Discovering my freedom in Minnesota

I’ve had to go more than once to get bits of metal out of my eye. You are supposed to stare at a lighted target and not move your eye. Easier said than done when you see that tool coming in. Only pain is in the wallet.

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I can’t even use eye drops because of my blink reflex.

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I’ve been thinking about eye surgery, but I’ll be double damned if I go the both eyes at the same time route!

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Dad is going in a few days after Argos. I’m taking a couple vacation days, one for the operation and next day for the check up. Next month is the other eye.

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I did the laser eye surgery some years ago, both eyes at once, better than 20/20 vision the next morning. The shaving off the surface of the eye, the clamps, and the smell like burning flies as the laser ablates your cornea can be unnerving, but they should offer ativan for that, just keep looking at the target… :slight_smile:

The major downside is that you have to learn to not get poked in the eye by all the things your glasses used to protect you from… :smile:

Garry Tait, Manitoba.

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Hey Bill,
Sorry to hear about your eye, my dad was a metal machinist back in the 60s
Every now and then he would get metal shavings in his eyes and fingers. He made an electro magnet with a big nail for a pointer and pulled the shavings out in the bathroom mirror.
Of course back then you didn’t go to the drs unless you were severly bent,broken,
or bleeding uncontrolabley.
Whats a piece of metal in your eye?
Come on suck it up! That was back then. Now I’m with Andy I’ll go to the drs
and be done with it.
Hope your eye gets better soon.
Will keep you in my prayers
Jesse

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I wish your dad luck. Do we take our eye sight for granted or what.

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Thanks Pepe,
Dad went to heaven 46yrs. ago
Yes we do take our eyesight for granted most of the time! Especially me , I take it for granted that I can’t see s,!..t up close or read anything but headlines without my glasses. Now I have to have a scope on my rifle if I want to do more than scare the crap out of anything down range. My 44 does ok out to about 150 shooting nat. Just point and shoot. But wouldn’t want to compete without my glasses.
Ah well another subject for another day
Jesse

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Sorry about your dad, Jesse, my comment was in response to a comment Jeff made above. Geez, did my head stop when I first read your thanks and then 46 years?? I had to go back and see what I said to whom.
Pepe

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I had to carry each bird a couple hundred feet two nights in a row to their new coop. Thinking this would take a week or more to go to their new coop but nope, day three they caught on. I kept them in there until I had four eggs which was 11 AM.
Here they are staring out the window waiting for me to shut the door.

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Mine are mad at me after scaring them out of the asparagus patch yesterday.

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You can make it up to them by feeding them the heel from a loaf of bread. :slight_smile:

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Yes. Stock up on shelf pulled old white bread. Feed out some daily when you want them from out-and-about to coop up safe for the night.
White commercial bread - crack for chickens.
The stale whole wheat bread is no-doubt better for them. But the white works better as an attractant in failing light conditions.

Yep. Turn them just a bit into expectant “cake-eaters”.
Regards
Steve Unruh

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My project for today.
I built this water heater/shower this will help until I build an addition with a bathroom.
It took 45 minutes to bring our 41.5°F water to 85-90°. So roughly a quart of fuel to get it a little warmer. At $2.60/gallon, that’s roughly $.65 for a shower. When we go to town, the hotel charges us $5/person.

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Hey Bill
I’ve used this shower many times in the past.
Only have one tip since the rest of your setup looks good:
Paint the water barrel black let the sun help you heat your water.
The last one I set up I used. Solar scorcher to heat my barrel.
I used the fresnel lens from an old big screen TV frame the plastic lens on a tilt stand find your best focal point now back off so it it doesn’t burn a hole in your barrel. Large quantities of hot water real fast. If you can find a lens you can use a clear shower curtain stapled very tightly to a horizontal frame about 8’ above ground .
make sure the curtain is on the top of its frame.
Now run enough water to give you about a 30" circle. DO NOT WALK OR STEP OR STAND UNDER THE APPERATOUS IT WILL BURN THE HIDE OFF OF YOU ALMOST INSTANTLY AT THE FOCAL POINT!!
Sorry wasn’t shouting.
This is scarey hot more so than the stand kind because the focal point should be about waist high and 6" in dia.
I used to put a tarp over mine when not in use.
One shower curtain should last all season
Mid May - mid Oct
Free energy is cool when used properly
Hope this helps your situation
Jesse

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Hi Bill. I’ve got this system in mind for hot water.

http://www.reuk.co.uk/DIY-Solar-Water-Heating-Prototype.htm

Here’s another take, with more design information.

Tempered glass is required, so an economical unit should be designed around a glass shower door, preferably recycled. Rather than fuss with the backing heat collector, I suggest black low rib steel roof cladding. The new generation of cladding paint should last quite well. Painting it with high temp flat black would make it slightly more effective. The other thing to know is that the heating efficiency of a flat plate collector drops to zero once air temperatures drop closer to freezing.

For northern applications, an insulated holding tank, and a glycol / methyl hydrate system with a heat exchanger seems most practical. I believe that a backflow valve may be needed to keep the system from operating in reverse at night.

A method of aiming the collector to face directly towards the sun could be used, but flat plate collectors are still fairly effective if just pointed south.

The British tutorial shows a heat exchanger coil way too big in my opinion, a few turns of copper should exchange heat effectively.

The other approach that would be effective is to convert an old gas water heater to heat with wood.

http://www.permaculturinginportugal.net/blog/cob-bathroom-build-the-plumbing-and-electrics/

Any way it’s gotten, hot running water is one of the greatest inventions.

Regards,

Garry Tait, Manitoba

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Challenge for the day.
Baking bread on the rocket stove.
I’m not sure if you can tell, but it just started snowing. The trick is keeping the temp at 350°F

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Wow!
I think just the challenge itself and succeeding makes it taste better. I had a difficult time keeping the temperature correct so I adjusted the time to what felt right. I know now I can live without my oven. But… As long as I have propane…
Note: It took 2 rough cut Poplar 1x4’s 12" long to bake.

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Good looking brown bread
Bet it tastes great too.
Thanks you gave me an idea for something to do today.
Bake bread!
The question is: what kind?
Grandma’s white bread, recipe from chickensintheroad.com
Focacia bread
Connamon Rolls
Maybe all three!
Jesse

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Supposed to be cinnamon, not connamon

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