Good morning!!!!

[Buppies]

5 chilly degrees high of 28 today warm up coming next week but more cold on the horizon

 

[Eric Salop]

I read an op-ed around New Years that recommended resolutions...it said to learn something new each day, something surprising each week, and something shocking each month.

Then I will look forward to 52 surprises in 2018, though not too sure about the 12 shocks

I know it was too cold for you to go hiking the other day, but I'd be interested to learn if there really is a Trail of the Lonesome Pine in your Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia ?

 

[300UGUY]

4F, going to 24 ! That’s a heat wave right now. I have bronchitis, and couldn’t sleep, so I am up early.

Eric, I have been trying to establish a hedge here, about 300 ft long, on the east side of the house. I have lilacs right now, I am going to put in rose of Sharon next. I’ve seen pics of hedgerows in your country, they seem to be of several different types of plants? I don’t plan to trim this thing much, I want it to grow up as a barrier. Any advice?

 

[Eric Salop]

Good morning, I'm looking forward to a day without anything wet falling from the sky. Ground is frozen and and although not down deep enough to take the weight of tractor, it should at least make pushing a wheelbarrow up the slopes a lot easier.

I'm another one on the look out for a new stereo amp. My son gave me his PMC TB2i speakers at Christmas. He wasn't using them after he upgraded his own system and was kind enough to give them to me instead of selling them on ebay, which he did with all his other audio equipment. They are absolutely stunning compared to what I had before and deserve something better to drive them. Part of me wants to go with the old school class A/B amps , though they waste a lot of power (that's why they need big vent slots to let out all the heat). Class D amps are cool, literally, generally way more power efficient, so they can go in sleeker cases and are getting better all the time, so with my ageing ears they are about good enough. I used to be obsessed about THD (total harmonic distortion) numbers for amps, now thanks to tinnitus, I don't really care anymore. I have a "borrowed" amp at the moment that supports DNLA over wifi, though now I mostly stream music instead of playing from a hard disc server, it's often easier to connect to the amp using Airplay from an ipad.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Good morning all, 0 this morning going to 27 and sunny. Was going to make the scrub plane yesterday but got tired of all the tools laying on the bench so I started a french cleat system on the wall near my bench. Got one holder made for the battery charger for the drill. Many more to go. Yesterday was eating lunch and a big filling fell out. Need to get to the dentist but I guess they will just have to pull it. I have lost to many teeth and hate to loose another.

Praying for all of the guys with colds ect. and for all of you with hurting hearts and those with sick bodies. Have a great day. Ed

 

[Eric Salop]

Eric, I have been trying to establish a hedge here, about 300 ft long, on the east side of the house. I have lilacs right now, I am going to put in rose of Sharon next. I致e seen pics of hedgerows in your country, they seem to be of several different types of plants? I don稚 plan to trim this thing much, I want it to grow up as a barrier. Any advice?

I'm not sure what grows well in your climate, but here you can't beat hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) for being a tough barrier that is very tolerant to however you want to cut it. In addition you get the beautiful blossom in late spring and most years an abundant supply of berries to feed the birds in autumn. In amongst it, for variety, I typically plant hazel, field maple and wild cherry.

You can cut a hedge like this every year, but the hedge does best if cut only once every 2 or even 3 years.


One tip for a dense hedge is to not plant just a single row, but instead plant 2 rows seperated by say 9" to 12". Stagger the planting in each row. This makes the bottom of the hedge thicker.




Winter is a great time to put in bare rooted plants.

 

[wngsprd]

Then I will look forward to 52 surprises in 2018, though not too sure about the 12 shocks

I know it was too cold for you to go hiking the other day, but I'd be interested to learn if there really is a Trail of the Lonesome Pine in your Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia ?

Never head of one, so looked at my two hiking guide books of Virginia trails...one guide had no mention, but the other is a more informative book, with some local lore and history about each locale...it described it as not a hiking trail, but the old pioneer trail that now has a major highway (US 58A) along the path...my guide also references the book and movie (for my "learn something new each day resolution"...it was the first outdoor technicolor film, in 1936, with Henry Fonda). There is an outdoor playhouse that presents the story during the summer months...in a town in Virginia where I've never been, 358 miles away.

Otherwise, I did find 15 hiking trails that reference pines in their names.

 

[ronjhall]

Poured first cup of coffee. 4° with mostly cloudy skies this morning. Heading to 23° cloudy skies. At midnight it was -13°. Sure am glad it is warming up. Finished rebuilding carb on chainsaw yesterday. Must have done something right. Started on 4th pull. It's still to cold do anything outside. May be a good day to put new faucet and drain in Master Bath.
Hope everyone if feeling better today. Prayers sent.
Good Morning All.

 

[wngsprd]

Minus 6 going to 27. I'm pretty sure we've been setting record lows much of the week.

I get emails from our electric co-op triggered by thresholds I set up a while back...I had forgotten about them, but each day this week I've been getting a reminder how much power we are using.

I've had good luck with Amazon Prime deliveries...sometimes beating the 2 day promise...however, there are two warehouse/distribution centers in our county and a neighboring county.

 

[ronjhall]

I know it was too cold for you to go hiking the other day, but I'd be interested to learn if there really is a Trail of the Lonesome Pine in your Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia ?

Here you go. Trail of the Lonesome Pine.

 

[Looking4new]

Good morning all.

It is warm this morning, -10 and going to a high of 19 with snow. Wind S 10 gusting 17 mph. Didn't I tell you guys that it had to get warm to snow?

Jeep is plugged in and I am raring to go, not! But a dump run must be done and I should clean out the mail box before the mail girl thinks we are ll dead, here. I will need to go to Huntsville Ontario, not
Texas, also.

Speaking of HAs, my Grandfather had one at age 48, they diddn't expect him to survive to see his first grandbaby. Me. So Mum named me after him and my Dad. The moniker was longer than the baby. 3 first names.
My Dad had one at age 51 and he survived until 1993, another 20 years. Complications from a stroke took him.
I have never had one, I'm 71. I have never really looked after it, did as I pleased and partied my brains out until age 40. I'm wondering if the first HA I have will be the one that kills me. Probably.

Anyway, enough of this morbid subject,

Stay safe and warm everyone.

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

Good luck and get well.

Doctor called me tonight, says he talked to other doctors, who recommend letting things heal another month, dont mess with it, and see how things are then. No more surgeries for the time being, subject to change in a month.

 

[daugen]

-5 on the thermometer this morning, likely a local record.
Just have to wait today out and it starts getting warmer.
Getting tired of cold toilet seats
Good morning all

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

Man what a storm. 170 km/hour (105 mph) winds in some places, with 30 centimetres of snow caused wide spread power outages. Our power was not restored for three days. Early morning around 3a.m. the stormed turned to pelting rain dropping the snow levels but turn much of the snow to slush which continually clogged the shoot of my tractor's snowblower. I ended up using the bucket to do my snow removal route for it was easier then continuously unclogging the blower.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

-5 on the thermometer this morning, likely a local record.
Just have to wait today out and it starts getting warmer.
Getting tired of cold toilet seats
Good morning all

0°

Speaking of cold seats, when i was young our house Didn't have indoor plumbing, and the outhouse wasnt exactly beside the house, so it was a cold trip and a cold seat.

Good Morning everyone.

 

[RoyJackson]

2018-01-07, 0737

-25 right now...high about 10 today.

I never saw any high (20 MPH +) winds yesterday...not too blustery. Today I'll move some drifted snow off the drives and walks. We have a 55" 4K TV being delivered tomorrow, so I need to get the old TV moved...also, got to pick up a pack of AA batteries.

 

[Bird]

And after we had a few days of freezing temperatures, it's hard to believe the low this morning is 52, going for a high of 64. The weather forecasters seem pretty sure that we're going to get some rain before the day's over, and I hope they're right.

It was warm yesterday afternoon and we saw lots of folks out in their yards raking leaves. I reckon the garbage men will be picking up lots of bags of leaves tomorrow.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

-1 now, but sun starting to come out.

Vehicle started. Gotta take boys to airport. Wife said she would take them, but i want to ride along.

Roy, what TV? I been looking at that size. I have a 52" sony projection tv, 10 yrs old. Recently replaced bulb. I have a better tv in basement. Seems costco samsungs go from 50" to 65", would like something in between. I need to redo my whole setup.
Have a big oak entertainment center, stereo rack on left with glass doors, then a tv area in center, with rolling doors that can close it. Drawer on bottom, and another CD upright drawer on right side. My projection TV was way too big to fit in, so it sits beside it. Both take up around 14' of wall space.
Wife keeps lots of pictures and candles on top.
Like i said yesterday, buying the 1 new receiver is going to lead to a major rework of the FR, but it hasn't changed in 20 yrs except for adding the tv 10 yrs ago. Whole house needs painted inside, all original paint when built. I hesitate because i have stained wood trim, lots of work to tape off.

Well, better get ready to go.

 

[RoyJackson]

Roy, what TV?

This one:
Amazon.com: LG Electronics OLED55C7P 55-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV (217 Model): Electronics
We went for the 55" model.
Also ordered (and received) a 4k Blue-Ray player:
Amazon.com: Samsung UBD-M85/ZA 4K UHD Blu-Ray Player: Electronics

We have a 47" LG LED TV right now...pretty happy with it.. Wife wants the "old" TV in her room...we'll see where it actually ends up.

 

[mpham]

-10 for me this morning going up to +12 for a high. I need to fire up the tractor and clean the driveway so we can go to work tm. Drifts have sealed it shut around a foot thick.