General Conversations

Farmers almanac said our area was supposed to be milder than normal this year. Well January being the coldest month of winter, starting off, this evening we are forecasted to experience an evening low of negative 20with 50mph wind gusts! Might need to pucker up for this one! If the bees live I'll be happy!

Hey guys (and gals), I am on an RV forum and they have a section for Cummins powered RVs. There is someone on there that for what ever reason seems to try to contradict anything I post there. Here are some of his statements (in bold) about idling: "X2, The only thing you will hurt on Diesel @Idle is the Turbo, kick it up to 1000 and your good..... let er run" "Quote: Originally Posted by MnTom I guess I don't understand how you would be hurting the turbo at an idle. For lube the turbo is the first thing to see oil. "Not enough oil at idle" "Quote: Originally Posted by MnTom HUH? If there is not enough oil for the turbo at idle there sur…

Well today I finally gather up my ash tray from 2002 and then stopped by the 1996 and dump it into the 2002 ash tray. It was nearly overflowing with just silver coins. So I sat down sort and rolled everything up and there was quite a bit of spare change floating around between two truck ash trays. Total capacity of the ash tray was $48.18 that I counted out.

For 12 years I have been digging around trying to figure out why I'm getting excessive creosote build up. After trying all the right possibilities, A to Z, I finally got tired of it all.. as drastic situations require drastic solutions..... went on the roof and cut off that sheet metal band that they designed around the chimney cap opening. Sure the rain can go in a bit but, it had got to make it breath better. Straight piped ha ha. I got to tell ya' man oh man does it ever burn correct now. I can even turn it down a lot more for some all night burns with no build up. Can't believe I put up with it for 12 years just fighting with every poss. change I could make. Itlite…

Well I got some tow mirrors today for $10.00 at the Webster Auto Swap... Saw them laying on the ground next to a bunch of other stuff so I asked him what they came off of, he said a chevy Even though they looked like they would fit YabbaDoo I walked away, then I look over see a 99 Ram 3500 sitting on the next isle over soooooo, I ask the owner of the truck if I could use his mirrors to see if the tow mirrors would work and he said yes I walkeed back to the guy who had the mirrors and asked if I could take one over and see if it would fit... They may not be pretty but they fit well and for $10.00 I couldnt go wrong!!! I have to go teach a class here in a few min so I …

Once again called out for another fire call. Been a busy winter time. Well this one was owner caused. Vehicle had a electrical issues and blew out a 40A fuse which the owner admits changing the fuse. Then he said the vehicle started and ran but rough. So he shut it down and hooked pu a battery charge and went in the house to warm up. Turned around to see fire rolling out from under the hood. His wife call 911 and myself and he was using snow to attempt to control the fire. Went I got there the fire was mostly out and quick blast of a dry-chem fire extinguisher kill most of it. Then I snip the battery cable and ran back fired up the pump and douse the remaining embers glow…

This slant of looking at the price of fuel appears to be pretty accurate if one looks at all of the adjusted costs that go along with the times. http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/gasoline/

I was a little slow at posting but here are some pictures from my fall vacation!! My Uncle and I stopped for some lunch after driving on the Parkway... Our Campsite... Mine and the dogs little Hobo Abode

Can anyone recommend a decent aftermarket backup camera? The newer trucks have one integrated into the radio. Not interested in that. Something that can indicate backing up in parking lots etcetera and provide a good shot of the stinger ball for trailer. I never get it right the first shot. Meaning 2-5 trips in and out of the truck. And I may change trailers 3-4 days a week.

Saw these stories popping up on several news sites this morning. http://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/local/another-mysterious-explosion-heard-in-bingham-county-residents-in-riverside/article_e76e150e-8f2f-11e4-86f2-573e59da983c.html

I was called to a house fire last night in Riggins, Idaho. This one is rather odd. The owner just bought the house just a few weeks ago and also just after the purchase of house he installed a brand new energy efficient wood stove. The last night went over to stoke up the fire and when he opened the stove door the stove back drafted on him. When this occur it burned the home owner from the flash of fire also it ejected other flaming material out into the room. All I can say is the house is a complete loss. The theory on cause is possibly using un-cured wood that is way too wet. Or... Improper operation of the stove choking it down really low to save wood. Please peopl…

Finally this last storm has dropped a bunch of snow finally. I was starting to wonder if I was going to have a green lawn all winter. The little 1996 Dodge is doing just fine! Chains are for sissies!

Just curious here........... I've only lit the stove 3 times so far......................and no more than just 1 reload after each one. Just to take the damp/chill out of the house. It's been a relatively mild fall so far...............only 2 mild frosts. A lot of rain and damp though!!!!

whoo! RUG broke 2 bucks today. $1.96 gallon On road diesel is now south of $3 actually $2.99 gallon. Cousin in Western Iowa contracted last Friday #2 died diesel for $1.94 for most of 2015 Which means 'on road' should be ~ $2.45 by spring..... 'unless'.....

Got the wife a new Nikon D3200 for Christmas! She was really into portrait and landscape photography when we were married, had all the 'good stuff' for the period. (Hasselblad) As the rigors of being 'in demand' wore her down.. lets face it, taking pictures of everyone's joyous activities (weddings, family reunions etc) on the weekend, dealing with 'drunk Uncle from Hoboken'... deadbeat accounts.. she just said "enough"! So, for the last 20 years, been happy with the various point-n-shoot type cameras. Last couple were Nikon Coolpix, and been happy with the features, EXCEPT for the trap…

MoparMom had a afternoon job for me. She typically request for fir boughs for the front porch. We have to large pots that we stick the fir boughs into for our decoration. So I grabbed my camera and hoped in the 96 Dodge and headed out to Hazard Creek Road. About a mile up I found a wonderful white fir tree that was young and proceeded to trim off the lower branches. Stacked them in the bed and closed the tonneau cover. Then I took a little ride up the mountain.

He died today after a struggle with cancer. He "covered" so many songs, and made them better versions than the originals. He has that "Ray Charlesness" quality to his voice that I just love. He'll be missed for sure.

Howdy Guys, First off I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Secondly, I thought I’d share some stuff with yall. I've been doing some monkeying with balancing my own tires. I’ve got a tire changer and do almost all my own tire changing. But if it’s for a truck then I still had to get it balanced. So I researched a product called “dyna beads” some of you may already know what they are. They are small ceramic beads that go in the tire and automatically balance the tire. I was considering them, cause the cost for one tire worth was cheaper then the cost to get one balanced. And tires apparently wear better with the beads (according to the forums). But that one si…