OK so some may expect a discussion on Bourbon Whiskey. While that is one possible post to follow the above title, we are here today to discuss wildlife.
These two visited our yard last week.
Be sure to zoom in to see both
Wait what?? These kids!! how did u get over there?
Come back here! Now!
Yes, Right NOW! what’s a mother to do?
So i was going to come up with some catchy cool name for this series of posts. But as i went through and selected pics to put into this, i realized there is really only one possible name i could use.
The Corning Glass Barge is in Waterford NY Today and Tomorrow, June 23, 24 2018.
Tickets are free, or you can just show up and hope it’s not too full. Even if that was the case you can watch and see pretty good from the shore.
Clicking on the line above will take you to the website for the barge. It is just one page of Corning’s awesome website. Everything Corning is there. You may already know, there is an AWESOME museum out in Corning NY that is a real treat. I went many years ago and seeing the program today made me want to go back and see it again. btw – all the pictures in this series were taken with my personal communication and photo device, that has Corning glass as an integral part of it. Yours too.
Yes, that’s right you almost certainly use Corning glass daily. in your hand. with your finger.
Your smartphone screen is almost certainly clad in “Gorilla Glass” a corning product. Your welcome.
SO enough from me, let’s see some Corning magic!!
OK this is a glass furnace, aka the “Glory Hole”
The first bubble blown into the glass. This guy is just starting his career, he has been doing this for 4 years! Ya you don’t just pick this skill up in a month or so.
So now he adds more glass to his project.
The semi solid glass is real hot (you knew that!) but its constantly wanting to flow downhill. To counteract this the glass maker keeps the pipe rolling. As it droops, he rolls.
Now he has blown it bigger with the added glass.
And bigger still.
So stay tuned for more awesome stuff as we watch this raw glass get turned into something useful.
And b SURE to GO SEE for YOURSELF! The barge is in Waterford Today, Tomorrow.
The 27th it will be in Amsterdam. 28th Canajoharie.
June 30, July 1 Little Falls.
HURRY UP. the barge is moving west, just like the glass company from NYC did long ago, on barges, on the Erie canal, to Corning NY.
IF YOU CAN CATCH THE BARGE WHILE IT’S AROUND YOU WONT B SORRY!!!!!
ok enough shouting.
So way long ago when i wuz a youngun, there were no expiration dates printed on anything. U had to use your brain, and usually your nose, to determine if something had gone bad. Smell is a great indicator that foodstuffs have lost the battle to bacteria.
Then our government stepped in to save us all from needing to sniff. It seems like today everything sold has an expiration date. Like do brake caliper pads go bad if too far removed for manufacture date?
I jest! ha ha ha ha
But seriously you know of which i speak (type).
Then, remember? how i needed to make a wider path though my basement for the oil tank swap? Yeah so in doing that, i found this:
So what you see here is sticky icky. The bottle is an empty windshield washer jug. But the real interesting thing is the sticky. What the heck? This stuff is like dried tar, the bottle was glued to the shelf with it!
So here is the clue, really the answer:
Just a tip, if you see a can that looks like this, do not buy it. The ends should b flat.
When we purchased the juice, the can looked like it was supposed to. We stored it on the metal shelf you see above. Then the clutter closed in and the can went to long long storage phase. How long, you ask??
Well lets say the exp date was like 6-7 months after we purchased it, we shall estimate we purchased juice in late 2000. Now fast forward to 2018, the tank chore, making room etc, and i find the plastic bottle glued to the shelf, and this can has like nothing left in it. Shake it and a little noise from a little bit of crust or whatever. But the thing weighs like an empty can.
So here’s the scoop. Pineapple is acidic. So too the juice of the pineapple. So at some point between 2000 and say 2015, the acid ate through the can, just enough to let bacteria into the juice. Those little bugs said: “YUM i like pineapple!” the can turned into a fermentation vat, and the pressure increased, and i would say we were lucky that fermented pineapple juice didn’t explode all over. Instead it gradually leaked out and evaporated down to the road tar substance that glued the bottle to the shelf.
So what do we learn from this? Well the expiration date is useful as an archeological tool. otherwise i would have not any clue when we purchased it. AND do we really need a date to tell us if canned goods are no longer good?? Well i repeat the above advice, if you see a can that looks bloated, do not purchase, nay i say, and if you find a bulging unit in your home storage, gingerly place into your garbage can. OR you could put it down range and shoot it. bet that would b fun! just make sure you are far enough away.
Anyway this science experiment is over. Have a nice day.
So the “new” (used) oil tank went into the basement pretty much the same as the old one came out. In the garage i switched the wheels to the ‘new’ tank. Sounds quick except, though the old and new tanks r both 275 gal nominal, same size physically, but, well, the leg mounts were different distances wide. So had to remount the pipe flanges to new spacing on the 2×4 wheel sets. Then make sure i brought the replacement in correct end first. So the end with the connection for the filter / oil line to burner is at the same end as the original.
First i mortared in some patio blocks into the gutter around the basement floor, again becuz the leg mount different width. Then roll in the tank, hoist and remove wheel sets, skid into place, pipe up fill and vent lines.
Tank in place, lines complete. With support straps
So that’s enough about oil tanks.
We got some oil and are now heating the water with oil, not pellets. 😎
Ok so it’s been too long since i added info on the sad tale of the tank. After i removed the shelf section that was blocking the turning of the tank, i got some wheels. These were a set i saved (see how good it is to save things!) from a dolly i had made when i installed my pellet boiler. Ya i have multiple heating plants. That’s good because the hot water system makes my domestic hot water for showers etc. So i was running on pellets while my oil tank replacement was replacing.
Anyway i took the wheels off the dolly and made them into 2 sets mounted on 2×4 chunks. this shot shows my first idea of putting the tank wheels into boxes. I raised the tank with a come along and then strapped the wheel assembly to the tank.
It seemed ok and i moved the tank like 12 feet. then i tried to back it up to adjust trajectory. One wheel set tipped and box broke. So then plan B. i found that the 1.25″ pipe legs on the tank fit nicely over 1″ pipe. I got 1″ nipples and pipe flanges and mounted them to the 2×4 chunks.
So the rusty pipes hide the new 1″ nipples that the flanges are screwed into. A nice solid situation, no wobble. Then the tank got moved all the way out of the basement.
This is the Ramp i made for the pellet boiler (and Saved!!)
Here’s the tank outside. and in the garage:
So the tale is almost done.
I inherited some things from my dad. He was born in 1916, so he spent his mid teens to twenties scratching for necessities of life during the Great Depression. You may know people who lived that nightmare from 1929 through most or all of the 1930’s, or even into the 1940’s.
They were scarred, their brains turned into amazing machines of how to get by. How to never, ever waste anything. Never ever, ever waste.
So among the things i got from my dad was the “Saver Mentality”. Stuff can be used even when old. Re-used or made into other useful things, or parts of new things. See, you thought the 3 R’s were new hip stuff that came maybe from the hippie movement of the 1970’s. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
These are all good things. We do need to hold true to the 3 R’s, or we will use up and destroy our beautiful earth. But the original 3 R peeps were not the hippies of the 70’s. It was those who lived the nightmare of 1929 and the decade after. Save it, we can use again. If you reuse things you don’t have to buy them again. Even the broken things that no longer work can be taken apart and scrapped (recycled!). My dad made alot of coin by tearing old electric motors (and other broken, or outdated things) apart and separating the copper from the steel to get better prices for the scrap metal. Save, Save, Save.
Now i don’t like disorganization. I have many shelves, especially in the basement. Shelves allow you to save more. It’s just that i have more to save than i have shelves. Just so happens that some of the shelves in the basement are in the section where the oil tank is. One of the sons asked me, “you think the oil tank will fit past the self i front of it?” I told him – “Ya i think so”. OK guess again:
Notice how i have hacked the shelf in front of the tank to try and get room to “make the corner”. N.G. the tank is lodged against the shelf unit on right, the one in front of it, and the wall behind. I have already emptied the right side shelf as it needs to be removed. Such fun!!
Involuntary labor. Forced servitude. Subjection. Are we here discussing man’s inhumanity to man? Nope. The failure of my fuel oil tank. How can we use these words, for this subject you say?
Wait, just wait till you hear the tale of woe.
It began one day when i went to check how much oil was left in the tank. This is a normal operation at my house, as i do not have automatic oil fill up. I call when i need oil, and to know if i do, the tank is checked with a stick, and the chart consulted to see how many gallons therein.
So as i am checking, i notice the cement under the tank is discolored, damp looking. I think to myself, my sump pit must be full of water (at the other end of the tank). Now since i have lived here there has only been water in the sump pit a few times. Once, maybe twice, have i pumped water out. But it does happen (rarely), in early spring. So i quickly go look at the sump pit. Nothing. Empty. Now back to the discolored cement spot. Looking under the oil tank, there is a drop of oil hanging. Drip. Drip. The discoloration is fuel oil. Upon further inspection it looks like the tank may be leaking from both the end and the bottom.
So we did not call for any more oil. I spread absorbent under the tank and placed a shallow pan to catch the drips. Found a free oil tank on Craig’s List. Enlisted the aid of my brother in law and got the new (used) tank home. Then began the sorry chore of ‘making a path’ through my basement. Some may know the legends of my basement. The tale of woe begins . . . .
So we used to have a metal roof on our back porch. We put metal on because it has very little pitch. This was when we first got the house back in late 70’s. Then in 2000 we re-shingled the whole roof. Huge job which included construction because we removed the metal and increased the pitch of the porch and shingled it all.
Fast forward to this spring. I am now trying to stop a leak i can’t find in the “improved pitch” porch section. See its better than it originally was but still not really enough. When we get enough rain, say 1/4 inch or more, we get water dripping inside in one spot. Not pouring in but say a couple quarts over the next day or so. Enough to be quite annoying and it needs to stop, becuz water will destroy things. It’s been dripping for a few years and slowly getting a little worse.
So i go up and hey! look! there’s a staple showing and another spot where a tab is a little broken. That must b it? Patch.
Next rain, replay. Hmmm. go back up and cannot really see any obvious issues. But there is a long valley where the porch roof meets my bedroom roof. Now i had checked in the attic to see if the wet was under the flashing. No, just above where the drip is. Makes sense, except when on the topside i cannot see any defects that would let water in. So next i seal the entire length of the flashing on the porch edge. The water must be getting in and traveling sideways right? More rain, more drip. Grrr.
So now i have been filling in the gaps between the shingle tabs. So far i have done this three more times in an ever widening area more or less centered on the suspect location. I stopped buying roof tar in the caulk tubes and bought a gallon container.
You can see here the long flashing, the suspect issues i started with, the center area where the fills look neat from the caulk tubes, and the widening area done with the putty knife and the gallon. Dang i hope this does the trick. I’ll keep you posted.
So most people, if adding a detached garage, would make the roof layout the same as the house it sits next to, right? But when we added ours a few years ago, i put the roof about 90 degrees off from the house. But why, u ask? So one side of the roof faces almost due south (about 10 degrees off from due south). Who would do that? Someone who has been interested in all things solar for like 30 years. Then i got in contact with a solar salesman, who my son used to work with, so i know he is a reputable human.
So when Chris came over we went through the info that he would usually present in 3 meetings, in one sitting. Chris went to work for this particular solar company after he took the time to research solar for himself and install panels at his home. So i was pretty confident in things right off the bat.
First the aluminum rails are attached to the roof, lagged into the trusses. The silver boxes are ‘micro inverters’, each panel puts out DC and it’s converted to AC by its own inverter. This has 2 advantages. 1 – It allows AC to be sent off the roof and direct into our power system. 2 – If any panel or inverter stops working for any reason, the rest will still function.
The last pic is a shot of one day’s production. Each micro inverter talks and is connected to the internet. I have access to view the power made and each day the sun shines the software makes a nice bar graph. When its ‘sunny sunshine’ all day it looks like the nice bell curve you see here. So last Saturday, 4/21/18 our system produced 39.1 KWH (Kilowatt Hours). Almost a record! The record for my system happened on Monday, May 9, 2016 – 39.8 KWH. It was fairly easy to look back with the software and find the record.
If anyone is considering a Solar Panel array for their property feel free to contact me for any questions you may have. I love to chat solar. (Disclaimer, if you buy a system from the people who put mine in, i get a finders fee)
Impossible you say? Well here’s my passport, with all the visa stamps:
Nine countries in just over an hour. The kids at Spa Christian each did one country, In depth projects for the past 2+ weeks. All had a display board, and a computer slide show, which they explained as we watched using their prepared note cards.
2 Asian, 4 from Europe, 2 Island nations and one from South America. I should be exhausted by all that travel. Of course some of my grand kids were among the presenters, Thanks to Brendan and Connor. Here are their displays:
They also had a food from their country, which they shared with each other at lunch. Lots of work went into this. Good Job to all!
