The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[toypusher]

Been a long, long week. Monday and Tuesday were 10 hour days and Monday I had to walk the ProCore for 8.5 of those hours! Tuesday I only had to use it for about 4 hours.

And doing lawns, we had to get the whole week done in 3 days vs the normal 4.

But on the good side, I only worked 4 hours yesterday and do not have to go back until Tuesday. Spent a good share of yesterday rearranging the attached garage and did some in the detached garage too. It is a lot better but still have a long ways to go in the detached garage. I want to be able to get my truck in the detached garage eventually. Still have a door that I need to get installed in the detached garage. Hoping it will start being a bit cooler soon.

[Fenlason]

We have cooled a bit. Although it does swing around a bit.. from a very pleasant low 70's with low humidity..to the upper 80's to low 90's and more humid. [but even that is much better than we have been]

Well I have decided to not built the top of our wall… without tearing the lower part first. I was puttering around on it yesterday.. sort of putting off the inevitable.. that is to tear out the inside of the porch. The hard part there is it was only recently built. There is a cabinet and shelves along the wall I need to get at. There is also sort of a built in canopy top to the bed out there.. and that has to come out… and in order to be able to take that apart I had to take some of the cabinet out on the other end of the bed. The wall that needs to come out is many layers think. I have taken 2 of them out. I will have one more layer of boards to take out before I get to the rotted section.

I did go to the lumber yard yesterday… only because I didn't want to get to the point where i could build.. and have no materials. I picked up some more pry bars.. some foundation coating.. and PT 2x6's and PT plywood. [man is that expensive]

Well I guess it's time to get back at it….

[Fenlason]

8 or so hours at it today. We are making headway… although for the most part we are still tearing apart vs doing any building. I have the first 7 or so feet stripped. I to have a partial 2x6.. that I need to cut some rot out of. I would like to leave it there for there is wiring attached to it. Most of it is pretty sound, so it will just take some figuring on how to build around it. I did find some wires that had been chewed.. chewed down to bare copper. So maybe all this mess and work is a blessing in disguise. I have an area at ground level that I will had a little concrete.. maybe go get that tomorrow.

I was going to alter the top wall profile. The concrete wall steps.. from one level up to another. I was just going to do this in wood… but I might just make some forms and pour the section. It's only about 3.5 feet, by 4 feet. [ on each side].

I did add a temp 2x4 to a door frame area.. to help support the roof, as I have been taking stuff out [the connection from the roof to the concrete wall]. I also added an extra 2x4 to the outside wall where I am working.. to stiffen that area and help support the roof there. I built that one in so it can stay.

[Fenlason]

An easier day today.. but still fairly productive. I first ran to the lumber yard.. to pick up some concrete mix as well as some other "stuff". I then built a small form and mixed up the concrete. I put a board up temporarily to close the gap in the wall, so critters can't easily get in.. or the cats out. We are keeping the door closed.. but they do try to sneak out.

I then went to the barn to do some work. I had more screws to put in the metal we place on the walls. I also needed some in a drip edge. I could not comfortably reach it well. The new driver does work better / faster.. and I felt a little better today.. so I was able to do that. I also get the rest of the screws in one of my roofs. The two roofs I did, I put in enough screws to get them down, with the plans of going back over it. When Bruce did the upper roof he put all the necessary screws in. Anyways I got one of my two roofs done [obviously I still have one to go.]

I then tried to put foundation coating on my exposed concrete wall. The brush I bought for it.. had half the bristles falling out after just a couple of brush strokes... I decided to try a 4" putting knife [slow] I got about 1/2 the 5 gallon pail applied.. and then the bottom of the can was a bit thinner.so I used another brush.. without a handled. to finish what I could get it.

I quit a little early to take a break..and then get ready for tonight's ride.

[toypusher]

I went out to breakfast and then went shooting with Mark. We mostly used his AR and it was a blast. We both hit the target a lot more than we do with out 9mm pistols!!

Went grocery shopping after I got home and have not done much since then. Just a bit of organizing in the detached garage, but still a long, long way to go with that. I still need to install a door out there too.

Back to work tomorrow.

[caseydog]

Howdy folks!

I haven't built anything lately, or ridden a bike. Just the same old routine.

It has been in the low 90s for a few weeks. A few fronts have come through since we hit or peak for the summer at 105.

I've made a point of driving my car less in 2016, even though the MINI gets great milage. Since November of last year, I've driven my car about 4,500 miles. I do have three trips to Houston and one to Austin for business, using rental cars. But, over all, my carbon footprint is pretty small for a typical American. I'm also saving a ton of money on gasoline.

Business is really slow, right now. My oil millionaire customers aren't throwing money around like they did when oil was over a hundred bucks a barrel. So, my finances are actually better when gas prices are high.

CD

[Fenlason]

Howdy folks!

I haven't built anything lately, or ridden a bike. Just the same old routine.


CD

But did you shoot anything...

[Fenlason]

We've had a fairly low carbon foot print for a while. I guess our biggest savings is the house.. taking not much to heat, and using no power for cooling.

I used to put on less than 5,000 miles a year in my vehicle.. with Laurie putting more on hers. My milage is up, but we are using my new van more, for it gets better MPH..


Monday's ride was a tough one for me. I have been ending up riding 3 days in a row.. then taking 4 off.. the 4 off is not great for building.. or keeping fitness. We end up so tired from working on the house we end up not riding. Anyways Monday night.. I had 2 younger racers.. one mid 30's.. the other one of the best high school racers in the state.

We got in a little over 12 miles on our trails [which come hard]

Tuesday I was really tired for our ride.. and it hurt… Bill took off at a blistering pace.. after which he let me do all the pulling. I did keep a bad pace.. but I could tell the legs were less than fresh.

We have a cloudy showery day today.. Laurie has it off and we are working on the porch. I decided I wanted to check the other side. At first taking things apart it looked pretty good. I had a questionable 2x6 that I wanted to take out… hoping to find sound wood underneath. Unfortunetly that wasn't the case.. the one underneath is BAD.. So this area will have to be fully stripped at the other side was. Which is maybe best.. that way we know it is all done correctly.

[caseydog]

There is a tropical storm heading for MaryK.

I hope she has her water-wings ready. If you read this, MaryK, talk to us.

CD

[caseydog]

Uh oh, they are saying it may get Hurricane status before it hits MaryK.

I sure hope she gets lucky and it turns out to be a whole lot of fuss for nothing.

CD

[Fenlason]

Work yesterday.. and it was fairly busy. Tuesday it felt like the seasonal slow down was starting up.. but then we were pretty busy again yesterday. We took in more tune ups that we got done. New bikes going out.. and just a bit of traffic with people and little things.

We bought a new bike for Laurie yesterday. Well we ordered one. Specialized has some stuff on sale… some of it a really good deal. Laurie's eye sight has gotten worse.. so she has been more timid mountain biking. I got her a Krampus 29plus earlier this spring.. and she has liked that, but does miss suspension. They are just starting to come out with some 29er plus suspension fork options.. and the aftermarket prices are up there.

The new bike is a 27.5 plus. It is a hard tail. It should prove to be a fun bike for her.

I will have a few errands to do this morning.. lumber yard.. hardware.. and maybe the shop. I "need" to order a suspension fork for my Ice Cream Truck.. and maybe take the time to fix that brake.

We will have the rest of today.. Sat. Sun and Monday to work on the house.

[Fenlason]

I was longer working on the bikes than I "wanted" to be yesterday. I thought I would do a few things to the Krampus first… and that took a while. I wanted to try a longer cage rear derailleur.. and ended up having to replace the rear shift cable, and with the STI.. I had to unwrap part of the handlebars.. and since I had to do that.. I decided to replace the brake housing. My Krampus has cable actuated disc brakes vs hydraulic. Regular brake housing compresses some when the brakes are applied. The do make a compression less housing.. and we had some in stock so.

The 2 other derailleurs I had didn't work, but Dave had an old one that did.

The Krampus was designed to use the new plus size tires. Actually it was the first plus sized bike… When they designed it they wanted to use as many "standard" parts as possible. Because of that the chain line isn't that great with a double chain ringed crank. I was having some problems keeping the chain on. It had recently gotten worse. I did find a bent tooth. There was a spacer on the drive side of the BB that I moved to the other side. So between the longer cage derailleur and other changes.. it seems to be greatly improved.

Then on to the Ice Cream Truck… The ICT has hydraulic brakes.. and one of my levers was bad. The piston in one of the levers was slightly oversized, and was sticking. Replacing the lever means bleeding the system.. which can be a pain…. but it wasn't all that bad.

Then to order the fork. That took a little while.. well the fork didn't.. but what I needed for a headset did. It seems as if I can't just just get an extra crown race to fit the existing headset. I wanted to swap out the suspension fork winter and summer. Anyways I have what's needed on order.. and it might be here when Laurie's new bike is.

I did get some work done on the porch. We even went back out after supper to do a little more.

[caseydog]

So, I'm laying in bed this morning, awake, but propped up on some pillows petting my dog, when I feel my house shake, ever so slightly.

WTF?

It was enough to get me out of bed to look out the window and the front door. I could't see anything unusual.

I get on the interwebs this afternoon, and what I felt was an earthquake in Pawnee, Oklahoma. Only 5.6, but it emptied store shelves and damaged old buildings in Pawnee. Lots of people felt it down here.

Oklahoma has more earthquakes than California, since fracking became wide spread, but they are usually in the 2s and 3s in magnitude. North Texas gets them, too, but not where I live -- no fracking near me.

CD

[toypusher]

A fracking earthquake? Actually saw that on the news. Never heard of it before.

Nothing new around here. We have picked up more work at the lawn care business I work for. So, more hours there I guess.

The GC has changed hours for us so we don't have to be in until 6AM starting Tuesday!

[Fenlason]

A 5.6.. is plenty big enough.


I am beat.. another long day here.

I ground / cut more nails and such from the wall. I then "painted" most of it in foundation coating. I then went to other work while the coating dried. I got another fill in gabion put together and got it tied in place. I put more screws in one of my barn roofs. {it was the second one we put on, but the last one to finish.] I did not get it all done, I ran out of screws. Laurie did more rock filling while I did that.

Then onto some wiring repair.