Sunday, April 17, 2016

Painting, cooking, and mechanicking...

After about two years...all interior walls painted! Took Thursday off to finish this before Cooper came for a visit.

Potato, celery, sour cream, thick cut bacon salad for David & Keara's:

The Tecumseh throw a rod a couple years ago...finally got to replacing it.

It's nice having a work bench I can work on.

Since the engines and pulleys were slightly different size, I had to figure out how many washers needed for spacers. No reverse on the new engine which was a $100 at Harbor Freight. I understand there is a Briggs & Stratton engine which would work and has reverse but more like $400 plus shipping. Since I hadn't had reverse for a couple season (belt broke and it's a pain to replace) figured I could do without it.

Still had twine and stuff to clean up on the tillers...last time I used it I was going to put in a quick flower bed so I hadn't cleaned it up.

Cooper is here for the week while his people go to Disney:

Used crazy glue to keep the washers in place since I knew sliding the engine in under the belt would be a pain:

It's running! And the furniture dolly sure made it easy to work on the machine (normally it's just to move it around easily in the garage):

Pulled pork fresh out of the slow cooker? Yes please! Campbell's in Griswold for the pork shoulder, chicken stock, and some brown sugar and it is gooooooooooooooooood:

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Amazing old boards

Saw this house at the corner of Dawley & Route 201 in Griswold -- some of those boards must be pushing 20". If you saw lumber like that today, you wouldn't want to know the price :D


Monday, April 11, 2016

Some more miscellanous pics from the last couple months...

Cleaning up my iPhone some tonight.

Got the Rockwell print hung up...as I continue painting. One day it'll be over the roll-top desk.



Dalmatian drinking a Guiness for St. Patrick's Day? Yes Please!

Train tracks on a train on train tracks? Betcha only time I see that in my life!

One of my co-workers likes to bust my balls my reaching into my cube and turning off my fourth monitor as he walks by. So I modified the power switch so the button no longer actually triggers the switch :D


Nice job parking, Brian o_O

And of course food pics :D

Scored left-over salad from Panera from a catered lunch at work.

God, I wish I could remember what this cut of beef was -- it was fairly cheap too, with a $2 off sticker at the supermarket. Came out really well.


Breaded fish.

Got lots of potatoes left over from Easter @ Pats...so some burger and frozen mixed veggies made Shepherd's Pie for the week:


What happens when you shop while tipsy...

Baked Salmon, fries, and (of course LeSeur) peas:


And I've been binge watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer recently...and seriously crushing on Emma Caulfield :D

All is right in the world again...


New Mower

Cub Cadet GT 2550 Garden Tractor to replace Mickey, which was a Cub Cadet HDS 2155.

The 2155 was about 20 years old, I've had about five years.
The 2550 is 10 years old with 220 hours, and is in great shape. I'm hoping to get 15-20 years out of it...at least.
At the time it was made CC had four classes of machines -- the 1000 series for big box stores, the better 2100 series of lawn tractors, the 2500 series (like this) which was a big step up in quality and serviceability, and the 3000 series which added items like power steering and direct shaft drive of the mower deck.

Bought it for $1300 which I thought was a steal -- if he was asking $2000 I would've thought it a fair price (if not more than I wanted to pay)...the equivalent quality machine from Cub Cadet today would be in the $5500-6000 range, this mower probably sold for around $4500 when new.

Borrowed Eric's trailer to pick it up...it barely fit (as in it was scraping both sides of the trailer!):

Mickey, which has no muffler, has a mower deck held up by zip ties, burns a pint of oil per mowing, and has a leaking transmission really has no value to anyone to try and sell it...so I'll keep it for mowing the off-lawn of areas I recently cleared brush until it dies. And also to mow some of the areas too tight to use the new mower until I can adjust the width of my landscaping.


Old mower was 42", new one is 50".


Since they can't both fit in the garage along with keeping my big tractor in there, and still have room to walk around in it to use it as a workshop, I bought a cover for the old mower.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Mostly internet collected pic dump....

Cleaning up my MacBook desktop tonight.

The manure is about to get real.

Logic

And Google

How different nations tend to approach issues


Donut, boobs, uniform, gun...if I was a fish and you were designing a lure you couldn't do better...

Buddhist soul mates:

One problem with being fat is I'm more limited in what I can tie for a knot and still have a decent length :(

Cherry red electrical wiring? What could go wrong?

Tractors To Trimmers is opening a dealership across the street:

Star Wars / Star Trek mashup referencing one of the very best ST:Next Generation episodes? Yes please!


Honestly, surprised this activity was unusual enough to warrant a word to describe it other than "Saturday Night"

Hallelujah!