Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Baymule]

I don't have the accumulation of sockets and drill bits that you do, I think I am in the throes of hoarder envy. LOL LOL

I have things crammed in a 24'x12' portable building, most of which hasn't seen the light of day in 3 1/2 years. I kinda sorta know where some things are and can crawl over the heap to retrieve what I am seeking. We have worked on a feed and tack room on again, off again, mostly off again. Once finished, I can move things out of the portable building and organize better. It's driving me crazy.

We bought and had erected a double carport that we cannot park in..... due to the piles of lumber I have.....

So while I don't have the admirable piles of duplicate 15/16 long sockets, or the coffee cans full of rusty drill bits, I still have my mess. You have many years in the same location, when a store room got full, heck, just get another! So now, you are going through the pains of sorting, tossing, saving and organizing your piles of treasures. Have fun!

 

[Baymule]

Weatherman just said that Amarillo, Texas has snow and 15 degrees. That is in the Panhandle.

 

[greybeard]

DH has about 50 drill bits that are 12" to 18" long..... But again 25 bits in size 15/64???

Well, throw out all but two 15/64 bits and he will only have 27 bits total, which isn't bad at all for a drill index.
That takes care of the fraction size bits....now..what about the letter size bits........... and the number size bits? (better get a really good magnifying glass.)
Between each of the usual fraction size bits, there are several other size bits, designated by a number or a letter.
Number Drill Sizes
Drill #......dec Inch...mm
80..........0.0135.......0.34
79..........0.0145.......0.37
78..........0.016.........0.41
77..........0.018.........0.46
(there are 76 more rows of just # bit sizes)

This \/is but a small fraction of the fraction, letter and number bit sizes.

http://www.smithbearing.com/images/pdf/ENG-FractionalChart.pdf

In a previous life, I used a lot of the letter and bit sizes, especially on the smaller end.
I once picked up a print from one of our best customers and it called for some holes .044 diameter and the tolerance was -0.0000/+0.0001. That means the hole could be absolutely no smaller than .044 inch and only one 10/thousandth bigger than .044 inch.
(printer paper is about 0.044 thick)

 

[Ridgetop]

Baymule: First, seek professional help for your tool addiction! Trust me, it leads to trouble and heartbreak.

Then, because we know that we are in denial, and we might conceivably, at some future time, need those items desperately, buy some industrial strength shelves 24' deep and start storing vertically. Don't bother with the 18" deep shelves, you can store more with the extra 6" depth, and the extra cost is negligible. Once you have the shelves installed in the tool shed, get a bunch of clear plastic storage boxes - Dollar Store is good. You probably have lots of miscellaneous building stuff, hinges, latches, etc. Clear plastic bins like shoe boxes and one size up from those make good holders for that sort of junk. (I had most of my boxes in my closet, but after I gave all my byootiful high heels to my daughter, I had plenty. LOL) Label them with Magic Marker. You only need stick on labels for the second or third time you want to change them around and label them. Voila! A completely organized tool shed. That way, you too, will be able to store many more items than you will ever need . . . . If you are lucky, you can help out your friends from your endless supply.

Although, I personally see nothing wrong with having a vague idea of where thing are a long s you can find them. And climbing over stuff is good exercise. I do it all the time.

Sadly, I have no friends that do building projects - my contractor friends have all the lifetime junk they will ever need and occasionally try to give it to me. If I am lucky. If fortune does not smile on me they give it to DH and you know what that means . . . .

By the way, I see nothing wrong with buying a double carport to store your lumber. You don't want it to warp! Lumber needs to be protected. So does wire, metal roofing material, etc. I know you like to collect used building materials - another reason not to dispose of anything remotely useable.

As you see, I also need major professional help but I can't afford it since I am spending all my money on TOOL STORAGE!

Greybeard: Thank you for your, as always, sage advice. I will attempt to size up the drill bits, and then discard most of them. DD2's boyfriend is not knowledgeable about tool quality and jumped at the chance to acquire all the Crescent wrenches and sockets. They were pretty and shiny in their plastic case. At least they are gone from my house.

The long, strange drill bits are auger bits. According to DH, e must keep them all since they "are hard to come by anymore". ??? Some of them take a brace or will need to have the end cut off to fit a power drill. However, I was able to assure DH with aplomb that I possessed a brace. I did not tell him that I had planned to hang it on the wall with the other antique tools!


I have informed DH that I need his expertise in the Tool/Workshop sorting some of the tools that were Daddy's. He is very flattered since he informed me that he did not realize that I would not recognize some of the tools. Such a sweetie!

Ewegenie is due today. Alexander Lambilton has gone out to the big night fold to meet Rambo. They will stay in that pen for a week or so, until AL realizes that is where he gets fed. He needs to bond with Rambo so he will come in at night with him. I don't plan to hunt for him in the gully after dark and the coyotes are still bad.

 

[Bruce]

If they fit I will have won the Socket War and be able to turn my attention to - DRILL BITS!

Maybe you can figure out if some of those bits are too far gone to sharpen. And likely there are so many of a given size because the prior one (and its prior one, etc) got dull and wasn't cutting well.

By the time I have finished with this Tool/workshop I will need heavy counseling, a long sea cruise, and intervention.

Join the Navy, then you get paid for that long sea cruise!

He might not get a key to the Tool/workshop!

That is the best plan. He will have to check out the tools from the keeper of the key and can't check out anything else until he returns what he last checked out.

Weatherman just said that Amarillo, Texas has snow and 15 degrees. That is in the Panhandle.

Sure glad I don't live where it is cold and snows.

DD2's boyfriend is not knowledgeable about tool quality and jumped at the chance to acquire all the Crescent wrenches and sockets. They were pretty and shiny in their plastic case. At least they are gone from my house.

While I'm sure @greybeard is correct with regard to the different quality levels of tools, the basic "lower quality" may be just find for the BF depending on what he needs to use them for. Certainly adequate for assembling stuff. Maybe not so good for breaking loose rusty fittings.

 

[Ridgetop]

The socket racks fit in the wooden base cabinet drawers!
Sockets & reducers in one drawer; drivers and extenders in another

I feel so free!

Rusty drill bits have been disposed of. The odd drill bits have been sized and are all increments of 1/64"! FYI: If the sizes are hard to read, rub colored chalk on them and rub with your finger. The chalk sticks in the grooves and the size markings become visible.

These 1/64th increment bits are strange sizes. I think they might all date from DH's early days at DWP. They probably came home in DH's pockets, along with multiple partially used rolls of electrical tape, and strange couplings. When you hang off a pole, you stuff junk in your pockets and forget to remove it. FYI: Discard electrical tape that has gone through a wash cycle!

DH identified some tools and they are now put away. I have typed up the labels for all the boxes, drawers & cabinets. I even have some empty drawers! And empty cabinets! Tomorrow I play Bridge with a happy heart! Unless I get bad cards. Tomorrow night I will start sizing and separating the screws, bolts, etc. Then put labels on them, and stack them on the appropriate cabinet shelves. Then just a few last tasks hanging some racks for tools that won't go in drawers or cabinets, and I am finished with the Tool/Workshop! I even have a new exterior door knob which I can install, left over from a previous reno but it has a KEY! On the other hand, DH may not have a problem with replacing the tools. I will wait and see.

Ewegenie is content in her small lambing pen. Hopefully in another day or so we will have lambs. The coyotes must be active. The dogs are giving their predator warnings at the edges of the property. Rambo and Alexander Lambilton (Last time I let my grandkids name the sheep! What happened to good old names like Fluffy or Snowy?) are getting along fine in the pen together. A.L. is apparently smarter than Rambo. DS1 said that when he gave the rams their night time grain feed, A.L. put his forefeet in the pan. As Rambo tried to put his head in to eat, A.L. kept backing away using only his rear legs, dragging the pan with him by his forelegs! DS1 got a big laugh out of watching him!

The Santa Anas are supposed to blow again tomorrow. I am hoping they will stay calm for a while until the fires are out.
The police have found more bodies in Paradise. I am praying for all those people. Most of them don't know whether their families made it out or not. About 100 people still missing. They are doing DNA samples to try to ID the bodies. So awful.

Just heard from DS2 who is working up near the Camp fire area (Oroville is near Paradise). He said that when he drives to work with the crew on Hwy 70, the hillsides are still burning. Scary.

DH thinks that a metal panel roof would work except for the winds we get here. He is afraid that those 50-90 mph winds would lift the panels and just rip them off. He may change his mind when we get the roof estimate. The roofer is coming first thing in the morning to look at the roof and give us the estimate. I wouldn't mind putting on a new roof so much except we are considering a move and I hate to waste the money. We will see what the roofer has to say.

 

[greybeard]

The long, strange drill bits are auger bits. According to DH, e must keep them all since they "are hard to come by anymore". ???

A wise and knowledgeable man.
Most wood auger bits made in the last decade aren't worth having, but I've used lots of brace & bits in the last few years, using older bits made from good steel. The best thing about the brace & bit is the batteries never go dead when you're 1 mile from the nearest electric source and you have to drill some holes and don't want to be lugging a genset all over creation.

DH thinks that a metal panel roof would work except for the winds we get here. He is afraid that those 50-90 mph winds would lift the panels and just rip them off.

I sure wouldn't discount metal roofs and they are extremely common here, both on residential and commercial buildings.
I have no composite or shingle roofs anywhere on my place except the little 6x6 shingle roof over the back porch landing. Everything else, including the house is metal roofed with 150mph hurricane wind rating. The barn and old house in the front of this property has withstood tropical storm or hurricane force winds from Ike, Rita Alicia,Humberto, Gustav, Edouard and straight line winds from a devastating thunderstorm in 2015 that laid down hundreds of oak trees in 3 counties that had stood for many decades. My current abode went thru some of those storms as well.

 

[Baymule]

Please keep us posted that you are ok. The fires are terrible, we are in other states and only get the news blips. Praying that the fires get contained.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Please keep us posted that you are ok

Yes, please!

 

[Ridgetop]

The fires are moving away from us. But please pray for the others still in the path of all the fires. The Camo fire that took out paradise was a horrible thing. They are still finding more bodies. Death count is 48 now and still climbing as they search. Devastating.

Greybeard: Re: Augers. You areright. I tease DH and roll my eyes at him, but he is a savvy man. I actually have 3 braces as well. We will know where to fund them instantly since t lest 1 will be hanging on the wall of the family with some other antique tools, including the scythe and 2 sickles, and my great grandmother's washboard.

Actually, if anyone ever comes across an old lineman's brace I would like to buy it for DH. He told me yesterday that he has always wanted one. They are constructed so that the round ball fits into your shoulder like a rifle stock as you hang on the pole. The crank handle is set at an angle so you can complete the turns without having to raise your hand. If anyone has one or knows of one I would like to buy it for him. Al these years I poked around antique shops and he never told me he wanted one until now!

The fires are moving away from us at this moment although there is another one in Riverside that started yesterday. Like Texas gets hailstorms, we get fires, only worse since we have no water or rain.

The roofer is here today. I would love to have a proper metal roof, but the 160 mph type of roof is very expensive. Too expensive for a barn where I will only be here another 10 years. Less if we come to Texas. The buyer will probably tear down the house and barn since they will want to build a mansion or 4. The builder who wants to build 27 new houses on half acre lots with no view said they will start at 1.5 million and he actually thinks he could get closer to 2 million. Apparently our nice country area is the new hot spot to buy since people can get enough property for a giant house, pool, etc. The whole neighborhood is changing. Anyway, he will send the estimate today or tomorrow.

Ewegenie lambed right on schedule this am. A single lamb. A ewe lamb. No problems and good mom.

At first was very pleased that Bubba was behaving so calmly in the barn. But I was wrong, he just hadn't realized there was a new lamb! As soon as he realized it he wanted to get in to love it. I removed it to iodine the cord and let him lick it all over. Then I gave it back to the mom. He tries to get into the pen and generally made a nuisance of himself in typical Bubba teenage behavior. The old 5' corrals with wood panels we had in the barn he had trouble getting into. The wood panels and wire was falling off, and these Sydell pens are easier for us, but Bubba could jump right in if he wanted to. DH put him in the kennel temporarily and Rika showed up. She, being PERFECT, showed excellent Anatolian LGD behavior by calmly laying down outside the pen. then the roofer showed up and DH let him in the yard. I ran up and leashed her since an LGD with newborn lambs is not always the laid back LGD she usually might be. I put her in the creep pen next to Ewegenie with Lil Sweetie and she was content there. We won't let the rams out, and with the rams in the field pen surrounded by donkeys and mules, and Rika in the barn, everyone should be safe until I can get home this afternoon and work with Bubba on his newborn lamb protocol.
Ewegenie on left with new ewe lamb, Lil Sweetie on right watching with interest.
First meal, haltered Ewegenie so I could guide new lamb to milk and then check for more lambs since she still looked huge. Yup, it was definitely a single. Ewegenie was horrified that I took such a liberty, but DS1 knows how to handle a flying sheep! Mom now eating and lamb napping. Still hadn't passed afterbirth but it was right there and cord hanging out. No worries, now off to bridge.