Maine Bound!

[92 Green YJ]

It occurred to me how close I was the other day.

Yeah you were. Drove right by me.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Putting the tractor to work a bit today. I borrowed this home made 3 point ripper tooth from the captain of my fire department the other day. Told him I had to do some trenching for the solar guys and was going to rent a mini excavator to do the work but he told me he had this thing and he had used it for trench work at his place before and I was free to borrow it.

He said basically just run it back and forth a few times to break up the ground and it will easily shovel right out. So today after I got back from town and restocking my stores and buying 80’ of 2” conduit, I thought I’d give it a try.

I have a 70’ run from the garage to the pole barn where the solar company is putting the inverters and such. I found the ripper dropped right on in and had no issues tearing thru the compacted gravel. I ran it back and forth about 5 times or so going to either side of the initial run a little bit to break up a good size chunk. Shovels out real easy after that. Unfortunately it’s like 85 and humid here today so I’m not sure I’m gonna get too far with the shoveling. After the first 5 feet I was sweating like mad.

 

[Grnjp92]

Putting the tractor to work a bit today. I borrowed this home made 3 point ripper tooth from the captain of my fire department the other day. Told him I had to do some trenching for the solar guys and was going to rent a mini excavator to do the work but he told me he had this thing and he had used it for trench work at his place before and I was free to borrow it.

He said basically just run it back and forth a few times to break up the ground and it will easily shovel right out. So today after I got back from town and restocking my stores and buying 80’ of 2” conduit, I thought I’d give it a try.

I have a 70’ run from the garage to the pole barn where the solar company is putting the inverters and such. I found the ripper dropped right on in and had no issues tearing thru the compacted gravel. I ran it back and forth about 5 times or so going to either side of the initial run a little bit to break up a good size chunk. Shovels out real easy after that. Unfortunately it’s like 85 and humid here today so I’m not sure I’m gonna get too far with the shoveling. After the first 5 feet I was sweating like mad.

You have kids....right!

 

[ThePanzerFuhrer]

Put a loop on the bottom and have it plow the conduit in as you go.

 

[WTF?]

So the solar panels are going on the house and the inverter in the shed/ shack? Does the power supply feed come in through the shack too?

 

[djljeep]

without getting into the weeds, if you are setting up solar for net metering in Maine, you have to configure the system a certain way to get an IA, and its not generally the way that makes the most sense (using a spare breaker in your house panel would be way too simple....). His solar guy might be getting crafty.

I actually didn't get quite out to your neck of the woods last weekend - I was picking up some axles from somebody on PV4 in Dedham. Which sucks, because if I had my shit running, I had an invite to Dave and Connie's for last Sunday.

 

[92 Green YJ]

So the solar panels are going on the house and the inverter in the shed/ shack? Does the power supply feed come in through the shack too?

The meter and main breaker for the entire house is on a pole about 10 feet to the side of the pole barn. That is also where the auto transfer switch for the standby generator is. The generator is also over near the barn and the main breaker. So the plan is to do all the grid tie stuff there and have the inverters and such mounted on the inside wall feeding out to the main breaker. I believe they are planning to run low voltage from the house to the inverters, then switch it to ac there to feed the main and back to the grid because wiring wise you can run further on smaller wire on dc.

without getting into the weeds, if you are setting up solar for net metering in Maine, you have to configure the system a certain way to get an IA, and its not generally the way that makes the most sense (using a spare breaker in your house panel would be way too simple....). His solar guy might be getting crafty.

I actually didn't get quite out to your neck of the woods last weekend - I was picking up some axles from somebody on PV4 in Dedham. Which sucks, because if I had my shit running, I had an invite to Dave and Connie's for last Sunday.

See my explanation above.

And yeah I was hoping to go to Dave’s place too, but the kid had a birthday party to attend out on MDI and the wife pretty much insisted I attend as well with her and the boy. And Dedham is only like 25 minutes from me.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Didn’t get too much further on the trenching. The wife came out and suggested we take the kids over to Beech Hill Pond for a swim. We somehow haven’t managed to make it over there yet in the two years we’ve been here, but the wife had me stop at the Otis town office yesterday and grab a beach pass finally. Much like Taste of Jamaica in Ellsworth that we finally got around to trying a few weeks ago, I’m pretty mad it took us this long to do it.

Absolutely gorgeous. Not even five minutes from the house. Free for residents. Crystal clear like every other body of water around here. While we were there swimming and having fun we saw numerous ducks, a mother with 6 ducklings, a turtle, and a loon. Spent a couple hours having fun with the kids and cooling off in style. Can’t beat it.

 

[Chicken Corners]

Didn’t get too much further on the trenching. The wife came out and suggested we take the kids over to Beech Hill Pond for a swim. We somehow haven’t managed to make it over there yet in the two years we’ve been here, but the wife had me stop at the Otis town office yesterday and grab a beach pass finally. Much like Taste of Jamaica in Ellsworth that we finally got around to trying a few weeks ago, I’m pretty mad it took us this long to do it.

Absolutely gorgeous. Not even five minutes from the house. Free for residents. Crystal clear like every other body of water around here. While we were there swimming and having fun we saw numerous ducks, a mother with 6 ducklings, a turtle, and a loon. Spent a couple hours having fun with the kids and cooling off in style. Can’t beat it.

Looks MUCH BETTER then trenching 👍

 

[92 Green YJ]

Looks MUCH BETTER then trenching 👍

Oh yeah. Won’t hear me complaining at all! It was great! I haven’t swam in fresh water like this in ages either. Some nice big rocks a little ways out you could jump off of. It was awesome! Can’t wait to go back.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Making steady progress on the trench. Using the ripper tooth was perfect. Really broke everything up nicely so it’s super easy to dig it out. I’ve just been chipping away at it little by little. Take about 20 shovels out and go do something else for a while. I’m more than halfway across already. Another day or two and I should be done depending what happens with the weather. Supposed to have thunderstorms on and off the next few days. And yea there is a slight curve to it. Should still work fine though. My plan is to run 2 bus if cat 6, two runs of 12/2 to reposed the pole barn with one and the greenhouse with the other (there is some issue with the current line that I haven’t found while digging yet) and I’m going to run a length or two of paracord thru as well so the solar guys can pull their stuff thru it when the time comes. Leave a length of cord for anything else I may need or want to pull in the future.

 

[ilten]

Chunk of pork, Beech Hill Pond.

Be careful. There are a few rocks below the surface.....

 

[92 Green YJ]

I ordered some new attachments for my kitchen aide mixer during Prine Day. The ice cream maker is the only one that has arrived so far but since it’s thunderstorms on and off today we figured it was a perfect time to try it out. Took advantage of a break in the weather to go down to the fields and pick some fresh blueberries. Brought them back up to the house and cleaned and sorted them then mixed up some ice cream batter and added the blueberries in. Some of them I puréed in the blender first. Wife is gonna use the rest to make blueberry muffins or a blueberry cake. Curious to see how this comes out.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Still a bit soft. Transferred to a container and out in the freezer to firm it up some more. But man does it taste good! Wife I making a blueberry cake with the rest of them so we are gonna have blueberry cake with blueberry ice cream later. I’ll probably make some fresh whipped cream to go with it since I have some heavy cream leftover from making the ice cream mix.

 

[Chicken Corners]

Be careful, that’s lots of Blueberries.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Well that came out pretty damn good!

Now I’m looking forward to the pasta machine, ice shaver, and cheese grater attachments arriving.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Man do I love that standby generator! Power went out last night around 9. In 45 seconds we were back up and running. From what I heard it wasn’t restored until damn near 5 am. Which funnily enough is about the time the pager went off for this over on the west shore road on beech hill pond.

Went POV to check it out and our LT came along a little while after in the engine. Since the power lines were already down and it was just the telco line burning we hit it with dry chem, put some cones up and left it to Versant.

Since I had to go back later to collect our cones and it was a nice, if overcast day, I said we should all go then we can stop by the beach afterwards for a swim. So we spent a couple of hours at Beech Hill pond again.

Got home and went and did some work in the studio. My Hex3D Ted prints are almost finished.

And then Prime day delivery day 2 hit so I’ve spent the last 30 minutes sorting thru boxes. Most of this is 3D printing filament to keep my machines fed. But I got some other stuff too.

 

[Gregj50!!!!!]

Not enough is said about a good rubber hose that lasts!!!! Fuck all the box store that pushes shit hoses!!!!

 

[92 Green YJ]

Spent the day down in Unity at the Unity Raceway for a Christmas in July event. Pretty good turn out and I had a pretty decent sales day.

And just for fun, some of the stuff I’ve been making lately. Kind of on a mask and helmet kick prepping for the Bangor Comic Con in October. Did Goblin Slayers helmet

Wild Wings goalie mask from the old Mighty Ducks cartoon

And Chubbs broken wooden hand from Happy Gilmore

It’s all in the hips.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Time for an update. Solar panels are all done and installed. Waiting for final sign off before Versant upgrades my transformer then we can finally switch the inverters on and Lisa my electric bill goodbye.

First day of school has come and gone. Pre K and 4th grade respectively

Been super busy in the studio because I have a ton of big events coming up

And I was kind of forced to buy another vehicle. The Ram has been having issues lately. Power steering has been going out when it feels like it and the check engine light came on the other day. Took it to the dealer. Lifter failure so the block needs to be replaced as does the steering. Both covered under the lifetime warranty I have on it thankfully but the parts won’t be seen until the end of the month. With events coming up and school back in we can’t be down to one vehicle. So rather than waste money renting a vehicle for a month, I figured I’d buy a cheap car, use it until the truck is fixed, and sell it. Found this 2003 durango up the road for $3k. 226,000 miles on it but it’s in overall decent shape. Plenty of room to haul the show and event stuff. Spent the better part of the day cleaning it and checking the fluids and everything. It’s actually in such decent shape I’m now almost debating keeping it as a backup vehicle after I get the truck back.

 

[RusM]

Time for an update. Solar panels are all done and installed. Waiting for final sign off before Versant upgrades my transformer then we can finally switch the inverters on and Lisa my electric bill goodbye.

First day of school has come and gone. Pre K and 4th grade respectively

Been super busy in the studio because I have a ton of big events coming up

And I was kind of forced to buy another vehicle. The Ram has been having issues lately. Power steering has been going out when it feels like it and the check engine light came on the other day. Took it to the dealer. Lifter failure so the block needs to be replaced as does the steering. Both covered under the lifetime warranty I have on it thankfully but the parts won’t be seen until the end of the month. With events coming up and school back in we can’t be down to one vehicle. So rather than waste money renting a vehicle for a month, I figured I’d buy a cheap car, use it until the truck is fixed, and sell it. Found this 2003 durango up the road for $3k. 226,000 miles on it but it’s in overall decent shape. Plenty of room to haul the show and event stuff. Spent the better part of the day cleaning it and checking the fluids and everything. It’s actually in such decent shape I’m now almost debating keeping it as a backup vehicle after I get the truck back.

So what's the first thing you're doing to it? Long travel? New bumper? Turbo?

 

[Steve300xcw]

So what's the first thing you're doing to it? Long travel? New bumper? Turbo?

Naaaa. First things goona be a transmission

 

[Aisin]

Not enough is said about a good rubber hose that lasts!!!! Fuck all the box store that pushes shit hoses!!!!

That’s not a rubber hose. That’s rubber coated. Still a pile of shit.

 

[Pony_Driver]

Your Dodge has issues so you buy a 20 year old Dodge as a replacement?

 

[shortbus4x4]

Your Dodge has issues so you buy a 20 year old Dodge as a replacement?

Hey some of us are slow larners.

 

[92 Green YJ]

So what's the first thing you're doing to it? Long travel? New bumper? Turbo?

nothing that fancy. Ordered seat covers and new projector headlights with led bulbs. Trying to avoid spending a bunch of money on this thing. Trying to stick to minor stuff. Cleaning it up and cleaning it out good, new wiper blades, recharge the AC, etc.

Your Dodge has issues so you buy a 20 year old Dodge as a replacement?

Lol. Pretty much. I’m a Mopar guy. What it boiled down to was I needed something cheap and quickly, preferably large enough to be able to haul my crap to events, and flat towable. Oddly enough, I had driven by this Durango every day this week when going to pick the boy up from school. Saw it again when looking on Facebook marketplace and it appeared to fit my needs. It’s got the right transfer case that can be put into neutral to flat tow behind the RV, bonus with the bumper on it I can use the tow bar and D-ring adapters I had already bought to flat tow the Ram behind the RV.

Naturally, I am doing the Eastport Pirate Festival next weekend. It’s 2 hours away on the Canadian border and it’s Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I figured rather than driving 4 hours each day I would be smart about it. So I found an RV park in Eastport 5 minutes from downtown and booked a site Thursday night thru Monday. Downside is they aren’t set up for, or have room for trailer parking so I have to flat tow a vehicle. Only vehicle we had that can be flat towed is the Ram.

this Durango should work fine for my needs and get my by until the Ram is fixed.

 

[92 Green YJ]

We’ll time for a little update with the vehicle drama.

So according to Mopar Max Care, the cost of repairing my 2014 Ram to their standards would have been more than the current blue book value of the truck. So instead they denied the repairs and instead cut me a check for the blue book value of the truck. I still own the truck of course. As soon as they put the valve covers back on I’ll be picking it up and bringing it back home.

In the meantime, apparently the Durango had a leaky radiator. It overheated on me on the way home last week and died just a mile from the house. When I got it back home and refilled the radiator I fired it up to see a bunch of white smoke pouring out the tailpipes so pretty sure I blew the head gaskets. Great.

So I hit the net and started shopping around for a new truck. I found this immaculate 2019 Ram 1500 Limited for a pretty screaming deal at a local dealer and went to take a look at it. 45k miles on it, no rust, and yeah, it’s a limited so it’s beyond fully loaded. Every bell and whistle imaginable. Panoramic sunroof, air ride suspension, power folding mirrors and running boards, heated and vented seats front and rear, you name it this truck has it. Took it for a spin and came back and bought it. Mopar Max Care payout covered half the cost of it. My only disappointment is that it doesn’t have the Rambox bed on it but I’ll live.

So now I’ve got a new radiator and full gasket set in for the Durango. Gonna fix that up and probably flip it. The Old Ram I haven’t decided what to do with yet. I may go for a junkyard motor replacement and keep it around as a backup vehicle. Not really sure yet.

 

[Chicken Corners]

New truck looks nice. Old truck engine? LS Swap.

 

[92 Green YJ]

New truck looks nice. Old truck engine? LS Swap.

Yeah it’s a major upgrade for sure. Kind of can’t get over just how nice it is. Already bedlined, already has nice rubber floor mats, and yeah, all the options. I’m really digging this Delmonico red paint too. Gonna finally get a firefighter plate too. That’s on the agenda for next week.

and for the old one I was just thinking a junkyard Hemi or maybe grab a rebuilt long block. I haven’t really started digging into it yet. It may honestly just sit until spring at this point.

 

[Grendel]

I've forgotten, what is the old truck?

I have a 6.4L Hemi here, new in crate.