Good morning!!!!

[daugen]

neighbor and his friend worked into the dark last night finishing the little greenhouse. Lights on the Kubota came in handy.
Probably the last time I'll drive it...

City electrical inspector coming early this morning to check on some equipment, then I head to tractor dealer for my lesson.
Brand new top of the line 8 series Massey sitting right in front of my tractor.
Let's see if we can get this into reverse properly...
Though I'm old enough like many of you to have muscle memory
where your left leg jams down on the real or imagined clutch as a panic response.

Interesting to have a "real" clutch pedal, then a powershuttle lever, which is clearly electronic, and then the
pushbutton clutch button on the joystick. Wondering if the "feel" of the foot clutch will be different. The action of the other
two are controlled by a variable response speed control, which I assume (just love that word) is hydraulic. So I continue to assume
there are lots of hydraulic actuators and my left leg is simply the actuator for the floor clutch. Can't imagine there being traditional hard faced contact clutches. Which leads me to wonder how one "feathers" a clutch like this. Maybe you don't, just dump it and let that variable response control handle it, for sure on the slow end for me.

nice to have something new to learn. Think three times, engage clutch once.

45 going to 62 today, heat is returning. Yeah.

 

[Eric Salop]

Good morning all. The 50 mph winds have finally died down, a few things are missing though no doubt they will turn up in odd corners of fields at some stage.

For the last couple of days I have been away in Newcastle, a city characterised by various dramatic bridges that cross the river Tyne. The hotel I was staying in was right by the castle in the centre and with 2 Rolls Royce parked outside the entrance, looked fearfully expensive. Fortunately, it turned out to be quite reasonable. Only downside of the visit was the vegan beer served up in one of the trendy pubs that was geared more towards young university students than old men. I have always thought of beer as being a "plant based" product, made from fermented barley malt and hops. English beers use finings to clear the yeast that is otherwise held in suspension and it would seem these are mostly derived from animals, so this micro brewery didn't use them, nor spend money on any of the alternatives. The freshly pulled pint of cloudy beer didn't clear no matter how long you waited, it looked like it had been made with water straight out of the muddy river and reminded me far too much of my own home brew attempts back in the 70's - yuk :laughing:

Nice to have you back Jay.

L4N, can't blame the cat for keeping away if it thought it would be the next one going to see that nice vet.

Just say if anyone starts to get too depressed about gas/diesel prices - then I will tell you what we pay and you will soon feel soooo much better in comparison.

 

[ronjhall]

Poured first cup of coffee. 30° with light snow this morning. Heading to 39° with cloudy skies. Wife and I got last of Christmas decorations up yesterday. We have a lit door wreath. It had old style lights. Got some LED lights put them on. Should not have to search for any more bad bulbs. When I got up this morning 5 motion lights in backyard were on. 4 deer were at bird feeder. Need to put a motion light at feeder.

RNG, sure hope you make it back home soon.

Looking, glad dog is OK. On the local Facebook. A post was made about a stray cat. About 10 people replied. All giving the same cat food and shelter. Owners finally posted. They no longer worry when cat does not come home for a few days.

Roy, EGO reviews in video would be good.

Randy, prayers for you, Ellen and her mother. Lots of loving care needed for all.

Good Morning All.

 

[Eric Salop]

I'm about done with the tool box, it still looks bad but all the drawers work and top is in good shape and it has wheels now. One of the neighbors has a couple sets of ATV tire chins that we can make fit ...

CWB, this is a great example of while we all like to see pictures.

Trying to generate a mental image of your toolbox project is proving really taxing first thing in a morning. When you started a few days ago, my head was first thinking of a standard tool box,
,
then I had to adjust a little when I realised it was much bigger. This morning you almost blew my mind before I got to the end of your sentence - a tool box with tire chains !

 

[daugen]

Ron, nice story about the cat and all the love it received.
Yes, extra love and best wishes to Ellen, and Randy, as they deal with challenges and final stages.

Jay, thank you for being an uplifting spirit.

 

[Bird]

NWS says it's 63 degrees at 6 a.m. going for a high of 73! Denton County is having the Christmas tree lighting, vendors set up on the courthouse lawn, etc. at 6 p.m. this evening. The Denton newspaper says a 30% chance of rain this evening, while the NWS says a 40% chance. I guess it'll be interesting to see what happens.

 

[toppop52]

Buppies- One thing I missed during my absence here was your interpretation of the weather. This should be an "interesting " year. I am happy to have my tractor back.

Randy- “the long goodbye,” a long term grieving process, Ellen was a hero before I took my break from this thread. She still is. There are Alzheimer support groups if she should choose. So many feel so alone. In addition to you I hope that she has her support network. There are good moments that bubble up during "the trip." I hope that Ellen, you, et. al. have the gift to be involved. Hang in there......... Ellen is on my "Hero's/Heroine list.

Mine as well, besides what she does for her family, she pulled me out of my depression that I had not even recognized. Both our moms have dementia, my mom has age related not Alzhiemers. Dealing with that when my wife passed away seemed like a heavy load, but she swooped in and changed my whole mindset.

 

[ronjhall]

Since we all like pictures. Here is one of the stray cat on Facebook.

 

[wngsprd]

33 and beautiful going to 50, maybe showers.

Randy, sure hope Ellen is feeling better...maybe a ride in that fancy Pinto would help.

Wife returned home so we finally had a chance to go out and get some Tex-Mex to celebrate last week's anniversary.

 

[toppop52]

Went from 29-37 since 1 AM. Clouding up and 50 today, it will feel like a heat wave.

Jay, Drew, Ron and Randy, thank you.
Actually, everyone who sticks around are great people, look forward to our conversations.
RNG, I think about you and your situation often, hope you are soon back home.
Happy Friday everyone
And may God see you through.

 

[LouNY]

neighbor and his friend worked into the dark last night finishing the little greenhouse. Lights on the Kubota came in handy.
Probably the last time I'll drive it...

City electrical inspector coming early this morning to check on some equipment, then I head to tractor dealer for my lesson.
Brand new top of the line 8 series Massey sitting right in front of my tractor.
Let's see if we can get this into reverse properly...
Though I'm old enough like many of you to have muscle memory
where your left leg jams down on the real or imagined clutch as a panic response.

Interesting to have a "real" clutch pedal, then a powershuttle lever, which is clearly electronic, and then the
pushbutton clutch button on the joystick. Wondering if the "feel" of the foot clutch will be different. The action of the other
two are controlled by a variable response speed control, which I assume (just love that word) is hydraulic. So I continue to assume
there are lots of hydraulic actuators and my left leg is simply the actuator for the floor clutch. Can't imagine there being traditional hard faced contact clutches. Which leads me to wonder how one "feathers" a clutch like this. Maybe you don't, just dump it and let that variable response control handle it, for sure on the slow end for me.

nice to have something new to learn. Think three times, engage clutch once.

45 going to 62 today, heat is returning. Yeah.

Have no clue on a Massey, but everything else that I have operated with power shuttles (Ford New Holland, Case IH and Branson) have a wet clutch pack for forward and a separate one for reverse. They do not have a separate dry disk clutch.
All the foot pedal "clutch" does is operate a rheostat that feeds to the clutch controller.
Enjoy the new Massey.

 

[daugen]

thanks Lou. Unlike you I have no experience with this and am trying to think it through ahead of time.
with a big comfy seat and tilt/telescopic wheel so I can get the power reverser within reach, I just
need seat time. It's the smoothly inching forward part that hydrostatic did so well, wondering about my
own coordination with the new trans doing loader work, grappling large objects.

electrical inspector left, his monitoring gizmo could beam through an adjoining room wall to talk to the controls on the hot water heater
under the second floor stairs. The control makes an audible clunk/clack and if he hears it all is well for another five years.
I continue to get a pretty hefty reduction in my monthly bill by agreeing to turn off certain appliances during brownouts. I don't believe they've
ever done it while I've lived here, but they retain the right. I'm happy to comply, if it lasts too long, I can just throw the main breaker and turn on my own generator for awhile, run the a/c, hot water heaters, etc.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Some of the old guys can relate to this. At Thereabouts we have no WIFI, but in the hospital, lots of it.

 

[Bird]

In spite of all the stuff hooked up there, I see you're smiling, so it must have been good news.

 

[ronjhall]

In spite of all the stuff hooked up there, I see you're smiling, so it must have been good news.

I had all that stuff hooked up to me last February . Thankfully all the test came out good. Praying/Wishing the same for Harvey.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

RNG, here's a link for you.

1962 Volkswagen Bus/Vanagon | eBay

Harv, hope and prayers headed you and your's way.

 

[CWB Wyo]

The low this morning was 22° with a light dusting of snow overnight. Today is going to be in the mid 30's and partly cloudy by the afternoon with 15-25 winds.

Didn't get much of anything done yesterday. I moved snow for a couple of hours and made a trip to town with a neighbor to fill gas cans.

Not sure what today will bring.

Eric ... The tool box is a roller cabinet type box it about 22in x 48in. It was bent up pretty bad and still is. It was missing it's wheels and the bottom frame was bent. It looked like it was moved around by a forklift. I would be embarrassed to post a picture of it. I'm sure most people would have taken it to the dump. But it will work for what I need it for. I'm not sure but I don't think it needs tire chains.

Hope everyone is looking forward to the weekend.
CWB.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 45F @ 7:00AM. Partly cloudy. High 53F. Winds light and variable.

Hope that photo wasn't recent, Harv. If it was, hope everything came out OK!

At Wednesday night's Camp Fire press conference, a lady from the NWS told us all that rain was on the way, but there would be no flash floods. Boy did she screw up! Yesterday afternoon a "train" of thunder storms dropped quite a bit of rain from Chico on up through Paradise, and the fire department had to rescue three families using boats. The main freeway through Chico, highway 99, was closed in several spots, and the folks along Honey Run road that had already been burned out now got flooded out. He11 and high water, we've now seen it all. My home is still responding to remote control, so it looks like everything is OK up there.

I was gonna make a mail run to Oroville yesterday, but with the road closed, I postponed 'till today. My host's dryer is on the blink, so I'll do a little shopping and purchase an early Christmas present for them.

Yesterday, the neighbor lady came down to the house to use the internet and posted a few videos about her experience in the fire. She asserts God blew the fire out on her property, and who am I to argue. Folks, meet Marie... More here...

TGIF gang...:drink:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

RNG, here's a link for you.

1962 Volkswagen Bus/Vanagon | eBay

“Nice runner driver.. Perfect Patina...”

$20K and reserve not met. The thing's a rust bucket!

Mike Wolfe has a TV show called American Pickers, and probably bought that VW for next to nothing. Just goes to show that you should never throw anything away, I guess...:laughing:

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all! It got a little colder last night, but not as low as expected, only down to 38. At sunrise, still just partly cloudy. An hour later, wind kicked in like on a switch, stirred up a bunch of dirt to brown out conditions, stopped 5 minutes later, then a 10 minute snow shower.....strange weather...at least we didn't wake up to a foot of the white stuff!

Randy, prayers and best wishes sent to you and Ellen....at anytime it can be difficult dealing with situations like yours, compounded with holidays and other 'goings on' and suddenly your plate is full...hang in there

Drew, hope you have fun at the tractor 'lesson' today. The anticipation of us seeing pics of your new tractor at home is building

RNG, good to hear the house is responding to you remotely. Hope continues that you can get back to it soon! Is there much " hillside" above your house / property? Are mudslides a concern for your house?

Everyone have a great start to the weekend. Prayers sent to those needing.