Gray Man, Inc.

[DRIVEN]

Did some of my spring starts today. Just standard garden stuff. A couple squash varieties, 3 different tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, brussels sprouts, egg plant, and I'm going to try okra this year. Mother in law gave me a bunch of okra seed varieties. She's in an area of Oklahoma that has similar summer to my garden spot and it grows like mad for her. I'll probably do some more starts tomorrow or Sunday.



I did a sprocket swap on the rear of the TW to see if I can find the magic ratio. New engine has more torque so I went taller. I pulled the 55T that makes it a climbing machine for a stock 50T that I had on the shelf.




Then I decided it was time to put some break-in miles on it. Rode up Sunny Slope to top off the tank with fresh ethanol-free, then over to Homedale, and took the long way home.



The more I rode it, the better it ran. I'm thinking the low speed surge I had might have mostly just been stale gas. It's no fire-breather, but there's a noticeable increase in power. The way it's geared right now I have a 10.29 compound low. Previously it was an 11.09. The added torque seems to even the score, and it has no problem leaving stop signs in 2nd. Where it really improved was the cruise speed. With the previous 14/55 combination it was running pretty hard at 45mph and tapped at 50. The way it's balanced now, with 15/50s and the extra 6th gear, the comfy cruise speed is 52-54mph. At 60 it isn't working too hard and I'm at about 80-90% throttle. Top speed on level ground is 63mph. Granted, I throw out a pretty big sail on such a little bike sitting upright.

34 mile round trip and it got me home, like it always does. No smoke, no leaks, no noises.

[Taterhead]

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting me and my son some bikes. I just gotta get some debt paid off first.

[DRIVEN]

I was talking to my buddy last night, the guy who borrowed my blue TW last 2 summer rides. He's been looking for his own and probably another for his 13yo son. Says it's tough to find deals right now. Worst part is getting sellers to return calls or messages. Good luck.

[DRIVEN]

Weather is getting nicer and I'm getting restless. I blazed this trail 2 years ago with my buddy Jerod after it'd been washed out for over 30 years. Took a couple other old man riding buddies down there last spring. Just happened to run across the video this morning.

[DRIVEN]

Trail test today. No drama.





When I got home I washed it and did my 100-ish mile break-in oil change. It was dark but not low. Filter had the expected amount of debris on it. I'll probably do another change in 1-200 more miles.

[BLUE]

Yes ! One word....freedom

[DRIVEN]

On today's episode of Why I'm Always Broke...


100' of progress. Threw a track. Waited 2 hours for the service truck to show up and fix it.



Then 200' more.





Now I can get someone else's water into the canal without flooding me out. Hooray!

[wayno]

I would not be walking around your property in the dark without a flashlight.

[DRIVEN]

Haha! Probably good practice not to be wandering around my property anyway.

[DRIVEN]

I've been working out of town for the last few weeks. Home on the weekends but only for about 36 hours, which makes it a challenge to want to get much work done. Woke up this morning to a pretty nice day. Fields are planted and canals are running.


Ran to D&B first thing for 3 more fruit trees. Honeycrisp and Gala apple this time.


That brings the total to 11. They're mostly doing great. My Asian pears are budded out and covered in bees today. This pleases me.


They started flushing ditches yesterday. Soooo nice not worrying about culverts now. When it runs dry I'll climb in there with my little Homelite and shave all the roots.


I'm still whittling away on the downed trees a couple hours at a time. I tried a Holz Hauzen just for fun.
Still plenty of wood for 2 or 3 more before I'm done.

[wayno]

I had to look up "Holz Hauzen", interesting way to store firewood when one has the room.

[BLUE]

Damn , what a view of that frontier. I too had to look up holz Hausen , interesting , never seen or heard of that before

[DRIVEN]

I've gotten a lot of comments on the wood pile. Neighbors probably think I'm an idiot. I know I've mentioned it before but the previous owner was a jackass when it came to fence and tree placement. The biggest factor remaining is the overhead power lines. I've trimmed or removed most of the trees that are at issue. Those woodpiles are directly under them. A couple of the new fruit trees are close but since they'll get pruned every year, it won't be an issue.

This is a satellite view from about 4 years ago, when the original house was still there, showing how the lines run from the highway. Judging by the shadows, I'd guess that the photo was taken around 8 or 9am. I painted in the shop and driveway for reference. All my fruit trees are in the triangle formed by the canal and the 2 power lines. The gigantic weeping Willow to the right blocks direct sunlight in the early morning for a few and there's a curly Willow to the left that blocks a few others for a couple hours in mid afternoon. Otherwise they get good sun exposure. Many of the trees in the photo are now gone.


I'll be mindful of attracting pollinators too. Roses and lilacs grow really good around here. As do butterfly bushes, hibiscus, and clematis. Bright colors attract bees. Bees are good for orchards and gardens.

Potential teaser alert: There may be a cabin / tiny house project on the horizon.

[Taterhead]

Some days I love yard work, some days I despise it. Lately it’s all loathing due to allergies.

Oh man, airbnb at Jess’ place.

[DRIVEN]

Just spent the last 2 hours going over tiny house plans with my daughter. We're mostly on the same page.

Spent this morning doing Vibe stuff. Supervibe got a new AGM battery. Goddammit, batteries have gotten really expensive!


I'm sad when Gretta is sad so I welded in a new spark arrester.

I replaced the RR bearing shortly after I purchased it. It's always been a buzz box but recently got a little louder. This morning I replaced the LR wheel bearing and it's noticeably better. Might still replace the fronts just because 317K.


I couldn't avoid a truck tread on my last trip to PDX. It busted out my lower grille. I never really liked the stupid billet inserts that it came with. Replaced them with OG plastic grilles. All better now.


My daughter's basic bitch Vibe was way over due for tires. LF inner edge was wearing hard. I also painted the wheels because early years in Minnesota were unforgiving.

[DRIVEN]

When I bought my last 3 fruit trees I asked the lady if they had any grape starts or knew of some place local where I could get some. She told me that I wouldn't find any. I said no problem, I'll just mail order them. She told me no one would ship them here. Apparently the Idaho Department of Agriculture has banned the sale and import of several things. She named grapes, hops, potatoes, and onions specifically. So right across the river from me is hundreds of acres of grapes -- I'm just not allowed to grow my own. A couple miles to the north are thousands of acres of hops -- I'm just not allowed to grow my own. Etc... I didn't waste any time fact checking her, I just handled it. Had a job in northern Montana yesterday and stopped in Lewiston for a not-so-quick CL transaction. 20 starts of 4 different varieties. The seller shared about an hour of his knowledge before I was able to extricate myself and get back on the road. Supervibe did 1138 miles in 2 days.

[DRIVEN]

[wayno]

That sphinx looks like it has been around for 6000 years instead of the 4000 year old one near Cairo.

[DRIVEN]

Yeah, it's in rough shape. The front looks about ready to break off.

[DRIVEN]

Just like everywhere else in the country lately, the weather here has been...off. As luck would have it, it's been raining a lot when I'm home. As soon as I leave town it seems to dry out and get sunny. As such, my outside tasks are behind schedule. Today I finally managed to get the dirt work done by the ditch and canal. All smoothed out now.

I got a nice access pushed through so the tractor (and eventually sheep) can bypass the canal on the south end while being inside the fence. I'll trim the trees on both sides later.




Then I mowed everything. There's more weeds than grass and it was all almost knee high.



My little fruit trees are hard to see in the photo, but they're there.


These 4 little lilacs were grown from starts from lilacs we had planted at the old house. They lived in pots until last summer and I was nervous they wouldn't make it because they were so scraggly. They're thriving now and almost 2' tall. There are 2 white ones that came from cuttings from my wife's great grandmother. The other 2 are purple and my mom started the parent bush from a cutting out of my grandma's yard in the early 70s. Not sure if it means they're 5 years or 5 decades old.



Anyway, the mix of rain and sun has made the weeds explode. Unfortunately it's been really breezy so I can't spray. Maybe next weekend.