Good morning!!!!

[jbrumberg]

Good morning! Low of 24° ---- not good for all the flowers on the apple and peach trees. Oh well, happens almost every year. High today should hit 62°. At least it will be sunny and light breezes.

Chances of a sprinkle or t-storm are at 40% tomorrow. I hope we are in that 40% area --- really dry. Last moisture we received was back in February, and it wasn't much....

Starting to drift back towards the severe drought conditions. Just have to wait and see.....

Jay, nice pic of the goldfinch. He is definitely displaying his spring color! Thanks for posting.

Ron, your pic is great too! Beautiful cardinal.

We seem to be having a strange year for the visiting birds. There is a big decrease in the amount visiting the feeders.... a guess would be 50% less. I used to fill the feeders every 2 days, now it's about once a week..... I wonder what's going on?

On Friday, saw a hummer come to where the feeders usually are hung.... they weren't there at the time, but immediately got filled..... haven't seen another hummer come back yet.....

Fritz, nice bodywork on the hood. Looks great!

David, good repair on the mower. Hope it holds up better than the OEM. Hope you get the full day of mowing.

Scootr, sounds like you got some good seat time on the tractor. Thumbs up for helping the widow. Bet you were glad to be done with the pucker factor!

Today's agenda: Some more drip irrigation modification (forgot to do 2 trees) adding an additional dripper.
Then get some measurements for the next landscaping project, the borders / raised beds for the trees. A trip to pick up the materials needed is planned for tomorrow.

Time to get moving.....
Everyone have a great day!

Ted- Thanks. I have received 2.29" of rain since last evening and I see additional uplifting trains of rain cells still heading this way which puts a damper on taking any pictures today.

 

[m7040]

On the front tractor damage the hood was creased in about 6 inches in the corner and took a lot of dolly and hammer work to get it somewhat straight. And then the sheet metal had expanded from hammering and causing a bulge that had be shrunk. Using my old skills to heat and hit it with slapping file to shrink sheet metal to become flat was fun and actually worked.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Not doing much this weekend. Staying off the property cuz family are out turkey hunting.

Gonna clean the garage and throw new blades on the lawn mower. Haven't looked at the schedule but I'm sure there will be more cup play off games to watch today.

Let my daughter get some saw time. She really wants to learn how to use a chainsaw so what the heck.

View attachment 797130

After using the saw she only fell in the creek twice

Is she left handed? I would recommend switching hand and feet position, keeping forward foot further from blade.

 

[jbrumberg]

Good morning! Low of 24° ---- not good for all the flowers on the apple and peach trees. Oh well, happens almost every year. High today should hit 62°. At least it will be sunny and light breezes.

Chances of a sprinkle or t-storm are at 40% tomorrow. I hope we are in that 40% area --- really dry. Last moisture we received was back in February, and it wasn't much....

Starting to drift back towards the severe drought conditions. Just have to wait and see.....

Jay, nice pic of the goldfinch. He is definitely displaying his spring color! Thanks for posting.

Ron, your pic is great too! Beautiful cardinal.

We seem to be having a strange year for the visiting birds. There is a big decrease in the amount visiting the feeders.... a guess would be 50% less. I used to fill the feeders every 2 days, now it's about once a week..... I wonder what's going on?

On Friday, saw a hummer come to where the feeders usually are hung.... they weren't there at the time, but immediately got filled..... haven't seen another hummer come back yet.....

Fritz, nice bodywork on the hood. Looks great!

David, good repair on the mower. Hope it holds up better than the OEM. Hope you get the full day of mowing.

Scootr, sounds like you got some good seat time on the tractor. Thumbs up for helping the widow. Bet you were glad to be done with the pucker factor!

Today's agenda: Some more drip irrigation modification (forgot to do 2 trees) adding an additional dripper.
Then get some measurements for the next landscaping project, the borders / raised beds for the trees. A trip to pick up the materials needed is planned for tomorrow.

Time to get moving.....
Everyone have a great day!

Ted- The bird #'s and bird species seen since last Fall are different; especially the Goldfinches. Last year I had to refill 3 Thistle feeders daily to keep up with demand, and this Winter I had 1 sorry looking male. Around 3 weeks ago the flock has grown to 3.

 

[rswyan]

43F and cloudy @ 13:45, heading up to around 48F for the high.

Woman just said "HA ! ... look outside !"

It appears we have a rain/snow mix coming down ...

Brrrr ...

Got some horizontal surfacing mining done yesterday and a good portion of the large welding table cleared off in preparation for welding up the mobile base for the Unisaw:

The image above shows "leveling feet" and wheels for the mobile base. The feet appear to take a 7/16 coarse bolt ... although the fit seems pretty sloppy. Makes me wonder if there is a metric size and thread that is close.

Also pretty good color match between the plain wheels and the swiveling caster ... despite them being "different" brands ...

Ran down to Dollar General and picked up a Sterlite plastic storage box and a gallon of vinegar for removing the mill scale. Think it is the same one as I use to store the grease guns in. Also grabbed an extra gallon of vinegar we had in the kitchen. Ended up going back down to DG and picking up another two gallons.

Mostly, the acidity is 5% ... which seems to work fine. After 5 or 6 hours most of the mill scale seemed to be dissolving. Left all the pieces in overnight, they are probably all good to go at this point. Just need to scrub them off and rinse.

Cut a piece of 3 x 3 x 1/4 angle 5" long to use for the mount for the swiveling caster.

It will only allow the caster to swivel slightly more than 180 degrees ... reflecting on that, probably not the best solution (won't be able to be pulled back towards the swiveling caster) given the limited functionality. Will have to see what I have available in larger angle.

Cut four pieces of 2 x 2 x 1/4 angle 2" long to use for the mounts for the leveling feet.

Those all went into the mill scale vinegar bath along with the rest of the parts.

Beyond that, I got a bunch of "dirt" in several piles that was on the floor swept up. Run a magnet over that and what ever it picks up gets put in a ferrous scrap bucket for recycling and the actual trash gets put in a trash bag.

Also took the main 5 gallon ferrous bucket, which was full and overflowing, and unloaded about 1/2 of it. Ain't no way I'm trying to pick up a full bucket of that and load it in the van.

Did some more cleaning on the miter slots on the main table top for the saw last night, which were really gunked up with Lord-knows-what ... but contact cement is probably involved.

Probably head back up there in a little bit.

Hope everyone is having a good Sunday ...

 

[txdon]

Good morning! 53˚ cloudy.
My red potatoes are happy and blooming.
Crawfish boil at farm brought in more people this weekend and many people trailers were full, but still only one tractor needs to be used.

Hope BF heals quickly and finds a new car.

 

[txdon]

Whip O Will close to bedroom sing up a storm.

 

[m7040]

Our daughter is taking BF back to hospital. He has headaches and speech impediments. He did not want to go but wife convinced him. This is not anything to fool with

 

[rswyan]

Lou,

Yes on the motor direction switching with 3 phase.

Apparently the VFD implements phase reversal (?) via a switch (REV) on two of its outputs so that one doesn't even to physically switch the wires ... which is a nice thing.

 

[rswyan]

Jay,

We've seen what looks to be shaping up to be a pretty good crop of Gold Finches here this spring ... maybe 8 to 10 at once at the tube feeders so far.

I need to get the pest guard for the pole for the nyjer feeders hammered out and get those put up. Got dented last year when I went to move it.