Good morning!!!!

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 51F @ 4:45AM. Partly cloudy early then becoming cloudy with periods of rain this afternoon. High near 60F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch.

The news was full of the storms back east last night; glad you all seem to have come through unscathed.

Hope your mom feels better for her birthday, Randy.

The way I heard noise cancelling headphones explained, Drew, was that speakers in the 'phones generate sound pressure opposite what microphones on the outside measure. Sound is a mix of waves of various frequencies, made up of higher and lower air pressure at peak and trough of the waves. So the speakers inside the 'phones reproduce the incoming waves, but with the pressures opposite of what is coming in. This neutralizes the sound. The effect can be tuned to work more effectively at certain frequencies, and to be more or less effective. So you can end up hearing things like voices, but not loud lawnmowers or firearms discharges.

I was able to get the transaxle and front differential on the van pretty close to aligned yesterday, but still have more work to do. In the process discovered what is likely excessive bearing runout on the front diff input shaft, which could be the cause of the drive line vibration. This in spite of it being "rebuilt" by the ex-mechanic. The bad bearing could also have been caused when the drive shaft was originally and improperly installed by that same person, hard to say. It's an inside day today, so I'll spend some time reading up on disassembly/reconditioning procedures, and likely get some parts on order, or find a reputable person to do the work. If it has to be sent out, very likely I'll have it upgraded with a locker, so I'll be able to get stuck even farther from the tow truck.:confused2:

Hope everyone's week gets off to a good start!

 

[lostcreekranch]

Good Morning! It was 48°F this morning and forecast is for 80°F this afternoon. Not a cloud in the sky this morning.

I put the 3-point chain harrow on the LS tractor yesterday afternoon and started leveling a lot of old gopher mounds in one pasture. Then went over to one of my neighbors that had a lot of hog damage. Managed to get that leveled enough that he could mow it.

The Kubota OEM blades, on myZD1211, cut well enough but, left big clumps of grass behind the mower, which is rear discharge. I found that the OEM blades cut the grass but did very little "mulching" as the cuttings were, for the most part, full length. When I installed the first set of the G6 blades, the clumping was eliminated and the cuttings were very fine. That allows the cuttings to decay faster and add nutrients back into the soil.

Part of the cut improvement, of the Oregon "Gator" mulching blades, is the basic design of the mower deck itself. I suggested the Gator Blades to a neighbor when he purchased a new ZT mower. I won't mention the Brand so as not to cause a "my mower is better than your mower" issue. . His OEM blades cut poorly and big clumps would ball up, under the deck then get discharged as a clump of grass. I noticed that his cuttings were only thrown a few feet from his side discharge. Raising his plastic discharge chute made little improvement. My previous side discharge John Deere Z820 would shoot cutting 6-8' with the discharge chute down and 20-25' with chute raised.

I helped him cross reference the correct Gator blade and we found a good price on eBay. He installed the new blades and they made some improvement but, performance was still crappy at best. I think that poor deck design and aerodynamics was probably the cause. He removed the Gators, returned the ZT to the Big Box Store, got his money back, and went out and bought a commercial grade John Deere ZT. Problem resolved. Shows that saving money isn't always ...... saving money.

Happy Birthday to your Mother Randy!

RNG, I guess it's time to get out our hummingbird feeder and see if they're around yet? Are you seeing any yet.

We had woodworking shop in high school as well. I learned many skills I've been able to retain from those days.

Hope everyone's week gets off to a good start.

Prayers to all.

 

[cat fever]

Good morning all,

41 this morning and raining on/off. Supposed to rain all day today and tomorrow.

It's supposed to be clear, dry and warmer after Wednesday so I did it......I ordered a Piranha tooth bar to make getting the dirt/yard work done a little easier. Not sure when it will show up, I ordered it Saturday. Pretty excited to get it.

Prayers for all have a good day.

 

[Looking4new]

So far we've got an additional 6" of snow and it is still snowing. The high temp today will be around the low 40s. Tomorrow it will be in the mid to high 40s. I am not going to plow it.

 

[PJSprog]

32°F and clear skies this morning, going up to 67° today. Near 80° tomorrow.

Saturday was a mish-mash of successes and failures. Wife and I decided to tag-team the mowing. The Dixon ZTR wouldn't start, battery too low to turn it over. Put the charger on it, and she grabbed the Husqy self-propelled walk-behind to mow inside the fence while I took off on the Husqy rider. About an hour in, I stopped at the barn again and the ZTR fired right up, so she jumped on it. While mowing the side of the upper driveway, the rider stopped moving. Some crawling around on the ground found that the rubber strap (which was replaced last summer) that secures the battery in place had broken and fallen between the drive belt and a pulley. Once that was out, the engine wouldn't turn over. Had this issue also last summer, and thought it was fixed by replacing the key switch and cleaning the contacts on the harness. Apparently not. Wife came over to see what was up, and turned off the ZTR ... which also wouldn't turn over after that. What a day. We now had both of the mowers sitting in the driveway. I headed off to finish with the walk-behind. I need the exercise anyway. After awhile, with rain headed our way, I decided to push the mowers back to the barn. Hopped on the rider, still no love. Hopped on the ZTR, and after a couple of clicks, it turned right over. Took advantage of that and finished mowing around and behind the barn, areas I was going to let go until the bigger machines were fixed. I got it stuck in the mud trying to mow along the swampy area next to the lower driveway, and had The Wife drive while I pulled with a tow strap on the front of the frame. We started using a different service place a couple of years ago because it is much closer to home (10 miles to Lebanon vs 40 miles to Centralia). We've been noticing that we've had nothing but trouble with these mowers since then. Time to go back to the old place. On the bright side, we did get the first mowing out of the way.

Rains came in Saturday evening, and continued until Sunday afternoon. Drove the F-150 to Carlyle Sunday morning to get chicken feed at Tractor Supply and as a test run with the new battery, and the battery light came on just as I got into Carlyle, so I turned around and drove back home. Clearly, the problem is not just a bad battery. Drove the Kia Soul back to get the feed.

Not a good weekend for electrical stuff.

Spent most of the rest of the day puttering around in the studio. Got the new USB interface up and running, and all audio routed through it to the new monitors. Also took advantage of an anniversary sale at one of the software companies (ToonTrack) and downloaded a drum program extension pack, normally $89 for just $29 this weekend. Got three more drum kits and a bunch of snare drums. Big package, took about an hour to download and install. Ended up playing with that until about 9:30 pm.

Happy birthday to you mother, Randy.

I had half a bagel with strawberry cream cheese spread this morning, so reading all this talk about fries and gravy is making me hungry.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Good morning all,

41 this morning and raining on/off. Supposed to rain all day today and tomorrow.

It's supposed to be clear, dry and warmer after Wednesday so I did it......I ordered a Piranha tooth bar to make getting the dirt/yard work done a little easier. Not sure when it will show up, I ordered it Saturday. Pretty excited to get it.

Prayers for all have a good day.

You'll like it Cat. You'll have to drill a hole, for a 5/8" bolt, in each side of your bucket. I suggest a step tapered drill bit.

View attachment 600412

These are available at Harbor Freight


Make sure the PTB is seated well on your existing bucket cutting bar, when you mark your hole location, on the inside of your bucket.

 

[Bird]

51 degrees with a light southerly breeze, going for a high of a sunny 79 today. For some time now, I've been fighting the leaf change on the big live oak tree in the front yard. The live oak stays green year round, but in the Spring, it sheds as many brown leaves as any other tree. And now . . . . I think it's getting close to being through with the leaf change, and now the catkins have arrived. If it weren't for the shade it provides from the sun in the mornings, I'd have that thing cut down.

 

[PJSprog]

We have a line of four giant oak trees in our front yard, Bird, that shade the house in the afternoon. The leaves turn brown in the Fall, but they hold them all Winter and drop them in the Spring.

 

[jbrumberg]

Good Morning everyone!!!!

Today's high so far today was 60ºF occurring early morning; followed by a frontal cold passage that kicked up serious rain, heat lightning, and wind; maybe hail from the sound of rain driving against the windows. Currently a humid, foggy, drizzly 53ºF; probably close to today's high temperature as another cold front rolls through with a NWS Wind Advisory and Flood Watch posted for this PM through tomorrow. A rainy afternoon may end up with some snow tonight. I walked Brogen for the first time since midJanuary. A little huffing and puffing on the return home. Mr. Knee is mildly complaining. PT later today. Excepting tomorrow and Wednesday it appears there will be intermittent rain/showers into the weekend.

Drew- Good luck on Friday's date. I am happy to read that your hearing challenges are somewhat improved using those headphones. It would probably be to my benefit to start using headphones instead of those foam earplugs.

Eric- Your fruit pudding looks like great eats. We eat fresh fruit daily. Too early in the season for decent strawberries around here. Wifey and I are looking forward to fiddleheads and Hadley/MA asparagus soon.

Rich- I hope your phone support will suffice without you taking a trip across The Pond.

Farmer- I hope you start feeling better soon. Good luck.

Randy- Happy Birthday wishes for your Mom. I hope that you and she have some quality time together today.

" I am a transplant. Only been here for 25 years."- Bill. +30 years here. One needs to have at least 3 generations of ancestors to be considered a local around here. I suspect many of the "locals" here have webbed feet. Wifey's ancestors go back to the 1600's around here. There is a church named after her 8th great-grandfather in Northampton, MA- The Jonathan Edwards Church.

Paul- I am sorry to read about your mower challenges this weekend.

RNG- Thank you for the explanation of how those noise cancelling headphone's work.

I hope that everyone is having a decent start to the workweek.

My + thoughts, wishes, and prayers.

 

[Thomas]

Randy give your mom BIG hug for us and happy birthday wishes.