Good morning!!!!

[m7040]

PG, having a kid working for the government has opened my eyes to the inefficiencies that exists. At least in this agency there are a few hard working people that is keeping it functioning but there is a large group of employees not being challenged by the supervision to perform and being held to account. She is essentially being blamed for doing her job by some employees because it makes them look bad.

 

[txdon]

Good morning! 52˚ and raining - 3/4" so far and it's slowing down quickly. Got the dead trees at mom's taken care of yesterday plus they trimmed up another 5 trees. They were not able to push the large oak over so they just cut it off at ground level.

 

[daugen]

since the last one was clear, managed to talk my primary into
Cologuard home test instead of colonoscopy. Box just arrived, opened it up to take a look and read instructions.
Impressive quality. Was reminded about ten times in instructions
not to drink the preservative fluid. No problem there.

seems sad that perhaps in public service if you weren't mediocre to begin with, you were beat down by the system to become mediocre.
Long term frustration will dull anyone's motivation.
Very hard to get rid of nonperforming employees any more.

I think political lawn signs are a great waste of resources and an eyesore.
They are everywhere now.
My favorite is the local OZ sign that is oversize, red and white, and I'm told if you turn it 45 degrees,
it spells NO. Elections are very important, but I question the need for signs from anyone.
But it is free expression and I can ignore if I want.

off to get apples, my car washed, lunch and then taking MIL to Acme.

 

[Looking4new]

Good morning, the low temperature was 30 and the high will be 48°F Wind SSE 7 mph. Sunny!

Don't know what I will get into today if anything. Yesterdays dump run was uneventful, but I did find out that I can dump off tires for free.

Buddy that took the Jeep off my hands called me to tell me that the drivers' side floor fell out on the trailer ride to his place 238 miles south east of me. He was laughing about it. He is only going to use it for a snow plow for winter, strictly off road. He has the signed off vehicle part of the ownership and he said when he swaps it into his name he will put the 'unfit' designation on it.

Have a safe day all

 

[Mark P.]

Good Morning - 56° currently going to 65°

Great squirel pic..

Going to see my mom this weekend after working the fair the last 2 weekends. She will be excited....
Hope everyone has a great weekend..

Mark

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all! Low was 28°, a heavy dusting of snow was left overnight. Not enough to have to break out any removal tools, most began melting when the sun came up. The temp is up to 41° @0900, heading for 52°.

Yesterday afternoon, the wind picked up and snow showers would roll across, so didn't get anything done in the shop. The shelf will get installed today along with the grow lights. Wifey will be happy.

This weekend, the temps should be around 60°, so the vehicle maintenance will get done over the next couple of days. Need to add the tractor to the list too...
Might try to start doing the walkway border ..... that project has been hanging in limbo for too long.

We are having a treat for dinner.... take out from Cracker Barrel. Wifey will have their 'Friday fish fry', I like the chicken fried steak. Fried apples for dessert. We spread them out over the buttermilk biscuits.....
It's ok to splurge / cheat occasionally.....

A busy day ahead, so I better get moving....
Everyone have a great day!

 

[fatjay]

You may want to inspect the rest of the brake lines for corrosion. I used copper nickel alloy lines for replacements to protect from salt corrosion

Yes, went over all the lines. The rear lines had already been replaced, it was the front lines that were the problem. The driver side blew, but I'll also be replacing the passenger side.

 

[pennwalk]

Speaking of people that make the rest of us look bad.

RS

 

[rswyan]

55F and "Fair" @ 15:00, looks like the Sun is trying to make an appearance a couple hours earlier than scheduled ...

Made the run down to Menards and picked up order, stuck another $90 in rebates in the mailbox for the mailman on the way back in.

Skipped getting gas for the Cub but I did stop by Mickey D's for a McMuffy and an order of hash browns.

Very happy with the looks of the new live trap - wasn't sure how that was going to play out since it came folded down (collapsable) but the wire is much heavier gauge steel than the last one that came from Tractor Supply. Looks sturdy. Was hoping for the $35 bucks it cost it would be something decent and it looks like it may be.

Jury is still out on the junction boxes - pretty sure one of them is the right size and will work, not certain on the other one.

Since it was cloudy out, it was fairly chilly over in the barn when I got back (no heat gain due to the lack of sun) I decided to do a little leaf blowing with the Cub. Got most of the back and the south ends of the west and east sides done.

Came in to warm my feet up + headset was out of juice.

Woman worked on cleaning up the stuff that was in the Kubota bucket, think that may be mostly done ...

She also ran a load in the washer (with minimal leakage) ...

We forgot to bring the putty knife over from the barn last night which is needed to remove the cover on the washer I believe. Probably head over there in a few for that ... and see what else I can get into ...

 

[rswyan]

Speaking of people that make the rest of us look bad.

RS

 

[txdon]

Now if I can find a little tractor floatie...Don, you find stuff better than anyone, still want that mermaid...

Tractors and mermaids - some things just don't go together . . .
unless they are on a float . . . well maybe not then either . . . .

https://flic.kr/p/2nus4Qk

 

[Thomas]

50F clear sky,looks like bird bath will be making ice overnight again.

Been good outside day...back pack blower had nice 6 hour hike high portage of leaves have fallen and clean up soooo no leave detail tomorrow
While blowing leaves 31 turkeys follow closely,sure wouldn't want to be insect or worm.

Well I guess I better think about getting ready for date night,wash up put on some good rags brush the old brush pile.

Enjoy your evening all.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

BEF, congrats on your land purchase.

We had our trip on the Alleghany Special yesterday...we were on the train that went southwest to Goshen through Buffalo Gap. It was a brilliant day, and a lot of fun. BEF, I had the same meal as you...was delicious...catered by Lil Gus's in Grottoes...I'll definitely stop there whenever driving through. PJ, we rode by a beautiful building that the guide said had been a large organ building company...I didn't catch the name, but is in western Augusta County...searched for half an hour on the internet, but couldn't find anything about it. Then we walked around Staunton, which is a well restored old city in the Shenandoah Valley. Spent some time in the Black Friars Shakespeake theatre, and reading history exhibits in the City Hall.

I didn’t know who did the food, but it was very good. Staunton is a nice town, we had wanted to be closer to it, but costs were lot higher. I want to go back and visit Staunton some more.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

55° little nippy sitting on porch. I just heard we are having a campfire tonight.

This tree really pretty this year.

Yep, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

Noticed my neighbor drove up in a kioti side by side yesterday. His dog was inside with him. One of their daughters lives on the road behind us, so he must have come back from there.
We have the best neighbor here you can have.

Although I remember when I bought this land. I was building my shed, waiting on building permit for the house, lady from horse barns across the road comes over, very angry because someone had stolen some metal gates. She looks in my unfinished shed for them. I guess it was sort of the same initial welcome as I got in VA.
This lady lived down the road about a mile. they sold the land next to me not long after that. I wanted to buy but too much for me at the time. Guy on other side bought it. He has since sold his farm, and the land next to me, to another neighbor for well over $1M a few years back.

Need to go in and warm up.

 

[daugen]

delicata squash grown by my DE friends, with butter, nutmeg, cinnamon and a tiny bit of clove
I saved about 20 seeds, set them aside to dry, to plant next year. One squash plant has an awful lot of seeds if you wanted to recycle them all.
give someone a squash and it can be the gift that keeps on giving. Letting them cool off for a bit, real tongue burners now.

58 degrees going down to 37 tonight. Tomatoes and green peppers still trying, brought another tomato in today.
Freezes so far been right around 32-34, apparently not long enough to kill off the tomatoes. Sure took care of a number of flowers though, shriveled right up.

Deadheaded the roses today, cut one bush back for winter, other three still going strong. Until a hard frost they are blooming red, yellow and pink.
Yellow ones are nicely fragrant.
Maybe I'm a sap but I always thought bringing a rose home to my wife meant something special. Always worked for me.
I'd pick some and give them to the old lady across the street but she might get the wrong idea for sure. Oh no, she can gaze on them from afar

 

[daugen]

Don, if I kept the butter off, you would like this. There was only a small pat per serving, rest was natural juices, but as I ate those squash
thought to myself, this wouldn't be so bad two or three nights a week. Smaller orange squash much better than larger yellow squash,
much more flavor, just yummy. Ate the outside and all. Now stuff that squash with something crunchy and low fat. Maybe basmati rice to suck up the juices.
ate one of each and am totally stuffed

was very careful with clove, know that is very strong, but should have worried more about too much nutmeg and not enough cinnamon.
Now I know for the next time. I was out of vanilla, holey moley has that stuff gotten expensive. I was reading labels today; Acme well stocked with various vanillas, all in the
seriously expensive range. But a couple drops of vanilla on each squash might be interesting.
Stuffed with basmati rice and yellow corn. Of course then I think mixing in a whole small container of sour cream would make it just perfect.
And lots of grated cheese on top. Then broiled. But with cheese and cream we have left the plant kingdom. And for sure not a bit of butter on it.

My grandfather would be annoyed at that. Built the family fortune, as it was, on butter and eggs, enough to buy the farm here in 1939.
So I'm kind of partial to butter and eggs.
Grandfather sold his plant in Newark NJ to Borden, burdened under the pressure of buying a huge amount
of new mechanized equipment needed to cut and package the new "quarter pounders", what we all know as a stick of butter today.
He sold out right before the Depression. Invested all his money in stock market and lost most of it in the Crash. Went back to work owning a business in West Orange NJ, selling
Fords for a while. Those were tough times. So Grandfather was very frugal and worked the pants off his grandchildren.
No slackers would work for that man. I have a lot of respect for him. Not bad after coming through Ellis Island with a sack and a few bucks in his pocket.
At least he had a brother here with a butter business, and Augenblick & Brother was born. My Grandfather was the brother...
In Newark in the Thirties everyone knew of the building with the big white cow on a sign outside. Torn down and they built a downtown train station on the site.

I sure wish i could go back a hundred years, walk under that sign with the big white cow on it, and then could see what the operation looked like.
Never got that chance and no pictures survived. And no time machine.

I love looking at the old ads. You never knew macaroni could do all that did you?...

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Guess I stayed out too long.

 

[m7040]

Nice day today, keeping a small fire going in the stove all day. Loaded some more firewood into the house. Changed bucket on the excavator to the 36 inch smooth one and graded some for the firewood shed. I think it was scraping up enough dirt from the surrounding areas to not have to bring in any dirt. Also used the front blade to level it out some. Still some more work to do before using the post hole digger for the posts.

Drew your story reminds me about my grandfather He had a farm with milk cows, pigs and chickens. He also had a huge patch with strawberries and vegetables as well as fruit trees and a dozen bee stands for honey.
I was born on his 50 year old birthday and was the first grand kid so I was very special to him. I spent all my vacations on the farm and loved it all. Riding the horses, learning to hunt, picking strawberries, slinging honey etc trying it all. My parents lived 30 miles or so from there and one time when I was 4 or 5 years old they could not find me and a search was made finding me on the way to my grandfather 3 miles down the road on my tricycle.

 

[pennwalk]

Buckeye, You need to ease up on the healthy diet you are starting to look a little peaked.

 

[Wagtail]

Good (Saturday) morning. A cool overnight Low of 9C and it's presently 18.4C. Overcast, with the odd glimpse of sunlight, and a light breeze. There was 3.5mm in the gauge at 0900.

Not much on for today... it's still too wet to even think about mowing around the house, which finally needs it. Perhaps tomorrow after Church.

That's about it, take care all.