What did you do today?

[frodo]

I have more hobbies than you can shake a stick at
I make copper stuff also
baby grand
and a pen with whistle


or maybe a canoe?


maybe a bike or 2



or a still? yeah. thats sounds fun



just never know what will pop off around here

remember one thing, be true to yourself and your faith

 

[Twowaxhack]

Been thinking about making some alcohol for cleaning purposes. Medical.

I quit drinking about 5 yrs ago, started giving me heartburn. I would only drink a beer or two after work but I cut it all out.

With Covid there was an rubbing alcohol shortage and limits placed here......

 

[frodo]

In a SHTF type of scenario. booze will be the trading cash of the day
along with smokes and antibiotics, which. fish use the same antibiotics we do, and a script is not needed to buy. do research

 

[Twowaxhack]

In a SHTF type of scenario. booze will be the trading cash of the day
along with smokes and antibiotics, which. fish use the same antibiotics we do, and a script is not needed to buy. do research

I prep too, I already know

 

[frodo]

double 9oz to 1/4''










holes punched, hammer strap installed, antiqued and dyed
nite irene. time to sit on the porch and sip

 

[Zanne]

That looks awesome, Frodo!

Thanks for the supplies and thanks for the advice as well. I hate when things don't turn out right. LOL. I will practice with cheap stuff first. I got some foam that is about the same thickness & such as the leather I plan to work with, so I will do foam mockups first. If they turn out OK I might get more foam board and do some pattern alterations.

Turns out I had a leak at the elbow where the pipe for the hose bib comes out from under the house. Friend crawled under there and fixed it (and eliminated an unused branch). Turned water back on & he didn't see any leaks at that spigot. Water filled the toilet and ran from the tub spout. But, no water from the kitchen sink (but maybe bc the water heater needed to fill up as we never got the cold water line replaced). No water working from bathroom sink so I suspect lines may be broken or something else is interfering with the flow. It sputtered a little at first but then stopped. Will test it in a bit. Left it for a few hours and came back to hear water heater still filling but it sounds like pressure is weird. Like air in the line.

Conversation I had with Mom while walking past the water heater and indoor portion of the AC unit:

Mom: "What is that awful noise?"
Me: "It's the water heater"
Mom: (in panicky tone) "Turn off the air conditioner!!!"
Me: "Why? What the hell does the air conditioner have to do with the water heater?"
Mom: "I meant turn off the water heater!!"
Me: "It's already off!"
Mom: "THEN WHY IS IT MAKING THAT NOISE!"
Me: "BECAUSE IT'S FILLING WITH WATER!!"

I was (and still am) a tad cranky bc I'm sore. When I was checking for water leaks, I tried to push the back door open to flip the breaker but my brother has his crap piled up against the door so it just kept bouncing back closed. It came back hard enough that I had to try to adjust my footing. Cinder block under my foot rolled, I twisted my ankle, and fell.

I may have to shut the water back off if it keeps sounding weird. I'll check it again in the morning. Friend can come by in a couple days to check again (unless it's urgent).

He's under a lot of stress right now. His ex keeps trying to sit on his lap & cuddle with him after he told her not to touch him and that just seeing her face upsets him bc it reminds him of how much she's hurt him. He chewed her out bigtime on Friday but she was already back at it again on Saturday. As soon as she got back from work she was trying to cuddle with him and he was trying to push her away and telling her to stop it.

He's also upset bc Saturday morning, some miserable a-hole drove by & shot his dog, Stubbylegs, in the face. Bullet ricocheted and hit his bedroom window. Neighbors saw it & described the vehicle but nobody called the cops. Dog survived but wasn't feeling well and vet was closed. He ran off before I could really get a good look at him. He was bleeding form his face.

 

[havasu]

OK, I'll bite....SO someone was driving by, shot the dog in the face, and the bullet hit the dog, then ricocheted off the dog and into a bedroom window? Well, alrighty then.

 

[Twowaxhack]

Did you guys know a 5.56 cartridge case will slip into a 3/8 fixture stop and with a nut and brass ferrule it will make a water tight plug ?

Lmfao !!!! I gots too much time !

 

[frodo]

Somebody telling you fibs
Your friend done went and pissed someone off bad enough that he decided to shoot up your friends house
and shoot the dawg. only thing that usually brings down that type of stupidity is money or woman.

 

[Twowaxhack]

I say it’s about a women. The Shooting of the dog pushed me in that direction.......

 

[Zanne]

Havasu, to clarify: They fired multiple shots and one hit the dog in the face and others ricocheted. Stubbylegs has a bad habit of chasing people and vehicles and barking his head off. Plus, people here are just a-holes and will shoot dogs & cats if they feel like it. It happens more often than you'd think, unfortunately. I was told at least one of the shots hit the tire on the car parked in front of the house.

Only person who would have a grudge at my friend over a girl is someone who doesn't have a vehicle. And frankly, he's single now- but his stupid ex is staying at his house. The ex heard the gunshots & neighbors confirmed it. Why no one called the cops is beyond me. I would have called them. But then, cops here are kind of useless. My friend isn't the type to go messing around with other people's wives / girlfriends, & he hasn't dated anyone since his breakup in December so it's not women. Probably just some animal-hating jerks.

Frodo, it's certainly not money. Friend doesn't have any. Doesn't have a woman either. It's probably just meth-heads being stupid.

Resting today. Still sore from yesterday's fall. I need to check the plumbing in the well-house bc I think maybe the pressure issue is from leaks in there. I need to make some modifications to the plumbing in there. Too many joints that can break/leak.

 

[Jeff Handy]

Somebody telling you fibs
Your friend done went and pissed someone off bad enough that he decided to shoot up your friends house
and shoot the dawg. only thing that usually brings down that type of stupidity is money or woman.

Or drugs or gangs, meth heads fighting over territory.

 

[Zanne]

Or drugs or gangs, meth heads fighting over territory.

Most likely meth-heads being jerks. They deliberately run over people's pets here.

I'm about to go check out my well system to see if there are any leaks.

Anyone know if I can use 1" PEX between my jet pump and my pressure tank (outlet side of jet pump)? I would probably use pex barb fittings with cinch rings bc I'm not about to do push-fit on a pressurized system. It would hook to galvanized steel on one end and then have another fitting going in to the pressure tank. Although, I'm tempted to replace the galvanized with either brass or stainless steel.

Edit: I checked. Major water leak to the kitchen sink. It was pouring under the house. Hoping it didn't do water damage to the wood. Friend is going to look at it later. He just messaged me that he's learned how to sweat copper now.

 

[frodo]

 

[Zanne]

Looks great, Frodo!

I'm currently trying to figure out my well-system and see about making some changes to fix it up better. I don't think my pressure tank is hooked up correctly at all.

Spec of how it should be:


Simplified sketch of my actual layout


No brass tee with relief valve. No pressure gauge on the tank. No hose bib.

 

[Zanne]

Got up early-ish. Went to the post office, picked up my friend, had him check out the pipes under the house & make a list of parts, went to Lowes for parts, dropped stuff off at his house and picked up some tools, back to my house where he used my chainsaw to cut some trees out of the way (small trees). But those motherlovers had big thorns on them. One of them got him pretty good on the shoulder. There were also blackberry bushes all around. Only the hot water line seemed to be broken but I got enough parts to fix hot water & cold water for kitchen and one of the bathrooms. Thought it would be enough.

Friend said the break in CPVC went back more than we thought. Fortunately, I had some old fittings lying around in the workshop so he was able to fix it. Put it all in, waited for it to dry, turned on water (with faucets open). He said to turn it off-- there was a leak. CPVC behind where he patched split down the middle all along the length. He patched that. Another test-- long enough to fill the toilet so we could flush it. No go. Friend reported ruptures all over under the house-- laundry room, my bathroom, mom's bathroom, & still under kitchen sink area. Looks like the entire run of hot water line is toast. It was fairly old stuff though. Newest bits were installed in the 80s.

Plan is to replace it all-- hot and cold-- with PEX. No push-on fittings either. It's going to be barb with cinch rings. Gonna tape the new PEX to the cut off ends of old CPVC and PVC and then pull it up through holes (friend had trouble getting pex pipe through same spot as old pipe-- didn't want to line up).

I'm seriously thinking of getting some sort of manifold (or two). One for cold water in the wall of the laundry room where the old shower is-- since it's closer to where water comes in to the house. Another for the hot water that will be near the water heater (bc it doesn't make sense to me to run a hot water line all the way across the house to the laundry room just to run it back to the rest of the house. I want manifolds with shutoffs for each line. I'm thinking a line for each room (although kitchen might be able to share with laundry room since it's only one sink and one washing machine). One line of hot and cold for each bathroom (so technically 2 lines to each room). Fridge doesn't hook to water bc that line blew long ago & the filters for the ice maker never got all the sediment out anyway.

I was thinking of getting a 1" inlet with 3/4" outlet manifold for the cold water but I couldn't seem to find a good one. I did find 1-1/4" though. I could have an adapter for that. Then have 3/4" out to the rest of the fixtures and reduce to 1/2" where necessary. Not sure what size pipes come out of my water heater so I would need to figure that out.

 

[Twowaxhack]

In my experience when cpvc or pvc freezes solid it means a repipe......

It splinters the pipe into long pieces or has long cracks.

I like the crimp rings better than the stainless clamps

 

[matt.mena]

Well, I am back from the drum circle now, so I will tell you.

It is a gathering where people get together and play drums. Sometimes people will also play digeridoos, rattles, shakers, recorders, etc as well. Normally the players form a circle so that everyone can see everyone else. Most of the drums are hand drums, played without drumsticks, by hitting them with your hand.

Most, though not necessarily all of the drums are of an African style called djembe, pronounced gem-bay. There are also African drums called boogeraboos (not sure of the spelling), and doondoons (?spelling again). Then there are a couple of Middle Eastern styles called doombeks, and tablas. Let's not forget the good ol' bongos, congas, baliphones, and several others that I don't know the name of.

Now.... are you sorry you asked?

Drum circles can run the gamut from crazy jam sessions with everybody playing different rhythms, to very structured affairs with something akin to a director calling in certain drummers at particular times to play their individual parts. The two different ones that myself and my son go to are somewhere in between, with a rhythm being agreed upon, but everyone is free to play whatever they want that still fits with that rhythm. The one we went to tonight is a very family oriented situation, with little kids running around and such.

I happened across a drum circle in a square in Asheville NC about 20 years ago (man, time flies). They met there every Friday night and it was exactly how you described. A guy saw the amusement in my expression and handed me his drum while he took a break. That was an unforgettable experience.

 

[Zanne]

Round 2: Picked up friend early despite no sleep. Mom woke me at 2:30am to remind me she wanted me to go to the post office. Oops, packages still in the truck. LOL.
I did go to the post office. Took friend to Lowes. Spent over 2hours trying to find stuff (and waiting on employee to get something off a high shelf). Everything was disorganized with parts not in the right bins, packages torn open and stuff stolen, stuff that was supposed to be in stock not anywhere to be found. Would have been over $700 if not for military discount. It almost negated the sales tax (which is over 10%).
There was a nice plumber there who helped us find some stuff. Said he's run over 2k ft of pex in the last few days.

I think we got all the fittings we needed. Got conduit pvc for pex elbows bc it's cheaper than a fitting or special thing to make it bend 90°.

First problem was we couldn't find the main water supply line to the house. There used to be a shutoff at the southeast corner but it got destroyed and the shutoff is buried. I got coveralls, a head sock, long gloves, etc and crawled under (if I had to do it again, I would have included goggles). Damn blackberry bushes tore my coveralls in some spots. I will annihilate them later. Friend got into some nettles. Cow came up while we were sorting through our parts. She wanted me to scratch between her horns and ears.

I knew that the water supply line went straight from source to the water heater so I climbed under on the west side and worked my way as close to the water heater as I could get (it's not level underneath so some places I can't fit). I then traced it back as far as I could crawl-- had to dig a bit to not get stuck and almost got stuck a few times. I then grabbed the pipe and flapped it up and down until my friend could see it from the east side. He dug it up and found it was 3/4" instead of 1" like I'd thought. Good thing bc they didn't have any 1" fittings for PEX at any of the local stores. Friend fed me some PEX but it took awhile bc it kept curling. He finally got it to where I could reach it. I then dragged it as close to the water heater as I could get and shoved it the rest of the way. Good thing I couldn't get closer-- there's a live exposed 220v line that isn't in conduit. Friend bumped it and got zapped a bit. I struggled to get out bc I didn't remember the exact way I got in and there were defunct metal pipes in the way. I fought with them and kicked them and swore up a storm. Finally got out. Friend went under next to connect things. I fed him some line and brought him stuff. Pex cutting tool broke-- spring popped out. If I can find my receipt I might take it back bc it wasn't cheap.

Long story short-- water didn't work bc there must be a 2nd main water supply for the cold water. Round 3 is tomorrow. I'm lying on a heating pad with cats on me & am about to go to sleep. I'm exhausted.

 

[Zanne]

Had planned to finish up more of the water supply line stuff-- got up, picked up my friend, went to tractor supply for tools, got home, realized we forgot fittings, back into town to hardware store (they were out of most of the stuff so we had to improvise). Got a pex-cutter (the pvc cutter broke-- spring slipped after my brother was screwing around with it cutting up sticks). I remembered there had been a buried plumbing box. Lid broke on it. I showed my friend the general area I remembered it being in. He found it & dug it up. I thought there had been a shutoff but was wrong. Confirmed 2 pipes were going through it. So one goes to the cold and the other goes to the water heater. Now we need to figure out where it comes up out of the ground. May need to dig it up if possible.

Friend did some capping & cutting of some stuff & we turned water on again to test. Realized the cow's waterer was filling so I turned it off. Let cistern fill more and discovered that my brother turned tub handle the wrong way so it was running full blast. I shut it off. After that the toilet filled & cold water to sink worked. No leaks from cold side. So we have cold water going.

Friend was too sore from crawling around and getting zapped to do too much. Apparently he hit his head & lost bladder control when he got zapped. Said he could still feel it in his hand. Wish I'd known about that wire, I would have turned the power off. Think the AC guy ran it so it kind of pisses me off. Who tf runs a 220v line unprotected in a crawlspace area like that?

Took friend to get food and then dropped him off. Went to walmart to get cat food & then to burger inn to get chicken. I'm still stiff and sore.

Friend and I agreed to go for round 4 on the water pipes after we both recover more. Another friend will be joining to help.

I've started taking vitamins with potassium bc I had a charlie horse in my shoulder & upper arm & have been getting them in my feet/legs.

Friend never got the clog in his drain cleared. Plumber failed to snake it out and told him to pour "liquid fire" (sulfuric acid?) down the drain. Said he was sure it would clear it. Said if it didn't he'd take care of it. It didn't work. Friend has scheduled the plumber to come out 5x. All 5x the guy failed to show up, despite promising him "come hell or high water" he would be there. Same guy I tried to hire to come fix stuff who never showed up on scheduled day & time and never called, never answered my calls after.

Mom had woken me up around midnight (feigning low blood sugar) to get her something to eat. She ALWAYS, without fail, wakes me up in the middle of the night when she knows I have to get up early. I don't know why.

Anyway, I"m sore and tired so I'm going to try to get some sleep.