Met the new neighbours yesterday. They have family staying for Christmas and the family bought their huskys with them. I was rudley interrupted at 6.00 am by two huskys chasing my poultry past my loungeroom door. Managed to chase them off before they caused damage and then managed to catch one of them and tied him up in the barn. A bit of research around the neighbourhood tracked down the owners and led to meeting the new neighbours. The other husky turned up home about 6 hours later.
Dogs killing chickens is NOT cool. There was a husky from the previous neighbors that got a lot of mine. They tried to keep her penned up, but she'd escape and kill a couple chickens in a flash. People think it's no big deal..."It's just chickens." Now my new neighbors have bought a Catahoula dog, and she's going to be a chicken killer almost certain. Hasn't yet, but has grabbed feathers and chased them at least 3 times, each time fortunately someone was outside to stop her. Once they get the chicken blood in their mouths, IMO, they can no longer be trusted around chickens. Maybe if you put a shock collar on them and retrained them. Maybe. We've bought 15 chickens, and dogs and predators have killed 11 of them. Disease got 1 of them. We are down to 3. They are like pets. They let you pick them up, they'll come to you when you call them.
Next time someone tells me "It's just chickens", I'm going to ask how they'd like it if I brought home a pack of Rottweilers and turned them loose on their dog.
RNG and Roy, my shoulders vary but average about 70-75%. I lost my fastball, my golf swing, and anything of like movement.
It has been so nice and tropically warm down here. Like Florida weather. 82F today, going to below freezing and a windchill of 16F in the morning predicted. I guess I have to put up my shorts.
I've been driving my little tin can Toyota while waiting for new front brake pads for the malibu. Toyota got 38.6 mpg doing my normal fast highway commute. Pretty impressed. But the pads came in and got replaced Thursday night. Took me about an hour from getting the jack out to putting the jack back in it's corner. Paul, I would've had a hard time turning down a lift, but my barn is only 12' at the side walls, so not enough height for a lift. I might have still considered it for outside the barn. Anyway, also put a newer (much better shape) hood, with fewer hail dimples on Crumpelt Steelskin. It is of a different color, until I give it a cheap paint job. I would guess the whole hood only weighs maybe 20lbs at most, so there is the reason why new cars get such bad hail damage. Such thin metal. NOT because there's more large hail. Cars have to be lighter to try and get higher mileage.
Popgadget, nice photo of planes aligned up waiting. It's hard to beat a turboprop and warrant a jet for most folks, especially from a fuel/mile cost perspective. How fast does your turboprop fly?
Since the weather has been so nice, I decided to BbQ some burgers yesterday, man were they good. Hot sauce picante, guacamole, cheese, Leftovers got wiped out.
Son rode his GT80 for a while today. Kids are dog sitting for 2 different families. total of 7 dogs, 4 cats, and about 20 chickens.
Rich, I really like that bike. Is it an Alpina? Great that it is still handy, and fun to ride. It kind of reminds me of the older Honda TL125's stylewise. They must've stole it's styling from Bultaco or some other Euro company.
I got a fitbit for Christmas, according to it's data collection, working on the cars a few times, peeling away some insulation from the underside of my small back porch, plus all my steps, has given me enough exercise to be considered normal to higher activity.
Mostly, I may have missed it, but how many miles did you end up getting? Hope you have another great mileage year.
I don't believe in luck, but I did eat some Black eyed peas, because I like them.
RNG, sorry about your trip, and your friend's sister. Hope y'all get more rain to fill the lake.
LS, hope the new RV is a good one.
Get this. My friend is going to trade in his 2018 F350 Ford dually 4WD, for MORE than he paid for it 3 years ago. Only has 9,000 miles, always parked inside, shows like new. He paid about $58K and he's going to get about $62K in trade. He's going back to SRW single rear wheel, but a higher trim option truck. Will still cost him about $12K to upgrade. New trucks like that are bringing well over $74K. He will save a but load of taxes by trading in.
Other friend is almost done welding up and turning the undercarriage rollers and wheels on his older Takeuchi TL130 track loader. Old machine has over 7000 hours. He has built up everything with the 7 series mig wire, and the front and rear wheels he added a hard wire layer. He says he won't do that again, no matter what. I told him he'll have the nicest undercarriage of any tracksteer in north America. New small roller wheels are $250 each (need 10), and there are 4 big wheels that are $500 each, so $4500 vs all the welding and turning. He says he's spent at least $500 on mig wire, and he bought a nice servo controlled face plate to rotate them at a nice smooth speed for $600. He's also purchased new sprockets and tracks. Man, the undercarriage condition might be the biggest parameter for the value of equipment like this. He said he wouldn't normally have spent the money but the thing has been so darned dependable (Yanmar 4 cylinder), and he thinks the rest of it is in good condition. So this all set him back roughly $4500 plus a ton of his time to do all the welding and turning. He's an excellent mechanic, and would have no problem rebuilding the engine if it needed it.
Hope all of you have a blessed and Happy New Year. Prayers for all our team, especially those with health needs. I just got a call from my brother that my 92yo mother is having a friend take her to the hospital. Said she was outside and told him " I'm trying to get some fresh air to help me breathe". She can't seem to use her O2 finger device well. Not sure why. I can be down there in about 2 hours if needed. Said my prayers, now I need some sleep.
