Never enough time

[steamin10]

Before the winter storm buried us in a foot of blowing snow, i used a shovel to modify the hose reel box and remove the reel. It now has spare water dishes and such supplies out of the weather for the chicken yard. We are having our first chicks hatching out, and it is real slow with a low number of survivors. (8 so far of 20) A scrap run of various wire cage refuse,, and stuff to clean the yard yielded another yard buggie, with a cracked plastic tub, and flat tires. They are the same style tires I filled with foam for the hand truck, now equipped with hard ten inch wheels. So the salvaged foam filled wheels will fit this thing. An aluminum strap around the rim will make the tub stable, and failing that, one of those mixing tubs from Menards can replace the cracked tub if needed.. I have several used as dunk tanks for wood staining and preservers. Today buddy Johnis coming for Breakfast, and we will again replace the Garage annex door spring , to get the door operational again. I need the space. It seems the springs purchased for the job have vanished into the black hole of storage, not to be found when needed. Another for the princely sum of $8 has been laid in.
The forecast is for 50's for temps, but the foot of snow wont wilt fast enough for me, and it will make for profuse mud.

Sadly , I got word Friday a member of my extended family died of advanced organ cancer. She was 44 and grew up the child of a close friend now long passed so an outing is scheduled for Sunday. RIP little one.

[steamin10]

Today, Sunday, I am counting chicks popping out of eggs in the hatcher, and Mom Rose has set up another batch of deep brown layerrs. We took a trip some 80 miles to pick up some ordered birds in 3 different strains. 50 birds were $300, but a meet on the way home netted $100 from another fancier, and we will foster another 20 birds until they reach 2 months old, when they will be sold out, leaving but half of what we bought, cost of purchase covered. We are targeting some Americana for the blue eggs, that 'easter egger' mutts dont guarentee. It is all about keeping up with the trends, to defray the cost of what you keep. Another building is waiting for the walls to rise, the floor being done for some time, form the re-purposed dog house, 8x12 or so. Looking for the ground to thaw early, to set posts on more fencing of a wood and more permanent nature, facing the road to hide what is becomeing an eyesore with coop things.. As fencing moves, along with a reposition of coopage, more room will be totallly fenced in with less wire. More efficient. With the short life cycle of poultry, you have to keep up with keeping the flock younger for prodution, and the gene pools mixed with good stock, or your birds fade.

Meanwhile, the annex door is fixed, and an operator for the door is being conditioned for use, as the foundry will take root here in some form. I need much more building than I have available.

All the while, I am picking at guttering on the house as different problems come up. A Bedroom window got destroyed, and it is a bow type, so it must be measured and ordered. The wall structure, actually soffit, must be changed as a leak funneled water over the window.

Thanks for lookin'.

[steamin10]

Monday, the start of a new week. This morning i brought the trash cans in from the early pickup I have, and noticed all the damage my dear neighbor did with his 4 wheeler plowing snow on soft ground. A lot of sod got bulldozed from the edges of the drive , making it look like a war zone. So some shovel an rake work was in order to rough in the grass soup, to restore the contours over the gouges. The damage will blend in quickly as the native grasses are very hardy here, and scars that happen often fill in and grow over before being shaped well. ( We sink vehicles here in the spring quite often. I joke to people that venture here to have an escape plan if their vehicle tries to submarine the lawn. What goes in, must come out. Things like a Bobcat are useless about 3 months a year, and must be handled cautiously even after a good rain, such is the muck I float on.) i took a few shovel fulls of the waste asphalt that lines the drive, as I am widening my 2 lane parking, in anticipation of the road widening project, that will take some 25 feet of my frontage. The free fill is unhandy as it is big thick chunks, and not road grindings.So many pieces have o be hand laid like stones for the base, as we fill nearly a foot in depth. Recent mobility problems have made these projects torture, as it is all hand work. My neighbors Ford skidder proved to be less than up to the task in moving the material here. So I shift it up a gear, and try to move ahead with more speed, and still pay attention to projects on the board.

I thank the readers for their patience. Have a great day. It is going to be nearly 60 today, with a small threat of some drizzle later.

[steamin10]

Another 60 degree weekend, as this Sunday rain keeps me off base toady. Fuel has been unstable and risen to above 1.80.. The diesel sprang a leak, and I lost about 4 gallon, dont know why yet, time for a fuel filter anyway. been a bad week with shingles and leg outbreaks, and calling sawbones to fix me.

It works out that cleaning , is not the same as organizing, and some current projects have parts gone missing, as I strive to get better piles. (It aint working). A few household repairs have taken over, and I prepare to change some broken ceramic tile in the Kitchen. The old knees hate it badly. Debating on repairs to the shower/ steeping tub, as the walls are failing after 30 yrs. I think its gonna be concrete board, and 6 inch tile matching the floor, as they are on hand.

Now that the Annex is open to the world again cleanup is advancing. It looks like I will be removing a set of storage shelves to provide more space for my 12 ton punch press, that I would like to press into service for small parts. (sorry for the pun).

[steamin10]

I did it now. I broke one of my working teeth last weekend, so I had to go to the Dentist and get a drill and fill job done. The tooth split vertical, and was giving my tongue a lashing with sharp remains. Much better now. I have scheduled in some other work, like blasting a a root canal stump out, and getting another molar repaired. I am eating like a chipmunk with only front teeth left.

After that I delivered a 9 foot square deck part, to my auto body guy, who is working on a rental, and just installed a set of twin patio doors. he will be constructing a deck/landing for the doors. The trailer I used is having parts issues, as the chains are missing the splice links again. More to track.

Put up some S hooks on the annex door, to replace the bent nails pressed into redneck fixit service for the door cables.

Mom has her drill battery gone dead, and fails to charge. It is the old Black and Decker 12 V. I have the newer 14.5 and am having 3 dead batts out of 5. And my twin charger is down too.. So just junk them, or order computer batteries, and remake the cell packs.? The computer batteries are but $5, full new replacements are $29. Go figure. Could the Li-ion batts be gooder for the use?

[mikeehlert]

Mom has her drill battery gone dead, and fails to charge. It is the old Black and Decker 12 V. I have the newer 14.5 and am having 3 dead batts out of 5. And my twin charger is down too.. So just junk them, or order computer batteries, and remake the cell packs.? The computer batteries are but $5, full new replacements are $29. Go figure. Could the Li-ion batts be gooder for the use?

I have a Love / Hate relationship with my cordless drills. Love the convenience, hate the lousy batteries and getting them charged when I need the drill. Keep a couple "real" drills with cords and extensions around for when the cordless is dead.

Friend of mine once bought a large batch of cells for cheap and was changing them out as needed. Used a micro spot welder to attach nickel strips for cell to cell connection. Very cheap per unit but way too much investment for me.

I don't think there is a good solution.

Mike

[spro]

All I know is there are many little variable gear drives going to scrap because of rotten batteries and chargers. Back in the day, they would have been used for driving something else.

[steamin10]

I dunno, as spring repair stuff gets into full swing between rains, the battery life problem is getting worse, with short cycle rates. I have corded drills too, but 150 feet out is a challenge to get power. So I am going to look for cells to rebuild the packs for lower cost. Suggested sources would be a help.

The area asphalt guy hd dropped another load of chunks for my drive expansion, and my next door neighbor tried to spread them out, until the Ford skidders battery crapped out. I got two loads of grassy loam given too, for edging the foot drop to the lawn, (that is tooo low). So I have to wait for the ground to dry up some more before I try to sail a machine in to edge things off. The drive is growing to 30+ feet wide, with a tapered berm to the front lawn.

I found a monster ant nest behind the chicken barn. These little orange creatures have built a mower breaker of a nest, that is 3 feet in diameter and 6 inches tall. I am going to sed them with Diazinon crystals to subdue the invasion.

Wednesday morning I have to prepare for selling my SHO Taurus, that is excess to my needs. A buyer volunteered, so I wil make it run for demonstration, and make it gone.

I just ordered a Nuc for a hive of bees, so now I have to organize my stored supplies, and see what is left. More fun.

I am taking pics of my SKS project for the final entry in gunsmithing, and renewing the Blomburg Power Truck build ( without a lot of machines) as we move into a coupla days of rain, and cold weather into the weekend. So positng pics is coming for that too. Thanks for lookin'.

[warmstrong1955]

Best stuff I've ever found for killing ants:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/AMDRO-24-oz- ... /100598633

Teaspoon or a little more around the entry to the mound, and they'll be history in about a day. All of 'em. They pack the granules into their home, and it kills the queen.
We had monster ant hills on our property when we bought this place, and this was the first stuff I found that actually killed 'em where they didn't come back. Used to be called Grants, but I guess Amdro bought 'em out.

Good part is, it's safe with birds and other critters, as it becomes inert in a few days. The only warning on the label is about being close to streams and fish.

Bill

[steamin10]

It is Sunday, and a scheduled trip for animals is cancelled, so we shift our attention to a shed build, now ignored for a few weeks. We have a new Neighbor, that just moved in, a young couple trying to get back to nature, just bought the property across from mine. The 2.5 acre piece is bounded by the road on the South to face me, and the Cady marsh ditch the north boundary. Dennis wants to raise chickens, which he already has running now, and sheep to keep the grass in check.

Saturday, Mom Rose and I ventured out for a 5 hour trip to a bird swap, near the Wisconsin border, and brought back some chicks and grown birds, 4 of which were big White English Orpingtons, about 12 lbs each. They went to Dennis for his small flock.

Dennis is nearly overwhelmed by moving, and now the details of getting things in order, so I am lending some expertise in exchange for another pair of hands for my things. So with a coop to repair, and one to build, and a yard Barn for Dennis, this will be a full week.

The local lawn equipment store just unpacked a shipment of new stuff, and all the packing crates were in the parking lot. Unfortunately, I was late and lost about half to another salvager, but manged to snag 3 crates that were all machine nailed 2x4 lumber. We attacked the things with 4 foot crow bars, 3lbers and muscle and got the voluminous crates into a more manageable pile of wood. These pieces will become the 42 inch wall studs, and 48 inch rafter material for a low wall yard barn.

Spring repairs are picking up pace, as my motivation wains with fatigue, but we move forward anyway. The Doghouse salvage from last year, is waiting for motion, as that got abandoned with the toe injury last fall. So now we pick up where we left off

May you have fun with your trails and have peace in your world.

[steamin10]

It is now midnight, and following the last post, Rose found an ad for free cyclone fencing. No phone, but an Email resulted in a phone call, and then a road trip for a 40 minute drive. As it works out, the owner of a property, had a double dog run, with three gates. The owner and his buddies loaded up the truck, and the Black Ranger squatted, and groaned under the weight of the fencing and poles, along with an overflowing bucket of clamps, tops, and bolts, from the whole pen. As I type this, the days interruption is still in the truck, saved for morning, and I have several service type calls to get out of the way before 4 days of predicted rain set in. The calls are failed sump pumps, and a well pump. Air tank charge, and that kind of fine tuning.

When Dennis, the cross neighbor gets home, about 5, we will drag my smallest trailer out to get his new (used) lawn tractor home. I think it is a Yard man. I dont care, it is a step to owning/keeping your property. So, busy is the marching orders for the day.

Just made a do list, and it quickly became a wish list. So I edited it with priority numbers, 1 - 2 - 3-, to keep on track.

Bee package is coming any day now, and I have nothing set out for that except the suit.

[steamin10]

Dennis's mower is a Scotts 54 inch cut, with 25 HP. Nice used machine from fancy house and small yard. He should do well with his smooth 2 acre parcel.

I was working around the yard and stepped down off the edge of the drive, and my short legs proved too slow to keep up. I went down hard, and failed to roll oiut. My right arm crumpled under my chest, and now I hurt. Must have bruised something. So hurting to breath deep, and right hand hammering is out of the question for now. I have moved some founding equipment into the annex. I need to organize a rack for the patterns, and renew my sand bench. I dont have enough building.

In the mean time, I broke the rusty spring hangers on my much abused Black Ranger, and the Red Explorer locked up the fan clutch. Anew one should be in Saturday morning, for change out, as a bearing failure here is death to the radiator.

so on we go, hatching chicks, and keeping things running with daily do's.