Good morning!!!!

[daugen]

some ice cream always seems to be a good way to end the day...
save two licks for the kitties thomas.

have run out of steam. I put a no sugar electrolyte drink in the fridge, orange, though I could not attribute that to anything in a real orange.
I almost always have more energy after drinking one of those drinks and they seem to be reasonably harmless and good for the body.
but I need them cold

 

[KilroyJC]

well I found out what was digging up the stumps in the front yard.
too bad I couldn't get a picture, scared him away when I tried,
but a seriously large red headed woodpecker was mining away yesterday.
Beautiful bird, looked powerful, and I have provided a food source.
That woodpecker is just going to do what woodpeckers do.

I'm off to get more grub control this morning plus a little grocery shopping.
I'm also going to get a hanging suet cake and put it out front to try to give the birds something else to eat.
ordered a case of ten on Amazon and several feeders.

these suet cakes are where the old cows go....really.
is it vegan?
no ma'am
It's a deelicious easy to eat blend of rib sticking energy.
Much better than that stump bird.
pay attention, eat the suet

if you can't fight them, feed them
Full size rabbit in my yard yesterday.
At least not in the garden.

And then a large brown and black cat came in and sat on the bench
right next to the bird feeding area.
Scoot!
I am ignored.
maybe I should be like RS and feed them far away.
last time I put up a suet cake a bear in NC ripped it down.
I do not not not want to attract bears.

and I'm thinking, I'm thinking I'm back...
time to get a bb gun with a scope again.
Two pumps in the rump is a fine message sent.

I don't want to hurt the animal.
what should I feed a rabbit in the rear of my property?
what is a cheap feed? Is there a small critter pellet food?
simple is good. Like corn. Lots of critters like corn.
now what can you put out that would attract a rabbit but not a deer?
Not many deer here after the big cull.
but since folks in municipal building right down the road
paid a lot of bounty out to shoot all those deer, I believe they would take a
dim view of intentional deer feeding.

I've tried putting old lettuce out before on a stump top in back yard.
not much interest
it's like that little rabbit came over and saw me feeding the birds from multiple feeders and on the ground
and he asked what do you have for me?

food or a bb. I'll try food first.

going to pick up the five or ten pound economy bag of carrots. Worst case, I'll be making carrot muffins
for a while.

bb's are for critters that get inside the veggie garden.
after they have eaten two eggplants to the ground.
electric fence now off, tomatoes have grown into it, as intended.

too bad the rabbits can't learn to behave like little weed eaters.
go nibble around all the edges, eat all you want but only the edges.
better than cordless.
smaller than sheep.

sorry this was too long

Imma tellin ya

high cable and pendant feeders.

Mr Bear won’t get at em

 

[jbrumberg]

At what point do we stop buying new tools?

We do not. We are genetically "wired" for tool acquisition; like salmon, eel, and shad returning from the ocean. They do it to spawn; for us it's meeting that primordial drive to "tinker" with "stuff."

 

[KilroyJC]

How did you verify bear she?

Very carefully?

 

[KilroyJC]

Dennis- It amazes me how much “good stuff” people throw away. I am happy to read about your salvaged treasures.

Joel- Thanks for sharing the picture of your property and family.

David- Thanks for sharing the history of your and Sophie's beautiful property.

Bruce- Nice score.

Kilroy- I really enjoy reading about your project and seeing the pictures of your progress.

RonJ- Nice picture of Mr. & Mrs. dining together. Thanks for sharing it. That "pairing" is going on around here as well with the Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, and Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks around here; probably the pairing is going on with the Jays and Mourning Doves as well

Yesterday's/last evening's rain event dropped 1.08" of rain. The high level haze and clouds have been clearing since sunrise with 47ºF as this morning's low temperature. It has been breezy too with 17mph gusts recorded. The current temperature is 52ºF with a mix of clouds and varying degrees of filtered sunshine. I expect the wind to continue with clearing skies and an afternoon high temperature in the upper 60ºF's.

This morning I received an e-mail from the energy collaborative regarding our solar power production and being back in their system. I do not think that I'll be seeing any more electric bills until the next time the power company starts messing with the line voltage.

No real plans for today except enjoying this beautiful day, hopefully capture a couple of pictures of some additional returning birds just seen yesterday, and stir frying up some shrimp with assorted peppers in a garlic-ginger sauce for tonight's dinner.

This "work"week I will get serious about getting the garden going.

I will keep the progress reports coming

 

[KilroyJC]

Good morning, all. Looks like it’s going to be a nice day. Had quite a bit of rain over the last couple of days, so couldn’t get anything done outside. Today, however, it’s a different story. I went and picked up my new dock ramp, and I just have to put a couple of eyelets in and it can be put in the water, attached to my new floater, and then towed over to my main college from the rental property with the Sea-Doo. Can only make about 5 km/h, so it’s kind of a long boring trip. But not as long and boring as going to pick up the old one that someone found 3 miles down the lake!

Lots of fun stuff to do today. I’m going to be putting up the gazebo down on the dock so we can sit and enjoy the lakefront without the bugs.

The renters are safely in scones, and unfortunately, they can’t have a campfire because fire ban us on until at least Wednesday and they leave on Monday. They brought three fishing boats and a small, six horse motor to use on our rowboat, so they’re quite the fisher people!

I made a lifting arm for a friend so he could use his seawall Davit to lift the PWC floating docks without crushing of folding them. Truss arm with hooks5(@5 ligh up with the corner holes, sling ropes go Through “bottom” holes so main body supports he weight, and a central eye on truss to go to Davit cable hook. Much easier that four guys hauling it up with ropes by hand!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

This guy layed down so long he’s petrified.

 

[KilroyJC]

Nice he stopped to talk. When the young man was checking up on me, he wouldn’t even look my way for me to even wave to him. I was hoping he’d stop for a chat.
I’m sure you are doing well for 5 days.

Neighbor is at least in his 70s, possibly 80s, bought his lot in the mid 1970s, so he was checking up on what the Damned Yankees are up to

 

[KilroyJC]

KJC, good to see all that progress and you are having fun.

If it ain’t fun, it ain’t worth doing!

And learning new skills is always a good thing

 

[KilroyJC]

KJC, reminds me of me and my backhoe. Had hired George to do our cesspool. I volunteered to dig the ditch for the pipe. This was my first bh project. When he returned the next morning, he immediately inspected my trench. “ Practice, David, Practice.” Yea, it was that bad. George had an extenda hoe TLB. I’ve watched as he’ll dig a perfectly round hole 14 ft deep and only move the machine twice. Of course George is a bit older than me. Had over 40 years with company when he retired as equipment operator, and that was more than 20 years ago. I think he’s 89, still works every day.

When we had our business (a gem mine) we had an older gentleman who did our excavating. He had worked everything from manual digging to strip mining, and what he could do with a Deere 275 in four hours rivaled what others could accomplish In much larger machines. And he did it all in backhoe, not ISO. Sheer artistry. Still keeps his hand in it, with an 8 ton machine he salvaged and cobbled from a couple damages/derelict units.

 

[kenmbz]

Well, car is still working, concert done and maybe off to drop him at a fair.
Watered various things, cleaned the pool.
Dog is doing a lot better
Went and picked some radishes.

One of the covers the kids did was a Styx song-come sail away.
When I was in high school, my neighbor Tommy get us front row tickets and backstage passes to see them.
While not one of my favorites, how often do you get backstage passes.

We met the band and Tommy introduced me to his friend, who was his girlfriends brother and was a roadie for bands when in town.

It ended up being emotional to hear the kids play that song.

Tommy passed away last year.

A neighbor and a friend, lots of adventures together. I still talk to his older brother and twin sister every now and then.

 

[m7040]

When I grew up and my toolbox was about as big as a lunchbox I rarely had that problem.
After I retired about 12 years ago I made it a habit to buy what I considered "good" handtools I might use whenever I found them on sale.
With 3 sons and daughter that could put in a patio door I always found someplace to "donate" within the family.
But lately I've ran across the same problem.
"Getting the right one" vs one that will do depends on what I figure is the "right one" out of my collection.

My worst conundrum is cutting metal roofing panels for various projects.
I've aviation shears, 40yr old tin snips, electric metal shears, jig saws, band saws, angle grinders with thin blades, circular saws with metal cutting blades, circular saws with regular blades reversed, "nibblers", chisels, reciprocal saws. Or last resort, chain saw . I don't have a plasma cutter yet.
And many of them are stored in different places.

At what point do we stop buying new tools?

I had a tool box like you are talking about and kept it in the back of the Volvo with tools that I could fix anything on the road with.
Bought the tool box at a pawn shop in Compton California down the road from the office that was in a converted Kmart store in Vernon right across from Farmer John slaughter house. Nice "homy" smell
I still have the tool box see below

 

[m7040]

The oil is changed on the RTV on transmission and oil tank and filters as well. One of the drain plugs had bad threads and would not tighten. It was 12 x1.25 thread and fortunately I found one although a little longer in the scrap box. The threads on the tank were OK. This is where the tread gizmos come in handy to find something that will fit

Then the oil quantities listed in the manual are way over what is needed as measured by the dipstick. Had to drain some out which is always interesting process of not loosing the drain plug down the bucket. Those quantities must be fill up from dry and not maintenance quantities

 

[m7040]

That must have been one heck of a year.
That was 2006 for Sophie and cancer free ever since. We are blessed.

I try to remember that like some others, my background may be dated so it might be helpful to repeat if not annoying. I know many others here have shared. I love reading your history as well as the knowledge you share.

Thank you for your comments, Always love to read about what you and Sophie are doing

 

[m7040]

Down here the same but it's call noise pollution law.

I had a trailer mounted Miller 400 amp welder with a Deutsch diesel and it was also a generator. It was extremely loud and used it during power outages. You could hear a mile away I think.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Neighbor is at least in his 70s, possibly 80s, bought his lot in the mid 1970s, so he was checking up on what the Damned Yankees are up to

Same here, my only saving Grace is my wife is from VA. Our one neighbor made it a point to tell us she was born and raised in that county.

 

[Looking4new]

BEF, the civil war has been over for 158 years and all of the people involved in it are dead. How come 'some' people in the 'states are still fighting it?

 

[Wagtail]

Good (Monday) morning. Overnight Low of -0.5C and it's presently 9.5C, overcast and calm. I very much doubt that it'll reach the predicted 17C.

Lovely evening and a good 'sleep-in' to start the day. My main task is to wrap, then mail, some birthday presents for my Brisbane (QLD) Mate... of course, the older we get, the harder it is to find things for each other.

That's about it, take care all.

 

[KilroyJC]

Same here, my only saving Grace is my wife is from VA. Our one neighbor made it a point to tell us she was born and raised in that county.

I tell people that being a Damned Yankee doesn’t automatically mean I am a Dumb Yankee…

 

[KilroyJC]

BEF, the civil war has been over for 158 years and all of the people involved in it are dead. How come 'some' people in the 'states are still fighting it?

Some people are also claiming reparations…