Archive for the 'diy' Category

Quark!

Sunday, November 19th, 2017

Gestern habe ich wieder Quark gemacht! Hier in den Staaten is es fast unmöglich im Supermarkt quark zu finden. Zum Glück ist es aber super-einfach Quark selber zu kultivieren. Einfach Milch warm machen (30 Grad Celsius), Starterkultur hineinmischen und dann nach 24 Stunden mit einem Käsetuch die Molke abtropfen lassen. Fertig. Man kann ein paar […]

Chocolate cake harvest

Monday, December 23rd, 2013

Yesterday we set a temperature record of 78°F (26°C) and I decided to work on my composting project. I had two nice piles of compost from last year that I had turned in early summer. One of the piles I had inoculated with mycorrhizal fungus to see if that has any benefit for the compost. […]

Homemade bread

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

Monday, Laura made this loaf of sourdough bread, which was tasty as it was pretty: Montag hat Laura diesen leckeren Laib Weizensauerbrot gebacken. Weiter unten ist noch ein Bild …

Finally – my welder

Thursday, March 28th, 2013

I finally did it. I bought my own MIG welder!

Some truck repair

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

Last weekend I spent some quality time under the truck, fixing some stuff that’s been bothering me for a while. I finally found the idle adjustment screw and turned up the engine idle speed a notch, so that the truck doesn’t just die on me all the time when the engine is cold. I also […]

Moving a chicken coop

Sunday, February 17th, 2013

A couple of weeks ago, I helped our new neighbor move a chicken coop on his property. He attached pneumatic caster wheels under the frame of this ancient, roughly 4000-pound structure. We then jacked it up with car jacks, knocked out the foundation, dropped it on the wheels and I towed it with my truck […]

Mercedes engine mounts replacement

Sunday, January 6th, 2013

This weekend I replaced the two front engine mounts on my 1991 Mercedes 300D. The driver side mount was completely destroyed by several biodiesel leaks from the fuel lines that run directly above it. The passenger side mount was probably OK, but I replaced it anyway. I spent about $100 on the parts and another […]

1998 Dodge RAM 2500 starter rebuild

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

Last week the starter on my truck died. I had had some problems starting the truck, but I blamed the old batteries. I installed new(er) batteries, and all seemed fine. Until last week. The starter was dead – not even a “click” – nothing. I was just lucky that we made it home. At the […]

Progress on the Horse Farm

Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Saturday we finished building the pasture fence. Wow … what a slog! We started working on this project 4 weeks ago. I rented a Bobcat and built a 200 foot/70 meter driveway through the woods up the hill to the top of the pasture. There, we installed a 14-foot/3.5 Meter gate and then we built […]

DIY project

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

A few weeks ago our bathroom flooded and the cheap, beige linoleum flooring was completely destroyed. So we ripped out the linoleum and we ended up ripping out the vanity and the toilet as well. We got new bamboo flooring and a new dual-flush toilet from Costco, and a great bamboo vanity from bathandgranite4less.com. Last […]