This, That and The Other

I’ve not been posting much the last several weeks.  It seems I just have not been able to focus on any one thing that I felt motivated to post about.  I thought perhaps what I needed to do was just cover numerous things that I have been doing, that have been happening here, all in one post.  So here goes.

I did cover our trip to Texas in October.  I covered beginning to tear down an old house for the building materials to use to build a woodworking shop and I posted about obtaining a Craftsman Router Crafter.

I continue to work at salvaging lumber from the old house.  I try to get up one or two days a week, weather permitting, and do a bit more.  Hopefully, by Spring I’ll have that done and can begin the actual construction.  I mentioned that the old house had no windows or doors.  I have a door and Darryl has a couple that he won’t be using in his new house that he said I could use.  Doors do not present a problem but I do want several windows.  Watching Craig’s List I found an ad for used windows from a mobile home.  As it turned out the fellow was tearing down an old mobile home and didn’t even have the windows all removed when I went to look at them.  He got them all removed while I waited and I purchased all of them—11 in all.  Six of them are 40” wide and 60” tall.  I most likely will turn them sideways when I install them.  The other five are 30” wide and 27” tall.  I was able to buy them for less than $4.00 a window.

Shortly after returning home from our Texas visit the “modern firearm” deer hunting season opened.  Darryl, Danny and I were out almost every day.  I was the only one to see any deer but I did not manage to shoot any.  We were given two that we dressed out and shared.  Darryl has a steer that we plan to butcher soon and he plans to share the meat so we won’t be suffering from not having meat.

I usually try to get my goats bred fairly early in the season but this year I didn’t get that done.  The lady whose buck I normally borrow had reduced her herd, including her buck, and did not plan to breed any of her goats this year.  I kept looking elsewhere for a buck.  She had told me that she had a young buck she was raising for a replacement for the buck she sold.  I finally asked her if she thought he was big enough to service my goats and she thought he was.  I brought him over and kept him for about six weeks.  It appears he was able to take care of things, so we should have kids about April.

We are down to about 12 hens and 1 rooster.  All of the hens but 2 are older.  At least one is about five years old.  As the Summer was coming to an end the hens slowed way down on their production.  By October and November I was only getting about 2 eggs a day.  By the end of November that went down to zero.  Finally late in December I started getting an egg every day, then two eggs and even three eggs one day.  Today I found five eggs when I did the evening chores.  So, we can have eggs more often that once a week if we care to.

Early last week our daughter, son-in-law and grandson from Wisconsin spent a couple of days visiting.  They had been in Northern Kentucky for a family activity and came on down.  We enjoyed having them, only wished it could have been a bit longer visit.

Early last year Darryl, Danny and I cut and hauled in several loads of firewood from a neighbor’s property.  We threw it all onto a large pile down below where Darryl is building his house.  As we have emptied out part of our wood storage areas we have been hauling some of this wood up and restocking.  The wood has been uncovered and has been wet and doesn’t burn well until it has dried.  Darryl was running out of dry wood so this week we all went back and cut more wood.  It is from tree tops that have been down for some period of time and are pretty dry.  Danny and I each got a truckload and Darryl got two.  All of this has been stored under roof so will be available as it is needed.  And, with the weather we have been having and is forecast for this weekend it is needed!

Pictured below is my little truck loaded up with wood from the big pile down “the hill.”  Over the truck you can see the roof of Darryl’s house that is being built.  In the second photo you can see the wood being stacked in my woodshed.

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Chainsaws

Heating with wood, as we do, one must be able to also cut his own wood. To do so requires good tools, primarily a gas powered chainsaw. I had a Craftsman saw when we moved here that I had purchased in the mid-70's. The recoil starter was "messed up" and rather than fight it I bought a new Poulan Wild Thing at Wal-Mart the first Summer we were here. I got along fine with it for about two years and the main shaft that the clutch is mounted on sheared off. Doing some investigation I found that this saw is recommended for only very light use. My use isn't necessarily heavy but it apparently was more than what this saw was designed for.

From my years in the sharpening business and sharpening hundreds of saw chains I knew that Stihl and Husqvarna were two very good saws. And, I based that on the personal recommendations of numerous of my customers. I did some looking and comparing and finally, primarily due to pricing, I purchased a Husqvarna Model 345 with an 18"cutting bar.

Everything seemed fine with this saw. But, after about a year it began giving me some trouble. To begin with it was only when I was cutting a large log and then it got worse. It would just lug down to the point the chain wouldn't even move. I thought maybe it was the clutch but that didn't seem to check out. I cleaned the fuel filter and the air filter and nothing seemed to help. I even replaced a bearing on the shaft behind the clutch to no avail.

Finally I took it into the fellow in town that works on gasoline engines--chainsaws, lawnmowers, etc. I explained the problem and he took the saw and started it up. He turned to me and asked if the way it was running then was what I was experiencing, which it was. He said he knew what the problem was. He pulled the top cover off and loosened some screws on top of the muffler. He then pulled out a little screen that had almost every hole filled with black carbon deposits. He told me that this was a common problem. The screen is only on some saws and not on others, and is required in some states such as California. It is referred to as a "spark arrestor" and is to supposedly prevent forest fires.

He slipped the screen back into place and looked at me and said, "I can't do this but you can! Pull that screen out and throw it into that trashcan." I did as he directed. He put the cover back on and started the saw back up. It ran like brand new with all kinds of power.

I was thrilled. I had been afraid that it might have been something quite major and expensive to repair. I asked what the charges were. In my mind I was thinking that almost any shop would charge $20.00 to $40.00 at least to just look at the saw, let alone repair it. He looked at me and said, "Oh, $3.00 should cover it." What a blessing!

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