Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[Lou66]

Ron nice pictures.. Orchids are my favorite flower.. next to roses.. Cause I can grow them,, roses that is.. Lou

 

[pacerron]

Ron[/B], that is a nice bird feeder, we like to feed them too.:thumbsup: I just got home with some 1"x6" cedar to make a couple small bird house. Maybe I can get the wrens to build there and not on my tractor.

Western,
The feeder is about 12 years old as you can see by the growth of the tree.
Young Deer stand with their front feet on it at night but have never knocked it over.
I made the pole from 2 pieces of treated porch spindle railing. That way it is hollow and the cord that
keeps the feed loading knob on top secure comes out the side of the pole below the feeder.
Looks like it could stand some stain this summer.
I'll have to sneak that on my wife's TODO list.

 

[farmgirl19]

Brandi, my work truck is an 09 flatbed (1 ton) Only time I've checked the mileage was last summer on the Colorado, New Mexico trip. iirc, I only got around 12mpg pulling about 10-11,000# haulmark car hauler (28', what I have my equipment in. Hard to be any where accurate because the paint load in the flatbed varies from 1-3500#

The other one we just got in 1st of the year 2014 3/4 ton. This will be my 1st one with the stupid exhaust fluid.

I get 18mpg with both of my rigs in the Spring and Fall. I get 14-15 in the summer, with the 7.3, but that is because it gets to sit idling a lot, with the A/C going. In the winter, it will average 13-15, due to the crappy winter blend fuel. I keep a running total of my mileage, with every fuel up. Winter, pulling a heavy trailer, 12 is about as good as it gets.

The gas engine, it gets 18, almost no matter what, but it doesn't sit and idle much.

And jinman; I couldn't agree more about them being paid off making them the best! One reason I drive older stuff. I HATE payments!

 

[Bird]

The very best truck is the one sitting in your driveway with no payments. Paid for pretty much trumps everything.

Yep, I didn't learn that early enough in life, but I did finally learn. We have an '02 Ford Crown Vic with about 75k miles on it, and an '01 Ford Ranger with 104k miles on it, but I do spend the money to keep them up so everything works just as it did when they were new and they serve our purpose just as well as new vehicles would.

 

[ronjhall]

I agree on paid off. Making payments on a 30 mpg car does not make sense.

 

[jinman]

When I was in my 30s, I bought two Japaneses vehicles (one car/one truck). Quite by accident, those vehicles were so good that I got them paid for. Suddenly, my bank account started to grow and I had money for things like never before. Being able to carry only liability insurance and also doing regular maintenance are two things that seem to be small, but add up quickly. Quality Japanese cars made that possible for me. Perhaps there was an American car/truck that could do the same in the early '80s, but I didn't know about them.These days, we have may good quality American and Foreign cars that are very dependable.

 

[blueriver]

It had been a hard winter ...

 

[blueriver]

It had been a hard winter ...

Correction .. It HAS been a hard winter

 

[Lou66]

I have had three new trucks in my life.. 71 ford, 88 ford and 2003 ford,, the reason for ford,, they had the best price at the time.. the first two had the 6 cyl. 300 cu. in. with 5 speed standard,, 03 in 6.0 diesel auto.. I like to buy a new one ever 15 to 20 years needing it or not.. I have never had a major problem with any of them.. but I do the service work myself..Lou

 

[bindian]

I already know that I can tow better than a Cummins. My mom has the Cummins, and I have her beat, with both of my rigs, be it the 7.3L Powerstroke, or the gas inline 6. Don't forget, what is under the hood is a big part of the package, but there is a rear end involved too! :stirthepot:

FG,
I wasn't planning on mentioning anything about my rear end.:laughing:
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

Brandi, my work truck is an 09 flatbed (1 ton) Only time I've checked the mileage was last summer on the Colorado, New Mexico trip. iirc, I only got around 12mpg pulling about 10-11,000# haulmark car hauler (28', what I have my equipment in. Hard to be any where accurate because the paint load in the flatbed varies from 1-3500#

The other one we just got in 1st of the year 2014 3/4 ton. This will be my 1st one with the stupid exhaust fluid.

Stupid exhaust fluid. The new Cummins use it also, I am told.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

I meant that in the kindest way.

Charlie

Charlie,
:laughing::laughing::laughing:
Yeah, I realized that.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

The very best truck is the one sitting in your driveway with no payments. Paid for pretty much trumps everything.

Well then..............I have a truck trump. Next month I'll have a tractor trump. Then I probably get stupid and buy something else.:ashamed: then
hugs, Brandi

 

[Western]

Stupid exhaust fluid. The new Cummins use it also, I am told.

hugs, Brandi

Yeah, that is what I was hearing too. Allot of guys on several truck forums disable it, or just cuss it. IDK yet, supposed to be high dollar stuff though. BTW, if your "rea rend" is geared right, nothing to worry about I remember in the 80"s, Rocky jeans did allot of good work in that department:shocked:

 

[bindian]

Yeah, that is what I was hearing too. Allot of guys on several truck forums disable it, or just cuss it. IDK yet, supposed to be high dollar stuff though. BTW, if your "rea rend" is geared right, nothing to worry about I remember in the 80"s, Rocky jeans did allot of good work in that department:shocked:

Dennis,
I have some awesome white Rocky Jeans waiting for me to slim down and wear. I loved Cruel Girl jeans when the higher waisted jeans were in fashion. Now all they have is below the waist......................which I do not like.
My truck has the next higher rear end gears from the lowest. I haven't felt I needed lower gears.................yet. But I might if I played tug-a-war with your Duramax and FG's Power Stroke at the same time.
hugs, Brandi

 

[two_bit_score]

Dennis,
I have some awesome white Rocky Jeans waiting for me to slim down and wear. I loved Cruel Girl jeans when the higher waisted jeans were in fashion. Now all they have is below the waist......................which I do not like.
My truck has the next higher rear end gears from the lowest. I haven't felt I needed lower gears.................yet. But I might if I played tug-a-war with your Duramax and FG's Power Stroke at the same time.
hugs, Brandi

Nothing in women's fashion has been as much appreciated by men as Rockies.

 

[jinman]

My-oh-my, what a warm day. We started below freezing and ended up near 80 F. It is so warm that we had to close our upstairs door because our fireplace is reverse flowing and stinking up the house.

My neighbor called to see if we had a fire because there was smoke in the woods. I suspect somebody burning cleared brush, but don't know for sure.

My wife and I took a Mule ride this afternoon and saw thousands of deer tracks. I think the does are coming early and the big bucks are coming late at night. There are small, medium, and huge tracks everywhere.

 

[blueriver]

It truly was a beautiful day .. I just rented another 80 acres .. Went over today to "explore" and stuck the 4x4 f-250 .. While walking to the road to meet Cher so she could pick me up to get the tractor .. Deer tracks all over !!!

 

[farmgirl19]

My-oh-my, what a warm day. We started below freezing and ended up near 80 F. It is so warm that we had to close our upstairs door because our fireplace is reverse flowing and stinking up the house.

My neighbor called to see if we had a fire because there was smoke in the woods. I suspect somebody burning cleared brush, but don't know for sure.

My wife and I took a Mule ride this afternoon and saw thousands of deer tracks. I think the does are coming early and the big bucks are coming late at night. There are small, medium, and huge tracks everywhere.

Jest a few counties makes a HUGE difference! I started the day at 39*, and it is still 81* (I think 86* was the high), but now that the sun has set, temps are falling.

I don't need to see tracks to know what is in full breeding season around here. I'll be glad when the skinks finish their mating season! Usually, it begins the last half of January, and goes thru Feb. With this year's screwy weather, they seem to have gotten a late start, so I hope they don't continue thru March! I shoot all that I see, but not if they are too close to the house!

If this weather holds thru the week, I'll be mowing weeds and winter grass in my lawn, this weekend! I'll bet I am looking for some Tylenol after pushing that mower for the first time in a few months! :confused2:

 

[lostcreekranch]

Drove down to Brownsville yesterday, returning this afternoon. We launched hull for new Jackup rig at shipyard this morning.

Most of drive was on Highway 77 and was amazed at all the planted crops greening up the "valley".