I finally bought a house in Cave Country! W00T!!!

[The Chairman]

On December 3rd of this year, at @4:30 in the AM, the cats and I were awoken to what sounded like a freight train passing by my window. We found nothing amiss, so we went back to bed. About 10ish that morning a county agent came out and asked if he could look around. They had seen a tornado on radar and thought it stopped on my property. The only thing we could find was one twisted tree stump. It was one I was going to get rid of, but very little around it had been touched. Debris had rained down on the fence, but it was dead. We don't know what happened to this tree, but no amount of searching found it.

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This is where the trail stopped... about 10 onto my property. They believe it continued on for another 200 ft or so, but it didn't touch the ground after that. Kinda cool, but frightening at the same time.

 

[Bubblesong]

FWIW, I also cut off the bottoms of those tanks so he could turn them into wind chimes.

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When i retire to a beachfront cottage, i am getting one of these chimes!

 

[The Chairman]

Over a month has gone by without me posting in here. I spent a week in Curacao for my birthday on the ScubaBoard Splurge. Lots of fun. I finally got my SF2 wet again this past Thursday in the Ballroom at Ginnie Springs. I need a few more hours in there, so maybe tomorrow as well. I have ordered a Tevo Tornado, which I'll be covering in 3D printing when it gets here.

But I finally found a mower blade sharpener worth its salt. It's an oldie and a friend from the Gainesville Hackerspace recovered it from somewhere, put a power cord on and I offered him $50. Wow, is it awesome. If you've read much of this blog, you know how much I mow. Last year I think I bought 6 sets of blades (18) @ $15 to $20 per blade. I would sharpen them once or twice with my 8" hand held grinder, but I didn't like the finish. This just a tad bit slower than my 8" grinder, but boy does it put a wonderful hollow ground edge on a blade. I don't much like hollow ground on a knife, but for an impact cutter, it's awesome. Each blade takes me about 12 minutes to sharpen and balance. I'm sure that will decrease as I sharpen them a bit more regularly. Here are some pics of the machine, the process and results.

 

[flyboy08]

I see the neon sign already.....blades sharpened! I hate paying for the easy stuff! Good for you.

 

[happy-diver]

Gotta love it, I love it, dreams come true

 

[markmud]

Hey Pete,

Nice, pro like!

What was the temperature there today? I am on strike here. The temps did not get above 30 and I am tired of winter. Did you see temps above 30F today? Please say no...

markm

 

[The Chairman]

blades sharpened!

I'll let friends use the sharpener, but I am not going to try to make a living at this.

Gotta love it, I love it, dreams come true

So do nightmares... I have a leak in the roof!

Nice, pro like!

Tanks! They look far, far better than with my grinder.

What was the temperature there today?

It's late Spring here, or at least it feels that way. The high was 70 and the low was 56. Currently we are at 61.9F. Tomorrow will be a warmish 79F. If you're on Weather Underground I am KFLOBRIE4

Suwanee Countty, SE Weather | Personal Weather Station: KFLOBRIE4 by Wunderground.com | Weather Underground
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You can always check out my neck of the woods because of my Ambient Weather personal weather station. It was a gift Christmas before last, and I finally got it hooked up this past January.

The temps did not get above 30 and I am tired of winter.

They're selling a 2 acre lot close to me!

 

[markmud]

Your temperature was 40 degrees warmer than ours. Yeah, that stinks for me.

I am glad someone was able to enjoy the outdoors in America. It wasn't me.

Cheers bro,
markm

 

[The Chairman]

Your temperature was 40 degrees warmer than ours. Yeah, that stinks for me.

This is the sweet spot for me. I've lived in Orlando, I've lived in the Keys and I've lived in the Gainesville area. The land here is more than affordable and the springs stay 72F year round. It gets hot in the summer and I've seen 20F here in the winter. Most of the time, it's just freakin' pleasant. The heater/ac has been turned off for the last 5 days or so. It really, really suits me.

I see dear, fox, skunk and three specie of squirrel in my yard all the time, but last night I was surprised to two bear foraging among the oaks. They ambled off as soon as my van lights exposed them. As they ambled off, I saw Ma~'s head poke around a tree. I think she was stalking them and since I was coming home with her cat fud, I don't know if it was mere curiosity or hunger! I love this place.

 

[The Chairman]

Dan and I decided to build a barn stye shed last year. Since we're working together on this, I usually wait for him to work on it. We had a bit of fun with a bad level while we were setting up the foundation, but for the most part, it's been steady. Here are some pics...

It started with the foundation, which looks a bit like a midget cemetery. Notice the boss inspecting our work...

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Then we made three beams to go on the concrete blocks and built the floor on top of that. You can see the hurricane anchors we've set for each row. This shed ain't going anywhere!

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Since this has been taking a bit longer than we had hoped, we've been trying to cover our work from the elements...

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Framing was relatively simple...

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Two lofts were installed at either end, leaving the center open...

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