DanD

Nice pictures Lew BUT!!!!! And Im sorry; forget the leaves and all the colours. I love your garage/shop!! LOL Closer I get to retirement and leaving my (work) shop. The more I’m afraid of not having a shop to go and play in. You must feel proud of being able to walk out your door and see/ feel the things you’ve worked for. Gil. Postcard picture of what 🇨🇦 is all about! Dan

The hut will be there for you and your son to use; as if it were yours. It’s a waist for it to sit empty; so I’d be happy to share with you guys. Let’s just hope we get enough cold weather to freeze the lady up solid? Dan.

Just read John’s google reviews. Sounds like a place worth trying? If you ever need a mechanic’s ear to chew on, over a vehicle’s issue, please feel free to call. (Will PM #) With contra, you may not be going South this winter? If so and Lake Simcoe/weather cooperates; I’ll get you a key to my fish hut. We could work out details, when time comes. Cost to you would be helping me with hut location. LOL Dan

That's what I was thinking. Maybe even going with an aluminum solid bar rather then tubing? Just for the heck of it, I looked up a 12" length of 1/2" aluminum bar and was only $10.00 and change. Dan. Metal Supermarket

I'd fist do a parasitic draw test on the boat's electrical system. Begin with a fully charged battery Make sure everything is turned off (Other then the isolation switch) Disconnect the negative battery terminal Connect a multi meter. Negative lead to negative battery post, positive lead to the negative cable terminal. Turn the meter on and set it to amps. 50ma (0.050) is the maximum allowable draw that will not drain a battery over 3-5 months; depending on the battery's condition. Then if you want, turn on your graphs (one at a time) and see what it is drawing. You can then compare your reading to what the graph is supposed to be drawing. Just make sure you do not exceed the multi meter's amperage capacity. If you do, you'll let the smoke out of the meter or blow the meter's fuse. Next pull the battery and have a proper load and if needed a charge test performed. The battery needs to be fully charged before these tests would be valid. With a carbon pile connected to the battery; load the battery down to 1/2 of the Cold Cranking Amperage (CCA) rating; for no more then 15 seconds. With the load still applied take a voltage reading. A reading of 9-9.5 volts is a good test result and the battery is good. If the voltage drops below 9 volts; you then need to do a 3 minute charge test. With a charger that is capable of a 30 amp charge rate. Turn charger on and watch the voltage; at the 3 minute point take a voltage reading, with the charger still on. The voltage should not exceed 15.5 volts. If the voltage is higher then the 15.5 the battery is sulfated and needs to be replaced. A sulfated battery will seem to charge normally; but it is only a surface charge. Sorry for the noel of a post; but didn't know how else to explain the different tests. Dan.

Mind you recalls and policies must be done at the dealership. but hey if they’re paying that’s OK. LOL

You don’t have to actually go to the dealership to check for policies or recalls. Call whatever dealership, give them you VIN # and mileage. Legally they must tell you if there is anything outstanding on your vehicle. Sometimes government policies do work for us. LOL Dan.

A good friend's mom is native; he has blue eyes, blond hair and a beard. He was fishing using means that are considered illegal for non carded people. Not condoning it but he was well within his rights. OPP and CO officers have had to eat their words and threats on many occasions; once his card was produced. Dan.

The moisture gets in through the reservoir/fill cap vent hole. We here at the shop try and follow the manufacturers maintenance schedule; not the businesses sales manager's. When something in the maintenance schedule comes up, we let the customer know, we explain why and then stand back and let them decide; no pressure sales. Cliff I just had a look through your car's schedule for the 48K and there no (Not that I saw) mention of a brake fluid change/flush? Just check level and condition. So I guess if it looks clean leave it; if dirty change as required. I didn't look through all of the different 8000Klm intervals; but the one's I did, again doesn't suggest replacing the fluid? The one thing I did notice (had to laugh at Toyota's paranoia),was to check & adjust the driver's floor mat. LOL Here's something to think about. Unless Toyota are doing these servicing's at no charge to you; they cannot void the warrantee, if you take your vehicle elsewhere for these servicing's. As long as you have it documented that the service was done on time and the recommended or its equivalent materials are used. Dan.

When I see stuff like that, I'll go to the pile and check if there are any packing, PO# or a delivery slip; anything that might show an address or name. Either way I'll call the cops and give them the location; eventually a road crew will show up and clean the mess up. Then there's my garbage dumpster here at the shop; people think it's a free for all to use. Get here some mornings and its all but full. I've tried locking it closed; but they'll just throw the garbage on the ground beside the dumpster. I get so pissed that I'll open the bags and look for a name and address. When I find one, it is usually only a few blocks away. I'll then bag the crap back up put it my truck and go for a ride. Bang on their door, when they answer, I ask is this the residents of such and such. If they answer yes; I drop the bag at their feet and ask if they misplaced their garbage. If I get any flak, I'll wave my phone and ask if they'd like me to call the cops; that usually shuts them up. Dan.

That looks amazing.

Had some more fun with the oven today. Cathy (my wife) and I put a bunch of different pizza toppings out on a table and rolled out some dough 35 small (12”) round pizza crusts/bottoms Told a bunch of friends that around 3 the oven will be up to temp (600 degrees) and they were welcome to come over and make their own pies. The best was watching/helping the kids build their pizzas. They were so proud of themselves when they saw the result of their effort. Even the adults had a good time many saying they had never did this before. At the end of the cooking and eating most of the people stuck around and helped with the clean up. Good old trailer trash pulling together and having a good time.

Put the pizza oven to work yesterday. 60 pound porketta. Porketta is a deboned pig and stuffed with the trimmings from the bones. All mixed together with herbs and spices. The first 20 minutes in at 500 degrees to seer the skin. Then 4 hours at 350. Then 1 hour to rest. Call this pig in a blanket. Then onto the carving table We fed about 70 people most everyone brought sides. A great way to spend a day of cooking and street party. Dan.

I don’t think there’s a law on a patch repair on a brake line. It’s more of a liability concern. To patch a line a tech has to disturb the original line. You leave the shop with the patched line. Another section of that line blows causing an accident. The first thing out of most people’s mouths would be. Joe’s garage just fixed my brakes. Next thing Joe knows he‘s in court defending himself on a negligence charge. In my opinion it’s twice the work and materials to patch a line then replace it. I haven’t seen your car but being 24 years old it likely needs all the lines replacing? This is easy for me to say; but doesn’t safety mean more then a few extra bucks? Dan.

No we're not talking dome lights; we're talking electronically controlled headlights. Oh yeah the dome lights are also controlled by an electronic module. (sorry had to point that out LOF) You have to think of these "switches" as inputs to the LCM; when you actuate one of these inputs; you are actually putting in a request to the LCM. The lamp control module (LCM) has two battery feeds that are hot at all times. A 20 amp fuse for the parking lights and a 20 amp circuit breaker for the headlights. So the LCM is possibly getting a skewed input from a failing sensor or "switch", an intermittent short/open in the wiring or the LMC is failing. Here's a wiring diagram; have at it. 98Buick.pdf I loaded the diagram as a PDF as well as an image. The image is not very clear. Dan.

I'm not sure what or where to start with this? All I can say is that if you find the issue you may not want or can't fix it. Many of the parts for this system have been discontinued and the pieces that are available are crazily priced. For example the headlight dimmer switch (multi function switch style) is $600.00 plus. If the problem turns out to be the control module; it's a dealer only item that I cannot get a price on because its discontinued? My suggestion is to rewire the lights, using another switch, and an old style floor mount dimmer. Under $50.00 and your time is all it'll cost you. You can use the original 20 amp circuit breaker for the headlight's power feed. You'll find this breaker in the under hood fuse panel; that's on the center of the firewall. Let me know what way you'd like to go and I'll try and help. Dan.

I would still have mine, if they didn't steal it and my Avalanche that the sled was sitting in. Same thing for me last year. I didn't dare take the Suzuki out on Simcoe. I ended up going to Nipissing; so I could try Sally out on the ice.

Here's a way to reduce flock size. LOL

Is it the dash warning light(s) you’re trying to turn off? If so pulling a fuse will not do that for you. The dash is looking for an all’s well signal from the BCM via the serial data circuit and then the light will go out. A piece of black tape over the light is the most cost effective solution. lol Now if the ABS system is coming on falsely unplugging any part of the system (wheel speed sensor) that will disable the system but the light will still be on Dan

After cooking and smoking a few things in that pizza oven that I rebuilt and converted to propane; I finally had a chance to bake a pizza. First I’d like to show you guys the jalapeño, scotch bonnets and fingerling peppers I smoked in the oven. The smoke generator that Big Cliff inspired me to build works great. Fills the oven with a good load of smoke. People walking by kept warning me that I was burning whatever I was baking LOL After the 6 hours of smoking at about 150 degrees of oven heat. The peppers went into the dehydrator for another 6 hours. After that it was into the grinder to turn it into a nice shaker powder. Yes that’s a coffee grinder but it works good as a spice grinder. Ok on to my pizza Tried rolling out the dough but ended up with a square? What the hell is so hard with making a round pizza??? LOL Started out with some olive oil rubbed on the dough, then a meaty layer of tomato sauce, course grated mozzarella cheese, red onion, mushrooms, beacon, pepperoni, Parmesan cheese and another bit of spicy tomato sauce on top All said and done it was nice and full of flavour. Next time I need to remember that things cook/bake very quickly at 600 degrees. Outer crust was a bit burnt but the rest was a nice bite. Dan.

It was quite the wind and rain down by Turkey point. I was at my trailer down at Normandale, when an alert came over the phone; warring of a possible tornado for our area. Less then 5 minutes later; the sky turned black, the rain started pounding down and a large blow of wind came out of nowhere. It picked up my 10'X10' canopy (that was staked) about 25' in the air flipped it over and dropped it in the neighbor's yard. The whole thing only lasted about 5 or 6 minutes and then the sun came back out; crazy. Dan.

Trips like this will last for ever in your dreams and memories. Thanks for show us a bit of it. Dan.

Electric fence energizer will take care of your critter problems. I put one on our bird feeder and it didn't take the chipmunks long to understand that the peanuts on the deck were for them; but bird feeder was off limits. This isn't my video; but it shows that it just shocks them; with no real harm to them. It be very easy to set up a fence in and around your plants. If you like the rabbits around, put a pot of food out for them, away from the fence. Like I said it doesn't take long for them to learn; what is and isn't allowed. Dan

My hydroponics plants were taking a beating from the sun; they face West with no afternoon shade; by 6pm they looked like dish rags. They live in nothing other than circulating water and nutrients; so it wasn't from lack of water. I then built a free standing sun shade, out of 1"X2" slats and stapled black nylon fly screen to the frame. Seems to be doing the job; sitting in front of the system. The sun can still get through and plants do not wilt anywhere near as much. The shade frame is light enough to pick up and move when I need to tend to the plants. An extra bonus is that the birds can no longer land on the tubes and get to the plants. I don't have a pic of the stand from the front; but it sits in front of this and slops back at the same angle as the system does. Here's a partial pic of the shade from the back side. Got the idea from when I was driving past a ginseng field and seen the canopy covering the field. My plants have done well since I put it up. Dan.

Here’s my hydroponics garden. The plants all seemed to have adjusted from soil to water fed nutrients. The plants have been in for two weeks