Jimmys Tool Box

Act on Energy

2012-01-16T19:49:00.012-06:00

So. I get my monthly/yearly energy usage from Ameren/Act on Energy and have been on a slow burn since I got it.

My Electric usage says that I use 99% MORE last year than my 100 neighbors. My Natural gas is 14% BELOW last year than my 100 neighbors.

Now, What burns my ass is that I'm pretty sure they didn't compare on equal grounds. From previous posts, ya all know I have a pool AND use solar heat to heat it, AND have installed a salt water generator to cut down on chemical use. I also have a 80 lbs per day Ice maker and just acquired a 400 lbs per day Ice maker that I use during the summer. I use almost all the energy saving ideas that I know of and yet I use 99% more electric?

Now a little quick background about all this. I have been involved with the Act on Energy Business program at my work since the day I learned about it. It is a very good program and has loads of opportunities for businesses to purchase energy saving equipment/services with rebate incentives to reduce their electric/gas bill. I have not kept track of the grand total but know it is over $50 k that I've done with the program. And yes you might say I'm addicted to saving energy. I traded my H2 Hummer for a Prius.

I didn't have a problem with the natural gas. My house is heated with NG central heating and also have a NG water heater that I just replaced in June. I have replaced the aluminum siding on the house and installed R-14 insulation and R-7 siding boards under the vinyl siding. I know that my house is insulated better than my neighbors.

Well. After the holiday season has wound down ( lack of posting ) I went back and tried to figure why my electric is soo high. Come to find out if you don't update account info, it basically take generic information and assumes all house are more less the same. One example is that they take your square footage of the county tax info. If you have a basement, it's not included. You need to change it. It also has a option for if you own a pool ( bonus ). Also states that after you make any changes it might take up to one billing cycle for changes to take effect.

We'll see next month !

Care Free Summer

2011-10-16T17:53:00.003-05:00

Haven't posted in a while because of the great pool season we had this year and enjoyed a flawless season of pool upkeep. After year 2 of the Compupool chlorine generator, I can honestly say that this is the best setup for a pool.

The only problem I had this year is that the pool clouded up on a Wednesday. The reason was that the mechanical timer that turns the pool pump and the generator on had the "ON" lever fall off. Fixed the problem, hit the super chlorinate button and things were fine 24 hrs later.

Since it was a very dry summer, I frequently added water to the pool and never had to add salt this year either.

If you have a pool this is something to seriously look at!

Inflation

2011-05-14T18:04:00.004-05:00

Cost of driving the Prius has went form .09 cents a mile to a dime !

Unfortunately the Avalanche went from .31 to .41 per mile.

Program is call Fuel Log for your android phone.

See it here.

Rhinophyma: Day Fourteen

2011-03-28T19:40:00.003-05:00

3/22 Last Dr. Appointment today, doing fine. Keep Moist, NO SUN.

Parking Problems

2011-03-18T21:50:00.004-05:00

Something about Menards parking lot brings out the worst in parking. Took these pics on a recent trip out there.

And no I didn't walk around the lot, this was from my truck to the door.

If yours is pictured, sorry.

Rhinophyma: Day Five

2011-03-16T06:52:00.003-05:00

Swelling around my eyes has gone.

Have to keep it covered and lubed up with Aquaphor.

Have had no pain since day after procedure but itching of new skin growing back does drive one nuts.

Rhinophyma: Day One

2011-03-09T15:34:00.004-06:00

Ouch !

Procedure went quite smooth. Little pain before starting while numbing fluid being shot in but didn't feel much after that. Yag laser is a little noisy,sounded little like a large rubber band being snapped at a rate of once a second.

Only problem was afterwards had a little problem with bleeding. Seems like it took forever for the bleeding to stop. First picture is of me night after the laser procedure. My right eye is swelled up a little and the packing is on it's way to being full.

Second picture is about 20 hrs afterwards and had to change bandage because it was weeping pretty bad overnight. Took this as the wife was changing the packing and nose is covered in Vaseline. Both eyes have pretty much swelled up now. Not much pain at all and weeping has went way down.

Rhinophyma

2011-03-09T15:15:00.004-06:00

Definition of Rhinophyma

A manifestation of severe acne rosacea resulting in significant enlargement of the nose and occurring primarily in men. It is caused by hypertrophy of the sebaceous glands and surrounding connective tissue. The nose is reddened and marked with numerous telangiectasias.

Numerous web sites will tell you that this is the final stages of Rosacea. I had no previous symptoms of rosacea. Had a small bump show up on my nose about 7 yrs ago. Ignored it and it turned into this wart shaped looking thing. After trying several ointments and oral medications with no luck, I was referred to a Surgeon in STL for yag laser removal of it.

This is a picture day before it was getting zapped off.

Disclaimer:

This was not posted to gross anyone out, I am posting it because there is very limited information out on the web about this. Just trying to share my experiences with this and maybe give the next person some better information.

Guy Earthquake Swarm

2011-02-18T04:49:00.003-06:00

Guy (AR ) Earthquake swarm.

Funny how the intensity of the quakes seems to be increasing.

This is the money you could be saving....

2010-12-03T19:43:00.006-06:00

.....driving a prius.

Make all the jokes you want but I don't enjoy feeding the Arabs.

Current gas cost per mile in Prius is $.06

Current gas cost per mile in Avalanche $.25

Over 9430 miles, I have saved $1886 in fuel costs.

Sweet !

Wilson Tree Service

2010-10-25T19:55:00.016-05:00

Never tried to download a video to Blogger but I will try with this one.

Here is Adam with Wilson Tree Service in the bucket cutting off 82' of sycamore tree with the wind out of the south at 21 mph and wind gusts up to 31 mph. The owner, Chris Wilson is to the right of the tree base. Also to mention, this was OVER a power line and a phone line.

Directly between the camera and the base of the tree is a can of Coors Light. He was joking that he needed a target to hit. I put one down for him.

Here is a Pic I took from the tripod about 10 min before they dropped the tree.

In being truthful, the can was not hit. A 6" branch kept the can from being crushed but the can was dead center under the main trunk.

Sweet !

You can reach them @

573-406-0032

573-231-1820

217-224-8050

Bayer Advanced - 0 Nutgrass - 2

2010-08-24T19:47:00.006-05:00

Well, it's week 5 and all I can say is save your money and don't buy this. I put one treatment on with the hose end applicator as instructed on my front lawn first. 3 days later, I applied it to the back yards. The back yard is very well infested with the nut grass. After a week you could tell it did slow down the growth of the grass. Waited another week (per instructions) and applied the second application with a spot sprayer.

2 weeks after the second application I noticed brown dead areas in the yard. The nut grass was alive and growing like I had just fertilized it. And crabgrass, didn't touch it either. All the turf grass around the nutgrass was dead and brown. Nice.

The green in this picture is the nutgrass and crabgrass, the brown grass is my turf fescue that is now dead

The places where I applied it the second time ( pretty heavy) it had killed the nutgrass...and everything around it.

Did I apply it as directed. Yes. Both times.

At best I would guess that this is diluted Round-up.

Not Watergrass, Nutgrass

2010-07-27T19:45:00.003-05:00

I was brought up thinking this was water grass. Damned weed grows like crazy when the weather turns wet so always believed it. Until it started growing in MY yard.

Did some research on the Internet on just exactly this annoying little weed is. Come to find out it is Nutgrass or nutsedge, and it's not too easy to kill.

You can do a search on Google to find plenty of info and pictures if you think this is what you have. It grows at a amazingly fast rate and makes your yard look like it hasn't been mowed in a week 2 days after mowing it.

I am currently trying this Bayer Advanced Lawn Weed and

Crabgrass Killer. Never been a fan of putting chemicals on
the yard since I have had dogs, but this stuff is annoying.

Currently at one week since application and I do not see the nut grass brown and dried up. The crabgrass and clover has turned brown and died, but not the intended target. Although I have noticed that the nutgrass has NOT sprouted right back up for days after a mowing. The instructions say to apply a second application 2 weeks after the first, so I'll see what happens.

Chlorine Generator - Update Week 5

2010-07-02T20:00:00.004-05:00

Well, all is well with the salt water generator. Have had no problems with it and seems to be holding quite well. One thing of note, I assumed that you could set the level of chlorine that you wanted and it would maintain that level. Not so with this model. You adjust the level of chlorine generated by adjusting the percentage of output. I have learned that this unit pretty much can be adjusted by the water temp. If it's in the 80's, set it on 80%. 90's set on 90%. 20,000 gallons of water does not heat up or cool down very fast so it is very easy to adjust.

Hot Laptop

2010-06-08T19:13:00.004-05:00

After packing my HP back to the service center for the second time, I was forced to drag out my Acer laptop that I ditched for the HP. It was getting real hot and had the BSOD come on at random. Never spent any time fixing it...... until now.

One problem was the tremendous amount of heat that came out the fan exit shortly after starting it. Had taken back cover and blown out the screen and that area before but read about a guy who took it one step further and took off the fan cover.

Tried that with mine and discovered a t-shirt and a pair of socks lodged in mine. Took some canned air and blew it out and the overheating problem disappeared.

Imaging that.

As far as the BSOD, it would never run chkdsk, never Virus scan and randomly slow down or lock up. Once you canceled the chkdsk at start-up it would run for a undetermined amount of time before you would have to restart it.

Again, found a guy who removed his hard drive and hooked it up to his desktop and ran the dskchk off of his desktop. Since it was not the primary hard drive it worked. Ran that and then ran defrag after that and this thing is haulin' ass now.

CompuPool Salt Chlorine Generator Part IIII

2010-05-25T20:57:00.003-05:00

Ok !!!

All installed and hooked up and generating Chlorine (I think) When the unit is on, you can see bubbles coming off the plates in the chamber. Looks a little like a battery when it's hooked up to a charger.

Through the process of electrolysis, water passing over the chlorine generator cell produces chlorine that is instantaneously transformed into Hypochlorous acid. When any type of chlorine is added to water it ALL makes the SAME thing: Hypochlorous acid. It does not matter if it is Sodium Hypochlorite (liquid chlorine), Tri-chlor and Di-chlor or Lithium based, Cal-hypo or even gas chlorine--it all makes Hypochlorous acid. Hypochlorous acid is the active sanitizer; this is what kills algae and other harmful stuff in the water. Its effectiveness is totally predicated on balanced water conditions and, more importantly, proper pH. So, with a salt water system or chlorine generator, you still must maintain your water balance (pool chemistry) properly.

The last of my chlorine tablets has just run out today and the chlorine level is up around 9 ppm, A little high but I will update as the summer goes on.

Happy Swimming!

CompuPool Salt Chlorine Generator Part III

2010-05-25T20:44:00.003-05:00

OK...after getting the staples out, I was ready to add the salt to the pool. Getting info off the Internet about dissolving salt in the pool was confusing. It's now going to be salt water but several site suggested NOT to just dump it in as it would hurt the liner. ???? WTF? So I decided to use this 30 gallon barrel and dump the salt into it under the pool return nozzle.

I added the salt until it was about 3/4 the way full and did some other house keeping around the pool to waste time. The whole 600 lbs took about 2 1/2 hrs to dissolve like this.

After it was dissolved, I recirculated the pool water for about a hour before trying to start the salt generator.

Whoopsie Daisy

2010-05-25T20:07:00.006-05:00

A little set back during the installation of the salt water generator. Had to cut some hoses to install the generator in line and forgot the first rule of using a knife.

ALWAYS CUT AWAY FROM YOU !

This little accident included 8 internal stitches and 11 staples outside.

Think I'll have to add the bill to the pool project.

On a good note, the Dr. who stitched me up and the nurses were super. They did a fantastic job and I am really thankful of the job they did ! It did suck parking my car and walking a block to GET to the emergency room which was no fault of the ER personal. I did express my feelings to the person who called and asked for my opinion of the service and facilities on the stroll to get there.

CompuPool Salt Chlorine Generator Part II

2010-05-25T19:52:00.004-05:00

From the instructions, it calculates at .03 lbs of salt to each gallon of water. Since the pool is 20,000 gallons that works out to 600 lbs of salt. Pool salt at Wally World is about $6 for 40lbs. I needed 15 bags and who wants to pack 15 - 40lbs bags thu WalMart? Went to Farm & Home Supply and got water softener salt that met the 99.8% purity that was required. It was on sale for $3.99 a bag. They loaded it up with a forklift and I was off.

This is what 600 lbs of salt looks like in the garage.

One footnote about the Salt generator since last post is that noticed that the box it came in said "for in ground pool". Emailed Compupool and they had a quick reply that the above ground and below ground had the same physical makeup but the above ground had a timer and the in ground did not. Since I run mine off a timer they said it would be fine and wire it up to the timer.

Next was the adding of the salt to the pool.

CompuPool Salt Chlorine Generator Part I

2010-05-25T19:42:00.002-05:00

Did about a year and a half researching the salt water chlorine generaters and decided to go with Compu Pool. They seemed to have the best reviews on the internet.

Ordered it through PoolnPatio since they had the best price. Total was a little over $500 shipped. Arrived in about 10 days. Was a little cold at the time to install at the time.

Next up is buying the salt.

Road Trip

2010-04-24T07:15:00.004-05:00

Alabama and back for $83.00

Averaged 47.3 mpg
Cost $.064 per mile

Avalanche would have co$t me around $180.

Sweet !!!

What Happened?

2010-03-22T18:31:00.002-05:00

Went from this 2004 H2 Hummer I had 4 years ago which got at best MPG around town at 9.8.....

To this: 2008 Toyota Prius. It gets 49 MPG in town and 45 on HWY.

Tired of paying out the a** for gas I guess.

Rocking Illinois

2010-02-10T05:52:00.001-06:00

One a little closer to home.

Rocking Old Faithful

2010-01-19T20:04:00.004-06:00

Researchers Report More Earthquakes at Yellowstone

A swarm of minor earthquakes continues to shake the southwest part of Yellowstone National Park.
The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory reports that the strongest quake recorded during the current swarm was a 3.7-magnitude at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Earthquake swarms are a common occurrence in Yellowstone. They generally last from a few days to weeks.
The latest swarm began on Sunday and was centered about 10 miles northwest of Old Faithful.
So far, geologists have counted 469 earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from 0.5 to 3.7.
There have been five quakes measuring larger than a 3 magnitude.

Yellowstone Earthquake Map

Yellowstone Webicorder

Kubota Cab Progress....

2010-01-05T19:38:00.003-06:00

Finally got most of the cab finished. Here is a pic with all the windows in, doors on, latched and painted. The rear windows got tinted Plexiglas, why I don't know, just thought it would look better. BTW, I HATE WINDOW TRIM !

Here's the hinges I made because I didn't like the ones I bought and needed the doors to swing out further than that. Took me about 2 hours to make but allows the doors to be lifted off the hinges to be removed.

Door latches I also made out of some scrap plastic. Have installed a screw in framing and made the other end longer for weight. Have ran it about 12 hrs with the doors NOT flying open, so I guess it works!

Here's the gaps in the doors that I may work on later, but for right now, I left them open. There is a lot more open spots that I thought might need closed up to keep the heat in until........

HEAT !!!

Had bought a electric fan off of ebay that was 12VDC and only 2" thick. Roughly guessed on the distance and thought that would work. Had planned to run it pulling air from motor to cab in winter and reverse it during the summer. A....yeah. That didn't work. Anybody need a fan?

After disassembling the entire radiator section, fan, belts etc etc. found out that it is less than 2" clearance between radiator and water pump. Looked at moving radiator forward a tad because it was just so close, but still wouldn't work. I figured there had so be a better solution so I walked away from it for a few days.

The thought of pushing snow without any heat led me to one last attempt. Acquired a 10" Alum fan off a old AC unit that had the reverse blades of the OEM one. Drilled out the center hole for the water pump and drilled the four holes that would mount it to the pump. The whole time I was reassembling this I was wondering how warm it would be and if so, how hot it would be in summer, because I sure wasn't gonna switch this out every 6 months!

Filled the fluids back up and let it warm up to see the results. Have to say, it seems to work well in a 70 degree garage.

Took it out for it's 1st trial run pushing snow in 20 degree weather and I will have to say, It was pretty damned toasty in there. Even with all the gaps in the door, under the seat and levers slots, it forced me to take my coat off while I was in there. Will have to rate this as a success! The only drawback is there is no control over how much heat comes in the cab. You can increase the throttle and seems like it gets hotter and slow it down and get less. Snow plowing doesn't require too much HP so that works for me. (until summer, still wondering about heat stroke in the cab!)

* Two concerns I do have for the few people who have contacted me about interest in this: First, the alum blade I used was rated for 1700 rpm. Don't know if running this above that will cause much problems but have kept my eye on it and looking for any cracks or any other signs of failure. Second, the battery sits right behind the radiator on the inside of cab. I'm sure blowing hot air on it might not be the best thing for it and have frequently checked it for water but so far so good.

Had a lot of fun doing this and spent a great deal of time on it and as before, If you would like any more pics or like any info on anything you see here, feel free to email me and I will try to send any info I can.

I'm pretty sure I'm not quite done with it yet........

HP 'puter problems

2009-12-15T19:00:00.002-06:00

Been without my HP laptop since last week.

Last Friday my HP laptop screen went haywire on me. Started having candy stripe baby blue lines in the background where there should have been only white. Also noticed on a black background, there was lightning looking red lines randomly streaking thru the screen.

Emailed HP thru their support website letting them know I had a problem.

I received a reply back in less than a hour and then described more in detail what exactly what was going on. Tech sent me a reply in about 20 minutes telling me that it would have to go back for repair. I then wondered if I would see it before the new year.

The box arrived 12.9 at 12:06 pm. Fex Ex surprisingly delivered it on my lunch hour (more on this latter). I gathered my puter and returned to work as it uses Fed Ex to ship packages out. It was picked up at 4:19 PM that same day. I received email latter that night from HP telling me that my return box had been shipped and gave a link to Fed Ex showing the delivery tracking. Pretty cool. It was returned by 2 day delivery so my hopes were not high of them getting it before Friday.

Checked my email at lunch Friday 12.11 and got another email that HP had received the laptop at 6:55AM. WOW. Still my hopes were not high of receiving any news before Monday.

Later Friday night checked email again and HP had repaired the laptop and shipped it back out at 1:58 that afternoon. Holy Crap that was fast! Also checked again Sunday while watching football and it was sitting in Memphis TN. Didn't think it would go too far during the weekend and was expecting it Tuesday 12.15.

Coming home from work Monday, I saw that Fed Ex had attempted to deliver it @ 11:22am. Who the heck is home at 11:22 in the morning? Yes, I was excited about getting it back, but was not going to take off work to receive it! Entered Door Tag number into Fed Ex web site and it had all the info right there. At 2:45 it was sitting at the main terminal. Swung by and picked it up, took it home and tested it out. Screen and everything was fixed as promised! All under warrenty.

Have to give HP a A+ for customer support, repair, communication and speed.

Also have to give Fed Ex a A+ for tracking and speed. (need to work on the delivery times tho)!

Kubota Cab

2009-11-29T14:35:00.002-06:00

Winter time is here again so means some spare time to work on the cab project again.

Worked about 7 hrs on it Thanksgiving day and go both doors cut out and mounted.

Had to make my own door hinges so door would swing far enough out to allow them to be removed.

Painted them Friday and will work on door handles next.

What is Polyradiculoneuritis ???

2009-11-08T08:34:00.004-06:00

Before I left for Business trip #2 around the second week of October, I noticed that the Benard was having trouble desending the steps off the deck. She seemed depressed since the passing of Roxy and I just assumed because of her inactivity that it was just stiffness.

Shortly after that my ex, who was watching her during my trip, took her to the vet because it had gotten worse. Several days later she informed me that Freckles had Polyradiculoneuritis...or coonhound paraliysis....Yes I had to Google it.

I found information on it here.

She is doing a lot better now but the ass end doesn't alway go the same direction as the front end. I see small improvements everyday and I guess this will disapper soon.

Thanks to Dr. Jim Nuessen for his diagnosis.

.

She Picked Me

2009-09-29T09:50:00.007-05:00

It was a sunny, hot August afternoon when I went and checked on the pups.

Our neighbors had left for a few days of vacation and asked us to “puppy” sit their newborn batch of labs for them. The pups were around 6 weeks old and all but two had their bright colored collars on designating who had picked them. The unclaimed ones that were left, a male and a female. First trip I made over to check on them, one of them opened their eyes, got up and wandered over in the makeshift pen to greet me, it was one with no collar, the female. The pup seemed to want to play around and I played with her for a bit while the rest of them were just sleeping in the hot afternoon heat. I had no intentions of getting a dog and did not want the responsibilities and dedication that went with owning a dog. Little did I know what was about to transpire.

During the next visit, I sneaked up on the pen not making a sound, and just watched the litter to check and see how they were doing. Low and behold, the unclaimed female would wake up from her nap and wonder over to greet me, the rest, still napping away. I found this rather strange and wondered if this was for real.

Several more trips over the next couple of days to “check” on them and I came up with the same results. No matter which direction I approached the pen, she always woke up and came over to greet me. The funny thing is that NONE of the other ones would even move, let alone venture over to see who was there. The biggest reaction from the bunch would be to open their eyes and look at who the intruder was. It was like they already had owners and didn’t feel the need to socialize. I figured this must be “the sign”.

After some intense conversations with Linda, we decided to go get a pink collar and put it on her so that we knew that I was the one she wanted.

Linda and I were truly blessed to enjoy training her while she was young, and enjoyed the company and companionship of her over the next 13 years of her life. Anyone who came over to the pool or to watch football in the garage always got to meet her, and she was equally happy to see them too. Freckles and her would just enjoy being around the crowd. Roxy was always excited to see Linda when she came to get them and she frequently enjoyed walks with her. I was always amazed at how smart she really was.

That all came to a end today, Sept 28, 2009 when we had to put her to sleep.

You will be truly missed by Linda, Freckles, Kathy, myself, and the pool and football gang.

Rest in peace Roxy.

Cell Battery Drain

2009-09-19T21:06:00.003-05:00

Friend of mine told me that the biggest drain on a cell phone was when it was looking for a signal.

Low and behold I recently had a chance to test that theory out.

Was out pretty much in the middle of no where and had trouble getting a signal inside of a building I was working in. My battery was fully charged before I went to work, and by noon it was down to one bar.

Seeing my life is full of little experiments, that night I charged it again and left it in the car. The battery at noon was still charged and again too when I left that that night.

That was only two days tho...

Third experiment was the same as day two and the battery was still fully charged at the end of the day. Day four, I took inside and left it on the desk all day. By the time I left, I had the "low battery" flashing at me.

Soooo.

That theory is correct !!!

Did some looking on the net tonight and found this and some other ways to save on battery drain.

Bad Credit ?

2009-09-08T19:32:00.004-05:00

I have bought my last 6 trucks from Shottenkirk Chevy and thought I had a pretty good relationship with them. 5 of them were brand new, all 6 were paid for in full.

Imagine how surprised I was today when my favorite service advisor informed me today that I am longer able to have an account and charge my $26 oil changes. Services must be paid for at the time of service.

Travel Options

2009-08-10T19:33:00.004-05:00

Before taking off on my last trip south to see my honey, a friend of mine mentioned that I should look into renting a car rather than drive my 6400 lb Avalanche.

Looked on line at Enterprise and they are running a 4 day special with unlimited miles.

Did some quick math and figured that it would be $60 more renting a car, but figured out that it would be worth it to keep the miles off of the truck.

Went there wanting to rent a full sized car but the lady there suggested this stylish sports mid sized thing since it was the only one that has cruise control (strange).

Stopped in Hannibal and got fuel but didn't pay attention to amount or price. First stop for fuel was in Ft. Campbell. Was thinking this is where I normally stop in the truck and was thinking that the fuel mileage was going to be the same as the Avalanche. Much to my surprise this mid-sized beauty only held 10.001 gallons. Quick math also told me that 365 miles into 10 gallons was 36.5 miles a gallon !!! This is double what the Chevy is getting. Sweet!

After I returned, I collected all my reciepts and took the car back and tallied up the total costs. The Avalanche used right at 80 gallons on a round trip. Gas spent on the rental was 41.2 gallons. Rental car costs were 101.17 for the weekend so the total difference between rental cost and fuel vs, the fuel alone on the truckster was $2.07 higher renting.

Got the real expence of driving a suv from this site, so the real expense of driving the truck jumps up with mait. and tires cost added another $83.20 onto the truckster total which makes it saving me some $85 dollars renting.

Sweet!

Blog Delay

2009-08-10T19:23:00.004-05:00

Haven't been blogging lately because:

Been busy with summer stuff.

Old computer died.

Forgot password to blogger.

Mainly the last one.....

Garden Science Project

2009-07-01T20:53:00.004-05:00

Seen that "upside down" tomato plant thing at the store and decided to do my own version. Used 2 five gallon buckets, one blue, one black. Know for a fact that tomato plant like the warmer soil so did a little experiment on my own. Used 4 of the same tomatoes from the same flat to make the results even.

Planted one in the bottom of each bucket and one in the top. Have watered and fertilized them at the same time and the same amount.

As you can see the results are somewhat skewed at the time.

Both of the plants in the bottom of the bucket are stunted on growth side of things. The one in the black bucket top has the most growth, but both the bottom one in each bucket both have a 2" green tomato on them.

Road Rage - Illinois Version II

2009-06-23T21:33:00.004-05:00

First Pic is a Road Kill semi that mistakenly

read the road construction speed limit as 25

rather than 45. Added 15 min to the GPS

arrivial time.

Pic #2 here is "Scooter" . He was on a what I think was a 125 cycle doing 70 down the left hand lane from Ft. Campbell to all the way to the Georgia border. He spent 80% of his time in the left hand lane doing 70 MPH. Bike would not do anything over that.

Pic #3 is just some random dumbass that was crusing in the left hand lane that I passed on the right because he was doing 68 MPH.

Pic #4 is a pack of pokeys I got behind, as you can see the time stamp at 9:22 am. Notice the SUV in the lead on the LEFT who was going 70.0001 MPH who thought he deserved to drive in the left hand lane.

Pic #5 shows more or less the same cars 22 min later all following the same person.

Solar Pool Heat

2009-06-01T19:45:00.005-05:00

Bought this on Ebay about 2 years ago. It's 2 panels 2' x 20' I mounted back to back on top of the pool fence. Have then titled about 45 degrees to the south. Panels are made of black PVC tubing that has multiple tubes running end to end. The water enters in the top, runs down the length of the panel and back again. Hooks up between the filter outfeed and pool inlet. This one came with a diverter valve that limits the flow thru the panels. Idea flow is 12 - 15 gpm.

Pool temperature, on a bright sunny day, raises about 1 degree an hour. The pool is 20' x 40' so it holds about 20,000 gallons of water. Before I installed this about the same sunny conditions, it would raise only a half degree and hour. Nice thing that I have also tried that if the pool temps get too high, you can run the filter and panels at night and it will act as a radiator and cool the pool off a few degrees.

For the first year I just had them laying out on the deck but decided last year that they were worth keeping. Have hard piped them up for easy removal during winter months.

May Showers bring....

2009-05-17T18:00:00.004-05:00

Flooding.

Road Rage - Illinois version

2009-04-19T07:37:00.005-05:00

On a recent trip I discovered this sign has absolutely no meaning what so ever to some drivers.

The stretch of road I experienced this on was Highway 24 from Paducah Ky. to the Georgia border. 260 miles of pure living hell for me because of a few drivers NOT following this simple sign.

It took me a little while to figure out just exactly what was causing the repeated bottlenecks along this stretch of highway. After following a pack of 20 vehicles for 40 miles, I finally found out.

It's lefty's.

Not left handed people mind you, but the motorist that think it is their god given right to travel down a busy highway and permanently stay in the left hand lane regardless of their speed.

Don't know why these people do this either the fear of being called slower or lacking the ability to change lanes, but my cruise control was off more than it was on.

So as a PSA and important driving safety tip, I have thought up a couple of tips that motorists can use to find out if they need to change from the left hand of the highway to the right.

First, traveling .001 to 1 mph ABOVE the posted speed limit does not automatically qualify you to reside in the left hand lane. Move to the right.

Second, if you glace up at your rear view mirror and the traffic behind you looks like the drive thru of Starbucks on free coffee day, you probally need to change lanes. Move to the right.

Third, if the traffic passing you out your passenger side window is equivelent to the traffic in the oppisite direction, you probally need to change lanes. Move to the right.

Lastly, If a black Chevy Avalanche with Illinois plates passes you in the right hand lane doing 89 mph, the driver giving you the double bird, and you can't read lips but it looks like every other word he is saying begins with a "F", you probably REALLY need to change lanes.

PLEASE move to the right.

Redoubt erupts

2009-03-23T07:09:00.003-05:00

Alaska's Mt Redoubt erupted overnight.

Will be interesting to see the Web cam when light hits it this AM.

Bamboo

2009-03-22T12:22:00.005-05:00

During my recent trip south, I dug up some Alabama Bamboo and brought it back to plant here. Don't know if it will grow or not.

Don't think it liked the trip back in the back of the Avalanche because after two weeks it has not straightened up much.

Endless Gas

2009-03-02T10:30:00.002-06:00

It's a Brinkmann Pro Series 4400.

I bought it at the end of the 2006 summer closeout sale. Picked it up for $125. Didn't want to spend too much in case this little experiment didn't work. Looked for a natural gas grill, but after shopping around, the price was a little more than I wanted to spend. Searched the internet for some info on how to convert a propane grill to natural gas and presto ! I found this site. There are several other links on this page that have useful information on doing this.

WARNING: If you are not sure of what you are doing, Do Not attempt this.

The tricky part, after getting the natural gas line to the grill, is to drill out the jets to the proper size. It's pretty much hit and miss of drilling out the burner jets. I just matched up the drill bit with what the propane on was and jumped up 2 numbers at a time until I got the flame I wanted. I think I went to a 52 drill size.

Another word of caution here is don't drill it out to big.

I've had this working for about two years now and can honestly say that I grill out much more now that the days of checking if you have enough propane to grill out are gone. I still like to grill with charcoal during the lazy days of summer, but this is the next best thing if you don't have the extra time.

Kubota Cab Project

2009-02-18T20:58:00.004-06:00

Updated 2.22.09

This weekend's events included adding lights, marker lights and wiring them all up. Went with LED marker lights since I found out the Kubota alternator only puts out 14 amp. There goes the Bose sound system I was going to install......

Also go the back panels cut out, painted and installed. Back and front glass put in. Top put on, bolted down and halfway painted. Tried to put the back glass panels in but too many nasty words came out of my mouth during this. Have to practice on this to get the hang of it.

Got the cage painted and the top on (not here) . Hope to get a lot more done this weekend....!!!

Kubota Cab Project

2009-02-09T19:38:00.000-06:00

Spend too much time on the internet snooping around and I eventually find something that sparks my interest. This guy did a great job on making a Cab for his BX22 Kubota. I was looking to buy one for mine, but have decided to see if I can try to build one my self. Started sometime around the 17th of Jan, but haven't kept my nose to the grindstone on it. I will try to take some pics as this goes along.

Here's what I have so far.

Tack welded everything together, then changed my mind and re-did to to bolt together. Like maybe someday I might want to remove it?

More on this as it devolves.

Superbowl

2009-02-02T20:00:00.004-06:00

Nothing Better than Wings on the grill.......

.......Some Frank's EXTRA Hot Sauce......

.....and 110" of Superbowl !!!

Winter Blues

2009-01-24T16:38:00.002-06:00

Cell Phone + Radar Detector + I pod
+ Back up Camera + 5 degrees =

Dead Battery

Who would of thunk it?

Global Warming

2009-01-14T22:16:00.005-06:00

Current conditions in Anchorage Alaska 1.14.09:

Tonight... Occasional sprinkles or flurries. Lows in the lower to mid 30s. East of the seward highway and along turnagain arm... Southeast wind 50 to 80 mph with gusts to 105 mph. Elsewhere southeast wind 25 to 40 mph.

Thursday... A chance of rain in the morning...then rain likely in the afternoon. Highs in the mid 30s to lower 40s. Southeast wind 15 to 30 mph. Along turnagain arm and higher elevations...southeast wind 30 to 45 mph increasing to 50 to 65 mph in the afternoon.

Current conditions in Quincy Illinois 1.14.09:

Overnight: Mostly clear, with a low around -7. Wind chill values as low as -25. North wind between 11 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.

Thursday: Sunny and cold, with a high near 3. Wind chill values as low as -25. Northwest wind between 10 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.

Al Gore can kiss my fat frozen ass!

.

1.12.09

2009-01-12T12:39:00.003-06:00

Today is my 11th anniversary at Wis-Pak.

4015 days of Fun!

Yellowstone Rocking

2009-01-04T17:50:00.004-06:00

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations reports that as of 1800 MST on 2 January 2009, seismicity of the ongoing Yellowstone earthquake swarm continues. Over 500 earthquakes, as large as M 3.9, have been recorded by an automated earthquake system since the inception of this unusual earthquake sequence that began Dec. 27, 2008. More than 300 of these events have been reviewed and evaluated by seismic analysts. Depths of the earthquakes range from ~ 1km to around 10 km. We note that the earthquakes extend northward from central Yellowstone Lake for ~10 km toward the Fishing Bridge area, with a migration of recent earthquakes toward the north. Some of the dozen M3+ earthquakes were felt in the Lake, Grant Village and Old Faithful areas. Personnel of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory continue to evaluate this earthquake sequence and will provide information to the NPS, USGS and the public as it evolves.

LED Lighting

2009-01-03T18:13:00.003-06:00

Although it only uses 1.5 watts of electricity for 40 watts of lighting, I'm not really sold on these yet.

Just like CFL's, they don't work with dimmers.

Electronic Door Lock

2008-12-28T12:16:00.005-06:00

Replaced this:

With this:

New digital lock from Schlage
I picked up at the big box store.
Took about 15 min to install and program.

Zero problems installing it in an existing door.

Rather than give out keys, you can program in a 4 digit code for visitors. When done, the code can be erased.

Very simple to use and program.

Midwest Weather

2008-12-27T09:14:00.003-06:00

Only in the Midwest can you have a Tornado Watch, Tornado Warnings & Flood Watch with 65 degree temperature two days after Christmas and still a 50% chance of snow that night.

Sweet.

What's in St. Bernard Slaiva?

2008-12-20T21:19:00.001-06:00

This lovable dog slobbers something terrible. Her food dish after eating looks like the most disgusting thing! Cleaning it requires a scrub brush and a brillo pad. No amount of soaking will loosen this stuff.

I have worked in food related business for quite some time and stainless steel is the industry standard for food contact. The bowl is Stainless steel and even after washing it, there is a film of 'Nard spit!

If 3M was smart, they would do some R&D on this stuff!

Snow Pre-Treatment Test #2 = Not so well

2008-12-16T20:03:00.007-06:00

This doesn't seem to be an exact science....but learned a few things Sunday night:

When the NWS in STL says there will be less than .01 ice accumulation, they could be wrong.

Either watch Football or watch the weather, not both.

Have the salt solution already made up. The 30 min to add water and mix was pretty much the failure of this test.

Waiting to the last minute sometimes is the coldest.

More fun in store for this Thursday. 1/4"+ of freezing rain in the forecast.

Bad Weather Ahead?

2008-12-11T18:13:00.002-06:00

Sleet, Freezing Rain, & Snow?

Looks like test #2 is in store for the Pre-Treatment machine.

Not looking forward to the late Sunday night / early Monday morning freezing here!

SPREAD OUT

2008-12-09T21:32:00.003-06:00

Liked this Blogger Template but DAMNED ! The post column was too small. Played around w/ it tonight and think I have it wider.

Me playing w/ HTML is not pretty.

Sorry for the three of you who read this.

Snow Pre-treatment Pt. 1

2008-12-02T19:53:00.018-06:00

This was going to be a test on a PRE-snowfall treatments, but thing didn't go as planned. Went into work Monday to find that the temp had dropped below 32 and froze most of the snow that had fell Sunday night.

Oh well. It says it is supposta works as a de-icer as well as a pre-treatment.

The test is on !

Here is what I came up with:

Heard some stories and read some info on the internet of using a brine solution sprayed down before a snowfall to prevent snow and ice from bonding to the pavement. Iowa DOT has had some good results and are currently using this now. Did some research and found out that the best solution is a 23% brine solution. This works to -6 degrees.

Rigged up this from items around the work place and came up with something I think will work. Made a collapsible boom that extends out to 16' span with 14 jets total. ( Work currently has about 5 acres of concrete that needs to be cleaned off ) Each jet dispenses .3 gpm at 40 psi. That means the rate for all 14 jets would be 4.2 gpm. In order not to overheat a 12vdc pump I sized it smaller at 3.9 gpm. Current draw on the pump is around 7 amp and since I just bought a battery for the wheeler for $60+, I decided to used a deep cell battery for the same amount. Picked up the pump thru Grainger, hose, piping, jet, battery @ Farm and Home supply.

Mixture on the solution seems to be a 1-2-3 ratio. 1 gallon of water to 2.3 pounds of salt. Since I had 55 gal barrels that were readily available at work, I used them. It worked out pretty well. I added 3 - 40 lbs bags of rock salt and fill the remainder up with water.

Mixed the solution up with a barrel mixer we had at work and I was off.

First trip was on a slight downhill slope and I quickly learned I was pulling quite a bit of weight. 1154 lbs of Brine solution alone. That explains why my 400 lb Rancher w/ my 225 lb ass was slowly being pushed down this incline.
Go figure.

Looking behind me, I could see that the brine solution was working. Travel speed is a bit slow. Objective is to cover the ground with the brine solution and evenly spread it without causing excess waste. This on the Rancher is slightly over idle in second gear. Slow to say the least. Last pic I took here is after I had made one pass and missed a spot. Looks like it worked and I only used 240 lbs of salt to do the entire lot. Normal usage for something like this is around 600 - 800 lbs per use with the traditional salt spreader. Something I am testing around with is a home version with a sprayer on the driveway. 2-3 gallons could easily cover the average drive. I have found a sprayer tank that could be mounted on my 4 wheeler for home use laying around the mess/ garage and may be playing with that after some tests with the hand held sprayer !!!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2008-11-27T13:55:00.003-06:00

Updated 1.1.09 w/ Picture

1 ½ lbs. Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

1 ½ cups Franks Extra Hot Sauce

1 - 8oz Pkg Cream Cheese

1 - 16oz Sour Cream

1 pkg Hidden Valley Fiesta Ranch Dip

1 tbs Garlic Powder

1 tbs Onion Powder

1 tbs Black Pepper

1 tbs Cayenne Pepper

1 10 oz can Rotel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies

1 – 8oz Pkg Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Green Onions

Microwave chicken breasts until done. Shred finely. Blender or food processor works good for this. Mix shredded chicken and Frank’s hot sauce in a bowl. Add softened cream cheese and sour cream to bowl and mix together. Add garlic, onion, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and Hidden Valley ranch dip. Mix together. Drain can of Rotel and add to bowl. Mix well. Spred mixture into 9 x 13 baking dish. Top with chopped green onions and shredded cheese. Cover and refrigerate. Serve with tortilla chips.

Some like it REAL HOT

2008-11-25T19:55:00.004-06:00

If you like Hot Sauce, this is for you. Just finished a weekend of using this for Hot Wings and Hot Chicken Dip. ( try to post the dip later) I used to use just Frank's Hot Sauce and add my own ingredients, but after finding this stuff, it works straight out of the jug.

Good Stuff !

Best Box

2008-11-19T16:58:00.004-06:00

Got my TV Food Stamp, er ah Coupon for an HD TV converter box and have not heard enough about a good one. Currently have a borrowed one hooked up in the garage since last week to watch the BEARS suck in HD. This one works with an antenna and doesn't pick up cable channels when hooked up to cable??? Have seen some that have a analog pass thru but don't think this one has it. Wondered if anyone had some input on one that does both HDTV and cable.

Thanks.

Wanted: Back-up Quarterback

2008-11-09T16:06:00.002-06:00

Daunte Culpepper come out of retirement and has a QB rating of 47.5
Rex Grossman, second string QB has a rating of 64.4

Go Figure.

CB&Q Baggage Cart

2008-11-02T15:59:00.004-06:00

Finished.

Still missing 5 of the upright supports. Maybe dig through the dirt this winter and see if I can find the rest.

Garden 2008

2008-10-28T06:32:00.002-05:00

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ST LOUIS MO
1100 AM CDT TUE OCT 28 2008

...HARD FREEZE ENDS THE GROWING SEASON...

No Shit.

This had to be the worst growing season I have had since I moved into this house.

For starters this year, this happend Mothers Day 2008, day after I planted all 112 tomato plants. The tree just to the west of the garden dropped dead center in the middle of the garden. I was lucky enough to only loose one plant. Took most of the day to clean up and bend the conduit back into shape. For someone who uses Autocad to design and layout the garden followed by a day of using string line to make each row and stake perfectly straight, this was a killer.

Next picture is what my garden looked like at the end of July 2007. That's my fat ass standing in the middle of the patch. The conduit is in the ground about 18"-24" and 10' long.

During 2007 and pretty much every summer EXCEPT this one, this is what I got out of the garden about every 4 days. ( we make LOTS of salsa) Had soo much that I regularly took them to work. Not this year.Here's what it looked like at the end of Sept of this year. Not a damned ripe tomato hanging. Most of the ones I got this years rotted on the vine while they ripened. The fatality rate was about 25% in early July and went to better than 50% by August.

Not a good year for peppers either. Had 12 Jalapeno plants and got only 6 peppers.

Growing season was done long ago.

Freeze Warning !!

2008-10-26T18:28:00.002-05:00



















CITIES OF...QUINCY...HANNIBAL...BOWLING GREEN
341 PM CDT SUN OCT 26 2008
...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM CDT THIS EVENING...
...FREEZE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 9 AM CDT
MONDAY...

Remember to disconnect your outside garden hoses.

Baggage Cart 10.10.08

2008-10-23T18:36:00.000-05:00

Updated 10.22.08

10.13.08

Here's my next project.

It's whats left of a old CB&Q baggage cart. The wheels and support assembly is about the only thing left. The wood has rotted off and most of the metal attachments are gone.

My first intent was to try to restore it back to original. After trying to find the exact dimensions and trying to fabricate new parts that looked old, I'm just going to make it look close to what it did.

Closest thing I found on the internet was one here.

10.22.08

Been busy as hell this week with other things around the house. Main thing was to clean out my woodworking shed so I could finally find things.

Also have been drying out the treated lumber purchased at the local lumber yard. This crap is so wet, the might as well have is sitting in a tank of water.

Back to the project....while my neighbor and I were cleaning, he found several other metal pieces to the cart. I had already had most of the bed support in place. Lucky the dimensions I started with are damned close to matching up with the metal found.

Added the two support rods that were used on both ends and this really seemed to stiffen up the middle of the bed.

Hopefully this weekend I'll have more time to work on this since the weather will be cold and crappy.

Winter Dryer Attachment

2008-10-10T13:25:00.004-05:00

Here's a little attachment that can save you some coins every winter if you have an ELECTRIC dryer. It attaches to your dryer hose and vents the dryer exhaust back into the house. If ya think about it, the dryer produces heat (furnace) and moisture ( humidifier) that can be used inside during the winter rather than ducted outside. This is close to the one I have but there are several different model out there now. Toss some cheap ass dryer sheets in and sorta works like an air freshener too.

Just remember to take it off before summer.

Don't try this with a GAS dryer !!!!

Cleaning your Razr

2008-10-04T07:49:00.002-05:00

I have had 2 Razrs in the past 4 years and have dunked them both.

First one went thru the washing machine. Yes, the full cycle. Second one went into the dog's water dish for a few brief seconds. Both times, after realizing what happened, I quickly removed the battery, removed the covers and placed all of it in my food dehydrator. Left it in there for at about 18 hrs, removed and installed battery and put on charger.

Hour or so later it was back to life.

Don't know how it works on other phones, but have told this to a few friends that have had dunked theirs and it has worked for them too.

Aditional Mute Button

2008-09-28T17:29:00.003-05:00

As I get ready to head to my favorite watering hole to watch my beloved Bears, I wonder if this could be possible.

A Madden Mute button for the remote.

Press this button and you could hear all the game but not John.

I can listen to Al Michaels all game, but Madden is as irritating to me as fingernails on a chalkboard.

Blah, Blah, Blah, Brett Favre, Brett Favre..........

ATV Maintenance

2008-09-26T06:39:00.001-05:00

Ever seen this?

It's the carburetor intake side of a Honda Rancher 350 ATV.

Why am I here? Like to old saying goes, "If you don't use it, ya lose it". This would also apply to starting and running your ATV at least once a month. I failed to do this and ended up taking the carb off and cleaning crap out of the bowl and jets. The idle jet was so clogged with varnish, it took me over 20 minutes to clean it out. I have spent close to 4 hours removing and cleaning it and putting it back together. Seems like less time would be spent by pouring some Seafoam in the tank and running it around the yard for a few minutes.

The good news is after all the time spent on this, it came out running as good as new and I will be starting it every few weeks to prevent all of this.

Live and Learn.

Mark Twain Lake 7.30.08

2008-09-23T21:41:00.006-05:00

Ever see close to a half a million gallons of water a second falling from a spillway?

Went over there on 7.30.08 and took a lot of pictures and video. Unfortunetly I can't figure how to upload them to youtube. Have a good one of the crowd that was there and the line of cars on each side of the road from the dam. We parked close to a half mile away and had to walk there.

The COE had at least 8 people on the observation deck that were answering each and every question that was tossed to them. It was interesting how they determined just how much water was flowing thru the gates. I was also stunned that the gates were only open about 4 feet. When questioned on how high they could go, she replied " all the way up". Wow. The whole fact filled and very informational session ended when some idiot asked " Why ya lettin' all the water out".

If I would have had one handy, I would have given it to him and said " Here's your sign"

Welcome to My World

2008-09-16T20:07:00.008-05:00

Every since I remember, I have always been fascinated with mechanical stuff. I remember taking apart my dads VW engine and rebuilding it at the age of 14.

I have been in the beverage business since the age of 18. Started as a truck mechanic at Coca Cola and got sucked into the production and vending side of the business when I was bored and looking for stuff to do. Sometime during this, I acquired my ASE Master Mechanic certifications for automotive mechanic.

After about 9 years of that, I ventured over to Pepsi Cola as a maintenance mechanic. Spent about the same time over there until they shut down production. Bummer.

Lucky for me, Wis-Pak decided to open a production facility here and I got hired on as the Maintenance Manager. Every day there a new adventure. No two days have ever been alike. Everyday is like walking into a giant mechanical playground, there's always something to do.

Things in my world are either black or white. No Gray.

Either it works or it don't. Not kinda.

If it's not broke, it probably doesn't have enough cool features added to it yet.

Why this Blog?

I have no idea.

I have worked with a wide variety of people. Some seemingly average people have shown me things that I had no idea how they came to the correct solutions to people who I am amazed that they find the gas cap when they pull into the station.

I just think I have enough mechanical background to at least help one person out.

SO

Take this blog with a grain of salt and maybe, just maybe one thing you read may help you out. I will stick to mostly my personal experiences and stuff I have knowledge of. Trust me. I have no problem saying " I don't know".

I reserve the right to venture off on personal crap when I am bored or think it may be of general interest.

Grammar here is going to suck. I didn't score high in grammar in high school.

Just a warning.