there's never a payback. Then I noticed the small print that they assumed rates would go up 2.2% per year. Well in 2023 it went up 21%...

Yea a lot of people trundle down the on ramp and only consider speeding up when they're actually on the highway/freeway. In Pittsburgh PA they stop at the end of the on ramp to wait for a break in traffic! When there's a 2>1 merge I try to do what other people are doing. If everyone is merging...

If you weren't in a city it would be very different. I can do pretty much whatever I want to the vegetation on my land unless I want to sell logs. Then I need a logging (or firewood selling) permit.

It's not in my part of California even though I'm technically in the SF bay area. I'm not in a city though. I've had the state fire people come by twice. The state people came up, glanced around from the driveway and said "looks fine, maybe clear a bit more over there". It was extremely casual...

Even if the rear tires don't come off the ground, if they're light they'll have minimal braking power. Backing down the hill might be safer. I do that sometimes if I am carrying heavy logs in the grapple.

I set up an Orbi mesh router for the house and garage. The service is a radio link to the next mountain. The ISP provides a box with an RJ45 on it, I set up the rest. I ran IT for a company that grew from 20 to a couple hundred so I have some experience setting equipment up. I like the Orbi...

The owners manual has two oil change schedules: the regular one that everyone including the dealer follows, and the severe duty one. But when you read the fine print, severe duty sounds like most people's regular driving. Towing, yea not everyone does that, but stop and go traffic is pretty...

Remember last time? When prices for tractors and implements shot up? The money the government got from all of us who bought equipment and who had to pay that tax ended up being given to farmers whose export markets collapsed due to retaliatory tariffs. So it didn't even pay for anything.

I only use it to clean up ashes and dirt on the hearth. I'm pretty good about not dropping hot coals on the hearth and dealing with them with appropriate utensils if I do. The plastic pan's lasted four years so far. It was on my wife's discard pile when I spotted it and grabbed it for the stove...

Let us know how the Holzforma can works. I wasn't impressed with the quality of the plastics on the Farmertec saws I bought but that was a few years ago. Maybe they have improved. For $350 I wonder if they're having to smuggle them in past the EPA. The spouts work really well and don't drip or...

Leather welding gloves. Second is a small plastic brush and dust pan combo.

I found one on Ebay... for $47. The Holzforma looks kinda weird and with how well the Husky works I'd be tempted to choke up on the credit card and buy the replacement spout.

It's the oil pump drive belt. They replace it by removing the transmission to get into the back of the engine, which stays in place. The 2022 and later have a longer service interval- 200k miles. The belt's the same as the earlier one with 150k mile service intervals. It's like $350-400 in...

If you don't have net metering, you may also want batteries to time-shift power consumption from your panels. For example the new rules in California pay close to zero for power you send to the grid so the only way that solar pays off is if you also install batteries so you can keep your excess...

Nice pictures! Sounds like you had a nice trip. I think the plant is one of the various rabbitbrush species. I see them in dry areas that are moderately high elevation. Mammoth Lakes area is pretty nice. It's a ski town so prices will be a little higher. I really like the Owens Valley which...

Yes you're right. I was going by what contractors are telling me. The code says both combustion and exhaust > 400 cfm, and they were telling me > 400 cfm. (M1503.6 for those who want to look it up) In any case I want the make up air for the 1200 cfm stove vent so the wood stove doesn't spill...

Same here in CA. One of our neighbors there has a solar and battery system that can use a generator to charge the batteries. Even when it's raining and overcast they get some power from the solar panels but not enough to keep the batteries charged. So every couple days they run the generator...

I didn't make the guard yet and I only managed to break the plastic grill. Its probably expensive too.

If you happen to be in the SF bay area you can come by and see mine in action. I have a EA Wicked grapple, the type with the long bottom tines. Mine's dual lid but that probably makes less difference. I pick up brush and branch piles often with it. With some practice I can cram a lot in there...