Good morning!!!!

   / Good morning!!!! #165,671  
North Bay trip done and dusted. Roads were wet to partially snow/slush covered (about 1/4"), but it didn't stop me from doing 65-70 mph. Coming back south the roads were mostly dry. Paid $1.399/Litre ($5.288/US gal) for regular gas. 53 Litres co$t me $75.oo. I am really happy that I don't have a vehicle that takes high test. (The good stuff.)

Tomorrow is the dump run and to Sundridge, 5 miles south of me.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #165,672  
51F and partly cloudy @ 13:30. That should be the high for today.

Yesterday's high was 67F, which set another record for the high temp on that date.

Up late today, was out in the garage until around 03:00 last night, got to bed around 04:00.

Yesterday would have been a perfect day to be cutting down plywood sheets with the circular saw so that they are easier to handle. Only problem is that I'm not far enough along with the plans to know what they need to be cut down to ... :rolleyes:

I contented myself with checking the tire pressure in The Woman's ride and airing up those up (all were low) Stuck the code reader on it as well and read the current code P0174 - lean condition - and cleared it. We'll see if that was a fluke and whether it comes back. So far it hasn't.

Aired up the tires on ther Sprinter while I was at it and checked on the plywood in the back. It appears I have a pretty good leak at the roof vent. Will need to handle that at some point, probably with some Lexel.

Woman also took advantage of the nice weather: She was out working in the garden rolling up weed block that we never got around to taking up last year at the end of the season.

Emptied out the buckets of cat litter and compostables into the bucket on the Kubota and hauled that up to the compost pile and buried it.

Decided to take advantage of the nice weather so I graded the driveway with the box blade and pulled a little material from the crusher run pile to fill in the chuck holes that were starting to form.

Trip down to Canal Fulton the other day ended up being rather illuminating. Noticed that there is a new Tractor Supply going in next to the Belle Stores on Portage. Having a TSC within a couple miles of home will be very handy I'm sure. Wish it was a Rural King though.

Tuesday evening I got 99% of the gum and varnish cleaned off of a 3/4" straight router bit that was included with the router ... that will come in very handy after the "unfortunate incident" the other day.

Failed to get the dovetail router bit sufficiently tight and it walked up in the router collet while I was routing a slot ... 🤬

I'd be lying if I said that there weren't any adult beverages involved in that fiasco.

Tuesday I got a notification that the four 4' LED lights had come in up at Menards in Kent and being as I was itching to get the slots done I headed off to pick those and JB Weld Wood Putty up to fix the disaster.

Spent $20 on two tubes of JB Weld ... and just about the time I was pulling out of the parking lot it hit me: why not just use a straight router bit and route out a larger slot and glue in a dutchman and then route the dovetail slot in that ?

I have the bit (mentioned above)

I have the glue.

And I have a piece of 3/4 x 3/4 x 8' pine molding ... which looks like it almost matches the table top color-wise. By the time I hit the on ramp I had convinced myself. The JB Weld will be going back.

Stopped by the grocery on the way back and picked up some potato chips for The Woman and a couple of cans of cat food for the furry beasts until we can get out and do a proper restock at the pet store.

Woman had baked a few more potatoes and had the meatloaf and gravy warmed up by the time I hit the door.

She actually had a meatloaf sandwich Tuesday night, a definite sign She was on the mend ... (y)

After dinner that night I got the slots cut in the piece of ply for the pipe clamp rack.

Three pieces of 2 1/2 clear tube cut and edges cleaned for the quad blast gate manifold.

Relief holes drilled in blast gate parts and some sanding done on those to remove what was left of the glue.

Last night after I finished grading the driveway, I realized that I hadn't been over to the barn to check the live trap so I headed back out and ran over with the Kubota.

Sure enough, there was a 'coon in the trap.

Scooped him and the trap up and brought him back over for some swimming lessons.

Once that was done I came inside and had a meatloaf sandwich which The Woman had fixed.

By the time I was done with that it had gotten too dark to dispose of the 'coon so that got left for today. A rather distasteful task to be sure, but much better than the alternative.

Spent more time working on the blast gate manifold last night. Got the last two pieces of clear plastic tube cut.

Also got upper and middle pieces of the manifold glued and screwed together:

IMG_2264 copy.jpg

These were the parts that had split.

Cut some strips of wood from a 2 x 4 to serve as a pattern/template and stuck those on the bottom piece of the manifold with some double-sided tape and then routed out a recess to form a channel for the dust and air to flow through:

IMG_2265 copy.jpg

Recess completed:

IMG_2266 copy.jpg

That bottom piece will get some 1/2" thick strips glued to its sides today that protrude above the top edge, allowing the two other pieces to be placed on top to form the blast gate manifold assembly.

Also started working on a couple of pieces last night to make a swing arm for a drop down vacuum hose that will be attached to the lumber rack on the wall. Sanding mostly, still need to layout the pattern and trim it out with the jig saw.

Hope everyone is having a decent Thursday ... (y)
 
   / Good morning!!!! #165,676  
Good Morning!!!! 42F @ 5:00AM. Partly cloudy. High 57F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
We'll round out the week being dry, but rain once again returns for the weekend. That's been the case for most of the year so far, and it continues in the 10-day as well. Is that strange or what?

Today's vehicles are being influenced by far more factors than just how well they go down the road or even how long they last, Kyle, and for those of us with some perspective, the resulting vehicles are not that desirable. They may get great mileage like a Prius, but when something goes wrong you better be made of money to get them fixed. They may have great capacity like an F-series pickup truck, but the engines that power them are so overburdened with sensors and computers that nobody really understands them and again, they're hard to fix. And there are so many parts made in so many different places all over the world, you better hope you get a good one because you might be waiting months for a replacement if you get a bad one. And on top of all that, people insist on things like cell phone integration, big flat screen infotainment displays, and automatic this and that, and now sticker prices are approaching what I paid for my first house. And all that tech just means more things to break. These might be ravings of an old man, but to me it doesn't seem very sustainable.

Apparently my complaints on Ford's customer survey struck a nerve because I finally heard back from a salesman at that dealership yesterday. And he wasn't very friendly or cooperative. He couldn't find the custom order I'd placed, and when I provided him with a copy and how I'd like to structure the deal (work up from dealer invoice instead of MSRP), he promptly blew me off and wished me well finding a dealership that would work like that. So I sent the custom order off to another half dozen Ford dealers, two of which came back saying they couldn't even place a custom order now because Ford isn't even accepting them. I know Ford is still giving allocations to dealers, and they can use them against custom orders. I also know that there's no sense even starting a negotiation with someone that I know is lying to me. So the search goes on. Another thing I found is that between Google and Yelp!, it's pretty easy to find the shysters out there and steer clear of them. And that there are far more shysters than Good Joes.

The trouble is, it's difficult to get anything done with the frequent interruptions all these inquiries have started. I went out into the garage to check the valve adjustment on the touring bike, a fifteen minute procedure, and didn't even have the first screw loose before that salesman tried to call. So he had already gotten off on the wrong foot, as I'd specified that I preferred to be contacted via email, and conduct the transaction via email. So I finished the job and called the idiot back, and I was pretty pointed about how I would be willing to go forward with things. He kept shooting off his own foot, and I can't wait for the next Ford customer survey...

That does sound like a great car, Paul. Things are a lot different in the car world than they were 12 years ago, though. Supply lines are screwed up (the '23 Prius is still not on dealer's lots), and quality is suffering among those parts that are available. I'm reading rumblings from know-it-alls in the car industry to just not buy anything made in the '21, '22, and '23 model years. And I'm also reading horror stories of people that did, then saw their new vehicle sit on the dealer's lot for months waiting on parts to fix a recall. There's also an extreme shortage of new vehicles due to the parts shortages, so dealers are adding markups beyond MSRP, so if you're unwilling to pony up, you can just keep walkin'.

During all this, five new real estate listings popped up, some of them possibly workable, but none of them just right. But I can now pretty quickly pull up a plot map, find the dimensions of the lot, bring up a satellite view of the property, and scale out the size of the backyard. And from that determine if there's room for a shop building, or if the one already there is large enough. See, some modern technology is pretty useful, but it's not often obvious how it can be used.

We're still arguing, the insurance adjuster and I, about the roof tiles. I'll take an old one down to the supply house that says they have samples of the new ones of the same thing today, get some photos, and maybe have enough evidence to get the insurance company to pay for a whole new roof. I've already inquired of my contractor about steel roofs, but he thinks they'd be more expensive than reroofing with the concrete tiles. And apparently there aren't enough roofers that can do a steel roof, and they charge accordingly. So it'll be interesting to see how all this turns out. And with all this rain, I can't help but think of all the additional water damage that's happening under the torn up areas of the roof, which will probably result in more costs I'll have to argue with the adjuster about.

I was also doctoring the batch of InstaPot chili I had going, adding beans and adjusting the spices. By dinner time it had turned into one of my better batches. Might even have some for breakfast before I package it all up and stash it in the freezer.

Hang in there, gang, Friday's comin'!
51F and partly cloudy @ 13:30. That should be the high for today.

Yesterday's high was 67F, which set another record for the high temp on that date.

Up late today, was out in the garage until around 03:00 last night, got to bed around 04:00.

Yesterday would have been a perfect day to be cutting down plywood sheets with the circular saw so that they are easier to handle. Only problem is that I'm not far enough along with the plans to know what they need to be cut down to ... :rolleyes:

I contented myself with checking the tire pressure in The Woman's ride and airing up those up (all were low) Stuck the code reader on it as well and read the current code P0174 - lean condition - and cleared it. We'll see if that was a fluke and whether it comes back. So far it hasn't.

Aired up the tires on ther Sprinter while I was at it and checked on the plywood in the back. It appears I have a pretty good leak at the roof vent. Will need to handle that at some point, probably with some Lexel.

Woman also took advantage of the nice weather: She was out working in the garden rolling up weed block that we never got around to taking up last year at the end of the season.

Emptied out the buckets of cat litter and compostables into the bucket on the Kubota and hauled that up to the compost pile and buried it.

Decided to take advantage of the nice weather so I graded the driveway with the box blade and pulled a little material from the crusher run pile to fill in the chuck holes that were starting to form.

Trip down to Canal Fulton the other day ended up being rather illuminating. Noticed that there is a new Tractor Supply going in next to the Belle Stores on Portage. Having a TSC within a couple miles of home will be very handy I'm sure. Wish it was a Rural King though.

Tuesday evening I got 99% of the gum and varnish cleaned off of a 3/4" straight router bit that was included with the router ... that will come in very handy after the "unfortunate incident" the other day.

Failed to get the dovetail router bit sufficiently tight and it walked up in the router collet while I was routing a slot ... 🤬

I'd be lying if I said that there weren't any adult beverages involved in that fiasco.

Tuesday I got a notification that the four 4' LED lights had come in up at Menards in Kent and being as I was itching to get the slots done I headed off to pick those and JB Weld Wood Putty up to fix the disaster.

Spent $20 on two tubes of JB Weld ... and just about the time I was pulling out of the parking lot it hit me: why not just use a straight router bit and route out a larger slot and glue in a dutchman and then route the dovetail slot in that ?

I have the bit (mentioned above)

I have the glue.

And I have a piece of 3/4 x 3/4 x 8' pine molding ... which looks like it almost matches the table top color-wise. By the time I hit the on ramp I had convinced myself. The JB Weld will be going back.

Stopped by the grocery on the way back and picked up some potato chips for The Woman and a couple of cans of cat food for the furry beasts until we can get out and do a proper restock at the pet store.

Woman had baked a few more potatoes and had the meatloaf and gravy warmed up by the time I hit the door.

She actually had a meatloaf sandwich Tuesday night, a definite sign She was on the mend ... (y)

After dinner that night I got the slots cut in the piece of ply for the pipe clamp rack.

Three pieces of 2 1/2 clear tube cut and edges cleaned for the quad blast gate manifold.

Relief holes drilled in blast gate parts and some sanding done on those to remove what was left of the glue.

Last night after I finished grading the driveway, I realized that I hadn't been over to the barn to check the live trap so I headed back out and ran over with the Kubota.

Sure enough, there was a 'coon in the trap.

Scooped him and the trap up and brought him back over for some swimming lessons.

Once that was done I came inside and had a meatloaf sandwich which The Woman had fixed.

By the time I was done with that it had gotten too dark to dispose of the 'coon so that got left for today. A rather distasteful task to be sure, but much better than the alternative.

Spent more time working on the blast gate manifold last night. Got the last two pieces of clear plastic tube cut.

Also got upper and middle pieces of the manifold glued and screwed together:


These were the parts that had split.

Cut some strips of wood from a 2 x 4 to serve as a pattern/template and stuck those on the bottom piece of the manifold with some double-sided tape and then routed out a recess to form a channel for the dust and air to flow through:

Recess completed:
That bottom piece will get some 1/2" thick strips glued to its sides today that protrude above the top edge, allowing the two other pieces to be placed on top to form the blast gate manifold assembly.

Also started working on a couple of pieces last night to make a swing arm for a drop down vacuum hose that will be attached to the lumber rack on the wall. Sanding mostly, still need to layout the pattern and trim it out with the jig saw.

Hope everyone is having a decent Thursday ... (y)
Way back about 15 years ago, when the windshield on my ‘93 Caprice started leaking, I used some 1.5” fabric&butyl roof repair tape around to perimeter as a “temporary” repair, which lasted to the day it went to the junkyard almost a decade later. Peel&Stick. Not really all that noticeable, if you lay it out straight…
 
Last edited:
   / Good morning!!!! #165,677  
51F and partly cloudy @ 13:30. That should be the high for today.

Yesterday's high was 67F, which set another record for the high temp on that date.

Up late today, was out in the garage until around 03:00 last night, got to bed around 04:00.

Yesterday would have been a perfect day to be cutting down plywood sheets with the circular saw so that they are easier to handle. Only problem is that I'm not far enough along with the plans to know what they need to be cut down to ... :rolleyes:

I contented myself with checking the tire pressure in The Woman's ride and airing up those up (all were low) Stuck the code reader on it as well and read the current code P0174 - lean condition - and cleared it. We'll see if that was a fluke and whether it comes back. So far it hasn't.

Aired up the tires on ther Sprinter while I was at it and checked on the plywood in the back. It appears I have a pretty good leak at the roof vent. Will need to handle that at some point, probably with some Lexel.

Woman also took advantage of the nice weather: She was out working in the garden rolling up weed block that we never got around to taking up last year at the end of the season.

Emptied out the buckets of cat litter and compostables into the bucket on the Kubota and hauled that up to the compost pile and buried it.

Decided to take advantage of the nice weather so I graded the driveway with the box blade and pulled a little material from the crusher run pile to fill in the chuck holes that were starting to form.

Trip down to Canal Fulton the other day ended up being rather illuminating. Noticed that there is a new Tractor Supply going in next to the Belle Stores on Portage. Having a TSC within a couple miles of home will be very handy I'm sure. Wish it was a Rural King though.

Tuesday evening I got 99% of the gum and varnish cleaned off of a 3/4" straight router bit that was included with the router ... that will come in very handy after the "unfortunate incident" the other day.

Failed to get the dovetail router bit sufficiently tight and it walked up in the router collet while I was routing a slot ... 🤬

I'd be lying if I said that there weren't any adult beverages involved in that fiasco.

Tuesday I got a notification that the four 4' LED lights had come in up at Menards in Kent and being as I was itching to get the slots done I headed off to pick those and JB Weld Wood Putty up to fix the disaster.

Spent $20 on two tubes of JB Weld ... and just about the time I was pulling out of the parking lot it hit me: why not just use a straight router bit and route out a larger slot and glue in a dutchman and then route the dovetail slot in that ?

I have the bit (mentioned above)

I have the glue.

And I have a piece of 3/4 x 3/4 x 8' pine molding ... which looks like it almost matches the table top color-wise. By the time I hit the on ramp I had convinced myself. The JB Weld will be going back.

Stopped by the grocery on the way back and picked up some potato chips for The Woman and a couple of cans of cat food for the furry beasts until we can get out and do a proper restock at the pet store.

Woman had baked a few more potatoes and had the meatloaf and gravy warmed up by the time I hit the door.

She actually had a meatloaf sandwich Tuesday night, a definite sign She was on the mend ... (y)

After dinner that night I got the slots cut in the piece of ply for the pipe clamp rack.

Three pieces of 2 1/2 clear tube cut and edges cleaned for the quad blast gate manifold.

Relief holes drilled in blast gate parts and some sanding done on those to remove what was left of the glue.

Last night after I finished grading the driveway, I realized that I hadn't been over to the barn to check the live trap so I headed back out and ran over with the Kubota.

Sure enough, there was a 'coon in the trap.

Scooped him and the trap up and brought him back over for some swimming lessons.

Once that was done I came inside and had a meatloaf sandwich which The Woman had fixed.

By the time I was done with that it had gotten too dark to dispose of the 'coon so that got left for today. A rather distasteful task to be sure, but much better than the alternative.

Spent more time working on the blast gate manifold last night. Got the last two pieces of clear plastic tube cut.

Also got upper and middle pieces of the manifold glued and screwed together:


These were the parts that had split.

Cut some strips of wood from a 2 x 4 to serve as a pattern/template and stuck those on the bottom piece of the manifold with some double-sided tape and then routed out a recess to form a channel for the dust and air to flow through:

Recess completed:
That bottom piece will get some 1/2" thick strips glued to its sides today that protrude above the top edge, allowing the two other pieces to be placed on top to form the blast gate manifold assembly.

Also started working on a couple of pieces last night to make a swing arm for a drop down vacuum hose that will be attached to the lumber rack on the wall. Sanding mostly, still need to layout the pattern and trim it out with the jig saw.

Hope everyone is having a decent Thursday ... (y)
You know, as soon as you return the JB Weld, you will need to buy some. . .
 
   / Good morning!!!! #165,679  
34F cloudy.

Work flew by :) Mrs. con me into food shopping...again :( afternoon clean all the roof walks paths 4" wet sloppy snow 🙄 decided to plow driveway with pickup for the speed to roll the snow further...work well.

Plans for the evening...spent much need time in the old recliner until pillow time.

Enjoy your evening all.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #165,680  
Good (Friday) morning. Overnight Low of 8.2C and it's presently 19.1C, partly cloudy with a gentle breeze.

I purchased a few things on-line; a couple of cases of wine (one of 'Malbec' and the other 'Pinot Noir'), and a new carabiner-watch. I prefer that type of watch, which hangs from a belt loop, since the days of my motorcycle riding days as gloves would tend to jamb a wrist-watch up the forearm and I wouldn't have to remove it when working on anything electrical/electronic.

I also purchased my ticket to this years AGFEST in early May.

Whilst Z-turn mulching Paddock #6 (mid-arvo, Wed.) a large shadow passed over me that I initially thought was an airplane... then dismissed that as I looked up to see a Wedge-Tailed eagle circling in an updraft. These raptors are huge, with an over 2 metre wingspan. Well, yesterday arvo I noticed two of these eagles wheeling away high above the property. Magnificent to watch.

Tomorrow I'll be late to this thread as I'm off early (0730) to Ross for a meeting.

That's about it, take care all.
 
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