Good morning!!!!

   / Good morning!!!! #111,411  
63 outside this AM, heading to lower 70's. Had some thunderstorms move through last night. Side field looks to be under water again. Driveway still has puddles in it too. But the sun is out and the grass is green.

Zero on the agenda today. Need to find some more food. Stores are getting spotty in our area with almost anything that we consider - staple. Fowl, hoof, paper products and beer.
But lots of chips and cookies, no ice cream....

Hope all have a good day. Be safe, stay healthly.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #111,412  
Good morning! 72˚F, 49% humidity, clear skies heading to the 90s - virus killing weather.

All five in our zip code have recovered. In the county there were 323 cases, 186 have recovered, only 46 ever needed hospitalization, and there were 10 deaths.
Currently we have one on a ventilator and 12 are in the hospital of the 890 hospital rooms available.

RNG, it's an 11" iPad pro. I checked out the web site, to repair it I first need to buy 8 tools - $100 - that there stopped me because they were tools that I don't even know how to use. Just like your seat, it's working now, just looks very used. RS found a place in NY that repairs them but we don't know if they are still alive, and their web site says their parts supply line is very slow during the virus shutdown.

Tomorrow is still looking good for a tractor catch-up day at the gardens. It hasn't been started for 6 weeks and the jobs are backing up, I'll be there burning diesel tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
   / Good morning!!!! #111,413  
Good morning to all! Low of 46, high today of 84. Maybe a slight shower overnight tonight, a whopping 20% chance next weekend. We are dry, dry, dry!

I was able to get the hole filled back in, graded and raked the area.... back to normal. Did not get to anything else.

Went to bed early, woke up an hour later... oh no...not again... rolled over and back to sleep. As far as I can tell, sleep through until 5:30... I definitely feel better today. I will see how much I can do today... still not going to be much.

Everyone have a great day and start to the week!
 
   / Good morning!!!! #111,414  
Good Morning!!!! 55F @ 7:00AM. Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. High 83F. Winds light and variable.

Which iPad mount did you get for your Mini controller, Ron? I'm pretty satisfied with this one, all it needed was to have the screws tightened up in the hinges. But once mounted, I quickly learned the iPad Mini needed a sun shade...

Thanks for the info on the vinyl repair tape, Wng. In two seconds an Amazon search had me going from "never heard of it before" to "overwhelmed by the selection". Guess I'm not the only person that's had to fix a torn seat. In the late '70s I bought a kit to repair the cover on a vinyl motorcycle seat. It had a paste that got spread over the tear, then a piece of special paper, then you put a hot iron on it to cure the paste. It sorta worked, but I remember the paper being too small and the iron getting some of the paste on it, then melting some of the previously undamaged vinyl. I still have that iron out in the garage, as it was ruined for use on clothing.:grumpy:

Had a similar experience with a broken iPod, Don. Bought the parts and made the repair, but it still wouldn't work. Ended up sending it to a place in Canada, and they did a great job for very little money. They probably do iPad repairs now, but with the border closed, it's probably a bad idea to use them these days. Now the main monitor I use with one of the MacBooks has a dead column of pixels that puts a thin red line on the middle of the screen. It still works fine otherwise, but it sure is distracting. But not to the point where I'm in any hurry to do something about it.

Usta know a man in West Virginia that guided us on wild cave spelunking trips, and he made a delicious grapple. Had a LOT of lard in it, though, which is probably why it tasted so good. Lots of fond memories of those trips. Lots of things have changed in forty years, and I bet there are very few wild caves that are still open for such things.

That same group, called the American Youth Hostels, had trips up to Wisconsin to ride bicycles on the converted railway lines there. I remember the trestles especially well: They were very high with no rails of any sort. Something else that's probably modernized out of existence.

Sounds like Boo is up to his old tricks, Thomas. What's your next move?

Glad to see you're still handy as ever, RS. Nice looking job on that gravel...:thumbsup:

"Almost Cut My Hair" used to be an anthem back when mine went down to the middle of my back, Kyle. Now there's just a bald spot where that ponytail used to be...:laughing:

Got the trench dug all the way to the driveway yesterday, and sure enough, the conduit just kept right on going underneath it. Hard to understand why because the subpanel it goes to is on the side of the garage, but I thought maybe it was routed under the garage concrete, too. But since the main water line, telephone land line, and several sprinkler lines go around or into that same corner of the house, I started digging with a shovel to see where things were. Found the telephone line first, then I hit the electrical conduit again, around the side of the garage where I thought it should be.:confused2: By then it was late in the day, so I've more digging to do to find the water line.

Started the morning off with trying to get some drone video of the tractor, but there just wasn't enough room around the tractor to orbit it without hitting the house. And higher up, all I could see was the top of the canopy and hood, not a very interesting view. So once all this digging is done, I'll take it out into the middle of the upper meadow and try again.

Toward sunset I did mosey up the driveway and made some more wildflower photos:
2020-05-03Yellow5Petal.jpg 2020-05-03Yellow6PetalPinkClusterLupine.jpg 2020-05-03PinkClusterLupines.jpg 2020-05-03Thistle.jpg 2020-05-03Pink Clusters.jpg 2020-05-03PurpleCluster.jpg
It's been a good year for them so far, but they're fading fast.

Wildfire season is fast approaching, too, and there have already been several small fires in the area. Mostly escaped controlled burns, people just not being careful enough.

Hope everyone's week gets off to a great start!
 
   / Good morning!!!! #111,415  
47°F and partly cloudy this morning, going up to 73° today. Expecting some rain this evening and into tomorrow.

Beautiful weather in our area this weekend. The predicted storms on Sunday split ("The Arch Affect") and went north and south of us. Wifey and I finished mowing Saturday morning, with her on the ZTR in the pasture and me manning the walk behind around the pond. After that, we started into clearing out the fence line at the east end of the pasture. The original plan was to just trim up the trees to make mowing easier. Once we started doing that, though, we decided to clean out all the undergrowth as well. We also decided to just remove most of the smaller trees and leave only the mature, older ones. Got to use the new Lynxx 40v chainsaw, and I must say I'm fairly impressed. Rather than dragging everything over to the existing burn pile across the pasture, we just started a new one on that side. We spent about 5 hours cutting down and dismembering about half a dozen trees, and pulling or lopping off countless smaller plants. By 3pm, we were beat, after getting about halfway down the near side of the fence. We went in and ordered a pizza. Her youngest son came by later and finished up the weed eating. She's been paying him to do some work, as roommate issues have found him in need of additional funds. For as much as we struggled to get him to do this kind of stuff when he was still at home, he seems like he "gets it" now, and did a pretty decent job. I also got a leaf pile burned that's been sitting there too long.

20200502 mowing pasture.JPG20200502 east fenceline 1.JPG20200502 east fenceline 2.JPG20200502 Lynxx saws.JPG20200502 leaf pile.JPG

Since the storms bypassed us Sunday, we got some more stuff done outside. She's been wanting to get rid of the ducks, and found an ad from someone selling duck eggs near us. When she contacted the lady, we found that they live just up the road from us. She told her we were looking to get rid of our ducks, and she said she'd take the females, but wasn't interested in the males. They came by Sunday morning and picked up the 5 hens. Their oldest daughter (8th grade, maybe) is raising the chickens and ducks. Nice people, and we found out they are from our hometown as well (Granite City IL), but about 20 years younger than us. Fellow Granite Citiots about a 1/2 mile away. She did say that she had a friend who might be interested in the drakes, and sure enough, we got a call a little later from a lady near Germantown who said she'd take them as long as we could bring them to her. We rounded them up and put them in a large dog crate, strapped it into the back of the truck, and I delivered them to a large farm between Germantown and Albers. Nice lady, who kind of rescues unwanted farm animals. She has cows, pigs, buffalo (one of which was the biggest buffalo I've ever seen), goats, a donkey, chickens, and ducks, and was talking about getting ostriches as well. The pond is about a 1/4 acre, and the ducks dove in immediately to go mingle with the others. Found out during conversation that we have several mutual friends in the area. Small world.

Our chickens have their coop back to themselves, and the didn't seem to hate it. We dumped a couple of bucket loads of dirt in there to repair some of the holes dug by the ducks, and left a sizable mound for the chickens to scratch around in. That kept them busy for the rest of the day.

20200503 Chickens.JPG

Nice drone videos, fellas. You guys are making it look easy.

Mostly_, there is an organization around here called Madison County Transit (MCT), that has been converting old, out-of-service railroad tracks into bike trails all over Madison County IL. There are a few tunnels here and there, but they are newer ones made for the trails to go under roads, not cool old RR tunnels like that. They have a long-term goal they're working towards to connect those trails to trails on the Missouri side via the old Chain of Rocks Bridge and eventually down to the Gateway Arch.

Glad you were able to fix your leak, Ted. That can't be any fun.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #111,417  
Good Morning!!!! 55F @ 7:00AM. Sunshine and a few afternoon clouds. High 83F. Winds light and variable.

Which iPad mount did you get for your Mini controller, Ron? I'm pretty satisfied with this one, all it needed was to have the screws tightened up in the hinges. But once mounted, I quickly learned the iPad Mini needed a sun shade...

Started the morning off with trying to get some drone video of the tractor, but there just wasn't enough room around the tractor to orbit it without hitting the house. And higher up, all I could see was the top of the canopy and hood, not a very interesting view. So once all this digging is done, I'll take it out into the middle of the upper meadow and try again.
The mount and shade look like the same ones I have ordered.

Maybe it’s time for you to try some of the built in programs. Dronie, Rocket, Circle and Helix. I am not ready to try them yet.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #111,418  
47F and partly cloudy @ 12:15 ... high only predicted to reach 57F for the day.

Ten day forecast shows unseasonably cool weather, with highs only reaching the 40's and the 50's for the entire period ... :(

Mostly an "inside day" today for sure.
 
   / Good morning!!!! #111,419  
67°F and .14 inches rain.

Flail mounted on tractor, hope I get to use it today. Need to make a PO run first.

Virtual Happy Hour this afternoon.

Prayers for all
Be safe
Have a great day
 
   / Good morning!!!! #111,420  
A mostly clear and sunny 48ºF for today’s low temperature; now clear and a sunny 49ºF presently; and I anticipate more clouds and maybe a sprinkle and temperatures in the high 50ºF’s. After my early morning weather craziness I decided to fire up the tractor and start moving and stacking the wood I that I split before the rain. The tractor has been sitting idle since March 24, but it fired right up thanks to my solar powered battery maintainer. I got 2/3d’s pf the wood stacked. The weather looks good for tomorrow, with luck tomorrow I will have all that wood processed.

It was nice to get seat time today and likely more tomorrow.

Ted- Without TV professional sports blather I can not nap; and my sleep patterns basically suck. I usually do not get much deep or REM stage sleep and I awaken frequently thanks to neuropathy and overactive mental activity. I am happy to read that you had some sleep last night.

Kyle- Before the new high efficiency wood stove and the mini split air exchangers We would burn ~1.75 cords of wood/Winter. I played around this Winter with using a combination of the propane central heating, mini-splits, wood stove + the passive solar; and now I bet I could get by with a ~1/2 cord as I really do not need to fire up the wood stove when temperatures are ~25ºF depending on wind & sun. Next year should be interesting.

My + thoughts, wishes, and prayers.
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2012 UNVERFERTH 6-INCH FRONT WHEEL SPACER KIT FOR 10 BOLT HUB (A52748)
2012 UNVERFERTH...
2007 FELLA SM350 3 PT DISC MOWER (A52748)
2007 FELLA SM350 3...
2005 International 7400 Chassis Truck, VIN # 1HTWGAAT75J048748 (A51572)
2005 International...
ARMSTRONG  10 FT DISC (A52472)
ARMSTRONG 10 FT...
New/Unused 7ft 10 Drawer Work Bench (A51573)
New/Unused 7ft 10...
2016 LINK-BELT  235X3 SPIN ACE EXCAVATOR (A52472)
2016 LINK-BELT...
 
Top