Epson Sucks.... But What Are You Going To Do?

 Have an Epson printer? Did you upgrade the firmware and found out your printer was "bricked"? In other words it don't work anymore, can't print, can't scan. If you are using 3rd party ink the updated the printers firmware, this is what happens to your printer.

I have read Epson is being sued over this. At least they could have warned people what will happen if the update the firmware on ther printers. But no, they didn't say anything and people ended up with a useless printer/scanner.

My printer was working fine with 3rd party ink until I upgraded the firmware, then it bricked, useless. I wonder how many people really got jammed up because of this? Lets say some kid had to make a report for school, a person had to have something done for there company, et., etc. So they go to print out what they have done but when they turn the printer on it comes up and say's firmware upgrade available so the upgrade the firmware and then there printer quit working for them. Bummer!

This will only happen if you have 3rd party ink in your printer, it won't happen if you have Epson brand ink in it or you haven't upgraded the firmware yet and are using 3rd party ink. So if you are using 3rd party ink, DON'T UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE!

I had the 3rd part ink in my printer maybe two month and it worked fine until the firmware upgrade. So today I went and bought Epson ink at Walmart which cost $80.00+! Why should we have to pay $80.00+ for ink when we can buy 3rd party ink for about half the cost? I know why, Epson wants to make $$$ off there ink, but still that's not right.

That's like buying for example a flashlight that comes with Eveready batteries in it and you put different battery brand in and the flashlight doesn't work anymore... it will only work with Eveready. Or you buy a Zippo lighter and use a different brand of lighter fluid and your light quits working. Or how about this, you buy a certain gas for your car but your on vacation and have to use another brand of gas and your car quits running!

If Epson wants us to but it's ink cartridge's, it should lower it's price on them and be more completive with the 3rd party brands. I would mind paying a little more for name brans like Epson, but I don't like paying about twice as much as a 3rd party ink cartridge.

I've tried a number of work arounds to bypass the checking of the ink cartridge but for me, nothing worked.

Anyways I put Epson ink cartridge's in today and the printer scanner is back to normal.

The Pool Is Open!

 Yea, the pool is open ok, but it's to cold to get in it! Why open the pool so early? The reason behind that is because when we top off the pool in the spring we get the water from the creek. Being the creek was pretty clear and knowing it's suppose3 to rain, I figured we my as well open the pool and top it off while the water is pretty clear.

If we wait and it rains hard we would have to wait until the creek clears up again. We have topped off the pool before while the water wasn't so clear and by the time the pool is filled, it looks more like a mud hole rather then a swimming pool... or it was really cloudy, like a tan colored.

When the water is pretty dirty, it usually clears up within 24 hours of the pump running, though there is a good bit of silt on the bottom that you have to sweep up too. This year when we uncovered the pool, the water in the pool looked pretty clear. After adding the creek water it wasn't real clear, but still it was pretty close to clear.

There have been a year or two that when we uncovered the pool it looked more like a big septic tank rather then a pool! Those years was because of of leaves getting on the cover and because the cover was old it ripped and all the leaves (or most) went into the pool.

We just got this pool last year. Or old pool which we had for 23 years finally collapsed after we got flooded the other year, like 3 months after the flood.

Here are some pics of our new pool. This will be the second summer for this pool.

The new boards you see around the pool is because even though the pool is the same size as our old pool (27-foot), at the top of the pool the uprights angle outwards where the old pool the uprights went straight up. Because of that we had to take up some deck boards as well as cut off the joists so the pool would fit into the hole where the old pool sat. Of course we didn't know any of that until they started putting the pool in and found out it wasn't going to fit.

Chemicals, chemicals, chemicals..... I hear that a lot from pool owners or people who are thinking about buying a pool. As I have said, our old pool was 23 years old and it even had the original liner in it yet! Ok, I'll admit the design on the liner was gone pretty much and it was pretty much just a blue color, but what do you expect after 23 years?

So, what chemicals do I use? None! The only thing we use is chlorine and stabilizer at the start of the pool season. How does the water test not using chemicals? Well, the chlorine I always keep on the higher side, even more so if alga starts to form. As for hardness and PH? That can vary up or down, mostly down, but I don't worry about it and everything is fine. So the only thing we buy is chlorine, stabilizer and of course earth for the filter.

 

So What's New?

 As usual, been pretty busy. Got most of the trees cut down but there are a few I want to cut down by the creek bank, then I think I'll be pretty much done. I did get all the trees on that stupid bank cut down and was lucky enough that none came down and hit the deck, pool, or shed, though at least twice when the tree started going I wasn't to sure, but everything turned out good.

It's not that the trees were big at the base, probably 6-10 inches at most, but they were tall, and trying to control a tall tree falling is harder then a short tree. A few of them I had to tie ropes on them to either keep them from falling in a certain direction, else having a person pull on a rope to bring it in the direction I wanted it to fall. A few trees I cut most of the way thru then help the person pull it over. But as I siad, nothing got smashed and no one got hurt which is all good.

We did end up getting a fire pit and put on the top of the hill so we can look out over the pool as well as watch the sky for UFO's (hahaha) or watch for falling stars. Of course we don't see a lot of the sky because of the mountains and more trees right behind us.

This first picture is the fire pit we bought with a stack of wood to burn. Actually we have like three stacks of wood like that which will probably never burn. When I took this picture we didn't put the two chairs for us yet then we also built a table out of some scrap wood we had to set our drinks, etc., on. The black barrel you see in the picture is the old deer feeder which I was made to take down by the game warden. Didn't know it was illegal to feed deer and it was up in plain sight for about 2-3 years. Anyways, it now serves to hold kindlin wood to start the fire. We didn't get to try out the fire pit yet but will soon. 

In this picture you can see how we can over see the pool from where the fire pit is and you can see the mountain in the background that kind of blocks our view of the sky in that direction. Although we don't have a great view of the sky, we still see many things such as falling stars, satellites, the space station, and yes, one UFO.

This picture shows the way up to where the fire pit is. This was actually the old road that went up to the bridge referred to as "The Old High Bridge". My dad who was the youngest out of 10, said when he was a boy the only thing left was the beams going across the piers which they used to crawl across. His oldest brother who was 20 years older said when he was in the Army they used to go across that bridge with horses and wagons and that it was so steep getting onto the bridge they had to help push to get the horses and wagons onto the bridge.

COMPLAINING TO THE NEIGHBOR:

I don't do a lot of complaining most of the time, but I have complained to my neighbor a number of times about his trees. The problem is, if they fall, I'm the one that loses, not him. After complaining many years about his trees, he did cut some down "after" one fell over and crushed our Bronco, I mean it crushed it.... destroyed. Who lost? We did. Sure his insurance covered some of the cost which wasn't enough to buy another car so we had to go in debt to get another car not to mention having to fight with the insurance company.. What did he lose? Nothing and he got free firewood out of the deal.

Our neighbor has a habit of not doing anything about his trees. Why? Because he doesn't want to cut his trees. Ok, I can understand that but when someone else's trees are a hazard to your property, they should do something about it.

Take a look at the tree below:

 

That big Willow tree is my neighbors property and I've been after him for years to cut it down. Almost every big Willow tree I know of that was big ended up breaking off. What you see in the picture is only half of the tree, the other half broke off at the trunk and fell in his yard. Every spring I have to pick up twigs and branches that has fallen off this tree. Anymore I don't even like company parking on the other side of the Jeep for not knowing when it might come down. It's even to the point I don't like going under it when mowing the yard anymore.

Another tree that just came into question is the tree below:

This tree I first thought was dead, but about a week or so later I did see it was starting to bloom. Ok, so it's still a live tree, but that's not the problem, alive or not, if it falls where is it going to go? The tree beside this one I'm not concerned about, and to the left of that second tree another big tree fell over by uprooting itself. If this tree go over the way it looks to be leaning, it could or would take out our truck, the Jeep, an outhouse, a shed, and maybe even a part of the house, not to mention a high voltage power line of 60-80 thousands volts which could cause a fire.

So anyways I complained to him for a few days being he didn't want to cut a perfectly healthy tree, but that's not the point, healthy or not, it's still a dangerous tree if it goes over. I have a lot to lose, where he would lose nothing. I did send him this below as well as told him the township was going to stop by and look at the trees. He did finally agree to take down both trees.

I can understand where he's coming from not wanting to cut his trees down, but at the same time he should put himself in my position and what I have to lose if it does come down, where again he will lose nothing but a tree. So why wouldn't he want to take preventive measures so nothing does happen? Beats the hell out of me.....

Landowners are responsible for maintaining the trees on their property. Legally, they have two duties: make reasonable inspections and take care to ensure the tree is safe. If your neighbor doesn't remove the dangerous tree, and the tree does in fact cause damage, your neighbor may be held liable.

If you've spoken to your neighbor about the tree issue, and he hasn't done anything about it you do have laws that protect you. The tree may constitute a nuisance, by interfering with your use and enjoyment of your own property. You could file a nuisance claim, and if the court finds that the true is a nuisance, the court may order the tree removed.

Most cities have ordinances prohibiting property owners from keeping dangerous conditions on their property. If you call your municipality, they may remove the tree themselves or order your neighbor to do it.

Utility companies may also have an interest in the tree's removal if the tree's condition threatens any of its equipment or causes a fire hazard. A simple call to a utility company may prompt them to remove the tree themselves.

What A Screwed Up Mess.....

 So I had to get a new battery for the lawn tractor. The battery it takes is a U1-250, problem is these is no U1-250, there is now a U1L-250 and a U1R-250, so which one do I want or need. I looked at the old battery and the U1L-250 looked like it was pretty much the same. After getting home I wasn't sure of anything I bought.

What I bought was a battery, an oil filter, and a new chain for the chainsaw. Turns out the battery I bought was the correct one. If the terminals would have been reversed, the one cable wouldn't have reached. As for the oil filter, they didn't have the number it called for but the one I bought matched ther number of the old oil filter so that also was correct.

As for the chain for the chainsaw, I'm taking it back after do some research. My saw take a 3/8 pitch, 40 links, and .050 gauge. The one I bought being it was the only one they had for a 10" saw had a .043 pitch which the guy said would work, but after looking things up I found out the .043 pitch chain isn't as strong and it wears faster, so it's going back. Glad I didn't try it out.

I did get the battery in the lawn tractor and it turns over like it should. Changing the oil was kind of a disaster being to drain the oil you are to use the supplied hose they give you and connect it to the drain port, problem is after we got flooded, I have no idea where that hose is. I ended up just barely getting a funnel under the drain port and drained it into a bucket which took forever. I don't think I could open the drain port any more without getting oil all over the floor, it took awhile, but I got it drained.

After all that was done I still had to put air in a tire which broke loose from the bead. That took some time getting the tire to seal on the bead again. I'm hoping the tire holds air. I don't know if it has a leak or the tire was really low the other day and while using the tractor to move the chipper and the trailer, the tire broke loose from it's bead. Guess I'll know for sure in a few day's and the tire is flat again.

While I was at it I changed the oil in an old compressor I had. When I opened the drain plug, no oil came out! Well... that's not surprising being it's been in two floods floating upside down in the water. After our last flood I wanted to get to it but never did. So I put the drain plug back in, filled it with oil, plugged it ihn and it took right off which I used it to put air in the tractor tire. I take it that it lost all it's oil when upside down in the water. 

Anyways it running, how long have no idea, after all being in two floods and still working surprises me!