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This whole covid thing has the wife and I mostly staying home, but also exploring a lot more of the countryside northeast of us. It's pretty low on population, and most of the folks in the city have no idea there's anything resembling civilization out there. That's kind of a shame on one hand, but on the other it presents good opportunity for us. Low traffic stores, farmers markets, Hutterite colonies, all great places to get your groceries and necessaries. Plus some of the grain elevators have cool graffiti art, like this one.  Did another fishing trip/picnic to Carseland weir. Rains were pretty heavy prior to this one so the river was turbid, but it was still fun.   Had a tornado scare early this summer. Fortunately nothing came of it for us.  Plenty more thunderstorms.  Nice sunsets.  The annual show at pioneer acres was cancelled, which is understandable given the demographic age of the attendees. We still did a little saturday thing anyway so the folks could fire up the old tractors and run some equipment around, members only of course. It was a nice day, me and my blacksmithing crew were working in the shop, and also spending time being degenerate scrap metal raiders - new park council decided to clean up a lot of the junk that had been hoarded over the years, so there were scrap bins a plenty to pick through. I rescued 5 or 6 old wrought iron wagon tires, most of them are forge welded so you know they're ancient as gently caress. We cut the weld out so we could put it on our demo table to show people. The iron will be repurposed at some point, likely.  Someone had planted the demonstration wheat field in the spring expecting a typical year, and normally we turn the horse touchers loose on that poo poo so they can pretend their pets are useful farm animals, and then the steam tractors go and plow it up and run the threshing machines. Kind of a shame to see it rot this year.   I always like wandering the back lot.  At home, oil changes for several vehicles. The blazer's plug has this red rubber washer thing, absolutely trashed. I made a replacement from some leather, hopefully it works better.  One of my apple trees had a good year. The rabbit is eating the ones that fell off, so it's time to pick. I left plenty for him, not to worry.  They are absolutely delicious this year.  We've done a ton of backyard fires too. I just picked up another 1/3rd of a cord of firewood yesterday and I'm thinking of getting more to last through winter. We won't be able to have people in the house, but I think we can still do backyard gatherings of a small size. We will need fire to keep warm.  We've been cooking outside a lot just to get out of the house, which I very much enjoy. My shoulder rehab goes well, I am able to do overhead presses with 90 pounds on the bar. Deadlift and squat are comparable to what I was capable of pre-injury. Bench is low, but I am trying to not push the weight up too fast on that, last thing I want is to re-injure myself. Covid isolation has, for the most part, been really good to me.
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Aug 23, 2020 19:01
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LingcodKilla posted:Looks awesome dude. I make stuff on commission if someone has something specific they need, yeah. Something you'd like? Feel free to pm me if so. I don't generally make stuff to sell on speculation, except those fire pokers, since I can make them quick, they sell well, and people can watch me make them for them if they're interested.
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Aug 23, 2020 21:34
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Shipping a tube really isn't that bad. How long were you thinking? Meter and a half?
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Aug 24, 2020 03:06
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FALL I FUCKIN LOVE FALL. Seriously, it's the best time of year. Interesting tracks, what manner of creature is this...  Tis a shed! So after all that effort of moving the garden shed back closer to the house, we decided to do something else with that space. This meant the shed had to move, again. Fortunately the tractor can drag it where I wanted it.  Had my neighbour with the excavator come by and also got more gravel. He extended the pad besides the workshop for me.  Also got another water tank to capture the rain off the shop, and turned the flatbed trailer around.  Then, because loving no one rents bin dollies anymore, I went and made some.  I emptied out the smithy, jacked it up, and set it on the dollies, ever so slightly heavier towards the front.    Not the most elegant of building moves, but it did the job. I can't lie, this was pretty sketch. Still, the 3 point hitch I cobbled together years ago was enough to lift that part of the building, which was over 300 pounds by my reckoning.  What a fuckin mess.  Did lots more canning. Got a huge new canner cause the old one rusted through.  Stewed rhubarb, rhubarb chutney.  Wife's friend got us a pile of peaches.   We canned them in a honey syrup, it's pretty good! 
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Sep 24, 2020 23:11
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Keetron posted:Tell me you sang.... It was definitely running through my head, yeah. Leperflesh: The tires were officially rated for 600 pounds each, so 2400 total. The tires were fine, no problem at all, they probably have a 30-50% safety factor. The 3/4" keyed shaft I used as an axle bent, but at least it didn't shear. I'd guess the shed was a little heavier than a ton, could have been 3k pounds or more. Fortunately, the whole thing was built on skids, it was meant to be drug around as needed, but you'd need a heavier tractor than mine for that. I tried to move it years ago when I first got it, but the tires just dug holes where they stood, didn't have enough traction to move it, but I think it had the torque. You can see the marks left by the skids where it sat for the last ten years. The building is still nice and solid, I am lucky they haven't rotted out from under it yet.
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Sep 28, 2020 04:18
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Camping post with more write up in the RV thread for anyone interested in that kind of thing: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3895768&pagenumber=7#post508506231 While we were out camping, the starter in the white truck died. I had to crawl under the pig and whack it with the blunt side of my hatchet to get it to start. Drove home without stopping, pulled the blue truck out of the workshop and put the white one on the hoist. Replaced that little bugger last night, it was crusty. Wasn't too bad of a job though. I put the winter tires on at the same time because OH poo poo OCTOBER IS COMING. 
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Sep 30, 2020 17:59
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Early this year my brother in law bought a truck on my recommendation. A mint-looking 92 chev half ton. It was ok for him, but it started spewing oil out the tailpipe and developed a minor knock. Unfortunately the engine deteriorated more and more and he needed some help. In October, he drove it out here (from vancouver island!) and stayed with us for a couple weeks, it was nice to have him, we've not had family in forever because of covid, so my wife was super happy to spend time with her family.  It barely made it into my shop. But, it did make it, thankfully. Turbo Fondant, being the awesome dude that he is, was already on the lookout for a donor due to our convos in the AI slack. He found this in the pick n pull, I assisted him (a little bit) and we brought it home.   We did a compression check on the engine stand, and decided it needed a bit of work.  I pulled all the valves out, lapped them, and put new valve stem seals on.    The new engine uses oil, a disturbing amount, but it runs really well despite that. We're still not sure where the oil is going, there's no residue in the tailpipe or hazed on the rear of the truck like you would expect, and there isn't an environmental disaster on the underside of the chassis. It has to be burning it, or it's only spewing out when it's under load, possibly from the dipstick tube o-ring coming out of the pan.  While he was out, we had Canadian thanksgiving. I smoked a turkey and baked some pumpkin pies.   We also did some super late season camping out at Canmore.   The weather got progressively colder over the weekend.   I tried to do a little fishing in the shadow of the mountains. No fish, but a lovely cold day.   Wife and I did some hiking in the not-quite-backcountry south of Canmore, it was almost deep enough for snowshoes, but not quite. There were people out there cross country skiing already.  Then, on halloween Turbo Fondant and I did a quick little jaunt out to Canmore again, this time the weather was lovely and warm. That's Alberta for you. He was driving the Volvo for the last time before he put it to bed for the winter, and I just wanted to drive the Blazer somewhere.  Then it was November. Hunting season. On my second day hunting, I got this big bastard. Pretty sure he was one of the ones tormenting me and my hunting buddy last year.  His horns aren't all that impressive, though they are big, but I don't give a gently caress, I just want to eat him.  These are the prime cuts.  And I got 5-6 gallons of stuff to grind up.  He was an absolute unit of a deer. Unfortunately, I got the chronic wasting disease test back, and he was positive, so all that meat is just a waste. I'll have to burn it  Last thing I want to do is give 2020 a chance to also bring on the Prion Apocalypse in addition to all the other poo poo it's done.My buddy got this one, likely a brother or relative, from the same herd a couple days after mine. Not as big, but a little older and more mature. No test results on that one yet, but chances are not good.  Tried to do some more moose hunting, didn't get any good chances on a cow. Saw lots of bulls though, like this guy.  This little magpie was harassing the poo poo out of him, pecking at his ears.  I think I watched them for 15 minutes. The magpie eventually goaded him into standing back up, and he LUNGED at the bird on a tree branch a couple of times.  They held a starring contest, which I guess the moose lost because he was the one that slinked off into the bush. Magpie, victorious. Moose, shameful.  Did a little more smithing too, made a super heavy duty poker for another brother in law.     The smithy's new location is nice, I have a beautiful view out the main door again, and it's super nice having those big propane pigs hooked up for all the gas I could ever want.
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Dec 2, 2020 21:15
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Thanks for the kind words folks, I do appreciate it  So, also back in december I also made a set of wall hooks for my sister in law, she loves horses.  My mother in law had a hip replacement and the father in law needed a hernia operation, so we broke covid rules and went out to Vancouver island for a long trip so we could help out. Working from home made this possible, and we did quarantine on either side of the journey. We rented a place right on Comox harbour. It was pretty spectacular, and a nice change of view.  Being close to Comox AFB meant we could see the Canadian air force training and flying by occasionally, that was cool.   Did a few day trips around the island. Campbell River was gorgeous, and there's a nice coffee shop there that's all outdoors now. There's a nice firepit on their lot to chill out around. Also snowshoed up on Mt Washington a few times.  Father in law's VW needed new front brakes, so me and my newly christened into the world of working-on-cars brother in law did the job, saved a pile of cash, I think the dealership wanted 8-900 bucks to do it.  While we were at it I replaced the o-ring in the BiL's truck where the dipstick tube sits and that greatly helped the oil loss. The security folks at the ferry terminal were training a new sniffer dog, asked if they could hide a target on our trailer hitch. How could I refuse such a good pupper?  The MiL recovered to the point where she can walk around and the FiL is also doing much better, so we saddled up and headed home. Still, it was nice to spend christmas with them again. Back home, my neighbour, the folks who let us use their farm for our wedding, is building a new house on their property. A smaller, cozier house for them to retire into, and let their kids run the big house. They asked if I could make them a set of brackets for shelving, like these:  Now, I can bend metal decently well, but for the numbers they wanted I knew I would need a jig, so I tried to make one and did a test bend.  The jig worked.... okish? I can't get the corners tight enough to be satisfactory, and the jig was a little too fiddly.  So I bought a bender instead. I've wanted one for a while and this was as a convenient excuse as I was going to find.  That bender fucks.  I did 20 of them, 12 are full width 1.5" and 8 are 1.25" (that's the steel he brought over). One pair has a short lip on them, they were the experimental pair that I was using to work out the process, original ask was for 18 so I managed to get what he needed from the available materials.   Cleaned of scale, mounting holes drilled.  Brackets painted (by my neighbour, he wanted to do that) and installed. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, I am especially happy with how consistent they are.  The weather turned drat cold for a couple weeks in february. So as soon as it was half decent outside, the wife and I went down to a provincial park, hiked around 5k along the Bow river, and then took some supplies into the locked up campground and made ourselves comfortable. (this is entirely legal for day use, you just aren't supposed to stay overnight)  As we get closer to the thaw, the county has been out scraping the ditch with this absolute unit of a shovel to make sure the water has somewhere to flow.  Mid last year, I bought a sewing machine. I've wanted to get into making canvas and leather goods so I went full idiot and bought an extremely expensive but very capable industrial cylinder-arm sewing machine. Finally have had the time to put it together this week.  The thread routing is complicated as hell to me, but I've never used a sewing machine so what do I know.  First bobbin wound up.  It took me a couple hours of dicking around with it to get it working, but I did some test stitches (I did the brown/golden coloured ones with a short spacing).  The whole set up, kinda cramped down there with all the excess furniture but that's alright. I just repurposed that old table for a workspace.  I made a ... thing out of some old jeans that are worn out.  I got way off into the weeds a couple times with this but it's my first day! I really should have put the little platform up that converts it from a cylinder-arm to regular table style machine for this, but I was just experimenting.   Looking forward to making some stuff with this.
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Mar 12, 2021 16:37
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Crab Dad posted:Dude, that rocks. My sews a lot and I considered buying her one for projects like that but she laughed at me and said go look at the price... Yeah the price was, uh, significant. I've bought my last 4 project cars for less than this thing cost (not combined). But hey, this one was made mostly in Canada (factory in Montreal). I am really trying to be more conscious about where I source my tools. That bender I bought is made in the US, as well.
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Mar 12, 2021 18:29
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Rapulum_Dei posted:But.... they’re not equidistant from the wall and the window! I know, that bugged me too, but it ain't my kitchen  . They're screwed into the studs though, instead of just the drywall. Take heart knowing they are stronger for their faults.Anne Whateley posted:Do you do anything with the antlers? They make neat buttons. You would have to wear a respirator to saw them regardless, but I guess it still wouldn't be a great idea to do if it had wasting disease No, not yet. I've kept all of the antlers I've managed to harvest so far. I do plan to make like knife handles and such from them eventually. I haven't really thought about making buttons from them, but that's definitely an interesting thought. I'm not super worried about CWD transmission through antler tissue though, so I will use it for something, someday.
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Mar 12, 2021 19:36
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I've not seen the plumbing that my neighbor did for it, but I assume it goes out that wall behind it.
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Mar 12, 2021 21:45
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I forgot to mention in the last post that I had to replace the dishwasher last month. It burnt out another power circuit (I had it repaired a few years ago) and I knew how difficult it was trying to get the first replacement part so I decided to just replace the entire thing. The pump was starting to go, and the dish racks were rusting apart in the corners, so we got most of its' life span worth. When I took the old one out, the fuckin thing was hard lined to the water supply, this is looking at the back of it once I had it out of the cabinet. I had to borrow my dad's pex crimper to complete the job, and buy a couple fittings, but it only took me a day and a half to have it all done. Could have been a single evening if I had all the tools and parts.  I mean, I guess that hard line worked fine for 12 years, but I still wouldn't have done it that way. While I was under the kitchen sink, we cleaned up under there (surprisingly not that bad) and replaced the faucet. The nozzle had been clogged several times with all the sediment in the water, and the cartridge stopped giving us good pressure. Plus we were both sick of it, and the little fork that you used to tighten it down against the underside of the counter was constantly working loose. This new one I mounted sideways, I had hoped to do it with the handle in the middle of the sinks, but the wood blocking surrounding the underside of the mounting hole prevents that, this new mount has two little flange fingers that flip out to the side once in place, and there were only two ways it would work, this is one of them.  Despite being a little weird, I actually like it, because now I don't get water all over the counter at the back when turning the thing off. It's definitely nice to have full flow again. This weekend the weather was gorgeous, 15-20' C, so we went snow shoeing up at sawmill creek in Kananaskis.  We met up with another couple there, this is the husband exploring a little offshoot of the trail.  The weather could not have been more perfect.  Some nutcases that parked in the same place we did hiked up the mountain so they could ski down this bowl, I hope you can see the little ski tracks near the 45' ridgeline on the left-middle here.  The highway coming back down into Canmore was a wet, muddy mess. The blazer got good and filthy,  Last night I decided to try using the sewing machine for something that's bothered me for a while now. This handtowel was put together by my mother, decades ago. She made it for my great grandmother, long since passed, but since her last name and my first name share the same initial, I got the towel when she died.  It's a little worn. But, it's super handy to have around, since I can clasp it over the handle of one of our bathroom drawers, and it doesn't take up any towel rack space.  So I carefully removed the threads holding the towel to the clasp.  Set up the little table adapter for the sewing machine so I don't have to balance on one foot and hold my tongue just so while spinning a plate on a stick.  And sewed a new towel onto the clasp.  The sewing machine went through that 4-layers and 1" thick bundle of towel cloth like it wasn't even there, and the repair is complete.  I didn't get it quite as neat as mom did, but it's good enough and I am happy with it.
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Mar 16, 2021 15:26
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Acid Reflux posted:At the risk of sounding super sappy, it really tickles me that seemingly half of your posts are "[Person] needed help with [thing], so I did [thing]."  Thanks, I like doing things for other people. Have a hard time doing them for myself, no idea why.Hasselblad posted:Almost died when I browsed prices on that brand of sewing machine. I know. I think it's worth it though. So this time of year the sun comes straight west into our living room through the patio doors. Since the wife works in the living room now, we need some curtains there. I've wanted to do this for a while, but I needed the excuse and impetus. Started with some leaves I made over a decade ago for a table I made for my parents, ended up not needing all the leaves, so they sat, waiting for a project to claim them.  Cut off the base material and drawn out.  Coiled up.  Cleaned up, some paint.   Turned out ok!  That little bender I bought was worth every penny. Made the brackets super easy.  The finials are just hanging on there, not actually attached via anything other than gravity.  Now I just need a curtain... 
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Mar 19, 2021 03:41
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Went to a local pharmacy and they had a full on fabric store in there. Picked out this fabric. gently caress, I haven't used an iron in years.  Decent!  Not perfect, I went kinda off the line a couple times but I mostly did it proper, like.  I folded a double hemmed edge, then doubled the fabric to block light, and then stitched it up. Looks ok in the morning sun.  Rinse and repeat on the other one. I still need to hem the bottom, but we're going to get some wood rings for the rod first. Once we have those I will measure and adjust as needed. Might add a top hem too, if I have enough material.  Couple misc things here, it's backyard fire season again, so we needed some more wood. This year I decided to just buy 2 cords right off the bat.  Wife and I spent two solid hours moving and stacking it.  We were mighty sore the next day.  I've had my grandma's old 60's Lava Lamp for years, but it needed a new cable.  Can't imagine why the pixies didn't like this chicane through the grommet.  Slice the felt, remove socket.   New cable, new switch. Boom.  Oh also I bought something from my neighbour.    
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Apr 2, 2021 04:32
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Despite things being pretty quiet, I have not been completely idle. Got the lathe unloaded and in place. I had to move the laptop stand and the parts washer, and I had to straddle that hook that's sunk into the concrete. I will re-arrange things as I get time and the inclination to do so.  Let's take a look at this thing. Gearbox, check.  Ways are in used condition, but decent enough. A previous owner (guy I bought it from bought it from the guy who did this) scraped the ways a little to hold some oil on there. I don't know if that's a fantastic idea or not, but I'm no machinist and it's done so welp.  Came with a 3 jaw, 4 jaw, faceplate, and an unfinished bronze casting for a... follower? I think? I dunno, I will likely never use that.  Live center, extra chuck for tailstock.  Tooling for the quick change tool post. Wrenches as you require.  Motor and belts in decent condition. Flat belt, so I have to be sure to take the tension off when not in use.  Gear train is in decent shape.  Started work on something for the same neighbour that had me bend those shelf brackets. As they just finished that house, I wanted to make them a housewarming present.   I love punching holes, it's very satisfying.  I hope I didn't make these front feet too short.  Log tongs are going to need a lot of work to even out. I'm out of practice.  Decent test fit, the rest will have to wait for a while.  Why? Because we went camping in Canmore to open spring.  The view from this site rules.  Terry's still going strong, no complaints so far.  We did a hike up Heart Creek with some friends, it was not easy getting pictures without people in them.   The icefall was gorgeous.  It was an awesome weekend, but the sunday turned a little cold and snowy on us, which is fine.  We were nice and warm in the trailer and enjoying a delicious brunch.  My parents joined us, and camped across the road.  Still had fires outside, it's too nice not to.  Quite a change from the 20'C we had the day before.  I made a sacrifice to the spring diety.  F  Not easy to get a picture of the mountains freshly covered through the clouds, but worth it when they poke through.   Next day we made a fire and cooked breakfast. I love cooking on my giant pan.  Packed up.  Ready to go.  I turned 40   My very generous brother in law got me this really nice hatchet as a gift, but asked that we do a zoom call so he could see my reaction when I opened it. Wife and I did so, but I managed to be clumsy and sliced my thumb putting it back into the sheathe during the call, these axes are very sharp from the factory. I think he got more of a reaction than he expected, heh.  Spent 5 hours in urgent care and needed 3 stitches. I've never needed stitches outside surgery before so this was new to me. I think the novocaine needle was more painful than anything else that evening, still I am glad the doc used it. Of course it's right on my fuckin knuckle. Spoilers for the squeamish. Yikes.  So yeah, no smithing while that's healing up, I can barely bend the fucker. In the meantime, I am sewing some stuff backpacking / tent camping gear for the odd time we do that. Or picnics, I'm not fussy. This is a tool roll type thing for camp silverware, we bought something similar with bamboo utensils and found it to be useful, so I wanted to replicate it and use my own components.  You flip the top flap down around the open end of the pockets, and then it rolls up nice, but it's not too tight that I can't add some more utensils as needed in the future.  Also, a canvas bag to hold my little zebra pot, and a little camp grille. This one is pretty rough, I did the hem backwards and I was getting tired that evening, plus I'm working with a thumb and a half here.  The internal pocket is to keep the grille from scratching the gently caress out of the pot, and keep things tidy. Mostly wanted this so I could use the pot in a fire and not get the rest of my stuff filthy, and this bag can go in the wash easily, it's just cotton canvas.  Still, it's nice to have a machine that can handle canvas like it's not even there, and I am getting a little better at threading it and running it. Like anything, practice and fuckin around with stuff eventually pays off.
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May 6, 2021 01:16
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The nice thing about things returning to semi-normal is that garage sales are happening again. I managed to pick up an old sledge with a jank handle (I got an axe too, but I haven't worked on that one yet). Looks half decent after a cleanup and re-handling. Works a treat, too.  The neighbour with a mini excavator helped us scrape some sod up so we could put these new garden boxes in. His bucket was a little domed in after he helped another neighbour pound in some fence posts, so I was putting the handle on the sledge while he finished that job, and then we straightened out the bucket with the sledge and a hydraulic jack.  Garden boxes have been in for a few months now and are growing a boatload of potatoes, I'll have to grab a picture of that soon for you all.  I replaced the sink in the RV, the bowl got a little crack in it, something must have pranged it falling out of the medicine chest right above.  So, I've been angling towards this project for a couple years now but I didn't want to post much about it because covid supply chains have been beyond hosed up. Remember how I moved the smithy last year? We started construction on this little addition back as soon as the ground thawed enough to do so. Right on the spot where the smithy used to be.  This rad little machine is putting in screw-piles, which is a great way to put in a foundation without a ton of excavation. We couldn't do a normal foundation back there because our water line runs right where this sits, you can see that hole where they hydrovacced a bit to locate the pipes.  Nice thing about working from home is I can be here to capture all the interesting construction stuff going on.   Blazer for scale.  We played with the idea of a small depression in the floor to catch water, but decided against it.  This is going to tie into the garage, so the siding comes down.  These guys put in a ton of hours preparing the floor surface, they also filled in that depression.  But holy poo poo did they ever do a nice job.   It's a really nice textured surface. Sand-sized grains, fully liquid proof.  And here's the impetus for all this. A swim spa!  Originally we wanted a 21 foot model from coast, we bought one last September with a promise that they could deliver by this spring. Spring rolled around, construction started, and no spa. We waited another month, still no spa, and they couldn't even give us an idea of where we were in the production queue. I think we would be waiting until mid 2022 had we stuck with that manufacturer given what the company is putting out there on facebook and such. With construction materials piling up around here (the windows took the accent's spot in the garage) and further orders on hold, eventually we had to go with another vendor. No one makes a 21 foot spa like coast does, so we couldn't get the same kind of unit, however a 15 foot swim spa and a nice sized hot tub will do us well as a replacement. We got our money back from coast thankfully, the local master spa vendor was great to work with, and they were smart enough to order a ton of inventory mid-last year for delivery this July, which lined up pretty well for us. We had hoped to be done by now, but it is what it is and I don't feel angry about how it played out. Just kind of disappointed, I did want to buy a Canadian product.  Today the trusses got delivered.  And the lumber.  Framing starts tomorrow, and the wife and I are super stoked. I will be sure to document the process as I always do. I wanted to do this years ago, before my shoulder surgery so I could use it for rehab and hydrotherapy. It's unfortunate that we didn't, could have saved a ton of cash as current covid pricing is crazy, but at the same time we didn't have the resources we do now to make it happen. We both love to swim, and being in the country makes it difficult to access a pool whenever you feel like it, it's a hassle you have to plan around. But, we want to keep working from home, and we both love living here, so we figured this was a good way to invest in the property and ourselves.
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Jul 19, 2021 22:28
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No roof windows or anything, just big south facing ones, a huge siding door with screen, one on the east wall, and three on the north side. All of them can open for air flow. We get hail here, I don't like the idea of a sunroof on my house :/
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Jul 19, 2021 23:46
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Had part of the Alberta AI crew out for a bbq last weekend. Made beef ribs. Did a short road trip down to Waterton, needed to spend a day with my sister, she's been suffering some bad anxiety lately so I wanted to make time for her.  We both had an awesome time paddling around Waterton Lake and walking up Red Rock Canyon.  Dinner in Blairemore was great too.  On the construction front, things progressed nicely this week. Framers built the skeleton on the driveway and had a crane move it into place. The fellow in orange was also on the crew that originally built the house, so that's pretty neat!  I helped a little bit, they built the roof truss structure right under the powerline so we had to drag it a bit so the crane op could lift it safely.  All skinned up with the windows and door frame in place.  Looking good so far! Can't wait for the electrician to come this thursday and wire this hog.  Potatoes and squash and radishes growing nicely.   During the BBQ, Turbo Fondant graciously helped me get this fuckin gasoline filler neck into the new tank I put in the dodge. We had to boil the gasket, lube it with assembly grease, and he pushed on the tube while I reefed on it with a prybar to get the angles right. Finally worked. I put the rubber elbow on there last night, it still needs a bracket extension where the vice grips are holding, the new tank isn't in exactly the same spot as the old but that's no big deal. 
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Jul 27, 2021 22:49
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Keetron posted:Also nobody commented on the ribs cause we all jealous. I appreciate that So, sorry, it's been a hell of a summer. Wife and I planned to head out to Quebec to spend a couple weeks with her dad and step mom at their cottage. I needed to make a gift, so I thought I would do a fireset. To do a fireset, I need to make a shovel. Shovels are an absolute pain in the dick to make, so I busted out the little shrinker I bought aaaaaaaages ago and gave it a shot.  It actually turned out pretty good.  Too many rivets.  Fireset also needs a broom. Made from a big paintbrush, why not?  The head is oak, so a little burning will darken it nicely.  Huh, not bad.  The completed set, sans paint. It is really hard to get a decent picture of these things, they're very awkward to photograph.   While I was doing sheet metal stuff, I made that little bracket for the dodge.  I got to use  MY LATHE to make a thing. See, the tractor has a motor controller that you use a potentiometer to feed it a resistance value, the resistance is your 'throttle' controller. This is what I used originally, which worked ok, but it's exposed to the elements and is pretty janky. I always told myself I would go back and improve it, and 10 years later here I am.  I bent up this bracket to hold the 'pedal box' that actually came with the controller. There's a microswitch and some other gubbins in there, but it's basically just a potentiometer in a nice robust housing that's somewhat more weather resistant than what I had before.  The bushing I put between them was the lathe project, turned out pretty decent, IMO.  I had to get the tractor ready, and I needed this thing off the trailer.  One assists the other.  Finally. First time I'm taking this thing to the big meet up at Irricana for, what, like 4 years? Felt good.  Speaking of smithing related stuff, after finding that other sledge, I stumbled across this beast in Lethbridge in an antique store. 20 fuckin pounds. 40 fuckin dollars.   The addition continued apace.  After the siders did their thing, I asked that the downspouts all get routed to a central location. North side all drains into this tank.  The workshop now drains into two of these 1250 gallon tanks.  And the south & west sides drain into the trees, instead of onto the hole where the septic tank is. Also our rhubarb and horseradish are doing pretty well here, that's sweet.  My grandfather passed away 2 days before we left on our road trip for the east. It was not unexpected, but still difficult to go through. He was the best grandfather a guy like me could have asked for, I just wish my wife had known him before the dementia ate his mind. However, leave we did, and the trip proceeded pretty well.  Landed in Moosejaw (wife was born there, so she wanted to look around a bit).  Nice place along the Ontario/Manitoba border.  I transcended into God's One True Timezone.  Ontario was pretty cool. I had only driven as far as Brandon Manitoba before now, though I have flown into Sudbury once and Toronto a couple times, but never left the airport.  Lake Superior was amazing, definitely will come back here to camp.  One of the wheel bearings on the trailer got a little spicy near pancake bay.  The spindle got pretty chowdered. gently caress.  We were an hour outside Sault Ste Marie, and getting parts for this ancient axle was loving impossible with a long round trip, so we decided to get the trailer towed into town to make it easier to fix. This tow truck operator was a loving pro, he managed to manipulate his machine and did a perfect job getting the deck under Terry.  He took the trailer to Johnson's RV in the Sault, and those guys did an amazing job for us. Cannot recommend them highly enough if you need work done in that area, A+ people there. While that was getting fixed, the wife and I were kinda burnt out from days on the road, so we got a hotel and spent some time being tourists. We got to see a voyageur canoe tour go through the old locks.    This fiasco actually worked out ok, this poo poo all happened on our anniversary so we had a nice meal at the hotel bar which was right on the water and had a chance to relax and reset. We made it the rest of the way East without further incident. Spent the next few weeks fishing, swimming and boating on the Ottawa river. Fixing boat trailers, bringing boat lifts out of the river, helping the father in law with dozens of cottage projects, and generally having a nice time. I caught and ate my first walleye, which the locals called pickerel, drat it was delicious. I think they liked the fireset too. Doesn't clash too badly with their decor, I think.  The trip back was pretty uneventful, but beautiful.      Seriously, north shore of lake superior, in-fuckin-credibly pretty. I am glad we were not there for bug season.  Hiked out to the old boats at Prisoner's Cove near Neys.    We both wanted to stop at the Terry Fox memorial, and that was good to see.  The landscape near Kenora was also really cool.   But it was definitely nice to return home.  The addition work continues while we were away. The interior was nearly done when we got home.  Had to get some water trucked in from town, but that's alright.   First swimmer!  This one apple tree produced a bunch of fruit, and it was delicious. That was the only fruit we got off the trees this year. The nanking cherry bushes had a couple berries (finally!) but the birds got em, which is fine.  We started the garden harvest. Wife managed to get 2 good sized boxes of potatoes.  I re-mulched the trees.  And the bushes.   The rerouted downspouts gather an amazing amount of water from even the tiniest rains. I think this was a 2 hour light drizzle around Canadian thanksgiving?  My sister picked her tree's apples and I had enough to make jelly.   Which turned out amazing this time.  After a bit of tinkering, the Dodge runs again! Seat SS and I took it out for a spin around town while we worked on his Honda van.    Halloween happened, and I finally planned ahead far enough to actually get a pumpkin this time.  This is all I really care about, right here.  More work on the pool house. Framer came back and built us some really nice cedar landing/stairs for the door.  The steps on this side are movable, there'll be more to come for this at some point. We need a set of steps to get into the pool, I am just using some garage platforms for the time being.  Heater is installed, sure is nice to have that now that winter approaches.  gently caress I love the view from here.  Nearly done that second fireset for my neighbour. Only... 5 months late.  Just needs cleaning and paint, and the rivets hammered on the stand.  Anyway, thanks for following along on this long-rear end ramble of a post, sheesh.
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Nov 17, 2021 19:34
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Whoof, it's been a minute. I keep telling myself I need to update quarterly but poo poo, as usually, has been fuckin busy. I finished off hunting season last year having zero luck, but I consider myself fortunate to be able to get out in country like this to recreate.     Going for Elk, this is literally as close as I managed to get to a herd through 2 months of trying. They're probably 3-5km away looking through my binoculars, I tried getting over there but it was on another property I didn't have permission on, so moot point. I guess that's not entirely accurate, I was within 5 meters of a roadkilled one, and I was reaaaaal tempted to go back and cut the loins off that one.  Looking back on the direction I had come from after getting as close as possible.  Same hill, different angle.  Taking some different items for dinner that day, hard biscuits, caffeine chocolates, homemade venison pemmican, and some canned fish. Actually very, very satisfying all around after a 15km hike.  Same property, different spot, different week. I learned after a trip earlier that when the land stewards told me "no vehicle access" they meant "go ahead and drive on the roads IN the property, just don't go across country"   Nothing but cattle that day, so I went to the public land not far away and had myself a rest. And made tea and soup.  Very much enjoying the mobility the Blazer provides.  What a view  The neighbour's fireset turned out pretty good after cleaning and painting.   They seem to like it, here it is in their house.  My other father in law has a countertop icemaker that he fills the fridge ice cube tray with, much like I do. But he is constantly bending knives trying to chisel them apart after they hard-freeze together. So I thought I would try to help him out with a quick christmas present.  Tried out my new wood lathe for the first time, cut the blank by hand out of a piece of that sapele wood I made my grandma's TV stand out of a few years back. It has a nice straight grain so I thought it would be a nice handle material.  I turned the pick on the metal lathe from an old nailsetter. Made the leather sheath on the new sewing machine, I am getting better with that thing too.  All in all pretty happy with it. I was not trying to make it balanced at all, this is merely coincidence.  During one of the blacksmith guild meetings one of the guys was making these for an album promotion, so I got in on it and made one also. (I know the top post should be perpendicular to the arms of the anchor, but it's supposed to fit in your pocket so just go with it)  During the deep-deep freeze of december and early january, we discovered a bit of an insulation problem in the pool house where the new wall meets the old. This snow has blown in through the crack. That has since been fixed and it's been good since.  We also got a really nice cedar stairway built and fastened to the frame of the pool to make it easier to get in and out of.  What a difference.  Changed the filter on the hot tub and drained / replaced the water. Gross.  The pool's filters are pretty good, I think we're sticking with the plan of changing that water once a year, hot tub gets it twice, doing the filters at the same time as the water. Maybe that's excessive, I dunno. Had some pretty spectacular sunrises and sunsets in the last few months. I just grab the prettiest ones from my photo account when I build these posts.  In march I took the trailer in to get new axles to replace that failed one from our trip last summer. I gotta say, Standen's in Calgary are fuckin phenomenal people. They put in new axles, put a new pigtail on the wiring harness connector, welded a cracked support in the trailer's frame, installed a new breakaway e-brake controller unit, and put new hooks on the breakaway chains for an extremely reasonable price. Extremely happy with their work.  Granted, now that the axles are straight instead of dropped, I had to adjust the truck hitch, but that's not too bad. We took it out to Canmore in May to start the camping season, had a nice time up there. Surprising amount of snow on the ground still.  Did another trip up near Three Hills a couple weeks ago. Aside from a small grad party on the friday, we basically had the campground entirely to ourselves the rest of the weekend, that was really nice.  Slight owl infestation there, though.  Grandpa's old truck is still doing truck stuff. My grandma is ridiculously happy that I still use it as a functional thing and it's not just a showpiece.  This is the wife's townhouse rental, we put it up for sale after evaluating the economics of things. That and I loving hate being a landlord given my philosophy. Truck came in super handy when we were cleaning it up and fixing poo poo.  Ugh, so much poo poo taken to the hazmat disposal site.  Speaking of gramps, the town Lady's Club surprised me with this as a gift for christmas, they took one of grandpa's old shirts and made a nice throw pillow out of it. Thanks ladies  In food news one of the neighbours is raising rabbits. I am also raising them, onto rotisseries.   I think I pretty much have carbonara (or at least my version of it) down pretty well. Wife loves it.  (don't @ me if you don't like peas or insist on traditional fettuccine or whatever noodles, I don't discriminate) Recent news includes some massive projects undertaken with the local Alberta AI crew, but I will let them describe it in more detail in their own threads as they wish. Suffice it to say, this last weekend was a busy one. 
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Jun 22, 2022 22:40
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Oh, also, I am no longer mayor. I gave that up after the town AGM in February. 6 years is enough for now, though I may do it again some year, but I need some time off from it. So I guess I need a new avatar, feel free to give me some suggestions.
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Jun 22, 2022 22:42
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Crab Dad posted:Nice update! Time to get a real job eh? Absolutely. I needed to step back from politics, spend more time with my family, enjoy the good things life has to offer  TooMuchAbstraction posted:Wow, those are some gorgeous photos of the countryside from your hunting. Is that all grazing land normally, or is it just wilderness? The parts on the grassy areas are privately owned grazing lands, the latter set of images in the snowy trees with the blazer/tea bits are publicly owned land, the Porcupine Hills Public Land Use Zone (we call em PLUZ here in Alberta) to be specific. The grazing land isn't used very intensively as far as I can tell, as there isn't a lot of water, though there were a fair number of artesian wells I found when wandering about, that was pretty neat. I guess it depends on your definition of wilderness, the grazing land doesn't see many people, but the pluz does see at least a few every day (sledders, ATVer, hikers, campers, etc) but is definitely more of an actual forest. It is a very interesting biome, the foothills area of southern Alberta is absolutely beautiful and I am glad I chose to try hunting down that way as it gave me the impetus to do some exploring somewhere I don't get much opportunity to be in otherwise. Leperflesh posted:I love it when this thread pops up in my bookmarks. Great to see you're still out there living the life in the country. Somewhat Heroic posted:
Thanks folks I'm glad you're still following along. I'm happy to keep posting once in a while so long as someone enjoys reading it.Boaz MacPhereson posted:Conan had a good run. It's nice to hear from you, man. I am always around, even if I am not always posting.  SpeedFreek posted:Nice setup, do you have the rain barrels plumbed into an irrigation system? Eh, sort of. I sink a garden pump into the large tanks and I have a watering hose that I move from plant to plant. I don't have the soaker hoses anymore, they're more trouble than they're worth here. (weeds like to encircle them and drill roots into the pores) I did actually wrap the rabbit in a few slices of bacon, you don't need a ton, I think I used 4 slices on this one, tied on with kitchen string.
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Jun 23, 2022 15:15
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when I grow up I too would like to live a life in the country.
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Badly Jester posted:I think I discovered this thread not long after paying my I was browsing Varusteleka for random military surplus gear (buddy told me about them) and clicked on their food section and had a look. You are correct, I had no idea what it was, but I looked into it once I saw the tins and was like "huh, I would like to try that". Turns out they sell it for a reasonable price, so I ordered some, and then I ordered a pile more. https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/scho-ka-kola-100-g-tin-box-10-pack/70844 If anyone wants some of the tins, I uh, I have a lot of them. I love the poo poo.
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Jun 27, 2022 05:57
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over a decade ago, and I keep coming back to live vicariously.
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Hey old thread, how's it going? Been a while, eh? Yup yup. Busy as always. Wife and I did some camping last year to close out summer.  Managed to blow a tire bombing around the Cypress Hills on the Alberta/Saskatchewan border.  Fortunately for me, Turbo Fondant was at our house working on his trucks still, and very generously grabbed one of my spare wheels, ran into town to get me a new tire, and drove 3 hours to deliver it. What a guy, thanks pal  There was a bountiful harvest of apples at my parent's place. We picked entirely too many.  I think I did 4 batches of jelly?  The Bow river valley in the fall is a delight.  Did lots of curling. I played as a 5th for my wife's team, one of the guys was due for knee surgery and I didn't want to fully commit to any team so I said I would be their replacement. Turns out he didn't get his surgery date during the season, so I played as a spare for whichever team needed a warm body. I didn't sit out a single day.  We got a hell of a cold snap early November around hunting season. I went with my buddy as normal, he took my truck to Big Valley with a cargo trailer (we had a moose tag again) and his dad. I drove the Blazer.  We didn't get our moose, only saw bulls which we couldn't shoot. Did get a pair of mule deer though. On the way home, the weather was better, but my blazer decided to eat its' own engine. Years of previous owners and my own stupidity in not topping up the oil caused it to eat the distributor gear. I opted to take it to a shop in town where they changed the motor for me. It was expensive, but I like this silly little truck. Unfortunately we were headed to the coast to spend december with the wife's family again, so I had zero time to deal with it. I did some embroidery for gifts, this is the mother in law's little boston terrier.  Sister in law loves Winnie the Pooh, so I made this for her.  We did some snowshoeing on mt washington again.  Wandering around Revelstoke on our way back to Alberta, I found some art.  Blazer was all fixed and looking clean when we got back. (this was taken in January, yes the weather does this all the time here)  We kept our amazing tomato plant alive all winter in the pool house. It even made tomatoes in there, you can see a couple on the left side.  When we were doing Turbo Fondant's truck job last year, we pulled the tractor out of the shop, parked it beside the building, and when I went to put it back in later that evening the fuckin thing wouldn't move. Left that alone for... several months and eventually decided to do a new set of batteries and a motor controller (Seat Safety Switch and I kinda murdered the old one taking it apart to see if it had failed). The new batteries are of Canadian manufacture, which is pretty incredible. Comparable in every way to the old Trojans, but only time will tell if they will last for nearly 15 years also.  Had it ready for a party my wife was putting on for her coworkers. This is a friend driving it with her kids.  Did a golf trip to Radium with my sister this June.    They are remediating the old cold pool at the Hot Springs which was inconvenient for us, but it was sorely needed. That old concrete was in rough shape.  July 1 this year we did a lamb roast and brisket smoke at the hall.  Turned out pretty good despite the minor electrical grassfire.  Wife and I went camping right afterwards, and amazingly the saskatoons are ripe a month early. We spent hours picking.  But the most exciting news, for me, is the Dodge. I wanted to post a couple weeks ago but it's been a fuckin gong show with this thing.  I finally got it to a shop to get the out of province inspection done. I finally officially own it and have it registered. Now I can start doing the Dumb poo poo I've always wanted to  Thanks for sticking with me everybody, I know I don't post a lot anymore, but I will try to keep things going here.
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Jul 18, 2023 16:45
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Good photos, thank you for continuing to share updates! Well my buddy and I split them, so it's one deer each. Honestly, not too long. We make burgers out of the majority of it, though we keep the stuff that makes nice steaks. I take a bit of stewing meat for chili. Honestly it depends on how much meat we're eating at a time. Wife and I could eat an entire deer in a month or two if we had nothing but that. Variety is nice though. We could stretch it for an entire year if we used it very sparingly. It took us about a year and a half to get through our share of that moose from 4-5 years ago, if that helps you visualize it any.
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Jul 18, 2023 20:55
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Huzzah for Coronet content! Huzzah for all of your content, actually. The plate is pretty clever. Thanks Boaz. I'm still watching your nova thread too.
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Jul 19, 2023 06:28
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