Good morning!!!!

[ronjhall]

Drinking first cup of coffee. 64° with some clouds this morning. Heading to 90° with partly cloudy skies.
Get together for my Aunt was good. 10 people came. One other aunt and all the rest nieces and nephews. Great surprise for her. She is headed to Arlington, VA. Will be a few blocks from a niece that my Aunt and Uncle raised after her mother died.
Back to scraping and priming barn today until it get too hot.
This Sandhill Crane looks like it jumping for joy because of 4th of July celebration. But it jumped because it thought a Hawk was attaching it that I had chased off barn roof.

EVERYONE Have a HAPPY 4th Of JULY.

Good Morning All

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Happy 4th of July.

Bears repeating and listening to:
YouTube

 

[txdon]

Happy Fourth of July! 75˚F heading to match yesterdays 101˚F clear skies. Veggie hotdogs and watermelon are on the menu today.

The second potato crop was sparse, only 10 pounds of potatoes. The tomatoes are doing better and with the 6 lbs I made a gallon of chunky hot sauce.

Ron the crane looks like you imposed him on the landscape pic, nice action pic.

RNG beware of the mist. If you can smell it it's already in your body. RS do you have buzzards there that take care of the dead animals?

Contemplating a 5 hour drive next week to see wife's great aunt, she is in her first year of assisted living so we can see her only through the window or at a distance by the lobby. Her vision and hearing are not too good. But it will be her 103rd birthday.

 

[Rich B1]

Good morning! 72 and sunny, supposed to get to near 90 today.

Got the bulk of the mowing done yesterday......but felt like I had been fried in the sun. Gonna reduce sun exposure today

Happy 4th of July!

Everyone stay safe out there

 

[wngsprd]

Gave me goosebumps. Used to love listening to him on the radio. Thanks for sharing.

Happy 4th of July.

Bears repeating and listening to:
YouTube

 

[rswyan]

79F and "cloudy" @ 09:40 according to WB. However it looks pretty sunny to me ...

The Woman ended up getting the day off after all ... :thumbsup:

No specific plans ... but now that I've got the air compressor down here operational again, I'll bet greasing the loader is going to be near the top of the list ...

Still coming out of the fog ...

 

[rswyan]

... RS do you have buzzards there that take care of the dead animals? ...

Oh yeah .... buzzards are definitely a thing around here:

Buzzard Day – Hinckley OH Chamber of Commerce

Having said that though, they'd better get with it if they want any free lunch: the red-tailed hawk has already been out there this morning, as have the starlings ... :laughing:

Contemplating a 5 hour drive next week to see wife's great aunt, she is in her first year of assisted living so we can see her only through the window or at a distance by the lobby. Her vision and hearing are not too good. But it will be her 103rd birthday.

Hope ya guys are able to do it ... :thumbsup:

 

[Looking4new]

The temp here in North Bay is only going up to 80. Was 91°F in Thunder Bay the day before yesterday. Not very humid though which is a good thing.
I am back in North Bay for a month of hauling locally and then back up to Thunder Bay for the rest of the summer and fall. I deadheaded down from TB, 1100 kms=684 miles and used 480L/126.9 G of fuel 5.39 miles to the gallon. The air con in the truck is working great!
I've got two deer whistles on the truck. I don't really care if I hit deer or not. I've got a steel bumper. Moose and bears are another problem, though.

That is good news, Drew!

Happy 4th of July all!

 

[rswyan]

Ron,

Great pic of the sandhill ... :thumbsup:

Glad the send off for your aunt turned out well.

Pace yourself in this heat.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Lucky frogs!

As a young man in my late pre-teens, I had a woods lot to roam around in with my trusty Crossman 760 BB rifle. I also had a subscription to Popular Science, and in those days, there was more than one company advertising fireworks fuse, casings, chemicals, and recipes. I quickly figgered out a dodge around the parental signature, and discovered the joys of silver salutes and M160s. One day among the beech trees, there manifested the most horrendous stink my young nose had ever encountered. Turned out to be a groundhog corpse floating in one of the bowls formed by the roots. Didn't take long to come up with the idea of blowing it up with one of those M160s, after all they were made with waterproof fuse and seemed perfect. Took a bunch of deep breaths, got one stuck in there real good, and lit, then retreated around the other side of the tree. Not long after there was a tremendous roar, and there was nothing left of Mr. Groundhog except for an abhorrent mist. Unfortunately the other side of the tree turned out to be down wind, and next thing you know, that mist coated everything around it, including me. After I overcame my initial gag reflex, it wasn't really all that bad. At least it wasn't until I got home. Mom made me strip off in the garage, and I'm not sure I ever sat that particular t-shirt/jeans combo again. I couldn't really tell her I'd blown up a groundhog without ruining my fireworks connection, so the slow flowing creek in the woods got the blame.

I feel sorry for kids these days that will never experience the joys of home made fireworks and airborne groundhog guts. Then again, judging from the shenanigans going on now, maybe it's for the better, as not many of them would have survived intact.:laughing:

Yep. No telling what trouble we'd get into....

Don, my former neighbor was in the VFD here, and was called to an office fire. Said he was overcome with burning plastic (should have had SCBA), and it messed him up for a while. He had gotten heatstroke too (not sure if if was that day or later), and then he was even more susceptible to it. He had to change jobs (to get out of the heat).

Happy Birthday America!

Just read the Declaration of Independence, an annual Independence Day tradition. Then I skim the Constitution. Keep a copy of both on my desk. Thank you to the Brave men in 1776 who started us on the path to be freer than any in history, with the ability to pursue "Happiness."

"Like!" Brave men, those signers of the Declaration were.

Oh yeah...washing machine took a dump yesterday...so, I'm pricing them. The failed unit is a front loader that came with the house. I'd guess it's 15-20 years old. Boy! Washing machines have gotten pretty expensive! I'm looking at a Samsung top loader...going to cost a bit north of $700.

Happy 4th of July, my Friends!!!

Roy, look at the Speed Queen. Best out there IMO. Many of my friends have bought them. No complaints.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

RS, what kind of air compressor did you work on?

I'm about to tear into an old SpeedAire, twin cylinder. Will order repair kit depending on what I find inside of it.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Drinking first cup of coffee. 64° with some clouds this morning. Heading to 90° with partly cloudy skies.
Get together for my Aunt was good. 10 people came. One other aunt and all the rest nieces and nephews. Great surprise for her. She is headed to Arlington, VA. Will be a few blocks from a niece that my Aunt and Uncle raised after her mother died.
Back to scraping and priming barn today until it get too hot.
This Sandhill Crane looks like it jumping for joy because of 4th of July celebration. But it jumped because it thought a Hawk was attaching it that I had chased off barn roof.

EVERYONE Have a HAPPY 4th Of JULY.

Good Morning All

Ron, great action photo, with your focus at the right distance.

Billy, I'm wondering about Coco....hope she's getting better.

Don, 103 is a long time. 5 hours is not so long. But to only visit through a window is disheartening.

 

[rswyan]

Linseed oil looks nice on that pine, RS.

It does ... I'm hoping that it will preserve the coloration of the wood, if I maintain it yearly (because I like the look) ... but have no idea whether that will actually happen ... :confused3:

Guess we'll find out ...

That bird house looks like a monster! How big is a flicker, anyway?

Yeah ... it's a big one (the nest box that is)

Wiki lists a medium to large flicker at 11 - 14 inches in length, with a wingspan of 17 - 21 inches.

So they are good-sized ... but not anywhere near as big as the pileated woodpecker.

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/northern-flicker

Was able to get the key fob remote paired to the van's alarm yesterday, but the baffling series of button pushes and key on/off sequences that program the various features still eludes me. Hopefully there's a YouTube video out there somewhere for the learning impaired such as myself.:laughing:

I know the feeling ...

I need to follow through and figure out how to replace the battery in the key fob for the Sprinter. I started to open it up at one point, but was concerned it seemed not to want to come apart and I didn't want to force it and break it.

Anyways, glad you were able to get it paired ... :thumbsup:

 

[rswyan]

RS, what kind of air compressor did you work on?

Kyle,

It's just a little 5 hp portable Coleman ("Black Max" I think) ... horizontal tank, 30 gallon I believe, wheels on one end.

Bought it new back in the '80's ... never had any issues with it (the auto-drain valve line I repaired is my add-on, Harbor Freight ) ... just change the oil every so often.

I'm about to tear into an old SpeedAire, twin cylinder. Will order repair kit depending on what I find inside of it.

The old ones are often worth the effort ... :thumbsup:

 

[rswyan]

... RS, nice woodworking, do you use linseed oil as final coating?

Was planning to, yes ...

Wondering how weatherproof it is.

It's supposed to be a fairly good wood preservative, but doesn't offer any UV protection.

I'm guessing that given it's thickness (1 1/2") it will far outlast me ... :laughing:

Nice grain on that wood too.

Southern Yellow Pine (supposedly) ... :thumbsup:

had my coffee and bagel, all is well with the world.
looked through an article on best inexpensive places to retire outside of US and also in US. Woodlands in Texas was one mentioned. Also a nice beach town in Maryland half an hour from my good friend in Delaware, where they don't tax SS. No matter what, I need good health care within a reasonable driving distance so that is always a consideration. Plus I want to rent to start, and always looking for a home on at least an acre with some woods around it. Don't think I could ever go back to a townhouse due to noise and privacy. This is my plan for after I get out of assisted living in PA. Everything is way too expensive in that area unless I lived in a pretty undesirable area or got very lucky finding a cottage on an estate. Researching this gives me something to do...

Good luck on your research project ... sure no shortage of good places to live.

Might be worth taking an extended vacation (or two) to get a feel for the area(s) you're considering.

Hope you all take some nice holiday pics and remember to keep your distance from relatives. Most of my friends are staying home and kind of bummed out about it.
We just don't seem to be making much progress here, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be flickering.

Sadly so ...

 

[ronjhall]

Ron, great action photo, with your focus at the right distance.

It was luck. I had just taken a picture of the Hawk. Moved camera to take picture of Crane when it jumped up.

 

[sodamo]

Happy Independence Day

71°F and only .01 inches rain. Bet the garden is thirsty.

Hope to flail some of the middle areas

Have to make a PO run. Aldo pickup prescription refill at WallyWorld. One of our favorite places to eat is having their lobster special so we are splurging.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day

Oopps, wife just told me, PO closed - holiday.

 

[sodamo]

Raised a new flag today. With a little help.

 

[sodamo]

Drew, I imagine you doing excellent research for that move, and having fun doing so. That said, I don’t see you renting longterm.
Perhaps expand your research to designing and building the perfect place perhaps with the end result being once no longer viable for you it is an ideal rental for someone else (income for you). You could even plan for in residence care for yourself.

 

[sodamo]

Ahhh, battery life on the trimmer. Didn’t actually measure but assuming about an hour. I only used about half hour at a time and put back on charger in between. Last time I checked showed about half, 2 lights.
This is blade configuration