Author Archives: Steve Mays
Improvement to Jeep carport
I’ve been covering the driver’s seat when it looks like rain but trying something different. Plan is to roll up the tarp when the forecast is clear.
Danger! Ticks, chiggers, poison ivy
Powerful chemicals help protect against ticks and chiggers, but poison ivy demands constant vigilance.
Tractor with two seats
I’ve never been one for off-roading. Feels like dressing up as a cowboy. So the Land Rover and the Jeep don’t get much four-wheel drive time. Today I loaded up the new rock sled with some big ones and used the Jeep (4WD/Low Range) to drag them up a hill and over to the trail head. Paul calls the Jeep a tractor with two seats.
And a little 4WD/low-range exercise for the pickup.
Rock sled
Much of our ten acres is covered with rocks. Lots of rocks. A few really big ones…and a whole bunch of smaller ones. I’ve spent countless hours moving rocks for various reasons.
I’ve found there’s no easy way to move rocks. In the end, you have to pick one up…carry it to where you want it…and put it down. I’ve used a wheelbarrow from time to time but now trying something different. I built a rock sled.
With a pry bar you can lever a pretty big rock onto a 6 inch high sled. Then it’s just a matter of putting the pickup or Jeep in 4WD and dragging the sled where you want the rocks (see below). A while back I purchased a Jet Sled. A good tool for getting rocks down the hill but not that great for dragging with the truck. 
The rock sled won’t be much help down in the woods but should do nicely for collecting larger (too heavy to lift/carry) rocks around the property.
New hood hinges for pickup
The first thing most admirers say when they seed Minty Fresh is, “That’s a good looking truck. Want to sell it?” The second thing they says is, “What’s wrong with the hood?”
I finally got around to ordering new hinges and –with help from my friend George– installed and adjusted them.
I was able to get the old things off by myself using a couple of ratchet tie-down straps to lift the hood.
The old hinges probably just needed adjusting but I didn’t figure that out until I started installing the new ones (which weren’t very expensive). Like most such repairs, I suspect this would be damn near impossible on a new vehicle.
Cairns
Updates to this project will be added to the bottom of this post.
The hiking trail is finished (whatever that means). Still lots of dead limbs to chip up but the trail is as complete as I’m inclined to make it. But what to do with all those rocks?
“A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, they were raised as markers, as memorials and as burial monuments (some of which contained chambers). In the modern era, cairns are often raised as landmarks, especially to mark the summits of mountains. Cairns are also used as trail markers. They vary in size from small stone markers to entire artificial hills, and in complexity from loose conical rock piles to elaborate megalithic structures. Cairns may be painted or otherwise decorated, whether for increased visibility or for religious reasons.” (Wikipedia)
The Wikipedia article will tell you everything you might want to know about cairns but it piqued my curiosity so I’m reading a tiny book titled
I chose a small natural clearing for my first effort. I immediately figured out the larger circle below would require way too many stones. The small circle is about six feet in diameter. The next photo down provides a better view. Continue reading
Before we were monetized
From a WIRED post about smaller alternatives to the big social media sites;
“How will these smaller groups of happier people be monetized? This is a tough question for the billionaires. Happy people, the kind who eat sandwiches together, are boring. They don’t buy much. Their smartphones are six versions behind and have badly cracked screens. They fix bicycles, then they talk about fixing bicycles, then they show their friend, who just came over for no reason, how they fixed their bicycle, and their friend says, “Wow, good job,” and they make tea. That doesn’t seem like enough to build a town square on.”
Ethiopia’s Chapel in the Sky
Hiking Trail Finished
Or as finished as projects like get. This was the toughest section of entire trail (a loop with switchbacks) because it was so rocky and many of them had to be dug up.And the rocks larger than for other sections. Watch this space for news of next project.