Life in America - I made the move.

[Fudmucker]

I USED to run 7km every second day back in 2012. 

But now I don't run, not even if the cops are chasing me   

I think you will find that many of us did a lot of things every second day back in 2012...! 

Now I sleep every night ! 

(Except when I am not sleeping due to the heat and on-line chatting here instead.)

[Mr Zog]

I may not be running fit, but I can sure work a full, hard day digging and plumbing in the sun 

Today I had to install a new irrigation pump at a HOA. Let me explain what a HOA is...

HOA stands for Home Owners Association. It's like a Body Corporate back in SA, and they run, and make the rules in a "Gated Community". A Gated Community is like one of those "secure estates" back in SA, those with all the walls and security guards and you have to sign in at the gate etc.

Except here they just have a fence or a wall, some security cameras, and sometimes you have to enter a code at the gate to get in. The REALLY larny ones have a gate house with a security guard.

This one just had a wall with an entrance code for the gate. But the back gate was just a boom that opened up automatically when you drove up to it. In SA they wouldn't last a second with such lax "security" 

Anyways, I digress. I had to install a new irrigation pump, but I also had to move it over by about 6 feet. This entailed digging up the pipes and the electrical supply, digging a trench to the new site, levelling the new site, putting down two super-heavy-duty pavers (each weighs about 50lbs) to support the pump, and plumbing in the new pipes and electrical, including the pump-start relay box and the irrigation controller.

The boss had done the quote originally and had allocated me 7 hours for the job. I was done in just under 6 hours. New irrigation system working perfectly 

But man, it was hot in the sun. I drank plenty of fluids, including two bottles of Gatorade (like Energade in SA). Then this afternoon I went to pick up a gas powered water heater for an install that I have tomorrow morning. 

Back home I tackled two chain saws that belong to a work colleague. They weren't running, not even starting. So I gave them some loving TLC, and before it was completely dark I had them both purring like kittens    It's amazing what a carb cleaning, air filter cleaning, and spark plug cleaning can achieve.

I have also decided that from now on I will keep my eye open for any mowers, weed eaters, generators, blowers, etc. that I see thrown out on the street. I'll give them a quick once-over, and if there is a chance that I can get it running cheaply, I will load it up. Then I'll get it fixed up, cleaned and neatened up, and then sell it again. I hope that it could become a source of a little extra income    Wish me luck 

[Oubones]

Good luck with your idea of fixing and selling.
It should work well there as it seems there are a lot of people there just throwing things away and replacing when something small goes wrong!
You always see the opportunities!

[Fudmucker]

"Not worth fixing" is the mantra of modern society.
Consume and dispose.

I have seen many consumer appliances that fail, where a critical wear component is made of plastic with short life span.
The industrial design philosophy is called "planned obsolescence".
I dismantled a broken kettle to find that the pivot point of the rotating switch was a thin white HDPE pin.
I found a piece of brass welding rod that fitted and cut it to size before reassembling it.
That kettle lasted another 8 years until the element burned out.

[grizz]

"Not worth fixing" is the mantra of modern society.
Consume and dispose.

I have seen many consumer appliances that fail, where a critical wear component is made of plastic with short life span.
The industrial design philosophy is called "planned obsolescence".
I dismantled a broken kettle to find that the pivot point of the rotating switch was a thin white HDPE pin.
I found a piece of brass welding rod that fitted and cut it to size before reassembling it.
That kettle lasted another 8 years until the element burned out.

You guys know me


Found a “like new” 900W microwave on the pavement 10 years ago, plug cut off, people do that here, knocked on door, asked if I could have it and why tossed.
Wife did not like it, almost new, he got pissed off.

I took it home, added plug, it still works every day.

Many other items, including lawnmowers etc.

Cash in my pocket.

Simple.

[DUSTRIDERS]

Gatorade

Guess they only sell that in Florida?

[Fudmucker]

Gatorade

Guess they only sell that in Florida?

From Wikipedia:

The Gatorade Company, Inc. is an American manufacturer of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries.[3] The beverage was first developed in 1965 by a team of researchers led by Robert Cade. It was originally made for the Gators at the University of Florida to replenish the carbohydrates that the school's student-athletes burned and the combination of water and electrolytes that they lost in sweat during rigorous sports activities.

Originally produced and marketed by Stokely-Van Camp, the Gatorade brand was purchased by the Quaker Oats Company in 1983, which, in turn, was bought by PepsiCo in 2000.[4] As of 2010, Gatorade is PepsiCo’s 4th-largest brand, on the basis of worldwide annual retail sales.[5] It competes with Coca-Cola's Powerade and Vitaminwater brands worldwide, and with Lucozade in the United Kingdom. Within the United States, Gatorade accounts for approximately 75% of market share in the sports drink category.[6]

[DUSTRIDERS]

Gatorade

Guess they only sell that in Florida?

Gatorade

Gator as in Alligator only to be found in the Florida swamps.

[Tom van Brits]

Gatorade

Guess they only sell that in Florida?

Gatorade

Gator as in Alligator only to be found in the Florida swamps.

 

I got that one, lekker Chris!!

[Mr Zog]

Gatorade

Guess they only sell that in Florida?

Gatorade

Gator as in Alligator only to be found in the Florida swamps.

 

I got that one, lekker Chris!!

One of the local football (that game they play with helmets and MX gear and stuff) teams is called the "Gators"... apparently they did well last week, I heard some dude talking about it on the radio. But it was meaningless to me, I know nothing about the game, and they LOVE their stats, numbers, and such like bullcrap.

"So-and-so was 16 for 23 at 95..."

It sounds like a cricket score   

[Mr Zog]

Another week done.

Colleague at work was mighty impressed I could get their chainsaws running in just one day.   

Met an interesting Japanese guy today, much older gent, I was installing a new water heater for him. He has a Nissan GTR that he souped up. It wasn't at his house, but he showed me some pics. Apparently it fucks off something wicked 

He was also getting a vehicle lift installed in his garage, so he could mess with the car when it arrived from Pennsylvania. He just moved down to Florida. He bought that house because it had a garage with a higher ceiling than most 


I am "On-Call" again this weekend, so not much planned. But I guess I'll find some things to keep me busy 

Have a great weekend, and enjoy the rugby. Anyone care to video call me on Whatsapp and point their phone at the TV for a couple of hours?   

[grizz]

Good to see you earlier Gary, pity the rain was so hard we could not hear each other.

Bloody Florida weather.......

That was some serious rain.



PS. Dinner made by Sally was pretty good too.

Cajun chicken kebabs.

[Mr Zog]

Yeah, the rain came down in buckets for a while there. Made hearing you on the WhatsApp call impossible    Mainly because my shed has a tin roof   

Flooded the yard quite a lot, the front yard at the street is under water. When it stopped I could see the grass growing again.


That SOSATIE looks delicious     

I'm glad you are doing ok, keep to Dr's orders, and get the pump back to full pressure again   

[Mr Zog]

So this morning I was woken up before sunrise by the phone ringing.

Work. People had no water, their pump had kicked the bucket. So I got out of bed, got dressed, and off I went. Fixed the problem. Home by 10am.

Then on to the projects...

Inside the workshop I got busy installing the last of the ceiling panels that I had gotten from my work colleague into the roof of my workshop. It was a biggish job, and hot as hell too. The temp wasn't that high, but the humidity meant that any exertion resulted in massive amounts of sweat that just didn't evaporate.

Then the heavens opened up and we had a whole lot of rain. The rain gauge is now sitting at just over 3 inches for the last 3 days 

After I finished the ceiling insulation I had a brainwave / brainfart and installed the two box-fans that I had into the roof of the shed too. They blow down like ceiling fans, so hopefully they will help to keep air moving inside there and keep me just a bit cooler.

I went to sit down for a while, but then remembered that last week the head of the weed eater was binding and not spinning correctly. So I went back out to the workshop and stripped it. I found that a whole lot of grass had become stuck between the first bearing and the thrust washer. So I cleaned it all out, packed the bearings with grease, and added a couple of drops of gear oil into the mini-gearbox as well.

I fired up the weed eater to test it and ended up weed eating the entire garden. So then I just grabbed the mower and cut as much as I could around the standing water puddles.

A shower to clean the grass and sweat off, and dinner was ready. Left over beef stew that Mrs Zog had cooked for supper last night. Is it just me or does stew always taste better the next day?

Anyways, hopefully no more call-outs this evening. And good luck to the Boks tomorrow. I'll not be getting up at 4am to watch that one 

I dunno how to do a screengrab on my phone, so I used Mrs Zog's phone to take a pic of the screen of my phone showing the weather app. 90% humidity is pretty kak 

[Tom van Brits]

Mr Z that rain looks lekker, but now while harvesting in Kansas and hauling manure that is the last we can affort.
I see we have a 50% change of snow next week Wednesday as well.....also not good but it is what it is and I am sure (hope) the farmers are insured if it does happen.

Looking fw to a much warmer climate in Florida!! 

[Mr Zog]

Mr Z that rain looks lekker, but now while harvesting in Kansas and hauling manure that is the last we can affort.
I see we have a 50% change of snow next week Wednesday as well.....also not good but it is what it is and I am sure (hope) the farmers are insured if it does happen.

Looking fw to a much warmer climate in Florida!! 

Oh, I can pretty much guarantee that you will sweat a WHOLE LOT 

[Mr Zog]

I sweated a whole lot today too.

I got two call-outs, but both of them I could give advice over the phone and I'll go out on Monday when the labor rate is better for the customer. The rest of the day I spent in my workshop, packing stuff out, throwing out a bunch of crap (crap that I'll probably need next week  ), and getting a whole lot of stuff better organized. I have hordes of stuff that I have gathered, from nuts and bolts, screws, brackets, fittings, bits and pieces, that I need to sort out, and pack in containers etc. so that I can find them when I need them. It just takes a whole lot of time...

Maggie joined me in the workshop as usual, but at one stage she got tired and took a nap.

Spot the doggie and win a Datsun   

This evening she was very dirty, so she got a bath... now she is sulking in her basket. She hates baths, but a piece of doggie beef jerky made her a bit less pissed off. 

[Mr Zog]

So remember I said that I want to find thrown-away lawnmowers etc. and fix them up and sell them?

Well, I haven't found any yet, but thinking about how I will go about doing the job got me to thinking... 

Lawn mowers can get pretty heavy. And physically lifting them up onto a work table isn't always easy on the back. So I have decided that I need to make a special work table for this job.

I have 3 criteria for this table;
1. It must start off low to the ground, then be able to lift up to a comfortable working height
2. It must have a steel table surface so that leaking oil, grease, and fuel does not destroy a wooden surface
3. It must be strong and durable. And cheap.

So, for the steel table surface. I have noticed that there are two pieces of flat steel sheet at the new shop at work. They were there when we moved in. I will ask the boss if I can claim them. They are pretty rusted, but I can sort that out easy enough.

Then the lifting up. I am thinking that if I use a scissors-type structure and use a threaded rod with nuts, then I can build something that can lift up.

As for the strong and durable, well I will probably just over-engineer it and make sure that it is strong and lasts well. As for the cheap, well I have lots of bits of wood lying about, and can probably get the whole thing made, except for the threaded rod, with what I have here at home.

I have already thought of a few challenges, like for instance how do I bend the edges of the steel sheet over the edge of the wooden frame without a bending machine? And how do I install the threaded rod into the wood so that there is minimal play and maximum effectiveness?

These challenges will all be figured out in due course.

In the meantime here is a very rough and dirty sketch of what I am thinking about 

Advise and comments welcome 

[steveindar]

Why not make a see saw type table that is the ramp and work surface all in one. No moving parts, just a flip out support when levelled. Will take up a bit of space but can be used for bikes too.

Sent from my TECNO CF8 using Tapatalk

[Fudmucker]

Grassnyers het nie handremme nie?