Tag Archives: ham radio tower

November 12, 2022 · 10:01 am

Sunny, Cold Saturday 11-12-2022

Dogtime.com

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Weather –

My husband saw snowflakes when he took Amber out for the last time last night! It’s 37 degrees with bright sunshine right now, with more snow possibly Monday. Ooh. NOOOO! I’m not ready for this! I’m still trying to get the yard cleaned up!

Diet and Exercise –

I’ve lost 2 lbs this week. I’m really trying not to stuff my face between meals, after dinner, in the middle of the night…. DAY 120 on my yoga practice. It’s still quite difficult for me to hold the plank pose. I made it to 21 seconds yesterday. Pathetic, but progress.

Ham Radio Tower –

It’s gone! George and a friend came at about 1:30 yesterday afternoon. They were able to get the tower lying on it’s side on the ground without problem (amazing) and then proceeded to take it apart. While they were doing that, I helped my husband get the antenna controller unattached from the shelf in the office where it has lived for umpteen years. It did NOT want to come out of the sturdy metal bracket my husband built for it, but FINALLY he was able to get it down. He also decided to give George a signal analyzer. I found the paperwork and we bundled those together. George was thrilled with his ‘goodies’ and we were happy that the stuff has obviously found a good home.

Lunch Bunch –

It was great yesterday. Kay’s husband, Bud, wasn’t working because it was rainy (he works a backhoe). He greeted me with, “I thought it was time for you to enjoy my smiling face again.” :0) He, Kay, and Linda were there. Linda is moving to a retirement place in Greenwood and may actually be moved by next Friday, or soon thereafter. She is looking forward to a more active social life than she has now. I’m really happy for her. She meets people easily and should be happy there. If not, we’ll help her move again.

Supplies –

Since the forecast is possibly snow Monday, we’ll probably get out today or tomorrow to replenish supplies so we can hole in up here, if needed. I’m planning to wait until it warms up as much as it’s going to if we go today. The sun is shining, but it’s COLD out there!

Have a nice Saturday.

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November 8, 2022 · 10:01 am

Tuesday 11-8-2022

Wired

I wish I thought we would have definitive answers about election results tonight, but I really doubt it. We’ll have delays, run-offs, ‘too-close-to-calls’ etc. We’ll probably tune in to see what we can see, but to say I feel tense is an understatement.

I emptied and spread nine 40-pound bags of potting soil in the trio of brick planters yesterday. Today I’ll continue my efforts, starting in the side yard with one bag each to the two tomato planters and one to the new iris planter. Not sure if I’ll do more.

We’re going to make a run to town to replenish supplies. Hopefully, the trash people have done their thing – if not already – then by the time we come home, so we can put the can in the back of the truck and take it back up. Fingers crossed.

Yesterday we offered our 40 foot ham radio tower ‘free to a good home.’ We had several emails responding and three people who came to the house. One is coming Saturday to dismantle it and take it home. My husband is still able to use an antenna on top of our well house, so he doesn’t have to give his ham radio communications up.

We have no big plans for the day, but the day is beautiful, so it’ll be nice to spend time outside in the sun. Freezes by the end of the week, so I’ll soak up what I can of the nice weather until then.

I hope you have a terrific Tuesday. If you haven’t voted yet, please let your voice be heard today.

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July 11, 2017 · 12:22 pm

We’ll Just Find a Way

Abraham Lincoln – Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero

 

We’re ‘finding a way’ on several things around here lately.

  1. We’re trying to dig a hole to act as a base for my husband’s new-to-him 45 foot+ ham radio tower and antenna. He’s called all around trying to find someone who will drill a hole for us. We had someone give us an estimate of $1500! Someone else came over and told us they couldn’t get their equipment to the place we need the hole.

Finally, we called an acquaintance of ours who has helped us do weird things in the past. He’s going to bring over an air powered rock drill that takes a big compressor to run it to drill several holes as deeply as we can through our rock in a 3×3′ group. We’ll put 3 foot stakes at different angles into the holes and then put grout the consistency of slurry in the holes to hold the stakes and our pipe where they are. My husband built a 3′ x 3′ box form for concrete.  When we get that over the pipe and stakes, we’ll start mixing sac-crete in our wheelbarrow and fill up the form. We figure about 20 sacs of sac-crete if each one makes 1 cubic foot of concrete.

Today, my husband went out with a shovel to start the hole for the drilling. He wanted to get the dirt out down to where the rock started. He soon came back to get a pick axe. He swung that twice and was done.

He then decided that at least he could mow the high weeds that would clear a path for the dig-the-holes project. He got that mostly done, but the riding mower was complaining when he was almost finished. We took it back to the shop to discover it had thrown a belt. My husband got that back on.

I was going to take the mower out again to mow the yard. I got to the spot where I wanted to start mowing, but when I pushed the lever forward to engage the blades, the motor started making a bad noise. We ended up pushing it back to the shop to be looked at later.

2. So now we have to ‘find a way’ to get the riding mower working again.

It makes me a bit afraid to start anything else….

 

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June 27, 2017 · 1:17 pm

Some Progress

Wild Ammo

This tired big cat looks a lot better than I do right now.

I just came in from

  • planting three celery plants and a head lettuce bottom,
  • weeding the raised square foot garden beds
  • spraying weed killer on the weeds under the raised beds of the garden.

My hair is completely wet – plastered to my head; my face is red; and I’m still breathing hard -BUT I have a large glass of water with ice and I’m in the a/c, sitting comfortably at my computer, feeling nicely spoiled. :0)

My friend Laufrain looked up growing celery while we were bowling last night and discovered that I should be watering my celery more. Mine is greener and a little tough compared to what you find at the store. We also discovered that I should be tying the stalks together. I have some tomato vine tying tape that I think will work well for that.  I also think I’ll harvest the stalks when they’re smaller and younger. If I keep trying this, I may actually be successful!

I discovered the probable reason why celery isn’t included in the square foot gardening book. The online article said that celery was one of the most difficult veggies to grow. So I’m patting myself on the head a bit, having even a small amount of success. :0)

 

This is the new style thermometer my husband put up in the greenhouse yesterday. As you can see, it’s WAAAY too hot to stay out there long, or to plant much at this point. It’s better first thing in the morning or just before sunset in the evening, but it’s still too hot to try to get seedlings to grow. It may be that I need to take the summer off, have things planned and ready to start around beginning of September for the fall garden. I’ll do a lot of reading about greenhouses, as well as when I should be starting the plants I want to grow for the fall. I have a lot of homework to do.

Our friend Dave came over this morning to help my husband figure out how to make the rotor for the ham radio tower antenna to work properly.  My husband had worked and worked on it, and was at a loss. Dave took it apart, put it back together again, and it miraculously worked. The closed it up and declared victory. Dave says he thinks a special tool he has will get the tower up without our having to hire someone with a crane. They’re planning to assemble the whole thing, including the antenna, on the ground. They’ll test the rotor to make sure it’s working correctly. We’ll already have the guy wire rods in the ground and the guy wires on the tower. They’ll, in effect, winch the tower up into place and hold it steady while cables are plugged in, guy wires attached, etc. The first step, though, is drilling the hole, putting the pipe into the hole, and putting the cement into the hole.

Amber chewed through the rope that attached her to the dog run yesterday. Happily, my husband was watching her and saw what she had done, and so caught up with her and put her on the porch. This morning we got some cable, cable ends, and a new attachment piece. My husband made a new line to attach to the run and we tested it. Probably, since she can’t chew through the cable this time, she’ll pull the whole Martin house that the run is attached to, down…

And so it goes at the Lewises.

If I can cool off, I’m going out to prune the trio of brick flower planters that go between our front yard and the driveway. This, as well as several other things, have been on my list for so many days now they’re beginning to get on my nerves, so I’m determined to make some progress on each of them today.

Happy Tuesday!

 

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