What did you do today

[rjgimp]

Snow's finally gone, someplace's

2 cups.jpg

boil.jpg

I believe I have that exact same battery charger. Mine has 2 switches- either 6 or 12 VDC and either 2 or 10 amps. I've had it for around 30 years.

[twisted lines]

I believe I have that exact same battery charger. Mine has 2 switches- either 6 or 12 VDC and either 2 or 10 amps. I've had it for around 30 years.

& 50 Amp for Jump start. been a good one, the timer is a little in question sometimes it works; sometimes Na.

[twisted lines]

these are the last pictures I have taken,
it shows how rusty the anode or sacrificial piece turn's
have seasoned it but not finished.

[Tom&Shelly]

We have this folding portable grill



which works great when you leave the legs folded and prop it on rocks. I mean, it's 11 inches tall! Who tries to cook food that far from a fire? And it's not a new problem either. I have a book on camp cooking from the mid-1950's and the author said he cut the legs off and used rocks. So this product defect has been around for 70+ years! So time to stop carping about it (that was how the hep cats said that back in the mid-1950s) and do something.

Admittedly, the "prop it on rocks" solution works great when you have rocks. Problem is we occasionally camp in some pretty civilized places where they evidently trucked away all the natural born local rocks and replaced them with concrete. So I took some scrap angle iron and made this



We'll see how it works. I hope the bolts stay tight with repeated heating. Welding would have been better, and if this works out, Mark II might be one of my first attempts as I learn (after buying the equipment).

Tom

[bdosborn]

Welding would have been better, and if this works out, Mark II might be one of my first attempts as I learn (after buying the equipment).

It's tradition that the first thing you make with your new welder is a cart for your new welder.
Bruce

[Tom&Shelly]

Welding would have been better, and if this works out, Mark II might be one of my first attempts as I learn (after buying the equipment).

It's tradition that the first thing you make with your new welder is a cart for your new welder.
Bruce

Even better! The grill can be Project 2.

Tom

[TimC]

With our weird weather I've been busy this winter getting Eastern Bluebird and Saw Whet Owl nest boxes built. Today I finished installing two Saw Whet nest boxes next to the Menominee River (WI/MI border). IT was two trips of a little more than a mile one way carrying the nest boxes and then a ladder and tools to get them at least three meters up a tree trunk. I installed a trail camera at each and hope to check back once a week to see if there are any takers.

The Northern Saw Whet Owl is the second smallest owl species in North America and has been on the decline due to habitat destruction. While there is a wide swath of the northern US and southern Canada where the Saw Whet breeds they do migrate to the central US in the winter.







In addition, I built 14 "Gilbertson PVC" nest boxes to add to my Bluebird trails I started last year. In 2023 I had 21 "Gilwood" nest boxes up at several trails. I had 9 pairs producing eggs (two pair produced a second brood). Total of 49 eggs, 46 hatchlings and 46 fledglings. That's in addition to two Tree Swallow pairs and one House Wren pair producing broods. A successful first year. I hope to double that production in '24 now that I have some experience with nest box locations. I'm also hoping to get some help monitoring these boxes. 21 boxes last year kept me very busy.

Gilertson nest boxes are named for a Minnesota Bluebird "Citizen Scientist" who developed his designs after many years of trial and error. The Gilwood is a standard wooden box made of pine or cedar. The PVC version was developed to combat invasive species like the European Starling and the House Sparrow which like to kill bluebirds in their nest and then take over the box. The PVC design has proven to help as the Starlings won't fit and the Sparrow does not like the design for some reason.

[tony.latham]

I finished installing two Saw Whet nest boxes...

I'm jealous. I've had a screech owl box on our place for three years with no activity. Obviously, it's in the wrong spot.

Tony

[Tom&Shelly]

The PVC design has proven to help as the Starlings won't fit and the Sparrow does not like the design for some reason.

Sparrow's instincts tell them to "go sit in the corner"?

Tom

[TimC]

The PVC design has proven to help as the Starlings won't fit and the Sparrow does not like the design for some reason.

Sparrow's instincts tell them to "go sit in the corner"?
Tom

Ha ha! You might be on to something!

[Tom&Shelly]

Actually started this project in December, but life got in the way for a few months. Anyway, I decided to give the utility sink area of our shop a make-over

Before



After



Paid nothing for it. Two of the shelves are from the crates our teardrop doors were shipped in, the deeper one across the top was a scrap board a neighbor was giving away. The under-counter LED light over the sink was from a lot of returns I'd bought a few years ago from a surplus place in Albuquerque for another project, at 10 cents on the dollar. Don't remember where the shelf brackets came from, but they were taking up room with the rest of the miscellaneous hardware in the shop.

Still have to re-hang the first aid kit. Hope I can drill into the concrete without needing the first aid kit! I'll probably move the outlet as well. It was getting expensive using the blue shop towels for everything, so made a holder for regular paper towels for times when lint isn't an issue. Oh! Shelly tells me paper towels are now becoming so popular some companies are actually making holders for them, and so you don't need to make them out of scrap wood. For those of you who are made of money!

Tom

[twisted lines]

We have this folding portable grill


We'll see how it works. I hope the bolts stay tight with repeated heating. Welding would have been better, and if this works out, Mark II might be one of my first attempts as I learn (after buying the equipment).

Tom

If you wear it out & we cross paths;
I have a rat hole of Laser welded Stainless
I bend the ends and give them away instead of washing