RedNeckGeek
Super Member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2011
- Messages
- 8,754
- Location
- Butte County & Orcutt, California
- Tractor
- Kubota M62, Kubota L3240D HST (SOLD!), Kubota RTV900
Good Morning!!!! 60F @ 9:45AM. Sunny. High 82F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph.
More 25MPH winds for us this morning, but nothing close to the predicted 50-60 MPH gusts. Yesterday's wind has moved south, triggering another wave of blackouts, this time in the Los Angeles area and east of there. Things should settle down enough here that by noon PG&E hopes to have their helicopters and ground crews out inspecting lines, and power back on for those lucky enough to pass inspection.
Perhaps Longhorn has one of those engineered veggie burgers for you, Don. Lots of artificial flavor and color, preservatives, and fat from oils. I can't blame you for saying thanks-but-no-thanks, and not necessarily to the well meaning lady that gave you the card. Maybe make a nice gift for a street person, but maybe there aren't very many of those in your neighborhood?:laughing:
I think you have a very accurate perception of what's been going on here, Kyle. Locally, though, they are doing more prescribed burning, in fact one originally scheduled for yesterday was postponed due to the winds. But it's not done on a wide enough scale, and not on homeowner owned properties. I read somewhere just recently that the majority of land with the highest levels of fuel were privately held, and without guidance and financial help, the fuel load isn't going down anytime soon. I have my eye on how Paradise will prevent people from rebuilding it into the firetrap it was. Santa Rosa shoed that you must have enough space between homes so that fire doesn't spread by radiant heat. You can't do that in closely packed neighborhoods, and that means somehow consolidating several small parcels into fewer larger ones. That means the former owners get less for the property, and that the result is less tax revenue for the city. Two powerful forces to resist any change in that direction. I also read that California was crowing about meeting it's Carbon Footprint goals, but chose not to include the emissions from the massive fires in '17 and '18. Had they done so, their emissions would have exceeded those limits by at least a third. It doesn't seem like people are learning any lessons; they just keep doing the same thing over and over, and expect to get a different result. Einstein defined that as insanity, and I have to agree.
The fire near Mariposa, CA I mentioned yesterday doubled again in size, now at 4000 acres. Containment increased to 15% though, so they are making some progress. Their winds today will be very challenging.
Thanks for letting us know you and the wife made a safe crossing yesterday evening, Jay. I slept better not worrying about you, and I hope you did, too.:dance1:
Re-torqued the cylinder heads and set the valves on the red bike yesterday, and found that for some reason both intake valves were tight before the adjustment. Tight as in almost no clearance, and that was before re-torquing the head studs. I don't recall ever seeing that on an engine before, and it did the same thing after the first break in ride, too. That tells me that the next ride will also be done without stopping long enough anywhere for the engine to cool off. If I'm lucky, the winds'll drop off enough this afternoon that I can get in that next ride.
Talked to another solar power company yesterday, emailing them with the quote and single line drawing to see if they could help. So far, no response. Like most companies selling solar now, they have one recipe for parts for grid tied systems that they can cookie cutter to a lot of customers at a low price. None of those systems will work without a live grid tie, though, and it's not worth the time for them to learn a new way. But I'll keep trying...
Got a call from my bulldozer neighbor last night at about 8:30, letting me know that one of his wife's generators broke down and she couldn't get the spare one started. I gathered up some tools and lights and headed over to see if I could help, as he was still out on the road driving his Walmart big rig. His wife and mother (she's in her 80s) had done pretty well covering the bases: fresh fuel, ignition switch on, fuel tap open. But no matter how many times she'd pulled the cord, it wouldn't start. I'd brought along some ether, but couldn't even get it to cough once. The plug would spark weakly sitting on the head, and my guess is that the thing is so old that the magnetism has worn off on the magneto and the plug wouldn't spark under compression. And my back was complaining pretty loudly after all that yanking. My buddy said that the generator that broke down might be easily fixed if a bolt had come loose like it had on another one of the same generator they had, so I removed the valve cover from the broken one to take a look. There were four valves under the cover, but I only counted three valve stems sticking up. There was a spring under the rocker, but no cap, and the upper end of the valve stem and a keeper were laying in the oil on the top of the head. I don't think that engine is gonna be running anytime soon, and let my friend know that he might want to start calling around, or get his wife to do it, so that he could snag a generator somewhere along his route today, as there are none available locally.
More 25MPH winds for us this morning, but nothing close to the predicted 50-60 MPH gusts. Yesterday's wind has moved south, triggering another wave of blackouts, this time in the Los Angeles area and east of there. Things should settle down enough here that by noon PG&E hopes to have their helicopters and ground crews out inspecting lines, and power back on for those lucky enough to pass inspection.
Perhaps Longhorn has one of those engineered veggie burgers for you, Don. Lots of artificial flavor and color, preservatives, and fat from oils. I can't blame you for saying thanks-but-no-thanks, and not necessarily to the well meaning lady that gave you the card. Maybe make a nice gift for a street person, but maybe there aren't very many of those in your neighborhood?:laughing:
I think you have a very accurate perception of what's been going on here, Kyle. Locally, though, they are doing more prescribed burning, in fact one originally scheduled for yesterday was postponed due to the winds. But it's not done on a wide enough scale, and not on homeowner owned properties. I read somewhere just recently that the majority of land with the highest levels of fuel were privately held, and without guidance and financial help, the fuel load isn't going down anytime soon. I have my eye on how Paradise will prevent people from rebuilding it into the firetrap it was. Santa Rosa shoed that you must have enough space between homes so that fire doesn't spread by radiant heat. You can't do that in closely packed neighborhoods, and that means somehow consolidating several small parcels into fewer larger ones. That means the former owners get less for the property, and that the result is less tax revenue for the city. Two powerful forces to resist any change in that direction. I also read that California was crowing about meeting it's Carbon Footprint goals, but chose not to include the emissions from the massive fires in '17 and '18. Had they done so, their emissions would have exceeded those limits by at least a third. It doesn't seem like people are learning any lessons; they just keep doing the same thing over and over, and expect to get a different result. Einstein defined that as insanity, and I have to agree.
The fire near Mariposa, CA I mentioned yesterday doubled again in size, now at 4000 acres. Containment increased to 15% though, so they are making some progress. Their winds today will be very challenging.
Thanks for letting us know you and the wife made a safe crossing yesterday evening, Jay. I slept better not worrying about you, and I hope you did, too.:dance1:
Re-torqued the cylinder heads and set the valves on the red bike yesterday, and found that for some reason both intake valves were tight before the adjustment. Tight as in almost no clearance, and that was before re-torquing the head studs. I don't recall ever seeing that on an engine before, and it did the same thing after the first break in ride, too. That tells me that the next ride will also be done without stopping long enough anywhere for the engine to cool off. If I'm lucky, the winds'll drop off enough this afternoon that I can get in that next ride.
Talked to another solar power company yesterday, emailing them with the quote and single line drawing to see if they could help. So far, no response. Like most companies selling solar now, they have one recipe for parts for grid tied systems that they can cookie cutter to a lot of customers at a low price. None of those systems will work without a live grid tie, though, and it's not worth the time for them to learn a new way. But I'll keep trying...
Got a call from my bulldozer neighbor last night at about 8:30, letting me know that one of his wife's generators broke down and she couldn't get the spare one started. I gathered up some tools and lights and headed over to see if I could help, as he was still out on the road driving his Walmart big rig. His wife and mother (she's in her 80s) had done pretty well covering the bases: fresh fuel, ignition switch on, fuel tap open. But no matter how many times she'd pulled the cord, it wouldn't start. I'd brought along some ether, but couldn't even get it to cough once. The plug would spark weakly sitting on the head, and my guess is that the thing is so old that the magnetism has worn off on the magneto and the plug wouldn't spark under compression. And my back was complaining pretty loudly after all that yanking. My buddy said that the generator that broke down might be easily fixed if a bolt had come loose like it had on another one of the same generator they had, so I removed the valve cover from the broken one to take a look. There were four valves under the cover, but I only counted three valve stems sticking up. There was a spring under the rocker, but no cap, and the upper end of the valve stem and a keeper were laying in the oil on the top of the head. I don't think that engine is gonna be running anytime soon, and let my friend know that he might want to start calling around, or get his wife to do it, so that he could snag a generator somewhere along his route today, as there are none available locally.
