Good morning!!!!

[lostcreekranch]

Good morning. It's 40° with no wind this morning. It's supposed to get to 70° this afternoon and rain is predicted for our overnight hours.

I lit one of our four new burn piles on Thursday and now have a nice pile of ash that needs some rain on it then I'll start a new pile in the same location.

Our pastures are already starting to green up ... with our mild winter. I think we've only had four mornings below 32° and those little "freezes" lasted only 2-3 hours so, pastures and the yard never went dormant.

There were hundreds of Robin in the back yard a couple mornings ago. Guess that means something?


Ron ... very nice bird pics. Are you shooting off a tripod?

Drew ... sorry about your neighbor.

Roy ... I'm anxious to hear how you like your new Crimson Trace light. I like to put a light on mine too.

BEF ... great sunrise picture.

WNG ... now you got me thinking about cornbread. Hmmm? Square baking pan or round cast iron frying pan? Decisions .. decisions .. decisions.

Jay ... hope you get your eye issue figured out.

Everyone have a great weekend.

Prayers to all.

 

[LouNY]

My friend's younger nephew is my other next door neighbor, this is their family homestead.
Nephew summed it up this was sure unexpected
They are strong people with roots here.

headed down to new rear culvert to see if last night's rain moved anything around, unlikely. They quit before final leveling but big mound of
stone/crush n run on top. It was getting late and i was in no hurry to cross, so next week they will finish it. And I might finally have a path to the
cypress pond.

Morning,
While it's always a shame when someone passes unexpectedly and it's a shock and surprise to all.
At least the passing is usually quick. That was the way with my cousin last week completely unexpected,
he had gone outside and was waiting for a visitor when he pulled up he had passed.
I've had three others that I know that have passed in the last few years that were not that fortunate,
all three of them "recovered" to just sit in a chair and stare out the window the two that could talk
after a while only had one request that was help to end it.
I do hope and pray that when my time comes I'm not one of the lingerers.

Not a pleasant subject to think about or talk about.

So best wishes and a good life to all.
Lou

 

[buckeyefarmer]

They usually are noisy, but this one didn’t have much to say today.

Neighbor up the road 1 house had a peacock that was noisy.

Couple years ago was working in my garden, and heard an auction at his house. Later when I mentioned it to my next door neighbor he said, will you know Dave died and she’s moving. I had no idea, had not heard he had died. So no more peacock.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Drew, sorry about your neighbor and friend.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all! Low only down to 30, going for a high of 52. A bit breezy though.

Drew, sorry to hear of your friends passing.

Nice bird pics from around the country. We have Mountain Bluebirds here, smaller than other species, but still vibrant blue, the females look like the Scrub Jay. Not sure if they are in the Blue Jay family.

Mostly, how is the knee abrasion ? I am assuming ok since you were out riding...

Today will be a materials run with the son. He is getting the interior finish plywood. He decided on wood vs. drywall so he can hang anything anywhere. Plus it is cheaper. He is just going to paint it. He found a local supply of 10 ft long sheets, which will make the floor to ceiling seamless except for the vertical ones.

First off, I will be installing the next set of shelves. I completed making and staining them yesterday, but let them dry overnight. The first set I brought in only dried for about an hour, and stunk up the whole house with the smell of stain. Wifey said to wait before the next set come in. This set is just like the ones I posted the pic of.

I am off.... the days seem to have less hours in them these days....

Everyone have a great weekend! Prayers sent.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

41° will stay like this. Heavy rain in night, light drizzle now.

Corn bread would have went well with my IP goulash last night.

Going to visit FIL today. Heard he spoke some.

Health Insurance and kid in college is why I can’t retire. Like the guy who confronted Warren, I saved for my kids college and the first has no loans. The 2nd won’t either with my current plan. This may all be a huge financial mistake if they start forgiving loans. I heard some states already help pay off student loans for certain positions. I haven’t taken many vacations and don’t have expensive cars.

Fire in stove feels good.
Wife got her W2, waiting for mine. I have no idea how my disability pay will get reported. Already started in TurboTax, but can’t find anything specific on how it’s treated. Can’t claim my oldest son who still lives here, even though we supported him half the year.

Stay safe.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

41F this morning, rain has let up..

Took my wife for followup doc appt yesterday after urgent care on Monday.. all good.

Too much to comment on, folks been busy this week.

Glad wifey is better!

41 to 57 degree sunny weather today.

The other good news is that I filed my income tax return this morning.

So . . . not a bad day in north Texas.

Bird, we got ours done on the computer software, and it says the IRS is not accepting returns until Jan 27th??? I wonder why they won't accept them any day after Jan 1???

J- sorry about your friends son. Prayers.

Drew, it's tough to lose a friend. Especially after they had confided such nice things to you recently. Sorry for all the sorrow. Prayers go out for all.

Dave, I too, like J's analogy to erector set. I keep wondering about how many high winds you guys get, right there with the ocean so close. Do you have codes to build to withstand high winds? Here on the Gulf of Texas coastline, things have to be IIRC, strong enough to withstand 90 mph winds. Will be monitoring your progress. When my FIL purchased the big carport here, a crew of 3 or 4 showed up and had it done in 2 days. But he paid about $7G for it.... With side walls going down to within 4' of the ground. He had a spreadsheet, full of details and options, to help him figure out the best deal for the length and width and height parameters.

Yesterday, I cut back our large red tip photenia. It is about 15 years old, and is about 10-11' tall, and 15' in diameter....or was that big in diameter. I trimmed the sides up a few feet all the way around. Also got the yard/clover mowed, weed eated. Middle daughter wants to plant some flowers in the front garden, so I started cleaning it up.

RNG, I'm amazed at your sticktoitiviness/perseverance/tenacity on getting that van going. I hope you find out something simple that gets her going. Do all the cylinders show good compression?

Waiting on it to warm up a bit to get some outside stuff done.

Thinking of you Ron, thank you for the pics. Prayers. Go get a ride in that fast car!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

 

[jbrumberg]

An overcast 30ºF for today’s low, Freezing drizzle started falling around 8:00AM which got me going a little earlier than normal for today’s dump run. Our Highwtay Department heavily sanded the roads around here this AM The temperature has been bouncing around 32ºF so far this AM, but the drizzle has stopped and now I am waiting for the rain. Wifey woke up under the weather this AM and went back to bed. Nice and quiet around here at the moment. I really have no plans for today now that we are not going to the funeral = moving firewood and maybe a PM nap.

Ted- Great job with the shelving. It looks to be professional quality work and functional as well. Thanks for sharing.

Bird- Congratulations on getting your taxes done. CFO WIfey starts doing our taxes in February as we do not receive all our financial documentation till March.

BEF- An amazing morning sunrise picture. Thanks for sharing I am glad to read that your FIL is improving, and thanks for the laugh

Bruce, RonJH, Rick, et. al.- The glare off the snow was blinding due to the sun and slope angles and my soft cataracts started jiggling. It was like a longterm camera flash/strobe light residual glare. My vision even indoors wearing sunglasses was messed up for quite a while before my vision returned to normal. I really messed up not wearing my sunglasses and was in that direct sunlight far too long.

Bill- Cookies would work for me.

Billy- I am happy to read that your Wife is feeling better. I find most cornbread is too sweat for my taste, excepting my Wife’s cast-iron skillet cornbread which the last few times was made w/o any sugar nor sugar substitutes and it came out sweet enough with the added canned corn & peppers which did have some sugar as its last listed ingredient. If interested I’ll post it.

RonJH- Your Bluejay and nuthatch pictures look to be high quality even through your windowpane. Thanks for sharing. You are motivating me to setting up and strategically placing my Olympus TG-6 outdoors and controlling the camera with my iPhone indoors. I can see what the camera sees with my iPhone.

Drew- I am sorry to read about your neighbor friend and his Wife and family. That’s a beautiful thought to remember. Having lost some friends and patients, in hindsight, I wonder based on our last conversation(s) if they consciously or unconsciously were achieving closure with me. You are a great person. May your friend RIP.

RNG- Thanks for sharing your jay pictures, congratulations on scoring your generator, and good luck AT&T.

“… I do hope and pray that when my time comes I'm not one of the lingerers. Not a pleasant subject to think about or talk about. So best wishes and a good life to all.”- Lou. I agree.

I hope that everyone is having a decent start to the weekend.

My + thoughts, wishes, and prayers.

 

[sodamo]

65°F and no rain

Small gathering at friends in honor of visiting brother and sister from NY. Always a fun time.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day