Good morning!!!!

[rswyan]

Have had the Robins around here for the last week or two as well.

Supposed to be nice tomorrow (but cooler) ... might collect up the blue bird houses and clean them out.

 

[Redneck in training]

Saw first robin and blue bird yesterday and heard birds singing early morning.

 

[mostly_gas]

Good morning all. 58F and cloudy this morning .2 in rain in the gauge. Yesterday had 1.3 in. in the gauge and only got to 65F with 2 hour window with no rain (last 5 min of ride rain had restarted). Today rain should pass through this morning then a break, warm to 66F and breezy. Check bikes out for Saturday's 60 miler, more consulting and chores around house. Weeds need mowing but rain really messing with that.

 

[B7510HSD]

Well we came thru the storm with no damage here at home weather station reported 57mph here at the house. Station on the hill about 3 miles from here reported 68mph sustained wind with gust to 104mph. It's been reported that one person was killed when a tree fell on their car on hwy 26 in Oregon. Will take a ride around the area in a bit and see what damage is around lots of trees down some on houses as well. Stay Safe!

 

[mkr7734]

Good morning, Cloudy 48 heading to 54
Had a guy come out yesterday to do a quote on 700' of my lane. My part. It has not been added to for 8 years and could use about 3" over the top. The guy next door has a Gooseneck dump and we do most of the lane together up to my part. But at 6 ton a load it takes a long time and it does not tailgate well. . The closest pit is 21 miles away so we are lucky to get in three loads in the morning before he leaves for work at noon. Two years ago we put down 29 loads, took weeks. So I thought I would just get mine out to quote to see how much it will be. Would be nice to just have it tailgated where all I would have to do is clean it up with the grader.
Don't know yet got to get the quote but at $9.00 a ton for delivery I am not to keen on it. That much made sense when diesel was over $4.00 a gallon but not now at $2.00. CA 6 Gravel is $6.50 a ton. Trucking should be no more.
What do you guys pay?

Have had the Robins around here for the last two weeks or so.

 

[sodamo]

62°F and .42 inches rain last 24 hours. Wind has waned, seems to be clearing.

Be safe
Have a great day

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[sodamo]

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.

Closer to 10 around here would love to have one, but...
I do have a military humvee trailer. I have a loadhandler in it. One of those crank out fabric things. Works pretty good unless it rains. Gets old on multiple loads.

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[daugen]

Folks in Bossier City Louisiana have been hammered by rain, interesting email from a close friend's brother on what must be an AirForce base there:

We've had 10 inches of rain so far and another 10 is falling now...I had to send the B-52 crew home early yesterday, and I closed the simulator and fled the base. Water was over a foot deep in the streets and cars were stalled everywhere. I plowed on through until the Mercedes started floating...fortunately The car drifted to the center of the road and grabbed some traction. I floated by the cops just as they were closing the road...good thing I was driving a diesel otherwise I would have been stuck!

 

[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.



Today;

 

[rswyan]

Just got off the phone with a nice fellow from the company that sells parts for my (old) alarm system.

I was attempting to place an order for an optional relay and a wiring harness for dual backup batteries and there was a problem with their website's Captcha verification system not allowing the order to be accepted ... so after numerous attempts, I clicked on the "Contact Us" link.

Turns out they are about 40 minutes up the road in the Cleveland 'burbs ... so I'm going to head up there at some point and just pick up the items.

Nice guy ... spent about 20 minutes on the phone with me and gen'ed me into a number of the things regarding the system - including telling me how I could tell whether the system could even be software-locked by the folks that originally installed it (presence of a particular code on an EPROM)

Unfortunately, it appears that mine could have been locked ... but no way to tell whether or not it actually is, without actually attempting to reprogram it.

He did say that it was a very good system ... in fact, he had one of the earliest units produced of this particular model - about 5 years older (circa 1985) than mine - in his own home. Since he was in the business, he wanted to replace it with something more modern and state-of-the-art ... but even after multiple lighting strikes/power surges it just kept on ticking. It finally bit the dust in 2005.

Sent an email earlier to the young lady from alarm company no. 2, telling her I did not want to keep pestering her so I'd appreciate it if she could tell me when I might expect her proposal ... thus far I have not heard anything back ...

 

[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...