Good morning!!!!

[Kyle_in_Tex]

CLOSE CALL. A coyote nearly got our chihuahua last night. The wifey let her out near midnight, before going to bed. I was just feet away, sitting upright on the couch resting my eyelids, when all at once I heard the wifey and the dog screaming. She said the dog went down the steps, then saw something, barked and actually started to try and chase off whatever it was, only to turn tail and run screaming back while the wife jumped out on the porch. She said the coyote was about 2 feet behind the dog when the dog ran up the porch steps. When the coyote looked up and saw my wife, it ran off. I jumped off the couch and grabbed the only gun I had handy, a Crossman pellet gun and my spot light. Coyote was nowhere to be seen. Went to the backyard, and my outside female cat was pacing back and forth in front of the barn (her home) with her tail whipping. She wouldn't go in the barn on her own. Wifey picked her up and put her in there and shut the door. Makes me rethink what gun I should have handy. Might need a different barrel for my Remington tournament grade 870 trap shotgun. A bit shorter one, and pull out the plug in the magazine.

Wish I knew someone with a good nightvision setup on a rifle, that I could borrow.

 

[m7040]

The Danish military on Greenland have active dog sled teams patrolling the coast line at all times. They have 6 teams serving two years on the job. Moving and patrolling constantly the 10000 miles of coastline. Eating 8000 calories a day to keep up the stamina to do this and the 70 dogs can weigh up to 100 lbs each.

 

[sodamo]

BEF you've got a ways to go yet.
Keep setting your alarm for Sunday.

Took me a while to become accustomed to not worrying what day of the week it was.
Now I'm working on ignoring what month it is

But they sure go by faster and faster.

 

[sodamo]

IXLR8, list make/model of your solar equipment and maybe we can help.

 

[sodamo]

Good looking roof, Mike

 

[pennwalk]

'The Danish military on Greenland have active dog sled teams patrolling the coast line at all times."

Pretty interesting. I read that they use old bolt action rifles because they work in that environment and that they had to go with more powerful sidearms because polar bears can be pesky.

Chris

 

[buckeyefarmer]

BEF, are you going to finish the drywall in the basement? As many times as we went over placement of outlets for the new house, and put more than we thought would be needed, we could still use a few more strategically placed ones. I'm not going to tear into the drywall to do so......
!

Several years ago I studded out the basement walls and insulated with fiberglass. The plan is to put in a drop ceiling so I can have access to the ceiling. I finished most of it except for 1 end. On the north side I put double outlet boxes most places. That’s all done and painted. I have most of what’s left to finish already taped with first layer of mud.
Electric work isn’t bad, I hate doing drywall.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Had breakfast with the retired bunch, well all but the one guy who failed at retirement and went back to work. We stayed and chatted a long time. Most of us eat together every Sunday also.
Up on the mountain in PA, then ran to Lowe’s for an outlet box. Wanted to buy more valspar ceiling paint but couldn’t find any that matched what I’m using.
Found out there’s a new harbor freight right behind the Lowe’s, so we wandered around there awhile. Surprised my wife went in. Only got wire ties and a small moving blanket she wanted. Did look at a 9000W inverter generator for $2300.
Got cider at the orchard. Not sure I’ll do any work today. Cat is asleep on me now.
33° and chilly wind, was spitting snow all morning.

 

[rswyan]

28F and generally cloudy @ 14:30, heading up to around 29F for the high with a chance of a few flurries or snow showers. Winter Weather Advisory now cancelled but not before we got a light dusting of snow. Mostly on the non-grassy areas (woods, planting beds, etc.)

Power went off around 01:00, The Squeak and I had hunkered down on the couch, Woman had already gone to bed.

After getting the computer shutdown and turning off the UPS which was squawking, I called it in. Looks like the problem was was just up the road a little ways and it effected a few hundred customers (100 - 500)

They estimated service would be restored by 03:30, think they beat that by an hour or so.

Critters had cleared the whole corn out of the deer feeder, so put a half bucket in that yesterday and refilled the hopper feeder, tube feeders were getting low and are now empty along with the deer feeder again ... so those will be on the menu for later today.

Torpedo heater fired a couple of times while I was out in the garage yesterday afternoon and then seemed to shut off before it had raised the temp up to the shutoff point. Figured the intake air filter might need cleaned so I pulled that and brought it and washed it out and reinstalled it. It was pretty cruddy. That was the first time that I had cleaned it since we bought it new 20 years ago.

It actually has 4 filters: intake air, output air, lint, and fuel filter.

Still wouldn't fire off and stay lit ... and then I remembered: the fuel gauge - which is in the fuel tank cap - has an annoying habit of sticking. Gave that a tap and sure enough it was empty.

I had looked at it the other day and was thinking that it sure didn't seem to be using much fuel.

So I'll have to run down to the corner tomorrow with the cans and fuel up.

Amazon has filter kit with all four filters for around $10 so I added one of those to the cart for the next Amazon order.

Woman ran out yesterday for a little grocery shopping and to place an order for a cake. She just headed out to go pick that up.

We have another birthday in the family that we'll be celebrating today

Finally managed to get roost box project pretty much finished up day before yesterday (after I found the felt weatherstripping), touched up a couple of spots yesterday with a little stain:

Good timing. Will deliver it later today.

As mentioned previously, had a couple of Menards rebate checks come in over the last week or so. Woman said I should take them and go buy myself something for my birthday.

Told her that Menards didn't have what I was looking for ... but the items were available through Amazon ... She said "Well, then go ahead and order them" ... excellent ...

So a couple of days ago they delivered a Freud 7-piece Forstner bit set:

... and an Estwing E24A camping axe (hatchet):

The bit set is still in the packaging, first use of those will be to building a holder for them.

I did take the hatchet out to garage though and used one of the Arkansas sharpening stones to put a good, sharp edge on it.

Then used it to split up and chip some of that Shagbark Hickory I saved from 10 or so years ago for grilling/smoking, worked well:

​

Those will get bagged up and passed out later this evening.

Need to start getting cleaned up, drag the razor across my face and grab a shower.

Hope everyone is having a good Saturday ...

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

28 here with a small snow squall going thru. Should be about the same forecast as Thomas and Shetland. I'm really not that far from both. Different altitude though.
Both of us are doing as expected with no change on her voice. We finally have an appt. with an ENT but not till March 1! Hopefully we can get in earlier if someone else cancels!

Think it will be a good day to putter in the shop again.

Wife and I were discussing this morning that it couldn't be Saturday all ready! Feels like Monday was just yesterday!
Hope everyone stays safe and healthy.

Prayers for your wifey to get her voice back.

Good Morning!!!! 52F @ 4:30AM. Rain and wind this morning with thunderstorms developing for the afternoon. High 58F. Winds SSE at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall near an inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
Picked up another 3/4" of rain yesterday after it started again mid morning. It's been raining on and off since then, with blustery wind gusts.

I did get almost everything off the back porch yesterday, but ended up a little short. Rolled a front tire off the tractor just before it started raining. Dragged it backwards up to the garage and had to use the big Ingersol/Rand impact gun I got from Kyle to break loose the lug nuts. Half the bead was over the steering knuckle, so had to slip a tire iron in there to get it free. That's as far as I got because the valve stem disappeared somewhere along the way. Thinking back, that's probably what caused the flat. A neighbor was supposed to pick up a new valve stem on his way home from work yesterday, so I'll go see him today and at least get the tire inflated. No need to get it back onto the tractor until it stops raining.

After I got the bead blaster moved to the front porch I tried to start the electric motor on the air recirculator, and all I got was a buzz. Yesterday I removed a cap on the end of the motor and it started right up. The cap was fairly beat up, but a few minutes with a body hammer on a leather sandbag got it back into shape. The little metal terminal box on the side of the motor also took it in the shorts, so I pulled it off and straightened it out, too. By the time I got it all put back together I couldn't feel my fingers any longer, so that was it for outdoor adventures. It was blowing pretty good and raining hard, too.

Came inside and soaked my hands in hot water for a while, had some lunch, and treated myself to a nap. Woke up when a text message came in from a friend with a link to a property in Santa Maria, CA, not too far from Lompoc. The listing had a virtual tour where you could click your way around the house that worked really well. Pretty amazing, actually. The place had a huge bouns room with a concrete floor and big glass sliding doors between it and the dining room and garage. It would make a pretty nice shop. Got me thinking about moving back into a neighborhood, but living cheek to jowl to another house makes me sick just thinking about it. Then again, it would be nice to be able to walk to the grocery store and restaurants...

I have one of those compartmentalized pill dispensers with S M T W T F S on the compartment lids. Now all I have to do is remember what all those letters stand for.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

Sorry about your tire and all your toils. But I am glad to see much needed precipitation for your state and snow for the mountains which will give the waters needed in the spring warmup.

My best friend and I often joke about selling off everything, and living in a bachelor apartment, overlooking the pool. No lawns, no worries. LOL. We both knew of a very wealthy man who did this back in the '70's. He even had a maid who came in weekly to clean everything. All the toils of keeping up equipment and looking after land/animals. But just talking with the wifey, we decided we both love living in the country and that our kids don't know how good they have it. So I will keep on toiling.

Good morning. Waiting on the rain to start again. Supposed to last most of 3 days. Got plenty of inside projects. But I miss the warm sun. Sales tax is due...Income tax too. Ugh

I have to admit selfishly, that I was hoping to watch the Supercross races tonight from Oakland, but they are postponed until a future date. Too many storms make a mudfest if they are in an uncovered stadium.

Almost done with the aquarium. I had to clean the algae off the glass, and I'm letting the filter system clean the water before putting the top and light back on it. The water coming out of the tap was so cold, I had to put the buckets of water in front of our parabolic radiant heater in the bathroom to warm it to 70F prior to putting it in the tank. This is not a chore I prefer to do, but it is relatively low energy consumption, and I need some rest.

Work was hustling and bustling this past week. The kids come back on Tuesday, and I had to get their labs back in shape. So many things need attention.