Adventures of a Curious Fellow

A Salty Tale of Many Poppers

2012-02-09T14:23:00.007-06:00

Back when I was a kid, eating popcorn at home meant purchasing un-popped popcorn in plastic bags at the store, and popping it in a regular ole pan with oil on the stove-top. The neat thing was that back then, a packet of tasty butter-salt was included with each bag.

The packet’s directions advised mixing a half teaspoon of it with the oil before popping. I never understood the bother because the seasoning just stayed on the bottom of the pan. It would have been nice for it to coat the popped corn because doing so would have eliminated the effort of emptying half the popped corn into the serving bowl & salting it before emptying the remainder & applying more buttery seasoning. But I guess life was supposed to be tough back then.

Even though microwave popcorn is all the rage nowadays, I still prefer stove-top popcorn even though those buttery seasoning packets haven’t been around for years. I had not realized the packets’ contribution was missed until just recently.

Last year, I had a lot of fun troubleshooting a commercial corn popper, and while doing so concluded the secret to getting the buttery seasoning to coat the corn instead of settling to the bottom of the pan was to have a stirring bar keep everything mixed up during the popping process.

The repair effort inspired me to give buttery seasoning another shot. The hurdle now was to find some. The Pops-Rite brand appears to be a thing of the past, and no other brands of easily-available, supermarket popcorn include any seasonings. Oddly, while one store had a shelf with shakers of “alternate” popcorn seasonings (cheddar, cinnamon, etc.) the buttery seasoning of my youth was not to be found.

One Internet vendor had what I was looking for $2.69 plus $12 shipping. Considering the cost was for a 32 ounce carton of seasoning (roughly 21 packets worth), the price was not bad in spite of being a lot of seasoning. I was all set to order it, though, when someone recommended checking out Sam’s Club. Sure enough – Sam’s had a two-carton box (almost 47 packets worth) for $3.85.

In an unexpected bonus, the Mighty Pop brand Sam’s sold was what had been used while troubleshooting the commercial machine – It had a track record of good flavor.

The next hurdle up was locating a pan with a stirring bar. My first thought was to modify a pan & lid to use a stainless steel welding rod as a stirring bar. New pots & pans were looked at because I did not want to modify any of our existing cookware. Unfortunately, the current rage in new cookware is glass lids on everything, and the thought of drilling a hole in a glass lid (and using a glass lid with a hole drilled in it) made me uneasy.

One online company sells a new, six-quart corn popping pan complete with stirring bar, but user reviews were not very good, and I didn’t think the two gear transmission used to couple the stirring bar to the hand-crank on it looked like it would last very long.

While perusing eBay for options, I ran across a really old, electric, table-top popper with a lid-mounted hand-crank. I’d say it dates from the thirties or forties. The seller plugged it in briefly after being asked to, and posted that, while the FDR-era artifact did get warm, no effort was made to actually pop any corn.

For hoot value alone, I entered a maximum bid of $5. Although the closing moments of the auction were tense, my bid prevailed with quarters to spare. After adding an additional $10 shipping charge it was mine.

Little time was wasted after its arrival in popping a batch of corn with Mighty Pop seasoning mixed in the oil. The results were very good, and probably would have been excellent had I been wearing gloves: In order to crank the stirring rod, I had to hold on to one of the handles. When popping started, hot oil shot through the vent holes around the popper’s body and onto my hand. Reflexively, I kept letting go of the handle & stop cranking for a second or two.

If the rubber feet were not so dried out, there would probably be no need to hang on to the handle. Although the feet could be replaced for safer operation, while waiting to receive the popper, further research revealed that Target now sells a modern-day, bigger, motorized version of the same thing. Even though the unit was currently on sale, there had been no plans to buy the popper until the time came to clean the eBay popper – Due to the way it was constructed, dirty surfaces could only be wiped, and not rinsed. Between that, the antique’s relatively small cooking volume, and a desire to not wear gloves while cooking, I sprung for the Westbend popper.

Sweet – this modern day appliance even has a provision on top to allow real butter to drip on the popping kernels.

Its 1000 watt, Teflon-coated, mechanically agitated cooking surface produced tasty popcorn indistinguishable from that available at the movie theater.

As much as I enjoyed playing with my WW2-era cooking tool, it’s going in Kim’s next yard sale.

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Little to Lose At 39¢ a Pound

2012-02-03T14:33:00.005-06:00

One of the bonuses included with the purchase of our house 17 years ago was most of a Brinkmann smoker. With the subsequent purchase of a new charcoal pan, Kim & I enjoyed several years of slow-smoked brisket, pork butt, and whole chicken. After the Boyz were born, though, we found that grilled burgers & hotdogs had more overall appeal. As a result, the smoker’s use diminished considerably.

The Boyz are now older, and Daniel in particular has appeared to enjoy some of the meat I have cooked over low, indirect heat on both the charcoal, and gas grills. The other weekend, Kroger had ten-pound bags of leg quarters on sale for the ridiculously low price of 39¢ a pound. Between that and a break from the rainy weather which has occupied every weekend of 2012, the time seemed right to experiment again with the smoker.

For this effort, the chimney starter was filled halfway with charcoal, and topped with big chunks of hickory.

When smoking meats, I lean more towards dry rubs than marinades. For this particular meal, the leg-quarters were rubbed down with olive oil before being sprinkled with a homemade variation of Emeril’s Essence, followed by a light dusting of a granulated & confectioner sugar mixture. Most dry rub recipes call for brown sugar but I’ve had trouble with it clumping & not distributing well over the meat. White sugar goes on more uniformly, and is not distinguishable to my bourgeois palate.

The poultry was then arranged on the smoker’s top rack after being allowed to sit at room temperature [gasp!] for several hours.

One of this smoker’s selling points is the “moist heat” which comes from a four-quart pan of water suspended above the coals. Although the pan was, lo these many years, always dutifully kept full of hot water I never thought that, other than throttling the heat a little, it did much, if anything, for the effort. Knowing when to wrap the meat in aluminum foil always had a bigger effect on how moist & tender the effort was going to be.

Out of a combination of general curiosity, a smaller fire than usual, small pieces of meat, and the outside temperature being in the 50’s, no water pan was used for the first time ever with great results.

There are no plans to throw away the water pan, though. While pleased with the way this meal turned out, I’ll wager the big hunks of meat that require longer cooking times need a barrier against the direct heat.

But all bets are off should I find beef or pork at 39¢ a pound.

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The Peril of Fresh-sliced Pineapple

2012-01-19T13:56:00.011-06:00

Kim & The Boyz are all big fans of the canned pineapple available at the grocery store. Note just any variety, though – everyone’s preference is chunks packaged in natural juices.

So it was no surprise when Kim came home from a Pampered Chef party one day with a pineapple slicer. The allure was obvious - our household could now enjoy fresh-sliced pineapple whenever we wanted it. And, the tool’s ‘hoot factor’ appealed to both Number 1 son, and me.

The new slicer looked like a bigger version of our routinely-used apple slicer, and other than probably needing a little more force during slicing, no problems were anticipated in slicing the whole pineapple Kim brought home the other day.

Apples can be easily octagonalized with their slicer atop the counter. The pineapple could not. Fortunately, Daniel was willing, able, and flexible enough to handle the task once we decided it needed to be lowered for leverage.

Unfortunately, my vintage chopping block was not able to handle the strain.

In what was no surprise, failure occurred at a glue joint. Purchased new in ’86, I’m impressed the block lasted 26 years before having trouble with fresh fruit. It’s not a loss, though - I get great joy in working with wood, and own lotsa neat tools to work with the medium. The Shop’s jointer did quick work of creating new glue edges.

My first thought for glue-up was polyurethane-based Gorilla glue. I even had a new bottle waiting to be opened. But Elmer’s now offers a waterproof glue I’ve been waiting to try out.

Elmer’s Wood Glue Max appears to have some teeth – The next pineapple sliced with no problem.

My Old Hickory knife had no issues with the finish work even though it’s older than the chopping block (but not as old as the one my friend Dave uses).

Euell Gibbons once advised us, “Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible.” Hmm, I wonder if my cooking gear is up to the carving challenge…

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Some 1156 LED Bulbs Are Just Too Dim

2011-11-02T16:50:00.001-05:00

In June of last year, all the regular ole overhead bulbs in my vintage Airstream were replaced with modern-day, low-power, Light Emitting Diode light bulbs.

http://adventuresofacuriousfellow.blogspot.com/2010/06/let-there-be-led-light.html

Two months later, a few of the original bulbs were returned to their sockets because the vintage trailer’s dark cherry interior absorbed a lot of light.

http://adventuresofacuriousfellow.blogspot.com/2010/08/let-there-be-less-led-light.html

Yesterday, the remaining interior, LED bulbs were removed & replaced with the Overlander’s original incandescent bulbs. The only LED bulb in place now is mounted in the exterior scare light.

Had these LED bulbs been made with super-bright LEDs, I probably would have not had this problem.

Plans are to keep my eyes open for new products – the primary reason LED bulbs were considered was to save my OEM light fixtures’ lenses & switches.

Repeat As Required

2011-10-17T14:39:00.010-05:00

The Boyz’ fall break found us & the Airstream on the road to St. Augustine Beach Florida with the Mighty Suburban, as usual, on point.

The first leg of the two day trip there had a new twist to it because Daniel was signed up to take an on-line test at a designated time in preparation of potentially becoming a contestant on a kids-week episode of Jeopardy! Not knowing how traffic would be, Kim made reservations at campgrounds with WIFI in two different cities to ensure the best chance of connectivity.

All appeared well until the test site became available 30 minutes prior to test time. The site would not let Daniel in because it thought our NetBook’s screen resolution was inadequate.

Fortunately, the campground had a guest computer in the front office which was more to Jeopardy's liking. Daniel thinks he has a shot at making the show.

This was the first long-distance trip with the Burb’s repaired air conditioning. For the first time in memory, I had to blend a little heat in on the lowest cool setting to keep everyone from getting too cold. A side benefit was the happiness kept my mind off the fact that the brakes had started pulling a little to the right under certain conditions.

We arrived safely at St. Augustine Beach, and set up camp under misty & windy weather. Deciding the beach would be no fun under the current weather conditions, we boarded a tourist trolley, and took in the sights of the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United States.

Day two of our two day visit found 30 mph wind with 8-10 foot sea swells.

Checking under the hood the night before leaving, I was surprised to find the rear reservoir portion of the master cylinder devoid of fluid. Having neither tools nor desire to troubleshoot the issue right then, the symptom was treated with a new bottle of brake fluid. Fortunately, even 446 year-old cities cannot escape having an AutoZone.

As expected, the corrective action had no effect on the brakes. Since the issue was with the brakes “pulling”, instead of “not stopping” we left St. Augustine Beach behind us.

Arriving at our halfway-home layover campground, I noticed one of the Airstream’s two LPG cylinders had run dry. To my surprise, the campground would not refill it citing the tank’s cert-date of 05/05/04 was too long ago. It’s hard to believe we’ve been Airstreaming for eight years now. Time flies when you’re having fun.

Oddly, although I knew that gas bottles need periodic re-certification, this was the first time I could recall anyone actually checking before refilling. No worries for the trip, though because the other tank sufficed for what was left of our vacation. We arrived home the next day without incident.

The Suburban’s maintenance log indicated the last rear-axle brake work was done in 1998. Only the shoes & seals had been replaced. Not that I forgotten doing the work by any stretch – It was the first full-floating rear axle I had ever worked on. Eight bolts to get the wheel off, and another eight bolts to disconnect the half-axle shaft: all by hand. Amazingly, only one special tool is required.

Nowadays I have a pneumatic impact wrench to help with some of the muscle work. A special tool wished for then as well as now to remove the hub/wheel drum assembly was an overhead crane – it was seriously heavy 13 years ago, and now felt 20 pounds heavier.

As suspected, the RH wheel cylinder was found to be visibly leaking. But I guess after 214,000 miles over 27 years it’s entitled to. The LH wheel cylinder’s leakage was still contained by the dust boot.

Brake return springs on any vehicle are tough to attach & detach. But the size spring needed for these 13” X 2-1/2” brakes adds quite the challenge to working on this truck. Although I remember the springs being especially tough to work with in ’98, I almost couldn’t extend them enough this go-around.

With a tenet of brake service being “repeat as required”, a younger person might have to perform the next iteration’s rear brake work - There’s no reason to break up a good-looking combo with a new truck.

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New Scrapbooking Table for Kim

2011-09-30T19:09:00.015-05:00

One of Kim’s enjoyments is documenting our family’s life in Creative Memory type scrapbooks, and she is quite good at it. But between that, and making flyers & stuff to support the Weatherly PTA, and helping Jared with his homework, she started getting cramped for workspace. In addition, since the folding tables being used were constantly needed for other activities, constantly setting up & tearing down was getting more irritating with each iteration. Permanent workspace, and more of it, was needed.

When she ran her idea for an L-shaped layout past me, I thought it did not work that well with the existing TV/VCR cabinet.

I believe she thought likewise, but may have thought the cabinet was a sacred cow to me since it came out of my shop many years ago. At the time it was built, though, it was supposed to be a prototype, and did not even get painted until a few years ago.

Kim appeared quite willing to run with my suggestion of yard-selling both the cabinet & TV, and replacing the TV with a wall-mounted flat-screen.

After adding new, higher, power & cable outlets, the new TV was mounted first just to make sure the project’s footprint still worked.

Home improvement stores usually do not sell plywood with which I am comfortable for cabinet construction. But the big orange one happened to be selling flat, ¾”, seven-ply, Peruvian plywood, which looked like grade AB to me, for a very reasonable price.

The shelves for the paper –holders at either side of the work table were planned to be ¼-inch hardboard. But neither of the home improvement stores sell it in full sheets anymore. Fortunately, a local lumber company stocked ¼-inch MDF. Although there is little difference between the two, anyone who cared would never be able to tell since the paper holders were to be painted.

The carcasses were made of 3/8” BC plywood left over from the porch project and converted to BB with wood filler. The end grain was covered with basswood strips.

The work surface itself was laminated with special-order Formica. Nowadays, Formica is thin enough to roll up for shipping. It flattens back out after being allowed to relax overnight.

The project’s construction was split into two phases – Table, and paper-holders. Wall-mounted ledger boards support the outside of the table while a book case and sideboard support the ends. To keep from having a leg in the middle of the “L”, a ¾” piece of angle iron was screwed to the bottom to carry unintended loads.

Biscuits were used primarily to keep everything aligned.

The table was then disassembled and after painting, reassembled in Kim’s room to make room for the project’s next phase.

Kim already had a couple of paper-holders which were each half the height of what was needed. At one time, double-height units were available. Unfortunately, a current search turned up nothing. So I got the “fun” of priming & painting each side of the 22 boards (prime, dry, flip, prime, dry, flip, paint, dry, flip, paint) which make up the two full-height organizers with shelves spaced to Kim’s specification.

To avoid paint buildup in the shelf dados, the cuts were made after the side boards had been painted. I had never dadoed a board after painting, and was concerned about the paint scraping off at the tablesaw. Fortunately, no touchups were necessary.

While I was happy with how the project turned out, Kim was simply ecstatic about now having lotsa permanent workspace. Jared thought it was pretty neat, too.

Well, that’ll about wrap it up for this edition of The New Southern Workshop. If you’d like a measured drawing…

Just kidding; no plans are available – I figure only the husbands of Kim’s scrapbooking friends would be inquiring, and I doubt they do so willingly.

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What's Big, Tan, & EASILY Holds 250 Pumpkins?

2011-09-30T14:43:00.002-05:00

The Mighty Suburban, of course!

Kim & one of her friends went up to Tennessee this morning to pick up the pumpkins for Saturday's Weatherly Elementary's Fall Festival.

Truth, Justice, and Tom’s Bathroom

2011-09-25T15:20:00.013-05:00

The old master bathroom, where I get ready for work every morning, has bothered me since before we built what is now essentially Kim’s bathroom many years ago. The mirror, which we had installed when the room was still the current master bath, had a slight tint in the glass which reflected the blue-painted walls with an unappealing greenish hue. While the simple solution would have been to repaint the room a different color, room-prep due to paint “oopsed” on the tile grout, looked like it was going to take a lot of time. Between having no idea of what color to paint the room (I didn’t want a girl to pick one out), and the fact that I really don’t like to paint, the room languished.

I am a big fan of Superman as he was portrayed in the 20¢ DC comic books I used to collect as a kid. Although George Reeves pre-dates me, I remember enjoying some of his B&W rerun adventures as Superman, especially the times he would stand confidently while a hail of bullets bounced off but invariably duck when the goon threw the spent revolver at him.

My admiration for the Man of Steel never dimmed, and over time I collected a small amount of Superman memorabilia in “Tom’s room” which brought a smile to my face every time I walked by.

While shaving one morning, it dawned on me to consider wallpapering the room. After walking by my Superman collection on the way to get dressed, I immediately knew what pattern I wanted.

I had to get a girl’s help after my epiphany – After I was unable to find much more than a Superman room border, Kim’s help was requested, and she located two wallpaper selections online. We both agreed the Man of Steel’s reflection in the mirror would look better on a white background.

Although I did all the prep work, we hired a man to hang the paper because I have known since my mid-twenties that I would never hang paper myself: My best friend Steve’s wife Sue was keen on wallpaper, and Steve got extremely good at hanging it. At some point, I would stop by their house and tell Steve how great I genuinely thought the current room looked. He would invariably respond with, “Yeah, I’m real happy with it too, except it you look right here…” He would then point to something I, in my wallpapering ignorance, would have never picked up on had it not been pointed out. I knew then & there that I would do the exact same thing if I were to ever paper a room. Ignorance can be bliss.

That’s a new toilet, too – 1.3 gallons per flush. Instead of a toilet close-up, here’s a zoom-in on the wallpaper pattern.

All’s now well in Metropolis. Every morning’s reminder about Truth, Justice, and The American Way definitely helps get my day off to a good start.

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Stereo Is Not Dead At My House

2011-09-24T08:08:00.007-05:00

When it comes to enjoying music or movies, I am of the old “I only have two ears, and all’s I need is two really big speakers” school of thought. Dolby 7.1 is the rage nowadays, and if it had been around 20 years ago I would probably have 7 speakers & one subwoofer in my den. But for what I generally listen to, a decent stereophonic setup is fine.

I was almost forced to change my approach a few weeks when my third Luxman receiver bit the dust. None of the local big-box stores offered a replacement which only drove two speakers. While the Internet offered a small selection of suitable direct-replacements, my desire to upgrade to a tuner capable of decoding HD Radio signals reduced receiver offerings to zero. It was time to consider the individual component route.

Better sound quality & general versatility are the highlights of building a sound system piece-by-piece. But doing so is usually pricey due to what I consider a “snob cost” being added to each component by the manufacturer (real audiophiles should be willing to pay more). Fortunately, I only needed a tuner and pre-amplifier since main amplification is done by a very snobbish (back in the day) Yamaha amplifier.

Surprisingly, new HD Radio tuner prices are not that bad. That bit of cheer helped offset the fact that new pre-amp prices are still ridiculously high. Fortunately there’s eBay. I was able to win a more-than-suitable Onkyo P-3200 pre-amp for what I thought was a reasonable cost. And it worked as advertised when I got it.

After re-assembling Stereo Central with a new HD Radio tuner, and the gently-used Onkyo pre-amp, life appeared to be complete.

Unfortunately, my cordless headphones didn’t much care for the new setup.

Since I get a lot of mileage out of headphones at night when everyone else is asleep & I want to watch TV, the headphones’ disdain was not taken lightly.

The problem was that the headphones’ base station used to be plugged into the receiver’s headphone jack, and there is no headphone jack on the new setup. I had hoped the headphones would work well on a line out jack. They did not – the signal-to-noise ratio made them unlistenable.

Remembering that computer speakers have a built-in, low power amplifier, an old set was cannibalized for the effort.

Velcro is easier than driving screws into solid TN white oak.

Life is now idyllic again. A big shout-out to eBay-er onekg70 for helping it happen.

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The Mighty Burb Even Impresses Kids

2011-09-05T16:37:00.006-05:00

The Mighty '84 Suburban effortlessly guided us to & from the Smoky Mountains for the Labor Day weekend. I was quite pleased with the results of my first, real A/C repair - Kim needed her binky for both legs of the journey due to to how well the air conditioner worked.

We had to break camp in the rain, and at one point Kim was standing by while I was doing all the outside things us guyz do when a young person (10-13 yr-old) from the site next to us noticed the activity, and shared with Kim what an awesome tow vehicle he thought we had, and how impressed he was at the good shape it was in. He also commented on how neat the Airstream was.

The day before, a lady who I assume was the young fella's mom, had shared a similar sentiment while getting out of their Toyota Tacoma. The Suburban's amount of covered storage space probably caught her eye.

Our vintage combination does look good on the campground.

I wonder if a new tow vehicle is in that family's future?

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A.C.E Cinematographers Like Wet Streets

2011-09-02T16:37:00.009-05:00

Cinematographers appear to think the action scenes photograph better for movies.

I'm no A.C.E., but a freshly washed vintage Airstream coupled to a freshly washed vintage Suburban sitting on a wet driveway looks good to me.

We're headed out tomorrow at 0'dark thirty for the Smoky Mountains, and I wanted us to look good for the trip.

There's a favorite picture of mine that features my four-year old washing my Overlander in preparation of our first trip to Disney.

I wanted to get him involved with the latest effort, but it is now seven years later, and he was wrapped up with the academic team at middle school. We all know education comes first.

The original plan had been to leave today for the Smoky Mountains. But last week we found out our 6th-grader had already asked a girl to the first Middle-School dance tonight. Some things are more important than schedules - we'll leave tomorrow.

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Kim's Dowry

2011-08-27T15:18:00.007-05:00

When my wife & I married in '94, we both already had established spice cabinets to combine. One of her spice cabinet's bottles contained whole Allspice, an ingredient not common to anything I cooked with up to that point. So it got added to "our" spice cabinet to languish until needed.

Recently, I was making a new-to-my-discriminating-family dish, and a had a fond memory of a Kim-predecessor making a similar meal for me at her place which included whole allspice during the cooking process.

Worried that the family might not react favorably to a strong flavor of allspice, Astor's Whole Allspice was fished out of the cabinet to add whatever contribution it could after probably more than 17 years.

Its contribution was surprisingly stronger than anticipated. Fortunately, no one appeared to consider it overpowering, and the meal was enjoyed by everyone.

So I now know pork with whole allspice can be rotated in every so often & be eaten by everyone. When Kim's dowry runs out, I will be curious to see if new, whole allspice will be that much different from what Astor sold many years ago.

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Tom’s A/C Wërks

2011-08-09T14:17:00.017-05:00

Back in high school, when working on cars first appealed to me, there were two parts of a typical automobile I stayed away from – automatic transmissions, and air conditioners. The 1975 General Motors Shop Manual’s description, complete with cutaway drawings, of how the Turbo-Hydra-Matic 350 transmission found in many cars of the era functioned dumbfounded me as a 14 year-old, and I concluded the devices actually work by magic. On the flip-side, air conditioning, while easy to understand, required an expensive foundation of special-purpose tools upfront to do anything. Fortunately, the need to service either system never arose back then.

A few years after we got the Mighty 1984 Suburban, its automatic transmission started shifting strangely. Still in awe of the gear case, I let the wizards at Automatic Transmission Company Inc. wave their Elder Wands over it, and rebuild its sparkle.

Within a year or so of the transmission work, the Burb’s air conditioning compressor started making noise the radio could not cover up. After checking around & finding that Danny’s A/C Shop was highly thought of, I let him install a rebuilt compressor which worked just fine. Years later, when I added a rear-seat air conditioner to the truck, Danny was asked to tie it into the system and convert from the old R12 refrigerant to the new ozone-friendly R134a. The end result was a comfortable truck. Nothing like a new car,but I was not expecting it to be; I was happy with the re-fit.

Last year, the compressor started blowing out more oil at the shaft seal than I cared to see. Wishing to preempt a sudden loss of A/C while on a Florida camping trip, I asked Danny to install another compressor. Another rebuilt one was fine with me since the last one had lasted a more than reasonable number of years and it had not even quit. That was a mistake, and I did not even know it at the time.

At the start of the next cooling season, the air conditioner did not work. Danny subsequently decided all the refrigerant had escaped from a leaky conversion fitting he had installed. Considering it warranty work, Danny fixed it & charged me nothing. A few months later, the compressor locked up coming home from Hot Springs Arkansas. Since it had been less than a year since the initial replacement, Danny installed another compressor at no charge.

That compressor lasted less than 300 miles before locking up. The fishy part was that the A/C did not cool very well the short time it ran – Even before we lost cool air, scheduling was being discussed to take the truck back to Danny. Once again, Danny replaced the compressor at no charge. Unfortunately, the A/C’s performance after that round of work was marginal. But with cooler weather approaching, the truck did not see Danny’s shop for the rest of the year.

This year’s cooling season once again found the Suburban’s A/C worse than the previous year’s. I took it back to Danny, and outlined the marginal performance. He said he would replace the orifice tube. So, once again, Danny re-filled it for free, and once again he blamed the leak on the same fitting. I dreaded picking up the truck because of suspicions that the A/C was still going to have only marginal performance. Sadly, my suspicion was confirmed. Whether Danny did not know what the problem was, or his heart wasn’t in fixing it, I’ll never know. It was obviously time for another course of action. I stopped by an auto parts store on the way home to buy R134a gauge adapters to allow an old, R12 gauge set I had picked up years ago, but never used, to connect up to the truck.

Many days of reading about automotive air conditioning ensued to both get up to speed on the subject, and decide whether I wanted to repair the A/C myself or find someone who could troubleshoot a 26 year-old truck which was not cooling with the refrigerant with which it was originally designed. Between reading about what the repair was probably going to cost, and finding no potentially trustworthy repair places, a nice Mastercool vacuum pump was purchased to signal to …well, me… that I was going to fix the Mighty Suburban’s A/C myself.

Blending my new-found knowledge with the truck’s symptoms, I posted a general question on an automotive air conditioner forum wherein I wondered if too much oil in the A/C system could be a cause of the truck’s lack of cool. I was immediately beat up by the resident talent for not posting pressures, actual temperatures, etc. Although they’re right to badger about me for not including important information, I sure do hate being a newbie on Internet forums.

So, I whipped out my 16 year-old “new” gauge set, R134a adapters, and proceeded to gather data for my second post. Unfortunately, the post ended up being about my high-side gauge hose blowing apart at only 320 psig and shooting oil & refrigerant all over the place.

The forums’ response was for me to purchase a decent set of gauges. But one guy did provide a link to a good set which I did order. The gurus uniformly agreed that the only way to figure out what ailed the system was to tear it down & note the amount of oil & refrigerant present while keeping an eye out for trouble.

The next hurdle was to recover the remaining refrigerant. Professional shops use recovery carts which can cost many hundreds of dollars. While some people just vent the system’s refrigerant to the great outdoors, that’s not ecologically friendly. I’m not a tree-hugger but I am a tightwad – The Suburban holds at least $60 worth of R134a which I wanted to recover as cheaply as possible.

My solution was to vacuum all the air out of an old 15 lb refrigerant container a friend gave me, connect it to the Suburban via the un-ruptured parts of the gauge set, and stick the recovery vessel in a quilt-covered bucket of ice. The cold environment kept the tank pressure lower the Burb’s A/C system, and the liquid refrigerant distilled out of the truck.

Knowing that the recovery process would be slow, I went off and cut the grass. A couple of hours later, the tank was 68.2 ounces heavier, and the low-side pressure gauge told me there was no liquid refrigerant left in the truck.

Modern-day vehicles have a sticker under the hood which lists the amount of oil & refrigerant the correctly operating system requires. The Burb has no such sticker, and Internet charts start with Suburbans two years newer than mine. Fortunately, the guys at the A/C forum were able to tell me my vehicle is supposed to have 10 ounces of oil.

During the teardown, 16 ounces of oil was recovered.

Between the hose blowout, and what I could not catch during the teardown, I figure the system had at least twice the amount of refrigerant oil it needed.

The oil in the original R12 system was mineral-based, and is not compatible with an R134a system. Modern-day systems use a glycol-based lubricant. The old mineral oil is supposed to be removed during conversion from one refrigerant to another. If you look closely at the smaller cup, you’ll notice the fluid has separated. I’m pretty sure that’s mineral oil on the top and R134a-compatible lubricant on the bottom.

It appears my trust in Danny was misplaced. The expansion tube in the system looked like it had accumulated debris from two locked up compressors.

While the accumulator’s ostensible purpose is to accumulate refrigerant & oil, it also filters the oil & removes trace amounts of water from it. Although welded together during manufacture, Mr. SawzAll helped me get a peek inside.

It too looks like it has seen the debris generated from bad compressors. Fortunately, all the refrigerant lines flushed out clean, so it looks like the latest compressor is okay.

Waiting for the new manifold gauge set to arrive gave me time to draw conclusions on what I had seen. It all started with the compressor. The very first one Danny installed was remanufactured by APCO, and from my homework prior to installing the rear A/C I knew it to be a top-notch brand. What I did not pick up on at the time I asked Danny to replace it was that he had switched suppliers, and the subsequent compressors he installed literally had no names to be found.

Most professionals will advise accumulator replacement anytime major work is done on a system. All will MANDATE accumulator replacement anytime the compressor craps out - If it’s on the customer’s nickel.

The Internet is full of tales of people going through several rebuilt compressors before finding one that works for any period of time. My latest one appears to be hanging with me, and as evidenced by the blown gauge hose, is still able to produce good pressure. I decided to stick with it for now.

A new accumulator, orifice tube, O-rings, and the prescribed amount & type of R134a refrigerant oil (PAG 150) were installed, and the system leak-checked before the new gauge set arrived.

I was incredibly impressed with what I saw in comparison to the last set of gauges. Although the manifold appears similar in appearance to the other set, the hoses/fittings appear to be of a quality head-and-shoulders above what blew out before. Mastercool's hose description certainly reads better than the lack of description the last set had. If nothing else, the new hoses had a better "feel" to them (as in not potentially blowing apart later). It was also nice to have gauges with R134a markings.

There are no hard & fast charts on the proper load of R134a in a formerly R12 system – only guidelines based on the original amount of R12. One super-sharp forum member suggested starting at 90%, and monitoring the evaporator’s inlet & outlet temperatures to tweak the final refrigerant load. So thermocouples were zip-tied in place underneath the putty sealing where the lines entered/exited the housing. A third thermocouple was stuck in the dash center vent.

Frustratingly, the approach did not work. After awhile, the evaporator inlet temp got warmer than the outlet temperature. Apparently, the heat from the 325 psig high-side line was wicking past the orifice tube and affecting the reading. Short of disassembling the evaporator housing, there was nothing that could be done to get the probe out of this heat’s way. I was forced to give up on measuring differential temperature as a means of determining the proper refrigerant charge. So recharging was stopped at 90% of the R12 spec (75-7/8 ounces of R134a).

But that was enough – the vent temperature was markedly cooler than it was before this effort began. Although the gauges read like the retrofitted system was doing all it could do, since I’m both new at this, and never thought to check a vent temp the last time the A/C was operating nominally, I’ve had to rely on my “calibrated” hand for reference, and it’s not very quantitative. But the hand seemed to think it was pretty cool.

The pressures, temps, ambient weather, moon phase, etc. were posted on the forum and, to my relief, one of the gurus allowed that “… It looks pretty much in line with the expected results of a conversion on a big system like that...” There’s nothing like the voice of experience.

The truck’s been driven around & to work once, and I’m happy with the way it is now cooling. Of course the best test will be our next camping trip, but I have high confidence that my wife will be reaching for her binky.

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But You Must Act Now!

2011-07-31T17:36:00.005-05:00

Inspired by Lynnafred’s enthusiasm in incorporating sausage into a non-traditional meal, the other night I opted to experiment with boneless-skinless chicken breasts, breakfast link sausage, and muenster cheese sprinkled with grated parmesan and baked as an entrée for the night’s supper.

While I’m no chef by any means, I knew from experience that the chicken would need to be pounded down before it could be rolled around my inspired choice of ingredients. For some reason, though, our store-bought meat tenderizer was nowhere to be found. Who knows – I use it so infrequently it might have been sold in one of Kim’s yard-sales. But since I was pumped to make this meal, my shop provided me with something which accomplished my goal.

This particular 2X4 cutoff, left over from the front porch project, did an unusually good job of flitterizing the chicken despite not having the “teeth“ my missing meat tenderizer had.

The family subsequently agreed, during the course of the meal, that the chicken had the perfect thickness/consistency for the effort. They also uniformly agreed that this was a meal they never wanted to have again. Win some, lose some – I liked it. But I like cafeteria food too.

A day or two later, the well-balanced block of wood was still in the kitchen when the need to pulverize some ice to make an ice-bath to calibrate two temperature sensing devices presented itself. I have never had such an easy time making big ice cubes smaller.

Then it struck me – you may have noticed in the opening picture that this particular piece of wood came from either Winchester or Douglas county Oregon. If you’ve ever seen the Amish working hard at producing miracle space heaters on TV, then you might have an appreciation for why this board worked so well at what I needed it to do.

I have a small supply of Winchester or Douglas county Oregon lumber left over. Quantities are limited. I would like to GIVE anyone who asks a short length of this miracle, multi-purpose, kitchen device. Simply pay $19.95 shipping & handing, and IT’S YOURS FREE!

But if you act NOW, I will include TWO perfectly sized blocks of Amish-associated wood for FREE (just pay S&H on the second board). Call within the next two hours – Operators are standing by.

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A Gardener I am Not

2011-07-23T16:27:00.001-05:00

This year's garden is a bust unless you are a Munchkin.

The Airstream’s Half-Family Trip

2011-07-15T15:11:00.002-05:00

When the possibility of Kim & Jared spending two weeks in Birmingham came up, we decided the best plan was for me to tow the Airstream down to a campground close to where they would be spending most of their time. As plans were being finalized, Kim’s mom accepted an invitation to join them there for however long she wanted to stay.

The three of them are now close to half-way through their visit, and Daniel & I are planning to motor down tomorrow so we can be a family again for a short time. We're all looking forward to seeing each other.

In the meantime, Daniel is being introduced to what "baching it" entails

When the Cat’s Away, the Mice Will Clean

For some reason, he thought the dancing girls were going to clean house for us...

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The Candlestick Maker

2011-07-06T14:08:00.004-05:00

Rub-a-dub-dub,
Three wicks in a tub,
And how do you think they got there?

Most everyone familiar with a campground setting appreciates the ability of citronella candles to limit the number of bugs & gnats buzzing about the site. We’re no different, and always have a variety of citronella-based products on hand at every outing.

A few camping trips ago, the workhorses of our citronella arsenal, two triple-wick Cutter-brand candles, suspiciously quit burning at about the same time. Reading the label (which apparently I was supposed to remove before use) the manufacturer claimed “burns up to 40 hours”. While there is little doubt these candles each have at least 40 hours of burn-time, both still had plenty of wax, and this annoyed me because I’m used to replacing candles only when there is little or no wax left to burn.

Wondering if the wicks had been damaged somehow, several dollops of wax were removed from each candle to expose more wick. No joy –neither candle would keep a flame on any of the wicks. We ended up pulling out several smaller candles to fend off bugs during the trip’s remainder.

These big candles are not all that expensive. But since there was so much wax left in both, I hated to just toss them & buy new ones. So Kim bought us a bag of new wicks a few days after returning home, and Tom’s CandleWerks was established at the grill’s side burner.

After gently warming the wax, the remains of the old wicks were picked out with pliers. Comparing the old & new wicks, it was immediately clear why the candles had stopped burning – the original wicks had a metal collar to keep the wick from burning past a certain point. These candles had been designed to burn up to 40 hours and no more.

If I was a business man, I would applaud the Company for a novel way of forcing unsuspecting consumers to replace nondurable goods before the good is truly depleted. But in this case, I am a consumer, and my general thought is “bastards!”

The re-wicked candles worked beautifully during the next camping trip.

Even though the only candles I burn are on the campground, the relative easiness of the task, and the 80 wicks left over from the effort, inspired me investigate candle making as yet another hobby. It was a short investigation – It’s considerably cheaper to buy pre-made candles than to make them from scratch.

Just as well; I already do enough things the hard way.

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I Now Own a Framing Nailer. woo-hoo.

2011-06-26T15:47:00.009-05:00

While I do not make my living working with wood, I enjoy working with the medium, and have gotten pretty good at both making a variety of cabinets, and carpentry in general.

Many rooms, over the years, have been trimmed out by my hand-driven nails & back-saw cuts in a miter box before I purchased my first chop-saw, and subsequent finish nailer. A brad nailer was finally purchased after I felt I had mastered nailing backboards to cabinets by hand.

Between admiring skilled carpenters of days gone by, especially the Amish in Harrison Ford's "Witness", and the relative small size of most of my framing projects, I have always driven 16d nails by hand with a 16 ounce framing hammer. There's nothing quite like the pride from an honest day's sweat after admiring the barn now sitting where there used to be grass.

I shared this sentiment with Steve, my best-friend-from-childhood, and to paraphrase, he said, "You're kidding!" But he knows my propensity for doing things the hard way, and apparently knew I would eventually succumb to the pneumatic way of handling big nails as he had years ago.

That day has arrived. The front porch's soffit has bothered me since about two years after the "skilled" craftsmen hired to construct the structure, shortly after we bought the house, were paid. Rainwater went where it was not supposed to primarily because of a not-easily-correctable shingling job.

The house has now been re-roofed by a more conscientious team. Unfortunately, all their hammering (the main roof was re-decked) shook apart the previous team's porch's soffit construction. But the soffit suffered because neither the fascia board nor plywood was well-connected to the house.

The right fix requires the overhead nailing of many 2X4s between 42 year-old rafters. Between the wood's hardness, and the fact that I'm not getting any younger, I now own a Porter-Cable framing nailer.

I'm waiting to tell Steve - He'll just cackle, and ask what took so long.

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I Beat The Varmints To It.. for now

2011-06-23T16:36:00.004-05:00

The varmints eating the string beans bothered me so much the other day that I only gave the sugar snap peas a casual glance. Since then, we’ve had a couple of days of rain, and I took a bit more time this afternoon to look closer at the sugar snap peas – The plants, to my surprise, are producing good-looking pods.

There’s not that many of them, but they do not look like the splotches I worried about on the leaves are affecting them.

In a pre-emptive strike, I picked the two biggest pods and ate them right there in the garden.

Take that, varmints!

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Varmints Are Keeping Me From Green Acres

2011-06-20T16:39:00.003-05:00

This year’s Victory Garden is faring poorly at this point. While Kim & I are used to feeding the masses at Sunday School & Alabama games, there have never been any plans to feed God’s creatures in the middle of the night. But squirrels/rabbits/birds are not known for coordinating meals with us. At least the fence keeps out deer.

Replanting the squash, cucumbers & corn once, and the watermelon twice is one thing, but the string beans were crawling up the hemp ropes laid out (front of trellis) quite well until some animal I would like to make tomorrow night’s dinner has repeatedly stopped by to chew stalks off at ground level. I figure there will be no string bean plants left in a week or so.

The sugar snap peas (back of trellis), for some reason, are not a target. Perhaps my potential stew meat is waiting for them to crawl further up the trellis. The plants may have a blight, though, and the varmints are simply avoiding an upset tummy.

The tomato plants are, amazingly, looking pretty good. The bell pepper plants are doing okay, but I would have preferred them be a bit taller by this point. I would share more pictures, but I’d rather not consequentially share how badly the garden needs weeding at this point.

I guess my gardening guide from the ‘60s was cancelled before Oliver Douglas had a chance to address varmint control .

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Daniel and a Catfish, Sittin’ in a Tree

2011-06-03T13:51:00.008-05:00

The Mighty Suburban took us and the Airstream down to Blue Springs AL State Park over the Memorial Day weekend where Daniel reeled in his first fish – a four-pound, one ounce catfish. Unbeknownst to us, the Alabama Fish & Wildlife folks had scheduled a fishing rodeo in the park’s pond targeted for kids our Boyz’ age for our first day there, and a lot of people showed up to participate. One of the game wardens found out it was Daniel’s first fish, and told him that it is tradition to kiss the first catch. Daniel gamely played along.

Most of the dads there were casting the line, and then handing the rod over to their kid. Daniel wanted to do everything himself. So after a brief checkout on how to operate the reel, he proceeded to get really good at casting chicken livers pretty far out in the pond. He caught a total of three fish that morning.

His brother’s luck was not as good. But as they say, a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work.

Another unexpected bonus was a genuine, cement pond.

When the park was built, a natural spring’s perimeter had been widened, and concrete poured to make a great swimming hole. The runoff flows into a nearby creek which the Boyz had fun exploring. With a year-round water temperature of 58 degrees, everyone was glad the afternoons were warm.

As expected on a holiday weekend, the campground was fairly full. What caught me off guard, though, was the number of tent campers. Fortunately for them, there was no rain, and the nights cooled considerably from daytime temperatures.

Kim was able to reserve us a full-hookup site which, with its seclusion, might have been the best spot on the campground.

Everything about our visit was great until night number two’s dinner of grilled hamburgers. The Airstream’s grilling spatula was nowhere to be found. But after duct taping the kitchen spatula to the grill tongs, I was able to keep the hair on my arm.

Between fishing, swimming, bicycling, and playing on the merry-go-round, no one got bored. But it was also nice just to sit and enjoy being outside.

Blue Springs State Park was a fun place to visit – We could go there again.

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…And the Mole Police Actually Sleeps

2011-05-21T04:31:00.003-05:00

I think I have given short shrift to my dog Cookie because, although she is both a good dog & good company, in the past she has not done much more than be a good dog & good company. But she does give me a fair amount of exercise with the amount of ball she likes to play.

A guard dog she is not. But she was chosen from the shelter by everyone because of her small-child-tolerant disposition, and nothing else. As a result of her kind nature, Cookie’s place in our home has been secured since day one. This past weekend, though, Cookie earned her keep.

The weather was cold & gloomy, and I was not able to work in the yard as much as previously planned. Since I was just plain in the mood to be outside, Cookie & I got some serious ball-playing in between me getting done what little could be accomplished. In what I gather was her thanks for playing so much ball, over the course of the day she brought me five freshly killed moles – something she has never done before. I was ecstatic because moles have been a problem in the yard for the last couple of years.

Moles would not bother me except that the ones in my yard prefer to dig holes close to the house. With the under-house rainwater drainage issues addressed in the past few years the last thing I need is to have a mole hole allowing more rainwater in.

I have found “Great Stuff” polyurethane expanding foam to work great for sealing mole holes.

I usually fill the hole one afternoon, then cut off any cured squeeze-out the next afternoon, and rub some dirt over it to make everything blend. Not as much fun as what Bill Murray did in Caddyshack, but a lot less destructive.

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Tom’s PopcornWerks

2011-05-14T11:25:00.006-05:00

Earlier this week, Kim called me at work to make sure I was okay with her volunteering me to repair Weatherly Elementary’s popcorn machine. Apparently, the machine had been out of commission for the past year, and the school had been using a local church’s popper until the church finally asked for theirs back. Since Friday popcorn sales add noticeably to the PTA’s coffers, everyone was interested in getting the school’s machine back in action.

Oddly, everyone appeared to have a different description of this commercial-grade popper’s symptoms. Some indicated it would not get hot enough to pop, while others claimed it continually tripped the circuit breaker. One individual queried claimed it did all of the above, and burned the popcorn to boot.

While Star Manufacturing Inc. is still in business, they do not support their now discontinued Model 89 popcorn popper anymore, and surprisingly the Internet did not offer a manual or wiring diagram. Since the popper is obviously old, I decided it was a good idea to disassemble & inspect the innards for old age issues. With luck, a bad part might be identified which could be responsible for every symptom identified. If nothing else, ever since the first time I saw Marshall Theater’s corn popper when I was a kid on a bicycle, I have always wanted to know what one looked like on the inside.

In comparing this machine to manually popping corn in a pan on a stove-top eye, there are really only two differences: A production-style unit has an agitator to stir the kernels, and the heat is thermostatically controlled. After finding the machine’s switches, wiring and agitator in good order, the kettle was disassembled to find two thermostats controlling the heat coming from two different heating elements.

Heating elements usually work or don’t work, and both of these elements checked out good with an ohmmeter. Thermostats are much the same way but will occasionally have an intermittent fault.

My initial impulse was to replace the thermostats since they are the weakest link, and Mr. Google told me replacements are still available. But at $60 apiece, it seemed prudent to verify there was in fact something wrong with the machine since no obvious “smoking gun” had been found.

The popper’s ID tag indicated it needs 2190 watts of power to pop as advertised. A typical home circuit can only provide 1800 watts before the breaker pops. Fortunately, a typical circuit in Tom’s PopcornWerks (formerly known as my shop) will provide 2400 big watts of corn poppin’ power. It was time to step to the other side of the Marshall Theater concession stand, and pop for the masses.

After tying my ammeter into the circuit, and doing nothing more than following the directions printed on a laminated card taped to the machine, a batch of genuine theater-style popcorn was done in minutes. I was disappointed – I was hoping the fun would last longer. Fortunately, Kim remembered one person indicating trouble did not begin until after a few batches. So, after 45 seconds of training, Kim popped four more batches while I watched the ammeter.

The popcorn popper never blinked an eye, and the ammeter confirmed an appropriate current draw for every batch.

Afterwards, everyone got involved to scoop & box the resulting 80 bags of popcorn - some to help, and some to “observe”.

In the relatively short time it took to pop all that corn, I asked Kim about where, in the school, the popper was plugged in. Apparently, the preferred spot had been in the Teacher’s Lounge until the constantly tripping breaker forced a move to Ms. So-and-so’s room. After that room’s breaker had tripped enough, everyone decided the machine was broken.

Come to find out, the teacher’s lounge had a Coke machine & refrigerator on the same circuit as the popper, and Ms. So-and-so’s room had a laminator along with other power-hungry devices also on the same circuit. My suspicion is the 48 year-old elementary school needs to have its electrical service updated.

Kim decided to take the popper back to the school this past Friday, and operate it with an eye towards problems. Deciding the complaint of burnt popcorn was operator error and not the machine’s fault, I told her to unplug anything short of a dialysis machine on the same breaker, and go from there. She popped her goal of 10 batches without incident.

The Weatherly Elementary PTA now appears to be in good fund-raising shape now that everyone will probably be more careful about what is plugged in during corn popping time. But I’m not putting my ammeter away just yet – Word is now that the church’s popcorn cooker didn’t work when they got it back. Tom’s PopcornWerks may just be getting started.

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The Garden Is Planted

2011-05-07T12:48:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, the bell pepper & tomato plants started from seed in a Jiffy Greenhouse were moved into a bed of enriched potting soil. Between having room to grow, and sun from the south-facing window, the plants perked up considerably.

The original plan was to have this year’s Victory Garden planted in the backyard almost three weeks ago. But the incredible amount of rain we have had this year has kept the yard’s water table too high to till part of the garden.

Last Sunday, with the threat of more rain on the way, I went ahead and tilled the garden spot. Afterwards, the pepper & tomato plants were transplanted, and seeds sewn for everything else.

In spite of some 39 degree mornings lately, the Jiffy Greenhouse plants are surviving. I just checked, and some of the newly sewn seeds have germinated.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything, we get out of this year’s garden.

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After the Tornadoes

2011-05-03T12:46:00.018-05:00

Starting the evening of April 28, and continuing on into the early morning hours of the 29th, at least 150 tornadoes blew through most of Alabama. When the first tornado siren sounded Wednesday evening, Kim took the Boyz to her pre-established command station in the main hallway while I cooked as much of supper as I could before having to join everyone.

The power went out around 5:30. After waiting a minute or two to see if it would come back on, dinner prep was paused while my generator collection was brought onsite.

In short, whichever generator is to be used connects to a designated outlet box in the laundry room via a hookup on the side of the new addition. Extension cords are run from the laundry room to whatever needs power.

The big generator was chosen for this effort, and within 15 minutes, we had the weatherman back on TV in spite of a weaker than usual cable signal.

The news was pretty grim, and bad weather was still ongoing. I went ahead and hooked the refrigerator & freezer up to generator power when it became obvious that power would probably not come back on for some time. We slept on mattresses on the den floor that night just to be close to the main hallway.

Due to an important test, I had to be at the office at 0400 the following morning. Before leaving, I topped off the generator’s gas tank with the last of the lawnmower gas. It was downright spooky driving up Huntsville’s main drag with its absence of streetlights & stop lights. My workplace was running on generator power, and I was happy to find the test had not been interrupted.

Catching up on the news after returning home, I found that 1.1 million Alabamians were without power, and that every one of the eight TVA feeder lines providing power to Huntsville had been damaged. Projections were for the power to remain out for 5-7 days minimum. With the big generator’s eight hours per five gallons of gas rate of consumption, it was obvious the boat’s 40 gallon gas tank would probably run dry before the power came back on.

The small, quiet Honda generator was intended to power the Airstream if we lost power during cold weather. While I bought it knowing it was too small to start the Airstream’s air conditioner, I never thought about its ability to start a home refrigerator or freezer. Kim liked where this discussion was heading because she allowed that, while thankful for the overnight TV, the big generator’s loud drone had given her a headache. I too admit that I was not looking forward to 5-7 ear numbing days of big generator operation.

While Kim & I were reviewing our options for conserving generator gas, Daniel grilled lunch for everyone.

After lunch, the smaller, quieter Honda generator was hooked up in place of the Generac, and I crossed my fingers before plugging the refrigerator in. Success! After a second or two of generator strain, the refrigerator resumed blowing cold air. In an added bonus, the Honda was also able to handle the additional load of two televisions, and friends’ & neighbors’ cell phone charging stations. Swapping between powering the refrigerator or the freezer every four hours or so was a small price to pay for the auditory relief and gas savings.

Internet access on our provider’s end dried up when the power went out. Annoyingly, my backup plan of using our telephone land line for Internet access evaporated because the land line went dead too. The Boyz accepted the lack of access fairly well, and did what Kim & I did when we were their age – play with other neighborhood kids.

The weather for the first couple of days was coolly comfortable. But with warmer weather projected, windows needed to be opened which I knew were painted shut on both sides. And there was a storm window in the way of cutting the paint bond on the outside.

Jared was not sure what to think about a comfortable breeze blowing in from his bedroom window – I know for a fact he has never in his life experienced it from that particular window.

The Madison County Commission did an outstanding job of mobilizing for the recovery, and reporting progress. During one televised update, the Sheriff enacted a curfew, and at one point looked into the camera and reminded viewers that both home & business owners have a right to protect their home or store and property. While I already knew I could shoot bad guys in my house, they needed to be in the house. By his choice of words, I got the impression that the sheriff was extending a little latitude about exactly where the bad guy needed to be in no-lighting situations.

Since Cookie’s response to a bad guy in the yard would be to bring him her red ball for a game of fetch, I decided to chain the generators to my motorcycle for safekeeping.

The plan was that if the sound of chains rattling in the dead of night was to be heard, I would respond with the sound of a 20-gauge pump action being cocked. Fortunately, every night was quiet.

Ya’d think that since we have a travel trailer we would be all about using disposable dinnerware when the power is out. But with a gas water heater, we had plenty of hot water, and a simple, heavy-duty cord run from the dishwasher to the big, loud generator allowed us a luxury not commonly found in campgrounds

It did, however, require hearing protection one evening to check on the evening’s meal of grilled pork roast.

The Boyz continued to handle the power outage extremely well. It didn’t hurt, though, that when other kids were not over, the Wii and Netbook had games for them to play.

Everything appeared to be going well until the morning of Day 2. It was then I discovered I was out of clean underwear. Kim’s recommendation was for me to use some of Daniel’s since he & I now wear the same size. Although reasonable, I dismissed it because the last thing I wanted was to be rushed to the Emergency Room and asked by a snickering doctor if I was expressing my inner child through my choice of underwear.

While powering the washing machine was not a problem, the Generac is not big enough to run the electric dryer. Fortunately, Cookie did not mind us using her 25’, plastic-coated tether for a clothes line. Unfortunately, hearing protection was again required when hanging the wash out.

By Sunday we had had pretty much settled into a routine when the next challenge presented itself – It was starting to get hot.

I wanted to sleep in the Airstream with the Generac supplying power to its air conditioner. Kim was not comfortable with that idea (remember the part about bad guys?) But she did think it was a good idea to at least enjoy dinner & TV in air conditioned comfort before going to bed. So I lugged the big, loud, and heavy Generac up to Mt. Airstream, and plugged everything up.

The generator fired right up, and then died, not to restart. Dinner prep was already in progress so the alternate dining accommodation idea was dropped.

While it was tough getting to sleep as hot as it was, blissfully the power came back on at 0200 Monday morning, and we could run the house's air conditioners.

The Generac’s issue was subsequently determined to be the engine protecting itself from low oil pressure caused by a low oil level exacerbated by the generator sitting at a slight tilt. Both generators were serviced Monday afternoon, and are now stored awaiting the next power outage. I hope it’s not anytime soon.

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It Was Neither Black Gold nor Texas Tea

2011-04-24T08:09:00.007-05:00

The bubbling in my front yard yesterday was coming from compressed air injected into the main waterline to identify a leak’s exact location.

Between water from the leak and the all the rain we’ve had lately, the ground was saturated. Unfortunately, the amount of water proved too much to remove for my Airstream’s original PAR water pump (powered by the original Univolt). It was worth a shot, though.

A new, “personal sump pump” from Lowes was, however, able to pump out the trench.

I was expecting the leaky pipe to be made of copper since copper plumbing runs throughout the original part of our house. But this was a galvanized pipe, and it was slathered with what appeared to be thin-mix concrete. The only reason I can come up with is the concrete must have been part of a bedding process when the pipe was originally laid. Whatever the reason, having to chisel it off certainly did not simplify the repair.

In another surprise, the waterline was a one-inch pipe instead of ¾-inch like I was expecting. And like home improvement stores sell repair parts for. Fortunately, there was a real plumbing store across town open until eleven on Saturdays. With the Silverado now hitting on all eight cylinders, I was able to make it there by 10:55.

Blissfully, there was only the one leak. It was not that I minded addressing another one, but rather I was tired of dodging shingles from the guys who started on our new roof this morning.

This was my first plumbing repair where a hard hat would have been handy.

I don’t think we have seen the last of leaks from this water line. A professional plumber probably would have recommended replacing the entire line now instead of patching it. But why let the pros have all the fun running a trencher?

Hopefully, we’re set for at least until after I get my vegetable garden planted.

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Ever seen an $807.69 carnation?

2011-04-20T15:57:00.004-05:00

We towed the Airstream up a mountainous pass the other weekend with my 3/4-ton Silverado, and the truck's 6 liter Vortec powerhouse was not happy. I suspect the Mighty Suburban (which I do not let anyone else work on) might have cast a spell on the younger truck out of spite for not being chosen to tow for this outing.

Regardless, after assessing the symptoms, I decided to take the ailing vehicle to the dealership instead of working on it myself primarily because getting my vegetable garden started this year is still consuming too much of my time.

Between mine & Kim's schedules, and the weather being as nice as it has been lately, I elected to take the truck to the shop with my motorcycle in the truck's bed to off-load & continue on to work, just to handle the whole vehicle-in-shop issue myself.

Unfortunately, the truck was not ready by the time I left work, and between dinner, and going to the other side of town to enjoy our oldest boy singing in a presentation, there was no time left to retrieve the secondary tow vehicle.

Rain was projected for this morning, and Kim asked me to NOT ride the bike to work this morning with my end goal of picking up the truck afterwards. She's funny about anytime they forecast 60 mph winds. I've learned to live with it.

Fortunately, her schedule lightened enough this morning that she was able to hitch a ride & go & pay the bill, and bring the truck home.

While paying the bill, the dealership gave her a carnation as a "thanks for your patronage" acknowledgement.

It has been years since this truck was in the shop, and the cost of this repair will be forgotten in the vein of "it's not a monthly new car payment".

In a nod to the dealership, Kim will remember the carnation.

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I'm envious of YOU, Jezibels

2011-04-15T15:32:00.003-05:00

Jez - You've mentioned in other posts that you would like to be Airstreaming about now. Well, I would like to till this year's garden, and start planting stuff like you're now doing.

There appears to be envy all around.

Here's a picture taken moments ago of why my garden is still not tilled sufficiently to plant anything. Envy appears to abound.

There's a good chance, though, that you will be camping before I'm planting...

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Atwood Water Heater Repair

2011-04-13T14:25:00.008-05:00

For the first Airstream trip of 2011, we took the Overlander up to Montesano State Park this past weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed being back on a campground.

Although Saturday was on the windy side, the weather was great overall, and everyone got their fair share of fresh air & exercise.

In what was odd for my Overlander’s original Atwood water heater, the pilot light would not stay lit unless the main burner was on. Adjusting the pilot light’s gas screw had no effect. It was not that big of a deal for this trip since I didn’t mind re-lighting the water heater for the three or four times we needed to wash dishes. But something was wrong, and the fear was the 44 year-old appliance might have to be replaced since repair parts are no longer available.

To be honest, I’m surprised the water heater has lasted this long. The original expectation was that we would get a season or two out of it before it conked out. By that time, the budget would have recovered from the various costs of putting the Airstream back on the road, and we would be in a better position to replace it. But the appliance worked without incident for the next four years.

Near the start of camping season five, the pilot wouldn’t reliably stay lit. The cause was traced to a rusted-out wind guard which surrounds the pilot. Not wanting to disassemble anything for fear of having rusty parts break, the wind guard was repaired in-place with Thermosteel, and we enjoyed reliably hot water until what is now camping season eight.

The problem now appeared to be an obstruction in the pilot light’s plumbing. The pucker factor for the task was centered on removing/disassembling old rusty parts to clean out the obstruction.

Miraculously, nothing broke, and the opportunity was taken to make a new wind guard.

The gas line obstruction was traced to be somewhere in the Pilot Light Assembly. Man, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

If the repair had been destined to be easy, the effort would have concluded with simply cleaning debris from the pinhole-sized pilot jet orifice. But as Obi-Wan once told Luke, “you can’t escape your destiny”.

With everything cleaned as well as possible, after reassembling the works, there still wasn’t enough gas flowing to keep the pilot lit. After ruling out everything else, it appeared the debris was compacted in the 90-degree turn the 1/8-inch pipe made just before the gas exited. After wasting much additional time trying to push piano wire through the assembly to clear the obstruction, there appeared to be only one way to get at the problem.

Cutting the pipe was the ticket, and a small pile of rust particles was easily cleaned from the bend.

A small length of stainless steel pipe drilled out to 9/64-inch ID, along with JBWeld, was used to couple the pipe back together.

In anticipation of potentially saving the budget $250 for a new water heater, I celebrated with a 16 ounce rib-eye for dinner (Kim & the Boyz were out of town for the evening).

After curing last night, the pilot light assembly was reinstalled this morning, and lit & adjusted before my day job beckoned.

Success! The pilot was still burning late this afternoon. As an added bonus, the main burner was happy to light off of it.

I might just celebrate again tonight.

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Repurposed Univolt

2011-04-04T15:05:00.003-05:00

My brother, who is quite accomplished in gardening, told me he starts/grows new plants in a south-facing window. While the east-facing, laundry room window from where the seeds mentioned in my last post were started never struck me as optimum, it was the best heated space available at the time.

With the weather warming up, the stagnant seedlings were moved out to the unheated Shop's south-facing window with the hope the seedlings would get better light, and harden at the same time.

In short order, it was obvious this window has better continuous sun. The latter part of the first day was aided, I'm sure, by reflection from the Airstream. But that was temporary - my American Classic was subsequently moved back to its usual roost.

Suitable support for the Jiffy Greenhouse was provided by the window sill, and my Overlander's original Univolt (with battery simulator) perched atop the Shop's lathe.

I sure am glad I did not listen when everyone suggested making a boat anchor out of my fully-functional, ready, willing, and able to overcharge a battery, Univolt.

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No one calls me "Mr. Patient"

2011-03-31T17:25:00.002-05:00

About a month ago, seeds were planted in a Jiffy Greenhouse in an effort to get an early start on this year’s Victory Garden. “Kitchen window” planting is new to me so I don’t know what to expect.

The seeds germinated in a reasonable amount of time. After that, growth appeared to stop, and the seedlings now appear to be hanging out waiting for something. From research, I don’t remember Oliver having this situation.

Today, in an effort to appease the plants, watering consisted of a pre-mixed (weak) solution of Miracle-Gro. Viewing left to right, there’s parsley, green pepper, and tomatoes in the following image.

The tomatoes lazing about like they are caught me by surprise; but they’ve been like that for many days.

I don’t know if I need to be patient, or do something different. Comments are both welcome, and invited.

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Shaving... with Tom

2011-03-28T15:17:00.018-05:00

Several years ago, we had an addition to the house constructed which included a new master bedroom & bathroom. Although the size of the old master bedroom had to be reduced to that of a regular bedroom to accommodate a hallway to the addition, the old, small master bath retained its two-sink vanity simply because improving the bathroom was not part of that year’s plan.

In a tribute to how happily married couples work things out, since I am an early riser, I have kept showering in the old master bath just so Kim does not have to listen to me sing in the mornings while she tries to get more shut-eye.

While the shower looks okay, the old double-sink vanity’s general appearance in what is now “my” bathroom has never looked that good, and the gold-colored fixtures were starting to show age. On top of that, neither sink has ever drained particularly well since we purchased the place.

A few weeks ago, going against my normally frugal & minimalist nature, I asked Kim to call up the fellas who built the new vanity top for the Boyz’ bathroom, and get them to build a new single-sink version for my bathroom. She jumped on the request, and within a week or so, the newly made top, graced with the installation of a new faucet, made both of us happy.

But of course the whole project did not go as fast as it sounded in the above HGTV-like sound bite - There used to be one small drawer in the middle of the vanity to accommodate a sink on either side, and the new, single sink’s placement required the construction of two large drawers.

The Boyz’ bathroom was the opposite case – We went from one sink to two. The extra drawer slides had been kept from that effort (the drawers themselves were too small & nasty to keep), and were recycled into this effort. Fortunately, the Shop’s wood crib had sufficient lumber for the new drawers, and no wood had to be purchased.

There was one change I wanted for these drawers, and that was for them to have laminated bottoms instead of bare or painted wood. Unfortunately, the Shop was all but out of spare laminate, and I did not want to purchase the minimum size of 4’ X 8’ just to have most of the sheet leftover. But the wood crib did have two laminated-plywood sink cutouts left over from other projects which were big enough to fit. The problem was the cutouts were too thick.

Bathroom drawers are shallow to start with, and the typical ¼” thick plywood bottom sits in a dado ½” above the bottom edge. Were the 7/8” thick sink cutouts to be installed in a similar manner, the drawers would be both unusually shallow and heavy. The cutouts needed to be thinner.

In a move sure to horrify tool purists, the stacked dado assembly was mounted on the radial arm saw, and the cutouts were shaved down to 5/16” thickness.

After cutting lock joints & drawer bottom dados on the plywood sides, the drawers’ assembly went without incident, and attention was shifted to the new vanity top’s plumbing.

The vanity in this bathroom has come full circle in that the house was originally built with only one sink in the room. The last owners had the two-sink version installed as evidenced by their name written on the back of what was replaced. The sewer plumbing installed to drain two sinks into one pipe was found to be full of an unusual amount of buildup – It was easy to see why the sinks drained so poorly.

The original hot & cold shutoff valves had been replaced with versions that could control water to two sinks. These valves had to be replaced with single-sink valves which meant shutting off the water to the house.

The valve swap-out went smoothly. Unfortunately, when the house’s water was turned back on, the toilet was the first thing used, and all the trapped air in the cold water line shook up the settled crud in the pipes and the debris tried to exit into the toilet tank before finally stopping up the works. Due to the size of the crud, it did not make it much past the toilet’s supply line. Not much of it would shake out.

Not only was the hookup tube almost blocked, the crud fouled the shutoff valve so bad that it had to be removed to be cleaned. And there was more where that came from.

Deciding the next step would be an excellent father-son project, Number 1 son was positioned at the crud filled pipe with the Shop-Vac and telephone. Outside, at the whole-house shutoff valve, I called him on my cell, and the two of us flushed a lot of city-provided debris out of the house’s copper pipes.

The toilet’s shutoff valve had apparently been partially blocked for years, because the toilet now flushes with wild abandon and refills in record time. It was a nice bonus.

Kim is pleased with two large drawers instead of one small one because the convenient storage space should make me more apt to not leave toiletries on the counter.

At least for now…

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Arrow of Light Award

2011-03-26T11:59:00.025-05:00

My Webelo Scout son just received his Arrow of Light award, and I could not be more proud of him. The Arrow of Light award is the highest award available to Cub Scouts, and Daniel worked hard to earn it. Awards were presented in a ceremony at last Monday’s Pack meeting, and Daniel officially joined the Boy Scouts in a cool bridging ceremony shortly afterwards.

Besides the sense of accomplishment, the award itself is an emblem which a Boy Scout can wear on his uniform. As a remembrance of the event, the Scouts were also each given an arrow mounted on a wooden plaque which listed their name, date, and accomplishment. With my shop-O-tools, I was elected to make the remembrances.

After studying a “go-by” loaned to me from the Cub Master, I decided the base plates would look good made out of the last of the rough-cut maple purchased from Coach Carden many years ago. The three boards had not been used until now because of strategically placed imperfections. But the relatively small size of the five blanks would allow me to cut around the blemishes. A poplar board was added to the to-be-planed pile to act as a real-time prototype/contingency plan since getting enough useable blanks from the maple was iffy.

Oddly, one of the maple boards measured 6/4” thick, and still had a shallow spot at final thickness.

I thought about turning the arrow shafts but someone left an old Univolt on the lathe bed, and it was too heavy to move.

Fortunately, the Pack Master had already agreed to supply the arrows.

One thing that the struck me odd about the remembrances handed out last year was how close one arrow feather was to the edge of the board. I think whoever built it had planned to center the arrow on the board, and then found the brass plate would have been obscured. So the arrow was moved closer to the edge.

Kim ordered the brass plates for our effort, and told me she requested the same dimensions as the go-by. So with that in mind, the boards were cut a half-inch wider and a little bit longer to keep the arrow just inside the edge detail.

The poplar contingency board did not stain as well as the maple. Fortunately it was not a problem because all five of the maple boards turned out well.

While it was a fun project, and I was happy to help the Scouts out, I will always remember being super-proud of Daniel for earning the award.

A Leatherface Approach to Ornamental Grass

2011-03-23T16:25:00.006-05:00

At the start of last year’s growing season, Kim informed me the ornamental grass near the Friend’s Entrance needed to be divided because it had grown large enough to block the lilies previously planted in front of it. I nodded a lot, but neither said nor agreed to anything because my resume already lists an ability to hack tough root balls with a machete/shovel in the inevitable sun for half a day, and I was not interested in refreshing the dates of my garden accomplishments.

This year she told me the same thing, and appeared to have remembered how I got out of doing anything the previous year. So, after a bit of scrambling, I told her that the task could be done with my chainsaw but cutting dirt would ruin the chain.

If or when she should purchase another chain to add to the collection’s rotation, I would divide the ornamental grass. Of course there was also the implied benefit to her of bragging rights, should she divide it herself, of her yard resume being as rich as mine.

A new chain appeared the next day.

One slice with an old chain and less than a minute of shoveling later the botanical decoration had been bisected.

The $20 spent for a new chain was money well spent.

Jiffy Greenhouse

2011-02-26T13:33:00.003-06:00

The sun gently warming seeds planted for this year's garden this morning inspired me to start a poem:

I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a Jiffy Greenhouse

A greenhouse whose acreage is prest
Against my wife's line-of-sight into the back yard...

Although plans are to add a few more similes to flesh it out, you have to admit those first few lines have an award-winning ring to them.

In the following picture, I realize that experienced gardeners need no further explanation. But since I can't tell by looking, I will share that there are multiple plantings of tomato, bell pepper, thyme, basil, and parsley seeds waiting to sprout and lend words to the poem’s next verse.

The herbs were an afterthought, and may not germinate because the seeds are two years old (the dog was a major player in what happened to the seeds from the packs’ first planting). If they do sprout, plans are to include them in a separate bed.

Back to the poem...

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Garden Layout v2.0

2011-02-22T17:06:00.003-06:00

Thanks, everyone for the comments, and I have taken them to heart as you can see below.

While the new layout actually yields more corn stalks, I may not benefit - the last time corn seeds were planted, the garden was meticulously cared for, and near the projected harvest date, I raced to the backyard after work every day to check the silk's color with basket in hand. Anyone who has had corn fresh off the stalk understands why I wanted to hover.

On Mother Nature's appointed day, I got home to find the garden decimated by squirrels. Those buggers had harvested almost 3/4 of what had been planted, and to my extreme annoyance only nibbled a quarter of what they left on the ground.

But what I did get makes this effort worth it.

Please feel free to comment on either the current, proposed layout, or critter control strategy.

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Garden Layout v1.0

2011-02-21T16:11:00.005-06:00

I took a first cut at this year's garden layout. Comments are welcome about everything's placement (click the image to read the words).

Plans are to erect a trellis for the green beans & snow peas similar to what this fella did.

The "drop dead", last frost date around here is April 15. Plans are to start the tomatos & peppers in my personal greenhouse on this new shelf in the laundry room in the next week or so.

SpongeBob will just have to get over the competition.

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2011 Garden Step 1

2011-02-19T11:18:00.005-06:00

After looking at what we all eat, and spending a lot of time at two stores agonizing over the different seed varieties available, I have decided on what will be in this year's garden.

The seed packets' backdrop, if you did not recognize it, is one of those compressed peat moss greenhouses, and will be used to germinate some of the seeds while the weather is still too cold to plant. I've never used one, but it looks like a cool idea.

Since I have all the yard space I want to commit to this adventure, the next step will be deciding the general size of the garden, and how many seeds from each bag will end up in the first planting. Fortunately, I have grown some of these vegetables before, and know what yields to expect. The ones I haven't, well, there are still people around here who do not lock their cars during the harvest season.

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Early Start on This Year’s Garden

2011-02-17T15:25:00.009-06:00

For quite some time, I have wanted some blackberry bushes because of fond memories bicycling long ago around the undeveloped Sharondale subdivision collecting wild blackberries. While looking at vegetable seeds at Lowes the other day, I noticed the store was also selling fruit bush, rooted cuttings (bushlings?). Taking note of what they had, I returned home empty-handed for follow-up research.

After reading that most of the Internet agreed now is the time in this area to plant berry bushes, a strategy for placement & spacing was mapped. A day or two later, I stopped back in and purchased two each of the blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry offerings.

Since part of the area chosen for the orchard included my watermelon patch of a couple of years ago, I decided to till the planting zone with the vintage rear-tine tiller I got recently instead of just digging six holes. Plus, I was dying to check out the tiller in actual operation.

The first use of the new tool ended up being more of a workout than expected. My experience with garden tillers up to this point had been with front tine tillers, and I had developed a reasonable experience base of the amount of continuous muscle power required to control that variety. But I was thrilled to get a rear tine tiller in part because of the manufacturer’s propaganda of people sweatlessly tilling a field with only one hand gently guiding the machine.

Well, I found out the hard way that that only works after the hard pack is broken up. I had the depth gauge set too deep to start with, and the drive wheels could not get traction before the tines dug in and had me chasing the machine as it fled the designated till area. My upper body muscles were plenty pumped before realizing that this style of tiller has to be handled differently finally hit home. But after the top inch or two of soil was broken, the effort got considerably easier, and several subsequent passes in the desired zone were made to end up with about a foot of deep-tilled soil.

The crabapple seeds pointed to are part of an effort started last fall, and are planted in a [buried] terra cotta pot for easy transplanting if/when they germinate. That’s hardy grass growing in the pot.

As long as the dog doesn’t chew the stuff up before the thorns can grow, hopefully I will be posting some cobbler/pie recipes in a couple of years.

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John Deere’s Plastic Surgery

2011-02-14T14:34:00.011-06:00

Many years ago, I had a dog that simply lived to bark at my riding mower as the grass was being cut. Being part pit bull, he had no qualms about getting right up next to the front grill and barking slobber all over it when the mower was going slowly through tall grass. In time though, several cracks were noticed on the plastic hood due in part to too many snout bumps. I drug my feet in doing anything about it because some plastics are tough to reliably patch.

After we lost Buddy one winter, I decided it was time to fix the hood before the next grass cutting season. As expected, the plastic from which the hood was molded was not solvent weldable, and since I owned no plastic heat welding tools, the only option was to patch the cracks with fiberglass & resin.

The best way to address the issue would have been to drill holes on either side of the cracks to provide the resin anchor points. But for aesthetics, I only wanted to patch from the inside, and decided that laying out a large acreage of mat & resin stood a good chance of working. So that’s what I did, and most of the repair lasted for almost 10 years.

Last grass-cutting season, new cracks developed, and pieces of plastic started falling off around one of the hinge points. The lack of a sturdy pivot point made opening the hood really tough. In what was out of character for me, even though the mower never needed additional oil between changes, my solution then was to just stop checking the oil. If nothing else, the mower was 15 years old at that point. The hood is of a two-piece design, and the Dealer wanted $600 for a new lower section. Maybe it was just time to replace the mower.

This past weekend, as the oil was being changed in my vintage roto-tiller, I decided to go ahead and change the oil in all the other small engines in the garage. This meant it was time to open the John Deere’s hood for the first time in almost a year. Everything was pretty dusty, and since the battery needed to be checked, the opportunity was taken to hose the accumulated dirt off.

After cleaning, the motor looked like new, and I could re-read the words “iron sleeved cylinder”. As expected, the oil was at the ‘full’ mark. So, even though the hood was falling apart, the rest of the mower was not, and it seemed reasonable to investigate broken hood option 2 – Run without a hood.

Nope - Kim did not care for the look of that option at all. So the hood and all the broken pieces I could find were trotted off to the shop for option 3 – anchor-hole reinforced fiberglass mat & resin.

The goal was to have a functional hood good for a minimum of 10 more cutting seasons that did not look too bad. The repair’s first step was drilling a bunch of holes everywhere to act as anchor points. The individual pieces were then Super-glued together.

In a stroke of overkill, nylon twine was then sewn in a pleasing pattern through most of the holes.

Having through-holes drilled meant both sides of the hood would have to be worked during the same session. To keep the resin from dripping off of the hood’s out-side, a piece of 30 mil sheet poly was taped to it after glassing the first coat. The hood was then flipped to work on the in-side.

The hood’s pivot points also needed attention. After drilling a couple of anchor holes, a dam of hot glue was laid out to create a reservoir for a T-nut and resin.

I could have declared “effort complete” at this point. But even though the goal of “…that did not look too bad” is subjective, I decided to sand the area in preparation of painting it.

Fortunately, Rust-Oleum sells ‘John Deere’ green, and it was a fairly good match.

The family thought it looked pretty good.

The reassembled end result turned out looking better than I thought it would.

All it needs in time for spring is some painted-on flames running down the sides.

New Tool: Vintage Roto-tiller

2011-02-08T04:05:00.012-06:00

Every so often, I get a wild hair to plant a garden, and borrow a roto-tiller from family or friend, instead of renting one, to till up the ground. While this approach has worked out fairly well, I really don’t like to borrow gas-powered equipment for a variety of reasons, and have kept an eye out for a good used tiller. Since I used to really enjoy working on small engines, to keep costs down the hope was to find a tiller that needed some level of repair.

A week or so after the start of the New Year, my friend Kenny asked me if I was still looking for a roto-tiller. From a previous conversation, I knew he had picked up one some time ago at an estate sale with a plan of fixing up & selling it. After getting a few more details, I decided he had made a New Year’s resolution to lighten the number of projects he had at his house, and the tiller was one of them.

Kenny told me he had cleaned out all the old gas to get the tiller started only to have it die & not re-start. In the brief time it ran, he also noticed a bad bearing on the transmission jackshaft. Between these problems, and wanting to show his appreciation to me for resolving a computer problem he had had, Kenny made me a great deal on a 1982 Lazy Boy model 5-RT, rear-tine roto-tiller made by the Parmi Tool Company.

This thing is a hoss. Weighing in at around 200 pounds, its 5-hp Briggs & Stratton engine powers a 20 inch rack of 12 inch tines, and rotates the 16-inch drive wheels via a transmission with three forward speeds and a reverse. Being as old as it is, the machine is blissfully unencumbered by today’s safety-mandated litany of safety interlocks – This machine will till the operator into the ground if an appropriate amount of attention is not paid to the task at hand.

To troubleshoot, I disconnected the spark plug wire, and held it in my hand while pulling the starter cord. No ouch. The grounding wire to the throttle lever’s stop position was then disconnected. No change. After finding nothing visibly wrong with the coil or its distance from the flywheel, the points & condenser were now suspect.

Oddly, the flywheel had no tapped holes for a removal tool. No problem, though, because a piece of angle iron drilled to accept carriage bolts fished out of the spare parts supply worked just as well.

It did not appear anyone had had the flywheel off recently. The points looked okay, but the gap was really big. So big, in fact, that the points never made contact. After checking the capacitor with an ohmmeter & dressing the contacts, the point gap was reset to 0.020”, and everything reassembled. Slowly pulling the starter cord this time, I got mildly bit by electricity.

After reconnecting the wire to a cleaned plug, the engine started up after two or three pulls & ran for about five seconds, and then quit.

My “calibrated hand” told me there was still electricity coming out of the coil, but not enough to arc a gap. To verify, another spark plug was gapped to 0.010”, connected to the wire, and left on top of the engine. The engine was then spun by a drill motor. No spark was seen. The points were verified to still be opening & closing. It appeared the coil was bad. But Briggs & Stratton’s FAQ tells me the coil’s secondary circuit resistance should measure between 2500 & 5000 ohms. My coil measured 2800 ohms.

Small engine manufacturers long ago did away with points & condenser ignition systems in favor of maintenance-free, Solid State Ignition systems. Although B&S still sells a points & condenser kit, they also sell an SSI upgrade kit which replaces 1982’s standard ignition.

After talking with some of the guys at work, by the end of the day I had convinced myself that the coil was indeed shorted, and that it would be stupid to not install SSI. But on the way out the door I ran into Bill, and he asked what my latest project was. I had no more than said “garden tiller” when he seemed to kind of light up and interrupted to ask “Briggs & Stratton?” After I nodded, he went on to describe my engine to a T, and outlined ways to improve its performance.

Apparently, around 12 years ago he was ‘Mr. Go-cart Racer’ before having to give it up to save his marriage, the B&S five horse was what he ran. While agreed that installing SSI was best route, he disagreed that my coil was bad, and proceeded to share a few war stories on coils he had run which had considerably less secondary resistance than mine.

So now the angst set in about what to ask for at the parts counter. Do I gamble that my coil is in fact good and just get the kit which replaces just the points & condenser or a different kit which replaces both the points & condenser, and coil? Since electrical parts are seldom returnable, I went with the Magnetron kit that replaced everything.

Although the old points & condenser could have been left in place, the kit came with a plug to install in place of the cam follower so I decided to pull out everything to add to the spare parts box for future projects. Now for the punchline – The screw holding the pivoting point in place had backed out in the five seconds the engine had run the previous day because I had neglected to torque it down. It did not come all the way out, but the point was at an odd angle. First mistake I have ever made…

While this was probably the problem, oddly though, according to my ohmmeter, the points were still making & breaking. Part of me wanted to reset & reassemble to see if the problem was fixed. The other part of me said “Why bother? You’ll just have to disassemble again to install the new electrical part that cannot be returned”.

After the tiller started on the second pull, attention was shifted over to the bearing issue Kenny noticed while the engine ran out a tank of gas. The symptom was that a V-belt which connects the jackshaft to the transmission would not stay engaged on the pulley.

One of the two pillow block style sintered iron bearings was wallowed out, and the other one did not look that great. Fortunately, the 5/8”D shaft was still in useable shape.

From past experience, I was surprised to find sintered iron used instead of the commonly-accepted-as-better sintered bronze. While it would have been nice to ask the Parmi Tool Company about the material choice, they were absorbed by another company long ago, and parts & advice for the Lazy Boy 5-RT are no longer available.

Unfortunately, none of the local small engine parts stores had a replacement bearing for sale. One online resource offered a bearing for a very reasonable $11.33 that would work, but new mounting holes would be required, and I have a thing about not drilling holes in vintage equipment.

Taking another look at the worn out bearing, I noticed it was made by Triangle Manufacturing Company, and Mr. Google told me they were still in business. In a lucky bonus, it was found that Triangle offered both the original sintered iron bearing, and a sintered bronze version. Their $30 minimum order requirement was not viewed as an obstacle because I would have been more than happy to pay $15 a piece for two OEM bearings. But I got tickled when they quoted me $1.05 each for the iron bearing, and $3.16 each for the bronze. Since I was still researching the merits of the different bearing material types, the minimum order requirement allowed me to buy a lifetime supply of each type.

To keep this post as dry as possible, shown below is a bearing comparison. From left-to-right: really worn-out iron, new iron (with magnet stuck on as proof), slightly worn iron, and bronze:

Research into why my tiller had what I considered to be less desirable bearings continued during the three or four days it took for the new bearings to arrive. “Economy” is, I believe, the final answer. Iron bearings are a third of the cost, and while not as “good”, the ones installed in my tiller did last for 29 years. From a design standpoint, my tiller’s record is hard to debate. But, as seen below, my newest tool’s jackshaft is now supported on bronze pillow block bearings (the old iron ones are shown for reference).

While it is still the dead of winter here, all maintenance/checkout/stress tests short of actual ground-breaking have been completed; the tiller is declared ready to go. While the fun I had restoring this vintage tool to operation to me pays for the costs involved in doing so, fiscally speaking, for what I could rent a similar workhorse for, I need to get 2.23 rental days out of my antique machine to break even. Not counting my Mom’s potential requests, that requirement will be met with this spring’s tasks. Since the modern-day-replacement equivalent cost of this machine is roughly $2700, money is projected to be saved.

The only thing that could make the whole setup better would be Number 1 son looking as happy plowing our Victory Garden as he does in the image below.

Stay tuned for gardening updates…

Harmony Central

2011-01-03T14:58:00.009-06:00

Just before Christmas, a new desktop computer & Netbook were ordered just before discovering the dishwasher had conked out. After tracing the dishwasher’s primary problem to a bad heater element, a $100 parts kit was ordered. When the box arrived a week later, I was surprised to find a new, master dishwasher computer included as part of the approved repair package. No wonder it cost so much.

Around the time the Netbook arrived a week later, Kim happily commented that the dishwasher was cleaning the dishes better than it had ever done before. I guess everyone should change-out their dishwasher’s computer every so often for the latest version of clean.

The Netbook was an instant hit with everyone. Right out of the box, it powered up & immediately sensed our house’s wireless network. After typing in the security key we were off and running. Or at least Daniel was – he was the primary user for the first few days.

Daniel took it with us on a visit to Kim’s parents’ house to show them a roller coaster video on YouTube. While the Netbook was booting, his grandmother told him they did not have a wireless network. He looked at me, and I told him to see what’s out there anyway. Sure enough, five or six of the neighbors’ wireless networks showed up, and two of them were unsecured.

Here’s everyone riding Expedition Everest:

Our house’s Ethernet router combines wireless and hard-wired connectivity, and was bought when Kim started bringing home a work laptop computer. In time, though, her employer disabled the laptop’s wireless capability out of security concerns. So after the house was hard-wired for Internet connectivity, the wireless part of the router was seldom used.

Between the new Netbook and Daniel’s DSi, it sure gets used now.

About a week later, the new desktop computer & monitor arrived. While it is always neat to get a new & faster computer, one part I always dread is the tedium of moving files from one computer to another, and installing software on the new computer. This time was worse because Daniel knew my old computer was trickling down to him. As a result, he constantly hovered where I was working with a “aren’t you done yet?” look on his face.

Eventually the last file was moved, and the old computer set up in the playroom with a temporary Ethernet wire strung across the wall. With each boy listening to their computer via headphones, it was just harmony central.

Knowing Daniel was to get the computer, Mrs. Santa found a new, color, combo scanner-printer locally for the ridiculously low price of $20. While Daniel didn’t necessarily need a scanner, we figured it was better to leave the inkjet printer the Boyz’ computer originally had connected to the machine now designated as Jared’s.

While Daniel was most appreciative of the new printer, he casually mentioned he would not mind having the capability to also print to our laser printer. It struck me as odd until it dawned on me that he would save a lot of ink if his print jobs consumed our toner instead. He just grinned when I shifted the conversation to that slant.

When we only had two computers in the house, each machine had its own printer, and connection to the Internet. No network was set up for the computers to share files or printers. Now with four computers, four printers, and a terabyte backup drive, it made a lot of sense to establish a home network. It became somewhat necessary, though, when we found Kim & Tom’s scanner was too old to work with the new computer – Plans are to use Daniel’s remotely at least until after the Christmas bills are paid.

Normally, setting up a home network is no big deal – Just follow the screen prompts at each computer designated for the network, and connectivity magically occurs. But in this case, the four computers involved used two different versions of Windows, and extra steps would be required. I felt up to the challenge, though.

To my great surprise, when all was said & done, Daniel’s machine, and only Daniel’s machine, could not print to our laser printer. Everyone could print to Daniel’s printer, but Daniel could only print to either his printer or Jared’s.

To my great GREAT surprise, no one on the Internet had ever heard of my exact situation. After two days of addressing the problem, one of my countless “what if?” scenarios finally bore fruit and a simple re-configuration had Daniel sharing files & printers with everyone else on the Network. All is now well.

Happy New Year from Harmony Central!

No Menu For You!

2010-12-15T03:52:00.004-06:00

A Sony Betamax machine needed to finish an earlier digitizing effort was finally located, and incredibly, for its age did not need any repairs before use. Like most people, I was vaguely aware at the time that the Betamax & VHS videotape formats were rivals in the days of the home videotape recorders. This was only the second time, though, that I had ever been around a Betamax machine, and was surprised at how similar-in-size it is to a late-model VHS machine.

The tape cassette, though, is noticeably smaller than the VHS’s.

In a ‘small world’ kind of thing, The first time I saw a Betamax was in the early nineties, and the one I saw then might just be the one I have now. My Uncle Les was a gadget guy and one day he left a Betamax at my house for someone else to pick up. Although he passed away around five years ago, I was told that a lot of his stuff was still stacked neatly in the garage. So I emailed my aunt with a general description, and over Thanksgiving, one of my cousins located what I had described, and gave the Betamax to me at the big meal.

Other than not having stereo sound, the machine hooked right up to my digitizer, and after fine-tuning the picture, the analog version of the 1978 Contest of Champions recorded in Murfreesboro, TN was on its way to digital preservation.

For this effort, it seemed best to create an opening menu for the DVD so that the performances of the eight marching band finalists and judge’s decision could be easily skipped to. Although it should have been a simple task, the exercise ended up being a slow study in frustration.

In the past, Roxio brand CD/DVD editing software has worked well for all the audio CDs burned over the years for various projects. The 2008 version of the software currently loaded on my four year-old computer claimed to have the ability to do everything the present task required. But for some reason, the MyDVD function would not encode a video DVD correctly, and that particular function was necessary to create menus.

Roxio’s web site offered no help for the broken function other than a price cut for upgrading to Roxio 2011. Countless versions of freeware & shareware were subsequently downloaded from other sites, but for various reasons, none of these Internet offerings were able to do the job. So, although it chafed me, purchasing the Roxio upgrade appeared to be my only option.

Big and slow. The upgrade took forever to download and almost as much time to install. Continuing the theme, it takes forever to load and/or do anything. Everything this version does appears to require a lot of CPU time, and “Program not responding” is Windows Task Manager’s usual description of how the program typically accommodates my mouse clicks.

Normally I wouldn’t be so negative about a product. But my annoyance meter is still registering high because, after all the time & effort expended, I still don’t have a DVD with a custom-made menu. It appears my computer is too old to run the resource-hog software being sold today.

Since I won’t let this go for some reason, a new computer has been ordered, and should be here in the next few days. Hopefully, my next post will have a cheerier tone.

Of Dells and KitchenAid

2010-12-10T14:56:00.004-06:00

The subject of computers, or the lack thereof, in our house has come up a lot lately. The Boyz have one, and Kim & I have one. Daniel wants a laptop computer for various reasons. Kim & I don’t. But everyone agreed there would be more harmony in the house if we had an additional computer.

Between my computer’s relative old-age and how slowly some of the video to DVD conversions of past projects went, the command decision was made to replace Kim & Tom’s Dell with a new one. So early yesterday morning, I sat down at Dell’s web site and spec’ed out a new Dell desktop computer with the power to slice & dice at blinding speed.

During the research, I noticed Dell listed a Netbook for a reasonable price, and Kim & I both agreed our home would simply be Harmony Central if we had three desktop computers and a Netbook. So a Dell Mini 10 was added to the cart.

After hitting the “Submit” button, I wandered into the kitchen to get a drink of water. Finding no clean glasses in the cabinet, I pulled one out of the KitchenAid dishwasher, and was annoyed to find the dishes wet & not looking all that clean. Figuring someone had run them on rinse & hold, the machine was restarted with new detergent.

At the point when the appliance was supposed to be making dish-cleaning whooshing noises, it buzzed a lot, and just did not sound like it was putting much muscle into the effort. Figures – I had just spent a lot of money on a new Dell something-something 10 computer & Netbook, and now the dishwasher acts up.

With no time to do anything about it right then, the dishwasher was allowed to run, and I headed out to my day job.

Around three hours later, Kim called, and told me the machine was still running, and its ‘water heating’ light was on.

After telling her to hit the ‘cancel’ button, I hung up & started thinking about how many unanticipated things money had been spent on this year, and now the gift-giving season is upon us. By all rights, I should have replaced the dishwasher earlier this year when it gave me trouble. Fortunately, a non-standard repair made then saved my wallet. I finished out the day hoping another low-cost fix would extend the life of my 10 year-old kitchen convenience.

Back home, after disassembling the lower part of the dishwasher’s interior, the buzzing sound was traced to a bunch of bone chips not being ground up by the built-in disposal. As a consequence, water flow to the pump was being restricted by a combination of chips & lint clogging up the works. After clearing the debris & reassembling the dishwasher, the familiar whooshing sound returned.

Considering this maintenance had occurred during what is normally ball-playing time with Cookie, the dog had been fairly patient with me. But now she had this “Are you just going to stand there and drink beer & watch the dishwasher wash?” look on her face. So we went out and played ball for a while.

Later, I walked by the dishwasher, and noticed the ‘Water Heating’ light was on. A quick check of the heating element itself revealed that the light was all that was on – the element appeared to be burned out.

The goal now was to get clean dishes without me having to hand wash any. Adding boiling water to the machine appeared to be the quickest way to reach the goal. So I Shop-Vac’ed some water out of the dishwasher and added boiling tea-kettle water in its place several times.

Even though I thought it was a great idea, it didn’t work – the light never went out. After a while, I declared that, while the dishes were probably not sterile, they had been washed long enough (three separate times) to be clean.

Since the lifespan of a dishwasher is 10 years, I ought to wheel mine out to the road instead of repairing it again. But money is unusually tight right now. I suppose I could cancel the order with Dell and put a new dishwasher under the tree, but that would not do much for the previous day’s vision of ‘Harmony Central’.

Unfortunately, no one in town had a new element in stock to sell me, and the replacement part had to be mail-ordered. While $100 was more than I wanted to spend for a heating element, it is considerably less than the $800 the local big-box store wanted for a new KitchenAid. So we will have to “help” the dishwasher wash for a few days by canceling the wash cycle and initiating rinse. But even with the extra attention, it still beats washing the dishes by hand.

Super-8mm Film to DVD Conversion

2010-11-16T14:14:00.012-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, a high school friend pinged me on Facebook to see if I could convert some old films & tapes from our marching band days to DVD. As I am always open to new challenges, I asked her to send me what she had, and I would see what I could do. A few days later, the postman brought a box containing eight, Super-8mm reels of silent film, an audio reel-to-reel tape, and a Betamax II cassette.

The audio tape to CD conversion was effortless because I already had both the required reel-to-reel deck & software, and the experience of having done it before.

Although I had access to my dad’s old 8mm projector, it would not work with Super-8mm film. So I started asking everyone I could think of for the loan of a projector, and Betamax machine. Fortunately, a co-worker had a Super-8 projector he didn’t mind loaning out. But he warned me it needed a new light bulb.

Unfortunately, it needed more than just a bulb – The main drive belt had disintegrated.

I used to spend a lot of time repairing machines which needed new belts, and knew that finding an exact replacement belt was going to be slow, and expensive. But I also remembered the short-term fixes, and after a trip to the refrigerator’s vegetable drawer, a red celery band was pressed into action to get the wheels moving again.

The light bulb was a problem. Not for availability, but for cost. A local camera shop wanted $35 plus tax for the ENA-style bulb, and the Internet was only five or six bucks cheaper. Now, part of the goal in this project was to keep the cost as low as possible because this is supposed to be a one-time effort. I could have bought a new bulb, but for only 400 feet of film, it seemed prudent to investigate other options. If nothing else, the man who loaned me the projector had no plans to ever use the device again, so I had no qualms about returning a projector which still needed a light bulb.

Dad’s film & slide projectors used different style bulbs than the Super-8 machine, and could not be swapped out. But, out of curiosity the two film projectors were set up to see if the light from Dad’s projector could be recycled.

No – the resulting image was too dim. The Super-8’s bulb was rated at 80 watts. So a 90 watt spotlight was rounded up for the second effort.

Still no joy. Apparently the proper bulb’s claim to fame is its ability to focus a lot of light in to a small opening. Both of Dad’s projectors used optics to focus the bulbs’ light into a small area. So effort #3 found me holding a four-inch diameter magnifying glass between the spotlight and projector’s light aperture. But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.

Returning to the dugout, I started researching what all kind of devices use an ENA-style bulb. Eventually, something cross-referenced to an overhead projector, a machine which used to be very common where I work. Overhead projectors, having now been replaced with computer-controlled LCD projectors, are all but extinct nowadays. Good thing, too because it seemed like every time I needed to use one, the bulb was blown out. Fortunately, there were always replacement bulbs available. Hmm.

A check of the supply cabinet at work the next day found 11, spare, ENX-style bulbs gathering dust.

While physically extremely similar, ENA and ENX bulbs have very different power requirements. The Super-8 bulb was rated 80 watts at 30 volts. The overhead projector’s bulb consumed a blinding 360 watts at 82 volts – way too much heat & light for the effort; the film stood a chance of melting if the bulb was used as-is. So the setup was modified to include a Variac, and supplemental cooling fan.

Genesis 1:3

I’d like to thank Anheuser-Busch for contributing to my effort.

With the projector squared away, a borrowed video camera was set up to catch the action, and then wired to my computer via a digitzer. Then I sat down to watch & record eight, four-minute clips of the THS Marching Band. That’s me on the screen in the white shirt, fourth from the right.

For as old as the home movies are, the color has held up well, and none of the film broke (or burned up) during the viewing.

The first problem with my setup was noticed during the first reel, and there was not a no-cost option available to resolve it - The projection screen surface is contaminated. Oddly, the dirt (or mildew) only shows up when the screen is hit with bright light, and I could not come up with a non-destructive way of cleaning the 50 year-old fabric.

The second problem was the quality of the image processed by the video camera. All the film had been shot a night, so it was a little on the dark side to start with. While I knew some resolution was going to be lost by the whole process, between that loss, and additional darkness added by the camera, the digitized video did not turn out as well as hoped for. Compressing the videos to fit YouTube made the issues even worse.

But for a virtually no-cost trip down memory lane, the effort was worth it, and saved my friend from immediately spending the $160 someone on the Internet quoted to do the conversion.

Fortunately, the audio tape turned out phenomenally well, and its wonderful sound helped offset the video disappointment. Hopefully the Betamax tape will turn out well – the search for a suitable player continues.

2010 Airstreaming Finale

2010-11-09T19:07:00.008-06:00

Much to my wife’s chagrin, I like to conclude our Airstreaming season with a cold-weather adventure because there is nothing more peaceful, to me, than sitting in front of a campfire in the fall. Kim relents because she knows the Airstream has a robust gas furnace to keep us warm at night.

For a variety of reasons, Tims Ford State Park in Tennessee was chosen as the last scheduled Airstream outing of the year. Although it is only about 70 miles from home, Daniel & I decided to take a half day off Friday to set up camp. Kim & Jared followed later in the afternoon.

The Park is only about 15 miles from where I grew up, so my parents found time to motor over & enjoy the first fire.

The first part of Saturday was taken up with walking the trails. Although the lack of rain over the summer diminished the fall colors, we still enjoyed the natural beauty of the area.

It was nut season at the park. The hickory nuts caught my attention because I had just spent a lot of time with Google Images identifying a tree in my yard. The two hickory nut varieties found during the walk, and pictured below, were subsequently identified as Shellbark and Pignut, respectively:

My friend Dan, who was raised on a farm, laughed when shown the picture later and remarked on the appropriateness of the darker-colored nut’s name.

While Jared was okay with the walk, he was pleased to see the Park had installed new playground equipment since our last visit.

Although the campground was not deserted, there were very few other campers, and the Boyz had the roads & trails to themselves.

Other than the walk on Saturday, I parked myself at the fire, and even nodded off a few times in spite of the cold. At one point Daniel joined me… with his DSi. While my preference would have been that the game stayed home, I knew that everyone was tolerating the weather just for me, so I didn’t complain.

We shook up the meals menu this trip, and other than lunch-time hotdogs, the fire was not used for anything else. Oddly, everyone appeared to forget we had s’more fixings.

We packed up Sunday afternoon and headed over to my parents’ house where other relatives had already gathered for a birthday celebration. After that, we headed home.

The Overlander is now winterized. But hope springs eternal that some fun event will pop up between now and next season.

I’m just a Digitizing Fool

2010-10-30T10:51:00.009-05:00

The other day, one of Daniel’s 4th grade teachers asked Kim if I could convert the kids’ production of “Call 9-1-1!” on VHS videotape into a TV-ready DVD. Since we always try to help the school out when we can, Kim took the tape from her knowing that if I didn’t already have the capability to do the task, I soon would.

Fortunately for the budget, I already had a DVD burner, and after purchasing a $35 video digitizer and borrowing a VCR, Ms. Zupko had her DVD. The Blooper Reel at the end of the short production made the effort worth it.

Other than wasting a few blank DVDs for various reasons, the process went fairly smooth, and I thought about burning extra DVDs for the grandparents and others to marvel at Daniel’s acting in the ‘Good Reason #5’s segment. Then it dawned on me to just post the clip on YouTube.

To protect the kids’ privacy, I thought it best to cut their names off the credits at the end of the production. Once again, the Internet came to the rescue with free video editing software.

Inspired, I sifted around in the closet to see what VHS-based treasures were worthy of digitalization. The first obvious choice was Jack Webb’s B&W movie “The D.I.” I had wanted to buy this on DVD, but Warner Home Video has yet to release it. Now my personal wait is over.

Combining old & new technologies, the Underwood Standard had been pulled out earlier to make folder labels for another effort. Daniel helped out with the typing while I digitized videos.

Kim thought all of this was great, but was dismayed to not find the videos of our wedding reception and Boyz’ prenatal sonograms in the ‘to-do’ stack. Imagine that.

It looks like these tapes are reaching the end of their life because the VCR started gumming up and providing jittery images. Luckily, I still had the specialty Q-tips needed for deck cleaning.

The last time I checked, “The Long Long Trailer” has yet to be released on DVD. That is, anywhere but my house.

I was a big “Star Trek – The Next Generation” fan, and recorded every episode when it was first broadcast. But I noticed most, if not all, of the seasons are now available on DVD. I could start digitizing my steam locomotive videotape collection, but the thrill is starting to wear off. I’ll probably do a couple more tapes, and give it a rest.

Digitizing Slides from the Past

2010-10-26T16:53:00.006-05:00

The Boyz & I motored up to Tennessee this past Saturday to visit with my parents as it had been quite some time since we had been to my hometown. At one point, my dad mentioned that, in cleaning out a closet, he had come across his old Airequipt slide projector, and six carousels of slides. A certain gloom set in because I thought we were about to be treated to a review of life in the Seventies.

No, he was just interested in getting rid of it all, and wondered if it was worth anything. I had just started a spiel about “check eBay” when the glazed look in his eyes had me re-arranging my words to say, “…Why don’t I take all this back with me and investigate further”. He was only too happy to help load everything in my truck.

eBay is an amazing place. Before I threw a hubcap of my Airstream returning home from Florida a couple of weeks ago, I thought anything could be found there. But to my surprise, there was nothing even remotely similar to what my Overlander needs. Hopefully, the alert eBay allowed me to set up will send encouraging offerings before too long about someone wanting to find a good home for a 1967 Airstream Overlander International Hubcap.

eBay is the place for old Airequipt slide projection equipment, though. There was so much of it, and listed for such low prices that I am not going to bother advertising what came home with me – The potential selling price does not warrant the effort involved to box & ship.

The dust buildup on the projector made me think Dad had probably not used the device since I repaired it 20 years ago. Oddly, although Dad remembered the slides had an irritating tendency to jam, he expressed no thoughts one way or the other about what to do with the medium itself. Between figuring he probably wouldn’t mind seeing the images again, and out of general curiosity, I decided to explore what digitizing the 567 slides would entail so the images could be revisited on a computer instead of a darkened room.

Step one was to investigate a computer accessory which scans photographic negatives into computer-ready digital images I recalled Kim buying for her scrap booking hobby some time ago, but had never used. After reading it would also work with slides, the miniature scanner was hooked up to the computer. Interesting device – It was slow, but did poor work. The slides had to be removed from the carousel and snapped three at a time into a plastic holder. In spite of calibrating the device with its built-in function, every slide fed into it came out looking washed out in the resulting jpeg file. Not the ticket; it was a waste of money in spite of good reviews.

Mr. Google’s top response from ask.com wanted me to place each slide individually on my flat-bed scanner, back-light it with a flashlight, and then scan it. Judging the amount of time & effort required, I decided the answer to someone’s question at that site had been lifted from Dante’s Inferno. The scanner was never even warmed up.

Many helpful Internet entrepreneurs offered to scan the slides for me. But it was going to cost around $200 for the total effort – too much for what I thought might be, at best, no more than casual interest to anyone.

For other reasons, I had also brought Dad’s projection screen back with me. Since Santa gave me a camera tripod last Christmas, I decided to try what amounted to a Kinescope approach to the task wherein the projector and my digital camera work together to acquire the images.

That was the ticket. After the initial setup, the six carousels worth of slides were processed so fast that I hardly had time to look at the flurry of images going past. The slide below of me feeding an elephant gave me pause. Dad had labeled it “Busch Gardens 1971”.

While I remember visiting the attraction, I had not only forgotten about feeding an elephant, I had forgotten they had a zoo.

Between dirt on both the slides and the screen, the images could have turned out a little better. But for a trip down memory lane the results were great.

Plans are to send CDs of the images to the folks, and my brother & sister. Although the Kiwanis Club pictures won’t do much for anyone other than my dad, many of the other images will probably bring back fond memories for my older siblings.

Hopefully one of them will express interest in better quality images. Everything Airequipt is boxed, and waiting for a shipping label.

Mystery Nut Harvest

2010-10-23T06:31:00.016-05:00

Many years ago, I was weeding a garden bed, and pulled up a plant still attached to the pecan from which it grew. Thinking it would be really neat {insert flashback to my carefree youth running about the pecan groves in southern Georgia} to have a pecan tree in the yard, the three-inch tall plant was carefully re-potted and placed where it could be easily watered. But within days, the squirrel who had buried the nut in the bed reclaimed it, and I was left with nothing.

My mom told me not to worry about because she was all the time running across pecan saplings in her garden, and promised to bring me one at some point. Some period of time later, she made good on her promise, and presented me with a six-inch sapling which was promptly planted in a corner of the backyard.

All was well for a couple of years until both Aunt Bron and Mother both were visiting, and Aunt Bron expressed strong reservations about the tree actually being a pecan tree as the leaves didn’t look quite right. She leaned more towards it producing hickory nuts when it was old enough. I decided to not worry about it, because ultimately the idea of a nut tree, any nut tree, was okay with me.

In time, the tree started producing nuts, but never that many, and the squirrels hauled them away before I thought about looking at one closer. This year, though, the now 20 foot tall tree was all but overrun with nuts, and last week the nuts were starting to drop on the ground. So it seemed like a good weekend project to finally harvest the mystery nuts.

O’dark thirty Saturday morning, though, found me firing up the Brinkmann to smoke a 12-1/4 pound brisket to feed the company coming over for supper.

But after the sun came up, Jared and I got busy picking up nuts.

Between Google Images & Wikipedia, the tree was finally determined to be a Black Walnut. UC’s publication 8005 agreed now was the time to harvest, and advised me to remove the husks, and let the nut inside dry for a while. The publication also reminded me of what I already knew in the back of my head that walnut juice will stain hands. So after a trip to the store for rubber gloves, I got busy cutting the hulls off.

Between fiddling with the smoker, reading up on nuts, and finally moving the brisket to a 250 degree oven to finish, time was running short on getting the cornbread salad and bread made for the rest of the evening’s meal. So I took a break from hulling and returned to the kitchen.

Cornbread had been made before the brisket claimed the oven, and was cooling before the next step. Bread was next, and I chose to use milk instead of water to get a softer crust.

One nice thing about having an Airstream in the back yard is the extra oven available when different dishes need different cooking temperatures. So the bread was allowed to double in size out in the Airstream while the vintage gas oven preheated.

The Magic Chef oven does a good job with bread.

The brisket turned out looking good in spite of having to be cut in half to fit in the smoker. I’m sure some of my Texas friends could do better, but the crowd liked this one.

Before the afternoon was out, the rest of the walnuts were hulled, and left to dry in the sun.

My friend Dan advised me to pressure wash the nuts after a day or two to get rid of more hand staining chemicals. Up to this point, the nuts had been drying on an old fiberglass window screen which I knew would not stand up to a pressure washer. So a sturdier screened box was made out of 2X4s and rabbit wire.

Here’s the harvest after a go-round at the quarter car wash.

Dan also advised me to let the cleaned nuts dry for a while to allow the meat inside to pull away from the shell. So the brownies will have to wait a little longer.

By the way, I didn’t give up on having a pecan tree in the yard. About seven years ago I found another pecan attached to what I initially thought was a weed and Daniel & I transplanted it to another home. This one I kept inside the house.

The tree was subsequently moved to the front yard around the time we were building Project Big Tub, and is now around 11 feet tall.

Pecan pie & walnut brownies! If only I ate desserts.

Crabapple – The Next Generation?

2010-10-13T03:38:00.006-05:00

The first house I lived in as a married man had a rather sickly looking crabapple tree in the front yard. As I had fond memories of growing up with a crabapple tree in the front yard, the hope was that the tree’s health would improve so I would once again have fresh crabapples to... I don’t know. The neighborhood kids & I used to eat and throw them at one another. While there’s nothing like eating an occasional crabapple, I don’t think Kim would much like getting hit by one.

My dog at the time was Buddy, a male pit bull mix, and soon after moving in, part of his routine after being let out of the backyard was to run up and pee on the crabapple tree. At first it bothered me because the tree was probably thinking, “Here I am at death’s door, and look how I’m being treated”. But as time went on, that silly tree actually started looking better. By the time we sold the place, it actually added curb appeal.

I was thrilled when our next/present house was found to have an established crabapple tree in the side yard. Although many people at the time advised me to thin the water sprouts & crossed branches, I did nothing other than trim low-hanging branches. My “do nothing” approach appeared to work well until a few years ago when the tree just did not seem as happy & healthy as it used to. Buddy was no longer with us, and our present female dog Cookie appeared disinclined to follow in his footsteps.

But this year was different. I don’t know if it was due to the unusual weather or what, but the tree both looked good, and produced the most crabapples I have ever seen it produce.

Big, plump tasty ones too. I thought about collecting a few pounds of them, and making a jam or something. But before I could get serious about it, Kim told me she heard a strange noise one night, and looked out to see deer eating crabapples off the lower branches. Deciding that feeding wildlife was a better use of the harvest, my culinary intentions were dropped.

But what if this was the ‘calm before the storm’? The tree is obviously fairly old, and I started worrying that it might have put its energy into one last effort to produce seeds since the end might be near. I’ve read that pine trees do that. So I picked a couple of good candidate crabapples up off the ground, and planted a whole one in one cup, and a halved one in another. The cups were then planted in the front flower bed.

Not more than two days later, the fruit was gone – some varmint had looted the bed.

While annoyed, I was not necessarily surprised. For the next effort, though, I researched how Johnny Appleseed accomplished his goal, and discussed options for my next effort with a noted middle TN Master Gardener (my mom) to ensure the next planting had a reasonable chance of survival.

Five crabapples of different states of ripeness were collected for round II. One was quartered, another was halved, and the remainder left intact. The differing pieces were then buried at various depths in a terracotta pot of special mix.

A few years ago, birds ate up all the watermelon seeds I planted in the ground before the seeds had time to germinate. Deciding the best approach was to start the seeds in individual containers & transplant later, special precautions were taken to protect the seeds.

It worked, but seemed like a little overkill. So the level of physical security was lightened for this effort.

With cold weather approaching, there’s no guarantee the seeds will germinate this season. While I could move the pot inside and hope it gets regular watering, the plan is to leave it in its hole in the backyard, and keep an eye on it. The cool thing about the setup is the elevation – Cookie should be able to help the seedlings out should they appear distressed…

Headline: TVA Lowers Lakes, Tom Scrapes Yard

2010-09-23T04:37:00.013-05:00

Glancing through the paper the other day, a filler article reminded me that TVA would lower water levels in different reservoirs on the Tennessee River after Labor Day to accommodate winter and spring flooding. The information in itself was nothing new because they’ve always done that since most people around here consider Labor Day the end of boating season. “Flooding”, though, got my attention.

Looking out the kitchen window, I remembered when this idyllic scene:

Looked even worse than this:

Starting early last year, Alabama has been getting more rain in every season for the first time since we added onto the house around three years earlier. Until early last year, I had not realized how much the house’s addition changed the rain’s existing drain path. Previously, the backyard drained down either side of the house without issue. Between the Big Tub addition and subsequent grading, the bulk of the water is now directed to the Shop side of the house.

The problem was that the runoff was accumulating near the Shop instead of draining on to the side yard. At one point, the water got so deep close to the house that it overflowed the retaining wall protecting the under-house access door, and flooded the house’s ductwork. In another prolonged monsoon, water got so high around one of the Shop’s big doors that the shop flooded. Standing out in several of the rains trying to figure out a solution did nothing more than get me wet. It was time to survey the yard’s elevation.

After laying out a grid of yellow dots in the yard spaced at two-foot intervals, Daniel and I spent some quality time surveying & recording each dot’s elevation. The transit’s relative numbers were then crunched into absolute elevations relative to the fence gate’s drain point (to Daniel’s right in the image above).

Now that I knew where to look for high spots, it was easy to see why water was not draining. To correct it, though, a wide, shallow swathe of topsoil needed to be scratched off. I thought about renting a Bobcat & doing the work myself. But since I wanted it to look good, a landscaping company, found in the Yellow Pages, was asked to come out & take a look.

“L.A.” showed up a day or two later and patiently listened as I waved my arms and talked about Daniel & me shooting elevations. Then I patiently listened after he said “sure – no problem. But…” and went on to try & talk me into a French drain installed across the half-acre backyard. When he saw I was not biting, he then tried to talk me into an outdoor patio kitchen complete with a sink & running water. After sensing no enthusiasm on my part and seeing Cookie run across the yard with her ball, he outlined plans for a glorious koi pond complete with waterfall, “the dog will love it!”

He ended up spending almost two hours at the house suggesting all sorts of supplemental work before we agreed that all he was to do on this visit was to move dirt around while not disturbing my Victory Garden. At one point, I wished I’d just decided to do the work myself. But after watching how much handwork they put into the job, I was happy it was them sweating, and not me.

To their credit, L.A. & crew ran water in all the scraped areas to make sure better drainage paths had been formed.

Cookie enjoyed the king size bed feeling of all the new straw.

While it had not rained in the days prior to the guys coming over, it rained right after they left, and I ended up doing a little shoveling of my own the next day to correct some minor problem areas. Getting grass to grow was now the priority especially before the next rain. The problem was that just about every day has had a temperature of ninety-something degrees, and grass seed requires a much lower temperature in which to germinate.

L.A. had thrown out some generic grass seed before he left, and a lot of it washed out of position during that first night’s rain. Having heard that Pennington Seed’s “Dense Shade Mix” actually grows in dense shade, I bought a bag of it for the shaded areas, a bag of Kentucky-31 fescue for the open areas, and a couple bales of straw to re-seed & re-straw the effort.

Remember the Victory Garden? At first, I thought it was a cucumber plant. Then the fruit started growing in the shape of a watermelon. After a week or so of daily watering to get the grass to grow, then skins of the two remaining fruits started striating like they were going to split. But they didn’t.

Unfortunately, a day or two later, worm holes were found on both fruits. Cutting one open, it appeared to be some sort of melon even though it smelled like a cucumber.

Maybe the bird that left the seed will leave a genus-species tag next time.

Several yards of really good topsoil had to be removed from the flood plain, and I asked L.A. to spread it in two different places where I was having trouble growing grass due to substandard soil. After over a week of daily watering, the good soil spread on the west side of the house has yet to yield a single blade of grass. It’s just too hot, and most of that area is in full sun.

The east side of the lot, though, got covered with much of the first scrape of established grass, and looks pretty good.

In spite of how hot it has been, there is a decent amount of grass growing near the house

…and downstream of the Shop’s big doors.

Between the extra helping of straw and the grass that has grown, the scraped area should be able to handle a gentle rain.

The almanac says summer officially ended yesterday. Today’s high was 94. But, as Yogi would say, “It’s not over till it’s over”. My yard’s ready for cooler weather, though.

I’m glad we’re headed to Disney World next week to give me a break from agitating over growing grass. But if nothing else, I hope I’m now done with standing in the rain watching everything flood.

I love the smell of rubber in the mornin'

2010-09-21T16:06:00.006-05:00

Well, that's not exactly what Robert Duvall said, but it's close.

The Mighty Suburban got new Michelins today in preparation of the Disney World trip scheduled for less than two weeks away. As I did before the last set of new tires seven years ago, the appliance-white wheels were repainted.

We be ready now.

Oddly, I really do like the smell of new rubber.

Disney: Here we come!

Smoky Mountains

2010-09-18T10:20:00.015-05:00

We spent Labor Day weekend enjoying the Smoky Mountains around Townsend, Tennessee. If I had a Lumex something something 10 camera like my buddy Frank, I probably could have shared a more breath-taking image of the surroundings. But you can get the idea from this one:

Since we were scheduled to hit the campground around supper time, Kim and Jared spent the evening before we left cooking the meat for the evening’s meal beef tacos.

I’m sure the Townsend KOA will win the President’s Award for 2010 when the votes are counted. The place was staffed by friendly people, and was incredibly clean, and well maintained.

In what I thought was a nice gesture, they gave us two bags of popcorn after we checked in. Unfortunately, our Airstream does not have a microwave, and since the bags had no oven directions we opted to bring them home with us.

Our campsite was great in that it had, I believe, the biggest concrete patio area we have ever had. As an added bonus it was only two sites away from both the playground and a bathhouse.

Jared got some serious use out of the playground. The Monkey Bars and Log Roll were particular hits this trip.

We spent part of one day doing touristy stuff taking in the natural beauty of the area. We even saw a black bear at one point.

The bear impressed Daniel until I told him it was a ringer hired by the Park Service to wander around and pose for people like us. He thought about it for a split-second before saying, “Daaad!” Then we all had a good laugh.

There was a creek running behind the campground complete with tadpoles.

Daniel preferred the wonder of electronic games.

The pool was great. It reminded me of when I was in the Swim Club, though, because the water was colder than no one’s business. But the Boyz seemed to enjoy it.

Kim enjoyed catching up on her reading while the Boyz swam.

While there were people out tubing on the creek, we decided they were hardier souls than us because the weather that weekend had been unusually cool at night, and the water seemed to mirror the mid-forty degree temperature my thermometer read the next morning. Since the Boyz still remembered tubing on a different river last year we didn’t feel we were robbing them of a new experience.

We had Tom’s famous chicken roll-ups the night before we left.

It was a great vacation capped with an uneventful ride home. I could wrap it up with that, but I’m sure my Aunt Shirley would be distressed if I were to not give the Burb Report.

You may recall that I’ve had several air conditioning issues lately. Fortunately, the Mighty Suburban’s air conditioner held up during the trip, and still appears to be doing well. I did have something else odd happen with the antique truck that put us on alert for a mile or so. Even as old as it is, the truck’s gas tank has a check-valve to let air in, but keep fumes from getting out. Most of the time, the check-valve does not work because gas can be smelt on occasion when walking near the tank. On long hot trips towing the Airstream, the incredible heat generated by the big engine is strong enough to heat the tank and force the check-valve closed as evidenced by the fill-cap being under pressure when we pull into gas stations. Up till now the annoyance of an occasional whiff of gas has not out-weighed the incredible amount of work required to replace the check-valve.

On the way to Townsend, the weather was in the nineties until we drove into a tremendous downpour. It rained so hard we had to slow down to 45 mph or so for a time. It had been raining for around five minutes when I remarked to Kim that the rain was nice in that it cooled the floor down. A few minutes later, we were within sight of our exit when the Mighty Burb started having trouble. “Fuel issue” popped into my head. I didn’t think it was the fuel pump, though, because we were on relatively level ground and the position of the gas pedal did not seem to influence the issue. As I was sorting the clues, I remembered when my best friend from high school and I would take the Geek Boat out (the name is another story). We had to run on portable, marine fuel cells because the onboard fuel cell rusted out years ago. Invariably, we would launch the boat, fire up the Mercury 80-hp outboard, and blast off only to have the engine sputter & quit after less than a minute of enjoyment. We had forgotten to open the fuel cell vent.

The Burb was acting the same way. But by the time we got off the interstate, the problem cleared itself. But I went ahead and topped-off the over-half-full tank & checked under the hood at the closest gas station. I think the truck’s check-valve stuck shut under the heat load, and the rapid cooling of the tank by the rain created a vacuum which prevented the pump from supplying fuel to the motor. Regardless, we continued the trip without further mechanical incident. “Ride quality”, on the other hand, plagued us the entire way there.

Near the end of last camping season, the Suburban’s steering was acting funny enough for me to take the truck to the tire shop who installed the tires seven years ago. Since the front tires were found to be cupped, I had the guys balance & rotate all four tires in addition to aligning the front end. Other than the cupped tires making more road noise in their new location, the problem was fixed. I later replaced all four shock absorbers.

Over this summer’s course of camping, all had been well until returning from our trip to Stone Mountain a low speed vibration was noticed. Since the tire shop had warned me cupped tires would need more frequent balancing as the cupping wore, so I was not overly concerned.

Leaving the tire shop, while everything was better, unfortunately it was not totally fixed. Knowing the root cause was cupped tires, I continued on home. As I was still in the process of validating the latest air conditioning repair, enough miles were accrued at various speeds without incident to make me think the Mighty Burb was ready for the Smoky Mountain trip - even with nine ounces (over a half-pound) lead weights on the LR wheel.

Unfortunately, due to the weight distributing hitch, the Suburban rides differently with the Airstream in tow, and a vibration showed up at 65 mph – our normal cruising speed. I think the issue bothered Daniel the most because he was in charge of constantly adjusting the camping gear stowed in the back of the truck to keep it from rattling. Before we left the campground, the wheel-of-many-weights was swapped with the spare tire, and we were able to return home with no additional wear & tear on Number 1 son.

I took the wheel back to the tire shop hoping their balancing machine had just had a bad day on the last visit. No such luck – I was standing at the machine when it read out “0.0 ounce needed”. Oh for the days when tire shaving (or “truing”) was common. I called around and could find no one who still had that equipment.

We’ve got a trip planned to Disney World at the start of next month, and the tires will have to be replaced before then instead of at the start of next camping season like I had hoped for. Maybe Michelin will hear about this and send me new tires as a goodwill gesture…

“Foam Plus” Really Works

2010-08-21T12:02:00.016-05:00

Although the record setting heat here in Alabama this summer has taken its toll on two of my trucks’ air conditioners, the house has stayed reasonably comfortable. The problem is that, even with the extra heat, more comfort had been expected because the house received a new compressor for its AC unit at the end of last season, and more insulation had been added to the attic earlier this year.

To compound the unmet expectation, there were the little clues that had been accumulating in my head. The thermostat has a filter monitor to let me know when the filter needs replacement. Strangely, the filter, while it appears to be doing its job, has not been that dirty the last few times it was replaced. The air coming out of the floor ducts, while cold, just didn’t seem to be blowing as hard as it once did. The power bill seemed unusually high even when the extra heat was factored in.

While under the house inspecting the fine plumbing work Gary did for me a few weeks ago, extra time was taken to inspect the ductwork for possible problems. None were found. Recirculation fans tend to either work at rated speed or not work at all. All signs pointed to an air blockage, and in a quiet moment, instead of the voice whispering, “Build it, and they will come”, it said, “Clean the evaporator coil for it is dirty”.

The voice was right about that:

The evaporator coil is the internal one that gets cold, and the entire top of the unit had to be disconnected to get to it. The first step in removing dirt accumulated from 15 years of operation was grooming it with a fin comb.

Even though I started off trying to collect what was combed out, the dust went everywhere, and the shop-vac was used to collect the bulk of it.

The next step was to spray it with approved cleaner from the appliance parts store.

I’m generally leery of foaming cleaners’ claims of “lifts dirt right out!” But this product was able to substantiate the claim.

After two applications of foam appeared to have done the job, the coils were gently rinsed with water. While doing so, a new problem presented itself – the rinse water was not draining. Foreign matter in the form of slimy, gelatinous material was clogging the drain. In my day job working in Life Sciences, we refer to this stuff by its technical name of “boogers”.

I couldn’t get a get a good head-on shot of the cleaned bank of coils, but it turned out better than this image implies.

The effects of the cleaning were profound. Every vent in the house pumped out significantly more cold air than before, and I did not have to hold a sheet of newspaper against the return vent to make sure it was drawing air. The fresh, clean smell might take a little getting used to, though.

The End.

I’ve got an unrelated funny if you’re in the mood. In the “hoot” category, there is a cucumber plant growing in the back yard amidst the ground trying to heal after another effort. The plant has gotten big enough that bricks were set up around the perimeter in an effort to keep the dog from trampling it.

This morning my ten year-old & I were sitting at the kitchen table while he was eating breakfast when he asked about the bricks. After explaining the reason, I went on to tell him I had not planted the cucumber's seed, and that it probably had been contributed by some low-flying bird.

He looked at me kind of funny and I went on to explain that, in nature, birds play a part when they eat fruits & vegetables, and fly away. Later, they poop the indigestible seeds in another area.

My fifth-grader thought about this for a moment and asked if I thought the plant was going to yield any cucumbers. After telling him I hoped so, he asked, “Are we going to eat them?”

This Year's Victory Garden

2010-08-18T16:31:00.003-05:00

I've tended several small vegetable gardens in years past with varying results. Honestly, I find it cheaper & significantly less effort to go to the grocery store for produce.

It's been record-setting hot in Alabama this summer, and a consequence has been the grass seed I threw out to cover some plumbing done in the backyard has yet to germinate. But what appears to be a cucumber plant, whose seed was probably contributed by a low-flying bird, appears to be happy.

In my yard, if it's green it counts.

I’ve Had Better Mondays

2010-08-17T16:28:00.009-05:00

You may recall that the Mighty Suburban’s air conditioner quit while coming back from the Hot Springs, AK trip. Danny’s shop installed another remanufactured compressor in time for our next trip a couple of weeks later to Stone Mountain/Six Flags in Georgia at no cost. Sadly, the replacement compressor only lasted long enough to get us there. Older son Daniel & I, though, managed to stay cool riding the new Goliath rollercoaster.

Kim & Jared decided they’d rather sweat. Departure day saw us leaving the campground at 4:30 a.m. to beat the heat during the four hour drive back home.

The next day, Danny installed another compressor, and kept the truck extra time just to make sure everything was okay. I’ve been driving it to work this past week just to build up my confidence in the latest repair because we’re headed to the Smoky Mountains at the end of the month, and the engine will have enough on its mind pulling some of the grades without having to tolerate the latest compressor smoking up the place like the last two did. Hopefully, the problem was just a slew of bad, remanufactured compressors. While remanufactured compressors have treated me well in the past, I’m done with them now, and if the Suburban’s current compressor craps out tomorrow, a brand-spankin’-new one will be installed.

This past Saturday I was running errands in the 98 degree heat when the Burb’s rear AC unit fan motor suddenly spun up to a super-fast speed. Thinking a fan wheel had simply come loose, the unit was switched off. But the particular sound didn’t sit right with me, and a few blocks down the road the radio was turned off & the air handler switched back on.

Hmm, lotsa air blowing out – something it wouldn’t be able to do with a loose fan wheel. The only thing that can make a DC motor spin faster is more voltage. A quick check of the dash voltmeter, and GAAH! To my chagrin it was pegged out past 20 volts. The fan motor was immediately switched off. Fortunately, I was within sight of my next stop, a grocery store, and was able to quickly pull in and get the engine shut off.

Figuring the alternator had ended its tenure with a flourish, I decided to go ahead and grocery shop to give the engine compartment time to cool before diagnosing the problem further. Seemed safe enough because all I was probably going to do was to pull the quick-disconnects on the wires going to the alternator for the four mile trip home, and that would take 10 seconds tops.

After shopping for, and stowing the goods, the next reasonable thing to do was to start the engine, and see if the problem was still there. Or try to start the engine. The key was turned, and nothing – no dash lights, no ‘click’, no anything happened. But the overhead light still worked. After popping the hood and tracing wires, a fusible link was found to be the culprit. The problem now was that I had neither tools nor parts to affect a repair. But I did have a wife at the house, so I called home. No answer. Tried her cell phone; no answer. Hmm, I’ll bet they’re over at the neighbor’s swimming pool. Called there – line was busy. Repeat the above – no luck.

Things were now starting to get tense because one of the purchases was a case of cold beer, and the heat wasn’t doing it any favors. Reassessing, my options appeared limited to either purchasing a cheap knife from the grocery store to cut & strip a wire from a non-critical circuit to use in place of the bad part OR sit on the tailgate and drink beer until either Kim got home or Joy got off the phone. After losing two coin tosses, I went with the first option.

The truck fired right up afterwords, and the voltmeter’s indication returned to normal. The beer had been saved. So had the night’s meal of fresh chicken leg quarters & everything else.

Daniel & I hopped on the motorcycle mid-Sunday morning in search of sanctioned repair parts, and added 30 miles to the odometer doing so. With better preplanning, I’m sure the mileage could have been reduced. But the fun of cruising with one of my Boyz doing guy things would have suffered.

The toasted fusible link’s temporary solution was replaced later that afternoon with new parts, and enough time was left to address another casualty of the Hot Springs trip - the broken gear selection indicator.

The root problem was simple - A little plastic hook (where the arrow is pointing) had broken off. But new pointers are no longer available for General Motors’ products built in 1984, and chances are a plastic pointer repaired with steel will last longer than a used one from an automotive junkyard. My trusty compound milling table got to help with this effort since the hole being drilled was so small.

The pin could be trimmed to fit after the epoxy cured-out Sunday night.

So O’dark-thirty Monday morning found me behind the wheel of the tan truck reassembling the dash because I wanted to drive the truck for a few more days to make sure the AC would hang with me.

The re-assembly went without a hitch, and after a quick shower my primary tow vehicle appeared ready to get me to work in the still-dark morning. The Mighty Suburban fired right up, and with satisfaction I could clearly see the truck was in “Park”. In the now subdued outside light I could also clearly see the right-hand turn signal dash light illuminated for no apparent reason. Flipping the turn signal lever up made the blinker audibly ‘blink’, but the dash light remained unfazed.

Upon further investigation, neither of the rear turn-signal/brake lights nor the right-front turn-signal light were found to be in working order. Since the lights had all worked prior to my MacGyver imitation in the grocery store parking lot, the assumption is that the high voltage burned them out. It made sense – I had to brake before signaling a RH turn into the parking lot.

Having neither time nor new light bulbs to address the issue forced me to switch vehicles and leave the Burb in the driveway. Firing the Silverado up, I was just about to put it in gear when a funny noise was heard coming from under the hood. But the noise stopped before it could be fully identified. My first thought was that some varmint’s nest under the hood was being thrashed about since the truck had been idle for several days. After moving a few feet down the driveway, the noise came back. While checking the dash gauges for signs of trouble, I noticed the interior wasn’t getting any cooler. Yep, it appeared the Silverado may need a new compressor. The AC was switched off, and I continued on my way with 2-60 air conditioning and no more strange noises.

Later, at work, someone came up and told me my elegant solution to one of last week’s problems was not working.

The day, thankfully, did not get any worse at the office. Danny was out sick so the Silverado’s NEW compressor will have to wait. The auto parts store had new light bulbs for the Suburban in stock. But it started raining on the way home from the store, and I was on the motorcycle.

I’ve had better Mondays.

We Be Drainin’ Now

2010-08-11T14:17:00.014-05:00

Kim & I have lived in our 41 year-old house for around 14 years now, and aside from some large-scale improvements, upkeep has not been much more than routine maintenance. But three or four years ago the kitchen sink started clogging occasionally, and would back up into the Boyz’ bathroom sink (on the other side of the wall) since both sinks shared a common drain pipe.

Although the problem usually occurred when grinding potato skins in the disposal (many people caution against grinding potato skins) the fact that I used to be able to grind anything led me to suspect the original iron sewer line was not up to the dual challenge of cleaning up after my Southern-style meals, and keeping the then younger Boyz’ teeth & feet clean.

While a variety of drain clearing techniques served to keeps the sinks generally functional, I knew that, in time, the condition of a certain section of pipe buried in the wall would only get worse, and the wall would have to be ripped out to replace a lot of old plumbing. But since the Boyz are only young once, and I had planned to do the plumbing myself, I decided to let life get in the way of doing anything about it at that point. The decision was made easier by the fact that crawling around under the house to connect plumbing has less appeal to me with each passing year. So I all but quit using the disposal to put off the inevitable as long as possible

We’ve been making a lot of trips in the Airstream this year, and part of the post-trip ritual is to rinse the trailer’s black tank into the sewer hookup incorporated into the construction of Mt. Airstream several years ago. While the hookup works well enough, I knew when the pipe was laid that the whole setup might not work to full potential because Mt. Airstream’s 3-inch sewer line was tied into the Shop sink’s existing 2-inch line instead of the house’s main, 4-inch line. The reasoning at the time was that I should be able to tolerate a less than perfect situation because the hookup would not be used that often, and I could always extend the line to the house at a later date if it ended up bothering me.

We spent part of last Thanksgiving in the next county over at Kim’s folks’ house, and I later confided to Kim a sense of disposal envy after watching the ability of her mom’s late-model kitchen sink grind up the skins from five pounds of potatoes without issue and subsequently grind up everything else presented to it. Consequentially, more & more of my random cogitating time started focusing on sewer improvements to our house & grounds.

One day a couple of months ago, a co-worker of Kim mentioned her husband had been laid off from his job as an explosives technician, and wanted to get the word out that he planned to stay busy before his next 9-5 job by practicing his previously established craft as a Master Plumber. “Please keep Gary in mind if you need any plumbing work done.”

In a small hometown twist of events, come to find out Kim grew up next to Gary & his sisters in Claysville. While allowing to me that she really didn’t know Gary at the time (he’s my age or older), Kim did remember enjoying playing with his sisters, and thinking their big brother was okay. That was then, and this now. Just to be sure, since he doesn’t live that far from Claysville now, Kim just called up a few relatives in Marshall County to see if Gary was still a good guy after he grew up. Everyone agreed he was. So we asked him over to talk about plumbing improvements.

Basically, I asked Gary to take charge of replacing the 2-inch plumbing in the back yard between the Shop & house with 3-inch, and replace the one sewer drop in the bathroom/kitchen wall with four drops – one for each side of the kitchen double-sink, one drop for the existing bathroom sink, and since we decided to take this opportunity to give each of the Boyz their own bathroom sink, one drop for the new sink. I would prep the effort by removing the bathroom vanity to expose the bad plumbing, and finalize the work by seeding the yard and re-installing the vanity.

While talking shop with him, I could tell Gary knew what he was doing. The only part of his plan I didn’t like was the use of a backhoe instead of a trencher in the backyard simply because a backhoe digs such a wide swathe. But he thought the backhoe was the best tool for the job. Since I work with skilled craftsmen during my day job who routinely turn out superior products, I decided the best approach now was to shut up, and take advantage of Gary’s experience.

There ended up being an unintended fringe benefit to having a backhoe on the premises. The front yard, in one spot, had an old bush in a rock bed Kim had never cared for, and its roots were too deep for my truck to pull it up. In another spot, ornamental grass had morphed into overbearing grass. Knowing he had rented the backhoe, Gary had no problem when I asked him to leave the keys in the ignition at the end of day one. Even though I had not operated a backhoe since I was a teenager, it all came back to me, and both problem areas were dug up in under a half hour. Lotsa fun, too; I drove around the yard looking to see if there was something else that needed to be dug up.

By the end of Friday, Gary had finished digging, and had cut out the bad plumbing. One friend in the pharmaceutical industry told me my bad pipe looked just like a clogged artery does:

We always eat out Friday nights, so the lack of kitchen sink plumbing was not an issue. Gary was relieved to find out we were leaving the next day on vacation for Hot Springs, Arkansas as he would have worked on a Saturday if necessary to get the kitchen sink operational. Satisfied with the quality of work he was doing, I asked Gary to go ahead and stub out water lines for the new vanity sinks while we were gone. I also told him we’d let the neighbors know he would be finishing the job on Monday in our abscence.

“Hot Springs” you ask? I could say it was because I always wanted to see the 42nd President’s old stompin’ ground. But Daniel chose the destination. He wanted to visit Arkansas, and we said, “fine, pick an area, and we will go”. Fortunately, there was a very nice KOA campground closeby.

Hot Springs got its name because it has naturally occuring hot springs. The water comes out of the ground at a fairly constant 143 degrees year-round. What the camera could not capture in the image below was the steam coming off the water.

Back before medicine progressed to its current point, people used to come from far & wide to take advantage of the healing effects of the hot springs, and bath houses sprung up everywhere in town to meet the demand. The Army & Navy completed a huge hospital there just in time to care for soldiers wounded in WW2. Today there is only one operational bath house, but several others are open for tours.

We spent the next day hiking in a state park, and swimming in the campground’s pool. Tuesday morning found us leaving early for the eight-hour ride home.

Although it was 98 degrees outside, the Mighty Burb’s dual AC units kept us comfortable until the compressor clutch burned up about 40 miles from the house. Do you remember 4-60 air conditioning? Kim did, and the Boyz now know what it’s like to ride at 60 mph with four windows down.

Although I could take the heat, what steamed me was the kaput air conditioner as I had had a new compressor/clutch assembly installed no more than a year ago, and it should have lasted much longer than this. “Fine”, I thought. “You’ll be home soon where a 12-pack of cold beer awaits. Everything’s going to be all right”.

Well, we were home soon enough, but there was much less beer than I remembered. Gary claimed he banged his thumb with a hammer and needed a pain killer, but I suspect he had a few beers just to celebrate a job well done:

There was, however, enough beer to take my mind off the AC, so I called it even. In the picture above, you can see the four new sewer drops at left, and the Shop/Airstream line entering from the right.

Only three drops are visible in the image below as the fourth is hidden by a wall stud.

The kitchen sinks were tested by filling both full of water, and then pulling the plugs. Both sinks simultaneously drained fantastically quick and made wicked sucking noises while doing so. The disposal side of the sink was accredited after easily chewing up the skins from five or six potatoes & the rind of one cantaloupe without burping. Mt. Airstream’s sewer hookup easily drained 25 gallons of water from a Blue Boy tank in seconds (something it could not do before). Thrilled, I shifted my attention to the Shop to complete modifications on the vanity base cabinet in preparation of the double-sink countertop’s arrival.

Originally, there were two small drawers to the left & right of the one sink. These went away to be replaced with one big drawer in the middle with a divider. It was fun making the drawer because for some reason, I have not needed to make one in years but always enjoyed the effort. It was a no-cost project, too because I already had all the material necessary.

After re-sheet-rocking the wall, the vanity base cabinet slid into place without issue, and a local cultured marble company sent two fellas over with a new countertop. With the addition of fixtures chosen by Daniel, the Boyz each had sinks just in time to prep for school starting back up on Monday.

Of course the new sinks drained without incident, and Gary had remembered to put “hot” on the left & “cold” on the right. Good thing, too, because he’d been paid & gone for a week at this point. Seriously, I was very happy with the work he did, and could hire him again.

As an add-on to the original project, we decided to put a new faucet on the kitchen sink because the one I installed around the time we bought the house was starting to leak around the spout’s swivel point. But right as I was walking in with my plumbing toolbox, Kim advised me the dishwasher had conked out. After checking this-that-and-the-other, a loose wire on the control panel was found to be the culprit.

Unfortunately, while the functional repair was easy, the control panel’s plastic mounting points had grown brittle with age, and would no longer hold a screw. I once read that it takes 500 years for a plastic milk jug to decompose in a landfill. The thought of writing Kitchenaid with a materials change suggestion crossed my mind before the reality of them preferring I just replace the 10 year-old dishwasher with a new one firmly took hold.

Due to its embedded electronics, a new control panel was not cost effective, so the old one was modified with the same plastic they make milk jugs out of, and #8 stainless screws & barrel nuts.

$4.62 and some quality time at the drill press later, the previous night’s supper dishes were on their way to becoming clean.

Between getting the Boyz’ sinks operational and repairing the dishwasher, Saturday was effectively shot. So I decided to hold off on replacing the kitchen faucet until the next morning. Since I get up early, chances were that the swap-out would be done before anyone else even got up.

Ain’t nothing ever easy. The under-sink shut-off valves wouldn’t work, and the water to the entire house had to be cut off. Then, in spite of using a special tool to loosen it, one of the nuts holding the faucet to the sink seized. The sink had to be removed to get the faucet off.

Even though the shut-off valves did not work, out of laziness I had not planned to replace them because they were tough to get to with the sink in place. But with the sink now removed, ‘stupidity’ would creep into the description of work accomplished if the valves were not dealt with. 5:30 a.m. found me sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee in a house with no running water waiting for the home improvement store to open at 8:00.

Kim finally stirred around 7:30, and while listening to my tale of woe she suddenly sat up and told me she needed to be in the shower by 8:00. While I had already decided to dodge lightning bolts that morning to get the sink operational, number 2 son had apparently bathed the night before in anticipation of making it to Sunday School. His mom did not want to disappoint him.

Having no spare parts suitable for temporarily capping off the kitchen water, I headed out to wait for the store to open. Through a litany of good luck, water was restored to the house by 8:15 - just within Kim’s tolerance.

The sink & faucet installation was completed with no new challenges. Replacing the valves had an unexpected benefit – The old valves were found to be partially clogged with both sediment from the city water supply, and a solder splash from the house’s original construction. The new faucet freely fills the sink like no one’s business.

But it’s nothing my new plumbing can’t handle, though.

Let there be less LED light

2010-08-09T03:48:00.002-05:00

After the second camping trip with LED lights installed in all overhead fixtures, Kim & I both agreed the bathroom was just too dim. So the original incandescent bulbs were reinstalled in that location for last week's trip to Stone Mountain's campground where we stay while visiting Six Flags' amusement parks.

For our trip to the Smoky Mountains at the end of this month, the light fixture over the dinner table will have its original 1156F bulbs returned so we can better see what we are eating.

Maybe at some point, a light vendor will market an 1156-style bulb with super-bright LEDs instead of regular LEDs. Until then I guess we'll have hybrid lighting in the Overlander.