Good morning!!!!

[rswyan]

43F, cloudy, and wet @ 10:30, headed up to a high of 57F for the day. Radar shows a band of showers running from the southwest to northeast heading this way. Should be minor compared to what has already moved through. Rain should end for the day by 11:30. Got 0.56" since midnight.

This Sunday seems like it could be fairly ugly: calling for just over an inch of rain and a high of only 46F.

Just saw a poor little bluebird picking at one of the empty suet feeders on the back deck so guess I better get those refilled along with putting out some mealworms. Checked the can in the feeder in the upper front yesterday on the way back in and it was empty so someone is finding and eating them. Might be about due to make a trip down to Eddie's Bait to pick up another container of them.

Need to finish up email to the local UPS terminal manager, which I purposely held off on sending until I calmed down further.

Otherwise normal stuff on agenda: feed fish, refill bird feeders, clean kitchen.

Not sure what else I'll get into.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable, productive, and safe day ...

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Good morning to all! Low of 48, going up to 78, a decent chance of a T-storm this afternoon.

A fairly productive day yesterday.... all while taking it easy... so it can be done! I was able to get the hydraulic side link mounted on the tractor. Works as planned, maybe a real world test this weekend will happen.



Then I was able to move the old 6' heavy back blade over to the shop. There are a couple of mounting points where the blade mounts to the arm that need to be fabricated. The old pieces are cast iron, so welding them back together would be difficult. The new pieces will be made of steel. The hardest part will be matching a curve that is in the plate.... I will probably have a lot of fun bending 3/8" steel in the press.... and have to do it twice....

Not sure if I will get to it this weekend or not, but everything is set to go....

There are a couple of other projects up higher on the list....
Some more plants have to get situated in grow bags (only 15), so shouldn't take too long.
Then the pond / waterfall needs to get cleaned and filled. Not a job that I am looking forward to doing.

Everyone have a great day and start to the weekend!

 

[daugen]

Drew since Puerto Rico is part of US, Spanish is here to stay - they should find someone to assist though to make it easier since you don't comprende.

Agreed. I took Latin and French and sure wish I had taken Spanish instead.

what gripes me is after ten years in this country they still can't speak understandable English.
And when they talk to each other they never do it in English to work on improving their verbal skills.
Isn't speaking English part of becoming a US citizen?

I think I may try an app on my Iphone.

 

[rswyan]

RS-I have people miss the driveway and make deep tracks all the time here. Placed some big visible rocks on the corners, but can;t believe someone could do that to your lawn.

Yeah ... I was pretty much amazed.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

Popgadget, thanks for sharing the pic of your place, very beautiful. I wish we had half of the greenery you have there!

First hummingbird of the season showed up this morning.... we scrambled and made up some juice and got it hung up.

Drew, sorry to hear about your misadventure at the Giant... I was surprised when I went to Walmart a couple days ago. They had removed all the normal 'cashier' registers and replaced them with 'self checkout stations'. There is only one cashier station left... it had a long line.

Gotta get myself in gear.....

 

[rswyan]

Maybe it's time for some security/game cameras, RS?

Yeah ... I've been looking.

Kind of liking the idea of game cameras - given that they can be placed so that they aren't really noticeable, will run off batteries for an extended time and snap lots of images, and have invisible flash available.

Of course, there so many to choose from - and usually reviews are a mix of "It's the greatest thing since sliced bread" to "It's absolute junk" ... even with well-known name brands (Moultrie, Bushnell, Browning, etc.)

Those are some startling statistics, Don. Very disturbing that this isn't being covered in the usual media sources.

I would say: ... not really.

Particularly given the fact that anyone can make a report using the CDC's system.

The numbers are really minuscule ... given the number of doses administered and the amount of people vaccinated ... and in no way establish any sort of causal relationship between having taken a vaccine and a subsequent adverse event.

 

[daugen]

some of us had grandparents who immigrated through Ellis Island.
My grandfather "came through" in 1901 and knew instinctively that speaking
better English would help him succeed in business. As he did. And he pounded that lesson into
his sons and I was sure downhill of that family lesson. Take pride in your country and learn the language.
My Mother's New England side went back to Miles Standish so that concern wasn't all DNA apparently.

Part of the desire to fit in was likely due to wanting to get rid of the "Jewish accent" of their European home area.
Made even more poignant for my family learning that all the remaining family who didn't come over
died in the gas chambers in Belzec. Not like advertising your faith made anyone in my family comfortable...
Religious freedom is really, really important. Something we can't take for granted.

RS, I think you need a camera system there, catch these guys turfing your lawn.
Looks like they could have K turned there, maybe a double, but doable. Why drive on a guy's lawn?
Particularly one that has had a great deal of care lately and looked nice.

Ted, exactly. They need to pay these people 20 bucks an hour plus benefits and raise their prices accordingly.
Then they would get applicants showing up. And maybe even getting off the dole. Sounds like a fine ending.

 

[kenmbz]

I have had luck with the Browning so far:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Giant pays a good salary. My neighbor the plumber has a hard time hiring people who will work. The govt handouts are too high.
I’m pretty pizzed at having to pay for the freeloaders.

 

[rswyan]

Pretty sure all have auto-stop (both of mine did).

Could very well be.

Stability is a good point...the model I have has a pretty wide track and larger wheels/tires which helps a lot pushing through slop after snow blowing.

The track on this one is 24" (overall length of axle) and the tires are either 14" or 15" in circumference.

That puts the height of the top of spreader at somewhere around 32".

I've had 100 lbs. in this spreader...seems pretty stabile to me (thanks to the wider track and larger wheel combo)

I'd have no qualms about putting 100 lbs of heavy material in this unit ... which would only fill it 2/3rds full.

Not sure whether I'd be inclined to run across the side of the hill on the east side of the though.

And I certainly wouldn't be inclined to go tearing around with it on a slope at speed like I'm sure some folks do.

After I bought the stainless model, I gave the plastic one to the company I work for to spread ice melt in the walk ways (partly for self preservation since my right leg doesn't work so good). Anyway, one winter season, they put it in a shed without any cleaning. It was totally useless last winter...I tried to free it up with PB Blaster (didn't work), so gave it to a maintenance guy at work. He used a lot of penetrating oil and finally got it apart and cleaned up as much as possible. He gave it to his neighbors who are elderly (like I'm not!) and somewhat handicapped.

LOL ...

I started working on our Craftsman unit last year. Wheels were pretty thoroughly seized on the axles and I used PB on them to try and free them up (it didn't)

Didn't have the torches at the time though ... so that may make the difference the next time around.

I have a new plastic spinner plate for it and a pair of new tires. Wheels and frame need repainted and the sticker for setting the spread rate and the gate needs re-attached.