An Old Yank from New England

[Barking Mat]

Thanks to all for the great welcome!

I’m sure I’ll be visiting the virtual pub as I get my bearings on the forum.

I plan to post lots of welding and fabrication pictures along with my project stuff.

Today I’m in catch-up mode on a few outdoor chores, as it’s a nice sunny day and not snowing. My wife and I have lived in colder and snowier places than Maine (I've lived in northern Minnesota, and my wife is from Montana), but even so, the once-held charm of snow has gradually worn off. This winter actually hasn’t been too bad, compared to a few earlier ones. Here are a few photos of previous winters to give you an idea.

My old 1953 Ford NAA tractor is somewhere under this snow drift, with only its exhaust stack sticking up.

View attachment 274036

We get a bit of wind, too. The ground at the north end of the house is almost always devoid of snow. It would be a great location for a wind turbine...maybe someday if/when there is enough spare change in the cookie jar.

View attachment 274039

Those are wind-blown drifts against the shipping container, not snow that was pushed or dumped there. It's interesting how the wind almost always keeps our loader/backhoe clear of snow when parked at the south end of the house.

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Did I mention the ice storms (freezing rain)? Ice on the pine needles may be pretty, but hard on trees and power lines! I keep procrastinating about installing an automatic backup generator. Now, when the power goes out, I have to haul the generator out, connect it to the generator receptacle on the outside of the house, and hope that it starts on the first couple of pulls. I have a generator lockout panel that disconnects the house from mains power when the generator is in use.

View attachment 274040

Fortunately, we have a fabulous climate from late spring all the way through to late fall, which makes up for the winters.

Back on welding topics, I recently gave my old TIG setup (which consisted of an old Craftsman AC/DC welder and high-frequency adapter) to a builder friend who helps me out with various projects. I just got a new Everlast TIG welder and fabbed up a trolley for it. I'll post the trolley/cart project on the forum when I have a moment.

Off to do some constructive things and earn my dinner.

Blue Chips

Now that's snow...

 

[Blue Chips]

I take it Maine is mainly a rural/agricultural state Blue Chips ?

Ronan, I'd say that Maine is mostly rural, with no "large" cities, but it does have a few smaller cities and a lot of small towns. Here are a few stats: Population density of the state is roughly 44/sq mi or 17/km2. It has the highest percentage of forest cover of any state and has 230 miles (400 km) of ocean coastline (and 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of tidal coastline). Tons of small craft breweries, too, for the pub goers in the forum.

The house you saw parts of in the photos is an old (by our standards) home, built sometime ca. 1795 to 1805, which we have been gradually restoring over the past several years, as our budget allows, doing a good percentage of the work ourselves. It's in an area of the state that is mostly a mixture of fields and forest. There are some old farm fields on the property that we have been gradually winning back from the ever-encroaching forest by mowing the fields a couple of times per year to give the grass a fair chance to triumph over the weeds and saplings. The home we are restoring is in the town (or "township") of Alna, but our current residence is in the town of Brunswick. I often camp out at the Alna house while working on it. Here's a photo of one of the fields that I was mowing with our 1953 Ford tractor and a rotary cutter or "bush hog" as we call it here. If we keep mowing the fields for a couple more years, they hopefully would be in good enough shape to start haying them and getting a little income from them.

Cheers,

Blue Chips

 

[atomant48]

Welcome and great intro. I was over your way a couple of weeks ago but it was only “normal” snow that day ! Looks like you’ve got a great set up there to keep you busy !

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Welcome aboard, @Blue Chips I can tell from your intro that you're going to fit in very well here. Looking forward to examples of your 'projects' and write-ups with pics - we love them here!

 

[Blue Chips]

Welcome and great intro. I was over your way a couple of weeks ago but it was only “normal” snow that day ! Looks like you’ve got a great set up there to keep you busy !

Thanks, @atomant48. Were you in my neck of the woods on business or pleasure or "other?"

Staying busy has always been easy for me. Even with the pandemically-imposed curtailment of social contacts and outside activities, I just double down on my personal projects and Keep on Truckin'

In fact, staying too busy is usually the issue. If anyone ever tries to tell you that "black holes" don't exist, have them talk to me and I'll straighten them out. I have several ongoing "black hole" projects that suck in any time or money that gets near them, never to be seen again. Occasionally, however, the black holes spit out a finished product that cracks my adopted New England Yankee stoicism and makes me smile, which makes it all worthwhile.

Stay well,

Blue Chips

 

[MattF]

You know the lyrics. "You can check out anytime you like, bit you can never leave".

Anyone else suffer fat-finger-syndrome with phone keypads? I totally missed the U there.

 

[Blue Chips]

Anyone else suffer fat-finger-syndrome with phone keypads? I totally missed the U there.

Or could it have been a predictive typing or autocorrect error? I believe I read it as a "U." I think my mind has adapted to autocorrecting technology so that it autocorrects the autocorrect errors.

 

[T689]

Great intro Blue Chips and welcome to the forum!

 

[MattF]

Or could it have been a predictive typing or autocorrect error? I believe I read it as a "U." I think my mind has adapted to autocorrecting technology so that it autocorrects the autocorrect errors.

No... Those are the first things I turn off. Just a pure "Matt mistyped" moment.

 

[dobbslc]

Welcome
It's a bit of a nut house here sometimes but you'll be ok!

View attachment 274056

Cheers,

Blue Chips

Is it odd to say that that's a beautiful looking tractor?

 

[atomant48]

Thanks, @atomant48. Were you in my neck of the woods on business or pleasure or "other?

Just a flying visit for work, in one day and early away the next. Back in July all going well, when I expect less snow !

 

[stuvy]

Welcome
It's a bit of a nut house here sometimes but you'll be ok!

Is it odd to say that that's a beautiful looking tractor?

Not at all it looks a beauty

 

[Blue Chips]

Is it odd to say that that's a beautiful looking tractor?

Well, thank you, and it doesn't seem at all odd to me to find beauty in a piece of farm equipment. I have an antique John Deere tractor calendar on the wall for that very reason. Ford the Tractor is in pretty good overall shape for its/his/her age, although it's about due for some minor body and paint work. At least it's a lot easier to do body work on a tractor than a car. I could probably disassemble all of the sheet metal in about an hour and take the pieces to be CO2 (dry ice) blasted at a local body shop, which is a little more expensive than some other methods, but it's super clean, fast, and eliminates the drudgery of sanding. That's yet another project on my bucket list that I may not get to for a while.

Speaking of projects, I just posted a thread about building my latest welding cart (or "trolley," I should say).

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/my-latest-welding-trolley.109625/#post-1767962

 

[Morris]

What a great intro! Welcome.

 

[Arc Tourist]

Hello, and a belated welcome from me too.