so waht ya doin today?

[Pistolero]

Yeah, The knee was just fine and I had walked over two mile several times, so thought it was good
for more. It was, but after doing every day for a couple of weeks.....it got pretty sore. Never gave out,
never was worse than tylenol or aspirin could handle. But, the doc says "It's not really healed yet, takes
about 9 months or more." OK, I am taking it easy now. Sometimes I get ahead of myself.

Bill

 

[CZ93X62]

Understood, Bill. I am nor in Month 10 of what is usually an 18 month recovery cycle. All has been well so far, and I have tried extending myself a bit while we were traveling. Lots more standing and walking around now that we are home and I'm going in and out of The Bear Habitat doing more hobby stuff. (Note--"The Bear Habitat" is my daughters' pet name for the garage/shop. I have been known as The Bear for 30+ years among the kids, and I have no idea WHERE that idea came from--could have been the long hair and beard during my scruffy-narc days, or my usual demeanor prior to a cup of coffee in the morning. Ask them.)

 

[Pistolero]

Although we have never met, I get the impression that you are also not a small person. Might add to the "bear" idea. And I am
sure that it is a lovingly applied sobriquet. I heal very well, but apparently not that well.

The doc yesterday pointed out, after I reported that on the leg press machine I was up to about 85% on my left leg from
a deeply bent position (knee touching chest) out to fully extended of what I can do with the good leg. He said "When I do
an ACL on an 18 year old, it takes them about six months to get to 85% on the operative leg. You are 68 and are
less than three months out. You're just a showoff." And a big grin.

Actually, NOT trying to be a showoff. I WILL be taking it a bit more gradually now, don't
want to slow down the healing. I literally don't know what I am doing.....never done this before. Trying to do my best,
but not a lot of reference points..... well other than 3-5+ miles every day for 2 weeks is apparently too much.

Bill

 

[CZ93X62]

Same here--I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just doing it. 6'2", around 245# now.

Buckshot will be here shortly. Out to The Bear Habitat.

 

[L Ross]

okay out with that recipe.
rose hips are nickel and dime size here but it would take me 10 minutes to fill a 5 gallon bucket with them.
I have to avoid the wild rose patches or wade through the smaller ones to get the huckleberry's.

someone remind me not to stop over to Bret's place to help him throw hay.
75-90lb 4' bales are enough, I'm not even dragging a 6' one over to the trailer.
Bret maybe try adding a helper spring to diagnose the problem.

Start with 2 quarts of hips, rinse and cut off and discard the ends with the dried leaves or whatever they are. Put the hips in a large pot and boil them with 6 cups of water. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for a least an hour. The rose hips should be soft and mashable. Mash the boiled hips with a food processor, or blender, or even a potato masher to a rough puree. Set up a jelly bag or 4 layers of cheesecloth over a bowl. Let that drain for at least an hour. Toward the end you can squeeze out the bag. You will want 3 cups of juice for this recipe. You will want to sterilize 6 half pint jars, and put the lids in a bowl and cover with boiling water.
Put 3 cups of rose hip juice in a large wide pot, add 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, and one package of Sure Jell pectin. Bring that all to a boil, making sure the pectin is dissolved. Now dump in 3 1/2 cups sugar and once the sugar is dissolved put in 1/4 teaspoon butter. Now bring this to a hard boil, that is a boil you cannot reduce by stirring. The butter keeps the boiling liquid in the pan. This is just like when making maple sugar. The Natives used to put a chunk of fat, often venison in a pot to keep the syrup boiling rolling in instead of boiling over.
Maintain this hard boil for exactly one minute, then remove from the heat and pour into the jelly jars leaving 1/4" of head space. Clean the edges of the jars with a damp paper towel and water bath can the jelly for 10 minutes. If you get any jars that fail to seal, keep them in the fridge.
While I helped, my wife is the experienced jelly maker and canner.

 

[fiver]

perfect.
that's super close to how I make the choke cherry and Huckleberry jam now.
never heard of the Fat addition, but like you Jam isn't really in my department.

 

[Bret4207]

Freakin' baler! Spent all day working on it. Re-timed it, replaced springs, cut new teeth in the actuating lever, etc. Now I have both super long and super short bales! Comes down to it's a 60 year old machine and is just worn to heck. Pretty sure I need a new (er) actuating/trip lever. The knots are hanging too. Just not a good day at all since this weather isn't going to last. To make it better, I have to go to Syracuse (2.5 hour trip) this morn and pick up oldest boy from airport, get him to his Dr's appt in Syr later and then will have a house full of teenage girls tonite. And I still have hay on the ground, a barn roof to do, sheep to get to Pennsylvania, wood to get, woodshed to build, foundation to work on, machine shed to roof, etc, etc, etc..........................

I'm tired of being tired.

 

[L Ross]

Freakin' baler! Spent all day working on it. Re-timed it, replaced springs, cut new teeth in the actuating lever, etc. Now I have both super long and super short bales! Comes down to it's a 60 year old machine and is just worn to heck. Pretty sure I need a new (er) actuating/trip lever. The knots are hanging too. Just not a good day at all since this weather isn't going to last. To make it better, I have to go to Syracuse (2.5 hour trip) this morn and pick up oldest boy from airport, get him to his Dr's appt in Syr later and then will have a house full of teenage girls tonite. And I still have hay on the ground, a barn roof to do, sheep to get to Pennsylvania, wood to get, woodshed to build, foundation to work on, machine shed to roof, etc, etc, etc..........................

I'm tired of being tired.

I am learning you have to be careful what you wish for. A large piece of rural property is very nice and has many benefits, but lack of projects is not one of them. The hard work entailed was pretty easy in my 30's, 40's and 50's, less so now. Deciding what to cut out of your life to allow you to enjoy your remaining years is tough. Even worse is the idea of down sizing an accumulation of a life time of interests.

 

[Ian]

If you lose your health, suddenly all that "stuff" means nothing.

A few years ago, while re-doing some temporary thing from a decade before, I made a pact with myself that anything I built from there on out on my property was going to be spec'd to outlast me, with no further maintenance. As far as possible, I've been doing that and the inevitable maintenance items are made as easy and simple as possible so later on someone else can be hired to do them when I can't.

 

[KeithB]

Electricians will finish up putting in the outside meter box and the rest of the wiring (as much as they can at this point) today. The have all the conduit run in the shop, just a matter of pulling through the wires when the machines are in place. After meter box is in I just have to wait for Vectren (local power company) to put in pole and transformer and run wire from across street. Also need to get gas to building, but that's not critical right now, we will not need it until it gets cold.

Bought three 48" x 96" sheets of 3/8" polycarbonate. Paid for them Tuesday, the local vendor said it was too late to get order on this Thursday's truck so it would be next week Thursday. Promised to deliver it next Friday, said they would give me a call first, I left my business card w/ph#, wrote ph# on invoice, it's also on check. You guessed it - got call from lead sparky on site, truck with three sheets of plastic just pulled up , should we unload it here? Luckily his two apprentices are well paid, neither one appears to have missed too many meals, they unloaded sheets with no real effort or complaints bless their hearts.

Met loan officer on site at 3 in afternoon, he needed to take pictures of work done so far to put in file. They have really tightened up a lot of procedures for building loans, if you borrow money for a building that's all you can spend it on, not hookers and cocaine or anything stupid like that. No problems, we are doing everything the right way.

Guys, I gotta tell ya, after working in a shop that is so small that I can touch the roof truss cross members standing flat footed, and I can take five steps and cover the length of the longest walkway. the new building seems huge. With the doors shut, I was talking to lead sparky and hearing an echo from the other end of the room. And with a 12-14 foot ceiling even Shaq could stand on a box and not touch the ceiling. I looked up at the lights and just kept having to crane my neck upwards. The interior is white baked on enamel finish on steel, the ceiling is the same except for the tiny holes that dampen sound and allow for some air circulation from the building through the crawlspace and out the soffet vents. We will never have to paint the interior walls, and it won't take much to clean any dust and oil off.

Hope to take some more pictures this weekend and will post here.

 

[Rick]

Sounds great. Some of us (Ok me) are going into picture withdrawal here.

 

[fiver]

sitting here watching it rain.
it's not really a hard rain just steady and it feels like the storm is moving very slowly.
the whole day feels like it is moving very slowly.

I should dig out my book and notes and stuff and load some 25-06 rounds for the Deer hunt, but if this weather doesn't cooperate I'll Just end up taking the 30-06 anyway.

 

[Pistolero]

Sounds really excellent, Keith. You are going to be very happy with your new business, I am sure.

Gee - can't spend the building loan on coke and women.....they sure are narrow minded! Glad to hear that
they are doing their due diligence. That should wind up in you paying a touch less interest than you might have
otherwise needed to pay to cover the losses on the other "coke and women" borrowers (that didn't happen)

Pix will be nice to see. On the conduit, do they run a string through when they assemble it our just run a fish tape
through after to get the wire? I need to do some conduit and have never done it. My welder manual warns to keep
the power line inside conduit to avoid messing up TVs and such....inverter type TIG machine, doesn't surprise me.

Supposed to rain here tomorrow and Sunday.

Bill

 

[KeithB]

Ok, stopped by building while running errands and took a few photos and videos.

 

[Pistolero]

Nice looking interior. Should be nice and bright inside with the white walls and ceiling, too.
I don't see outlet boxes or conduit for power on the walls, only to the light fixtures. Are they in the
walls or ???

Bill

 

[Ian]

Fire those guys, Keith, they put the tin on the INSIDE!

 

[KeithB]

Some still photos.
View from road, looking at SW corner. The west wall is the one with the M on it. This corner is where all the power will come in.


View from back of lot towards NE corner. East wall has overhead door.


Ten foot tall overhead door from inside.


400A breaker panel.

 

[Pistolero]

Looks nice from the outside, too. Not going to be a lot of natural light inside.....

 

[KeithB]

Bill, they will put in the outlets and such when they finish the job, after the carpenters put in the walls for office and restroom. Right now we just need lights and enough power for tools.

 

[Pistolero]

Lots of pieces, parts and trades to put it all together. Any estimate on when the first machine will move
in?

With no windows, the lights are critical, early on.

Bill