2026-10-31
Luckily I can phone a friend…
I called Andy to get his opinion. A defective breaker valve. Luckily, we found a replacement hose bib at Lowe’s that we could take apart. I used the spare parts to fix this leaking one at my mom’s. 
A boy and his dog
Zoe is always down for whatever advernture awaits. Water, trails, sand, it doesnt matter. Hahaha.
Buzzard takes flight
I guess we interrupted these guys soaking up some rays. I like catching their wings during liftoff.
Caesar’s creek calm
Last week I was hiking the trails there and enjoyed the fall colors starting to show :)
2026-10-30
Zoe thinks she’s tied to her rug…
If I put her harness and leash on while she’s in her rug, this is the furthest she strays from it. I guess it feels like she’s at the end of her rope? 🤣
My Jeep has a built in Kendama holder!
On the way home from Andy’s I realized that the coin pocket and cup holder would nestle it perfectly. Hahahaha
Andy’s pipe threader process
Here’s the process of having his Rigid threading die head all taken apart, lubed, working, and testing. He even let me cut a set of threads!
You can call that a success for sure!
Andy managed to get one of his threading heads taken apart, oiled, adjusted, and back together in working order! The lower right of the lower right pic shows his battery-powered threader tool that normally threads up to 2” pipe. This new one is shown in the lower right pic including the orange adapter I found him at the antique mall. It can thread up to FOUR inch diameter pipe! The lower left pic shows the threader, adapter, and cutting die head all joined together. You can use it in three different configurations (the lower pics shows two of them). In one, the pipe spins, in the other the cutting head spins while the battery driver orbits the cutting head. Upper right shows the piece of 3” pipe that Andy successfully threaded. For size reference the pipe is 16” long. The upper left pic shows the big, cool cutting chip that Andy saved for me since he knew I’d want it for my collection of cool stuff we’ve done! It makes such huge chips relative to anything else I’ve ever seen. Pretty awesome setup and fun to have helped him piece it together and see it all working. With a little elbow grease he’s successfully scrounging up some good deals and tools along the way.
These things are monsters!
Andy ended up with two of these threaders! The thing weighs 93 pounds! EACH! One has some broken parts and the other is all locked/frozen up from sitting around… He’s going to have some work to do to get one good one outta the deal, but I think he’s up to the task…
2026-10-29
Doing a little “spring” cleaning with my mom.
It’s been fun spending time helping her out with chores around her place. With the nice weather, we’ve been getting some of her windows and screens cleaned up.
My mom’s quiet time…
It’s fun to see my mom spending time in the Word, Streams in the Desert, and her diary. It kind of looks like my mornings too. I wonder where I got that idea?❣️ She’s been a consistent Godly example in my life for sure!! It’s funny that I never thought I would keep a daily diary, but I guess this blog has become my version of just that hahahaha.
Last week I bush-hogged a few pastures
It’s fun and a little tricky around the edges. The horses stayed wherever I wasn’t for the most part. It was pretty with the fall colors starting and the horses running around.
When I parked for lunch, they were very curious and checked out the tractor the whole time I was eating (bottom pic).
Crazy, one day later…
It only took them a day to make this old house disappear. It’s just a nicely graded dirt lot now!
2026-10-28
Fish and insects
Aton Brown made insect fried rice and ice cream full of pulverized trout as part of the show… The wok was powered by stage lights and the ice cream maker by fire extinguishers hahahaha.
We had a pretty view of Cincy while walking in
And then we learned the theme for the night (bottom pic).
I also liked the nice view of the moon in the top pic, just over the corner of the theater. I also always like seeing the twin P&G towers on the left of that pic. That’s where they have their headquarters.
Anybody need a wrench?
I sent the boys a picture of this booth from the antique mall where Julie and I were picking. Andy immediately called us and asked us to go get him that orange thing… He’d been wanting a large threading adapter for his black iron pipe threader, but needed an adapter. The problem is the adapter costs nearly $200 these days. That’s half the price of the threader Andy was trying to buy. But somehow he noticed it in this picture and we got it for $20! Andy was thrilled and Brandon is jealous hahahaha.
This booth had this many Craftsman wrenches, and just as many sockets, screwdrivers, etc. A gold mine if you were trying to build a set or replace something that was missing. It’s all the older, better stuff too! I sound like an old guy 🤪
2026-10-27
I wanted some Nescafé for nostalgia
This was the coffee they had in hotel rooms and break rooms around the UK and some of Europe during my travels over there. It wasn’t all that bad and is also super cheap so I decided to grab some. I didn’t realize that you could get a fancy version that is still only cents a cup or so. Pretty decent for the convenience and cost. I stole one of Julie’s measuring cups and started serving myself up a hot cup.
Julie was laughing at my silly games with the measuring cup (and trying to get the coffee in there) so she bought me my very own one and a half tablespoon measuring cup.
Catching my breath in John & Savannah’s yard
I was using their paths to ride my bike with Zoe and decided to enjoy the little spot Savannah cleared out for my heart rate recovery. So pretty and relaxing, especially with the colors this time of year.
John’s learning just like I did…
My dad always told me… “How do you know how much to tighten a bolt? You crank on it until it breaks, then go a little less on the next one.” Hahahaha. He taught me that while we were fastening the stairs onto the back of the appartments on the Hammel House years ago. John got to make the walk out to our barn to find a replacement bolt for his trailer hitch when he took the same approach. 🤪
2026-10-26
John and I working on his boat a week or so ago
We attached some seats he found on Marketplace, and swapped out the hitch for one that would fit our vehicles. Of course, he had an interesting idea for a coat rack too… One of the bird feeder posts that Julie wasn’t currently using hahahaha. Oh yeah, and we mounted the oars in the locks too. It looks like they will work nicely! ❤️
Ian finished his first marathon!
8 minute miles means he finished under his goal time of 3:30 too. Crazy and cool!
Chloe and Zoe each got a ride last week.
Chloe takes up almost the whole back seat if she lays down. But she usually sits on the seat with her face right next to our shoulders just over the armrest between the front seats. Zoe is sitting there VERY hopeful that the people walking towards us on the sidewalk are going to stop and pet her, hahaha.
Still trying to get my childhood timex running right
It runs for a bit, but stalls. I noticed the hands were interfering with each other so I made some adjustment. I could get it to run for a day or so at a time, but it’s still slowly stalling more often… It’s fun figuring out what to try next.
Julie and I tried a new Indian place with Andy
It was Chipotle style and had a Mexican/Indian fusion vibe. We even got a try a Thumbs Up which was a version of Pepsi I had while I was in India.
2026-10-25
Andy tipped me off…
…That they were tearing a house down in Waynesville last week. He sent me the upper left picture of them getting ready to do the work. He knew I would enjoy seeing some of it, so I ran down and enjoyed the carnage! It’s next to the Hammel House. The city is putting a parking lot in its place.
2026-10-24
A wet, autumn dog
Chloe blends in nicely with the fall leaves on the forest floor. We had a little rain while we were hiking, but it really didn’t bother us much in the woods.
Dropped this guy off for some needed repairs
I got it cheap with a few problems, hopefully I can get it running again and have a nice 90’s piece for the “modern” part of my collection. I thought it looked good laying in the Jeep dirt for some reason 🤪
2026-10-23
She’s tryina stow-away too…
I caught Annie Oakley thinking about hiding in my Jeep too! Hahahaha. She’s a really nice and fun blue heeler that runs the ranch!
I got to bush hog all day last week.
It was a fun day of work at Camp Jabez. It’s fun to work on and use the equipment, and a good way to enjoy some fall colors that were starting to show off too.
Football scores at the hockey game this past week…
The Blue Jackets are having a rough start this year.
How is it possible…
…that I dropped my fork and it landed like THIS? Hahaha. At least it didn’t hit the floor ;)
Such a cool find and a place of honor❣️
We found this isometric sketch when going through Steve and Janice’s stuff from their house across the street. It’s what Steve had to do to get his permit for the addition we built. Andy saw it and immediately knew he wanted to frame it for his apartment. These are the same kind of drawings he has to do for his plumbing work to get approved for permits. Really cool!
2026-10-22
Leftovers!
Of course I HAD to stop for some of these. Their booth had leftovers from the sauerkraut festival. I had wanted a few, but was too full to eat anymore when we were there. So, I got my meals for the week here!❤️
Long distance target practice
On the left shows the setup I was using and the targets off in the distance. I decided it was time to make sure everything was still good on my 30-06. Turns out it was still nicely dialed in. On the right you can see a zoomed in shot of the targets. There are four distances, can you see them? Red, white, blue and orange. 100, 200, 350 and 400 yards! I got all the red, white and blue on the first try each. I got the orange one three out of five times. I was pretty happy with that. It was an 18”x24” steel plate.
2026-10-21
Blazing new trails with a friend from the range
He gave me the chance to explore some of the woods and fields on his property before we did a little target practice. Perfect day and time of year for it!
A cool, foggy, fall day
I was off on an adventure for a day of target practice and exploring with ATVs on a foggy day last week. 
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