Author Archives: Steve Mays

New septic tank

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After 35 years our septic tank developed a leak. (In my book, there’s no such thing as a small septic tank leak. Any odor is unacceptable.) Two years ago we had our tank pumped and an aerator installed. We’d had a little odor and hoped that would fix the problem.

It did until a few months ago when the smell returned. The company we used found a leak in our aging concrete tank and tried to patch it. Worked for a while …then it didn’t. Today we had a new tank installed.






Living “in the country” means a big old propane tank, a very expensive water well, and a septic system. There’s no where I’d rather be.

Chevrolet 3600 (Advanced Design)

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“The Advance-Design is a light and medium duty truck series by Chevrolet, their first major redesign after WWII. Its GMC counterpart was the GMC New Design. It was billed as a larger, stronger, and sleeker design in comparison to the earlier AK Series. First available on Saturday, June 28, 1947, these trucks were sold with various minor changes over the years until March 25, 1955.” (Wikipedia)

“Do you smell gasoline?”

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Gasoline has always been a bit of an issue with Minty Fresh (my 1977 Ford F-150). When I bought it (4 1/2 years ago) Paul warned me it drank a lot of gas but no more than you’d expect for a 40-year-old truck.

The gasoline smell reached a peak last summer when I noticed a stream pouring from the rear tank (the truck has two). Less smell after I had a new tank installed.

But it’s gotten stronger in recent weeks/months and I chalked it up to “old truck.” Oh yeah… and my gas consumption was worse than ever.

I mentioned this to Paul yesterday and he popped the hood to take a look. What we saw was a stream of gasoline coming from a carburetor hose down onto the manifold. Which gets very hot. Why I never had a fire is a nice mystery.
Paul replaced the ancient leaking hose in about five minutes (and adjusted the idle for good measure.)

“Your gas mileage will probably double,” Paul speculated.

High tech car theft: Relay attack

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A friend of mine had had his truck stolen recently while on a business trip to Dallas. He parked his truck in the parking area of the motel where he was staying. When he came out the next morning, his truck was gone. Obviously stolen. Here’s what the police told him probably happened.

One of the thieves stays close to the vehicle to be stolen with an electronic device that connects to the electronic ignition system. The other thief –armed with a different electronic gizmo– walks up and down the hallways of the hotel, sending out a signal that connects to the electronic key fob of the truck. A signal is then sent to the device in the parking lot, unlocking the truck and starting the ignition. It’s called a “relay attack” and here’s some video of a car being stolen from the owner’s driveway.

The key was probably on a table near the front door so the thief didn’t have to get any closer than the front porch.

My friend asked the investigating officer what could be done to prevent this kind of theft and was told his best bet was a Faraday pouch. Amazon has hundreds of them.

The sweet sound of the chainsaw

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After cutting –the fun part– everything has to be dragged to a pile near the chipper. Less fun.

Final step before chipping is clipping the limbs to get the trunk < 3 inches.

After an hour of chipping I had enough chips to extend the trail 30 or 40 feet.

As I move down the hill larger rocks (to line the trail) are harder to find so I’m sledding them  down the hill.