Sometimes i wonder if this is really worth it? Though I enjoy it, and it helps me remember some of the things that have happened. But it is tough to get back in to the old system and fire it up and wait for the initial crash and restart, just the program, it's an apple so a crash is just a slight delay not a major issue. Then find the page that I recently updated, and use it to start the new page, and well, it never varies.. very much.

Anyway, So you remember the water issues, I had them all solved with the cistern and such? Welllllll... no problem is ever without challenges in the long run, at least none I ever face. So the tank started overfilling, a problem I NEVER thought would be an issue, but it seems that we don't use enough water, currently, to keep the level down. So, I told Chris, " go ahead and water her garden daily", and we can do extra loads of wash and stuff ,to put the" big clean" on the house, I even rolled under and upped the pressure from 20# to 40# which is what it should be anyhow. That way the water moves a little faster, and the shower heads work properly for a change. All was going according to plan till Chris went to Columbus, I barely use water. And I knew it was going to get too full too fast, and I hadn't decided how to eliminate the issue, it seems the full shut off float wasn't able to shut the switch off. The large plastic float ball ( about quart size!) was completely submerged and could not operate the switch to bypass a fill cycle. But as soon as I touched it, it would bump the switch off and not fill for a while, at least until I had used enough water to get it down (and on) again , never the issue, only up (and off) was a problem. So I finally realized the problem was the shaft, that the float actuated, was in a bind and couldn't pop up like it was supposed to, it got jammed in the plate below the switch and hung up. So something had changed, it worked fine for two years, so I started checking carefully what was happening, turns out the special switch mount I had engineered and made out of a piece of plastic pipe and a couple vacuum line "T"s and held together with hot glue had, well, come unglued! This allowed the shaft, with the float, to "wander sideways" away from the incoming water from the well. After I realized what the problem was, I had to ruminate a solution that didn't require much " in tank " time. And during that rumination time, I shut the well pump off, each night, and back on during the day. Then the big storm hit and everything got squirrely, the timer runs off the power to the well pump, Which I had been turning on and off as I saw fit. But when I was running off the generator I didn't want to supply any more of the load than necessary, so I left the pump off in the well, and let the level drop in the tank, and drop and drop. Chris was home for the first time in a while, had done some laundry, and was just finishing up in the shower, when the water stopped flowing! Seemed like a bad thing at first, and it was. Because not only had the water level dropped in the tank, but also in the ground. So the 45 seconds that the well pump runs each hour, to fill the cistern, was about 20 seconds of dry time. The Pump Minder turns the well pump off after 15 seconds of running dry, when it's tuned up, but as it is on the circuit that depends on the float, it isn't tuned to perfection, like it could be, so the well pump runs for a few seconds longer in the empty state, that makes the sad noises of a starving pump motor. Which is just one indication I shouldn't have allowed the cistern to run so low.

 

 

 

Meanwhile I finally determined a course of action for the failed hot glue issue, safety wire. It's strong, stainless, and by adding a couple holes to the mounting pipe, the rod will be able to slide efficiently, and be kept in a vertical position. So I twisted the parts up and out of the cistern, to a level that I could add the holes required, and keep the plastic "chips " out of the tank. The "safety wire pliers" made quick work of the actual installation and I was able to get the "float shut off" back in place pretty quickly, in between cycles. went pretty smooth. Of course it did require another trip under the house to reset the tank shut off, but that was just another punishment for taking so long to get it fixed. I understand KARMA, just don't think it needs to be so unforgiving. Oh, and that was step one. Step two was the discovery that the safety wire was too tight and the rod couldn't slide like it needed to, so back out comes the mounted switch and the wires are reinstalled very loosely this time. allowing the rod to slide, self center, and generally float around the tank a little, and suddenly the plan works flawlessly.

 

With one minor exception, now the entire system is without power. It won't run the in well pump. There is power out to the well site, through both lines. Each part, I suspected the timer got fried as I can't hear it run anymore, (but I guess that's a hearing problem), the large relay, (it works if I push it with a screwdriver), I even jumped around the "PUMP MINDER" thinking, maybe the lightning , well you know. But nope they all worked, or could be shown not to be the problem. So I went back to the switch I had just spent two weeks working on, supposing it failed, as I had been counting on it to work, and actually had fixed it's issues. I had hot glued it, into a sealed unit , (as I was using it in an upside down configuration, not as designed(DUH!) ) But I had used clip on connectors thinking I might end up changing it out regularly, because it was not in it's designed... well you know. So I looked, (the base I built it on, is clear Lexan) and they (the spade connectors) had come off the spade lugs. So I separated the switch from the Lexan plate, reconnected the lugs, and the silly thing started working. After only about 6 weeks of messing with it, it's back to where it was for the last one and a half years. Meanwhile, down at the Spring House....

YEP! THe Spring House, I was watering the plants (tomatoes) with a 5 gallon bucket filled from a 55 gallon drum, filled by the spring house. I would water each morning and night, and refill the 55 gallon drum with the garden hose, from the rear of the little house. But being the memory master I am, I forgot a couple times, and let it run , and run , and run. Again, not good during a drought, it ran for hours, empty. Bad for spring, bad for pump. Bad for stupid guy who did it at least two nights in a row, (maybe three, memory right?) And the last time I went to check on the pump, it had developed an unusual symptom, the intake hose, an 8 foot piece of two inch pipe had fallen off! Clear off the pump, pushing air into the entire system and running the pump ceaselessly, until I unplugged it. I returned to the garage got tools and went back to reattach it and discovered, because it eventually drenched me, that the plastic fittings I recovered from the first pump, and used because they were already here, had melted enough to fail to seal any longer in the pump housing. This lead to a perfect opportunity to deal with plumbing fittings and the lack of choices available locally. I HATE PLUMBING! Nothing is the size it says it should be, and nothing ... well everything... well AAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH! An inch, is an inch, in machinist world. We do not live in machinist world. We live in a plumber and construction /wood workers night mare! What are the actual measurements of a " 2 x 4"? (3 1/2" by 1 1/2") And a 2 by 8? (1 1/2 by 7) WhAt???? That's what they measure around here. I know why it is, I've heard the stories, I've dealt with the issues it causes, things not finishing to the right sizes, inside or out, OKAY, it's an eighth of an inch here, a quarter there, that's why they make moldings. I understand from an" eighteen hundreds sawmill" stand point. And I know about wall thickness and materials strengths, from the early industrial revolution, and it's reliance on the "art factor" of the metallurgists mixing the batches for the furnaces, the issues with uneven heat, and undependable ore and mixture material consistencies. I understand how it started, I don't understand why it still exists! Laziness? Or Ignorance? Or "JOB SECURITY"? All could be factors, but it is time to get a standard in place that makes sense and removes the need for a dozen versions of every pipe fitting and construction material know to man. Jeeze what a nightmare of stupidity we are forced to deal with, because of these legacy systems. The move to metrics was going to address most of it, but we are too dumb to make that move, almost a magical stupidity in place here. And I'm forced to deal with it due to the lack of dollars to change over or even a selection of materials to chose from....

I actually used a piece of junk I've been hoarding since I found it in the machine shed when we moved in, an aluminum awning. I had thought it would be nice over the back door on the little house, but now the plan is to change that area entirely, and has made the awning available for another use. Over the man door on the garage.

 

I also decided that I didn't need a 4x8 foot rolling display wall anywhere soon, and the wheels and steel involved might be put to better use elsewhere, and I can always use the extra space. So I upgraded from this trusty wooden unit... Which was nearly impossible to move after it sat for a while, due to it's" not so hard anymore" rubber wheels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To this steel unit on really nice, heavy duty, hard plastic wheels, which don't sink as deeply into the ground as the old rubber wheels on the wooden unit did. Don't get flat spots, and are "greasable".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doesn't it look like it will weld better now? That fancy blue base on those nice hard, ball bearing wheels. Wow, I feel much more professional now, I guess I'll have to raise my rates. But really, it does roll so much nicer. Makes it less of an ordeal to get it out of the garage to use it. And the blue, is because that was the base color before I cut up the rolling wall, and, I had a little left over in a spray can from the wagons I rebuilt, on the previous page. I may put white stripes on the side and "go full patriotic" when the mood, and the paint cans, move me...

 

And on the subject of generators, you did realize we were talking about generators right? Well this summer we had a storm that knocked everything out for about a week, so I was driving the little truck with the welder/generator back and forth between the houses to keep the freezers working. Then I had a brainstorm, in the old motor home I had a generator that was soo loud, we only used it to get even with butt head neighbors when we were racing go karts. But if it would work it could save me a lot of annoyance about the welder" being on wheels in the rear of a truck without a tailgate." So I removed the generator and brought it up to the garage and started taking parts off and cleaning and repairing them, anything that sits needs the carburetor cleaned out, and the oil changed, and the spark checked. Particularly if I'm going to be the one to try to pull start it, crappola shoulders you know? So I finally wrestled it into the little trailer for the lawn mower and got it behind the little house with an extension cord to the freezer. Being a smaller engine, it got better "mileage" too, of course one of the issues it has is no muffler. We used a length of pipe I carried in the trailer to route the exhaust away from the area when we raced the karts. (I wonder where the heck that pipe went anyway???) So after it was a sure thing that it would work, I started looking around for something to quiet it down, the noise was annoying even to me, and I'm 70% deaf. What I found was of course a stroke of genius if I do say so myself. A Volkswagen muffler was on the shelf just inside the machine shed shelving unit, and it fit over the pipe on the generator with only a small gap, and even with that leakage it was way quieter. Now mounting it was a challenge, I really didn't want it to be permanent or to damage the VW muffler. So "C" clamps were chosen to hold it in place using the side rails of the little trailer. The board shoved through the side rails, is because it tended to vibrate out of the trailer in about 5 minutes and I didn't really want it just sitting on the ground, getting it into the trailer once, was plenty! Of course nothing is without it's issues, after a couple days it developed a crack in the exhaust pipe. (Which I had built for it, to use with the pipe extension in the old motor home, wonder where that pipe went???) Fortunately, It was on the last day, so I just let it go until I can get to it, to weld it back. Looking at where it cracked, it was ground very thin there anyway, I do like a smooth look to my welding, which means sometimes I forget there are limits to the strength of very thin things, even those made of steel. Fortunately looks aren't as important as function, it won't be nearly as smooth this time, it's just an exhaust pipe, not a work of art, I keep trying to remind myself about such things. (It doesn't work...)

 

I trimmed the pear tree this spring, rather drastically, and it really seemed to help it. The pears are bigger and seem to be better resistant to the bugs, and they are close enough to the ground to be picked. Unfortunately the deer seem to like them too, and having them closer to the ground before hunting season, well...

Oh! And I promised an update on Ryan's pickup truck, well, He finally made it down for a weekend, where it wasn't 100 degrees in the shade, (where we never get to work anyway) and I had parts and things he could do. So he had his first experience changing spark plugs! Oh what a joy !!! HA! Like every car, there is always a plug that requires the entire contents of two tool boxes, and an erector set to get to. And he got to change it! And put on new wires and drive it around the farm.. Whoo Hooo, and the radiator leaks! What a great experience, haven't checked the radiator status out yet, it is a plastic sided affair with rubber seals and such, that might swell with use, or leak more profusely, just a matter of time till we find out.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the neighbors have been keeping me occupied better'n Wall Street! A new something broken, almost every day, I got to fix a conveyor screw, new experience. I repaired a sweep arm for a hay rake. And welded and heat treated a blade strap for the chopper, wasn't even sure what that meant until I delivered it. What a couple days that was! Due to the weather forecast claiming rain for the last 4 days (full sunshine, all day, everyday) the plan was to chop corn for silage, but upon checking the "bad blade" it was discovered the entire rotating drum of the chopper was "loose" after replacing bearings and mounts and holders and bolts it seems okay??? But we never did really determine the actual issue. We did find out that "next day air" is a joke around here. Delivered by 10:30 AM my ass. At 1:40 the truck rolled in with two drivers, (I think one was a witness) cause the parts people knew, there were issues about 11:00 when the machine was still sitting waiting for parts, One hour 20 minutes after the parts arrived the machine was headed down the road to work. Which means the delay was actually an issue, Usually if I get something the day I was expecting it , I'm amazed. At least they claimed the next day air cost would be refunded, $90.00 quite an amount to refund, but the day of laying in wait, was even more expensive.

Here are the resultant round bales from this year's hay crop. Only a couple shy of last years harvest, And in a year when the hay was terrible due to the weather issues of the wet spring then the summer heat and corresponding drought, well, the fact that we got anything at all, was near miraculous.

 

Now I have to give myself a little pat on the back, in the area of machinery knowledge. I have nearly no idea what the machines in these fields really do, to accomplish their missions. The chopper mentioned above is no exception. It moves through the fields, ingesting everything green and squirting it into a large trailer it pulls behind. It creates silage, which looks to me like, grass clippings, which is mixed with other 'Stuff' to feed the dairy cows. Sort of collecting the field and saving it for bad weather. Anyway, the chopper came over the hill into the field, across the street, a month back, and was making a tremendous squealing whine, that it never had before, in five years it has never sounded like that. I stopped the driver, and mentioned the sound, and my concern about something being "not right". He said "Nah it always sounds like that", well after the breakdown and repair mentioned above, it doesn't sound like that anymore. So, though nobody mentioned my "gonna break soon" expertise, ( I want to believe it was only/mostly due to the issues over getting the parts delivered and installed), I still feel I was correct, and they are going to listen a little closer to my suggestions in the future. HA HA HA , Well, I can dream, can't I?