Good morning!!!!

[Looking4new]

I always try to maintain the "pleasantly happy", but occasionally (rarely), I take one sip too many...
And both my wife and stepdaughter let me know all the details the next day...

That is the worst part of getting smashed...The morning after, you've already got a big head and someone close to you will give you an instant replay of the evening before and what you got up/down to.
Back when I drank lots, I would never drink unless I was alone or with someone.

 

[Buppies]

Temperature got up to 78 now cooling but lots of wind more storms Sunday night

RNG nice skills with backhoe

Quit drinking long ago now diabetes gets in the way nice designated I can be

 

[RoyJackson]

That is the worst part of getting smashed...The morning after, you've already got a big head and someone close to you will give you an instant replay of the evening before and what you got up/down to.
Back when I drank lots, I would never drink unless I was alone or with someone.

Yup!

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Well, what a day. First started last night, attempting to sleep.... hour here, hour there....
then, at one point during the attempts, I heard a strange sound. Unfortunately, I convinced myself that it was a room to room fan that was running....I rolled over and finally fell asleep. This was sometime between 1 am and 3 am.

Then at 5:30 am, wifey went to the bathroom.... I was told that we have no water... :shocked: not even a trickle. I was now awake... and recognized that the sound I had been hearing was gushing water...:confused2: I heard it coming from the direction of the bedroom window.... looking out, I saw a babbling brook that should not be there.... we live in the high desert!

So, getting dressed on the run towards the front door (I still do not know what I put on), got out to the main water shutoff and stopped the flow. I could tell where the leak was from the tell tale giant washout / pothole. I knew what I would be doing for the day, and it was something I was not going to enjoy!

Got the tractor fired up, had to switch out the PHD for the BH, and off to digging in muck I go! Found the pipe 4ft down where it should be. I was happy that I put a band of bright orange vinyl tape about six inches above the pipe I originally put it in, but getting that next scoop with the BH, snagged the pipe! That little voice was telling me stop! But I did not listen.

Break out the shovels and time to get dirty! And dirty did I get! My son came over and took over the job for me. He had it all cleared out. Broken elbow and pipe.... 1 1/2 inch main. I cannot wait to see the water bill!

Went to the shop, dug out my plumbing supply box. Nope .... everything but 1 1/2 fittings. The piece of pipe I had was about 6 inches too short for the repair. Oh well, wait for the hardware store to open at 9....

Had to wait in line, about 5 people before me, but only about a 10 minute wait. Got everything needed and went back to the muck. My son said he would get in the trench and do the fit up. He never did real plumbing before, so a good learning experience. I showed him how to measure the pipe / fittings, do a dry fit up, then glue. Successful job! We used the fast set wet glue, but still were going to wait 4 hours for it to dry.

I was reminded by wifey that I promised my other son that we would go get the trim needed for his garage (yes, he is trimming out his man cave with stained 1x4 ponderosa pine). So, while waiting for the pipe glue to dry, went to the lumber yard. What a bunch of crappy wood they had... went through about 80 boards to get 32 good ones. Then went to get 264ft of other millwork, that we paid for, that they only had about 60 . Had to go through their whole millwork rack to find a different trim that they had enough of. Of course it cost more, which we had to go and pay before we could load it!
2 hours later, that fiasco was over, just as they were closing up for the day.

At least the glue was dry (After now 6 hours) by the time we came home. Pressurized the system, no leaks! :thumbsup:
Definitely going to leave the trench open overnight, just in case. Needless to say, I did not work on any of my projects already in progress. Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully it will not be as exciting!

 

[LouNY]

Well at least the ground dried out fast, if you had done that here you would have had to pump the water out of the pond you would have, then work in knee deep mud.

 

[rswyan]

71F @ 20:30 and calm. High made it to 72F which about 7F above normal for this time of year here.

Got backhoe removed and BB put on and got the upper part of the drive graded out a bit ... at least to the point that there are no obvious chuck holes. Used maybe 2 heaping buckets of crush to try and eliminate a couple of dips. Needs more work.

Then started working on the part where it slopes down towards the house. The west side of that section is lower than the east side and that's where the runoff goes ... consequently it was more eroded and it had to be have last years's leaves cleaned out before it could be filled and graded. Got about 3/4 of that done and then it was time to break for dinner.

After dinner I came back out and worked with the blower to clear out a section of the turnaround where there was a heavy accumulation of leaves. Had to get the string trimmer out and cut down the old stalks of last year's weeds on the edges so I could actually blow the stuff off the driveway. That area will need further cleaning tomorrow before it gets any crusher run.

Upgraded forecast: no rain tomorrow, partly sunny, and a high of 72F ... so should be able to make further progress ... :thumbsup:

The Kubota just rolled 2200 hours ... so I need to change the oil before I get going (assuming there's a filter in inventory), probably grease the loader again too.

 

[Buppies]

Nice work LS sorry that happened

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Gosh, Ted, ever figger out what part of that pipe caused the leak?

At least I know how my conduit got broken.:laughing:

To finish my fiasco, the crew with the transformer came by while I was eating lunch, and by the time I was done they already had the new transformer installed and wired. They had an adventure on the way to the house, having taken the abandoned road from my cul-de-sac that goes down to an even smaller turn around by the lake. Lots of low hanging limbs, deep ruts, and missing pavement, all in a GIANT 6x6WD boom truck. I'll have to go down there tomorrow and see how much foliage they took out. I don't know why they didn't turn around after ten or twenty yards, but the young driver said "the GPS said it was the right way to go".:laughing: I showed their crew leader what I'd done, and his only concern was that the meter come back on and show the correct reading, which it did.

I don't care what anyone says about PG&E management, but the line workers again showed themselves to be very professional and forgiving. I feel sorry for them working at such a poorly run enterprise, and hope nothing but the best for them once the bankruptcy is concluded.


I opened the main breaker before I started digging this time, and this was the view at the end of the day. I only had a handful of rocks on the left when I started, but I had a wealth of them by quittin' time. Kinda fun in a challenging way figuring out how to get them in the backhoe bucket, I guess once the thumb gets installed it won't be any fun anymore.:confused2: Really slowed down and concentrated, too, working on smooth movements, and moving two and sometimes even three valves simultaneously. When I'd get jerky again, I'd slow down until it smoothed out. No more broken conduit, and by the end of the day I had the right amount of curl figgered out on the bucket to get it to skim along the top of the conduit and clean it off along the bottom of the trench. That also involved lifting the boom, then uncurling the bucket to keep the angle of the teeth just right. Another kind of challenging fun, and by the end of the day I was mentally wiped out. Time for some of Jay's therapy!


You make a good point about running the backhoe and flying the drone involving the same sort of skill set, Jay. The axes of motion are different, but the idea of working slowly to stay smooth is the same, as is trying to coordinate multiple motions. I just hope the tractor doesn't take to the air next time I curl the bucket or the drone dig a hole if I push a joystick the wrong way.:laughing:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Anybody hear from Drew today?

Hope he's OK...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

LS, sure is nice having a backhoe for jobs like that

Got some more drone flying in. No videos posted yet. Here is sunset picture.

Son never finished the mowing, so I did it before dark.