Good morning!!!!

[freedomlives]

Well, a lot of it is done without the Goldoni. If I remember correctly, we bought a total of 20 tons of river sand/gravel for making concrete last summer. And I don't remember how many tons of cement, but I should have receipts somewhere. Unfortunately, not even a FEL would have helped much, except that I could have gotten the gravel, and thus the mixer, much closer to where the concrete was needed.

It is incredible though what a 12HP diesel engine will do. The trailer has a capacity rated at 750kg, but the workers at the place I bought it in Italy said they can do much more, and its never struggled going up our steep slope with at least twice that weight. The closest it came to struggling was when we were getting firewood and had almost a cord precariously stacked and lashed on to it. The PTO shaft going back is powering the rear axle of the trailer. It lacks hydraulics however, something I'd like to add for dumping the trailer.

Last night temperature was down to -8°C (17°F). I put an electric heater in the garage as temperature there was 3°C and I was concerned both for the pipes freezing and for the dog. He seemed happy in the morning to have slept in front of the heater and the garage was 6°C. Now, once all the kids get up and eat breakfast the older ones are going with me and the dog on a walk to the forest. Later on in the city there is a 40th birthday party for the priest who coordinates the young families group at the redemptorists, and then after that finally church in the evening. Probably will stop by the in-laws as well.

 

[freedomlives]

Your toilet system which really is a decent design would probably be illegal in the USA state of MA. Thanks for sharing.

You would be surprised to learn that this vermicomposting toilet idea actually came from a lady in Massachusetts. History of the vermicomposting flush toilet | Vermicomposting Toilets She was even using it at a restaurant she ran, thought it involved some fight with the health department there. I think she did prove that the output of her system had less nitrogen and stuff than would be coming from the field lines of a septic tank.

Suffice it to say that in our village I haven't asked anyone for approval or permission and there is no nosy neighbor to bother about it. I'm not sure that anyone but my uncle-in-law and aunt-in-law here actually understands what I installed-- perhaps the rest just think its a septic tank like everyone who has an indoor toilet has.

Ours is complicated by the physical location of the house, which necessitated an underground room (bunker?) for the IBC container with wood chips and worms, and then pipes going up the hill to be discharged into more woodchips. Except that we had some problems with the pump and right now a sump pump is just draining in to a ditch in the garden. If it is achieving 95% reduction in all the problematic stuff as others have found, I can live with this for the winter and then plant a non-root crop there. When I let the ducks out, they go over to that water, and since they aren't sick, I guess the system is working! Once it gets warm again I'm going to fix the pump again so it pumps up the hill.

 

[daugen]

Drew, that’s some fine looking work you’ve done, I sure hope those trees aren’t blooming way too early.

like they've done the last two years and gotten frozen? Yeah, for sure.

first year, one apple. Last year eleven apples, five plums and three figs.
It's all up to Mother Nature.

If we could ever get through March without a bad freeze, all kinds of interesting things would grow here.

Big system coming across the US, hits here tonight. Mostly, almost six inches of rain? wow, hope that fizzles out a bit before it gets here, and glad I just dug a drainage ditch at the bottom of the nut orchard. We could use a heavy rain, but not four or five inches.

 

[wngsprd]

50 and heavy fog going to 71. Hasn't been below freezing for several days, and not forecasted for the next week...unusual for February.

Drew, I hope they make it this year, but seems mighty early. We always had trouble with an early blooming apricot...seems we'd only get fruit about once every 4 or 5 years due a later freeze. But it was worth it...they were delicious. Tree died a few years ago.

Coco thanks all for the birthday wishes. She had a fine day.

Finished my taxes yesterday...owe about $80 between Fed and state. I'll go over things again and make sure all is accurate.

Wrote letters (emails) to 11 companies yesterday to voice my concerns about their business decisions...a rare undertaking for me, but one I felt strongly about. I'm not into boycotts, but I do tend to stop or greatly reduce my own patronage under certain circumstances.

 

[Eric Salop]

Another frozen bucket morning here and set to go colder over the next few days with an easterly wind coming all the way from Siberia.

Who would have thought that from now on when orange tractors are mentioned on TBN, it's not Kubota or even Kioti that first come to mind, from now on it will be the mighty Goldoni :thumbsup:

 

[wngsprd]

Another frozen bucket morning here and set to go colder over the next few days with an easterly wind coming all the way from Siberia.

Who would have thought that from now on when orange tractors are mentioned on TBN, it's not Kubota or even Kioti that first come to mind, from now on it will be the mighty Goldoni

My wife got a good laugh when I told her about you weather bucket.

 

[Eric Salop]

Twelve years ago we bought an extra field by what is now our house and found it came with an old underground tank that once kept this place watered from a pumping station over a mile away. There was far too much going on at the time to do anything useful with it, so I piled a few 2 by 3 paving slabs over the broken entrance, fenced it all off and tried my best to forget about it.

It's time now that I did something with it. I remembered seeing an open pipe in the bottom and my initial thoughts are to plug that, run a temporary pipe to a pond a few hundred yards away and see how water tight the tank is first. A few days ago I opened the cover to start letting some air in. There is not much to see of the tank from above, pacing out the concrete top shows it's about 3 yards wide and 5 yards in length. I haven't measured the depth but I'd guess about 7'.

Snapping away with a camera gave me an idea of what the tank floor is like before stirring up what must be several inches of silt on the bottom.



The outlet pipe showed up clearly just below the water line. With a 12V bilge pump connected to a battery I started to pump away the water. Plenty came out, but the lift was making it hard work for the little pump and I began to think the battery would die before much longer, so I brought the Subaru in the field as a portable generator and just as it was going dark I got to the water down low enough to expose the pipe.




One thing I am a little wary of if I go walking around the bottom of the tank is if any gasses are going to be released from the sediment and me passing out before I realise what's going on. If you don't hear from me for a few days, maybe you can tell them where to look for the body ...

 

[daugen]

Eric, are you going to revive that tank or tear it out? Concrete looks in decent shape.
Would hate for you to put a tractor wheel in it.
Of course, it might make a quicky bomb shelter if you can get rid of the smell...
Um, hurricane/tornado shelter. No more talks of bombs and England, must be a touchy subject

 

[daugen]

Back-friendly products - Aktion Gesunder Rucken (AGR) e.V.

have a bad back? I found a link to this interesting German rating authority on all kinds of consumer objects for
those of us with spinal/arthritis/back issues. Too bad they don't rate the US cars, though the link came from an auto review of the new Buick Regal which is a rebadged
German Opel. And thus could earn the rating for its best seat.

I only looked at car seats, amazing amount of categories here. Office chairs...well, I hope I solved that by ordering one of those nice chairs Ron suggested, should come in this coming week.
After a year the bottoms on these chairs just flattens out. I'm 215 pounds not 415...they never make them out of dual density foam. Toppop can teach us all about that, pillowtopping by putting a layer of softer foam on top of denser foam underneath. And even a third layer of denser stuff since you don't want to hit bottom. That much compression wears out the foam too I believe. Every chair I sit in winds up with a pillow or pad of some sort in the lumbar area. Only chair I don't need a pad for is the Norwegian recliner I got for the den, a wonderful cocoon of support. Whenever I slow down..........that is a joy to sit in and read a book. As I continue to fall apart, I need better chairs.

I'd like a back organization to rate US mattresses and US cars.

We already know most tractor seats are pretty poor.
Well, maybe not Rick's leather bucket seat.
It's got to be super supportive, have good adjustable lumbar and hold up over time.
Like a softer Recaro.

I have the same Michigan adjustable seats in my new Kubota F mower (standard, as well it should be) and as an option on my JD X750.
While I slide around on it too much, and that vinyl sure doesn't breathe, it's a comfortable small suspension seat.
But a big 1100 dollar Grammer is the cat's meow. Wouldn't fit in anything I own.
Now that would be interesting to see if Grammer could pass this German certification.
I wonder what seats those big German JD's and Fendt's have. Better than my Kubota for sure.
Now there was a miserable oem seat.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Good morning all. 46 going to 69 with an 80% chance of showers, <1/10". Finished the spoon I started for the wife yesterday, she loves it or at least she says she does.

Prayers for Don, RIP, and all others needing prayer. Ed