60+ year old thread.

My toughest task is all inclusive. Lol....
I have no easy tasks or if I have one I know what's next. It's the way it is.
I can only try to be fair and honest and not screw the customer. Not that I win any prizes for that either.
But, not everyone can do what I do. A limited number can do it very well.
So I see it as a journey on a ice laden winding road. Just try to navigate without getting wrapped up around a tree. Eventually a stop sign at the end. If I can stay out of the ditch, I did good... Lol

 

Pussy

 

Gonna do that Ken.

Playing with a new phone my boy got for me. Loading music etc.
Warmer weather tomorrow so I'll scrape the drive.

Next week the 24 hours of Daytona I think. Come on spring time. I am going to make it a point to fish like hell if I can this year.

 

Fishing huh Mike? I will most likely spend one day every dry weekend from the time it warms up until it gets too darn hot fishing. I much prefer things that go bang, but fishing puts a smile on the wife's face. And for the most part, happy wife/happy life rings true. At least the opposite is guaranteed.

We mostly hit small lakes. One of the best steelhead rivers in the country is right outside the house, but one has to put in several hours per fish. The small back woods lakes can be pretty fast. She uses two poles, and I spend most of my time either putting fish on the stringer or rerigging a pole. Most days I do not even wet a line.

Most of the fishing holes are an hour to an hour and a half away. About half that time is spent on dirt roads with the rest on small rural highways. Lunch is either a picnic or a stop at a small town café.

 

Carol goes out with me. She reads and takes pictures. She doesn't fish but likes being outside. Cheers me on and adds points to my man card.. Lol
One of the few things that relax me.

Here is my rig. 20 years old in April. Not fast or fancy but, I can get into places lots of others can't.

 

That boat is similar to what they run on the Clearwater. The prop is exchanged for a jet pump. The hard part about river running is that the usual tendency is to back off on the throttle when you are about to hit something. When running the river you want as little draft as possible, so if a rock is looming ahead the best bet is to run full throttle and hope you skim over it.

My 24' boat would run in 2-3 inches of water wide open. 460 Ford and 110 gallon tank. I sold it due the cost of fuel several years ago. It was a little too big for the Clearwater, but was perfect on the Snake and Salmon.

In the spring the rollers would get so big on the Snake that at times the boat would be below the tops. In other words, the rapids were so bad that a 24 footer that I could stand up in without touching my head would disappear, then crest and disappear again in the rapids. I'm 6-2.

The 460 could barely push it up river at times.

 

Morning everyone!! Hope you are enjoying a beautiful day...wherever you are!!

I was up and out of the house at 5:45 this morning - headed to ground crew for a hot air balloon flight. It was +3 F here at the house and -3 F at the launch site about 20 miles north of us. Holding the throat of the balloon open while the big fan blows air into it before lighting the burner was frigidly exhilarating!! I drove one of the chase trucks and the landing spot put us right close to the road so it was an easy pack up - and a balmy 0 F at the landing site.

Now I am loading coffee to warm up!!

Have a great day!!

 

Morning 6
Good to see YA.
Cool adventure and +1000 for warm up coffee...

 

YUP, for today! I called them and they aren't doing too much catching, so I'm not missing too much.

Nice boat there Mike, but am drooling about the river boat that Manic Mike posted about. We run rapids on the local river, but nothing like he's describing.
Here's my river boat, that will be jet powered-ONE DAY!
1654 Tracker FB GRIZZLEY

 

I watched the jet boat races up the rivers on tv when they came on. So cool.
Running Rapids is a rush I'm sure.

That's a nice boat. I only wish my boat was a welded one and not riveted.
There use to be a forum on the tracker site but took it down after everyone was saying they were a piece of shit and leaked from the rivets.
So far mine is ok. Of course I don't beat it on the water. I stay on inland waters on small lakes. At some point I want to build a long tail and get a 12 or 14 ft jon boat with the wide beam. WHY??? I don't know. No one around here has one and it would be fun to try. Not super practical but big on cool.
Just remember you need a bigger motor for a jet in comparison.
Or find a totaled 2 or 3 person jetski and convert. That would be a cool project for YA. Some on you tube....

 

Wow, just wow. When I was a professional mechanic nearly everything was mechanical. Even the sequential turn signals on a Cougar were mechanical! Little motor switching lights on and off. Electronic ignition was just starting to show up as I was making the decision to move on to something else. Electronics!

Anyway, I'm extremely impressed that you were able to diagnose and fix those issues. Do they pay for diagnostic time these days? They did not when I was wrenching for money.

All of it, or just some of it? Serious question.

Heh. I've been doing some tweaks on the turntable setup and needed to make a RadioShack run. Ended up going to the hardware store, farmers market, carwash, food store, and, finally, Radio Shack. The taco is no longer salt colored.

I heard it was good too. Oscar good. Has anyone heard about 'Boyhood'? Apparently they filmed the movie over a span of 12 years. The people quite literally age during the course of the film! Also on the Oscar list or so I hear.

Reminds of a buddy years ago who ran a mower repair shop. He would wash down every machine after fixing it so that it was completely clean and ready to go. More than one customer accused him of doing nothing more than cleaning the mower! Little did they know that the guy fixing their mower would go on to restore Bugattis...

 

Evening all:
Don't worry that much about the rivets on a boat Mike. I had an old riveted Mirrocraft deep V that didn't leak a drop. If a rivet were to leak they can usually be tightened up with a bucking tool, if accessible.
I'm on a forum, "tinboats.net", that has lots of information on anything and everything about an aluminum boat.
There's guys on there that have jetski jets installed, regular inboard jets, mud motors, jet outboards, and regular outboards. It's a good site to get ideas on how other guys modified their boats for specific use.
One thing I learned on there is to NEVER use PT lumber or plywood on an aluminum boat. When I did some mods. to mine, everything was made out of aluminum except for a seat base, which is made from regular plywood and has 3 coats of spar varnish and then painted.

 

Thank you.
It's like peeing yourself in a dark suit. It gives you a warm feeling but nobody notices....
You have to fight for the diag time.
Oh I hate it all. Tired of the fight.

 

I visited tinboats and almost joined untill they changed the main page to all adds.
Looks like crap and not much action and the photo gallery is very wierd.
But I did read some of the builds and they are really inventive...

 

On my favorites it is listed as "tinboats.net"-index page. I don't see a lot of ads. Maybe I'm bypassing the home page where all the ads are?

 

evening boys...

uch: raked leaves for about two hours shoulder's are not happy.

Looked at my "new" gas can and have not seen it this bad before.... cold made it collapse in on itself. Was all shriveled up Going to have to wait until it warms up to see if it's cracked

Mike, if you are worried about the rivets leaking on your boat, tape the rivets / seam off and put some sealant over the area. Must have shot 100,000 rivets over my career

6 - sounds like a fun morning, except for the chilly temps

 

Evening Sue!
How's the nose?

 

I don't think I will have to. No leaks yet. I don't hammer on it so it's all good so far. I think they were pushing the boat hard on open water pounding the hell out of it. It's just the unseen issue...

 

Hi Carl.... getting better I think, doesn't seem to be as red... was burning earlier (was sweating while raking leaves)

How are you this evening?

 

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