What did you do today

[Tom&Shelly]

Finished the Dewalt side of our shop's battery tool alcove. We once had a variety of different drill sizes (estate sale finds and family gifts), but the ni-cads are all dying, and we're now down to the 18 volt and 20 volt lithium batteries, and two drills.



Next project is to finish the Ryobi side. Need to fit in these tools



Noticed the drills in the hardware stores are getting smaller. Might be the new ones obviate the need for the angle drill?

Can't tell in the pictures, but I carefully dressed the Dewalt charger cords with yellow wire ties, and the Ryobi charger cord with green ties. It's that attention to detail that keeps me on the spectrum!

Seriously, I like this set-up. We used to keep all these on a table in one corner of the shop, but we'll need that space if I ever get around to making a miter saw station. This also uses up some scrap wood, including parts of the crates our teardrop's doors were shipped in.

Told Shelly last night that we have so many tools on the walls now that it's no longer a struggle to go through the tool box looking for them. "You know what that means?" I asked.

"Time to buy more tools?" she suggested. And that's why I married her!

Tom

[MickinOz]

It has been a sh** couple of weeks, if you'll pardon my language.
So life's been a bit of a downer.
What's an Aussie country boy to do?
Go fishing!
Took the little cat out for an all day trip.
Solved the cold starting issues. We have a product here in Oz that is called, no fibbing, "Start Ya Bastard".
Just the thing for when you have 2 manual start Mercuries and strict instructions from 3 nurses, 2 doctors, and a wife to not exert yourself until this (unusually complicated) tear in your abdomen has been stitched back together.

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Launched the boat. Ramp wasn't busy so I spent a pleasant ten minutes getting the latest fishing gossip from the boat ramp gannets, then hit the water.
Spent all day fishing. The gannets had named a spot 10 miles from the boat ramp as the current hotspot for really big squid, but when I rounded the point the water was kicking more than forecast, so I decided maybe it was a little too far to go in a 13 footer.
A bit of skinny water angling was next option.

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Fished all day for 1 fish!
Just before sunset, I packed up to head home, almost empty handed.
But I thought I'd try one more spot. Years ago, I'd often find fish there in that 20 minutes or so between sunset and full dark.
I arrived on station just as the sun disappeared behind the horizon.
Tossed in a baited line, and was rewarded with a good hit.
25 minutes later I had a "quota". My legal limit of King George Whiting. Premium species.

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[Indiana Rambler]

Camped this weekend with the Tear Jerkers Hoosier group. Beautiful weather!
Next stop, Turtle Beach next week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TimC]

Credit to our Foamie experts here on tnttt.

Kerfing 1 1/2" foam roofing base. After running saw kerfs every 3/4" I fab'd a jig to run the hot wire along the saw kerfs. 12ga copper wire worked well. Opened up the kerf just enough on every other kerf to make my bend without the scary popping noises. After installing the roof I'll have questions about any new methods to fill the void at the roof and wall seam. I'm guessing I could fill with some type of caulking or PL Premium and then finish with spackle. I'll post a photo or two so you'll know what I'm referring to.

[RJ Howell]

Nice jig! I'll have to remember that one! Also interested in what you use to fill. I haven't found PL to be friendly for me.. I'm still an Original GG person and wet it. Don't like how messy it gets.

[RJ Howell]

Packing... You really don't want to see the pile being sorted through. Seems each time we head out for any duration it's a sifting process of what we use..

[tony.latham]

Me? I had a book published today.



It's a guaranteed crazy (and true) story.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCCXBCL7/ref=sr_1_8?qid=1690344185&refinements=p_27%3ATony+H.+Latham&s=books&sr=1-8&text=Tony+H.+Latham

The blurb:

On a cold winter night in 1928, three deputies are sent to arrest a man they know little about. They don’t know he’s on the run from a string of dark acts that stretch for fifteen hundred miles or why he’s shown up in the middle of Idaho. They don’t know that a far-off court has charged him with lunacy. They just know they need to arrest him. This gripping chronicle–filled with more than a dozen murders–twists and turns like a dust devil on a hot July day.

Three (or four or five?) of the murders occurred in my backyard, so it was a fun research and storytelling project.



Tony

[RJ Howell]

Me? I had a book published today.

Published for Kindle?

[Tom&Shelly]

Just ordered the paperback version. It'll be here Saturday.

Tom

[tony.latham]

Published for Kindle?

The Kindle version should be available by Sunday.

Thanks for asking,

Tony

[MickinOz]

Today, I greatly improved the utility and functionality of my little catamaran.
It runs twin 1993 25 HP two stroke Mercuries.
Not a lot of mechanical issues at all for 30 year old motors.
BUT, a bit hard to start, especially the first cold start.
They are rope start only, and its somewhere around $A1500 per motor to convert to electric start.
I'm slowly understanding the starting procedure, and the best position for the idle adjustment/priming knob for both hot and cold starts, but it does knock me around a bit if I want to do multiple starts per fishing session.
Yeah, I know, talking like an old man here, but for a while I was thinking this was a boat for my 40's, not my 60's.

I mentioned that last trip I took a can of "Start Ya Bastard" with me.
Worked great, except for removing and replacing cowlings on the water. Not such a good idea.
So today, on each motor, I drilled a 1/4 inch hole in the rubber "gasket" the pull start comes through. Where the pull start meets the engine cowling, there is a shaped piece of rubber that fills in the hole.
From the hole, I ran an a 4 or 5 inch piece of plastic hose to the air intake of the carb, and secured it with cable ties.
Now I can give it a squirt of "Start Ya Bastard" without removing the cowling

SYB delivery tube.JPG (45.83 KiB) Viewed 395 times

It works perfectly. Grab the starter toggle, quick squirt of fluid down the pipe, one pull.
Done.
I tapered a piece of dowel to plug the pipe when not in use.

[bdosborn]

We just got back from a great road trip to the Walk the Winds gathering. We gotta get out and camp some more!

Bruce

[Tom&Shelly]

Today, our indoor cat, Willow, caught her 3rd or 4th shrew in the past two days. As an aging cat, she appreciates the shrew is somewhat slower than the mice around here.

She also respectfully disputes the claim in Wikipedia that shrews are strictly nocternal--she caught this last one around 10 in the morning. Although, she admits, perhaps the shrews aren't smart enough to read Wikipedia and it was this ignorance that directly led the demise of that last one. (On the other hand, according to Wikipedia, cats are nocternal, so I suppose the literacy of either species may be called into question.)

She was very proud, last night, to bring a living shrew up to the middle of our bed to let it start to run and recapture it multiple times. (It may have finally gotten away--which is the ambiguity in the official Willow shrew tally.) While grateful that the shrew does not (we think) spread hunta virus, we are, of course, concerned about other possible diseases, fleas, etc.

Does anyone know anything about detering, or killing, shrews? haven't had this particular problem here at the cabin before.

Interesting side note: Shrews are not rodents. A fact with which Willow was singularly unimpressed.

Tom

[bdosborn]

I once found the desiccated remains of a shrew in the electrical panel of a friends cabin. It had spanned the wrong two pieces of metal while crawling through the panel and paid the ultimate price. I can't say whether it happened during the day or night...
Bruce

[RJ Howell]

Found the cameras, charged them, then realized I haven't charged the backup power sources, oh god, I haven't charged up the Jump Start.. I've been a charging and a thinkin' of what else needs to be...

Monday night near Quebec City and working to get ready with packing!

Ya, clothes... next item.. That to me is the easy part!

It's so dam hot/humid here! So looking to get out of here!!! Cooler climates & ocean fishing! Ya baby!