@BillRussell, yes those bug bombs are just that. One of the local TV stations had a reporter on scene and some of the neighbors interviewed said they thought a bomb had gone off or a plane had crashed.
From the pics the house was a real mess. It was repairable but my rough guess is that the costs would have been in the 40-50k dollar range at a minimum.
Some years ago my late father (Asst. Fire Chief) at the local AFB was called in to a small town about 20 miles away when a fire could not be controlled by the local civilian fire dept.
Two guys working on an empty oil field tanker started welding on it and it blew sky high.
The truck was shredded, the 20k sq. ft. building wiped to the foundation, and there were 2 closed casket funerals for what was left of the 2 mechanics.
Life is dangerous, and even if you avoid all catastrophes, you are going to die anyway. I used to drive tractor trailer(s) Buffalo to Watertown all winter. The senior drivers grabbed it all summer. If I worried about dangerous things I would have had an ulcer long ago.
I personally knew a guy back in the 70ās (twentieth century) that had a Volkswagen air-cooled, Type 1 powered, ārat buggyā off-road dune buggy with Tee-Pee straight-pipe exhaust and a Holley Bug Spray carburetor (remember those? ).
He had a sag or hesitation when he hit the gas, so he was diagnosing the problem. He looked down the throat of that Holley while goosing the throttle to see if the accelerator pump was supplying additional gasoline. Problem was it was running and then it back-fired. A huge ball of fire engulfed his face. He lost a few eye brows and a couple strands of hair, but luckily wasnāt seriously hurt.
I personal know a guy back in the 80ās who was installing a battery in a lawn tractor.You know how they advise hooking up the negative cable last? He knows, now. Have you ever been stung by a bee that you didnāt see? By the time you feel the sting and figure out what it is, itās too late. His watch band made a high resistance conductor from the positive battery terminal to metal on the tractor. He didnāt notice until his watch band got hot enough to melt flesh and put 2 small permanent scars on his wrist.
Iāll never do either Iām sure he wonāt do either of those things, again. Experience is the best teacher. CSA
A first time stick up man in our area tried to rob a branch bank that is outside town. What he didnāt realize is that the silent alarm system in the bank signaled the constable in a nearby village who got to the bank in time to shoot the robber as he came out the door of the bank. In the ambulance, the would be bank robber was quoted as saying āI was told this would be an easy jobā. Like bank robbery, some auto repair jobs are not that easy and best left to the professionalsā¦
Almost everything Iāve ever done that Iād never done before has been three times as hard as I expected, taken three times as long, and cost three times as much. I call it my ārule of threesā.
A guy I knew was using an old Ford tractor to clear a field. It stalled and he got off and fiddled with the engine, maybe checking the wiring, then tried to start it again while he was standing next to the engine. The key was still on, he probably jumped the solenoid with a screwdriver, it started, and the tractor was in gear, so it ran him over and killed him. Just like that. So quick, so easy, and I know that I could make the same mistake later today.
@wentwest In the OSHA list of risky occupations farming is more dangerous than police work, even in Texas! Farmers work routinely with heavy equipment and there are no industrial safety rules rules on the farm.
I grew up with farm equipment and recall may instances where I did stupid things as a teen ager that could have easily killed me.
There are safety mandates for new equipment, but a great deal of the equipment still in service in agriculture was built before there were any. And farmers live in a world where when something breaks you fix it yourself. They also do things like pull a wheel off of an old tractor and use the hub to drive a pump, or a sawmill, or something of the like. Theyāre extremely innovative, extremely self-sufficient, and find ways to repurpose almost everything. They have my utmost respect, but those attributes contribute to making farming a dangerous livelihood.
@the same mountainbike I agree that farmers were quite innovative and very adept at keeping their equipment going back in the old days of the 1940s and 1950s. At the country school I attended, the buses were owned and operated by farmers. They maintained the buses. When the bus was deemed too old for school bus service, many of the farmers removed the bus body, rounded up a cab from the junk yard, installed the cab on the chassis and built a grain bed or a stock bed on the chassis. The body that was removed became a tool shed or chicken coop. The parents of a good friend of mine bought a farm and the bus route and school bus came with the farm. My friendās mother became one of the first women schoolbus drivers in the state. Now the small farms are gone. The school corporations own the buses and probably over 50% of the drivers are women. Most of the buses are the snub nose where the driver sits over the front wheels and the engine is in the back. The engines are diesels and the buses have air brakes. Back on the farm, the tractors and combines,are diesel with air conditioned cabs. I know the equipment is more efficient, but I really liked the sound of the 2 cylinder John Deere tractors of the old days.
I donāt disagree with you folks but if you never did anything you never did before, youād never do anything at all. Iāve also been surprised at something I put off for months to finally do it and find out it was pretty easy.
Almost everything Iāve ever done that Iād never done before has been three times as hard as I expected, taken three times as long, and cost three times as much. I call it my ārule of threesā.
My favorite saying (which I actually originated!) isā¦ Everything takes longer than you think it will
Whether we are talking about driving from point A to point B, or rotating tires, or doing repair work, or painting a room, it always seems that everything takes longer than you thought it would. Andāas mountainbike statedāif the task is something that you have not previously attempted, it will take A LOT longer!
Iām a firm believer in āyou gotta crawl before you can walk and walk before you can runā try to advise DIYers to be careful not to paint themselves into a corner. If a novice removes the head from a Honda on Friday night intent on driving the car to work on Monday with a new head gasket he may find himself calling a taxi for a week or two and finally end up calling a wrecker and paying dearly for a shop to reassemble the mess.
Nowhere in the thread is anybody suggesting that one should refrain from trying new things, but common safety sense is important.
One point that I think needs more emphasis is to not use concrete blocks. Too many times blocks will crumble, and too many people have been hurt or killed from a crumbling block letting the car descend on them. Nobody should ever get under a vehicle unless itās properly and securely supported on the proper equipment. No amount of money saved is worth your life.
A while ago I saw the worst case Iāve seen. There was a beat up old pickup under some conifers with the rear end supported by badly leaning and poorly done cribwork (poorly piled 4X4s) with the rear axle missing. The cribwork was also obviously sinking into the soft ground. Iāll keep that mental image with me forever.
Someone commented once on my seeming ability to do most anything. My wife responded that I just wasnāt afraid to try something. Truth is most times I did a lot of reading or research and thought before I attempted something new. I guess I got it from my dad who people said could do anything too.
Now as a lament, Iāll try to make it through the conversion of the web site again, but if not, its been nice to know ya but hope to see ya on the other side. I was pretty involved in a wood working site and felt I knew the guys and gals that posted there over the years. One day it was just gone due to the server blowing up and have never heard from (most) any of the people there again. It was like a death without a funeral. So just in case, hope to see ya on the other side.
I feel the need to explain my being a safety freak. I have been immersed if not literally drowned in safety training, qualifications, and experience. Military and OSHA. If anyone has a question please feel free to ask.
@Bing
"Now as a lament, Iāll try to make it through the conversion of the web site again, but if not, its been nice to know ya but hope to see ya on the other side."
That goes for me, too!
My land-line phone dial-up modem connection doesnāt take to kindly to fancy, dancy, high-tech stuff. My rural electric company converted to a new-fangled web-site and I can no longer use it for obtaining bills and submitting readings.
This site works great on my computer connection, but if I donāt make it through the improvement, youāll know I was a casualty of too much technology. Carry onā¦ CSA
