Sometimes things go right

Thread Starter

someonesdad

Joined Jul 7, 2009
1,583
Yesterday we had 10-12 family members over for a barbecue (a traditional 4th of July where we barbecue chicken). Alas, we went to fire up the Traeger grill (given to us by a friend) to start cooking everyone's chicken (the parents of each family bring their own chicken) -- and the grill refused to start up! Fortunately, everyone always boils the chicken ahead of time so it's already cooked.

But we kept some of my brother-in-law's grandkids and our grandkids so they could play all day at our house. We're having their parents over again tonight, so my wife asked me to fix the grill. I was NOT looking forward to it, as it's an electronic control with a digital readout and the manufacturer will not release any schematics.

We cleaned everything out to get access to things. Then I removed a panel to get access to the auger and blower motors and glory be! In moving the barbecue yesterday, a wire had moved enough to get caught in the fan blades of the auger motor. That was the symptom too, as I had manually dumped pellets into the firebox yesterday and they fired right up. So it was a simple one tie-wrap solution and sew the patient back up. Those are my favorite kinds of problems.

Now, here's the icing on the cake. My daughter had gone to meet a guy she had a date with last night and she called my wife to say she was stuck in an auto supply store's parking lot because her car radiator was leaking fluid and the engine was overheating. She was going to drive it home, but I had to warn her that a leaking radiator is a life-threatening problem for an engine, so stay put until I got there. My brother-in-law and I drove down and could immediately see that the radiator was kaput, as it was leaking fluid out where the plastic top meets the metal fins.

The boy she was meeting fortunately had some water in his car (I had foolishly forgotten to bring some), so we nursed the car back to our house by stopping two or three times to fill the radiator again.

Here's the other good news. I've replaced all the radiators in our other vehicles and they all cost a bit of work to get them out, especially my wife's van. I loved my Land Cruiser's radiator, because it's brass and I could just solder up the holes. Anyway, I took one bolt out and was able to lift the whole radiator out of my daughter's car! I was able to lift it high enough to sneak a pan under it, then remove the bottom hose to catch the fluid in the radiator. Total time to get the radiator out was a few minutes, mainly because I had to figure out what to do. It took me about 15-20 minutes to get everything put back together. What a treat -- less than 45 minutes total to replace a radiator -- and that includes sitting around teasing my daughter in front of her friend (he's a nice kid who's a radiology specialist in the Army).

So, I've spent enough time on the projects from hell over the last 50 years to occasionally warrant Murphy on vacation. Today was the day. Of course, you cynics will say the fly in the ointment just hasn't appeared yet... :p
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
Did ground control move to the Forum,Houston has appeared on the Forum
In big numbers.That right every thing Is big In Texas.I have done fire ant
research In Marshall,Texas. Texas Or Bust
 

nerdegutta

Joined Dec 15, 2009
2,684
It's good when things are easy.

I had an Opel Record 1972 model station wagon once. When the radiator started to leak, I poured some cinnamon in it.... That stopped the leaking for about 6 months. :)
 

Thread Starter

someonesdad

Joined Jul 7, 2009
1,583
Oh, and we had a marvelous two days. The grandkids played on slip and slides in the yard and we had two RVs' parked around our big cement pad, so the kids got to sleep in the trailers. Of course, they stayed up WAY too late into the night, but that's part of the fun. We had a campfire in a steel container, so they got to sit out under the stars and have s'mores.

My granddaughters love to see our duck behave around a man with a shovel. This duck will come running when she sees me with a shovel, as she knows it means WORMS! We'll go pull up the carpet in the garden (tip: go get rolls of old carpet from carpet store dumpsters and use it as mulch in the garden -- works great and you can walk in the garden in bare feet) and dig worms up. That duck is a character and is imprinted on humans, so she'll follow me around the yard (I posted a picture last winter of her in a diaper sitting on my leg when I was in my easy chair). We have 5 other ducks and they wander around the yard in a herd, grazing in the lawn (they're of a type that can't fly). Mr. and Mrs. Mallard live a few houses down in the back along the irrigation ditch and usually fly in every day to partake of our corn feeder. We've got about 8 chickens too, but duck eggs are by far the best.
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
That a good one,but what about the living ducks that can't fly.
There an answer out there some where.They have dead duck
pins in bowling,not many people know about duck pins.
Maybe a thing of the past ,that the good thing about the Forum
someone can respond If they know.
 
Last edited:

shortbus

Joined Sep 30, 2009
10,045
That a good one,but what about the living ducks that can't fly.
There an answer out there some where.They have dead duck
pins in bowling,not many people know about duck pins.
Maybe a thing of the past ,that the good thing about the Forum
someone can respond If they know.
Some times there are 'lame ducks' in the government.

Why don't YOU explain about dead duck pins in bowling? That would really be interesting :)

The loose wire is touched:D
 

loosewire

Joined Apr 25, 2008
1,686
The pins were small and the bowling balls were about size of grape fruit.
You had to be dead on to get a strike.What the names of the ducks.
 

Thread Starter

someonesdad

Joined Jul 7, 2009
1,583
There are numerous species of ducks that have been domesticated, which means they're too big to fly. Four of ours are Rouen and two Cayugas. Our dominant female is a Rouen and she tends to be quite independent of the other five. Today I had to take a cutting torch to cut a steel fence post down that had grown into an oak tree; she was there helping me dig and getting the bugs and slugs that I uncovered. Then I had to dig a sprinkler and valve up, making a pretty big hole. She was there helping me find the worms and getting in my way climbing down into the hole, totally unafraid of me or the shovel. Sometimes she's so much in the way that I have to have my wife take her off and pen her up. She's a lot of fun and my wife's and my favorite pet. We'd both be devastated if we lost her. I call her Duck Duck. My wife has given the two other Rouen females names; one is Betty and I can't remember the name of the other one. The drake Rouen is just called Drake. The Cayugas don't have names yet, as they're still the babies of the herd.
 

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
Duckpin bowling is in the New England States. I tried it once when I was in New Hampshire at Ratheon's Radar installation school in the mid 70s.
 
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