Tank turned 49 this year

[Paul B]

I have been putting in this "electric" fireplace. We moved to a Condo and I am not allowed to put in a real one. Besides I have no chimney. My last home had a real fireplace but I have to live with what I now have.

All I have left to do on this is install the stone hearth at the bottom which will open on hydraulics for storage. (really electric lifts)

The wall is 1/8th" steel plates. I ground them to have those swirls.




It started like this. The entire thing is also on wheels so I can move it away from the wall for maintenance, painting and when I hide from my wife. The black thing at the bottom is the sound bar for the TV


I cut the steel with an electric sheers as a tin snips won't cut it.



The mantel is 8 2X8s glued together and "hollowed" out to fit on the fireplace.


The "Stovepipe was from a copper gutter.


I bent it round and held it in place with these.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Wow well done ! Paul the master craftsman

 

[Paul B]

This weekend we have a full boat just to hang out in the lagoon where I collect so i will get more of those tiny fish to throw in my tank. The ones I have grew about 50% in a week so i think they are halibut.

I hope they stay near the surface because if they get big and go behind the rocks I won't be able to get them out and they will probably eat everything in my tank including pictures of my old girlfriends.

They have about 6 or 7 vertical black stripes and are now 1/2" long.
I have too many snails so I won't take any of those but I may pull a plankton net for a mile or so to see if I get anything to dump in.
I love this stuff.

 

[DaveK]

...
I hope they stay near the surface because if they get big and go behind the rocks I won't be able to get them out and they will probably eat everything in my tank including pictures of my old girlfriends. ...

That might be a blessing as it would leave you with a lot less "explaining" to do. (grin)

 

[Paul B]

So I was working on my workshop and I installed a door on a closet. It is very damp here so the thing swelled, sort of like my feet.
I got out my trusty Craftsman belt sander that I think I got when I got out of the army in about 1970 or so. I have used this thing dozens of times for probably hundreds of hours so it was "tired" and it served me wekk.
Anyway, after about 5 seconds, it croaked.

No noise, no sparks, no smells, no flames, nothing.
Usually when an electrical thing doesn't work it's the wire, plug or switch. So I took the thing apart and checked those things. They were all OK meaning it is in the motor.

I figured the windings just shorted out as it is so old so I figured I would just let it die and buy another one. I am sure this one was a couple of hundred dollars in the 70s but I need it so I want to buy a new one.

I go on Amazon and they have a lot of them so I started reading about them and they are very cheap, like the same as a grilled cheese sandwich in a small greasy spoon. You can get them for like $35.00
Unfortunately I couldn't find one built in any country that I could even pronounce much less America. The wire alone on a good tool costs more than that and I want something good, and American.

The only way that could happen is if I just repaired my old American one.
It turns out the wire that was soldered to the carbon brush came loose and needed to be soldered. An easy fix (after you take the entire thing apart of course)

So Now I still have my good old USA Craftsman belt sander which proudly sits on my shelf with the rest of my (Mostly) American tools. I am so happy.
I would rather have a good American tool than something made in China probably by an 8 year old wearing shoes made out of old Toyota tires. I won't take those tools for free.

 

[Paul B]

Today we are going boating in this new lagoon I discovered here where the water is very shallow, just about to shallow to get my boat in but if it is not dead low tide, we will get in. Last week there was so many fiddler crabs that the noise was driving me crazy, it was like being in the middle of "Fiddler on the Roof" but they were on the sand because there were no roofs.

The last place I lived we also had fiddler crabs but here there are so many that in about 100 yards of sand/mud shore, you couldn't even see the sand, just crabs. And almost all of them were males. Like 99%. Once in a while you can see a female, but she must have been, (I probably can't say it here), but no one wanted to mate with them. Maybe they had a social disease , psoriasis, foot odor or were Liberals. I really don't know.
(I have plenty of Liberal friends so don't get crazy, and this is about "Crabs")

Normally fiddler crabs live in holes and as you approach, they go in them, but here there were so many of them that if they had holes, the earth would collapse. It was totally unbelievable. I am going to bring my camera today but I bet it will be high tide and we won't see any crabs.

It is also hard to walk there as your feet sink in to the muck almost up to my Speedo . The crabs don't have that problem. Well, maybe the fat ones do. (Is it PC to call "fiddler crabs" fat or even mention that some of them are males and some females that look differently and live differently. If that's not PC, report me to the crab ethics socity)

Anyway, the hoards of crabs were trying to move away from us but there were so many of them that they were practically pushing each other out of the way and some were running over their "cousins". They were running through thick patches of mussels and sea grass to get to the other side where the holes were. The ones in the holes were waving with their big claw to attract the very few females who were I assume returning from Pilates class, having foot massages or seaweed wraps to remove cellulite. ;Wideyed ​

 

[Paul B]

Last night this thing tried to carry my wife away. I lent him my hand truck.

 

[DaveK]

Looks like the wet spring has brought all the bugs and beetles out in force. That thing is a monster. Although I some how feel that the hand truck was more to deal with the beetle as in crush it.

 

[Paul B]

I wouldn't crush it, I think it was Ringo.

 

[Paul B]

This morning about 5:15 I took my bike out for a ride. I like to go before the sun rises so I can see all the deer, rabbits, frogs, and Muskrat Sally's. We have loads of them.

Then I came home and made a nice batch of blueberry corn muffins from fresh blueberries that grow up the block and local corn.

It is almost ready, but no one is up. I like to cook for us and my neighbors who are our lifelong friends.


On another subject, I read these forums in the mornings, (after bicycle riding and baking ) and it really Irks me the amount of fish we are losing and the number of fish we allow to get sick. It's like the Holocaust of fish and it bothers me. There is no reason to let our fish get sick.
We are killing them with kindness and quarantining. Fish come to us already immune. AAAAAAhhhhhoooooo. I am fed up to here (my hand is under my chin) with so many fish dying. But what do I know? It just sickens me because I really love fish. Not like I love my wife, Christie Brinkley or linguini and clams, but you know what I mean.
Just keep the fish healthy or throw them back into the sea. Just my opinion of course. ​

 

[Paul B]

I was looking for Patriotic songs to play today at our Fourth of July party with the neighbors in front of my house and I came across this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msYPbjFC50w

It is not really a Fourth of July song but I keep watching it and I can't stop crying. Mostly Veterans will get this. Millennials may not get it as much. But I hope they do.
Happy Fourth of July and Happy Birthday America.

 

[Paul B]

We had a great Fourth. We had a big party in our driveway and invited all the neighbors.

I did my "fireworks" that I make every year myself out of steel wool.

 

[Paul B]

My wife is always nagging me to trim my eyebrows. When you get to a certain age, I guess gravity prevents your hair from growing on the top of your head. It can't quite make it there so it grows out of your nose, ears and your eyebrows. So I have this thing that I use to buzz my hair (it doesn't have to work very hard) and there is an attachment for leaving the hair longer. I was to lazy to change the attachment on it so I used it on my eyebrow.
Big mistake. It's a good thing I only trimmed half of one eyebrow because I buzzed it right off and now I could audition for the Twilight Zone as I look like a big Jiboni.

Anyway, that reminds me of a story.
I used to work with a guy named Mike. Wait a minute, that's his real name so I will call him Guy to protect his identity.
He looked just like this old time comedian named Jerry Colona.

I mean exactly like him. So I told him and he said he never heard of him.
The next day he comes in with a picture of Jerry Colona with his arm around his "Mother".

He said, what a coincidence, my Mother told me she was "good" friends with Jerry Colona.

I said, And you brought in a picture to show me! He said, yeah, whats wrong.
I said oh Nothing.

You can't make this stuff up, but he doesn't look anything like his "Father". Just saying

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Colonna_(entertainer)​

 

[Pancho75]

LOL!!! for both stories.

That reminds me that my grandfather used to “roll in” his eyebrows to avoid trimming them, I guess he had a similar experience.


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[Paul B]

I am almost finished building this Fireplace/TV steel plate wall. I just need to get the hearth stone up here. I need to carry it or hoist it about 12'
Unfortunately me and most of my friends are Geezers and we can't carry the thing.
I may try to hoist it up which will be a little dangerous because like most structures today my front deck is made of plastic as is the floor which I think is recycled bottles of prune juice.

I estimate the slab to be about 350lbs which 2 people can handle, but it is 9' long and the stairway has a 180 degree turn where the thing needs to stand straight up. Not something a couple of 70 year olds can do safely. We can, but the hospital is about 2 miles away.

10 or 15 years ago I could easily do it as I specialized in moving very heavy objects up to ridiculous heights like a 37,000lb generator up 200'.
The hearth stone goes on the bottom of this and will be opened and closed with hydrallics.
So if any one reading this is a Moose catcher and can carry something heavy. Call me. I have Beer.

​

 

[Paul B]

I acquired this Steamer trunk from the 1890s (about the same year I was born) ans I am restoring it. I completely took it apart and it has over 400 nails in it. The nails are to long and in these trunks they hammered in the nails with a steel weight on the other side so the nails would get bent inside the wood. It is very strong in spite of the thin pine it is built out of.
I ordered new canvas from the period as well as the handles but I will use all the existing steel, and there is a lot of it.

I will also line the inside with cedar but I am not sure what my wife wants to put in there. Probably me.
These trunks held everything people owned when they came here from Europe and were quite common. Sort of like Tangs.

 

[Paul B]

I just got back from bike riding and have to say, the roads here in farm/sea/ wine country are loaded with wildlife. About a mile or less away we have a horse rescue farm that takes horses that were either abused or are sick or near the end of their life and allows them to live out their days in relative "Horse Paradise". As I approach them the first thing you smell is "wet horse". I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Queens and didn't get much of that aroma.
There is also a Miniature rescue horse farm where the horses were either pets or in petting zoos.
We also have a Buffalo "ranch". No, really, this guy keeps a few hundred head of buffalo, the rest of the buffalo are attached to the heads.
http://eastridinginc.com/Buffalo.aspx
There is a some kind of farm I pass right near my house and the amount of life in there boggles my mind and there isn't a lot of space to boggle. We have deer up the Kazoo, all the way up. Birds, forgetaboutit. Bluejays, red wing blackbirds, ospreys, swans, geese, egrets, Quail, ducks, chickens, turkeys (which are as big as Emu's) Humming birds and birds that know the words, Cardinals and I think I saw a Pope.
Rabbits are like, well, rabbits, foxes (no, I am not talking about the Lady's, they don't get up at that time).
And bugs, I have never seen this many types of bugs since I was in Viet Nam. Of course in Viet Nam the bugs were bigger and would carry you home to feed their nephews.
I know a lot of people on here live in farm country and this is normal to you. It is relatively new to me.
On the way to my Grand Daughters we encountered this little Fella walking across the road.

I love turtles and stopped to make sure he wouldn't become turtle sushi. He wasn't walking fast enough for me so I helped him across the street.
I have been encountering a lot of turtles lately and some people here call me "Turtle Man" which I kind of like.
I am taking out the "Girls" today for Girls Night out and have to get to the boat to make sure it is in great shape and light all the girly smelling candles.
Still cleaning up from the Fourth of July, but almost done.
My Main Squeeze looks good.

 

[Paul B]

The girls had a great time on the boat and didn't want to come home.
My wife had an accident though getting off the boat at the restaurant. We docked at the gas dock but it wasn't a floating dock so my wife had to step up about 2' from the boat to the dock. Her leg didn't make it and good thing I was holding her. She almost went into the water but I had a grip on her and managed to hoist her up to the dock. Her shin was all cut up and she bled all over her shoes. I had a first aid kit on the boat and patched her up with a 6' gauze bandage. It didn't ruin her night, just her shoes.

I have the entire steamer trunk taken apart and I removed all the hardware along with hundreds of nails and metal. I sanded the entire thing smooth which was easier than scraping to remove the old canvas.

I ordered new canvas, leather handles and hand made nails. Today I also found a source right near my home for cedar which I will line the thing with as the paper in the inside is all rotted off. I will use all of the existing metal and I won't re-finish it too much as I want the age to show. I still have to sand all the oak slats that were all over the top and sides.

 

[Pancho75]

Sorry to read about the accident, hoping for a prompt recovery.


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[Paul B]

Today we went to Nikola Tesla's birthday party. Right near my house. No Really! they still have his workshop/laboratory and the pad where he had his huge Tesla coil that was supposed to give everyone in the world free electricity.
Of course thats why they stopped funding him. Free is not a great thing for businessmen.
Anyway he is the reason we have AC electricity today as well as Radio, TV, cell phones, dosers, electric eels, Facebook, controllers, etc.

I was totally disgusted with the event. The guy was one of the greatest minds in the history of the world right behind Justin Beaber and in almost 80 years since he died they did absolutely nothing with his workshop. It is still boarded up and no one is allowed in. Next month they said they were going to do a little work on the chimney. The Chimney! after 80 years thats all they are getting to repair.
Supposedly under the shop there is tunnels and a shaft that goes down 120' so he could anchor the tower so it could "shake the earth".
But all you can see is the outside.

The entire event was a big waste of money and they could have done so much better. Near the gate where you pay $25.00 they were selling half wraps with a small container of potato salad which we bought for ten bucks, But they had no napkins or forks to eat the potato salad so I assumed you were supposed to eat it like an Aardvark and suck it out with your tongue. Luckily we are smart enough to cut a piece of the container off and make forks but people who don't know how to do that had to use a stick or credit card I guess.

Then they had this big truck selling cookies and grilled cheese sandwiches, which is an odd combination. Now we were like the fifth people in there as we got there when it opened and I went to buy a cookie.
The guy tells me they ran out. I said, how many did you bring? Six!

They they had Port O Sans and next to them they had a portable sink which I thought was nice. There was a paper towel holder next to the sink to dry your hands but no garbage cans in the event so I assumed they wanted you to put the wet paper in your pocket and take it home.

I don't know what people think when they put on these events. They could make so much more money and have more people come back the next year but they just don't get it.
It was like 90 degrees and they had lots of chairs out in the sun for the "Scientific Presentation" about Tesla that I wanted to hear. It's the only reason I went, but the entire thing was to thank the volunteers who put the thing together. No science, nothing about grilled cheese, no discussion about ich, nothing.

There was a 40' replica of Tesla's tower that was supposed to make a display, which was a spark. But after that titillating speech in the sun we forgoed that and went home. Total waste of time.

The best thing there was a Lady selling tick repellent which didn't have much to do with Tesla. But she had some ticks stuck to Scotch tape and she was a tick expert.

She also told us that they were not allowed to spray to kill ticks any longer on Long Island where ticks are very prevalent. We asked why and she said the jewelers complained and sued the state. I said "The Jewelers".
Why would Jewelers care if they kill ticks. She said because if they eliminate the ticks, clocks would just go "Tock, Tock, Tock.