What did you do today?

[ebinmaine 67,564]

1 hour ago, Rob J. said:

I built an engine/workbench crate

This is awesome.  

[Dan.gerous 2,696]

Today we went to Carlisle so I could renew my seafarers medical certificate.

 

After being passed fit for another 2 years work we carried on to a little town on the coast called Silloth. A guy there brought the last of my little 4.7hp Robin diesels, so we dropped it off while in the area.

 

Lovely little town and great guy. He showed me the renovation  work they are doing to an old house there, always interested in seeing this sort of stuff.

[Stormin 9,981]

2 hours ago, Dan.gerous said:

Today we went to Carlisle so I could renew my seafarers medical certificate.

 

After being passed fit for another 2 years work we carried on to a little town on the coast called Silloth. A guy there brought the last of my little 4.7hp Robin diesels, so we dropped it off while in the area.

 

Lovely little town and great guy. He showed me the renovation  work they are doing to an old house there, always interested in seeing this sort of stuff.

 

You should have called in. You drove right past my lane end. Just past the cross roads at the bottom of the hill after Abbeytown. Signed Seaville. 

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

Put all new discs and pads on ye olde Volvo. Still had everything original on it after 160.000km or 100.000 miles. Now ready for the next 160k. And yes I know it could use a wash 

 

Not too bad looking. Pads were gone, discs had a little lip but not terrible. 

 

Bad picture but that is sound deadening or padding inside the tunnel where the driveshaft comes out of the gearbox and pokes out to the wheel. No wonder it's so quiet 

 

 

All done. Only thing left is to drive 200 km or 125 miles to 'break in' the pads and discs as per instructions from Brembo.

 

[ebinmaine 67,564]

Trina and her mom have been working on making a nice cleared area in the forest path for her daughter's wedding coming up here in 2 weeks.  

She made an arch for the bride and groom to stand in/under for the vows ceremony.  

 

 

After the vows the whole shebang moves down by the garden area where Trina's been working on clearing and flattening the ground.  

We'll have 2 pop-up tents that are 10 x 30 each with tarps on the ground as "flooring".  

 

 

I started out the morning working on clearing a new place for the Wheelhorses-in-progress and parts pile. The old line is in the way of the new building excavation area. 

After about 45 minutes to an hour I got in a match with some small ground yellow jackets. 

At first it was bees, 6. Me 2. I got stung at least 6 times but I killed 2 of the jerks. 

 

Well after the Trina put some stung stuff and baking soda paste on I went back out... Armed with 3 cans of brake cleaner. 

I done commenced to nest wide elimination. 

I covered the hole with a rock and sprayed a healthy dose down it. Then just set and waited for returning jerks 🐝 to spray them. 

Within the first ½ hour I killed over 40 of them. 

Throughout the rest of today my 🐝 death count is some over 50 total.  

 

[Handy Don 12,233]

4 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

Within the first ½ hour I killed over 40 of them. 

 

Strays will return to the nest at sundown and rebuild the nest over time. 

In our bout it was yellow jackets 3, Don 0 -- the next door neighbors had had a couple stings, too, but couldn't find the nest--it was in the ground in a border planting between our two yards.

We had a pro come over (part of our annual extermination management service). Wearing a bee suit, he opened the entrance a bit and then injected a powder into the nest that sticks to the bees going in and out. Next day, no live bees but a lot of corpses.

We have a garden full of plantings deliberately attractive to butterflies (lots of Monarchs and Viceroys lately!) and honey bees but hornets, yellow jackets, wasps, and carpenter bees are non-grata.

[Handy Don 12,233]

22 hours ago, Rob J. said:

Today I finished a little project of mine. I built an engine/workbench crate. I

Very neat work, but may I ask why you needed an engine box?

[Rob J. 1,942]

9 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

Very neat work, but may I ask why you needed an engine box?

Never know where an engine might have to go. But if and when it does it will be nice and secure and not just thrown in the back of the truck. Also works as just a place to put an engine so it out of the way on wheels and not cluttering up the garage floor. Plus it works awesome as a mobile workbench. Too old to crawl around on the ground on my hands and knees. 

[Horse Newbie 7,071]

Cut the yard… terribly thick after two weeks… had to blow the piles away to a few bare spots to maybe get some grass started there.

Now for a cold one…

[ebinmaine 67,564]

Went out for a bit more this evening.  

Got the utility trailer hitched up to the Kia Soul Beast and loaded for a dump trip tomorrow morning. 

 

We staked and measured out a final location for where the new building will set.

Been mulling that over for weeks.

Finally came up with a location that points the back towards our own woods and gives enough clearance all the way around the building for construction machinery and our own usage after the build.  

Probably another 10 small trees to cut sometime if we get time before the excavator guy shows up. Otherwise they can do it just fine.  

I'll try to remember to get pics tomorrow and post them in that thread.  

 

 

Trina and her mom finished up their day by re-decking the wooden bridge that goes into the garden area. 

 

Gotta say..... Excellent work on their part. It's rock solid. There's a step part way down. We'll mark that with yellow paint (?).  

MUCH better for foot traffic of the wedding guests.  

 

 

 

 

[Stormin 9,981]

SWMBO bought this mini camper van on Thursday.

 

 

   Not bad for 23yrs old. 1.3 petrol engine. 5sp box. Some bits and pieces to attend to in due course, but nothing serious. Interior is immaculate.

  As it's her birthday in a few days, I spent today sprucing up the dull paint work. Looks quite tidy now. On her birthday I'll give her a hamper and a road map. 

[Tractorhead 9,064]

Nice Minicamper Norm.

 

What do you planed when She was on the Journey?

 

[ebinmaine 67,564]

In the area where the new building is going we had two tarp covered portable garages.

The base layer of the one we put up 3 years ago with the help of our fine friend @JCM Jim was a tarp on the ground and a layer of 3/4 Stone varying from two to five inches in depth.

Seeing as to how that whole area is going to be shredded with an excavator we figured to reuse most of those stones in other areas. Forest pathways would be an obvious great choice.

Well, then there's the fact that Trina is building a little area right down the middle of one of those paths for the vows ceremony of her daughter's upcoming wedding.

 

Here's a reminder of what it looked like yesterday morning.

 

Trina and her mom set to, with her 867 Pigpen and mid-70s Ohio Steel trailer.

They moved a bunch of the above mentioned Stone creating a walkway in front of the arch and also filled in a low spot off to the right.

 

She also came up with another pretty brilliant idea. 

Use locally sourced pieces of our future firewood and some of the oak boards that will be made into my truck bed to function as benches.

We've yet to move the boards down. We won't do that until probably the day before the wedding so as to keep most of the rain and sun off of those boards to prevent twisting.  You can see the bases in place already here... 

 

[SylvanLakeWH 25,596]

That is cool…

 

[lynnmor 7,307]

My granddaughter used a wedding venue two months ago where they used planks and firewood logs like you are doing.  This is set up year round and all seating was warped and leaning.  For the amount they paid it was pretty much a ripoff but I didn't say a thing.  They did have reasonable bathrooms and a nice tent.  Maybe you could start a new income stream.

[ebinmaine 67,564]

2 hours ago, lynnmor said:

Maybe you could start a new income stream

I'll run it by the lead construction expert but I don't feel like it's going to be a winning suggestion on my part.  

 

[Stormin 9,981]

  This morning did some more cosmetic work on Hilda the camper. (Yes Hilda. ) . Trying to give the bumpers, or fenders to some, colour back.

  In the afternoon had to take Nell the Kelpie to the vets. Not been herself for a couple of days and not  eating. Got some kind of tummy bug. SWMBO her some white fish and rice, with a sachet of powdered medicine sprinkled on top, and she scoffed the lot. Been a bit more like her old self after.

  I also got the green and verges mown late afternoon. Finished just in time for the promised rain to arrive. 

Edited August 1, 2022 by Stormin

[Stormin 9,981]

  The weight of the wooden five bar gate at the front of the drive, has pulled the gate post over slightly. So the gate needed to be lifted slightly to shut properly. I'd placed a brick at the bolt end to set the gate on. Not a problem to me as I'm the only one who uses that gate. That was until the Management acquired her micro camper, which now has to live on the drive. On Tuesday I received a complaint. She could open the gate but could not lift it up on the brick to shut it fully.

 

 

  As you can see, it slopes to the right.

  Today was spent making it easier for her to open and shut. Take a salvaged wheel of an old push mower, bit of scrap angle iron and a cut off of a length of 4"x 1-2" box. Some work with slitting disc and welder. produced this.

 

 

   Some spare paving blocks for the wheel to run on, Until it cleared the gravel and job done. Plus one happier Better Half. 

Edited August 4, 2022 by Stormin

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

More fun with Volvo today.. after driving around with only one headlight for a while the yearly inspection finally 'motivated' me enough to fix the problem. Or so I thought.. few weeks ago two new xenon bulbs where purchased (€90,- or $93,- a piece) and installed.

As expected the passenger side was easy, drivers side required disassembly of the airfilter box. Way more plastic clips than what I like but eventually got it done without breaking anything. 

Turned the lightswitch aaaand.. still only one headlight 

 

Checked the fuses and sure enough, one blown fuse. Swapped that but it blew again, so there's a short somewhere. Asked my local garage to look at and fix the problem if it would'nt be too pricey.

 

Fast forward to yesterday. Mechanic called and said they could'nt find it but they had a hunch it would be the ballast for the xenon bulbs.

Oh yeah.. price would be around €408,- or $420 a piece  Which does not include labour cost. Volvo thought it would be a good idea to place the ballast under the headlight which means the frontbumper and headlights have to be removed to get to them.

 

So now what??

 

Took the car back from the mechanic and took a deep breath and tore into it. YouTube was a big help on getting the bumper and lights off.

Did the swaparoo with the ballasts and sure enough it was the problem.

Searched on the world wide web and found the exact replacement parts for €99,- instead of €408,- a piece. Ordered two of them and installed them today. 

Finally everything works again! Just in time to get the yearly check signed off tomorrow before the garage shuts down for three weeks of summer holiday.

 

Sad looking Volvo:

 

Dry run:

 

Works. Headlights re-installed:

 

Back together again. Only the headlight washer caps and some trim needs to be installed. Will do that after everything is signed off at the garage:

 

 

[Ed Kennell 38,200]

1 hour ago, Stormin said:

Plus one happier Better Half

 

[ebinmaine 67,564]

2 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

 

 

Here I have an advantage...

The Other Half isn't married to me.  

I don't even try to make her happy. 

😂😂😂😂

[D_Mac 8,619]

So the headlights on my truck were a little cloudy. Thought I would try to remove the haze. I used a cleaner made by RainX. Worked real well. Wipe it on and buff it off. The Cat Eyes are crystal clear again.

[Stormin 9,981]

7 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

The Other Half isn't married to me.  

I don't even try to make her happy. 

😂😂😂😂

 

Ditto! But better safe than sorry. Now and then saves a lot of ear ache. 

Edited August 5, 2022 by Stormin

[Handy Don 12,233]

23 hours ago, sjoemie himself said:

More fun with Volvo today..

Yours looks like an '05-07 (no wipers on the headlights)

I have the Xenons on my '04 V70 (with wipers!) and, so far, the ballasts have been ok. Am on my third set of bulbs at just under 300K miles. Volvo did a good job with these--there is a nice cutoff for the lights to keep it out of oncoming drivers' eyes, but it really illuminates the road better than most other headlights.

 

For sure i would not have the nerve to go that far into all of the plastic and clips in the front end, so I applaud your gumption and success!

[sjoemie himself 3,068]

4 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

05-07

Correct, it's an 06 with now just 160.000km or 100.000miles on it.

You're right about light output, it's great. Mine also has the curve-steer-lights (or however Volvo calls that) which is especially useful on curvy roads outside villages.

Instead of wipers mine has the washers as you might have spotted. Gotta say I have always liked the wipers on headlight idea, works good and just screams 'Swedish car'.

 

About the plastic clips I have to admit I was also nervous at first but YouTube helped and Volvo did a good job at securing everything in place with mostly screws instead of clips. Most (not all) of the clips came right out. The warm weather surely aided in the easy removal of the clips, in other words, less brittle plastic.