Good morning!!!!

[sodamo]

63°F and .16 inches rain

Another overcast day ahead, this last day of 2025

With help of son, pulled the fans and motor from stove hood. Replacement capacitor on order, but almost 20 years greasy build up to remove before reinstalling.

Kids want to hit one of the farmer markets today.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great tractor day

 

[riptides]

With the caveat that I am not an electrician, yes I would get the wire up.

You may have what is known as an Ufer ground (after the engineer who invented it, Herbert Ufer), where the grounds are attached to the rebar in reinforced concrete. It is a much more effective ground than ground rounds. I bring this up as a reason why you might not want to get rid of the existing ground system.

IIRC, my recollection is that the ground wire(s) around here need to be visible, as does the ground rod top itself and the connections, so inspectors can verify that the connections are tight, and functioning, but I don't know if being behind an enclosure door counts*. The NEC was updated recently to require two ground rods, or the testing of a single one to a resistance of 25 ohms or less. Bear in mind a new second ground rod needs to be at least 8' away and at least 8' in length, 5/8" in diameter, and be driven so that the UL markings are visible, e.g. right end up. I have known of inspectors who have been known to quibble whether the 8' burial rule means the top needs to be buried or not.
(* Does the UFER Ground require to be visible? says doors are allowed.)

https://www.mikeholt.com/newsletters.php?action=display&letterID=2291

As always, I would check your local codes. My $0.02 would be to replace the wire, and put the ground rod and wires behind a door, as driving a new rod would likely require the enclosure door, and a second rod driven outside, and wired in, or two rods outside, because I suspect driving an 8' rod in your basement might get tricky.

All the best,

Peter

Very informative post.

All I can add is don't try and remove it. Ask me how I know. LOL. You may need explosives.

 

[ponytug]

@daugen I have watched a number of Temple Grandin's recorded lectures and interviews over the years, but I've never managed to meet her in person. We did install our limited cattle handling equipment in accordance with her guidelines, and use it when vaccinating or loading cattle into trailers, which makes the loading very easy for the cows and us.

Over the years, I've worked with a fair few that identify as being on the spectrum and more that probably were/are, and I am reminded of the California advice of "going with the flow" to enable them to work to the best of their abilities. YMMV, and I guess I come out as nobody is average and everybody is different, so life goes more smoothly for all if one works with everyone's needs. (Or cattle/horses/birds... as the case may be.)

Speaking of birds, we have a young mountain lion getting up things at the moment. He was chasing the neighbor's llama last night about dusk, and then went after "their" feral peacock before heading off. I suspect he was just kicked out of his maternal den, (nearby) so I hope he moves on sooner rather than later as he figures out which way is up, but gosh he is a gorgeous animal.

Generally, the time when they are kicked out of the den is the only time that they will eat prey other than deer, except in extreme old age. As at the moment there is an abundance of deer around here, he is not likely to go hungry. The neighbors shared a video of him wandering off and walking smoothly through a four wire barbed wire fence as if it wasn't there. One of them had been running around after the mountain lion, which strikes me as a high probability way to end up in the ER. I was concerned about an animal with rabies or an encephalitis until I saw the video.

It is a gray drizzly day here, but much warmer, having gone from the thirties to the fifties.

Happy New Year to all of you and best wishes for a better 2026!

All the best,

Peter

 

[two_bit_score]

Happy New Year's Eve! Good Morning!

Been a nice beginning to the last day of 2025!

Nice weather and looking forward to a big bowl of Tortilla soup tomorrow!

It's busy with the reporting deadlines for so many things right now. Most candidates have until the 15th of January to get their campaign finance reports filed but the books close at midnight tonight.

Everyone have a wonderful last day of 2025 and Happy New Year! Prayers for our nation!

 

[kenmbz]

Happy New Years to all and may 2026 be a great year!

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Good evening all. 17ºF in St Ann, MO, overcast, windy. Wind slowed down through the day, Sky cleared off and clouded up again as I drove south and high temp for day in TX was 42ºF. Made coffee to start day, drove back to Texas, unpacked, did load of laundry, Worked on posting.
resuming
Buppies sorry to hear about power issues. Glad to hear A1C good.praying for you and Holly.
Friend(trac) a belated Happy Birthday.
Frits sorry wife scalded her hand, prayers for quick recovery.

Welcome Home!

And theseView attachment 4655381the Fish have been around a long time. Flowers seem to make Holly happy. After we eat dinner she has no memory of what she ate or where

Prayers for all silent or spoken Dons BIL, mostly, Kyle’s and his family, Thomas, others I forget our Country

Thank you for the prayers. Prayers for you and Holly. You have a lot to deal with. I pray for things to smooth out.

this may sound fairly strange...but I'd love to take a class taught by Temple Grandin in Colorado.
The movie they made about her continues to just grab me emotionally.
No it's not a deficit
it's a gift
then I think of Kyle and I know this chocolate and roses ending is not
realistic for the more profoundly affected autistic kids.
but wow, to give a young person hope?

hope can be a powerful gift
of course I'm hoping for world peace
hope is clearly not always rewarded...

over half of Texas's cattleyards have equipment designed
by Temple Grandin. More contented cows is not only more humane but
efficient and profitable.

have any of you met her personally?
she just defines inspirational and her gift is that she can see
the world in ways that you and I cannot.

Thanks Drew. It has been a tough battle when she gets angered from things that she doesn't like. Trying to get her on SS disability. I've been told the road to SS disability is long and arduous. If, we can get her on it, I want to set her up in her own tiny home in our backyard. This way she won't be stressed from noises that we make in everyday life. She has gained so much weight on the meds that help keep her calm.

We like the Temple Grandin movie and her accomplishments. Just like with any sect of humans, those with autism are all over the spectrum.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

 

[Jim Shooz]

Happy New Year! (in New Zealand, already).

Yes its here already and not looking too bad. and 24 degrees C

 

[m7040]

interesting video

Wife had a rough night but got her interested in watching Landman. The shoulders are getting more painful

Seeing scenes from Permian Basin in Landman, it does not look much different from when working out there many years ago
Closest airport was Midland and drive from Dallas took many hours to get there out I 20. Having spent a great deal of my life in Texas I still identify with it and the projects that I worked on

Hope you can work it out for your daughter Kyle. Medical records and hospitalization records were very helpful to get SS approval in our cases

Happy New year to all

 

[Looking4new]

Good Tractor Morning,

Gee Don, my prayers go out to this man, long hard road for sure

GM Bill, I want an engine out in front of me I have driven a Mack Cab Over and hated it That and the square gears in the transmission

I hated the slab cab Mack I used to drive, but that was only for 1 summer. I had a Freightliner COE with a bunk for 8 years. That is what I learned to pull trains with. I loved it. I do NOT like looking across a football field to see where I am going.
Picture this; two trucks traveling down a road, truck #1 is a conventional, truck #2 is a cab over. They are both doing 60 mph. The both hit a moose. Which truck drives away from the scene? The Cab over.
The conventional has to have all of the hood replaced, plus the rad and possibly the water pump, too.
Square gears don't bother me, I used to drive an international dump truck 5x4 all of them square. You learn very quickly that the clutch is your worst enemy unless going into reverse.

Happy New Year, all.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Yes its here already and not looking too bad. and 24 degrees C

Lets do the time warp again..

 

[rswyan]

28F and cloudy with steady snow @ 14:30, calling for a high of 30F for the day. Still under a Winter Weather Advisory, primary concern is lake effect snow. Snowfall still only around an inch or so here.

Woman's car cleaned off and pathway out shoveled. She is headed out for a few items before things close down for New Years Eve.

Food and water set out for feral kitty set out first thing yesterday Some of it was eaten before it got dark, then all cleaned up by 05:00 when I called quits.

Half a laundry basket of old papers burned in the wood furnace.

Several more cavities in between joists filled in with unfaced fiberglass insulation, one more cavity vacuumed out.

Attempted clean off some of the old insulation that had been taken down, a lot of it went in the trash.

Got another polyiso panel cut down to fit below the window in between the breaker boxes.

Ground wire from the 200A main breaker box bent up off the floor, concrete wire brushed and vacuumed, then scrubbed down with some water and a scrub brush.

Some additional organizing and clean up work done as well.

Garage was down to 33F late last night when I checked so I turned on the torpedo heater and let it run for a while. Was 36F when I checked a few minutes ago.

On the agenda today:

Dole out another week's worth of meds.

Hopper feeder probably due for a refill.

Pay one of the phone bills.

Maybe run down to Ace Hardware and pick up a couple of 3/4 90 degree elbows and a close nipple so I can work on extending the gas line into the garage.

Caulk the joint at the wall/floor junction that I cleaned last night.

Get the next section of polyiso glued up, placed, and braced.

Empty debris canister on whole house vacuum again.

Take a gander at the furnace filter and see how it looks, probably change it out as it's been 45 days since it was last replaced.

Still trying to locate straps for 3/4 copper pipe, hopefully those will turn up today.

Woman has the Bob Evans sausage out thawing, for the dumplings and sauerkraut.

Maybe we can persuade Her to make a little more pumpkin bread for desert ...

Hope everyone is having a decent New Years Eve Day ...

 

[LouNY]

Seeing scenes from Permian Basin in Landman, it does not look much different from when working out there many years ago
Closest airport was Midland and drive from Dallas took many hours to get there out I 20. Having spent a great deal of my life in Texas I still identify with it and the projects that I worked on

Happy New year to all

I spent several years working in the Odessa area, Seminole Tx. was home for several years. Lots of work in and around Andrews and Denver city. Then down to Fort Stockton for a few years, plus much of Eastern NM.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I did a couple projects in San Antonio area of TX back in the 80s.

put more antifreeze in one of the geo loops, and changed the filters on both units.

started pellet stove in garage to warm it up some

 

[Thomas]

21F cloudy.

Good day at work,afternoon think I did just to earn my dinner.

Good chance I won't see ball drop for 2026,I shall continue working on my 1968 new years resolutions 2026.

Enjoy your evening all.

May 2026 bring good health wealth for you and your love ones.

 

[rswyan]

Considering it will be buried behind a new wall, I would drill a hole in the concrete and drive a new rod and run a new piece of #4 THHN to the panel. You could relocate the new rod to make it accessible or closer to the panel if that made sense.

RS, I agree on the new ground wire. Could be a lot of pinholes in that wire covered over by
green grunge. With all the other work you've done, while it's out and exposed,
tell your wife you had 22 consultants and they all said to change out the wire.

With the caveat that I am not an electrician, yes I would get the wire up.

You may have what is known as an Ufer ground (after the engineer who invented it, Herbert Ufer), where the grounds are attached to the rebar in reinforced concrete. It is a much more effective ground than ground rods. I bring this up as a reason why you might not want to get rid of the existing ground system.

IIRC, my recollection is that the ground wire(s) around here need to be visible, as does the ground rod top itself and the connections, so inspectors can verify that the connections are tight, and functioning, but I don't know if being behind an enclosure door counts*. The NEC was updated recently to require two ground rods, or the testing of a single one to a resistance of 25 ohms or less. Bear in mind a new second ground rod needs to be at least 8' away and at least 8' in length, 5/8" in diameter, and be driven so that the UL markings are visible, e.g. right end up. I have known of inspectors who have been known to quibble whether the 8' burial rule means the top needs to be buried or not.
(* Does the UFER Ground require to be visible? says doors are allowed.)

https://www.mikeholt.com/newsletters.php?action=display&letterID=2291

As always, I would check your local codes. My $0.02 would be to replace the wire, and put the ground rod and wires behind a door, as driving a new rod would likely require the enclosure door, and a second rod driven outside, and wired in, or two rods outside, because I suspect driving an 8' rod in your basement might get tricky.

All the best,

Peter

Very informative post.

All I can add is don't try and remove it. Ask me how I know. LOL. You may need explosives.

Thanks guys.

Yeah ... figured I'd go ahead and drill a hole in the floor and drive another one in. Maybe add a second one outside.

Can do so a couple of feet north of the main breaker panel, which would put it 8' away from the existing ground rod ... which I will leave connected and in place. Might leave an opening in the wall and put up a removable wood panel over both of them ... just to avoid any future issues.

Possibility that the existing ground could be a Ufer, looks like the patch on the concrete is quite a bit larger than it needs to be just to sink a pipe. It is right next to a cast wye drain which protrudes above the concrete several inches and drains the kitchen sink and has a clean out (which was used to tie in the laundry drain)

Pretty sure the copper-clad ground rods I have are 5/8" and 8' long.

Have Grandpa's old 3' auger bit I could use to get enough drop on the new ground rod once the hole is drilled in the floor so I can get on top of it with the hammer drill.

Of course driving it in will be a crap shoot ... last time I tried driving one out in the barn I hit a rock about 5' or 6' down and it wasn't going anywhere after that.

Thanks again.

 

[Highlandr]

I guess I should have replaced the gaskets on the fireplace doors sooner. My routine has been to fill the small wood rack inside about 8 or 9pm and that lasts until I get out and about the next morning. Did same last night and just now put the last two sticks on (5pm). So I've been burning about 1.5-2x what I should have been.

Miserable wind today. The smoke from the chimney has been blowing straight down to the ground. Grandpa always said that was a sign snow was on the way. Not this time Grandpa.

 

[Engineer42]

Looks like snow.

 

[scott_vt]

Good Tractor Evening Ken,

Did work on a signal generator project where they package the parts and a board and you assemble. Got that done and working pretty quick. Now I have the built in generator on my 'Scope and an external to "run" things.

Nice work Ken , looks like fun !

 

[scott_vt]

Good Tractor Evening Bill,

You learn very quickly that the clutch is your worst enemy unless going into reverse.

Low RPM shifting is what I learned with unbelievable amount of torque, I could be in the wrong gear and still pull the load with that Mack