Grab-bag

Noises beneath the hood

Kubota is driving a clunker at the moment. His preferred vehicle requires some expensive repairs.

He was very concerned about some noise he was hearing beneath the hood.

We went for a drive and he was not able to replicate the noise. He said it sometimes happened when he went up the steep apron at the end of a driveway. I bounced the two, front corners thinking it might be the McPherson struts. Still no-joy in replicating the noise.

Opening the hood, I noticed the hood-prop-rod was loose. There was no clip to secure the free end, that is, the end this engages the hood when the rod is in use.

Kubota was very dubious about the prop-rod being the source of the sound but it was the only thing we found. I tied it down with baling twine but that was only because I didn't have any zip-ties in my pocket. I am slipping.....

We don't know what we don't know

Sprite's grandson "T" built a hunting stand in the middle of the pasture Sprite lets me use.

I got a text from her yesterday morning that the cattle back in that paddock were tearing it up. I did missed the text due to my full schedule of naps and flirting with Mrs ERJ.

Sprite followed up with a phone-call which I did get.

Inspecting the damage, the cattle had removed three of the four "X" braces that "T" had installed to stabilize the vertical supports.

"T" is a young man and he was a little unclear on the concept of diagonal bracing of vertical support structures.

The basic idea is that when a structure sways the rectangle formed by the ground, the bottom of the deer-stand and two of the vertical support legs "match-box". If you look at the distance between opposite corners, one distance gets shorter while the other diagonal gets longer when it sways in one direction and vice-versa when it sways back in the other direction.

The most mass efficient method to address "match-boxing" is to install two diagonal, corner-to-corner tension members like aircraft cables. Cables do not function in compression because they are too limp.

A less mass efficient method is to install a single diagonal strut that is stiff enough to function both in tension and compression.

Key point, in either case both ends of the member must be secured closely to the corners of the rectangle the builder is attempting to stabilize.

"T" used 8' 2X4s and the bottom of the stand was 8' across. So the 2X4s were not long enough to go from corner-to-corner.

"T" decided that it would "look right" if he drove a single deck-screw through the top of each 2X4 into the vertical support and then allowed the 8' 2X4 to pivot until the lower end was in contact with the ground.

That was it. Just friction holding the bottom end and a single deck-screw holding the top. It might "look right" but it was not going to work. After looking at the construction details, it was not very surprising that my cows knocked them all to heck-and-gone when they rubbed them.

There, fixed it

Sprite does not charge me any rent to run my cattle on her pastures, I have a pretty good deal and I don't want to mess it up. I stepped up and told her I would take care of it.

I cut two of the 8' 2X4 into four, 4' sections. I lengthened four of the 8' 2X4s so they would span from corner-to-corner as a single, diagonal, tension-compression strut. The only complexity was that I had to join them with a 2' piece I "scabbed" across the joint so the extended 2X stayed in the same plane.

Then, because Sprite was concerned that the cows would destroy that, I wound barbed wire around the base to discourage the cows. Actually, the barbed wire was Sprite's idea. I was going to use some feedlot panels but I liked her idea better. I have lots of scrap barbed wire.

Everything takes time. That burned several hours off the day, especially since it was cold and the batteries on my 12V Black-and-Decker drill and screwdriver are old and tired. I had to go back to the house mid-project and recharge them.

I think it is time to up-grade my drill. It is almost 15 years old and it lacks the torque to spin a 3" long deck screw through yellow pine on a frosty day.

Any recommendations? I am most concerned about my ability to buy replacement batteries at reasonable prices. I had one drill that used a proprietary battery and it became an orphan when that style of battery went out of style. The B&D tool has been a trooper but it owes me nothing.

Zoup

Potato soup inspired by Townsends Youtube channel.

I took a few liberties with the recipe just like any cook would have back-in-the-day. Some carrots. Some celery. A bay-leaf.

I used chicken instead of beef or mutton. It is ironic that I hunt deer and other game and we have 4000 pounds of cattle wandering around, but Mrs ERJ eats a vanishingly small amount of red-meat. It does not agree with her.

So, we make adjustments and move on.