Good morning!!!!

[bakerg]

Good morning, 61F heading to 84F. Why is it when I pedal my bike to work and back, it seems that I am always going against the wind.:confused2::laughing:

 

[RobS]

Good morning, 61F heading to 84F. Why is it when I pedal my bike to work and back, it seems that I am always going against the wind.:confused2::laughing:

I have that same problem, we must share weather patterns! How far is your commute?

 

[dave1949]

Nice pics of the draft horses KevT. Thanks for posting them. I'll bet that was fun and educational. Horse pulls are popular at our local county fair. There are a few around that do low impact logging with horses too. I guess if you have to ask how many bales of hay those big ones eat every week, you can't afford one. :laughing: Awesome animals.

Upper 80's today, another warm one.

 

[bakerg]

I have that same problem, we must share weather patterns! How far is your commute?

It's about 2.5 miles from home to work, takes about 10 to 15 minutes depending how fast I pedal. It is about 7 minutes by car.

 

[txdon]

Good morning! 75˚ heading to 98˚ summertime hot. The weather man on TV said he had a goal to not hit 100˚ this summer. ?? He thinks he will fail this weekend. I think he will fail today.

Eric, just mount one of these outside your cab.
Amazon.com : IMAGE® Loud Portable Voice Amplifier LoudSpeaker Microphone for Teachers, Coaches, Tour Guides, Presentations, Salesman, Etc. : Coaches Megaphones : Sports & Outdoors

 

[Larro Darro]

Good Morning. 0755, sunny, 80F with 83% humidity. Forecast high of 92F with 50% chance of thunderstorms today, and a low of 77F tonight. After the last few days, it should feel like a cool fall day around here. I need to cut grass today, and all three of the mowers I use the most could stand to have their blades sharpened. The Woods RFM is the easiest to get to {it's on the B7500, so all I have to do is lift it up}, so I'll probably start with it.

Kev, your driving school looked like fun. I know it sometimes seems my tractors have minds of their own, but nothing like the horsepower you were using.

Speaking of horsepower, that reminds me of the plowing stories Daddy used to tell. My Uncle James was always a klutz {I think I got that family gene}, even when he was a boy. When they were both living at home, Daddy always got to plow the mules, while Uncle James was stuck with oxen. It seems there had been a couple of wrecks with the farm equipment, and the high priced {and spirited} mules couldn't be risked with him. I know in his later years when he retired and moved back home, he was just as hard on equipment. I once pulled him out from under his tractor when he had flipped it. He also pulled a big tree down on top of himself trying to get the saw unstuck. That time he was knocked off the tractor, run over and dragged. But other than that one time, {a couple of broke ribs and one night in the hospital} he always walked away from his wrecks.

You guys have a good one,

Larro

 

[mostly_gas]

Good morning all. Currently 78F going to 98F. They backed off the 100F forecast by 2 degrees . Dewpoint still 73F so will crack 100F on the HI. Stepdaughter did not go to work so much for a stealthy withdraw . Work beckons so off I go.

 

[sseelhoff]

Good morning! 75˚ heading to 98˚ summertime hot. The weather man on TV said he had a goal to not hit 100˚ this summer. ?? He thinks he will fail this weekend. I think he will fail today.

Eric, just mount one of these outside your cab.
Amazon.com : IMAGE® Loud Portable Voice Amplifier LoudSpeaker Microphone for Teachers, Coaches, Tour Guides, Presentations, Salesman, Etc. : Coaches Megaphones : Sports & Outdoors

Our weather station was showing 100 yesterday afternoon.

 

[300UGUY]

Good Morning. 0755, sunny, 80F with 83% humidity. Forecast high of 92F with 50% chance of thunderstorms today, and a low of 77F tonight. After the last few days, it should feel like a cool fall day around here. I need to cut grass today, and all three of the mowers I use the most could stand to have their blades sharpened. The Woods RFM is the easiest to get to {it's on the B7500, so all I have to do is lift it up}, so I'll probably start with it.

Kev, your driving school looked like fun. I know it sometimes seems my tractors have minds of their own, but nothing like the horsepower you were using.

Speaking of horsepower, that reminds me of the plowing stories Daddy used to tell. My Uncle James was always a klutz {I think I got that family gene}, even when he was a boy. When they were both living at home, Daddy always got to plow the mules, while Uncle James was stuck with oxen. It seems there had been a couple of wrecks with the farm equipment, and the high priced {and spirited} mules couldn't be risked with him. I know in his later years when he retired and moved back home, he was just as hard on equipment. I once pulled him out from under his tractor when he had flipped it. He also pulled a big tree down on top of himself trying to get the saw unstuck. That time he was knocked off the tractor, run over and dragged. But other than that one time, {a couple of broke ribs and one night in the hospital} he always walked away from his wrecks.

You guys have a good one,

Larro

You should have called him "Lucky"!!

I see drafts at the local fair, it takes a lot to support them, they usually come with semis for transport. Awesome animals, a neighbor used to raise English Shire drafts, I was told they were the biggest.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

67F @ 7:30AM. Sunny. High 92F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.

RS, that's one clean engine. How do you get the crusty bits out of the piston/cylinder wall gap when you're decoking? I always worry about scratching the bore or propping open a valve with something that fell down in there and got lodged.

Eric, perhaps you could teach your sheep hand signals so you won't have to drive around backwards? Or add a horn to the tractor, or even better, a train whistle! :laughing:

Kev, thanks for sharing the pictures of the horse teams. Like most others here, I'd much rather see photos of others working than do any myself! :laughing:

Snow, the bolts on my Bushog have spring washers under the nuts, and I was able to tighten them last time from the top using an impact wrench.

Gary, that's why bike riding is such good exercise!

wng, I think I heard you on the Duke recording last evening, but couldn't quite make out what you were saying? :laughing: One thing is becoming increasingly clear though. Trying to play that music outside a studio must have been incredibly difficult! Wakeman struggles with his Mellotron between songs, weird jumps in sound quality provide startling surprises, and the show must go on even when Anderson is sick. Not to mention White still trying to learn the music.

Got most of the body panels cleaned and sanded yesterday, and find I don't have enough room on the plank to paint them all in one go. That's just as well, as I'll have to move the bike itself onto the back porch come paint booth. I'm too lazy to take the fairing off for painting, and it'll be easier to break the work down into two batches.

Hope everyone has a great week...

 

[daugen]

Got about a third of the lawn mowed before the heavens opened up with a steady rain. At least not a downpour this time.
Blades to the JD were sharpened yesterday and that sure helped in my making good time.
I knew the storm was coming so not a question of a passing shower. Time to beat feet for the barn.

So it's going to be an inside day. I really should work on the garage, which is a huge effort, as everything has to be pulled out and put back, or the truck will never fit in there. My dually fit in there when it was totally empty so I know the garage will do it. I'm the limiting factor, getting all this crap moved and further sorted so it will actually fit somewhere else.

Just after putting the mower away and walking around the barn a bee nailed me on my bare leg and that is itching like crazy. Never saw the bee I swatted away, and then squeezed the sting, which may or may not help.
The doctor who delivered me died of two bee stings. I keep that in mind and while I've never had a problem, try to stay far away from bees and wasps. Next time I go back in that vicinity I'm going to check for ground nests; maybe I stepped on one and never knew it. Or perhaps I just met up with one angry bee...

 

[sodamo]

71°F and 1.06 inches rain last 24 hours.

Back to my drywall.

Be safe
Have a great day

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[rswyan]

79F and partly sunny @ 12:00 ...

Rained on and off all day long yesterday ... managed to get the final adjustments done on the carb done on the Trac Vac ... purrs like a kitten and roars like a lion now. Went ahead and installed the new air cleaner and pre-filter ... after the woman commented on me trying to wash the old pre-filter ("Why are you trying to clean this ? ... you should just replace it ..." )

Also got the fenders for the Simplicity straightened up (probably need a couple of "No Step" decals to keep little feet away from them), the bracket for the right jackshaft and the jackshaft itself installed, along with the long chain from the jackshaft to the large wheel sprocket installed. Thankfully, it appears I cut the chain to the correct length ("I sure hope you cut that chain to the correct length when you cut it ..." )

Also did some work on the plastic cooling fans for the hydro pump/motors ... apparently the dust had worn the fan blade edges to a very sharp edge and the edges were chipping/cracking ... took a file and smoothed them out, so they were blunt and had a little thickness to them.

Hauled the right side hydro unit down to the garage at the house and took the left side unit up to the shop and cracked it open to drain. Went the thru the inventory of belts up at the shop and grabbed a couple of spares I had up there and brought them down.

Need to change the oil in the Trac Vac and give it a test run today and pick up all the windrows of grass from when it was mowed last week and then turn the woman loose to mow the front again ...

After that back to work on the Simplicity for me.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable day.

 

[rswyan]

Time to find a new dealer. My Stihl guy took back the open bag (they go through bunches of 'em in the back) no problem. They'll even take back parts they have to order in.

Yeah ... I wasn't happy about it ... but I probably won't switch. These guys are close (maybe 10 minutes from the house) and have a pretty extensive inventory of parts.

They are also the Stihl dealer that looked at my FS66 brush cutter and pressure tested the carb to diagnose it ... and then didn't charge me anything for doing so ... they also took back the valve cover for credit that I had them order in for the Briggs on the log splitter that I thought was bent when it was actually just a gasket.

So it's a mixed bag ...

Surprising, as they're the only Stihl dealer in town, and could be real PITAs about stuff like that if they wanted to. But then there's always eBay...

Yup.

 

[sodamo]

David, how much is beef in Hawaii? ground chuck hamburger here that is very good quality is about $4.39 pound

Aloha Kyle
Sorry but I don't have a great answer for you. Don't buy as much beef as we used to and I'm really bad about remembering food prices in my retired years - quite different than those struggling days when raising a family and had to shop weekly.

Tend to buy Rib eyes, NY strip, and rib roast when on sale around $6.99/lb. Ground beef and other "bulk" is usually a Costco purchase, but don't recall the price, figure I don't have much choice if I want it. Of course, most purchases get broken out into smaller portions, vac sealed and frozen, so it is quite easy to decide on the spot that something is too expensive and walk away or a good deal and add to the larder. This past year it seems I've gotten more meat on sale at Safeway. At one of our regular stores, they often have local grass fed ground beef priced same as the store brand and I will pick it up for immediate use.

Some might say I'm a terrible shopper. I might go to 2 stores, but refuse to be like some folks that make a list and then hit every store for what's on sale. Years ago, when we we primarily Army Commissary shoppers my wife clipped a stack of coupons for our next trip. I was so frustrated trying to match brands and sizes to save a few $ that I told her she was more than welcome to shop without me. She declined, but we will use a coupon for a normal purchase or something to try.

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[rswyan]

... Once I get them off I'll add washers under the nuts and might even tack weld the washers and nuts so I can tighten from above without diss-assembly.

Thanks for mentioning this ... reminds me that I need to do similar on a part I'm working on :thumbsup:

 

[sodamo]

Our dogs eat grass, but selectively. Seems like they search out the variety they want at the time. Never seen them go for mower clippings.

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[rswyan]

RS, that's one clean engine. How do you get the crusty bits out of the piston/cylinder wall gap when you're decoking?

Hopefully 90 psi of compressed air and the blowgun got most of it ...

I always worry about scratching the bore or propping open a valve with something that fell down in there and got lodged.

I tried to use a pretty light touch with the scraper to avoid scratching anything ... since a lot (or all ?) of it is aluminum. Interestingly, most of the thicker carbon deposits popped off pretty easily ... not at all like some automotive engines I've seen/worked on.

For the final clean up I used a 3M fine grit (320) foam sanding block for the block/head mating surfaces and some 000 or 0000 steel wool soaked in acetone to get areas that I couldn't get with the sanding block.

Most of the cleaning on the block was done with both valves closed. Then I opened both valves and used the blowgun to blow out the intake and exhaust tracts ... hopefully anything that got left will just serve to "polish" things up ... :laughing:

Curious about your prep process for repainting ... what do you do to kill any rust you encounter ?

 

[rswyan]

KevT,

Thanks for posting the pics of your trip ... looks like you and the wife had a good time :thumbsup:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Next time I go back in that vicinity I'm going to check for ground nests; maybe I stepped on one and never knew it. Or perhaps I just met up with one angry bee...

Today I made a bait station for yellowjackets and loaded it with meat scraps dosed with Fipronil 9.1%. Got the Fipronil at Pest Control Products & Supplies - ePest Solutions, as it didn't seem to be available locally. If I was after hornets or bumblebees, I'd use honey and milk instead of meat. Can't seem to find a link to the bait station I used last time, so here's a pic of the one I just made up:



Apparently the yellowjackets'll get stuck in the bottle if the top isn't painted black to make the upper windows easy to find. And getting them out with a belly full of poison bait so they can go home and feed all their buddies is the main idea.

Last time I did this (and it was a few years ago) after a couple weeks I didn't see another yellowjacket for the next couple of years.

If you're worried about a bee sting allergy, ask your doctor for an EpiPen prescription. They're not inexpensive, but having one handy may save you from anaphylactic shock, an unpleasant way to meet your maker.