Did an hour of weedeating before fruitlessly trying to catch a catfish yesterday. I was doing ok in the shade until the breeze calmed. Saw some boats pass by. Part of motivation to weedeat the area is that my fishin spot is contained therein. The sycamore shedding was mentioned in another thread somewhere. Went and did a little shooting today until the heat made it no fun. This one would put 3 on top of each other then throw a flyer. Was trying 4 or 5 different ammos with it. Just sighted in at 20 or so yards. Once I got it halfway lined up I was hitting the steel targets in background 4 of 5 times. Unsure where I was hitting but the ping dont lie. Diana R-22 Import from Germany. Was cheap. ( I had to wait on livestock to clear the range a couple times)
Some folks confuse 'weedeating' and 'trimming'. Not at all the same activity. Noticed a patch of chanterelles yesterday. Probably lots if I were to look around. I'm not a fungus eater except for rare occasions. Morells are one of those.
AV mount renewed this morning. Nice design...just pop out the cap and unscrew a stud. No need to seperate tank. I have to surmise that this one died prematurely because of high oil exposure. I'm not one to yank on my saws. The others are all fine for now. All set. Bought a spare for the parts box.
First volley fired at backhoe cylinder seals Saturday. Pin came out fine. Grub screw came out fine. The gland nut was unresponsive to medium bashing with mini sledge and pin punch. Spanner wrench next...soon as I find one. Further...the boom is not sat left enough to fully pull the rod from cylinder so now I'm going to have to switch over to electrics and get it running again before I can even address the cylinder. Yay. The project has begun now though. Mowed and hauled some rocks yesterday. I adore free materials. Just park in random spots in the crick and fill the bed. Did two loads before heading to the sandbar to clean up all the driftwood and junk the recent storm deposited. Placed here and another spot.
So these exist but that's a whole lotta money to get two seals done. Sent email to a friend that may have a tool or some help for me. It's a long story but he might be the one who refurbed the machine about 30 years ago. I'm not sure I can get these into the space available.
And I just scored a free service manual from a friend in the business of fixing stuff.(gotta go get it) Have technical manual, hoping the service manual has more straightforward info within. The tech manual has a lot of fault testing and ....technical stuff... that is above paygrade for what I need to do. I'm invited to peruse tool selection also to see if anything might work. I'm thinking at 250 ftlbs, something I can hook my 3/4" ratchet to would be in order. Knowing how tight they are now has me considering removing cylinders which I previously dismissed due to not *having to in order to service the seals. I gotta get under it and see just how involved. May not even be possible with the backhoe attached to the tractor, which is an entirely different can of worms when the machine is not fully operational.
Look on the bright side, that's only 50 lbs. on a five foot cheater bar. If you have somebody with a welding shop or a plasma cutter nearby, it's pretty easy to cut a spanner stub out of something like 1/4" plate, with two teeth. That's usually enough grip to get them to move. They'll just need to know the OD of the gland nut and the approximate size the teeth need to be.
Found some woodstack guardians. Chanterelles are exploding in my woods. Propped up existing and added some silt fence. These rains we've been getting are something else. More rocks. Another 6-8 loads should get me where I want to be. Worked on making trails nice. These storms keep throwing debris all over. Hello there.
Periodic reminder for me (this ain't mine but my hands are dirty because of it)... Don't let gas sit in something for 4 years, stabilizer or not.
Got the carb off. Looking like the jets and seat were spared varnishing. Will pull them and lightly hone with torch tip cleaners. Otherwise will clean the bowl varnish and reinstall. Finally did some light gunsmithing last night. Really rudimentary stuff...replaced a trigger on the first rifle I ever bought at a store. It's a Marlin 882 22 magnum. It's been shot some, but it had a terrible factory trigger and so it was forgotten about in a closet for about 20 years. The replacement trigger has a sear adjustment screw, which is what the original was lacking in order to be able to be imporoved. Feels like about 3.5bs or so now (I dont have a scale). Will take to the range once I find a set of rings for testing.
So sorry for your loss. It's tough to lose a great friend like that. Remember the good times and the things he helped you build...memories
