Good morning!!!!

[Popgadget]

Good Morning
Its 44° and sunny, overnight low was in the 30’s peak gusts from the frontal passage were in the upper 20’s. High today around 50.

Yesterday’s trip to FL went well, weather was good, no ATC issues, but it sucks that the controllers aren’t getting paid. They were professional and no discernible difference in their performance.

The full moon was stunning, and the visibility was excellent. I could see Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Wilmington at the same time from over the ocean.

When I realized I was about to pass over Washington, NC I took this for Drew.

You can see the NJ peninsula from over Norfolk. If you zoom in, you can see a line of tankers anchored in the Delaware Bay.

And a better view from over Delaware.

Driving home from the airport is when the winds and the rain kicked up, just to keep it interesting. We did loose power overnight, generator ran, but it was apparently less than 10 minutes. I slept through it, but saw the notifications this morning.

Not sure about today’s plan, RC club meeting tonight, I should spend some time in the hangar with the little plane, not a lot of outside chores to do, I’ll put the ladder up and put up a new outdoor mesh node if it arrives today, other than that, I’ll let the day guide me where it wants me to go.

 

[scott_vt]

Good Tractor Morning,

I think Scott has a better idea. He'd better be polishing off
some rum swizzles for all of us, baking in the warm sun.

Consider it done Drew

Sounds like fun Scotty,

Ken, so far so good

John Deere 5075, sea weed collector
Just to make it legal

 

[daugen]

Good Tractor Morning,

Consider it done Drew

Ken, so far so good

John Deere 5075, sea weed collector
Just to make it legal

there it is, that's the tractor job I want
of course I'd try to keep the tractor clean and waxed and what a joke that
would be encrusted in salt. Nasty environment for machinery

very windy out but looks like it will be a nice day here.
my friend stopped over and I made a fresh pot of coffee for him, while his wife is showering. Then we are off to town. Last stop with be fish store; need to get my cooler bag filled with ice packs

 

[ponytug]

I asked my brother to go check on my place and he said he would later this morning.
hopefully just some flower pots blown over.
here one of my two chairs and the folding table were blown over.
I had no idea that strong a front was coming through
bringing cold air with it.

It's Bill's cold air, I"m sure of it...
He can keep his snow, though I bet he's itching to go push some.
like the start of deer season, some mental bell goes off.
time to plow

I think Scott has a better idea. He'd better be polishing off
some rum swizzles for all of us, baking in the warm sun.

locally here we passed combines working into the night harvesting soy beans on way home from dinner. Very dusty

Sounds like a fun trip.

Guy Fawkes day seems late to be harvesting soy beans. I bet those farmers were sweating lead chunks trying to get everything out of the field before the front rolled in.

I've got a run to the hazardous waste drop off this morning, primarily for some old 8' fluorescent tubes and ballasts, plus a few bags of minor electronics that seem to accumulate. I usually check to see if the failure is readily repairable, but if it gets too involved, it gets binned.

This afternoon is to be a WiFi exercise with a service technician trying to get our electrical backup system running again. (Tech visit #2, six weeks and counting on the issue and I have no confidence that it will get resolved today. Best case I get to pull some finger pointing items off the table.) I put a new Yagi with a lower loss cable on the problem gizmo, a WiFi enabled current transducer, and it seems happy to me, but apparently the view of the homeowner doesn't count. I feel for these technicians as they are trained in another field (solar) and being asked to support WiFi networking without much manufacturer support less knowledge from the manufacturer's representative, and even less technical documentation. These visits usually turn into a three way discussion, with one of the parties stepping all of us through if/then logic. It can be painful when the manufacturer's representative is stuck on doing step 19 of a script, when step 7 ruled it out. Fun times.

Gorgeous day this morning. The stars have been amazing as the low clouds blanket the nearby urban areas and our light pollution goes to zero. We were promised a front with a slug of rain (1") yesterday that ended up at 0.01". On the bright side, it washed the gunk out of the air.

Great photos from everyone this morning! Thanks!

Our first salamander of the year. The spots were iridescent silver gold.

All the best,

Peter

 

[m7040]

good morning, 53 going to 56 wind gusts to about 30 MPH

Drifts of leaves around just outside the kitchen door. Better to wait for the wind to die down to blow it away.

Might continue the firewood work today or may change it up with some of the pending projects

Youngest daughter in Gettysburg for two week of training for her new job

Veteran son moved from treatment program into apartment living near the VA facility in PA
We hope it works out for him but so far so good.

 

[rswyan]

50F and sunny @ 11:00, heading up to around 52F for the day's high. 29.5F was the low this morning @ the Clinton station.

Got the trash bill paid first thing yesterday.

Then got the battery charger hooked up on the Cub. Stuck a 5 gallon bucket over it and let it go overnight. Battery should be good and charged today.

After that I moved the rest of the 2 x 4's into the garage and then loaded up the trimmed 2 x 4's and got them moved around to the basement door and put inside.

Disconnected the garden hose while I was at it.

Gathered up some garden tools and the tall step ladder and brought those around front.

Noticed something lying over by the northeast planting bed while I was doing that, couldn't make out what it was so drove over for a closer look.

It was a spike buck ... ... partially consumed ...

Didn't appear emaciated (CWD) ... so the only thing I can figure is maybe it tangled with the big guy, got wounded, and came out on the short end of the stick.

Big old buzzard out there now working on making that mess go away. Good thing ... 'cause I sure ain't gonna mess with it until it's just a pile of bones. Nasty.

After that I moved some cut PT 2 x 12's over to the barn for the winter.

Refilled one of the sprayers with glyphosate.

Started to rain and the winds came up so put the garage door down and headed down to the basement and discovered that I had trimmed three of the 2 x 4's an inch too long ... so another trip back up to the garage for the Craftsman circular saw ...

Then got those trimmed to the correct length.

Was windy enough yesterday to take down the majority of the rest of leaves, trees starting to look pretty bare. Can't even tell that I had been working on blowing leaves.

On the agenda for today (in no particular order):

Get other sprayer refilled.

Rearrange some items over in the barn.

Get hay wagon moved over into the barn.

Get garden tools stowed away in the garage.

See if I can't get the Cub started now that the battery is charged up.

Maybe do some more work on leaves if successful.

Beyond that just see what else comes up.

Hope everyone is having a decent Thursday ...

 

[daugen]

back from shopping, could not walk anymore, sent my friends back downtown for the afternoon so they could play tourist uninterrupted by me. Chestertown is a very nice town, health food store there was great, lots of bakeries and restaurants.

got a disturbing email from older neighbor across the street saying we were wall to wall police cars yesterday, twice. My crazy neighbor at it again, this time he tried to buy a handgun when he is prohibited and his wife committed him again. Handguns and mentally ill folks sure are a bad combo. So he is back in the rubber room for a week or two. He has continued to day drink so we knew this would not end well.
first it was a air rifle. Then a bow and arrow, with arrows going on multiple neighbors properties. And now he is trying to buy a handgun.

lots of folks very concerned over personal liberty and rights.
this guy has already had a history of threatening others, including me.
very glad the system caught this; local police have a ten year history with my neighbor.
when he decides to do himself in, just please don't take anyone with you.
pretty creepy actually.

I have a variety of cheeses to cut up for appetizers tonight, plus some stuffed olives and grape leaves. And some barbecued shrimp. With a variety of dipping sauces.
They are making some fancy kebabs and have a cherry pie for dessert.
time to loosen my belt...

taking lots of pics, will post when I get home.
that huge moon over the water is just marvelous
going to sleep to the light of moonbeans

 

[WinterDeere]

Good afternoon!

We've had several frosts already, despite the weather service always saying we're well above freezing, but now even the weather service is calling for 20's the next few nights. I guess it's time I'd better get the outside water shut off, and the irrigation system blown out.

Usual routine of shutting off a few valves in the basement, opening the corresponding drains, and then going outside to open those hose bibs... pretty standard stuff. I have an antique drinking fountain the back patio, it came from my great-grandparents house over near @daugen and @kenmbz and has been used in every house my grandfather, father, or I have lived in since the 1920's, so that came indoors for winter. It's hard-plumbed, but with a hose coupling thread fitting to tie it to the wall of the house, so easy enough to unscrew and move indoors.

Then there's the irrigation system. I pull 300 feet of garden hose up to the shop compressor I built into our old carriage barn, set my air regulator down at 60 psi, and plug it in. I feed the irrigation vacuum breaker thru an adjacent hose bib, and cycle the irrigation controller thru all zones on 5 minute increments. After that, I disconnect the swimming pool fill from the shared feed line, drain that out, and leave all ball valves half-cocked for winter.

After doing the same nearly 15 years, I've got the whole routine down to maybe 10-15 minutes setup, 30 minutes to wait for the system to cycle while I work at my desk, and then 10 minutes cleanup and storing of hoses.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

nice pic ron. the wind last night was a doozy, took down everything not attached..

 

[daugen]

waiting for my post to clear
I said another bad word

hint: it's not moonbeams