As usual, it was a very busy weekend.  Given that it is most likely the last weekend with decent weather for the next several months, the push was on to get as much of the outdoor tasks finished as possible.  One of the most important jobs was to switch the tires on Trixstir's van ( Read more... )

     Considering that this was what my fortune cookie last night said, and given that the Chinese proverb is more of a curse than a blessing, maybe I should have seen it as an omenous warning.

Trixstir and I are in Calgary, having arrived on Friday night to take in the Supertrain 2015 model railroader exhibition.  The trip out was pretty much ( Read more... )

     A while ago (on January 24th, actually) I posted that I had finally managed to get the forklift here at the shop running.  Well, that was partially true - it was running, but not as well as it ought to have.  In fact, the more it ran, the worse it got, until it just wouldn't start anymore.  At first, I thought there must be more issues with ( Read more... )

     The part that I ordered from the states to replace the control-module on the boiler finally arrived today.  It would have gotten here sooner, but Customs had to play with it for five days or so before letting it go though.  Thankfully, the weather was relatively warm the last while, so things were not as bad as they could have been.  It took ( Read more... )

     Trixstir and I are in Calgary for a few days, having just arrived a couple of hours ago.  I'm here for training on the Kohler Direct Injection Diesel engine (KDI Diesel) starting on Tuesday, and Trixstir is here for her annual retuning and adjustment of her hearing-aids.  The drive out was relatively uneventful, other than (as usual) we were ( Read more... )

    Well, it took a long time - a little over seven months actually, but I finally got my little TCM forklift running ( Read more... )

     ...DON'T force it ( Read more... )

      Arrived at the shop this morning, and while I heard the furnace fan running, it seemed oddly cold in the building.  Once I deactivated the alarm system, I checked the thermostat and sure enough it was cold - down to 53°F!  It didn't take long to find the problem; the thermocouple on the furnace had failed again.  I'll have to check my entries ( Read more... )

    The last few days have seen a lot of money coming into the shop - It's just a shame that I don't get to keep all of it, since most of it has to go to the suppliers to pay for the items that I'm selling to my customers.  I've completed the sales on two of the Zero-Turn (ZTR) mowers, and I've got four customers eye-balling the big one, which has ( Read more... )

    I've just worked on two Poulan-Pro lawnmowers owned by the same person; One with a Briggs & Stratton engine, and one with a Honda engine.  Both of them have obviously been tinkered with by someone who didn't know what the heck he (or she) was doing.     (LJ's linefeeds still don't work in the visual editor. I thought maybe this was an issue ( Read more... )