Soils, Syncopations, Solitude

Monday, March 31, 2008

Knight Farmer.


Pop Quiz:
Assume that the sprinkler clock is 1 hour, thirty minutes slow. If the sprinkler needs to reach 117" to complete the round, and the degrees are increasing, at what time (PM) should lobiwan return to shut down the sprinkler? (H/R stands for hours/revolution.)

Here is the view from the motor last night. From left to right, you can see my house lights, followed by my parents' yard light, followed by my pickup lights which are illuminating the sprinkler.

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Puzzle Master.




All by herself!

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Problem Solving

The Motor at the home place had shut off the previous two nights, then shut off around lunch time, and then about 10 minutes later. Having ruled out everything else, we start to focus on the distributer. It is usually the last thing to look at because it is the most expensive part to replace.
While this wire which brings positive current to the distributer is bad, it is not the problem, as the motor would not run at all without it. I go ahead and replace it while Dad gets his bag o' distributer parts.



Once inside the , however the problems are obvious. The surprising thing is how relatively well the engine had been running in this condition. Off to town for a new distributer.


Here's the distributer out of the engine.

The distributer is actually the easiest thing in the world to change, as it is only held in place by one bolt and pulls straight out. The trick is to get everything in the exact same position (so you are firing the right spark plug at the right time.)


Dad fine tunes the timing. This is done by turning the distributer very gradually while the engine is running at full speed.

I tighten down the retaining bolt (and collar) and we are done.


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New Boots and Old Sprinklers.

I remember now why you should always buy new boots in the dead of winter.




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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Yesterday.












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Monday, March 17, 2008

I'll be watching you.

(congratulations!)


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Battle of the Freshman All-stars

Be Excited.



Bill and OJ, BFFs

OJ and Michael.


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Thursday, March 13, 2008

A Girl Went to School...



Anna's latest composition. Cut off at the begining are the lyrics "a girl went to school" At the end she is asking "Can you clap?"

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If only..

If only a certain band still existed, I think this would make a great album cover.

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Project Teenage Daughter Update.

The "Medium Duty" makes me laugh. "Not for use in gravitational fields with acceleration exceeding 9.81 meters per seconds squared."


Every resource I have used to prepare for finishing the room in the basement, and I do mean EVERY resource, living or not, has advised me to make sure I don't nail any boards to the concrete where I am planning on putting a doorway. The constant nature of this advice tells me that this is obviously something that pretty much everybody does on accident and makes me feel so much better for having done it. Twice.

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In order to keep the family nature of this blog intact, I have refrained from using the all too obvious post title.



This truck was stockpiling manure for Boyd north of our house yesterday when this happened.

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Strip-Till




Mark is stripping this field for me, mainly so I can save some money by using anhydrous rather than urea or liquid.

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Desperate Times Part 4

See Part 3





Let's see... on the east half of the field we have severe wind erosion resulting in exposed seed, filled furrows, and sand drifts, but actually a not-too-bad stand of wheat. On the west half we have no wind erosion, but a thick crust on the soil surface has prevented most of the wheat from emerging.

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Manhappenings




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