so waht ya doin today?

RicinYakima

High Steppes of Eastern Washington
I am so glad that there are people who can live in that amount of heat! Otherwise the world would be densely populated above the 45th degree North. More power to you all! I live in the desert, but 95 degrees with 5% humidity and a 5 knot wind makes it very livable. :)
 

Ian

Notorious member
Back before I moved to the hill country and swore off mowing ever again (5 yrs spent mowing 2 acres of empty prairie every other weekend) I had two push-mowers hooked to a 21 HPx 48" rider with a singletree. Five blades wide, baby! A little tough to back up but cut the time in half. The push mowers were both junkpile specials and by the time I moved and left them for the new people I think the deck on one was the only part I started with. There are still chunks of aluminum crankcase on that lot from at least three magnificent, spontaneous Briggs & Stratton disassemblies, with the Bose earmuffs on I couldn't hear them knocking before they blew, not that I cared much, engines were free for the taking from several piles I knew of.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I am so glad that there are people who can live in that amount of heat! Otherwise the world would be densely populated above the 45th degree North. More power to you all! I live in the desert, but 95 degrees with 5% humidity and a 5 knot wind makes it very livable. :)

Me and a hand full of ornery ranchers would have most of SW Texas to ourselves still if some fool named Carrier hadn't invented air conditioning. Now it's full of snowbirds who spend eight months a year almost entirely indoors sucking up ungodly amounts of electricity and pumping the aquifers dry to have green lawns. I guess the indigenous AZ and NV folks have the same gripes.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
My mother baked pies at least three times a week, when I was growing up. Father loved apple. Lard wasn't even a staple in our house. Her pies were in high regard in the neighborhood. Many of her women friends requested her crust recipe.:headscratch:IIRC, she used Crisco.


As did my grandmother and her crust was wonderful. I've since had the chance to sample a lot of other crust, as my gut shows, and lard has a little something extra, not sure what it is. But the best crusts I've had have been with lard according to those who baked them. Maybe it's just the maker and not the lard? I don't know. I'll take any pie over no pie.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Well, if you come through Texas on I-10 stop at exit 505, I got a quart ziplock bulging full of the special brown injector bonnet ho-rings, and a few spare plastic bonnets. Got sick of them being unobtainium and ordered 1K (minimum) of the correct durometer and composition from Moss.

I spent my day wrenching in the shop, 102F, trussed up under a %&$*(*$ 2013 Ford Escape 1.6L with a toasted water pump, timing belt, and belt tensioner. Apparently I'm the only one in the shop qualified to work on such import garbage. Interestingly, the interference engine has no keyway for the timing belt sprocket or harmonic balancer with reluctor ring, and they're a slip fit on the crankshaft snout. Hmmm. Splain me how the hell that's supposed to work. Oh yeah, torque-to-yield, throwaway balancer bolt, $300 worth of special tools, and friction. So I got the RH axle shaft and bearing bracket out of it (to access the crankshaft holding pin plug) along with the starter, alternator, motor mount and timing cover and a snake pit full of coolant hoses so I can install a crankshaft locking pin, timing sprocket locks, harmonic balancer alignment and lock plate, and a flywheel lock plate, just so's I can keep it all in time while I apply a stoooooopid amount of torque plus degrees to the crankshaft bolt. What was ever wrong with a Woodruff key? Put the pulleys on the marks and pull the tensioner pin, right? Honda/Toyota/Mitsubishi done it that way for 70 years and it worked like a champ, only special tool needed was a drill bit to keep the hydraulic tensioner captured after compressing it with a bench vise. To add spice, the timing belt tensioner is on international backorder, no aftermarket option yet, dealer has no release date. Ducky. Apparently the water pump is a guaranteed 75K mile failure (according to repair statistics), which is 15K after scheduled timing belt replacement which nobody ever does because "maintenance??? Whasssat???". Fine if it's a 2.5 hour job with no special tools like it ought to be, but it's more like six to do the belt which the water pump trashes via coolant bath for many K's of miles before the ECM finally derates power due to overheating. Could have been three hours if the starter and axle shaft didn't have to come off for the holding fixtures....if any of the new string of so-called "engineers" (haha) at Ford had ever been shown a Woodruff key and what it's freakin' FOR. Guess those things are "obsolete". While I was pulling half the car apart to get the starter off I got bored and counted 32 linear feet of cooling hoses, 26 plastic coolant hose connections, and two electric coolant flow control valves, all crammed into a space the size of a travel bag, wondering how many hours and how much it would cost to replace it all when it turns to mush in a couple more years. This is just a 4-cylinder FWD cute yute, how much plumbing does it really NEED? Who dreams this crap up? (oh, right, the same group of mental midgets from the hipster generation that can't figure out how to design a basic mechanical alignment mechanism between a sprocket and a shaft). I'm SOOOOOO glad I gave FMC the finger 15 years ago and went indy. Even gladder I went HD ten years ago, and gladder still I'm managing the parts end now, except when I'm not, like today, and tomorrow when I get to put it back together with the old, worn-out timing belt tensioner.


Picked up an '05 Escape at auction for $500. Had to weld in a new left rear wheelhousing because the same guys that thought it'd be a great idea to have pure friction holding the balancer in one spot figured the wheelhouse stamping (inner fender well) would be a great place to anchor the shock to! It's a great little car, I like it lots more than our '11 Explorer (which isn't an Explorer anymore but some "crossover" w/o real 4wd!). When the Escape gets a major hit it's a throw away car. Kinda sad 'cuz it's a nice enough little parts getter.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Spent the morning attempting to jack one side of a tractor up out of the swamp hole where it decided to have a rear tire fall off. "Power Adjust Rims my Aunt Minnie! Good news is the Deer Flies didn't all freeze to death over winter and create a new ecological disaster. Bad news is the Deer Flies didn't all freeze to death over winter. After that I got to go further down into the back woods and get the radiator guard off my old JD 40C to put it on my JD 420C so I'll have something to support the blade while I refurb the lift cylinders. Every leaf on every bit of brush had a Tent Caterpillar on it. I hate those things! My Red Oaks are taking a real bad hit. Last time there were this many, I spent the next 7 years burning dead Red Oak. Real shame to see this happen. Got back the garage and worked on that Cockshutt 30 PTO assy. Parts I ordered came by mail and I found I had one special, made of unobtainium seal that's wrong and still need one more ball bearing I missed somehow. Then I discoved the goats had apparently found an escape route out of the fence. Spent 2 hours driving in new posts and resetting old ones where I thought they were getting out. 10 minutes after putting the tools away the goats are at the barn again! Youngest daughter had just got home from school so we went out to string some electro-net fence to try to give them new pasture and that's when I found the spot they were getting out. Youngest boy and his buddy had "fixed" the fence in this area Sunday. Might better have just cut the fence! That's what I get for not checking myself. Fixed that and ended up going to Lowes and Wally World for super vital supplies- dog food, socks and MORE TRIM for the house. More trim=more painting!
 
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RBHarter

West Central AR
In NV we just moved farther out in the desert .
Swampers rule the roost out there . The cityites have all piled up in 3 of 17 counties and are only over running 2 rivers .......the Truckee and Colorado ....... Behind Boulder or more commonly known Hoover dam there is a whole town uncovered that hasn't seen less than 4' of water in 80 yr .
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Some of us stick around all year. Summer heat and humidity or winter snow and cold most in Nebraska stay put.

Is it because we are hardy or just dumb?
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
at least all your tourist aren't Asian ordering 45 cheeseburgers at the 4 pump gas stop, and trying to buy cigarettes with Chinese writing on the package expecting you to be able to translate it into the same brand in English. [which doesn't exist]
or them trying to get you to translate the gas pump into Japanese so they know when to put their pin number in.

and Lord God help you if one of them see's your AR-15 in the truck.... instant phone festival, and a stranger hating dog going into instant sensory overload.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Outside the College World Series we don't get tourists. I am OK with that.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
No, we are well aware ware of why. We just don't care. Fewer tourists is a good thing to me. We have enough local idiots to deal with, we don't need more from outside sources.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
local idiots = usual suspects.

finally the garden beds are done.... being built,,,, sort of.
now I need planting soil and some plants.
probably do a railing so it's an official puppy fort instead of just a high spot that makes it easier to look over the short fence at the neighbors chickens.
I will add a little lattice roof over the one part for some mottled shade for the raspberry's during the hottest part of the day.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
Did you know that you can stuff diesel through a 6.9 Ford at a rate of 5 mpg ?
Also a truck tuned for sea level power will pass white unburned diesel smoke at 7335' over the southern Rockies it starts to clean up pretty good down about 3500' . The F350 with the 7.3 doesn't like it much either . The turbo was probably a pretty good idea to bad it didn't happen in 84' then the 86'&89' would have toss parts .
Biggest downer ? There are 14 different alternators for the 89' F350 , 5 for the 7.3 D and 3 of them aren't even close . But I saved a 2 day wait and $110 dollars with a wire reroute and going with a 3:00 hook up 100 Amp over the correct 110 Amp 12:00 hook up . The 85&89 share like 4 external engine parts ......not even fuel filters ......
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Got the tire on with the aide of 3 hi lift and 1 floor jack. Pretty sure there's lost blocking about 4 foot down in some of that clay...
 

popper

Well-Known Member
Wife (Madison/Norfolk area) said a lot of the farm kids would have lard sandwiches for lunch at school. Granny made the best deep dish cobblers (peach/cherry/apple), crust probably used lard. She also couldn't keep any of her pickles in the fridge when I was around either. Those old gals really knew how to cook. Her dad was an Indian agent in Cherokee co. so I guess his wife did a lot of cooking for the old sod school.
Me, mostly babysitting, GK is going to UTA and has orientation this week. SIL's sister is coming for the Astro/Ranger game tonite, and bringing another dog. Going to be a 3 dog nite for me ( I will not walk the mile to the park and sit in the heat). Have any idea of the cost for 10 nosebleed tickets. Next week is cleanup from the mess they all will leave. And they are closing on a rental house in Arlington next week so here we go again.
Funny, I was at the range Wed., couple Chinese UTD students (yea, we pay for their education) next to me. Shooting a 22 SA with a lazer lite on it. Couldn't hit squat. They did ask how the pay was for software engg. Seem like all they were interested in. Tried to resight the BO scope (somehow hitting low & right) but horiz. got squirley so I gae up and used a peanut jug of 40sw in SD point & click practice. Kept them all on paper but that PX4 DA, I dive on the first. Gotta practice that more.
 

creosote

Well-Known Member
Started off good, wife notified me of a squeak at the bird food. ( squeak, sage rat, prairie dog)
I quietly opened the window and blasted him.
Some of the missed shots from my lounge chair have been explained by a .22 caliber knotch in the window frame:oops: I did learn to heat the aluminum before bending. It doesn't break as much.
I do love that sparrow supressor.
When the neighbor kid brought over some eggs, she told me there was a line of sugar ants out front. I showed her how to fry them with a magnifying glass. I didn't think she'd like it so much, said she was going to ask her mom for one. I said NO! :headbang:
I'm waiting for that call now.
 

uncle jimbo

Well-Known Member
About 2 years a go a friend gave me some apple wood from a tree he cut down about year before. The wife and I needed to smoke a slab of pork belly that we were making into bacon. Wanted to use hickory and apple so I spent about three hours cutting the limbs into 1 to 1½" in length and splitting down to chunks suitable to use for smoking.
The bacon turned out great, but it was hot today.
Got enough apple wood to last for a couple years. So all is good.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Got another 4-500 bullets cast. The NOe 360 160 WFN to feed the Win 92.
Also got a .360 sizer made for waco. Need to get a sizer made for Jim this weekend.
 
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