Pirate Stuff

So what's with all this pirate stuff anyway?
Well the story is that the pirates used to hide out here at Topsail Island. In fact this is the origin of the name.

"Topsail Island's name is supposedly derived from its nefarious history. According to popular belief, pirates once hid in the channel between the island and the mainland waiting for passing ships. The topsail was supposedly the only part of the pirate ship that could be seen by the passing 'victim' until it gave chase. " (Wikipedia)

Well, so much for History. But here is a pix of the Beach House. Sorry, no Pirates. For them you'll have to go to Somalia.

Fun Facts

Regarding that Critter in the Shell, The Lazy Iguana says-

"That is a "Horse Conch". I believe they are protected on account of people almost eating all them up.

To get the snail out you hang it from a hook. Eventually the shell falls off.

You can also cut off the end of the shell and cut the tendons that hold the snail in.

Fresh conch is pretty good - but only legal in The Bahamas."

The Fuzz says, "Thanks for the Info."

More Beach Stuff!

Last time we saw how a train could interfere with a Beach Trip. But there are more potential hold ups than that.
Here's another.

In this shot, it's closed. But of course, that is not always the case. In fact as we approached The Island, it was open, which means a long line of automobiles, and a long wait. There is another bridge, but it is on the other end of The Island. This is not a long bridge, but since our car is not amphibious, we opted to wait. We finally made it across, and out to the Beach House, where the rest of the family was already enjoying their Beach Experience.

One of the "Boys" found this thing, whatever it is.

Here's a look at some of the Beach Houses from the marsh area out in the Sound. The Fuzz likes to paddle around over there in the canoe. This time he had his camera.
The real beach is on the other side of the Island. It's just a short walk to the wind and surf, but The Fuzz spends more time over here.

Gone To The Beach

It was time for our annual Beach Trip.
For the last few years the family has gathered together for a week at the beach.

So how does a train fit into all this? Well, this is the train that blocked our route, in route, to this exciting event. This one was apparently on the siding waiting for another to pass. Unfortunately, the result of this business was that this road was blocked, for a long time. This was a bit frustrating as the road we were trying to get to was only about 1/4 mile ahead. Eventually, some local folks directed us on a bit of a detour which got us where we needed to go, although it was a few miles out of the way.
But we finally made it out to the coast.
Here is a shot of the sunrise over the town of Topsail Beach, from across the sound, courtesy of The Fuzz himself.

Still Gone

Still gone
Be back soon
(I hope)

Skirting the Issue

To be approved as "inhabitable" by the county, we must have underpinning, or skirting. So we got a crew together, and went to work.

First there had to be some sort of framework to attach all this stuff to.
We dropped a plumb line from the trailer to locate this bottom board, and staked it to the ground.

Next we cut and fitted some corner posts at each corner.

Then we cut these panels from some sheets of siding and screwed them to the trailer and bottom boards.

Here you can see our expert crew, hard at work.

And here's a look at our Brand New Skirting, and the pooches playing on the porch.

There,s still a few details to finish up, and then one more "porch" to build. And then, maybe we can get the county to let us begin to move in. But this will have to wait for a bit, 'cause now it's about time for a Wonderful Beach Adventure.

More Plumbing

Here's our new Washer & Dryer out at the trailer.
The Fuzz and His Sweetie went over to the local Appliance Place and got this Brand New Washing Machine. Long time followers of this amazing blog may remember the demise of our previous machine. Well, since this trailer has Hot Water among it's many amenities, and since it would be a long drive to the laundromat (not to mention the expense), it seemed like the time had come for this Brand New Washing Machine.
Of course nothing is easy, and when The Fuzz went to install this wondrous machine, there was the inevitable plumbing situation.

Here's a glimpse of what was going on.

You will notice that the plastic hot water hookup (on the left) has been replaced with a shiny new brass one. This was because when The Fuzz attempted to hook it up to this new machine, it was found to leak. So it was back to that Home Improvement Store once again.

And here's a look at some of the equipment.

A- The washer itself
B- The instructions to complete the procedure
C- The expensive crimping tool
D- The old, defective, valve
E- One of the excellent, new, valves (Since we had it apart, we replaced both)
F- Tool borrowed from Son-in -law for cutting plastic pipe
G- Rings, for crimping
H- First hookup, already in place

And we are happy to report that the repairs were a success, and this Wonderful Brand New Washing Machine is now fully functional.

Keeping Things Quiet

Here was the situation.
This was the Muffler on Son's automobile.

You will note it's poor condition. In fact, it had already removed itself from the vehicle in question.
You will notice at A how the exhaust has been ripped from it due to rust and all that stuff. A check of the local Auto Parts Place indicated a cost in excess of $100 for a replacement. It was clearly time to once again slip off into Cyberspace and that wonderful source for "All things automotive". There was found this somewhat more generic unit, priced more reasonably.
It did lack some of the convenience of the OME type unit, such as the hangers (B) on the high priced unit, but we figured with our great skills, we could rig things.
Naturally, it was raining, so everyone involved got soaked, but here is a look at this Shiny New Muffler.
We did use clamps instead of trying to weld the thin meatal under the car. At C you can see how we used some bent rod for support.

Every thing seems to have worked out well, and the car has quieted down considerably. So, we'll call this "Another job, well done".

Grab You

Death Comes To Another

You may remember these guys. They were the subjects of a recent inquiry* involving an unpleasant incident on the back porch.

Well, the sad news today, is they are now orphans.
Their foolish mother got out in the road one too many times.
Fortunately, they are old enough to make it on their own, but it is a sad thing for all.

*The results were inconclusive, although B seems to played the "Cute" card.

Time For A Change

Time had taken it's toll on The Fuzz's old watch. Particularly on the band.
The Fuzz does not really enjoy wearing a wristwatch, especially in hot weather, but his work situation this week made it desirable. But as is evident, his watch was not up to this.

This is an excellent little timepiece, a gift from the Young'uns many years ago. It's one of them Timex things that "Takes a lickin' but keeps on tickin'". But the wristband was, alas, history. Here's a look at things-

At A- Just plum Tore Up. (Note the less than successful attempt to staple the thing together)
At B- Rubber band used to secure loose end when buckled.
At C- One of the pins that later caused so much trouble.
At D- Enlarged (and very frayed) holes for buckle.

After assessing the situation, The Fuzz decided the best course of action would be the purchase of a new band. Simple enough, or so it seemed.

In an effort to avoid that "Walmart Experience", he payed a visit to a competitor. There he had an encounter with a pleasant, if not particularly knowledgeable person in the jewelery department. First there was a rather drawn out process to determine the correct size. This involved opening a number of bands and comparing them to the current one.
Once this had been determined, he (The Fuzz was pretty much doing this himself at this point) began to remove these pins (C). This was the beginning of the next complication. The 1st pin came out as expected, but the 2nd refused to cooperate. In fact, eventually, it broke off in the tiny hole. The Fuzz soon discovered that the only pliers available, was some Chanel Locks, hardly what one would expect for working on jewelry. I'm sorry to report that at this point the sale fell through.
The Fuzz rode sadly home considering the possible purchase of a new watch. There he made an unsuccessful attempt with the needlenose. But not one to give up easily, he got out the Dremel Tool. He picked out the tiniest bit he had and began to drill. This proved more successful and soon there was a new (if slightly larger) hole for the pin.
Now all he needed was a band. It was at this point he remembered an old, non functioning, watch he had stashed years ago. It seems The Fuzz is a bit of a pack rat, if it must be known.
And now he has a somewhat battered watch, with a Fancy Snakeskin Band, to wear to work.

Mud

This is mud. .

We seem to have a lot of it lately. It seems the drought is finally history.
This is a look at our "Driveway" into the trailer the other day. It was kinda slick. It has poured down rain several times since then. We plan on doing some work out there this weekend that will require moving some heavy supplies in there. Since our 4x4 is out of the picture for now, we will need to somehow get in there with a trailer and a normal automobile.

Here is a look at One of The Fuzz's attempts to improve this situation. Note, at the arrow, the large chunks of cement that he has filled in this mud hole with. We used a variation of this system at the house, and it was quite effective there. But that was a small thing in comparison to this "Driveway" which at this point is a muddy trail in the woods. This made for an interesting ride on The Fuzz's motorcycle the other day. Of course, we could simply have numerous loads of gravel brought in, but that would require numerous dollars which are needed elsewhere. But "They" claim the rain will stop soon. If we are lucky, the road may dry out enough by the weekend and we won't have to hand carry all that stuff in.

Hung Jury?

Well, for the Guilty Kitty, so far we are tied, 2 for A, and 2 for C. I suppose we could just hang them both. I mean, what's a couple kitties more or less?

And just so you have something to look at, The Fuzz wanted me to add this little pix of some kind of Rose he found in the woods and brought home.

Guilty?

Well, so far the vote is going against this little feller. His refusal to make eye contact is working against him. Maybe he needs a better lawyer. The jury is still out, but it looks bad.
If you haven't had a chance yet to voice your opinion, there's still time.
In the mean time, let's just say that the whole litter was banished from the porch, which seemed to have a good effect. But don't think of this as a cruel punishment thing, it was more of a chance for them to begin to experience the wider world out there.

On The Job

You may recall how The Fuzz had been working on a trailer hitch for this little car. With his truck seemingly out of action, and a pressing need to keep working on our new Home In The Woods, it seemed like the best plan.
Now, here is a look at this rig on the job. Of course this lacks the macho image of a 4x4 and all, but it seems to get the job done. And isn't that the point anyway?
But there are times when one does miss that 4x4 aspect. We had to move some plywood out there and that worked out just fine. But we have been getting a bit of rain lately, and this is a good thing when one recalls the passed dry years. It rained while we were there the other day and, as you can see, the ground was quite wet. But we were careful and made it back out OK.
We are hoping to get some underpinning and another "porch" done soon. After that we should be "approved" by the county, and can start the long process of actually making this place habitable.

Multiple Choice

Now that we've dealt with those troublesome "Monkey Pods", we can move on to more pressing matters.
To our right, you will see "Exhibit A". This is only one of these items being found daily on our back porch. For any who might be a little inexperienced, this is what is known as a Cat Turd.
Now this is not intended to be one of those "Cute Kitten" pix, although I suppose it could fall into that category. It is rather, a roundup of "The usual suspects". But the question remains, which is the perpetrator?

Is it suspect "A"?

Suspect "B"?

Or, suspect "C"?

This is the question we need answered. Not knowing how to determine this, The Fuzz suggested that we leave it up to some sort of a vote, maybe like that American Idol thing on the TV. And so, we leave it up to you, our many loyal readers. Which of these sneaky little Shitty Kitties is responsible. Which looks like the type that would commit such an act of desecration.

Albizia Saman

And just what is this "Albizia saman" you may ask, and why would we even mention it?
Well it did come up as a comment to a recent post. It is, in fact this mystery Monkey Pod! And you can read all about it Here on that wonderful source for all kinds of information, Wikipedia!


"Albizia saman is known under a wide range of common names, such as Saman, Rain Tree or Monkey Pod..."


Maria said...

"yay- we used to get Monkey Pods stuck in our tires in Hawaii - it does make a horrible noise...it scared me the first time i heard it...but i was glad that was all it was :)"

And then Maria said...

"haha -a monkey pod is this type of seed thing that falls from some of the tree's in hawaii...not sure which type. but when they are broken open they are every where!!! and they are a sticky mess!..which ends up in your tires...meh"

So now we know what is this Monkey Pod. But what am I doing up this late?!!

Slight Hitch Cont....

Enlarging the access hole didn't seem like the best approach since this might weaken what goes for a frame.
Perhaps this would be insignificant, but since this area would have to bear the additional strain of a (possibly overloaded) trailer The Fuzz decided to use another approach.
The piece on the left A will take a ride on the bench grinder, the one on the right B has already had it's turn and now is able to slip up into this "frame". This stuff has to go in one hole and end up with the bolt sticking out of the other.
This could get tricky.
But there is a little trick to accomplish this amazing feat. They have provided this ingenious technique utilizing this "Fishing" wire to pull the bolt into the flat thing which will already be inside the "frame".
Note how securely the bolt threads into this specially designed wire. The Fuzz was expecting the worst, like maybe loosing all this stuff inside that "frame". But I'm happy to report that he was disappointed, and every thing worked just as planned. The bolt slid into that flat piece and then the whole thing slid right down though the proper hole with only a minimum of jiggling. This was repeated on the other side, and then the hitch was lifted and bolted into position.

And here is the finished project.
Now we'll have to find a suitable trailer.

But There Was a Slight Hitch

With all the trouble we've been having with that sorry truck, we thought it might be time for a backup plan. So The Fuzz went online and ordered this Trailer Hitch Kit from a famous Mail Order Automotive Outfit whose motto is "Everything Automotive". It arrived pretty quickly. (But we're still waiting for the motorcycle tire.)

The rather large box also included these instructions.

After carefully reading them, The Fuzz thought, "This should be easy" and crawled under the car. This was when the rain began. But The Fuzz is not one to be intimidated by a little shower.
The first thing was to lower the muffler. This turned into quite a struggle, but was eventually accomplished. Next the now saturated Fuzz turned his attention to the actual installation. The holes all lined up perfectly, but now, there was a slight hitch. The part at the left (also seen at B on the diagram above) was just slightly too wide to slip up into the "Access Hole" at A. Unlike the diagram, this bit of what goes for a "frame" on these little cars, is completely boxed in. The instructions called for running a "Fishing" wire in one hole, and out the other thus pulling the bolt and this "Square Hole Spacer" across to the other hole, and then down into position to bolt the hitch to the "Frame". But this of course, presupposes that one can actually get the piece in there.
This was the point where the now thoroughly soaked Fuzz packed it in for the day.

To be continued.....

Tiny Troubles

I believe it was mentioned that The Fuzz and His Sweetie sometimes have a night out at the Local Coffee Shop.
Some times this can lead to an adventure of sorts. A couple weeks ago, the were on their way back to the house after getting all caffeined up when the wheel on their fine motor vehicle began making a terrible racket. After that initial Sinking Feeling, the noise quit. They figured perhaps something had gotten somehow, briefly, stuck in the wheel. Since the noise was no longer there they just continued happily on their way.
But, 2 weeks later, as they neared the house after another evening of ingesting that powerful drug, that terrible noise returned. (Along with that Sinking Feeling I might add) There was nothing left to do but check it out. As The Fuzz crawled under the vehicle with his flashlight, he found that the cats had been busy in this area. At this point he realized that this would be better dealt with in the morning.
Unfortunately, if one is (like The Fuzz) a contributing member of society, "the morning" often involves going to work. This also means that anything like this must be taken care of first. It is still quite dark at 5:30 AM. But The Fuzz rolled out of the bed and into the yard. There was no obvious problem, so the only thing left was to remove the offending wheel for a better look.
He toted the heavy floor jack up to the shitty driveway and wedged it under the vehicle. There seems to be some sort of air lock in this thing which causes it to quit just before it's high enough. But The Fuzz is a resourceful guy and he knows how to use blocks of wood and bricks to make things work.
By now you have no doubt seen this little pebble we posted here. The Fuzz found it there in that dust shield at the disk. Now this particular pebble was not in a position to cause any of this trouble, but he seems to think it is indicative of what the actual problem was. He believes that the offender was already dislodged, possibly by his early morning endeavors.
At any rate, the vehicle is doing fine, with no terrible noises and no sinking feelings. And, he made it to work on time!

And How About This?

Ain't technology great?

This just in!

"Saudi files for 'killer' tracking chip patent"

"A Saudi Arabian inventor has filed for a patent on a potentially lethal science fiction-style human tracking microchip, the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) told The Local on Friday."

But, not to worry-

"...the macabre innovation that enables remote killing will likely be denied copyright protection."

This is, certainly a big relief.

As can be seen from this detailed diagram, this involves tracking by satellites, implanted chips and stuff like that. The future is looking better all the time.

Fuzzy News, we report, you decide.

Mobile Generosity

There's a lot of "Neat Freaks" in this world. Now there's nothing wrong with that actually. If it weren't for these Neat Freaks this place would really be a mess. I must confess to not being one, myself. A bit of "clutter" doesn't bother me too much, although, it can get out of hand at times.
Living as we do on this fairly busy road, a lot of these Neat Freaks pass by every day. I can understand how they might want to clean out a bit of the "clutter" in their cars. Too much "clutter" in the car can cause complications in certain situations, like, routine traffic stops.

And so, The Fuzz was not particularly surprised to find this item in the yard the other day.
He did want me to inform you all, that he was in no wise responsible for this. He claims he wouldn't drink this stuff unless he was totally parched and there was no suitable substitute available, like maybe water.
We are hoping that when we finally make it out to the woods, these unfortunate incidents will be a thing of the past.

After an Evening....

The Fuzz and His Sweetie sometimes spend an evening at the local Coffee Shop. They don't believe in Decaf.

Fancy Fixtures

The Fuzz may be having troubles with vehicles lately, but he hasn't let that keep him down. Check out these brand new kitchen faucets here.

Notice the cheap plastic crap that was removed.

The Fuzz and His Sweetie slipped over to the Home Improvement Store for a quality fixture. They've been slipping over there a lot lately. Pretty soon the Home Improvement Store will have all their money. But they have been very patriotic, and are doing their part to stimulate the economy.
The Fuzz says that with the government printing all that new money, we might as well spend ours now, while it's still worth something, and have something to show for it.
They also purchased a bunch of paint and a shower curtain rod. This ingenious device does not require any sort of mounting fixtures. One simply twists this thing, and an internal spring applies tension against the wall, thus, holding it firmly in place. The Fuzz was somewhat concerned that it might poke a hole though the thin wallboard, but so far, every thing seems to be OK.

In Passing Through

Tach It Up

Things have not been going well lately in regards to mechanical matters. The other day, The Fuzz was riding back from the trailer on his motorcycle. As he neared the house the tach fell off. This was a bit of a bummer, since due to another situation which I'd rather not go into right now, this bike is his main method of transport. Now this is not as strange as it may seem, since so much of this machine is constructed of (now aging) plastic. But The Fuzz admits, he was not expecting it.

Realizing that this would surely be an expensive part to replace, he gave it a bit of thought, and the wheels began to go click-click-click. Here is the result.
A hose clamp (A ) was purchased at the Home Improvement Store. This was then cut open and bent to fit the mounting on the bike. Appropriately sized holes were drilled for the screw, and it was fastened to the bike. Of course there were complications. Since the tach was slightly tapered, it had a tendency to slip out of the clamp when tightened. First a bit of old inner tube was tried unsuccessfully. Finally, he resorted to adding a clamp (B) made out of an unused scrap of the hose clamp. This was more successful.
Now there are many folks who would probably be disgusted by this crude expedient, but this is not a $50,000 Chopper or any thing like that. As The Fuzz has said he "Got it to ride on, not rub on". And so far, it hasn't fallen off again. And as you know, it's hard to argue with success.

Walking Down