Good morning!!!!

[rswyan]

50F and partly cloudy @ 11:30, looks pretty sunny out there to me. LWS reports the low hit 34.7F here this morning ... but that station is down by the lakes, so it may have been even lower here.

Calling for a high of 56F today but with generally sunny skies later. Winds are currently light, out of the north @ 2 mph. Hope that continues for the rest of the day.

I spent yesterday morning doing more research on materials needed for the barn and putting together a list of that.

Also watched a couple of videos. One was a guy putting up a vapor barrier, which was helpful. He said 8' wide sheeting was probably about as big as he'd want to work with working alone. That's good news, as the space between the trusses is around 8' and the spacing on the ceiling joists will be 4'.

He also recommended using cardboard squares as caps to prevent tearing and pull outs.

Forced myself to go outside even though it was cold, wet, and dreary ... just to acclimate to the cooler temps that are due in the coming days.

Topped off the hydraulic fluid in the Kubota and then ran what was left of the previously screened clay through the screener a second time. I'll need to move the pile of large chucks that came from that today back over to where it will get some sun so it can dry up a little more.

While I was doing that Fedex dropped off the new framing nailer:

Looks to be a fairly nice unit, only 0.1 of a pound heavier (7.4 lbs) than the Porter Cable FR350 it's replacing and includes a hook so it can be hung on rafters while you're working, 5 year warranty from Milwaukee. Only real downside so far, is that didn't include a hard plastic case like the Porter Cable did (Porter Cable no longer does either apparently)

Well, that and I don't remember them being quite as heavy as they seem to be these days ...

Home Depot recently dropped the price on these by $70, which is about how much less it was than the Porter Cable unit ... which made it too tempting to resist.

Got the hopper feeder refilled, also two suet feeders. Lots of customers this morning ...

Saw a momma deer strolling through the back yard yesterday afternoon. Those little buggers headed right into the garden and flower bed ...

I banged on the window and they scattered and headed off to the woods.

Started researching pneumatic staplers when I came back inside for the day, as I figured that the 1/4" Craftsman crown stapler might be a little narrow for holding up the vapor barrier and I didn't want to try and use a manual stapler to set all those staples.

Found out Arrow makes one - the PT50 - which uses the same (wider) T50 staples which we already have a bunch of for our manual staple guns:

It has the bump feature - just depress the trigger and push it against whatever you're trying to staple - which could be handy.

The local Home Depot had one in stock so I placed an order for that. Made the run over there last night to pick it up after The Woman got home.

Oh yeah ...

Today is The Woman's last day @ Fedex (supposedly ... )

Knew that wasn't going to last ...

They asked Her to work this weekend ... and She agreed ...

Agenda for the rest of today:

Might be a good today to ride the Cub once the sun comes back out and try to get caught up with the mowing, as I'm still a little tired from the "big push" the other day.

But before I do that I think I'll head back over to Home Depot.

I noticed last night when I was over there that they had all their trees and shrubs on clearance at 50% off. It looked they had one Tulip Tree left, along with some nice ornamentals, fruit trees and burning bushes. Been wanting one of those Tulip Trees for a while now .

This will, no doubt, get me in "big trouble" ...

Beyond that whatever else comes up.

Hope everyone has a great Saturday ...

 

[PJSprog]

34°F and partly cloudy this morning, going up to 63° today. Was a chilly walk to the barn to feed the chickens.

Wife and I had planned to move stuff from storage today, but that got moved back a couple weekends. We've both been bouncing from odd job to odd job this morning. No real focus, but getting a bunch of little things done. Reads here like that's the in thing right now.

What did you use for range markers, Paul?

Good afternoon, gents.

 

[PJSprog]

Not really a rehearsal, but a fun time.

Sometimes, those sessions are just what the doctor ordered ... relax and have some fun.

 

[PJSprog]

Food was excellent and owner quite personable.

Love finding places like that. We stumbled across one the last time we drove through the Dallas area, a place just off the interstate in Lewisville called Fat Cow BBQ. Great people and excellent food. That's been several years ago, and unfortunately we haven't been back that way since.

 

[KilroyJC]

Good Morning.
45 going to 55 and sunny with a nice breeze.

Yesterday was a nice day as well, a bit warmer, I figured that I would mow. I got the tractor out around 1, figuring that was plenty of time for the ground to dry, but just driving around to the diesel pump, the tires were completely wet. I got a delivery of off road diesel for $4.89 a gallon, it’s going up every day.

So when I went in the shed to turn the pump on, I walked around the PTO generator that hadn’t been run a a few years, so I figured while the tractor was out, I would exercise it. While moving stuff around to get it out, I noticed shredded rags, so I thought I better check the bait box. It was devoid of bait, but full of mouse nest. So I cleaned it out and refilled the bait. Now while I’m in there moving stuff around, I might as well sweep and organize before putting the generator back inside. In the process of cleaning up, I found a target stand that reminded me that I had been meaning to adjust the sights on the Ruger MkII target pistol. When I got that setup, I remembered that I was going to put some distance marks from the backstop a few years ago. So I had to get the long tape measure reel out and do that. I guess the point is that I’m easily distracted, but the Ruger is sighted in, the generator ran on the load tester for a half hour, I’ve got distance markers on the range, but never did mow. The generator did fine, my load tester isn’t big enough for a full load test, but enough to recharge the residual magnetism so I don’t have to flash the field to bring it to life.

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Wasn’t the the day that I planned on, but a productive one nonetheless. I even remembered to load the crockpot to feed the boys. We had a fun get together, just played random stuff from Merle Haggard to Rocky Horror Picture Show’s “Time Warp”. Not really a rehearsal, but a fun time. Did get the grain bins filled, 50lb bags seem heavier today than they did 30 years ago, must be inflation….

Today might get some mowing in, neighbor wants me to help with some electrical work, I have a friend in the hospital waiting for bypass surgery that could use a visit, I would like to go through last night’s session and maybe pull out a sampler to share. Probably another day of ricocheting from one project to the next.

I should run my backup backup generators…. Thank you!

 

[KilroyJC]

UPDATE:

got the track base assembled!

MrsKilroyJC wanted to help, so i handed her two ratchets and set her to snuggling down the nuts&bolts.

she is learning that “mechanic stuff” is harder than it looks

 

[daugen]

just got off hour long phone call with a high school classmate I have not seen since 1967. He was one of my best friends in junior high.
His parents were local dairy farmers, big Swedish looking folks, men with great big barrel chests so they could toss those hay bales around like toys.
My friend was an EE working for navy subcontractors doing defense electronics work, much of which was at Willow Grove and then at air station on Chesapeake.
He retired to Bangor PA, way North of here, 60 miles up in the mountains, wanted affordable home and land.
And now he has multiple mylenoma and just finished his third chemo. Voice was hoarse but it sure sounded like him.
He was so delighted to talk to me, we had truly lost touch with each other.

Might have been tenth grade, 1965 or so when I was having a real problem in Algebra class. It just seemed like a foreign language and I wasn't getting it.
I kept wondering when I would ever actually use my knowledge of what a co-sin was. Later on in life doing mechanical drawing and carpentry, then that math sometimes
came into play, but didn't seem very often to me. Like calculating where a tree will fall. But my friend tutored me for six weeks or so, after school, and I got to see the flow of equations
and why 6+A/Y-2 might actually be useful. On a test.

I can't go see him, he's in a kind of isolation now, low blood counts, but we are going to connect by zoom.
I think I'm going to subscribe so I can just offer him a link to click on. I've had to learn the hosting part for church so
if it's a small fee to join versus driving costs of 30 bucks for gas each time, zoom isn't so bad. He is pretty hoarse so I'm trying to connect
other than just sending pics by email of something to brighten his day. He has farmer genes like I do, his are much deeper, but we were good friends.

He went to the NJ shore with my family in our old Chevy stationwagon, windows down, no air, and it was the first time he had ever been in the ocean. He had never walked on a beach
or swum in the ocean, or felt a big wave pound on his big chest in the water. He would laugh as the water banged into him, it was a force of nature he had never experienced.
It was really fun to watch. We talked about that daytrip to the shore today.

a trip down memory lane I hadn't expected.

multiple mylenoma (sp?)
bilateral adrenal lymphoma & multiple melanomas
lymphatic lymphoma

makes me wonder if the soil is radioactive here............all classmates.
My Mother, Father and Uncle all died of cancer.
they all smoke and drank.
I try to go heavy on the broccoli and the blueberries instead.
And since I have an open bottle of a nice red blend, which I like to cook with,
I might say a toast to an old friend to get to old age with me.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Only in mid 50s , chilly breeze.

Slow start to the day. Did a little quicken work.

Ran out and spent almost $150 to fill truck, get 3 cans gas and 1 can diesel.
Decided to pick up wood pellets. By time I ate, got truck ready and got there they were closed. So ran little bit further into PA and got them there $14 cheaper, but the other place stores them inside and dry, so I usually pay more.
Had to shuffle things in barn. Still haven’t fixed tractor rim, but made sure lugs were tight.

Never got to mow the field.

Pretty day out, but chilly

 

[Thomas]

Only in mid 50s , chilly breeze.

Slow start to the day. Did a little quicken work.

Ran out and spent almost $150 to fill truck, get 3 cans gas and 1 can diesel.
Decided to pick up wood pellets. By time I ate, got truck ready and got there they were closed. So ran little bit further into PA and got them there $14 cheaper, but the other place stores them inside and dry, so I usually pay more.
Had to shuffle things in barn. Still haven’t fixed tractor rim, but made sure lugs were tight.

Never got to mow the field.

Pretty day out, but chilly

Our local gas station was $3.27 and now $3.37...here we go again.

 

[Thomas]

48F clear sky.

Was long day blowing leaves but good day,mother nature busy with her paint brush,82 flock geese 8am 430pm flock geese to many count...hmmm.

Plans for evening... not to much,set on the deck enjoy smooth cigar watch some football maybe movie if I can keep eye lids open.

Enjoy your evening all.