Well, here we go!!

[Ian]

Shooting half a hot leg of 220 back up the neutral probably arced somewhere it shouldn't inside the first gfci in the string (probably @ kitchen sink??). Usually just changing the faulty gfci will restore power to the rest of the outlets on the circuit, but often in rv's there are more than one gfci receptacle per circuit.

I'm surprised but happy that you didn't have a Chernobyl incident inside the inverter.

 

[Pistolero]

Putting 220VAC where there is supposed to be 120VAC is never good.

Almost always lets out the smoke somewhere and you can never get the smoke back
inside correctly.

Ask my how I know this.

Bill

 

[Ian]

Reminds me of the time I tried to add a 220 circuit at the wrong place in the breaker box....where the buss bars didn't alternate. Both legs coming off the same service leg. Took me a while to figure out why the air conditioner wouldn't work. You can't buy experience, but you'll sure pay for it! Main thing is not being afraid to jump in and figure this stuff out, lessons learned will benefit you for a lifetime.

 

[Wasalmonslayer]

You pay for an education either way someone training you or OJT.
The latter will teach you more because it is not in a controlled environment and it will hurt you financial or physically and you do not forget those lessons that leave a mark.
Have fun and learn along the way just play smart

 

[RBHarter]

My folks recently changed a light fixture and replaced a switch making it a single power in double switch for a new bathroom vent and separate light .
All went well and according to the plan , until they flipped on the hall light . Pop ! Bright lights ! New bulb because it was probably just burned out . Pop! Check the socket 220 ......... No clue how or source . After much thought and wiggie sticking the only possible answer is that the power was pulled hot to the light fixture in the hall and broken at the switch with the hot line pulled to the bathroom lights (by the last guy) , when my folks put in the lights and fart fan they pulled the existing wire .from the switch to the light and a new line from the switch to the fan . At some point someone got the black and white crossed (common theme in part of the house) and went through a J box . Everything was fine except that when the power in fixture to switch wiring was corrected it picked up the hot of the other buss and with the bathroom lights on made the hall light socket 220 but only when the bathroom lights were on and the hall switch was turned on .........
1933 house 9 owners , 5 remodels , 2 professionals/craftsmen , 1 skilled homeowner , 1 with good intentions and 1 that shouldn't be left alone in an empty room because it would have hurt itself falling off the floor .

 

[Todd M]

Well I've been busier than a 1 arm piano player. Got the chicken coop moved from the old place, a 50x50 run built, (which is half of what it will be), washer and dryer plumbed and wire in the shed(including water heater), shelves built in the shed for canning jars.
Still plumbing full time, although work is a bit spotty.
Oh yeah the electric issue. I was gonna replace the GFI outlet, as I was positive it was fried. But I thought, might as well try the reset button once. Lo and behold it worked! All works again. Thanks for all the input, noted for any time I let the smoke out again.
See pictures on next post.

 

[Todd M]

Playing in the ashes...Washing off the ashes...A "hairy" time!Had to pull the forklift out once..Unloading with the mini.In place finally. Chickens travelled inside.The washing machine drain field.

 

[Todd M]

The tall posts are the chicken run. Can't see the wire.Canning shelves. This is all from last year. My fingers are crossed that this year won't be so much canning. Riding along.

 

[smokeywolf]

Very much enjoy the update. Great to see kids playin' in the dirt instead or sittin' in front of a TV, computer or video game.

 

[Intheshop]

Great pics of the youngins and agreed on dirt under the fingernails!

When mine were about that age?.... well,the oldest was a cpl years older.Anyway I had a Case 580K backhoe for a year or so. When digging the hole for partial underground garage/paint shop...... knowing it was going to be awhile before needing the backfill,I piled the dirt up in a single mound about 15' high.

That was about the time Disney was doing promos for Magic Mountain or sumthin.So I suggested to the oldest that he should carve out a bigwheel track in their own "mountain".

He did,and those boys rode their bigwheel down the mountain for one solid summer.We couldn't pry them off that dirt pile,haha.

Todd,your kids will be telling their youngins about the cool chit they did back,"when I was your age"....... good stuff!Love the pics and smiling faces.BW

 

[Wasalmonslayer]

That’s really neat Todd!!
Those kids will never forget that.
Just safeguard all those photos.
I had a ton of pics just like that from my property developement I had a really cute one of my son in the bucket of my friends 315 cat excavator he let me use playing with his toy excavator and of course his blanky.
Some dirt bag broke into our house and stole the camera and laptop that had all our kids pics from birth to age six for my son and age three for my daughter.
Oh and it was the only thing he got before the alarm went off and he had to flee.
Just back em up and store the drive.

Good on you for model the can do spirit for them that is a dying trait in today’s society!!

 

[Intheshop]

I tore down the boy's swing set a cpl years ago;

Researching our property showed a "1st period" cabin.Their spring was down a path into the woods..... which we managed to keep.The p.o. tore the cabin down,so as a tribute,welded up a pretty accurate repro framework as the boy's swing set. Anyway, with their blessing I pulled it all out.In the final grading,3.... well loved little(4" long) Tonka toys got flicked out of the sand.Cleaned them off and threw them on the back porch.The Gbabies play with them now.

 

[Todd M]

Thanks for the warning Max, I do back up the laptop periodically, but could do it again I reckon. These are fun and stressful times. I know we will look back on them fondly.

 

[Wasalmonslayer]

Oh buddy the stress is very heavy!!

You are right thou when you look back you be amazed at what you accomplished....
Hang in there bud you will get it done I have faith in ya!

 

[Todd M]

It's been way longer than I meant it to take for another update. May do this one in stages. It's now October, the garden is dying, will be digging spuds soon. Will be making grape juice soon. Wife has raisins drying currently, and plums(prunes). It's raining lightly, first rain I remember since we have been here. We moved in May.

 

[Todd M]

The washing machine "drain field" didn't work as planned. It filled up with 2 back to back loads and came out of the ground, so I dug a shallow trench past the garden to the pasture and it just flows on through.

Posting a couple test pictures to make sure I resized them small enough y'all can see them ok. First is my Beautiful Bride and our "newborn". He is a chunk now. Second just a peaceful morning campfire on a Saturday morning with coffee.

Let me know if the pics are alright and I will continue.

 

[fiver]

pictures come through as attachments and are in slide show,, so yep you got it right.

 

[Todd M]

Got the clothesline dug in, kids had a blast standing in the postholes. I am amazed how flexible kids are to their surroundings. They pretty much roll with whatever is happening and (not always) help happily. Garden got planted late and in several short sessions. It's now on the way out, but we have gotten quite a bit of squash, peppers, tomatoes, and several rows of spuds that need dug soon. There's a short row of grapes here, some red table grapes and a plant of Thompson seedless grapes that are turning into raisins as I type. The "new" riding mower has a starter that requires a hammer to start it, and blew a rear tire when I got too close to a short steel stake. So the rim had to come off, and these mowers, the wheel is slipped onto the axle shaft with a key, no lug bolts. Of course it hasn't been off since Job used it, so 24 hrs of periodically soaking it in PB Blaster, WD-40 and a couple others oils, no luck. Heat didn't work either, but my torch supply is limited severely. My dad was staying with us for a week and he used my steering wheel puller to coax it off. One of us turned the puller, the other tapped the puller bolt head. Of course the key was lost between taking it apart and putting it back together. I ended up making a key as no one but Deere had one and no one was open. Life on the farm.

 

[fiver]

kids don't know or care if they are rich or poor until they get to see the outside world.
all they know is happy, sad, and I'm tellin Mom for the first 11 years.

 

[Todd M]

#1 Birds eye view of our farm from the hill where our well storage tank is located.
#2 In his element watching tractor after tractor go by. We go to the Great Oregon Steam Up in Brooks OR almost every year. Highly recommend it. They put it on two weekends every summer although the 50 acres and buildings are mostly open all summer.
#3 Welding up gates for the pasture. If I could get the work, I'd quit my job and weld full time from home.
#4 Picking up hay from second cutting. I rode the hay and straw wagons stacking bales as a kid in Indiana, but our children have never been this close to haying. Fun to teach them.
#5 Camping by Mt. Rainier this summer.
#6 Backpacking trip with Ivie. I do this every year as soon as each child turns 3. Fun is always had by all.
#7 I found an old Dodge dump truck on craigslist to use as a trash truck and dirt truck while building. Very handy to have.
#8 We have some awesome sunsets from our place, Mt. Adams in the distance.
#9 Digging out the shed, getting ready to pour a concrete floor. Gonna enclose the 4th wall and heat it this winter as our laundry and water heater are inside.
#10 While putting up concrete forms, I hit the pvc line going to the frost free hydrant in the shed. Of course when I went to shit off the main at the road, the valve stem snapped. So one repair became 2. Glad to have a new main valve in place before starting the house.