Shabumi

Either way it'll make life easier

How many kids are you looking to trade it for? That triangle is worth at least 1.5 -2 kids, depending on their age and how well they earn their keep

Everything is looking great everyone. I wish I could comment on everything, but I'll just hit the highlights for me. JHCC: great sounding triangle, you should be able to tell when supper is ready from mile away. Bones: I'm quite intrigued to see the bow when it's done Awrk: I like the punches, will they be hand held or handled? When I made a punch from coil spring and found it tough, I took a piece and practiced my SOR with it for a bit. Because of how hard I HAD to hit it to move the steel, it showed me how hard I SHOULD be hitting mild steel. Now mild moves much easier for me.

I had someone ask me if the corona virus has effected my daily life today and it was the first time I stopped to think about it. Besides my mom staying home from work, my daily life hasn't changed much at all. I have enough work to keep 3 people from going stir crazy. Our ranch is far enough out that unless they're specifically coming here, people don't just show up. We put up alot of our own produce so we shop out of our pantry, cellar and freezers and go into town every other week for fresh groceries and errands. We aren't preppers, it's just the way our family has done it since they got here in the mid 1800s. Worst comes to worst, we still have the salting barrels if the power goes out and we need to salt the freezer meats. Water is free, gravity fed from a spring 3 miles up the road. Wood for heat. Hot water coils in our stove, so long hot showers are available at any time even after 3 others have taken long hot showers. A couple of things have changed. I now only watch 30 minutes of news, in the morning, can't handle it before bed. If it weren't for catching the weather report it would be down to the first 10 minutes where I actually hear the new bullet points of info. Its made a big difference in my mental health being ignorant of the minute by minute updates that seem to be everywhere. Don't they realize that stress weakens your immune system? Also our phone hasn't stopped ringing from 8am-9pm for the last 5 days from people wanting to adopt a puppy since they are stuck at home with little to do, some as far away as the east coast. Since I've been out doing the back and leg work of the ranch, my dad has been answering, returning calls and fielding emails full time all week. Unfortunately we won't have any puppies available until June, which is on our website, but that doesn't stop them from calling and you can't ignore a potential future customer.

Thats funny, I always thought I'd like working in a shop sometimes. I guess the grass is always greener. The adjustments were nice while I was finding the right height, but I haven't adjusted it once I found the right height for me ~6 months ago. It didn't hurt that it was a pain to adjust the rims. I had 3 large rims and 2 small whose outside rim fit snuggly inside the larger ones, so by flipping the larger ones so the "center" was either high or low, I could change the height while still being solid. From what I've seen of adjustable stands (which isn't alot) is that the adjusting mechanism can't take the continuous impacts of hammering

Yeah I'm out in the elements for now. I have everything put up right now, Tess and Mariah have decided to visit on and off for the last few weeks, with Tess's cold cousin popping in now and then. Which is why I decided to spend some time to make a stand for the anvil instead of nesting the rims in the proper order for the right height. The rims were nice to find the right height for my anvil. Depending on how I nested them together I could vary the height of the anvil face from 24" to 36"

It's raining enough to stop me from working outside, so I'll share something I did the other day. I moved my anvil from it's stand of sand filled nesting tire rims to a stand I made specifically for it from some scrap lumber. Used some gate hook bolts to hold it together and to make hammer holders on either side.

That is a great idea Frosty. We have backup help for our kennels and also for our farm animals. And backups for the backups. We also backup for other farms. Mules, sheep, cows and pigs can go somewhere else if they need to without too much worry, but we have to have someone come here to take care of the dogs if worse comes to worse.

Those are really nice Hans. The rebar texture looks almost like the hair on the ants legs

Well today I got a call from my friend who I might have bought the greenhouse frame from. He said I could have it for free if I wanted it. Then he sent me this picture. I guess the snow took out more than just our kennels. Not much left to use as a shop, but I may be able to salvage a few ribs, or I could sell it for scrap to put towards a storage container, or I could make a lot of wind chimes. I'm not sure I want to use it as a shop anymore though. My friend was down the hill from us and only got 1.5 ft of snow

In my experience of splitting it as firewood, locus has a really straight grain that splits fairly easily for how dense it is. Though the knots can be extremely stubborn if you hit them wrong.

I usually don't chase animals either. Under normal circumstances I would just have to say "kennel" and they would all run to their pens and wait for me to let them in. Instead I used the "come here" tone. I didn't want to do it to much because it jacks them up a bit when I use that tone and with that many Dachshunds together there was a potential for fights. All our other farm animals are bucket trained. You walk out with a bucket and they follow you like a train.

I can take a picture of the damage now that's is done, but no video of the incident exists so you'll have to take my word that at 3am I was sinking into the snow to my hips in some parts and my navel in others, in boxers, a robe and snow boots. It probably would have been a hoot if someone was filming me trying to get 25 Dachshunds in 3 ft of slushy powder. Luckily once they saw me most made a bee line for me and I could break the trail to our other yard, but there's always the jokester in the group who stays just outside of grabbing distance. *grumble*grumble* Your right, people are weird. They have the wrong type of Dachshunds in those pictures. I would use the wire haired doxies for mushing instead of the smooth coats. They can handle the weather better. The long haired ones would be good too, but they don't have the drive of the other 2 coat styles.

Lol, I got a bit of a preview of the kind of team your taking about. We had 3 ft of snow this week. Or more accurately, 3 inches of slush, then 3 ft of snow, then a tenth of an inch of rain. Anyhoo, it was enough to collapse the roof and walls on one of our kennel buildings, so we had 25 mini Dachshunds bounding like deer though the great white mess. All in line following the leader who was doing a kind of burrowing leap through the snow. If there wasn't the stress of getting them all caught and re kenneled it would have been very entertaining to watch. It also busted our water line somewhere between the house and the head of the spring, 3 miles UP the mountain. There's still enough water coming through to survive, but the pressure is nil. Have to wait till the 6 ft of sierra cement up there melts enough to walk the line.

That's a good looking owl Joe, I like the horns. Frosty, I like the way you think. I'll have to try to figure the talons out on my next one. If I ever get back out to the anvil

I hadn't thought of that part yet. A lock would be a nice feature to have. Another con that came to me as I was headed to bed was condensation. It will be warmer inside the greenhouse than outside, so moisture in the air will condence on the inside of the plastic, and drip constantly in unanticipatable places. It seems like the con list keeps getting bigger with the greenhouse. I think I'll end up going with the storage container, but I may still get the greenhouse the neighbor is selling cheap and add part of it as an extension to a cargo container and cover it in tarps for shade, leaving the end open for ventilation. If nothing else I can use it for it's intended purpose and grow our tomatoes in it. Or break it up and make a few large pig barns for overwintering. Thank you everyone for your input so far. I won't be decided until I have enough saved, so if there is anything else that hasn't come up yet, please bring it up.

Haha, good one Frosty. Joe, remember to keep a nice even heat when scrolling owls, and keep an eye on them in the fire so they don't burn.

Congratulations Das, she's beautiful.

Frosty, you could hang it up as a chime, the higher carbon content should give it a nice ring. Much more pleasing to look at than a rr rail so the little lady might not be so opposed to it. It would get it out of the way while you figure out the kinks of that spring loaded anvil I'm sure you've been mulling over.

Thanks Joe. I appreciate the encouragement. All I can say about starting animal heads is to just jump right in. Next time your at the forge grab a random scrap piece and play with your tools to see what marks you like. Hole punches make nice crisp circles, ball punches make smooth indents, slitters or hot cuts make crisp lines while Fuller's make smooth lines. Don't be afraid to use a tool for something it wasn't initially made for. The eye punch I made looks suspiciously like a hammer drift made by others on the site, so on my next handled tool I'm going to try it out as a drift. It may work, it may not, but I've learned that you can't be afraid of failure if you want to succeed. I learn more from things not going how I want them to than I do from getting it right the first time. I get more satisfaction from doing it right the first time, but I can't get it right until I've gotten it wrong a few times.

Thank you. Still marinating till this afternoon. Tri-tips marinated in the recipe I left in Vulcans grill (these are in the Mexican style marinade). Its the recipe everyone in the family uses so I know it will go over well. Leftovers go for sandwiches/tacos for the branding were doing tomorrow. Anything left over after branding will become beef curry, stew, stroganoff, or just smothered in a grainy mustard and pan fried depending on what we feel like that night.

You are remembering semi correct. I was burning charcoal, but I switched to gas, though I don't think I mentioned it as it was when I wasn't online for a while. I've done a bit more research since posting. Thanks to the California green rush, there are quite a few of these in the area I can check out, some with woodstoves in them. One guy even offered me his for a few hundred $$, I'd just need to get a new covering and take it down/haul it myself. I told him I needed to think on it. He told me as long as I get back to him by May it will be there. For the stove pipe, they just went straight up, with the flashing(?) that would normally go through the roof of a house sandwiched on the plastic. Besides 2 inches around the pipe, none of the plastic has melted, and that just made the flashing and plastic one unit. When checking the legal codes that allow the high tunnels, I found that I can cover the frame with any non-solid covering and still not have a problem, so it doesn't have to be clear plastic, it can be shade cloth or tarps or panda plastic (black on one side, white on the other). Unfortunately I can't use the tin roofing like I was musing over, which I have a huge pile of to pull from. Also electricity isn't allowed to be wired in, that would make the structure "permanent". I also looked into the price of the plastic that covers the frame, it looks like it is about half the cost of the whole kit, but barring any trees falling on it, some of the ones I checked out still had the original cover after 8 years, and the plastic was still soft and pliable. Snow load is another thing I need to keep in mind, some of the people I talked to had their first greenhouses smashed from snow, but they admitted to spreading the legs to 5 ft between them instead of 4ft like the plans stated so they could get more room. Luckily I'm in the mountains of Nor Cal, so we only get 1-2 weeks of 100°+F in the summer. I still may go with a cargo container instead. Roughly the same price. Smaller, but less flammable and nothing needs replacing on a regular basis

I was talking to a buddy about wanting a new shop. He suggested a high tunnel greenhouse. In our county they are considered "mobile" because the foundation is just a pipe pounded into the ground for each rib to slide into, then bolted together. Pros: The price seems reasonable for the size you get, 2 people can build it in a day and best of all, no permits. Cons: plastic roof/walls, if I add a cement floor then it becomes a permanent structure so I will be stuck with a dirt floor, and no shade. Before decide to jump in and invest in one for a shop, I would like some feedback as to whether or not this seems like a viable option. Concerns, encouragement and devil's advocates are welcome so I can see all sides. Here's a screenshot of what I'm looking at. Many sizes are available, from 12'x20' to 30'x60'

Coming home from delivering a puppy, I stopped at a kitchen supply store to get a couple of tubs to marinate the meat for a family get together. While there I found a couple butcher block brushes with the flat bristles for the same price as I found online without shipping, so I grabbed 2. Now to make the handles. I assume I should aim the screws to attach the handle in between the rows of holes that hold the bristles, correct? Or should I remove a few bristles and aim for the holes they were in? Or does it matter?

If you want to send some of that white stuff my way I'd appreciate it. Ive been jonesing for a good powder day. The Donner party wouldn't have had any problems if they had a winter like this