Duck Pond Redneckery

[Duck]

OMG I'm rambling on like @Uncle Birchy



He lives only about 100 miles north of me.

Never met him though.

There's this big urban, heavily populated environmental nightmare called Chicago that lies halfway between us.

 

[Electric Chicken]

OMG I'm rambling on like @Uncle Birchy



He lives only about 100 miles north of me.

Never met him though.

There's this big urban, heavily populated environmental nightmare called Chicago that lies halfway between us.

Nah you're coherent-ish.

 

[389 Hood]

One of the idiots behind me is a pyromaniac. He was always burning old fencing and stuff in a fire pit in the back yard. The prevailing winds here are always out of the east and the stench and smoke was horrible in my back yard. The smell and black soot was all over everything and it would leave an oily film on the pool. He's a recent transplant from the pine woods in the New Jersey sewer.

Last May, it was one of the last cool days where you could enjoy dinner out on the back porch. I made a Prime Rib roast, pan roasted taters and some other good stuff. Just as I put it on the table he started a fire. I let loose on him with a tiraid of names unfit to print here now and then grabbed my 100' garden hose with a long range nozzle on it. His fire was no more as I was calling him ever name in the book and telling him I hope he burned his house down then the rest of us would be rid of him.

His wife stood there and said to him, 'I told you so. Sooner or later someone was going to be sick of you burning wood all the time'. I haven't smelled a fire from there since.

 

[Duck]

Check this out.



This guy left around 4 AM. He had a load of rebar NOT overhanging, and some other stuff strapped on top of the rebar.

The truck is visible in some of the pictures I took last night.

Today when I went out back around 3 PM the truck was back, loaded like this.

I took this picture less than an hour ago and now the truck is gone.

He's going down the road like this somewhere, right this minute.

He could be right down the road at a metal fab shop where the owner has a John Deere tractor converted to a forklift, but I doubt it.

 

[Rigjockey]

Check this out.

View attachment 90497

This guy left around 4 AM. He had a load of rebar NOT overhanging, and some other stuff strapped on top of the rebar.

The truck is visible in some of the pictures I took last night.

Today when I went out back around 3 PM the truck was back, loaded like this.

I took this picture less than an hour ago and now the truck is gone.

He's going down the road like this somewhere, right this minute.

He could be right down the road at a metal fab shop where the owner has a John Deere tractor converted to a forklift, but I doubt it.

I bet his new nickname is Sparky.

 

[Duck]

I'm canning tomatoes.

Using the pressure canner.

My dog is terrified of the spitter valve. When the steam pressure reached 15 psi & started escaping through the weights, the dog ran towards it barking ferociously for a few seconds, then ran into the bathroom and he's hiding behind the toilet.

 

[Rigjockey]

I'm canning tomatoes.

Using the pressure canner.

My dog is terrified of the spitter valve. When the steam pressure reached 15 psi & started escaping through the weights, the dog ran towards it barking ferociously for a few seconds, then ran into the bathroom and he's hiding behind the toilet.

How are you doing them? Whole and peeled, making sauce or some other way?

 

[Duck]

How are you doing them? Whole and peeled, making sauce or some other way?

Sarah blanches them on the stove and peels the skins while I slice them up into large chunks, get rid of the hard white stuff from around the stems, and dump them in the big Dutch oven.

When the dutch oven is full or we run out of tomatoes, I mash it all up with one of those zigzag masher thingies and toss it on the stove.

Meanwhile I get the pressure canner started heating up on another burner.

I usually add nothing to the tomatoes, just get them up towards 100°C / 212°F.

Then I wash the jars using the bottle brush even though they're washed after the previous use.

I have a funnel for filling the jars with a soup ladle.

I only do quart jars. Each one gets half a tsp of citric acid which increases the acidity of the tomatoes so it can kill off microscopic nerd stuff that'll spoil it if you're only using an unpressurized water bath canner.

But I use the pressure canner. No citric acid is required because the pressure increases the boiling temperature of water.

15 psi is what I use. I think it raises the boiling point to 240°F, which is plenty hot enough to kill botulina toxins that can potentially survive regular boiling.

I use the citric acid anyway to be extra safe.

I can only put 7 quart jars in the canner and I had 8-1/2 quarts of tomatoes.

So while the first 7 jars were in the canner I decided to put garlic & "Italian seasoning" in the rest of it.

 

[Duck]

Many a gadget has been made in my shop while I'm waiting for paint to dry.



Alcohol stove. Just pour in about an inch of denatured alcohol and hold a lighter up to one of the air tubes in the side.

View attachment 20241008_010738.mp4

 

[389 Hood]

Pretty cool! Yep, you're bored.

I had to slip out for a dog walk while the rain is at bay. Wearing a raincoat sucks. You sweat more than if you just got wet.

 

[Duck]

Pretty cool! Yep, you're bored.

I had to slip out for a dog walk while the rain is at bay. Wearing a raincoat sucks. You sweat more than if you just got wet.

I'd need an umbrella attached to a backpack or something so I don't have to carry it.

I still ain't replaced the heater in my shop.

Last night it was like 64°F in the shop when I closed the doors and windows.

With that paint can alcohol stove I got it to 70°F in the shop.

But I cheated. I turned the restricter knob thingy on my blow gun down so it wasn't making any more wind than I can blow through my lips. And I pointed it into one of the holes in the alcohol stove.

At just the right airflow, it was like a little flame thrower making a super hot blue/orange flame spinning about 2 feet above the can.

It went through an inch of alcohol fuel in like 5 minutes.

It was definitely hot enough to boil water on if I made a rack to hold a pot.

Only problem is I can't think of a safe way to add fuel while it's lit, without risking a back-draft through the filler pipe.


But it'll be good for camping. Especially if I can get it super clean on the inside. The alcohol burns blue and clean, but any impurities will make it burn orange. Orange flame means toxic shit in the air.

 

[Duck]

I hate these kind of tin containers. No matter what you do, you can't pour it without spilling it everywhere. Even with a funnel, a lot of it can't break the surface tension and it runs down the side of the can.

But I fixed it.



First I bent a little lip in the rim like a spout, then I set a piece of steel pipe on the corner and whacked it with my brake drum hammer.

Now it pours like it should. Just looks like shit.

 

[Duck]

This was paint thinner. It comes in plastic jugs with a shrink wrap label that comes off easy.



Mineral spirits & paint thinner are almost the same thing except mineral spirits is better because it's a degreaser too.

But it comes in the tin cans that are designed to spill everywhere.

The plastic jug doesn't spill everywhere.

 

[389 Hood]

That tin can you have looks exactly like the can and color of the can that paint reducer comes in.

I had to blow up the screen to read the can.

 

[Duck]

Here's what I got so far.

 

[Duck]

 

[389 Hood]

You're having way too much fun there.

I don't have a design cell in my brain. If I was given the plans and the material, I could put it together, but not design the structure itself. I just don't have that artistic talent. Looks great.

Psycho Mutt is a cool dog!

 

[Duck]

You're having way too much fun there.

I don't have a design cell in my brain. If I was given the plans and the material, I could put it together, but not design the structure itself. I just don't have that artistic talent. Looks great.

Psycho Mutt is a cool dog!

My current side project,.. Building a machine that will hold my hot dog skewer over a fire and rotate it too.

I've got an old sheet music stand that I'm gonna use for it.



The motor has a gearbox that lowers it to 80 RPM, and the cog wheels will divide it by 4 so 20 RPM oughta work.



I had to make that shaft coupler because I don't have one that's 5.5 mm to 8 mm. I don't even have a 5.5 mm drill bit. But a numbered size 1 bit is just a cunthair larger, like a 1/64" bigger, so I used that.

If you use two set screws and have them at 90° to each other, it holds a shaft as good as a weld almost.

And this be's the other end of the 5.5 mm rod:

 

[Electric Chicken]

I like the effort you're putting into reheating one of the crappiest "meat" products ever extruded.

 

[Duck]

I like the effort you're putting into reheating one of the crappiest "meat" products ever extruded.

Ain't just for hot dogs.

Jalapeno cheddar brats, and smoked sausage. And possibly bacon.