Good morning!!!!

[ronjhall]

Drinking first cup of coffee. 67° with thunderstorms this morning. Heading to 87° with rain ending in AM. Storms that hit yesterday afternoon. Have power lines and trees blocking roads all around my place. Traffic is using dirt road past my place to go west. 400k without power in Metro Detroit. Even though outage map shows me without power me and my neighbors have power. Another early morning wake up from thunderstorm. Hope I get a nap this afternoon. Wind and rain sensor is not working since yesterday storm. I am sure we got another 1"+ of rain.

David, pineapples look good.

Don, good news on friend being OK.

Randy, get'er done. I do not like paper work either.

Everyone stay healthy and safe.

Good Morning All.

 

[Eric Salop]

Good morning all. There are many times each year when the sun beats down, or the heavens open, or a cold wind is buffeting, that I am grateful I have a cab on my tractor. Never more so though than days like yesterday, when I put a front wheel down an unseen hole in the grass and out poured countless extremely angry wasps, most of them throwing themselves at the glass and demanding that I come out and take the punishment. So lucky that I had no windows open.

Drew, when you talk to dealers do you get the feeling the compact tractor and implement shortages are over, or is it still a sellers market ?

 

[daugen]

good morning all
96 degrees today, may be hottest day of the summer, yuk.

Roy, yes that's the model he quoted but I only need the power of your model, not the top model...
Eric, shortage continues, very little inventory on dealer lots and almost no used tractors in this area
Buppies, watch the heat today if you are outside.

Mostly I'm amazed at the time and caring you take to make your list every day.
From all of us, thank you

today would be a good day to go submerge in a swimming pool
I'm cranking the a/c down a little this morning to cool off house for later, hvac had some problems in later afternoon 90+ sun
yesterday. Have all the curtains closed, fans on, that's all I can do. Since hvac sits under bedroom that room is always cool, which makes
sleeping fine. It's the big picture windows in the living room facing the afternoon sun that really suck up the heat.

 

[RoyJackson]

2021-08-12, 0626

73° right now...high about 90 and possibility of t-storms...

Off today...the notary for the refinance paperwork should be here in a couple hours. Once that's done, getting an oil change for the Tacoma...and, may as well make a dump run on the way. Also, I need to pick up some prescription refills.

Drew, I was looking for a 4066R when I found the 4052. It's not so much the extra horsepower I needed...it's the extra torque. Torque is most essential for snow blowers (and my 4052 does bog down sometimes which the 4520 (with it's Powertech engine and loads of torque) never did) and chippers. The 4066 has 50+ foot-pounds of torque, the 4052 about 40 foot-pounds.
Physically, the 4052 and 4066 are identical. And the creature comforts are fantastic.
If you do go for a Deere, I strongly suggest getting a self-levelling loader, especially if you're considering getting pallet forks

Speaking of pallet forks, I received the e-mail from Titan stating the pallet forks I ordered are ready for pick up (by the trucker). They're to be delivered at work since we have a fork lift for unloading the FedEx truck and on to my truck

 

[daugen]

New Hope Auto Show is Saturday, hopefully the weather will cool.
The Show | New Hope Automobile Show

One friend has leg problems and can't walk much. My brother just emailed and cancelled because he pulled a tendon in his
foot two days ago and is now limping and going slow. As we get older, health can sure get in the way of things...

thanks Roy, good info.

 

[wngsprd]

... I wish EA made a grapple with about 18" of length on the bottom, as that would really increase the carrying capacity.

Good news...they do. The one I bought a few years ago has over 20" and I just checked and they still make it...

Single Lid Wicked Root Grapple Lightweight Strong Large opening

 

[wngsprd]

69 and wet...finally got a good rain...0.4"...today will hit 97, they say.

Roy, looking forward to hearing how you like those forks...I'm still considering getting forks.

Final two chicks left the porch after the thunderstorm late yesterday. The rain mist blowing in moved them to a better position to exit the door, and mama came and gave them the launch command. Mostly, the beekeeper saw the queen come out and captured it...there are a small number of bees still hanging out in the tree, likely some were out foraging and some just refusing to go...we just hope they don't make themselves a new queen. He said they have a lifespan of only about a month, so we'll see.

Got a nice hike in yesterday at the forest battlefield...went up and down the river bluff section 3 times to get some extra workout. Then took my wife to lunch and grocery store. We needed several things, including sugar for the hummingbirds (forgot to get the 25 lb bag when at Costco). The shelves were almost completely empty of store brand sugar. Nothing else looked low.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 81F @ 4:00AM. Abundant sunshine. Hot. High 103F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
The 100s continue into next week, maybe "cooling" into the mid 90s by the following weekend. Meanwhile, fire smoke continues to dim the sun, making it just a little more tolerable being outside if you don't mind the smell and irritation.

There's always the basement to hide in, Drew. Sure wish I had one here.

I bet those pineapples smell wonderful, David! Sophie's got quite the green thumb.

Current tally for the Dixie Fire, burning in Plumas County north and east of here, is 505,413 acres and 30% contained. On the southern and western portions of the fire, some Mandatory Evacuations have been reduced to Warnings, and some Warnings have been lifted entirely. At the northern head of the fire, there is now no date projected for Full Containment, and Dixie is now the largest single fire in California history.

Meanwhile, there's another episode out in the ongoing probe into PG&E's fire problem, this time covering the shocking details behind the "deals" being cut in Sacramento that do nothing to make the grid any safer.

Got a new PoE Ethernet switch installed in the pump house yesterday, and hooked up another security camera to monitor the driveway. Both worked first time without issue. I also marked both ends of the new Ethernet lines in the trench so I know which one does what. Depending on the smoke-cast today, I'll see if I can put together enough wire for one of those lines to reach 1400' to make sure the Ethernet extender hardware I have actually works. Otherwise it'll be another inside day, except for a grocery run this afternoon.

 

[daugen]

There's always the basement to hide in, Drew.

yup, I'm guessing it's about 65 down there, maybe cooler.
Actually....thinking of how an attic fan works, remembering that this is a tiny house where everything
is pretty close to each other, if I leave the bathroom exhaust fan on, it will suck the cool air out of the basement
and use natural cooling that way.

sun is out and temps are climbing. While it was 70 out, I went over to Laurel Park across the road and walked around the ball fields.j
Almost did two laps but back was talking to me. Next time two laps in cooler weather.
Took a shower when I got home, trying to sit here and stop sweating. Going to be one of those days.

Real Hawaiian pineapples, yum. Before Costa Rica was ecologically ravaged for pineapple production, Hawaii is where the Dole
pineapples come from. Impossible to find them in this area any more and I'm always reading the labels as to country of origin.

 

[Bird]

rswyan said, "Had Woman's ham and bean soup and cornbread for dinner again tonight. The ham hock was from the neighbor's pigs, very tasty."

Perhaps a slight coincidence. I washed a pound of Cranberry Beans last night and left them soaking in a big bowl of water. So early this morning, I rinsed them once more, put them in the crock pot, along with one ham steak that I cubed last night, and one medium chopped onion, a little salt & pepper, and I'll make a few cornbread muffins later today for our dinner tonight.

I haven't had any ham hocks in many, many years. My mother always liked them, and I did, too, but my wife wouldn't want anything to do with them.