November 2 2011 by Darrin.

 ’Tis the season!  Our first Winter Storm Warning resulted in about 6″ of snow on the level yesterday, November 1, 2011.  It’s 25º this morning - pretty mild for how it looks… 

With the woodstove stoked and the house toasty, Charlis-dog has “assumed the position” for the next five months…

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October 25 2010 by Darrin.

I built the workshop back in 1999/2000.  At the time, I didn’t think I’d need a slab out front.  (Five years prior, I didn’t think I’d need a shop, so go figure.)  Over the first few years, it became obvious that my initial logic was flawed, with my feet always muddy from trips to and fro.  I also spent countless hours building little railroad-style tracks for heavy projects to roll outside on, after meticulously shimming them in the dirt out front, on pieces of lumber and steel.  Here’s an old shot of what the site looked like previously…

It was just Mulie season here.  Gary, a friend and annual deer hunter from Wisconsin, was debating whether or not to come out this year.  He makes his living in construction back there, so I suggested he consider pouring this slab for me if he came out.  He got here hoping to go hunting, but the season was shorter than normal and the weather was not in his favor.  He rearranged his plans and we did some preliminary work Tuesday, he and a hand from South Dakota excavated and set up Wednesday, and they poured Thursday and Friday to just beat some impending unexpected rain (and now snow).

Things could have been smoother, but Murphy’s always around to mess with you.  Tuesday night, we tried to bust out some “extra” concrete that had been placed in front of my walk door years ago.  It was poured solid around a frost-free hydrant, and wasn’t the 4″ expected, but a whopping 13″.  Too make a long story short, the hydrant broke and I had to replace it - 5′ down, 24″ hole, and virtually impossible to work in there to repair it…

Thursday, the first load of mud came - 4000 psi with fibermesh, to be poured 6″ thick…

By Friday, it was all in place…

And that damned hydrant?  Here’s the new one installed, properly protected from moving with the slab.  Notice that the concrete is scored in a 3′ square, and ready to break out with a hammer if needed.  It’s 4″ thick there, instead of 6″, and should come out okay IF I need to dig it up again.

Monday morning now, Gary’s heading home and he just made it out of here.  I guess our long-lasting summer has finally come to an end…

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June 2 2010 by Darrin.

Item one…  Anna called me over from the shop last night to see a good looking storm begin to roll in.  We captured 36 minutes of HD video, then condensed it into a 13 second time-lapse MP4, with sound effects from freesound.org (a great place for royalty-free sound effects).  You can watch it as an MP4 off of our website by clicking the thumbnail below, or if that doesn’t work, try the YouTube link (below the thumbnail) to watch it there…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHExryPLfMY

Item two…  I forgot to mention last month that all the Hawaii 2009 movies are finished and available (in WMV format) on our personal website.  Just click the thumbnail below to go to the Hawaii 2009 video collection…

Item three…  After almost three years of editing with Avid’s “prosumer” editing software, Liquid 7 (v7.2), I’ll be moving to a new system.  Avid has finally ended development for Liquid, to focus more on the consumer and professional ends of the non-linear editing (NLE) spectrum. That middle niche pro-sumer market was just too small, I guess.

As a way of saying thanks for using Liquid (and “sorry we stopped supporting it”), they’ve made existing customers an extremely attractive offer.  I’ll be moving to Media Composer 4, which includes many other pieces of software as well, for compression, DVD/BR authoring, effects, graphics, and titling.  Total value if bought individually is over $6,000!  The offer?  US$495.  As you can imagine, I went for it, as did most Liquid users worldwide.  There will be a tremendous learning curve, but that’s what winter in Wyoming is for.  I’m lookin’ forward to it!

For the record, MC4 is used extensively in professional production.  It was recently used for editing 24, the newest Star Trek, The Hurt Locker, and Slumdog Millionaire - just to name a few.  Very cool!

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May 29 2010 by Darrin.

Things are sure green around here!  We’ve had lots of rain, and even some snow last Monday, May 24th.  Gotta enjoy it; it only lasts a few weeks or so before some of the grasses head out and turn yellow.  Last month, I decided my 1991 Kawasaki KLR 650 had been dormant in the garage for far too many years.  She got a little “freshening-up”, with a new battery, tires, chain/sprockets, cables, a clean carb, etc.  Here’s the bike, AND the green.

Before I forget, thanks to all who gave their lives to keep America safe and free.  Really.  I cherish what we have here.  A while back, I posted a video on my website.  What’s our flag mean?  Check it out if you like…

So what else is new?  My friend Michael and I were supposed to go to the Netherlands in April, but the volcano in Iceland shut that down.  We rescheduled for four weeks later, but wound up canceling again.

I did get to Maryland just before we were supposed to go to Holland.  I went to get Mom, do some chores, and drive back to Wyoming.  29 hours total time en route, covering ~1849 miles.  That’s almost 64 mph of average speed!  Amazing for her older Ford Expedition with 150,000 miles on the clock.  And we never went over 4 miles above the limit! It was an excellent run.

In the shop, work on the Land Cruiser continues.  The chassis is ready to get painted, but first I have to fabricate and install a custom fuel tank.  In the photos below, you can see the beginning of it.  It’ll hold just over 30 gallons, and will be located behind the rear axle in the factory spare tire location…

Finally, here’s the rebuilt rear differential, now with an ARB Air-Locker.  So long as it works, it’s a “best of both worlds” device, providing an open diff for normal use that can be pneumatically locked for maximum traction.

It’s a great concept if it doesn’t leak!  I’ve had mechanical, pneumatic, and electric lockers over the years, and by far, the older mechanical Unimog lockers are my favorite!  Not much to break.  We’ll see how this goes a few years down the line!

Posted in HJ-75 Restoration, Scenery, Weather | 1 Comment »

October 9 2009 by Darrin.

 Wow, winter’s here.  We didn’t expect it this early, but we’ve had it easy for years.  It’s snowing now, for the third time this season!  Here’s the view to the south just a few hours ago…

The prediction is for a wind chill of -5ºF (-21ºC) tonight, with the mercury at 5ºF (-15ºC).  Right now, it’s 19ºF (-7ºC).  It’s a good thing we cut some firewood a couple weeks ago, to keep this baby going strong.  I actually thought we’d make it fire-free until November!

 Anna’s got is squared away, with a dose of Dutch boerenkool on the stove.  Boerenkool is literally translated “Farmers’ Cabbage” and is simple and excellent - especially on a night like this.  It’s potatoes, kale, and a smoked sausage, all cooked together.  Eat it with mustard!  Awesome.

All I can say, or rather, hope for, is “In like a lion, out like a lamb.”  We’ll see - in another seven months.

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