Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[glenn kangiser]

Looks like a Jack-o-lantern mushroom and a big belly ache.

[poppy]

Nice set of pics. and projects there Glenn. 

I'm jealous in multiple ways. 

[MountainDon]

Those upscale RV cooktops are usually quite good.


Love the green grass too.

[RainDog]

Oh yeah.. I found a  large mushroom that was growing at the base of the tree behind the Bush Hog. Looks like a Chicken Mushroom but has gills I think.  Gotta check it out some more.

Looks like it, yeah. Laetiporus cincinnatus

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/laetiporus_cincinnatus.html

I really don't know. Looks alarming to me. I'd be skeert to let my dog sniff it.  

[glenn kangiser]

Yeah - It turned out to be scary I think - I won't eat one unless I positively identify it and this one is not the chicken mushroom.  I am now nearly positive it is the poisonous Jack-o-lantern.  It is supposed to glow in the dark hence the name.  The Chicken Mushroom has pores rather than gills - that is what clued me in to the fact that I better check it out more.  The Chicken would be smooth with little holes on the back.

Unless there is a positive Id it's not worth the chance as some of these things are killers.  That one is good for the craps and a 2 day belly ache. [ouch]

Another clue is that it is the wrong time of year for Chicken and the right time of year for Jack.  I guess the other day you could have said, "Wow, Glenn doesn't know jack...."

[glenn kangiser]

Nice set of pics. and projects there Glenn. 

I'm jealous in multiple ways. 

The projects were not fancy but were functional-- good enough for me.

Those upscale RV cooktops are usually quite good.


Love the green grass too.

You ought to see the flowers in the garden, Don.  Tons of green grass here this year, though.  The alpaca poo fertilized places especially. [ouch]

Sassy loves the cooktop.  She is now able to easily brown stuff, where she really had to work at it with the old stove.  The big burner is a super burner and the small ones are likely near twice as hot as the old stove.  We are real happy with it and I would say it rivals our full size Magic Chef cooktop in our other house in the valley.  It is a four burner down there but larger than I wanted for here.

[glenn kangiser]

For those of you who only get to see snow.... a few garden pix today









and something to help make it bigger and better this year I hope....




I picked up 4000 feet of "T" tape - a light drip hose with emitters every foot.  It puts out .22 gph per 100 feet.  Ideal for this clay soil and low water consumption I think.  I have used it before.  I used to install irrigation systems.

The ends can simply be folded over, a small hole poked into it and an 1/8th inch spaghetti feeder line poked into it and slid inside a few inches.  As long as the hole is smaller than the feeder line the tape will seal tight to it.  It is necessary to use a 15 lb pressure reducer with it.  A simple electronic hose timer makes sure things get watered even if I am away.

Before anyone says it...... um, Glenn, boy your shop sure is a mess.....

Yeah, I know...... [ouch]      

[PEG688]

 That can't be yours, wheres the rust , the duct tape , the re-welded parts    


  Glenn, boy your shop sure is a mess.....

Yeah, I know...... [ouch]      

 I hardly noticed , it's so "normal" now that I think I'd keel over dead if it WAS clean    



Oh BTW the garden look GREAT! Must be Sassy's good work eh!
 

[glenn kangiser]

Ah -- cool PEG, I am glad you were able to lighten up on me a bit.  Actually it is way cleaned up from what happens there sometimes. [ouch]

Everything I have broke in the last couple weeks plus I am working a lot of the time now so things remain a mess and my organization project for the shop just did not get finished.  I always enjoy having you pick on me about it though....

As a matter of fact Sassy spent a bunch of time weeding in the garden and cleaning things out.  I was hoping to work some soil amendments of what ever type the plants desire to make the garden grow better, stay looser and hold moisture longer, hence the new tiller.  I trade work for toys sometimes.

[glenn kangiser]

Oh... yeah - the new tiller... I wanted something that might hold up to the rocks and stay together for a bit and ... one of our members and my buddy and customer sells these things, so I took it in trade for work on his foundation.   It's a virgin.... never been soiled yet.....

[PEG688]

Ah -- cool PEG, I am glad you were able to lighten up on me a bit.  Actually it is way cleaned up from what happens there sometimes. [ouch]

  And now I've given you a good reason to have a dirty shop, you wouldn't want to have me "keel over dead " now would ya

[glenn kangiser]

Not on your life, PEG... Live long and prosper...

I do have to continue cleaning up the shop though..... some day... I can't find stuff and want to get over that.. [ouch]

[glenn kangiser]

The dogs were getting to where they wanted to go metal detecting today, and while I didn't have time to take them on a long trip, the Bush Hog is running again and they were willing to just go down to the spring.

Things are still pretty wet around here and on the way down to the spring I found a new spring... one that has not run before - actually another also.  Not so noticeable in the summer but with this wet winter we now have a seasonal stream running and the spring is probably putting out 3 or 4 gpm now too.

The spring was an old time prospector stop as it flows year round.  There was a cabin there and I usually find things when I go detecting there.  This area had prospectors before the Civil war.

Today was again a few interesting finds.  Historic junk but fun.

I like to see what I can find out about the junk by researching clues on the net.  I scrub the stuff off and see what I can find.  The square nails were likel;y made before  1890 when wire nails came into production.  The exception is that they still use the cut (square) nail machine to make hardened masonry nails - same old machine.  The three on the right are square nails.



One shot shell cap marked U.M.C. Co  No 12  Monarch

UMC marketed its first factory-loaded Club shotshells in 1888. From 1891 through 1905, UMC added other lines of shotshells including New Club, Nitro, Smokeless, Lightning, Black-Club, Arrow, Nitro Club, Monarch, Majestic, Acme, Challenge, Expert, High Base, Magic and Primrose Club. Many lines of shotshells were sold both loaded and unloaded.

The 30.30 shell was marked" Rem-UMC 30.30 " - Looks like they were together from 1911 to 1934


The other Shot Shell cap is marked "1901 No 12 Repeater" -heads stamped only 1901 Repeater by Winchester from 1901 to 1920

The chain or harness link was possibly from a mule or horse as I found it on the wagon trail going to my spring.  It looks like it was made by a blacksmith and was forge welded at the point where it failed.  The trail shows on the ancient maps.  Wonder if the Driver lost control?

The hatchet? head looks to have been made from a saw blade and is still quite sharp.  It is rather springy and the steel is like wrought iron --laminated and one of the laminations is separating a bit by the handle holes.  It measures 4 inches at the wide point x 11.25 inches long and about 1/16th thick.  The holes are spaced 1 1/8 inches apart and are 5/16.  Possibly for chopping kindling?  I found it near where I found a forged axe head a year or two ago.

Most of the artifacts were found between 2 and 4 inches deep within 30 feet of the spring.

[glenn kangiser]

Oh yeah... took the tiller out and got it a bit dirty to try it out.  It works great - It may launch itself a ways when it hits a rock but it did not break.  

With the three forward gears I was able to climb the steep hill to get to the upper original garden terrace, and with the reverse I was able to back it out after getting as far as I could go. Nice new tool.  [ouch]

The two digging speeds are nice - I use low speed to find the rocks.

3rd gear is travel only and it is a good fast walking speed.

[poppy]

Interesting finds there Glenn.  What do you do with them?

[glenn kangiser]

Most of the interesting stuff goes into a display case on a shelf - for some of the  bigger antique things, I drive a square nail into a log girder or wall and display them in the house.

The round nails I probably will toss.  As I get more of it likely a lot will be put into a wooden box or something just to be conversation pieces - to show to ones who don't get to see them once in a while.  Sometimes I give a few of the square nails to people or relatives who show an interest in historic things.  I guess that really it is just junk.  

It is nice to live in one of the early historic areas of the West. I didn't care for history that much in school but really enjoy being in the middle of it and learning about it now.

When metal detecting for gold you find about 500 metal artifacts for one gold many times anyway so lots of  interesting junk.

Another interesting thing to me is that without a detector the soil would have held its treasure.... most of it ... actually all of it was not visible any other way.

[Redoverfarm]

The axe as you call it looks like what they use to use to split cedar shakes.  They were often thinner and wider than convientional axe blades. Maybe  

I picked up some date stamped railroad nail several years ago.  Was able to get a couple with my birth year. 

[glenn kangiser]

It looks a bit similar but is not the same.  That was a Fro.  My granddad used to make shakes with one. I even made a few with it.  He had a hardwood club to beat it through the shake bolt.

They would be about twice to four times as heavy and twice as long and sharpened on the long side rather than the 4" wide end.

I have tried to figure out a use for this but I'm not getting too far.  Kindling axe for the missus?  

The sharpened end is the 4 inch end and it has a couple nicks in it from chopping something but I haven't figured out what.  Maybe I need to make an Oak limb handle and try it out. hmm

[Redoverfarm]

I couldn't tell which side was sharp from the pristine condition.

[glenn kangiser]

Yes... it is a real beauty isn't it.  

I was thinking maybe they even chopped weeds or cattails in the spring or something -- maybe for making a reed thatch roof? hmm

[glenn kangiser]

Currently working in Fresno restoring a billboard sign for a mural project.  I received my Qualcraft and Warner scaffold pump jacks from Amazon and put them to work today.



Top of the sign is about 41 feet.  I thought others might like this low cost scaffold system - I paid $39 each for the Warners and $73.50 each for the Qual-crafts.  Only had two of the cheaper ones.



These are good for 30 feet above ground level (or in this case I hope - roof level).  They would cover any project we do here and I would brace them for even higher if it was a problem for me.

This was the best way for me to scaffold this due to narrowness of the rooftop and proximity to the edge, as well as my being too cheap to pay for scaffold rental... besides it would have been a nightmare to use standard or narrow standard scaffold there due to roof slopes.  


I saw a note that OSHA may no longer like them, but some of them still have OSHA references on them. [ouch]  I does not seem that that is the case as long as they are used as OSHA says to use them, per the OSHA website...

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/pptpresentations/pumpjack_0398/index.html 

Download the powerpoint slide show to view it.  Good stuff.


I have always wanted some of these for misc. other projects anyway.  Easy to set up and use almost anywhere.

[glenn kangiser]

I got the second Werner scaffold Pump Jack and noticed that it says right on it that it meets all OSHA requirements if  the bracing - rails etc. are done so no more question for me anyway.  That project is progressing well now.

The Bush Hog is back together  and  I converted the Mickey Mouse parking  brake on it to a hydraulic brake lock by running a lever across from the parking brake pedal to the foot brake pedal.  Now it will stay put anywhere I can park it and it feels the same as the old parking brake.  The only difference is that now it works..... 

I'd rather take the chance of the hydraulic brakes failing once in a lifetime than put up with the mechanical parking brake failing every time I get it on a steep slope which is about every time I park it away from the house or shop.

Today we got 9 trees planted on the second terrace and I hope to get the rest of them in this year also.  That gives us over twenty fruit trees here. We ought to be able to keep some from the birds and wild animals... I hope.

[Redoverfarm]

Should be OK if you keep the cattle on the other side of that fence.

[diyfrank]

I don't trust brakes when parking on hills so I always turn the wheels tight to one side. If it rolls it won't roll far.

The pump jacks seem well worth the money.

[glenn kangiser]

Should be OK if you keep the cattle on the other side of that fence.

Uh hmmmm,  I just went to look at a problem child the other day..... He will be the first barbecue of the bunch I think....

I am going to fence a corral area with animal fencing  - if he behaves he may get staked out for a bit - if not just penned, grained and butchered soon.

I don't trust brakes when parking on hills so I always turn the wheels tight to one side. If it rolls it won't roll far.

The pump jacks seem well worth the money.

That is always a good idea, Frank.  Our hills are steep enough that the Bush Hog would keep moving with the Parking brake fully on and the wheels cramped.

My new setup locks everything and the only hills I won't be able to keep it parked on are the ones where it still slides with all four wheels locked up on. 

The pump jacks work great and I do not see a cheaper way to scaffold a job for a couple of guys working on it.  It is very solid when properly braced.  Even rental is not as cheap as owning these.