Good morning!!!!

[daugen]

got a lot done today, trying to get stuff done so I can leave for PA tomorrow for a few days.
The most fun was planting Georgia sweet onions and some Kennebec potatoes. I'm told that potatoes you grow yourself
have half the carbs. Absolutely. I think Don told me that...

Apple and peach trees starting to bloom. The varieties of red and pink are just beautiful; if I were a bee, I'd sure be hotfooting it
over there...
First pic is a Belle of Georgia peach tree and second is an Anna apple.

My land has now dried out which is quite a relief. And not a lot of rain in the forecast but enough.
Getting a reprieve from the mud is great.

Time to pack. Will see what I can forget this time. :confused3:

One of the things I'm doing on this trip is looking at travel trailers on Monday, both Jayco and Winnebago.
If on my quarterly trips back to PA to see family I can haul the travel trailer to a local rv park up there, that will make the trips a lot more interesting.
And never forget anything again...I have all the dishware and pots/pans from my motorhome and tons of that $1 a roll special toilet paper. What a ripoff that stuff is; they
give you less and charge you lots more.

Many of you know I had a 9000+ mile motorhome trip planned and got one month into it before the motorhome broke down in Mississippi. There was a thread here called Go West Not So Young Man. Was a lot of fun chronicling things, a little bit of travels with Charley, err Drewie (that's for you Billie...). I was going out as far as Utah, then headed up to Minnesota to see family, and then home. Don't know if I could do it alone at this point. Might need a traveling companion. But hard to take three to four months off.
And what a cost to pay someone to mow these five plus acres of lawn, trim the orchard, weedeat miles of fence. KaChing. Which is why I'm cultivating a new set of teenage brothers who so far are doing just fine. Quiet, respectful, reasonably hard working. And affordable.

 

[lostcreekranch]

A bit over 6" here yesterday and overnight. The rain came hard and fast yesterday morning. Filled the large tank way faster than overflow could drain it. The approach to our floating pier was underwater for first time ever.

View attachment 460356

Today;

View attachment 460357

FYI, the approach to floating pier on large tank has never been underwater, in past big rains. Water was coming into the tank faster than it could get thru the overflow channel.

 

[300UGUY]

Hi guys. Been off here for awhile, been in Florida, helping my folks out. Then back north, just missed the last snow here. My parents are 80 and 81, and both are slowing down. I am kinda of paranoid, I don't like telling folks on the net ( or locally ) that I am leaving my wife alone. Probably shouldn't worry, my wife is 6 1 and a tough girl. .

It took me hours to catch up with this thread.

 

[Buppies]

Hi guys. Been off here for awhile, been in Florida, helping my folks out. Then back north, just missed the last snow here. My parents are 80 and 81, and both are slowing down. I am kinda of paranoid, I don't like telling folks on the net ( or locally ) that I am leaving my wife alone. Probably shouldn't worry, my wife is 6 1 and a tough girl. .

It took me hours to catch up with this thread.

Glad you made it back safe and sound

 

[rswyan]

Hi guys. Been off here for awhile, been in Florida, helping my folks out. Then back north, just missed the last snow here. My parents are 80 and 81, and both are slowing down. I am kinda of paranoid, I don't like telling folks on the net ( or locally ) that I am leaving my wife alone. Probably shouldn't worry, my wife is 6 1 and a tough girl. . It took me hours to catch up with this thread.

Irv,

Very timely ... I was just about to ask if anyone had heard from you lately

 

[txdon]

. . . I'm told that potatoes you grow yourself
have half the carbs. Absolutely. I think Don told me that...

Actually about 1/3 of the calories. A Drew home grown potato, 138g medium, 128 calories compared to McDonalds 111g (as medium FF), 340 calories.

Have a good trip!

 

[rswyan]

Alarm system saga continues:

I still have no reply to my last email to alarm company no. 2, requesting that the (relatively young) lady provide me with a time when I might expect her proposal for a solution for our security needs.

As of tomorrow afternoon, it will be 1 week since she was here, with very minimal communication from her, and none of it containing a proposal.

I don't think I'm being terribly unreasonable in expecting either: 1. a proposal in a timely fashion, and/or 2. an explanation as to why it takes so long for someone - who is supposedly a professional in their field - to work up a quote.

I'm getting a sense that I'm being "blown off" ...

If that is indeed the case, she may ultimately find out that that has consequences she may not have anticipated ... as I sometimes have a tendency to go directly to the top, to make business owners/executives aware of the shenanigans going on under their noses and on their watch ... and letting the resultant carnage fall wherever it may ...

Contrast the above with the guy I spoke with for 20 minutes this afternoon:

He's already provided me with invaluable information, gratis ... and he called me back around 7 this evening and spent another 20 or 30 minutes on the phone, explaining some more about the system. He was apologetic for calling back so late (I had planned to run up there this afternoon and pick up the parts I wanted when he returned to the shop) ... but I found out the following:

1. Even if my system was software-locked by the company that originally installed it, that can be defeated.

2. He can do No. 1 above and reprogram it ... cost: $20. He won't travel down here to do it - too far, too much time (80 minutes or so, round trip) and from the sound of it, he stays plenty busy ... but I can pull the PCB and take it to him and he'll do it on the bench.

3. Fire detectors I have will work with our system, smoke detector will work for sure if it's a (12v ?) 4-wire unit, crapshoot if it's a 2-wire.

So I have a tentative date next week to take the panel up to have it reprogrammed.

I had already ordered new backup batteries when I spoke to him this afternoon ... otherwise, I may have given him that business as well.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG That sounds an interesting journey over the Continental divide - looks appropriate that the road is covered in snow, even if it slows progress a little. Do you tune in to different radio stations along the way, play pre-recorded stuff, or just listen to the engine as you admire the view ?

I have a satellite radio hooked up to the GPS unit, and that's plumbed into the radio. Mostly it stays on CNBC, listening to financial news out of New York. Boy will I be glad when this trip is over... :laughing:

Last night a friend suggested I try podcasts, so I downloaded a few to the iPhone. But when I plugged that into the radio, there was no podcast button on the touch screen to let me listen to them. Apparently I need to go back to podcast school, as two engineering degrees aren't quite enough.:confused2:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

well, you are the man, no way I could do that. They want seven grand for a dump trailer around here. Am going to hunt around and see who rents them.

Around here the highway patrol just loves to pull over small timers hauling dirt or rocks in their trailers or small dump trucks. They carry portable scales, and delight in writing big tickets for being just a few pounds over weight. They know that most landscape supply places and quarries have no scales and have no idea how much weight they're loading. It doesn't take anywhere near a full load to grossly violate the weight limits...

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good morning! 59˚ heading only to 68˚, misting now and more rain expected today. This weeks total 3.3".

The grasses are taking off, and my Bluebonnets are out - all 10, but thousands are coming up along the roadsides.

So those are Bluebonnets! In NorCal we call 'em lupines, and they were just starting to come up as I left. Last year they carpeted the meadows around my place, and I'm probably gonna miss most of the bloom this year...