Good morning!!!!

[ronjhall]

We put a feeder on the back deck about a month ago...mostly chickadees, a few cardinals and (I think) blue jays. Stepdaughter is the bird expert of the family, not me
Boy, they sure go through the food!!

I go through 300 to 400 lbs a year. Good entertainment for little over $100.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Our daughter teaches disabled children so she has regular Covid tests. Two positive tests mean she is now off work for the rest of the week and likely passed it on to us at the weekend. Good thing is that my wife was able to order groceries online for delivery later this week. Not only will we not starve, the Great White Egret on the big pond can carry on fishing without constantly looking over his shoulder for a desperately hungry man with a gun

Hope they stay well with light cases.

My son’s father in law is in the hospital in CCU with Covid, not doing well. Doctors are not optimistic. He’s almost 80 and no vaccine of any kind, he’s a non believer. My daughter in law and youngest grandson also had mild cases, she’s vaccinated but not boosted, all after a large family get together for Christmas.

I heard from my son, his father in law Dan, passed at about 9:25 tonight. I hate it for all of them, and I really hate it for the grandsons, they didn’t handle it well when my wife passed four years ago.

Prayers for all the family Randy.

Thankful to all for the thoughts and prayers for my mom. Brother reports that she is doing "about 30%" better. The insurance came through, after I filed a "fast track appeal", and the other problems my mom is facing, along with the doctor calling them again.....

So she has been moved to the skilled nursing floor, getting respiratory and physical therapy. Not sure what her lung volume is, I need to get that data. She still has a horrible cough. On this floor right now, the nurses station checks each incoming visitor's temp and signs you in.

Our county is having an exponential rise in Covid cases. We seem to always be a few weeks behind the masses, maybe because we are rural. No mask mandates at schools.

Eric, over here 5 days is the norm for isolation now, is it the same over there?

Rich, sounds like fun except for truck's diff. Hope it's not $$$ to fix it.

Prayers for our team, and our nation.

Oh, and count me in at 61 1/2.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I go through 300 to 400 lbs a year. Good entertainment for little over $100.

And it entertains me throughout the year too!

Thank you.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

The method I used won't improve your skillset, just the opposite.

The top (about 50 feet up) was caught in the "arms" of another bigger oak. I cut rounds off the standing bottom of my leaning tree, shortening it with a thud as it dropped 18 inches, which made the leaning angle less acute, one section at a time, until it was 90 degrees and much shorter, and it then fell backwards from its original lean.

Wow, that sounds scary. Did you use wedges to keep the cut open? Then how did you kick the rounds out? Lately I've gotten fond of making partial cuts that don't break through, then using the tractor and a looooooooong chain to pull the tree over, keeping me and the tractor out of harm's way, and having more influence on where the tree lands. Would that have helped you?

 

[daugen]

Rip, sorry for your apple tree. may the firewood bring good memories
Kyle, hope your Mom feels better
stink bug just walked right across the keyboard. Out the door it goes

 

[kenmbz]

Good morning all, 27 and partly sunny - feels warm
Work still has not told me where I am ending up after re-org-seems three choices and none of the execs agree...

David - I hope Sophie keeps healing great and does not need anymore eye work for a few decades. I am sure she is a bit tired of operations.

For me with the dead ashes dropping big branches PPE and lots of wedges and standard cut, but slow.
I like to be many yards away when these fall as they shoot chunks of wood and branches when they hit.

Stay safe and be well.

Neuschwanstein castle and the surrounding countryside.
Driving the backroads and the autobahn made this trip a little more special than my other trips to Germany.
Having my son with us, let us see it a bit from his eyes too.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Good Morning!!!! 48F @ 5:00AM. Partly cloudy. High 61F. Winds light and variable.
Still no rain in the 10-day, but temps will be warming into the mid to upper 60s F.

That's one ugly bird, Ron. But a good photo none the less.

Sorry about the apple tree, Mike. Was it a good producer? The pieces would be good in the smoker...

Way back in '03 I took a motorcycle tour of the Alps, Ken. While we were walking around inside the Neuschwanstein castle, a lady in the parking lot backed into one of the big BMW touring bikes and knocked it over. It got hooked on her bumper, and got dragged a fair distance when she tried to drive away. Of course she denied everything once the cops showed up, but another tourist got it all on video. The fairing on the bike got tweaked, but it was still rideable, so no damage was done to the vacation. We were on the Autobahn for a bit on the way to our motel later that day, and I saw 220 KPH on the speedo trying to keep up with a big Mercedes. That's a trip I'd love to make again, if we ever get back to not wearing masks everywhere.

Fussed around with the Makita chain saw for a good bit yesterday, trying to figure out why the chain kept tightening or loosening. Took apart and cleaned the adjustment mechanism, but all the pieces looked fine. Then I noticed gouges had been worn by the chain drivers rubbing on the drive sprocket. When the drivers fell into the gouges, the chain loosened. When it rode up and out, it got tight enough the electric motor wasn't strong enough to move the chain. The cure is a new sprocket, but Makita says they won't have any until the middle of February. Hoping for the best, I took the sprocket off and flipped it over, and it seems to be working fine now. Just have to start calling around to see if I can find a few new ones to keep on hand.

Cut a couple dead trunks down off the steep side of the driveway, and used about 40' of log chain to drag them up to the wood yard. Would have been easier to drive the tractor and grapple up to them on the low side. but it's still soft enough that the tires just spin trying to get up the grade. Maybe if this dry weather lasts long enough I can get up there to clear all the branches that broke off, but for now I'm just going to let them lay there.

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

 

[riptides]

...

Sorry about the apple tree, Mike. Was it a good producer? The pieces would be good in the smoker...

...

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

For the deer yes. It was glorious when in bloom, the contrast to the pastures was a sight.

Agree it will be good for the smoker and grill.

Almost TGIF. Almost.

 

[txdon]

Good morning! 32.9˚ at sunrise with frost on the ground. With full sun and a west wind we will be heading to 70.

Maybe I can sun the knee for vitamin D. Egore was content with my 3rd stretch yesterday at 120˚ same as Monday so I left happy. He was flexing his arms after the second knee flex of only 118˚ so I just squeaked by. I'll work hard and often on stretching today so I don't regress.

Ron, didn't Eddie get covid the first time before the vaccine was available? I think that is the first time I have heard of someone getting covid twice.

Kyle, glad you won the appeal and your mom has more time to heal. In Giddings there is a business called "A Perfect Way". They help with the non-skilled nursing chores and personal help. You might need to check if Victoria has a similar business. My mom needed daily help when she first got out of the hospital and now she uses them for light house cleaning every other week, but it's nice to know if she needs more help it is already in place.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

40 degrees this morning high of 51. Snow storm news for those interested

Those east of say Charlottesville may have more sleet rain. Riptides still big snow better than a foot (beer time), wngsprd not looking promising, Toppop not too good if you like snow, SWVa maybe sleet, BEF not too good either if you like snow. This is what I call confusion time until the models get a good grip on what’s going on which they have not yet. Best guess I have right now

prayers for Kyle his moms and family, prayers for Eddie Walker and his wife, Sophie, Roy’s wife in recovery and all others

Don how about Snowblitz

NWS FB page said don’t believe what you see on Social media about the upcoming storm.
They said Friday before a decent prediction. Course they said this on social media.

Hope Eddie & Wife doing ok.