Good morning!!!!

[rswyan]

40F and cloudy @ 11:30, headed up to a high of only 42F. Not calling for any rain.

Given that, I see a possible trip over to the neighbors with the Kubota and pallet forks to collect that stove and possibly the couch.

Will probably refill feeders today as well and continue on with roost box, basement cleanup.

Other than that, I suspect The Woman will be making a trip to do some grocery shopping for Turkey Day.

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

 

[PJSprog]

32°F and foggy under clear skies this morning, going up to 52° today. Looks like we're done with the "mild" weather.

Rained pretty much all day Saturday, washing out any outside chores. Took the Wife's acoustic guitar to a little shop in Webster Groves MO to get some repair work done. A couple years ago, it somehow managed to acquire a hole in the side just below the neck. We're pretty sure the boy's saxophone stand getting knocked off of a shelf was the culprit, but all inquiries at the time ended with shrugging shoulders and "I don't know." It's been hanging on my studio wall since, so we decided it was time to get it fixed. I'd asked a friend who does repair work about it back when it happened, and he just never got back to me with a reply. Saturday morning I sent a message via Facebook to the shop in Webster Groves, and got a reply in about five minutes. So, I drove it over there in the late morning. I don't hate being in that place, as it's all acoustic string instruments, but there's no parking to speak of, so I had to walk a few blocks. I made a few stops on the way home to pick up some things for The Wife. She spent the day cleaning floors upstairs and the carpet downstairs, so I retired to my studio to stay out of the way.

Sunday was cold and misty (spitting?) most of the day, so we planned on staying in again. She got a call from the boy's landlord about the rent being past due again, so she went into town to give them a stern talking to. She ended up staying over there most of the day cleaning their kitchen, which she said looked like two young guys have been living there. She made him clean the rest of the house.

 

[toppop52]

.22” of rain from the front, now it’s bright and sunny with winds gusting to near 30 mph.
Got the trash together and disposed of the last mums and asters. The pansies just don’t look as nice this year for some reason. Might replace the mum’s with decorative cabbages if I can find some I like.
Dog has the zoomies so I’d better let her out to run for a bit.

 

[rswyan]

Ron,

Beautiful picture of the mourning dove ... :thumbsup:

Hope your day goes well ...

Jim,

Glad to hear your nephew is doing better ... :thumbsup:

With any luck by this summer the virus will be under control. Then will be the time for visits to friends and family, for cook outs and dinner parties and we will be lucky if it doesn't wear us out. Till then we got to stay strong.

Chris

Here's hoping ... :thumbsup:

 

[kenmbz]

Good morning all, 35 going up to 51 and windy/sunny/cloudy
Got leaves off of main road drain and cleared out my runout to drain. Town does not seem to maintain this anymore.
Got some of the larger potholes in our shared road filled. 50 lb sack does not go far-used 4 of them and still have plenty of dips and holes.
Got some lights wired up for the holidays. Was really worn out by last night.
Supposed to have the whole week off, but big projects at day job means still working 4 hours or so a day.

Stay safe and be well.

 

[rswyan]

The more I think about it, less likely I am to make the trek to brother's home in VA for Thanksgiving.

Probably a wise move ... :thumbsup:

RS, what bird is coming to roost? I built one of those roosting boxes while in NC, and no one came but spiders. I might not have installed
it at the right height. Mine even had two small picture windows on each end...might have made it too fancy.

It's meant for (smaller) cavity-nesting birds - titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, bluebirds (if any are still around), house wrens, small woodpeckers - so the entry hole will necessarily be small and towards the bottom to preserve heat inside.

It will have a couple of 1/4 dowels running end to end to serve as perches.

And a predator guard (Noel Guard) around the entrance hole made of hardware cloth to deter critters from using it as a tasty snack station (since it will likely be mounted to the south side of the house, with no other deterrence to keep them away) Might hold up to a dozen or more birds.

We have a good bit of standing dead wood here with lots of holes/cavities drilled into them which I imagine are being used as nests. Invariably, they eventually fall down ... leaving the birds occupying them with no refuge in the winter.

 

[rswyan]

Just realized...squirrels and old guys have a lot in common...

That's hilarious ... because it's true ... :thumbsup:

 

[daugen]

based upon your invaluable input, I made version two of the bird feeder, with half the roof hinged. Messed up the
angles so it looks a bit off from the side but it should work. Screws were small so I didn't trust two stainless hinges, went with three.
As has been mentioned, they aren't cheap. So now I have a version to hang from a S hook and a shepherd's pole like a typical bird feeder or a fixed mount
version that gets attached to wood or something solid. Wondering if wind could catch the hinged side, perhaps I need a hook and eye or something similar.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

57 and sprinkles, going down from here. Just went out and checked the rain gauge...only .03" so far.

Great poster, Roy...that was me yesterday.

Eric, can you bury pets? Why do farm animals have to be rendered instead of buried? I know some farmers here that don't bury, but drag them into the woods for the vultures and other animals to eat. Is that illegal, too?

Thomas, I know what you mean about going through wildlife pics...I've been having to go through mine and delete many since my HD is getting full on this old hand-me-down laptop. Windows even did a pop-up that asked me if I wanted it to delete old versions of Windows since my storage is getting low. Heck yea. Now I have to figure how to delete the old version of Chrome that's on here since I never use it.

5 TB external drive at Costco under $100. Don’t worry about space

 

[pennwalk]

5 TB external drive at Costco under $100. Don’t worry about space
But it will take days to back that thing up. :laughing:

Chris

 

[sodamo]

And version Three - piano hinge hidden between panels , maybe a nice plastic covering to deflect the rain.

 

[sodamo]

Interesting morning twist. Wife decided to wash a couple of afghans. Of course the load became off balanced and walked the washer off the stand. Me not being quick enough to recover it fell completely forward, held at angle by the hoses.
The water valve didn’t survive

Both actuators broke. Nice watery mess to clean up.
Replacement on order from Amazon. Back when we had an in town Sears Parts place likely they had in stock.

 

[sodamo]

Drew, sorry you are likely to change your TDay plans, but likely for the best.

Wife invited Brother and his GF over, but she was doing a turkey herself . So just the 2 of us and the furry kids.

High hopes the vaccines make 2021 a far better year.

Would love to see something like a National Corvid Vaccine roll out event say Dec 12. Trump, Pence, Biden, Harris, spouses and a few other high vis types at a White House press event getting the 1st shots with simultaneous events all 50 states with Governors and major city mayors leading the way. Those few hundred shots would set the example.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

based upon your invaluable input, I made version two of the bird feeder, with half the roof hinged. Messed up the
angles so it looks a bit off from the side but it should work. Screws were small so I didn't trust two stainless hinges, went with three.
As has been mentioned, they aren't cheap. So now I have a version to hang from a S hook and a shepherd's pole like a typical bird feeder or a fixed mount
version that gets attached to wood or something solid. Wondering if wind could catch the hinged side, perhaps I need a hook and eye or something similar.

I can imagine how pleased a squirrel would be to find no hook on the lid/roof, Drew.

Also, I wonder if you've considered cutting dados into the sides so that a sheet of plastic or glass can be slid into them, allowing you to put a lot more feed inside the feeder?

As far as the leaky roof concern goes, If you put the hinges on like is used on the door of a house, then put a thin piece of foam weather stripping so it runs over the leaves of the hinges, you'd only see the round end of the hinges where the pin goes, and the foam would keep the water out of the feeder. And like the house door, you can use your new router to inlet the hinges so that they're flush with the surface of the roof wood. Mind you, this is all just armchair quarterbacking; I've never made a bird feeder in my life!:laughing:

 

[Thomas]

Interesting morning twist. Wife decided to wash a couple of afghans. Of course the load became off balanced and walked the washer off the stand. Me not being quick enough to recover it fell completely forward, held at angle by the hoses.
The water valve didn’t survive
View attachment 677545
Both actuators broke. Nice watery mess to clean up.
Replacement on order from Amazon. Back when we had an in town Sears Parts place likely they had in stock.

Glad you hadn't gone outside for while when problem happen...whew,years back our wash machine also had actuator thread break which cause lot water to flow freely about half hour thank goodness we had floor drain.

 

[sodamo]

Glad you hadn't gone outside for while when problem happen...whew,years back our wash machine also had actuator thread break which cause lot water to flow freely about half hour thank goodness we had floor drain.

Thankful indeed Thomas. Remarked to wife I wonder why plumber didn’t put in a floor drain. I would have.

 

[sodamo]

I can imagine how pleased a squirrel would be to find no hook on the lid/roof, Drew.

Also, I wonder if you've considered cutting dados into the sides so that a sheet of plastic or glass can be slid into them, allowing you to put a lot more feed inside the feeder?

As far as the leaky roof concern goes, If you put the hinges on like is used on the door of a house, then put a thin piece of foam weather stripping so it runs over the leaves of the hinges, you'd only see the round end of the hinges where the pin goes, and the foam would keep the water out of the feeder. And like the house door, you can use your new router to inlet the hinges so that they're flush with the surface of the roof wood. Mind you, this is all just armchair quarterbacking; I've never made a bird feeder in my life!:laughing:

Aren’t we good with ideas for Drew !!!!!
Your roof hinge idea was explained better than mine . In Drew’s pic I was wondering how much rain in the top joint.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Well I tried to call my sister yesterday afternoon and wasn't able to reach even her voice mail so of course I feared the worst but this morning I got through to her and she said her son is showing signs of improving. His temperature is down some and he was able to eat a little and got some rest last night. The only thing I can think of is the power of prayer.I told my sister about all of you offering your prayers and good thoughts and she said to offer her sincere gratitude.
This is sure a strange disease the way it is so devastating to some and not so bad for others. I would have thought that if anyone was doomed it would have been my nephew but so far he seems to be weathering it. I guess we just don't know.

Pray he keeps improving!!

 

[toppop52]

Interesting morning twist. Wife decided to wash a couple of afghans. Of course the load became off balanced and walked the washer off the stand. Me not being quick enough to recover it fell completely forward, held at angle by the hoses.
The water valve didn’t survive
View attachment 677545
Both actuators broke. Nice watery mess to clean up.
Replacement on order from Amazon. Back when we had an in town Sears Parts place likely they had in stock.

That’s a mess! I’ve wondered myself why laundry rooms don’t have drains, mine is because I wasn’t smart enough to think of it when we built the house.
The bases on ours has thumb screws in opposite corners that let you reach in the drawer and screw them into the mounts provided on the washer and drier where the adjusters go if it sat on the floor. The bases have adjusters to level it, if it doesn’t “self adjust” properly. Mine are Maytag units about 10 years old.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Jim, glad to hear about improvement. More prayers. And for all covid patients.

Kyle, the law changed here a few years ago, we can no longer bury farm animals, they all have to go to rendering plants. "Old" for a tup is anything over 4 years, servicing an average of 40 ewes in a flock and then the same again with another flock must take it's toll.

My friend who owns the tups, which come here for a couple of months each year, picked the old guy up yesterday. Sheep are not at all spooked when one of their own kind dies naturally. I took this picture while I was waiting for his landrover to appear, only one is deceased, yet it is difficult to tell which one. If you want a clue to narrow it down - it is not one of those that are standing.

80 ewes in how much time??? Whew. Talk about dying doing something you love....

I'll bet your fingers are ready for a rest from the bricks too.


Mostly, yes I know about the small pin to clock the rings. And that the keystone ring goes into the top groove, with the stampings up. RNG, my buddy who gave it to me said to just put an oversize ring in it and trim the end gap....But I'm the one having to push start it.....so I'm going to put a correct fitting piston in it. I found a Yamaha piston on ebay. New old stock. Now need rings. So about $95 to get it a bit closer to good. May have to hone cylinder when I get piston in and measure it.

FINALLY! Scroll compressor at work is going, had to wait forever to get correct small pulley. It came in last week, but had to get some special metric bolts to help pull/put it back on. It was really tight on a shaft about 2" diameter. Anyway, I got the grooves cleaned with paint thinner, and then isopropyl alcohol. Only been a super long time since it was down. I scribbled on the side with a sharpie, new belt, small pulley, new hoses, cleaned radiator. 12,723 hours.

LOL, the 2hp dayton motor on my home SpeedAire just quit running some time ago. I had a large 1 hp dayton motor to put on it, and it works like a charm, with zero struggle to turn on. But just these 2 last weeks, a buddy and me took the 2hp apart at work, and it had mud dauber nests in it (they were horrible in the Lady's garage I got it from), and we gently cleaned it out. I put a used bearing I had handy on one end of it. Sure is nice having a machine shop at your disposal to sand bearing races on shafts and such. Now that motor needs a fresh rubber 3 wire service about a foot long.

PJ, hope your wife's guitar gets fixed, as well as her son's timeliness. A rainy Saturday sounds like a good time to visit an acoustic guitar shop.

Beautiful picture Ron, prayers for your son.

Prayers for Buppies, Bird , Margaret, and all our crew.....and for our Country.

Decided to do some shredding last night, because it was so nice outside. Upper 60's, light north wind. Got about 2 acres done, and filled some chug holes in our road.

I hope to work on Steiner "Beast" tomorrow.

RICK, where are you?