Good morning!!!!

[toppop52]

Don, good frying my friend!

Nice club picnic, I won first place for navigator in the blindfolded obstacle course, the driver is blindfolded and the navigator's job is obvious, but for some reason, most insist on pointing which way they want the driver to go.

Drew, close ZZ Top...Nationwide.

 

[300UGUY]

Rained a bit here, worked with the wife, lunched with a couple of neighbor's, then back home. Not doing anything useful, going to a family party in a little bit.

Have a good day, guys.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Replaced my leaking shower valve today. Also replaced the shutoff valves with ball valves. One was leaking real bad.

Set screw missing in the handle, other that that and mudding some drywall, its working.

 

[txdon]

Successful FF!

No rain, no wind 96˚ and everyone was commenting on the nice weather.

Out of the 1100 pounds of catfish we had less than a pound left over. We had one baggie of potato salad and 2 gallons of beans left over after feeding 1300 people!!!!!
Everything went smoothly, no complaints everyone worked well together, I think we finally got this down after 34 years.

Here is a pic at noon and one at 6pm. Also the most interesting item donated to the Auction was this cedar dozer and truck, it brought $1,500.

Tomorrow everything gets taken down and put away.

 

[Thall303]

Wow!

Good work by good people.

 

[Eric Salop]

Good morning all. Good to see all your hard work preparing for the big event paid off Don.

It doesn't usually take me too long to realise I've done something stupid, but this latest took me two whole days to work out. I only wanted to snap a quick picture of swans on the big pond. It was a bright day, making it quite difficult to see the screen (not like the days of old, when even simple cameras had a proper viewfinder to peep through), but when I rotated the phone to take the picture in landscape instead of portrait, the lcd was so dark it was almost impossible to see. With all the time taken in swiping to unlock, entering password, tapping on phone app and then this fumbling around, the swans had lost patience with having their picture taken and swam off.

When I got back in I played with the screen auto brightness setup, thinking it may have been fooled by the rare sight of the sun. Yesterday exactly the same thing happens again, so I pushed my glasses onto the top of my head while I went back in to setup, but without changing a thing the screen miraculously came back on - my phone must be made with polarising glass too, so with it's lcd and my glasses at 90 degrees, no light could get through. :mur: You can tell, with our weather, I don't get much practise at wearing sun glasses

 

[daugen]

an early good morning to all.
Eric, that sounds pretty familiar with polarizing sunglasses. My car nav is almost invisible with my sunglasses on.
You'll get that pic...come here little swan

My helper and I got half of the orchard done yesterday morning, then it got so hot I had to come in.
Am going out at daylight this morning and hope to finish in a few hours. Centipede grass has to be pulled out
carefully and a clear weeded area about two feet across, then a mulch doughnut to finish. And then I'll water them all, and call it a day. Going to rain this afternoon supposedly but all that does is make the grass grow faster.

lot on my mind.
Am considering giving my primary fireman helper an annual contract next year to do all the lawn maintenance.
My right arm is simply failing from the work I'm giving it/required by doing this myself. And I'm not getting to a lot of projects I'd like to be doing while I am otherwise exhausting myself trying to keep up with 8 acres of lawn and nicely mowed field. I always knew I'd get to this point but didn't think I'd get to it in less than three years. But if I'm not to make the "trip to the city" in a few years, that we've all talked about here, I need a solution.
I'd also like to travel more, which I have done almost none of in the last few years, and I can't if I'm so tied down to the property. That river cruise of David's sounds awfully nice...

Considering giving the guy a 12 month contract so he has stable income, which he asked for. I bet it's because he wants to buy a bigger mower and wants the payment covered; pretty common.
I don't have a mortgage on my home so I guess I'm going to have one now. $250 a mow and since I know exactly what is involved, I know that is seriously fair. 35 mows at least. About what my first home's mortgage was...

Before I bought my home I did a business plan with all projected costs. This was the big one. Taxes are cheap here, 1800 bucks all in for this home. Many of you are paying way, way more. So if i have to spend a big part of my cash flow on help, that's going to be the price of staying here. And having a ball with my tractor and machinery.
And doing what I dreamed about year after year stuck in my late wife's suburban home with half an acre of lawn.
Likely I bit off a little more than I could chew here, but after many years of caregiving to a dying wife, I really needed a huge distraction. Something to do, something to be successful with. Sure wasn't successful keeping her alive, and of course I know it doesn't work that way, but I did my best. Just like others do their best.

Besides, I counted up, on a bet with my closest friend, to see how many motors I was maintaining. We both tied at 35 engines, including car and truck. I think I still have a few more oil changes before I pack it in. Luckily, like Ed, I have plenty of indoor hobbies, like woodworking, to keep me busy even if I wind up in a wheelchair, like making birdhouses in my woodshop.

woke up and started thinking about all this at 4am. No way I was going back to sleep....but the Sunday morning bacon is cooked, and shortly I'll have breakfast and head out to the orchard.

sorry for the length of this. Never learned how to communicate in zip files...can you tell I don't text?

 

[Ed of all trades]

Good morning all. 65 this morning with fog, going to 89. Went to the junk sellers yesterday early and bought a wood rasp, nothing else I wanted. Came home and went to bed and slept 4 hr's. Still feel achy all over and not hungry. Took it easy all day until 7pm when wife's nephew's youth group came and sang for my boy. 14 of them had 5 guitars, a banjo, a mandolin, a flute and a keyboard. That was fun and the boy had a huge good time. He loves his nephews and he loves the music, we do too. The youth leader, still a kid, just a little older sat on one side of the boy and I sat on the other. When he would get stressed the youth leader would lean over and sing right to him and break it, what a blessing.

Going to take it easy today if I can, we will see.

Don :cool2: You can be proud of your community, well done.

Have a great day Ed

 

[RoyJackson]

2016-08-28, 0549

61 right now...heading to the mid-80's.
Main thing I'll be doing today is reviewing documentation I'll need for our Quality Management System audit (starts tomorrow, goes all week).

Did get everything mowed and trimmed (except for the field) yesterday. No chance to shoot this weekend...

 

[Thall303]

an early good morning to all.
Eric, that sounds pretty familiar with polarizing sunglasses. My car nav is almost invisible with my sunglasses on.
You'll get that pic...come here little swan

My helper and I got half of the orchard done yesterday morning, then it got so hot I had to come in.
Am going out at daylight this morning and hope to finish in a few hours. Centipede grass has to be pulled out
carefully and a clear weeded area about two feet across, then a mulch doughnut to finish. And then I'll water them all, and call it a day. Going to rain this afternoon supposedly but all that does is make the grass grow faster.

lot on my mind.
Am considering giving my primary fireman helper an annual contract next year to do all the lawn maintenance.
My right arm is simply failing from the work I'm giving it/required by doing this myself. And I'm not getting to a lot of projects I'd like to be doing while I am otherwise exhausting myself trying to keep up with 8 acres of lawn and nicely mowed field. I always knew I'd get to this point but didn't think I'd get to it in less than three years. But if I'm not to make the "trip to the city" in a few years, that we've all talked about here, I need a solution.
I'd also like to travel more, which I have done almost none of in the last few years, and I can't if I'm so tied down to the property. That river cruise of David's sounds awfully nice...

Considering giving the guy a 12 month contract so he has stable income, which he asked for. I bet it's because he wants to buy a bigger mower and wants the payment covered; pretty common.
I don't have a mortgage on my home so I guess I'm going to have one now. $250 a mow and since I know exactly what is involved, I know that is seriously fair. 35 mows at least. About what my first home's mortgage was...

Before I bought my home I did a business plan with all projected costs. This was the big one. Taxes are cheap here, 1800 bucks all in for this home. Many of you are paying way, way more. So if i have to spend a big part of my cash flow on help, that's going to be the price of staying here. And having a ball with my tractor and machinery.
And doing what I dreamed about year after year stuck in my late wife's suburban home with half an acre of lawn.
Likely I bit off a little more than I could chew here, but after many years of caregiving to a dying wife, I really needed a huge distraction. Something to do, something to be successful with. Sure wasn't successful keeping her alive, and of course I know it doesn't work that way, but I did my best. Just like others do their best.

Besides, I counted up, on a bet with my closest friend, to see how many motors I was maintaining. We both tied at 35 engines, including car and truck. I think I still have a few more oil changes before I pack it in. Luckily, like Ed, I have plenty of indoor hobbies, like woodworking, to keep me busy even if I wind up in a wheelchair, like making birdhouses in my woodshop.

woke up and started thinking about all this at 4am. No way I was going back to sleep....but the Sunday morning bacon is cooked, and shortly I'll have breakfast and head out to the orchard.

sorry for the length of this. Never learned how to communicate in zip files...can you tell I don't text?

I like your careful thought process on maintenance and aging.

I will have to maintain a Houston home as my wife won't live at the farm all the time and the home and farm maintenance together can be overwhelming at times.

I prefer the farm myself, but my wife has more than earned the right to live where she chooses.

I am always looking for help in both locations and the cost will have to be paid.

Sadly taxes are steep in Houston and reasonable at the farm and the trip between the two is but 1 1/2 hour each way.

There are worse things in life than the occasional commute.

 

[wngsprd]

66 and cloudy, going to 89.

Don, glad it turned out so well. Cool looking toy...someone there is a real artist...didn't you post a pic of one of his wood toys last year?

Drew, seems like our kind want to be self sufficient and do it all...the toughest part of change is over, you made the decision. You can stay very busy managing a garden and orchard, and you certainly need to go boating again...and a camping trip up to the Smokies or Blue Ridge for autumn leaf colors. When will your truck be back?

 

[ronjhall]

Poured first cup of coffee. 70° with a light fog this morning. Heading to 81° with mostly cloudy skies. .78" of rain yesterday afternoon. My puttering got lawn cut yesterday. Less than 4 days since last cutting. It will not take long to make up for all the cutting not required during June, July and early August. Lawn looks great with no dandelions or other weeds sticking up. Today will be a rest day with some NASCAR in the afternoon.
Txdon, good to hear another successful FF.
Drew, I see that day coming that I will hire someone to do the lawn maintenance. With only 2 acres it should be a few years out.
Eric, Sunglasses are a problem reading most high tech screens.
Ed, youth group singing would be a nice thing for the boy and everyone else.
Good Morning All.

 

[Thomas]

Yesterday was good day getting things done,Mrs. and I were able sneak in 4 hours pond fishing before dark.

Today pm both rider mowers fill gas containers etc. etc. get ready for the BIG mow down next weekend,hope there enough day light left take Mrs. fishing.

Enjoy the day all.

 

[Buppies]

71 this morning high of 90 later broken record it seems

Drew great thought process very logical kinda like Mr Spock from StarTrek the late 60s oh my has time flown. More house cleaning today then wait on sale to go thru have our deposit all terms met

TxDon glad things turned out so well still shows Americans still know how to get it done

I do not know if it will happen or not but the possibility exists that something tropical may form off the east coast in the next two weeks and change people's plans not a sure thing just something to keep in the cobwebs of what used to be a brain

Toppop hope the car show was a success and you throughly enjoyed yourself

Two things on chopping block left to sell TR6 and one other car that wife used to drive and a VW Jetta with 2.0 diesel difficult decision let VW buy or wait and honestly I do not know what to do. This car is one our son drove through college and we told him when he got a job it would be his. Helpful comments would be appreciated

Farmer praying for you and your son

Ed you are working\playing too hard

Eric when I go to pay at the pump stations have to take off sun glasses to see screen and if sun is right with implants from cataracts still cannot see

 

[lennyzx11]

an early good morning to all.
Eric, that sounds pretty familiar with polarizing sunglasses. My car nav is almost invisible with my sunglasses on.
You'll get that pic...come here little swan

My helper and I got half of the orchard done yesterday morning, then it got so hot I had to come in.
Am going out at daylight this morning and hope to finish in a few hours. Centipede grass has to be pulled out
carefully and a clear weeded area about two feet across, then a mulch doughnut to finish. And then I'll water them all, and call it a day. Going to rain this afternoon supposedly but all that does is make the grass grow faster.

lot on my mind.
Am considering giving my primary fireman helper an annual contract next year to do all the lawn maintenance.
My right arm is simply failing from the work I'm giving it/required by doing this myself. And I'm not getting to a lot of projects I'd like to be doing while I am otherwise exhausting myself trying to keep up with 8 acres of lawn and nicely mowed field. I always knew I'd get to this point but didn't think I'd get to it in less than three years. But if I'm not to make the "trip to the city" in a few years, that we've all talked about here, I need a solution.
I'd also like to travel more, which I have done almost none of in the last few years, and I can't if I'm so tied down to the property. That river cruise of David's sounds awfully nice...

Considering giving the guy a 12 month contract so he has stable income, which he asked for. I bet it's because he wants to buy a bigger mower and wants the payment covered; pretty common.
I don't have a mortgage on my home so I guess I'm going to have one now. $250 a mow and since I know exactly what is involved, I know that is seriously fair. 35 mows at least. About what my first home's mortgage was...

Before I bought my home I did a business plan with all projected costs. This was the big one. Taxes are cheap here, 1800 bucks all in for this home. Many of you are paying way, way more. So if i have to spend a big part of my cash flow on help, that's going to be the price of staying here. And having a ball with my tractor and machinery.
And doing what I dreamed about year after year stuck in my late wife's suburban home with half an acre of lawn.
Likely I bit off a little more than I could chew here, but after many years of caregiving to a dying wife, I really needed a huge distraction. Something to do, something to be successful with. Sure wasn't successful keeping her alive, and of course I know it doesn't work that way, but I did my best. Just like others do their best.

Besides, I counted up, on a bet with my closest friend, to see how many motors I was maintaining. We both tied at 35 engines, including car and truck. I think I still have a few more oil changes before I pack it in. Luckily, like Ed, I have plenty of indoor hobbies, like woodworking, to keep me busy even if I wind up in a wheelchair, like making birdhouses in my woodshop.

woke up and started thinking about all this at 4am. No way I was going back to sleep....but the Sunday morning bacon is cooked, and shortly I'll have breakfast and head out to the orchard.

sorry for the length of this. Never learned how to communicate in zip files...can you tell I don't text?

Daugen, I turn 53 next week and some of this goes through my mind occasionally. I live on 8 acres but 7 of it is steep slopes, rocks, and briars. I enjoy working on it but it goes through my mind how am I going to be able to climb those stairs or mow that sloped yard that I make bigger each year.

Since I travel in my job 300+ days a year, I have a local gentleman do our yard while I'm gone. Last year his rider mower had broke down. So I gave him my Zoro ZTR that I'd got in auction. I hated the thing anyway as it had taken off down the hill a couple of times on me and had to be winched up.

To save face he said he'd take it if I let him mow the yard in exchange for a year. Of course. But not on that mower. There's only a little to keep it down from the house for fire I want when I'm gone and I hit the outlying areas and all of it when I'm in with the tractor and weed eater. So both are happy.

I've told my wife that if I go first, the next thing she should do is go straight to Walmarts and get a For Sale sign.

We are currently thinking about getting a place to farm or orchard while we have some years to do it. We love this place but it'll need full time maint also later I know.
Lenny

 

[toppop52]

I'm 64 and I'm starting to wish I'd left the yard smaller and the woods bigger! I love the view out through the holly grove, but the mowing and maintenance is starting to become more work than fun.

87 today, then sort of up and down for a while. Hope the tropical stuff stays away from the Outer Banks, we plan to go to our place in Southern Shores the week of September 10-17. Haven't been on a real vacation since mom moved in three years ago.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

This goes to the rawhide theme song....
Mowing, mowing, mowing,
Keep those blades a turnin'
Land Pride!

Drew, since you mentioned it, while I was doing some of the toughest mowing I've ever done, the little cogs in my brain were floating the same question about living on the land and "beating back the briars". Only my problem is the ability to afford it. I have not been able to cut the "back 15" acres due to all the rain. The growth is tremendous. You could not or would not want to cut it with a smaller machine. My FIL's 5420 MFWD is the machine for the job. If it has a major malfunction, I don't have the $ to repair it. Much of the area is lowland, and still soggy, mainly because of the thick overgrowth. I had to go at a pace about 1/3 of my normal mowing speed in many places. 65hp getting beat up with only a 6' bushog. I'm only half done, but the hard part is done. More rain on the way.

....There was this nice 2 story garden style home on a postage stamp lot in town...Not on the market now, but when it was, it went way cheap due to the unusual layout. Most everything upstairs. I could mow with a push mower in 15 minutes.

Don, glad you all had a successful FF. Did the free beer up the auction prices?

Buppies, hope your sale goes through smoothly.

Eric, the pressure is on. I told my daughter Finnly that you have a pair of swans on your pond and she is waiting with great anticipation for some pics. There is a TV show about a family that has some swans take up residence and she loves that show. Also a cartoon movie too. We don't have swans this far south AFAIK. I have looked at the price for a mating pair and OMG. I'm in the wrong business.

Ed, Farmer, with special children you become even more thankful for small miracles and achievements. Great that your nephew's friends could come over and play like that. Sounds special.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning! 60F @ 7:00 AM. Sunny. High 91F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.

Well now, Kyle, you seem to have stumbled on a heck of a fringe benefit with your haul! :thumbsup:

Eric, the Jensen sounds like quite the innovation, and the blue is a step in the right direction, too.

Hope the pain continues to moderate, Buppies.

Sounds like a good time was had by all, Don. Well Done!

Doing your best is all anyone can ask, Drew. And when money can buy a bit of happiness, I say go for it!

Sooooo happy to be home. Yes, there's just no place like it. The race track turned out to be a cold and miserable place, the campground perched high on a hill and in the fog bank most of the day. Between the hot weather here and cold/damp there, well, I'll take here any day. Got kicked out of the vintage motorcycle display, which we had come upon apparently abandoned. We were discovered by the organizer of the event, who was worried we'd steal trinkets. I suggested that if he was so worried we'd gladly keep an eye on things while he rousted the race track crew who was supposed to be manning the job. My overall impression was that the event was mainly for the car guys, with the motorcycle stuff an after thought, and we were treated as the red headed step children as a result. Aside from a couple of nice day rides, one out to the coast, the other inland to a nice picnic, by yesterday morning I'd had enough. Oh, then there's the family that moved into the adjacent campsite in what was supposed to be a motorcycle camping area, bringing their kids and slamming car doors at o dark thirty. Guess that made up my mind for me. And our drunk newsletter editor that managed to remodel the driver's side of one of our board member's truck with a 4x4 post in the parking lot. Too much drama for one weekend. Another nice ride home yesterday though, over Mt. Hamilton with a brief visit at Lick Observatory, and sneaking back up on some roads through the Delta I hadn't been on in a while. After that it was freeway, and the big message boards all had warnings about looking twice for motorcyclists. Didn't stop two inattentive drivers from nearly pushing me into the weeds with their lane changes though. So yes, good to be home, and in one piece to boot!

 

[rswyan]

78F and a mix of clouds and sun @ 11:00 ... high today predicted to be 90F, with a chance of an afternoon thunderstorm in spots.

Have been working on the playground the last few days. Guy who was supposed to provide a trailer flaked out so I've been driving the B2910 over to the center. It's about a 6.5 mile drive and takes around an hour, one way

A photo from a couple of days ago:

Yesterday they got the geo-tex laid and 4 loads of mulch dumped. I spread it as best I could with the loader and landscape rake, but it going to need some fine-tuning with hand rakes to level it out to see if we'll need a 5th load of mulch. Also pulled the remaining fence posts that they could get out with the farm jack.

Has been pretty hot (upper 90's yesterday) so it hasn't been exactly fun.

Next thing to do is finish leveling the mulch and then drill the holes and start setting posts for the fence.

Turn on the AC in the shop when I got home last night with the idea that I was gonna go back up there last night and do some work on the splitter. Never made it ... was just too tired. Fortunately the AC was set on "Econo" mode ... still, was kinda chilly when I went up this morning and shut it off.

Probably get the welding on the log lift done today and get the splitter moved out of there.

 

[daugen]

thanks for the kind comments. Walked out to the orchard about 6am and got done at 10am, second bucket of mulch needed, all the trees now have larger mulch donuts aka water retention rings, all weeded and watered, at least two gallons per tree. Sucked it right down too. I really need to run a water line out there; been on my to do list for a long time. Now that the trees are getting bigger, my two gallon watering cans aren't going to cut it any more. Lastly I sprinkled some pecan and fruit tree fertilizer on top so if it rains this afternoon, which it's likely to, the trees can follow up their water drink with the equivalent of a sports drink...