Good morning!!!!

   / Good morning!!!! #171,391  
Good Morning!

God has given us another chance to get it right (or at least not screw up too badly…).

57.8F going to mid 80s, Forecast is sunny all day, with the chance of an isolated T-storm in the afternoon.

A storm cell rolled through last night, lightning came about 3 miles away, but the rain just missed us. Just enough to scare Senior dog. Harry is oblivious to thunder, doesn’t react at all…

Friend coming to visit for a while as she traveled from her son’s home in Georgia making her way up to NJ, doing either late lunch or early dinner, no idea if she will want to sleep over or has another destination after. No biggie either way - she is one of those people that has no problem just pulling into a campsite or rest area for the night or even a Walmart parking lot if nothing is available.

Before that all happens, Bailey need to go up to the woodlot for a walk - she hasn’t been there for several days and has withdrawal. Might even need to go up in TukTuk to cheer her up!

somewhere I need to fit in the de riguer viewing of “The Longest Day”!

either tomorrow or Thursday (or both, maybe?) plants will go in the ground, along with some seeds. I may even stop in one of the local farm stands and pick up some onion sets and plant them, too.

coffee is calling…

I hope everyone has a happy healthy safe productive blessed day!
 
   / Good morning!!!! #171,392  
Good morning! 65˚F heading to low 80s, cloudy, North breeze. We had a much needed brief shower last night at 10:30 only .2". Town lake is still 2' below the levels at this time from the last two years. We are getting small amounts of rain but no runoff.

The first night of cards this quarter went well, but have a long 3 months ahead of people trying to knock me out of the top position.

About 90% of the watermelon and cantelope seeds are up. The drip irrigation is set right at 15 minutes twice a day.

Scaredy good move on denying estranged wife keys to tractor. You may also want to disable it because she will probably try another way.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #171,393  
Good Morning
It’s 55 and going to 75 today, another dry, breezy day. There is actually a red flag warning for the area it is so dry.

Yesterday started with a trip to TSC to get tarp straps for the dump trailer, then proceeded to the airport to tidy up the little plane. It’s all ready to go now.
Got home I time to push the manure pile back and higher in the bin, loaded a stack of skids on a neighbors truck, he will recycle them by fire.
It was too breezy to fly RC, so I puttered in the shop, had the idea to use a long handled ice scraper to clean the bottoms of the decks on the progressive mower, it worked really well, not a lot of effort, bending or reaching when all the decks are raised and locked. I regret not thinking of it sooner.

Today UPS is bringing me treasure from McMaster Carr to finish some projects. Stainless hex bar, some Delrin rod, a bubble vial to fix a Stanley level (Stanley doesn’t sell them) and a few other odds and ends.
I don’t know what is more impressive, the depth of their inventory, or their ability to deliver it the next day.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #171,395  
Good Morning!!!! 64F @ 5:00AM. Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 80F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.

Nice work on the snake, Billy.

One of those big Good Sam stickers would cover the fender patch pretty well, Drew.

Sent the van salesman a text yesterday morning, asking if he'd received my last one. Said he tried to call but got voice mail. That was his first lie. There's no record of his call, and every call gets logged. I asked how long the van had been on their lot, he said it just came in. Lie number 2; it had been advertised for sale for the past 120 days. How can you sell something you don't have? I asked if there was any flexibility on the price, and he said he'd have to check with his finance guy and general manager. Texted back a couple hours later and said he had to stick to the advertised price. I replied that if he hadn't sold the van at the advertised price in the four month he'd been trying to sell it, it was unlikely he would sell it anytime soon. And that there were over 300 similar vans in his area, and only 39 had been sold in the last 45 days. I offered him 5% under MSRP, either cash or using his financing, and I could pick up this weekend. I haven't heard back. Probably for the better, 'cause who knows what other lies and half truths he's told me.

Roofers got all the tiles and tar paper off the roof, and have only some nails and staples to clean up. I took a peek up there and didn't see any damage from water, and no torn up sheathing. They packed up and left, then were back ten minutes later. The sky to the southeast was very dark, and radar showed a big storm cell headed our way. They had a couple large nylon tarps they were tacking to the roof, but that didn't even cover half of it. I got out all my tarps, and had just enough. They took off again, and I watched as the cell veered to the west and dissipated. And breathed a sigh of relief as the winds dropped. Roof metal is supposed to be here today, but I hope they remove the tarps only one at a time, uncovering only those portions of the roof on which they can nail down the steel. Could be another round of thundershowers this afternoon, and I don't need any more roof drama.

Mean time my neighbor with the big, broken, auger came down and I was able to saw off the broken piece in the band saw for him. He said he'd now be able to weld a new piece in, this time made from Drawn Over Mandrel tubing, probably 4140. I told him to use plenty of preheat and post heat, and let it cool very slowly to avoid embrittling the heat affected zone of his welds. Hope he understood; he's not the best listener. It's gotta be stronger than the piece of fence post he used to make the repair the first time, though.

College buddy called and said he was driving down today from eastern Washington, but wasn't sure he'd be able to make it all the way. I told him to drive safely, and get a room if he started to get drowsy. Mean time, I'll whip up a batch of spaghetti and meatballs this morning to keep handy if he does manage to make it. It's about a twelve hour drive.

Not sure what the rest of the day will bring, except some light housekeeping...
 
   / Good morning!!!! #171,396  
GM UPDATE:

Guest not coming for a couple days, change i itinerary, so probably for the weekend.

More time up at the woodlot, May take an hour in the excavator and clear some more walking path. I have a couple of options as to which one I will do, but I think I will do a more difficult one because it will give us better access to parts of the property we have not really explored yet.

time to start getting it in gear!
 
   / Good morning!!!! #171,397  
Drew- I am happy to read about your + experience with customer service.

Dennis- I am sorry to read about your outpatient “procedure.” Please take it easy today and take care of yourself. I hope that get some restful sleep soon and your discomfort resolving.

Fritz- What an interesting vehicle. I want one. Thank you for sharing your D Day historical site pictures. It was a miracle that this invasion was successful.

Scaredychicken- Thank you for sharing your personal situation and how you are dealing. I have unfortunately seen far too many individuals who have dealt with similar situations rather “poorly.” Hang in there. Jay

RonJH- I have only captured 1 hummingbird picture so far this season, but I did have one poking my blaze orange camo boonie the other morning. The current dominant males have difficult to reach roosts/perch sites. Thanks for sharing.

Billie- Thanks for sharing your snake story. I too am easily entertained.

With the smell of smoke in the air it was a smokey, overcast/cloudy 47ºF for this morning's low temperature. The clouds are burning off, but the smoke remains and is filtering the sunshine with 58ºF the current temperature. I expect these conditions will continue through the day with an afternoon high temperature ~ 70ºF and a chance for an afternoon popup shower and/or T-storm.


The NWS/B-N Office has issued a Hazardous Weather Outlook/Air Quality Alert due to today's smoke plume. My lungs may not like today's particulate matter floating around.

We had some visitors here yesterday around "HH":
 

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   / Good morning!!!! #171,398  
60F and "Fair" @ 08:15, heading up to around 78F for the day's high.

The Little Monster woke me up around 07:45, letting me know Her Royal Highness needed to be fed.

Evidently power went out at some point during the night.

Got the last of the plants in the second flat of vegetables potted: turns out there were only 12 cabbage total - 6 red and 6 regular ... plus another 6 eggplants. So that's finally done.

Got some more spraying done around the frog pond when the wind wasn't blowing.

Made trip down to the local Post Office and dropped off a Menards rebate.

Took the Water Buffalo for a drive, the Redbuds and hosta/day lilies around trees in the back all got drinks ... as well the peach trees and the 3 new trees planted last year.

Also got the little oaks up along the road ... had to refill the Buffalo to finish those. Think there is probably 1/2 a tank left, will be no problem to find something to water with it.

Peach trees also got a 2 gallons mix of the Schulz Tomato/Plant Food each.

East peach tree:

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Power went out again while I was typing this and is now back on again.

While I was doing that I did see the bird that has occupied Nest Box No. 3 - it is a bluebird ... (y)

Probably put some mealworms out for them today as it currently overcast and cool ... just to encourage them to hang around.

By yesterday afternoon a few of the seeds I recently planted were popping up and breaking the soil, so hopefully more today.

Found the remainder of another livestock panel the other day when I took those landscape blocks over to the barn. Looks to be a sheep/goat panel ... 4" squares. Bought it to create a heavy screen for screening out large rocks with the soil screener. Should be 10' of it left that wasn't used. That will give me around 42' of trellis. May need more t-posts though.

Hooked up tow-behind spreader and put down about a bag and a half of E-Coriganite fertilizer on the lawn down here around the house, getting rid of more clutter in the garage.

A couple of pepper plants that were on the ground were attacked so deployed the chipmunk bucket trap back there and baited it with sunflower seeds.

Got the rest of the boards cut for decking for the shelving and got those put on and then loaded it up with more plants. Not exactly a green house, but a good aid to getting stuff started without the critters attacking the plants. Everything I have put up there has not been attacked ... at least so far:

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Those pots are mostly three deep ... ;)

Still a couple of peonies blooming:

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... somebody didn't put a hoop around that one from the looks of it ...

Swamp milkweed doing very well this year:

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Hopefully it will attract some Monarch butterflies.

Forget what these are but somehow two of them managed to escape The Woman's "weeding" efforts:

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About time to get cracking.

Hope everyone is having a good Tuesday ... (y)
 
   / Good morning!!!! #171,399  
Scaredy good move on denying estranged wife keys to tractor. You may also want to disable it because she will probably try another way.
thanks txdon, and others
- two of my friends, and my cousin, were / are all prepared to assist me in the event that I need to hide my own equipment for a time. One friend has a flat deck tow truck and the other friend lives 10 minutes away and has space to put everything. that would be a quick solution HOWEVER, the consequences of her draining all the funds etc are a concern and I don't want to aggravate things. (she currently has chosen to live on the property, with the tenants, and until there is a Separation Agreement - in the works, I can't even isolate accounts, - that ends soon)
- the fact that BOTH LAWYERS are aware of this incident, now means that anything done to the tractor or equipment (SALES - my concern, relocation, damages, punctured tires etc) it is easily directed back at her.
- I've thought of a kill switch generally, but this matter brings it more front and centre. that will be done yet, along with some metal stamping of my initials.
-my immediate solution for additional security / personal identification of pieces ... RANDOM stickers from various Brands (Arctic Cat etc) strategically placed out of sight ... on the tractor, loader, bucket, backhoe, grapple, auger, auger bit, rotary mower, box blade, ATV, vintage Jacobsen, zero-turn cub cadet. Photos of stickers as placed. Everything is identified by serial number with the dealership at purchase, and now if needed I can specifically identify items.

Scaredychicken- Thank you for sharing your personal situation and how you are dealing. I have unfortunately seen far too many individuals who have dealt with similar situations rather “poorly.” Hang in there. Jay
This is a case where the Battle is the Lords, and I am carefully dealing with some mental health / instability issues. Also a case after 27-28 years, where it gets filed under "never would I ever have thought this would happen"

One day at a time.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #171,400  
Morning all, 52 when I went to walk the dog, going up too 80.
WU says rain of up to 0.0" today.....

Did a lot of watering and cleaned up some weeds, all I felt like doing as day job getting busy.

BEF - pain not good, hope your better now.
Accidents with youngsters so sad.

KC - looks like you could use some suitcase weights up front. Nice Wheelies.

Scaredy - Happy belated birthday. Good to hear you are trying to stay positive, definitely praying for a good outcome and can get moving on.

Chair broke, emailed the people we bought it from almost 20 years ago. Clip snapped on spring. They told me they will send a new set in the mail, no charge.

A little hazy here yesterday,
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Be well,
 
 
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