Projects on the grounds, Summer 2020

Jerry Christiansen

Mega Poster
WMSTR Lifetime Member
Hi Everyone,

By this time I hope that everyone has heard that things on the grounds will be a bit different this year. Some projects that were planned won't be done this year. We need to see how things work out.

Everyone else is welcome to post projects for this summer in this thread.

Jane and I were on the grounds for a few minutes late this afternoon and we saw that at least one truck load made its way from Larson Welding.

The garbage bag rings showed up.

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I don't know what the plan is for now. Do they need to have the rust removed and then get painted? Do they just get stored somewhere? Do they get put in the ground and ready for use? I hope someone that has a plan speaks up.

The risers for the bleachers are here.

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The questions about the garbage bag rings can be repeated here. What is the plan?

The mower showed up.

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I am sure the blades are still stored in the pulley/belt area where we put them last winter. At one of the work weekends it was pointed out a sign stating "This is a grass mower, not a land leveler" should be put on the mower. I think that meant the mower should not be set low.

If a person's intent is to grow weeds, especially dandelions, set your mower low. If your intent is to grow grass and choke out weeds, the shortest the grass should be cut is 3 inches. That means the grass should grow to about 4 inches tall and then cut so it is 3 inches tall when you are done. If you are interested, some agricultural colleges have done research on this. I will share what I have found.

Here is a project that can be worked on all summer long.

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Bring your chain saw. Empty totes are sitting around waiting to be filled.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen


 
Thank you for reminding us about leaves. Leaves and grass don't care much about what we humans do. They always need attention. Jane is planning to take care of the flower beds she has cared for in the past. All the pots she has will be prepared and set out at the tail end of August, show or no show.

What other 'projects' need to be done every year? We all need to look for maintenance projects that don't require funding this year.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
Do we have an official place to pile leaves for the summer? Steamer circle, bone yard? Had the question asked to me, and said I would find out.
 
Please send the leaves to the boneyard. They seem to always get dropped in the steamer circle and sit and rot then before the show someone tries to burn them to no avail so they rot some more and eventually get hauled to the boneyard.
 
There is a pit dug in the bone yard for leaves and small sticks/ brush. I would think twice before putting ANYTHING other than that out there. We were locked out of it last year for a reason and it's our own responsibility to dispose of our junk in the proper fashion.
 
Great reminder @JLWithers, there always seems to be things that end up there that shouldn't. Boneyard is NOT the place to dump junk from trailers or junk hauled in. If it can't be burned without fuss it doesn't belong there. There are dumpsters for show junk and Andy generally collects the scrap iron. Junk from trailers or our own projects need to go to the dump on our own terms.
 
Hi everyone,

One project is done. The post that supported the stand pipe near the Red Brake was nearly rotted through.

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Here is a close up.

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We got lucky. There was still enough post left so that we could hook a chain on the post and use the Bobcat to pull it out.

Gary M showed me where some posts were stored that were left over from a picnic shelter project. The hole from the round post wasn't quite big enough for the new post. It only took a bit of scraping along a couple sides and cleaning out the hole to get the new post in.

This picture was taken a while later.
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No, Rick W is not sleeping near the post. He is cleaning the threads in the T that the drain plug fits in.

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If you zoom in close at the bottom of the post, you can see that Rick has installed bushings to reduce the 2 inch to 3/4 inch. Craig is holding a piece of hose that got attached to that (yes, a few more fittings were involved that aren't shown). We can now connect a garden hose to the stand pipe and use the water to cool the Red Brake. In other words, the Red Brake now has coolant water and can operate this summer. If you have an engine that needs some break-in time, ask and we can make arrangements. Thanks to Gary M, Craig M, Rick W, Seth H and Bryce H for all the help on this.

Craig and I took the show's pressure washer that is on a trailer and went to Butzville, the accessible stall on JJ's bathroom and the East Block Potty. We swept the floors and used the pressure washer to wash down the insides of the tubes. When you use a bathroom this summer and it looks like the floor needs to be swept, grab a broom and sweep it out. If the garbage is full, put a new bag in the garbage can and take the full bag to the nearest dumpster. If the tubes need cleaning, go get the pressure washer and take care of it.

We found this in one storage room.

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That is another project someone can do. This needs to be cleaned up. At the end of the summer, need to remember to put the left over paper products in rodent proof locations or containers after the show.

We have many signs on buildings that need to be freshened up. Here are pictures of a couple.

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We may not be having a show this year, but there is no reason we can't have some fun at Rollag this summer. Members are welcome to come and work on projects all summer.


Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
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Hi all,

Wow, is this summer every flying by! There have been things going on at the Hill.

The crew at Earl's Mill have been busy. I don't know what changes they made inside, but apparently steam engines will no longer be needed for sawing lumber.

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The crew as inside doing something and this IH seemed to be running all the equipment at that time.

Sid and I have been working in the East Block Potty. We made a wheelchair accessible stall on the ladies side a couple years ago. Now we are working on one on the guy's side.

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This picture was taken last weekend. One divider has been removed. the side wall has been extended to provide the space needed.


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Another step along the way. One of the stools has been removed. It is sitting outside by the fence. I hope no one figures that it is OK to use it where it is! The bare wood on the door is part of the locking device Sid figured out. It is not quite finished in this picture.

Finished product.
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This week we finished the project. Sid's slide lock is finished. The grab bar on the back wall is easy to see. A steel plate covers the hole where the other stool used to be.

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Now the grab bars on the side wall and the toilet paper dispenser can be seen. This shows the extension on the side wall pretty well, also.

On a sad note. We had some vandalism in Steam Hollow over the weekend. We came out of the camper and saw this.

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Some one took all the tires off the Flower Shower.
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Actually, this was another Side and Jerry project. Matt F works at a tire shop. Last fall I asked him to keep an eye out for some good looking take-offs. A couple weeks ago he said he had 6 tires ready to go. He said if I could deliver the tires to him, he could get them mounted for us. Next weekend the Flower Shower should have some 'new' booties for running around the grounds. Thanks Matt!!

Some other things happened on the grounds. Jim B had a group working in the saw mill on Saturday. The machine shop crew made progress putting the engine back in a loader they are working on. Louie got the engine out of the trencher.

Hope to see you on the grounds soon. There a lots of things to work on. Leaves still need to be picked up. The signs shown earlier in this thread still need repainting and I am sure there are mane more that need repainting.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen

 
By the way, before someone points out that the IH in the picture could not run the saw mill, I know that. Notice that I didn't say it was sawing logs. I said it was, "running all the equipment at that time". I hope someone will tell us what was running and what they were doing.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
By the way, before someone points out that the IH in the picture could not run the saw mill, I know that. Notice that I didn't say it was sawing logs. I said it was, "running all the equipment at that time". I hope someone will tell us what was running and what they were doing.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
Jerry, it was running the single sided planer.
 
Just a reminder...
The block potty behind Main Street house requires water to flush the "tube" out as it's not a drop toilet.
So, the flower power truck or pressure washer on a wagon is definitely needed for this structure.
 
Just a reminder...
The block potty behind Main Street house requires water to flush the "tube" out as it's not a drop toilet.
So, the flower power truck or pressure washer on a wagon is definitely needed for this structure.
The overhead tank is filled so you can "flush" the tubes as normal.
 
Hi all,

Earlier this season someone said they would keep the tank full. Last weekend when we were working there, the tank is empty.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
Hi all,

Earlier this season someone said they would keep the tank full. Last weekend when we were working there, the tank is empty.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen


You could use your flower shower truck if you have shoes back on it and fill it right back up! Assuming none of the water trucks are out... I have no idea as I have not spent much time there.
 
You could use your flower shower truck if you have shoes back on it and fill it right back up! Assuming none of the water trucks are out... I have no idea as I have not spent much time there.
The thirst quencher is out and operational. Should be by the blue water tank. Who knows how long until insurance kicks in and buys Jane new wheels for the flower shower!
 
Hi everyone,

Matt F found some nice tires for the Flower Shower. Brekke K helped put the tires back on Saturday morning.

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Notice the nice DeWalt impact wrench that Rick W let us use.

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We had to leave the block under the tire so we could get the jack out.

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The Flower Shower now has 'new booties'. They are all the same size and all radials. One of the old tires was a 7.50-16 bias ply. I think there were two of the old tires that were the same height when they were stood up next to each other, the rest were all different sizes.

The water that comes down the hill from the OK Corral campground is supposed to go around the west end of Steam Hollow and then work its way out to the pond on the east of Visitor's Camping. The west end had filled in with dirt washed down the hill and the culvert was plugged. A week ago we got the culvert dug out and got a lot of the drain re-established. We have some more work to do that will need to be done with spade.

We wanted to clean a bunch of the dirt and gravel out of the culvert. We got some pieces cleaned out by holding one end up with the Bobcat and banging on the culvert to break the gravel loose. The last piece of pipe was getting the best of us, so we decided to cut the pipe open lengthwise to get the dirt out.

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Once again, Brekke was the man of the hour and ran the chain saw. Nope, that isn't my saw. We borrowed it from Jeff E. We didn't feel too bad about it, he said the chain was an old one that didn't have much left in it. **

Gail G got word to us that she would repaint the signs on the TMB and the Pabst Building if someone got them down. Dan K and I grabbed the Lull and got the signs down. Here is one of the TMB signs on a couple chairs by the Prony Brake building.

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Look what we found on the back side of the sign.

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Can anyone tell us more about these two people?

** Please note, we did NOT attempt to cut the culverts with the chainsaw. I would like to see the expression of Jeff E's face when he sees the pictures.

Later,
Jerry Christiansen
 
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