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What are you doing today, II

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I decided to head out to camp and have a beer or nine ish. Lol. I was up at 620 and on the road home by 7 as I had work to do. I hooked up the trailer and went to grab a load of scrap wood from my parents new place for the firepit at home. While I was there, we had a visitor next door only a 100 feet away.
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Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Looks like the bear wants to come inside!

Yesterday and again today I took out Dasha on my wife's motorcycle. As my bike has a cargo rack replacing the rear seat it probably would be far less comfortable for her to ride pillion on the back of my bike. She loves to ride, eventually wants to learn how for herself. We also had some helmet fun with Kobe
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Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Baby sitting this morning.

Just had fun this afternoon. Rain was not supposed to start until 5pm, so, of course, it started at 2pm.

But it was simply a great ride. I intended to go east but turned west and rode southwest before I figured out that I was going to continue that way. Ended up visiting the Bradley house in Kankakee designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Prairie Style of architecture common during the early 1900’s. My home was designed in 1912 by one of Wright’s partners, in Wright’s Oak Park, IL studio, by an architect named Walter Burley Griffin. Griffin’s wife did a painting of the Bradley house, and was one of the early female architects.

On the way home I stopped at an old drive in where you park under a canopy. Had some home-made root beer and a Chicago style Polish sausage as a late lunch. Came home a different way and stopped off at a really cool church. Temps dropped 10-15 degrees from sunny and pleasant to very cool and raining. At the church I put on a Gore Tex jacket over my mesh, but armored motorcycle jacket, it blocked the wind and made the final leg of the ride much more comfortable.

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300 H and H

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
Sitting in my Mack trucks today delivering corn that will end up in Bush beer one day..... 4th of July if I were to guess lol.
We have several days left of trucking corn. Much cooler temps this morning are welcome, and the temp in the grain bins can get uncomfortable in a hurry in sunny hot weather. But this is the weather and time of year the most beer is being drank lol.
 

FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
I will be finishing the sideboards on my newest 24' dump trailer.

I built a box using 5/4 treated decking that is 8' wide by 12' long and 20" high..

That should hold 160 Cubic feet or approximately 6 cubic yards.

Weight of a load of limestone should be12,000 lbs. I will likely dial that back and keep loads limited to 5 tons.

My Dodge one ton holds just ,,,, well ,,,one ton of 1' clean gravel. So this will save a lot of trips to the quarry. So it well be5 to 1.

And the bonus,,,,; I don't have to unload it one shovel at a time.
 

m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I'm at the work cabin, I ran the 1000' of 1-1/2" pvc I brought with me on Thursday. This morning I found 300' here in Susanville for $.10 more per ft. than Home so I bought all of it and ran another 220,' so now its from where I have to cross the road and run a couple hundred feet up the hill to the spring down the road a 1/4 mile then a hundred feet to the tank. So that means another couple hundred feet of pipe. I will pick up another 300' or so at home so I can finish and have a little extra. The guy at the pipe store said his supplier told him there is a polymer shortage and PVC the glue and most things plastic are going to get hard to find and expensive soon. I can't post any pics as the hotspot on my phone won't get it done. I am headed home tomorrow and will post in the camp life section.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Kobe has an early morning doctor's visit so the Lovely Mrs_Bob will be taking him there.

I'll be working on cleaning, priming and painting some old wood bookshelves for Melen's apartment. They are in pretty good shape, but the finish is in trouble. Plan is to paint them to match the new decor of her apartment. These are BIG book cases. 3 units designed to sit side-by-side measuring 7' tall and 9' wide overall. So it will fill her wall nicely when it is all done. Found them on Facebook Marketplace for way cheaper than we could get cheap Ikea type bookcases, and these already look a lot better.

I've also got a lot of tree branches that need to go down to the burn pile. Scattered around the property are 5 or 6 mounds of pruned lower branches that should have been cut long ago. Makes a big difference to have them cut off, opens up some sight lines, makes things look nicer, will make lawn mowing easier under some of the low branches too. NOT SURE that all of them will get down to the burn pile. Pretty sure that might be a couple day project moving all of them down the paths to the pile.

This evening my fencing club is hosting a club from Chicago. They are coming down to have their students fence ours. Just a friendly get together of clubs, not a competition. The owners of that club are good friends, they do a lot more competitions than we do so they want to expose their students to different fencers so they don't get into the same habits while fencing the same kids over and over.
 

pirate_girl

legendary ⚓
GOLD Site Supporter
I've been asked to check up on my friends cat, Hazel the siamese.
Just go to her house, make sure her highness has food and water.
She said good luck with actually seeing her, she'll run and hide as soon as you open the door.
It's overcast and blah outside.
 

Bigus

Member
I've been asked to check up on my friends cat, Hazel the siamese.
Just go to her house, make sure her highness has food and water.
She said good luck with actually seeing her, she'll run and hide as soon as you open the door.
It's overcast and blah outside.
We’ve has Siamese for years.
They have a bad rap for being evil.
They are arrogant though.
Dogs need masters.
Cats, especially Siamese, require servants.

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FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
Recovering from last week end's activities.

Loaded the new trailer with 10,000 Lbs of 1" clean limestone gravel and headed to Hippie Ridge. Our Ozark Ranchette.

The trip down I-44 went well with no problems. Until I got to the gravel road. The Dodge performed well and made the first steep 7% grade with ease. But it was a short hill. The next one was a 1/4 mile narrow gravel piece with about a 3% grade until the very end. About 7%. The Truck just stalled spinning it's wheels in the loose creek gravel.

So I backed all the way down and made a faster run for it. Backing was tedious and slow as braking in the loose gravel was dangerously heading my loaded trailer to the distiches on either side.

On the second try I got about 30 feet farther up the grade but the results were, again, failure.

As I backed all the way down again, a neighbor offered to put his 1500 GMC in front of me with 4 wheel drive. He got set as I backed once again 1/4mile to make a good run. I put the truck in 2nd ( automatic) and stepped on the brake. Torque'd the truck up to 2,000 PM's, released the brake and let fly. Wheels spinning, rocks flying,,,10 MPH,,, then 15MPH,,,,, then 20 MPH. The Cummins was roaring near red line.

25MPH, 27 MPH,30 MPH the narrow spot coming soon , 32 MPH, 33MPH , 35 MPH ,,,passed the narrow spot ,then the washboard, then the 7% grade then...then 25MPH,,, then20 Then ,,,,,, full stop.

On the third attempt I came within 60 feet of the summit. Set my brakes and got out to attach chains. His GMC attached, we easily reached the top. He unhooked chains, shook my hand as he refused any offerings for his help.


One more hill, not as bad. 20 MPH , 25MPH, 30, 33, this one we will make for sure.

Except just as I came within reach of the summit., a JEPP came over the hill, MY JEEP, with MY WIFE IN IT!!!!

AWGHH!

"Where have you been," she asked?

"Where have you been?" I retorted.

She had gone on ahead instead of staying close as we planned. She was frustrated. , I was pissed!

"You could have helped. The JEEP is four wheel drive!" I said.

"Really?" I doubt it" She sneered

The rest of the way to Hippie ridge was level and uneventful.

That is until.....;
...the driveway. Where the trailer became stuck in the mud. With not one but two flat tires.

"Back the JEEP up and tow me out." I said.


She scoffed, "It won't pull that big rig"

I looked a Joe, he shrugged and headed for the JEEP.

My son got in and backed it up. Chains connected to both, the truck and the JEEP moved forward, and,,,, connected, it pulled right out.

Easily!


Later, Standing by the loaded trailer with two flats, "we don't have a jack to lift that." she said.

I thought for a moment, she's right. How do we do this?

Then I thought of something kinda Micgiverish.
"YES we do!' I shouted.

I opened the locker doors and put the dump bed in tilt. as I raised it, the tailboard hit the ground and lifted the whole unit.

Awesome! Now all we have to do is remove the wheels and get the tires fixed or replaced.

"Piece of cake" I said.

WRONG!

Both wheels had cross threaded lug nuts!
Brand new trailer so those nuts were cross threaded at the factory.


After considerable effort , I had removed all but two of them. All I had was a standard "X" wrench which didn't have the leverage.

So,,,,; It now sits, one spare on and one wheel still hung up with two bad lug nuts.

Next weekend I'll be there with anti seize spray and a 4' breaker bar.





I opened a cold Sam Adams and took it down in one gulp.

After that things looked a bit better.


Other than this little annoyance, it was a great day!

Met a new neighbor
Got the gravel load on the property.

Sunset was awesome.....
 
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NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Wow. Quite the adventure. Things don't always go as planned.

I headed to the city for physio then came home and got to work. First up was swapping out a faulty speed sensor on the golf cart. Then a quick meeting with our foster care worker.

After the meeting I headed back out to do some work on the old 5th wheel camper. It has a rear bumper hitch to tow a boat behind but the ball was the wrong size. Not only was it loose but it was rusted solid. So I hauled out the grinder since I don't have cutting torches. An hour and 3 grinding discs later I managed to cut through the ball stud and nut then installed a new 2" ball.

I then turned my attention to the awning on the camper that had a few holes and was previously repaired using both red tuct tape and grey duct tape. I replaced all the tape with clear awning tape. Good enough for now.

When I finished that, I tackled a leaking gutter on the house spraying flex seal on it from the inside. Not a huge fan of flex seal but it's what I had.

So I figured I deserved a little fun down time and decided to take the side by side for a short ride. Wouldn't you know it, I managed to get a flat tire. Well, it was very low on air. So I limped it home and filled it up with air then decided to check on the hot tub chemicals and do a little maintenance and cleaning on it. I advised the war department that I wasn't cooking supper. She also didn't feel like cooking so she headed off to Kakabeka falls a few miles down the road to pick up chicken and wedges. The grocery store there makes it fresh and always has it hot n ready.
 

FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
Getting prepared for the weekend at Hippie Ridge.
One new tire on a wheel
Breaker bar with a 1/2"drive
1/2" extension and a 15/16 socket
1,))) BB's for the grandson's Daisy Rifle

( For the life of me,I cannot reason why they named it "Daisy")

For the Springfield house
Some 1"PCelbows fort he gas line jacket.
Duplex Wall plug to replace the one that caught fire.
Sawzall to cut the back plastic wall of the storage shed.

Bottle of scotch to celebrate. Assuming all goes as planned.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Another busy day yesterday. No appointments for me for a change. I'm bringing the boat out to camp today along with my wife and the 4 younger kids for the first time this summer since restrictions were lightened this week.

I wanted to test out the boat behind the fifth wheel to see if the lights all worked and take it for a test run. The trailer alone behind the f150 I can barely feel. It's only 23ft. I ended up spending about 2 hrs rewiring the connection between the truck and camper and then between the camper and boat. Aftee my test run, I came home and unpinned the boat and headed out again with just the camper behind to kakabeka falls down the road to get some extra keys cut for it. What my test run with the boat indicated is that I have to raise the hitch back to its regular position to get the boat and camper sitting level.
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m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Another busy day yesterday. No appointments for me for a change. I'm bringing the boat out to camp today along with my wife and the 4 younger kids for the first time this summer since restrictions were lightened this week.

I wanted to test out the boat behind the fifth wheel to see if the lights all worked and take it for a test run. The trailer alone behind the f150 I can barely feel. It's only 23ft. I ended up spending about 2 hrs rewiring the connection between the truck and camper and then between the camper and boat. Aftee my test run, I came home and unpinned the boat and headed out again with just the camper behind to kakabeka falls down the road to get some extra keys cut for it. What my test run with the boat indicated is that I have to raise the hitch back to its regular position to get the boat and camper sitting level. View attachment 137786
If you can back that rig down the driveway, you are a much better trucker than me.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Lol. Actually, we have a long drive that turns towards the house and loops around so I can just drive in, unhook the boat then whip it around and back up to the garage. I could probably do it though as when I used to run the trail groomer, the machine itself articulated in the middle then the drag was about 22ft long. Backing that thing up down a narrow trail was interesting when the drag was 10ft wide and the trail was only 12 ft wide in some areas. And because it was in the snow with a narrow wheel base on the drag and the wheels cutting down in the snow, it made things interesting.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
We just got home from camp. While we were packing up on Friday to head out, I took a quick look on Facebook marketplace and noticed a gas powered golf cart for sale just listed. In less then an hour, I was going to pick it up. Comparing to other gas powered units, this one was priced for much less. We already had a battery powered cart at home but the batteries were getting weak. I originally bought it last summer for 2200. I listed it for 3000 and had several people interested. I sold it for the same price we paid for the gas one.
 

FrancSevin

Proudly Deplorable
GOLD Site Supporter
Gas/plumber company never showed up Friday. I dug the ditch and had the PVC shrouding pipe ready but no show. Two calls were answered, "you are on the schedule."

Well somebody didn't get the message. Saturday would have been emergency rates so we will reschedule again next week or so.

It two almost two hours of hard work with the 4' breaker bar and some anti seize to clear the cross threaded lug nuts. What was left was three virtually bare studs. Out of the eight that holds the wheel on. I managed to get the other 5 on and no empties two were together so we felt safe to bring the unloaded trailer home.

I'll be calling the manufacturer's rep in the morning.

The other issue is the rock would not dump. With the bed all the way up we still had to pull the gravel down with a rake and some shovels. Not sure how I will solve that one. That said, it was easier and a lot more per load even with that extra effort.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Organized some of the garage shelving. Moved some of it around to keep things more organized. Shelving units are now dedicated to product types. They started that way. But over time things get mixed up, paint on the tool shelves, etc. Now paint is with paint, cleaning supplies with cleaning supplies, etc.

Moved a broken refrigerator out of the garage. It will not be replaced. Honestly with the 2 of us, plus a tiny baby in the house, we just don't need 2 refrigerators + 2 freezers. So when the garage refrigerator died, we decided that there was no reason to fix it.
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I spent the morning helping my neighbor install a pool liner at someone else's house down the road. He worked in the pool and hot tub industry for years and had a business with up to 75 employees at one point. He's now 49 and semi retired doing the odd pool job on the side. We started filling it with a simple garden hose to get a head start before the water truck delivered a large portion of water later today.


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m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Went back out to the boat today. I scraped down and sand the bright work and started applying Sikkns Cetol. Its a clear coating for the wood that is tougher and easier to touch up than Varnish. Likely going to take a couple weeks of here and there to get it done.
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m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
went and picked up another 300 'of 1-1/2" pvc to finish the spring line at the work cabin. Headed there in the morning.
 
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Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
92(F) degrees. 76% humidity. Sunny. Pretty sure I could have cooked an egg on my helmet. So I went for a ride, thru a swamp.


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