hey mark!! I’m still around, lol. Been busy trying to get projects done before the weather hits. The bridge and dock are all done, all I have left to do is on the bridge and that’s handrailing and solar lamps. Gonna wait till spring for that. I am rebuilding our well house. When I first bought this place in 1995 I told myself that the well house had to go. It was so obvious whoever built it had no clue how to frame, and it ended up a rat infested, rat turd full, mess. Had my son tear it down to slab, and I am getting this thing rebuilt with the help from my son.
I pulled away from all diesel forums as my truck is still down and been two years since I drove it. I figure I’ll give myself more time to heal and get in shape and maybe this winter I’ll adress it’s issues. I’ve since switched hobbies back to shooting, in particular the high powered pre charged pneumatic air rifles. What a kick in the pants! Not one squirrel left around here to mess with my dogs or pass on their flea and tick infestation. Target shooting out in the front lawn, what a joy, lol.
Ill be back on here should I run into problems fine tuning my brakes. That’s really all I have k fr to do.
on another positive note, I hired a trainer to help get me back into shape. So much of the nutrition knowledge I had has become old school. This guy set me straight, dropped almost 20 lbs, and am back in the swing of training again. It’s a lot harder with a fused back, that’s for sure. Definitely no ab crunches for me, lol

thanks for checking up on me, Mark. I hope all has been well with the DTR 1stGen family. Happy thanksgiving to all!!

These two projects, the bridge and the dock, pretty much took up all of our summer. My son is probably regretting moving back home, as I’m sure putting the screws to him with this work load. He’s pretty much my “back” for all these builds. I just do the design, planning, and the guy running the saw.

those fires in paradise, CA are just pretty much down the street. About 3 hours maybe a bit less from me. Man, the town is pretty much gone. The entire town. Also, to date, 23 folks passed for sure. Fire is a big big concern where I live. Our neighbors are all good about keeping an eye out and letting everyone know. We do the same. We actually had a neighborhood pow wow after last years fire that burned 20 acres right next to me, and decided that certain families were in charge of certain elderly neighbors. Should something happen, we go and pick this 80+ year old woman up. She also knows that we are her go to.

the fields surrounding my pond are all irrigated. The plan is if a fire heads our way one switch turns on all the sprinklers. It’s not the end all to slowing down a fire, but at least it’s something. My wife runs our riding mower, and keeps that area mowed really low to the dirt.
We have been told by the local fire dept. that should a catastrophic blaze ever come about, our property was going to be home base for the fire trucks and crew, just due to the layout, and the two acre pond that they can pull water from. So, in a big way, that’s great to know.

I’ve actually thought about running 4- 1” hard galvanized pipes with long throw sprinklers at the gable ends of my house, that would just spray down my entire roof constantly while I had power. The problem I am seeing is PGE electric has currently made it habit once a fire is known, all power gets shut off in that area. My irrigation pump is electric, so you see where I’m going with this, lol. I heard that fire in Paradise started from a transformer that blew.

I need to invest in a high horsepower trash pump. I have an irrigation ditch that runs thru my property that also fills my pond. If I set that gas driven pump next to that ditch and tie those sprinkler heads to that, it’s just a matter of throwing the intake hose of that pump into the irrigation ditch and turn the pump on.
theres downsides to all these plans, but at least it’s something.

I just had my whole house re roofed, and code here in my area is to have gutter screens in or no inspection passed. I invested in these screens called easy on screens. Come to find out my neighbors brother invented these, and my neighbor stores screens at his house. Costco had the best price on these at a $1.50/foot. These screens are awesome. Not one pine needle will make it into my gutters, and the screen is made of all aluminum and stainless steel.

Screening off off your gutters adds to fire protection