At 5am this morning walking the dog my thoughts were on one thing...how good my socks felt.
Now some of you may be saying to yourselves, how insightful, there must be some existential meaning behind the observation....ah, not so much, they just really felt good.
I won't argue the point, that I have been accused of being less then deep in my thinking sometimes. But I like to rationalize this as an eclectic interest in a vast (vs. deep) body of knowledge, kinda like a renaissance man. If you think that was good, you should hear me rationalize the need for a new power tool.
Which brings me back to the socks. Sometimes you just need to notice, and take pleasure in, the simple things, and this morning that was the case. Its dark. the wind is blowing, snowing lightly, the temp is down, but damn my socks felt good.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
1400 Gallons down the drain!
As that great songstress Britney Spears would say, "Oops I did it again".
We drained the cistern of 1400 gallons on Friday night according to the water meter.
This is the third time this has happened this year and the culprit was the same as the first; the downstairs toilet.
When we arrived on Friday afternoon, I checked the cistern water level as part of the norm when turning up the house and it was as full as the internal float limiter would allow (Next year I plan to move the level up, as it only fills to 1400 gallons in a 1700 gallon tank.).
During the evening I noticed that "fresh air" smell in the lower level while watching TV, but I didn't get up to check for the source. First thing the next morning when I turned on a faucet I knew what it was.
I checked the cistern level and it was empty. I didn't flush any toilets before checking the tanks and guess what, the one in the lower level was empty.
I need to do a couple of things; repair the intermittently running toilet and get some type of monitor/automatic shut off system in place in case it happens again.
In searching the Internet there were two promising systems available; FloLogic and H2ORB.
We drained the cistern of 1400 gallons on Friday night according to the water meter.
This is the third time this has happened this year and the culprit was the same as the first; the downstairs toilet.
When we arrived on Friday afternoon, I checked the cistern water level as part of the norm when turning up the house and it was as full as the internal float limiter would allow (Next year I plan to move the level up, as it only fills to 1400 gallons in a 1700 gallon tank.).
During the evening I noticed that "fresh air" smell in the lower level while watching TV, but I didn't get up to check for the source. First thing the next morning when I turned on a faucet I knew what it was.
I checked the cistern level and it was empty. I didn't flush any toilets before checking the tanks and guess what, the one in the lower level was empty.
I need to do a couple of things; repair the intermittently running toilet and get some type of monitor/automatic shut off system in place in case it happens again.
In searching the Internet there were two promising systems available; FloLogic and H2ORB.
- The Flologic system in a whole house monitor which is programed recognize an out of normal flow amount and then shuts down the water. The con is it costs about $1,000.
- The H2ORB is built to monitor a toilet only for leaks and overflows. Again it is set to recognize an abnormal flow amount, e.g. 25 gallons, then it shuts off the water to the stool. The pro is it appears to be only about $100, but the con is I can't find anyplace to buy one, on or off line.
No wonder the grass is growing so good over the drain field.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
If a recession can have a silver lining
I don't need to wait for the official word that we are in a recession to know we are. But I have to tell you the drop in fuel prices as a result is really a God send not only for the economy, but for my own pleasure in driving around the newish truck.
I mentioned in the previous post the trip to the Springs to pickup wood, on the way back I filled up the truck for the first time in 6 weeks and it only cost $78 bucks. Since buying the truck in March that is the lowest bill I have had on a fill. A couple of times it surpassed the $150 range.
I mentioned in the previous post the trip to the Springs to pickup wood, on the way back I filled up the truck for the first time in 6 weeks and it only cost $78 bucks. Since buying the truck in March that is the lowest bill I have had on a fill. A couple of times it surpassed the $150 range.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Ok, so I like to putz around.
It was an exceptional weekend for the beginning of November.
The weather was nice enough that the Margarita fixin’s came out of storage.
While partaking of Marlys’ concoction and talking about “things”, it came out that she believes I do a lot of putzing around. I agreed. I guess that makes me a putz.
So I Googled “putz”, to see if I should be worried and this is what came up (intended pre-pun):
This “built-in”, yes we have moved beyond simply calling it a cabinet, was to look like those in the kitchen, meaning three stile Shaker style Chestnut stained Maple cabinetry.
Initially, Birch and Poplar were going to be used to save a buck, since the leftover stain from the kitchen could be used for color matching.
BUT, CLS had Maple cabinet grade sheet goods (fancy name for 4’x8’ wood products).
The weather was nice enough that the Margarita fixin’s came out of storage.
While partaking of Marlys’ concoction and talking about “things”, it came out that she believes I do a lot of putzing around. I agreed. I guess that makes me a putz.
So I Googled “putz”, to see if I should be worried and this is what came up (intended pre-pun):
putz (p ts)
n.
1. Slang A fool; an idiot.
2. Vulgar Slang A penis.
intr.v. putzed, putz·ing, putz·es
Slang To behave in an idle manner; putter.
[Yiddish pots, penis, fool.]
Source:American Heritage Dictionary.
I don’t believe, or don’t want to, that I bear a resemblance to the noun “putz”, but I do expend significant time doing, as the intransitive verb form suggests, in that I “putter”.
Let’s talk about my latest putzing around project.
This puttering (I have elected to go with puttering vs. putzing so as not to offend those who may be offended) around project had its beginning during the house build in 2006. The laundry room had a 51 inch wide space where a hanging rod with a counter was to be installed by moi. I had even purchased the wooden counter top that was going to be put in…someday.
Next, this space morphed into an area that would include a broom cabinet. No problemo a cabinet and hanging rod with a counter it would be.
But after being visited by Marlys’ cohorts a few times, it was decided a auxiliary refrigeration unit for fermented derivatives of macerated vitis was now a necessity.
n.
1. Slang A fool; an idiot.
2. Vulgar Slang A penis.
intr.v. putzed, putz·ing, putz·es
Slang To behave in an idle manner; putter.
[Yiddish pots, penis, fool.]
Source:American Heritage Dictionary.
I don’t believe, or don’t want to, that I bear a resemblance to the noun “putz”, but I do expend significant time doing, as the intransitive verb form suggests, in that I “putter”.
Let’s talk about my latest putzing around project.
This puttering (I have elected to go with puttering vs. putzing so as not to offend those who may be offended) around project had its beginning during the house build in 2006. The laundry room had a 51 inch wide space where a hanging rod with a counter was to be installed by moi. I had even purchased the wooden counter top that was going to be put in…someday.
Next, this space morphed into an area that would include a broom cabinet. No problemo a cabinet and hanging rod with a counter it would be.
But after being visited by Marlys’ cohorts a few times, it was decided a auxiliary refrigeration unit for fermented derivatives of macerated vitis was now a necessity.
Life was so simple before the Internet and Google…right.
A wine cooler was integrated into the puttering project.
Can you say “scope creep”.
To finish off the space, it was deemed that a hanging rod no longer seemed appropriate, so built in shelving and crown molding now was part of the plan,
Before it went any further the list was committed to paper via a cabinet planning application, found on the Internet via, you guessed it Google.
A wine cooler was integrated into the puttering project.Can you say “scope creep”.
To finish off the space, it was deemed that a hanging rod no longer seemed appropriate, so built in shelving and crown molding now was part of the plan,
Before it went any further the list was committed to paper via a cabinet planning application, found on the Internet via, you guessed it Google. The thinking was that by putting in on paper the list would stabilize.
According to Cabinet Planner this was now a $1100 cabinet, using its average material, labor and mark-up rates.
So on Saturday off we went to buy the materials. This in itself became a great adventure as Paxton Lumber in Denver was the only place I knew of to get cabinet grade plywood in something other then Oak (Home Depot). In consultation with the folks on the Sawmill Creek Forum it was suggested that Colorado Lumber Specialties in the Springs would be another place to try.
This opened up a whole ‘nother chapter in this project, because they had a lot of nice wood.
An interlude for context –
So on Saturday off we went to buy the materials. This in itself became a great adventure as Paxton Lumber in Denver was the only place I knew of to get cabinet grade plywood in something other then Oak (Home Depot). In consultation with the folks on the Sawmill Creek Forum it was suggested that Colorado Lumber Specialties in the Springs would be another place to try.
This opened up a whole ‘nother chapter in this project, because they had a lot of nice wood.
An interlude for context –
This “built-in”, yes we have moved beyond simply calling it a cabinet, was to look like those in the kitchen, meaning three stile Shaker style Chestnut stained Maple cabinetry.Initially, Birch and Poplar were going to be used to save a buck, since the leftover stain from the kitchen could be used for color matching.
BUT, CLS had Maple cabinet grade sheet goods (fancy name for 4’x8’ wood products).
So on to the cart it went. 
Now on to the solid stock for the face and door frames.
Now on to the solid stock for the face and door frames.
The Poplar stock has made up of both sap and heart wood and after the problems I had with matching the two on the Molesworth and after seeing the Maple inventory, we unloaded the Poplar and re-loaded with S2S (surfaced two sides) soft Maple.
Even though we were ready to go, this place had so much nice wood, I needed to look around.
While looking at all of the different molding CLS stocked we came across a wall of S4S (guess) lumber and the Maple looked even better (#1 vs. #2?), so back we went to off-load the S2S Maple and then back to re-load with S4S. The price difference was actually pretty minimal and I rationalized this as having to do less machining to prep it.
For those keeping score we have loaded the cart three times and unloaded in twice.
Before greater damage could be done we headed for the door.
I will need to re-adjust the material pricing in Cabinet Planner due to the CLS adventure.
BTW, the other head board puttering project, using the Ponderosa cut at Pinon Rock, is moving along also.
I have found that for efficient putzing requires multiple projects must to be in play at any one time.
Even though we were ready to go, this place had so much nice wood, I needed to look around.
While looking at all of the different molding CLS stocked we came across a wall of S4S (guess) lumber and the Maple looked even better (#1 vs. #2?), so back we went to off-load the S2S Maple and then back to re-load with S4S. The price difference was actually pretty minimal and I rationalized this as having to do less machining to prep it.
For those keeping score we have loaded the cart three times and unloaded in twice.
Before greater damage could be done we headed for the door.
I will need to re-adjust the material pricing in Cabinet Planner due to the CLS adventure.
BTW, the other head board puttering project, using the Ponderosa cut at Pinon Rock, is moving along also.I have found that for efficient putzing requires multiple projects must to be in play at any one time.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Adventures in Woodworking: A cabinet from the cut off pile.
I was reading a blog about saving the wood cutoff that accumulates in the shop over time. The advice was that if a saved piece of wood is not used within a year, move it to the burn pile.
We have a pretty good burn pile going for fire pit use over the coming winter as you can see from this picture.
Last Saturday while reviewing the wood stacked on the rack and having not quite decided on the actual design for the headboard project and found myself wandering down the path of what could I do with some of the scrap that might help me learn something and provide a nice "1 dayer" project.
I had watched a Fine Woodworking web video a while back by Mario Rodriguez (?) about the building of a hanging cabinet, that I thought could be plagiarized for this activity.
The goal of the day would be to build a storage cabinet for the "drill press stuff".
I had some leftover poplar from the Molesworth sideboard, curly redwood from the floating shelf and a thin piece of beetle kill Ponderosa that I had been looking to use somewhere.
Although there were know plans I went with a pretty simple final dimension of 24" tall by 12" wide. It would have a full width frame and panel door, with the top and bottom overhanging and a shelf with maybe a dovetail front drawer for small items.
This will be a warm up for the broom closet cabinet project that I should start next week.
Although I had done a number of these techniques already as the "1 dayer" project progressed my mistakes added to my repertoire. I planned to use dado and rabbit joinery for the cabinet carcass and biscuits for the door frame. If I had time the draw would have a hand cut dovetail front. I had done dado, rabbit and biscuits before, but I was looking forward to the dovetailing. I have no jig or dovetailing saw and my chisels and pretty basic Stanley Fatmaxx's, but they are sharp. For sawing I would use the Japanese backsaw that Derek got me for Christmas a number of years ago, it doesn't have a back support, but what the heck this is my first time, so a little wobbliness is OK.
The carcass when together pretty well until the point that I noticed that the top and bottom piece side rabbits showed in the front on the sides. To fix this first mistake I decided to rabbit the front of the top and bottom and in set the door so that the side rabbits would not be seen. It looked better then the original idea once completed. This did point out that even though this projects was a "shot from the hip", it still should have been committed to paper before cutting wood.
Once the carcass had been glued up and clamped. I tackled the door frame. The contrast between the dark redwood and beetle kill Ponderosa would be nice when done.
The door frame and full length stiles. I learned a trick after completing this from a forum that will help in fitting the next projects that needs a door, but more on that later.
The rail and stiles would be joined using #10 biscuits, cut by my trusty Harbor Freight POS biscuit jointer. Since I believe that tools sometimes seem to have a mind of there own I always refer to this one in less then glowing terms so that it can try and prove me wrong and give me a better joint that I have come to expect. A good biscuit jointer would cost me more then a $100, based on the amount I use one, I though the $30 for this one would be OK. Well as they say you get what you pay for.
BTW the tools having a mind of their own thing can usually be directly related back to the forethought and attention of the operator.
Once the frame had been glued up and drying, the next item was the panel. After cutting it to size I needed to plane it, since it was so thin I figured I would build a sled to give it the need thickness to make it through the planer. This is something I had read about some where, so don't be fooled by my ingenuity. I took a piece of 3/4" plywood and screwed (this will screw me later) a cleat on one end.
Boy am I a jenyuz (genius).
So I but the panel on the sled with the cleat on the backend so that it can pull it through the planner. Well the planer rollers just pulled the panel off the sled.
Aah, the jenyuz thinks, the sled has to be turned around so that the cleat is on the front and the panel pushes it through the planer.
So the jenyuz, turned it around and re-inserted it. Wow, it worked! I needed to take a little more off so I lowered the blade a half turn and sent it back through.
As the roller grabbed the panel on sled and pulled it into the blades I heard a metal on metal sound that was not good and as the piece exited the other side there was a nice grove extending from one of the screws used to hold the cleat all the way along the panel.
Before you say, "you d### s###", I did check that the panel stood proud of the cleat when I screwed it on.
OK now you can say, "you d### s###", I didn't think about how the actual cutting would make the panel thinner by this operation and the impact (literally) this would have on the cleat and screws.
So the blades will need to be replaced. Aah, but I learned this week that the Dewalt 735 has reversable blades, so I don't need to buy new ones...yet or at least until my jenyuosity comes back into play.
So the panel it ready and the frame is dryed, now on to the rabbit in the frame for the panel. Out comes the router on to which I put a edge fence and a straight bit. This operation actually went pretty well, so I thought I would also relieve the edges on the cabinet with a small round over bit equipped with a bearing. This really put a nice finishing touch on the cabinet.
I should have put the router away at this point.
I once read that one of the disciplines an artist needs to learn is when to stop working on a piece and say it is done...before they screw it up.
The door frame was done. But I thought that since the roundover bit did such a nice job on the edges of the cabinet why not do the inner edges of the rails and stiles...instead of just using a piece of sand paper. Heck the router was setup and ready to go and everyone knows that cutting is better then sanding anyway.
So down goes the frame on to the bench and on goes the router.
As I bring the bit into contact with the inner edge I am feeling for the contact of the bearing to so that I can start to move is along the stile...but something doesn't seem right. The bit seems to be taking an awful big bit out of the frame and instead of just rounding over the edge has cut a big groove into the rail.
WTH!
Well there is a slight gap between the bottom of the bit cutting edge and the bearing. This seems to be slightly larger then the edge itself so guess what...the bearing didn't even hit the edge to stop the bit from going any deeper.
So there I am looking at what was a great looking and square door frame not with a big divot in it.
What to do...build a new one? No! Again I read somewhere that how you recover from mistakes in woodworking (and life) is the real learning.
So what to do? Cut a piece to replace the chunk? No this is going to hang over the drill press in the shop not in the house, so out comes the 5 minutes epoxy gel and the box of saw dust.
I tend to be learning...a lot, so I have a collection of sawdust boxes from all of the woods I have used.
Mix up the epoxy, mix in some sawdust, schmooze it into the divot and sprinkle more sawdust on top as frosting, let dry and sand and scrape.
For those of you that have followed this blog for awhile this is the same technique used for the mortise I cut on the wrong place on the coffee table in our great room. I challenge anyone to find that repair without me pointing it out.
OK, at this point the project is going to slip in to the next day.
Due to the slip up I will not have time to build the draw this weekend. but I do a great job of mortising the hinges and mounting the finished door frame with panel. Marlys took a look at it and said it was to good for the barn...you be the judge.
The knob is a piece of deer antler and I still need to build a door catch, but I think it looks pretty good.
BTW here is a shot of my first try at dovetailing. I need some practice before building the drawer.
Marlys, you know for the bedroom dresser project, there is this dovetailing jig for sale on Craigslist.........
We have a pretty good burn pile going for fire pit use over the coming winter as you can see from this picture.
Last Saturday while reviewing the wood stacked on the rack and having not quite decided on the actual design for the headboard project and found myself wandering down the path of what could I do with some of the scrap that might help me learn something and provide a nice "1 dayer" project.
I had watched a Fine Woodworking web video a while back by Mario Rodriguez (?) about the building of a hanging cabinet, that I thought could be plagiarized for this activity.
The goal of the day would be to build a storage cabinet for the "drill press stuff".
I had some leftover poplar from the Molesworth sideboard, curly redwood from the floating shelf and a thin piece of beetle kill Ponderosa that I had been looking to use somewhere.
Although there were know plans I went with a pretty simple final dimension of 24" tall by 12" wide. It would have a full width frame and panel door, with the top and bottom overhanging and a shelf with maybe a dovetail front drawer for small items.
This will be a warm up for the broom closet cabinet project that I should start next week.
Although I had done a number of these techniques already as the "1 dayer" project progressed my mistakes added to my repertoire. I planned to use dado and rabbit joinery for the cabinet carcass and biscuits for the door frame. If I had time the draw would have a hand cut dovetail front. I had done dado, rabbit and biscuits before, but I was looking forward to the dovetailing. I have no jig or dovetailing saw and my chisels and pretty basic Stanley Fatmaxx's, but they are sharp. For sawing I would use the Japanese backsaw that Derek got me for Christmas a number of years ago, it doesn't have a back support, but what the heck this is my first time, so a little wobbliness is OK.
The carcass when together pretty well until the point that I noticed that the top and bottom piece side rabbits showed in the front on the sides. To fix this first mistake I decided to rabbit the front of the top and bottom and in set the door so that the side rabbits would not be seen. It looked better then the original idea once completed. This did point out that even though this projects was a "shot from the hip", it still should have been committed to paper before cutting wood.Once the carcass had been glued up and clamped. I tackled the door frame. The contrast between the dark redwood and beetle kill Ponderosa would be nice when done.
The door frame and full length stiles. I learned a trick after completing this from a forum that will help in fitting the next projects that needs a door, but more on that later.
The rail and stiles would be joined using #10 biscuits, cut by my trusty Harbor Freight POS biscuit jointer. Since I believe that tools sometimes seem to have a mind of there own I always refer to this one in less then glowing terms so that it can try and prove me wrong and give me a better joint that I have come to expect. A good biscuit jointer would cost me more then a $100, based on the amount I use one, I though the $30 for this one would be OK. Well as they say you get what you pay for.
BTW the tools having a mind of their own thing can usually be directly related back to the forethought and attention of the operator.
Once the frame had been glued up and drying, the next item was the panel. After cutting it to size I needed to plane it, since it was so thin I figured I would build a sled to give it the need thickness to make it through the planer. This is something I had read about some where, so don't be fooled by my ingenuity. I took a piece of 3/4" plywood and screwed (this will screw me later) a cleat on one end.
Boy am I a jenyuz (genius).
So I but the panel on the sled with the cleat on the backend so that it can pull it through the planner. Well the planer rollers just pulled the panel off the sled.
Aah, the jenyuz thinks, the sled has to be turned around so that the cleat is on the front and the panel pushes it through the planer.
So the jenyuz, turned it around and re-inserted it. Wow, it worked! I needed to take a little more off so I lowered the blade a half turn and sent it back through.
As the roller grabbed the panel on sled and pulled it into the blades I heard a metal on metal sound that was not good and as the piece exited the other side there was a nice grove extending from one of the screws used to hold the cleat all the way along the panel.
Before you say, "you d### s###", I did check that the panel stood proud of the cleat when I screwed it on.
OK now you can say, "you d### s###", I didn't think about how the actual cutting would make the panel thinner by this operation and the impact (literally) this would have on the cleat and screws.
So the blades will need to be replaced. Aah, but I learned this week that the Dewalt 735 has reversable blades, so I don't need to buy new ones...yet or at least until my jenyuosity comes back into play.
So the panel it ready and the frame is dryed, now on to the rabbit in the frame for the panel. Out comes the router on to which I put a edge fence and a straight bit. This operation actually went pretty well, so I thought I would also relieve the edges on the cabinet with a small round over bit equipped with a bearing. This really put a nice finishing touch on the cabinet.
I should have put the router away at this point.
I once read that one of the disciplines an artist needs to learn is when to stop working on a piece and say it is done...before they screw it up.
The door frame was done. But I thought that since the roundover bit did such a nice job on the edges of the cabinet why not do the inner edges of the rails and stiles...instead of just using a piece of sand paper. Heck the router was setup and ready to go and everyone knows that cutting is better then sanding anyway.
So down goes the frame on to the bench and on goes the router.
As I bring the bit into contact with the inner edge I am feeling for the contact of the bearing to so that I can start to move is along the stile...but something doesn't seem right. The bit seems to be taking an awful big bit out of the frame and instead of just rounding over the edge has cut a big groove into the rail.WTH!
Well there is a slight gap between the bottom of the bit cutting edge and the bearing. This seems to be slightly larger then the edge itself so guess what...the bearing didn't even hit the edge to stop the bit from going any deeper.
So there I am looking at what was a great looking and square door frame not with a big divot in it.
What to do...build a new one? No! Again I read somewhere that how you recover from mistakes in woodworking (and life) is the real learning.
So what to do? Cut a piece to replace the chunk? No this is going to hang over the drill press in the shop not in the house, so out comes the 5 minutes epoxy gel and the box of saw dust.
I tend to be learning...a lot, so I have a collection of sawdust boxes from all of the woods I have used.
Mix up the epoxy, mix in some sawdust, schmooze it into the divot and sprinkle more sawdust on top as frosting, let dry and sand and scrape.
For those of you that have followed this blog for awhile this is the same technique used for the mortise I cut on the wrong place on the coffee table in our great room. I challenge anyone to find that repair without me pointing it out.
OK, at this point the project is going to slip in to the next day.
Due to the slip up I will not have time to build the draw this weekend. but I do a great job of mortising the hinges and mounting the finished door frame with panel. Marlys took a look at it and said it was to good for the barn...you be the judge.
The knob is a piece of deer antler and I still need to build a door catch, but I think it looks pretty good.
BTW here is a shot of my first try at dovetailing. I need some practice before building the drawer.Marlys, you know for the bedroom dresser project, there is this dovetailing jig for sale on Craigslist.........
Monday, October 06, 2008
Full Moon over South Park, or When Nature Calls be Reasonable People.
Lately we have been going to Pinon Rock via US285 and Colorado Hwy 9. This is a nice drive when leaving from downtown as long as you travel in daylight, because as the sun sets the deer come out along the road and it can be a slow trip waiting for a critter to run out and become a grill ornament or worst yet a rider in the front seat.
On most evening there are a fair number of people out on this road at folks head from the city to homes within commuting distance in the mountains. Marlys even knows someone that commutes from Fairplay, which is just south of Breckenridge over Hoosier Pass.
The traffic drops off the further you get from Denver and by the time we turn south on SH9 it is getting to be pretty sparse. Even so there will be folks going by every now and then.
So back to reason for the post.
Once you get past Hartsel there will be no “improved” rest stops until the Royal Gorge on US50. This can be a long time to “hold it” if you know what I mean.
When nature is the only rest stop available, there are certain protocols that come into play around, which a number of techniques have been developed.
Let’s cover a few as I review a motorist that failed in all regards during Friday’s drive home.
As we came up a hill during the transition from Park to Fremont Counties there was a Chevy Suburban in a pullout on the side or the road. In looking at the rig we noticed a full moon staring at us. I believe the actual moon phase forecast for that evening was waxing crescent.
This moon was full and at the right rear corner of the parked SUV. Because it is a two laner we normally have the lights on, which added to the glare.
I guess the mooner wanted to see if it was anyone she knew, so she looked over her shoulder at us, the moonees. I assume it was a she, due to the male/female center of gravity thing, and the lack of dangling appendages.
This scene was wrong on many different levels.
The location; folks everyone knows that you pull over where you have a good view of the road both to the front and the back, so that in the event that some should drive by you can stop, stand, pull up your pants, and walk around looking like you lost something (your humanity?), until the vehicle drives by and the purging can resume.
Also it is best to pull off where there is a low likelihood that someone else would pull over thinking it is a proper pull off, to ask directions or something, prolonging the purging interruptus.
So pick a place well off the road with only room for one vehicle…not a pull off which invites others to join, this is experience best not turned into a community activity.
The pull-off; this is the Pike National Forest for Pete’s sake (don’t know Pete, but people seem to be concerned about him), pull off where there are trees to block the process from the rest of us. I know, depending on the type of need this can be one of “life’s little pleasures”, BUT ONLY FOR YOU, it cannot and should not be shared.
In reference to the vehicle; don’t go to either end to do your business that gives us, the traveling public, a 50% chance of knowingly being a party to this situation. I suppose there is a math wiz that will dispute this based on the likelihood of the vehicle coming from a certain direction, BUT YOU GET MY POINT. We would rather be a party to the event.
Also, shut the driver’s door, it only takes a nano-second. When you leave it open and are not standing there, it draws peoples attention, wondering what’s going on, did something happen, should we stop to provide assistance (please no).
The reaction to getting caught; don’t look over your shoulder! We are embarrassed enough sharing this occasion, recognition on either party’s part will serve no good purpose.
What it we do recognize the profile, can you imagine our next meeting? Saw you as we were driving in last Friday, you should really get that mole looked at? There is no good end (pun) to this conversation.
OK, enough of the review, lets hit on a couple of technique points for those of you who have not though this through prior to the spirit moving you, at which time rational decision making is long past.
As mentioned previously it’s all about; location, location, location. This will be the foundation on which the subsequent decisions will be based.
Sure it’s cute to see a parent assisting their child on the side of the road, but folks a 50 year olds posterior hanging out is a whole different situation.
Pick a place with some modicum of privacy. If it’s not complete privacy, that’s OK, at least it shows the traveling public that you were thinking of them and tried.
If you pick a road pull off be sure to do a 360 before commencing, as out here in the woods it may be a driveway, and someone may come out to greet you. Hopefully, the greeter will be human and not canine, ranch dogs tend to raise a sink, when a sink is being made. Worst yet a big hi there sniff and lick greeting from the fore mentioned canine could be disconcerting in your current pose.
If the only privacy screen available is the vehicle, hopefully it is a 4-door. Open the ditch side front and rear doors and use them as side screen, which along with the vehicle provides 3 sides of protection. It won’t be pretty for any passengers, but they are lower in priority then the innocent bystanders on the road.
The more advanced roadside users also understand where altitude comes into play; don’t squat to low, especially if you drive a SUV or a truck. Remember we share the road with folks driving small/sports cars that are not proctologist, and therefore could be “shocked and awed” by the view beneath the running boards.
I also recommend a perpendicular alignment to vehicle with the business end of things pointed away. The purgers (or should it be purgee?) facial Technicolor display, as it goes from red to purple to done will provide a little consolation entertainment for any passengers that may be captive witness’ to this natural eruption.
Finally, if caught in the act, with no where to hide, finish up, stand up and take a bow, accept applause if offered, because you just gave someone the gift of a story that will be told for years to come.
On most evening there are a fair number of people out on this road at folks head from the city to homes within commuting distance in the mountains. Marlys even knows someone that commutes from Fairplay, which is just south of Breckenridge over Hoosier Pass.
The traffic drops off the further you get from Denver and by the time we turn south on SH9 it is getting to be pretty sparse. Even so there will be folks going by every now and then.
So back to reason for the post.
Once you get past Hartsel there will be no “improved” rest stops until the Royal Gorge on US50. This can be a long time to “hold it” if you know what I mean.
When nature is the only rest stop available, there are certain protocols that come into play around, which a number of techniques have been developed.
Let’s cover a few as I review a motorist that failed in all regards during Friday’s drive home.
As we came up a hill during the transition from Park to Fremont Counties there was a Chevy Suburban in a pullout on the side or the road. In looking at the rig we noticed a full moon staring at us. I believe the actual moon phase forecast for that evening was waxing crescent.
This moon was full and at the right rear corner of the parked SUV. Because it is a two laner we normally have the lights on, which added to the glare.
I guess the mooner wanted to see if it was anyone she knew, so she looked over her shoulder at us, the moonees. I assume it was a she, due to the male/female center of gravity thing, and the lack of dangling appendages.
This scene was wrong on many different levels.
The location; folks everyone knows that you pull over where you have a good view of the road both to the front and the back, so that in the event that some should drive by you can stop, stand, pull up your pants, and walk around looking like you lost something (your humanity?), until the vehicle drives by and the purging can resume.
Also it is best to pull off where there is a low likelihood that someone else would pull over thinking it is a proper pull off, to ask directions or something, prolonging the purging interruptus.
So pick a place well off the road with only room for one vehicle…not a pull off which invites others to join, this is experience best not turned into a community activity.
The pull-off; this is the Pike National Forest for Pete’s sake (don’t know Pete, but people seem to be concerned about him), pull off where there are trees to block the process from the rest of us. I know, depending on the type of need this can be one of “life’s little pleasures”, BUT ONLY FOR YOU, it cannot and should not be shared.
In reference to the vehicle; don’t go to either end to do your business that gives us, the traveling public, a 50% chance of knowingly being a party to this situation. I suppose there is a math wiz that will dispute this based on the likelihood of the vehicle coming from a certain direction, BUT YOU GET MY POINT. We would rather be a party to the event.
Also, shut the driver’s door, it only takes a nano-second. When you leave it open and are not standing there, it draws peoples attention, wondering what’s going on, did something happen, should we stop to provide assistance (please no).
The reaction to getting caught; don’t look over your shoulder! We are embarrassed enough sharing this occasion, recognition on either party’s part will serve no good purpose.
What it we do recognize the profile, can you imagine our next meeting? Saw you as we were driving in last Friday, you should really get that mole looked at? There is no good end (pun) to this conversation.
OK, enough of the review, lets hit on a couple of technique points for those of you who have not though this through prior to the spirit moving you, at which time rational decision making is long past.
As mentioned previously it’s all about; location, location, location. This will be the foundation on which the subsequent decisions will be based.
Sure it’s cute to see a parent assisting their child on the side of the road, but folks a 50 year olds posterior hanging out is a whole different situation.
Pick a place with some modicum of privacy. If it’s not complete privacy, that’s OK, at least it shows the traveling public that you were thinking of them and tried.
If you pick a road pull off be sure to do a 360 before commencing, as out here in the woods it may be a driveway, and someone may come out to greet you. Hopefully, the greeter will be human and not canine, ranch dogs tend to raise a sink, when a sink is being made. Worst yet a big hi there sniff and lick greeting from the fore mentioned canine could be disconcerting in your current pose.
If the only privacy screen available is the vehicle, hopefully it is a 4-door. Open the ditch side front and rear doors and use them as side screen, which along with the vehicle provides 3 sides of protection. It won’t be pretty for any passengers, but they are lower in priority then the innocent bystanders on the road.
The more advanced roadside users also understand where altitude comes into play; don’t squat to low, especially if you drive a SUV or a truck. Remember we share the road with folks driving small/sports cars that are not proctologist, and therefore could be “shocked and awed” by the view beneath the running boards.
I also recommend a perpendicular alignment to vehicle with the business end of things pointed away. The purgers (or should it be purgee?) facial Technicolor display, as it goes from red to purple to done will provide a little consolation entertainment for any passengers that may be captive witness’ to this natural eruption.
Finally, if caught in the act, with no where to hide, finish up, stand up and take a bow, accept applause if offered, because you just gave someone the gift of a story that will be told for years to come.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Some interesting recent building and woodworking sites.
In researching some upcoming wood projects I have come across a few sites that may be of interest to some of you.
The first site is actually two sites by a fellow named John Boak. The first site on his building of a cabin here in Colorado and its unique "vernacular" style of design. It is also a great read on how he accomplished most of the building tasks and where he got materials. I think John is a graphic designer/artist and his BoakArt site is very intriguing, especially the wall sculptures.
Another site for those of you in the process of trimming (finish carpentry) out your abode is by Gary Katz. I wish I found this while in that stage on our place, there are a many great tips and articles. I am going to build his tool tote.
And finally, ToolCrib, which seems to be one of Amazons major power tool partners, has a blog which is a very entertaining and good source of info, take some time, when you have it, to read a few entries.
The first site is actually two sites by a fellow named John Boak. The first site on his building of a cabin here in Colorado and its unique "vernacular" style of design. It is also a great read on how he accomplished most of the building tasks and where he got materials. I think John is a graphic designer/artist and his BoakArt site is very intriguing, especially the wall sculptures.
Another site for those of you in the process of trimming (finish carpentry) out your abode is by Gary Katz. I wish I found this while in that stage on our place, there are a many great tips and articles. I am going to build his tool tote.
And finally, ToolCrib, which seems to be one of Amazons major power tool partners, has a blog which is a very entertaining and good source of info, take some time, when you have it, to read a few entries.
Night Time Dark Skys
Some trivia, for which I am noted, did you know that there is an actual measurement for how dark the sky is at night? It is called the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale.
Up here I have always been amazed at how many stars/objects can be seen at night due to the lack of city glow and altitude (less atmosphere to penetrate). I was reading an article in Outside about this subject and was amazed to realize that we probably aren't even in the top couple of rungs of the BDSS.
As I understand it, Arches National Park has been identified as the only "dark sky" park in the country. It is only a 2 - Typical truly dark site, on the Bortle Scale.
That makes me think that this area is probably a 3 - Rural sky. Except of course during a Winter full Moon when we may need to put on sunscreen it can be so bright.
Another item on night time observations, a couple of years ago there was a post about a fireball spotted one night. At the time, as it was going behind West Antelope to the north I mentioned bracing for the impact shockwave, only to hear and fell nothing. I later found out that it went in to Canada and probably was about the size of a golf ball.
Up here I have always been amazed at how many stars/objects can be seen at night due to the lack of city glow and altitude (less atmosphere to penetrate). I was reading an article in Outside about this subject and was amazed to realize that we probably aren't even in the top couple of rungs of the BDSS.
As I understand it, Arches National Park has been identified as the only "dark sky" park in the country. It is only a 2 - Typical truly dark site, on the Bortle Scale.
That makes me think that this area is probably a 3 - Rural sky. Except of course during a Winter full Moon when we may need to put on sunscreen it can be so bright.
Another item on night time observations, a couple of years ago there was a post about a fireball spotted one night. At the time, as it was going behind West Antelope to the north I mentioned bracing for the impact shockwave, only to hear and fell nothing. I later found out that it went in to Canada and probably was about the size of a golf ball.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Visitors from the East
We had visitors in town from back east. We had not seen Joy and Tom in 12 years, meaning that there was much catching up. They couldn't have picked a better weekend as the weather cooperated and the Aspens were at near peak for color.
We got in a couple of nice hikes, one being back onto the BLM land where we have never been before. We followed the old wagon trail around East Antelope ( Thanks for the access Kevin). The question was why did the old homesteaders come this way into the valley? Seems like a hard way, unless they were coming in from somewhere north, e.g. Guffey, South Park, vs. Canon.
The views to the east were new to us and I tried to capture a few of the scenes with the phone camera so they are not of the greatest quality.
On Sunday the task was walking the back uphill portion of our parcel. Marlys and I have done this every so often, but this time there were a few of objectives; scouting for a Christmas Tree, re-marking the boundary posts the surveyor put in a few years back and trying to find the dead Ponderosa we spotted last Spring that is needed for the next Molesworth project. We accomplished two of the goals.
The number of trees on the parcel would lead you to think that there would be at least one available for Christmas harvesting, but it seemed that if it was good, it couldn't be cut down due to the Marlys Overrule Rule, and the others looked like Charlie Brown Christmas trees. A few were marked and one will be cut.
During the excursion the Mountain Schnauzers were being trolled for any critter catchers (cats, coyotes, etc.) that may have been in the vicinity. Luckily, enough noise was being made by the rest of us that they were probably in the next valley.
One of the lucky girls, and I do mean lucky, decided to wander underneath a truck on the road. As I watched the truck accelerate from a stop she decided to leave the cool of the shadow under the truck and walk right in front of a rear tire. It didn't get her, but the tire left a dust tread print on her haunch. It is hard to see in this image, but it is there. She of course had no idea what had just happened.
The goal not accomplished; we never found the dead tree, from the last trip up the hill, for the Molesworth Club Chair project. The search will continue next time.
We got in a couple of nice hikes, one being back onto the BLM land where we have never been before. We followed the old wagon trail around East Antelope ( Thanks for the access Kevin). The question was why did the old homesteaders come this way into the valley? Seems like a hard way, unless they were coming in from somewhere north, e.g. Guffey, South Park, vs. Canon.
The views to the east were new to us and I tried to capture a few of the scenes with the phone camera so they are not of the greatest quality.On Sunday the task was walking the back uphill portion of our parcel. Marlys and I have done this every so often, but this time there were a few of objectives; scouting for a Christmas Tree, re-marking the boundary posts the surveyor put in a few years back and trying to find the dead Ponderosa we spotted last Spring that is needed for the next Molesworth project. We accomplished two of the goals.
The number of trees on the parcel would lead you to think that there would be at least one available for Christmas harvesting, but it seemed that if it was good, it couldn't be cut down due to the Marlys Overrule Rule, and the others looked like Charlie Brown Christmas trees. A few were marked and one will be cut.
During the excursion the Mountain Schnauzers were being trolled for any critter catchers (cats, coyotes, etc.) that may have been in the vicinity. Luckily, enough noise was being made by the rest of us that they were probably in the next valley.
One of the lucky girls, and I do mean lucky, decided to wander underneath a truck on the road. As I watched the truck accelerate from a stop she decided to leave the cool of the shadow under the truck and walk right in front of a rear tire. It didn't get her, but the tire left a dust tread print on her haunch. It is hard to see in this image, but it is there. She of course had no idea what had just happened.The goal not accomplished; we never found the dead tree, from the last trip up the hill, for the Molesworth Club Chair project. The search will continue next time.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Why do they roast chilies?
We went to the Pueblo Chili and Frioles Festival this weekend to eat roasted chili's. Guess what you really don't eat roasted chilies, you add them to other concoctions, and there are a lot of concoctions out there. We did though eat Italian sausage (which seems to be the meat of choice for many of the recipes) covered in newly roasted chilies, and it was damn good.
Back to the roasting. The reason you roast chilies is to remove the skin, which is pretty tough. There was a block long grouping of different farms with their roasters going behind each booth. You can buy your chilies roasted or raw, roasted with other items, of which garlic seem to be the fan favorite, and there are not just one type of chilies, there are Pueblo, Anaheim, Hatch, etc. Each is a little different. It seems as if many people buy their chilies and then can or freeze them for later use, since they seem to be sold mostly by the bushel.
The festival itself was held in the Pueblo old downtown along Main St and the River Walk. This was out first time here and I found a project treasure...Anderson Upholstery. This store is well stocked with leather hides and southwest fabrics for the future Molesworth inspired projects. I won't have to call for samples from NYC.
They supposedly get 90K to this annual festival.
Beyond the festival, Marlys finished up the re-painting of the AC sign and it looks great, after it has a few coats of spar urethane it should be good for a few more years at the to be built new gate arch.
The floating shelf went in also...but just temporarily as it will need a few more coats of Tung/BLO/poly. But the mounting worked. Now Derek needs to make a better base for the sculpture.
Later.
Back to the roasting. The reason you roast chilies is to remove the skin, which is pretty tough. There was a block long grouping of different farms with their roasters going behind each booth. You can buy your chilies roasted or raw, roasted with other items, of which garlic seem to be the fan favorite, and there are not just one type of chilies, there are Pueblo, Anaheim, Hatch, etc. Each is a little different. It seems as if many people buy their chilies and then can or freeze them for later use, since they seem to be sold mostly by the bushel.
The festival itself was held in the Pueblo old downtown along Main St and the River Walk. This was out first time here and I found a project treasure...Anderson Upholstery. This store is well stocked with leather hides and southwest fabrics for the future Molesworth inspired projects. I won't have to call for samples from NYC.They supposedly get 90K to this annual festival.
Beyond the festival, Marlys finished up the re-painting of the AC sign and it looks great, after it has a few coats of spar urethane it should be good for a few more years at the to be built new gate arch.
The floating shelf went in also...but just temporarily as it will need a few more coats of Tung/BLO/poly. But the mounting worked. Now Derek needs to make a better base for the sculpture.Later.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Blues, Water (as always), Composting, Displaying and TBL
Fall has arrived. Driving up last Thursday on Hwy 285, we noticed that between Bailey and Kenosha Pass the Aspens now have a hint of yellow and there is color to the scrub Oaks, also the Ponderosas are starting to show their fall yellow needles. When the sun goes behind a cloud you are no longer just cooled, but chilled.
Driving back to Parker yesterday via Woodland Park sealed the deal in that Pikes Peak had a white dusting.
I once read on a sign "If you are lucky enough to live in the mountains, you are lucky enough." This is a great time of year in the high country.
But there are a lot of other things to cover, since I missed posting last week:
In nearby (35 miles) Canon City there is an annual Blues Festival, we had heard about but always managed to not remember until after it happened each year. This year they had ads running on TV in Denver so here was no excuse.
The Belvedere Blues Festival runs for three days. Marlys and I went on Saturday afternoon since it was just a great day outside. It wasn't that crowded at 3pm, but by the time the motorcycle toy run was completed it was loaded. A couple sitting across from us turned out to be from Delilah Peak which is just behind our parcel. Pam and John moved to Colorado from California about a year ago. John is a Dentist at the Federal Prison Complex.
After a while, Pete and Dana from AC, also showed up. Where the field dressing of the buffalo they had purchase with a couple of other folks became a point of much discussion. Pete needs to watch last weeks episode of "Man vs. Wild", where Bear is in the badlands of South Dakota and comes across a buffalo carcass. I have also heard through the grapevine that Dana may actually be the dead eye shot in this family.
The music was non-stop and the guy shown here sounded and had a style just like Leon Redbone.
After a few Bud Light Lime beers, which were pretty good when sitting outside in the sun, we headed out to get something to eat and drive home.
That was last weekend.
This weekend we headed up early, because of an appointment with Jack from Rick's Pump Service to look at the well. Those of you who are regular readers know that we have been having "issues", some of them self-induced with it this summer.
The latest started a couple of weeks ago when the cistern did not appear to be filling up during the week while we are in Denver. My trouble shooting amounted to looking at the controller and Pump Saver, meaning not much. After talking to Rick and trying a couple of things, e.g. putting the well pump in to manual mode, etc. we decided to get a professional out and trouble shoot the system.
Our well and pump have been in place for 10 years. When first drilled we still lived in Minnesota, so we weren't here to do a proper well development (pump the well). Although we pumped it when we were here and one of our neighbors (Joe) pumped it on occasion, it didn't get the daily exercise most experts say you need to give a new well. In fact, it took us most of the first summer to rid the well of the drilling fines and get it to a usable clarity. I have always though that this impacted the wells production and would some day impact our checkbook, again.
As the summer progressed we kept wondering if we had reached a point where a new well was in our future. Last Friday was our day to check this out.
Of course, Friday was a cold and rainy day. According to Kevin's weather station it looks like we got a little over an inch. Jack showed up mid-morning and we started inside with the electronics. The UHL (?) control wire to the well pump showed a short. This showed up visually when the fuse was replaced, the circuit energized and a bright blue flash was the result.
Problem 1.
Next we moved outside (in the rain) to the well head. the circuits there seemed OK, but the pump only seemed to run backwards when tested using the controller and generator on the truck.
Problem 2.
Jack said we needed to pull the pump. Having never seen our well opened up, and being the information savant I pretend to be, I decided I would stand there looking over Jack's shoulder in the rain, with no hat or rain gear only in a t-shirt.
So the truck was backed up to the well, across the majestic clumps of grass we have been attempting to grow around the patio (see shoveling horseshit later in this post). Did I mention it was raining and the pump truck weight just under 16K lbs. The clumps of grass are now at the bottom of deep truck tire width canyons.
Up went the derrick and the stinger was screwed in to the pump piping at the pitless adapter. As the assembly was pulled up it seemed to grab on something in the well. Jack looked worried. The first 20' section came in to view and the outside of it showed dirt. Jack looked more worried.
Possible problem number 3.
Just a little info on the "standard" anatomy of the wells in this area. The wells tend to be in the 500-700' deep range. The pump sits near the bottom of the well in water (hopefully) hanging from a Schedule 80 PVC pipe (diameters vary depending on the well, but generally in the 1.5 to 2.5" range). The PVC pipe is in sections 20' long with brass couplers connecting them. There are back flow valves installed at various intervals to hold the water up in the pipe when the pump is not operating. The pump is made up of a motor with a series of impellers stacked above. The number of impellers and the size of the motor are dependent on the height or head(well plumbing term) the water needs to be pumped. This whole assembly sits inside a 4" PVC pipe well liner. The lower sections of the liner is perforated to let in the water. The upper sections of the liner at the surface is steel to provide collapse protection. Many of the wells in our area have galvanized steel liners instead of PVC to provide collapse protection all the way to the bottom. There is also the case of a well having no liner.
Now knowing this the snagging and dirt on the pump pipe would seem to indicate something was amiss and explain the look of consternation on Jack as he pulled the pump. This could be a symptom of a collapsed liner.
A collapsed liner can be problematic, as it can trap the pump, let dirt into the well and reduce the capacity depending on its depth. The solution generally is to try and pull the liner out and insert a new one. Try is the pertinent word in the last sentence (I think it was a complete sentence). If the liner cannot be pulled a new well needs to be drilled, as drilling through plastic is again problematic.
Possible problem number 4.
As the pump pipe continued to come out of the well and the sections de-coupled and laid on the ground (important fact for later) we hit water 60' (3 sections) below the surface. This is considered the storage static level of the well, meaning the level it gets to when not pumped for a long period of time (1 month). Jack also asked if the pump had been pulled before because there was taping on the pipe sections that did not go around the electrical cable. This could be possible evidence of a previous pump installation and removal. I seemed to recall that ten years ago there was a problem with the original pump and it had to be removed and replaced.
To our knowledge the well is 275' deep, at 1.5 gallons per foot and the storage static level the capacity would be 322 gallons. In past testing the recover rate of this well was 265 gallons a day (of course this is an apples to oranges comparison, but more on this later).
At two hundred feet (10 sections) the pipe color turned slightly gray. This indicated that this was the static level of the well when being pumped. I of course asked about pumping intervals impacting this level, which they do, but not to a significant degree (I need to research this). This would give us a static capacity when pumped of 112.5 gallons, so if recovery is 265 gallons a day we should pump it empty about ~2.3 times a day to optimize the recovery rate. This will go into the setting for the Pump Saver.
We hit a piece of tape in the middle of a section, which I understand is a sign to whoever is pulling a pump that the next section is connected to said pump and to slow down.
The Jaccuzi Sandmaster now came into view. Sandmaster is probably a bit of an overstatement in that as to this point sand has been observed on the top of section coupling and in the backflow check valve that has been removed. This sand is another issue to be considered.
Problem number...screw it I lost count.
The motor housing shows a little discoloring and the last section of pipe is a little ballooned where it attached to the pump. These are indicators of heat.
Problem number SI+1 (screw it plus 1).
When the pump and motor are dis-assembled the motor shows a great deal of end play from thrust bearing wear possibly due to problems SI and SI+1. The pump itself cannot be turned and appears to be seized.
So in asking about a re-build or possible core credit toward a new pump the explanation is delivered gently, but I am sure Jack was laughing on the inside at my naivete .
In goes a brand new $1000+ pump. But with a slight change in the setup. Jack is going to put the first back flow valve 20' up, so that when the pump shuts down when the well is empty (this is how the Pump Saver works) there will be a back flush of the pump clearing any sand/dirt. Since this is now a developed well there should be little sand as compared to new well, but it seems to be a good idea and since we pump into a cistern the slight lag will not be noticeable.
The liner also appears to be OK. Jacks well camera is in the shop, so he can't drop it in, but he did drop a tape and it went to the static level with out any problems and based on the snagging action happening on ALL section (so it was near the top) and the poor quality of the taping it appears to have been the cabling hitting the pitless adapter plate.
Ah, you say, but what about the dirty pump piping. Well (pun), Jack believes that that and the poor taping were from when the original pump was pulled and the sections were laid on the ground, then re-inserted. I noticed that when Jack dropped the new pump in, he cleaned each section and coupler assembly, which probably didn't happen last time.
BTW, we pulled 15 20' pipe sections, which along with the surface steel section puts the pump 320' down in the well. That makes the static capacity 180 gallons, so the well should be pumped ~1.5 times a day to optimize the recovery and pump cycles. But of course, in looking at the intervals options on the Pump Saver the longest period is 320 minutes (~5.5 hours), of course once the cistern is full the pump will not operate.
Now on to other things.
Herb and I continued the endless installation of snow fence on Saturday. Since we were absent the t-post driver driver (Derek) and since Herb recently had a shoulder repair, I would be the driver driver. That being said we limited ourselves to 5 rolls (250') which is about 26 t-posts, even then I am feeling the pain still today.
When looking down the length of fence it gets you thinking about the Great Wall. We probably should have left openings every few hundred feet. Ah, it will be nice to have something to do next year.
I mentioned earlier about the clumps of grass we call a lawn. There is a real lack of topsoil in the construction disturbance zone that exists around the house so getting anything to grow is problematic. Also anything that doesn't appear naturally in this area is problematic to get growing. Bringing in topsoil is also problematic (Sick of this word yet?) due to the distance and expense, but wait we have a semi-natural occurring source of compost in the area, that is free for the taking or shoveling...horseshit, I suppose horse guano would be more polite.
After fencing I backed the "new" King Ranch Edition F-450 up to a pile of horse produced compost, kinda like Autumn Creek's own Milorganite (Google or Wiki it), and shoveled it into the truck bed. Here is a hint the lower in the pile you go the lower the aromatics seem to be and the less recognizable the "stuff" is. I did apply a truck bed diaper (tarp) so as not to carry the lingering effects of the "stuff" around into perpetuity (needed to use this word in reference to something other then uranium mining).
Marlys was indisposed for the spreading of the "stuff'.
Once the application had been made, it is now a waiting game to see if it the produces a "Scott's Lawn". Some rain would be nice, but this action probably angered the rain gods.
Speaking of angering the deities, when putting in the snow fence we were careful to keep it from being an affront to the Native American Executive (For the non-PC: Indian Chief) burial site (rock pile) by Herb and Maureen's drive. Since Herb told me this, I believe it to be as authentic as the Mountain Buttercup wild flowers he identified on the Memorial Day hike up West Antelope.
Now to the floating shelf. Since Derek brought home the Gauze Man (probably better stated as a person since it is not gender specific) earlier this year we have not had an appropriate (PC term I like to use inappropriately) place to display it. With the one large remaining piece of curly redwood we are going to put an appropriately styled shelf of an appropriate size beside the fireplace, an appropriate spot for the GM/W/P. The floating parts comes in, in that the shelf will have no visible means of support, kinda like the 45% of the population that don't pay taxes, but will receive a tax cut (I guess this means they get money back that they didn't pay in the first place.) under the Barack Obama tax plan.
The way this works will be secret, just like the secret bookshelf door. BTW who haven't I shown that to?
Last but not least this is the 10th anniversary of the Cohen Brother's movie "The Big Lebowski". Usually it is hard for me to understand everything that happens in their movies, and 'No Country for Old Men" was a real big disappointment. This one though has a physicality I can understand. For those who have seen me sitting around in shorts and t-shirt, tell me I don't look like "The Dude" (shoulders down) on the couch at Jackie Treehorn's. Also Julianne Moore keep you clothes on, please, or at least get a butt double.
I viewed (word saved for use when talking about high class TV watching) TBL twice this weekend, on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Marlys watched most of it for the first time, finally on Saturday. She walked out on the Caulfield Family Room Premiere Friday night. Sorry, but there are no photos of the beige carpet interviews in order to honor the privacy requests of moi, and also because there were none, unless the soulful eye to eye communication between a human and a dog counts.
I wonder what it looks like in high def.
Driving back to Parker yesterday via Woodland Park sealed the deal in that Pikes Peak had a white dusting.
I once read on a sign "If you are lucky enough to live in the mountains, you are lucky enough." This is a great time of year in the high country.
But there are a lot of other things to cover, since I missed posting last week:
- Belvedere Blues Fest
- Pulled the well pump
- Installed more snow fencing
- Shoved horseshit
- Bringing the floating shelf to the installation point
- Big Lebowski 10 Year Anniversary
In nearby (35 miles) Canon City there is an annual Blues Festival, we had heard about but always managed to not remember until after it happened each year. This year they had ads running on TV in Denver so here was no excuse.
The Belvedere Blues Festival runs for three days. Marlys and I went on Saturday afternoon since it was just a great day outside. It wasn't that crowded at 3pm, but by the time the motorcycle toy run was completed it was loaded. A couple sitting across from us turned out to be from Delilah Peak which is just behind our parcel. Pam and John moved to Colorado from California about a year ago. John is a Dentist at the Federal Prison Complex.After a while, Pete and Dana from AC, also showed up. Where the field dressing of the buffalo they had purchase with a couple of other folks became a point of much discussion. Pete needs to watch last weeks episode of "Man vs. Wild", where Bear is in the badlands of South Dakota and comes across a buffalo carcass. I have also heard through the grapevine that Dana may actually be the dead eye shot in this family.
The music was non-stop and the guy shown here sounded and had a style just like Leon Redbone.After a few Bud Light Lime beers, which were pretty good when sitting outside in the sun, we headed out to get something to eat and drive home.
That was last weekend.
This weekend we headed up early, because of an appointment with Jack from Rick's Pump Service to look at the well. Those of you who are regular readers know that we have been having "issues", some of them self-induced with it this summer.
The latest started a couple of weeks ago when the cistern did not appear to be filling up during the week while we are in Denver. My trouble shooting amounted to looking at the controller and Pump Saver, meaning not much. After talking to Rick and trying a couple of things, e.g. putting the well pump in to manual mode, etc. we decided to get a professional out and trouble shoot the system.
Our well and pump have been in place for 10 years. When first drilled we still lived in Minnesota, so we weren't here to do a proper well development (pump the well). Although we pumped it when we were here and one of our neighbors (Joe) pumped it on occasion, it didn't get the daily exercise most experts say you need to give a new well. In fact, it took us most of the first summer to rid the well of the drilling fines and get it to a usable clarity. I have always though that this impacted the wells production and would some day impact our checkbook, again.
As the summer progressed we kept wondering if we had reached a point where a new well was in our future. Last Friday was our day to check this out.
Of course, Friday was a cold and rainy day. According to Kevin's weather station it looks like we got a little over an inch. Jack showed up mid-morning and we started inside with the electronics. The UHL (?) control wire to the well pump showed a short. This showed up visually when the fuse was replaced, the circuit energized and a bright blue flash was the result.
Problem 1.
Next we moved outside (in the rain) to the well head. the circuits there seemed OK, but the pump only seemed to run backwards when tested using the controller and generator on the truck.
Problem 2.
Jack said we needed to pull the pump. Having never seen our well opened up, and being the information savant I pretend to be, I decided I would stand there looking over Jack's shoulder in the rain, with no hat or rain gear only in a t-shirt.
So the truck was backed up to the well, across the majestic clumps of grass we have been attempting to grow around the patio (see shoveling horseshit later in this post). Did I mention it was raining and the pump truck weight just under 16K lbs. The clumps of grass are now at the bottom of deep truck tire width canyons.
Up went the derrick and the stinger was screwed in to the pump piping at the pitless adapter. As the assembly was pulled up it seemed to grab on something in the well. Jack looked worried. The first 20' section came in to view and the outside of it showed dirt. Jack looked more worried.
Possible problem number 3.
Just a little info on the "standard" anatomy of the wells in this area. The wells tend to be in the 500-700' deep range. The pump sits near the bottom of the well in water (hopefully) hanging from a Schedule 80 PVC pipe (diameters vary depending on the well, but generally in the 1.5 to 2.5" range). The PVC pipe is in sections 20' long with brass couplers connecting them. There are back flow valves installed at various intervals to hold the water up in the pipe when the pump is not operating. The pump is made up of a motor with a series of impellers stacked above. The number of impellers and the size of the motor are dependent on the height or head(well plumbing term) the water needs to be pumped. This whole assembly sits inside a 4" PVC pipe well liner. The lower sections of the liner is perforated to let in the water. The upper sections of the liner at the surface is steel to provide collapse protection. Many of the wells in our area have galvanized steel liners instead of PVC to provide collapse protection all the way to the bottom. There is also the case of a well having no liner.
Now knowing this the snagging and dirt on the pump pipe would seem to indicate something was amiss and explain the look of consternation on Jack as he pulled the pump. This could be a symptom of a collapsed liner.
A collapsed liner can be problematic, as it can trap the pump, let dirt into the well and reduce the capacity depending on its depth. The solution generally is to try and pull the liner out and insert a new one. Try is the pertinent word in the last sentence (I think it was a complete sentence). If the liner cannot be pulled a new well needs to be drilled, as drilling through plastic is again problematic.
Possible problem number 4.
As the pump pipe continued to come out of the well and the sections de-coupled and laid on the ground (important fact for later) we hit water 60' (3 sections) below the surface. This is considered the storage static level of the well, meaning the level it gets to when not pumped for a long period of time (1 month). Jack also asked if the pump had been pulled before because there was taping on the pipe sections that did not go around the electrical cable. This could be possible evidence of a previous pump installation and removal. I seemed to recall that ten years ago there was a problem with the original pump and it had to be removed and replaced.
To our knowledge the well is 275' deep, at 1.5 gallons per foot and the storage static level the capacity would be 322 gallons. In past testing the recover rate of this well was 265 gallons a day (of course this is an apples to oranges comparison, but more on this later).
At two hundred feet (10 sections) the pipe color turned slightly gray. This indicated that this was the static level of the well when being pumped. I of course asked about pumping intervals impacting this level, which they do, but not to a significant degree (I need to research this). This would give us a static capacity when pumped of 112.5 gallons, so if recovery is 265 gallons a day we should pump it empty about ~2.3 times a day to optimize the recovery rate. This will go into the setting for the Pump Saver.
We hit a piece of tape in the middle of a section, which I understand is a sign to whoever is pulling a pump that the next section is connected to said pump and to slow down.
The Jaccuzi Sandmaster now came into view. Sandmaster is probably a bit of an overstatement in that as to this point sand has been observed on the top of section coupling and in the backflow check valve that has been removed. This sand is another issue to be considered.
Problem number...screw it I lost count.
The motor housing shows a little discoloring and the last section of pipe is a little ballooned where it attached to the pump. These are indicators of heat.
Problem number SI+1 (screw it plus 1).
When the pump and motor are dis-assembled the motor shows a great deal of end play from thrust bearing wear possibly due to problems SI and SI+1. The pump itself cannot be turned and appears to be seized.
So in asking about a re-build or possible core credit toward a new pump the explanation is delivered gently, but I am sure Jack was laughing on the inside at my naivete .
In goes a brand new $1000+ pump. But with a slight change in the setup. Jack is going to put the first back flow valve 20' up, so that when the pump shuts down when the well is empty (this is how the Pump Saver works) there will be a back flush of the pump clearing any sand/dirt. Since this is now a developed well there should be little sand as compared to new well, but it seems to be a good idea and since we pump into a cistern the slight lag will not be noticeable.
The liner also appears to be OK. Jacks well camera is in the shop, so he can't drop it in, but he did drop a tape and it went to the static level with out any problems and based on the snagging action happening on ALL section (so it was near the top) and the poor quality of the taping it appears to have been the cabling hitting the pitless adapter plate.
Ah, you say, but what about the dirty pump piping. Well (pun), Jack believes that that and the poor taping were from when the original pump was pulled and the sections were laid on the ground, then re-inserted. I noticed that when Jack dropped the new pump in, he cleaned each section and coupler assembly, which probably didn't happen last time.
BTW, we pulled 15 20' pipe sections, which along with the surface steel section puts the pump 320' down in the well. That makes the static capacity 180 gallons, so the well should be pumped ~1.5 times a day to optimize the recovery and pump cycles. But of course, in looking at the intervals options on the Pump Saver the longest period is 320 minutes (~5.5 hours), of course once the cistern is full the pump will not operate.
Now on to other things.
Herb and I continued the endless installation of snow fence on Saturday. Since we were absent the t-post driver driver (Derek) and since Herb recently had a shoulder repair, I would be the driver driver. That being said we limited ourselves to 5 rolls (250') which is about 26 t-posts, even then I am feeling the pain still today.
When looking down the length of fence it gets you thinking about the Great Wall. We probably should have left openings every few hundred feet. Ah, it will be nice to have something to do next year.
I mentioned earlier about the clumps of grass we call a lawn. There is a real lack of topsoil in the construction disturbance zone that exists around the house so getting anything to grow is problematic. Also anything that doesn't appear naturally in this area is problematic to get growing. Bringing in topsoil is also problematic (Sick of this word yet?) due to the distance and expense, but wait we have a semi-natural occurring source of compost in the area, that is free for the taking or shoveling...horseshit, I suppose horse guano would be more polite.
After fencing I backed the "new" King Ranch Edition F-450 up to a pile of horse produced compost, kinda like Autumn Creek's own Milorganite (Google or Wiki it), and shoveled it into the truck bed. Here is a hint the lower in the pile you go the lower the aromatics seem to be and the less recognizable the "stuff" is. I did apply a truck bed diaper (tarp) so as not to carry the lingering effects of the "stuff" around into perpetuity (needed to use this word in reference to something other then uranium mining).
Marlys was indisposed for the spreading of the "stuff'.
Once the application had been made, it is now a waiting game to see if it the produces a "Scott's Lawn". Some rain would be nice, but this action probably angered the rain gods.
Speaking of angering the deities, when putting in the snow fence we were careful to keep it from being an affront to the Native American Executive (For the non-PC: Indian Chief) burial site (rock pile) by Herb and Maureen's drive. Since Herb told me this, I believe it to be as authentic as the Mountain Buttercup wild flowers he identified on the Memorial Day hike up West Antelope.
Now to the floating shelf. Since Derek brought home the Gauze Man (probably better stated as a person since it is not gender specific) earlier this year we have not had an appropriate (PC term I like to use inappropriately) place to display it. With the one large remaining piece of curly redwood we are going to put an appropriately styled shelf of an appropriate size beside the fireplace, an appropriate spot for the GM/W/P. The floating parts comes in, in that the shelf will have no visible means of support, kinda like the 45% of the population that don't pay taxes, but will receive a tax cut (I guess this means they get money back that they didn't pay in the first place.) under the Barack Obama tax plan.
The way this works will be secret, just like the secret bookshelf door. BTW who haven't I shown that to?
Last but not least this is the 10th anniversary of the Cohen Brother's movie "The Big Lebowski". Usually it is hard for me to understand everything that happens in their movies, and 'No Country for Old Men" was a real big disappointment. This one though has a physicality I can understand. For those who have seen me sitting around in shorts and t-shirt, tell me I don't look like "The Dude" (shoulders down) on the couch at Jackie Treehorn's. Also Julianne Moore keep you clothes on, please, or at least get a butt double.
I viewed (word saved for use when talking about high class TV watching) TBL twice this weekend, on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Marlys watched most of it for the first time, finally on Saturday. She walked out on the Caulfield Family Room Premiere Friday night. Sorry, but there are no photos of the beige carpet interviews in order to honor the privacy requests of moi, and also because there were none, unless the soulful eye to eye communication between a human and a dog counts.
I wonder what it looks like in high def.
Monday, September 01, 2008
The End of Summer - 2008
Well its the end of another summer. They go by so fast...especially the older I get. Derek was again over this weekend to help on some projects that required a strong back, e.g. snow fencing and retaining wall.
Marlys and I talked about how he was home more often this summer then in the past three years. Not sure why, maybe it has to do with the realization that in a couple of years he will be really on his own.
Derek and I installed 750' of snow fencing around parts of Autumn Creek this weekend and we decided that when it is just he and I we can move pretty quick, probably because I am not necessarily as political in getting things done, e.g. Derek do this.
Marlys spent the weekend painting, the trim on the back of the house and the re-furbishing of the Autumn Creek sign.
The AC sign is going to be re-installed on the new entry gate arch that should go in this fall. So far it is looking real good.
Between the snow fencing I spent the time trying to sort out the shop. It seems that the more space, more stuff is either accumulated are pack ratted in that since you have the space you don't get rid of it.
The main object of the re-organization was the wood pile. I haven't re-sorted this in two years and in that time you really forget what you have available for projects.
My next project is to start the bedroom set. The plan is to begin with the headboard. I was planning on a "Molesworth" type design and figured that new wood would be needed.
After going through the wood pile it will be made out of beetle kill (blue stained) Ponderosa Pine that we milled from a tree harvested at Pinon Rock. After two years in very low humidity at 8600' AGL it should be good to go.
Until next time.
Marlys and I talked about how he was home more often this summer then in the past three years. Not sure why, maybe it has to do with the realization that in a couple of years he will be really on his own.
Derek and I installed 750' of snow fencing around parts of Autumn Creek this weekend and we decided that when it is just he and I we can move pretty quick, probably because I am not necessarily as political in getting things done, e.g. Derek do this.
Marlys spent the weekend painting, the trim on the back of the house and the re-furbishing of the Autumn Creek sign.The AC sign is going to be re-installed on the new entry gate arch that should go in this fall. So far it is looking real good.
Between the snow fencing I spent the time trying to sort out the shop. It seems that the more space, more stuff is either accumulated are pack ratted in that since you have the space you don't get rid of it.
The main object of the re-organization was the wood pile. I haven't re-sorted this in two years and in that time you really forget what you have available for projects.
My next project is to start the bedroom set. The plan is to begin with the headboard. I was planning on a "Molesworth" type design and figured that new wood would be needed.
After going through the wood pile it will be made out of beetle kill (blue stained) Ponderosa Pine that we milled from a tree harvested at Pinon Rock. After two years in very low humidity at 8600' AGL it should be good to go.Until next time.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Another First: A DNC Demonstration
The DNC Convention is on:
Heard this group go by around noon today. I think they were a prisoner right group. You may be able to see the security around them in the picture. I think the police out numbered the demonstrators.
Everyone was well mannered and after about 10 minutes the mounted police (horses and hanging off SUVs) left.
Heard this group go by around noon today. I think they were a prisoner right group. You may be able to see the security around them in the picture. I think the police out numbered the demonstrators.
Everyone was well mannered and after about 10 minutes the mounted police (horses and hanging off SUVs) left.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
We actually saw a Tornado
Folks, after living in Nebraska and Minnesota most of our lives Marlys and I saw our first tornado yesterday.This was a weekend for tornado's in that one even hit up by Hartsel about 30 miles north of the Pinon house. I had never heard of a tornado in the mountains, but I guess they happen. I don't think anyone was hurt, but as you can imagine there was no warning (no sirens in area), and it tossed around a camp ground.
The one in Parker yesterday afternoon was interesting in that when Marlys spotted it we though it was only a funnel cloud because we only saw the top. Then we noticed the debris at ground level. We watched it for about 5-10minutes before it disipated. At one point we were concerned because it was to out SW and I seemed to remember that tornado's move from SW to NE.
Its hard to see in these pictures, but it is behind the lamp post in the center. It was about two miles away.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Snow, Rain, Sun, Rain, Saw Dust and Dial Indicators
We should have known on Friday afternoon when we saw the snowplow on the west side of Kenosha Pass that the weather was going to get interesting.
Then, as we crested a shallow hill this was presented for our enjoyment. 
For us it was one of those rare couple of days where it rained all the time, sometimes real light, but constantly.
It even tried to fool us on Sunday morning by letting the sun peak out long enough to throw the ball a few time for Dusty, but within 30 minutes it was clouded over and thundering again.
BTW, if you have been doing any trim work this is a great gizmo, a Kobalt Portable Compressed CO2 Regulator from Lowe's. It really beats hauling around the air compressor to run a trim or brad nailer. It uses the same air bottles as paintball guns, which gives a wide selection of capacities and ease in getting refills. It is usually setting in the shop ready to go for projects, like pinning spreaders on chairs that have loosened up.
The setup was pretty simple and allowed for movement to the high saw dust making spots in the shop. After grabbing a couple of filters from inventory (I had a few in the furnace room), this is the final product. Very straightforward and they do seem to pull air nicely.
One will probably end up moving over the work bench, as that is where the sanding happens.
If you have been following the Colorado weather and fire scene this summer, you probably know how hot and dry it has been. Most areas of Colorado are setting low rain marks and Denver had is most consecutive days about 90 degrees record broken recently.
When we left town on Friday is had been raining most of the day. For that we were very thankful.
As we headed up through Conifer and Bailey the rain was picking up and the sky was charcoal ash dark. We topped Kenosha Pass and could see that South Park was stormy. As we descended the snow on the road shoulder told us it was cool out too, but the plow truck was a sure sign.
On the way to Fairplay, the rain kept playing with us and the sun even came out for a couple of minutes, but by the time we hung a left on to Highway 9 for Hartsel it was dark and raining again. There wasn't much traffic but when we got closer to the Hartsel dogleg more and more vehicles had their 4-ways flashing.
Then, as we crested a shallow hill this was presented for our enjoyment. 
A snow covered road and a "yard sale" type accident. Hitting the brakes told the story of how it happened.
It was raining again by the time we pulled out of Hartsel. There were some bikers sitting under the canopy of a local gas station wondering what type of weekend adventure this was going to turn out to be.
For us it was one of those rare couple of days where it rained all the time, sometimes real light, but constantly. 
It even tried to fool us on Sunday morning by letting the sun peak out long enough to throw the ball a few time for Dusty, but within 30 minutes it was clouded over and thundering again. Enough for the weather report.
We were able to get a few things off the to do list because of the rain. Marlys uncovered the glulams in the garage, sanded and covered them in poly. The garage has been her project this summer and after the trim out around the glulams it will be done (waiting on another rainy day).
Most of Saturday morning was spent taking a dial indicator to the tablesaw. After putting a bit of wood through it, a check-up would be in order. In checking the blade the side-to-side run out was .07", which although not much got me wondering if it was the blade or the arbor. So in checking the arbor the side run out was <.005". It appears to be a warped/bent blade. Probably from moving/twisting material while sawing, which is a bad thing to do. A new blade is needed to correct, since I don't know how to re-flatten or true it up. A good couple of hours was spent fooling around with the TS, including building an enclosure for the back (this is a contractor type saw). Even with the dust collector, enclosing the bottom is next to cut down on the saw dust.
BTW, if you have been doing any trim work this is a great gizmo, a Kobalt Portable Compressed CO2 Regulator from Lowe's. It really beats hauling around the air compressor to run a trim or brad nailer. It uses the same air bottles as paintball guns, which gives a wide selection of capacities and ease in getting refills. It is usually setting in the shop ready to go for projects, like pinning spreaders on chairs that have loosened up.But what I worked on this weekend was a air filtering system for the shop.
During the winter when the front doors are closed a lot of saw dust can get in the air from sanders, saws, jointers, etc. Beyond the impact when applying a finish it probably is not good for the lungs and even though I am good on safety glass use, I seriously lacking when it comes to grabbing a mask.
In searching the usual places looking for a used system and noticing that Home Depot has their small ones on sale, last week, I did a quick Google to see if anyone had made one. Wouldn't you know there many folks have built systems for their places. One that caught my eye used window fans, of which two now in the shop looking for a place to be stored when not being used.
The setup was pretty simple and allowed for movement to the high saw dust making spots in the shop. After grabbing a couple of filters from inventory (I had a few in the furnace room), this is the final product. Very straightforward and they do seem to pull air nicely.
One will probably end up moving over the work bench, as that is where the sanding happens.The more the $25 radial arm saw is used the more I realize what an overlooked piece of gear this is. Virtually all of the pieces for these were cut using it.
That edge on view of a slab, in the second picture, sitting on the TS out feed table is the last remaining piece from the pallet of curly redwood ordered off eBay back in 2006. it is going to be a wall shelf for the area next to the fireplace (where the other redwood was used) to display Derek's "linen man" wire sculpture. Since this will be on the great room side it will have a finished (vs. wild) edge (see Jekyll and Hyde post).
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Heavy Lifting
While Marlys finished staining the decks, Derek and I spent Friday putting in a couple of retaining walls.For one of them we used locally available rock and when I say locally available I mean everywhere around our little compound (more on this definition later).
The work though became how to move them from where they are to where we want them.
To a great extent we relied on the ATV and our POS trailer. Some on the rocks we moved had to weight in excess of 200#. After about a dozen loads we had the incline beside the garage completely covered. One more task to remove from the to do list. We also started on the wall outside of the downstairs back bedroom, but that won't finish up for another week as we ran out of bricks.To follow-up Friday's herculean activities, on Saturday we installed 500' of snow fence up top. Remember the rocks I mentioned above, try driving t-post through them, ain't happening. After 5 hours of driving posts and hanging fence we were shot. By Sunday morning we could barely move our arms. There is still about 2500' of snow fence to install. Hopefully, we will get it in before the snow flies.
I also had a few hours to fool around in the barn, so I built this dust hood for the radial arm saw. It works pretty good. I think I am going to make a matching station at the same height for the miter saw, so long pieces can span both work surfaces.
Derek has also started work on a totem pole sculpture. The first task was to joint and glue up some pieces of 5x5 cedar scrap that when glued together will give him a workable size. Jointing this size piece on a 6" jointer made for some real sweat work.Derek brought everything that could be washed home. I mentioned that when I was here alone I used ~60 gallons of water over the weekend, last weekend Marlys and I used 120 gallons and this weekend 500 gallons.
Part of this is due to Marlys being a serial flusher, where as, I am from the "If its brown flush it down. If its yellow let it mellow." school. There is no winning though in this discussion.
Until the spirit moves me next time.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Craigslist Treasures & The Deck is done.
Marlys was in Minnesota at the lake with her friends this weekend, which left me with time to finish the deck and work (play) with some items I picked up off of Criagslist this week.I only had the cap rails to complete on the deck so it went pretty quickly, I also got out the router and bull nosed all of the end edges. The deck turned out pretty nice, but that mostly goes to the design, which is pretty basic.
After reading a book I picked up on furniture design, I have come to the conclusion that I need much work in this area. Luckily there are a lot of plans and pictures that I can use to build items.
Speaking of building, last Monday morning at 6:40 I checked Craigslist to see what may have been posted over the weekend. I noticed an ad for clamps that had been placed just a few minutes before. The ad had a picture of a table filled with bar clamps and a price of $1-$3 per clamp.
I may not have a great deal of woodworking experience, but I have become a believer in the adage that you can never have enough clamps.
The ad said to call after 5:30PM. I figured though that someone had placed these ads just a few minutes ago so I would give it a try. Lucky me, someone answered and I said I would take all of the clamps. She asked if there was anything else. I went back to CL and I noticed a series of ads with everything normally in a well equipped wood shop, so I asked the reason for sale and she said they were moving to Mexico and didn't want to store the equipment.
Quickly looking through the ad's I said I would take the jointer and the radial arm saw too.
Marlys, Derek and I picked everything up on Monday evening.
Derek was looking at a dismantled downdraft kiln that was beside the workshop. His art classes must be paying off because it just looked like a pile of bricks, chimney liner and some type of tile tome. It could have been a BBQ for all I knew.
There ended up being 48 clamps in all and the price was $50. So I spent Saturday building a rack to hold these along with those already in the inventory.I had to come up in with my own design because as mentioned above I am challenged in that area.
I had a nice clamp rack plan, but I think it is in Minnesota at the aforementioned lake in the hands of "Bill the Consultant".
He also got me started on looking for a shop liquidations as a place to pick up good gear. Most of his shop came from a cabinet maker, who if I recall right was retiring or upgrading. Any way I have been on the look out for one of these sales for a long time, kinda like the legend of the Corvette, in the snow bank with the smell.
This shop also had a couple year old Unisaw with a complete station and cabinets for sale at agreat price, but I have a hard time getting everything out of my current saw, so this would be way beyond my skill level.
After finishing the deck I unloaded the truck and setup the gear.
The radial arm saw is a vintage 1960's Dewalt 925. It still had the original trunk finish green paint. I paid $25 for it and the table it sat on. Ray said the motor was starting to bog and it would probably need to be re-wound.I am not sure about that, because I made allot of saw dust with it this weekend and am amazed at how well it works.
This RAS is so old that it doesn't even have a trigger switch on the handle, but a key that is mounted on the arm to turn it on.
The other piece is a 6" Grizzly Jointer. My current jointer is an old off brand that needs a tune-up badly, so picking up a 3 year old jointer for $70 seemed like a good buy. Ya, 70 bucks. Ray said to watch the blades as they were new. I made some saw dust with this on Saturday too. Actually a lot of saw dust.The jointer is really one of the keystones of good woodworking in that if you don't start with flat, square material it is just about impossible to end up with a good item.
So I spent the weekend throwing the ball for Dusty, having a few Modelo's and playing with the new gear. And Marlys thought I was going to have a lonely weekend with the high point being beans and franks for dinner.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Flying Bugs, Water and Deck Progress
After the fiasco with emptying the cistern a few weeks ago. I asked Rick's to put in a water usage meter so we could check what our consumption actually is.Yes, I understand that this doesn't help in watching the cistern, but it does give us get a feel for water flow and the amount going into the house.
This is a pretty standard water meter made by Master Meter. I apologize for the poor picture quality, but again it was the phone camera... in the dark ... the basement... at floor level.
Our usage from Friday evening until Sunday at noon, which included heavy washer usage, was 190 gallons.
Our usage from Friday evening until Sunday at noon, which included heavy washer usage, was 190 gallons.
The last time I measured the recovery rate on our well, which was 2005, we recovered at 265 gallons a day. This is the key measure, not the pumping rate, as that is more a factor of the pump itself, case in point our well report says 5 gallons a minute, which it does for 15 minutes at a time.
I have our Pump Saver set to pump the well dry (to pump suspension level) every 180 minutes, unless the cistern is full.
On to the deck.
The deck is almost complete. Yahoo! Then I get to start Marlys next project ,which is the cabinetry for the laundry room, which I believe is going to include a wine cooler.
I, of course, was told I could look on Craig's List for a used refrigerator to put in the barn for beer. I guess I know our priorities.
I am still short four pieces of Trex for the deck itself and the top rails. Chuck at Sonny's called and said they were in last week, so I should complete this project on Saturday. Then Marlys' work begins in sealing and finishing to match the front.
I don't know if you remember from a post in late 2006, but our electricians had left one of their impact drivers behind after the rough-in (they claimed it during the finish) and I had mentioned to them how much I liked using it. They got me one, which I use virtually every weekend on different projects. Securing the decking was made for this tool.This is not some high(er) voltage cordless tool, but a 12 volt, 3 AMH Panasonic impact driver. It has driven in every fastner on this deck from the 8" framelocks, 2" joist hangers and the hundreds of 2.5" composite decking screws.
It hasn't missed a beat and the battery has only been switched out maybe 6 times. I know this since the charger is in the barn and I need to walk down the hill to swap them out.
I noticed that Fine Woodworking or Homebuilding has an article this month on why it is you need to have an impact driver. Haven't read it but I can tell you I am sold on their use.
OK, now to the next subject, entomology.
This summer I have noticed a new (to me) flying insect around the house. Its identification has be the subject of an ongoing email thread with the CSU Extension Service.
This insect is about an 1.5" long and only seems to fly a few inches to a foot off the ground, alone or in small groups of ~6. The insect has a wide reddish orange band around its adomen. Initially I didn't have a picture of it so it was thought to be some species of a robber fly. Robber flies are predator critters that tend to go after spiders and other insects.
I was finally able to capture one of these critters, when it wandered in to the insecticide kill zone around the house and went into convulsions and died. Guess that isn't so much a capture, as a pick it up.
I made an exceptional (CSI quality) post mortem picture on the edge of the pickup box.Whitney has now identified this as a:
Response (Whitney Cranshaw) - 07/21/2008 03:04 PM This looks like a hunting wasp in the genus Ammophila. They are solitary wasps (i.e., do not make a colony) and nest in the soil. The females hunt caterpillars that they paralyze, drag back to the nest, and provide for their young to feed on.
I mentioned about a month ago the number of woolly bear caterpillar's around this year, which may explain their presence (and the tiger moths).
Tune in for next week's episode - The Treasures Found on Craig's List, or I too tripped on to a wood shop liquidation sale (so there Bill).
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