What's everybody doing today?

[Patchouli]

@Amish Heart it sounds like things are heading in the right direction for you and hopefully for the twins. God bless you for all the things you put up with, just to try to help them get themselves together. It's working, I hope.

 

[SheepDog]

I ordered a new computer today. It will be built just for me and i forgot to ask what it was going to cost... I now I will find out.
My old computer was the first "off the shelf" unit I have bought in a decade or more and it just wasn't made for the abuse.
I plan on keeping it as a back-up because I just turned in two older computers. Now i want to see about a new printer...
I stopped by the parts store and got my wife a new brake pedal pad for her car and bought the other one that was on sale because they are no longer being made. My son is on the management team so I ordered the pistons I need for my "Muskrat". Modified 66 Mustang that the kids called a "ratty old mustang". When I got it it had been hit in all 4 corners and never properly repaired. The cost to restore it was more than a 289 three speed would ever be worth so I decided to turn it into a rod. it has been a project with a few mistakes along the way but it is on track again!

 

[bamadeb48]

Went to work. Came home. Played with Ruby. Ruby did this. We are still learning to play with Ruby...View attachment 93109View attachment 93110

My machine does this , got to figure out how to tighten it

 

[sonya123]

Was very busy again yesterday. We did pick up the truck passed inspection ! But still pulls to the right after the alignment was done
Puppy must have ate something outside that upset his system. He gagged and hickupped for a while then had diarreah but now seems ok. It is almost impossible to keep him from picking up various crap off the ground and eating it.
Our oldest ewe is limping. I just did her hoofs and they were not bad, she is not sick otherwise. Not sure what she did. It's usually the goats jumping off or over something and hurting themselves not the sheep. Debating if she needs to go in a stall for a few days or if I should let her hop on 3 legs. Sheep really hate being away from the herd, she would be very upset in a stall.
Husband and I figured out a better way to get things done without arguing. I think....we will see...
Baking bread for the market today, need to get started

on college degrees: I know some of you will not agree with this but we told our kids that we will only pay for college if they get a marketable degree. We made them do math since Kindergarden since all marketable degrees except maybe being a lawyer or school teacher require you to be able to do higher level math. If they did not want that, they would either have to get a regular job, or pay for it themselves. Daughter had a 2 year IT degree and is now fixing planes in Navy, son is now a senior working on his engineering degree.
Even if you end up not liking the job later, your possibilities of getting other jobs go way up if you have a technical degree.

 

[Magpie]

Woke up with a feeling I need to do more prepping- god knows what I was dreaming about!
So ordered heating oil and nearly cried at the price - I'll pop the details in the relevant thread. Dropped daughter to work and topped up the larder with golden syrup and a few baking essentials.
Yesterday bought pack of 25 chicken fillets from my butcher- which has risen from €25 to €35 since January, but they are large and still good value, some minced pork and beef mince also, and have been cooking all day.
Daughter is off to college soon, and her on-campus digs include a kitchen with a rare extra freezer that no one else uses. So chicken curry and mince pies made for us and her. Also used the Chinese containers I saved to make up uncooked dinners like honey soy chicken, and bagged single chicken breasts so she can make stir fries etc.
Cleaned up the freezer, found a turkey breast I forgot about which will make a nice dinner when my brother comes to visit from Perth on Monday
Now have carrot and courgette soup on while I have some lunch, and will be making potato and courgette later. Also found a recipe for pork breakfast patties some might try them.

 

[Wingnut]

Gearing up to do some weeding... I will be SO glad when fall rolls round and I can do yard work later in the day, or in the late afternoon & early evening. I may do some flamethrower work today, depends upon how quickly the temp rises outdoors. I kinda slept in till 0700 this morning, and the relentless march of time is making me look bad, lol.

Speaking of dreams, I used to take the amino acid tryptophan before going to bed, as it would give me some vivid dreams. Lately, I've noticed that whenever I drink grapefruit juice in the middle of the night (followed by a healthy chug of water), then go back to sleep, I have some really weird or 'detailed' dreams. The juice must trigger my brain, lol...

 

[Plainflatlander]

Wanted to become a plumber, was talked out of it from my mom. Got my Bachelors in business management and quickly realized I didnt care for a shirt and tie daily and having a boss who is not as smart or as driven as myself. Had a lawn service in high school and still had a few customers so asked DW if I could run with that. She agreed and dont regret my landscape business but being a plumber I feel would have been a good choice also.

 

[DrJenner]

Stump grinding day! Have quite a few of these then I’ll take the bobcat and fill the holes with the dirt and rock.
Full day ahead of us.
Hope everyone has a great day!

 

[Tommyice]

I got a surprise day off. Pharmacist called out sick and they are so short of pharmacists they could not find anyone to cover. Pharmacy can’t be open unless a pharmacist is on duty. Went to the store at the other end of town to work, but the pharmacist there said she has enough help scheduled so I got a day off. If they need to call me and I can go in but not likely it’s going to happen.

So right now I’m canning the lima beans we bought at the farmers market yesterday. When they’re done I’ll go downstairs and start grinding my tomatoes for canning tomorrow

 

[Bacpacker]

Took half a day off work after a BUSY morning. Been workin around outside and sweating my butt off. IT IS HOT around here. Had to come inside and cool down a little. Back to it shortly

 

[Wingnut]

Despite the 'late start' at 0830 this morning, I spent 3.5 hours in the yard, half an hour watering and 3 solid hours of hand weeding. The Second Goathead War is raging, and I made a HUGE dent in the puncturevine population today! I reckon I pulled around 500 vines, but at least 200 of those were mature vines absolutely LOADED with goathead fruit, and each goathead fruit creates 5 actual goatheads!!! These goathead vines are INSANE, they are SO invasive!

Many of the mature vines I pulled today were in the dirt alley or lane on the west side of my property... technically, this is NOT my property, it's a right-of-way used by meter readers & utility workers, but I'm going to clear it anyway because it borders my property. I intend to create a "no man's land" between my home and the adjoining vacant home & property to the west, in order to better control these miserable puncturevines.

That darned alley was chockablock with puncturevines just LOADED with goatheads, but I still caught them in time, so all the wicked fruit went straight into the trash bin. I'm talking half a dozen Walmart bags JAMMED full o' vines, and when I say "jammed" I mean JAMMED, lol. Literally THOUSANDS of goathead fruit got trashed this morning, to the point where I was sweatin' buckets and my back hurt... and I've always had a strong back, lol. MAN, these goatheads!!!

Anyway, I'm beat, I've already showered and I'm drinking a well-deserved cold beer... the rest of the afternoon will be spent recovering from the latest battle in the Second Goathead War. Tough fight today, but I hammered those miserable friggin' puncturevines HARD!!! And every time I pull one of those mature vines over 2' across and LOADED with goatheads, it's like friggin' PAYDAY, because I know I just kept that many more goatheads off my property.

I know y'all are probably tired of hearing about the Goathead Wars, but I'm the poor fool that has to actually deal with 'em, lol, and these things are NASTY! Tough & salty customers, I'll give 'em that much, but I'm gonna win this fight... if I don't, the goldurned goathead population will EXPONENTIALLY INCREASE, that's what makes this invasive noxious weed such a bloody nuisance. Folks before me let the problem go, now I'm paying the price in blood, sweat & tears, lol.

Never did get to the flamethrower action today, that'll happen tomorrow morning with an earlier start... however, I'm quite satisfied with the huge dent I made in the goathead population this morning, my trash bin is loaded with the suckers. Other weeds too, but mondo goatheads, lol. I wonder what it'd be like chowing down on those nasty burrs... it'd be a serious torture test. Maybe jam some up the old nostrils, lol... do a Pat Travers cover of 'SNORTIN' GOATHEADS!!!'

Snortin' Goatheads

Edit: Holy Cow!!! That's the perfect song for the Goathead Wars!!! That moment deep in the song where the bass guitar kicks in like ol' Pat is havin' a monster headrush, THAT is the very same way I feel when I look ahead and see another area CHOCKABLOCK with GOATHEAD VINES, lol. And the subsequent blistering lead guitar riff reminds me of TACKLING that next area... only the pace of the actual weed-pulling is just a tad slower, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Pat Travers had to be one of the most underrated guitarists of all time... dude could JAM on guitar, lol.

Further edit: When snortin' goatheads, it is wise to first chop 'em up with a razor blade, lol. Using a standard safety razor blade, it'll take you approximately 1/2-hour to chop 1 gram of goathead action, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! These things are tougher than dollar steaks, and it takes a while for the razor blade to "saw through" each goathead. Just the way it goes when you're dealing with goatheads, aye? Meh, life could be worse... but I doubt it.

 

[Amish Heart]

Grandson came down this morning bald. Shaved off all his shoulder length hair. Was wondering why there was so much noise till midnight last night upstairs. I think he did it to draw attention away from the fact that we found his backpack of drugs and had the sheriff pick it up. But whatever. Got the animals done, worked in the garden till lunchtime, (weed pulling, picking tomatoes and peppers), went to Tractor and picked up 300 lbs of game bird feed. Just unloaded that to the milkhouse and am putting my feet up. More chores to do. Our town festival starts with the locals tonight. We have hamburger and pork burger cookout, with chips, soda, and ice cream sandwiches. Starts around 6. Then we have what I call Amish Street Games. The bleachers are already set up for tomorrows parade, so we sit on those, and we play crazy games, like who can hammer in nails faster on a board, or pie eating, or whose horse can pull more. One year they had 3 teams of amish guys building sheds to see whose was done first. Then we go home at dark. The pancake breakfast starts at 6am, the parade at 10:30 am, and there's events all day...buggy races, tractor pull, quilt auction, live old gospel music, lots of food. Tomorrow night there's lots of fireworks. We look forward to this all year. Tonight is the locals, but tomorrow will be people from all over.

 

[DrJenner]

@Amish Heart that sounds like a great time!
@Wingnut we had a ton of those buggers at our old property. Hubs got out there with the flamethrower haha. They are nasty and find ways into EVERYTHING. Good luck, I don’t envy you.

We are still grinding, slow going. Hubs is working the grinder and I’m working the bobcat to fill the holes, except I’m a lot faster than he is at this point. We have to stop and let the fool machine cool down and throw water on the rubber as it’s getting so hot it’s smoking. Last thing we need is another forest fire in these parts. Have had a few scares the last couple of weeks.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Wingnut,

I for one, don't mind reading about your gumption to do battle without end. Those of us doing our own personal battles feel the pain and the triumph.

It would have been fun to go to the Amish street games at the end of the day though.

 

[Wingnut]

I'd go to the Amish Street Games first thing in the morning, and to heck with the Goathead Wars... one thing about these goatheads, you can always take a day off, and they'll be waiting for you when you return, lol.

In fact, there will probably be 50,000 more of 'em waiting for you, lol...

 

[Neb]

Back to the basement clean-out project.

Most what is there now is used dirt and media used in an ebb and flow system. I dismantled all of the fittings for the ebb n flow to add to my stock pile of plumbing fittings. The rubs got tossed. Enough progress on that for now. I will have to turn my attention to my work bench. It is piled about 18" deep and needs to be reset badly.

Take care

Ben

 

[Tank-Girl]

I took the sutures out of Landshark's spaying incision.
It healed cleanly but Holly cow Batman! It looks like the cow vet used a blanket stitch on her because the scar is thick and raised. Looks like a zipper.
She was a good girl and laid down quietly and only reached back and licked my hand when I had to tug a little to get the suture to let go.
OK! Who is this dog and what have they done to the real Lankshark!!??
But back in character - while she was out in her pen she knocked a rectangle of skin off her hip.
There was no yelp....just blood.
I have no idea how she did it or where.
I put silver ointment on the wound, put a waterproof dressing on it and wrapped it with a bandage and put her back in her crate.
This morning the bandage was off and the waterproof dressing was missing....I checked everywhere!
I checked the bandage, here bedding, took the tray out of the crate.
My only conclusion is she ate it.
*epic face palm with huge sigh*
At least the bleeding has stopped.
Now I have to wait and see if she can pass the dressing.
Should I be grateful she didn't eat the bandage as well?

 

[Amish Heart]

I'll let you know if there's any weird amish street games tonight. The weirdest one so far was a few years back. They brought a giant tarp in the street, swung over a big stand, so that people sitting on one side of it couldn't see the others on the other side. Called up husband and wives. Set out chairs on one side for the wives to sit on, and the husbands couldn't see who was their wife. Wives took off their shoes and socks, and put their feet under the tarp to the other side, and husbands had to figure out who was their wife by their feet. It was hilarious. I won one game one year, played against my sis who was visiting. A number of us ladies had to see who was the fastest with a cordless drill, sheet metal, and 5 metal screws. I won a bag of flour.

 

[Amish Heart]

Games were a blast tonight. Someone took a John Deere B tractor and added to it. There were 5 seats on both sides of the very back of the tractor with pedals. It was announced as Biden's green initiative tractor (ha Ha). There was a driver and 10 guys who jumped on to pedal. So along comes a big old M and M tractor, and they had a push a barrel race. Then they put big tow straps on the back of each tractor for a man tug of war with both tractors. Then they did a man tug of war to see how many men it took to stop the M and M. It was about 30. PETA would of had a cow tonight with two of the children's games. No mutton busting tonight, but there was a frog race. Each kid would grab a frog out of the barrel, was handed a ping pong ball paddle to scoot it along, and had to get the frog down the road about 30 feet. Well, the paddle was used for more than just scooting. It was hysterical. Another game was a big wire pen was on a flatbed that was brought in, and there were pigs in the pen. Some of the pigs had a $5 bill strapped to their leg. So they would put a couple kids in the pen to see if they could grab a $5 bill. Lots of squeeling going on. Our mc tonight was former amish and did some jokes. One was: little Johnny noticed his teacher had big hands, and asked her why her hands were big. She said that she milked cows in the morning, and it made her hands big. Then he noticed her feet were big, and asked about them. She said that was because she had to carry the big pails of milk after milking. So little Johnny said that she must be sitting down alot when she milked cows, too. The twins joined us for dinner, left 5 minutes after, missed the games and the live music. Granddaughter left with the boyfriend, grandson left with his friend. But little granddaughter had a blast running around all night with her friends and cousins.

 

[Patchouli]

We hope little Johnny learned his lesson.
It’s good little granddaughter enjoys the family fun still. If she is growing up in the community of family like that, hopefully she will stay close to it. The twins will come around eventually, don’t you think?
Have never chased a pig. Held a tiny piglet once and I’ll likely never do that again.
I have not been able to find my tent! It was a big one. So got another one, a little smaller, a tarp, a cooler, headlamp, some food to take along.

 

[Amish Heart]

Little granddaughter will be ok. The twins, though, I don't think we'll be able to have a relationship unless some miracle happens. They lie all the time. They say awful things about us that aren't true. Granddaughter shows a deep hatred towards me, and grandson just wants to get high and do what his sister says. Therapist says to say the word, and they can move to an alternative household. They didn't want to say the word yet, and if it gets bad enough, we'll have to say it for them. 289 days.

 

[Magus]

Sounds good in theory, but no can do. The logs are set on cement in ground pillers 8 " off the ground. There is a round steel plate with a center pin to anchor into the bottom cement post and another bolted to the top whose pin is anchored into the edge of a horizontal metal covered engineered beam that runs along the top of all the posts. The rafters sit perpendicular to this beam along it's top. They are also metal covered. This school did not skimp in the building materials.

The previous owners after it became a private residence simply, did not keep the logs sealed properly. It's not too late to do it properly, but another year left unattended will lead to having to replace un replacable supports.

A small labor intensive, cheap project becomes a major industrial and very expensive repair.

It's not a difficult job, just a tedious dirty one. It is a lot like Wingnut's weeds. Somebody needs to get to It. It won't go away on its own.

Hooboy... can you buy creosote where you live? melt, paint repeat. it won't stink after a few weeks, but they won't rot either.

 

[Mel]

Went to work. Bought thread and snaps for a sewing project. Went home. Played with Ruby and figured out how to change the stitch length on her. Discussed what color fabric for another sewing project.

 

[Magpie]

Started a radio training course!

 

[Spikedriver]

I woke up at quarter to 7 for no reason. I had planned on sleeping about 45 minutes longer, but oh well...about to jump in the shower and then head to Des Moines with my daughter. She has an eye appointment there at the Jordan Creek shopping mall. How convenient! I'm sure we will spend a bit of time there afterward. She probably will want to look at overpriced clothes, and I will want to go to Scheel's and look at overpriced guns and ammo. There is a Zombie Burger restaurant in the mall so I'm betting we'll eat there too. Zombie Burger is locally famous for their off the wall burgers - I think the employees sit around after closing time, smoke weed, and invent goofy burgers. Then the best of those burgers get put on the menu for a week. The next week, they'll invent something new. They have one called The Undead Elvis Burger - a double cheeseburger with peanut butter and fried bananas on it. I'm too chicken to try it. But the one with deep fried macaroni and cheese croquettes is really good.

After that we'll probably go for a walk at a park. I'm thinking Gray's Lake sounds good, with its 1/4 mile long bridge over the lake...

 

[Pearl]

I woke up at quarter to 7 for no reason. I had planned on sleeping about 45 minutes longer, but oh well...about to jump in the shower and then head to Des Moines with my daughter. She has an eye appointment there at the Jordan Creek shopping mall. How convenient! I'm sure we will spend a bit of time there afterward. She probably will want to look at overpriced clothes, and I will want to go to Scheel's and look at overpriced guns and ammo. There is a Zombie Burger restaurant in the mall so I'm betting we'll eat there too. Zombie Burger is locally famous for their off the wall burgers - I think the employees sit around after closing time, smoke weed, and invent goofy burgers. Then the best of those burgers get put on the menu for a week. The next week, they'll invent something new. They have one called The Undead Elvis Burger - a double cheeseburger with peanut butter and fried bananas on it. I'm too chicken to try it. But the one with deep fried macaroni and cheese croquettes is really good.

After that we'll probably go for a walk at a park. I'm thinking Gray's Lake sounds good, with its 1/4 mile long bridge over the lake...

Sounds like a GREAT day!!

 

[montanabill]

Dumped the kitchen scraps out for the 13 chickens on grasshopper patrol in the back garden area. They are trained to come running when i call them and feed them.
Fun to walk thru the dewy weed infested garden looking for errant zucchini. Our Jerusalem artichokes are actually getting tall, the automatic watering seems to help.

 

[Wingnut]

Trying to work up motivation to use the flamethrower on those younger puncturevines in the yard. Ugh.

At least there are some clouds out there, so it might stay cooler longer...

Right now, I'm enjoying a cuppa Cinnamon Apple Spice herbal tea, it is delicious. In a bit, I'll tackle the goathead vines.

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

Hooboy... can you buy creosote where you live? melt, paint repeat. it won't stink after a few weeks, but they won't rot either.

Nope, but I wouldn't do that anyway.
The logs are decorative as well as structural.

So far, we have three of them sanded down, the cracks sewed together with long screws and filled with bondo.

Hubby painted the bondo to look like natural wood streaks and added some of his signature eyeballs to a few knots. They are subtle but fun when you spot one staring at you from inside a big knot.

The Mennonite kids that moved into our old farmhouse have discovered some of them and are having fun trying to find all the eyes and gremlins peeking out of odd spots.

The logs will be finished with an oil based varathane.

 

[Magus]

I woke up at quarter to 7 for no reason. I had planned on sleeping about 45 minutes longer, but oh well...about to jump in the shower and then head to Des Moines with my daughter. She has an eye appointment there at the Jordan Creek shopping mall. How convenient! I'm sure we will spend a bit of time there afterward. She probably will want to look at overpriced clothes, and I will want to go to Scheel's and look at overpriced guns and ammo. There is a Zombie Burger restaurant in the mall so I'm betting we'll eat there too. Zombie Burger is locally famous for their off the wall burgers - I think the employees sit around after closing time, smoke weed, and invent goofy burgers. Then the best of those burgers get put on the menu for a week. The next week, they'll invent something new. They have one called The Undead Elvis Burger - a double cheeseburger with peanut butter and fried bananas on it. I'm too chicken to try it. But the one with deep fried macaroni and cheese croquettes is really good.

After that we'll probably go for a walk at a park. I'm thinking Gray's Lake sounds good, with its 1/4 mile long bridge over the lake...

Our local BBQ has an Elvis special too. My fave is the Texas sunrise, a burger with sausage, egg, and a hash brown patty on a french toast roll.