Yesterday was a full day of riding the toy and moving snow.  I got it all done and was making a few passes along the roadway back to the wood shed, just in case we need to drive back there.  One pass was remaining to get done when I heard the snow plow hit the ground with a thud!

What was that?  I climbed off the toy and could see the blade resting solidly against the ground and the handle was in the up position.  What the heck?  I climbed back on the machine and by pushing back real hard against the lift lever I was able to get the blade somewhat off the ground.  Enough so to allow me to drive slowly around and into the garage for a lookysee.

In the garage I could not see anything that could stop the blade from being raised enough to clear the ground.  I figured the cable must have stretched and so I removed the blade from the toy.  I detached an adjustment arm and gave it a couple of tightening cranks and then put it back together.

Back on the toy the blade would raise about an inch higher than it did before.  I shrugged my shoulders and headed for the barn with the toy and blade.  As I attempted to turn so I could back into the wood shed, the blade hit the grass and I was stopped immediately.  Dang it!

I did a 59 point turn and got turned around to head back to the garage.  Then I noticed a feeling in the steering that something wasn’t right with one of my tires.  I dismounted and took a look under the fender…..The right shock had busted off at the bottom mount and was resting against the inside of the tire!

For those of you following my posts for the past several months, this same thing happened to the left front shock back in May!  What’s with these Yamaha shocks?

Back inside the house I called the closest Yamaha toy dealer and they informed me that shocks never break and so they don’t carry them in stock.  But they could order a pair at $115 each!  Nevermind!  I’ll look on ebay.  Ebay was where I bought the one for the left side.  Surely that same seller still has the one for the right side…especially since “Shocks never break”!

Well, he didn’t have it, so someone else must have broken a shock.  I did finally find a Pair of shocks for $59, used, but the picture makes them look pretty good and since shocks never break, I should not have a problem with them when I put them on next week.

So, if any of you are on my “give me time, I’ll get to your snow as soon as I can” list, sorry!  I’m out of business for at least a week.  Hope it doesn’t snow.

Bears Butt

Jan. 12, 2013

As I look out the window from my nice warm home I have decided that tomorrow I will be pushing snow with the toy.  That means at least 4 hours of my day will be used up and depending on the depth of the snow it might take longer than that.

However, I would rather have to use my whole day up moving the snow from the neighborhood than driving to work in it.

Without a doubt, this is the biggest snow storm of the year so far and even though they have been telling us it was coming for two days, when it finally gets here it’s just not a fun thing to see.

With it comes moving it so we can get around with our vehicles, but it also might lead to the need to feed animals.  Time will tell on that one.  But at least we have our warm homes to stay secure in.

Speaking of which, as I was about to head for bed last night, I looked outside and up toward the mountain and saw a bright flashlight about half way up the red rocks near the South waterfall.  That was an odd thing to be seeing at 10 p.m.  on a very cold winter night.  I told Sherry to go on and head for bed and that I was going to call the sheriff’s office.

Dispatch answered and I said, “This is not an emergency as far as I am concerned, but my name is Bears Butt (not really, I told her my real name) and I’m from Willard and I can see a flashlight up in the canyon about half way up the red rocks.  Someone might be stranded or in some trouble way up there.  I’m just calling to make you aware.”  She responded, “We have men in the area, thank you for calling”.

HMMMM.  I wonder what was going on?

So, with all the snow coming down here we just might lose our power and so as not to disappoint those of you reading this site and ruining you day tomorrow 😉 I’m posting this up tonight as I might not be able to post anything in the morning.  I hope your day is a wonderful one!  Hot coffee is going to be the order of the day tomorrow!

Bears Butt

Jan. 11, 2013

Today I would like to introduce you to “Excellent Service” from one of the companies listed on the right side of this page.  Go ahead, scroll down past all the categories and the archives listed to a heading called “Blog Roll”.  Those are listings of companies I have personally dealt with and who also have a website of their own.

I have listed them because of various reasons and one of the most important to me is the Service and/or Product they have provided or delivered.  Both must meet some pretty stringent requirements on my behalf otherwise they would not be listed there.

So as not to be taken wrongly, there are other companies out there that provide the same services/products and do as good or perhaps better than these I have listed, but I have yet to discover them and when I do, I will include them as well.  But, why I’m writing today is about one of these listed.

Whenever I find a good, honest, reputable company, I will personally continue to frequent their establishment and I will continue to honor them by letting others know just how good they are at whatever they are in business to do.  My oldest brother “Just Bob” needed some work done on his truck.  It had a hard time starting.  Click.  Click.  Click.  Click.  Click. Click. Click…Vrooooom!  Finally it would start.  To the novice (me, him, others who don’t know much of anything about mechanics), it must be the starter solenoid or worse, the starter itself.

One always thinks of the worst of the worst when something like this happens.  A quick check at the local auto parts place, a tester put on the trucks computer to determine the issue and $150 later and new battery is in place.  The tester gives out some sort of code number to tell the trained user just what is wrong.  Is the tester perfect?  Nope.  What it does is give a code number that when referenced back to the “code book”, points to several things that could be the issue.  In this case, battery, solenoid, starter motor, ignition key, computer relay of some sort and the list goes on.

So the “trained technician” at the auto parts place, who by the way just graduated from “know it all auto mechanics and coffee shop” and got excellent grades in all categories, says the most likely thing wrong with your truck Mr. Just Bob, is your battery is not putting out enough voltage for the solenoid to engage and turn over the starter motor.  You need one of these Platinum batteries, with 750,000 cold cranking amps and a 3 year full replacement guarantee, to replace your piece of junk worn out old battery you bought last year.  Only $150!

Ok, so enough beating up the auto parts guys and place.  Did the battery fix Just Bob’s problem…nope.

Just Bob calls me up, “Where is the place you always take your cars”?  My answer is “Woodruff Auto Service!  Why, do you have a car problem”?  “Yes, my truck won’t start and it’s almost trapping season.  I need a reliable truck to go trapping.  What is their number and where are they located?”

Woodruff Auto Service

801- 782-6294

3896 N. Hwy 89, Pleasant View, Utah

I follow Just Bob down to Woodys (that’s what the owner is called, sort of the Bears Butt of the auto mechanic world) and we drop off his truck and head back home.

The next day rolls around and Just Bob calls me up and says…”Bears Butt (not exactly what he called me) you saved me a whole lot of money by telling me about Woodruff Auto Service, my trucks problem is just loose terminal connectors.  All they have to do is clean and tighten them and I’ll be good to go”!

Now folks THAT is GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE right there!  They could have put in a new starter and charged him $380, plus labor and he would not have known any difference!  There are a ton of things they could have done and his truck would not have started any better than it does right now with only the terminals cleaned and tightened.

Trust me when I say, I personally have had the same thing happen to my vehicles when dealing with Woody and the gang.  If you want a testimony about my cars just ask.  I have several!

So, for you folks living in and around the Ogden area and need some auto machanic work or maybe even just a state inspection…check out Woodruff Auto Service….Oh and tell them Bears Butt sent you.  When you do be prepared to duck, because they just might throw something at you.

Bears Butt

Jan. 10, 2013

It’s that time of year where most of us are locked up inside or too poor to do anything else.  So what do you do to keep busy?

For those with a tanned fur laying around you might want to make something useful for rendezvous.  Locally you can purchase tanned furs at the store called Montgomery Furs in the Ogden area.  They have a whole lot of really classy red fox, coyotes etc for sale and the prices reflect the going rate for raw furs, plus the tanning.  So even though they aren’t “cheap”, they are great for doing something really cool with.

And I found this youtube video on how to make some mittens out of a coyote hide.

Have fun!  I have to get back to painting!

Bears Butt

Jan 7, 2013

Today I’m going to make a batch of good old chili.  Last night I dumped a bag of red beans out onto the counter top in order to sort them and look for rocks and other debris that usually finds its way into the bag of beans.  This is something my dad taught me to do many, many years ago and its become a habit.

I recall quite a few years back an article in the newspaper that was supposedly from the USDA stating the need to look over beans before cooking them was not needed, as the process’ used to prepare the beans before packaging removed all the foreign things from the beans and the beans were all washed and ready for use.  Of course at the time I called hog wash to that.

As I sorted the beans last night I suddenly found a very sizable rock!  One that would certainly break a tooth if you bit into it.  I looked even closer for things after that.  And as I proceeded to sort I found more and more undesirable things.

Check out that big rock near the bottom of the picture.  The largest one I have ever found while sorting beans.  But near the center of the picture are three smaller rocks.  This is not a good thing to be finding in a bag of beans.

It’s a habit of mine to take some of the split beans out as well and some of the ones that have obvious dirt embedded in dimples.  But let it be known too I don’t take all the split beans out as I sort it.

The finding of 4 rocks in one bag of beans made me wonder if there was a warning on the package the beans came in.

Yep, right there “in plain sight”, IF you look for it.

So, again my curiosity started getting the best of me.  I have grown beans before but not the kind you make chili out of, they are called “dried beans”.  I’ve never grown them.  So my search began about how dried beans are grown and harvested.  It should have been a no brainer, but sometimes I think my brain has gone south.  Dry beans are grown just like any kind of bean, in rows planted fairly close together.  They are allowed to grow until the outside shell is rather crusty and begins to separate.  Then in moves a cutting machine that cuts the vines and puts them in windrows.  After that windrow has some time to dry as well, in comes a threshing machine that separates the beans from the rest of the vine and shell.

Here is a video I found:

Is it any wonder how rocks can get mixed up with the beans?  I had no idea this is how they harvested the beans.

And then the beans are sent to a packaging plant where they are washed and sorted by size etc. and put into bags for sale.  I never found a good video of the inside of one of the packaging plants, so there isn’t one on here for you to see.

So, I guess to find four rocks in one bag of beans isn’t such a bad deal given all the dirt that that harvester is kicking up.

So keep sorting those beans!

Bears Butt

Jan. 6, 2013

Hey Security!  Turn on at least one light down here!

Thanks!  And how about some heat?  It’s cold as all get out!

I’ll be right back, I have to go put on a coat…….

There!  That’s a lot better.  Well, just like a bad penny, I’M BAAACCCCKKKK!

All the plugs plugged according to hoyle, the dust bunnies all left without an argument and the desk separated without too much of a struggle.  And then it all came together just about the time the sun was setting!  AHHHHHH!  The good life.

With that, I have been given a kitchen pass for tomorrow and actually asked to “go fishing”!  That never happens.  I have checked all the caller I.D.s, looked her Facebook over and checked her personal cell phone and everything looks like it’s up and up…so, I’ll go fishing.  She really loves me you know and after all, “what’s not to love”?

One of the boys has committed to going with me, the other has to check with his kids.  How bad did they freeze the last time out?  That will determine the fishing factor of them for this next trip.

The weather calls for a slight chance of snow in the morning and then just partly cloudy and cold.  It sounds perfect for a day on the ice.  I think a trip back to where we were the other day, but try and get in another area.

Meal worms, wax worms and of course the “secret” bait will be the baits of choice.  More will come tomorrow after the fishing has been concluded.  For those of you wishing to join us, you are more than welcome.  Give me a call, send a personal message or email and we will hook up, so to speak.

One thing I have noticed about being in this Underground area, is the computer is liking it a lot better than being in a hot environment.  It’s so COLD down here!  I’m heading out!

Bears Butt

Jan. 4, 2013

We have all heard of The Bear Goes Over the Mountain, but in this house it looks like the Bears Butt may be going over the cliff.  Once the second painted bathroom is all put back together it will free up a lot of space in the small room down the hall.  It is in this small room that the majority of the bedroom stuff is to be stored (that explains to me why I can’t paint that room before the bedroom).

So, the Bears Butt’s computer is also going into that small room.  My house painting is going to affect the world at this point.  I never imagined in all my born days that this could ever happen.

And so to all my friends reading this in the countries of Japan, Russia, Germany, Spain, England, Ireland, Afghanistan, Guam, Australia, Canada and Tennessee, keep checking back on a regular basis.  If all goes well I will be able to maintain a trail from the doorway to the computer and occasionally be able to post up another story or two.

You might want to take a few moments and go stock up on fresh drinks and snacks and perhaps get your meds renewed as well.  After all, I’m sure there is a medical reason you are frequenting this site and without it you might need something stronger to get you through what could just be an “extended down time” as I unplug my computer from the world and attempt to re-attach it in the room just 10 feet down the hall.  Wish me luck.

As for you, I wish YOU luck as well.  Unless something of astronomical circumstances prevents me from getting back up and running, I will relay my progress, “on this site”, through my son the “Weasel”…he has a key to the doorway to this site.  Unlike myself, when I log in to post something on here it is like approaching the garage door from within the vehicle and hitting the garage door opener,  He, on the other hand must get out of the vehicle and open the garage door manually.  But it can be done.

Weasel, do you copy the Bears Butt?  Weasel, are you out there?

I figured if I gave him some AA batteries for Christmas that he would understand he needed to put them into his 2 way radio just in case my painting came to this.

Bears Butt, Out!

January 4, 2012

Oh My!  Suddenly the phone was ringing off the hook as my Security Team has advised me not to disclose the whereabouts of my move.  So, forget the fact that I was planning to move 10 feet down the hall, as in fact Security has me moving to an “underground” location.

Bears Butt, Roger Out!

Same day.

January 3 and already I have painted the two bathrooms upstairs!  I’m going like gang busters on this painting deal I made with Sherry.  The ultimate goal is to paint the entire upstairs before trapping season begins.

I just found out there is a kink in my system.  I thought I would next move into the small room just off the hallway…I was just informed it’s our bedroom next….oooooo.

With the bedroom painting also comes new carpet….more delays.  It makes more sense to me to paint the small room and THEN the bedroom…but she is the boss.  Trapping season begins early in February.

On an UP note….I did hear her mumble under her breath something about ice fishing…………………………………………………..

Bears Butt

Jan. 3, 2013

As most of you know, Sherry and I keep track of any money we find during the year.  We have a little contest to see who can find the most and the winner gets bragging rights.  Coins are found in parking lots, under the edge of the counter when paying for groceries or other goods and often times in the coin return of a “coinstar” machine.  Actually there is nowhere a coin can not be found.  I found on on the bottom shelf of a bread rack, delicately balanced on one of the wire rungs.  One must keep a close eye out all the time.

2012 was a very poor year for finding many coins, but she found a $50 bill early in the year.  My goal at that time was to also find a $50 bill, but it did not happen, I didn’t find any bills at all.  So with that she beat me really bad by finding $50.90, while my finds totaled $2.13, in my finds there was a Russian Ruble as well and I can’t count that, according to our rules.

We added another dimension to the game this year as when we find a coin, we get to scratch a lottery ticket with the lucky money.  I scratched $41 in winners while she scratched $25 worth of them.

As the population relys more and more on the use of credit and debit cards coins are becoming harder and harder to find.  I like the fact that High School kids think it is really fun to throw pennies at their buddies and also to drop change outside their vehicle at the McDonalds drive up window.  I wish each and every one of them handfuls of pennies wherever they go.

And so we begin 2013 with empty found coin jars in hopes to fill them to overflowing by this time next year!  Wish us luck!

Bears Butt

Jan. 3, 2013

I came across the saying “Dead as a Door Nail” today and that got me thinking…What is a Door nail?  Of course the obvious then hit my pea brain, how is it to be as dead as whatever a door nail is?

Boy did I ever go on a search.  There are tons of sites that talk about Dead As A Door Nail and they have an assortment of things that are pretty much dead and related to that door nail they talk about.

So, here is what I have deducted from all the sites I read about.

WAY back when Sir Butt was stomping around in Common Ground it seems that someone invented nails.  Each nail had to be made by hand, forged from a very hot fire and pounded into shape via an anvil and hammer.  Every nail, as it came to be known as, was unique, but it was a whole lot easier to put together pieces of wood with a “nail” as it was using wooden dowels or wood pegs, as what was the custom of the time.  And so, to have something tacked together using nails was very unique and something that only the wealthy could afford, it became “the” thing to have.  Even if it was a smallish thing.

And so the story goes, and the kings and the rulers of the lands built these big old places for themselves and their understudies to live and have their parties and on each one they had big old doors made of wood.  We all know that wood can only come in so wide a piece, because of the thickness of the base of the tree.  So, in order to make a door, say 5 feet wide, it would take several slabs of wood to cover that distance and then would have to be held together using a couple of other pieces laid across and fastened some how.  This is where the nails came into play.

So, now we have a door to fit the space.  The first hinges were made of leather.  Another story.  So the nails were pounded through the cross braces that spanned the vertical slats and then through another cross board on the other side. These braces sandwiched the upright boards in such a fashion as they could not move.   Cross boards were generally used at the top and bottom of the doors length, but for a stronger door a third brace was used in the center as well and an even stronger door had the middle brace going diagonally down and across the door.  Fancy doors even had an “X” shaped out of diagonal braces.  Very strong doors for sure.

Over time, with the door opening and closing and sometimes slamming shut or banging on the outside of the building when fully opened, the ever so strong nails would loosen and cause the door to fit rather poorly in the opening it was to keep closed up.  So the wise people who built doors back in the day were rather cleaver to note that if they bent over the protruding pointed end of the nail and smashed it down against the wood the nail would never be able to work itself loose again.  And so they did that across the entire door and they called the nail “dead” because it was of no use other than to hold the door together.  On a side note it also made the door a safer place to play around with all those pointed ends now laid flat.

Other sites I visited said that the metal door knocker on the outside of the door; (you know the one that hinges at the top and then drops and strikes a metal plate and makes a loud metal to metal noise to alert the occupants of your visit) would strike a very large headed nail to make the knocking sound and it was that large headed nail that was actually called the “dead” nail, mostly because its sole job was to create the metal to metal sound.  Once pounded through the wooden door and bent over on the other side it was of no other use and so it became “dead”.  I personally would not have said it was dead as it was, after all, providing a very good metal to metal sound.  By definition a “dead” something is of no value, and so I don’t understand their thoughts on dead nails in a door.  Oh well.

Now here is another take on “dead nails”.  You open the door and suddenly a large gust of wind comes up and slams the door on your hand….OUCH!  Now you’ve done it, probably broken your fingers but at the very least your finger nail is blackened by the blow.  It’s going to hurt for many days and then the finger nail will fall off and hopefully grow a new one in its place.  Dang that makes my fingers hurt just to think of it and this typing is effected by the pain in all eight fingers and occasionally the thumb on my right hand.

And so the effected nail(s) on your hand were commonly called “door nails”.  And don’t get “door nails” confused with “hammer nails” you should be able to tell the difference.  I’ll give you a hint or two,  “door nails” can happen to any finger or thumb at any time and can even happen to all the nails on one hand or in the worst case all the nails of both hands at the same time…ooooo that is an ugly sight in my minds eye….. as opposed to “hammer nails”, they generally occur on the nails of the weaker hand than the persons dominant hand.  For instance, I am right handed and so I hammer by holding the hammer in my right hand and will hold the nail with my left hand….you get it.

So, the next time you see a friend with a blackened nail, ask them in a nice way if it is a door nail or a hammer nail and see what the response is.  Either way, I hope they don’t cold cock you and you end up “deader than a door nail”.  Be safe.

Bears Butt

Jan. 2, 2013