Good Morning!!!! 72F @ 8:30AM. Partly cloudy skies. High 93F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
Wind is still just a light breeze around 5 MPH, and has been switching between north and southwest as if it can't make up its mind. AQI is way over 300, so lots of smoke coming down from the north. Not much chance it's going anywhere but worse. Dixie has passed 635,000 acres as of this morning, and that number will likely make a big jump if the forecast winds materialize. Power went off at about 6:30 last night, and will probably stay that way until sometime tomorrow. Laying low on electricity use as the smoke has cut solar panel production to about 1/4 of normal.
That M5 has what, maybe a year left on the warranty, Drew? BMW is famous for its "Lubed for Life" maintenance schedules, which will pose no problems during the warranty period but leave owners with big bills when things like automatic transmissions sludge up and start popping out of gear. The 5 series I had spent a lot of time at the dealership having things replaced under the Certified Pre Owned warranty, and it was an expensive car to own that I've regretted almost since the day I drove it home. What kind of delivery date are the dealers quoting on new tractors? Would it even get to you in time for spring planting? You may not be able to find anything used locally, but trucking a tractor doesn't cost very much compared to the purchase price, and that might open up a whole lot of possibilities for you.
That was a lot of lumber going up in smoke at today's prices, Paul. But I bet you had fun with the forks.

I had a 4in1 bucket on the old tractor, and always wished I had a grapple. Now I have a grapple and no 4in1, and miss it sometimes, but not as much as I missed the grapple before.
Needed a change of pace yesterday so tackled the drive shaft boot on the red bike. Decided to take it apart again to see if I could figure out what was wrong. The rubber is supposed to have words on it so you can properly orient it on installation, but I found none the first time around. After I had it apart and cleaned up, I got out some magnifiers and in strong light found what was left of the marks. This is a new part, but the mould it came from was either filthy when it was cast or the letters had worn off, because the letters were so faint they were barely visible. Properly oriented, the boot slipped into position after only a couple of tries and the rest of the reassembly went off with no further issues. I would love to go for a test ride today, but not in this foul air.
Happy Hump Day, folks!