Easy Like Sunday Morning

The Littlest Princess dropped off her Nokia 928 with a fractured display when visiting on her birthday.  Unlike the few other phones I've toyed with, Nokia glued the glass and OLED display together making it an easy but more expensive fix.  A replacement screen was ordered and arrived in a few days.

 New screen (with protective plastic) and old (with custom fractal display)

I've acquired a few specialty phone tools over the years that serve me well.  A dozen tiny torx screws, a sim card holder, motherboard, screen and back case.  Would be hard to get much simpler.

Repaired cell phone!  I wonder what kind of photos are on this thing?

Note to Kenz-Your secrets are safe :)

Littlest Princess Birthday!!!!

Your "first" portrait!  Such a cute baby!!!

The big day arrives! (You're not sticking out your tongue are you?)

First birthday.....

Second birthday....

You get the idea, it's party time!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MACKENZIE!!!!

Blasted "Muck"

Muck is one of the terms in mining that is used to describe the rocks being brought out of a mine.  The photo is taken on "blasted" muck---rocks that have been drilled and blasted for removal.  Sampling is done to determine if the rocks are mineral bearing and then marked, in this case physically in red/blue sprayed lines, to be either processed or placed into a waste rock dump.

Rock Crushing 101

The primary crusher at the mine (top right under the tree branches) is what is called a "jaw crusher".  It can take up to 600mm rocks (~24") and crush them down to an initial 150mm (6").  Then a secondary crusher brings this size down before being fed to two tertiary crushers to give the ore a final size of 15mm (~2/3") before being fed into the mills.   The secondary and tertiary crushers are "cone crushers".  I've added animations below the photo.

Back on US soil this morning!

Jaw Crusher

Cone Crusher

It Takes All Kinds

I knew the site was using smaller trucks but did not realize they we construction type trucks until I started seeing them on the roads.  Definitely not what I am used to but the site has rich ore so it doesn't take as much as some of the other sites.  This loader appears to be loading some stripped material from the edge of the ore body.

Glad I Didn't Oversleep

Had this slid under the door to my room this morning.  Explains why I've not seen any bugs inside anyway.  I think I still might take my anti-malarial pills just in case.

Darwin was right...

I'm actually a fan of the British style plugs.  Lots of metal on metal contact, ground contacts first and these have switches and indicator lights.  The 240 volts still gives me the willies as we use 120 stateside and there can be a much larger "pop" when plugging things into the socket.  With the larger diameter holes than the slotted USA system, it is easier to use a bare wire rather than an actual plug.  This sign was in our conference room at the hotel and it looks like they may have a problem as many of the customers come in from the rural areas around Kumasi for events.

More than gold in this hole

In the states, fresh water aquarium hobbyists pay small fortunes for these types of fish.  Look to be African Cichlids though they appear to be a common and not very colorful variety. They are living in an abandoned pit that is used as a cistern and apparently thriving.

Little Big Lizard

Saw a few of these guys running around the rocks and walls chasing (and I assume eating) smaller lizards more of the size I'm used to.  This one is maybe 14-16 inches and just missed out on catching his lunch when he turned and started sizing me up.  Just glad he isn't a couple of feet bigger :)

Roughing it here at the Man Camp

Arrived at site mid-afternoon and was dropped off at a large home to settle in before registering and attending safety orientation.  Nicest camp I've been in and certainly picturesque.

Bosch Oven Repair

With all the recent thunderstorm activity and related power outages/spikes, our oven went crazy and nearly ruined a rack of baby back ribs.  Fortunately Moyia smelled the beginning of searing and saved them!  The thermocouple was an easy target and the repairs began.

Had to pull out the oven onto a furniture dolly and remove the back of the oven to get the the wires connecting the thermocouple.  

Seems everything use torx screws nowadays...lawnmowers, Minis, ovens.  So I have a handy little set.

Finally got to the thermocouple....doesn't look like much.  The ohm reading was "open" so a new one was ordered.

New thermocouple shows about 1100 ohms...it's good.  Popped it in and tested the oven.  Worked for an hour on "Bake" and then the oven decided all on it's own that it liked "Broil" and turned on those coils as well. So....the only thing left was the control board and a new one was ordered.

Shiny and new.

The control board is in a really easy to access location :(

There has got to be a better way to get to this as I just know those German engineers are better than that even if I do disagree with them on some of the more creative ways they engineered my Mini.

Finally figured it out.  The sheet metal on the side was perforated to create a bendable "flap".

Still tight but much better.

Twins.....

New board went in without a hitch and tested for 3 hours.  Let's hope things settle down as it seems I've had to fix something at least once a week for a while now.

Electric Power Steering Pump Replacement

Old, constantly running electric power steering pump...

1 hour and 40 minutes later a newly installed electric power steering pump.

Had an on again, off again very minor coolant leak. Traced it to a gasket that historically caused these leaks in earlier Minis.  New gasket is entirely silicone.

Changed the air and oil filters while I was at it.  Mini gets the "European Blend" type Castrol (yeah, right).

The newly installed electric pump gets only German made hydraulic oil (Again, yeah, right).

Since Mini was such a brave girl today I gave her a new sticker (via the First Mate) :)

Just add water

Took the cover off a corner of the pool cover this spring to get to a temporarily repaired puncture in the liner from a falling branch last fall.  And within a day or two the pool started turning green.

Have the ladder up against the drain cover, seems sturdy enough mom.

Puncture is cleaned and dried.

A bit closer.  Patch is clear vinyl and uses the same cement as we've all (ok, my generation and before) to patch our bicycle tires.  The solvent that melts a bit of the surfaces together.  Never forget that smell of freshly patched bike tires.

All patched and ready to just add water!

What a Difference a Year Can Make!

Almost time for our Spring flowers.....a tad later than usual this year.

This photo taken March 9th 2014

This on March 9th 2013

Chocolate Oatmeal Protein Powder Cookies

After a few, but still edible, false starts I believe I nailed a recipe for making cookies with loads of protein and fiber---Lots of oatmeal, soy flour, chocolate whey protein, pureed apple, raisins and natural peanut butter.  Packs about 6-7 grams of protein per little ball of chocolate delight not counting all the fiber from the oatmeal.  1 or 2 of these babies is all you need :)

Snow Day

I made a lot of friends after our recent heavy snow....the usual gang.

Tufted Titmouse

All About Birds

House Finch

All About Birds

Northern Cardinal

All About Birds

White-throated Sparrow

All About Birds

American Goldfinch

All About Birds

Song Sparrow

All About Birds

Dark-eyed Junco

All About Birds

Eastern Gray Squirrel aka Bushy Tailed Tree Rats

Wikipedia

Red-winged Blackbird slumming eating seeds with the songbirds

All About Birds

And they brought some friends that all the songbirds love...

Brown-headed Cowbirds

All About Birds