Good morning!!!!

[Thomas]

85F slight breeze.

Been kinda what could go wrong next day...wood wasn't deliver today as promise while mowing the lawn blades caught ball of string grass trimmer rev up and made noise can't even pull the starter rope drop bar soap smack dab on my little toe joint yup it's Friday the 13th...just ain't gonner try nothing else today...feet up.

Enjoy your evening all.

 

[Thomas]

Summer temps are here as in 90F and getting on the dry side especially for pasture.

About dark on Tuesday I was in the horse lot and got a call the 78 year old guy who I have been his guardian for 30 years since his mother passing had died in his sleep watching TV.

This was not expected so it caught us off guard. He had lived in this retirement home for 30 years.

Ted was actually a sharp guy. Apparently he lost his hearing before learning to speak. With no hearing, speech or the opportunity to learn to read and write he suffered more physical and mental abuse than most.

For the past 30 years he has had access to running water, regular meals, health care and a positive physical and social environment.

I hope I can do him proud as I conduct his service tomorrow.

On a more positive note this morning our son had an interview for a summer internship in Cedar Rapids as part of the engineering degree at Murray State University locally. His class placed well in a hydraulic engineering competition in Iowa about 3 weeks ago which resulted in today's in person interview.

The circle of Life keeps spinning.

RIP Ted.
There is no doubt you shall do just fine.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

First time I've killed a copperhead while mowing. Only 3rd one I've seen on this land in 20 years.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Also saw a beautiful a garter snake that was rainbow colored kind of. It was swimming in the pond.
Wife pushed the Ego mower and put maybe 6 bags of green grass on compost pile.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Ted “Teddy” Riddle (1943-2022) - Find a Grave...

I expect some of you use this website so that you can check out the graves of families and friends across the lands.

Initially I planned to post it earlier and forgot it but here it is. I'm very proud of this Stone because I did not pick it out or I did not pay for it. This was Ted's choice which shows he has very good taste and he always has very good had very good taste. It actually was the most expensive Stone at that company's monument yard.

To keep from wasting the backside of the beautiful stone I spent weeks and months doing genealogy because his family tree is unknown to the community because of lack of interest in that family.

At the time he was working at Briggs and Stratton through a sheltered work shop program so over time he paid for the marker and prepaid for a nice funeral. He was so proud of the Stone.

There are families that go through life with next to zero personal belongings and assets and food and health care.

 

[rswyan]

70F with partly cloudy skies @ 21:00, heading down to a low of 62F in the overnight.

Trip out went fairly well, other than a little traffic at one point coming up through Massillon.

That and some gimbus customer at Menards who was also getting mulch pulled his pickup and 18' trailer right up next to a bunch of pallets of mulch blocking all the other forklift operators from accessing product while he was being loaded.

Then he wanted the forklift op to push the pallet forward so it would be over his axles. Only problem was his trailer only had an expanded metal mesh ramp ... no way it's going to support a forklift. Gimbus suggested that the forklift op go find an 8' long pallet and use that. Forklift went and found some fork extensions, and got it moved up a little further. Wasn't totally what the guy wanted, but it was the best he was going to get.

Unloaded after I got back, while dinner was cooking, also refueled the Cub.

Caught part of the News Hour while I was eating and then headed out to mow some more on the front before it got dark, probably better than 80% done at this point. Hopefully finish it up in the morning before the rain gets here.

Going to go close things up for the night and then maybe a nice hot shower and to bed.

Hope everyone had a great Friday ...

 

[rswyan]

Deer don't eat your Hosta???

Of course they do Thomas and I'm pretty sure I've said as much ...

But they do seem a little particular: they seem to prefer the green and white variegated hosta.

Haven't noticed much munching on the solid green or blue-green ones.

Of course that might just be because we have much more of the former ... dunno ...

It also tends to occur when there is less other stuff for them to browse.

At any rate, it's getting to the point that we literally have so many that it appears we're winning the battle - at least at the moment, if not the overall war:

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Later today we got a helpful rain.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Trip into town was uneventful, except for putting up with idiot drivers.... not sure if they all decided it was time to get behind the wheel, or because it was Friday afternoon, and they just couldn't think anymore after working all week.... jeez...
people waiting for a different shade of green on the traffic lights, oblivious to other car horns....
Numerous others driving at 45 mph in a 65 mph on the freeway.....
People not knowing how to turn a corner....
The list goes on and on......

At least I was able to get a new battery in the phone. The place that offered a 'lifetime' warranty, didn't apply to batteries, and yes, they were double the price. They only warranty the batteries for 30 days.
The first place was giving a 6 month warranty for half the price.... DONE !

I didn't get home until around 15:30, and it was gusty, so just stayed inside.

Wifey is feeling much better, but still experiencing GI upset..... she believes it was something that she ate.... she normally doesn't eat fast food. I believe it was my fault... I brought home a BK Whopper sandwich for her as a treat the day before it started..... my bad.....

 

[PJSprog]

68°F and clear skies this morning, getting up to 86° today. Looks like we have a line of thunderstorms heading towards us for the overnight hours. Cooler temps behind it for the weekend.

Put a vent in the new gas can I bought at Rural King earlier in the week, then took it and a couple others to fill at one of the gas stations in town this morning. Back up to $4.499/gal again.

Did some mowing today. Pretty much most of the day. Humidity was much lower today at 49%. Still didn't get it all done, as a couple areas are still too soft. The (former) pasture took almost three hours by itself. It didn't get mowed last week, and I had to go slooooow out there, especially through the clover spots. At one point I considered putting the rotary cutter on the tractor and using it instead. But, I was almost halfway done by that time, so I just trudged on with the ZTR. Took a little break after that, then pulled out the push trimmer and went after one of the wet areas, the one between the pond and the pasture. That took some time, too, as it hadn't been cut yet this year, and some of that stuff was 3-4 feet tall. I'll sleep well tonight.

Took a shower and went to a little taco stand in New Baden IL for dinner. It's a trailer that pops up there on weekends, and occasionally in other places. I've been seeing them there on my way home from work on Fridays, but they're never open yet when I pass by. Didn't have that problem today. Food was good and the people were nice. I'll go back again.

Hope you're having a safe and enjoyable (and storm-free) trip, Mostly_.

Nice weld, Paul. Did you walk that around, or do you have some manner of roller/turntable mechanism?

I killed a Prairie King Snake during my first mowing this year, Kyle. Hate when that happens. Of course, I'd not likely weep for a dead copperhead. Not very common, but we do have them in this area.

Condolences on the loss of your friend, Gale. Very cool that you took an interest in preserving the legacy of that family.

 

[sodamo]

Got a few hours with the flail today, but not without incident.
Somehow managed to bust the bolt of the stabilizer.

So far it does look like one can buy just the broken piece, only the complete assembly, which guess I’ll do. But will also look to replace the broken bolt.

Made wife happy. The door latch into bedroom had become problematic, so I replaced. The old one was not only very worn internally, but a break in the cast plate that holds the mechanism. Upon reflection this is undoubtedly the most used door mechanism in the whole house.

Had hoped Sophie’s BX would get delivered today, Nope, not ready. Salesman gonna be out of town until next week but is hoping to deliver Wed or Thu.

 

[sodamo]

Do you know the battery voltages that are associated with those SOC readings, David? I ask because the solar contractor, and the battery bank manufacturer, insist on using battery bank voltage to determine the trigger point for generator operation, and for all other charge/discharge decisions in the system. To the point where the warranty on the battery bank is voided if those voltage set points are changed. Not that the warranty, with the current state of affairs, is worth even the cost of the paper upon which it is written...

Not really. There is a chart/graph from SimpliPhi but given the flatness of the voltage curve, I don’t find it very helpful.
I went back and reviewed my settings. Basically everything in the Inverters and charge controllers are voltage settings. I used the SimpliPhi integration document as a guide. The only SOC settings are AGS in the Mate and those supplement the voltage settings in the 2 min, 2 hr, 24 hour gen starts, the load starts, and the Must Run (clock starts). While they can be enabled in most any combination, I’ve only found the 2 min useful. I would guess that with an FNDC you do not have SOC available. As for warranty, I find it interesting that SimpliPhi provides voltage parameters for everything except generator starts and lists warranty cycle life by SOC, not a voltage.
I suspect Raysun on OB Forum has the voltage numbers as he made a lit of measurements/observations early on.

 

[Looking4new]

Good morning, low temp is 62 and the high should be up around 84°F. Wind S 6 mph. 40% chance of T-storms in the afternoon.

I am up way too early, but can go back to bed for a few more.

Today is the floor in the tractor shed, we will do that in the morning and take a siesta in the afternoon.

Sunday or Monday I will be cutting the grass again. I sure am happy I don't have to deal with copperheads or rattlers when I cut.

Have a safe day all

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Gale, nice you did that for Ted. I manage a few FindAGrave pages.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

As soon as I got home from work last night we headed to MIL for the weekend. Brought our 2 cats, and they are having a blast with her cats.
First time our new cat has slept in a room with us, at home they sleep in basement. He was wandering most of the night.

Periods of sprinkles all day yesterday with a few short heavy rains, lots of rainbows.
I didn’t eat lunch yesterday, so picked up Chick-fil-A as we went thru town, and my wife ate half of my supper, she wasn’t hungry to get anything.

Not much planned today, maybe lunch at a Mennonite deli, we heard had good sandwiches. Will start the BX23, I bought it but left it here in case I need to do work here with it. I brought a battery tender to put on it. I bought new battery for it last yr, but it hasn’t been ran very often. I’ve not put the backhoe on it yet, but put the mower deck on last summer. MIL won’t use it to mow, she uses push mower.

 

[wngsprd]

Foggy 66 going to 78. Saw a spot of blue sky briefly yesterday.

Thomas, hope Saturday the 14th treats you better.

Kyle, I heard the other day a statistic that there are 7,000 venomous snake bites in the US every year. Not sure how valid...it was on a quiz show.

Have a slow leak on one of the zero turn's rear tires...inflated it Wednesday and mowed for a few hours without any noticeable loss, but looked at it this morning and flat again. Stinker!

Phobe chicks have fledged, so I can re-claim my shelter and finish cleaning up my firewood splitting area for better summer use.

 

[daugen]

good morning all
warm foggy morning, likely rain later

Dennis, you have the best cat pictures.

only plans for today are building a water hose reel cart in garage with good friend.
Then he will take it to church in his Ridgeline. Another friend said she would buy it if we built it.
Good deal. Amazon delivered it to me, big heavy box and picking it up promptly got a big grease stain on
my nicest tan slacks. Groan. What takes out grease?

 

[Thomas]

61F clear sky upper 80's for high may t storm ate afternoon.

Outside chores done E muffin time.
Plans for today...Morning both rider mowers get good PMing and new blades,Afternoon because of heat outside find coolest place good chance of nap.

Enjoy your day all.

 

[txdon]

Good morning! 71˚F heading to the mmid 90s, South wind, partly cloudy.

The trail maintenance team did a good job of spreading a dozen piles of mulch along a mile of trails. There were 22 of us working like ants. The older generation really knows how to work and it's a pleasure to work with them. We divided into 3 groups the loaders with pitch forks at the piles, the haulers who pushed the wheelbarrows and the spreaders with rakes where the wheelbarrows dumped. No diesel was consumed.

My 2 aunts brought my mother red potatoes from their gardens in Lee County, Kyle are your potatoes getting close to harvest? I need to turn the irrigation in my garden to once a day to start drying out the ground so the dirt will not stick together.

The ranchers are really starting to complain about fertilizer prices. The cost has tripled and they are not getting anymore for their calves. This was a good week for making hay but the lack of rain has cut into the number of bales. Fuel prices are also on the rise again.

I got a new battery in for my wife's Mac laptop but decided to wait a day to install it so I would not have to blame Thomas if it did not work. Now it's my morning project, it starts with unscrewing 8 screws in the back, etc . . . It also calls for some detailed instructions on resetting the battery's management system during and after the first charge.

The daily alligators are multiplying. The population was in the teens for about a month, now it's pushing 100.

Mostly hope you are having a good time on the trail.

 

[txdon]

Groan. What takes out grease?

WD40.
My wife has tried it twice on some nice clothes and recommends it highly.