Good morning!!!!

[check]

-30°F last night with the wind chill (eep!), and not much warmer coming up tonite. Then above freezing on the weekend! Not looking forward to walking Jasper - have to bundle him up, like yesterday.


He does NOT like those booties - have to tie him up to put them in. But they will keep him from getting frostbite.

Meanwhile, driving up here Tuesday nite I ran into a snow squall so bad I almost had to stop the truck. Fortunately, I came upon a snow plow with lots of flashing lites that I could follow until I got thru the worst of it.

Fortunately, the propane guy had filled up my tank, so I am good to go probably for most of the rest of the winter.

Got maybe 6 inches of snow since I was here last, and had great fun blowing it with my rear blower on my Kubota BX 25. Tried out my new noise canceling Bluetooth headphones and wow! I could hardly hear the engine at all, which is a big deal because those BX 25s are really quite noisy.

Got almost everything cleared, and ready for the tree guys to come tomorrow – if they don’t cancel due to the cold!

Time for coffee. Good morning all!

 

[Looking4new]

ron; when I was in public school (grades 1-8) the word was that we didn't have any such thing as double taxation here. I am not sure when that changed, but first income tax is deducted at the source (unless you work 'under the table', which means no taxes are deducted and generally got paid in cash), then every 7 cents we spend is taxed as 'sales' tax. About twenty years ago or so the goobermint removed the old 'manufacturers tax' (12%), which was hidden in the price of goods, and made it into a tax we paid at the till 8% on top of the manufacturers' tax. So now we have gone from GST which was called General Sales Tax (Gouge and Screw Tax) to Harmonized Sales Tax (Hose and Screw Tax).

I pay a high income tax rate (90%) on my two gov't pensions in the summer when I am making the big bucks, then come late fall I change that rate to 30% for the winter. I try NOT to earn over $40,000.oo per year. The manipulation of the income tax I pay as a withholding tax on the pensions (CPP & OAS) nets me about 6-$8,000.oo rebate every year. That money goes towards repairs on the house and vehicles. I feel it is a win, win situation for me. Unemployment insurance pays about $1,000.oo every two weeks, but as I am a 'frequent flier' on the UIC, come tax time I have to repay the goobermint 35% of my income tax rebate. I still come out of it ahead by the aforementioned 6-8 grand.
If I had lots of money, then I would have bank accounts in the Cayman Islands.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 47F @ 4:45AM. Generally cloudy. High 56F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.

This past summer and fall, our local utility, PG&E, shut off power six times here so their equipment wouldn't start a wildfire when the wind blew and the humidity dropped. But we never saw anything close to 117F, bunyip. Earlier in the year, it was warm enough that standing under a cool outside shower felt invigorating, and at 100F that would last about fifteen minutes before it was time to get wet again. I can't imagine trying to cope with the temps you're seeing without A/C. Maybe lots of beer and wet sheets at night?

Sounds like you're making the best of a bad situation, Hawkeye. Eventually that bone head you've been reporting to will come to appreciate your past efforts, even though he currently thinks you didn't "meet expectations". And you'll have the last laugh from your new position.:thumbsup:

Nice work on the skunk, Kyle. Wonder if it left any little buddies behind.

Hope it's all good news at the doctor's office this morning, Ron.

My property taxes are over $3K/year here, Bill, and judging by the ignorance displayed by many of the system's graduates on a daily basis, there's no indication that the quality of our schools is any the better for it.

New fuel pressure regulator on order; must've been the gold plated version by what it'll cost:muttering:

Noticed one of the audio connectors had broken on the touring bike, and spent some quality time yesterday with the super magnifiers on using tweezers and soldering the tiny wires back together. Hand/eye coordination isn't what it used to be, but somehow I got it done and it worked first time I tried it. Now all that's left is to get packed today. Looks like a weather window opens this afternoon, continuing through Saturday, plenty of time to make a dry getaway. :thumbsup:

One of my riding buddies this trip has a bunch of hotel credits saved up, and got us a suite at a fancy place near the harbor in San Diego for a few days. My leather riding outfit was looking like something out of Mad Max, so yesterday I cleaned it up and used a new-to-me leather restorer on it. I'm liking what I see, as it's back to all black again instead of a bug spattered dusty brown. One more coat today and maybe I won't scare little kids and old ladies comin' the other direction down the sidewalk.:laughing:

Hang in there, gang, Friday's comin'!

 

[txdon]

Good morning! 24˚ heading to the 40s Just like Drew.

Got the car out of the shop yesterday with it's new bumper and bumper cover looks good. The Insurance agent and the bodyshop and the car rental had a good relationship and I did not have to pay a penny. Thumbs up to Liberty Mutual Ins. NOCOWPARTS were used so it still goes ruumm, not moo.

Those prices in Canada are very high and a reminder that Healthcare is really not free. I still pay $500 a month and have a high deductible. Good news is that I don't have to use it and haven't paid the deductible in years. Must be the water and limestone in the hill country. I have saved about a day a week in travel time living close to stuff in town. I really like that I can take hikes in the woods during the best time of the year and not have to worry about getting shot by a weekend hunter. There are definite advantages living in either rural or small town settings. Big towns are out - In Houston all I wanted to do is get out of town and and breath. Home Owners Associations are great in keeping the neighbors living up to my expectations. Only the people who lied on their real estate closing papers have problems with them. Those people really did not read the deed restrictions before they signed.

 

[lostcreekranch]

Good Morning. It was 24° here earlier with a heavy frost but no wind. It sunny and high will be around 60° this afternoon.





Our deer are everywhere this morning.

I did get one of the burn pile areas cleaned up yesterday so, I’m ready to start new one.









Ron ... hope your annual goes well today.

RNG ... have a safe trip.

Eric ... hope your new hearing aids work out for you.

Kyle ... good news on your skunk. Handle it with gloves and put it somewhere that the vultures will find it.

Randy ... 24 hours w/o a pig or cow joke? We’re slipping!

Hope everyone has a great “Friday Eve”.

Prayers to all.

 

[PJSprog]

16°F and clear skies this morning, going up to 44° today.

Wife's oldest son is in town from Texas for the holidays, so she went with him and his girlfriend to an indoor rock climbing place yesterday. They did that when she went to San Marcos to visit a few months ago, and she seems to really enjoy it. She even suggested we get a couple of 10 visit passes to the place in St. Louis. I looked at her, looked at my sadly overgrown belly, and said, "Seriously?"

Still haven't seen any signs of our skunks, but could smell one last night near the barn.

You are absolutely welcome to come over and roll around in our snow, Iain. Be careful in that heat.

No thunder snow here, mostly_, just a lot of snow over a couple of days. 40s this week and low 50s next week should take care of it. Figures ... we get snow and cold weather a week early, then it will be 54° on Xmas Eve.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Wife's oldest son is in town from Texas for the holidays, so she went with him and his girlfriend to an indoor rock climbing place yesterday. They did that when she went to San Marcos to visit a few months ago, and she seems to really enjoy it. She even suggested we get a couple of 10 visit passes to the place in St. Louis. I looked at her, looked at my sadly overgrown belly, and said, "Seriously?"

Maybe she's just looking for you to belay her while SHE climbs? :laughing:

 

[wngsprd]

Was 21 earlier, going to 36 and clear.

I've been up early packaging coffees and making new Christmas labels so my wife could take them to her Yoga group for their annual Christmas party. She made a beautiful wreath-shaped and looking salad for their lunch. Nice group of 4 ladies that have been doing yoga together for 20 some years. Fortunately they are not meeting here this time, so I can stay inside a little while.

Hope Mrs. PJ had a great birthday. PJ, show her a pebble from your driveway and tell her you'll climb THAT rock.

Kyle, congrats on your skunkill. I've seen them wobble and wander around and think they just move like that. Rick, I've seen the vultures have already found the ones here. PJ, better get yours.

Eric, we have the most annoying TV commercial/advertisement here for hearing aids..."What?...What?...I heard you the first time...just wanted to hear you say it again." Hope your new aids provide you happiness and better listening to the swans on your pond.

I sharpened the chain on my saw yesterday, fueled it up and hear it calling me. I still have a couple of trees felled by the June storm needing attention. One is the second biggest aspen on our property...not the best burning, but will provide several loads of rounds to split. It knocked over a birch when it fell, so I'll cut that up, too.

 

[wngsprd]

My property taxes are over $3K/year here, Bill, and judging by the ignorance displayed by many of the system's graduates on a daily basis, there's no indication that the quality of our schools is any the better for it.

...and sometimes the opposite is true. Our county has the lowest taxes in the region, and our schools are great. Just received the monthly newsletter from the county yesterday...another interesting thing reported was that our crime rate is the lowest it's been since 1975...and the clearance rate by law enforcement is the highest it's ever been. Several other superlatives were mentioned. Hate to be bragging on our county, but so often it seems like we don't get value for our taxes. I feel like our county government is the most efficient and is as well managed as possible. Unfortunately, out county administrator (CEO) is retiring in June, after 35 years.

 

[daugen]

With the exception of the assessor's office, which had real problems for a while, had to do almost everything a second time, new software, lots of excuses, but rest of municipal services, which I am the end of the line for, has been simply outstanding. The electric company is excellent, nice clean trucks, replacing lots of poles to keep
up maintenance, maybe California woke up a lot of utilities.
Water dept very good, tax office pleasant as I pay my taxes in person each year. It's such a bargain I'm pleased to pay it, but wish they would add one or two percent for school funding. Google rating of local high school is 2 out of 10. I've spoken with the county commissioners, all they want to hear is no new taxes.

If you can get good schools and relatively low taxes, you've got the best of all worlds. Virginia is exceptionally nice.