Busy Weekend...
February arrived with a flurry of activity, as the start of the month is often wont to do. According to trixstir, Friday night was a dead night at the bowling alley, which is unusual for a Friday, but these things happen. We still came out with black ink at the end of the month for January, so that's good.
The local co-op has two more of these portable furnace / comfort furnace (they're basically the same products, by the same company, two different names and websites) products that they want me to look at. I've been trying to get hold of the company that makes them to get set up as an authorized repair centre, since I'm really not supposed to be taking these things apart without being authorized - doing so would void the warranty. The company gives a great spiel about how wonderful these things are, how super-efficient they are, how they use super advanced technology... It's all snake-oil folks. These things are just standard nichrome-wire IR heaters with a fan, and a fancy wooden box. They even have the gall to claim that they're "quartz" heaters, which is an outright lie. I've seen quartz heaters, I know what they look like. The heating elements in these things are not quartz - they're glass tubes with nichrome wire inside, and foil reflectors around them to supposedly help dissipate the heat better. Snake Oil, Snake oil, snake oil... Yes, it's a decent heater, but it's not worth paying 4 to 5 times much as you'd pay for a regular heater, just to get it in a fancy wooden box. :/
Saturday was the annual Elks Fish Fry; This was my fourth, and my third as one of the cooks. I was also the last one to leave the kitchen, since somehow my griddle got stuck with the last batch or two of fish to fry. This meant that there wasn't a lot left by the time I got to the food-line, but I have to admit I got all that I needed. Would have been nice if there was more Tartar sauce though - I got the dregs of the bottle, and there was very little left in it. The fish is fine on its own, but it's so much better with a little dab of sauce! My friend Jack has these fish available all year 'round, so I'll have to get a case of them someday; Fried lightly in butter, and served with a side of steamed white rice and veggies... SOOOooooo good!
I spent a few hours with the horses on Sunday afternoon, trimming hooves. I got all of Dirk's hooves done, all of Bonnie's, and PoohBear's hinds. PoohBear's were by far the worst, Dirk's were the easiest to do (he's such a calm, quiet horse!) and Bonnie's were in-between. She's calmer than PoohBear, but not as mellow as Dirk, and her hooves were much thicker and hard to cut. Still easier than PoohBear's though, and of the three of them I did the best work on Bonnie. Her forehooves are ok, but her hinds are darnnear perfect. I'm really pleased with how they came out. I think (I hope) Bonnie is a lot happier now too - it was pretty obvious that she was in some distress on Sunday, and once I got a good look at her hooves it was clear as to why. I really need to find a better way to sharpen my hoof-knives though; I have a little sharpening tool that does a decent job, but I know there are better ways. When I took the 3-day backyard farrier course at Old's College a few years ago, the instructor sharpened his knives with a buffing wheel impregnated with some kind of compound made just for that purpose. I need to look into that, and see exactly what it was that he used, and how.
Today (Monday) I finally got hold of a live person from the heater company, and he said he'd get back to me about the idea of setting us up as a shop. I also (again, finally) got hold of the folks at King Canada Tools, and talked to them about getting set up as a repair centre for their other products. I'm already set up as a repair centre for their generators, but I'd like to add their other stuff as well. Once again, the local co-op is the largest driving force behind this, since they sell King Canada products, and having a local repair shop makes their lives a lot easier! It also brings me business and income, so it's all good as far as I'm concerned!
Last summer, I met this fellow named Joe who lived not too far from us, and who had offered to help me repair the swathers on the farm, etc. Summer, and then Fall came and went, and I just assumed that he'd gotten busy and/or forgotten all about it. He dropped by the shop today, and it took me a couple seconds to remember him, but I'm happy to say I actually did remember him, and his name! That's quite an accomplishment for me! He apologized for not coming out to help, but explained that his father had passed away about a week afterwards, and things had pretty much hit the fan after that. I offered my condolances, and we chatted for a bit - mostly about an idea he had about trying to hook up a large snow-blower auger assembly to an engine for the purpose of moving grain. He also said he'd come out this year to help me fix those swathers - so here's hoping! His voice reminds me very much of some friends / classmates from my past, and I've been wracking my brain trying to remember who it is that he sounds so much like.
The Kidling's report card came out today, and to call it abysmal is fairly accurate. His grades were bad, and now they're even worse. I've talked (as recentlyt as this afternoon) with his teachers, and they all say the same thing: He's perfectly capable of doing the work, of even being in the top 25% of the class, but he just won't do it. He outright refuses to; An example being his recent math homework dealing with polynomials. The step-by-step instructions are on the front page of the assignment, and I even showed him how it's done (after reading said instructions) but he outright refuses to even look at the instructions. And then he whines about how he "just doesn't get it" and thinks that the teacher is being mean to him. He's going to discover that The World is a lot meaner, and won't give him umpteen chances to get it right. All of his grades, other than Shop Class, are failing grades. As it is, he'll be 19 when he's in grade 12. If he fails this grade, and he rightfully should, he'd be 20 and still in high-school. I fear (as does most of his family) that he's going to be a high-school drop-out. You can lead a student to knowledge, but you can't make them think. :/
The local co-op has two more of these portable furnace / comfort furnace (they're basically the same products, by the same company, two different names and websites) products that they want me to look at. I've been trying to get hold of the company that makes them to get set up as an authorized repair centre, since I'm really not supposed to be taking these things apart without being authorized - doing so would void the warranty. The company gives a great spiel about how wonderful these things are, how super-efficient they are, how they use super advanced technology... It's all snake-oil folks. These things are just standard nichrome-wire IR heaters with a fan, and a fancy wooden box. They even have the gall to claim that they're "quartz" heaters, which is an outright lie. I've seen quartz heaters, I know what they look like. The heating elements in these things are not quartz - they're glass tubes with nichrome wire inside, and foil reflectors around them to supposedly help dissipate the heat better. Snake Oil, Snake oil, snake oil... Yes, it's a decent heater, but it's not worth paying 4 to 5 times much as you'd pay for a regular heater, just to get it in a fancy wooden box. :/
Saturday was the annual Elks Fish Fry; This was my fourth, and my third as one of the cooks. I was also the last one to leave the kitchen, since somehow my griddle got stuck with the last batch or two of fish to fry. This meant that there wasn't a lot left by the time I got to the food-line, but I have to admit I got all that I needed. Would have been nice if there was more Tartar sauce though - I got the dregs of the bottle, and there was very little left in it. The fish is fine on its own, but it's so much better with a little dab of sauce! My friend Jack has these fish available all year 'round, so I'll have to get a case of them someday; Fried lightly in butter, and served with a side of steamed white rice and veggies... SOOOooooo good!
I spent a few hours with the horses on Sunday afternoon, trimming hooves. I got all of Dirk's hooves done, all of Bonnie's, and PoohBear's hinds. PoohBear's were by far the worst, Dirk's were the easiest to do (he's such a calm, quiet horse!) and Bonnie's were in-between. She's calmer than PoohBear, but not as mellow as Dirk, and her hooves were much thicker and hard to cut. Still easier than PoohBear's though, and of the three of them I did the best work on Bonnie. Her forehooves are ok, but her hinds are darnnear perfect. I'm really pleased with how they came out. I think (I hope) Bonnie is a lot happier now too - it was pretty obvious that she was in some distress on Sunday, and once I got a good look at her hooves it was clear as to why. I really need to find a better way to sharpen my hoof-knives though; I have a little sharpening tool that does a decent job, but I know there are better ways. When I took the 3-day backyard farrier course at Old's College a few years ago, the instructor sharpened his knives with a buffing wheel impregnated with some kind of compound made just for that purpose. I need to look into that, and see exactly what it was that he used, and how.
Today (Monday) I finally got hold of a live person from the heater company, and he said he'd get back to me about the idea of setting us up as a shop. I also (again, finally) got hold of the folks at King Canada Tools, and talked to them about getting set up as a repair centre for their other products. I'm already set up as a repair centre for their generators, but I'd like to add their other stuff as well. Once again, the local co-op is the largest driving force behind this, since they sell King Canada products, and having a local repair shop makes their lives a lot easier! It also brings me business and income, so it's all good as far as I'm concerned!
Last summer, I met this fellow named Joe who lived not too far from us, and who had offered to help me repair the swathers on the farm, etc. Summer, and then Fall came and went, and I just assumed that he'd gotten busy and/or forgotten all about it. He dropped by the shop today, and it took me a couple seconds to remember him, but I'm happy to say I actually did remember him, and his name! That's quite an accomplishment for me! He apologized for not coming out to help, but explained that his father had passed away about a week afterwards, and things had pretty much hit the fan after that. I offered my condolances, and we chatted for a bit - mostly about an idea he had about trying to hook up a large snow-blower auger assembly to an engine for the purpose of moving grain. He also said he'd come out this year to help me fix those swathers - so here's hoping! His voice reminds me very much of some friends / classmates from my past, and I've been wracking my brain trying to remember who it is that he sounds so much like.
The Kidling's report card came out today, and to call it abysmal is fairly accurate. His grades were bad, and now they're even worse. I've talked (as recentlyt as this afternoon) with his teachers, and they all say the same thing: He's perfectly capable of doing the work, of even being in the top 25% of the class, but he just won't do it. He outright refuses to; An example being his recent math homework dealing with polynomials. The step-by-step instructions are on the front page of the assignment, and I even showed him how it's done (after reading said instructions) but he outright refuses to even look at the instructions. And then he whines about how he "just doesn't get it" and thinks that the teacher is being mean to him. He's going to discover that The World is a lot meaner, and won't give him umpteen chances to get it right. All of his grades, other than Shop Class, are failing grades. As it is, he'll be 19 when he's in grade 12. If he fails this grade, and he rightfully should, he'd be 20 and still in high-school. I fear (as does most of his family) that he's going to be a high-school drop-out. You can lead a student to knowledge, but you can't make them think. :/