More failures in carpentry

I have had a couple days off from hauling Christmas Trees. I needed to make chicken feed and finish my floor yesterday.

I got off to a good start. I found the locations for the shower drain and the toilet. I drilled the holes in the right location! 

I made a tool to layout the holes. It was just a piece of paint stirrer stick which I drilled a hole for a screw and a hole for a pencil and then traced the outline to cut the holes.

Apparently there is a difference in radius, diameter, circumference, and I learned this in like elementary school. But I get easily confused. So in stead of taking half of 4.5 inches I doubled in and cut a 9 inch hole. 

Can you see a problem here?

This worked out for the best as when I got confused about finding flooring that was close to 21/32 I went with 3/4 instead of 5/8. I mean, go big or go home! Right?

This is a very handy tool. If I would have used it before I bought sheet of the wrong thickness it would have been better! I like the fraction feature.

So I cut a ring out of the better flooring material and put it under the toilet flange. That sucker ain't movin again!

I thought I would have to split the plywood to get it under the flange. But by accidentally cutting the hole twice as big I may have made a better floor.

I did not get a lot of work done. I mostly worked on five projects I had already started. 

A friend called me that he was cleaning oats and he was getting a lot of the hard inner oat seeds without the hull. I think they are called "grotes." He didn't want to dump them with the screenings and did I want them. So I took over my bag stand and we put a 1000lb capacity bag under the cleaner. 

It took six hours to fill and I got 1000lbs. This bag usually holds 850lb of whole oats so I am thinking there is good feed value there.

We also had people come out and repair posts in our hay shed. This was a relief as I figured for the past 8 years that I was going to have to stand on a pallet high in the air and work on this post.

Better them than I! Of course we don't have the bill yet...

I had to move a few things and of course the forklift was out of diesel, the battery in the pickup with the diesel tank was dead. 

I got them a couple loads of gravel out of the stock pile with the 2-60 White, then let them use it. I could hear them using the clutch as a torque converter a couple times in afternoon but just kept my mouth shut. The guys really liked my little tractor.  I think it is because it has no muffler...

In other news: One of my customers showed me an advertisement on MarketPlace for oat/grass/alfalfa pellets for $200 a ton bulk or $400 in a one ton tote bag. Then I see All Stock pellets down to $300 a ton. I wonder what is up with feed prices. I absolutely loose money below $400 a ton.

Perhaps I should stop negotiations on upgrading a pellet mill? Or just double down as I have raw materials stuffed in every spare nook and cranny!

I build a bag filler hopper but don't show you how I built it...

This weekend was nice. Very little rain. I thought I would sell two ton of pellets. I had three customers who wanted big bags. I figured at least one would show.

I have a new customer (maybe) who wanted 200lbs. I was borrowing a bagger from my neighbor but he had the audacity of taking it back to bag his own oats.  So, I built my own out of scrap plywood I have been saving for 20 years and my new 2x4's. 

I immediately left my plan and it turned out completely different that I expected. It does not have a slanted back wall as I failed with my math and made it wrong. I was going to put peg board in the back and a fan to cool the pellets as they come out of the conveyer. I didn't succeed in my plan.

I am trying to buy a bigger pellet mill so I can actually make money at $85 an hour for the tractor powering the mill. Then, something goes wrong like I am stuck with two ton of pellets in my shop and I want to sell everything and quit. No really sure what the plan should be...

This is not fancy. The bag hangs on hooks to fill and there is a metal slide to shut off the flow. It all sets off the ground and a pallet will slide under it. That was not my best plan. I need to add a bench to hold up smaller bags. Best feature is it is tall enough I don't have to bend over all the time.

This is what I need to be working on. My bathroom floor is missing. I found another water leak yesterday so I fixed the leak and put a fan in the bathroom.

Adventures in Christmas tree hauling

I got a job!

Some neighbors/friends/fellow farmers needed help driving truck and their son who, I keep thinking of as the teenager who I used to run stacker with, talked me in to driving. I have become super hesitant about new situations, especially driving truck. I get lost easily, I have an incredibly hard time following more than one step directions, I don't write the directions down correctly as I still think I can remember details, and I am super uptight about this, which makes it all worse.

My friend gown up from a super enthusiastic kid, to a super enthusiastic farmer who seems, if not eternally optimistic, absolutely without fear and a really good salesman. Plus, I am broke...

So with trepidation I agreed to drive.

We started at the main tree farm at 5 a.m. Monday. It was over an hour drive to the field. 

My truck was a 1990 GMC General, almost Minneapols-Moline yellow, with a 6V92 Detroit and a 5 spd Allison transmission. This was a new experience. The automatic takes some getting used to but then I also didn't have to shift all the time. The engine had enough power to make the transmission not frustrating and the truck steered good.

I followed his dad to the field. There were a lot of trucks already. They trees are loaded by helicopter.

We started in the dark heading for the sunrise and ended in the dark heading for sunset.

Lots of farmers contributed trucks. The yellow bed racks are cages to hold the tree bundles.

The helicopter picked up large bundles of trees and deposited them in the truck. He was good!

The first trip started fine and then I missed my turn coming out of the tree yard. We were hauling to a yard different from where we started. It was located in the middle of nowhere. Kings Valley, Oregon. We turned off of highway 99W at Suver and took Adair road to Kings Valley.  

I missed the road back and got headed to Wren. Then I had to find a place to turn around. Not so easy on a narrow hilly road. Once I got turned around I found my missed turn with no problem.

I knew how many miles it was to Wren so figured out right away I was lost, it was just hard finding a spot I could turn around. I ended up backing into a driveway to turn around.

I blame the GPS. I was trying to mark my route so I wouldn't get lost and I wasn't paying proper attention. Fortunately I tried to take pictures at the junctions so I had the road signs in my phone. (I have been lost before)

Then, I got stuck behind a tractor on the narrow two land road. I was so far behind... The second load went like a breeze.

This was my fuel gauge after the second load

This was my second load which went very well. Notice the fall colors. Notice how stinking rough the road is. 

Then I noticed the fuel gauge moving and I started to get worried. I was back to get my third load of the day and it was around 4 p.m. I was worried about driving in the dark a little bit but was more worried about fuel. I could find a metal flag to dip the tank but it sounded like a solid 1/4 full. It should have made it. Or so we thought...

The fuel gauge started showing 1/8 going down hill and 1/4 plus going up hill. This is never a good sign.

 

The trip back was beautiful. But soon it started getting dark. I realized I couldn't see. I tried high beams and low beams. I knew one head light was out on low beam but on high I could see in the morning. After flipping the dimmer switch many times they started working better.

Then there was an accident on 99W. I could see returning trucks flashing their lights at me. I figured it was due to my missing headlight. I saw the emergency lights just past where I could take an alternate route. 

I called my boss who was driving the other truck. He was waiting for me at the unloading point. Everyone had started to worry about my fuel consumption.

I was setting in traffic hoping the gauge would quit moving.

The accident turned out to be not that big a deal and I was on my way soon. When I got to the tree farm we decided to leave the truck and I road back to the main location in the other truck.

Yesterday morning we went back and there was only about three inches in the tank. And there was a flat tire... And I got lost, (but not as bad as the guy that they ended up sending the helicopter to find and then there was the guy whose truck broke down and had to be towed, or the guy who lost his clutch, or the drivers who were using googlemaps and got routed to a low clearance bridge so I won't complain)

But, now I have to go to work here at home. I have half a beef to pick up, feed to sell, I need to make some sort of device to fill 50lb bags, I have to work on my bathroom floor, and the house hot water heater seems to be on the fritz...

I figure out how to make better pellets after I am almost completely finished with my order.

Saturday was a nice day. 

We have been having buckets of rain. 

Enough rain that the Amazon driver got stuck Friday night. I am not sure it was a great idea to pull into the neighbor's field to do a package exchange with the other Amazon delivery truck, but I helped him get out.

I have been almost unable to give away feed. I can't get in my shop due to super sacks that no one comes after. Quite suddenly, everyone is out. 

I sold three 800lb bags of oat/alfalfa mix Friday, and took orders for three more bags Saturday. Even sold six 50lb bags of Chicken feed. (I can't count the orders until they are gone. However, I am fairly sure they will move this afternoon.)

This is the best pellet setup I have ever put together. The Minneapolis-Moline G1355 is awesome on the New Holland 358 mixer-grinder. It runs quiet and the 540 PTO speed on this one is set at 1500 engine rpm. Very quiet as opposed to tractors I have used before.

The Minneapolis-Moline M670 Super works better than the White 2-60 on the Pellet Mill.  Lower rpm and quieter. Hydraulics are better as well.

Now if I could just boost my output speed!

The mix is 1/3 alfalfa and 2/3 oats. This makes a nice feed for horses, sheep and goats. It is not too "hot." The animals like it and maintain weight. Seems to work well for cows as well. Alfalfa is fourth cutting and should be high in nutrients and it is high in crude protein. Should be good for muscle development and milk production. The oats are providing energy and are high in digestible fiber. The protein is not real high, probably 12-14 percent but it provides a good balance to protein and energy. You don't end up with jumpy horses or overly fat cows. I can add a little corn for people who what extra fat for cow feed.

I am selling it too cheap at $440 per ton. Needs to be $100 more to make money. However, we have oats and alfalfa to move and I need money. My plan is to make up with my loss in profit with low volume...

Minneapols-Moline G1355 on the New Holland 358 mixer/grinder and M670 Super on the PelletMasters 9" pellet mill.

I had problems with the PTO as the White 2-60 and the M670 Super have different dimensions for the three-point arms. I tried running it without hooking up the three-point and after a day the tractor and pellet mill vibrated apart with catastrophic results. I think the Chinese should have put the slip clutch on the implement and not on the tractor end of the PTO shaft.

Pellet making with a cheap chinese Pellet mill is a hit and miss proposal. I appreciate the low cost and portability but the mill is kind of a piece of crap. I could not make a good pellet to save my life the last two weekends. Then, I tossed in a bale of barley straw. The production dropped by 1/3 but the pellets improved incredibly.

Pellets after the addition of barley straw. It was one 50lb bale in 1000lbs of mix. I used the 3/4" screen so it did chop up the straw. Most peices were 1/2" and crushed. But, it really decreased production. I stopped adding mollasses as the extra moisture plugged up the mill hopper.

It is hard to see but the pellets in the bin have gone from 1/4" in length of 1/2-3/4" and they are holding together better. Still have a nice green color to them. You never know how it will turn out. I have no way of adding heat or steam. I have been toying with the idea of adding radiant heaters to heat the material going into the pellet hopper.

Goose patrol

Those Damn darn Canadians! 

The Canada Geese have arrived in force. They are all setting in one spot in our new annual ryegrass field. I get their point, it has historically been a duck pond and it has been in corn for the past five years.

This year we reclaimed it. The corn was supposed to be a rotation but the rotation never happened. It has always been to wet to plant in the fall and it stays wet in the spring. This year it was dry enough to plant and so we took advantage.

I have been occupied with plumbing since the rain started and have not been paying attention to that field once it really started growing. The annual needs to be three inches or so before the flooding starts and this year has been so warm that it is really growing.

Tuesday I made three trips to town and noticed the geese had moved into the center of the field and were turning it into a mud hole. I have to be a little careful as we rent from hunters and so it is considered poor form to be scaring the geese on one side of the farm when they are hunting on the other.

Traditionally, our goose control is to stand at the top of the hill and take a shot or two morning and evening to get the geese moving. But, ammunition has gotten rather expensive in the last few years.

Last year I bought a powerful little green laser and so I was able to scare the geese a little earlier and later. It doesn't work well in sunlight so I try to get them early. The geese apparently see the beam of light as a solid object and it really distresses them as they supposedly think little green objects are after them. 

Now they know how I feel...

This year the geese just don't care. First I tried the usual Russian surplus 7.62 by 39 but almost no response. I was over 300 yards away and the drop off after 300 yards is pretty extreme so it was hard to get close. I got the four wheeler and drove within range. They just sat there. (You are really not supposed to shoot them dead. Just scare them)

I figured that now Canada has gone Communist that maybe their geese just don't react to communist ammunition so I found a trusty American caliber. No response to .22-250 either.

However, when I was walking to the ditch crossing to get a better aim with my laser, an angry Nutria hissed at me from the leftover corn stalks. Not even the Nutria has any fear this year. I tried to get him to chase the laser dot. He was not impressed. Probably rabid... Maybe it was a "she" Nutria and I misgendered "them."  Who knows.

Next I tried a left over mortar from the last fourth of July. I got the elevation as low as I could and lit the fuse. It exploded with an impressive shower of sparks and a loud bang. This got 3/4 of the winged rats to take flight. 

I actually slogged out to a group of the recalcitrant rascals and they just stood there and honked at me. I think I need to bring Rosco and the laser this morning and use the laser to get Rosco out to the goose patch. Hopefully they will not turn on him en masse...

I did dispatch the younger element to put up stakes and bird tape. Its a nasty job. I think the geese are just hunkered down for the storm blowing through. Or there is going to be an earthquake or tidal wave, or the earth's magnetic poles are shifting and they don't know which way to fly or maybe its those darn Trump tariffs? I wish ICE had a Canada Goose division.

This used to be a common sight in the US and Canada. Before the stupid people took over... Now you don't see 1964 Ford F150's so much any more... Also .22-250 is not very popular now that everyone has to have an AR... In fact ammo is very hard to find. A buck a shot for cheap steel cased varmint loads from BiMart and that was a one day sale. I see the better stuff is back.

I attempt to do plumbing

"I don't know how to do this, I am not a plumber..." 

I have heard the statement, "I don't know how because...." so many times in my life. 

I have made that statement so many times in my life.

What I really mean is, "this job is a pain in the butt and I DON'T want to do this."

Being poor means either doing without or making it yourself. I prefer to trade skills but since I am lacking in skills I often have to look it up on YouTube or now I use Microsoft CoPilot.

This doesn't mean I am good at plumbing, that I like to do plumbing, or that I am in any way efficient at plumbing. It just means I can't afford a plumber.

The biggest problem is this house is plumbed with CPVC which becomes brittle at the glue joints. I get a waterline hooked up and realize the connection has broken at the supply end.

So I have switched to PEX tubing and am using a box of SharkBite fittings that came from a forgotten project. The SharkBite fittings grip the CPVC without using glue and make a good transition to the PEX. I am using PEX B with the clamp on fittings. It is not as easy to work with as everyone says. I had to get a heat gun to straighten out some of the coils and it is impossible to get the clamping tool into tight spaces. Pipe and glue would be easier if I could measure correctly. 

My goal is to get out every battery powered tool made by DeWalt and a few old Craftsman. Then make a huge mess on the floor. This way it looks like I was working all day. Really I was just staring at the giant hole in the floor wishing I were somewhere else and hoping the bathroom would fix itself... Sound plan! 

I have had a number of messages about my Oat/Alfalfa mix from my advertisement on Marketplace. Not very many actual results. I am cheaper than the feed store but that does not seem to matter. The problem is that I am not reliable. I need advance notice and no one plans ahead. They don't call until they are down to their last scoop of grain.

I guess I will not put a new pellet mill on my credit card...

I have ideas to make money and I try to implement them but it is just an excuse to not drive truck or work on my bathroom floor

I have a Chicken Feed advertisement on FaceBook Marketplace. I got an email from a nice lady who wanted a mix that would provide more energy/warmth for her chickens this winter. She already had a high protein mix with Peas, Barley, and Flax. (My first mix from 20 years ago when we grew flax.)

So I used CoPilot to come up with a better winter mix. What a fiasco. It is a fiasco on two levels.

First of all Artificial Intelligence lies to you. It gets stuff wrong all the time. I put enough info in to my query that I am pretty confident in the mix. I think I will increase the amount of rye and corn and drop the oats and throw in a couple bags of clover seed screenings to boost the feed value.  But, it is essentially a good mix. 

The problem is trying to balance the ration and to print out a label. CoPilot is not reliable enough to actually make a useful label. I mean, the capability is there but the end result is NEVER what I want. 

The other issue is ration formulation. If I could just do a spreadsheet that I could have on my rugged tablet so I could plug in the numbers and get a printout. This is possible in theory. My buddy Mark made me a spreadsheet back when we worked together but it has not held up well after numerous transfers between computers and operating systems and it is very tough to use on my phone.

I need an app that I could plug the values in and it would calculate. It is not that difficult but I am not very smart. 

The final and most frustrating issue is that I cannot afford to buy a pellet mill big enough to make these mixes affordable if I actually had to buy the ingredients. I cannot seem to come up with the measly $12,000 to buy the darn thing. Plus, I don't really have the self confidence to just put it on a credit card. Too many things have gone sideways in my life for me to trust a credit card....

Maybe I will just go work on my bathroom...

After numerous failed CoPilot labels I just did it longhand. I need to take an Excel class. This would be so simple to make. Or better yet! Filemaker Pro! There is another issue. I need this spreadsheet to work on my iPhone and/or Windows tablet. Typing into a Numbers spreadsheet on an iPhone often results in unwanted edits and the need for magnifiers...

Donald Trump is a Dictator and FOX News is Evil! (Although Right wing 21st Century Oppression in the USA seems to be the Lite version, probably came from Temu)

Today is a beautiful foggy fall day. I have no floor in my bathroom. I claim to be waiting on a PEX kit but it might be that I just don't want to work on it. 

If all the people who spend time sending me posts by Heather Cox Richardson explaining why Donald Trump is Hitler and I am a Fascist, would instead send me videos on how to replace a bathroom floor I would be happier. Or maybe just hire a plumber for me. That would show me that love=love. 

Instead of a rant about politics that no one reads anyway. I looked up the blog, "Surviving in Argentina."

Look up this blog: https://ferfal.blogspot.com/ 

Go to the archives and look at the posts before 2019. You can see it all play out.

I do remember this blog and watching Argentina and Venezuela be the test runs for the glorious world socialist revolution of the 21st century.

Although there is hope for Argentina. Click here to see why Heather Cox Richardson's fellow traveler Democrats are so upset about bringing in beef and other aid to Argentina. 

It is amazing to see it happening in the USA and Canada, along with the usual idiots supporting it...

I leave you with a picture of YOUR degenerate Grandmother who thought Bolshevik's were sexy not realizing she was going to end up in a re-education camp... (My Grandma was a saint)

I have no idea who stole this photo and sent it to me. Probably some sort of degenerate socialist

Here is the deal...

With the exception of anyone reading this blog. Obviously I am speaking in a hypothetical disgruntled right winger satire.

Democrats have zero self awareness. They know they are right. They trusted the "science." If you disagree you are obviously a FOX News evil Colonialist. Their Ideology is their Religion. I have to look at a couple people I used to work with. One is a Pastor. They live in a different world. It is from that perspective that they will try to witness to you. The most frustrating thing is that can only complain about Trump to fellow conservatives... 

I make a new batch of chicken feed and do a little recycling-with fire...

 I took a couple days off from the bathroom repair to make feed. 

I am a little frustrated with my customers as they say they want feed but half of them don't actually show up. But... They will suddenly appear and want the exact 850lb bag that they saw two months ago. Then there is this discussion in broken English and they try and get a better deal. 

Chicken mix of Alfalfa, Corn, Oats, Barley, Rye, Canola, Peas, Clover Screenings plus Pepper and various seasonings. 

I just tossed the red pepper, oregano, lavender, garlic, calendula, diatomaceous earth into the conveyer along with the pellets from the mouse damaged bags. Like to see a mouse take a bit out of this batch!

I pelletized and bagged 20 forty pound bags of chicken feed a couple months ago for a friend who lives an hour away. I just restacked it and took out the bags with mouse damage. I think she is down to ten bags now. I am not making another batch for a while. 

My wife discovered a mix with red pepper, oregano, lavender, garlic, calendula, diatomaceous earth, and a couple other ingredients I couldn't find. It like a natural medicated feed. I put in some hemp bud, just because.

One of the neighbors drove by and said it smelled good.

I have 500lbs but I think it is going to be like $55 for a 60lb bag and the chicken ladies won't pay that. Need smaller bags.

I have been getting videos sent to me made by supposedly disgruntled farmers and ranchers who suddenly hate Trump. 

The leftist political machine is quite sophisticated and well funded. They are seriously investing resources against Trump. I am impressed.

As to farmers and ranchers who voted for Trump and now think he turned on them, what a bunch of idiots. As a skeptic I did not expect a lot. Export agriculture has been in a three-four year slump. It started with high fuel and fertilizer costs and a surge in commodity prices after the WuFlu that actually resulted in fence row to fence row corn and soybean production. 

I wish Trump could fix it but I didn't have a lot of hope. I was hoping for some good negotiating skills but I don't see it happening. (Especially with the Democrats dedicated to opposition)

The farmer/rancher complaints really hit to the heart of what is wrong with modern agriculture. Farmers are not farming because they want a nice little farm to raise a family and do the best job possible for the Glory of God. They are farming the most acres with the newest equipment because God told them to feed the world and make money. 

The cattle ranchers are at the mercy of four packing companies. Those packing companies will use cheap beef imports to screw the ranchers as they always do. The ranchers apparently have been buying calves like there is no tomorrow and as a result $125 bull calves at the auction are selling for $1,200. 

Or is it the ranchers? I suspect they are not buying $1500 calves but are trying to build up herds. This would mean keeping $1,500 calves back. Or taking advantage of high prices to sell out.

From talking to local cow people, I gather a lot of frustration with a longtime bottleneck of USDA inspections and the difficult regulations in selling beef directly to consumers. Feed prices are high but commodity prices are low. Hay sales are not great. Small producers are reluctant to buy expensive replacement stock when they know prices will crash.

I am not sure Trump is helping or hurting. So I would go with not as good as I hoped for but not as bad as I feared and I am thankful we don't have that idiot Biden or Cackling Kamala.

Fortunately I have been keeping up with my recycling...

I hate it when the starting fluid cans get dropped and the nozzle breaks off. So I recycle them!

I am not a plumber nor am I a carpenter but I have no money, so I do what I have to do. I do not do it particularly well.

Some years ago my father in law needed to live with us. We installed a taller toilet. My brother-in-law came to help so I don't have to take all the blame.

We did not get the wax ring seated correctly.

This toilet has always been roundly hated. It is so tall you feel like you are going to fall off and the full flush feature also functions as a bidet. This later feature is a bit disconcerting to say the least, but it is funny to hear the exclamations of surprise when visitors use it.

I should have junked it as soon and Grandpa passed but I am in fact a lazy farmer and so it has just mildly annoyed us for the past decade. It also quietly leaked water into the five feet of insulation sealed by a plastic sheet that is attached underneath manufactured homes.

Last winter I crawled under the house to run an electric line to the shed that was going to be my daughter's house/studio and I noticed water collecting and making the sheeting sag. I stabbed it with my pocket knife and continued my slow and painful crawl under the house.

After sleuthing the connections in the laundry room my suspicion feel upon the offending toilet. It has taken me a year to build up the courage to do something about it. I probably would still be thinking about it but my wife was cleaning the shower and the floor gave way. (just a little bit)

Saturday, we took it all apart.

Manufactured homes are not known for a quality build. Ours has CPVC plastic pipe which was an upgrade from the discontinued grey pipe of the past. Note that the shower lines are not routed through the wall. The mixing valve and the shower head were also not supported by the wall but just hung there. The cold water line broke after this apart and sprayed everything with gallons of water.

This is the cold water line to the sink. Note the high quality workmanship. Also note the broken line. CPVC becomes brittle with age and tends to crack when disturbed.

My wife wanted to put in a different shower and as we had to remove flooring anyway I agreed. I think this was folly...

I cut the shower/tub up with a power hacksaw. I was very careful to avoid waterlines. The waterlines are CPVC and are now very brittle.

After doing a stellar job of avoiding disaster I sat the sawzall down on the edge of the tub to remove the wall around the shower valve. I bumped the reciprocating bastard with my knee and it fell though the floor and hit the main cold water line at the junction to the sink connector. 

Much anger and invective followed.

I really need to finish this floor but I have to crawl under the house to reroute plumbing. I am going to convert to PEX as much as possible. I need to run the PEX up through the wall.  I will also have to change the drains. There is no way to finish this project without cutting the belly wrap and burrowing through fiberglass insulation. 

Eventually I will have to do this job. If only I had a plumber friend who needed pig feed...

The Gator Sprayer rides again

The GatorSprayer has been one of those good ideas which don't quite work in practice. Sort of like making feed pellets or publishing a blog.

Old John Deere Gators are the roughest riding and most underpowered RTV you can find. Painting them red does not help at all.

I have been having issues with my foam markers, the auto rate controller, and FarmerGPS communicating with my Novatel Smart6L antenna. 

Yesterday I sprayed black berries and wild carrot in a small hayfield and everything worked. The Foam, GPS, rate controller, all worked, but I hit a bump and broke the cab off its mounts.

I thought I would drive around and just hit the switch when I saw weeds. I basically sprayed it all.  It was only eight acres so I did two fill ups. I have a 55 gallon tank but since I bought it surplus somewhere because it was cheap, I managed to get one that the suction connects from the side and not a sump in the middle. When I am down to ten gallons I have to spray on a hillside to empty the tank.

The problem with the foam marker was solved by wiggling wires and air hoses. I have no idea what was wrong. The problem with FarmerGPS was solved by never closing the program so I didn't have to re-enter my program code. The antenna problem was solved by asking MicroSoft CoPilot what ports Getac tablets assign to internal GPS. (Port 2) or is it Port 1? Now I forgot.  

The FarmerGPS was connecting to the internal tablet GPS which was not as accurate as the Novatel Smart6.  Once I figured out the com port issue I had usable guidance. I was actually able to use contour mode and drive in circles. Usually, it is easier to make straight lines so if the GPS drifts you still have visual references.

And now the rain will start...

THE NEXT DAY...

I had ten gallons left. So I thought I would add another ten gallons and some Vastlan and oil and spray hillsides for black berries. 

As I pulled away from the water hose the gear shift became disconnected from the transaxle which is under the bed and there is a sprayer on the bed.

Fortunately I had Mr. Pettibone who was able to double as a vehicle lift!

The Gator is now elevated to where I can reach the offending gear shift rod!

I am not the best welder but sometimes it holds.

Useful Idiot Day

When I was in college there was an entire culture dedicated to hating Ronald Reagan.  I have always trended towards anti-establishment. I spent a lot of time moving irrigation with my clever college educated cousin. I listened to the Woodstock Album. I was a little susceptible to leftist doggrel.

The girls were cute but the guys were annoying and the aging hippie professors at Chemeketa Community College were the worst. Their life peaked at what ever 1960's protest where they first got laid and now they had students to look up to them. 

What really changed my mind was talking to ordinary people in Europe in 1984 who lived next to the USSR and felt Ronald Reagan was the only thing between them and the Communist Menace.

I have been watching the No Kings protest with bemusement and irritation. Mostly, it is the idiots I know who cheer it on that annoy me. They are all the same open minded (totally self righteous), loving and tolerant, (the most close minded and intolerant people I know), and believe the science. (These people would have executed Isaac Newton if that apple had Roundup on it)

I wonder what effect the protests are having on the attitudes of those who don't say much but seemingly voted Trump into office. Especially since I voted for Trump mostly because I disliked the people voting for Hooker Harris and Dumbass Walz.

When I look at the pictures and see the Facebook posts I realize these are the people who spent their teens hating Ronald Reagan, thinking they were edgy watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight, and putting down anyone who worked for a living as rednecks and hicks.

The people at the No Kings protests are the same people putting boys in the girl's room, cutting their kids tits off, and they are the reason you can no longer buy a good gas can.

These idiots willfully championed a President who imported millions of illegal immigrants and is the reason something had to be done about the problem he created.

These are the idiots who supported wearing two cloth masks outside in the open air. They locked down athletic fields and made me wear a cloth mask while mowing a ten acre field, but balked at supplying an N95 when the air was filled with smoke.

They supported the continued shut down of the world even as it became more and more apparent that skepticism was needed. That it might not be what we feared. (to put it mildly)

These people will lock you up over thought crimes, using freon in your AC, they took away your three-wheelers and they want to take away Grandpa's .22 rifle. At the same time they pump your kids full of drugs and convince them to be freaks.

If you are a freak and live in Portland you are very comfortable with the other freaks. Keep Portland Weird is your religion. Because you are a liberal idiot and know you are absolutely right in every belief, you can laugh at other people who are disgusted by your behavior. Cause you are Normal...

Don't ever buy a manufactured home

We got our tax bill from Yamhill County. Somehow we have to come up with $900.

We live in a 1998 60x35ft Mobile home. Now it is not just your run of the mill 1967 El Car trailer house. This is a "Super Good Sense," energy efficient Redman manufactured home with 2x6" construction and lots of insulation. The nice fellow from Yamhill County Tax Assessor's office said it is a Class 5 and sort of gave me the idea that I was cream o the crop as far as manufactured home go.

I said we paid $40,000 over twenty years ago and it is so old insurance companies won't touch it and they have it listed as $140,000? Plus, we don't even own the land under it. (I think that was a mistake to say)

He quoted me recent sales in mobile home parks for similar square footage and features (class 5) that were older than 1998 that sold from $125,000 to $180,000. Plus, we had a $40,000 hardship exception that reduced our assessed value. (I assume this was from my father in law living with us and now we will probably lose that one. I was evasive on that)

I looked up manufactured homes on the local manufacturer's website. I could buy a brand new Manufactured Home for $150,000-$180,000! 

Of course the scam is this... Housing shortage locally. Manufactured homes are financed like automobiles with high interest rates and credit checks. Your local Mobile Home Park has the home in place and probably is hooked up with a finance company.

According to my handy calculator app from AgDirect the payments on a $180,000 manufactured home would be a measly $2,000 a month

And there you have it folks. $2,000 a month to the finance company plus space rent so you can hit the average cost of a house rental in this area. 

If you move or default on the payments the Mobile Home park repos the house and resells it to the next sucker.

I bet you can hardly give away a manufactured home out in the wild because you have to move it and you have to finance it. 

I think we would be money ahead to just quit paying taxes on this house. If someone bought the POS at a Sheriff's auction they would have to haul it off. I could buy a new smaller one for $75,000 and build a big garage on what was left of my slab.

Or I could buy it back for less than three years worth of taxes and be in the clear.

What a scam!!!

I could replace my $175,000 used Manufactured home with a new one for $148,000 and make $20,000. Or at least I could according to may tax assessment from Yamhill County

This is my backup plan for when the wife hears about my scheme to quit paying taxes. It is 10x20 and has a Catio. I am not fond of cats but it is a bonus. Plus I can pick it up with the forklift! I better move it before the assessor tries to hit me up with a tax bill for $100,000 tiny home... Taxation is theft...