Good morning!!!!

[buckeyefarmer]

I could never justify a whole house generator here in Texas. Even during the worst hurricanes in Houston power was never out for more than a few days. I just pretend I'm camping. If it looks like there may be an outage event that will last a week I don't see a problem. I do have a small Yamaha gasoline generator to charge the phones for several hours a day. Batch cooking before, water, Ice - good to go.

That’s my general thinking. I’ve made it 25 years here with getting my portable generator out about once every 2-3 years. Think I’ll pass on the generator if I don’t do it myself.
I’d be ahead putting that money to solar panels.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I had spectators mowing tonight. Got field done after dark.

 

[rswyan]

73F and "Fair" @ 20:30, heading down to a low of around 67F. High hit 86.9F here today, was on the humid side with dew point above 65F.

Got the razor drug across my face before the shower this morning ... which was welcome as the stubble was getting a little scruffy.

Still managed to get a little something done with the warmth, with a little help from a friend.

This maple tree - which is one of the closest to the house - had a good-sized limb that was leaning in that direction:

​

So the young neighbor - who is a certified arborist - went for a little climb and gave it a trim:

I supplied a little tension on a line with the Kubota to ensure that it missed the house/deck.

Still need to clean up the downed branches and wood, which I should be able to get to in the next couple of days with the grapple.

Before he started on that though, I had him remove the steps/staircase going up to the deck and some of the lower deck as well (area where the leaves are):

Staircase will likely get reused in the rebuild, once we finalize the plans for the replacement deck.

Also discussed a number of other things we'd like him to do as he has available time, which include tearing down the rest of the deck and removing all the gutters on the house. Have to wait a little on the deck though until I get the top of the back side of the house stained, since the old deck will serve as my scaffolding.

Kinda hard to see, but Woman spotted one of our furry little friends having a feast this morning on a large yellow crookneck squash:

​

Puts whole new meaning on "Feeding The World" ...

Probably thought he was in Groundhog Heaven.

Which may well end up coming soon enough ...

Hope everyone had a great day ...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

-

View attachment 759711

.

I need that shirt.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I installed all the electric when I built my house, from the meter base in. Also installed the underground conduit from meter base to transformer. To pull permits I had to take a couple code tests. At the time, designing electrical systems was my profession, so wasn’t hard. I got out of that line of engineering years ago, so I’m not up on the latest codes any more and a lot has changed.

I want to retire to a place that will let me do my own work, then I will install solar and a generator.

 

[Popgadget]

I need that shirt.

It came from Amazon

 

[Buppies]

Ordered some amino the other day boy prices still high 264 and 7mmMag both shoot very flat at 200 yards two types of 45/70 250 and 300 grain. Have a marlin that shoots those.
264 I traded for several years ago 7mm mag traded for in the 80s with a good friend he wanted my 338 Roger I got the 7mm browning a bolt gold medallion

You have a beautiful place RS you should be very proud.

Wag a kangaroo makes me think of movie Kangaroo Jack

Hope all have a good evening

 

[Wagtail]

Good late (Friday) morning. A Low of only 3.4C which left a heavy dew. It's clear and calm with the present High of a balmy 18C, so far.

Right, my AGFEST 'tale': Away from home @ 0530 and, after a short rest stop, arrived at the site around 0750. It was pandemonium as the parking paddock was so waterlogged (from prior rain) that many vehicles were getting bogged and had to be pulled out... including me (my ute is not 4x4). Once freed, they said to just 'gun it' to where I was directed, which I did. Once 'parked' I knew that I'd need help when it came time to leave as the ground was extremely 'mushy'. There was mud everywhere, but the sun was out, it was a beautiful day, so I could only hope that things might firm up later on.

Wonderful day; caught up with the blokes from my JD Dealership. The food on offer throughout the 'FEST' was great. I swung through a "NubCo" (tools/welding) marque and noted that they were advertising a twin-pack of Makita 6Ah batteries for A$303. I noted that and carried on, later arriving at the co-marque of "Total Tools/Makita" (I'm 'registered with TT). I mentioned to a helpful salesbloke the NubCo price for the batteries and he not only matched the price but made it an even A$300, we 'rang it up' and, because I'm registered, they gave me a A$50 voucher... so I loaded up on rigger's gloves (x3), wool socks (2x 3-packs), and some other things that came to just over A$50... they rounded it down to exactly $50, so that was an unexpected deal.

I eventually arrived at this multipurpose ladder marque, one of those ladders that you can adjust the legs, angles, has 'platforms' and can be turned into scaffolding + a wall 'stand-off'. I'd been tempted to get one for years, so after a full demonstration I bought it for A$1100. Now, of course, I needed to get the thing back to my ute! The salesman provided a small 2-wheel dollie and strapped it all on. Naturally, his marque was at the South end of AGFEST and I was parked in the North entrance parking paddock.

LORD it was heavy, and I had to maneuverer it through the crowds, which dutifully got out of my way. I was tempted to stop a couple of time to rest but knew that I couldn't or I'd have a hard time starting again. I eventually got it out to the parking paddock; which was still bogged and the dollie wheels were sure to get 'gummed up'. Short story is that a big, strapping lad (AGFEST volunteer) dragged my purchase all the way to my ute and even loaded it into the back. I thanked him profusely. As I was recovering (I had a pipe & a lot of water), I realised that I hadn't asked the young man's name so I couldn't report my thanks to the AGFEST organisation.

Of course, I then had to walk the dollie all the was back to the ladder marque.

I then had lunch.

About 1330 I figured that it was time to head home, and, of course, I was bogged... as were several other vehicles. [They even had a horse-mounted patrol looking/siting bogged people] Eventually, a 'gang' of 8-9 young AGFEST Volunteers came to me and, after getting bogged one more time, managed to push me out of the situation.

I got home about 1530. A long day and a very good nights sleep (with no leg cramps after the day's exertions!). I have yet to unload the ladder or any of my other purchases... which I'll do after lunch.

Whew!

Take care all.

 

[mostly_gas]

Good evening all. 68ºF for the start, clear sky, very light breeze. Light wind, sky became partly cloudy and high temp was 89ºF, HI 92ºF. bike ride to start day, mowed back yard after lunch, got nap in, grilled brats for dinner. 10 day has 6 days of rain over 1 inch over those days.
Grew up in STL suburbs, changed HS halfway through JR year. Moved to Ozarks when I got married, then to St Charles county when I went to work for family business. Most friends were from church or neighbors. Was retired 7 yr when moved to Texas.
Dennis sounds like long day. Hope your driver license renewal goes smoothly, and you can finish mowing.
Don hope you can find a good place with shorter lines.
Roy prayers for side to improve sent. Glad you are sleeping well. Hope you get this audit cleaned up before next one starts.
Buppies hope you get more rain, we could use more as well.
Randy(wag) glad wallet not totaled. Look forward to your tale.
Drew hope you have a good, safe trip.
Drew I dream of tractors as well. Just no place to use it
Drew I understand about loosing friends, but several friends I left behind as passed on so I am glad most of yours still around to go back to.
Frits sounds like you have some nice trees.
Paul good to hear wife is doing well. Hope trip was safe and uneventful
RNG good to hear muffin fan making a difference. Sorry about the DMV line. Had to giggle at the cylinder heads in dishwasher
PJ sorry about the politics.
Ken hope cleanup went well.
Ted I wonder if the swelling caused the pain in your knee. hope burner made quick work on weeds.
Dennis good luck with decision on generator, I am going through same problem, and blackout few and far between.
Drew have fun fixing the Gravely up. Hope you can find a new home for it.
David good to baching it days almost over. Hope you get the house the way you want it.
Ted nice review of the burner.
David sorry about the pump issue, glad you caught it early.
Drew good to hear font hitch made parking trailer a dream. Hope yu had fun with Gravely
David glad pump back in service, hope you can get parts soon.
Doug funny video.
Drew glad you got controls lubed and cleaned up.
Billy glad you got some mom time. sorry about the heat, should be gone soon.
Thomas sorry about not short day at work, glad to hear fields slowing down.
Paul was that one of Drew's bits?
Scaredy glad you day was so successful.
Scaredy my condolences on your uncle, nice you got to visit with some of the family.
Dennis glad mowing done, nice pic.
RS glad you got the limb taken care of. Deck does look tired. Hope the clean goes easily.
Buppies sorry about ammo prices.
Randy(wag) sounds like nice day except for the parking problems. Sorry you did not get the lad's name. Good to hear no cramps.
prayer for all, especially Jay/Peg, Kyle's daughter/friend PT from Covid,/mom's breathing, /learning new job, Bird/aging issues/, Don /mom's pipeline process, /fire nearby, Randy/FIL living alone adjustments /MIL Covid /son's heart issues, /pneumonia and not posting, Roy /palpitations, /fall injuries, /angina /wife ankle, Billy /wife back & hip, David(moss) /remodel, /divorce, Buppies /3 new skin cancer spots and treatment, /wife knee healing, /getting dehydrated and cramping, Thomas /gout, Phil /reflux, /wife's eyes, Steppenwolfe/son-auto immune disorder, Grev/wife's eye, Ted /knee recovery/retirement, /family issues, /wife feeling bad, Doug and wife/health issues, /nerve and pain, / wife headaches, Ken /kids shot tragedy, David(sadamo)/Sophie's new eye surgery recovery, /cataract surgery, /Sophie's hand infection, Chris/neighbor's granddaughter and Covid issues, Scaredy/shoulder dislocation, /wife not feeling well, /marriage, / friend stop drinking, Paul/ wife's disc issues, Gale and KY/ tornado victims, Mike /5 year plan, Dennis /retirement plans / brother "alligallyitus" and improving, Drew /foot heel issues, /friend cancer diagnosis and recovery, Helogabals /second opinion, /wife's friend situation, Ukraine war, and Country.

 

[Alien]

Started early this a.m. Went to Gatton to choose a washing machine and then came home and checked results with Lesley. Did some research on computer then went and bought one I had never heard of before. It is a CHiQ. Chinese, but so are they all now. $520 for a 8 KG top loader with a 5 year warranty. Half the price of others and a lot more warranty. To me it has similar traits to a LG. Same dimensions as our old one but washes more clothes. Old 6.5 KG - 8 KG for new one. Seems to work OK. put a load through it. By the time I installed my BP was high and had to lie down for a while. Was going to mow some lawn today but decided against it.

Dr just rang and is having a consult with seniors. Trying to decide if I have to go to Hospital or to the surgery tomorrow. eeerk.
Will update when I can.

 

[Wagtail]

WOW! I just popped over to Facebook and 17 minutes ago (1900 local), AGFEST has suspended ticket sales for Saturday due to the horrendous parking-paddocks situation... even 4x4s were getting bogged.

They haven't officially cancelled the last day of the event and I don't know what the parking situation is or will be for those who are attending (they may have to park "out the back of Bourke" and hike in). Perhaps those who do make it will get great deals as the vendors will prefer to sell instead of cart it home.

The place must be a quagmire for this to happen. This is the first time that, due to the alligatoritis scare, they moved the dates from May (late Autumn) to August (late Winter).

 

[Bird]

sodamo said, "And some I have thought about from time to time.
I guess in many ways we are what we grew up. As a kid we moved fairly often, especially when my Dad worked construction. Mom put her foot down after my freshman year in HS and they relocated to 110 acres just 10 miles up the road. But again, a new place, new school, new church, etc but also a complete break with all the old. By the time I finished HS I was still considered an out of towner. I’ve pretty much continued the pattern over the year, just longer intervals."

Sure sounds familiar to me. I changed schools 12 times, went to 8 different schools in the 12 years; yep, went to some more than once from which we moved and later moved back. And then I started going to colleges when there was something I wanted to learn and could fit it into my schedule. That ain't easy when you work rotating shifts; used to work a month at a time on all 3 shifts. So I got some college credits from 7 different colleges and finally graduated with a bachelor of science degree "*** laud" (or as my Dad said, "Come Loud") when I 35 years old.

I made a lot of friends over the years, but not many with whom I stayed in contact in later life, and now . . . . well, even all of those are gone and at age 82 I'll probably be gone before long, too.

 

[Buppies]

Alien prayers for impending surgery, prayers for Toppop God speed old friend LS and knee, all others our Country

70 high of 87 today it’s Friday hard to believe huge rains last night in Hollins last night flooding. Curious about all these heavy rains world wide global warming cannot say but the under water volcano in Tonga put massive amounts of water into the atmosphere what goes up must come down food for thought

 

[daugen]

good morning all
Alien, glad you aren't still stuck in the mud. Sounds like a fun day and very tiring.

I'm off early to dermatologist. Have worrisome area of my chest, something growing there on top of scar where they
took my port out. That shouldn't be, and another spot an inch away. Looks like I may be losing some unintentional weight, maybe I'll get
away with just getting frozen. One on my chin too...that will look wonderful when I go to lunch today with another school board member.

just read that California has now banned sales of new gasoline powered cars in ten years.

Gravely used to be perfect but a lot of hard hours on it since then, just good work. Paint job pretty dinged up but with the exception of a sticking choke
cable, runs great. When they put the new engine in, I think mechanic crimped the choke cable, has been super hard to pull since day one. Worse, I'm afraid the
choke isn't going to full off position. That won't be good for engine, so one small task. Soaked cable in penetrating oil yesterday, seemed to accomplish nothing.
I only have the 50 inch deck left, used to have two wing mowers. This is the do it yourself version of Popgadget's nifty trailing mower. I was going to learn how to weld by fabbing up
a custom attachment for second mower on right side. Nobody had done that before. Was going to show it at the Grange Fair.
Never got to it, all got sold when I got sick. Sigh.

if you look carefully at left side of seat, note the lumbar control knob. Excessively large seat for little tractor but my is it comfortable. Genuinely orthopedic, still bouncy due to lack
of suspension but when I sit in that seat, I just go ahhhh. Truly an old friend of the mechanical kind.
pretty sure I special ordered that seat at TSC a dozen years ago. Never seen one since. I believe it's extra thick Sunbrella, nice to not have vinyl underneath. Of course for a little more padding, that towel always helped.

 

[Thomas]

61F cloudy near 80F for high,much needed rain after noon into evening

Outside chores done E muffin time.
Plans for today...Finish trimming main lawn and bank than fingers cross have mowing done before 11am or so,that's when heavy rains arriving not much after that until date night...guess I better shag butt head out.

Enjoy your day all.

 

[m7040]

Nice weather this morning 69F. Today installing a new yard light at the barn that will help light up the area in front of the barn. Also installing an electrical breaker panel in order to add two minisplit systems. I am behind on stacking firewood. Plan to work on stacking a little every day. The pile of 10 cords of firewood looks huge but eventually I will get it stacked. With the oil prices up I will likely burn more firewood this winter. The basement furnace is dual fuel so burning wood will save on expensive oil fuel fill ups

 

[RoyJackson]

It came from Amazon

Amazon.com : people skills tshirt

 

[m7040]

I looked at adding a standby generator from time to time but have not been able to justify it. The reliability of the power supply has improved. The utility company is more progressive with tree trimming and repairs. Used to have several outages each year but now it is very seldom and they don't last long. When we lived in Texas we went through a hurricane where we were without power for more than a week and being without AC in Texas is brutal.
Used to have a trailer mounted Lincoln welder that also could serve as a generator and I used it on several occasions. But that Deutz Diesel engine was extremely loud.
PTO generators are less expensive and easy to use but it sits for long periods of time and I am worried about storage and moisture etc

 

[RoyJackson]

2022-08-26, 0753

60 degrees right now...windows and deck door are open...feels great!! Also, like Thomas, we're looking at some heavy rain...I hope it's a good soaker since we really need it.
Working from home today...typical for a Friday or a Monday. I have a project to do as a continuation of the audit finding I'd written about previously. I'd be done by now if I was any good at typing.
Got a call from a tree trimmer I had contacted...to cut down that fallen tree I posted about a day or so ago. He wanted $850, but that would include dropping the tree, sectioning the trunk and chipping. All I want is the tree dropped. My neighbors and I can do all the rest...I can chip the smaller stuff (6" or less), my neighbor will want anything larger to burn at his camp site (for lack of a better description). Anyway, I'd written my other neighbor's son is a logger. If he's comfortable with using a chainsaw on a ladder, I'll pay him a couple hundred bucks.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning.
68 on its way to 90 today.

Yesterday’s trip was actually fun, went quickly, I was home for lunch, mostly because of commuting with the little plane.

After lunch, I removed the loader and put on the 3pt finish mower to mow inside the small pastures. I have mentioned in the past how easily the loader comes off with the multiport hydraulic QC, so out of curiosity, I started a stop watch when I opened the cab door to start up the tractor, and stopped it when the loader was disconnected, and the tractor was ready to back out.

Less than two minutes. And a lot of that is walking around the tractor to put the legs down, and again to pull the pins.

The connector is the huge timesaver.

Today will start off getting some propane tanks filled, and picking up a pilot and some teeth for a well worn, but free 12” auger a friend dropped off yesterday. He sold his business and is cleaning up his yard.

Going to run some errands afterwards, looks like it we are going to play music tonight.

Wife is continuing to do well, life is good!