Hey, Chum!

Responding to a question in the comments:

Working from up-stream to downstream:

Soaked-and-boiled, shelled corn (for carp) behind the Assembly of God church and at the boat launch. These used to be a mill-pond and the sill of the former dam still backs up the water to form bayous.

Cut up, Bar-S hotdogs below the rapids where the old mill dam was. I may push some pea-stone into each chunk so it doesn't float downstream too fast.

More cut-up, Bar-S hotdogs where Quaker Brook runs into the outside of a very tight bend.

Planning a trip to the County Fair

The peak wind-chill predicted for today is 14 degrees colder than it was for yesterday and the day before.

Mrs ERJ mentioned that she wants to go to the County Fair. I like making Mrs ERJ happy, so it is likely that I will eat an elephant ear and look at various farm animals and arts-and-crafts today.

I took a break from weeding the garden during the hottest days this week. The weeds did not take a break. So, I am behind in that.

The tomato vines are approaching the top of the feed-lot panels I put up to support them. My plan is to install bamboo poles with a single drop of twine to give them another 4' of head-room. Mrs ERJ toured the tomato garden and was concerned that 24' of row did not seem like very many tomatoes. We will see.

Meeting people

There I was with Mrs ERJ, walking around the track at the Alive fitness center. We were passing another couple who were also walking around the track when the man bumped the brim of his baseball cap with the knuckle of his pointer finger, revealing another couple inches of his forehead.

"I think I used to work with you" I blurted out.

"Maybe" the man replied.

"Jim?" I guessed.

He perked up. "Maybe you did" he agreed.

Then I said "Pipe-fitter?" (his trade).

Then he replied "Fisher Body!".

The last time I worked with Jim was in 2004. He is now 79 years-old. 

And another

A short time later, Mrs ERJ struck up a conversation with another woman.

It turned out that she attends the same church we do. We did not recognize her because she usually goes to a different (time) service than we do.

Boosting the signal

These are very short videos (like about 30 seconds). I shamelessly stole these from The Daily Timewaster blog.

Content We should be "working" so we can live a balanced, moral life, not living to work.
 

Content Marriage exists for three reasons: 

Marriage turns men's physical attraction toward women into a positive thing as it bonds them into a team

Married heterosexuals create the optimal environment for raising children. The Orthodox priest reminds us that children are created in the image and likeness of God himself.

The third reason is that God is present when two people meet in his name. A holy marriage is when husband and wife invite God into it and allow themselves to be windows that let God's light shine into the world. 

Stretch target for today's goals

Visit the Upper and Hill Orchards and water the new trees.

Swing by Nashville, Michigan and check out a couple of fishing sites on the Thornapple River. I might even throw some chum into the water and come back Friday with a fishing pole.

Still here

The Red Squirrels started cutting the ripening filberts down. Time to step-up my game in knocking back the numbers. The orange cap is filled with peanut butter. The distance between where the trap is mounted and the top of the support seems to be an important variable. It needs to be close enough that the squirrel has his hind feet gripping the top of the support but far enough away that the squirrel is reaching a little bit to get to the bait. This one is set with 2" between the top of the support and the top wire of the #110 body-grip trap.

Burning yard-waste 

It may be counter-intuitive, but burning yard-waste is not a bad way to use hot weather. It is not very aerobic. I got rid of some of the "ugly" wood that was going to be more work turning into firewood than it was worth.

Does a bear poop in the woods? 

I am not qualified to answer that question, but I can verify that raccoons will poop in the grass. You can see the mulberry seeds speckling his/her poop.

Tomato chicanery

I may have been scammed on some "heirloom" tomato seed that I bought over the internet.

The Rose de Bern is supposed to be very round and free of cracks. Of the two that set fruit, one matches that description and the other does not.

The Federle is supposed to be a long, sausage shaped tomato. The young fruit are very round and not showing any interest in elongating.

It is too early to tell for sure, but I am beginning to have my doubts.
 

Fill-in work for when it is hot

Peak temperature beneath our shade trees today was 87F. When Mrs ERJ and I went out today it was seven degrees hotter in the sun, over pavement.

Installing the new Predator 212cc motor on the Troy-Bilt Pony

It was a good project for beneath the the shade trees on a warm day.

When I unboxed the motor I saw that it had the cast aluminum valve cover. According to the Youtube video I watched, that means it is the "hemi" variant. On the whole, if you are not going to modify the motor to soup-it-up, the hemi variant has better intake and exhaust flow and, theoretically, should have slightly cooler head temperatures. 

The trip we took was to buy new nuts, bolts, washers and a new belt. I needed to remove the current engine and pulley and belts before I knew what I would need.

The bolts were 2" long, 5/16" coarse-thread. I looked up the torque spec and for "wet" or lubed bolts and washers, it was a meager 8 ft-lbs of torque for an SAE Grade 5 bolt.

I installed the pulley as far out on the shaft as it would go and not have the end of the shaft sub-flush, but the drive and driven pulley still didn't line up. The motor has two round (aka, "net") holes and two slots. I can elongate the holes in the mounting plate beneath the round-holes in the casting and gain about 5mm, almost a 1/4. While not perfect, it will be closer and the belts should live a lot longer.

The original motor had two, counter-rotating shafts. One for forward and and one for reverse. The new motor's shaft aligned with where the old "forward" shaft was so the machine will have "Forward" but no "Reverse" gear. I will have to put it in neutral and use my muscles when I want to back it up.

I filled the motor with oil and put in about a pint of gas into the tank and lit it off. I did not engage the drive (more on that in a bit). I let it run at about 65% speed until it ran out of gas.

The forced air convection from  the cooling fan was notably strong. It pushes a lot of air past the cooling fins on the cylinder casting and the fins on the head. That is an EXCELLENT thing. The fins are not "ducted". Ducting makes the airflow more efficient by forcing it into close proximity to the fins but exposed fins are rarely clogged up by mouse nests and chaff and are generally preferred for agricultural applications.

After the run-in, I drained the oil. Then I checked to see if I could budge the plugs on the transmission case. I could!!! One plug was in a port on the top of the casting while another plug was in the side of the casting about 2" above the center-line. Typically, the side port would be the "fill-to" mark. I scrubbed the outside of the casting to remove a decade's worth of grime before cracking them open.

The inside surface of both plugs were as dry as a bone. I spread newspaper and cardboard and turned the tiller on its side and about 8 ounces of dark brown (but clear) lube with a very high viscosity came out. That was good news. At least there was something wet in the transmission.

I added fresh motor oil to the engine but did not add any gasoline. I buttoned up the safety shields and then pushed it under cover.

I ordered GL-4 gear lube, 5/16" round files and a spare belt.

And now we wait... 

Presented without comment

Fine Art Tuesday

 

Amaldus Nielsen was born in 1838 in Norway. His father was a shipmaster and merchant. Amaldus had eleven children. He died in 1932 at the age of 94.

His style of art is dubbed "naturalist style". Most notable for painting scenes of where the land meets water.

His paintings appeal to me because while the hand of man is present in them, it is not overwhelming. Norway's climate does not bend easily to the hand of man and does not tolerate fools. The same can be said of the ocean.

 

Hat tip to the tireless Lucas Machias.

Spraying weeds and bringing old equipment back on-line

Work-ticket

Today's work ticket was to spray broadleaf weeds in the Upper and Hill Orchards with 2,4-D before the heat peaked. I used the amine formulation because I dislike the smell of the ester formulations of 2,4-D.

This year, the weeds beneath the trees were mostly grasses early in the season but then flipped over to broadleaf. Species included wood-sorrel, ground-ivy, mares-tail, burdock, goldenrod and Pilea pumila. The only unifying feature of those species is that they all thrive in moist soil.

The downside of the amine formulations are that they are not as "hot" as the ester formulations and require more time to penetrate the waxy skin of the leaves and enter the plant's circulatory system. The amine formulations are also more sensitive to water quality. The upside of the amine formulations are that there is less risk of collateral damages from wind-drift and volatile deposition of 2,4-D. 

I pushed eight gallons of herbicide solution through the two-gallon, hand-pump sprayer. For the record, I used Gordon's LV 400 at 1.5 oz per gallon. The water was "soft" water treated with ammonium sulfate to scavenge tramp Ca++, Mg++ and Fe++ ions that eluded the resin bed and with one oz of 80/20 surfactant per gallon. "Wet-out" was considered more than 50% of the leaf area wetted.

Like many things, I would have been better served if I had done this two weeks ago. 2,4-D mimics plant growth hormones and is devastatingly effective when the majority of the weeds are vigorously extending their flower/seed stalks. It is not as impressive when the plants are shutting down growth due to limited soil moisture. It is the difference between tripping somebody who is sprinting versus tripping somebody who is walking at a very slow pace.

Never-the-less, killing those weeds beneath the trees in the orchard will conserve the water stored in the soil. It will also make the nutrients that the weeds would have absorbed available for the trees. I suspect that we will have more hot and dry spells this summer.

I will go back Thursday morning to check things out. I will re-apply in the areas where it is clear that I missed the target. 

The spraying went fast since I had treated the water in-bulk. I rounded out the three hours by mowing between the rows of asparagus plants and berries (blackberries and gooseberries). Then I went and staked out a line that was 100' from the road's edge in the eastern meadow.

I got that all done by noon (which is when the windchill hit 90F). Then I drove to the Harbor Freight on Lansing's west side and purchased a 212cc Predator gasoline engine to replace the flat-head B&S 5hp motor (Model Number 135292)  on Troy-Bilt Pony, rear-tine tiller that was in the pole-barn at the bottom of the Hill Orchard. The original engine might have been made to run but the cap for the gas tank was MIA and cannot be found for purchase.

The 212cc Harbor Freight engine has cast iron sleeves, 8.5:1 compression and is rated at 6.5hp. It cost me a freckle under $160 out-the-door. Honestly, it is a much better unit than the motor it will be replacing.

One minor complication in restoring an old Troy-Bilt tiller is that they used bronze for some of the gears. Bronze (or "yellow" gears) are not compatible with some of the modern Extreme Pressure additives used in gear oils. The experts on the internet all insist that you need to use GL-4 level, single viscosity lubricants in gear-boxes with "yellow" gears.

Random garden picture

Somebody needs to weed his watermelons