Coffee July 24th

Yowza! I see a maple tree out back has one orange leaf. What's with that? His clock battery go dead? I know Fall is coming, but not so soon!
Coffeee is on, and a simple breakfast at hand. Let's try to keep the place cool & not run the waffle iron or oven this morning. Here's some fresh picked berries to share. Good golly, it's going to be a shy year for blueberries. I don't know how the commercial growers are doing, but the place we always go to pick isn't having a good year at all. We may have to have more eggs and less blueberry pancakes this year.
Beemerboy, I hope sparky has let you have some peace and quiet. Hang in there!
Today I'm Mom-sitting while Marty goes to north camp to calculate just where & what shape the new bathroom will be. Tomorrow she will Mom-sit while I go start construction. Last year we had a septic system put in. This year, after only 50 years with and outhouse, we will have a flush & a shower. The camp is in unorganized territory so all permits come from the state. I know, I know, who needs a permit....well...it's amazing how close they can watch! Down here a building permit is $20, up there, $76. Down here a plumbing permit is $20, up there, $92! Geepers!
Hope you all have a smooth week!
Ohhhh.... Richard asked me if I could make T-shirts & hats. I had to decline as I do not have an embroidery machine nor do I have a screen printer, but... other than being hundreds of miles away from most of you, I guess I could see to it that the job gets done. One thing I can help on is design and file type. I can save us some money by having the files in the correct format for the shirt & hat makers. Any ideas of what forum shirts should look like? Anyone? Anyone? I'll have to go find that post that talks about it. <edit> Ahhh, I see Richard has a place, http://fleetdecal.com/ that could do the work. It makes sense to have them done close to the people that are going to wear them. So, I guess, if the NEPA loge is going to be used it's just a matter of someone getting the logo to them and placing an order. Might sound easier than it is, unless all product is pre-paid, it's a guess and investment to get the ball rolling. I wouldn't want to buy 100 shirts then only sell 25!

Latah!

Fred

Moring all... Iced Coffee here. Supposed to be in the high 90's today. Had some big boomers last nite. Not much rain, I guess it was all north of us. Anyone here if it spun out any tornadoes?
Freddy, when we had that drought a couple weeks ago, our trees started dropping their leaves too. Not just one or two leaves, but ALOT! Yes, it looked like Fall.
I don't know about the T-shirt designs, but the shirts should Definitely be BLACK.

Just got done changing all four brake disc's and and pads in a friends 1500 Silverado. Saved him a bundle! Total cost; $245 ! They were slotted and drilled Disc's and ceramic pads. Nice set.
Gotta get started on the lawn maintenance now, before the heat of the day.

Have a good one!

I'm taking a day off, I've been working on my parents home everyday except the day after the fourth because of a swollen head. I'll post some pictures, maybe today. The house is really nice but nothing was done to it for 60 years other than maintenance. Both bathrooms and kitchen needed to be remodeled. There was no dining room but there is now, doorway on the kitchen that was removed expanded and is now an arched doorway... Fortunately most of this work is centered on the kitchen so there is very little work outside of that room .

Coffee done, now that I am wired for the day!!
Looks like rain sometime today, putting a performance exhaust on the wifes mustang, work on the house a bit.

Not sure what else I will get into today, the wife is working all day.....

Been working on duplicating some of the mouldings for the house, its still coming along slow, a lot of details. Here the bay window almost complete. The wifes painting is outstanding. I cannot take credit for that.
Thanks for looking!

Nice woodwork! I'm a total hack when it comes to finish work.

Yeah Freddy, our blueberries aren't anywhere near the volume we usually get. We have 8 very old & well established "trees". No one has ever seen blueberry bushes this big in our area. They are about 7 feet tall!! Berries all the way up too! I'll have to pick one later & place it next to a quarter -- they are almost as big. No fertilizer at all, & no bird net. I do nothing to them. It helps having a swamp in the yard though. NIce Raspberries too -- ours have all gone by 2 weeks ago. We had a bumper crop of those this year! But they came so early I forgot to grab some! I've been eating what's left of the berries off my unidentified tree in the back yard. Nobody knows what the hell it is, but is sure makes tasty berries! They look almost like raspberries, only skinnier, and a bit longer. They darken up the same way ...

I'm still waiting on my damn fork seals to come in. Geesh, what is it with eBay lately? Everything I've ordered is taking FOREVER to come in! Used to take about a week tops - sometimes just a few days. Now we're looking at over 10 days. Dying to ride!! Maybe I'll wrap a rag around the left fork & head out anyway.

Still keepin' busy over here. Sent all my brother's bike part to the machine shop. While that's waiting I've got an outboard motor to get running, a vintage Honda to get running, & a Honda Foreman 4x4 to rebuild. I gotta get out & do some fishin' soon!

Have a good one all!

Whipped up some gluten-free crepes with fresh raspberry syrupy stuff for breakfast and a cup of tea. Would have loved coffee but it kills my stomach.

Today is gonna be filled with finishing my yard after burying new exoflex pipe last week. No more heating the ground water. Gonna crank up the heat for the pool if it needs it today. Got a nice rubbed pork butt on the smoker with some home grown peppers, stuffed with onion/chive cream cheese and grapes.

I'm so illiterate it only took me 5 tries to get the attachment either in the right order or have the correct number of them show.. Jeez...

My neighbor invited my wife and I up a couple weeks ago to pick her blueberries. Last year out of 17 highbush plants she said she didn't get more than a quart. This year we walked away with 6 quarts from two bushes! Something a little different about the weather apparently.

Wow, Richard you've really got you work cut out for you but what a finished product your parents will have. That's about the size of house and land we are looking for if we ever escape this neighborhood.

Escaping to the great outdoors is not going to happen today, though. We are under an excessive heat adversary again today. They have posted a high of 99* today with a heat index of 105*. That's what they said for yesterday, too, but it hit an actual 102* with the heat index was much higher. All outside activity was done by 9:00 or it can wait until next week.

Well, it's off to Walmart to grab the few things my son needs for his Scout High Adventure camp next week. The boys are doing the High Wire course and white water rafting in the New River Gouge of Southwest Va. The house will be quiet for a change. Have a great week, stay cool. Lisa

I've been eating what's left of the berries off my unidentified tree in the back yard. Nobody knows what the hell it is, but is sure makes tasty berries! They look almost like raspberries, only skinnier, and a bit longer. They darken up the same way ...

Sounds like Red Mulberries...
Tasty treats...
Some links to help you discover what they are...
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.wi ... CD8Q9QEwBQ

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mulberry.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morus_(plant)

SMITTY wrote: I've been eating what's left of the berries off my unidentified tree in the back yard. Nobody knows what the hell it is, but is sure makes tasty berries! They look almost like raspberries, only skinnier, and a bit longer. They darken up the same way ...

Mulberrys. Yep, they are good, and good for you, too. We have 4 trees. I have to raise the kids up in the tractor bucket to pick them. The squirrels and birds fight over them too

All around the mulberry bush the Jimmy chased the Smitty....................................

Freddy wrote: Ohhhh.... Richard asked me if I could make T-shirts & hats. I had to decline as I do not have an embroidery machine nor do I have a screen printer, but... other than being hundreds of miles away from most of you, I guess I could see to it that the job gets done. One thing I can help on is design and file type. I can save us some money by having the files in the correct format for the shirt & hat makers. Any ideas of what forum shirts should look like? Anyone? Anyone? I'll have to go find that post that talks about it. <edit> Ahhh, I see Richard has a place, http://fleetdecal.com/ that could do the work. It makes sense to have them done close to the people that are going to wear them. So, I guess, if the NEPA loge is going to be used it's just a matter of someone getting the logo to them and placing an order. Might sound easier than it is, unless all product is pre-paid, it's a guess and investment to get the ball rolling. I wouldn't want to buy 100 shirts then only sell 25! Fred

I think that all items should be prepaid for that way no one is left with unsold shirts. I think that along with the NEPA logo - maybe on the left front - there should also be something that EVERYONE would associate with coal on the shirt. Maybe the silhouette of a high riser coal delivery truck, the quintessential hand fed stove or maybe a small pile of coal and a hand shovel. Is there something that you folks living in NEPA would relate to coal and coal alone? The way I see it is that these shirts will be "conversation starters" so they need to be something that will have a significant "wow" factor. I thought I saw where some one suggested black but that would make if very difficult to do anything else on given that the subject of the shirt is also black; besides although black socks never get dirty black t-shirts do rather easily.

Just my thoughts, Lisa

If we have a logo, I have online print to order places for Shirts, mugs, etc....if anyone is interested. Then no one is out any money for getting started.

I am a little late for coffee today, so much that I am already into the beer. The lawn is mowed, the grass seed is down and watered, and I moved the last of my coal ashes to fill in a low spot.

As for the t-shirts...I would be interested in a t-shirt when they are available. My only request is that the shirt is 100% cotton, the poly blends are just too hot.

There are a few coal related t-shirts out there if you search, I got my wife one of these last xmas: http://www.cafepress.com/+kids_ts,53527888

lowfog01 wrote:I think that all items should be prepaid for that way no one is left with unsold shirts.

I'm going to get in contact with a friend that does them. I figured I'd give Freddy first shot at them because he's member here. I'll see what kind of deal I can work out, pre-payment won't be necessary but once I have some prices I'll probably do a poll to get a gauge on the initial order quantities. From there I'll probably order in smaller batches as they sell out so I have them on hand to send out. Anything I do get will be high quality including the T's, made in the USA wherever possible. I'll probabaly do T's, hats and polo shirts.

The hats, T's and polos will have a small NEPACrossroads logo on the front and "Home of the coal forum" or something similar under it. I'll get it embroidered on the hats and polos. For the T's I'll add something bigger for the back. I'd love to use the fire picture Greg took but that might get real expensive because of all the color. As far as colors go I'll get different ones, just undecided on what. Probably black, white, gray and darker green. I think I need to order a minimum of ten of each so I'll take a poll and make sure there is enough interest in the colors.