Desire has been very confused as where is home now. She keeps going back into the city. The mothership had to go and bring her back to the ranch tied down and in tow.


the bounty hunter the mothership went and hunted down Desire and brought her home



so nice to have all the space in the world and hot have to unhook the trailer when arriving home late



OMG, something needs to be done to that dirty butt



a deep cleaning session later Desire is almost presentable- but ...



she shacked up with the weirdos in cramped quarter



Desires looks fat compare to her stallmates







the skinny and tall mothership



I like this shot of the frontal view



this free lawn mower but she is not turning the tides of the fast growing grass ; the bunny would let me approach up to three feet distance; slowly we are bounding

 

Now, how did Desire get to be wandering back to the city?

Nice place, and complete with wildlife...

 

So what do you do when you are confronted with countless vendors and part numbers for the parts that your precious life and that of the Mini depend on it? For this I am talking about the front inner ball joints. After months of chasing this troubling clunk that only occur under very specific road surface I am very sure the left front inner ball joint is the cause. I had misdiagnosed it many times and ending up replacing parts that has nothing to do with this clunk.

Back to the $64 question, which one do you buy? The price ranges from low teens to over $40 each. My choice is I go low when they go high (who famous said that? ). I go with a reputable American brand. My take is for something as important as a front ball joint they will not be reckless - as least for a well known OE supplier. We will see. If I totally go silent a couple of months from now, this will be the cautionary post never to cheap out on your front ball joints.

 

I always try to use lemforder or meyle ball joints on german cars

 

I would agree wholeheartedly with Lemforder but Meyle, no. Meyle has been on my crap list a long time even before they start making everything in the world's factory. Lemforder is not an option with Rockbottom Auto. So I just picked one of the most prominent OE name. Strangely the same OEs has more than one price point. Let's just hope it is not made of clay iron.

 

I love the beams on the house. What is the high fence for keeping something out or something in?

 

The fence will keep out deer and the antelope but not the elk. The elk will laugh as they mow over that fence. You can get what is essentially shocks and springs for your fence lines. It allows the large animals to got through the fence without completely destroying it.
My uncle in Prineville has them on his fences on his land. The fence will need mending after an elk or cow walks through it, but a lot less mending then without. These aren't exactly what he has, his are far more robust and more expensive I am sure.

 

The center part of the house is exposed post and beam construction. The sellers poured their love and souls into the property and I feel sorry they had to let it go. It is like new as they have been working on it for a decade or more. The high fence is to keep the deers and small mammals out. it is a fence inside a fence. Fortunately there is no elks here.




I finally gave the garage a deep cleaning as it was used as woodworking shop for all the cabinetries and woodwork of the house. There is no shortage of storage as the sellers have more stuff than me. I only managed to fill 1/3 of the storage space.

 

A miniature version of the Yellowstone Great Lodge!

I am sure the sellers will be happy with you having purchased the place given the care you put into what you do.

 

Regarding post # 2430 above I don't understand why you say "Lemforder is not an option." I am completely rebuilding my front suspension and most of the parts I have bought are Lemforder from RockAuto.com, although I do see that today, the inner ball joints are not listed. But outer ball joints and tie rods (both inner and outer) from Lemforder are available.

 

very cool how they did it, is it timber frame & sip or are those 2x4 / insulated standard type walls

 

I should have called it timber frame construction to be precise. The walls are traditional insulated which seems to be 2x4 rather than 2x6. It seems to be well insulated especially the roof. It gets quite cold here at night, and the well water is icy. Here is a timely photo for fifth of May.


I hung the carp streamer just in time

 

I see all that natural wood and see a lot of work or large expenditures in your future. There is a storybook home near mine that has a lot of exposed wood around the windows, the eves and, well, everything really. Every 2 years a large team of workers descend on the home refinishing the wood. Even with about a half dozen workers it takes about a week to complete. Looks magnificent but also expensive to maintain.

 

I hope not. They seems to be very good in choosing the right finishes on them. The one inside is clear while the one out is not. They also have done a great job to to discourage birds from crapping on them or building nest. I am surprised the swifts haven't build nets. One good thing for sure is there are no urban pigeons here like downtown Portland. Much less crows as well.

my owl is standing guard 24/7

 

i have a constant battle with carpenter bees, little buggers are trying to eat my house

 

I was horrified when I first moved into the mid century modern house in Portland and realize I had them. A bit of research I tried Bayer's Maxforce bait gel. It worked like magic with just one treatment. They have not returned in 15 years. Bayer makes some potent stuff, and no wonder the ***** used them.

Carpenter ants are benign compared to termites.

 

Oops. I didn't read carefully. I'd never heard of carpenter bees until today.

How about a giant Asian Murder Honnet?

 

In the south the undersides of things like porches were/are painted sky blue to discourage bees. I have the wood boring bumble bees in my garage. They chew through paint to get to the wood. Ugh.

I have some outdoor wood, with a “wood” finish. Over the years it has aged nicely. Not sure how I would redo it if I had to.

 

Most interesting of you both have wood boring bees. Strangely I noticed what looked like bullet holes on the stained wood sidings of the cabin. At first I thought they were from shotgun blast. As I examined closer I couldn't find any pellet lodged in any of the holes. I then thought may be woodpeckers bored those holes to peck out the insects as there are these "bullet holes" on three sides of the cabin. There are a lot of bumblebees here as well as yellow jackets. I need to be careful to distinguish bumblebees from carpenter bees.

Speaking of bees. Yesterday this little Rufous hummingbird flew into the garage and couldn't figure out how to get out, even after I open all the garage doors. It kept flying too high to see the open garage doors. I really worried it would exhaust itself as they have very high energy burn rate.

 

The term bird brained is, generally, a misnomer. Birds brains are on par with humans when it comes to a brain weight to body weight ratio. Most birds are wicked smart. It will find its way out, just give it some time.

 

Hummingbirds are the exception when it comes to flight time. They live on a fine line between survival and death. If it run out of fuel, it crashes like a helicopter. Their energy reserve is amazingly low due to their high burn rate. They can die if not finding the next refueling spot before they ran out. It did find its way out after a couple of minutes. It was confused by the white ceiling and kept resting on top of the open garage doors to take a rest. I could see it was panicking.

 

Glad it did find a way out. That is a really good picture of it.

The carpenter bees leave an almost perfect 1/4” hole in the wood. I have put tape over the holes during the day and they can’t find their way back in. Problem is, I forget to do a permanent plug. I need to do that. Maybe some Great Stuff foam.

 

I came across this YT video and I could not believe this toy plasma cutter actually works pretty well for the crazy low price point. HeroCut it is. That's right. $150 but alas it is currently not available on Amazon. Oh, and don't get me started with their dynamic pricing. I am not exactly clueless and have a few tricks to find bargains there.

 

Subscribing again for the review of this.

 

I now know what caused the poor Rufous hummer to fly into the garage through the pedestrian door. I left the pedestrian door open and it must had wondered after feeding off this fuchsia bleeding heart right by it. It might even flew in as I walk up to the door. From now on I would be really careful to not trap a poor thing in the garage unknowingly. I might have to relocate the plant somewhere else.




And I saw that same bird this morning humming at the front of the house. Evidently Rufous migrates to Mexico in winter like a lot of other hummers. Some don't with PNW cities being warmer than the natural countryside.

Here are what looks like shotgun blast holes on the cabin siding. They sure are carpenter bee bore holes, except there is no few inches for them to bore into. All have the appearance that woodpeckers has been dining on them. Interestingly most of the infestations are on the battens rather than on the siding.