Paul B

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I just finished restoring this 160 Year old Steamer Chest. I think it came out pretty good. I used all the existing metal, wood, hinges, lock, latches etc but Had to buy some more cut nails. The entire thing was put together with about a thousand nails that were purposely to long and were bent over for strength. I lined the inside with cedar so i was able to get longer nails that went into the cedar. I found nails that were made individually on a machine from the same time period so the thing is pretty authentic. I also replaced the handles and the OD green canvas with a light brown one also from the same period that I got from a place that sells authentic chest parts. I added wheels because now it is real heavy.



This is the old chest as I got it.





















I also have a "Victor Talking Box" record player from about 1910. That was before RCA merged with Victor making RCA Victor. It is on top of my Ice Box from the same time period.
 

Paul B

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Thank you Timbo. I appreciate that. :D

Last night was fabulous. No, my Copperband butterfly didn't have babies and Christie Brinkley didn't knock on my door to borrow a cup of Instant Ocean salt.
It was almost better than that.

We went to a wine pairing with very old friends which I didn't really want to go to. I figured it would be in some restaurant and it was just to nice to do that.

To our surprise it was in an apple orchard right next to the trees. It was a beautiful night and the food was about the best I have ever had and I eat at a lot of restaurants.

The Chef was there to explain every bite of the four course dinner and the Vintner, who was a very nice young Lady explained each of the many wines we had that were all made in local wineries from grapes grown a few hundred yards from where we ate.
(If calling someone a Young lady is not PC, Don't read my threads because that was to me, and just about every one else a sign of respect for a thousand years)

The fresh tuna steak was caught and brought to the local dock a couple of miles away and the meat for the fillet Mignon was also raised there.


 

Paul B

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I have my car all packed up with empty containers to collect water in the morning, maybe do a little porgy fishing. I have enough storage in my Jeep to collect about 40 gallons (If I don't break a spring)

My nitrates creeped up to about 30 and I would like to lower them to like 29. :rolleyes:



Of course after I get it home I may need to diatom filter it depending on how murky it is and how much mud is in it as I am taking it from a boat ramp about 6" deep.



I also will need to strain out any trailer axles, tires or broken back lights.

Hypodermic needles, bikini tops, oil cans and signed pictures of Nancy Pelosi will go right in my tank just for interest and I am trying to get National Geographic to come over and do a story on my tank. Or just me, but so far they have not contacted me. :cool:



I am not sure why. :cool:
 

Paul B

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Last night there was a huge threat of thunder storms. As a matter of fact, my phone kept giving me this annoying noise with an announcement of the storm, flooding, lightning, meteorites, brimstone and everything else they could warn you about. I couldn't listen to the radio because it was all warnings, I thought we were being attacked by Bayone New Jersey.

So I decided to go to the beach and collect water. :p
It was very dark but wasn't raining yet. I backed up near the sea but I couldn't get to close because the waves were breaking like the "Perfect Storm" where George Cloony was in that boat that sunk with all the swordfish and I just waxed my car and didn't want it getting dirty.

(I am not speaking to Mr. Clooney but that is another story and I can't tell it here)

There were quite a few people on the beach watching the lightning as it was getting closer but I think most of them were watching us. (My friend came with me)

I had the back of my Jeep open and I reeled out the 70' of hose and threw the end with the pump on it into the angry Sea.

This wasn't as easy as it seems because the water was so rough, and it was so windy that the pump kept flying back at me and this was a boat ramp lined with huge rocks that the pump kept banging on the rocks and it was hard to get it into deep enough water to pump.

As the waves came crashing in there was water, but when they went out, the pump was dry and just sucking in sand fleas and cigarette butts. I even had to pull in the pump once to bang it on a rock to get the thing going as it was clogged with gravel and probably terrified amphipods. o_O

I had to walk out on the rocks into the water, luckily I had the foresight to wear my bathing suit. Not just because I knew I would get wet, but I wanted to Bring Sexy back.:p

I turned on the pump and it started to suck water from the sea, it also sucked in loads of seaweed and sand. The water didn't look to good but my fish are not Sissys so they will have to deal with it.
After all, I am doing all the work, they just have to live in it and like it. :cool:

We noticed the few people still on the beach looking at us and two of them started to walk over. I tried to think up a witty story to tell them, but I had nothing. One was a girl.

He said "We on the beach are curious. What the H-ell are you doing?"
I said, we are getting water for a fish tank.
He said "Oh, we thought you were testing something like those storm chasers who drive into tornadoes."

I could tell the girl thought I looked Sexy. ;Smuggrin (Oh, get over it)
Now our containers were getting full and we had the capacity to take 40 gallons and I was determined to do that unless the lightning came right into my Jeep and hit the radio changing the station from vintage Linda Ronstadt to Justin Beiber which would immediately end the moment.
Nothing like collecting water in a storm while blasting Blue Bayou.;Joyful

I couldn't keep my hat on and we could barely keep the jeep from sliding sideways on the sand due to the wind (and Linda Ronstadt, actually, not that the wind picked up, I think In a Godda Divida was playing) Hair was blowing in my face. It must have come from one of those unisex hair salons a few miles away as I am bald.

The wind was picking up, Linda was singing louder, the lightning was getting closer and I looked Sexier as now I was all wet from the splashing. The on lookers were starting to move to their cars as they seemed like Girly, Sissy Mary people.
But we persevered and still needed more water.

We looked out to sea and there was this smallish boat trying to head into the wind. Now that was a Real Man. A very stupid real Man, but a man none the less. He took shelter behind an oil tanker unloading from a platform about a mile out.

Now it started to rain, not much at first, just enough to make it interesting. The lightning was hitting the water all over the place and coming in sideways lighting up the sky like the last creshendo of a
Bochelli concert.
I thought I saw a guy who looked a little like Benjamin Franklin flying a kite.

We still had more capacity and continued pumping as the waves grew larger.
I was surprised the pump didn't clog again as the water was raging so much.
Now we were all filled up just as the rain hit, and by "hit" I mean a deluge. Noah's flood was just a pond compared to this. I have seen Monsoons and this was a monsoon.

I quickly dragged the pump back over the rocks trying to keep standing upright while I impressed the people in the cars filming us for National Geographic.
I wanted to look like Lloyd Bridges in "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" where he fights the giant squid with a scizzors and a cell phone. I think I captured the moment.

We got in the car and tried to go, but the windshield wipers wouldn't go fast enough and the wheels were slipping on the sand. Fiddler crabs were running in circles with a completely horrified look on their faces.
Finally we got off the ramp and headed home through knee deep water.

I got to my garage and closed the door. Then I pumped the water into vats and it is now being diatom filtered to remove the seaweed and sand as it looks like Miso soup.
I will change it today and see if anything lives.
 
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Paul B

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That 40 gallons of NSW water I added was the largest water change I ever did in my life that I remember. My tank is 125 gallons so there is probably about 90 gallons of water in there so that was almost half of the water.
The seawater was 76 degrees so I just had to heat it up 2 degrees, but I did have to add some salt as the salinity was .016 or so. I don't know how the fish live around here with such low salinity and this is the Atlantic.

I think Aliens are coming at night or very early in the morning the days after holidays and sucking up the salt.

My fish and corals didn't react in any way that I could tell from the new water. The calcium of the Long Island Sound water was close to 400 but the alk was about 6 so I added a little.

I also can't find those tiny fish fry that I added a few weeks ago. They grew about twice or three times the size and I noticed one a couple of days ago but now I can't find any. Of course they may have grown larger and are in the rocks waiting to put on a little more weight so they can finish off my copperband butterfly. But more likely, my Janss pipefish found them and had a nice lunch.

If I go back there, I will collect more. I hope they carry different parasites because I like to keep adding new ones to keep up the immunity so I never have to go on those silly disease threads that start out reading "Help!!!!!> I got ich after 6 months of quarantining, dipping, medicating and fresh water dipping in insect repellent and Nair"

Tank is doing very well and the corals seem to be continuing to grow. One "arm" of a SPS bleached and I am not sure why but the rest of it and the rest continuue to smile.

The fish are extremely healthy and you can tell that by the very bright iridescent colors healthy fish have on their fins. That iridescences normally fades in captive fish unless they are fed correctly.
I am most surprised that my Janss Pipefish is still living as they are supposed to be difficult. I want another one.

I myself glow like that because I also drink this "elixir" that I invented for my wife for her MS Pain which seems to work better than pain pills. She calls it "Jumping Juice" but it is a little work to make.

 

Paul B

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They really don't want you to repair these Chinese LED fixtures. My blue lights went out so I took the thing apart to fix it. I figured it was the driver, but it was the LEDs themselves. 5 of them were sort of melted. I had a couple of blue LEDs and I shorted out one to get the thing running. You can see the one I shorted out. Now it's "almost" as good as new with just a few Blues that don't light.

 

Paul B

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I am at a loss for words which is a first for me so I will just update my tank. OK, thee is nothing to update, it is the same as it always is.

I can try to name the fish but I am sure I will miss some.



2 Gecko Gobies

Copperband

Mandarin

Scooter "Bleeny"

Queen Anthius

Possum Wrasse

Janss Pipefish

Red Perchlet.

Yellow Wrasse.

2 Striped Cardinals

Hippo Tang (with no spots)

2 Fire Clowns

2 Watchman gobies

Some kind of red fish

Rainsford Gobi

Some kind of brown fish. Maybe a bleeny.



That makes 20, I am not sure if I missed any.



I also have this very cool decorator crab. I don't remember how long he has been in there because I rarely see him, even if I am looking right at him, but he is very cool.



 

Paul B

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I am back from my morning exercise. I took my bike to the stairs that lead to the beach. On the way there I saw so many deer and they were so close to the road that I could count the ticks on them.
There was only one Buck that I could see. I think his last name was Rogers.

The stairs down to the beach has a lot of spider webs crossing the hand rails so you have to constantly brush them off. They are probably covered in ticks but real Men don't worry about such things. Only Sissy, Snowflakes and Girly men.

The sun was just coming up and there were a few tiny tide pools that will evaporate soon leaving all the tiny fish fry and snails to croak. I would imagine if I took some home and dipped them in tree stump remover I could revive them, then quarantine them for 3 months where they would grow into 10 lb stripped bass and I could have them for dinner. That sounds like a great business.

Today we are getting company from the old neighborhood so we will take them to the pool, then on the boat for dinner. She works at a pool and is bringing me a 12 gallon bucket that they buy chlorine in. I already have two of them so now I can bring back 36 gallons of water from the sea without trying to fit 6 five gallon jugs in my Jeep.

 

Paul B

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Today I am designing another Steam Punk Project. Still in the very early stages. The bottom part is a 1910 or so Broadway light housing, I am not sure what the middle part is but it is some sort of timing device with all brass gears.

The top is from the Railroad in the 60s. It has some huge relays in it.

I have some bicycle chain and sprockets that may go on it and it will have a lot of lighting and movement.



 

Paul B

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We are having company this weekend so we went to Costco to get hamburgers.
We are taking them on the boat then back to the pool to Bar be cue.

So my wife says we can just "jump" into Costco for the hamburgers.

We get to Costco and I run to the cell phone booth because I need a new battery on my 8 year old "I" Phone 4. I know the guy and I don't want a new "upgraded" phone because I know it won't work, I won't be able to figure out how to use it, I have to kill half an hour for him to program it, and I don't want to pay another $49.00 a month being my old phone works fine and is paid for. Besides I don't need my phone to make me breakfast, put gas in my car, feed my fish and get my slippers. Just make phone calls and don't annoy me.

The guy I need is on vacation so I look for my wife. She is buying sweatshirts for the Grand Kids, Water Piks, beach chairs, pop corn, olives, flashlight batteries, flounders, Halloween costumes,
celophane, vacuum cleaner bags etc. Everything but hamburgers.

I tell her, "I thought we were going to "jump" in here for hamburgers. Then of course she gets mad and says now I am shopping for things we "need". Why don't you go to Home Depot?

How do women do that? I hate to shop and if I need hamburgers I park the closest I can get to the door, run in and ask the closest person where the hamburgers are.
(I don't need a shopping cart as they take too long)

She points to the back corner of the store and If I could get there diagonally by climbing over the counters, I would. I quickly look down the aisles and avoid the ones where there are people. Then I get down the least crowded aisle to the hamburgers, find the closest package and grab it. I put it under my arm and in one quick motion, spin around and go as fast as I could to the least crowded check out counter.

If there are more than 2 people on line, I run back to the hamburger section, throw them back into the case and go back to my car as I have PTSD and I don't do lines. On my way home
I change the menu and go to a deli and we have sandwiches.

This all takes place in under 8 minutes.
Thats the way a Man shops.
 

Paul B

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That Hippo Tang I threw in my tank two or three months ago looks great. No spots, no lumbago, no irritable bowel, no cataracts, no worms, no flukes, no flounders no nothing. That health comes from not quarantining.

I also don't feed him lettuce, spinach or "The impossible burger". He eats worms, clams and LRS food like everyone else and he gets over it. I think he meditates. :rolleyes:

If I quarantined him he would now be on the disease forum and people would be telling me to dip him in stump remover while fresh water dipping him and adding Prizapro to French Onion soup to feed him while giving him soapy water enema's. :oops:

 

Paul B

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So this morning I took my normal bike ride to the cliff to go down to the beach.
It is a little brisk today. I put my bike there and started down the long walk to the stairs.

This is part of the walk way to the stairs.





Then I got to the stairs and heard all this rustling as it is a steep cliff with all bushes.
I saw three of these guys. One was a little one and hid in the bluffs. And I am not Bluffing.





This is on top of a steep cliff over the sea which is angry today because it is so windy.

As I was descending I heard this loud noise, like a snort. It sounded just like an elephant. I am a boy from New York and we rarely find elephants here, especially up on a cliff.
I couldn't get off the walkway as it is built high and if you touched the sand underneath the stairs, I think the entire mountain of sand would collapse causing me to call the ski patrol to dig me out.



I am sure they are off for the summer so I would be in trouble and besides, they couldn't get to me because it is hard to climb stairs wearing skiis.

I never did find that elephant but I kept looking and I didn't even see his footprints in the sand.



 
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