What are you doing today? [Part II]

[azswiss]

Time for the annual hedge trim; 35 "dwarf" citrus trees along the sides & back of the house. The ladder is 13'; the hedge is 13' to 15' tall and 6' to 8' deep at the top.


Citrus thorns are a bitch; 2" long and needle sharp. Edit: BTW, this is also prime scorpion territory!


Management always seems to have other priorities.


Half done today, will get the remainder tomorrow.

 

[TollKeeper]

As mentioned in the other thread, took the XUV for a drive to my cabin in the woods.

I wish my brothers werent such idiots, and would consider keeping the cabin in the family. It was hand built by my grandparents back in the 30's. They died, and it went to my dad. He died 2 years ago, and now it goes to me and my brothers, and my dads wife. None of them want it, and just want to sell it. and they are only interested in the money. So now I am forced to buy it, even thou I cant afford it, just so I can personally sell it. If I buy it outright, its 100k, and then I can turn around and sell it for 250k.

I mean its 150k to my pocket. But my son loves it, my wife and I have been going up to the cabin for 24 years, and its part of us.

I wish I could figure out a way to afford it, but the math, no matter how I do it, just doesnt work.

I so need to vent about this.. But, my wife and I seem to be the only ones that care..

 

[xavierny25]

Watching the saving
System has been online for 4 days now. I was finally able to figure out the app so I'll keep u guys entertained with my savings and the incoming bills from my electricity supplier.

 

[Blckshdw]

Pretty lazy day down here, checking things out online to see if anything on any of my wish lists are marked down. (un)fortunately, nothing is, so I can save some of my spending for next month. Planning to try and paint the house sometime before the weather heats up in the spring again, so there will be plenty to spend on before then.

Watching the saving
System has been online for 4 days now. I was finally able to figure out the app so I'll keep u guys entertained with my savings and the incoming bills from my electricity supplier.

It can be really gratifying to see the details, especially on a cool sunny day. I dunno if your app has it, but whenever people ask me to explain how the panels work/benefit, I like to screenshot the chart that maps out production vs consumption over the course of the day. Usually one from a sunny day, and another from a cloudy/rainy day so they can see the difference.

 

[BrianF]

Well, the gang is back together! We got a few days of real nice weather left before the deep freeze rolls in mid week. Back to -20c highs......

Well, I got a new battery for my old Ghost, which needs new ski runners and some new lights (ran it the other day with a garbage battery to move it and blew the lights). The Evinrude needs its clutch cleaned and a reseal of the chaincase. The new ghost needs its track tensioned and the wiring checked on the headlight.

All sleds were found to have cracking drivers so they all got hose clamped. I will monitor how they work as I might move up to band clamps. Regardless, some miles will be put on!

 

[Mooseman]

Been doing the maintenance on my sled for the past couple of days. No surprises so far except for slop in the front suspension. The plastic A arm bushings are worn, which would make steering a little dicey on the trail. Gonna order some replacement bushings made of Oillite, basically bronze with oil impregnated in them. Had them on my previous sled and they lasted forever. Not cheap though, around $200 for 2 dozen bushings. They were half that price last time I bought them.

 

[Matt]

I was gifted a pigs head a couple of weeks ago and that is going in the smoker today. We're making tacos with the cheek meat.

 

[U EEDIOT]

I was gifted a pigs head a couple of weeks ago

Are you sure that wasn't a warning from the mafia?

 

[BrianF]

The girls and I out some miles on the trails today. My youngest was solo on the new Ghost. She was introduced to some steep and rolling hills. She was nervous but did quite well.

The new Ghost had her first break down and needed a tow the last half mile. While I know better, I shut it down so my youngest could double up to introduce her to the real steep hill. Then it was sluggish to start and then had a bad mid and high end bog that would kill it. The primer quit working so I think I ran into a fuelling issue. Once she cools off I will dig in.

The old Ghost got new lights and ran really strong but with an annoying vibration through the handle bars. Not sure on that. The Evinrude got a clutch clean and ran like an absolute top! The new Ghost had her track adjusted, which was easy to do but man was she loose and sagging.

 

[BrianF]

Edit, I let her cool and played around with the fuel side of things. Must have been some junk in the fuel T that has a check ball. It feeds the primer, which ran dry. Got her pumping and now she runs good.

She used to barely hit 35mph on the hard pack and now with a properly tensioned track, she touches 40. Big numbers I know. You can't teach that. Its what I do.....

 

[Matt]

I was gifted a pigs head a couple of weeks ago and that is going in the smoker today. We're making tacos with the cheek meat.

Here she be.







Tongue and brain bottom right



Tongue taco on the right, with Mexican style rice and ABT's.

 

[BrianF]

Wow, that looks amazing!!! And to top it all off, its like it was staring at me.

That should be some tender meat!

 

[azswiss]

Fab'd up a bracket to augment the steering lock. Further limits travel and covers the airbag.

 

[Blckshdw]

Last day of staycation. Had my 2nd PT session this morning, seemed to go a lot quicker than the 1st one. Checked my pelvis alignment and it stayed where it was supposed to, (it was rotated, and we had to reset it during the last visit) so they said they could tell I was doing the assigned exercises and stretches since the 1st session to try and loosen up my hips. They had me do some different exercises this time, and sent me on my way. Go back again on Friday.

Had loaded a bucket with the used oil from last week into the truck, bungee corded it to one of the grocery hooks so it didn't move around. Stopped by the AZ near the house to dump it. Told the guy at the desk I had used motor oil, and it seemed like he had an attitude about it. Told me to leave it by a cart at the end of the counter. Then I told him I wanted to keep my bucket, so he rolls his eyes and asks someone for the key to the tank in the back. Dunno what customer pissed in his cornflakes this morning, but not my problem.

Get to the back, and he starts with the questions. It's only oil right? How much is it? blah blah. When I pop the lid off, he stops me so he can look in the bucket to check. Seriously man? I dunno if they have a history of people bringing lots of other fluids, but after he had a look in my bucket, his attitude completely changed.

Started talking about what I drove, what he drove, how the last place that changed his oil over torqued some bolt, that broke a seal and wanted to charge him to fix their mistake. Hey man, can I go now? I just came to dump my oil... Hit the grocery store for some things for the week, followed by a nice nap.

Back on the grind tomorrow.

 

[Mooseman]

My file server decided to kick the bucket this morning. I have an older desktop running windows 10 and running a raid 5 array. The boot drive decided to start corrupting sectors and one drive in the array outright died. Good thing it has built-in redundancy. The average age of these drives is around 12 years so time for a wholesale change. Found a guy selling four 2tb drives and picked up an SSD drive for the boot drive. Backing up the data in the array was slow but no problem since it was working in a reduced performance. However, trying to clone the boot drive has been a PITA. Cloning software is barfing going through the boot partition. Apparently one way to get around it is to backup the disk rather than cloning it directly but this is slow as molasses in winter. Still at it. I just hope writing to the new drive is faster.

 

[Matt]

Pretending to give a shit that someone one level above me is leaving. I couldn't care less...I think he's a wanker.

 

[Mooseman]

Writing to you from the rebuilt server. Cloning the drive was going nowhere so I just did a fresh install of Win10 on the new drive. File and disk sharing has become more of a bear after Windows 7 but after a bit of chasing settings, was able to share the drive on the network. Now just copying all the files from the backup drive onto the Raid drive. Nice thing is I went from 1.5TB to about 5.5TB. That should last me a couple of months with the wife's picture taking habits

 

[Blckshdw]

1st day back in the office. As expected, none of my work got done, as I have no dedicated backup person. One of the directors said she would try to pitch in, cuz she's nice like that, but I know her plate is full since many in her department have left, and senior leadership have been tight wads with hiring new staff, outside of sales.

I was told to go ahead and move into my new office today, definite upgrade from the closet they stuck me in. Got 3 nice floor to ceiling windows to stare out of. Had to get some bulky furniture out of here. There was a credenza over the desk, I don't need storage space, so buh bye! There was a small but wide 2 drawer filing cabinet. Again, don't need that, so got that moved to someone else's office. Kept a bookshelf to put my sports stuff on and got settled in. The COO used to be next door, but she moved down the hall, so I don't have to hear her conversations all the time anymore. I'm a happy camper.

 

[Sparky]

Worked on my brother-in-law's 05 Element. I already replaced all discs, calipers, and pads. It needs struts, sway links, ball joints, tie rod ends, and sway bushings. There are deep rust pockets in the rear struts, I'm surprised that they aren't leaking yet.

Brakes went easy.

Started on rear suspension first. I broke off 3 little bolts. Two on the vapor canister (no biggie), one on the sway bar bushing bracket (argh). Clearances on jack stands for suspension work on this thing sucks. I tried getting the lower strut bolt off on the driver side rear and even with a cheater and literally lifting myself off the floor it won't budge. I know I'm a lightweight, but this is ridiculous

 

[Mooseman]

Gotta hate the power of rust

 

[Sparky]

Likely the bolt is rusted to the strut bushing's sleeve. If I have to cut it off, replacement bolts are $15 each at the dealer, but the nut is welded onto the control arm and is smooth. I guess a common thing is to have to cut the bolt off and somehow grind the welds off the nut to get it all apart. Yikes.

I found I can go online and find equivalent bolts AND flange hex nuts for less than $15 for both sides. I may have to go that route.

But first, I'm going to try to get some clearance to get my Makita impact on it after letting it soak some more and see if I can bust it free or not. It'll probably go south, but maybe I'll get lucky...

 

[Sparky]

No go on the impact, couldn't get the clearance. Clearly they designed this rear suspension without that in mind.

So, I torched the bolt for a bit, propped my feet against against the vehicle hub, stuck my long 18" ratchet on there, gave it a big heave, and CRACK!

.... I busted my ratchet.

 

[Reprise]

I empathize. Comparing Honda to GM, their fasteners / retainers are overdesigned.
My DDW owned two Elements, but both were totaled before rust had a chance to set in.

There's probably a PDF service manual for the E online someplace, if you need one. And I may (?) still have a printed one packed away someplace, if you run into an issue. (I'd have to dig to find it, but I tend not to throw that kind of stuff away.)

Hopefully the ratchet is warrantied, and you didn't bust a knuckle when it happened.

 

[Sparky]

Thanks for the offer, but I have access to the service manuals. It literally says "remove lower bolt."

Basically, it comes down to a case of the bolt rusted to the bushing sleeve, and it needs cut off. Nothing is going to break it free at this point. I talked to a guy who is very familiar with the Element's suspension design and he said, "Yeah, you'll just have to cut it off. The effects of corrosion on those is terrible." Long term serviceability was not in anyone's mind when they designed it, basically.

 

[flyboy2610]

Right now, I'm enjoying some warmth from the radiant heater in the man-cave. It got up to 60 degrees F today at 3:00 in the afternoon. I get off at 3:30, and by then the cold front was moving in and the north wind was picking up. As I type this (6:10 PM) it's 30F and the wind is blowing at about 40mph, gusts up over 50mph. Tonight it's supposed to get into the teens, wind chills around 0.
Tomorrow we might get above freezing, then back into the 50's for Sunday.
December is toying with us.

 

[flyboy2610]

Sparky, I used to use PB Blaster, but have lately been using Free All for a penetrating oil. I find it works a lot better than PB Blaster. If you can find it in your area (I buy it at AutoZone) it might be worth a try.

 

[Matt]

I talked to a guy who is very familiar with the Element's suspension design and he said, "Yeah, you'll just have to cut it off. The effects of corrosion on those is terrible."

The advantages of working for Honda USA?

 

[Reprise]

Thanks for the offer, but I have access to the service manuals. It literally says "remove lower bolt."

Yeah, I kinda meant on a future endeavour
Reading between the lines between you and Matt, you've got access to better info anyway.

A shame. I liked the wife's Elements (well, not the color of the first one, which I called 'baby sh*t green'

 

[Mooseman]

Worked on my sled today as I got the new Oilite bushings. However, rust reared its ugly head. One suspension bolt I was barely able to get out however the other is literally rust welded to the bushing. Because it's inside an aluminum steering spindle, I can't put the torch to it so I'll have to cut the bolt. Ordered new bolts, nuts and bushings from my local Yamaha dealer and should be here within the week. Tomorrow I'll have to run to Princess Auto to get some cutoff wheels.

And looking at my A-arms, they're pretty rusty so I'm probably gonna take them to a powder coating shop to get them done. Will probably get them done in the same colour as the sled, which is a kind of candy apple red. Did that with my previous sled and it looked amazing.

 

[BrianF]

This week the good old prairie winter arrived. -20 highs with 30 lows. This weekend it warms up and then thendeep freeze shows up again but worse.

So today we went to Prince Albert, known as P.A. or as I prefer, P. Aids. My oldest had her first junior girls basketball tournament. First game of the season they lost to to the top team but then took the B side today. Bloody feisty!! My girl got best player on one of the games. She is like her mother, very competitive!!! We had a blast and really proud parents.

Tomorrow, the sleds are coming out and some miles will be had!!

 

[flyboy2610]

It was a nice day today, got up to about 50F, so I assembled the gutter cleaner I use with my leaf blower and cleaned the gutters on the house.
A few days ago I noticed a couple spots on the wife's '06 TB where the paint had chipped off just above the rear wheel well. Some surface rust was starting, so I used the random orbital sander and got as much off as I could. Hit it with some Rust-Oleum Rust Reformer, let it dry for an hour, then gave the spots 3 light coats of touch up spray paint, followed by some Rust-Oleum gloss clear. That's not the way I would really prefer to fix those spots, but the weather's going to turn colder and I don't have a garage, so I did what I could to get it spring without getting any worse. I hope.
I cleaned up the parts from my old axle disconnect that I plan to reuse. There weren't many! I'm reusing the housing, the intermediate shaft gear, and the sliding collar, along with the 4 15mm bolts which hold the housing halves together. The rest is all new parts.
The old parts in front, the new parts are in back.


I assembled the unit dry, no grease. Then I put the assembled unit into a 1 gallon plastic storage bag with a note reminding me it needs greased before installation. Then it went on the parts shelf.
It's nice to have my workbench back!

 

[xavierny25]

Over the weekend relocated a light fixture outlet box in the stairwell for a fancy new drop down light.
I was able to access the box from the attic crawl space. I drove a screwdriver through the ceiling just about where I wanted the new outlet box. It was about 4" to far to the left but the fixture base covers it up so no big deal.

Re routed the wiring in to a new ceiling box and done.

I did have patch up the hole from the old fixture location.
While I was at it replaced the ones in the dinning room and living to match.

 

[Mooseman]

So got that last A-arm out after the cutoff wheel cut through the offending bolt. Then I finally cleaned out my long neglected parts washer, but not after I made a mess of trying to drain it out. I tried to use a funnel with a screen and it immediately plugged up and overflowed. Anyway, I couldn't save it since most of it was contaminated with water. Scooped a ton of dirt from the bottom and dumped the solvent/water into a 5 gallon container that I will be taking to a waste facility. After refilling it and getting the pump working (had to blow air backwards into the outlet to clear it), I cleaned out the A-arms. I also pulled the rear bumper.



Tomorrow, I'll be driving around town to a few powder coating shops for estimates with a body panel to match the candy apple colour. 10 years ago, it cost me about $300 on my previous sled. I can just imagine how much it costs now since they also have to be sandblasted. Just sandblasting the two frame pieces for my son's Silvy cost $200.

 

[Sparky]

We cleaned out part of the basement last night. I shoved a bunch of recyclables and donations in the back of the van, today we'll drop the stuff off. Ugh, it is amazing the crap you collect after only 3 years in a place.

I need to readdress the DRL on the van. I rerouted the original DRL wiring to some aftermarket (but OE style) fog housings with some low wattage LED bulbs (I'm not trying to get useful light out of them). I hated the original dingy half power halogen DRL look. Thing is, I got flashed by some oncoming traffic recently at night. I thought maybe I needed to adjust the headlights down a tad after the LED headlamp upgrade, but then when I was parked in a parking lot I took a look at the front. Ugh, even though the LEDs I put in the fog housings are low wattage, they create a surprisingly large amount of glare. Maybe they can just be aimed lower, but I have my doubts because these bulbs just blow light everywhere.

 

[TollKeeper]

Took my new computer apart... AGAIN!

I am only on the 6th warranty swap on this motherboard.

Took apart the open loop video card, and cleaned it out as well.

 

[BrianF]

Well I never got to sledding on the weekend. Nasty wind blew in and I spent some hours clearing our laneway and then took the skid steer to a friend's to help clear them out. Their old 100 horse case two wheel drive was stuck and in the process of digging them out, I became hopelessly stuck. Thankfully another nearby farmer came with an adequate tractor and got us sorted out.

Now I'm just counting down the hours until the cold weather clears. Boys, it be cold. Today hit a high of about -30c ambient. My way home from work was even colder and its going to be frigid until mid day tomorrow before going to normal temps. While we may not get the snow you lakes region or coastal boys get but we are rewarded in other ways.

 

[northcreek]

Today hit a high of about -30c ambient.

WOW! that's -22F....see any Brass Monkeys runnin' around ?...

 

[Matt]

Going to be in training most of the day.

 

[Blckshdw]

Staycation time in the "winter" means lots of home projects, got a couple things done today. There's been a gap at the top of my kitchen door to the garage, not enough weather stripping, but it was the thin stick on foam type. In looking into options for that, noticed the front door had double stripping on it. The kerf style, as well as the screw in type on top of it.

Yanked the old brown kerf stripping out, it was in pretty bad shape. Picked up some new stuff in white to match the frame, and removed the gray screwed in stripping, which I set aside to see if it could be used on the kitchen door.



Of course, the dimensions of the 2 doors wasn't the same, and I didn't feel like trimming the longer top section, and piecing together the side sections to get them to fit. Back to the kitchen door, the PO painted over the foam stripping, so when I started pulling it off, the paint took pieces of wood with it. It revealed a groove, but taking the old stuff from the front door and fitting it in place, there wasn't enough of a gap with the door, so the replacement has to be the screw in type anyway. There's damage to the door, and door jamb from squeezing appliances in and out last year, so there will be some wood filling, sanding and repainting in the near future.

Had a seat on the couch to look up some stuff, look over and notice daylight coming in the side of the door by the hinges I guess that explains why they put the secondary stripping... Open the door to take a look at the situation, and see the hinges are too big, the metal is extending past the front edge of the door. So as you close the door, the metal catches the stripping, and pushed it to the side, causing a gap.



Solution? Grab the 100' air hose from the shed, run that from the garage through the house to the front door, grab the cutoff wheel and cut a sliver of metal from the hinges so that small lip is continuous all the way down. That problem now out of the way. Literally

Had been wanting to tweak one of the fence gates ever since I got the house. PO had welded together a frame so it didn't sag, but the secure point to put your lock, was halfway down, so anytime you wanted to come and go, you HAD to start and end from the inside. I had a spare latch from the double gate I rebuilt in the back when I moved in, and wanted to install it at the top of this gate, so I could simply reach over the top and open it. Since this gate is between the houses, no one is ever back there besides me or the neighbor when cutting the grass.

Last year I was able to use my cutoff wheel to notch the metal to add the striker, but I dulled multiple drill bits trying to make the mounting holes. Ran over to HF, and bought an electric bit sharpener. Took a little bit to get the technique down, but was able to resharpen multiple bits that I suspected needed it, and was able to punch a couple of holes through the frame. Got the striker on with 1 screw (need a bolt and nut for the other hole) and added the latch to the fence post. Does need a bit of a push at the top to get it to latch, but it holds nice and tight, and I can just reach it over the top of the fence, without gouging my arm on the nails I have across the top for the critters.





That sums up my productivity for one day. About to throw a couple of burgers on the indoor grill, and some fries in the air fryer. Pig out a lil bit before extensive couch time.

 

[Blckshdw]

Knocking out a few more items off the to-do list. Wednesday, got out the tub of wood filler to address the kitchen door. Took the lid off, and it was pretty crusty. Luckily it was just the top most layer that hardened. Added a little bit of water, and mixed it up, which got it to a good 'mud' consistency. Smeared that on the scratches and gashes in the door and jamb, got the kerf grooves filled in as well. Let that set for a few hours, then hit it with the DA sander. Haven't repainted yet.

This morning, after a cold front put us in the 60s, decided to tackle some of the damaged screens on the patio. Did 2 screens last year, and it took me forever since I didn't quite know what I was doing. Had 4 to do this time, much larger sections too, but had a better plan. Did have to redo one of the largest ones, as I was putting the spline in on the 3rd side, the tool slipped off the groove and cut the screen on the wrong side of the spline

Since I had to do one of the top sections, pulled out the step platform, so I could get proper leverage to spline the very top. While I was at it, reached up to clear the gutter off the patio, as I noticed during Thursday's heavy storms, that water was pouring over the side. Lots of twigs and leaf litter. That took way longer than I thought it would, but after screwing up that one screen, didn't want to have to redo the rest, so took my time.