Good Monday morning!

Good Monday morning Patriot Woodworkers! What did you get done over the weekend, and what have you planned for the week ahead! Inquiring minds want to know. Please tell us what's happening in your shops, your life, and any events going on with you. Thank you for being here folks!

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Community News

Well if ya'll haven't figure it out by now, we are in the midst of an upgrade with our community, a lot of stuff going on, please be patient, we are working through it all.

For any issue you may have, or concerns please visit this TOPIC and participate in the feedback. Thank you!

Bah, HUMBUG..

Looking out into my backyard...

May have to work in the shop

As we seem to be snowed in, today.....

@steven newman, I merged ya over here, thanks for stepping up with the Monday topic!

Cleared a path, to take the trash out to the Trash Bin...

Battery powered shovel thrower...took 2 charges to get to the car...Battery is back on the charger, at the moment...

path is 9-1/2" deep...

Lots of goings on around here this weekend. Apparently we are missing the snow out here in the desert so getting ready for the upcoming racing season. Wheels and tires sorted for the shakedown and competition next month. This is a big change from driving high HP cars like Mustangs.

Spent a little time in the shop and a little time in the yard, apparently things need to be planted in the winter time… who knew?

The week ahead is back to the grind and taking care of the wife who has managed to contract some sort of nasty winter cold and is currently living on Theraflu and Robitussin.

Oldest grandson went 1-1 on weekend basketball games. Lost Friday night by one point in the final seconds; won on Saturday by 15 against a very talented Indy Charter school. We canceled all church activities for the weekend.

The remainder of the weekend was watching 12" of snow fall while drifting except for the 2-1/2 hours we spent shoveling and clearing off the cars yesterday. Snowblower wouldn't start County highway did make our road sort of passable yesterday but have not made a return run yet today. All area schools are closed, a large number of businesses also closed with vehicular traffic supposed to be restricted to essential workers only. Ironic that the great blizzard of '78 also began on January25th. It's a blistering +6° right now with full sunshine.

With no break in the extreme cold forecast the remainder of the week will be doing the minimum daily requirements survival mode. If any of you need snow seed starters, bring your trucks, wheel barrows and shovels; we have plenty. Oh yeah, bring donuts, we're getting low.

Been slow getting around here today. Been fighting Chrome browser and "NoScript" extension problems

26 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Oh yeah, bring donuts, we're getting low.

So... Around 10:00 this morning I heard the neighbour (The one who often comes over and does our driveway), start up his snow blower, and since I didn't want him to have ALL the fun, I hurried out to start mine. While I was out there freezing my you-know-what off, a neighbour from the road behind us showed up wanting to speak to Lynn. Seems she needed some aloe vera to treat a rash around her eyes. Lynn convinced her to take the whole plant, but as it was about 9 F outside, and she was walking, she said she would be back later with the car. When she returned a little after noon, she had a half-dozen DONUTS for us! I've only had one, so if you want to drop by.........

As for the snow, we got somewhere between 18" and two feet! the piles along the driveway are higher than me in several places, so if anybody wants any, bring a truck. I'll even supply the shovels!

Edited January 26Jan 26 by HARO50
I goofed!

I spent about an hour clearing the drive and making a spot for our dog this morning. I'm having the same problem I had with the 1978 snowfall....I'm running out of space to pile it. I noticed just now that the wind is picking up and the lower end of the drive has some drifting...I sure hope that doesn't get worse. Otherwise I'm just staying inside, except for the occasional excursion outside with the dog (she has to have company).

We have some plumbing problems waiting to get fixed so for a couple of days, we've been staying with a daughter and her family. It's heartwarming to walk into every room and see several things that I've made for them over the years. Furniture, picture frames, refinished things, decorative things.

This is actually the setup I put in place Thursday. It was originally created a year or so ago, so all I did was put everything in place. My generator is in the storage shed. The exhaust is piped through the wall. I used a sewer clean out plug so I could pass the 30 amp cord through the wall and hook it up to the connection box at the breaker panel. The panel itself has a generator interlock Kit installed so the incoming power can be isolated and nothing can back-feed up the utility line.

I checked the oil. OK. Test run the generator for 15 minutes with 2 floor fans running.

Hooked up the 30 Amp extension cord. Ready to go.

Fortunately, we made it through the night with no issues. Thank goodness. A lot of folks are suffering today with no power. I ran this generator for 192 hours after Hurricane Beryl knocked out our power. It's not large enough to run our 3T AC unit, but it ran the rest of the appliances in our house and a small window unit I bought on day 2.

Here are some pics of my set up and the last one is how it was when running after the hurricane (under a pop up canopy).

We avoided any snow, and somehow ice. Just colder than normal. Meanwhile everybody stocked up on milk, chicken and toilet paper for the rest of the year.

@MT Stringer . That is a really great idea, set-up and solution Mike. You've got the 'ole gears grinding in my head now.

Is your generator setup dual fuel or just a conversion to LP. How long will it run on a 20 lb (5 gallon) tank. Thanks in advance.

The back deck. Almost 24", mostly new. 20" on top of the frame!

4 minutes ago, Gunny said:

We avoided any snow, and somehow ice. Just colder than normal. Meanwhile everybody stocked up on milk, chicken and toilet paper for the rest of the year.

Back in the mid '90's I was teaching a new employee class at a new startup facility about an hour south of Atlanta. This was in January. A blast of cold air came through with about a half inch of snow. Atlanta TV stations were giving all kinds of warnings and tips to prepare in advance that included taking your car battery out and keeping it inside

Second or third day in, I went out from the motel and sure enough a skim of ice and snow on the car windows. Like any rental would be equipped in Indiana during the winter, looked in the back seat, then the trunk for the brush/ice scraper. Uh, nada, this car came from Hartsfield. Went to my backup plan...credit card, mine not my corporate card.

I remember the return flight all too well late that following Friday. After several delays from Atlanta we finally were in the air to Indy. As it turned out, we were the last flight to get our luggage because they shut down Indy due to the heavy snow. Finally got a bus from the terminal to the rental car PU. They had my car running when I got there. It was a white Oldsmobile Toronado.

It should have taken me an hour to get home. Snow was blowing and drifting heavily on the interstate. I missed all of my normal exits; had to drive to the next county exit, turn around and come back. Three hours later I "bulldozed" down our road, finally into our drive. The next morning you could barely see the top of the car. Mid day, rental company called to remind me the car was due back. I said, "come and get it. Better bring your snow shovels too."

Edited January 27Jan 27 by Grandpadave52

Pretty mundane herein NE Indiana with about 10” of snow. Spent yesterday afternoon out with the snowblower cleaning the neighbors driveways. It might get interesting tonight with 40 mph winds. Drifts galore.

1 hour ago, Grandpadave52 said:

@MT Stringer . Is your generator setup dual fuel or just a conversion to LP. How long will it run on a 20 lb (5 gallon) tank. Thanks in advance.

Westinghouse DF7500 Gas or Propane. From the notes I kept during the outage, almost even at 2 hours per gallon for gas or propane. Total Watts calculated 3260. Now that could be off a little because I don't know how much propane was actually in the tanks even though several were exchanged at HEB and Kroger and Home Depot and several were filled at a RV store.

Just getting used to the new digs here.

Had some ice on trees Sunday early but that let up and stopped freezing up around 1. Just extreme cold here for MS. This morning was down to 16 but temp in 30s later with 34 now. Headed to the wood at 5 in the morning hoping they are stirring.

Saturday got doors on all but 2 cabinets.... ran out of hinges. Cut the shelves out yesterday and made shelf pegs today. I had ordered pegs but I have no idea where they are now.