Good morning!!!!

[PJSprog]

29°F and clear skies this morning, going up to 57° today.

Parked the car in the garage yesterday for a brief period. When I went back out there, I could still smell skunk. So, I'm back outside again for a few more days. Fortunately, no severe winter weather in store for us this week.

Starting to get dry here, so The Wife brought out the humidifiers and got them running yesterday. My trip to Lowe's yesterday was to get new wicks for the large one. We were down to about 37% humidity in the house, now we're back up around 45-ish.

Love the color of that drum kit, Ken ... and the smile of the drummer.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 54F @ 6:45AM. Plentiful sunshine. High 69F. Winds light and variable.
Still no rain in the 10-day, Buppies. I hope your forecaster knows something Weather Underground doesn't.

The Honda generator here uses an odd size, but conventional, 12 volt battery, but it gets used so seldomly that I was reluctant to buy that battery. So instead, I fished the battery leads through the door to the battery compartment so that they're easily accessible from the outside, then just use a pair of light weight jumper cables to connect to a regular motorcycle battery (there seem to be plenty of those sitting around here). Guessing that the snow blower battery would need to stay connected when the thing was running, but a couple of leads to the existing battery cables in the blower could be connected in a nondestructive way and taped over to insulate them. But if there's a warranty in place, hopefully it covers the seemingly defective battery?

Seems like I had a similar experience with a Swiss Army knife, Paul. As I remember, I use a hot air gun on it than clamped it in a vise until the scales cooled, and it came out good as new. So good luck with your repair.

Don, as of last Friday, our county has had:
Confirmed cases: 21384
Deceased: 309
That's about a 98.5% survival rate.
Almost half the number of new cases this past month came from the 65 and older group of people.
Even though the fatality rate is a pretty low number, I'm still masking, sanitizing, and distancing.

Apparently Black Friday is turning into Black Thanksgiving weekend, as I was able to pick up a couple deals yesterday and this morning that strictly speaking should have already expired. I'm not complaining.

Log hauling yesterday went pretty much as expected: the trees were reluctant to move, the ground was soft enough I got plenty of tire slip and slide, and the chainsaw needed a sharper chain and recharged batteries before I was done for the day. Didn't get quite half way through, but this beautiful weather is providing ample opportunity to finish. The wood pile is already grayhound bus size, and it'll probably double. No hurry getting any of it bucked because the green leaves are still hanging off most of it, and the county insists we refrain from burning green wood. The rear wheel spacers on the tractor are working out well, as I saw a 20° sidehill slope and didn't feel any tendency toward tipping on the part of the tractor. But I was barely moving just in case. Still not real happy that the Kubota valve that controls the grapple leaks down, as I had to drop several loads and gather them up again when the jaws relaxed and they got away from me.

Hope everyone's week gets off to a great start!

 

[LouNY]

Still not real happy that the Kubota valve that controls the grapple leaks down, as I had to drop several loads and gather them up again when the jaws relaxed and they got away from me.

Does your grapple have one or two cylinders to clamp shut with?
It really doesn't matter most likely it would just determine were you would want to install it.
Add a cylinder lock to the system, they are usually mounted right on the cylinder but they don't have to be.
Single Lock Valve | Hydraulic | LOCK VALVE | Doering Company
I would expect that a single lock plumbed into the line prior to any tee's would work and lock
one or two cylinders into place and eliminate the leakage issue allowing your grapple to loosen up on it's own.

 

[Rich B1]

Good morning! A very sunny 33 right now. Supposed to get to 40, maybe some light snow tonight.

We put the tree up yesterday after we got back from shopping. We had lots of help from Louie, our Maine Coon cat. He loves Christmas and everything that goes with it. He claimed the tree skirt before I could get it under the tree



Friend is in the area from NC. Went to meet him for a beer at a local brewery called “Wooly Pig Farm Brewery“. It is actually on a farm. I tried the Maple Baltic Porter which was excellent. Another friend stopped in, so we all stayed longer than planned.



Tried to go deer hunting this morning, but some hunters on an adjoining property wounded a deer and were tracking it through my woods. They apologized, will go out later. At least they were tracking it.

And to continue the yarn from last year. Must have slept some because my wife woke me up around 8 in the morning. Told her I needed to go to the hospital. She was trying to make an appointment to be tested. She got one for 11:30 which she never made. Took me 3 hours to get out of bed, downstairs, and to her work truck.

It was pouring down rain, as we were going to the hospital, I remember thinking I was glad I wasn’t in the woods…it would be miserable hunting.

Got out of the truck and found enough strength to go inside and plop in a wheelchair. Getting out of the truck was the last time in 3 weeks I would see Joyce.

I was brought into the emergency waiting area and told it would be at least 3 hours for a room. But triage came out for me after about 45 minutes. After getting my vitals checked, he was on the phone saying he needed a room now, Vitals….Blood Oxygen Level - 84%, heart rate - 145 BPM, temperature - 102, etc. I was in a room in 10 minutes on oxygen and fluids. The ER doc was awesome, called Joyce to update her, she thought he was awesome. He had me admitted after a scan with iodine to be sure I had no blood clots in my lungs. Got a medical room to myself the first night with a view of the street so I could at least watch traffic. When the IV bag went dry, they took me off the IV. On oxygen, my BOL was 88 - 89%. Didn’t get much sleep, nurses encouraged me to drink a lot of water.

Everyone stay safe out there!

 

[sodamo]

64°F and .66 inches rain.

Got a start on greenhouse yesterday. Will continue that if not raining. Will be an interesting puzzle.

Zoom Happy Hour this afternoon.

Rich, add me to list of those that find your recounting of last year interesting.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

 

[Boss 302]

Good morning, cold and windy here this morning. Hopefully this wind will lay down so I can go deer hunting.

 

[Eric Salop]

Good afternoon, I am pleased to be back inside after having got caught in near to freezing rain which came heavier than expected. My intention was to move more cut wood out of the wetland while the ground was frozen. It was not a bad plan, however cold wet gloves and the miserable conditions eventually persuaded me there is always another day ...

Kyle, how do you go about removing duck weed from a pond so large ? I can just imagine you making a floating skimmer attachment for your Steiner Beast

LS, planting bugs to find fleas ? Have you been at the gravel again.

Roy, Tann Hill is the highest pub in England. I was surprised to see that making it into your news, with you getting so much more snow than us - we even have to use Google to find out what a "driveway marker" looks like .

 

[rswyan]

37F and mostly sunny @ 12:00, heading up to a high of 39F for the day. Sun is casting very long shadows across the yard. Calling for snow later this evening (80% chance)

Refilled hopper and the two sunflower tube feeders yesterday, also two suet feeders. Lots of activity out there this morning. Hopper feeder now about half empty so they are hitting it pretty good.

Also all downstairs fish fed along with some tank cleaning/maintenance.

Holes drilled for L screws on top door of barn owl box, also gave it a coating of BLO on all sides (except for the one where I still have to route the slots at the entry hole) Still have to install the L screws and cut the slots for the clean out door, drill drainage holes on the bottom, and route slots. May get some practice using the router today.

Also finished coating the second squirrel feeder with BLO. Need to cut an angled piece for the inside bottom so that all the food flows out. Hopefully that will keep them from destroying the sides.

Worked some on roost box for little birds, got holes drilled for nail hinges for front door. Need to see if I ever came up with a piece of wood for the top and locate that if I did.

Other clean up done in the basement. Almost have table saw cleared off ...

Need to make trip up to shop today for a drill bit for dowel rods for perches for roost box and a hole saw for the entry hole.

Trash needs taken up to the road later, also recyclables since it is recycle week.

Probably need to refill feeders by day's end.

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

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Good morning, sunny and a chilly 39, but wind has finally died down.
Still cleaning out garage for my son's new drum set-people we bought from were nice and deal went smooth.

Randy-hope the Dr. visit goes well

Ordered welding cart and table. Got wire for lighted spheres. Lights are on their way.

Stay safe and be well,

This was before move at PO house. Notice smile!
View attachment 722780

One happy kid!!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Dug a hole for the little cat that will be put down today. It always would try to escape out the door to go outside. Today I opened the door and it just stood there looking. I took it out for awhile. It didn’t try to go anywhere, but chewed on some grass. It has lost so much weight it is just all bones. Last night would barely eat. Sad to do, but the right thing. It has the thyroid problem.

The recumbent bike arrived a day early, brought by an Amazon truck instead of UPS. The box was intact, unlike the one UPS delivered a couple years ago which I rejected. When I saw them bringing it to the house on a hand truck I told them to leave it right where he was in the yard. I put pallet forks on tractor and took it around to basement.

Having trouble with FEL not raising or lowering. Acts like the lock is on, stick won’t move forward or back. Curl works fine. By pulling or pushing very hard it will move up down very slowly, just enough. Was just barely able to get grapple unhooked and forks on.

So late into work today, but things not working right here also, so think I’ll leave early.

Don, thanks for idea! So obvious. Plugged in on side of hall wall, you gotta get pretty close for it to turn on with motion.

Ordered an LTE PT camera to install at the farm. Need to find a decent sim for it. They recommend T-Mobile, which shows service there. Has a built in battery. Also ordered solar charger that will come in a couple weeks.