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Despite things being pretty quiet, I have not been completely idle. Got the lathe unloaded and in place. I had to move the laptop stand and the parts washer, and I had to straddle that hook that's sunk into the concrete. I will re-arrange things as I get time and the inclination to do so.  Let's take a look at this thing. Gearbox, check.  Ways are in used condition, but decent enough. A previous owner (guy I bought it from bought it from the guy who did this) scraped the ways a little to hold some oil on there. I don't know if that's a fantastic idea or not, but I'm no machinist and it's done so welp.  Came with a 3 jaw, 4 jaw, faceplate, and an unfinished bronze casting for a... follower? I think? I dunno, I will likely never use that.  Live center, extra chuck for tailstock.  Tooling for the quick change tool post. Wrenches as you require.  Motor and belts in decent condition. Flat belt, so I have to be sure to take the tension off when not in use.  Gear train is in decent shape.  Started work on something for the same neighbour that had me bend those shelf brackets. As they just finished that house, I wanted to make them a housewarming present.   I love punching holes, it's very satisfying.  I hope I didn't make these front feet too short.  Log tongs are going to need a lot of work to even out. I'm out of practice.  Decent test fit, the rest will have to wait for a while.  Why? Because we went camping in Canmore to open spring.  The view from this site rules.  Terry's still going strong, no complaints so far.  We did a hike up Heart Creek with some friends, it was not easy getting pictures without people in them.   The icefall was gorgeous.  It was an awesome weekend, but the sunday turned a little cold and snowy on us, which is fine.  We were nice and warm in the trailer and enjoying a delicious brunch.  My parents joined us, and camped across the road.  Still had fires outside, it's too nice not to.  Quite a change from the 20'C we had the day before.  I made a sacrifice to the spring diety.  F  Not easy to get a picture of the mountains freshly covered through the clouds, but worth it when they poke through.   Next day we made a fire and cooked breakfast. I love cooking on my giant pan.  Packed up.  Ready to go.  I turned 40   My very generous brother in law got me this really nice hatchet as a gift, but asked that we do a zoom call so he could see my reaction when I opened it. Wife and I did so, but I managed to be clumsy and sliced my thumb putting it back into the sheathe during the call, these axes are very sharp from the factory. I think he got more of a reaction than he expected, heh.  Spent 5 hours in urgent care and needed 3 stitches. I've never needed stitches outside surgery before so this was new to me. I think the novocaine needle was more painful than anything else that evening, still I am glad the doc used it. Of course it's right on my fuckin knuckle. Spoilers for the squeamish. Yikes.  So yeah, no smithing while that's healing up, I can barely bend the fucker. In the meantime, I am sewing some stuff backpacking / tent camping gear for the odd time we do that. Or picnics, I'm not fussy. This is a tool roll type thing for camp silverware, we bought something similar with bamboo utensils and found it to be useful, so I wanted to replicate it and use my own components.  You flip the top flap down around the open end of the pockets, and then it rolls up nice, but it's not too tight that I can't add some more utensils as needed in the future.  Also, a canvas bag to hold my little zebra pot, and a little camp grille. This one is pretty rough, I did the hem backwards and I was getting tired that evening, plus I'm working with a thumb and a half here.  The internal pocket is to keep the grille from scratching the gently caress out of the pot, and keep things tidy. Mostly wanted this so I could use the pot in a fire and not get the rest of my stuff filthy, and this bag can go in the wash easily, it's just cotton canvas.  Still, it's nice to have a machine that can handle canvas like it's not even there, and I am getting a little better at threading it and running it. Like anything, practice and fuckin around with stuff eventually pays off.
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May 6, 2021 01:16
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lol sorry about the thumb there but amazing pics as usual. love the canvass work
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May 6, 2021 22:07
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The nice thing about things returning to semi-normal is that garage sales are happening again. I managed to pick up an old sledge with a jank handle (I got an axe too, but I haven't worked on that one yet). Looks half decent after a cleanup and re-handling. Works a treat, too.  The neighbour with a mini excavator helped us scrape some sod up so we could put these new garden boxes in. His bucket was a little domed in after he helped another neighbour pound in some fence posts, so I was putting the handle on the sledge while he finished that job, and then we straightened out the bucket with the sledge and a hydraulic jack.  Garden boxes have been in for a few months now and are growing a boatload of potatoes, I'll have to grab a picture of that soon for you all.  I replaced the sink in the RV, the bowl got a little crack in it, something must have pranged it falling out of the medicine chest right above.  So, I've been angling towards this project for a couple years now but I didn't want to post much about it because covid supply chains have been beyond hosed up. Remember how I moved the smithy last year? We started construction on this little addition back as soon as the ground thawed enough to do so. Right on the spot where the smithy used to be.  This rad little machine is putting in screw-piles, which is a great way to put in a foundation without a ton of excavation. We couldn't do a normal foundation back there because our water line runs right where this sits, you can see that hole where they hydrovacced a bit to locate the pipes.  Nice thing about working from home is I can be here to capture all the interesting construction stuff going on.   Blazer for scale.  We played with the idea of a small depression in the floor to catch water, but decided against it.  This is going to tie into the garage, so the siding comes down.  These guys put in a ton of hours preparing the floor surface, they also filled in that depression.  But holy poo poo did they ever do a nice job.   It's a really nice textured surface. Sand-sized grains, fully liquid proof.  And here's the impetus for all this. A swim spa!  Originally we wanted a 21 foot model from coast, we bought one last September with a promise that they could deliver by this spring. Spring rolled around, construction started, and no spa. We waited another month, still no spa, and they couldn't even give us an idea of where we were in the production queue. I think we would be waiting until mid 2022 had we stuck with that manufacturer given what the company is putting out there on facebook and such. With construction materials piling up around here (the windows took the accent's spot in the garage) and further orders on hold, eventually we had to go with another vendor. No one makes a 21 foot spa like coast does, so we couldn't get the same kind of unit, however a 15 foot swim spa and a nice sized hot tub will do us well as a replacement. We got our money back from coast thankfully, the local master spa vendor was great to work with, and they were smart enough to order a ton of inventory mid-last year for delivery this July, which lined up pretty well for us. We had hoped to be done by now, but it is what it is and I don't feel angry about how it played out. Just kind of disappointed, I did want to buy a Canadian product.  Today the trusses got delivered.  And the lumber.  Framing starts tomorrow, and the wife and I are super stoked. I will be sure to document the process as I always do. I wanted to do this years ago, before my shoulder surgery so I could use it for rehab and hydrotherapy. It's unfortunate that we didn't, could have saved a ton of cash as current covid pricing is crazy, but at the same time we didn't have the resources we do now to make it happen. We both love to swim, and being in the country makes it difficult to access a pool whenever you feel like it, it's a hassle you have to plan around. But, we want to keep working from home, and we both love living here, so we figured this was a good way to invest in the property and ourselves.
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Jul 19, 2021 22:28
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Holy poo poo that is cool - what kind of windows are you having? Glass roof? Being able to sit in the tub and look at the stars would be awesome.
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Jul 19, 2021 22:41
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No roof windows or anything, just big south facing ones, a huge siding door with screen, one on the east wall, and three on the north side. All of them can open for air flow. We get hail here, I don't like the idea of a sunroof on my house :/
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Jul 19, 2021 23:46
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Had part of the Alberta AI crew out for a bbq last weekend. Made beef ribs. Did a short road trip down to Waterton, needed to spend a day with my sister, she's been suffering some bad anxiety lately so I wanted to make time for her.  We both had an awesome time paddling around Waterton Lake and walking up Red Rock Canyon.  Dinner in Blairemore was great too.  On the construction front, things progressed nicely this week. Framers built the skeleton on the driveway and had a crane move it into place. The fellow in orange was also on the crew that originally built the house, so that's pretty neat!  I helped a little bit, they built the roof truss structure right under the powerline so we had to drag it a bit so the crane op could lift it safely.  All skinned up with the windows and door frame in place.  Looking good so far! Can't wait for the electrician to come this thursday and wire this hog.  Potatoes and squash and radishes growing nicely.   During the BBQ, Turbo Fondant graciously helped me get this fuckin gasoline filler neck into the new tank I put in the dodge. We had to boil the gasket, lube it with assembly grease, and he pushed on the tube while I reefed on it with a prybar to get the angles right. Finally worked. I put the rubber elbow on there last night, it still needs a bracket extension where the vice grips are holding, the new tank isn't in exactly the same spot as the old but that's no big deal. 
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Jul 27, 2021 22:49
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfZMZHI--6A Had to think of this guy who build an electric tractor first. Also nobody commented on the ribs cause we all jealous.
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Oct 28, 2021 20:33
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Keetron posted:Also nobody commented on the ribs cause we all jealous. I appreciate that  So, sorry, it's been a hell of a summer. Wife and I planned to head out to Quebec to spend a couple weeks with her dad and step mom at their cottage. I needed to make a gift, so I thought I would do a fireset. To do a fireset, I need to make a shovel. Shovels are an absolute pain in the dick to make, so I busted out the little shrinker I bought aaaaaaaages ago and gave it a shot.  It actually turned out pretty good.  Too many rivets.  Fireset also needs a broom. Made from a big paintbrush, why not?  The head is oak, so a little burning will darken it nicely.  Huh, not bad.  The completed set, sans paint. It is really hard to get a decent picture of these things, they're very awkward to photograph.   While I was doing sheet metal stuff, I made that little bracket for the dodge.  I got to use  MY LATHE to make a thing. See, the tractor has a motor controller that you use a potentiometer to feed it a resistance value, the resistance is your 'throttle' controller. This is what I used originally, which worked ok, but it's exposed to the elements and is pretty janky. I always told myself I would go back and improve it, and 10 years later here I am.  I bent up this bracket to hold the 'pedal box' that actually came with the controller. There's a microswitch and some other gubbins in there, but it's basically just a potentiometer in a nice robust housing that's somewhat more weather resistant than what I had before.  The bushing I put between them was the lathe project, turned out pretty decent, IMO.  I had to get the tractor ready, and I needed this thing off the trailer.  One assists the other.  Finally. First time I'm taking this thing to the big meet up at Irricana for, what, like 4 years? Felt good.  Speaking of smithing related stuff, after finding that other sledge, I stumbled across this beast in Lethbridge in an antique store. 20 fuckin pounds. 40 fuckin dollars.   The addition continued apace.  After the siders did their thing, I asked that the downspouts all get routed to a central location. North side all drains into this tank.  The workshop now drains into two of these 1250 gallon tanks.  And the south & west sides drain into the trees, instead of onto the hole where the septic tank is. Also our rhubarb and horseradish are doing pretty well here, that's sweet.  My grandfather passed away 2 days before we left on our road trip for the east. It was not unexpected, but still difficult to go through. He was the best grandfather a guy like me could have asked for, I just wish my wife had known him before the dementia ate his mind. However, leave we did, and the trip proceeded pretty well.  Landed in Moosejaw (wife was born there, so she wanted to look around a bit).  Nice place along the Ontario/Manitoba border.  I transcended into God's One True Timezone.  Ontario was pretty cool. I had only driven as far as Brandon Manitoba before now, though I have flown into Sudbury once and Toronto a couple times, but never left the airport.  Lake Superior was amazing, definitely will come back here to camp.  One of the wheel bearings on the trailer got a little spicy near pancake bay.  The spindle got pretty chowdered. gently caress.  We were an hour outside Sault Ste Marie, and getting parts for this ancient axle was loving impossible with a long round trip, so we decided to get the trailer towed into town to make it easier to fix. This tow truck operator was a loving pro, he managed to manipulate his machine and did a perfect job getting the deck under Terry.  He took the trailer to Johnson's RV in the Sault, and those guys did an amazing job for us. Cannot recommend them highly enough if you need work done in that area, A+ people there. While that was getting fixed, the wife and I were kinda burnt out from days on the road, so we got a hotel and spent some time being tourists. We got to see a voyageur canoe tour go through the old locks.    This fiasco actually worked out ok, this poo poo all happened on our anniversary so we had a nice meal at the hotel bar which was right on the water and had a chance to relax and reset. We made it the rest of the way East without further incident. Spent the next few weeks fishing, swimming and boating on the Ottawa river. Fixing boat trailers, bringing boat lifts out of the river, helping the father in law with dozens of cottage projects, and generally having a nice time. I caught and ate my first walleye, which the locals called pickerel, drat it was delicious. I think they liked the fireset too. Doesn't clash too badly with their decor, I think.  The trip back was pretty uneventful, but beautiful.      Seriously, north shore of lake superior, in-fuckin-credibly pretty. I am glad we were not there for bug season.  Hiked out to the old boats at Prisoner's Cove near Neys.    We both wanted to stop at the Terry Fox memorial, and that was good to see.  The landscape near Kenora was also really cool.   But it was definitely nice to return home.  The addition work continues while we were away. The interior was nearly done when we got home.  Had to get some water trucked in from town, but that's alright.   First swimmer!  This one apple tree produced a bunch of fruit, and it was delicious. That was the only fruit we got off the trees this year. The nanking cherry bushes had a couple berries (finally!) but the birds got em, which is fine.  We started the garden harvest. Wife managed to get 2 good sized boxes of potatoes.  I re-mulched the trees.  And the bushes.   The rerouted downspouts gather an amazing amount of water from even the tiniest rains. I think this was a 2 hour light drizzle around Canadian thanksgiving?  My sister picked her tree's apples and I had enough to make jelly.   Which turned out amazing this time.  After a bit of tinkering, the Dodge runs again! Seat SS and I took it out for a spin around town while we worked on his Honda van.    Halloween happened, and I finally planned ahead far enough to actually get a pumpkin this time.  This is all I really care about, right here.  More work on the pool house. Framer came back and built us some really nice cedar landing/stairs for the door.  The steps on this side are movable, there'll be more to come for this at some point. We need a set of steps to get into the pool, I am just using some garage platforms for the time being.  Heater is installed, sure is nice to have that now that winter approaches.  gently caress I love the view from here.  Nearly done that second fireset for my neighbour. Only... 5 months late.  Just needs cleaning and paint, and the rivets hammered on the stand.  Anyway, thanks for following along on this long-rear end ramble of a post, sheesh.
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Nov 17, 2021 19:34
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Man I think I played some video games and payed some bills in the same amount of time. Great stuff.
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Nov 17, 2021 19:42
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Here is the aforementioned Honda van. It's a 95 Odyssey that I scored from Copart up in Edmonton just days before the pandemic started. It would have been for minimum bid, but someone else decided that they also wanted to bid the minimum. The first-generation (95-97) Honda Odyssey is a bit special compared to the later models. It is much more Japanese-y than most minivans, and rides a lot more like the Accord it's based on than a boat. It takes a corner very well, once the initial panic of "tall station wagon" subsides. This did not appeal to minivan buyers in the US, and for 98 they basically went and revised the car into a van with a larger V6 engine and lazier handling. Although the resulting model sold well, it is emblematic of Honda's early-00s decline in terms of engineering and "We're Right" hubris. All this means that the first-generation Odyssey is a hidden gem and an exceptionally good deal for anyone who is looking to buy an Accord wagon of this era, because those usually go for $3000 and a gently loved Odyssey is much much less. In my neighbourhood, a lot of the Chinese tradesmen use super-miled-out Japanese minivans rather than pickup trucks. A friend of mine was gracious enough to let me leave it in his yard all this time, and Slung and I eventually cannonballed up there to get it and haul it back on the trailer. It did not come with keys, so I had to contact my favourite Honda parts guy and get him to decode the VIN into the lock code for me, then hire a locksmith to make a set. Because it's a Honda, it fired right up as soon as the battery was strong enough, and then grudgingly allowed me to move it around the block and onto a trailer. When we got it, the car had been through some rough times, with the lower glovebox half hanging open where someone had mauled the lock.  A quick zap with the tiny Milwaukee angle grinder opened it up. I'll have to find a new centre console bin, lower glovebox cover, and ideally a centre-left seat, as those were all missing or damaged. The original owner clearly took excellent care of this thing, though. The seats were intact under the manky seat covers, the carpet is very clean, and even the full-size spare tire has been changed out from its original one.  When we were showing it off to McTinkerson before heading down south, he inadvertently flipped a couple of the dip-switches on this security box under the drivers seat while reaching for the seat adjuster, which immobilized the car. Good thing we were towing it! When we got it back to the ranch, I expected that I was going to have to do a bunch of wiring and other bullshit to get the car to start again, but instead I just had to (thieves stop reading) unplug it.  Once that was done, we gave it a once-over in the garage, and then I left it in Slung's yard for a couple days while I worked out the insurance headaches with my broker. Now it's a reliable little van, and it came complete with a bunch of warm toques and mitts that I've been wearing when I go out to shovel.  We took the van to Drumheller as part of a summers'-end celebration and it did fantastically. Even the aftermarket CD-MP3 player plays well after a quick cleaning of the lens.  It still needs some maintenance and some codes dumped, but the trip to Drum really helped blow off the rust and dry spots. I had a whole project planned out, but now I am hoping to move it on to a local family that needs a cheap 7-seater. Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 20:05 on Nov 17, 2021 |
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Nov 17, 2021 19:53
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Dope little(big) ride!
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Nov 17, 2021 20:19
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That was one massive update.  Pool is looking really good, and that seems to me like a lovely trip!
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Nov 18, 2021 00:28
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Seat Safety Switch posted:a local family that needs a cheap 7-seater.
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Nov 18, 2021 12:36
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I share your chill attitude when wildlife gets to some of the fruits. Mule deer and magpies feast a bit on our apples and cherries, zucchini and melons, but we always manage to have too many left over for ourselves. It's fine.
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Dec 6, 2021 14:11
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Whoof, it's been a minute. I keep telling myself I need to update quarterly but poo poo, as usually, has been fuckin busy. I finished off hunting season last year having zero luck, but I consider myself fortunate to be able to get out in country like this to recreate.     Going for Elk, this is literally as close as I managed to get to a herd through 2 months of trying. They're probably 3-5km away looking through my binoculars, I tried getting over there but it was on another property I didn't have permission on, so moot point. I guess that's not entirely accurate, I was within 5 meters of a roadkilled one, and I was reaaaaal tempted to go back and cut the loins off that one.  Looking back on the direction I had come from after getting as close as possible.  Same hill, different angle.  Taking some different items for dinner that day, hard biscuits, caffeine chocolates, homemade venison pemmican, and some canned fish. Actually very, very satisfying all around after a 15km hike.  Same property, different spot, different week. I learned after a trip earlier that when the land stewards told me "no vehicle access" they meant "go ahead and drive on the roads IN the property, just don't go across country"   Nothing but cattle that day, so I went to the public land not far away and had myself a rest. And made tea and soup.  Very much enjoying the mobility the Blazer provides.  What a view  The neighbour's fireset turned out pretty good after cleaning and painting.   They seem to like it, here it is in their house.  My other father in law has a countertop icemaker that he fills the fridge ice cube tray with, much like I do. But he is constantly bending knives trying to chisel them apart after they hard-freeze together. So I thought I would try to help him out with a quick christmas present.  Tried out my new wood lathe for the first time, cut the blank by hand out of a piece of that sapele wood I made my grandma's TV stand out of a few years back. It has a nice straight grain so I thought it would be a nice handle material.  I turned the pick on the metal lathe from an old nailsetter. Made the leather sheath on the new sewing machine, I am getting better with that thing too.  All in all pretty happy with it. I was not trying to make it balanced at all, this is merely coincidence.  During one of the blacksmith guild meetings one of the guys was making these for an album promotion, so I got in on it and made one also. (I know the top post should be perpendicular to the arms of the anchor, but it's supposed to fit in your pocket so just go with it)  During the deep-deep freeze of december and early january, we discovered a bit of an insulation problem in the pool house where the new wall meets the old. This snow has blown in through the crack. That has since been fixed and it's been good since.  We also got a really nice cedar stairway built and fastened to the frame of the pool to make it easier to get in and out of.  What a difference.  Changed the filter on the hot tub and drained / replaced the water. Gross.  The pool's filters are pretty good, I think we're sticking with the plan of changing that water once a year, hot tub gets it twice, doing the filters at the same time as the water. Maybe that's excessive, I dunno. Had some pretty spectacular sunrises and sunsets in the last few months. I just grab the prettiest ones from my photo account when I build these posts.  In march I took the trailer in to get new axles to replace that failed one from our trip last summer. I gotta say, Standen's in Calgary are fuckin phenomenal people. They put in new axles, put a new pigtail on the wiring harness connector, welded a cracked support in the trailer's frame, installed a new breakaway e-brake controller unit, and put new hooks on the breakaway chains for an extremely reasonable price. Extremely happy with their work.  Granted, now that the axles are straight instead of dropped, I had to adjust the truck hitch, but that's not too bad. We took it out to Canmore in May to start the camping season, had a nice time up there. Surprising amount of snow on the ground still.  Did another trip up near Three Hills a couple weeks ago. Aside from a small grad party on the friday, we basically had the campground entirely to ourselves the rest of the weekend, that was really nice.  Slight owl infestation there, though.  Grandpa's old truck is still doing truck stuff. My grandma is ridiculously happy that I still use it as a functional thing and it's not just a showpiece.  This is the wife's townhouse rental, we put it up for sale after evaluating the economics of things. That and I loving hate being a landlord given my philosophy. Truck came in super handy when we were cleaning it up and fixing poo poo.  Ugh, so much poo poo taken to the hazmat disposal site.  Speaking of gramps, the town Lady's Club surprised me with this as a gift for christmas, they took one of grandpa's old shirts and made a nice throw pillow out of it. Thanks ladies  In food news one of the neighbours is raising rabbits. I am also raising them, onto rotisseries.   I think I pretty much have carbonara (or at least my version of it) down pretty well. Wife loves it.  (don't @ me if you don't like peas or insist on traditional fettuccine or whatever noodles, I don't discriminate) Recent news includes some massive projects undertaken with the local Alberta AI crew, but I will let them describe it in more detail in their own threads as they wish. Suffice it to say, this last weekend was a busy one. 
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Jun 22, 2022 22:40
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Oh, also, I am no longer mayor. I gave that up after the town AGM in February. 6 years is enough for now, though I may do it again some year, but I need some time off from it. So I guess I need a new avatar, feel free to give me some suggestions.
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Jun 22, 2022 22:42
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Nice update! Time to get a real job eh?
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Jun 23, 2022 00:02
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Wow, those are some gorgeous photos of the countryside from your hunting. Is that all grazing land normally, or is it just wilderness?
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Jun 23, 2022 00:52
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I love it when this thread pops up in my bookmarks. Great to see you're still out there living the life in the country.
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Jun 23, 2022 01:29
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Leperflesh posted:I love it when this thread pops up in my bookmarks. Great to see you're still out there living the life in the country.  when I grow up I too would like to live a life in the country.such a great update to this awesome thread. One of my all time favorites in AI. work has kept me from lurking and posting lately.
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Jun 23, 2022 02:41
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Conan had a good run. It's nice to hear from you, man.
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Jun 23, 2022 03:45
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Nice setup, do you have the rain barrels plumbed into an irrigation system? I've wanted to rotisserie a rabbit since I picked up the rotisserie for my grill, that was around when I ran out of rabbits in the freezer. How did you keep it from drying out? I was thinking of wrapping it up in bacon like a mummy.
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Jun 23, 2022 13:28
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Crab Dad posted:Nice update! Time to get a real job eh? Absolutely. I needed to step back from politics, spend more time with my family, enjoy the good things life has to offer  TooMuchAbstraction posted:Wow, those are some gorgeous photos of the countryside from your hunting. Is that all grazing land normally, or is it just wilderness? The parts on the grassy areas are privately owned grazing lands, the latter set of images in the snowy trees with the blazer/tea bits are publicly owned land, the Porcupine Hills Public Land Use Zone (we call em PLUZ here in Alberta) to be specific. The grazing land isn't used very intensively as far as I can tell, as there isn't a lot of water, though there were a fair number of artesian wells I found when wandering about, that was pretty neat. I guess it depends on your definition of wilderness, the grazing land doesn't see many people, but the pluz does see at least a few every day (sledders, ATVer, hikers, campers, etc) but is definitely more of an actual forest. It is a very interesting biome, the foothills area of southern Alberta is absolutely beautiful and I am glad I chose to try hunting down that way as it gave me the impetus to do some exploring somewhere I don't get much opportunity to be in otherwise. Leperflesh posted:I love it when this thread pops up in my bookmarks. Great to see you're still out there living the life in the country. Somewhat Heroic posted:
Thanks folks I'm glad you're still following along. I'm happy to keep posting once in a while so long as someone enjoys reading it.Boaz MacPhereson posted:Conan had a good run. It's nice to hear from you, man. I am always around, even if I am not always posting.  SpeedFreek posted:Nice setup, do you have the rain barrels plumbed into an irrigation system? Eh, sort of. I sink a garden pump into the large tanks and I have a watering hose that I move from plant to plant. I don't have the soaker hoses anymore, they're more trouble than they're worth here. (weeds like to encircle them and drill roots into the pores) I did actually wrap the rabbit in a few slices of bacon, you don't need a ton, I think I used 4 slices on this one, tied on with kitchen string.
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Jun 23, 2022 15:15
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I think I discovered this thread not long after paying my  over a decade ago, and I keep coming back to live vicariously. I can't believe that what brought out of lurking is a picture of Scho-Ka-Kola. How the gently caress do you know about that, let alone source it in Canada? Most Germans don't even know what it is.
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Jun 26, 2022 18:53
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Always glad to see this thread pop up again. Beautiful country up there, much as I like where I am that seems wonderful to live in.
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Jun 27, 2022 05:21
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Badly Jester posted:I think I discovered this thread not long after paying my I was browsing Varusteleka for random military surplus gear (buddy told me about them) and clicked on their food section and had a look. You are correct, I had no idea what it was, but I looked into it once I saw the tins and was like "huh, I would like to try that". Turns out they sell it for a reasonable price, so I ordered some, and then I ordered a pile more. https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/scho-ka-kola-100-g-tin-box-10-pack/70844 If anyone wants some of the tins, I uh, I have a lot of them. I love the poo poo.
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Jun 27, 2022 05:57
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Hey old thread, how's it going? Been a while, eh? Yup yup. Busy as always. Wife and I did some camping last year to close out summer.  Managed to blow a tire bombing around the Cypress Hills on the Alberta/Saskatchewan border.  Fortunately for me, Turbo Fondant was at our house working on his trucks still, and very generously grabbed one of my spare wheels, ran into town to get me a new tire, and drove 3 hours to deliver it. What a guy, thanks pal  There was a bountiful harvest of apples at my parent's place. We picked entirely too many.  I think I did 4 batches of jelly?  The Bow river valley in the fall is a delight.  Did lots of curling. I played as a 5th for my wife's team, one of the guys was due for knee surgery and I didn't want to fully commit to any team so I said I would be their replacement. Turns out he didn't get his surgery date during the season, so I played as a spare for whichever team needed a warm body. I didn't sit out a single day.  We got a hell of a cold snap early November around hunting season. I went with my buddy as normal, he took my truck to Big Valley with a cargo trailer (we had a moose tag again) and his dad. I drove the Blazer.  We didn't get our moose, only saw bulls which we couldn't shoot. Did get a pair of mule deer though. On the way home, the weather was better, but my blazer decided to eat its' own engine. Years of previous owners and my own stupidity in not topping up the oil caused it to eat the distributor gear. I opted to take it to a shop in town where they changed the motor for me. It was expensive, but I like this silly little truck. Unfortunately we were headed to the coast to spend december with the wife's family again, so I had zero time to deal with it. I did some embroidery for gifts, this is the mother in law's little boston terrier.  Sister in law loves Winnie the Pooh, so I made this for her.  We did some snowshoeing on mt washington again.  Wandering around Revelstoke on our way back to Alberta, I found some art.  Blazer was all fixed and looking clean when we got back. (this was taken in January, yes the weather does this all the time here)  We kept our amazing tomato plant alive all winter in the pool house. It even made tomatoes in there, you can see a couple on the left side.  When we were doing Turbo Fondant's truck job last year, we pulled the tractor out of the shop, parked it beside the building, and when I went to put it back in later that evening the fuckin thing wouldn't move. Left that alone for... several months and eventually decided to do a new set of batteries and a motor controller (Seat Safety Switch and I kinda murdered the old one taking it apart to see if it had failed). The new batteries are of Canadian manufacture, which is pretty incredible. Comparable in every way to the old Trojans, but only time will tell if they will last for nearly 15 years also.  Had it ready for a party my wife was putting on for her coworkers. This is a friend driving it with her kids.  Did a golf trip to Radium with my sister this June.    They are remediating the old cold pool at the Hot Springs which was inconvenient for us, but it was sorely needed. That old concrete was in rough shape.  July 1 this year we did a lamb roast and brisket smoke at the hall.  Turned out pretty good despite the minor electrical grassfire.  Wife and I went camping right afterwards, and amazingly the saskatoons are ripe a month early. We spent hours picking.  But the most exciting news, for me, is the Dodge. I wanted to post a couple weeks ago but it's been a fuckin gong show with this thing.  I finally got it to a shop to get the out of province inspection done. I finally officially own it and have it registered. Now I can start doing the Dumb poo poo I've always wanted to   Thanks for sticking with me everybody, I know I don't post a lot anymore, but I will try to keep things going here.
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Jul 18, 2023 16:45
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Good photos, thank you for continuing to share updates! How much effort does it take for your family to get through two deers worth of meat?
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Jul 18, 2023 17:20
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What beautiful pictures. Looks like a good life!
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Jul 18, 2023 17:40
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Good photos, thank you for continuing to share updates! Well my buddy and I split them, so it's one deer each. Honestly, not too long. We make burgers out of the majority of it, though we keep the stuff that makes nice steaks. I take a bit of stewing meat for chili. Honestly it depends on how much meat we're eating at a time. Wife and I could eat an entire deer in a month or two if we had nothing but that. Variety is nice though. We could stretch it for an entire year if we used it very sparingly. It took us about a year and a half to get through our share of that moose from 4-5 years ago, if that helps you visualize it any.
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Jul 18, 2023 20:55
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Huzzah for Coronet content! Huzzah for all of your content, actually. The plate is pretty clever.
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Jul 18, 2023 21:54
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Boaz MacPhereson posted:Huzzah for Coronet content! Huzzah for all of your content, actually. The plate is pretty clever. Thanks Boaz. I'm still watching your nova thread too.
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Jul 19, 2023 06:28
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always enjoy seeing what cool stuff you're up to out there
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Jul 19, 2023 06:30
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 05:57 |
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cars, hunting, embroidery, gardening, grilling/smoking meats, canning, town mayor the modern renaissance man
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Jul 19, 2023 19:51
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