Good morning!!!!

[sodamo]

Don, glad to read you got proper attention.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Eric, I am really enjoying the history thru your Father's eyes.

 

[mostly_gas]

good morning all. 62F this morning with rain,.9 in in the rain gauge @ 8AM. Forecast for 75F and some risk of severe thunderstorms. Heading out for bike ride then work on billing and consulting.

Don wolf spiders are great to have around if you have brown recluse spiders. Never had a problem with the recluses with the wolf spiders around, they eat them :drink:

 

[farmer2009]

good morning all. 62F this morning with rain,.9 in in the rain gauge @ 8AM. Forecast for 75F and some risk of severe thunderstorms. Heading out for bike ride then work on billing and consulting.

Don wolf spiders are great to have around if you have brown recluse spiders. Never had a problem with the recluses with the wolf spiders around, they eat them :drink:

Agreed.
Used to have a problem with the brown recluse spiders in the garage. Had a few wolf spiders which are much more visible so I stopped killing them. Their population grew as my fiddler population dropped. Now I have a few fiddlers and several wolfs.

 

[toppop52]

I shined a flashlight under my computer desk at my old house, looking for something I dropped. I saw eyes reflecting, it was a wolf spider, biggest I'd ever seen! I'd had my bare feet about 6" from him, scared me good! Against my natural instincts, I shooed him down to the family room. They will kill just about any spider.

 

[txdon]

We have wolf spiders here also! I don't think I can get it past my wife to bring in any good spiders to get rid bad spiders. But thanks for the info, I'll be moving the wolf spiders I find close to the house.

Of the 4 categories of Brown Recluse spider bites, mine was a 3 (4 being the worse). I had all the symptoms of 4 but the size of the wound/bite area was a 3. There is suppose to be no cutting or surgery on any Brown Recluse Spider bite for 7 days because the venom is still active. My wound site is very purple/black and tender but the skin is staying together for now. Tomorrow will be day 7.

Driving the UTV at night is a good way to find Wolf spiders with their reflective eyes.

 

[rswyan]

Ruh-roh ...

Just scoped out the County's GIS Environmental Viewer ... apparently they are running that log skidder through a designated wetland ...

I'd be real curious to know whether or not this dude attempted to obtain the necessary permits before doing so, or even checked ...

 

[daugen]

apparently South Carolina thinks enough of wolf spiders to make them the state spider...

The Carolina wolf spider (H. carolinensis) is the official state spider of South Carolina, designated as such in 2000. South Carolina is the only U.S. state that recognizes a state spider.[5]

 

[rswyan]

Just met with my next door neighbor, another adjacent property owner, and the new guy that's having the logging done.

Next door neighbor apparently had asked him (before I got there) if he had gotten any permits. Nope, none required according to the new guy. (Young, dumb, and full of ___)

So's I asked him whether he'd gotten permission from anyone to run that skidder through the wetland, explaining that there was only about a 20' wide path/corridor in the (west) parcel bordering my next door neighbor's property that wasn't designated as wetland. (New guy's property consists of two adjacent parcels - one east and one west - that were combined into a single parcel)

Guy first starts off by saying it wasn't HIM that was running the skidder ... it was the LOGGER ...

lol ... yeah, OK ...

Then goes on to explain that the skidder wasn't even on the west parcel ... it was entirely on the east parcel.

At which point I told him: "That's even worse ... because there's no way to traverse (north to south, south to north) the east parcel without going through the wetland ... since the wetland bisects the east parcel completely."

Was sorta at a loss for words after that.

There's a gully running north to south that's fed by a (seasonal ?) spring that eventually feeds the "creek" that is behind my house, which is where all the loggin/skidding activity at the back end of the property was occurring. The creek is covered by "Riparian Setback Ordinance" ... although the gully is not so far as I know. Big piles of slash down in the gully, and if it isn't on my next door neighbor's property, it's really, really close ...

Property boundary was not staked every so often (20' 30' 40' ?) so the logger could tell where the line is, and there is some dispute as to whether some of the trees that are marked are actually on my next door neighbors property. No silt fence either.

The ruts from the skidder are several feet deep ... including across a 5" or 6" 1500 psi gas transmission line (runs west to east) ... that may - or may not - be active. And it ain't buried all that deep, IIRC (saw it when they were replacing a valve right next to where the skidder was running)

Speaking of which, the gully itself (runs north south) may have a gas transmission line running under it.

This could end up getting real interesting ...

:laughing:

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

good morning all. 62F this morning with rain,.9 in in the rain gauge @ 8AM. Forecast for 75F and some risk of severe thunderstorms. Heading out for bike ride then work on billing and consulting.

Don wolf spiders are great to have around if you have brown recluse spiders. Never had a problem with the recluses with the wolf spiders around, they eat them :drink:

I have wolf spiders in the barn, but quite often I find a dead one with it's torso eaten. Just the legs and maybe some shell left over. Not sure what is eating them.

 

[Buppies]

Daugen, you might want to be a little cautious when shopping for trees at your
local nursery or box store.

Copperhead Snake Bites Worker at Home Improvement Store - ABC News

Buppies - no new bear pictures here yet. They've been spotted about 1/4 mile down the road several
times, but nothing here yet. For some reason, they usually make their first appearance between the
middle of May and the first week in June. I'm keeping my eyes open and camera ready.

Eric - I'm also enjoying your dad's stories. As many have noted, it's a great insight into a period in
our history that many didn't want to talk about.

Looking forward to them thanks

 

[Buppies]

Drove to Bethesda Md this morning long trip just got home. I81 is one busy road

 

[RedNeckGeek]

If this don't give you a chuckle, there's sumpin' wrong wit' cha...

 

[RoyJackson]

2016-05-18, 0320

42 right now...high of 66 today.
Mowed most of the lawn yesterday...finish it this afternoon.

 

[Eric Salop]

{As told by Eric's Dad}

Good morning all. I'm not too familiar with American wildlife, so perhaps someone could help me out and answer a question a lot of people in England are arguing over. What kind of critter is that on top of Donald Trump's head ?

No, you can't say that dad ! We don't talk about anything that could be considered as political here.

Sorry son, I was just curious to see if I was right. Sing along - Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier :laughing:

Ok, back to the story, the war in Africa is reaching a turning point, although it certainly didn't feel that way. After Alamein, Churchill famously said "Now this is not the end; it is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning".



El Alamein
"It was while I was in Egypt that I caught malaria. Some of our unit were sent to the delta region as reports had come through that enemy troops had infiltrated the region. We didn't find anything but I came down with a severe fever. I had to go into hospital in Cairo for a few weeks then I was sent back to my unit. Things were really on the move, huge concentrations of guns were moving up to the front lines, tanks under camouflage netting and some disguised as lorries. We also placed dummy tanks all around the place. The camouflage was supervised by a magician. It was evident that something big was about to happen. Sure enough on a bright moonlit night on October 23rd the battle for Alamein began.

It was known that the Germans had a very deep defence of minefields, so the first objective was to penetrate and go beyond those fields so tanks could get to work. To help all this, a huge artillery barrage was to take effect and what a terrific barrage it was. Above a thousand 25 pounder guns in one small sector, they were almost wheel to wheel. In a six mile sector the guns were arranged 20yds apart. As we drove up to the front line positions, we were all given 1/2 a cup of rum. That wasn't to keep the cold out but to steady our nerves and we all needed it.

All at once it was if the heavens exploded, the whole sky just lit up, the heavy artillery at the rear, then the medium, and then the light. The Navy opened up sending 1 ton shells from battleships and wave after wave of bombers did their part. I remember thinking that no one could survive that bombardment, how wrong I was."


"Instead of getting through the minefields we were stuck in the middle of them and were stuck there for 9 days. The enemy were slinging their shells over as if it had not lost a gun, thank goodness for a slit trench."

 

[Eric Salop]

{As told by Eric's Dad}

Poor Jim
"One of our machine gun crew had his leg blown off at his thigh during a Stuka dive bomb attack. We were very short of water and food and once some tracks had been cleared in the mine field, lorries ferried supplies in and dropped them in dumps so you could help yourselves. Of course this meant you were out in the open. As soon as the first bombs hit, I laid down flat like most others did but poor Jim ( Farron), he just kept running back to the slit trench. Another Jim (Slater) was hit in the ankle
After the raid had ended ambulances following in the tracks of the lorries came to pick up the dead and wounded. Jim Farron was put on a stretcher and Jim Slater was helped by me and another lad to the ambulance. I had taken Jim Slater's shoe off and put it in the ambulance. In doing so I joked that he would need it later. Two and a half years later when I was on disembarkation leave, Jim Farron came to my house and said, ""Telling me that I would need my shoe later was meant to cheer me up was it? I knew full well my leg had been blown off."" I told him the real story, but fancy he was conscious all the time. Old Jim once told me a woman on a tram car in Sheffield complained about his manners for sitting down and not letting older people have his seat. So he told her that if you know anybody who lives in Egypt, to go and dig his leg up at Alamein. ( I did bury Jim's leg, it was the least I could do.)

Those minefields were a major defence for the enemy, we had lots of tanks have their tracks blown off with mines, and then they are immobile and easy targets. Some tanks had long steel brackets way out in front of them and cogged wheels and chains fitted so they could play around and thus detonate mines safely. In some cases a charge of explosives was placed about 15ft or so from a mine and when the mine went off so did the explosive, with the result that a tank was destroyed. Instant detonators were linked up from the mine to the explosive. Tracks were eventually laid with white tape on either side. The Royal Engineers made quite a few of these tracks by so many of them forming a line and prodding the ground with bayonets.


When the breakthrough finally came we raced forward and fanned out **** for leather. Once we were in open ground we were no longer fearful of mines. Our tank brigade took up positions on Ruweisat Ridge, a large enemy tank force including some Tiger tanks had been spotted and these were a threat to one of our flanks. A London regiment with 6lbs anti-tank guns took up positions beyond our tanks and we were sent with them to give protection from infantry attack. All this took place under cover of darkness. Nothing happened the next day, but we spotted enemy tanks in the far distance. During the early hours of the next morning the gunners were pulled out of their positions and for hours we were protecting nothing. Then, the enemy tanks started to move forward. All we could do was watch. Eventually we were ordered to pull out, but by then we were within range of the enemy machine guns, it was a case of running zig-zag then drop down then run zig-zag again. Believe me, it was no joke especially carrying a machine gun or its tripod. How four machine gun crews got out safely is beyond me, luckily it was only ten yards or so before we were over the other side of the ridge. The enemy tanks retreated again and we never did find out what our strategy was with us and the gunners pulling out. Later in the week, quite a few tank battles took place and the enemy suffered a big loss and were in full retreat. In fact they ran that fast that we ran out of maps to cover our new ground."

 

[ronjhall]

Need to pour another cup of coffee. 34° with clear skies this morning. Heading to 65° with clear skies. Need a day off from projects. Yesterday installation of a new air compressor in motorhome has me hurting today. Should be a good to collect supplies for tomorrow project of resealing roof.
Good Morning All.

 

[Thomas]

37F clear sky upper 60's for high.
Less than hour heading to valley for 8 hours work,this evening little trimming mowing beside the road.

Enjoy the day all.

 

[Buppies]

50 this morning high of 60 more rain and drizzle then clear for tomorrow

Eric you are really good and am enjoying so very much

 

[daugen]

good morning all, cool wet morning, low sixties going up to 72 today with more rain showers coming in, then drying out until heavy rain on Saturday. My friend in Delaware has had rain 13 out of the 17 last days.

I got the propane tank on the rv changed yesterday, 30 pounder filled a bit hard for me to lift up and reattach but I got it done. Was pleased to find out that the second bottle was turned off, and full, so I had only used half the propane supply. Which means if I actually wanted to dry camp, which I don't, 60 pounds of propane will last at least a week, maybe much longer. Plugged in, it should last almost all summer. My challenge with the TT is that it does not have a heat pump; heat is propane only and there is no way that propane will last very long in heating a minimally insulated travel trailer. Definitely more suited to warmer weather. Which is just where I want to be.

Filled an empty 30 pounder at the propane store, 15 bucks. Have no idea how many gallons are in there. Is propane 7 or 8 pounds a gallon too?

I want warm weather, but no snakes and no killer spiders. Sometimes you can't have one without the other it seems...