A Volvo 162 ? ? A two door 160 series Volvo ?

 Labor Day Hodgemans Custard Cruise in New Gloucester, Maine.

Got there around ten AM and parked next to Al Wheeler's red PV544 .

Then an hour later a 162 rolls in . . . . WTF a 162 ? ? But but but Volvo never made such a creature .

Well Terry Sturtevant from Mt Vernon Maine just got done building one and here is proof .

And look at that is has the early 140 tail lights and the six cylinder B30 engine .

 

 It's a '73 164 with a 142 roof , doors , b-pillars and front halves of rear quarters , early style bumpers , grille , door handles and taillights .

Yea its a Volvo geek-out thing .

And it just made my day .

Can't deport them ? . . . . then we gas them .

 

More evil critter carnage .

 

After I wrapped the bases of the fence posts in aluminum they simply went for the caps .

And as if that was not enough the bastards went for the PVC brick mold on the garage doors too .

So I borrowed mom's trap as my home made one was too small for much more than a chipmunks , but it seems gray number one managed to get himself caught .

Though its a better fit for reds . Number one is on his way .

As was red number two an hour later .

And chipmunk number nine .

Then I saw this around the back of the garage . Seems a woodchuck decided to make his new home under the slab .

So I cleared my junk out of the way , dug a trench and set my big trap so he had no choice but to go through it . But three days later still no joy . And then yesterday I found another spot further up where he had dug another hole under the slab .

So no more Mr nice guy. A couple glowing charcoal embers, an oily rag and my heat gun in a piece of duct to gas the bastard out .

All it got me was a melted heat gun . I pretty sure he was not home in either hole .

My big cage now available to continue with the deportations , gray number two goes for a ride today .

 I am fairly sure I know why Mr Woodchuck was digging under my garage . Seems the gay boys across the street decided to get rid off their old tool shed and he was looking for a new abode .

Even the 300K $ Lamborghini guys . . .

 . . . wanna hang with the old duffer with the cool Volvo .

Evil Critter Mayhem

  Seems the last two years we've had a bumper crop of tree rats .

That's this year's crop . There's at least five , possible six young ones in the nest in the maple tree in the front yard , in addition to the six from last year .

In addition to chewing on the lead flashing on the roof they seem to have developed a taste for PVC plastics . That's the conduit for the 220 volt line that goes underground to the garage under the deck . 

My solution was to wrap it in Bituthane / Ice and Water Shield in order to cover the holes they made and it seems the tree rats  don't care for the flavor or texture of rubber adhesive. 

Good enough . . .  for now .

Then this morning we spotted one chewing on the PVC sleeves over the wooden posts of the fence around an old house slab that is our back patio . 

So dissuasive measure is applied

On all posts .

Never had them before but red squirrels also seem to have made an appearance this year . The slinky trick was no obstacle for this little creep as he simply crawled up the pipe inside the slinky and made himself right at home on the bird feeder .

So I doubled up on the slinky and added a big dome in this case a repurposed aluminum disc sled from the 1970s . That seems to have done the trick . . .  for now . 

If this continues much longer more drastic measures may be in order .

So many tears today

 My ten dollar Pearl

11 / 6 / 2004  - 7 / 5 / 2024

We only had you for the last nine of those and they were not nearly long enough .

 

Fly-in Fea-Market Score

 

Went over to a little Fly-in Flea-Market in Middleton NH a couple week ends ago and the host had a big spread of machine shop tooling  purportedly from the old Chance-Vought plant in Connecticut that used to build the Corsairs back in WW2 . 

No prices , just pick a handful for ten bucks sorta deal .

Some of it identifiable some of it absolutely foreign to my eyes .

Didn't need any of it but it was just too good a deal to pass up so I picked a handful .

A roll of  . 0200 safety wire .  A . 2488 thousands reamer. A fractional drill gauge and a two pound bag of stubby drill bits in assorted sizes all for ten dollars .

Oddest darn things too . Never seen anything like it . Top quality stuff , diamond sharp edges . But I've never seen the blunt end like that . Some kind of quick disconnect deal for a gang drill set up where multiple holes were all drilled at once in aircraft spars and skins . They are used tool room refurbished as all had brand new edges and fresh blueing on them . They work slick in my hand held drill too and the stubby bits are real nice for precise drilling as there is absolutely no wobble with them . Now I wish I'd have grabbed a couple more handfuls . 

DEPORTATION . . . because it's the only solution .

 There . . . that should trigger a few window licking libtards .

So about a week ago I saw this around the back side of the garage . A new hole going under the slab . Seems we have a bumper crop of little shit-munks this year and they are digging new burrows wherever they feel like .

Not good as that location is a low spot that tends to flood and freeze in late winter with the likelihood of water now going under the slab and the resulting ice pushing up and busting the concrete .

I dug down about a foot and put some half inch wire mesh against the edge , covered it with soil and put some cinder blocks over it .

 But it made no difference , they found a way around my obstacles .

Time to get serious then , and there was only one solution .

 

DEPORTATION OF UNDESIRABLES . 

Looking at what Tractor Supply had for traps none was small enough and they were asking close to $50 for the smallest they had . Screw that . A half hour of tinkering with the available scraps in my garage produced this .

Just like the store bought only at zero cost .

Works slicker than snot too .

Number one found the sunflower seeds in the bottle cap irresistible and was caught within fifteen minutes .

So did number two .

 As did number three . 

 . . . number four

. . .  number five . . .

 and number six , all caught within fifteen minutes of setting up the trap . Four of them just today .

Now isn't that a much more idyllic place to live than under my garage slab  ?

And no one will care where you dig your burrows .

I am sure Mr Woodchuck from last July would be quite happy to have you as neighbors . No I did not pay for that trap either . Someone down the street put it out by the curb with a FREE sign . That one is worth a couple hundred dollars if you had to pay for it today . 

Overall my home built shit-munk trap is a raging success . 

That's five . . . six of them caught within two days .