One year ago today: August 5, 2024, the 3D printer.
Five years ago today: August 5, 2020, there are two things . . .
Nine years ago today: August 5, 2016, cordwainer.
Random years ago today: August 5, 2017, remember Bushnell adultery radio.
The awaited tariffs on Swiss and Canadian goods have finally been announced. These are largely misunderstood. They do not normally result in higher local prices, as the tariff is paid by the country of origin at the port of entry. The foreigners must either raise prices or eat the cost as the American marketplace is fantastically competitive. The country in focus is Switzerland, as they arrogantly refused to attend any negotiations. Trump hit them with an additional 8%.
And for this morning’s laff, the French guy Macron filed a 22-count civil case when an American politician questioned his partner’s gender. But when Macron found out that under American law, his “wife” would have to submit to a DNA test, the case was quickly dropped. Quickly but not quietly, as the countryside roars with laughter. It stayed below 90°F before noon so I peeked closer at that planer. You can tell by looking the operation is expensive.
Two hours, that’s all you get out of me today. That was all putting up my first set of shingle siding. The pieces were cut long ago. The labor of attaching them kept putting me off until I got the air staplers. That made short work of it. So what did I learn? Quite a bit though no surprises. Well, one surprise. You see where the rows of shingles overlap? That was calculated to be 15 to 20% counting both top and bottom. In reality, this method gobbles up to half again that much, that i , minimum 25%. You can see here how what I thought was half enough just covers a third of the wall.
I’ll need more pallet wood, a lot of it. The supply over at the yard has been sparse pickings for a long time now. I wonder if they have negotiated the pallets away. But I am not concerned since this means I may soon strip the silo of the pieces used to plaster that together, which was another rush job.
Here’s another perspective, you can see how the third row is at an angle but leave it. That adds to the appeal, right? The end pieces to the right are left a bit loose as those shingles have to be custom fitted to match the corner. The roof just above what you see has an 18” overhang, so for now I may get just enough lumber to finish the first three rows. There is a considerable gab behind this application, you can look behind the whole row of shingles from either side. But the on-line videos I viewed don’t say that is any problem. Except for wasps, I suppose.
The finished wall is quite sturdy, which makes sense because the grain of the wood reinforces the span between the slats, which have to be rather secure. Another plus, the part you see done here is from three differing batches of lumber. That means to me the material itself is not all the critical to getting a good wall. There are gaps that kind of even out and where the shingles line up by chance, it is easy to break a piece off to stagger them again. To be professional, though, I’d make the shingles as close to an even thickness as possible.
Chinese drone assembly line.
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By 3:00PM I was inside, looking at some pieces I cut from the 3/4" planks. It was something I had to try and it will not work. While I’d want confirmation, there is a report that Kamela’s new book just got pulled off the shelves when A.I. discover it was 30% plagiarized. Sounds about right, I read two sample paragraphs before I sensed something was off. There is a reported arson attack on an ICE office. These illegals are just bringing the wrath of America down on their own heads. Six more states band sodas and junk food on EBT (food stamp) cards. I say only let them buy food that needs to be cooked at home.
Here is today’s last photo of the shingle wall. The corners and edges, like around the window, are not that fancy but on this wall I don’t care. What I need is behind that wall, the last covered storage area available in this yard. Among other things that space is where I hope to store tools I don’t use that often, but can’t go without. Like my biscuit joiner and pocket hole drill. Sigh, the day arrives when shingles are top story, but then again how many people got this much done today?
Festus Tuesday saw a good shoot-em-up, with the episode “Widowmaker”. Faking the death of a gunslinger with the pregnant wife who looked a lot like a gal I dated in the early 80s, Liz, a Canadian. The women are pretty when young, but they all go crazy after hitting 28. The plot left a lot of holes, like the population of Dodge City who will recognize he dead guy next time he shows up for groceries.
I had an hour of light, so I pulled out a lot of the old lumber from the chicken coop and sliced it or shingles, shown above. For work, it’s actually a lot of fun. But my workmanship was so-so because I did a rush job and didn’t care all that much if it went to spec. I must remark again that the wall afterward is surprisingly sturdy. Them medieval types were on to something. The afternoon humidity had me drenched my nightfall. We are a step closer to getting my 12-foot workbench back into service.
Trent replies saying he has company this weekend and there is nothing for me to see or do in Miami. Rehearsal is canceled on Friday, and I’ve lost Karen’s phone number. I might be stuck at home like some old coot this weekend. (You know better, if nothing else, I’ll go have breakfast in Brooksville.)
My word, youTube is really insisting on shoving advertising down out throats. Don’t look at me for support, I detest people who post for money. And I don’t buy that crap that revenues “ensure” quality, I find many posts a pure junk either way. They are aggressively hitting adblockers. Even I have had to turn off my blockers to see recent videos, though I remain confident a countermeasure is on the way. What I don’t like most is the notices from youTube stating indirectly that if you don’t “like” disgusting ads, there is something wrong with you.
ADDENDUM
Examining my sketches for a cheap $100 satellite from a few years ago, I noticed the similarity to the early Soviet Lunik device. I did not know it may have been stolen overnight from a display in Mexico City, during a big trade Exposition in 1959. By the 80s, when I was old enough to pay attention to such things, I just looked a the diagrams as if they were common knowledge. Today, Iearned the Soviet never did suspect a thing until much later when they read about it in declassified CIA memos.
I’ll remind you of my concept. It is to program an Arduino to translate the digital part of this blog into Morse code and have it endlessly radio the content from orbit so the whole planet can enjoy something you get every day. Now, am I the nice guy, or what? Cost, except for the parts I don’t know, should be less than the $100 limit. If this sounds simplistic ( to people who have never thought about creating a satellite) I would remind them that the latest Russian booster rockets still use the same R7 design from 1959 as they do today. Russia has never started over with a complete fresh design like the Americans did many times.
