Stacking Lumber (Jan 4-5 & 19)
Just another of the many distractions from the stuff I really need to do (or want to do). A great big pile of rough cut lumber left behind by the guys who did the siding on the shop. I really wanted to keep it for future projects or repairs so I had to put it somewhere protected other than the floor of my shop.
First I had to rake out all the leaves that had blown under the shop in the past couple of years. Then I had to put down a vapor barrier of some kind (I used an old tarp that had ripped). Finally set up a rack on which to stack the lumber off the ground.
To keep the wood dry, I cut ricks (rhymes with sticks because that is what they look like) to place between each layer of wood thus providing good air flow.
I can see the floor of my shop again - its time to cover it up again.
Moving Tools (Jan 19)
Some upcoming work in the Atlanta house prompted me to get some of my tools and stuff out of the basement. This is just a fraction but at least it is a start.
Oh, well, so much for having empty floor space in the shop.
Doctoring Trakker (Jan 25-26 & Feb 9 )
I thought the tractor would be a huge time saver for me. Ha!. I've spent a great deal of my RW time and money working on the tractor. It was not exactly broken, it just needed some work.
First of all, I don't think the oil has ever been changed - certainly not the hydraulic fluid. I did both as well as new filters all around. That's when I learned about filling the fuel filter with diesel BEFORE putting it into service. A large air bubble in the fuel line takes a long time to bleed out.
While getting a feel for how the tractor handles with the bush hog attached, I noticed that when I stopped the tractor with the brake and the clutch in, the still spinning bush hog blade was feeding power back into the drive train enough to turn the left rear wheel. That is when I realized that the brake was not working on that side. The left brake was rusted up and the linkage was completely missing. I made new linkage from hardware store parts and rebuilt the frozen brake. Including making new gaskets from bulk material.
Of course, removing old rusty bolts leads to breakage resulting in drilling, extracting, and replacing the broken bolt. I also discovered that the parking brake mechanism was non-functional due to a missing bolt.
I purchased an overrun clutch in hopes of preventing power feedback from the bush hog. Alas, it would not fit. The bush hog drive shaft would not go back far enough to accommodate the additional 6 inches.Water Tank Site Prep (Jan 25)
My water storage tank has been sitting on the ground unused since November. I thought this would be a good opportunity to hitch up the box blade and do some coarse grading at the site of the tank. It was during this operation that first one of the check chains and then one of the lift arm levelers broke. Just plain old age I guess.
Well, this project gets put on hold.
Trakker Gets Hitched (Feb 22)
Since I already needed new hitch parts and since I needed longer lift arms to work with my overrun clutch, I decided to upgrade the entire 3-point hitch - new everything. Including taking the heavy steel check chain brackets to a machine shop for new holes.
Bush Hogging (Mar 22-23)
The Bush Hog is by far the most useful implement I own. In just a couple of days, I cleared brush from 2-3 acres. This may not sound like a lot, but consider that I am completely inexperienced in this. Oh, yeah, I've managed to clear twice this much with a chain saw and a push mower but it took me weeks.
I have no intention of clearing the entire 40 acres (nor the delusion that I could keep it that way) but I can now manage to keep a decent fire break around all of my buildings and it wont take up a month of weekends.
Windows (Mar 22, Apr 6 & Apr 19)
One thing I have been working on are the windows that I am putting in the shop. These were freebies I salvaged from a trailer that was on its way to the dump. They were standard 2-piece sash windows that slide up and down. My plan is to use them as simple hinged windows.
Because the sash windows rely on springs to hold them in position, there is a deep groove on both the left and right edges (to house the spring). This groove had to be filled to provide adequate strength for the hinge screws. Yes, I could have cut the "ears" off but then I would have lost nearly half the width of the window frame.
I was not able to find suitable stock to fill the grooves so I cut strips out of 1x6 and milled a rounded edge with my router. Then the strips were glued into the window frames and "clamped" with 16 ga finish nails.Now Carolyn will have a mission while I am busy setting up the water tank. She has volunteered to re-glaze and paint each of the windows before I install them.
It was during this week that I noticed that the Almond tree was blooming. Big white blossoms where nothing else was blooming. At least so I thought until I was driving away - that's when I spotted this other white blossom.
With Amber's help, it has been identified as Serviceberry.
