Grab-bag

 

Sprite is taking a short vacation.

Belladonna agreed to watch Sprite's livestock but then Bella remembered a prior commitment. She asked me if I could pinch-hit for her.

I saw tadpoles in the water-tank we dip out of for the chickens and thought it was worth snapping a photo of. Frankly, I was looking to see if there were mosquito wigglers in the tank.

It turned out very artsy with the weeds reflected in the surface of the water.

That is nice, but what if you are married to a fox?

Wheat

The wheat harvest started two days ago at 1300 b50 GDD.

In olde times, turnips, rutabagas, mangels (huge beets) and other root crop seeds were spun into the wheat stubble as soon as it was harvested. I have also seen optimistic farmers plant soybeans.

Mom

The hospital discovered a fracture in her femur. It was the leg that had folded under her in the fall on Sunday morning.

Maybe pain was trying to tell us something.

Project One

There I was, sitting on the beach minding my own business when a person in a motorboat had a problem.

Being the boy scout that I am, I embarked to rescue the boater in the family row-boat.

Oh, my!

The oar locks were in very bad shape.

These are the two spacers that I replaced.

The issue with the oar locks is that they needed a spacer so the oar-pin didn't crash into the gunwale. Wood was the simplest choice.

And here we go with White Oak. Probably good for another twenty years.

I also fiddled with the oars. The pins were too close to the grips so I moved the a couple of inches closer to the blades and tweaked the spin so the blades were perpendicular to forward motion when the oar was pushed toward the bow.

Project two

The panel is spun katy-wumpus so diagonal mounting holes align with a ribs for mounting. It is rated 15W and claims to have blocking diodes.

A trickle charger (solar) was mounted on the barn at the hunting lease.

The solar panel is mounted in a location that is NOT visible from the road and will only get a few hours of sun every day.

14 gauge "romex" was run across the trusses and then a 16 gauge, multi-strand was dropped down from the truss. At 18V (open circuit) there is virtually no risk of fires.

Alligator clips similar to jumper cables were crimped to the ends of the wire after verifying polarity. I was not happy with the crimp but I had continuity. However, I must handle the equipment delicately or it will pull out. Improvements will have to wait for another day.

The next tractor project is to rebuild the carburetor. I have a stuck float.