BWW Project #48 Rubber Roof Repair

 BWW Project #48: Rubber Roof Repair

The 3 season sunroom at the back of the house has stains appearing on the ceiling even after it was re-painted this summer by Cathy and nephew Ben.

These cracks above in the rubber roof are likely the cause.  There are some very good YouTube videos on this subject and how to repair them.  Basically the product Super Silicon, bought in a half-gallon can that comes with fleece included, is considered a very strong fix.  First, mineral spirits on a rag to clean off the rubber, followed by painting on a good cover.  

Then place the fleece right on the top of the super silicon.  It starts incorporating right away.

Paint another layer over the top, completely covering the fleece and you are finished!  Now it looks pretty good.  The rain and snow and ice over the winter will test it.  In the spring we'll apply Kilz to the ceiling below and see if the problem is cured.

September, 2024 Weigh-ins

 September 2024 Weigh-ins

9/1        199.5            133-82-66            Biked-40                **

9/2        198.5            126-85-61                                            **

9/3        197                135-88-62            Biked-60                **.*

9/4        198                124-82-60            Biked-55                **.

9/5        197.5            128-82-60                                            **

9/6        197                143-84-58                                            **

9/7        196.5            114-76-73            Biked-120                *

9/8        196.5            123-71-89                                            **

9/9        195                116-79-76            Biked-50                *.

9/10        196            105-76-83            Biked-50                    **.

9/11                                                        Biked-50                **

9/12                                                        Biked-50                *.

9/13                                                                                        *.

9/14                                                                                        *

9/15        196                                                                            **

9/16        195                                                                            **

9/17        196                                                                            **

9/18        195.5                                                                        **

9/19        196                                                                            *.

9/20        196                                                                            **

9/21        196                                                                            ****

9/22        195.5

9/23                                                                                            *

9/24                                                                                            **

9/25                                                                                            **

9/26                                                                                            *

9/27        198                                                                                **

9/28        197.5                                                                            **.

9/29        196                                                                                **

9/30        197                                                                                *

AVG       196.7      125-80-69                475-min (T)                  1.8                     

Cheeseburger in Paradise: Civitaveccia, Italy

 Cheeseburger in Paradise: Civitaveccia, Italy

A cruise o

n the Carnival Legend from Civitaveccia, Italy to Turkey, Greece, Naples and back yielded me the opportunity to have a Guy Fieri cheeseburger in a true paradise setting.  The seas were calm and the music was great on board.  

The cheeseburger was mine to adorn with tomatoes, onions, lettuce, French fries, jalapenos, pickles, and pico duegello.  It was outstanding!  Funny thing that it was the only CB I had on a 12-day cruise!  The pasta and salads were so inviting.  Mississippi pot roast!  Olives!  

When we got back to Rome and Fiuccino the couple days we spent before flying home had to be filled with eating local fare: pasta dishes, shrimp, more olives and lots of pastries!  

I expected to weigh 205 when I returned home, but amazingly weighed 198 1/2, the same as when I left!

Farm Project #19 -- New Fire Pit

 Farm Project #19: New Fire Pit

This one is cosmetic but has been waiting on the lower part of the list for a long while.  Here is the old fire pit, back by the covered deck built onto the rear of the detached garage.

I drove the van to Menards in La Crosse and picked up 36 retention wall bricks and the steel fire pit.  That was the easy part.  Here's how many rocks of various sizes that have served to line the circumference of the pit over the years.

It took some digging and some leveling, but I got three rows of 12, buttered up with adhesive and stacked to allow the top tier to fit just under the flange of the fire pit ring.  The cracks between blocks can be filled in later with grout sand and maybe I can even get it in red.  We'll see.

Look how nice it is!

Farm Project #18 -- Winterizing Outdoor Water System

 Farm Project #18: Winterize Outdoor Water System

It's that time of year.  Although it was just beautiful for 5 days at the farm doing stuff, it got down to 28-degrees one night and 32 the next.  We are going on a 3 week trip and when we return, we may not get to the farm until mid-November.  There could easily be a deep frost by then and surely some hard frosts.  There is one hose bib on the front of the house and two underground lines.  The first is on the back deck with 2 bibs and the other on the side deck with a bib there, two more along the garage, and one last out by the burn barrel.  The one on the front entryway is a frost-free, but this means nothing when I turn the heat off in the house for the winter.

All of these bibs have standing water in the lines going to them and a freeze would burst something, either the lines or the spigots.  Worst case would be a burst line underground.

Each fall I have to drain and blow out the system.  When I re-plumbed the house, I isolated three shut-off valves on the main line coming in from the pump.  If I don't open them all summer, by chance, they remain empty.  Otherwise I can turn any of them on.  Once turned open, though, they are charged.

I set it up for easy draining of the system while leaving the plumping charged in the house, because we do come here through November before I close up.

First, I open all three valves and close the valve between the pressure tank and the sand filter.  Next, turn off the pump.  Now I can turn on all outdoor spigots and let the pressure out.  Finally, I open the spigot at the bottom of the pressure tank and drain it out into a bucket.  It takes 5 or 6 and it will be sandy water so I dump it outside.

Now the fitting from the air compressor screws into that spigot bib and I turn on the pressure.  Going outside, I can turn off all 7 spigots.  Starting with the northmost and highest in elevation, I open and let the pressure push all water out.  Then close and go to the next, until I'm back to the front door.  Drain that one, go in, turn off the compressor and close the valve on the bottom of the pressure tank. 

Now close all three lines up at the top and turn the valve back open between pressure tank and sand filter.  Now the pump can be turned back on and charge up the pressure tank again.  

Bingo.  Outside lines drained and isolated.  House charged with water.  I leave the heat on low in the house until we close up after deer hunting.

Farm Project #17 - Finishing the Dryer Repair

 Farm Project #17:  Finishing the Dryer Repair

Before installing the drive motor pulley, I shot lithium grease into all moving parts that I could and got them movi8ng.  Then on went the pulley and ready to button up.

Again, the YouTube video was very useful.  I draped the new belt around the tub and stuck the tub into place on the rollers in back and made sure the felt lining was tucked properly.  Then I reached beneath and looped the belt under the new tensioner, pulled the tensioner up (you have to stick your head into the tub to do this and reach arms around both sides at the bottom) and hooked the belt around the drive pulley.

Now the front cowling goes on, again with the felt lining properly tucked.  I found that the tub would spin, but I made the mistake of spinning it the wrong way.  There was a big metallic "clang".  The belt wandered off the tensioner, of course.  I could reach in and put it back properly.  

Now I used the pictures I took to hook up the wiring clips properly everywhere.  

Then came hanging the front pieces of the chassis back on and securing them.  There are two little clips that hook the top metal chassis piece and secure it.  Once all but the very front sheet were back on, I plugged in the dryer and pushed start.  It ran nicely.

Now the final sheet is secured on and I was able to wash clothes and run two loads through the dryer to make sure everything worked properly before I shoved it back into the laundry closet next to the washer.

It worked fine.  Not only operating properly, but even more efficiently now that I have removed all that dust and build-up from fan vanes, tubes, and surfaces.

This has been a lengthly odyssey but all's well that ends well.

Farm Project #16 Hunting For the Dryer Part

 Farm Project #16: Hunting For the Dryer Part

It turned out to be a red letter day in this handy man's life!  And I met my doppelganger!

First I took the chance of going in to WESCO in Sparta.  They were very helpful and even identified a part number for me, although they didn't have it in stock but could order it.  My quest is to find the part TODAY and put it in tomorrow!

So I drove to La Crosse.  The first stop my navigator took me to was a big appliance store with a good service shop, and I probably would have been able to get the part there if the service person hadn't left at noon and wouldn't be back until Monday.

The second place was on the edge of La Crosse-Onalaska and identified the part but did not have it.  

I searched my navigator and found one more to try.  It took me down into the city, to the south end of town, Mormon Coulee Road and, to my amazement, right into the trailer park that my great aunt Evelyn used to live in many, many years ago when I was just a high school and college kid here. I drove around in circles to no avail and was about to give up the quest when I decided to stop at an old house with an appliance sitting on the porch.  Maybe.  How many people have an old stove sitting on the porch?

A beater truck drove up in a cloud of dusty and my doppelganger soul brother jumped out and asked me what I wanted.  I mentioned the little drive pulley and he said, "I work out of the garage.  Come on in."

Then he led me into a medium sized garage which was absolutely stuffed with junk from corner to corner.  I was overwhelmed!  There were refrigerators, stoves, washers, dryers, air conditioners, all in various stages of cannibalization.  The floor was covered with wires, tubes, hoses, pieces of integrated circuit chips, and other sundry junk.

To my amazement, there was a small woman in there, behind a bank of junk, talking on the phone.  

Todd, the technician, disappeared into a far corner and was rooting around under an old dryer.  Then he squeezed by me to go and find a wrench.  I had to step up onto a piece of old rolled up carpet to give him room.

Then he asked the small woman, who was now off the phone, "where are all those drive motors we had?"

She began looking around and soon they located four, three of which were from washing machines.  He bent down in back of a chassis and started working.  Soon he had the little pulley off, tried my broken one on the threads of the spline and verified that it fit.

Then he tried to just give it to me!

I insisted on paying him something and gave him ten dollars.  Then I told him that if I were younger I would ask him for a job, since the place was identical to the way my mind is constructed.  Todd opined that it was a blueprint for how his mind was constructed and told me to return in my next hour of need.