Lockdown Activities

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Well, what'a ya' know?!, I found a project.
In a post on another thread, I mentioned shimming the Blackhawk and Vaquero hammers to center them in their frames. When working on the Blackhawk I didn't polish the hammer sides to remove the scratches caused by it hitting the frame, like I did with the Vaquero. That was late last night and early this morning's project.
I bought the Blackhawk used, via Gunbroker, from some guy in Texas. He'd daubed white paint on the sights, doing a nice job putting two dots on the rear sight, but smeared the paint on the front and I removed it. I'm going to order Birchwood Casey's bright sight paints and see if I can improve sight acquision.

I should add a qualifier to my previous post:
Gun-related projects is what I've caught up on. The everyday house and yard chores and projects still need tending to, and mostly in the order which my wife prefers. My retirement side job still consumes about 10-hours per-week, depending on the seasons' weather.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Been doing a lot of casting and PC coating but our ranges are close because of the virus!
No Work but it works out well ...have been growing a lot of seedlings under lights in the basement in hopes for a good gardening year! Would be a difficult job if I had work every day. Some are ready to go outside to harden off but our weather went back to late winter so I have my hands full because many have already been moved in to 3" pots! Do not have the lighting in the basement for all the transplants in 3" pots !
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I got the same problem.
except the shelves in the green house are also filled up.
I still haven't started the summer squash, peas, or beans yet, so I'm gonna have to do something pretty soon... LOL.
 

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Loaded 50 rounds for my brother .455 Webley Automatic today. Second loading of the cases I made last year.
 

Rex

Active Member
Caught up on casting and reloading, running low on powder but I've got a big yard and it has warmed up enough that I can mow it 2-3 times a week. Never thought I'd enjoy lawn mowing!
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Fiver ...Love to see your green house! I'm thinking of building a rudimentary one this year! Just something where I can move my seedling transplants to once the basement get full....Seems the cold frame just dosen't cut it for Basil and other sensitive stuff you need to start early
 

35 shooter

Well-Known Member
Dang, wish I had time to catch up on some casting and shooting.....
Still working 6 days a week as usual through this whole mess.
F4 tornado missed the gf’s place by about a mile weekend before last, but almost completely eliminated a small community I used to live in.
Had another round of tornado’s this last weekend about 30 miles south of us.
Avoiding shopping as much as possible for now, but otherwise pretty much life as usual.
 
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fiver

Well-Known Member
JW it's just one of those Harbor Freight 500 dollar jobs.
but when I built it I modified,,, everything.. LOL.
all the panels were caulked and screwed down, I put flue tape over the end of each panel, and then I built an inner skeleton on 2 foot centers, and added some raised boxes [actually one horse shoe shaped box]around part of both sides and across the Back.
in the one corner [south side] I added in about 4 or 5 shelves.
and on the north side I put a long work bench and a shelf above it over the top of the shortest box.
I'm going to put some lightly insulated wood panels down for a floor, to help with a bit more heat retention.
all I have in there is a box fan for the hot days and to provide some wind across the plants, and a little milk house heater for heat.
it works out pretty good.
I can go down to about 20-F [maybe a little more] and have no problems with many of the heat loving plants, and the cold loving stuff is happy as a clam when the nights get down like that.
I generally hold about 15-20F more temp with the little heater over night.

I'm going to pick some lettuce out of there tomorrow, and the onions made it through the winter, so I should get some good seeds off them for the future here pretty soon.
 

462

California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Every year about this time three of us neighbors get our oak trees sprayed. If we don't the oak worms eat the leaves, hang down on silk(?) to reach objects on which to cocoon, morph into moths and lay eggs, and the cycle continues.

Because ol' Jack died (posted in another thread) and his wife is in the hospital, my wife and I decided to pay for their tree spraying. When we mentioned it to the next door neighbors, they said they'd split the cost with us.

Yesterday morning the pest control guy sprayed all the trees, but only charged us half price for new widow's trees.

The moral of the story: Not only are our neighbors friendly, we look after each other. And, though the pest control business has seen a reduction of customers and may be struggling, they are compassionate and understanding.

In the meantime, we are nearing the conclusion of the sixth week of house arrest.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
Thanks fiver! Great info I think I may follow your lead!
I do not have your extremes but do have very freaky spring weather ....like this year!
Man if I can hold Red Sails lettuce through our winters in a cold frame I would be eating well all winter with your set up!
Going to look into one of those this year!
 
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fiver

Well-Known Member
there's some pretty decent ideas on U-tube.
one old guy on there is a hoot and does a 15? step video series on building one.
he talks about the problems he had and what he did.
I kind of took some of his ideas and some from some others and made up my own version to try to combat our snow load.

if your winters stay in say the 20-F area at night you could easily grow lettuce and other stuff
without too much trouble, I have found I can not worry if I get anything like 2 hours a day of direct sunlight.
less and the heater will be going pretty non stop but puts enough heat in there.

right now I have pumpkins and squash flowering [summer squash too] that have been in there since the end of march, my egg plants and little fig tree are surviving so I know it isn't too bad over night.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
fiver that is pretty amazing! We have a few days in the winter at 0 deg on average but most are around 18 to 20 degrees.
This past winter I put a Styrofoam Cold Frame over my leaf lettuce in November when the temps took a nose dive It wasn't a bad winter here but I'm
still harvesting Red Sails leaf lettuce and the leafs are bigger than my hand! Not the sweetest but mix well in salads or Polish Lettuce soup!
Right now the biggest need it to move potted 3" plants outside but our weather will be below average for the next 2 weeks or more!
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I'm still figuring it out.
IMO [limited] it's best not to have stuff that needs pollination from bugs in there for a full season.
Tomato plants do great if you go in there and shake them yourself, squash or the like that needs a male-female interface is something you end up doing yourself and sometimes they just don't take it to well.

for just holding plants to give them a lot of light like your wanting it would be about perfect.
it gives them light, extra day time heat and keeps the frost off them at night.
the worst thing is your gonna be hauling water out there every day.
I'm going through about 6-7 gallons a day right now, and some of the plants need water morning and night.
just a few ounces per cup, but they do get very dry.
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
I usually take over for the bugs and hand polinate...Been doing that with my lime tree for years
I need room for tomatoes and World wide chillies I Try each year! This year Im growing the Genada Chilli The Heritage Hatch Chille My Usual Aleppo and some Other weird ones Also some perenial Herbs and the typical Annual Basil & Parsley!