What did you do today?

[davem1111 2,091]

21 hours ago, Beap52 said:

Cut down an ash tree I planted 20 years ago.   Ash borers got to it . There's a couple of sprouts coming up.  I asked local nursery about leaving them or planting new tree.  He said leave them.  He said they quit selling ash trees 15 years ago but there's a belief that the borers have done their damage and moved on so they are considering selling ash again. (He may have mentioned that there are some varieties of ash that are borer resistant.) They are such a slow growing tree I'll be 6 feet under before it's 8 feet tall.

 

We had the power company come in a few years ago and take down (at no cost to us) 5 large ash trees in our side yard that were dying and close to the power lines. This is where I've been getting most of my firewood for the last few years... Anyway, 2 of the trees we asked them to cut off about 10 feet up. Now there are shoots coming out all around the base and sides of those trees. Wondering what those will look like in 10-20-50 years....

Anyway, been very happy with the way the ash burns, at least the parts that are dense and solid. Some of it is like swiss cheese from the borers. Little A-holes.... 

[Ed Kennell 40,272]

51 minutes ago, squonk said:

 They split the casting in 2. I don't remember how they did it but it must have been a big hammer! 

Or a long handle extension.       I use mine as a press with a 4' pipe extension on the handle.   No breaky yet.

[Mickwhitt 4,964]

A new massage place opened on our high street recently, now don't get all thinking that where I live is a den of vice. It's not Attercliffe for goodness sake.

But I decided to give Lily's Thai massage emporium a go, support local business and what have you. 

I fully expected a deep sports massage, but wow. It was deep, I mean really deep.

This tiny Thai lady was amazingly strong. I came out feeling like I'd accidentally wandered into the launderette and been put on a spin cycle. 

I'm not sure i such an establishment will take off in our vicinity,  English folk are a prudish lot and when I walked out I got some disapproving stares from some of the locals. It's a legitimate sports massage place, if it had physio on the sign it would be fine. Saying it's just a massage shop makes people think it's seedy. 

I may have to try it again just to see lol....

[8ntruck 7,329]

We made a run to our Michigan location to clean out the P.O. box and check the property out.  No problems there, but we got a low tire pressure alarm while we're on our way there.  We were loosing about a pound of pressure about every 15 miles.  Limped about 70 miles to a Goodyear dealer in Effingham. Turned out to be a bad valve stem.  $30 and 90 minutes later, were on our way again.

 

Back to the robotics team yesterday.  Both the upper class and under class teams have their robots together and are on the practice field tuning them.  Software is being debuggered and improved, minor mechanical things like gear ratios and clearances are being adjusted.  It is a week until our first competition of the season.

Edited February 27 by 8ntruck

[Ed Kennell 40,272]

7 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

. Turned out to be a bad valve stem.  $30 and 90 minutes later, were on our way again.

$30,  You didn't replace it with a pressure sensing stem at $120 each?               The aluminum pressure sensing stems in Mrs. Ks Dodge Caravan started leaking after 5 years. I replaced them all with regular rubber stems.     The stems in my 2010  F-150 never leaked, but the batteries went dead so I get a tire pressure fault light.   I'll replace them with new rubber stems  when I replace the tires.    Hate those pressure sensing stems.   Cost me $25 to reprogram the sensors when I had the tires rotated on Mrs. Ks new Escape.      

[8ntruck 7,329]

 It was replaced with another pressure sensing valve stem.  It was not an OEM part - lord only knows where it was made and how long it will last....

 

I've never had to reprogram the valve stems on my vehicles.  I have summer and winter tires for the Cherokee and I rotate them when I change them over.  They seem to sort themselves out within the first couple of miles after the tire change.

[Handy Don 13,260]

35 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

Back to the robotics team yesterday.

On a MUCH lower level of intensity...the DI team I’m helping starts their final push today with the area competition in a week. Dress rehearsal of their presentation and, I hope, final assembly/test of the transport “gadget”. I’m told there are only a couple of teams in their age group trying this challenge and the judging has an age weighting factor.  Oughta be interesting! 🙂

[ebinmaine 70,353]

What did I do today? 

 

I DIDN'T. ...eat....

But I will soon.  

 

 

I just completed a TWENTY FOUR hour fast.  Suppah is  fish and green beans.

[Wayne0 852]

46 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

What did I do today? 

 

I DIDN'T. ...eat....

But I will soon.  

 

 

I just completed a TWENTY FOUR hour fast.  Suppah is  fish and green beans.

No baked taters? My favorite! (really, only the skin)

Edited February 26 by Wayne0

[ebinmaine 70,353]

1 hour ago, Wayne0 said:

No baked taters? My favorite! (really, only the skin)

 

No. Not yet....

 

I loves em too!

[HyperPete 425]

I forgot to eat breakfast & lunch.  Went to the local Legion for dinner.

 

Unloaded the new tractor from the truck & unpacked the 8-speed that arrived today.  I will try to get some tractor-related stuff done tomorrow.

[953 nut 57,535]

On 2/26/2025 at 11:42 AM, Ed Kennell said:

the batteries went dead so I get a tire pressure fault light.

The battery in one of my valve stems died a few weeks after I bought a new set of tires. Guess I will just have to put up with that pesky light because I am too thrifty to pay $ 150 for a new set.

[Ed Kennell 40,272]

23 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

The battery in one of my valve stems died a few weeks after I bought a new set of tires. Guess I will just have to put up with that pesky light because I am too thrifty to pay $ 150 for a new set.

Same here Richard.      I have a roll of these stickers that I use to cover the idiot lights.

 

[Handy Don 13,260]

I get the frustration with the expense and aggravation, but I will note that a low pressure light in my wife’s car (which I am almost never in) caught a slow leak from a nail before any serious issue. 

My experience was to have ALL FOUR tires be reported low one morning. Message on the screen says the car’s software had an over-the-air update overnight which cleared the memorized pressures so please check them and click “OK” to store new ones. Done. 

Edited February 28 by Handy Don

[8ntruck 7,329]

The robotics team programmer was building the automatic climb program for the robot.  After getting the operation sequence we needed figured out, he got position encoder readings that he needed for all of the devices involved and finished his code.  Part of the code is setting a latch to make sure the robot ends up in the climb position at the end of the climb.  The climber storage position is past where the latch is needed to hold the robot in the up position, so the latch needs to be set after the climber is extended out to the pick up position.  Anyhow, the programmer tested the program - except he forgot to put the latch in the clear position to allow the climber to rotate out into the pick up position.

 

the motors started up, the climber moved, the latch engaged stopping the climber, but the motors kept running until a 'pop' sounded off and the climber arm fell back into its storage position.  Here is a picture of what made the 'pop':

 

 

That twisted piece between the gears is a piece of 6061 T6 hex aluminum shafting.  The space between the gears is about 1/2".  The shaft twisted about 60 degrees before shearing into 2 pieces.  We are running this thing on two Talon 60 brushless motors that are a little smaller than fist size.  Overall gear reduction between the motors and the climb are is 198:1.  The gearbox has 5 stages 5:1, 3 stages of 3:1, then a final chain drive of 1.4:1.  The shaft that twisted apart was on the 2nd 3:1 stage.  This stage has the last aluminum shaft.  The next 2 stages are using 1/2" hex steel shafts.

 

Guess you could say that the climber has been pre-disastered.  The repair did not take very long, and we are now working on our list of spares that we should take to our competitions.  We are planning on taking a spare climber gear box, but now we are going to throw a couple of extra shafts in.  I'll have to suggest to the climber team and programmer that we install some sort of switch to tell us where the latch is, and not let the climber run if the latch is in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

 

One of the students commented that we should replace that shaft with a steel one.  I quickly pointed out that the aluminum shaft that failed acted like a mechanical fuse and prevented further damage, so replace it with another aluminum shaft.

Edited February 28 by 8ntruck

[adsm08 2,559]

On 2/28/2025 at 12:39 AM, 8ntruck said:

One of the students commented that we should replace that shaft with a steel one.  I quickly pointed out that the aluminum shaft that failed acted like a mechanical fuse and prevented further damage, so replace it with another aluminum shaft.

 

I see a lot of guys fall into that mistake. Something broke, they replace it with something custom, and say "Well that won't break again". Then they are twice as mad when the piece it protected breaks the next time.

[SylvanLakeWH 27,213]

 

Classic example is replacing a sheer pin with a grade 8 bolt... observed that on a 2 stage snow blower i inherited from a neighbor... immediately changed it when I got it.

[ebinmaine 70,353]

A bunch more moving of stuff items things and stuff from the basement to the new workshop and barn. 

 

Trina built the framework for the bedroom closet downstairs.  

 

 

 

 

 

The OSB to the left will be a small storage closet.  

 

[ebinmaine 70,353]

I'm now approaching 26 hours fasting.

 

I have absolutely ZERO desire for food. 

I'll stay in a fast until tomorrow morning and see when/if  I get hungry. 

 

[HyperPete 425]

Have you gotten hungry yet? 😉

 

I've fasted for holidays in the past, and that included no liquids.

I wasn't too hungry at 24 hours, but I sure didn't want to go any longer without water!

[ebinmaine 70,353]

6 hours ago, Pete D said:

Have you gotten hungry yet? 😉

 

I've fasted for holidays in the past, and that included no liquids.

I wasn't too hungry at 24 hours, but I sure didn't want to go any longer without water!

 

Ended my fast at nearly 47 hours. 

Yesterday I went 19. 

 

When fasting correctly and if adapted to it hunger IS NOT an issue. 

That was WIERD.....

 

I'll keep up the caloric deficit and intermittent fasting for the next few weeks at least.  

 

 

[953 nut 57,535]

On 3/1/2025 at 7:49 PM, ebinmaine said:

I'm now approaching 26 hours fasting.

 

I have absolutely ZERO desire for food. 

I'll stay in a fast until tomorrow morning and see when/if  I get hungry. 

 

I thought you bears called that hibernation!       

[HyperPete 425]

3 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

Ended my fast at nearly 47 hours. 

Yesterday I went 19. 

WOW!

That's awesome!  I'm sure you are seeing impressive results.  MUCH better than I could do! 👏

[ebinmaine 70,353]

1 hour ago, Pete D said:

WOW!

That's awesome!  I'm sure you are seeing impressive results.  MUCH better than I could do! 👏

 

 

I would have thought the same thing just a couple weeks ago. This takes training to get into. You can't just drop the food and hope for the best. It's really NOT that DIFFICULT if you have the RIGHT amount of DETERMINATION.

 

 

 

[HyperPete 425]

My nutritionist has been stressing the fact that I need to get six grams of protein with every meal while I'm on my weight loss journey. I have been buying collagen powder from Amazon. It mixes completely with my coffee in the morning and has no taste whatsoever. I use three scoops of it in the morning.

My mother-in-law, who is going through chemo, is also supposed to get extra protein. I get this for her as well, and she also mixes it with cold drinks during the day. She says that it mixes completely with those as well, and again, has no taste. I have thought about mixing it with soup, sauces, etc, but I've been getting protein with my lunch and dinner every day.