Shopping

I have returned from Home Depot, Northern Tool, and Petsmart. Before I had tools, fish, and birds, I was content to lie on my ass and watch the world to by on Saturdays. Now I have to go out and buy things.

I went to Home Depot for research purposes, mainly. Although I also bought a cool little aluminum square. I was trying to put the pig rotisserie together in my mind.

They had a lot of interesting stuff. The easiest things to make it from would be angle irons and a U-shaped yoke thing from a chain link fence. You know; the thing that swings down on a hinge and goes around a post to keep a gate from opening. Weld one of those to an angle iron, opening up, and it would make a perfect place to rest a fence post holding a pig.

The also had mysterious things they just called "anchors." It's a four-foot length of galvanized rod, with a U-fitting thing on top and an auger sort of deal on the bottom. Evidently, you're supposed to screw these into the ground for some reason or other. I don't know if they'd be rigid enough to hold a pig.

I'm kind of disenchanted with the idea of driving the uprights into the ground, because I would have to do that over grass. That means putting the charcoal pan over grass. That means dead grass. The appeal of this approach is that the uprights wouldn't need bases, so you could store them in a very small space. Maybe I'll have to make some sort of base that comes off.

They had big sheets of galvanized steel for eleven bucks. Those would be perfect for charcoal pans. Cut, fold, and possibly weld the corners. Done. At the end of the barbecue, throw it out. I'd rather waste eleven bucks than put a nasty sheet of galvanized crap in my garage.

It appears that the whole apparatus will cost about thirty bucks, excluding the motor. And I know it will work flawlessly.

At Northern Tool, I finally managed to scrape together an assortment of fittings that will enable me to use my giant compressor. I've been going for weeks, and every time, they have approximately 15% of the fittings they're supposed to stock. I plan to have a straight fitting out of the ball valve, then a coupler, then another straight fitting, and then the regulator. On the other side, an angle fitting which reduces to 3/8", and then a snubber hose that runs to the reel.

I hope it won't be too much weight for the giant ball valve. The other alternative is to fabricate some kind of bracket to hold the regulator and hang it on the wall.

I don't like the reduction, but my hose is 3/8", so I had to do it or buy a bigger hose. If I ever have pressure or flow problems, I can always upgrade, and when I do, I'll be able to keep the regulator, which has 1/2" holes in it.

I also got the rubber wheel chocks I should have gotten weeks ago. I was tempted to buy a "Borrowing Tools is For the Weak" T-shirt, but Northern Tool assures that no one buys shirts, by only stocking XXL and up.

At Petsmart, I picked up two more yo-yo loaches. The one I already have has annihilated the snails, and it's a fairly entertaining fish. Supposedly, if you have three, they do interesting stuff. And knowing my record, it's a good idea to own extras, in case a few die. I also got a couple of otocincluses and some giant bird toys that Maynard and Marvin will eat in about two days. I love Jungle Talk bird toys, but they jacked their prices through the roof, so now I only buy them on rare occasions. If they were still cheap, I'd buy several a month.

Guess it's time to release the loaches and see what I can cram down my gullet for dinner.