What did you do today?

[Muddy]

We went to the Pennsylvania Farm Show.

The FFA we donated the tractor to entered the finished tractor in the FFA restoration competition.

For the limited time and resources the kids had I think they did a great job!

[goodfellow]

Looks fantastic!

[Uncle Buck]

The kids swatted one outta the park with the ol poppin Johnny for sure!

[Hickory n Steel]

Yesterday after work I started on emptying cleaning and rearranging/ organizing my garage workshop.

I have this huge problem of letting it become an out of hand mess and growing until I have no choice but to clean up, and I'm not just talking about leaving tools laying around but sawdust metal filings...etc and actually trash like shop towels and packaging from tools and shop consumables all over the work bench and on the floor under or behind the work bench too.

I can keep cleaned up after myself for a few weeks until one project that throws a wrench in the gears all because my shop is small which in a round about way makes cleaning up harder than it could be.
The biggest obstacle here is clutter, I have too many buckets bins and milk crates full of that random junk you'll never need till a week after throwing it out, they're on shelves under my work bench and in corners...etc

This gets in the way of being able to easily take and return various tools, gets in the way of sweeping and vacuuming...etc, creates places for trash to hide, and just makes my overall work space smaller.

I took everything out and am trying to put as little of it back in as I can.
Currently the driveway is a mess, but hopefully tomorrow I'll be done.
I already put a good little pile of stuff on the curb for free, and my neighbor came and took most of it as soon as I put it out there.
I'd like to have nothing on the ground under my work bench so it's very easy to sweep up, store stuff where it's not so packed and annoying to put away, and I need a good place for my old work mate so I can easily pull it out and put it back away.
I realized last year that it's best to set up the work mate in the middle of my shop  or out in the driveway during dry weather to use the belt grinder or miter saw away from my work bench.
I just wanna make it easier to stay clean and organized , and have room to work on those messy projects without making as much of a hard to clean mess.

[Uncle Buck]

Sounds a bit like my cramped little shop.

[Hickory n Steel]

Sounds a bit like my cramped little shop.

Just be glad you don't live in Japan.
They got people living in spaces that could just barely pass as a pantry or closet here in the US.

[OldCarGuy]

Sounds a bit like my cramped little shop.

Just be glad you don't live in Japan.
They got people living in spaces that could just barely pass as a pantry or closet here in the US.

You have that right. I just spent a month in Japan and confirm your thoughts.

[Uncle Buck]

Another reason to be thankful for being an American!

[Hickory n Steel]

Another reason to be thankful for being an American!

Yep.
The ability to carry a pocket knife is a big one for me.

[goodfellow]

We're getting ready for a hummer of a snow storm here in central Virginia. People are going crazy buying everything they can get their hands on to keep warm in case the power goes out -- which it does every time there's a big storm.

I'm about the only one in my neighborhood with a snow blower, so I'll be getting that thing fueled and ready to go.

During a power outage, our house runs on a 15KW propane powered generator attached to a 500gal in-ground tank. Tank is about 60% full and we're on an auto-refill plan from the propane delivery supplier. We should be able to run five to six days 24/7 on emergency power with a 10-15% residual cutoff in the tank to keep it from going completely empty in case a delivery is late.

Our neighborhood has buried power lines, but the delivery system to the neighborhood is all above ground and trees are everywhere. It's a given that a broken tree or a tree branch will take out a line during this storm.

You guys up north are used to this type of weather, but here in the rural south, this is panic time for most people.

If you're in the path of this monster storm coming out of the mid-west -- good luck and stay safe guys.

[Uncle Buck]

Saying 4-8" total coming in two waves in Topeka KS over the weekend. Between a fireplace,  Coleman lanterns, oil lamps, and a generator big enough to easily power the whole house if need be we could make it through. My generator setup is not nearly as refined  as the setup GF described though it is properly  wired to the box to prevent back feeding to the public utility service. The inconvenience would be keeping it supplied with gasoline.

If I wanted to go to the effort I could build a generator shed then rework the carb to run on natural gas and pipe a line into the house from the outside and tap into the gas line in the house.

I have too many other projects to find the motivation to improve my setup as a long power outage has been infrequent. The last time that happened was about 15 years ago. I got the generator setup a few years later when I bought a deep freeze and had it stuffed full of beef and a pig. I have never needed it since.

As for the snow, I failed to fox the flat, get a new battery, and readjust the blade last fall so the snow will just have to leave the same way that it came for now.

[Uncle Buck]

I am glad everyone has seemingly abandoned CL in favor of FB Marketplace. I am not on FB so occasionally I do scoop up a few bargains on CL due to lack of traffic.

Most of two months ago a guy posted a  older (orange) HF 20 T porta power kit that looked like new for $100. During the time since he dropped the price several times which I resisted.

I have had a well used and abused 4T import porta power kit for years and only once ever used it. I kept telling myself that with each price drop and reminding myself I am getting no younger. That was working well until he dropped the price to $60.

I lost the battle of self discipline yesterday. I took a half day off work and drove the hr to KCMO, paid the man and drug my treasure home to beat the storm. While I may never need it, at the gimme price I have no regrets.

[Uncle Buck]

Productive day today.Made a big pot of vegetable soup with the wife. Also set 4 loaves of light bread out to rise. Drank most of a pot of coffee and a beer or two since 5am. Let the dog out about a dozen times so far. Gonna run the wife on a brief errand then once home stoke a fire and spend the rest of the day huddled up watching the tube and stoking up the fire.

I don't even know if I have the motivation to go heat up the shop and play with my junk out there, maybe a nap later and play in the shop tomorrow. Gettin old seems to be making me lazy.

[goodfellow]

Productive day today.Made a big pot of vegetable soup with the wife. Also set 4 loaves of light bread out to rise. Drank most of a pot of coffee and a beer or two since 5am. Let the dog out about a dozen times so far. Gonna run the wife on a brief errand then once home stoke a fire and spend the rest of the day huddled up watching the tube and stoking up the fire.

I don't even know if I have the motivation to go heat up the shop and play with my junk out there, maybe a nap later and play in the shop tomorrow. Gettin old seems to be making me lazy.

I heated up the shop this morning  -- not for automotive or machining work, but for HAM radio radio fun in the upstairs loft. There's a Winter Field Day event happening today and tomorrow across the US/Canada and the weather forced our club to cancel the outdoor event, but I'm still going to participate from my cozy "HAM Shack" in the loft. Got plenty of coffee and adult beverages, so I can enjoy a few hours of radio time.

Stay warm guys. Just took the dog for a walk and it was 17F degrees outside. With wind chill factored into the equation it's around 10F. For central Virginia this is a nightmare scenario since these days most folks in the south only have heat pumps to rely on.

[Rural53]

Just a test