Good morning!!!!

[Wagtail]

What does the Warden do? And yes, church's need volunteers. My wife and I currently host Wednesday night youth nights. I am foregoing another term of Sunday school teacher, for many reasons. Enjoy being the parade Commander! Someday, you'll have to give us some stock tips, since you're a day ahead of us in time.

Simply put, a Warden is responsible for the maintenance of the Church and grounds... small repairs, changing light-globes, being there when 'contractors' are present, etc... The Senior Warden also attends the annual Synod for the Archdiocese (in our case, for all of Tasmania).

 

[two_bit_score]

KXAN in Austin is reporting you can bake cookies on your car’s dashboard.

How hot is it in Austin? Hot enough for cookies!

A KXAN viewer said she conducted an experiment this week just to see how hot it really was in Austin.

www.kxan.com

well, you might have a nice smelling car anyway.

 

[ronjhall]

Coffee is brewing. 60° with rain this morning. Heading to 79° with continued rain throughout the day. .75" rain overnight. Worked on chicken coop interior. Thought I was all done with this project. But found some interior trim that was never put up when built 45 years ago. When get at that when weather clears. Helped neighbor clear up large cherry tree some more. At least one more evening of work on removing it. Then we will start chipping up all the limbs.

Everyone stay well and safe.

Good Morning All.

 

[KilroyJC]

Good Morning!

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

69.1F going to low 90s, radar shows a straight line of storms stretching all the way to just north of Shreveport LA aimed right at us, so storms most of the day. They started last night just after midnight, LOTS of lightning, so Senior dog had us up alll night… Harry didn’t seem to even notice…

Main task of the day is midday trip to “the big town” to go to periodontist for a minor procedure, so as to prevent a potential major procedure. Yay…

ihope everyone has a happy healthy safe productive blessed day!

 

[daugen]

good morning all
woke up to a pouring rain, ended with .31 inches of rain. Looks like my moving the weather station didn't give it a heart attack.
more rain tonight.
Just a lot of grass mowing.

will be a busy morning.
plumber coming to install battery backup for sump pump.
Basically a group 27 AGM hooked up to a smart controller/battery charger and a large marine
bilge pump.
Sump runs a lot and if power goes off, a wet mess downstairs.
will be a lot more relaxed leaving on trips with that backup in place.

I also tried something new....a declunker.
will see if it works. There are several varieties of these things, this one made by backup sump mfg.

Amazon.com

cleaning lady also coming, time to pick stuff up.
this afternoon need to go food shopping
Might fly the drone a little more, need practice.

RNG, really wonderful you found a nice new home. A big new project for you.
But maybe you will sleep better at night.

Kilroy, hope your morning goes ok, doesn't sound like fun. I hate dentists, they hurt me and charge me
many thousands of dollars a year.
But I do like to eat...

 

[KilroyJC]

good morning all
woke up to a pouring rain, ended with .31 inches of rain. Looks like my moving the weather station didn't give it a heart attack.
more rain tonight.
Just a lot of grass mowing.

will be a busy morning.
plumber coming to install battery backup for sump pump.
Basically a group 27 AGM hooked up to a smart controller/battery charger and a large marine
bilge pump.
Sump runs a lot and if power goes off, a wet mess downstairs.
will be a lot more relaxed leaving on trips with that backup in place.

I also tried something new....a declunker.
will see if it works. There are several varieties of these things, this one made by backup sump mfg.

Amazon.com

cleaning lady also coming, time to pick stuff up.
this afternoon need to go food shopping
Might fly the drone a little more, need practice.

RNG, really wonderful you found a nice new home. A big new project for you.
But maybe you will sleep better at night.

Kilroy, hope your morning goes ok, doesn't sound like fun. I hate dentists, they hurt me and charge me
many thousands of dollars a year.
But I do like to eat...

Back a while ago, I had to go through four-quadrant oral surgery, insurance didn’t cover, screwed up most of my summer.

so this will be a piece of cake.

And I am saying “SCREW THE DIET” and having a huge, glorious REAL breakfast since I probably won’t be able to eat until tomorrow.

 

[KilroyJC]

The Further Adventures of CAPTAIN RURAL DOC!!!!!!

in this episode, our hero navigates the peculiar wold or Compensation. . .

 

[Buppies]

74 light showers around no rain yesterday

Slept all night last night not so tired today

Have not seen bear in a while but bird feeder down so no food source

Prayers for all silent or spoken Maui our Country

 

[riptides]

74 outside this AM, heading to mid 80's. 93% humidity.

Had some serious gully washers move through the area late yesterday. Missed us, but lots of flash flooding all around the area, including DC. Really not good.

Maybe more on tap later today.

Hope all have a great day today. Be safe.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 61F @ 3:00AM. Some clouds in the morning will give way to mainly sunny skies for the afternoon. High 77F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph.

Tragic news out of Hawaii. Wildfire claimed 87 lives in Paradise, CA in 2018, and everybody knew before hand that it was only a matter of time before it happened. But who'd have guessed something like that could occur in a tropical climate? Was that town in a rain shadow or something, David?

RNG, really wonderful you found a nice new home. A big new project for you.
But maybe you will sleep better at night.

Yes, a lot of little fix its that make for a big project, and more sleepless nights. It seems the more I look around this place, the more I find that needs attention. Stupid things, like a fancy restaurant style kitchen faucet mounted on a flimsy stainless steel sink so the faucet wobbles around every time it's used. Or a ceiling fan wired to a dimmer. Or water filter cartridges that need replaced on the refrigerator and under the kitchen sink. Or a refrigerator with automatic ice maker and ice cube dispenser on the door that isn't hooked up to a water line. Or an extension cord routed through cabinets powering the refrigerator. Or smoke and CO detectors that don't work. Or a sloppy paint job over the ceramic tile floor in one of the bathrooms. Or an even sloppier paint job in the great room, especially where the previous owners took out the fireplace and chimney. Or, or, or. The list goes on and on. To top it all off, I'm told by a neighbor that the previous owner was a building contractor. If what I've found is any indication of the quality of the work he does, it's no wonder they had to move!

Got a carpet cleaner coming this morning, so at least I'll be able to move the bed into a bedroom.

Spent a lot of time yesterday checking out the SimpliSafe alarm systems. Found out that the cell phone app won't play a loud alarm sound when an alarm is triggered in the house. The alarm at the old house wouldn't do it, either, until I told them about the sheriff being summoned for a false alarm I missed because I couldn't hear the alert on the cell phone while I was driving. I found out about that two hours later. But at least with SimpliSafe I can prevent them from dispatching law enforcement unless they use the camera system to audibly query an intruder for a safe word and get a negative response. They've also bundled smoke and CO sensors in a single device. Kind of useless, since smoke rises, and CO sinks to the floor. They do sell a separate CO sensor, but for some reason don't list it in the online catalog. These problems have been pointed out to them in their user forum, but after several years, have yet to be remedied. That could mean the solutions are right around the corner, or that they will never be addressed. Glass half full or half empty? Maybe a letter to the CEO might get some action?

All is not gloom and doom however. Yesterday I ran some speed tests on the Xfinity internet connection, and got over a 1 Gbps to the first Xfinity hop up the line. The speed falls off rapidly using the WiFi connection, but it's still over 10 Mbps in the far corner of the back yard behind the storage shed. That was after I moved the modem/WiFi router out of the cabinet where the cable terminated and set it up in the loft over the garage. Today I'll see if I can get a stronger signal by moving the modem into the central great room by swapping some connectors around where the cable comes into the house.

I also stopped into the doughnut shop down on the corner and purchased a half dozen doughnut holes for only a dollar. They were so fluffy I could squish the air out of them by pressing them up against the roof of my mouth. Mmm...

Sometime between midnight and 4AM Thursday, SpaceX will launch another string of satellites from nearby Vandenberg Space Force Base. That should be "interesting". I've been wanting to witness a night time launch, but didn't anticipate it being from my front yard.

 

[riptides]

Rip, please remind me again why the chimney needs to come down? Is it structurally unsound? They give such character to buildings IMO.

Whatever you do, be careful.

The chimney is not up to today's code, obviously. I forget what they call this type of construction. They are to be removed if work is needed.

My problem is one of space in the room in the picture. I need that corner wall gone for a water heater and plumbing. The opening is just under 24 inches.



I have tools stuffed in there now, and the supporting framing is suspect.



The plan is two fold. One is to see if a roofer can patch the hole when the chimney comes out. I have some tin laying around. The other is to build a supporting platform in the attic and lay the salvaged bricks back in the hole. Effectively keeping the look. A fake chimney.

You can see it really is not that big, and should not be missed if we can patch the hole.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

No rains here. We could use more.

Had a weird dream about flying drone and it went haywire, flying randomly around, then it crashed into a tree and exploded to where I couldn’t find any pieces.

Electric off again last night for another 5-10 minutes after I went to bed.

 

[Thomas]

61F light rain ending around noon low 70's for high.

Outside chores done E muffin time.
Plans for today...Hospital call last evening having open cancellation for 11am,sooo I'll be there for CDL physical Not what I'll stir up today yet.

Enjoy your day all.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning.
72 with a high in the low 80’s for today. Fog burning off now, chance of rain later in the day.

Still repairing-discovering lightning damage. Yesterday’s discoveries were a PTZ camera and Wi-Fi access point in the barn. Repairs included getting new 16 port POE switch installed and desktop computer back on line. I used a USB-C Ethernet adapter to get around the the fried onboard adapter. Speedtest shows just short of a gigabit connection, so I’m pleased with that. Cameras are back on line except for the barn. I’m still waiting for replacement Ethernet surge protectors, so I’m disconnecting the shop at night.
Big news was the discovery of the what the lightning hit. There was pieces of wood scattered around behind the house, and we have been smelling smoke since Sunday. After a bit of looking around, found a limb on the ground smoldering in the hedgerow.

Apparently, it was smoldering for a while, there was an outline of ash where it was consumed. Good thing that it was as wet as it was, this is how wild fires can start.

I’ve got a couple hundred feet of hose on a reel, so I drug it out and soaked everything pretty well, got the fire out, and all is well. My trusty assistant came up to help.

Called the local fire chief and told him about it, he asked that I confirmed it was out, and did I want a junior fireman helmet. Same guy that met me at the firehouse with my grandson and let him in the fire engines.

Today I’m off to Cedar Rapids and Denver and back for proving runs with the FAA. We get to take 4 inspectors to observe and simulate scenarios. Not the best use of resources for anyone. But I’ll leave it at that. This is the first of at least 3 days. Won’t get back until midnight or so. I’d much rather be here fixing stuff…….

 

[wngsprd]

75 going to 91. Got a quarter inch of welcome rain yesterday...After an hour outside this morning feels good to be back in A/C.

Thanks for the bug zapper advice and sound effects. I guess it's a No Deal on that.

Rip, thanks for pushing the pro route...if you did that, I guess I will, too. Did you use a local, or one of the franchise outfits? If franchise, mind sharing a reco? Milk House is looking real nice.

Kyle, I rarely ever get cramps, learned long ago to drink lots of water. But an excuse for a brat (and cooked a sausage) with mustard was worth it. Ever had sausage from Slovacek's? I them on The Texas Bucket List tv show a lot. Be careful on the highway...sounds more peaceful than the other route, but hazardous.

Joel, sounds like having a few black bears around here isn't too bad compared to what you have in Alaska.

Buppies, glad you got a nice sleep.

Windless morning allowed me to spray 65 gallons of gly 2% yesterday on a number of wildlife food plots...trying to "once and for all" rid them of bindweed, buttonweed, and a little stiltgrass. I know it's a fool's errand. Need to mow today...time it during the window after the grass dries, but before the ground dirt does.

 

[wngsprd]

Good Morning.
72 with a high in the low 80’s for today. Fog burning off now, chance of rain later in the day.

Still repairing-discovering lightning damage. Yesterday’s discoveries were a PTZ camera and Wi-Fi access point in the barn. Repairs included getting new 16 port POE switch installed and desktop computer back on line. I used a USB-C Ethernet adapter to get around the the fried onboard adapter. Speedtest shows just short of a gigabit connection, so I’m pleased with that. Cameras are back on line except for the barn. I’m still waiting for replacement Ethernet surge protectors, so I’m disconnecting the shop at night.
Big news was the discovery of the what the lightning hit. There was pieces of wood scattered around behind the house, and we have been smelling smoke since Sunday. After a bit of looking around, found a limb on the ground smoldering in the hedgerow.

View attachment 816132
View attachment 816133

Apparently, it was smoldering for a while, there was an outline of ash where it was consumed. Good thing that it was as wet as it was, this is how wild fires can start.

I’ve got a couple hundred feet of hose on a reel, so I drug it out and soaked everything pretty well, got the fire out, and all is well. My trusty assistant came up to help.

View attachment 816134
View attachment 816135

Called the local fire chief and told him about it, he asked that I confirmed it was out, and did I want a junior fireman helmet. Same guy that met me at the firehouse with my grandson and let him in the fire engines.

Today I’m off to Cedar Rapids and Denver and back for proving runs with the FAA. We get to take 4 inspectors to observe and simulate scenarios. Not the best use of resources for anyone. But I’ll leave it at that. This is the first of at least 3 days. Won’t get back until midnight or so. I’d much rather be here fixing stuff…….

Glad you found the strike site. I had to do that in the forest next to us one time...smoke coming from a standing dead oak tree, near the road, but too far to carry water, so called fire department.

Don, I think I spot a 4-leaf clover next to the hose reel?

 

[daugen]

Rip, new siding looks nice.

 

[txdon]

Good morning! Today might be the day!! The day we don't exceed 100˚.
76˚F heading hopefully to only the predicted 98˚. Best chance for rain will be next week 40%.

The new neighborhood trail opened up yesterday. I helped very little on it because of the heat, I know my limitations. We now have over 20 miles of trails in the neighborhood.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I think I spot a 4-leaf clover next to the hose reel?

Think I see one.

My woods “grass” is all stiltgrass. That stuff just took over.

74° and 96% humidity.

 

[scott_vt]

Goood Morning Guys,
60 to start going to 70. Light rain clearing later today.

PopG, glad you found the smoking branch, and had your junior FF was able to help you put the fire out ! I have been a volunteer in our local FD for 40 years, and have seen some pretty horrific fires and MVA crashes through the years ! It has been a great experience for me along with my family !

TxDon, glad to hear your finally going to get some relief from that heat !

All have a blessed and safe day !