Yes, boys and girls, this is a hanging. NSFW!
I went to Lowes this morning and bought the hooks for the hanging.
Then I hanged them!
Ah! But look! What’s this?
Is that new 5/8″ particle board I see? Why – yes it is!
And look:
A regular polyhedral!
And…and…parts! Them’s pieces parts!
Some assembly required…
Some gluing required, too!
More sub-assemblies…
It wouldn’t be a proper project without some wheels. It a law.
The blocks now have blind nuts installed (not the ones shown – they’re too big) and are screwed ‘n glued ! Yay!
Here is the Castor bean plant growing in my gravel driveway – right where the mole burrow isn’t anymore.
There are several more Castor bean plants growing where mole burrows are no longer occupied. As a matter of fact, every mole burrow I dropped a Castor bean into a few weeks ago is now unoccupied. But not all beans resulted in plants.
Odd, that.
June 13, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Nice work there, McGoo. Pretty soon you’ll be able to find everything.
When ya get to my little screwdrivers, let me know, OK?
So castor beans are good for eliminating moles. Hope you’re not planning on a mess of beans, once they grow and have beans.
June 13, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Great bio-extermination method.
My latest is right up your alley, MCPO and myra have already chimed in.
June 13, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Gnus – nope! I’m not planning on eating any. Wasn’t there an assassination or murder or sumpin done with Ricin (Castor bean oil) several decades ago?
Wiki says it’s not quite as bad-assed a poison as has been depicted popularly in the past. That was news to me.
I’ve become dubious of “country wisdom” in a lot of instances, but this bit – that dropping a Castor bean in a mole hole will drive it away or kill it – seems (tentatively) to work. I’m still not totally convinced because I didn’t take rigorous data. Moles come and go.
But its fun to see the seeds sprout.
June 13, 2009 at 7:17 pm
If memory serves, McGoo, they make pretty plants. So there’s that.
In fact, I once planted some for the plants, ’cause they looked so pretty on the seed packet. Turns out they don’t do well in Tennessee clay. Who knew?
But it was interesting to read all the “Do NOT Eat” warnings on the package.
June 13, 2009 at 7:31 pm
So far they look fairly nice. Not dramatic like a rose or sumpin, but nice. Click on my photo and zoom in. There’s plenty of bits there.
My uncle and aunt (who provided a baggy of seeds) told me the plants will produce a real wad of seeds later in the year. So I’m gonna drop little fences around some of the plants and see what I get. I’ll also be photo’ing them periodically, so I’ll keep you informed.
June 13, 2009 at 7:48 pm
So what exactly are all these “subassemblies” leading up to?
Castor bean. Huh, news to me. I bought little solar powered buzzing sticks that seemed to have done the trick and run off my moles.
June 13, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Any other component, besides the TV, going on the stand?
June 13, 2009 at 9:44 pm
It’s a corner TV stand for an old TV I have, Woody. It’s going in the PC room – a spare bedroom.
MC – Probably VCR/DVD players. Whatever older stuff I have laying around. I’ll put a power strip in the base if it, too. I really don’t anticipate using the thing much.
I’ve already put more work into it than its worth, but I’m also using it as a vehicle for stirring up the shop, testing some of my power tools that have been stored, and seeing where everything is at and what I’ve got.
Heh. For instance, the plastic belt shield cover on the table saw vibrated off today. I’d noticed the saw seemed to be vibrating a bit more than I thought it should. Ends up some mud daubers in years past built a mud nest right on the end face of little pulley wheel on the motor! It was spinning like mad, vibrating a bit, and shook the belt cover off!
Needless to say, I knocked the hard-packed mud nest off. Everything is swell now.
Another issue that came up was – I have a Skil saw with a laser guide in it that I inherited from a deceased brother. Real nice saw! Unfortunately, it has an exhaust port on the side of the blade shroud that works really well – and ports the dust RIGHT into my face. It’s not designed for Lefties! Most skil saws aren’t, but this one is a real pisser. Too bad, because I love the laser guide beam. It kicks ass!
A third shop issue is that my table saw Calibrations & Zeros are off after 7 years in the hands of a friend. No biggy – but recalibrating is another job to do on the shop.
June 13, 2009 at 10:02 pm
So, this is going into a tv stand. Not your reloading bench. Not sausage making. Not canning. Not the still.
A tv stand.
Rannok
June 14, 2009 at 4:13 am
Yeah.
Um…
Not terribly exciting, when you phrase it that way, Rannok.
But it’s a Carbon-credit AGW TV stand! I spent long seconds designing it to address O’Bugger’s economic plan and the utter chaos it’ll leave the US economy in! And it’s a good shield against Space Twat scrotal itch infection.
…although I do need a shelf board for under the reload bench. The original disappeared the last 15 years.
June 14, 2009 at 4:22 am
Oh! Woody!
I actually made two of those buzzing sticks you shove in the ground to drive away moles. They work!
I made ‘em for my neighbors years ago in St. Louis to protect his garden. The only downside I found is battery life. The bats barely lasted 3-4 weeks.
Heh. I used a 8-pin PIC u-controller ($0.89) to switch on a li’l motor with an unbalancing weight on its shaft at random intervals and for random amounts of time. God bless the PIC Basic Pro random number generator!
June 14, 2009 at 5:09 am
I have several castor bean plants growing. Maybe it’s because it’s Florida but mine get to be almost 8 feet tall in a year (I do not fertilize them) and they are stunningly colorful (and you’ll have more castor beans plants next year than you can shake a stick at, too!) Plus, as a bonus, you get castor oil out of them and if you’re really clever, ricin. If the bean won’t kill the moles, the ricin will (assuming you live through the experience of making it or the feds don’t haul you away.!)
June 14, 2009 at 11:24 am
The story as I recall it, McGoo, is the KGB whacked a foreign operative with a ricin tipped umberella while he was walking across a bridge. Tom Clancy wrote about it in one of his Jack Ryan books (which I miss reading btw). Did I ever tell you about the time I helped steal a Soviet ballistic missle sub?
June 14, 2009 at 1:10 pm
antzinpantz – I’m looking forward to the big plants! I don’t think they get that big in MO, but I’ll ask the aunt and uncle.
And – no – I am not gonna mess with ricin in any form. But I will collect a sack of beans … um … just in case of…er…a tidal wave, or sumpin.
Y’know….
Reg – that’s pretty much what I recall – KGB, umbrella, ricin pellet under the skin, etc.
So you were on the Glomar Explorer? Woot! If you lived here I’d buy you dinner and ply you with mucho liquor just to hear the tale!
June 14, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I took the quiz over at Rebellion. I end up just a bit offcenter-right and a little off-center down towards libertarian.
Whatever.
My Political ViewsI am a right moderate social libertarianRight: 3.04, Libertarian: 1.94Political Spectrum Quiz
June 14, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Here’s me:
You are a right social moderate.
Right: 4.55, Libertarian: 0.42
Hmmmmm… social? Interesting quiz.
June 14, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I’m a right social libertarian.
right: 4.56 libertarian: 4.36
In other words, “Don’t fuck with me or my country, and I don’t care what you do. But don’t try to force me–or have the state force me–to pay for whatever that is.
June 14, 2009 at 9:52 pm
Not surprising that we are all 4th quadrant folks.
cb & Gnus – probably the only difference between us is that I’m older (I think) and am less passionate (i.e. too old and tired to get excited) about the shit I used to care about. Also, I left a lot of the questions with the “neutral” importance factor rather that giving them more importance.
Wasn’t it Heinlein who said, “Isn’t is amazing how mature wisdom resembles just being too tired”?
I mowed 2/3 of the lawn, then quit when mosquitoes bit me for the third time in the same place. I’ll finish tomorrow.
June 14, 2009 at 11:27 pm
I am a center-left social moderate Left: 1.33, Authoritarian: 0.39
Guess it isn’t hard to pcik the Canadian in the crowd eh?
June 15, 2009 at 12:59 am
Hm I’m a “…right moderate social libertarian.” R – 6.21, L – 1.01
One of the problems with this quiz is that it doesn’t differentiate between federal and local laws. I’m big on severe limitations on federal power but considerably less so for limitations for what citizens can elect for themselves at the local level. I think my libertarian creds got dinged for that stance.
June 15, 2009 at 3:49 am
Reg! I’d figured no one who reads this blog would be over in the 2nd quadrant! But you’re not very far over there at all. Hell, both of us are fairly close to dead center.
Besides, as Enas points out, the quiz is a bit lacking in certain respects.
Enas, your scores were more where I expected me to be.
June 15, 2009 at 4:43 pm
My daughter called me a red-neck aboot 10 minutes ago sO I can’t be too far to the left