What's everybody doing today?

[phideaux]

Dang , it got cold last night ,20 deg, and just a fine dusting of snow, it's gone.
Got the stove burning hot today.
It's now up to 23 deg.
Worked all morning , trying to cast my phone to the Chromecast.
Still no good.
I just can't figure out why.

I did go out and feed the cats.bbrrrrr.

Watching westerns on TV.

Jim

 

[dademoss]

Filled the chickens water and food, it's gonna be cold this week. If it's sunny they don't care, they live in the greenhouse during the winter . Little cluckers haven't made breakfast in a while, they best be makin a trip to the store to buy some eggs to fool me

 

[Meerkat]

Someday this week we're going to the Driv In Theatre, been about 2 years since we went ,its a couple hours drive but worth it to get out .We really enjoyed the last time .To see the one we went to go to my thread Now For Some Good News',POST #10

https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/now-for-some-good-news-stories.12229/

 

[hashbrown]

I woke up and made breakfast and put a pork butt in the smoker, my wife got a call from a client to show a house. I took her to show the house the road was extremely bad and didn't think she could get there in her car. We spent the rest of the day driving around looking for real estate opportunities.

 

[Meerkat]

I woke up and made breakfast and put a pork butt in the smoker, my wife got a call from a client to show a house. I took her to show the house the road was extremely bad and didn't think she could get there in her car. We spent the rest of the day driving around looking for real estate opportunities.

Yall be careful. Have a nice little trip.

 

[Haertig]

Today, my task was to add WiFi to my desktop computer that does not have it built in. My desktop runs Linux. I have a USB "dongle" WiFi adapter that I bought a few years ago for a different purpose (to turn my WiFi laptop into a hotspot).

I spent a couple of hours researching how to install drivers and configure the thing. So I plugged the thing into my USB and started sniffing around on my computer to look for drivers (were they there already?) and do the config. After having a bit of trouble tracking down all the config files (their specific location moves around over the years) I though I'd click on the little network icon in my taskbar to see if as an aside, it might mention the filenames I needed to look for.

Then I happened to notice, "Hey, what are all these WiFi networks the computer is detecting? I haven't even configured anything yet!" So I clicked on one of those networks and it popped up a dialog asking me for the password. I typed it in, and I was connected.

So all's I had to do was plug the stupid dongle in, and it worked! No driver installation required. No configuration needed. Sheesh - that was a couple of hours of my life wasted re-learning all that command-line mumbo jumbo magic (last time I installed WiFi on Linux, it was a manual process, but my mind had gotten rusty on the details).

 

[hashbrown]

Yall be careful. Have a nice little trip.

We made on in, I'm thinking about pulling the pork butt out of the smoker but its so damn cold out today.

 

[Weedygarden]

Dang , it got cold last night ,20 deg, and just a fine dusting of snow, it's gone.
Got the stove burning hot today.
It's now up to 23 deg.
Worked all morning , trying to cast my phone to the Chromecast.
Still no good.
I just can't figure out why.

I did go out and feed the cats.bbrrrrr.

Watching westerns on TV.

Jim

It is bitter cold in many places. The polar vortex is wreaking havoc. Someone in South Dakota said it was zero degrees and so cold. I didn't laugh at him, but when I lived in North Dakota, 20 below was almost a daily occurrence in the winter.

I have had two dog park visits with D dog today. The microphone cut off for pastor on Zoom church today. Such a bummer. He is such a good speaker and teacher. I think we need more help with technology, but it is a small congregation.

 

[Neb]

It is bitter cold in many places. The polar vortex is wreaking havoc. Someone in South Dakota said it was zero degrees and so cold. I didn't laugh at him, but when I lived in North Dakota, 20 below was almost a daily occurrence in the winter.

I have had two dog park visits with D dog today. The microphone cut off for pastor on Zoom church today. Such a bummer. He is such a good speaker and teacher. I think we need more help with technology, but it is a small congregation.

We played street hockey in-50F wind chill when I lived in Duluth.

The cold doesn't bother me anyway

I own multiple sets of super insulated Bat skivies.

Ben

 

[Weedygarden]

We played street hockey in-50F wind chill when I lived in Duluth.

The cold doesn't bother me anyway

I own multiple sets of super insulated Bat skivies.

Ben

When you live where it is cold you become accustomed to it and you have gear that is made for cold weather.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today's snow was such a bummer, it snowed a little, went to freezing rain, back to snow, like watching a slow motion tennis match.... In the end everything was all shinny and smooth...

Wife is looking to extend the life of baking soda and other baking stuff. We had some go flat and she is determined to not let it happen again...

 

[Amish Heart]

She can store the ingredients to make baking powder, just not mix it yet. It'll last longer.
Kids are saying that they are not making their lunches for school tomorrow because they think it'll snow more tonight and school will be cancelled. Hmm.

 

[Haertig]

Got the stove burning hot today.
It's now up to 23 deg.

You call that a hot stove? That's got to be the crappiest stove I've ever heard of, can't even manage to get itself above freezing.

 

[phideaux]

You call that a hot stove? That's got to be the crappiest stove I've ever heard of, can't even manage to get itself above freezing.

Hey , I got up at 5 this morning and that baby was cranking .

It was 13 deg outside , but toasty 69 deg inside. Love my crappy stove.

Leaving in a few to go for Cardiologist appt, then covid test for wife.

Then lunch I hope.

Sure am getting tired of this cold , with ice coming tomorrow.

Y'all have a good day , stay warm.

Jim

 

[Amish Heart]

We got another few inches overnight. Roads are not clear, not out here yet. Husband was to get an allergy shot but postponed it. School has a snowday so kids are being lazy. I have some papers to clean out and some embroidery I'm working on. Our wood stove seems to get up to a high of 78 degrees in our front room when it's fired up, in the 80's in the kitchen, which annoys me when I'm cooking.

 

[phideaux]

@Amish Heart , the stoves are great heat, but yes that room they're in gets too warm.
Mine is open kitchen , dining room, living room , so it's not so bad . My stove is in far end of kitchen so the heat flows good thru the entire house , and I never open the air input more than just a crack .

But, walking into house is sure nice heat.

Jim

 

[Amish Heart]

Yes it is, I love our wood stove. Ours is at the end of our kitchen, so it heats the kitchen, dining room, family room pretty well. The stove pipe goes up to the second floor, so it heats granddaughters room really well, since it goes through her room. We do have heating on the bottom floor as a back up and a bunch of portable heaters. We haven't had to use the portables this year because we insulated the attic recently. It didn't have any insulation in it at all. Now it's snug as a bug in a rug. Our add on will have it's own heat independent of the the rest of the house.
It's 9 degrees out right now. I need to bundle up and feed the chickens, de ice their water.

 

[The Lazy L]

Slow day today.
Light snow is falling. I'll wait until it stops before shoveling.
Tighten the bolts that hold the master bathroom lid on. If I could only convince the wife to sit down instead of sliding on...
Read online news and forums.
Dink with comms the rest of the morning.
Fix my lunch

 

[phideaux]

Guess where I'm at.....again.

Jim

 

[Meerkat]

Tackling inside of van in a few minutes. It need a good vacuuming and steam cleaning window washing. Never an easy job since you can't stand up and do it. And right now being on knee is not a good idea at all till it heals completely.
Try not to get into bad subjects.
Talking to daughter this a.m.abourt religion.

Hope all are doing ok and have a good day.

 

[Meerkat]

I'm patianly waiting for hubby to plug up van battery so I can get busy! He unhooks battery because something is killing it when its sits for a few days.haven't found out what yet.
But the sun is shining and its warm out today so I need to get on it. Hasn't been cleaned since beach trip last July when we took our little Becky [miss her terribly everyday] and Molly to the beach. Becky loved to swim in the waves.
Becky and sister Molly last beach trip,Molly is still doing great. Molly is the tall one on the left.

 

[phideaux]

Wanta guess what parking lot I'm in now..I gotta get her off pain pills.

Jim

 

[snappy1]

Already walked and walked dogs.
Second load of laundry is in the washer.
My rose hips are dehydrating in the oven.
Am babysitting big dog today while DH and friend go shopping.
Will sweep after big dog leaves.
Not sure what else.
Talked to the lady I got the jars from Sat. She has a small chest freezer (that works). I can get it this weekend for $25!

 

[INresponse]

You call that a hot stove? That's got to be the crappiest stove I've ever heard of, can't even manage to get itself above freezing.

Haven't you ever heard of freezing your firewood? What you do is get it burning really good in your wood stove and then hurry up and put it in the freezer for storage. Then, when you really need to heat the room quickly you pull the hot log out of the freezer and toss it in the stove. It starts out cold but as soon as it thaws it starts burning red hot again.


Today we are processing about 15 Pekin ducks. I have the hard part, the GF and the girls get to pluck and wax and gut and prepare for freezing. dancing chicken

 

[Amish Heart]

Good deal on the freezer, Snappy.
Made husband an omelet. Then some homemade split pea soup for lunch. Not my favorite, so having leftovers from yesterday. Unthawing the chicken waterers by the wood burning stove. 10 degrees out right now, our high today.
What's the hard part of the duck, Inresponse? And what is waxing?

 

[Meerkat]

Wanta guess what parking lot I'm in now..I gotta get her off pain pills.
View attachment 58790

Jim

Bless her heart she has really been through it, hope she can get back to her beautiful craft, really liked the white one she did,

 

[INresponse]

What's the hard part of the duck, Inresponse? And what is waxing?

Cutting the neck is the hard part. I don't find it difficult but none of the lady want to do it. I would help with the rest, and I do sometimes, but too many people slows things down at the plucking table.
Waxing is something new we are trying today. Ducks pluck easy but tend to have more tiny feathers and stubs that are difficult to remove compared to chickens. The GF studied up and learned that you melt some hard wax into hot water and dunk the duck a few times to get a good layer of wax to pull out the feathers. We shall see how that works. I will report back later.

 

[Amish Heart]

For ducks, I just hang them, slit the throat, then take them down to a board and use an axe. It is kinda weird butchering something with a bill and web feet. Will be interested in hearing about the wax.

 

[Meerkat]

Got the inside of the van done used Murphys Oil soap on the vynal and cut some of the hanging tint off 'I like my van to look a little on the trashy side highjackers and Antifa aren't interested'. Told hubby why don't you put a few dents in it while I'm slinging mud on the sides,.JK

 

[Weedygarden]

Took D and Z dogs to the dog park this morning. The low overnight was 9 degrees, so I wore two pairs of pants. The water jug that was in the car overnight has ice in it, but not solid, so they had water to drink.

D dogs owners came home later last night (flight due in at 11) and after the dog park this morning, I drove her home. She is a very smart dog. She knew where we were going and got so excited in the car, looking in their direction. Her owners were in the drive way, waiting for her. She jumped out the car window when we got there. We all had some good laughs at her doing that, as well as her enthusiasm for seeing them. She was good at my house, and I do my best to keep dogs entertained and active, but she was missing her owners. I could see it on her. No amount of peanut butter in her Kong, visits to the dog park, carrots in her bowl for a snack, rolling in the grass, was going to do what seeing them did for her.