Gas Prices Set Record

[Ron61]

Rick,

The cousin that bought my Cobra has 3 farms in Arkansas and they raise corn and beef cattle, though not on any scale nearly what they do here and at the big co-operate farms. He said he was not going to be selling any more beef, that he would keep what they raise and just use it to supply his family and local friends and as for the corn he is gong to switch to sweet corn so they can use it to eat and forget about raising it for feed except what he needs for his own cattle. I think you might see that start to happen in several places that still have the small farmers. They will take care of their families and friends first.

Ron

[4RE KLR]

Dang,
I thought gas was up just for the holiday weekend but it is still up a few .02's this AM.

Did anyone see the article on Good Morning America this past week about the "Staycation" where people are staying at home for vacation this year and putting tents in the back yards?

[Ron61]

Steve,

I never saw the article you mention, but most of the people that I talk to around here who normally went places for the weekend stayed home. And a real indication of just how many didn't come was Friday. Normally on a holiday weekend you can't get into the parking lot of the Sentry Market here and at 9:30 last Friday I went by and there were six cars in the lot and three of them belonged to workers at the store. So I went in to get a few things and there was two people shopping. Also I saw no boats parked along side the boulevard while people got goodies.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

I am planning to stay home this year as well. I normally go to Nebraska and visit family over the 4th of July hokiday, but this year, I am staying home. I have made 3 trips to Nebraska in the last year, and that really pulled money from the vacation fund more so than the price of gas. I don't know if I will actually camp out in the back yard. I may just go ahead and get my park pass and go to the lake and camp out for a couple of days. Get some fishing in.

[trularin]

Steve, why do you ask?

[4RE KLR]

Tru,

I just think we will be seeing a lot more of this type of saving, or ah are you talking about the link above?

The link article reminded me of how you go out and hunt your own meat and raise your own garden. I wished we had not sold the farm as now I think we need the land to grow crops on. You are the only one I know doing this on any scale. Good luck with your crops.

[Ron61]

Steve,

I saw in the paper that several people around here are starting to homestead up in the mountains. They are planting small crops of what they will need to eat and are close to mountain streams form water and have bought guns and ammunition to protect themselves from the expected rash of burglaries to steal food. I am not sure that this will come about soon, but I do believe that it is coming. Now I carry my gun to the gas station and park right in front of the office so I can watch the car.

Ron

[4RE KLR]

I do believe it will get much, much worse before it gets better. But I DO NOT think this is the end of the world as we know it.

I really think that the oil reserves are getting low, comparatively speaking and they are stock piling cash.

Now before everyone rips my head off think about this. The world has learned much from the Prince of Dubai. he has publicly stated he knows their reserves are an "ending supply" so he is building up to be a Destination location. If you ask me it is a smart move. To bad the clowns in our Oval office are too concerned with filling their own pockets to make the USA a Destination Location

[Wes Tausend]

...

Some businesses are doing great in this atmosphere:
( The Prophesied End-Time Revealed: Ronald Weinland's Books )

Actually heard on the radio the other day that ND is basking in a healthy economy. My guess is that it is not going to be all that good (delayed reaction) but this "outback" state does survive with less fluctuations than other parts of the country. What is lost by a soft economy here is offset partly by Canadian purchases because of the exchange rate. Even though the exchange is about even now, many items normally sell for more in Canada in any period, ay?

As far as gas prices, well that's the way it goes. We're like a small village that has chopped all the nearby firewood down with reckless abandon. It ain't gonna be like it was ...no matter who passes what law.

But there are bright spots on the horizon. Like this air car:
( Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 - Zero Pollution Motors - 1000-Mile Range - Popular Mechanics )

Yet, in keeping with the gloom and doom of "The End.com", I did think up some original downsides regarding air cars that I want to share with yuse guys:

Some "top ten" downsides to this air car:

1) For one thing, if it doesn't start, it just sits there and hisses at you.

2) If it rolls back at a stopsign on a hill, it could overcharge and blow.

3) It will be thee "can of worms" beginning of where we have to pay for air and our government can charge us tax on it.

4) The exhaust will release CO2 and whatever other second hand pollutants were in it to start with.

5) Old people that don't drive a lot will release stale air for the rest of us to breathe at stoplights.

6) When we accidentally run out of fuel, all our tires will be flat also... and the horn won't work.

7) It won't warm up good in the wintertime.

8) The wipers will go too fast at first, then slow way down later.

9) The defrosters will whistle at first then slow way, way down later.

10) If you shut it off after the garage door is closed, it will pop your ears.

11) Kids will put combs on their exhaust to make funny humming sounds.

So, OK, that's 11, sue me...
Wes



...

[trularin]

Air powered transportation has been around since the mid 70s.

Remember when we all stood in line to get gas in 1975? Well, there were a few places where the price of gas went through the roof. So, to combat this the air powered bus was developed and has been in service for many years.

This will be the bane of gas companies. There will no longer be any need for gasoline and...if you can generate the power to run the compressor for the air storage tanks from solar or wind, you are set with just maintenance.

[Joe Wicked]

I am curious to the 1000 mile claim. That is pretty substantial in my opinion. I could see having a solar powered compressor onboard and having some type of alternator that is spun by the engine as well. I am assuming that the engine is only spun while moving, so I also wonder about how much battery power is available to power the rest of the systems. Especially at night. I would consider something like this for a daily.

[Ron61]

Why do they always have to make these alternative powered vehicles look like a box? It seems to me that if they made them more aerodynamic they would get better distance and they would certainly look a lot better. There are a lot of ifs about an air powered car. As Joe said, the range is going to vary, especially depending on where you live and drive it. Solar cells need sunlight to work and when you have rain and dark about half the year, that really cuts into that. Wind power here wouldn't be reliable as we have some windy days and many more with no breeze at all. Ah, if I just still had my old pedal toy fire truck.

Ron

[Scott S]

I will believe in alternative energy when I see plows pushed by the wind....

Any guesses on how many gallons an hour this beast uses?


Try around 20....

I am trying to convince my crew to pack the logs out of the canyon by hand..

Scott S

[Ron61]

Scott,

That might work if you cut the logs into short pieces. I have watched every episode of the AxMan show and like it. I worked for a week or so one Summer in the logging here and set chokers for a couple of days before they moved me to another job. I have worked at a lot of hard and miserable jobs for short times. But I believe that was one of the most dangerous and hardest ones I ever worked at. Some places we had to have ropes tied to trees to hold to as the canyon walls were so steep. I think back over all the types of work I did when I was trying to get through school and it amazes me at all the different jobs and states that I worked in.

Ron

[Wes Tausend]

Originally Posted by trularin

Air powered transportation has been around since the mid 70s.

Remember when we all stood in line to get gas in 1975? Well, there were a few places where the price of gas went through the roof. So, to combat this the air powered bus was developed and has been in service for many years.

This will be the bane of gas companies. There will no longer be any need for gasoline and...if you can generate the power to run the compressor for the air storage tanks from solar or wind, you are set with just maintenance.

Couldn't find an air bus but this guy is thinking of building one:
( Idaho Mountain Express: Can air power a bus? - June 30, 2006 )

I can see the windmills now, squeaking and groaning, hooked to those little bicycle tire pumps with the "T" handle...

Perhaps some scrawny chickens running around under the windmill...

Originally Posted by Joe Wicked

I am curious to the 1000 mile claim. That is pretty substantial in my opinion. I could see having a solar powered compressor onboard and having some type of alternator that is spun by the engine as well. I am assuming that the engine is only spun while moving, so I also wonder about how much battery power is available to power the rest of the systems. Especially at night. I would consider something like this for a daily.

Joe,
I don't know much about 1000 miles either. That would take a lot of air. Seems like the car would probably have to be allowed to zig-zag all over and be pretty flat when it stopped.

================================================== =================

In reality, I don't see this air-car thing as being very practical. The most inefficient way to transfer energy to mechanical mode is by pneumatic, followed by hydraulic and finally electric. The most efficient would be a flywheel or wind-up spring, which are mechanical to start with. I believe there are flywheel buses and a flywheel race car (Chrysler's Electric Race Car Has Turbine and Flywheel - New York Times).

There might be a way to combine systems using air-motor tech though. Perhaps by releasing compressed air into a standard piston/cylinder and injecting/igniting fuel to superheat the mix causing huge expansion.

In a way our EMD based locomotives do this since they run as a 2-stroke diesel engine. I believe the design was originally a marine engine and the 2-stroke system is also used in trucks (Detroit Diesel).

The early compressers were positive roots type blowers (love that whine) but the more modern are turbo's that are mechanically driven (one way bendix clutch) at low speeds so as to produce boost (Vortec-like) but revert to exhaust over-driven turbo's when sufficient exhaust is produced. The best of both.

The reason for the mechanical boost is that they would not run without forced air intake as there is no intake "suction". The engines have one normal exhaust valve but accept intake boost every stroke through a port cut into the lower part of the cylinder at the same time the top exhaust valve is open. In a way they work like a 2-stroke dirt-bike or outboard except the crankcase is never pressured. All the fresh air is force introduced through a water-jacket-like cast-in manifold path when the intake port is still open during the short time, at BDC, before the intake port closes and compression begans to occur. The intake pressure forces the exhaust out the top while the piston is at the bottom. Each cylinder fires each time the piston goes over top-dead-center, thus the 2-stroke designation.

If you can follow the above paragraph, it stands to reason that pre-compressed air could possibly be used in lieu of a turbo for a similar engine. The combustion heat would theoretically enhance the expansion pressure. If it even worked, it would have to have a very slow impeded air-motor cycle to keep from quickly using all the air. Our locomotives idle at 200 rpm and full power at 900. This would have to be a lot less, maybe 10 rpm full power. The closest thing is a diesel powered pile driver.


...

[Scott S]

Wes.

I have owned a bunch of the force fed diesels(Detroit version) I think the whine is the ringing I hear....

As of now converting carbon products to torque is the only means we have to move heavy objects, is anyone setting sails on trains?

Scott S

[Scott S]

Originally Posted by Wes Tausend

The closest thing is a diesel powered pile driver.


...

Like this?

Frybrid Vegetable Oil Fuel Systems -- Basic Diesel Engine Theory

We had one drive some piles for a bridge we were building, one of the most amazing systems I have seen. They started it by hoisting the ram up to the top and tripping a release, the "piston" fell and bounced on compression to start. I think you could count the revolutions with a sundial, maybe 10 or so a minute.

Scott S

[Wes Tausend]

...

Scott,

All these diesels are loud, especially in the cab. I'm starting to hear ringing when I'm actually in near dead silence.

Nobody sets sails on trains
...but the wind affects them quite a bit. The worst offenders are empty coal trains. It's like having over a hundred parachutes out behind the train and it doesn't seem to matter which direction it comes from. An empty train with two 4000 HP locomotives will slow from 60 mph to mid 30's in 30-40 mph wind. Thus the trip is both full throttle and longer.

I once worked as top climber for Wright Tree Service ( WELCOME ). The reason I quit was that we did drag wood quite a ways by hand and the last year (1968) snow was waist deep on the Minnesota/North Dakota border.(Dec/Jan 1968-69 one of the stormiest winters with six separate blizzard warnings in the state and total snowfalls ranging from 30 to 50 inches in northern counties from the six storms.)

I was a young man in great shape and could climb a rope hand-over-hand, up 40 feet in seconds. But I couldn't take dragging that brush for a half mile or so through that snow. Most was not full tree removal, just branches. I know, I'm a wuss.

I kind of wonder if we won't go back to coal fired steam engines sometimes.


...

[Scott S]

Originally Posted by Wes Tausend

I kind of wonder if we won't go back to coal fired steam engines sometimes.


...

Do you know any engineers with balls enough for this?



My dad worked under a couple of steam donkeys, the speed and torque produced make my machines look wimpy.



As for climbing I have a couple of guys that live for it, I think they even make excuses to insure that each layout needs a tail tree.

For any of you that think you are tough imagine climbing 40-80 feet up a tree topping it, pulling hand over hand several hundred pounds of rigging all the while standing on two small spikes strapped to your insteps.

Rigging a tail tree takes usually half a day, we do that sometimes twice a day....

All in all it beats being in the law profession, JAMO>>>


Scott S

[Scott S]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Scott,

That might work if you cut the logs into short pieces. I have watched every episode of the AxMan show and like it. I worked for a week or so one Summer in the logging here and set chokers for a couple of days before they moved me to another job. I have worked at a lot of hard and miserable jobs for short times. But I believe that was one of the most dangerous and hardest ones I ever worked at. Some places we had to have ropes tied to trees to hold to as the canyon walls were so steep. I think back over all the types of work I did when I was trying to get through school and it amazes me at all the different jobs and states that I worked in.

Ron

I know many of the guys shown on the program and Vernonia is my home town(I was Mayor there for three terms).

The most talked about issue around my crew is the OSHA violations by Stumpbranch and the Phil crews. I think there are many of us in the industry that will make safety videos around the program.

I have met Jay Browning before he lost his hand, how could one of the toughest guys I have ever met produce such a wimp for a son? His boy is the laughing stock of the industry....

The kid(do-wap) on Phils crew that made fun of the bosses son-in-law was canned the day after the that show aired. My oldest son went to school with them both. My sister babysits for Mike Phil and the video doesn't do him justice, he is one of the biggest men I have ever met somewhere around 6'5 and 280, nice guy too.

The owner of Stumpbranch did some timber falling for me years ago, I would bet he weighed around 140 then

Nice guy, some of his crew members are kids of guys that worked for us, Dustin Titus one of the cutters is the the son of a guy I hit with a tree and had to take to the hospital. Eric Davis is the son of a guy that fell with a saw on his shoulder and it split his femur a couple on inches. We were 60 miles from a hospital so I bought a bag of ice and a short-case for him. After all we had to keep the beer cold.

Keep watching Ron, my home town needed a fire much more that it needed a enema....

Scott s