What did you do today?

[Horsin'round 269]

Bugger!

 

Story of my life.

[MainelyWheelhorse 1,700]

Worked for a couple hours but it was super dead for the amount of staff so I came home. Then household stuff and finally painted the C-141 IH red with a gravity feed spray gun, Once that was done I relaxed. For anyone curious the pictures of the paint job are in my build thread for the C -141. Also the What did you do to your Wheel Horse thread.

 

[ebinmaine 73,222]

 

We been camping for 3 nights in that red circle. Now home 🏡 for 2 nights. Then headed back to a different place camping 🏕 for 3 more nights!!

[Lane Ranger 11,469]

Put  some Scott’s iron treatment in  the yard today!  
 

 

 

 

Edited August 20 by Lane Ranger

[Ed Kennell 42,338]

Me to Mrs.K...ya want to roast a goose for dinner ?   Don't even think about killing a goose.

There is a flock of about twenty in the waste sweet corn 25 yards from the back door.   Nice head shot for the .22.  

 

 

[Wayne0 1,265]

On 8/19/2025 at 3:48 PM, Ed Kennell said:

Finally dried out enough to mow today.  Nine days of growing nearly got ahead of me while away on vacation.

Then picked out a dozen crabs that were leftover from vacation.  Got enough lump meat to make four nice crab cakes.

Crabby PattysI Love them!!

[8ntruck 7,937]

I got board this evening, so i took a piece of unslitable pine log and made a candle:

 

 

[Mickwhitt 5,163]

13 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

I got board this evening, so i took a piece of unslitable pine log and made a candle:

 

 

How do you do that then? 

Does the whole log burn away?

Never seen the like of it 

[8ntruck 7,937]

7 hours ago, Mickwhitt said:

How do you do that then? 

Does the whole log burn away?

Never seen the like of it 

I pointed my magic wand at it and used the enflamr spell. 

 

Actually, drilled a 1" (25mm) hole into one end about 12" (30cm) deep and another hole radially in from the side intersecting the axial hole at the bottom.  Dimensions are not that critical.  Basically, that makes the log into a rocket stove.

 

To light it, put a lit piece of kindling into the radial hole, with the lit end under the axial hole, which acts as a chimney.

 

The whole log will eventually be consumed.

 

 

Edited August 22 by 8ntruck

[Beap52 1,519]

Here's what some call a  Swedish fire log.   It's about 10 inches in diameter.  I take a chainsaw and cut with the grain about 3/4's of the way through.  

 

Heading to the campground in the near future.  I'm taking a log that's like the one this topic is about with drilled holes.  Hope it works,  It's easier than using the chain saw.  

[8ntruck 7,937]

I spent the afternoon cleaning my workbench of a few small projects that had accumulated.  

 

A bird feeder got rebuilt and I fabbed a couple more pieces for the trailer hitch I am building for the 3 point on my 8n.  Got to stop by the local steel supplier for some angle iron needed to finish the hitch and for the new frame i'm planning for the garden cart rebuild.

 

For dinner, we made a shrimp and andoule sausage boil.

Edited August 24 by 8ntruck

[Mickwhitt 5,163]

It's my 60th birthday tomorrow,  so we went to watch a game of cricket at my home stadium of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club which is 50 odd miles away in Leeds.

It was a treat for me to watch a couple of top teams with international players going at it hammer and tongs.

 

It's all sport here at the moment as we have the women's rugby union world cup just starting. The first game was on Friday and the English team beat the USA pretty convincingly. But we are number 1 in the world at present. 

 

 

[Pullstart 67,166]

Our pool area is in major need of a facelift.  I was planning to do most of this myself, because that’s how I roll, but Mrs. p recruited a team for the weekend.  T minus two weeks from today we re-pour.  Going much bigger with the concrete, and with everything going according to plan we will have no cracks or settling for many, many years.  Going with high psi mud and fiber reinforced, 6” thick between the house and pool for future building needs, running some water and a chase pipe to the pump house, that’s moving a few feet and getting bigger too.

 

We got lots of work done, and I began building a loading dock on the side of the driveway for any future loads and unloads required.  

 

 

[953 nut 60,572]

10 hours ago, Pullstart said:

Going much bigger with the concrete, and with everything going according to plan we will have no cracks or settling for many, many years.

Are you going to put a gravel bed under the slab to prevent frost heave cracking the concrete?

10 hours ago, Pullstart said:

building a loading dock on the side of the driveway for any future loads and unloads required.

Good way to use the materials from the old deck.              

[Mickwhitt 5,163]

On 8/24/2025 at 8:39 PM, Mickwhitt said:

t's my 60th birthday tomorrow,  so we went to watch a game of cricket at my home stadium of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club which is 50 odd miles away in Leeds.

Well, my birthday dawned after a quiet night after my wife spent the evening  before at our friends. "I won't be long" she said, but four hours later she crept in to find a grumpy bear sitting in my chair. I could have gone with her and not sat on my own all evening i thought.

I unwrapped presents and opened cards, still with a bitter taste in my mouth about being abandoned the night before.

Last of all she handed me a plain white envelope. In it was a printed receipt for two tickets to a game of cricket. 

I read and read the paper again, then again. My 60 year old thinker box just couldn't make sense of it. The tickets were for the opening test match between England and Australia  in a series called The Ashes. The most important competition for cricket fans in either country. It's not coming to England till 2027 (it's not held every year and there are gaps when there are no Ashes series at all). 

So I wondered at her buying tickets for a game over a year away. But the date was 2025, this year, when the series is being held in Australia. 

My clunky old brain put the pieces together and came up with the fact that she had bought tickets to watch the game in a fan zone over here, maybe at a big cricket ground. 

No, read it again she said. 

OK, two tickets, November '25, first Ashes test, day two.....Optus cricket stadium, Perth,  western Australia. 

Oh, I see! Nice, you've bought two tickets, which i can have framed. 

I mean the game is in Australia,  tother side of the planet, where big things jump on their back legs all day and the bears are tiny and cute.

We can't possibly go there just to watch a game of cricket.

WRONG, WRONG,  WRONG, WRONG, ,, WRONG  WRONG, WRONG ,WRONG  ,YOU'RE WRONG,,YOU'RE WRONG.... Think the chimes of Big Ben as you read that bit again.

She had, in just four days, booked a trip to Perth for the cricket, via Doha in Arabia, then on to Brisbane where her brother lives for a two week stay on the  great barrier reef. 

What the actual F? 

How? But? But? How?

To say I was completely blown away just doesn't quite do it justice.  

Thank you my beautiful, clever, sneaky wife for absolutely taking my legs from under me. 

Trip of a lifetime to see a cricket match every true English man must see before he dies. 

What a girl! 

 

[ebinmaine 73,222]

1 hour ago, Mickwhitt said:

She had, in just four days, booked a trip to Perth for the cricket, via Doha in Arabia, then on to Brisbane where her brother lives for a two week stay on the  great barrier reef. 

 

Very niiiiice! 

[Lane Ranger 11,469]

This was Sunday and Monday but a workout! Cut limbs on walnut trees overhanging my brothers westside fence row , cut up three felled trees on the hill and mowed a spring and summers worth of growth after cutting up the  trees! 
 

Used my brothers 314 and 312!

 

My battery ryobi chainsaw gave me fits on Sunday but worked perfectly on Monday!

[Beap52 1,519]

On 8/22/2025 at 6:32 PM, Beap52 said:

Here's what some call a  Swedish fire log.   It's about 10 inches in diameter.  I take a chainsaw and cut with the grain about 3/4's of the way through.  

 

Heading to the campground in the near future.  I'm taking a log that's like the one this topic is about with drilled holes.  Hope it works,  It's easier than using the chain saw.  

I did get away for a couple of nights camping at one of our state park trout streams here in south Missouri.   Pictured is the fire log that I bored holes in some time ago.  It burned for a couple of hours with about one hour looking like the picture.  I made a slow motion video that's kinda neat to watch.  

 

Fishing was hard.  The park (Bennett Springs State Park) is having major renovation to the hatchery so all fish are brought in from other parks and it seems like they aren't restocking like normal.  Beautiful weather and I believe they aren't nearly as dry was we are 45 miles to the west. 

 

Pam couldn't stay both nights.  So last night I found the movie "Bridge over the River Kwai" stashed away in the camper's cabinet.  Haven't seen it in decades.  Coming back from the shower house, I was whistling the theme song.  I don't think a single person had any idea what I was whistling. The movie was filmed in Ceylon which is now called Sri Lanka.  Even though I didn't become proficient in Thai language, (I really only knew  a few needed phrases and how to form simple sentences.) I don't think the women in the movie were speaking Thai.   We got to visit the real bridge over the Kwai River when we lived in Thailand. 

Edited August 26 by Beap52
after thoughts

[Wayne0 1,265]

2 hours ago, Beap52 said:

I did get away for a couple of nights camping at one of our state park trout streams here in south Missouri.   Pictured is the fire log that I bored holes in some time ago.  It burned for a couple of hours with about one hour looking like the picture.  I made a slow motion video that's kinda neat to watch.  

 

Fishing was hard.  The park (Bennett Springs State Park) is having major renovation to the hatchery so all fish are brought in from other parks and it seems like they aren't restocking like normal.  Beautiful weather and I believe they aren't nearly as dry was we are 45 miles to the west. 

 

Pam couldn't stay both nights.  So last night I found the movie "Bridge over the River Kwai" stashed away in the camper's cabinet.  Haven't seen it in decades.  Coming back from the shower house, I was whistling the theme song.  I don't think a single person had any idea what I was whistling. The movie was filmed in Ceylon which is now called Sri Lanka.  Even though I didn't become proficient in Thai language, (I really only knew  a few needed phrases and how to form simple sentences.) I don't think the women in the movie were speaking Thai.   We got to visit the real bridge over the Kwai River when we lived in Thailand. 

I would whistle it, if I could do it on text.  Great movie BTW.

[Bar Nuthin 1,148]

Enjoying some vacation time in Northern Minnesota.

 

[8ntruck 7,937]

Yesterday, I made a trip to the local steel supplier for a stick of 2x2x3/16 angle iron.  One more step closer to finishing the 3 point trailer hitch for the 8n and the new frame for the garden cart. Will be getting the welder out soon.

 

My drill press is in our Mo. location, so i need to figure out to drill a couple 3/4" holes with a hand drill.  I'm thinking a hole saw, maybe.

[Handy Don 14,207]

On 8/26/2025 at 3:07 AM, Mickwhitt said:

my beautiful, clever, sneaky wife

A gem to treasure!

[Handy Don 14,207]

5 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

so i need to figure out to drill a couple 3/4" holes with a hand drill

I just tried something similar, being away from my shop. I figured it’d be best to step slowly up to the hole. All went well until chucking in the ⅝” bit. 

Net result was a ruined cobalt bit when it jammed (it now has a chip in the cutting edge). 

[Wayne0 1,265]

1 hour ago, Handy Don said:

I just tried something similar, being away from my shop. I figured it’d be best to step slowly up to the hole. All went well until chucking in the ⅝” bit. 

Net result was a ruined cobalt bit when it jammed (it now has a chip in the cutting edge). 

Too big of a hole to try to enlarge. 1/2 the diameter won't jam the bigger bit. Too big of a hole just uses the outside flutes and burns them up.

[8ntruck 7,937]

2 hours ago, Handy Don said:

I just tried something similar, being away from my shop. I figured it’d be best to step slowly up to the hole. All went well until chucking in the ⅝” bit. 

Net result was a ruined cobalt bit when it jammed (it now has a chip in the cutting edge). 

Yup.  You need  1/16 or 1/8 per side on the larger bits to prevent snagging the bit.

 

I spent some time fabbing up the rest of the bits for the 8n hitch.  Ended up using a 3/4" holes saw.  I did bend a pilot drill in the hole saw.  The pilot drill broke through the material suddenly, then one side of the hole saw caught, pushing everything sideways.

 

Pictures of said project in the mock up / reality check before welding stage for the unbelievers in this group (y'all know who you are!)

 

 

Edited August 27 by 8ntruck