Good morning!!!!

[riptides]

Flip out day as we like to call it happened about a month ago. Frogs come out everywhere and the pond becomes a virtual mating ground. Now we have baby frogs everywhere

I know what you mean. We have a koi-less pond about 30 feet off the pool. Keep it going year round. The frogs seemed to appear about two-three weeks ago. The tree frogs, probably same time, however they are really loud now. Must be that time of year. We also have a water turtle (slider type?) not alligator, LOL, that has made the pond his own. Seems he was out yesterday too.

No tadpoles or frog eggs yet. Odd?

 

[dave1949]

48F. Clear and mid-70's today. Great weather and we really do deserve a stretch of nice weather .

I'll work on the field this morning. I think there are more hours of rock picking ahead than I was hoping for when I stopped last fall. Make some progress everyday is my goal. Have to take the car in for its annual state inspection this afternoon and get groceries on the way home--and mail a Mother's Day card.

Sorry the arthritis is dogging you Drew.

 

[bakerg]

Good morning, a rainy 51F here this morning, rain is suppose to stop and a high today of 70F.
Drew, sorry to here about your arhritis problems.

 

[dave1949]

I know what you mean. We have a koi-less pond about 30 feet off the pool. Keep it going year round. The frogs seemed to appear about two-three weeks ago. The tree frogs, probably same time, however they are really loud now. Must be that time of year. We also have a water turtle (slider type?) not alligator, LOL, that has made the pond his own. Seems he was out yesterday too.

No tadpoles or frog eggs yet. Odd?

My fish-less rain pond had tons of frog egg clusters last spring. A couple of Mallard ducks moved in and really cleaned them out; I could hardly find any egg clusters. The frogs did make more eggs later but probably only about 1/4 of the original amount. I haven't checked for eggs this spring yet.

 

[farmer2009]

53 this morning and headed to 86 today. Well the dusty part is done. Chicken coops are ready to disinfect. Then set up. I have to mow and weedeat today also. So probably won't get to do any setup. Garden needs working also. Rain moving in Friday-Tuesday.

Drew. Good to see you didn't get eat. . Hate your having trouble again. Take it easy.

Mostly gas. Congrats on the home sale and hopefully the purchase works out.

 

[txdon]

Good morning! 71˚ all clouds. We had a brief shower last night .2" but our neighbors 5 miles north had 8". Strange weather.

Texas no longer has inspection stickers for vehicles, but you must show proof of inspection to get your windshield TX license sticker. I just had my truck inspected and they took off my inspection sticker - makes me feel vulnerable to a traffic stop.

I used the grapple for about 2 hours yesterday raking a large partial burn pile that had way too much sand which caused a bad burn. It worked great for that purpose with it's long tines and no crossbar.

Mostly gas - looks like you will make it to TX just in time for Summer. That part of Texas get's hotter and colder than around here. Does your TX house have a pool? Will you have enough acreage for a tractor or a good size mower?

 

[Larro Darro]

Good Morning. 0805, partly cloudy, 71F with 86% humidity. Forecast high of 85F with 20% chance of showers today, and a low of 62F tonight. I rolled out at 0530, planning to get back to the waterline project before it got too hot. But I got sidetracked into doing pre-cleaning lady cleaning. But I'm going to bite the bullet and see if I can at least get the trenches cleaned up for the main line and get that pipe down, then see how much I can get done of the side lines. A shortage of coffee containers will keep me from doing too many spigots though.

With my helper today I'm going to plant ten shrubs and trees into Mother Earth.
Our Native Americans would approve.

Drew, I no longer offer up the tobacco smoke to the four directions and to the earth and sky {to visualize my prayers}, but I do ask the Grandfathers to bless the union of earth and root anytime I put spade to dirt to transplant a tree.

Also something I have found that helps my day to day struggle with joint pain is cutting back on dairy as much as possible. If it wasn't for cheese and Greek yogurt, I would give it up all together.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

The newer NH loaders (mine is a 2003) have light ~1" long pin bushings with a shoulder that insert from each end of the sleeve. They are not expensive and treated as a consumable maintenance item.

My bucket is also fatigued and cracking, I've welded the corners together a couple times. Plus it's not a SSA quick attach loader. My loader really doesn't owe me anything it has been used a lot and hard. I'll just keep using it until something forces me to replace it I think.

Sounds like NH builds a nice piece of equipment. Pivots and bearings are replaceable parts, or at least they should be. I don't know how Kubota got such a good reputation for reliability when they build stuff that can't be maintained. Or worse, as I think is the case with this loader, under designed. I already had to replace the mounts, which broke in half. The new ones were twice as thick, and I was able to get a partial discount, but had to argue for it. Been keeping a photo album documenting all the repairs on Facebook, and I'm amazed I've put up with the thing this long :banghead:

 

[txdon]

depressing visit to the arthritis doc, CT said severe degenerative disc disease. Well at least it agrees with the last MRI...

There has been interesting research on Curcumin. I know it does help with my knee.
Turmeric Curcumin and Rheumatoid Arthritis | NutritionFacts.org

 

[RedNeckGeek]

51F headed for a high of 79F with clouds moving in later in the day.

Drew, good to hear your shop is coming together; my personal record for hardware store trips was set plumbing compressor lines. Sorry about the bad arthritis news. I tried one of those nerve pain medications and it clouded up my head so badly I stopped after one day. Felt like a bad case of AM radio static. What's that old saw about taking better care of ourselves if we'd known we'd live this long?

Larro, you get this week's redneck award for your spigot covers. I used store bought ones, but now I have trouble finding them in the long grass. How do you keep track of 'em?

Mostly Gas, congrats on the quick sale, and hope you find greener grass in Texas.

Chad, took one of those tests that's supposed to predict your age. It was off by 50% for me and most of my FB friends that took it, too. Only one thing is certain: When they finally figure out how to predict when you're gonna die, the insurance companies will still figure out how to make a killing.



After a little head scratching and fiddling, finally got some better surface finishes for the turned bushings. Much higher speeds and lower feeds were called for by the experts, and they were by and large correct. Also played a bit with tool height, and was able to hold closer tolerances as a result. Still a little rougher on the inside of the bushings than I would have liked, but I think only a stiffer boring bar would help.

Looking at the picture yesterday II realized that the holes in the short bushings need to go all the way through for the pin keeper bolts. That's what I'll start with this morning. But then I got to wondering how the outer pivots got so worn when the pin is supposed to be stationary there. Part of the answer is that the hole through the pin and boss for the keeper bolt is way oversized, and some rotation does occur. There are no grease fittings on the bosses, so wear is much higher. So now I'm thinking that I should bush the keeper holes for a tighter fit on the keeper bolt, and maybe install some zerks for some belt'n'suspenders safety.

Happy hump day, everyone!