Good morning!!!!

[lostcreekranch]

Good morning. It was 65° this morning and partly cloudy. Our high should be near 77° this afternoon and more rain is in our forecast for tomorrow.

Our live oaks dropped most of their leaves just after our really cold weather in mid-February. Just in the last three days .. they're all flush with new leaves.

I did receive the new GE ballast, for our attic fixture yesterday and it took longer to gather up wire strippers, wire connectors, etc. than the actual replacement. Hooked up wires and, prior to installing covers and the T8 tubes, I hit the light switch. All smoke, sparks, flames, and loud noises .. retained in the ballast. I then installed the covers, four tubes, and Viola! Let there be light!!

The same Amazon shipment included what I hoped might be the piston compression seal for the air compressor .. it wasn't. It was a flat fiber gasket. Yes .. bad words were .. muttered.

I gave up and ordered the $60 kit which includes the complete connecting rod, thin wall cylinder, piston, seal etc. .. just to get the $5 seal. No telling when it will arrive .. probably early next week.

Our neighborhood "Hog Busters" group .. put a hog trap across the road from us but, outside my "weekender" neighbor's fence .. back in December. There been no activity until yesterday when an 150# boar got in the trap. I saw him from afar and called one of the HB guys to let him know. At that time the hog was just calmly laying in the trap.

They showed up with the hog trailer and the hog went completely nuts .. including trying to dig out from under the trap. This was one pi..ed off piggy. I had a 9mm in the Polaris .. JIC but, we finally got him in the trailer after he'd dug a 2' deep hole. I went and got the 55 hp tractor and moved the trap about 15 yards. So .. this morning, I'll take off the grapple, install the bucket and try to refill the hole and get it graded .. before our next rains.

After that .. who knows.

Hope everyone has an excellent .. "St. Patrick's Day Eve".

Prayers to all.

 

[toppop52]

Happy birthday Phil!

Drew, I’m not going to reschedule our cruise to Bermuda that got canceled last year, until we don’t need masks, if that ever happens.

Low was 35, current temp is 47, high was predicted to be 43. Showers moving in. Looks like typical March roller coaster weather the rest of the month.

Picked up two wing chairs and four dining seats to reupholster when I get around to it. Nice pocket shot/mad money.
A good friend has a pontoon boat he keeps at his Vermont summer home, he showed up with his truck full of seating from the boat and asked if I’d mind doing them. I threw a big number at him, he unloaded them anyway, catch was he needs them by May 1. This is starting to interfere with retirement. I’m going to have to learn to say no.

Have a good day.

 

[Rich B1]

Good afternoon! 53 on the way to 56. It was sprinkling on my drive in this morning. Sun is shining now. Supposed to cool off by end of the week, then warm back up for next week.

Happy Birthday Phil!

So far, winning technical call of the day was someone wanting to know why we didn’t stock 2 seal kits for a 34 year old machine. We had 1....he is lucky we had that many. But he got a good buy on it at auction.

Why would you call technical support about parts availability? I have no idea

Everyone stay safe out there.

 

[sodamo]

67°F and 0 rain

Hope to resume flail mowing this morning.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[rswyan]

47F and cloudy @ 12:00, headed up to a high of 55F. Got a little rain last night. Tomorrow is supposed to be pretty warm, with a high of 65F ... so need to start making a list of what we need to get done outside.

Had nice phone call yesterday with a lady friend.

The Woman is out right now - she had an appointment @ 11:40 this morning for her first dose of the vaccine. Hope that goes off without a hitch. I still can't find an appointment for myself ...

No big plans for today ... probably do some more fish tank cleaning and photography. Dust cover for bottom of couch still needs replaced.

Breadbox is supposed to arrive today ... there is "some assembly required" ... so if it arrives there will be that.

Used up all the small plastic containers I got from Menards to stow fish room parts and equipment so I might go ahead and order some more of those.

Just got off the phone with The Woman ... she got stuck but apparently not without some drama: the nurse doing the injection got her fingers tangled up in a tag on the vaccine vial or needle or something and wasn't able to insert the needle all the way. That precipitated some involvement from a supervisor (what do we do now ?) but eventually they were able to "git 'er done" with a second jab ... which is ironic - given the fact that she has an aversion to needles and getting stuck. It was the Pfizer vaccine.

At any rate, she got the first dose (or maybe two ?) and she is dialed in with an appointment for the second in three weeks ... which is a huge relief for me.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable, productive, and safe day ...

 

[rswyan]

Coffee is brewing. 29° with cloudy skies and chance of snow this morning. Heading to 53° with cloudy skies. Felt good conserve energy yesterday. Even took a nap. Have a few things on list. But not sure I will get any of them done.

RS, female killing off the male mate. Where have I heard that before?

Dunno ... maybe this ???:

 

[sodamo]

Happy Birthday, Phil

 

[txdon]

Good afternoon! 73˚F cloudy. FireWise brush clearing was hot and muggy this morning.
Today is the first day this year I broke out the summer short pants to wear.

Drew, do you still want all the covid precautions after you have been vaccinated? I'm like Randy - take away the mandatory mask and just keep the hand sanitizing and start up like before. My cruise is scheduled for 2022, I sure hope mandatory precautions/restrictions are eased up considerably by then.

Cruise lines are still running specials and now is a good time to reserve a cabin before they fill-up. Royal Caribbean has a deal if you find the cabin in your category on your date cheaper you get that price. They have just one cabin in my category left and I keep checking the price on it. So far it has paid off. I have got my cabin reduced twice this month saving over $250. The suites fill up fast. I guess people figure they are taking 2 years worth of vacation and don't want to be stuck in a small cabin with no outside air if the ship shuts down because of another round of viruses.

 

[rswyan]

good morning all. 30 going up to 43, cloudy day, maybe a shower or flurry later.
I'm headed off shortly for hospital to go get a shoulder xray when they open at 7am and hope to be home soon thereafter.
Forecast for later this week is a stretch of mid 60 weather. That should make the flowers pop. My whole driveway is lined in forsythia so should be yellow soon.

Enjoy ...

It will be a while before the forsythias are popping here ... probably another 3 or 4 weeks I'd guess.

RS, nice fish pics.

Thanks.

Is that green algae in the tanks?

People call it algae ("colonial blue-green algae") but it really isn't - it's actually Cyanobacteria:

Cyanobacteria

There are many, many different forms of it and like the name implies, some forms can produce a range of cyanotoxins that are harmful to both animals and humans.

A couple of forms are raised commercially and sold as dietary supplements (aka "Spirulina") for the beneficial substances they contain.

Do the fish eat it?

Some fish (including ones I have) eat some forms of it.

It grows in Lake Tanganyika ... and probably Lake Malawi as well.

This was discussed a bit by Ad Konings, an ichthyologist and panelist at the (virtual) International Tropheus Conference this past Sunday, in terms of Tropheus specifically (in his opinion, it's primarily what Tropheus eat)

It's pretty prevalent throughout the world and it is thought that it (along with other micro-organisms) was/were responsible for initially creating the oxygen-rich environment we currently enjoy on Earth today.

As the army of plecos descends...

I don't know whether the plecos eat it or not ... they do eat brown diatoms which also exist in my tanks, so it's quite possible they are ingesting it as well.

Sounds like a good experiment though: stick some BNP's in a tank that's covered in it and see what they do ...

Enjoy the new wheels ...

 

[rswyan]

Happy Birthday Phil !