Non-Flashlight Things You Enjoyed Doing Today

Are you sure you’re not Jackie Chan?!

Ahh! Well for a short run of Gigabit or less, I’m sure it won’t matter too much…

I ran Cat5E (was going to buy Cat6, but got to use “what I need” off a spool of Cat5E a friend had, for free) through parts of my house. Also have my raspberry pi setup for a pihole, a network drive, and a DLNA server. I can download content straight to the appropriate folder on the shared drive from my PC, and stream it to whatever DLNA-compatible device I please. I’m planning to do an openVPN server as well, but have not gotten around to it. My home network is a hobby but networking is also part of my job.

Finally got myself a proper knife lubricant (KPL), I have been using mineral and tool oil in the past but they gunk up very fast. Disassembled and maintained 5 knives, the action on them improved quite a bit specially the ones that use bronze washers.

The bottle is tiny with just 10ml of fluid but the level hasn’t even moved after applying to 5 knives. I expect this little bottle to last for years.

I hope your wife doesn’t read this. :slight_smile:

Exploring is great fun. Finding old remnants of past activities is a great bonus. We’ve found traces of old homesteads and sawmills. A few times we have been lucky and found a few obsidian arrow heads that would probably date back a few hundred years.

old GIF, but did the same thing today.
the can behind the plates is the target.

I didn’t find it today but, my last day off I went walking the creek bed behind my house. Found an old condensing coil. About 12 inch in diameter, foot and half tall and about 14 winds. Got me thinking back to when a buddy and I made moonshine about 25 years ago. We didn’t make it to sell, just for our own consumption. I don’t drink anymore and won’t but, it sure got me thinking to all the great times him and I had just making it. We were in the woods just cutting up and goofing off like kids do. I am sure our shine was horrible but, it did the trick. We had an old pot someone gave us. 10 gallons of mash I think it held. Some copper pipe of different sizes and we were off to the races. We never did use a thumper, we probably should have, looking back on it now.

Anyway, that coil just made me think back to a different time and how much my life has changed since then. 2 years after that I had my first child, lived on a working family horse ranch outside of Haughton Louisiana, not far from the Shreveport/Bossier City area, Worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week to help keep the ranch going and loved every minute of it. I learned things living there that they don’t teach in books and schools. Now there is nothing that I can’t fix, drive, or blow up.

Sleeping one night with the windows open one spring. Louisiana only gets 2 days of spring a year mind you. My wife wakes me up screaming bloody murder. So I jump up and ask her what wrong, she says somebody is coming through the window. I grab my pistol and Maglight off the nightstand and shine it at the window, now this all happened in just a few seconds, something coming in the window alright but, it’s not human. Horses broke through a gate and were wandering around, one stuck its head right through the screen to have a look around. My heart was racing as I shined the light over there, thinking for sure I was going to have to do the one thing I hoped I never had to. I quickly lowered my pistol and burst out in laughter. For a solid minute I couldn’t stop. Cheeks and belly hurting and tears streaming down my face. The wife thought I was crazy but, the laughter must have been catching because she started laughing too.

It was a epic moment I will never forget.

All of that came rushing back to me by an old copper coil I found in an old creek long forgotten. I am keeping that copper coil til the day I die. I hope someone takes care of it when I go.

In the SW US one of the things that make for enjoyable exploring is searching out ancient sites such as those from the Anasazi Indians. For 1,000 years, long before Columbus, the Anasazi Indians were lords of what’s now the American Southwest. Some of their dwellings are preserved as national monuments and have visitor centers. There are hundreds more that do not appear on maps made public. Way off the beaten track. Some of the stonework is amazing. The paths to these cliff face dwellings can be daunting.

Alas, the spread of the internet has caused damage to many of the ancient sites. Twenty or thirty years ago myself and a friend did a lot of exploring (Jeeps) the SE corner of Utah. We found sites in various places on land that was national forest or BLM. Those of any significance often had a weatherproof can (ammo can) someplace with a guest register, a short story, and a “please leave as found” note. There were still often pottery shards, even dried shrunken mini corn cobs and bone fragments. Very few people visited these sites and those who did left them intact. A few years ago I revisited some and discovered the historic remnants gone. A search on the internet finds many maps and even GPS routes.

I also have a moonshine story, but will have to leave it for another time.

Beautiful location and pictures MtnDon, luv it.

I like cutting trees, when it is to improve the forest or to make use of the trees. Today I cut a couple that had fallen on a fence. Then I repaired the fence where the fallen trees had broken gate posts, using some new and old posts, some new and old wire.

Then I loaded the small trailer up for cut logs for a friend to use as firewood.

Great stories guys.

All that happened here on the ranch lately is hanging an old kitchen cabinet donated by a friend into the barn yesterday , was a real beetch trying to lean 3 feet off a step ladder over the work bench and lift it up onto a 2x4 shelf that I mounted to get it level and at the right height.
Should have had someone else here to help or at least to call 911 but got er done and now have more workshelf space available and a place to house things.

Also was a nice day today for PA, so took the old Mazda pickup out for a ride and delivered a rarely used extra gas grill to a buddy for use at his cabin.
So now it’s off my deck and don’t have to worry about it coming through the glass door when the never ending west wind gets her.

And last but not least the Eagle landed this morning so that was a good surprise:)

Later,
Keith

Did a thorough vacuum sweep of my apartment. Left no spot untouched. Nothing better to make home feel pleasant again after the rain brought down all the drought dust and made hoovering not pointless.

went for a long ride on a Jetson Bolt. Lots of fun!

riding road bike 88 miles last week
just getting things done, with some unnecessary miles :slight_smile:

learning new knots

sewing or trying to

cooking

wle

Today, for the first time in approximately 10 weeks, I was able to attend a community ecclesiastical function. It was absolutely blessed!

I cut the lawn using my riding lawnmower. It does have a modified LED headlight (Lawnmower LED Light Bulb), but that should still count, right? In the middle of winter with the cold and snow, I always think about how nice it will be again in the summer cutting the lawn. It’s very relaxing and the fresh cut grass smells so good.

It’s even more enjoyable since I used to have a walk behind lawnmower and cutting the lawn was such a chore. It’s still a lot of work every other time with trimming and blowing, but it’s so much less work and quicker now.

Thanks, MoreLumens. I enjoy seeing the pictures.

How far north are those images? What altitude? The tree size reminds me of what I might see here if I went above 10,000 feet (3000 m) altitude. I’m at about 35 degrees north. The images I posted are nearby at about 8800 feet (2680 m). Of course, the seasonal hours of sunlight difference help to confuse growth too.

Do you get much precipitation? We get an annual average of 19” (45 cm). But that seems to be becoming less over time.

Washed, sealed, and waxed my car. Then a thorough interior detailing. Ready for the summer weather.

I use Meguiar’s sealant and wax products. For the exterior black trim, tires, interior panels and dash I use Aerospace 303 spray. For the seating surfaces I use Meguiar’s leather conditioner and cleaner.

I like more lumens pics of the treasure he found ...imagine finding a perfectly good garret metal detector . that's a good find .

Nothing new, the same old thing sort of day. :slight_smile: I love walking the woods later in the day like this when it is overcast and there are no harsh shadows. Earlier there was some rain. Now it is quiet, just a hint of a breeze that comes and goes. Peaceful. Unlike what amounts to the so-called civilized sections of our world.

I dug out an old game camera today. Hopefully, I’ll have some elk images to share in a day or three.