For Everything Else There's Mastercard

So my Heater stopped working last Friday 12-24-2010. I went up to see why and could not tell. Called Goettl to look at it. seemed some kind of overheat sensor tripped because one of the pipes on my heat exchanger popped loose from it's mount. The pipes are press fit in place no welding.
Goettl no longer is owned by Goettl but by ARS (whoever they are). Apparently 2 years ago they sold out leaving everyone high and dry. The "Goettl" repair man told us that the part is no longer available and that we would have to buy a new unit for only $9000.00 minus a $1500.00 government rebate (rebate ends 1-1-2011). Yeah right, I am still paying for a new sewer line and not about to get a new AC unit until I absolutely have to.

This morning we removed the heat exchanger, and took it to Cliff's welding in Mesa. Went and had lunch, walked around a Goodwill for awhile and picked it up again.
I had them weld all the pipes so the exchanger will last longer.
We re-installed it, installed new screws wherever we could, cause the old ones were stripped or rusted. Turned it on and she fired right up.

     Half a tank of Gas for my Brother $20.00
Lunch while we waited for the repair $35.27
                                      Welding job $62.48
                Box of self tapping screws $4.50
        Labor for my 2 brothers help $120.00
                                                Total $242.25
                                                         ------------
                                           Saving $8757.75 PRICELESS!

Home Video of our Dream Vacation

Good times....
Good times....
My favorite was when my lawn was ground to a pulp.

Our Dream Vacation.

Hey everyone, Check out these pictures of our dream vacation, and it will only cost us $6800.00.

Yup... That's right, Kathi and I get an all expenses paid vacation to...

A NEW SEWER LINE!
Thank you Orangeburg pipe!

I WIN!

Me: Tank you have to go!
Tank: No way I like it here, it's comfy.
Me: Well, your going, but first you have to loose some weight!
Tank: What do you mean?
Me: We're going to have a talk. SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!
Tank: Wait! What are you doing with that SAW!?!?
Me: Muhuhuhahahaha!!!!
Tank: AAAaaaaaarrrrrggggggghhhhh!!!!! what a world... what a world....

And so I cut him up in to little pieces.


He begged and pleaded for his life, but I would have none of it. I made one concession, I removed the door to haul his carcass out. Never give up! Never Surrender!

My Stock Pics

Recently found where 2 more of my pictures have been published. I found this site. Here is a pdf preview with one of my pictures on the cover. The book can be purchased much cheaper at Amazon.com.

This picture is on the cover.

This picture is on page 17.

Making Progress

Taking advantage of the unusually cool weather this last week. I expanded the hole in the front of the tank and cut out a large section of the rear of the tank.

Never Give up! Never Surrender!

That Damn Tank

Previous owners of our house had installed a solar hot water system. When we got the house it wasn't working. I had long since removed the panels from the roof as their weight was damaging it. However, the hot water holding tank that was part of the system, was installed on the side yard, near the actual hot water heater. For some STUPID reason they had built a "closet" around it. Apparently they figured this tank would never break or need to be replaced because there is absolutely no EASY way to remove the tank without destroying the closet or the tank.

SO for the 14 years we have lived here I have been trying to remove the tank with out destroying the closet. A couple of years ago I bought a pair of pneumatic shears to cut away the outer covering of the tank, but had nothing to cut the tank up with. The tank cannot be rotated as there are pipes coming out the top of it in to the closet containing the hot water heater. The pipes cannot be removed because I cannot reach the solder joint without removing the roof. It cannot be tilted as the tank extends all the way up into the top of the closet. Nope, I will have to cut a large hole in it and then cut the tank up from the inside and remove it piece meal. Cutting torches and grinders are out of the question as I do not want to burn the house down.

I recently borrowed a reciprocating saw, and picked up some VERY expensive metal cutting blades from Lowe's. I managed to cut a decent sized hole in the tank. Hopefully over the next few weekends I will have this damn tank gone. NEVER give up! NEVER surrender!

Slow Summer

It's been a slow summer. That which I do to make money is taking up most of my time. Anything New that I have been doing is on Youtube.

Eric's and Coleen's wedding

For those that do not know Eric Zanovitch got married last weekend 6-12-2010 (isn't that one of the signs of the Apocalypse?). Here is a link to the pics Kathi and I took, And here is the video of the actual wedding.

On the way up to Las Vegas we rode a helicopter at Hoover Dam.

I was going to stop and maybe go on a tour but the place was a zoo, traffic was slow, etc. As we got to the other side I saw a sign that said "Helicopter rides $29", So I pulled over.

The $29 ride was only 2 minutes long, but they had a 5 minute ride for $59 that takes you over the lake and the dam, as well as the Mike O'Callaghan - Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge being constructed. The third option was a $99 dollar 10 minute ride. We chose the middle one, I grabbed my Sony bloggie, and my Sony HDR-XR150 handycam and started filming with both as soon as I could. You will note that towards the end Kathi and I are wearing what look like fanny packs, but they are not, they are flotation devices. We surmised their purpose was to make the recovery of our mangled bodies easier in the event of a horrific crash in the lake (I digress).

Kathi sat up front as I was too fat for the weight and balance. I did my best to film whatever was interesting with 2 cameras, and try to see the sites.

Kathi later said "Everyone should get to ride in a limousine that isn't taking you to a funeral, and a helicopter that isn't air-evacing you to a hospital." Well I haven't rode in a limousine yet.

To make the video, I synced up the 2 video streams in Sony Vegas Pro 7. and then chose the more interesting parts of the 2 streams. I chose the music for obvious reasons (we're in a helicopter what else would we use).

The helicopter is a Bell 206 Jetranger (thank you Daniel). If you think the ride is expensive, understand that they cost around $500 per hour to operate. The company is Dam helicopter, inc. The helicopter was very small inside. There were 4 passenger seats and it was about as roomy as my wife's Ford Focus. There were no other passengers.

Learning To Fly

More Video's

There are more videos on my Youtube site. I have uploaded some HD Videos as well.

First Music Video

For those that don't know, I have a channel on Youtube. Where I have been uploading some of my video's. Here is my most recent one.

Sanity

I will now take from you, your Sanity.

Electropolis

Electropolis from Kevin McCullough on Vimeo.

How to Crash Airplanes 101

So... a week ago I bought a Parkzone Radian from the Hobby Bench on 19th ave and Northern, and Daniel bought an upgraded Guan Li A-10 from nitroplanes.com. We were both chomping at the bit to fly them this weekend.

Self - "No don't do it, it's too windy!"
Me - "Shut up self!"
Self - "Maybe Daniel will talk some sense in to him".
Daniel - "FLY AIRPLANES!"
Self - "I'll be over here if anyone needs me...."

So my plane is totaled, There were pieces missing and I can't glue the nose back together. I am trying to locate a replacement, but no one has the fuselage in stock right now. Instead I took the receiver out of the Radian and put it into the Hawk sky, so I can fly it on 2.4ghz. That almost ended up bad as I had the elevator servo reversed on my first take off attempt today, and the plane was tail heavy because I didn't have the battery far enough forward. I would have flow again today but just after I landed the wind kicked up again...

Self - "Oooooh, Now you listen to me!"
Me - "Whatever."

Daniel tried flying again today and was doing a pretty good job until his transmitter or receiver cutout and the plane dropped out of the sky like a rock.
The above image was taken seconds after his A-10 crashed (trips over).
So then we had to repair it.



So after much epoxy and tape we got it back together.
Daniel reports later in the day that there is a problem with one of the motors.
We also worked on his old Cessna, which has 2 bad servos and now a broken propeller, This is what happens when a propeller walks up your arm, when it comes on unexpectedly.

Two words "NAZI Spiderpanzer"

Daniel's First Flight

Yesterday my nephew Daniel stopped by with Karen his mother, he found out I had an RC simulator. So he stayed overnight playing on the simulator. Since he was real good at it (and he had sort of flown an RC plane before), the next day (today) we got up somewhat early and went to the vacant lot and, I flew the plane once, then let Daniel fly. Here is that Flight.

Here is another Flight Daniel did with the camera facing to the rear.

And this flight I flew with the camera mounted on the belly of the plane.

Finally here is Daniels flight with the camera pointed to the right. Watch for the loop.

Total flights for today was 5 for me and 5 for Daniel.

Joseph Ducreux Sings - III

The Tasting

If you have been reading my previous Posts Here, Here, Here, and Here. You know I have made my own BACON! So.... How does it taste. Well pretty damn good. First off this is BACON! that is not for the faint of heart. This is Fire Fighter BACON! This BACON! makes the smoke alarm go off when you bring it out. The closest any other BACON! comes to this is "Newsom's Old Mill Store Hickory Smoked Country Bacon". Since I used Alton Brown's Scrap Yard Challenge BACON! cure, this BACON! is a little on the sweet side (but not much) you definitely get the taste of molasses and cider every once in a while. The BACON! is not salty, in fact The next time I make it I will drop the Sugar and maybe add an additional half cup of salt to the brine. It does not have the "hammy" taste that many bacon's have. There are no nitrates in this cure so the meat will not be a pretty pink (but I couldn't care less). Because of the extra sugar the BACON! tends to brown quickly, and if cooked at too high heat will burn easily. The smokiness varies but is refreshingly strong. One of my brothers described it as "eating a burning building, or campfire" There is relatively little curling, and almost no splatter as I did not "inject" the cure into the bacon like most manufactures do. The meat has a light almost porky flavor and the fat is where you will find the molasses and apple cider flavors. Mike reported the BACON! is good, but every once in a while you bite in to a part of it that taste "REALLY GOOD". The meat is very tender, as compared to how it was before being cured (I cooked some up before hand to compare).

Things I would change:
Get skinned, loin end bellies (they are thicker).
Skip the extra sugar in the cure.
Add a little extra salt.
Cure the bacon for 5 days instead of 3 (cure needs more time to penetrate).
Smoke with Cherry, or Apple wood.

Joseph Ducreux Sings - II