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What are you doing today, II

Drove to Arthur IL today early morning. Took Old HWY 79 up to Louisiana and shot up to I-72 for a clean run east to Decatur. Picked up the big trailer that was there for warranty work and cam e home.
When the dealer mounted the tires/wheels they cross threaded the studs on three of the wheels. Also, a pin in the front jack was broken.

450 mile round trip. Warranty paid for the repairs but I footed the cost of fuel and time. All because some kid put the lug nuts in the air wrench and just jammed 'em on. The pin failure was just a flaw in the metal.

At lest I didn't have to be at work. It has gotten pretty tense there lately with new contracts coming in and newly hired people are rare and unreliable. Seriously, we have been trying to hire for weeks now. Unemployment is high but nobody needs a job.

Biden says if I want employees to pay them more. But I cannot compete with the government's easy cash.
Two years ago we paid $10 bucks an hour for manual labor. Now it takes $15 to get them to come in. That's $18.75 a hour with overburden costs. Insane.

Two of our former employees said it was more net income to stay home. So we let them.


Adding to that, raw material costs up 150%, if we can get them.
Meanwhile Biden promises that businesses will foot the bill for new spending.
 
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Up and at it bright and early at camp this morning. Packed up and on the road by 9am. I had to be in the city to film a music video with my band for the livestream July 1st service as we still can't play live due to covid restrictions. It's the first time since last year that we've been able to all play together.

I spent the afternoon with my butt firmly planted on the couch and feet up.

We had a memorial dinner at a restaurant for my band mate who passed away in January. We just haven't been able to do anything as restaurants only were able to resume outdoor dining last week. Indoor dining is still not allowed.
 
We spent the weekend in Chicago.

Apparently Kobe is too young to get into bars. We were locked out of Buddy Guy's Blues Legends, but while Kobe can't get inside he can groove to the music.

Did have an interesting bit of "fun" when we rounded the corner at 11th and Wabash while on one of our walks and found a guy laying face down on the sidewalk, iPhone a couple feet away from his hand, some scattered change. At first I couldn't tell if he was breathing. Dialed 9-1-1. A couple walked up while I was on the phone and asked what happened, they also stayed with Kobe and me. We all waited for the ambulance to show up. Was surprised when we got 2 fire trucks + an ambulance at the scene.

On a more mundane note, we did get some amazing donuts from Stan's Donuts.

I chatted with Dasha, she is on vacation in Cyprus, sent photos from the beach. She seems to be having fun but said that there are no hot guys there.

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And Dasha is doing well this summer. She has been in Kiev with her mom. Now is in Cyprus. Will be heading to Moscow with her dad for a while, then back to Kiev. She will eventually fly into Boston for a summer fencing camp and then into Chicago where I will pick her up and take her back to Notre Dame.

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Cities are never a boring place. Kobe likes the party deck, it is his favorite quiet spot when we go up to the apartment in the city. The excitement of the 911 call was a bit unusual for him. Kobe got to see and hear firetrucks and ambulances. And of course he got to eat donuts when it was all over.
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After the excitement we proceeded on to STAN's DONUTS because, after all, we do have our priorities and we did our good deed for the day.


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Kid got the motor out of his truck, now gotta strip it and clean everything. His new long block shows up next Monday and he needs to be ready to put it back in. Also he picked up a new clutch, flywheel ,throw out and water pump. When it done there is not much else to go wrong for a while.
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Fabricating a folding system to bi-fold a 4.5" X 5.5" pouch of infant laundry detergent to feed into our wrapping lines.

Customer called last week needed a rush quotation. The product came last Friday. I was out of town the team got started without me.
We finished design this morning and fabbed parts by noon. System will go on line tomorrow AM. Three years ago we designed a similar product. It took two weeks to get it right.

Good to have a bright team on the place for a change.

I used a new training method. I have always tried to teach by leading and explaining, Okay it's not really new. But, it paid off.

This team recently did a ground up fabrication, assembly, and electrical, for an entire packaging system starting last December and completion in early June. They did full paint, calculated ratios and motor HP, and electrical voltage and AMP needs. I basically made them do it without me involved in no more than a daily bitch about what they should have done different and why. Great learning experience and it paid off today..

Mother nature is a great teacher but she gives you the test before the lesson. It took a bit longer to get the project out but this teaching method surely worked out well. I'm an @sshole either way so what matters is the they developed skill level and knowledge (they) retained from doing it over until they got it right.

Banging one's thumb with a hammer teaches most to move their hand out of the way much more deftly than warning a newbie of the danger..
 
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IF it doesn't rain and since it's a bit cooler than it has been, I may squeeze a longish walk in today.
Just went over and sat in for whiteboard, so I can keep updated on what's going on in resident care.
As far as our facility goes, open for business.
?
 
Trying not to get arrested for assault.

We have several new hires on staff this week as we ramp up for some big contracts. The attitude, the disrespectful talkback confrontations are annoying at best, angering at worst. I've manages production crews in both union and non union shops for over 50 years and seldom have seen such antagonism from people young and old.
 
m1west said:
Went to the boat today and got about 90% of the cetol off of the woodView attachment 138291
Click to expand...
I have found it difficult to get much of anything in clear finishes to stay on teak. So instead, I just oil the hell out of it. The easiest to use is not a teak oil but Liquid Gold (tm). It is a petroleum based product and furniture guys say "not good for wood" but then so are most varnishes.

Unfortunately, it has become hard to find lately.

Scrub the wood with soap and water, let it dry and apply. You do not get the gloss of varnishes but then it doesn't flake off.

Our current boat is a 40 year old Bahama Islander. The previous owner was meticulous but he varnished the teak and then made covers so it wouldn't weather. Pretty but it renders the handhold railing useless under sail.. I'm letting motjher nature sdo her thing and when it's all flake away I'll scrub sand and oil them.
 
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Packed up and headed to camp this afternoon until Sunday. Alcohol may or may not be a factor in any decision making this weekend. It's supposed to be ?. Like 34 Celsius hot. Oh well. The beer ? will keep me hydrated I guess.
 
NorthernRedneck said:
Packed up and headed to camp this afternoon until Sunday. Alcohol may or may not be a factor in any decision making this weekend. It's supposed to be ?. Like 34 Celsius hot. Oh well. The beer ? will keep me hydrated I guess.
Click to expand...
There is a reason the Egyptians invented beer. We are told it was to purify the drinking water.

Bull Spackle

I consider the Egyptians to be much more clever than that. And thank them for their contribution to civilized life.
 
NorthernRedneck said:
Chiropractor this morning. Followed by another trip to the tire shop to get new tires installed on my wife's expedition. Home to do some hashing on the bathroom design and ordering fixtures. Next will be a trip to a few tile places in the city to pick out flooring, countertop, and shower tiles.
Click to expand...

Right now I'm working at home. So it is WFH - Work From Home.
 
bacon the the boat again today. 99% of all of the cetol is off the wood. The rear enclosure wood around the windows on the stern has to be scraped and painted also with a little wood repair. Started cleaning the cetol off of the handrail stations, courteous of the previous owner who didn't believe in masking tape. It takes about 10 minutes each with bronze wool to clean them up.
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headed for a work weekend at Hippie Ridge.

Moving the old 9N tractor
Moving 16 feet or retaining wall stacked block about 4 feet high
Moving a 10 X 30 floating deck out of the way so I can,,,,,
Move the old camper out of the way for the new bunkhouse.

The camper has a bump-out that has not moved for 15 years.
battery is stone dead soI have to charge something to even test the bump-out for retraction.
Jack up the old camper and replace 2 flat tires.
Hitch up to the truck and try to move it out of the way.

Next weekend I plan to lay gravel for the 14' X 32' bunkhouse. It comes in late July.

I'll be off internet and cellphone for three solid days. Love it!

Stay safe guys and, assuming I don't die of heart failure, fatigue or a jealous lover, we'll chat come Monday night.
 
This was our way of dealing with this heat wave. I dunked a few of the kids. Lmao. Once the kids were done, I swapped tubes for a round one you lay on and hold on for dear life for a more thrilling ride for the teens and adults. One of the adults nearly lost his shorts last weekend so I advised him to make sure they were tied up tightly. They were however he experienced a slight wardrobe malfunction when he when skipping across the water at 40mph.

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What else?
Boomers.. for the last hour.
Our fireworks aren't until tomorrow night down at the river park.
The neighbours behind me on the pond must have spent a fortune on fireworks.

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Came home from camp yesterday after being there since Wednesday afternoon. I'm doing a turn n burn today. Spent a good part of the day yesterday finalizing packing up the fifth wheel camper getting ready to head out today for 3 nights fishing up at my annual fish camp. We normally go the third weekend in May every year when fishing season opens but like last year, the provincial government had a ban on crown land camping as they thought it would somehow increase the spread of covid. You know, I may catch it from a squirrel or tweety bird.

I convinced a buddy of mine to come along so we'll be heading out this morning for the 3.5hr drive to get to the spot and set up. Hopefully we can get the boat in the water this afternoon for an evening fish.
 
Moving the old 9N tractor
Moving 16 feet or retaining wall stacked block about 4 feet high
Moving a 10 X 30 floating deck out of the way so I can,,,,,
Move the old camper out of the way for the new bunkhouse.

The camper has a bump-out that has not moved for 15 years.
battery is stone dead so I have to charge something to even test the bump-out for retraction.
Jack up the old camper and replace 2 flat tires.
Hitch up to the truck and try to move it out of the way.

Okay, we got a lot of it done but...
I dismantled and removed the back blade on the tractor, and jacked the front bucket. Didn't move the unit because we had started a brush fire and it was in the way. The brush pile was also in the way of the truck to hook up the trailer.

Batteries would not take a charge so we bought new ones.

Moved the deck
Moved the retaining wall

The old camper is still in place there but we did jack it up to replace a wheel.

My spare wheels didn't fit so we have to have some different ones or buy some new tires.

I did get a a chunk, maybe half, of our huge brush pile ( about 45 feet long and 8 feet wide) burned. Also, about 1/3 of the ruined lumber we had stacked up for constructing the house. Year ago I began buying lumber a little at a time. I had a friend a one of the LOWES stores who gave me great buys on culled lumber and stuff they had been stuck with from custom buys that were returned or never picked up. For instance a whole buck of 2X6's 14 feet long, custom buy. Customer never picked it up, I paid $1 per board.

Two 24 foot 2X12 laminated header beams, for $100 each.. Again, special order never delivered.

Two door units with slab glass and internal blinds.
The best was after a faulty sprinkler system got pallet racks of siding, paneling and wafer board wet, I got the mall for $4 a panel. Some 67 sheets of reverse batten Cedar. 40 sheets of wafer board siding. 54 sheets of fir plywood 1/2" exterior CDX siding/roofing panels.

Almost all of it ruined and needed to be burned. The laminated beams were the most painful. $600 apiece at the time I bought them.
NO idea their value today. It kills me to burn 2X4's I got for $2 to $3 bucks 10 years ago that now cost $8.50

So I spent two days hauling brush from the big piles we made last fall. Clearing more saplings as the wife got tired of brush hogging around them. Also had more work on the incoming drive. I think we have put about 20 ton of Ballast rock and 1" crushed limestone on the driveway into our place. Altogether it is about 1/2 mile long. But we only added rock to the wet spots. All of it one shovel full at a time.

My neighbor's son came by last week and told us my Case 360 Dozer ( which has been parked for 10 years) does run, so we just need to make a connection to get the keys. That puppy would be of great help on the road work. My neighbor had used it last year to cut a new drive into our places. Cannot wait to get my hands on it again.
 
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