So if you didn't do anything airgun related what did you do today?

[avator]

Called yesterday to have the electric and water shut off in the bar/mancave. The electric went off in a matter of a couple hours.
Just before noon today we were in the kitchen fixing out taco salads and we saw the red pickup truck from the water company out front on the dirt road. After we ate Betty Lou went to the kitchen to clean up...
"HUNNY !! WE HAVE NO WATER !!"  I looked out and the truck was gone.
I called the water company and the lady said she would call the guy and turn him back around. 4 hours later he shows up. It takes less than 5 minutes to turn the right meters on and off. These 2 meters are on 2 completely different acres of land.
When I looked out he was at the right meter. I don't know how he messed it up. I didn't even see him go to the other meter.

[anti-squirrel]

I spent some time after work yesterday on a deep dive into my perennial headache Statesman riding mower.  The coil's supply wire had all the starting current going through a single lead.  The larger female spade terminal was rusted gone; as in there was nothing.   

We ended up doing a little weeding in the front gardens after that.  I pulled some random poison ivy that snuck in with the blueberries and our fig tree but it came up easily thanks to all the rain.  It was hot and very humid but our beer was cold and refreshing.

We need some pictures of this landscape project.  It sounds like you are restoring the Garden of Eden. 🦾🌴

This was just in our front yard.  Our property in Buckingham County is where the big work is going on.

[anti-squirrel]

These are both facing north.  The first is top of the field where our home will sit (older picture).  the second is after clearing some vegetation.  By some, I mean about 120 trees ranging from saplings I can knock down with a weedwacker up to some 70+ footers I took down with an axe.  I used a chainsaw to buck the trunks, as well as any trees not COVERED with thigh-sized poison ivy vines.

The back of the downhill_woods_line picture has green treetops in the background.  Those are across the James River in Fluvanna County.


The woods line was borderline impenetrable when we started.  That second picture doesn't show our lateast efforts" I can now drive my CR-V and Element up and down with ease, and the treeline on the far left of the Woods_line picture (open field with trees in the background) has been cleared enough to drive the Tahoe down.


As far as why I used an axe to drop the trees: it may be slower, but I've rather not be covered with mounds of poison ivy wood-chips.  I also like maintaining old skills and proficiency with my tools I can't really put into words just how BAD the poison ivy was once you got into the woods. 

[anti-squirrel]

Here's a better view of that tree line from when we first started working on it.

We ended up selling this mower as it was just too unwieldy riding the velky in the field once we started breaking ground for the slab.


there's a ton of poison oak and sumac in this image.  There's plenty of poison ivy, too- but this is after we killed a lot of the vines with 20% vinegar.

[bReTt]

Here's a better view of that tree line from when we first started working on it.

We ended up selling this mower as it was just too unwieldy riding the velky in the field once we started breaking ground for the slab.


there's a ton of poison oak and sumac in this image.  There's plenty of poison ivy, too- but this is after we killed a lot of the vines with 20% vinegar.

Very nice!  👌🏼

You two must be real proud of all that you have accomplished.  🦾 Thank you for sharing pictures of the place 🙏🏼

You may have already said this but what is the master plan for the property?  Building a new home there? 

[anti-squirrel]

We're ever-so-slowly building a home using a quonset hut.  This won't be the semicircular hut, more the A-style with vertical sides up to about 8 feet, then curving over to meet a classic roofline running down the center.  The hardest part has been coordinating with contractors.  The first guy was supposed to finish the concrete pour last May.  We ended up firing him, and it turns out the guy we hired for electrical is a general contractor AND lives on a farm less than a mile away as the crow flies.  Between his existing workload and how long we've already waited, there's no point in pushing/rushing.  The quonset should be getting erected this week and next as weather permits, and the septic should be soon.  I'll be doing some work myself, too, though for once I am willing to pay somebody else; Sonja made it clear that my free time is very valuable to her so I'm not complaining.  The floor of the concrete pour has radiant heat.  Incidentally, we were looking at a 24x30 or perhaps 24x36 or 40 footer, but my in-laws wanted in on the fun so we're effectively building a "duplex" 30x60 with a shared utility room.  It still leaves us more space than we use currently in our existing home.  We'll sell our current home once we finish the build.   All told, the last time I checked the actual pricing per square foot, the quonset was going to be about $80/sq foot but we had to deal with feature- and cost-creep thanks to a number of factors.  When you consider we're effectively getting our dream home and it will still run less than $120/square foot sitting on roughly 15 acres with frontage on a river (house sits more than 80 feet above the flood plain) versus the magnormous median price point north of 400K for an oversized McMansion on a 1/4 acre in suburbia, I think we're coming out way ahead. 

I figure we're about 80% done with the clearing.  Those are older pictures from early spring; we've thinned things out even more.  Mondo grass, wildflowers, and ferns are starting to spread, and we seeded a lot of clover, too.  The poisonous stuff is a constant battle but that's not something you can do overnight.  I have to keep in mind our proximity to the James River, hence why we use 20% Vinegar to kill it.


Side benefit: there's a mini-ravine (for a seasonal stream) feeding the river as it curves in a natual oxbow in the James.  There's some undercut Black Walnut trees right at the bank, and you would not believe the number of smallmouth bass you can catch with almost no effort right from the property.  Yeah, there's longnose gar and catfish aplenty, too.  We're also well above the James River fall line, so we don't have to worry about water moccasins. 

[Rick67]

Here's a better view of that tree line from when we first started working on it.

We ended up selling this mower as it was just too unwieldy riding the velky in the field once we started breaking ground for the slab.


there's a ton of poison oak and sumac in this image.  There's plenty of poison ivy, too- but this is after we killed a lot of the vines with 20% vinegar.

Very nice!  👌🏼

You two must be real proud of all that you have accomplished.  🦾 Thank you for sharing pictures of the place 🙏🏼

You may have already said this but what is the master plan for the property?  Building a new home there?

I envy the verdant expanse 

[anti-squirrel]

Thank you!

We've spent a lot of sweat equity just improving the land.  There's a trucker who farms the land- it was in his family since the 1700s, but his grandparents sold off a bunch of the lots in 5+ acre parcels when he was young; he still farms the land with explicit permission from all of us property owners- just Johnson Grass for hay.  Anyway, the lots we have are his least productive, so he was actually happy to see us invest the time.  We fixed the lower access road (it was washed out and deeply rutted) and he now can get his largest tractor and implements onto the most productive fields (down on the floodplain, only about 12 feet above the river) so we're saving him wear and tear on his small tractor. 

We still have a long way to go before we can rest on our laurels, but when you consider we've done it all by hand, it's kinda impressive.

[buellm2]

Thank you!

We've spent a lot of sweat equity just improving the land.  There's a trucker who farms the land- it was in his family since the 1700s, but his grandparents sold off a bunch of the lots in 5+ acre parcels when he was young; he still farms the land with explicit permission from all of us property owners- just Johnson Grass for hay.  Anyway, the lots we have are his least productive, so he was actually happy to see us invest the time.  We fixed the lower access road (it was washed out and deeply rutted) and he now can get his largest tractor and implements onto the most productive fields (down on the floodplain, only about 12 feet above the river) so we're saving him wear and tear on his small tractor. 

We still have a long way to go before we can rest on our laurels, but when you consider we've done it all by hand, it's kinda impressive.

Building a home together with your own hands is one of the finest things a couple can do.   It's too bad that more couples don't get that experience.   Lifetime memories and bonds are built.   

[bReTt]

That's amazing Peter!  I remember reading about the quonset hut now that you reminded me of it.  Sounds like a cool set up when it's finished.  I would love to build my own home...  Maybe I'll get to help one of the kids if/when they ever get there.  I like your idea about the duplex. 

[Kola]

Took a dog to the vet to have a cyst/lump removed.

She is lying next to me on the couch now, a bit groggy and grumpy.

[anti-squirrel]

We looked at stick-built, pole-and-beam, rammed earth, cob, SIP panels, all-metal "box" (like a commercial building), and ended up settling on the Quonset since they're local-ish (based out of Virginia Beach, my home town).  Cob, rammed earth, even cordwood all work very well at a very low cost but permitting would be a nightmare.  SIPs and Pole-and-Beam are very nice but we're sort of paying as we go, keeping all costs out of pocket as much as possible. 


I have 3 1/2 hours left in the day and I just found out 2 of my customers are pretty much starting all over on the migration to our newer product.  This means the 100+ hours I have invested in each migration are for naught.  Sort of like building a nice ranch house on a slab, then once the plumbing and electrical are installed, changing to a 2-story house sitting on crawl.  I think I may go outside and use one of the sledgehammers to destroy something.

Kobus- I wish your dog a speedy recovery.  Ours are all too old for anesthesia so any lumps they have now are what they're "retiring" with.

[Kola]

Thank you.

Am sure she will be fine, but 10 days with a cone around her neck is going to be ‘interesting’.
She is a really stubborn little dog.

[Madd Hatter]

Fired up the Stihl weed waker and been knocking down the high weeds. Going to go back out and do some more once it cools off later. Got a dog sitting job this weekend so I only have today and tomorrow to get what I can down. Suppose to be in the 90s next week so I guess I'll be getting up a lot earlier to beat the heat. Darn line we bought from home Depot is real brittle. I've already had to open up the spool and get the line feeding again. Guess I need to soak the spools in a bucket of water for a week.

[maraudinglizard]

Did the once in a while supply run, food, feed, and yard necessities. I left at daylight and by the time I got home at noon it was miserably hot. I quickly unloaded everything to keep stuff from spoiling. Surprisingly most of the garden has held up well to this heat. I am not going to plant anything else until it cools down.  I'll probably go back to night fishing when it's cooler and less idiots as well.



Robert, I use the Shakespeare weedeater line for my Kobalt string timmer. I've never had to soak any of the Shakespeare lines. I use the .155 in my DR string mower and is easy to thread in the mow ball.

https://www.lowes.com/pl/Shakespeare--String-trimmer-line-String-trimmer-parts-accessories-Trimmers-edgers-Outdoor-tools-equipment-Outdoors/4294506766?refinement=4294964623         

[Madd Hatter]

You gotta remember Kris, it's drier than a popcorn fart here in the AZ. Where you live is high humidity and it doesn't dry out the line like happens here. Our humidity is single digit until the monsoons start up some time next month.

[bantam5s]

I've been working on my minibike.
I think I've got the high pitched riding squeak identified as an issue with the drum break and believe I've solved the issue, but now face another.

When I move rock or push on it the rear squeaks like crazy, like a squeaky chair or noisy mattress box spring...etc.
It wasn't doing this before and I've gotta figure out what I did wrong.

[Sqrl Klr]

Got the loud squealing shed door lubed so it will stop hurting my ears every time I unlatch the lock and raise the door. Greased the front casters on the mower. Tightened the tension pulley which is such a PITA compared to spring tensioners that do all the work for you. Found moths, their larvae and tiny beetle looking critters in my deer corn container so I killed all the critters, removed the 3 sacks of corn, washed the container and lid with soap then let it dry, cleaned off the sacks with soap water wipes so no pheromones would be left anywhere to attract any again. Finally I put a garbage bad inside the container then put the 3 corn sacks in and tied the bag then closed the lid which hopefully will conceal the corn scent to prevent having to do all that anymore. Blew the garage out so no more dead bugs in there then the driveway and back patio as well. Time for a beer.

[Hoosier Daddy]

Let's see..
At 00:00 I was awakened buy the dog.wamting out.. odd. But ok we went out.
03:45 same crying and barking.. "Shadup! Lay down" I yelled.
04:00 woke up to the smell of poop and discovered Dawg diarrhea in the bed room.
... She tried to tell me....
Put her out until 0615 while I scrubbed the carpet and got ready for work. Then she seemed ok so I brought he in and left for the day.
 Should have left her out... Came home at 15:00 to 6 piles of diarrhea in the family room.
  Now 4 hours later, she has been out since I got home..it's all scrubbed and disinfected.. she is now acting fine so I let her in.
Let's see how tonight goes.

[Sqrl Klr]

Did she get into a chocolate bar? One time my toy poodle ate a big Hershey's bar and he spread his Hershey squirts in a complete circle around the Christmas tree getting it on a lot of the presents. Wonder it didn't kill him. Wonder I didn't kill him. hehe

He never raided any more chocolate after that.