Good morning!!!!

[ronjhall]

Coffee is done brewing. 35° with cloudy skies this morning. Heading to 37° with continued clouds. Other than take Sassy for a couple of walks. Did the conserve energy plan. After grocery shopping today will be the same.
Lots of Junco's to take pictures of. They come by feeders at first light. Still to dark to take a picture without flash attachment. That does not work when taking pictures thru a window.

Everyone stay safe and well.

Good Morning All.

 

[ronjhall]

Part if it is that I'm getting older, and physically less capable of keeping up with the maintenance this place needs. Bending over to pick rocks doesn't take long to start hurting, and bumpy rides on tractors are verging on unbearable. Then there's the poop yer pants fun of running the tractor on the steep hillsides just to keep the grass cut. Life might literally be too short with one slip of a wheel or an inopportune equipment failure. BTDT.

A bigger part is that I'm not spending my time doing the things I love to do. When I'm out fixing ruts on the driveway, or cleaning up downed trees, or huddling inside because it's too smoky outside to breathe, or the wind is blowing the porch roof off the back side of the house, leading to yet another time wasting exercise, I'm wasting time. I've reached a time in my life where I'm literally running out of time, and I can't afford to waste any more of it fighting Mother Nature.

You're right, I've spent a small fortune identifying and mitigating one after another problem with this particular slice of heaven. And at almost every turn, Mother Nature has shown me the folly of my ways. There's no easy way out, though. On the other hand, if it's not Mother Nature, it's the meth head waiting on you when you come out of the pharmacy with your perscription in your pocket, or a drunk driver, or an inconsiderate neighbor that just has to mow their lawn at 2AM. And I'm not even going into the economic uncertainty around changing places, especially in inflation crazy California. You names yer poison and you takes your chances, and the devil you know isn't necessarily better than the one you don't. I just know that I can't keep doing what I've been doing and expect a better result; it's just never turned out that way. I'm not expecting a bed of roses, but almost anything's better that beating my head against the wall and expecting it to feel good.

RNG, I can understand why you are looking for another place. When I picked my place over 50 years ago. I never thought about how it would work out when I got into my 80's. Today I am there. Picked a good place. With enough space for my projects and living area. It was farm country when I bought. Today I am surrounded by Million dollar homes on 3 acre lots. Dr's and hospitals have been built close by. Shopping has moved close by. Main problem is winter weather. For a 12 years I travelled to warmer weather. Cannot do that any more. Have leaned to cope with it by staying inside where its warm and plan for things to do when it gets warmer. I would like to live close to the coast like where you are looking. But finically it is out of the question. I hope you find a place that is good to grow old at. Have you looked for places out of CA?

 

[m7040]

Good morning, warm 42 going to 49 today. Nice and easy on the wood stove.

At 80 I have definitely slowed down and ailments have started to creep up. RNG, moving in to town would make life easier for us but not sure we are ready to give it up. But then we don't have to deal with some of the issues you are dealing with.. There comes a time when it is too much and sounds like you have analyzed it well.

Being able to function better and easier around our property has always been a priority and has resulted in adding equipment that require less effort. So far has worked out.

 

[KilroyJC]

Good Morning! God has given us another chance to get it right (or at least not screw up too badly).

Foggy but warmer this morning, 37.8F, allegedly going into the 60s.

Coworker expressed interest in buying eggs from us — we never brought up the topic. since the new hens are starting to come online, it will be a good way to not get overloaded - I think I have eaten more eggs since May than in the last thirty years (I was never a big egg eater other than as an ingredient)! I just hard boiled another 2doz and have to pickle them, and barely made a dent - and I never got to make the quiches I planned this weekend…

an embarrassment of riches

Another coworker said that come spring she would give us some elderberry bushes since all of ours died last summer. Yep - we managed to kill elderberries! Actually, i am pretty sure it was moles that got them, so this year they will go into some large planters and then next year I will attempt propagating cuttings, hopefully avoiding the critters by planting several detached patches.

The training module practice jobs are still wonky, and grading is aggravating. I did an experiment where I completely erased all the scanned data entered into the digital forms, saved the job completely blank, then went back and manually re-entered everything, one block at a time and saved it again. This way there is zero chance of pre-existing data contaminating my work - and it will clearly show if the system is re-loading documents into the forms with the default training data that is meant to be corrected.

the games one must play. . .

our fancy-schmancy coffee machine I snagged from a Habitat ReStore about 8 years ago has a leak - I need to replace a Teflon hot pressurized water feed line. The machine is 19 years old and it is worth every penny of the 100$ I paid for it - and the 300$ we invested three years ago in replacing the heater and control board, since the new equivalent one is over 1600$ and mostly plastic - this one is a metal chassis and body.

Stocking Mill Coffee ROCKS!!!!!

Got up around 4am to answer The Call, never fell back asleep - I got an earworm of “Burning For You” by Blue Oyster Cult. By 5 Am I couldn’t lay there anymore. Still have the earworm going. . .

Apparently We aren’t going to get more seasons of “Clarkson’s Farm” since Amazon dumped him for insulting the Former Royal and the Hollywood (insert appropriate (or badly inappropriate, depending)term here) who gelded him. . .

If you haven’t seen “Clarkson’s Farm”, it is quite entertaining - he is a much bigger dilletante than me & Mrs, with a big head start (inheriting working farms), bigger and more equipment, and a film crew. . .

I am “back of a napkin” designing a firewood processor for branches, based upon the ones you see with a chainsaw on a stand with the actuator for the throttle, but instead of using a chainsaw per se, it will use the bar and chain but be powered by a horizontal 4 stroke so large quantities of branches can be processed. Everything from about 1” to 5” in diameter. The 2” and smaller stuff will be primarilynfor kindling and the wood-fired sauna, and for mangal (kebab grill) the eventual beehive oven. Why waste firewood on a burn pile?

I hope everyone has a happy healthy productive blessed HUMP DAY!
I wonder if BEF can recall what that even means

 

[KilroyJC]

good morning all.
25 out now, warming up nicely to 48 in sunshine today.
Should be very nice outside.
I did basically nothing yesterday, never got very warm out, so looking forward to some outside time today.

not a good night, neck hurt, tossed and turned, trying to avoid taking meds for it. Yes.....I am aware of my poor liver.
I take a lot of extra vitamins, B3, Niacin, and Zinc. Mostly for cancer and bone health. Also CoQ10, Curcumin, and a few others.
Nothing weird...just a lot of pills, fills the pill box morning and night.
I figure vitamins are likely ok, it's the arthritis meds and pain
meds that likely overtax the liver. Don't want a fatty liver. Don't want diabetes. Also tired of hurting...

this sore neck makes me worry about my decision to go back into rv'ing. Driving a truck/big rig is hard on the neck, head is on a swivel
looking at mirrors. But I'm going to try.

am envious of you guys who learned how to use a lathe. I watch a lot of machine shop videos on line, and the precision is fascinating.
Then i look at those videos from India where you see a barefoot guy in robes that would give OSHA a permanent coronary, using an ancient lathe
to make things. The lack of safety orientation is extraordinary.

Popgadget, is that cute little dog part piranha? Or are you just a loveable giant chew toy?

I have started watching more of the “How To” videos from the Third World - they really CAN do everything with almost nothing, like America used to do — and somewhere along the line we have lost that. I think those vids are going to be very important for us, unfortunately. . .

 

[Spike56]

i don’t know how old you are, but very well said. I have struggled with some of the same issues.

Could not agree more. Spend almost ALL my time fixing something (driveway, fences, clean up from wind/storms... on and on) and seems less and less time, if at all, to do any new or hobby projects. Increasing age and decreasing energy really aggravate the issue. Then in Texas, here comes summertime, which starts around April. The humidity and heat, well, saps me out.
Having complained about this, I just cannot see moving into a town/neighborhood. My method of dealing with all this is to pretend things will change.

 

[KilroyJC]

Good day mates,
It is presently 35F under sunny skies after an overnight low of 32. Forecast high of 47.

Contractors due here today to start pole barn for boat storage, wood workshop and car lift area. Heading out now to do final cleanup of site. Had a bunch of small branches come down in the wind over the weekend.

After cleaning air filter chainsaw still ran rich and after 3 cuts it quit and wouldn't restart. Need to figure out what is going on with that.

Think I hit something metal in the tree with my small chainsaw as it suddenly stopped cutting well. Time to get out the files again.

Liz is talking about coming home today, need to get the place cleaned up.

No sign of mole activity by the driveway since Friday. I have hundreds of feet of mole hills, amazing to think one mole could do all that.

Have a good day and be safe out there.

I want one of these for our moles:

Gopher And Prairie Dog Control Using Propane And Oxygen Pest Control

rodentblaster.com

 

[KilroyJC]

It’s a Holiday Monday

67°F and no rain, but showers in the forecast.

So glad to have the main structure of my tractor shed extension up. Need to add diagonal supports for stability as I will not be adding a traditional rafter and purlin roof, but installing solar panels on aluminum rack. More a carport type than walking roof.

Wife made plans for a late lunch with her brother. Being a Holiday he is off today.

Practically gave away my 24 inch PHD auger. Bought originally with my kioti years ago thinking I might plant some trees. Never dug a single hole with it. Think it got a better home.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

I hope you put a clause in the sales contract that you can borrow it back for the 19 things you will need an auger for in the next three weeks

 

[KilroyJC]

Rswyan
Would like to hear more about your dust collector, something I sorely need.

My wife complains about my dust collectors

 

[KilroyJC]

Finished moving stuff around, including the back busting cast iron sinks. Yeah,,they will be fun trying to set in place when the time comes...

Two words:

SHOP CRANE