What's everybody doing today?

[Patchouli]

@Tommyice sorry to hear about those difficulties. Good you are comfortable with the hospital and staff. Always the biggest plus. It helps that you know what's going on. Prayers.

Cant help, mine are porter cable or EGO

aw heck, that's okay, you don't have to come all the way down here to mow my yard. I can get myself to mow after my new battery is delivered sometime this week. (I'm getting a warranty on this battery)!
Or, as should be the case, my daughter can do it.

 

[LadyLocust]

Ryobi. Son bought it for me. So I'd stop borrowing his...

Ryobi is a HD brand, they should have a battery also (and probably pretty inexpensive).

 

[Mountain trapper]

Be sure to ask the finishing weight. My experience with some of those breeds is that they finish pretty small. We bought a whole hog one time & the gal said the breed - heritage of some sort. Got about 50ish lbs of meat from a whole hog. The pork chops looked like something from a kids play set. Tasted good and we paid by the hanging weight but was disappointed at what it was. So now whenever we are buying meat, I ask what breed and average finishing weight.

The IPP is a cross between Duroc and old Berkshire pigs. They reach maturity in about 8 to 10 months at 250 to 300 pounds.
They have an upturned snout, which is better for grazing than rooting. They were developed in Eastern Idaho specifically for homesteaders in 2006, but didn't go on the market until 2012. They claim to have better, sweeter meat than other breeds. We'll see.

 

[Bacpacker]

Prayers goin up Tommy

 

[sonya123]

So we're thinking about getting some hogs. Anyone here ever heard about Idaho Pasture pigs? They're supposed to do good on pasture and require very little commercial feed. I've got about 10 acres fenced for them with about 300 feet of hog panels already up. Just need to pick up about 75 more panels. I've got a small shelter already built but I'll build a larger one too. I think we'll start with a boar and 4 females.
We just moved the meat chickens up to the large run today. They're in with the laying hens now. They'll be ready to butcher in a few weeks.

don't get any American guineahogs, they are all fat ( we had some)
Next time we get pigs it's going to be a regular commercial breed

our meat chickens need butchering asap. They are probably 8 lbs by now

 

[sonya123]

today: not a good day
it rained when it was not supposed to, then stopped when it looked like it was going to rain, and some of the sheep have diareah butts again ( the adults this time)
I got stung by something I didn't see ( looks like wasp stings) when I was pulling hay off a bale
Got into argument with son
garden is completely taken over with weeds again, I think I will give up on it for this year
our water system has some issues and we are not sure what
( long story , we have spring water on a system that the entire neighborhood is connected to )

and more driving tomorrow have to go pick up our meat (hour drive)

 

[12icemaker]

Hope all comes out well @Tommyice.

And @sonya123 it is your turn for a break, and some peace of mind hoping you find a little of both somewhere soon.

Had Little granddaughter today and worked getting the rest of the stuff ready for the trip to Philadelphia, MS for the Neshoba County Fair.

I am glad this is the last show for 3 weeks so we can get time to do all of the upgrades to the equipment and get the backups going again.

 

[elkhound]

Not the Eliquis. CT Scan showed a tiny mass in his bladder. They admitted him so they can stop the Eliquis and use heparin. He gets a cystoscopy tomorrow. I haven't told him how that is done yet--that's the urologist's job. I spoke with the urologist and he said it could just be a blood clot (that will be flushed out), a benign mass or possibly cancer. In any case, we'll know tomorrow.

I'm waiting for his phone to charge a bit more and then I'll be picking up his lady friend on my way back to the hospital. This is a really great hospital. I did 18 days in it about 10 years ago for some colon/ileo work and they really take care with you. They have 24 hour visiting hours (as long as you don't create a ruckus). They are one of the few hospitals that allowed visitation during the pandemic (without ze papers).

I humbly ask for your prayers.

hope its a big nothing burger !

been hearing about your dad for so long now...hes a fixture in my mind...its been like forever....well since 2010.....want to hear about him gardening and more at least another 10....and see video of face when he finds out yall moving to the country... !

 

[Mountain trapper]

The dog is going in for a bath tomorrow. He smells like a dead coon.

 

[Ekatarina]

Monday July 29th 2024

Why always have something to p*** me off
Why did I lost a bolt on my NEW lawnmower today
So sick of that crap

Anyway ...the *garbage ..
now ...the *bolt

I might go to sleep with Dane Girl again tonight
Hope this week dont turn like a sh*t one


Wish me a good WEEK PLEASE !!!

Have a great night guys..whenever

 

[Spikedriver]

Just pulled into Gretna, Nebraska and checked into my hotel. I'll be working about 15 miles north of here in Elkhorn for the next week. I just got done with six days in Wisconsin on Sunday. Drove home Sunday evening, got some rest, and here I am in nebraska. I have a feeling ill be real tired of hotels by next week. Spending 13 out of 14 straight nights in a hotel room gets old...

 

[Neb]

Just pulled into Gretna, Nebraska and checked into my hotel. I'll be working about 15 miles north of here in Elkhorn for the next week. I just got done with six days in Wisconsin on Sunday. Drove home Sunday evening, got some rest, and here I am in nebraska. I have a feeling ill be real tired of hotels by next week. Spending 13 out of 14 straight nights in a hotel room gets old...

Amen!

That is why I retired as early as possible.

Ben

 

[Spikedriver]

Amen!

That is why I retired as early as possible.

Ben

Sadly I have to work until I am 66 and 1/2 to get my full railroad pension. But, at 56 1/2 I should qualify for a full medical retirement, should I become unable to work. That's less than 5 years away now.

It's hard for me to believe that in 3 weeks it will be 16 years since I started on the railroad. Just in that time there have been so many (negative) changes, and so many faces have come and gone. I'll be here at least til I'm 65 though. Once Medicare kicks in, I might take the hit to my pension and retire. That is, if they don't figure out a way to get rid of me first!

 

[12icemaker]

I went to work just after the last group of penny pinchers took over the railroad industry and got them into dire straits when they had trains moving 25 miles an hour for 200 miles.

We worked to build the speeds back up to 55 freight and 80 passenger service and when I did the geometry we were working to set it up to class 5 geometry for all of our 55 mph freight tracks so that the freight was good for 80 mph and passenger rail was good for 110,

The restriction for the system was the open ROW a class 5 needs to be a closed ROW with a good fencing system and impassable gates for vehicular traffic.

I reset, graphed curves and adjusted climb rates curvature and elevation for over 300 curves, some that compounded in sections. maintained the system geometry for about 500 miles of track.

These geometric parameters are just part of the control the design and the actual physical characteristics of Railroad Tracks.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-49/subtitle-B/chapter-II/part-213/subpart-C/section-213.57

 

[12icemaker]

@Spikedriver You have 60/30 how much time will you have at 60?

You get paid medical until Medicare BUT be sure you have daily access to your union GENERAL CHAIRMANS office unless you have a good president who will do the calling for you.
I went at 62 with 38 and we get about as much as we made working.

The medical will drop your spouse and dependents if you have them the day you go to medicare, be ready to pay close to $1000 a month to keep it on them.

I was a foreman for 35 of it and did a lot of OT sometimes over 40 OT on a weekend so that makes a difference.

Being the Pres. of the local also makes a difference in what you can stir up.

 

[Snowman]

Why always have something to p*** me off
Why did I lost a bolt on my NEW lawnmower today
So sick of that crap

Try walking without shoes, You will find that missing Bolt...!!!

 

[MoBookworm1957]

From my special friend's shopping experience on Sunday:
Have shredding 5 pounds of carrots; some for stir fry, some for carrot cakes.
Have coined 5 pounds of carrots, they will go in dehydrator tomorrow.
Still have 5 pounds to do something with.
Chopped up 3 pounds of peppers(red, yellow,orange green)
Got the 2 whole herb drunken chickens deboned.
The bones went in to bag for the makings of vegetable stock.I'm getting tired again.

 

[dademoss]

Day shift at the the cat shelter. After that, haircut and shower, before I need a sheepdog license.

 

[sonya123]

I hope today goes better than yesterday, weather looks better, some rain but not enough to put anyone in the barn for. We will have to pick up the meat today and do some shopping.

I am debating if we are just too old to do all this physical labor. We don't even make much if any profit from the animals. We could just have the minimum required to keep our tax break. That would be around 20 animals total or so not 90 , much less work. Husband hurt his knee chasing after lambs to medicate them and dragging goats to the milk stand to trim hoofs. They need to do it several times before they know where to go and that they get food.
I was hoping to keep them all until January or March when our club sends a bunch to New Holland and they usually get really good prices ( we usually get around $400 for 1 goat buck ) but rethinking that. Maybe we need to just take some to the local auction now and be done with it. We only butcher about 12 a year for the market. You know what I hate about being a farmer? The financial stuff. I am not good at keeping track , actually I just don't . I HATE paperwork of any kind. I just enter all our receipts and income into a spreadsheet in December and send it to our tax accountant. We never owe any taxes LOL, even if we have a profit, it goes away because of stuff like building and vehicle depreciation, plus all the vehicle repairs, plus all the fuel.
But, we really should and need to make a profit of some sort....

 

[Amish Heart]

It is a pain to make a profit, because there's always something. Alot of people around here have multiple side hustles. Not me, cuz I'm too old for that. I couldn't tell you exactly why people farm, but it's not to get rich. I think it's more to be able to live a certain way. And at the end of the day you "have more". More beauty around you, more connection with the land, the animals, personal freedom, and absolutely more access to food when things go south.

Today is finishing some cleaning...one bathroom, and the downstairs needs to be mopped. But first, the diarrhea in the pup's kennel ugh. He must of eaten something weird outside when we were choring. I need to finish this coffee before I get to that. Morning chores, then cleaning and cooking and driving the hr to the airport and back late afternoon to pick up a daughter (number 4). She's coming to stay from Tuscon till Saturday. I think we'll just get takeout from the amish place for dinner since it'll just be busy here all day.

 

[Snowman]

 

[snappy1]

Already walked.
Next, will walk dogs.
Do Building better caregivers VA lesson on laptop.
Grill chicken and burgers.
Revival again, this evening.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Most of the farmers and ranchers that I know are doing quite well. Of course they farm like 20,000 acres, plus the land has been in the family for generations. Most ranchers have a few thousand acres deeded and many more thousands of acres of BLM or forest service grazing allotments. Unless a person has millions of $$ to buy one of these farms or ranches, it's almost impossible to make profit on only a few hundred acres. We do ok by renting part of our property for grazing. We get $.75 cents per head per day from June through September. I'm planing on developing about 40 acres for hay to sale. At 3 ton per acre that should yield about 120 ton.

 

[Ekatarina]

July 30th 2024

MORNING !!!!!

Here its cloudy and too warm, humid and flat wind 81f
Cant wait for October !!!!

I spent again another night sleeping with my love Dane Girl

I will do nothing outside today, nope.

AC and the fans are my friends in Summer

This was my breakfast
Cheerios + Texas Holdem mix nuts + sour cream on top - ginger-nutmeg-cinnamon powder over it
now I sip a very warm *coffee

I did search to find a *song that say GOOD MORNING and I found this !!!! lol
I guess its very old but I find it entertaining. I love old stuff!
Thats funny and cute... so here it is !

GOOD MORNING !!!!!

 

[sonya123]

It is a pain to make a profit, because there's always something. Alot of people around here have multiple side hustles. Not me, cuz I'm too old for that. I couldn't tell you exactly why people farm, but it's not to get rich. I think it's more to be able to live a certain way. And at the end of the day you "have more". More beauty around you, more connection with the land, the animals, personal freedom, and absolutely more access to food when things go south.

we are not doing it for the money obviously. If we wanted to just make money we would have stayed in Orlando and kept our engineering jobs. But we just don't want to lose money either, or work so much we keep having overuse injuries. So we need to figure out if we are at least coming up ahead somewhat and maybe just have the minimum amount of animals. We just figured out today, we only need to sell about 1/3 of the meat we get processed to pay for it. So 2/3 is for us and profit. But that's not counting hay which we use for all the animals not just the ones we get processed.
The next problem is we can't actually make too much money or we will lose our insurance and maybe even have to pay taxes. This might happen to us in a few years once I start collecting ss ( if it's still there) . I just need to figure it out LOL

We are farmers because we want to be. We enjoy selling at the market. We were going to just be homesteaders but then started actually selling stuff and ended up with more and more animals so now it's a business . But we do need to stop at some point

 

[sonya123]

saw something sad and good at the same time today on the way to get the meat and shopping: I have been trying to not look at these poor sheep this old lady keeps on a weed patch next to her house next to the road for years. These poor sheep look horrible, they are not hair sheep but nobody sheers them ever, they have no proper pasture either, like I said just horrible weeds. I don't know how any of them stayed alive this far. I was always hoping she would just get rid of them, but there they are.
Well today we saw FIVE animal control trucks and a few other trucks there clearing out the entire property. I think they took the sheep. I don't generally like .gov interference but was very happy to see this. People should not have animals if they can't take care of them.
If I had known they would take care of it, I would have called the animal control on her years ago!! Next time I see something like that, I WILL

 

[12icemaker]

Getting ready to do a Wallace World pickup and some other exciting things out in the world.

Hope to be able to do that and return without any drama, any type of altercation with an idiot (besides me) behind the wheel because I don't want to have to be locked up for aggravated murder for a few days.

Sonny was off and running for Neshoba About 8 am had to stop by and get the overhead truss for the light bars, they said no laser and pulse lighting that may cause an epileptic episode so not too much more than spots and color bars.

 

[Hooch]

The smoke last night was terrible..
Some clouds rolled in and trapped all the smoke ..the good news was we got a small bit of rain. Hopefully it will help fire suppression efforts.
Power went out for the area again for hours. I only noticed because I heard the gennie running when I got up to let the dog go potty.
The gennie is getting a good run this year..so glad I got it.
Other that that..just work.

 

[d_marsh]

Got up, worked out, cleaned up and got to it. After doing some cleaning and organizing, and a few other chores, I went to a furniture store and looked at a sofa that is also two recliners. You don't even pull a lever, you just plug it in and push a button to raise your legs. The crazy the stuff they come up with. Didn't buy it but I am thinking about. I usually just order something and have it shipped to me. Then I went out to lunch and did a little clothes shopping. I needed a few more date night outfits before I started to repeat myself. I also got a very curious phone call from my lawyer who wants to meet with me. The words "opportunity" were used.

 

[Snowman]