Monday March 21, 2016, Guerneville CA.
The hives were really itchy today
Today it was going to rain some more so I was going to finish up the van mods, but my hives were really bothering me itching like hell, so it was hard to get my head around that. As it was, I didn’t get to sleep until after six this morning and then not so good and I got it going by one PM, so I did get some sleep in there someplace.
Shopping for things
Instead I drove to town and did some shopping. I needed a couple things, fresh mushrooms and some sweet onions and a big supply of petroleum jelly and some other stuff for itching to smear on me. Most of the stuff I’ve tried only helps a little. I tried an oatmeal bath last night which seemed to help a little, but after a bit, when the skin started to dry out, the skin hurt even more. I’m not able to use any antihistamines as I have an allergy appointment tomorrow and any antihistamines would interfere with their testing, so it sucks. :O) Antihistamines just take the edge off, which is better than nothing by far.
I did spurge on two Hershey’s chocolate bars that I’m pretty sure are corn free. :O) I really shouldn’t do that as it can mess up my elimination diet. But. :O)
Not into working on the van
It was raining as I drove on home and it was cool out. I put my stuff away and just couldn’t get into working on the van, it was just too cool and damp out with the light rain.
Looked at my brother’s computer
I went over to my brother’s across the creek and he said he had a bad guy on his computer. I looked at it and it looked ok, but I set Window’s Defender on full scan and let it run.
The pole trimmer repair
I asked my brother if he got the new shear head on his pole yet? He said, yes, but it’s real wobbly and something needs to be done to it. I wanted to use it to cut some of the top brush out of some of my apple trees.
I asked him what was wrong with it and he said to find out, use it.
So off I went back to my house and tried it out. It worked, but it was a bit on the wobbly side and it could also be pulled out of the socket he had made for it and get stuck up in a tree.
Here’s the pole shear that I’m working on with my repair temporarily attached.
The problem fixing it
The problem, the pole on the right is about 7/8s and D shaped and the new shear head pole on the left is about 1 inch so a hard match. Tom had done a good job of fabricating a wooden splice to fit both sides, but it wasn’t quite sturdy enough.
I looked around in my scrap pile to see if I could find something that would work for a splice. I found this piece which is a piece from he steering column of the Chevy Truck I tore apart for parts for my van and it’s finally getting used after all these years, about twenty.
Fabricating the part
I had to cut a piece out of the pipe so I could compress it to match the two different diameters. I had to use my small disk grinder to accomplish that without too much trouble.
Here I’m testing it for fit and have two temporary clamps on it to snug it down.
Here it is all snugged down with three clamps on it to compress it and hold things snug. Only problem was I only had large clamps and had to trim the ends off which left sharp edges.
I used electrical tape to finish off the clamps and make things so they won’t hang up in the top of a tree.
That should work
Here’s the finished product. I guess I could of painted it. It’s quite sturdy now.
All that was left was to try it out. It worked well, but with my hives I don’t have much energy, so I only got a little bit trimmed, but at least I know it will work.
By that time the day was almost over and it was getting cooler out, so I went on in for the day.
And that was my day.