Cleaned the junk off half the riverbank Saturday. Worked from the top with the extendo hedge trimmers and from the bottom with my trimmer. Water level finally low enough to walk the rocks. Decided to revisit an old project that has been stalled a couple times over the 10+ years I been after it. Trying to commandeer a dozer. My long wanted connector trail that will get me across death valley (you'd wish you'd die after walking it). This is the trail north to get to a pass. It's littered with blowdowns and there are a couple washouts I gotta figure something out for. Starting again. Got a good pic of the long browtine fellow. This is not the deer I am after. I have yet to get a pic of him this summer. Three cameras out now, only a matter of time.
Cleaned up the drift junk on the sandbar Friday evening. Too hot for a fire, but needed to get it cleaned. Starting to scavenge some plywood for an upcoming project. May have a line on these half sheets which is fine for who it's for. The 5' boosh hog was starting to look pretty sad. Needed to address some rust so's I don't have to redeck it in 5 years. I pressure washed it saturday, then scraped it and rewashed. Rattled the primer because it dries fast and I needed to get done. Brushed the yellow on heavy. It gets worse the closer you get. lol It'll be fine for another decade at least. Put some feed out with moleasses in it to see if I can entice the big one. I'm interested to see his horns this year. Had some cam malfunctions or I might already have had a pic. Finally did the test fire of the old Webber. Can hardly wait to slap a steak on there. Some of the best I ever made came off it. Needs some season and more 'cook off' then should be ready. Rear burner knob is a little sticky but otherwise everything but the ignitor (it gave up long ago) and the thermometer. I gotta get a new thermometer for it. It's satisfying to see 600* before searing a steak in. This old girl will get hot.
Gracias! I had about three hours total in it. Most all the cutting is done this year, so it should at least look good until next season. It could have looked better with more prep but hey...it's a boosh hog.
Took a hookie day Friday. Didn't have much in way of plans. Decided to do a little truck mod I been putting off. I'm one of those who doesn't like splash and rocks hitting my quarter panels. Previous pickups had running boards or nerfs to mitigate along with flaps. New truck flaps are lacking, with no good choice for boards to protect. Found some big rubber flaps from a trucker outfit. Just did the fronts for now, have rears also. Gatorback is name. I did it down on the river lot for feng schwei. Wheels off for room to work. Hoping they'll do much better than stock. Saturday I finished weedeating the bank of doom that I started working on Thursday after work. Then chucked the rest of the rock pike down the bank. Will go down and place them later. Had four bundles sell on Saturday night, so yesterday I did some restocking. Found that the sun is breaking down the mesh material on some. Wondered why they were being left behind. Rebagged three bundles and put back on stand. Went to the stack and made 10 more for reserve stock in the shed. Got the upper riverbank cleaned up Saturday as well. Hauled a load of rocks from the stash pile and placed them around where you see the exposed roots of this maple. Did some quick bush hogging after. Saw this on my way home last night. Hogan & Macho. I laughed.
The stock ones on my 2006 were great. Lots of coverage and length. Flexible enough to bend and bounce back. The 2021's were a lesser version of that. This new truck I think they were just for style? They are rigid, so they cannot be long else they'll get broken in an offroad situation. The ones I put on are about 7/16 thick and far as I can tell natural rubber. Very substantial, yet still flexible. I loathe the sound of rocks pinging my panels. Already gotta sweat rust from road chemicals, don't need help in way of paint chips.
Made an effort yesterday evening after work. Got a second load of rocks from the pile and slid them down the bank. (gotta be selective picking, the roundish ones roll out into the water never to be seen again) Before & after. Much better. Should keep the boat wakes from eating anymore soil there. It was calm & serene. River absolutely glass. Heard probably a dozen fish jump while I was down there. No boats running.
Wore out another set of grommets. I just swapped the lower spool off of an old one that got damage to the advance button. Should get me another half season out of it. Went down and sat on the sandbar for half hour after mowing yesterday evening. I'm so blessed to have unfettered access to this.
No pretty pictures but put in an hour with the trimmer last night. It was overcast and sprinkling on me. Dare I say it? I'm mostly caught up with weedeating! Guessing only once more around for the season and that makes me happy. Soon....
Put down a couple old pavers for the Webber to sit on. Think I might make a little slant roof for it. Still looking for the boss. This is about 10 feet from one of my woods stacks. Fire Saturday night to finish up some drift wood. Once the boaters went home it was very peaceful. I did get down on the bank to arrange the stones I tossed down the other day. Re-arranged some top cover on woods stacks yesterday and hauled down a load of cherry which I am going to be using for shoulder season. Dismounted bush hog, changed fuel filter and oil in tractor getting it ready for log pulling season. I did a little grading yesterday on a couple trails and went and smoothed up the sandbar after finally getting all the debris off it. Did go back and cleared a little more stuff off the trail I'm trying to work on when I went to pull camera cards.
Ugg. Need to address the blown tire on my Bannon trailer. It's going to see heavy use soon. It's got 8 tires, one is blown. Been using it with the one tire just flopping around. I found better tires (there is a thread here about) but those suckers are muy expensive at $105 per wheel, shipped. (I'm converting to 4 instead of 8) I can get the front two done for now for $215 or get all four for $425. Been laying out a fair amount of money on stuff lately and has me thinking to just replace the fronts for now since the cost is the same (and shipping rates for 4 is double that exactly of 2). It feels icky but I think that's what I am going to do.
There are a couple nice ones around. I had been trying to get excited for archery, but I cannot find the big boy I was seeing last Febuary (he may only be around in winter). I don't often get excited these days but for a *large and nice set of horns I make exceptions. No one would be ashamed to shoot the ones I have posted but being older has made me extremely picky, I guess.
Rain threatening Saturday I finally got going around 1pm after waiting for some to blow through. Little bit of weedeating and then went and took some stock. Have a few rounds up at the woods stacks. Bucked this one while I was there. Went back yesterday morning and those rounds are all now busted down and stacked waiting for finishing with the splitter. After bucking, I went to investigate some blowdowns I've known about for a couple months now. A *big Chestnut Oak gave up and cause all kinds of chaos on its way down. A Buck got up and took off up the hill from over there when I got out of the buggy. -> There's Chestnut, Sugar maple, Red maple, Beech, Red Oak and a poplar that I can remember. Went back yesterday after running the maul on those rounds to do some swamping and try to get it all prepped for skidding and clear the trail of debris. Still much to do, but don't have to climb through a jungle gym to do it now. There is an old trial under there that is not used. I'm going to revive it as I clear this wood. It's got a steep hill to get to the top is why it has been abandoned. The buggy won't have any issue climbing it, so it may as well be open and give me another way to access the top of the hill. Directly to the right of the saw in first pic is where it cuts up.
Well it is Monday morning. Sent $250 out so I can get a couple new tires on the Bannon trailer. Maybe after first of year I can get the other set (or when another tire blows). Speaking of tires and money... gonna give up trying to sell these off my old truck. Have been advertising for a while at a very *fair price. Since nobody wants them for that, I'm going to dismount them and put them on a set of black steel wheels (tires are 16s, new truck has 17s). Will need wheels, sensors and some nice beauty rings. Plan to work on that over winter.
Well that's *more than helpful! Cannot believe someone finally posted a video of what I need to do, right before I attempt to do it. Anxiety levels way lower now. Gland nut is my biggest worry. Will pull the piston and rod and take to the local shop to have the seals done so I don't have a chance to screw it up.
Trailer tires halfway upgraded. Began process of swapping Utractor fluid for ATF Saturday. Changed engine oil while I was at it. I had cracked both hoses to drain the upper stuff first. Second pan ready if I run out of room. If you have this build of splitter and do not have a leak, I would advise against removing the suction inlet screen. Mine was clean as a whistle some 8 years later. I advise against it becuase of this. No impacts involved, just an itty bitty 10mm wrench. Grade 5 bolts plus some corrosion. Now I get to play machinist. Will get a taper and plug tap for the holes which are metric. Will replace bolts with grade 8. Going to buy a piece of Viton material and make a new flange gasket hoping to never need to remove again.
It's getting fiesty at the feed station. lol Cleaned up a couple of trails yesterday after working a bit straightening up my junk stash a bit (housekeeping). Found a neat fungus. Worked on this mousetrap a bit that I found when cleaning trails. Only got bumped by the tree once. Will finish up later. Lastly...I never ever would have guesses I would see this... He's got a Bunker! Credit to my buddy for spotting him. I'd have never noticed and did not when I went by the first time. It's this guy. He's a local.
