What did you do today?

[Tom King]

Had the exciting task of getting my Driver's License renewed today.  A little less than an hour wait.  I thought I was not allowed to renew online because of my age, but they said you have to go in every other time.

New driver's license good until my 78th birthday without glasses.

[Ronn W]

On 6/26/2023 at 11:11 AM, Tom King said:

Had the exciting task of getting my Driver's License renewed today.  A little less than an hour wait.  I thought I was not allowed to renew online because of my age, but they said you have to go in every other time.

New driver's license good until my 78th birthday without glasses.

So that means your license is good for 13 years?

[Tom King]

I'm well past the point where the number matters any more.  The license is good for five years, and having to go in every other renewal means I won't have to go in again until I'm 83.  At this point, my eyes are no worse than they've ever been.

I spend a large part of my life in the Sun, but never without a billed hat and UV cutting polarized full wrap sunglasses (even when windsurfing).  My best friend, who is a year younger than me, always refused to wear a hat or sunglasses and has all sorts of trouble with his eyes.

Joking with the young lady who gave me the eye test today, I asked, "Is that the hardest you have?"

She laughed and said, "Okay read the small print on that poster on the wall behind you".  I read "North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles".  She said, "Where are you seeing that!?"

I said, 'Under that logo in the lower right corner".  She had to walk over to see what I was talking about, and said something that wasn't very polite, but funny to me.

[BillyJack]

Got up this morning took the grand daughter to school and changed front brakes on the truck. Done before the heat set in…

[Tom King]

Typical birthday today.   A shower gooseneck in the rental house broke off at the wall, leaving the threads in the elbow.

I had all the tools needed to get the remnants of the threads from the old gooseneck out, and three trips to Ace hardware later (first one was finishing up putting a new alternator in the Farm Use car-needed a new metric bolt- before I got the call about the rental house), the new gooseneck was in, and the third trip to Ace was to get a new showerhead assembly.

Was looking for the third thing, and as I was walking out the door at the rental house, the Wife of the family staying there told me there was a leak under the kitchen sink.  Fortunately, that only required hand tightening the nut of the trap.  Hopefully, that's it for now.

 

[Mark J]

Happy Birthday? 

[Tom King]

Put a new alternator on the John Deere this morning.  A normally easy job was made a bit more difficult because the tensioning bracket was broken at the bolt hole.  A little grinding and welding saved a day of waiting for a replacement to get here and a trip to the dealer.

I used an aluminum plate to clamp the pieces to so they would stay flat, and no steel welding would stick to the aluminum.

While I was doing that job, I had an audience for a while.  The young deer thought it was hiding behind that branch.  It watched for probably ten minutes, and then casually walked on, followed by another one.  They were not much older than just enough not to have spots any more.

[JohnG]

Got some millin’ material. Neighbor had a huge maple branch come down last week. Got a bunch of firewood and a couple chunks that I’ll mill. 

[legenddc]

Got home from vacation and realized the weeds were completely out of control. Pulled almost 10 gallons of weeds and still have lots left to do. Being gone so long let everything get out of control. Loads of ants right by our house too but I'm trying to hold off on spraying until I get all the weeds up.

Also noticed our Hardie Board siding is looking dirty in some spots and there's moss on the foundation in one area. Guess I'll be spending a lot of time outside soon.

[Ronn W]

I use that word alot, " Yes, Dear, soon"

[Tom King]

Into an old plumbing repair in the rental house today.  The washing machine drain has been hanging over the side of the utility sink since we got that house.  I tried cleaning the drain in the wall, but it just wouldn't take all the water from the washing machine.

I decided to open up the wall behind the washer to see what I could find, and just cover the hole with plywood.

I found the trouble.  What is supposed to be a 2" trap is 1-1/2", and a really strange layout turned it into a bad S-trap.  If they had dumped it into that 3" vent stack, it might have worked.   Will post picture of fix.

While I'm at it, I'm going to change the washer water valves to ones easy to operate, and put ball valves  on the two water heater supply lines to make it a quick change, without having to turn the water off to everything else, whenever I need to put in new water heaters.

The plywood panel won't be seen behind the washer.  Pam is already planning to paint that room anyway.  It's the last room in that house that hasn't been painted.

That green fiberglass shower on the other side of the wall is being changed to a nice tile shower next Winter.

 

[Coop]

Eager to see the fix! 

[Tom King]

Here's my new style of water heater connection in the rental house.  The two water heaters in it are old.  This one was new in 1999, so it can't be long for this world.  I wanted to be able to change them out without bothering whoever is renting the house. This way the water won't have to even be turned off in the rest of the house.

Some people don't like these flexible water heater lines, but I've not had one go bad yet, and it sure beats most other methods of hooking one up.

With the two ball valves, all I have to do is close the valves, drain the water heater, and swap over the flexible lines.

I'm going to hook every one up like this in the future.  I couldn't do the other one because no one in town had enough 3/4" copper male threaded adapters.  The only adapters I could find were some oddball ones that have to fit into couplings.  I bought the best 3/4" ball valves I could find in town, and they only came with female threaded ends.

I'll do the other water heater as soon as more adapters come in.

I did get the new washing machine box in the wall, so it has modern easy to operate ball valves too, and a drain that now works properly.

 

[Coop]

As far as I’m concerned, those s/s braided flex lines are the way to go. 

[Immortan D]

I have a similar setup, but I installed a ball valve in the "input"  line only. I can see that the "output" valve, when closed, will prevent a loop back from the fresh water line originated in one of the mixer taps in the house, because in such case the "output" will become the "input" 

[gee-dub]

While we have been shuffling things around during some remodeling one of the outbuildings has evolved from an organized storage facility into a dumping ground.  I am attacking it today with good results so far.  I plan to "complete" it today come hell or high water . 

We have way too much stuff after both of our parents passing and the consolidation of 'things' that happens with that.  Add to that the vast amount of shop stuff I have accumulated over 20-odd years.  I track 80%+ of the items in storage buildings on a spreadsheet. 

This is a simple geographic model similar to the large communications facility layouts that I worked in for many years so it is pretty much second nature.  If LOML asks for the Fourth of July Holiday plates, napkins, tablecloths and all that for an upcoming event I can quickly find building, row, shelf, and slot for those items.

I know, pathetic and sad but it fits with my personal make up and saves me boat loads of time pawing through heaps of boxes.  I am fundamentally organized in self defense.

[Tom King]

Here is the drain swap.  Code calls for maximum drop to a 2" trap to be 30".  I'm at 28-1/2" here.  Code also calls for maximum horizontal distance to a 3" wet vent stack to be 5 feet and minimum 6".   I'm good with that at 7".

We made and installed the plywood cover, and the girls are going to do the painting.

The cutoff valve on the outlet line from the water heater just cuts off the supply to hot water lines downstream from that water heater.  It doesn't really hurt anything, and is just to be able to swap water heaters with minimum water spilled.

That flexible 3" tee was a _____ getting it in place, but it's there.

I just capped the 1-1/2" pipe, that was the drain before, down low in the wall.

 

 

[legenddc]

Tom I wish you’d stop posting about this. I feel the need to redo our washer line now that dumps into the sink instead of this T that’s already installed. 
 

I’m scared to touch the water heater lines and laundry supply as I don’t want it it to become a bigger issue. Need to finish a few other projects first. 

No I didn’t install that saddle line and will fix it properly whenever we replace the water heater. It feeds a whole house humidifier that we don’t use unless it’s super cold for a long time. 

[pkinneb]

Woke up to these guys in the front yard

[Immortan D]

I made a contraption for securely attaching a ball head to a Manfrotto magic arm:

[pkinneb]

On 7/15/2023 at 6:27 PM, Immortan D said:

I made a contraption for securely attaching a ball head to a Manfrotto magic arm:

So what does one do with this?

[Mark J]

I was pretending I knew.

[Immortan D]

On 7/15/2023 at 8:36 PM, pkinneb said:

So what does one do with this?

It is photography equipment. You clamp one end of the magic arm to something stable and the other end to a camera or other photography gear. I use it instead of a tripod when taking pictures from my balcony.

[Tom King]

Changed the steps onto the dock to a handicap ramp this morning.  

We're getting a large percentage of rentals for people in wheelchairs since ours might be the only ADA accessible lake house.  Just trying to make it all easier for them.

The past couple of days I cut down a parking area next to where the ramp is with the tractor.  I'll take pictures of that later.  I'm going to work on that a little more this afternoon, cutting it more level on the uphill side of where the truck is parked.

The worst part of the job was tapering the bottoms of the last two boards that had to sit on the deck.

 

 

[Tom King]

I forgot to post that the new washing machine drain works perfectly now, like one is supposed to.  The only problem was an improper and bad design.