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What are you doing today?

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FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
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Today, I am at the plant receiving an emergency shipment of materials to complete our first order of COVID-19 "Good Health" Kits.
We have to produce 20,000 more by noon Monday.

Aldo, mowing the lawn before the city cites us. It has rained every day for over a week and the grass is 10" of soaking wetness.
Then a pickup bed load of retaining wall block salvaged from dad's house. It's mostly "HANDI stone" which is no longer available. This is the original version, and my favorite for landscaping low walls.

Humidity and temperatures are about the same, somewhere in the high 80's. No mercy for this old fart. I'll get 'er done 'cause I have to. I need the truck to haul lumber to the lake so as to finish the deck at camp.

I plan to use some of the stone as well.
https://www.patiotown.com/landscaping-products/other-wall-systems/handy-stone
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
All this covid stuff going on, plus more and more testing positive, we're going to get a special isolation unit sat up with a zip wall.
I can't say a whole lot more about it right now.

This COVID stuff isn't getting any better that I can see. Be careful.

It got into one of the nursing homes in our little town and that accounted for 5 of the 6 deaths in town. 30 of the staff have tested positive at last count. I don't know how they are still operating. Of the 12 deaths in our county, at least 10 of them have been associated with two nursing homes. It's not exactly running rampant but people are still being stupid and we keep clicking up new cases every day.

As I said, be careful.
 
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EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I got all the Johnson grass sprayed yesterday so that takes care of that.

The guy who is going to rebuild my dam dropped off two track hoes so he can start first thing Monday. The first order of business will be to rerun the natural gas line ... AGAIN.

I'll probably mow some of the yard today. The temperature is supposed to be hovering around 100° and the heat index will probably be pushing 110°. I think that I'll cut half of it today and finish it up tomorrow. I'm not on any timetable. The mower, after a new air filter, two new fuel filters and three new blades, should be running like a Ferrari. We'll see.
 

m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Got out there at 5:30 am, it was already nearly 80 degrees. I watered some plants until I could see then moved the frames to the back end of the container, then painted the remaining 25% of the top. Next I got the new bench top in place at the rear of the container but not welded out. It got too hot to work in there by 9:30 am. Carry on tomorrow.
 

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EastTexFrank

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Went down to the barn before lunch to get the mower. I stopped on the way to water the potatoes. I don't know why. Something has eaten the hell out of them. Got the mower and brought it back to the house. I was soaked already. I said, "Screw it. It's too hot" and called off work for the the day. It was 102°. It's supposed to be cooler, like in the mid 90s, tomorrow. I'll get back to work then ... maybe. Don't you just love August in the south.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
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This COVID stuff isn't getting any better that I can see. Be careful.

It got into one of the nursing homes in our little town and that accounted for 5 of the 6 deaths in town. 30 of the staff have tested positive at last count. I don't know how they are still operating. Of the 12 deaths in our county, at least 10 of them have been associated with two nursing homes. It's not exactly running rampant but people are still being stupid and we keep clicking up new cases every day.

As I said, be careful.
:heart1:
I'm being very careful, Frank.
We now have 4 confirmed positive cases in our residents.
3 women, all in their 70s with pre-existing health conditions, and 1 man in his 60s- same.

We've sent out 2 more to the hospital as of 4pm yesterday.
I'm particularly concerned about the one gentleman.
All of them have started off with temps over 101, with respiratory setting in very quickly.

In our back ward, intestinal flu symptoms are presenting themselves in 8 people.
It's proving to be a mixed bag of everything.
We have four rooms ready with 8 total beds in the new isolation unit.
We're hoping those beds won't be filled, but it's looking like that is going to happen.
This is very reminiscent of last January, only we weren't concerned about this thing called COVID-19.
We just knew we had a virus in the facility.
 

Lenny

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
P_G, I admire your dedication to helping people. I could never do it. I'm sure during times like this it has to be depressing. I guess that's why we have alcohol. Best wishes to you.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
P_G, I admire your dedication to helping people. I could never do it. I'm sure during times like this it has to be depressing. I guess that's why we have alcohol. Best wishes to you.

Lenny, I cried in the shower this morning.
I'm feeling maxed out, but know soon everything is going to be alright.
Right?
Is it Monday night yet?

You all have a great day.
 

Lenny

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
Lenny, I cried in the shower this morning.
I'm feeling maxed out, but know soon everything is going to be alright.
Right?
Is it Monday night yet?

You all have a great day.

Keep up the good work. Those people need you.

I hope you have a great day too.
 

m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Back out there at 5:30 this morning its another 105 degree day. I added a center support and a center support leg. Its now up to the task of holding all the batteries and inverter. I got it all welled out, tomorrow I will cut the sheetmetal top and get it welded on.
 

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pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
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Keep up the good work. Those people need you.

I hope you have a great day too.

It wasn't as horrible as it could have been.

Two of my peeps have septic pneumonia.
It is not coming back as covid at all.
I'm thinking they will not pull through.
Both are at St. V in Toledo.

I'm up doing the coffee thing.
Thank you God, for keeping me strong.
 

Lenny

Well-known member
SUPER Site Supporter
It wasn't as horrible as it could have been.

Two of my peeps have septic pneumonia.
It is not coming back as covid at all.
I'm thinking they will not pull through.
Both are at St. V in Toledo.

I'm up doing the coffee thing.
Thank you God, for keeping me strong.

You should get paid for your mental effort as well as your physical work.

I hope you make it through all of it well.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
You should get paid for your mental effort as well as your physical work.

I hope you make it through all of it well.

You mean like hazard pay??
:yum:
Our dear government leaders shot that down.

I do get a bonus, but you know that doesn't really mean a thing to me.

We're going to be ok, Lenny.
Thank you.
 

m1west

Well-known member
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Another hot one today, 103 degrees. I got out there at the same 5:30am and cut the top from 14 ga. sheet metal. I was able to get it welded on before it was too hot in the container. Next move is to weld coupling nuts on the wall to mount the charge controller plate. When the charge controller is mounted and I bolt the solar panel frames back on there mounts on top, its ready to go to the mountain.
 

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NorthernRedneck

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Drove my son to work 10 minutes west of home then headed 30 minutes east to the city to pick up lumber to build 3 raised garden boxes for the deck. My lovely wife has been wanting some since we moved out here. Since our anniversary was yesterday I figured it'd be a good time to build her some. Now I'm bbq' ing ribs for supper. Mmmmmm
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m1west

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Today its another hot one, I got the solar panel frames bolted on. I used Nylock nuts so the don't fall off on the way to the mountain, About the only thing left is getting the charge controller and braker box mounted and start making a ramp. I will paint the exterior and interior after its installed, there are still some welding to be done when I get there.
 

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NorthernRedneck

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Sweet setup. I'm starting to look into solar options for the boat to trickle charge when not in use.

Kind of a slow day today but still stayed busy-ish. Chiropractor worked on my back this morning. Took our youngest for a dr appointment this afternoon. Did some work out in the yard this afternoon. Took my wife out for supper. Sirloin steak medium rare and a lobster tail with garlic mashed potatoes. I'm stuffed.
 

m1west

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Sweet setup. I'm starting to look into solar options for the boat to trickle charge when not in use.

Kind of a slow day today but still stayed busy-ish. Chiropractor worked on my back this morning. Took our youngest for a dr appointment this afternoon. Did some work out in the yard this afternoon. Took my wife out for supper. Sirloin steak medium rare and a lobster tail with garlic mashed potatoes. I'm stuffed.

Thanks, the solar container project has consumed a considerable amount of my free time but it nearly a reality now. If it works as intended I should have enough power to never have to run the generator at the cabin. Not only fuel costs, but it consumes time that could be used for having fun or whatever. I added a mount for a future wind turbine if needed, I'm hoping not. Also the battery bank will be 3 times the size I have there currently. It will go to the cabin in a couple weeks. The solar equipment is a lot less $$ now than years passed, that helps a lot. You can get panels for about $.80 cents a watt now and the controllers are not expensive either. You might think about a solar generator on a trailer for your camp. That dinner you had there is making me hungry.
 

m1west

Well-known member
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This is the last thing that has to be done before taking it to the mountain next week. This morning I cut a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate 22"X28" to mount the charge controller and breaker boxes to then to the wall.
first I drilled the wall mounting holes and bolted 3/8" coupling nuts to the plate in the corners then welded the nuts to the wall. Plate was removed and now I am starting to mount the components to it.
The 6 cables from the 6 panels will go to the box with the 6 breakers first then to the charge controller through the fitting, then from the charge controller to the 100 amp DC breaker on the other side, out of there to the battery bank. Its a pretty simple hook up. The manufacturer recommends running cables from each panel separately with its own breaker. If there is any shading of the panels. If you tie them together and get shading on one it effects all of them like they are all getting shaded. There are plenty of trees there so some shading is going to happen.If I end up adding a wind generator it will require its own charge controller and add some complexity to it.
 

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Jim_S

Gone But Not Forgotten
GOLD Site Supporter
This is the last thing that has to be done before taking it to the mountain next week. This morning I cut a piece of 1/4" aluminum plate 22"X28" to mount the charge controller and breaker boxes to then to the wall.
first I drilled the wall mounting holes and bolted 3/8" coupling nuts to the plate in the corners then welded the nuts to the wall. Plate was removed and now I am starting to mount the components to it.
The 6 cables from the 6 panels will go to the box with the 6 breakers first then to the charge controller through the fitting, then from the charge controller to the 100 amp DC breaker on the other side, out of there to the battery bank. Its a pretty simple hook up. The manufacturer recommends running cables from each panel separately with its own breaker. If there is any shading of the panels. If you tie them together and get shading on one it effects all of them like they are all getting shaded. There are plenty of trees there so some shading is going to happen.If I end up adding a wind generator it will require its own charge controller and add some complexity to it.

Here’s a wiring diagram I've used. Hope it helps!
 

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pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
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This nurse has been taking care of 8 covid residents, now patients- on our isolation unit.
This virus is a sneaky, unpredictable bitch.
I'm living it people.
I never thought I would experience it, but I am.
It's bad for some, but not others.
I'm off now for 6 days which normally I would be jumping over.
I don't want to be away from them now.
 

Bannedjoe

Well-known member
Well, the new cooling unit for the fridge came in yesterday, 100 mi RT to pick it up.
The guy said it would take me about 3 hours to replace it.
My ass!

It didn't go nearly as nice or smooth as he described.
I started about 3 in the afternoon, and didn't have it back together until about midnight.
Most of the time was spent extracting the old unit which entailed using a drywall saw, and cutting the old one out that was encased with hard expanding foam.

Once I got it out, I was beat, but had to continue. We've been without a fridge for well over a week, and we're on the verge of loosing an armload of good food.

I got the new unit in, but it didn't seem to fit as well as the old one.
I fired it up and went to bed.

This morning the freezer seemed to be doing a pretty good job, but the fridge wasn't getting getting cold enough.
Granted these things take 10-12 hours to get to full cold, but I still wasn't happy about the fit.
Fortunately, I hadn't refoamed it so I could make sure it was working before I did.

I couldn't stand knowing it wasn't quite right, so I took it all apart again starting about 6 this morning.
After some adjusting and removing more of the old foam before putting it back together, it's much better now.

It's 10:30, and I still have to attack it with some caulking and put the doors back on.
I'm not a happy guy, and won't ever do this shit again.

Guaranteed, when this puppy quits choochin' someday, I'm definitely going with AC.
But hey, they gave me 3 years on the new cooling unit so, we'll see how I feel about the whole thing then.

So come about midnight tonight, I should know if this thing is batting 100%.
 

Big Dog

Large Member
Staff member
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Shot my new AR22 for the first time and to try a buddies fuel filter on the end of it. Took a high velocity to about the sound of a standard or plinking round. Took it back down to turn the scope, I didn’t have enough eye relief.

Well tender stopped by, told him to give me a heads up next time by, I surprised him with a Trump flag. He loved it and we BS for a hour. Took care of animals, threw out some peaches at the deer feeder and watching the state tar and chip our road ..... ��

Ain’t gonna be a good ride out of here, Bike Night is up next .... ��
 

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NorthernRedneck

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I'm 7 hours into an 8 hour trip. Brought my oldest son to see his mother for a week. Picked up a refrigerator there. Now waiting to pick up a propane oven for camp. Then another hour drive to get to camp.

Had to take a detour this morning as there was a fatal 3am accident involving 3 transports on the main highway. Picture a line up of 30 or so vehicles transports campers etc all doing 40mph for 80 miles on a third rate twisting highway with no shoulders. I did that twice today. Fun like diarrhea. Lol
 

m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Today I finished wiring the charge controller with the breaker boxes.
first the 6 cables from the solar panels come in the top of the large breaker box positive to the breakers and negative to the terminal strip. Then the #4 wires to the charge controller, then to the 100 amp DC breaker, then from the breaker to the battery bank. The blue wire is a battery temperature sensor.
 

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pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
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Happy Saturday morning to ya.
I'm finally getting my head on straight from stress and the worry.
I've been in close communication with coworkers concerning the covid situation.
So far it has not progressed beyond where we are now.
I'm up doing the coffee slam.
It's going to be a good day.

Fun Trivia was easy this morning.
I even remembered two shillings and a sixpence= half crown.
Lol
 
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