Wednesday April 24, 2024 Guerneville CA.
Automatic gate problems
Last night when I went out to close the main drive gate, the automatic gate closer wouldn’t work. I took a quick look at it and ants had gotten into it and there were a lot of eggs in there too.
Today, I went out and took the controller all apart and found a whole bunch of ants with eggs in the battery compartment.
I checked the unit out with my meter and decided they’d messed up the control board somehow so went in the house and ordered up a new controller.
Skiddy’s bumper
I wanted to add a couple more braces to the bumper so I drilled pilot holes for some and then drilled the holes out to half inch for half inch bolts and nuts.
Than I welded the brace on the left and the brace to support the radiator shroud on the right to give the radiator guard more support.
This brace should make the bumper real strong now and hopefully big trees won’t bend it.
Final paint
I put an old blanket over Skiddy to keep the paint off it while I sprayed the bumper green.
The finished bumper
It looks pretty good and appears to be real strong.
Cherries
While walking around the yard, I noticed that this years cherry crop should be real good, for the first time since I’ve been growing cherry trees here. Usually, there are not very many of them and the birds get most of them.
Forest work
I thought of a couple of things I could do up in the forest so I got my tools and loaded up Hondo and rode on up to this new spring I plan to tap. Today, I just want to check it out to figure out how the best way to tap it would be.
Spring
Here’s the spring where it’s coming out of the hillside and the tools I used to dig in it a bit. I used the loopers to cut the roots in there. This is a good spot to tap and should be easy to tap. I will have to build up the front of it a bit with rocks and clay.
The Sometimes Spring
I put a little pipe in there so I can get a drink of water. That part behind the water needs to be filled in with rocks and clay to be able to make a small collection sink in the side of the hill for a more permanent tapping. I’m calling this the Sometimes spring as it doesn’t always flow. It flowed a few years ago and then stopped, but with all the rain we’ve had, it’s flowing again.
Breaking rocks
I’d brought my sledge hammer up with me so headed on over to the rock slide area with it.
My purpose was to break up these big rocks with the sledge hammer.
That’s how I make smaller rocks out of the larger ones. This is a good size for fixing stuff on the roads and they are now small enough not to break my back.
Brushing
It was getting late and close to dark so I headed for home stopping here to trim some brush back off the road.
Main gate controller
I went out to close the main driveway gate manually, when I thought I should give the controller one more test. And sorta remembered I may not have turned the unit on earlier when I tested it and thought it was bad. And by now all the ants and eggs where gone.
I turned on the main switch and it beeped and worked just find so I buttoned it up and went in the house and canceled the order for a new one.
Nice day.
Bumper looks real good and sturdy.
Now that you’re going carnivore, will you still eat all that fruit you’ve got growing?
Watched John Wayne’s “Hondo” the other day. Thought of you riding around, but not on a horse.:o)
Well, that is a problem. I’m thinking I might could just sample a small bit daily. Too much fruit might be part of my problem. I’m impressed by how positive the people that went carivore are about it. It seems to have a good impact on many health problems. I know I’m going to have a problem with so many cherries. Luckily, fruit gets ripe and then is gone for the year when you grow stuff yourself. Oh and there are many differnet levels of carnivore. It doesn’t have to be 100 percent meat.
Bob
The people at the farmer’s market would love to buy your extra fruit. I know I would.