Rocking Old Faithful

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....

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

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

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 ???

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.

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