Flowers

I checked out our flowers today. I am getting baby tomatoes finally, but was curious how the flowers were doing. I was amazed the sunflowers are taller than I am. I shot some pics of the flowers beside out house. I didn’t however get pics of our tomatoes; I’ll wait until they turn red.



So the sun flowers are about 8’ tall. They stand almost as high as the window tops. Big yellow flowers. We also have some other flowers, some I didn’t get pictures of, lots of lilies I missed.



But I did shoot some yellow, pink, and red flowers.








Oh yeah and some metallic beetles that are eating leafs of one kind of plant (no idea what it is). But as you can see they are going at it pretty hard core. I should of got them and fed them to my toad, Mr. Toadsworth.





Toadsworth was the size of a pinky nail now he is up to the size of a thumb nail. But he can annihilate a dozen crickets overnight so it isn’t a surprise. I caught the poor little guy by the river. If you feel bad for him, he left a snake infested environment where the insects were larger than he was, to a comfortable home with no predators and a buffet of bugs. He is very happy, and doesn’t pee on you every time you pick him up anymore. So if you feel bad for anything feel bad for one of the snakes that would of got him, they lost a meal.

And here sits the Chevette, awaiting a brake part to come in. Notice the exhaust I ripped off pulling up our hill. Hard to believe that thing has a rebuilt engine in it.



We have been fertilizing with humus, and fish parts. Lots of fish heads and guts. The tomatoes get a lot of dog crap thanks to my three lovely dogs.



I was amazed at the flowers I never really stick my head around there, I just kind of mow and weed whack around them for the most part.
Ok I lied, lilies and tomatoes. But not the big white and pink lilies, only the orange. And I noticed I'm going to have to start watching my pics, already up to 25% of max uploads, wow!

Fall is coming, or Wishful Thinking?

Feels like fall is coming fast. That means bow season. I dug out my bow. Browning double cam Cobra. Yep, one of the old ones from the 70s, wood grain with a 50lb draw and 50% let off. After shooting with her the new ones just feel off. And even know the cobra model was only about 5 pounds, the new ones feel too light. The newer compounds aren't so bad if you like the caliper release, but I still like my fingers on the string just below the nocks.



It’s been a while since I shot her. Going to have to get some practice in with her, I know she shoots higher than you’d expect, and to the left. I don’t like sights on a bow, too easy to rely on, so I like to know how my bow shoots.
She is pretty quite. String whiskers help the string from “twanging”, and everything is tight.

My bow isn’t too accessorized. The quiver is stock, detachable if needed. The string whiskers were added of course. The rest is (I can’t find any more) a stick on plastic “fall away”.

The rest is nice, holds the arrow firm, but is flexible and thin enough to not get in the way of a shot, doesn’t move the arrow off course in the least. It just slaps in on release. I haven’t been able to find another one like it, but I am keeping an eye out.

No sight. Sights get tangled up, and bumped out of line easily. I prefer to know where and how my bow shoots. Though I do have a “sorta sight” It is a piece of tape, and about a half inch above, and half inch out to the left when you’re looking at it is where the arrow will land in the field. Up to 50 foot anyway.



I have my other stuff out as well. Taking inventory so to speak or what I need/don’t need. Skinning knife, check, deer pee, check, rope, check, and so on.



And of course broad heads. I love these three blade broad heads. Fires like a field tip making it easy to adjust from target shooting to kill shooting. They are easy to sharpen as each blade comes out.

But here I am waiting for fall to get here, hopefully this year I can get a good deer. If not with a bow I’m ready for shot gun season as well.

(I actually will use a HR slug gun, though I love my Mossberg.)

My tips? Keep quiet, deer can hear better than you. Keep clean, deer can smell (stank and cologne) better than you. Get close; most people take deer within 50 foot, despite the sniper like tales you may hear. Stay camo’ed. If you are on the ground, stay still and stay out of main view, wear a pattern that breaks up your outline.

If you’re high in the air hang some branches off your stand to break up its form. Deer hardly ever look up right above them, so go too high and you have an impossible angle, too low and they will see you as they come in. About 15’ is good. If your ground hunting with a shotgun, being low can help.

That being said I usually walk up on deer and they surprise me as much as I do them. At 50-25 foot they stop and look at you, sometimes run, but usually go back about their business and keep an eye on you. If you Move fast and they bolt. Move slow and they stay cautious. The young ones won’t run, one that has had a shot taken at it will be gone (probably before you see it).

If you find a rub, or drinking spot, deer are creatures of habit. They will be back, if they don’t see you good, if they do they may avoid the spot all together, if really interested they will come in slow and ready to bolt. Stay still, try and move when they aren’t looking. Then take your shot.

Always go for a kill shot, nothing sucks more than running down an injured deer, you can be on them for miles before they drop. All this sounds easy, but gets very difficult out in the field. That being said I’m probably breaking a copy right law somewhere but here where to shoot.



(Sorry Champion targets, but I used your name so that free advertisement)
Right above the front knee and back a little ways. In the chest area, a little behind the shoulder, but not too high. I say that because most people shoot high, so aim low, If you miss the heart you can still take out both lungs with a good shot, bow or round.

So fall here yet? I’m getting tired of kill rabbits. I wanted to put a picture of dead rabbit here, but you will have to look at my other posts, got to start watching my image hosting.

Bye VW, hello Aveo.

So what ever happened to the VW? We traded it in. A prime time to do so.

But why get rid of a VW golf? I hate VW s. The German engineers are asses. The way certain things are mounted and placed is a joke. But away from that it ran like crap. For the first two months after we bought it, it ran great.

Then the tranny started shifting hard, then late. Then I found out the transmission is a “sealed unit”. Not so, if you need to change transmission fluid on a VW search my blog, it’s there. The great thing about VW tranny fluid, is that it is about $25-30 a liter.



Then the fuel pump went out, a $400 fix, then the starter, a $300 fix, and then the strut mounts, a $80 fix. Did I mention VW parts are expensive? Not including labor, which I graciously volunteered.

After the tranny fluid change it shifted a bit better. But then it started running hot. Something got crossed in the wires/bad fan, and the fuse kept blowing for the electric fan.

I replaced the fuse and usually it would blow in 5-10 minutes. I never wanted to hunt down the cause. So it ran a little hot. Then the “thermo housing,” the hose junction on the side of the block, started to leak. Well it had been leaking since we got the car, but started to get more noticeable where I had to add water twice a week, versus once every two weeks.

The radio lights stopped working from us running the heater to cool the car down, melted the wires inside the dash. The engine began to run weak as well. When it ran great it took about 5 minutes to get to 70, so weaker performance was very noticeable.

So we started car shopping, and we found a Chevy Aveo we liked. The day we went to look at it something under the dash went up in the VW, so I pulled fuses until the smoke stopped. We went the dealer and they offered us $1500 for it. Sold. I just had my fingers crossed when they test drove it.



We got the Aveo. Ok I know it is a Daewoo, that doesn’t surprise me. But it has a Chevy warranty, 4 year bumper to bumper, and 5 year engine/drive train. Good warranty, but you have to “afford” the maintenance to keep the warranty valid. Good thing my wife is sleeping with a mechanic.





But I like the Aveo. It is tiny, four door, and fun to drive. The car has a tight turning radius, super quiet, and feels huge inside. It is peppy with its little 4 cyl, but has exhaust manifold turbo, I found the air pump and hear the whistle. It’s pretty easy to do maintenance on, everything is easily accessible. There are some guards in the way, but not as bad as the VW.





One of my favorite things is the mileage. We get almost 40mpg on the highway, about 30-35 in town, with no air on. But the air will turn the small car into a meat locker.

A Buick that couldn't stop.

So recently I did the brakes on a 90 something Buick. I am not a big Buick fan to start with; I've had no luck with them. I owned a Buick Regal Grand Sport Limited Edition 3800 GT one time, longest freakin' car name ever, and it was a lemon. Nothing but problems. But this one wasn't mine, but it did have those damn hex bolts on the calipers that I'd wanted to get a picture of.

In my opinion that’s what killed GM, those hex bolts on the calipers. The old ones where small, and in between sizes from heat expansion. You had to shove a metric one in and hope to God you didn't round it off. That scared away consumer trust starting around the early 70s, that and building crap with air condition pumps over the distributors. The trend of making cars un friendly to repair.



I was fan of simply cutting the caliper off and then vice gripping the bolts out. But you can't do that unless you replace the caliper.

So any way back to the Buick. It wasn't stopping, and was grinding in the front. It was the brakes of course. Brakes are pretty easy.

Tire off/Jack up the car.

Unbolt the caliper from the back, two bolts, and if they are GM you allen type hex bits/sockets.

Flip the caliper over, pop out one side and "push the caliper open" with a brake tool or C clamp.

Pop out the other pad, put the new ones in.

Check the rotor

Reverse the process.



Easy enough. So the passenger side went about like that. Done in ten minutes with a smoke break.

The driver side however wasn't so good. The pads were down to the rivets, the rotor super thin on one side, and the caliper locked up tighter than catholic school dorms.



So I unhook the caliper, and popped the rotor off. Put a new caliper on, and rotor, put the pads back in, and was almost done.



I usually make someone help me bleed the brakes out, but this time I was on my own, so I used my "God Awful" one man bleeder. I got sick of it, and ended up just sucking the brake fluid out by mouth like a siphon until I saw no bubbles. Much easier and faster than actually using the bleeder.

With the air out I returned the vehicle to a drivable condition. I was later informed that the driver almost got whiplash the first time she stopped, because she was used to standing on the brakes.

Another job well done.

Killed my phone.

I broke it.



So I had a CECT P168 phone, commonly known as an Iphone clone. I loved it, but most people hated it. It looked like the first generation Iphone, but didn’t have the features. There was no Java, shake feature, and it was pretty bare bones.

The reason I loved it is I had signal everywhere. I have a smaller company, and with them I could get almost full bars where my friends with the big networks and $500 phones couldn't get a signal. I always said I could be in a bomb shelter sitting in a closet and get half bars.

It was tough, I dropped it, got it wet, and abused it, and it took a beating. Being a mechanic it rode in my pocket with lots of bolts, screwdrivers, ect, and only had one small scratch on the screen. Not bad for $70.

But it didn’t have Java, so games and apps were out. That is the reason I think most people hated it. The camera was ok, good enough for me; the video it took was awesome though. Loud, very loud, even on its quietest mode it was still loud, on full volume a surprise call could make you piss yourself. Great for an alarm clock. Played mp3s, and most videos with ease. I used to watch old cartoons on it when waiting places.

The headphone jack was a USB type jack, so getting replacements head phones was a PITA. I hardly used it, but a regular jack would have been better.

Touch screen was great, I loved the phone, tough, reliable, and then I killed it.

As tough as it was it couldn't survive a fall on the corner of an open drawer on the night stand screen first.



So I say good bye to my 168, and wait for next week when my CECT I9 will be here. It does have Java, shake control, ect, however I just hope it has as good of antenna and gets as good of a signal as it's ancestor.