Good morning!!!!

[wngsprd]

52 going to 81...wore shorts and t-shirt to feed the birds and take the flag out at dawn and nearly froze.

Ron, that is a bird castle rather than a bird house. Nice job.

Professor Don, nice looking peaches...we have tiny pears and apples now.

Beautiful barns and battlefield.

Thought I'd just rest and recuperate yesterday, but my wife wanted me to do some hoing so she could finish planting flowers...then decide to exercise my zero for a couple of hours...had neglected some trails so as not to disturb the turkeys. Haven't hiked for 12 days, so will take the foot out on the trail this morning and test it out.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My kids never wanted to do tractor things with me, but they loved riding along on tractor with their grandpa’s.

55° outside, a bit chilly inside.

Got to visit UPS store today to drop a package, might swing by Costco and pick up the portable heat pump. Dad has the bush hog on the L5030 and has started mowing fields. I might head out there next week to help some. Takes a long time to mow his fields with 5 ft mower.

 

[m7040]

Relatives heading out tomorrow morning, good trip to brunch yesterday, hung out for a couple hours with them at mom’s. Going to do some local activities with the, today, and dinner at local BBQ.

as to engine “locking up”: is it a cooling issue? Is it a parts breakage issue? Is it some other issue? Too many projects to worry about it right now, but I would not mind having that in the arsenal. Also found out that the backhoe that is in the far-side tree line (completely engulfed in vines) is also a Case machine but no model/year info available… baby steps…

Engine locking up can at times be attributed to starting up and shutting down before full warm up causing rusting of the cylinders

 

[jbrumberg]

rswyn- Thank you for sharing your day and projects. You have a nice looking spread. I get tired reading about all your daily activities.



Bruce- Yes. Those 2 Red-Breasted Woodpeckers were really going at it. I can post that there were similar intra-specie conflicts with the Baltimore Orioles and the Red-Breasted Grosbeaks. Surprisingly RBG’s eat oranges too.

RonJ- Great picture. Thanks for sharing. I like the eye catch-lighting. Nice repair job.

Popgadget- I hope that you quality time with your GS. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Don- Good looking peaches. Our old peach tree is not doing well. It’s down to one living limb.

Kilroy- I hope you and your family have a great afternoon and barbecue.

Bill- I hope that you have a good day pulling stumps with your Stepson.

Ken- It’s good to read that your dog is doing better.

Fritz- Thanks for sharing your family pictures and projects.

Billy- Good luck with your foot.

It was upper level milky/hazy skies with 47ºF as this morning's low temperature. I swear that I could smell acrid smoke this morning during the dog tour of the lower field. The high level haze continues with some cumulus clouds mixing in with 57ºF the current temperature. I expect these conditions to continue through the day with an afternoon high temperature in the upper 60ºF's. We are getting our septic tank cleaned out tomorrow so I need to string trim around the tank so he can have easy access. One of these years this old system will have to be replaced. Hopefully not this year.

A picture from yesterday afternoon:

 

[m7040]

One more story on the old Volvo

We took a trip to Yellowstone park in winter driving up from AZ but got stranded in snow storm and 30 below outside Bozeman MT with frozen gas line. None came by and we were getting desperate. So resorted to ripping off the breather hose for the crankcase vent and connecting to a small gas can upside down under the hood feeding by gravity directly to the carbs leaving the hood partly open but since it is hinged in the front it was ok to drive. Car started and we made it to a gas station for thaw up. Close call but we made it including our cat. Never been this cold before

 

[Rich B1]

Engine locked up:

It was run low on oil and pistons and/or bearing(s) seized.

A connecting rod big end decided it wanted a divorce from the small end and is wedged in the block

It was run hot and siezed

It was parked too long and water has gotten in thru open valves causing the pistons and cylinder walls to try to become one through rust.

And probably a few other expensive possibilities.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Corn and beans have come up in the garden. Planted cucumber plant that was overdue to be transplanted. Will let it climb wire fence this year. Still need to plant tomatoes and peppers.
Snagglepuss came to help

 

[daugen]

cute pic Frits, she is ready for anything
great peaches Don, look yummy

successfully got car inspected, now to start working on rv getting things packed back in it.
lovely day out

 

[daugen]

finished off that Gatorade zero sugar sports drink and decided to inspect.
what an aha moment, as was suggested earlier in GM.
no sugar is fine, 5 calories are fine, but sucralose?
hold on, not so fine.
not good at all.
I am so not buying that stuff again.

Sucralose is an artificial sweetener and sugar substitute. The majority of ingested sucralose is not broken down by the body, so it is noncaloric

What are the side effects of sucralose? To reiterate the many sucralose side effects, they include:

• alters glucose and insulin levels.
• increases risk of digestive problems.
• alters gut health and damages the GI tract.
• kills probiotics.
• may play a role in certain cancers.
• generates toxic compounds when heated.

probably would be healthier drinking a real Coke.
probably would be healthiest drinking plain iced tea

 

[jbrumberg]

finished off that Gatorade zero sugar sports drink and decided to inspect.
what an aha moment, as was suggested earlier in GM.
no sugar is fine, 5 calories are fine, but sucralose?
hold on, not so fine.
not good at all.
I am so not buying that stuff again.

Sucralose is an artificial sweetener and sugar substitute. The majority of ingested sucralose is not broken down by the body, so it is noncaloric

What are the side effects of sucralose? To reiterate the many sucralose side effects, they include:

• alters glucose and insulin levels.
• increases risk of digestive problems.
• alters gut health and damages the GI tract.
• kills probiotics.
• may play a role in certain cancers.
• generates toxic compounds when heated.

probably would be healthier drinking a real Coke.
probably would be healthiest drinking plain iced tea

Drew- I agree. The only artificial sweetener that I rarely use is Stevia, and that's probably good for me either. I am more a honey user.

 

[jbrumberg]

A beautiful morning so far. and 63ºF ATM. The string trimming is done and finally after ~ 3 weeks of trying I got lucky this morning and was finally able to capture a hummingbird.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Speaking of tools...

 

[pennwalk]

Feels like it is going to be nice and warm, Tee shirt weather. It has been dry here so mowing is dusty but the grass isn't growing as fast as some years.

My wife brought home the first strawberries from the neighborhood farm stand. Really good.

I was wondering about Larro and Eric too. I also wondered about Hemo. I tried to search for Eric. No luck but I am not an expert googler.

Hope you are all enjoying the Spring.

Chris

 

[rswyan]

71F and "Fair" @ 11:00, heading up to around 79F for the day's high temp.

Wore shorts outside for the first time this year I think, will do so again today.

Woman was already out weeding when I got up ...

She was relaxing in the shade a few minutes ago when I looked.

Got up to the shop last night and scoped out various exhaust adapter fittings for the propane weed burner torch. These will be used to melt holes in the woven weed block fabric for planting.

The one piece of tube I already had slips up in the weed burner nozzle and is 2 1/4" OD. That's probably big enough to punch holes to plant seeds in but not actual plants.

The two adapters I ordered from Amazon adapts from that to:

1. a 3" OD adapter and,

2. a 4" OD adapter.

Had the option of getting a 5" OD adapter as well but I didn't ... but probably should have.

Have come to the conclusion that the 3" OD adapter was a waste ... not big enough to really be useful. Will probably return it.

Tested the torch with the adapters on the nozzle end and it seems to work just fine: set the screw valve low to keep the torch lit and then squeeze the trigger to fire off the blow torch to the heat the metal up.

Will be interesting to see how it works in actual practice. Will probably hose down and wet the fabric before punching any holes as I understand it melts pretty easily.

Did not make it out to the garage to plant any squash or pumpkin seeds, just couldn't find the energy.

Spraying unplanted garden area with glyphosate is primary item on today's agenda.

Also need to remove an old tarp from an area that I did not get prepped last year. and get that tilled up and the soil amended ... but the tilling and amending probably won't happen today.

Remains to be seen how much grief I'll get over doing that (making the garden even bigger ... )

May do some watering on a few items with the Water Buffalo as well.

Trash day tomorrow so will need to get that hauled up to the cans at the road.

Beyond that I need to dole meds for this week and I see the Massillon Menards now has the pelletized lime back in stock ... so will probably run down there this evening and pick that up.

Beyond all that, just see what else comes up.

Hope everyone has a great Monday ...

 

[txdon]

finished off that Gatorade zero sugar sports drink and decided to inspect.

My preferred drink in the heat is cold Low Sodium V8.

 

[rswyan]

BEF,

I think I see from your garden picture you are using a cattle panel as a trellis.

Is that correct ?

If so, how you like it ?

 

[sodamo]

65°F and .15 inches rain.

Yup, more pw on the agenda. The living room box. Attacking the largest of the walls today, longest, tallest, most glass, most columns and beams. Guessing it will take longer.

In person happy Hour up to neighbors this afternoon. That will be a welcome reward.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[rswyan]

am I getting slow or is this site going faster? every time I turn around I'm 5 pages back.

I hear ya ...

RS, very cool you get to see baby birds hatch.

I enjoy it.

Hopefully we can get several more batches produced this year.

We've had years where one pair will show up early followed by additional pairs which nest later as the season progresses.

Which reminds me: I have a nest box clean out and repair that I need to do.

yellow field flowers lovely, but looking at them makes my nose itch

As a youth I used to get hay fever really bad each summer. Ragweed specifically was really bad.

Thankfully that faded as I got older but now I wake up every morning with a snotty nose and congested. Usually ends up draining down into my lungs overnight ... so mornings tend to involve a lot of coughing and hacking.

I have to take an antihistamine each morning all summer.

Same ... except I take them year round.

Hope state inspection goes well ... and that you enjoy the automotive browsing ...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

probably would be healthiest drinking plain iced tea

That is the worse thing to drink. Tea belongs in the harbor.

 

[Buppies]

I love unsweet tea always have