The Bribe

I had to bribe Kid #2 to hold his younger brother for this shot.  The bribe was for a special dessert treat. 

It worked!

A New Friend

Meet "Bronchi", the new brachiosaurus in town.  Kids like to ride him like a horse, and color polka dots on him. 

He bends and he folds, and he's about 8 feet long.  Even though he is an herbivore by nature, his maker (me) chose to give him some ferocious teeth.  I think all dinosaurs should have teeth large enough to scare a kid into going to bed.

Spooky Things

Spooky costumes:

Spooky poses:

Spooky punkin: 

Spooky carvings:

Spooky dancing:

Mr. Fixit

Favorite wrench = big wrench

Three Month Birthday for #3

Wow, time sure flies.  Three months old already.

Making Cookies

Everybody gets excited when making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

The Secret Drawer

Kid #1 (aka, The Girl) and I have been working on a little project together out in the pole barn.  We have been making a "secret" drawer.  It's not that much, actually. 

Here's my work bench (I made that, too): 

The "secret" drawer is really just a drawer under the work bench that kind of blends in with the rest of the bench. 

When you open up the secret drawer, viola...  tools galore. 

This could also be a simple compensation.  That is, since I can't keep the house organized, I feel I can at least keep my tools and pole barn organized.  And when I do organize, I do it too much. 

But then again, maybe it was just a fun project with Kid #1.

The Dead Lawnmower

My newest lawnmower has died.  This is the Simplicity Agco Allis 1616H.

I was mowing over the weekend some super tall grass due to the recent rains.  While in the tall grass, the mower just didn't have the power.  It never really had any good power to start with, but it seemed a little worse.  I"m sure the engine got a little more hot than normal mowing this tall grass.

The next day, I finished mowing.  During this session, I would notice occasional puffs of blue smoke blow out the exhaust in the front.  I wasn't even sure I saw it because it was so quick and intermittant.  While driving back to the barn after finishing, the "check oil" light came on.  Upon opening the hood, the left side inside the hood was drenched with oil, and the entire left side of the engine was soaked down, too.  The dipstick shows a very low oil level, of course.  I'm guessing the head gasket blew out, but I'm not for sure.  At least I'm hopeful it's just a head gasket and nothing else.  I'll know more when I take the engine out and inspect it further. 

I'm still waiting on hydrostatic linkage parts for the 420, so I'll be mowing with the 316 this upcoming weekend.  It's dependable for being 27 years old.

The Big Stick

A big storm blew through after suppertime.  Standard thunderstorm happenings - sheets of rain, high winds, and quite a load of hail.  A big stick blew off the maple tree to the west of the house and landed on top of the TV room, and rolled onto the porch.  Wife and kids were in the TV room at the time and heard the bonk.  I was standing in the breezeway, and watched it roll onto the porch.  It was pretty cool.

It was pretty close to hitting 3 windows, but there appears to be no damage.  I'll learn more tomorrow as I clean up.

The west side of the house looks like a salad.  Maple leaves are pasted all over the west facing sides of the house. 

Quite the storm.

Upgrading

I am always watching Craigslist for a good deal .  I believe I know the market pretty well on a few key models, and even have an Excel matrix detailing out models, options, and prices.  So when I came across an advertisement for a John Deere 420 that was way below typical, it really raised my eye brows.

I replied to the ad, and asked the standard questions.  To make a long story short, I offered him 30% less than his already extremely low price.  I didn't think he would go for it, and he didn't at first.  The seller had a few other people come by and kick the tires.  Eventually, he emailed back and said I could have it for my offer.  Wow! 

The only problem is that it is located in Cincinnati.  No big deal.  I took the day off of work yesterday, borrowed a trailer from a friend, and picked it up. 

So this is a John Deere 420.  The 420 is in the next series up from the 300 series platoform, and it is simply bigger all around.  It has more "tractor like" options with it including differential lock, individual left/right brakes, a 2 speed transaxle, and power steering.  It also has a shaft driven 60" mowing deck.  Also included in the price was a front mounted snow blade (4 way - up/down and also left/right tilt), wheel weights, tire chains, extra oil filters, extra deck blades, all the operator manuals, all the receipts from the last 10 years of maintenance, and an extra key.  That's all the good stuff.

Now the bad stuff.  The 20hp engine is nearing the end of it's life.  It is burning oil, and also sucking oil into the air filter housing.  The latter may be a simple $0.25 spring in the crankcase breather valve.  The former will most likely be cured with a new set of piston rings.  Although, the engine may be so old, a simple ring job may not be enough.  Nonetheless, even if worse comes to worse and a new engine is necessary, I'll still be money ahead due to the bargain I got in the initial purchase.  We'll see how it goes.

and a bonus smiley picture. 

Five minutes ago

I snapped this picture just a few minutes ago.  He is now 4 weeks and 5 days old.

One Month Later

Wow - I can't believe it's been a month since the last post.  Babies are good time measuring devices.  While I don't have a good picture of the 4 week old baby, I do have some good pictures of a home project that went well.

My older sister came down to paint the boys' room.  She slaved away for the better part of 2 days on this.  Half of the room is for Boy #1, and the other half is for Boy #2 when he gets old enough to share the room.

Good job, Big Sis.  The kids sure like it alot, and we do to.

Another New Arrival

On Wednesday evening, we welcomed into this world Baby #3 to our family.

(For confidentiality and security purposes, I do not use my kid's proper names.  So, I'll continue to refer to him as Baby #3)

Baby #3 weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds 9 ounces.  He has dirty blonde hair, and alot of it.  After a day of some monitoring and tests in the NICU, he has been given a clean bill of health.  Praise God!

Wife is doing very well.  She went through labor naturally, and only had about 30 minutes of difficult labor towards the end.  Up until then, the most painful part was getting the IV in the vein. 

It is expected we'll be discharged from the hospital, and home tonight.  We're overjoyed.

The New Arrival

So today I acquired a new piece of equipment.  Behold the Case 446 garden tractor.  My neighbor had this sitting in his barn for the last many years.  It hasn't run for 7 or 8 years by now, and the last time he did have it running, it tended to die often.  He know I enjoy tinkering and fixing on old things, so he just gave it to me.  Thus, for free, I got this lawnmower, an unpictured snowblade, and an unpictured mowing deck.  And there's more to the story....

We succesfully pulled over the tractor from his barn to my barn using a tow strap.  No problems.  I went back with the old wood wagon to pick up the snow blade.  My neighbor and I lift it up into the wagon without issue.  The fun began when we went to get the mowing deck.

He found it lying under some old hay.  Old hay as in 15 years type of old.  It was pretty well composted and rotten over the mower deck.  We push the hay away and get ready to lift up the heavy mowing deck.  Neighbor on one side, and I on the other.  We lift up and kind of get situated and ready to walk out of the barn when he starts hollering, "Get out!  Run!".  Thinking we may have stirred up some hornets nest, neighbor pushes me out of the barn.  I'm looking behind for some bees or hornets or anything to cause the concern, and he tells me there was a pretty skunk under the mowing deck.  About that time, we start to smell the skunk so we move further away fromt he barn.  After a minute or two, we see that pretty skunk slink around the corner of the barn and into another hole in the barn.  We didn't get sprayed, but it sure got the adrenalin pumping.  I'm sure that skunk didn't like to get that mowing deck dropped on its head either.

Nonetheless, I got two thirds of the equipment he intended to give me.  I'll go back sometime in a few months and see if that skunk has moved it's residence.

What is my intention with this old lawn mower?  I really don't know.  I think I'll at least get it into a running condition.  Perhaps down the road I'll even give it a little paint job.  I have no idea.  I have a problem passing up free lawn mowers, perhaps.

Note:  Please enjoy this picture of my 40-week pregnant wife.  Today is her official due date for Baby #3.  Doesn't she look happy on that old garden tractor?  Perhaps it's just a smile of exasperation.

Weed Whipping - 1930's style

My neighbor has a great way to trim the long grass and weeds along the creek that goes through our properties.  He has a McCormick No. 9 sickle bar mower.  We can trim the creek in the front of the house in about 45 seconds per side.  That sure beats a sweaty hour of weed whipping.

Sure, back in the 1930's, this rig would have been pulled by some horses, but the International 184 is a little smoother.  My neighbor drove, weaved around the many trees, and kept us out of the creek - it was very professional driving.  Keep in mind, the sickle bar is driven by the steel wheels, so the faster you go the faster the sickle bar moves.  We feel it cuts better at a high speed. 

My job riding on the mower is to adjust the height of the sickle bar.  Too high, and you're not cutting anything.  Too low, and you plug up with mud, get loaded up with grass, or break something.  A hand lever coupled to a foot lever allows for movement of the sickle up and down.  If all this wasn't a challenge, staying on the seat certainly was.  The seat I rode on tipped forward somewhat.  So, bouncing over the yard at a decent clip on the edge of the creek while dodging trees and all the while nearly being launched forward out of your seat made for a fun afternoon.  I hope we can do this again soon.

Big Changes

The Girl is losing teeth like crazy. Just 12 days ago, she lost her third tooth. Three days ago, she lost her 4th tooth. Tonight, we yanked out her 5th.

Here is a picture of her before losing tooth number 4 a few nights ago. You can see the top front tooth is pretty crooked.

Tonight, after bunch of wiggling, tooth number 5 was ready for extraction. I found the easiest way to grab on to those little teeth is to use my compound needle nose pliers. Her teeth are so small and so smooth, fingers just can get a grab.  She is very trusting, and prefers the pliers over fingers.

So after all is said and done, her two front teeth on the top are history.

No corn-on-the-cob for her this summer. Oh well. I don't think she will mind too much.

The Weekend

Our Saturday was interesting. A few things to say:

1. In the morning, I made this.... Pecan pancakes with blueberry syrup. One of our favorites.

2. I sharpened blades on the JD lawnmower. When I put the belt back on, I laced it around the outside of a peg instead of the inside. So, when I started it up, things started smoking quickly thereafter. I shut things down, saw the problem, and tried to move the belt to the other side of the peg. I didn't think it would be hot, but it was. The result - I got a nice burn on my finger. It looks pretty gross.

3. I got a wireless router for the new laptop given on Mother's Day. This is very nice.

4. A dust storm blew up in the evening on Saturday. I was out mowing (after burning my finger), and the northwest looked brown. I stopped mowing, and the dust storm blew through. Visibility was greatly reduced, and our eyes hurt. I've never seen anything quite like it before. I didn't get the yard finished.

5. The neighbor offered to let me have his old lawnmower. He doesn't use it anymore, and thought I could have some fun fixing it up. So, for free, I will be getting an old Case 446 lawnmower - complete with unused mowing deck and a well-used snow blade. It ran when he parked it 5 years ago, but he said it has troubles staying running. Some weekend, I'll move it into the barn. No rush. Lots of other projects to work on in the meantime.

That's all for now.......

The Good Saturday

We had an exciting day this past Saturday. We were able to go down to Indianapolis and watch the Memorial 500 Parade in the downtown. We met some friends, and sat in the middle of Vermont Street watching the parade go down Meridian.

The weather cooperated nicely. It took awhile for the parade to get to us. Lucky we brought bubbles....

The parade was pretty cool. The kids enjoyed the big balloons. I enjoyed the cars. We were able to get out of the area around 2:30 in the afternoon.



We visited with our friends at their house in Fishers, and got back home late to see our front yard under water. according to our neighbor, we only had 0.8 inches of rain, but it came in a flash. And since our ground is pretty well saturated, there weren't too many places for it to go. Here is a picture looking to the north.



And here is a picture from near the house looking to the east. Pretty soggy out there....

The Air Compressor Fix

Dad's air compressor blew up. He took off the cylinder head to find a screw or two rattling around inside the compression chamber. I happily offered to clean up the damage.

Firstly, I sandblasted out all the dirt and grime, and flattened the seating area on a flat granite block with 1000 grit sand paper.

The intake valves were easy - chase the 8 threaded holes with the appropriate tap. It was a very odd sized - #5-40. I use #4, 6, 8, and 10 all the time, but this is my first opportunity to work with a #5. I had to go to my machinist buddy to get a #5 modified bottoming tap.

The exhaust valves needed to upsize a little. The threads were bad, so I went from a #5-40 to a #8-32 button head stainless steel screw. Drill out the hole, thread it, and also drill out the valves and valve retainers to the OD of the screw.

I think this should now work nicely. Delivery is set for Easter weekend.

Watts to Pancakes

This is the first year we tapped our maple trees for syrup making. The wife has been collecting bucket loads of sap every day from just two trees. Each of these 2 trees has just one tap in it.

We don't have a very efficient way of boiling down the sap. We have been evaporating the sap on our stove top. I had the inclinatation this is a very inefficient way to go about doing so, so I did some math.

It turns out there are alot of interesting factoids and conversion factors to ponder in maple syrup engineering.

First, I needed to figure out how much electricity our stove top is consuming. I shut off all the circuit breakers in the house, except for the stove top. Then, at the electric meter, I could count how fast our meter was spinning.

From the internet, I found an equation that turns electric meter RPM into watts. It turns out our stove uses 1200 Watts of power for boiling down maple tree sap.

Here are some other factoids necessary for the final math equation:

• I put 2 Tablespoons of syrup on each pancake
• Sap boils down to syrup in a ratio of approximately 40:1
• Our current electric rate is 9 cents per Kilowatt-Hour

Thus, 2 Tablespoons of syrup per pancake = 80 Tablespoons of sap. There are 256 Tablespoons per gallon, thus it may be easier to say that for every 3.2 pancakes you eat, 1 gallon of raw tree sap is consumed.

How fast does our 1200 Watt stovetop boil down sap? That is an important part of the equation behind my final answer. We figure we yield about a half a cup of maple syrup after an 8 hour day of boiling.

So, 8 hours of cook time at 1.2 KW = 9.6 KWH

Thus, 9.6 KWH at 9 cents per KWH = $0.86

These figures assume the production of 1/2 Cup of maple syrup. (1/2 Cup = 8 Tablespoons)

Thus, 9600 Watts divided by 8 Tablespoons = 1200 Watts of power per Tablespoon.

Since I use 2 Tablespoons per pancakes, my final number is 2400 Watts Per Pancake. Wow!

My Favorite Tools

I have a few favorite tools. A good quality tool is so nice to use. Many of these I use every day:

The Pocket Knife: I like this one because its so small, and has only the essentials (knife, scissors, screwdriver). I think Dad gave this to me many years ago. The backside says "Ciba Geigy" which I think is some fertilizer company or something.


Mitutoyo 6" Calipers: Always accurate, and has a good "feel" to it.

Hand vice / bench vice: This awesome little vice is great for small parts. It can be either a hand vice, or you can mount it to a benchtop. I use it alot for holding piping and tubing.

My Pocket Ruler: I carry this everywhere, because I use it so often. Perhaps Dad can lend me a pocket protector, eh?

My 1/4" Drive Socket Set: I use this all the time now. I made 3 little custom-built socket holders to keep the 3 styles of sockets organized (6pt, 12pt, and metric) and that has greatly increased the usability of this set. This set is small enough to go everywhere. I used it so much I had to have Sears replace the ratchet wrench last year. Sadly, the new ratchet now has a plastic "reversing" lever, and it doesn't have the same feel as the old one.

The DeWalt Portable Bandsaw (or Portaband, for short). It makes quick work of chopping out stock.

The Knee Mill: This is a knockoff of a Bridgeport, but it does everything I need it to do. Complete with digital read out.


The list could go on, but that's all for now.

Remembrances of Fall

I posted my first video to Youtube. I think it turned out pretty well....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sA8Pik1Q0U

Notes:
1. Meridian Road
2. Driving south
3. Coming home from the Huntington Pioneer Festival
4. 12 to 14 mph

This is my Boy's favorite video.

With Friends Like These....

.... who need enemies?

Yesterday at work, we went to our normal group lunch event where the entire staff goes out to eat as a big group. We do this every Tuesday, and one person from the group picks the restaurant of their choice to go to. Yesterday, we went to El Meson, a very good Mexican restaurant in town. It is one of my favorites.

While at the restaurant, word leaked out to the wait staff that it was my birthday. As you may know, Mexican restaurants really like to celebrate birthdays, and I was easy prey in front of my 14 friends from work.

At the end of the meal, the wait staff rushed out and slammed a big sombrero on my head and placed a Fried Ice Cream dessert in front of me. The embarrassment didn't stop there. The head waiter then took a spoonful of whipped cream and plastered it across my face. The picture above is a little premature, and does not show the full effect.

I had so much whipped cream on my face I got it right up my nose. Not only did I have a hot sombrero on my head, 14 friends shooting pictures, and the entire restaurant watching in horror, but now I had breathing difficulties.

It really wouldn't have been so bad if they had left off the chocolate sprinkles as a topping, but those went up my nose, too.

On a positive note, my sinuses have been clean and clear ever since!

Christmas Highlights

Here are a few of the highlights from our Christmas in Michigan. We all had a good time, and put nearly 800 miles on the car with our travelling.

First, we started off in Frankenmuth, Michigan. The kids were in awe of the Franken-moose:

We were able to walk around the little shops within Frankenmuth, and happened upon a nice nativity scene with the Bavarian Inn Lodge in the background.

What? Sharing presents? Surely not my children:


Showing off her Dad's new slippers:


Showing off his favorite Christmas gift - a Tootsie roll from his Tootsie roll bank.