A week since…

[Bkeepr]

any posts here? Y’all alive?? Y’all sleeping, pissed off, or just lazy?

I’ve been welding, planting, mowing, hunting chicken-stealing coyotes, visiting grandkids, painting, journaling, repairing and maintaining machinery, and lots of other stuff. In the last 2 weeks, 3 of my college classmates have passed away. But I am still alive and kicking, and hope you are too.

So, what’s the deal with you, are you doing ok?

[PHPaul]

Just marvy...

I had two major project waiting on me to get a round tuit.

Attempted both in the last few days and both went pear-shaped almost immediately. I have learned (far too late...) that when things turn to shit, the best thing to do is walk away and do something else or nothing at all. If I try to force the issue, stuff gets broken, thrown halfway across the county or hammered into a shapeless pile of crap. Sometimes all three...

One of those projects is for someone else (who is paying me for it) so sooner or later I'm going to HAVE to figure out how to go about it.

The other one is an ill-advised purchase I made. I've tried various modifications in an attempt to get it to work as advertised. I've reached the point on that one where it's time to sell it to someone with more patience or lower expectations than me.

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I paid big money for a hydraulically driven sicklebar that is advertised as working from below horizontal to vertical. Figured it'd be just the ticket for mowing ditches and trimming overhanging branches. Doesn't cut worth a damn, bounces too much hanging way out in front of the tractor like that and is nearly impossible to regulate.

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I built this several years ago for around $300 out of various bits and pieces. All I bought was the right angle gearbox, a couple of pulleys and a pair of bearings. Works perfectly, just doesn't do vertical.

[Bkeepr]

I can’t quite make it out—is that a homemade string trimmer?? Amazing!

[PHPaul]

I can’t quite make it out—is that a homemade string trimmer?? Amazing!

Yup. String head off a walk-behind trimmer that blew the motor, frame out of stuff I had laying around, gearbox from Surplus Center, PTO shaft swaps between trimmer and my old Howard tiller. Piece of 1/2" shaft, 3 pulleys and a couple of pillow block bearings.

First iteration used an old Gravely right angle drive I had laying around, but I had to mount it upside down and the bearings weren't getting enough oil so it self destructed. When I bought the proper gearbox I also changed some pulley ratios to get the string speed up a bit. Swings a bit over 30 inches of string, cuts woody brush up to about 3/8ths of an inch, pretty good string life as long as I don't get it tangled in a fence.

[Jim_in_RP]

Y’all alive?? Y’all sleeping, pissed off, or just lazy?
I am still alive and kicking, and hope you are too.

I have not kicked the bucket yet, but I'm still kicking at it. Kind of hard to do that when you can't see.

So, what’s the deal with you, are you doing ok?

I was just waiting for you to start something.
Ya I am doing OK? That's just like beauty it is in the eye of the beholder. My beauty disappeared 25 years ago, and my general health disappeared about eight years ago. I guess you could say that seaming that I'm four years older than my father when he died, that I am doing OK.
Our trip to Seattle is fast approaching, just five or six weeks away.

[Patbridges81]

Hey Grandpa, Is that a snowblower in the background?

[PHPaul]

Hey Grandpa, Is that a snowblower in the background?

Just a little one. For flurries...

[Jim_in_RP]

Hey Grandpa, Is that a snowblower in the background?

Just a little one. For flurries...

Thank you grandpa I didn't even notice it had to go back and take a look.

[Patria]

Hello everyone!
Bkeepr, I'm doing good, very busy, but aren't we all. I'm off to the supermarket to get a couple of ingredients that I'm short on to make a batch of 'sofrito' [blended fresh herbs and then freeze]. Then I want to bathe the dogs. We'll see where I get..