Good morning!!!!

[Looking4new]

Well, I got the bigger of the two kittens into the vet. All the kitten shots + rabies (3 year) and 6 doses of Revolution flea dope for the measly sum of $289.28. And an appointment for the end of March to get their knackers cut off.

The other little ninja was nowhere to be found.:mur:

 

[toppop52]

I'm very interested in seeing what you get, I always wanted a camera to see where the leading edge of the bucket was.
I wonder if vibration/jiggling will be an issue on either the picture quality or the durability of camera.

I’ve got a wireless receiver and a camera/monitor, it can be had wired or wireless. Problem is you still need 12v to the camera so I may as well just wire it. On a car or truck you can wire the transmitter to the reverse lights.

 

[rswyan]

Well, I got the bigger of the two kittens into the vet. All the kitten shots + rabies (3 year) and 6 doses of Revolution flea dope for the measly sum of $289.28. And an appointment for the end of March to get their knackers cut off.

The other little ninja was nowhere to be found.:mur:

It knew you were up to no good ... :laughing:

 

[rswyan]

In an endeavor mandated by the curiosity of SWMBO:

The majority of the swarms of blackbirds here have been tentatively identified as common grackles.

There are some starlings and an occasional crowd of crows as well, but mostly they appear to be common grackles.

Probably some other species mixed in as well ... more work needed on identifying and discerning those.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Darn, take a couple of naps and I miss all the action......

I have been searching for that "Utopia" piece of land to call my own for the last time for quite a while.... what I have found out there is no such place that can meet every expectation.... at least not here on earth...

David has come pretty close, but I bet he could bring up some bad points if he thought hard enough! What is good for one may not be good for another... "Utopia" is what we make of wherever we are....

I had a couple of good naps and feel much better. I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer take narcotics.... I was having bad hallucinations last night. I will bear with the little increase in pain... it will only get better... right?....

I did not take any so far today and no more confusion/ crazy thoughts.... I'll stick with Tylenol and Ibuprofen.....

It is still snowing off and on, but the good news is that it is just around the freezing mark. Snows, melts down, snows again... rinse and repeat. That's ok... I/we are not venturing out in the white stuff and we really need the moisture!

We are supposed to be in a "La Nina" year / weather pattern.... warmer and drier than normal... mmmm... seems like we are colder and wetter.....

 

[ronjhall]

How about discussing the Texas power grid in another forum in another thread so we don't have to prune this one/close it?

Good morning.

 

[PJSprog]

+1°F and partly cloudy this morning, going up to 12° today. iThingie weather widget says it will be sunny and 50° here next Tuesday. I'll be OK with that.

Wind chill was around -17° when I walked out to the barn to feed the chickens and fire up the tractor to excavate our snow. Fortunately, as the morning progressed, the wind subsided and the sunshine made it feel much warmer that single digits, especially in that heated tractor cab. Getting to that point, though, wasn't a foregone conclusion. The glow plugs took a little extra time this morning, so I cycled it a second time before turning the key. It cranked reeeeeal slooooow. I stopped, cycled the glow plugs again, and it cranked reeeeeal slooooow again ... then finally started. I haven't run it since before the holidays. I'm thinking next winter it will have a tender on the battery. Ran fine once it started, and restarted fine after it warmed up a bit. We had a drift that wrapped around in front of the garage door and sunroom door that was up to the door handle, so probably four feet. The other end of the concrete pad was still bare. Got all that cleaned off first, took a short breakfast break, then dove into the driveway. The bottom half of the driveway was the same as the top pad, drifted about 3-4 feet. That took some time to clear, but got it done around 10:30-ish. Cleared a walking path out to the barn on the way back, and called it done. This is the most significant snow we've had here in a few years. Looks like the average was around 7-8 inches here, but the 15-20 mph winds made for some impressive drifts. Youngest stepson sent us a picture of one he took out his truck window that was probably 5-6 feet tall along the side of the road about a mile south of us.



OK, pilot error. I was trying to upload the original pics without resizing them first. It was just taking forever to load those giant files.
First two were taken by The Wife from inside the sunroom, through the screen, while I was clearing the concrete area. Last was breakfast break.

 

[Bird]

Some of you fellows have been talking about sewing and using sewing machines, so I'll probably be posting something I've posted before, but anyway . . . .
My mother made all of her own clothes most of her life. She also made most of 5 kids' clothes. And for awhile one summer, she worked in a blue jean factory sewing. I remember her saying that they made blue jeans and sewed different brand names in them; some much more expensive than others, but the blue jeans were all the same. She, and my Dad's mother, reupholstered our living room furniture, sofa, chair, etc. once. And we used to have a quilting frame suspended from the ceiling so she could work on making a new quilt in her spare time.:laughing: Grandparents and aunts gave me white shirts to wear to church as Christmas and birthday presents, but otherwise Mother made my shirts. Some of you may remember when chicken and cow feed came in different colored sacks. Whichever of us kids was due for a new shirt (or dress for the girls) would get to go with Dad to the feed store to pick out the material. I went into J.C. Penney's and bought two shirts to wear to the Stamps Quartet School of Music in Dallas when I was 14 years old. First time I'd bought a shirt. I got 3 new pair of blue jeans each Fall for school wear. Sometimes mother had to patch holes in the knees before summer came and she cut them off (and hemmed them for shorts for the summer; didn't wear them with ragged legs like they do now)

When I met my wife, she was living with an aunt and uncle in Dallas until we got married, and her aunt made a lot of her own clothes, drapes for the house, etc. so I bought my wife a fine sewing machine, AND IT WAS RARELY USED.:laughing: So when I retired and we went to full time RVing we gave that sewing machine in a big console to one of our daughters and we bought a portable one to carry in the RV. It, also, was rarely used, so last year we gave it to our granddaughter.:laughing:

 

[RedNeckGeek]

I致e got most of what need .. for a portable, front mounted camera for my tractors. I致e got a 9 monitor that can connect to two cameras, a long video / 12 volt umbilical, some 3 x 3 tubing to protect the camera, and a pair of very strong magnets to hold the camera in place on the grill guard, pallet forks frame, etc.

I just haven稚 found a camera with a narrow /close view. All seem to be 140-170ｰ field of view i.e. 澱ackup cameras? I want narrower to focus on forks, tree / post puller, etc.

I was hoping to ride your coattails on that one, Rick. It'd be another ChaChing on your long list!:laughing:

I have a couple of the little GoPro Session cameras that are pretty rugged and waterproof, and would be willing to throw one at the project. They'll work with an iPad or iPhone for viewing, but I think they've got pretty wide angle lenses on them, too. No, I just checked, and the Hero Session 5 has a Narrow video mode, so that's promising. But the iPhone/iPad aren't that good in direct sunlight, either. I also want a dedicated solution, and so far I haven't found a view panel that is waterproof.

 

[Alien]

If you search the Net you can find lenses to replace those horrible wide angle things. I have 2 x SJ Cams (similar to GoPro) and a firefly that had wide angles and replaced them with 90 deg lenses. They are perfect for what I do now and depth perception is more realistic. Those GoPros are good but designed to be fitted as head-sets and for close-up personal stuff. Not much use for landscape type photography.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Actually, it's the inverse ... at in the case of the junior Senator from Texas ... :laughing:

How about discussing the Texas power grid in another forum in another thread so we don't have to prune this one/close it?

Good morning.

Agreeed....Buurrrrrrrrrrr

Some are getting more electricity than others....not sure what the rule of thumb is. They actually told us to turn off our thermostats yesterday. We cut ours back to 63F......mattered not, with the blackouts we got down to 58F inside.

Worse blackout percentage for my inlaws.

Now, potable water will be the next emergency. We are down to low water pressure. I have 1 toilet already not flushing because of frozen line. (PEX under home)

We need to have backup water available.

Might should consider prepping better. I just cut more firewood. Electric splitters don't work well without electricity.

 

[Thomas]

+1°F and partly cloudy this morning, going up to 12° today. iThingie weather widget says it will be sunny and 50° here next Tuesday. I'll be OK with that.

Wind chill was around -17° when I walked out to the barn to feed the chickens and fire up the tractor to excavate our snow. Fortunately, as the morning progressed, the wind subsided and the sunshine made it feel much warmer that single digits, especially in that heated tractor cab. Getting to that point, though, wasn't a foregone conclusion. The glow plugs took a little extra time this morning, so I cycled it a second time before turning the key. It cranked reeeeeal slooooow. I stopped, cycled the glow plugs again, and it cranked reeeeeal slooooow again ... then finally started. I haven't run it since before the holidays. I'm thinking next winter it will have a tender on the battery. Ran fine once it started, and restarted fine after it warmed up a bit. We had a drift that wrapped around in front of the garage door and sunroom door that was up to the door handle, so probably four feet. The other end of the concrete pad was still bare. Got all that cleaned off first, took a short breakfast break, then dove into the driveway. The bottom half of the driveway was the same as the top pad, drifted about 3-4 feet. That took some time to clear, but got it done around 10:30-ish. Cleared a walking path out to the barn on the way back, and called it done. This is the most significant snow we've had here in a few years. Looks like the average was around 7-8 inches here, but the 15-20 mph winds made for some impressive drifts. Youngest stepson sent us a picture of one he took out his truck window that was probably 5-6 feet tall along the side of the road about a mile south of us.

View attachment 686684 View attachment 686685 View attachment 686686

OK, pilot error. I was trying to upload the original pics without resizing them first. It was just taking forever to load those giant files.
First two were taken by The Wife from inside the sunroom, through the screen, while I was clearing the concrete area. Last was breakfast break.

Just another good reason to own tractor. :thumbsup:

 

[txdon]

Woke up to a loud noise on the roof like someone fell on it or something fell in the attic???? Will investigate when it gets light outside. No trees close.

Don did you ever find out what caused that noise? I was letting my imagination run wild and thought of blue ice falling from an airliner or a meteorite. The last time we has a thump in the night it was one of my wife's house plants falling off a window ledge.

Chris

18˚F

I did not go in the attic, but looking on top of the roof nothing looks amiss. So I don't know. One day in the future I'll find something.

Power went off 1.25 hour ago. Finish shoveling snow off the driveway. The road are reported passable but there is no where to go. Only one grocery store is open (HEB) and reports say there is a line 200 people long to get inside. We have enough food for another week or longer.

Lost internet also for a while but after 2.25 hours we now have power and the internet is back up. Need to eat and shower before we loose it again. House only got to 60˚F so not bad at all.

 

[Thomas]

34F fine mist falling.

3"+mostly sleet was double the time doing clean up,but all roofs are clean and snow banks push back for Friday storm...Kubota now getting good rest.
Chatted with highway snow plow operator...nice guy :thumbsup:,he was threaten this morning by home owner and refuse to let him plow so he call police,he said it got ugly home owner got ride in cruiser.

Recliner dinner recliner slow motion movie pillow time will come early tonight.

Enjoy your evening all.

 

[Buppies]

Are you feeling better Kyle?
How about a small generator?

Our generator is 5500 watts not much but runs heat propane hot water propane refrigerator well bathroom lights bedroom lights TV in great room manageable but only runs 12 hours before needing gas

 

[Buppies]

Had that happen once Thomas years ago lady threw shovel at truck stood in road and would not move. Called VDOT they came with State Police she went inside never came back out.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Are you feeling better Kyle?
How about a small generator?

Our generator is 5500 watts not much but runs heat propane hot water propane refrigerator well bathroom lights bedroom lights TV in great room manageable but only runs 12 hours before needing gas

We are all electric. And it has truly become a convenience that is hard to live without. We would need 12kw at least to keep up with just some of our load.

I'm feeling ok. Sinus headaches and diarrhea are my 2 main symptoms. I had to rest for a bit while chopping firewood. I only split maybe 1/5 of a chord. We've burned almost 1/2 chord now, in since Thursday or Friday.

Randy, I'm praying for your family. Hope the property "settlement" doesn't get down in the muck.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Power outages suck. Can't watch any shows, don't even bother starting. Maybe get a spot of local news.

My phone does not want to get data on the cellular network right now. Might be time for an upgrade.

frustrating.

My family is getting stir crazy. I've been up north in cold for spells, and I'm fairly used to it, but they are not.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Son got to try out the snow

 

[riptides]

Fill the bathtub for water if you can. Bring snow inside for flushing.