Dogtrot at Hightop

[pmichelsen]

We always had Shepherds growing up and that one looks a lot like my parent's current pup. I'm convinced they're the best dogs out there.

[Redoverfarm]

We always had Shepherds growing up and that one looks a lot like my parent's current pup. I'm convinced they're the best dogs out there.

Really a nice dog.  His intelligence is already surfaced even at 8 weeks.  This is the second one we have had.  Then we moved to Blue Heelers and now back to the shepherd.  But just like every puppy getting through that initial stage is a challenge.  She will be an outside dog but with the temps in the single digits I thought it best to keep her indoors until the weather breaks a little.

[pmichelsen]

One of my favorite tricks with our old Shepherd was to arrive at my parents house and ask her "where's dad?" she would gently take your hand in her mouth and lead you to exactly where my dad was. She passed away about ten years ago and I haven't been able to get another dog as I fear they won't live up to what she was. We had taken her in as a severely abused stray when she was around eight months old, took her a about a year to come around.

[Redoverfarm]

Just a little update on Dogtrot.  Still waiting for Generac to determine a course of action for the generator.  I have to say without a doubt that Generac has the worst Customer Service that I have experienced in a long time.  Having not heard anything I resorted to the only course of action that I could think of.  I fired a letter to the CEO of the company.  Not sure whether that will get the ball rolling or not but at least he will be made aware of a couple of things.  Chances are that he probably is not even aware of the problem associated with this particular model generator.  I talked to the technician for the local service company and he stated that they have an additional 3 units of this model that are experiencing the same problem. The sad thing is that he had recently attended a training session sponsored by Generac and they stated that this model was the most modern in design and there should be more of them hitting the market in the near future. 

On an unrelated issue.  Went to the cabin the other day and looks like I have some minor repairs to attend to once I get power and water.  A portion of the last course of stone has popped off the flue.  It is the course that meets the flashing at the bottom near the roof.  I can only speculate that the stone was laid too tight against the flashing and one of two things occurred.  One being that sitting tight against the flashing it did not allow room for expansion of the metal roof.  The other being that maybe some water laid or made it's way behind the stone or at the stone bottom and froze heaving and pop it loose.  That course is laid against the flashing almost entirely so there is no mason substrate for it to adhere to .  Might try some modified thinset to get better adhesion.  I am hoping that I can repair it using a step ladder as a platform without erecting any scaffolding or roof jack.  The "witches hat" ice guard should give me a good platform to rest the ladder against. 



I did check the voltage of the battery bank which has been unhooked since the generator went down.  There was still 51 volts present.  Hopefully it will hold or not drop past 48 volts until I can get the generator up and running and recharge the banks. 

[lanierrl66]

Hey,
I am new here and have been reading up on what you are building.  I am building a replica of an 18th century trade cabin for a local state park here in Tennessee and would love to talk to you about the chinking process.

Would you mind helping me out by sharing some knowledge?

Rob

[Redoverfarm]

Hey,
I am new here and have been reading up on what you are building.  I am building a replica of an 18th century trade cabin for a local state park here in Tennessee and would love to talk to you about the chinking process.

Would you mind helping me out by sharing some knowledge?

Rob

Would love to Rob but maybe not today.  Just got back in from two days away from home.  Got a little catching up to do.  Check back.  I will send you a Message when I do.

[Redoverfarm]

Taking a break from construction for the weekend.  Generac has finally agreed to repair the generator so now I am waiting on the parts to be shipped to the local dealer to be installed.  So anyway we headed up to mountain for our Annual Ramp Camp near the Cranberry Glades of the National Forrest.   

http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/mnf/recarea/?recid=9913

They say that the best memories are made on dirt roads.  Well I guess there is some truth to the saying. 

Here is our campsite.  Nothing more than a wide spot in the road but we make it home for 3 days. The pop ups (inclusive of the side curtains) make for a great meeting place, kitchen and music stage and offers great protection from the elements.



You can't eat them if you don't clean them.  There is a natural spring fed stream adjacent to the site.  A good place for the rinsing of the roots.  Oh the can is just for scale of about 1-1/2 grocery bag full.  Then to the final cleaning area for the root removal and preparation for cooking.  All in all I guess we devoured between 1-2 bushels over the three day stay.  Cooked in everything from scrambled eggs, fried potatoes, meat loaf and by themselves.  29 attending for the evening meal which was at it's top.  Deep fried trout filets, country ham and too many others side dishes to mention.



Clean is very time consuming so everyone pitched in to help.  Even another Country Plans member from Virginia joined the festivities.





Then Entertainment in the evening until the weee hours of the morning.

[Don_P]

Looks like a good time was had by all 
Somehow someone up around Snowshoe got our number for the farmers market and called one morning with a problem. They had harvested about 500 lbs and apparently the buyer failed to come through. We chatted for awhile while trying to think of contacts, gave him several I could think of but "now" is mighty short notice. Got off the phone thinking, man that place must smell ripe. He had enough for a festival.

[Redoverfarm]

Looks like a good time was had by all 
Somehow someone up around Snowshoe got our number for the farmers market and called one morning with a problem. They had harvested about 500 lbs and apparently the buyer failed to come through. We chatted for awhile while trying to think of contacts, gave him several I could think of but "now" is mighty short notice. Got off the phone thinking, man that place must smell ripe. He had enough for a festival.

Sounds like he might have been one of the roadside vendors that I recently saw trying to sell them by the pound out of his pick up truck.  Festivals can devastate ramp patches.  Sort of like strip mining.  They take everything including the seed plants.  Before long there is no more in that area.

Someone had mentioned last weekend that they had stopped in a small town west of here and there was a sign in the laundry mat " Do not wash ramps in the machines".

[ChuckinVa]

I had a picture of it somewhere but don't know where it is. If I had 500 LBS i'd be tempted to use the machines!

[Redoverfarm]

Well the good news is that Dogtrot is again up and running.  Two new oil pumps installed and of all things a new oil line(rubber).  Apparently they had problems early on concerning this particular model and come to find out that the oil line coming from the oil tank did not have enough elevation and was pushing too much oil into the engine and the return could not keep up with it in essence was drowning the motor with oil.     So with the line an extra 2 feet longer it could be elevated and the pump can keep up.  I am not an engineer but that is what their solution was.  The newer models have that elevated line and they have had no problems.  I guess time will tell.  The service tech feels this should eliminate the problem.  He has spoken directly with the factory representatives.  You could actually see the pump line pulsating as it pushed/pulled the oil.  My question is why they didn't inform the technician when this occurred before replacing the motor. 

The bad news is that when I energized the water system I found a problem.  Toilet # 2 ruined from freezing.  I beginning to loose faith in the -50 RV Antifreeze.  I even used a plunger and pushed the fluid so that it would reach the trap.  The break was on the bottom back portion of the mounting flange.  The other toilet upstairs was treated in the same fashion and is fine.  Still trying to figure out what happened.  If the fluid was even diluted by some water left in the trap it would have still probably have a strength of -20 to -30F which should have been ample protection give the somewhat mild winter.   

[MountainDon]

One of those good news - bad news things. 

That is a real disappointment with the toilet. Maybe you need a plunger with a schrader air valve... push it into the bowl tight. Give it a blast of compressed air. and then RV antifreeze in the tank and flush twice, to try and be certain whatever water is there is pushed out / diluted good.  Even using a gallon or two of RV antifreeze each year beats replacing toilets.

[ChuckinVa]

Hate to hear that John. They are a matched set to the sinks. 

[Redoverfarm]

Have had some guest for about a month (off & on) along the driveway to the house near the creek.  Seems they always head for food after hibernation and seeing that the only thing available this time of the year is grubs and "Skunk Cabbage".  I have been told that it serves two purposes.  One being immediate nutrition and the other being that it cleans the digestive system which has been idle when they hibernate.  Here is one that I just happened to catch with my cheap camera that I keep in  the truck.

[Redoverfarm]

Documentation , Documentation and persistence has paid off.  As I posted earlier this year concerning modifications to my Generac generator to correct a oil system problem.  Well seems as if the modifications they suggested have not worked. After 17 hours of service it is back to the same problem.  So I thought here we go again trying to get cooperation from Generac which is not easy.  Low and behold after I sent an E-mail to the resolution employee which has been trying to correct the problem and after them speaking to the local Service Tech it was decided that they will replace my generator.       The down side is that the model they are replacing it with is a 15KW rather than a 6KW which will use more fuel.  Upside is that it does not have the same type of pressurized oil system.  After battling since 2012 with a complete replacement and an additional motor I guess a 2-1/2 weeks wait on the new one to arrive is trivial.   

[MountainDon]

 

[ChuckinVa]

Now you can sell power to your neighbors!

[Redoverfarm]

Seen these two little guys at different locations close to the house yesterday.  Seeing more and more recently as the berries are starting to ripen up.

[Redoverfarm]

After 2 generators and one additional motor I am now a proud owner of a new 15KW Generac, Eco-Gen Generator.  Considerably larger than the 6KW but without all the complicated pressurized oil system which attributed to it's failure.  This particular model designed specifically for Off Grid application is completely redesigned from the previous 6KW. 

Well I hate to be pessimist but we will just have to wait and see.  As I said previously that documentation and persistence with the manufacturer was probably my saving grace in the warranty process.  Can't say enough for the local company that services Generac that I have been dealing with in the last 5 years.  Not only did they set the generator the technician completely rewired it from the generator to the power inverter and panel box.  The new unit required 8AWG for the 65 amp breaker.  He explained that it would be very difficult to pull the new larger wires through separately with the additional communication wires already in place and the best way to address it was to completely replace all and pull them through the conduit together.  If you recall I had to splice all the wires when the unit was moved.  So now there is less chance of a wiring failure. 

With this out of the way I can again concentrate on the apartment which is now ready for paint. 

[ChugiakTinkerer]

Seen these two little guys at different locations close to the house yesterday.  Seeing more and more recently as the berries are starting to ripen up.

You sure that second pic isn't of a marten?   

He sure is a little fella.  Keep an eye out for momma.

[Don_P]

You sure that second pic isn't of a marten?   

Had one of those things blow through camp up near Lake Superior one night around 22:00. I was spinning around wondering what the heck it was and I'm sure he was a mile down the road by then.

[Redoverfarm]

You sure that second pic isn't of a marten?   

He sure is a little fella.  Keep an eye out for momma.

Both of these were 80-125# .  Usually no problem with Momma as she has already " kicked them out of the nest" so to speak. 

[Redoverfarm]

I swore that I wouldn't wait until summer to get my firewood in.     I say that every year.   Well I actually started a lot earlier and got the majority cut up but not split.  Too  many " honey do's"  that took it's place.   So today I spent 1/2 day ( until the temperature shut me down) and split about half of what I had cut up.  I will pick another cool morning to get the rest.  Then haul it to the house and stack.  I like to get it split earlier so that it will dry some.  But I have the beginning supply already dry so this will be early spring wood if I need it. 

[Redoverfarm]

Well I did get the rest of the wood split that I had cut up.  But I haven't managed to get it hauled to the house yet.  With the dry weather I decided to clean and treat the pressure treated decks at Dogtrot.  The biggest problem that I ran into is finding oil based stain & sealer.  I had never treated the deck before so it was long overdue.  I used Olympic Deck Cleaner which did a good job in combination with the pressure washer.  After a few days of drying time I applied Cabots Semi-transparent oil based deck stain.  The biggest problem I had was finding an oil based stain that could be tinted that wouldn't break the bank so to speak.  Seems everyone has went to Latext stains which I do not like. I did find some oil based but they were already pre-tinted in popular shades.    The last stains that I  used at the cabin was Olympic oil based but apparently they went out of the oil based products and it was unavailable. This is called "Driftwood gray" which is basicly the same shade as the rest of the exterior but by a different manufacturer. 

[MountainDon]

Looks good. Time to fire up the grill and do some steaks!