Good morning!!!!

[Popgadget]

Good Morning
68 going to 80
Chance of rain throughout the day, becoming a certainty with flood watch tonight. It’s about time.

I slept in yesterday, first chore of the day was to unload the smoker and shred the pork. We had a nice lunch with a combination of friends and family and lots of fruit and salads to go with the pork.

Packed up all the left overs, then cleaned up the smoker and put away the utensils and controls, it’s all ready for the next go.

After letting lunch digest, youngest son and I went out to address wife’s complaint that she couldn’t open a lot of the older gates. They were all a pretty easy fix, all just tweaking hinges to compensate for leaning posts. Same for latches, I’ve gone to all chains and bucket hooks for gate latches, they never get out of adjustment. Last task was to mow the aisles between pastures with the Lazer.

Then Erica reminded me that the gas points at the grocery store expired tomorrow. Her car was full, my Prius was half full and only holds 10 gallons, so I emptied the cans filling the Lazer and CarryAll. Between the Prius and 3 Jerry cans, I was able to get the maximum allowed 20 gallons at .40 off bringing it to $3.49.

Some fresh corn and chicken salad for dinner, then put my feet up.

Drew is coming by this morning to get containers of pork for himself and Ken. Not much else planned, but I’m sure at least one meal will include pork…..

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Looks cloudy out and rain to the west.
Woke with a tickle cough, hope that’s all it is.
Jets been flying around all weekend, guess the big guy is on the mountain.
Oldest son called rather late last night and talked till after midnight. He forgets about the time zone change. He found out the girl he’s had a few dates with has a CC. Her dad is ex marine and now retired police. She’s a nurse. They were supposed to go to a lake today, but might have to change plans due to rain.

Hope rain holds off for our guests today.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Yesterday’s meeting with solar contractor was interesting. Looks like we could put about a megawatt of panels on the hangar roofs. That is a lot more than the airport uses, it would generate a considerable income stream.

A friend sent us ribs from Snow’s BBQ in Livingston, TX, they arrived via Next Day Air, vacuum packed and frozen. We followed their instructions for thawing and reheating, had them for dinner last night, they were quite good. They were done very similar to how I do mine. Curious thing about BBQ, it’s regional, and every pitmaster puts their own spin on how they prep and smoke the meat. Over the years, I have figured out what I like and how to get that result, so of course I like mine the best. Not because it’s inherently better, it’s just that it’s exactly the way I like it. I still enjoy sampling other’s work, and have traveled enough to try a wide variety, often finding great BBQ in unlikely places, like Groton, CT.

That would be Lexington Texas. I go to church where Tootsie goes to church. She also works for the schools for decades now. I've actually never been able to eat there. We planned on stopping one weekend travelling thru, and they were closed. And I've wondered how BBQ "travels" after being frozen and such.

I haven't been researching solar panels lately. It seemed that it was a really long payoff to install them if you have no government subsidies...

So continuing the transportation story: The Volvo lasted until we adopted several kids and then it was changed to a full size sedan. When the family added a sibling group of 3 more kids we changed to 15 passenger van. And when more kids arrived we went to a large motorhome that could house the 4 kids in diapers and 5 older kids. When camping we towed the van after the motorhome to be able to easily leave the campsite for local trips And then it went to motorhome, van and utility trailer in tow to get all the gear with us to the beach in Galveston TX. It was a wagon train and amazingly we never got stopped by police. I was aways careful not to end up on a dead end street. Turning around was a major PITA

Great story!
Look what just got towed to Galveston:

I'm actually quite excited about this. I took the family there a few years back and we spent a couple hours on board.

Interesting drive today.

Went over to WV and did some exploring for land. Just a gorgeous nice day.
We passed what appeared to be a good local restaurant before we got to town. Looked good by the number of cars there.
We pull into town, wife wanted to eat before looking at the lot but I missed seeing a place I had in mind. Has food lion and a TSC. We stopped at DQ for restroom break, and I decided to go back and check out that little restaurant.
We walk in, all tables taken, small place, 5 tables and a few bar stools. Nice inside.
Couple guys and a woman sitting at a table said they were about done, we could join them. 3 of them, 5 chairs at a round table. The lady works there, she got up and went back to kitchen area. We’re sitting there chatting with these 2 guys, they were just as friendly as could be. One first guy retired there from MD about 10 yrs ago, his wife waitresses at the place, they came for lunch and shoot the breeze, the other was his neighbor, who had also lived in MD at one time before moving here while in HS. The first guy said he bought his land, dug well and put in septic, and camped on his land for years before retiring and building a house. They have lots of advice, recommended well drillers, real estate people etc. then another friend of theirs came in and sate with us and chatted some more. The first 2 left when our food came, we chatted with this other guy until some of his buddies came in and he joined them.
Great food. Homemade everything. Everyone we meet as friendly as can be.
We eventually made it to the lot we went to see
Beautiful with minimal restrictions.
This 5.6 acre lot is almost perfectly flat on top.
North view

East view

SE view

S view

West view, pear trees on another lot


There’s a big old tank, I’m guessing once used as a water tank on this lot, with old building beside it.
View attachment 760811

It is priced for the view, at least double other lots it’s size
What’s weird is the lots developed in 1986, has over 30 lots, this 2nd largest. Most 2-3 acres.
There are only 2 houses, 1 looks like original farm house. There are 5-6 lots currently for sale. Homeowners responsible for road maintenance, most roads in development have no gravel but are cleared nice. Main Road is in good shape.

One of the no gravel roads.


Decisions decisions. A bit steep in price. Only the 1 lot has the views. Most are down in the woods around this one.

2 miles out of town. Less than 3 miles from food lion, TSC and the county hospital. all roads paved until this development.

Looks really nice from here. I'm wondering how they got that "ark of a tank" up on the hill? Used as a cistern? Maybe there's a good story behind it. I've seen old mining equipment left behind from centuries past. Maybe give it some time to double think it's potential or need if a well won't give a high flowrate? Maybe use it as a lever to get the owner to knock a bit off of the price for removal?

Good evening all. 70ºF for the start, overcast, light breeze, .5 inch in rain gauge. Light wind, variable cloudiness, and high temp was 86ºF, HI 95ºF. 10 day went from 9 day rain to no days with rain to 2 days with rain in 2 days. Temps forecast from mid 80's to low 90's for highs. Today is our 45 anniversary, wife and I got off to slow start . Got bike ride in while she napped. Got nap in after lubing chain on Volagi. Went to Sherman, got new rear wheel for Peugeot, Dinner at restaurant if wife's choice, then hit bookstore and bought gas for 3.089 per gallon!

Happy Anniversary Mostly and wifey! Prayers for many more. And thank you for the prayers. Gas is cheaper there than down here in oil country.

My new neighbor has decided to cut down all the trees and shrubs that created a privacy fence between us and then he texted me if it I would mind after he did it. What would you do? interesting in your suggestions?

?Make a visual nuisance of yourself, while just staying barely legal? We are fortunate in that our land is shaped from being a bigger parcel that got a couple of corners sold off, so our closest neighbors (2) are surrounded on 2 sides by our property. I had to mention to one of our previous neighbors who was a rowdy redneck, that I'd been thinking of raising hogs on 2 sides of his place. He soon changed his mind about what idiotic idea he had that day.

I had autocad. Then they locked it because they no longer supported it. I don’t want support, I just want to use the software I bought.

I had microstation before, bought it when I taught it as a college class. It was dos based. I still got the floppies. Thought about trying to install on a VM, but a lot of work.

Turbo cad has LTE version that is similar to autocad.

Autodesk frustrates me. They came out with Fusion, and offered it for free to "hobbyist" who did not use it commercially. You might still get some sort of working lowly version free for some time... Then they decided to start charging for it, and limiting it's abilities based on what level you payed. Now at my new job, we can get it for free and they set it up to where you have to put in your password and login manually each time you open it (chrome can't remember it for you) and then it also sends you a "push code" on your phone punch in, to finally get in. It is still not rated ITAR safe due to storage on a cloud AFAIK.

Wifey made me some yummy coffee. Decaf pecan with chocolate and a shot of milk. Sounds busy, but I wasn't in the Navy and can't drink it black.

I miss and worry about Eric too. He didn't leave any clues about leaving did he? At least Ron told us he was fed up with the alligator rules. It does take time to keep up here, but almost every day there is knowledge transferred that is usually pound wise and not penny foolish, and the friendships created are good.

It makes me stop and think about the how's and why's of people that are ill and their quietness about such. How some people can be sick and you never would know it until you see their obituary, and how some will socially document their fight against their disease until they can't any longer. I like the latter. What does the privacy gain such? Are their affairs money/trust/will related and they need to not let a peep out? Do they just not like the attention? I pray for the sick.

Don got the rain that I saw coming from the north, but it dispersed like the day before and we got none. Still have cracks in the ground. 69F going to 90's. No breeze as he said.

 

[m7040]

Rained a little this morning. Looks like more rain on the way. Picked up several small bush piles yesterday and brought them down to some place in the tree plantings that I use for this. Will rot down over time.
Our daughter informed us about her promotion to GS 14 pay grade. She is getting ready for hip replacement surgery in October
I am trying to get motivated to stack firewood. Running out of places to stack it and I don't want to cover up already aged wood with newer splits.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

YES, College football is back!
I got invited (and went) to watch the Fighting Texas Aggies play Sam Houston State. Sam Houston has been a perennial contender for the national championship in their league, so they are no slouch.

Yes, we stuck it out through the 3 hour lightning delay by getting under an overhanging area at the top of the stands. Moved close to the 35 yard line after 80% of the crowd gave up and left.

It took the Aggies time to figure out Sam's D stunting so much, but after a long day, we won 0-31, once they realized they could pass their way over the D.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

We've had some family drama caused by an external source in the last week. My daughter had broken up with a guy back in late June/July and he's not been taking it so well. He actually sent a threatening text (via a friend of his) to my daughter. He threated her and my wife. We have the text, and have seen the proof of texting between him and his friend.

He's 16 a minor, and has a good family but they have been overprotective of him. I told the father, "If my son had done what your son did, I WOULD BE DRIVING HIM TO THE SHERIFF'S DEPT MYSELF!" The mama is the most protective of her son. IMO, the kid needs help, is unstable, and has caused trouble at school too.

We are weighing our options to press charges, get a protective order, or what. I'm worried the kid will take a gun to school, and I have told his dad, the sheriff's, and the school's principal and resource officer (who is a friend of mine).

My faith is what is causing my inner turmoil about pressing charges.

Not the kind of story I would like to be posting.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

On top of that,
We found our oldest, and tamest chicken dead last night. She had led the flock and gave us a lot of eggs over the years. She was 4 1/2 years old. Did not see any signs of a predator getting her. My daughter had named her Butterscotch.

 

[Buppies]

So very sorry to hear of such Kyle very worried for you and your family prayers sent

 

[RoyJackson]

2022-09-05, 0940

60° right now, and raining (drizzling, actually)

Neighbor's son, who's a logger, cut the downed tree into manageable pieces. Too wet to chip though. I'll chip over the next few days, weather permitting. He did a great job though!
Since it is drizzling on and off, outside work will depend on that
So, maybe a couple movies today...

 

[m7040]

Kyle, sorry to hear about the boyfriend troubles.
When we lived in Texas we had 4 kids in grade school and 5 kids in high school at the same time. We had our share of boyfriend issues and conflicts with the schools. With my travel schedule a lot of this fell on my wife Lene to deal with. Not sure how she did it but she became very good at tackling school issues. Even got a principal fired.