Good morning!!!!

[sodamo]

Amazing how the yearly school supply giveaway has become a sad staple of our times. One of our local radio stations has a couple of plea ads, highlighting the sad state of the children. IMHO, if they were serious, they would sandwich those ads around the political ads (state primary next week) touting what a great job these yahoos have done and deserve to be reelected. Of course we could take the funds from the bloated welfare programs and fund the schools, but that would cost votes.

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[WayneB]

65 degrees, cloudy and predicting rain this morning and cloudy most of the day!
Temps will hit mid 70's.
Roy your are so right it does look like any other zero turn,p but that green sure stands out.
Sure you will get the hang of it quickly.

 

[ronjhall]

Started coffee pot brewing. 57° with cloudy skies this morning. Heading to 81° with possibility of thunderstorms all day. weather forecast has been predicting Showers/Thunderstorms for the last 3 days. Nothing has shown up here. So today I am going to finish cleaning up the trees I trimmed on Thursday. The cut the lawn.
Good Morning All.

 

[RoyJackson]

2014-08-02, 0645

58 and overcast right now...should see about 80 today and maybe rain.
I got most of the lawn cut yesterday...hope to finish it today if it doesn't rain before I get a chance. I'd like to mow the field too.
First order of business is to head to Burlington to pick up my wife after her two week visit with her daughter's family.

The zero turn is definitely fast...I cut out a good 40% of my mowing time. The grass was long...I had let it go too long between mowing. There were places the z920 bogged, but that was my fault...deck set too low and the grass was thick. At least I didn't run into or over anything!

 

[Thomas]

63F cloudy highs low 80's showers or two later on.
Twin fawns are enjoying flower veggie garden eats,can't get upset w/fawns its there nature,but can tell watch them scoot hide behind trees peek back.

 

[riptides]

it's humid and warm outside. I think spotty showers are called for all w/e. I need to go start cutting grass. Bush hog style! Everyone have a great day.

 

[rswyan]

63 degrees and partly cloudy here ... high of 79 and thunderstorms predicted.

My second cup is brewing ...

The wife - who is always oh-so-chipper before she's had her first cup of coffee - commented, while she was waiting for it to brew, that she was going to "destroy that **** thing" after she gets home from work today ...

(It's a Keurig ... and it is very inconsistent in its output, which is usually about half of what it should put out ... despite repeated cleanings. It's odd because we have very soft water ...)

I ended up sleeping about 12 hours last night ... so I'm on the daytime schedule now. Nice to get caught up.

Have an appointment to get my ears lowered at 10 AM ... then maybe a little running around, picking up some odds and ends I'll need for the diverter valve install and the grapple build.

Didn't get a whole lot done in the shed yesterday ... managed to get the conduit put up and finish wiring the two west light fixtures together, burned some scrap wood from the crate from the posthole digger ... just to reduce the fire hazard before we start welding, a little bit of fastener sorting done ... but that's mostly on hold until more drawer dividers come in.

The Simplicity ZTR wouldn't start and I traced it to the lug on the positive battery cable that I had replaced last year. I had only crimped it on and the connection had loosened ... so I beat the crimp out of the lug and properly soldered it on.

Also managed to get a Bill of Materials made up for the grapple and get it sent in to the steel supplier I've used in the past for a quote. Also had him give me a price on a 4' x 8' piece of 1/4 plate for a new welding table. That turned out to be a lot cheaper than what I figured it would ... will probably go ahead and snag it and use some of it for the grapple ... at 325 lbs just for the plate, it won't be easy to move around inside the shop and the shop is so small leaving it set up all the time isn't really practical.

Hopefully I'll be able to get that copper run for the air lines today and then I'll be to pull the covers on the welder and plasma cutter and clean any crud out of the insides. Then, if it isn't raining, I can cut up the frame for the dump cart I started to build (before I broke down and just bought one from Country Mfg. ) so that some of that steel can be used for the grapple.

 

[rswyan]

rswyan you are never going to find anything again. :laughing:

LOL ... now that's funny.

Well, at least it won't a worsening of my present condition ...

My favorite small stuff container is the Planter's Nuts clear plastic jars; they have a nice wide mouth and are see through.

Sounds workable ... and the price is right ! :thumbsup:

 

[dave1949]

63*F with fog this morning. Upper 70's today with a chance of evening rain.

Larro and David's remarks regarding the school supply give-aways made me curious, the scale of that is not something I was aware of. I checked out Seeds of Faith Ministries, one group doing the give-away that is active in this region. There are many groups doing school give-aways, this is a sampling: Creative Back-to-School Product Donation Programs on Pinterest

Some are nonprofit faith based 501(c)(3) charities where a faith oriented group establishes a separate organization to be IRS registered as a 501(c)(3). This makes them eligible to apply for federal block grants to faith based charities. Those were established under Bush II and continued since.

All seem to operate on fund raising, private and corporate donations, and volunteer's time. If you are willing to dig deep enough, it should be possible to find out what percentage of a group's budget is supplied by federal block grants. I'll bet it is not the major share of most budgets, I could be surprised though.

I suppose there is something there to dislike for various people with various viewpoints, but taken on the whole it sounds like a communal effort to support and promote education. For Seeds of Faith Ministries the school supplies are but a small part of their overall activities. That seems to be true of many of these organizations.

For faith based groups communal support is certainly within the normal boundaries of their creeds and beliefs. There are strictly secular charities also that see a need and try to fill it.

I suppose there could be a scandal hiding in plain sight somewhere, like someone who creates their own very well compensated position as director of some 501(c)(3) group funded by tax and donation money. But, walking the fine line of legal dishonesty is not limited to federal block grant recipients. There are much bigger fish to fry. To be really effective, the anger needs to go beyond the small-time takers.

 

[wngsprd]

Cloudy, cool and a damp 65 after slow rain most of yesterday and last night, with more likely today and 78. With this weather, it's time to do some indoors jobs, one of which may involve a recliner.