Hello Everyone!
Spending time outdoors, Repairing a dodgy fan with an equally dodgy solution, Planting black locust trees & Bird seed is delicious!
Alright, I have been avoiding making this entry for a few days now... so I figured that I should at the bare minimum try to spell a few things out before my desire to do so fades again. I was actually hoping to get outdoors once the sun is up over the horizon... but alas it is raining here and probably going to continue to do so for the next few hours.
Since making my previous entry, I have overcome my reluctance to 'get outdoors' and have been doing my best to walk around each day... or at the bare minimum just get out and sit in the sun for a while. The weather has mostly shifted to being warmer so that has been nice... even though there has still been some very chilly evenings and occasionally some chilly days to boot.
As thankful as I am for the change in weather, the heat of course brings its own problems... and especially so since my tent is now completely wrapped in black polyethylene. I am still debating on whether to remove it or not (due to it being what also keeps the tent from having water flood through it during heavy rains) but given how hot that it has gotten inside a few times now I may well have to eventually.
My 'lifeline' in the scenario is my little 'squirrel cage' fan... and as I have detailed before... the ten year old device is fickle at best and needs routine maintenance to keep it from seizing up. Previously, I had been dismantling it, cleaning all the dust out... and then adding a few drops of chainsaw bar oil to the fan motor's shaft before attaching a cordless drill and spinning the shaft to work the oil in.
All of that seemed to work really well until a few days ago when the fan stopped work (again) and doing the entire disassembly, oiling, spinning process... just was not cutting it anymore. Given that I cannot 'go without' the fan... I was more than a wee bit dismayed... but after lots of tinkering (and more dismantling than I usually do) I decided to throw caution to the wind and poured several drops of oil into the bottom of the motor where (I think) there is a bearing.
In the beginning my solution did not seem to work at all... but after setting the dismantled fan on its side (so that the front of the motor where the shaft is was aiming down) and letting it run like that for a good thirty minutes... it started working again. To clarify there, I was having to turn the power to the fan on... then spin the fan blades (or the shaft via the cordless drill) to get it to start spinning on its own... which yeah is impossible to do when the housing is fully assembled.
The idea that it was probably all a bad idea to be adding oil to an electric motor that collects a lot of dust did cross my mind numerous times... but hey at least the fan is working again! For better or worse, that is my rationale (or lack thereof) about it all... and considering all the other dangers involved in my life at the moment... I think that I can live with my dodgy choice on that particular front.
Anyways, a few weeks ago I finally got more black locust seeds scarified... and planted them in those flower pots that I planted some of them in very late last year. I am unsure if I mentioned it or not... but a few of those trees that I planted late last year actually made it through the winter... and have started to put on some nice growth ever since I moved all the flower pots into a sunnier spot.
While planting the new seeds, I only put three to four seeds in each one gallon flower pot... and although that is probably too many for such a small pot... I doubt they will all grow given how old the seeds are at this point. I have yet to figure out how to acquire more flower pots... but lately I keep tinkering with the idea of modifying a bunch of (empty) number ten cans into flower pots and just count on them eventually rusting out.
On a similar note, I have been trying to find seeds (for vegetables and especially corn) but none of the stores that I get deliveries from sell them... and considering my 'mail delivery' scenario... I have not even bothered to look for them online. The closest thing that I could find so far is a bag of 'fruit, nut and berry' bird seed that has millet, sunflower, safflower and red wheat seeds in it... but who knows if they will actually grow.
My thinking is that for the four bucks USD that it cost to get the bag of bird seed it is well worth the experiment... and as a side note, I gotta say that it is the cheapest 'trail mix' around and I keep eating the fruits and nuts that I find in it! Yesterday, I planted several patches of the seeds in numerous places that have decent soil and get a fair amount of sun each day... so one way or another I will know soon enough if they will grow into viable plants.
Well, I was thinking to write a longer entry but I think that is about all the 'words that I have in me' for this one. I hope that most folks are doing well. Ta ta for now.
