Good morning!!!!

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Not sure what I’ll get into today, maybe clean out part of garden. This old guy wasn’t liking us intruding.
View attachment 862659

I love box turtles. Had 2 in my youth, fenced in backyard. They would come up on our porch and eat out of my hand. Hard on ripe tomatoes though...You can keep the red ear sliders and snappers.

More buckeye news.
Yesterday we looked at a 10.2 acre lot in WV, and put a verbal offer in on it. It appears they may accept our offer, which will be contingent on selling our VA lot. This lot does cost more being larger, so I might have to pony up some additional cash. WV lot has no restrictions and has a perc that was just done in February. Seller put in a driveway, and electric crosses the lot right next to where we would build. Downside is it is mostly sloping land and the end of a ridge, but there is a nice flat bench area to build on. It is also all woods, except for the little area the sellers cleared putting in the driveway. Also the start of the drive is a little steep, but manageable. It faces south and has a view, and if we remove a few more trees it will have a really nice view. WV has no restrictions, and we can put our camper on it and camp without anyone caring. It is also half the distance to our house than the VA lot. This lot will probably not be for a retirement house, but rather a cabin and camping investment. We would build in this area at the end where they brought in the drive. View from above the trees.View attachment 862782
View attachment 862781On the VA lot, the county will not let me do anything until I file for a house building permit. No barn, no electric hookup, no garage until the house permit is filed.

We have not yet moved forward with a formal offer. The realtor's husband is the owner. They bought this 25 acres last fall, subdivided into two 10 acre and a 5 acre lot, perc'd them, and put in the driveways. this is the corner lot. A paved road to the west, gravel road to the south. The 5 acre to the east and the other 10 acres behind and above me. view up the drive from the road.
Tell me if I'm crazy. About 40 minutes from Winchester VA
WV also allows cisterns as a water source.

8 miles to Tractor supply and FoodLion, which is closer than where I am now to either one.

View attachment 862783

you're not crazy. Sounds like it makes a lot of sense to me, or should I say you have me convinced.

Good morning.
44° and the sun is shining. Supposed to rain late in the day with a high near 70.

Yesterday’s breakfast and conversation was good, wife came along as well. After breakfast I made some progress with Autocad Fusion, I figure if I put in some time everyday, I’ll eventually get there.

I did take the Makita pole saw and chainsaw down the lane and cleaned up the fallen limbs that were on the ground, and removed all the limbs from the tree top that was stuck in the ground like a lawn dart. But I left the that part for another day when I have some help.

Zoe and I loaded grain into the barn, she still thinks that the alpacas want to play with her.
View attachment 862840


I got out the Lazer Z to trim around things and to test the waters to see how wet the ground was before getting out the big guns. Took the loader off the tractor and hooked up the Progressive and got most everything mowed. There were a few spots with standing water that I went around, and I kept it in 4WD to preemptively avoid wheel spin.

View attachment 862838

It’s easy to see why the rear deck had holes rotted through it, all the decks are rear discharge, and the cover the rear one with clippings.

View attachment 862839

You can’t even see my stainless repair plates under that mess. I’m religious about blowing it off clean after mower, I doubt that happened much in its former life on the sod farm. The great news is that it ran smooth, and the cut quality was good. I’ll say the repairs were a success.

Got all the machinery cleaned up and put away, when I came out of the shop, my DIL and grandson were here. He wanted to know why I mowed without him.

When they went to leave, they came back and said that a tree had fallen across the path home. They went around the other way, I put the loader back on the tractor, swapped the bucket for the grapple, and went down and lifted the tree off the fence, and cut it up with the Stihl chainsaw this time. I gathered up the big pieces and hauled them to the wood pile, then put the bucket back on the loader and parked the tractor. Went back with the carryall to load up the brush and dump it on the brush pile.
Finally it was time to put my feet up and have some dinner.

If you learn Fusion, you'll be ahead of me....sorry about your grandson missing out on the mowing.
My MIL comes over every morning at 7:30 am to take my 14 yo son to school. I told her she didn't have to. She said "I know I don't have to,,,,I get to." We live about 3-4 minutes out in the country, once you go past the last light, so about 8 minute trip for her to come out here.

Almost nothing wipes out all the plans you had planned on.....more than a tree falling in your driveway.

Cloudy and 75F here today. Calm. We need a gentle breeze to keep the humidity bearable.

Light misty rain almost all day yesterday. Got back a little later than I expected from Hunt due to weather conditions. But nice drive out there and back. Nice to be away from the phone.

Some clearing out to do today. Then a meeting tonight that I hope will bring some things together.

That's about it for me today. Hope everyone has a great day with lots of sunshine and gentle breezes! Prayers for our Nation!

I love driving through Hunt, along the Guadalupe river. When I got divorced back in '96-'97, I took my new Yamaha YZF R1000 motorcycle out to the hill country to ride. I cheated, and took it in the back of my truck, because I took a lot of stuff with me to be prepared for whatever... Anyway, having grown up in Victoria TX (on the Guadalupe), I wanted to find the head waters of it and it took me through Hunt. I had actually came from west to east on 1340 in the early morning and saw some of the most serene post card worthy views of the river as you go along and over it.

Man did I love that bike...wished I would have kept it, but someone offered me about $1500 more than I paid for it new. First time I'd ever bought a new bike, drove it almost 2000miles, and then sold it for more. They were rare, and fetching a premium. Like C8's right now.

66°F and .01 inches rain

Got a few hours mowing yesterday. Hope to repeat today and get that area done. Yes, Drew, being nice to Sophie - always

Tractor tech never called Today?

Followup on my Fioptics endeavor. Got a voicemail saying if I still wanted it the phone company required payment in full to commence work - $59,538. If rates don’t change that would only be 100 years to break even vs Starlink. Pass

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

I would pass too. Ouch. Wonder why so high?

There was a man who went to his Tmobil store and asked them to make sure his phone would work for his trip to Switzerland. Turns out he did not have international roaming, and in less than a week, passing only 9 gigs of photo/text data, he got a bill when he got home for over $142,000. He called and they told him it was legit. After he hired a lawyer, they cut off the roaming portion since he had gone to the store to make sure he had roaming. Lesson for any world traveler. Make sure you have roaming for the countries you're going to.....or just stay stateside.

Helogabals, hope the twins had good birthday. New car working good still? I saw where Tesla laid off a bunch of workers. Even some here by Austin at the factory they make the trucks and cars in.

 

[mostly_gas]

Good evening all. 67ºF for the start, overcast, light breeze. Light wind, clouds cleared to partly cloudy, humidity dropped and high temp was 84ºF. Made coffee to start day, Men's meeting, bike ride, trip to town to get lunch medicine and schedule lawyer session to update will and power of attorney. Cleaned inside of truck for tomorrow's trip to in-laws, then on to STL. Funeral for former neighbor. Will visit stepson on way home. Dinner with group at Mexican restaurant.
Bill hope you got your nap in.
Ron good to hear you are ready for mowing season. Hope house chores went well. Nice sunrise.
Phil nice pics from the museum. Hope today's chores went well.
Mike sorry about road trip, and still working on your dad's estate. Hope you ground dries out a bit.
Buppies glad humidity still low there, very humid here. prayers sent.
Thomas hope ditch was firm enough for tractor.
Ron nice tractor.
Drew sorry about the cooler weather. Glad you got RV leveler system mastered. Hope living room cleanup went well.
Billy is it normal not to have water depth gauge at low water crossings? Glad you got mowing and Mexican lunch .
RNG hope you had pickup stuffed to the gills for dump run. Sorry about electric fence issues.
DarkBlack a running Panther, how cool.
Ken glad tre is home safe, thanks for pics. Good to hear progress on mowing.
Paul glad breakfast with wife & professor was good. Good to hear progress on AutoCad. Hope you can good help on lawn dart soon. Zoe may want to play but not sure alpacas want to play with her. Glad mowing went well in spite of soggy ground. Poor middle mower, repairs successful. Poor GS felt left out. Full day
Scott(vt) hope work went well.
Don full day with Firewise and PT. Sorry about the broken blade.
Drew hope you enjoy the tour and get some input in returning farm to more natural look.
Dennis glad some mowing done, hope seed germinates. Nice Snagglepuss and Pebbles like you so much. Hope you avoid capitol gains tax. Nice pic
RS hope you missed the severe weather. Sorry about problems unloading van. You got a lot of mowing to do! Glad redbud germinating, sorry about tomato seedlings.
Two_bit glad good trip to head waters yesterday. Hope meeting went well.
Gstrom glad you got rain, and bad storms went elsewhere. Sorry no joy on turkey hunt.
David good news on mowing, bad news on Fioptics, and no call from tech
Bill love OOGA horns, sorry about chains. Glad widow maker cleaned up.
Dennis nice pic.
Don glad error on Turbo Tax and you don't owe more
RS hope severe weather no and issue for you tonight. Nice greenhouse, hope it keep Squeak at bay.
SCott(vt) glad you got plenty help with mulch. Hope you got enough for the flower beds.
Buppies kinda like the pig farmer going smell the money
Randy(wag) sorry you had to pay for wreath. Glad no hassle getting reimbursed for wreath. Hope house clean up went well.
Dennis sorry about lights on trailer. Hope T loading goes well.
Bill does not take much H2S to kill you either.
Bill thanks for overweight story. And news on Red Lobster, haven't eaten there since wife died.
Kyle thanks for story on the Guadalupe head waters. Crazy story on roaming charges, any idea what final bill was?
prayer for all, especially Jay/Peg, Kyle /Daughter, /mom's breathing, /son's migraines, Bird /aging issues, Ron /heart, Billy /mom hypertension & congestive heart failure, David(moss) /remodel, /divorce, Buppies /cancer, parathyroid,blood sugar /wife healing, Thomas /gout, Phil /reflux, Frits /veteran son with mental issues, /granddaughter with Evans Syndrome, Ken /dad possible dementia, /chronic fatigue, Diet not working, Steppenwolfe /son-auto immune disorder, Grev /wife's eye, Ted /knee recovery, /retirement & disability red tape, /family issues, Lou /eye issues, /heart issues, /wife hip replacement, Doug and wife/health issues, / hand nerve and surgery, /fall and recovery, / wife headaches and heart eval, / David(sadamo)/Sophie's hip or leg pain, Scaredy/shoulder dislocation, /marriage dissolving, / friend stop drinking, Dennis /retirement, /neighbor issues, /land development, /favorable winds not in the forecast there, /dad surgery recovery, Drew /back operation issues, /friend's wife cancer diagnosis and recovery, Scotty /back pain, Helogabals /wife's friend situation, Fatjay /father broken hip, Israel, Ukraine war, and Country.

 

[rswyan]

56F and "Fair" @ 03:15, heading up to a high of around 69F for the day. Which is a little warmer than I thought it was going to be.

We got missed by the really violent weather, although it appears there were destructive storms and/or tornados to the west, north, and south of us.

Woman broiled up some cod fillets and fixed asparagus tips with Hollandaise sauce for dinner last night. Was very tasty ... and I'm not a big fan of Hollandaise sauce.

After I ate I promptly fell asleep on the couch ... and was out until around 01:30 ... then woke up and found that fortunately there was some leftover coffee in the pot from yesterday ... which is tasting pretty good right now ...

One of the Woman's amaryllis is sending up bloom stalk. She commented about a week ago that might be happening ... and that She would be very impressed if I got that to happen ... as She had been trying to get it to do something for better than a year.

About to order the peppermint extract from Amazon.

The nice weather they are calling for today is very welcome.

Although I won't be able to make any more progress on catching up with the mowing, I should be able to get some glyphosate spraying done.

Need to hit the weeds that are starting to come up on the screened compost pile, plus the areas around individual tree plantings, and the big one: the row of planting holes for the forsythia transplants I prepped a couple of years ago along the western perimeter of the front lawn. That's probably better than 300' long.

The straw mulch that we used on the strawberries needs to be gathered up. Not really sure what we're going to do with it, be we ought to be able to reuse it around some plants in the garden.

The rhubarb plants have started setting seed heads and those need to be cut off.

The 3 t-posts for the extension of the row of trellis in the garden need pounded in.

If I feel real frisky I might take the Kubota up and bring down one of the cedar logs and give the draw knife a try.

Probably get that aquarium planter and the pots that go in it moved outside so the plants can start hardening off.

While I'm waiting for Sun to arrive this morning I think I'll content myself reading over the info on the additional seeds we bought and maybe getting some of those planted in starter trays. Thinking sugar beets should be one of the next ones on the list.

Hope everyone has a decent Thursday ...

 

[rswyan]

RS, at my home near here before I went to NC I had one of those cold frame setups on my rear deck and it worked great. It did blow over once so keep lots of weight down low.

I assume you are referring to the "greenhouse" I just posted a picture of ?

That's not going outside - it will go in the dining room, in front of the sliding glass door (which is almost never opened, unless I need to get out on the deck)

I'll use it mainly to protect seedlings once they have come up from the cat and give them a place to grow ... until they get moved out to harden them off before they are set out in the garden permanently.

The cold frame I was referring to previously would likely built out of dimensional lumber and either be:

1. placed on the back side of the house up against it (making it south facing) and be free-standing, or ...

2. or placed directly on the ground - or on top of a raised bed - out in the garden.

Both examples shown in the following video:

 

[ronjhall]

Got coffee brewing. 49° with cloudy skies this morning. Heading to 65° with cloudy skies and winds. Storm came threw yesterday afternoon and dropped .76" of rain in 1/2 hour. Found I was looking at wrong month on calendar yesterday. Filter do not need to be changed until next month. So did a conserve energy day. Grocery shopping this morning. Then back to do the house chores I did not get done yesterday.
Trees are starting to leaf out.

Everyone stay well and safe.

Good Morning All.

 

[rswyan]

Don, Diablo has great stuff, I buy circular saw blades, sanding disks for rotary sander, all kinds of stuff ! All good quality !

Concur ... at least on the blades ...

(Haven't used their sanding discs)

Worked all day and then drove to Lowe’s to buy mulch that was on sale ! I loaded 20 large bags on a large push cart and could barely push it ! A young guy felt sorry for me and helped me push it to the cash register! Then the cashier asked me if I needed help loading it into my pickup ! I said Yes ! I got up in the bed and a store employee helped me load it !
Got the mulch for $2 per bag, and I gave the guy that helped me load it $5 tip ! I don’t know if I could have done it by myself !

All this mulch is going to Vermont tmrw, for Kathleen’s flower bed in front of the house ! Won’t be getting any gas mileage with that load on the truck !

Sounds like you have your work cut out for you ...

RS, your lawn looks beautiful!

Thanks.

We no doubt have a very nice crop ... of dandelions ...

 

[Looking4new]

Good morning, the low is 40 and going to a high of 54°F. Wind ESE 20 mph. Rain.

A conserve energy day for sure.

Have a safe day all

 

[daugen]

good morning all
53 out now with showers coming in, likely high temp of the day, will be cloudy
need to wake up before I make my list of to do's.

site glitched on me this morning, seems almost every day it gives me a "can't find that".

I pushed the trimming mower yesterday for a bit, mostly mowing a lot of dandelions.
Grass is growing about half an inch a day, has to be cut every four days this time of year or it clogs up and makes a mess.
I already raise the deck half an inch for the heavy areas.

no one wants my HF greenhouse, so perhaps I can get the landscapers on Tuesday to haul it away.
First I'm going to see if I cut off one end, could I hide it behind garage and use it to cover mower.
if not, there is always the FREE sign approach. My junk will always be someone else's treasure.

 

[mpham]

site glitched on me this morning, seems almost every day it gives me a "can't find that".

Seems like it does it to me almost every day right around 5am. Wonder if the server restarts daily around that time?

 

[mpham]

Morning all!
Currently at the high for the day of 45. Rain coming in soon so looks like an inside type day. I was able to get quite a bit accomplished yesterday. As such my body is happy that it will rain!
Think today will be a rest and recoup day.
Wife is going to work today for a couple hours.
I might play in the shop. It needs a cleaning again. The amount of sawdust generated is unbelievable!
That's it for now. Coffee beckons!
Hope everyone stays safe and healthy!