Coffee 7-31-10

Wow, July is about over! How the time flies, 'specially when the weather is so perfect. Good morning! Come on in & chat a bit. Coffee is about ready and fresh berries are on the menu along with cold cereal or hot pancakes. Come in friend, come in. Sit a spell & tell us of your week. Life is an adventure & we like sharing stories....to learn, to laugh, to sympathize, & to grow. We humans communicate to live! Can you imagine if we had to go it alone?
The Maine motto, "the way life should be". This month should prove to be the month that we work all year for, the one with the least work, most action, and best times of any. The Bangor State Fair started last night. It runs for ten days or so. Always a big draw....although I haven't gone in years....lots of people do! This year: Pay $10 & ride all the rides you want.
Also in August is the American Folk Festival in Bangor. It's a foot stompin' good time. This year Charlie Daniel's will be part of it and tickets sold out within hours of going on sale.
If you work at GE you are now on vacation. They close every year for the first two weeks in August. For people that like to take vacation during the winter....tough luck! For GE it just makes sense. No worries about coverage and scheduling.... just lock the doors for 2 weeks & then get back to work.
I'm headed north today. Going to start building & plumbing a bathroom onto a camp. Actually, the women came up with a good idea. The new room will be a kitchen & the new bathroom will go where the kitchen is now. It looks easy on paper, but I can see it's twice the work. Ohhhhh well.... gotta keep the cooks happy!

Hope you all have a smooth weekend. Almost time to think about coal..... but not yet!

Morning all,good coffee & berries always hit the spot.Thanx freddy--well,two wks ago,lightening killed the old Dell w/ windows XP,a no fix situation --our commuter geek buddy over the hill built us a new one from scratch--whoops,the keyboard & speakers survived I'm not sure what all he put in this thing other then we've now got a 19" flatscreen & it's twice as fast as the Dell was---he salvaged the harddrive so we saved our pix,Momma's crochet patterns(thanx God),email stuff & favorites---Windows 7 is real new to us & this old fool hates change BUT, I think it seems to be doing good now that I've uninserted my head from my butt.I've been helping our new Amish neighbor redo his barn--salvaging these old farms has always been my favorite but I have found out that I'm not 30,40,50 or 60 anymore---thank God for heating pads,corn filled sleeves that go in the microwave & some good old fashioned DRUGS --have a good week-end all

Morning all from the deep south. Ok not all that deep but south... I'm in Morganton, GA this morning visiting family and friends. We are 30 miles as the crow flies southeast of Chattanoga. A little later several folks will be grabbing their inner tubes and floating down the scenic Tocca River. This has the potential to get exciting as the river is running fast due to the draining of the lake up stream. This afternoon we may mosey over to the lake they are draining to see just how low it is at this point. That's as exciting as it gets in these parts. Why drain the lake you ask? It seems the dam was built by the TVA in 1931 and is badly in need of repairs. It's really going to kill the local economy which is built on tourism and the lake is a huge part of that. The repairs are esitmated to take 18 months or so. It couldn't have happened at a worse time economically speaking.

Maybe one day next week we'll visit Hot 'Lanta (literally, the heat index is expected to be 115* today) and I'll send a "post card" from there. In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a great day and summer. Be careful, Lisa

Good morning everyone. Coffee and fresh berries...yum! Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day, nice and cool last night and 70's today. My wife surprised me with an impressive birthday present this morning...a Samsung Blueray player & home theatre system. This thing looks pretty serious, wireless surround sound speakers, and it can connect to wireless internet to download movies from Blockbuster. Looks like my old receiver and Technics speakers are getting moved to the shop!

-Robert

Hello Listers,
I am still recouperating after two hard drives the last two days. To & from Hopewell, VA driving rush hour through DC & N. VA both trips. Without modern A/C & cooling systems in vehicles, how would we survive on this hot asphalt? I remember when I was a kid, you would often see cars pulled over with engines steaming & hoses blown. And these were cars without A/C systems adding additional heat to engine load. Modern cars & light trucks are really amazing!

My back yard is 50% dead due to the heat wave & drought in early July. I was hoping it would come back with recent rain but without thaching & seeding, I doubt it will revive as grass. Maybe as weeds... And I have been fertilizing this yard 3x a year for the past 5 + years. I overseeded last fall. It looked great until this summer. But more unexpected work now to fix it up. Take a look. Let me know if you ahve any ideas or tips. As always, time, energy & resources are limited. Take care everyone.

Cap wrote:I remember when I was a kid, you would often see cars pulled over with engines steaming & hoses blown. And these were cars without A/C systems adding additional heat to engine load. Modern cars & light trucks are really amazing!

I remember that too. It never happened to me even in the worst conditions. I suspect those people were careless about coolant level and fan belt condition.

On the other hand the old cars were far superior ventilating in hot conditions without air conditioning. There was a cowl vent that really let in the air and some even had a windshield that opened at the bottom and later on quarter windows that could be set to blow straight in. Glass was more vertical so the roof was more effective in shading the interior. If you look at the roof of some modern cars it is not much larger than a card table. Speeds were slower so driving with open windows did not create the wind noise that occurs with modern cars that were designed to have windows closed.

My experience with grass is that you have to go with the species that survives best in your particular environment. Those patches that are still green have the type of grass you want.

Cap wrote:Hello Listers,
I am still recouperating after two hard drives the last two days. To & from Hopewell, VA driving rush hour through DC & N. VA both trips. Without modern A/C & cooling systems in vehicles, how would we survive on this hot asphalt? I remember when I was a kid, you would often see cars pulled over with engines steaming & hoses blown. And these were cars without A/C systems adding additional heat to engine load. Modern cars & light trucks are really amazing!

My back yard is 50% dead due to the heat wave & drought in early July. I was hoping it would come back with recent rain but without thaching & seeding, I doubt it will revive as grass. Maybe as weeds... And I have been fertilizing this yard 3x a year for the past 5 + years. I overseeded last fall. It looked great until this summer. But more unexpected work now to fix it up. Take a look. Let me know if you ahve any ideas or tips. As always, time, energy & resources are limited. Take care everyone.

Hi Cap,

What kind of grass are you putting down? Since you are at the renovation stage due to the heat it may be time to look at which species makes up the majority of your yard. Is there another grass that would do better given the location and the resources you want to spend? I was in the same place 2 years ago and I looked hard at zoysia grass. In fact I put out 300 plugs of the stuff and it really went to town. My whole front yard is mostly zoysia now and the drought and heat doesn't bother it at all. There is no need to water it, if just goes dormant. The stuff is called carpet grass because it grows so thick that weeds and other grasses can't make a foot hold. Because of this I spend next to nothing on maintenance. I also have to mow less often then I did with other types of grass since it doesn't grow as fast.

I am getting ready to put down a couple of hundred plugs in my backyard come Aug. I back onto the woods and it's hard to stay ahead of the spreading woods. I think zoysiza should help a lot with that. The zoysia must have sun and since I recently took out some trees it should do well there.

There are several farms on the web that sell the pugs and will give you lots of information. My goal is to make my yard as maintenane free as I can and the zoysia will help in that. Good luck, Lisa

I believe the lawn is a mix of tall fescue and pasture grass in the rear of the yard ( where I am standing ). Most of what was in the picture should be fescue. I've always laid down tall fescue since I have been here. The grass around the edges seems to survive due to shade from trees. I like the zoysia idea. My father-in-law is a big beliver in the stuff too especially in s. jersey where he hails. I'll have to look into it.

I adjusted with the blade very low to cut down to the root. Will I need to chop up the thratch to have a new lawn? I better research this stuff some more. new picture below.

Hi Cap,

Having gone through years of fighting with various fecus and blue grass and having limited success I would just leave everything like it is and get some zoysia plugs and put them in when the weather turns cooler; late Aug or so. By the spring they will have gotten a good start and by 2 springs your yard will look great. Yes, the plugs are probably a little more expensive but they are guaranteed to grow and the lawn will last for ever. No more spending money on re-seeding or other maintenance items. I use a liquid filterizer in the spring and fall. That's it.

To be honest the plugging process is a pain but the results are great. The plugs come in sheets of 100 plugs one inche squares. That's a lot of holes so I alway cut the plugs in two inch squares and plant those. Obviously I can't cover as much ground but I don't really care; my yard is small. The 2 inch squares fill in the yard faster. I get my plugs from Zoysia Farms. They offer an hole digger for your drill which I highly recommend. We didn't take the time to plot the plugs out either, we just planted them throughout the yard and it filled in nicely. Seriously, I have one of the nicest yards in the neighborhood and I spend little to no time on it. I think 3 or 4 weeds dared to show up in the spring and I took care of them with a spray bottle. I'd send a picture but I'm in GA visiting folks this week or so.

Since your yard is so far gone and you are concerned about erosion and the like you may want to throw out some cheap fescue to provide a ground cover while the zoysia comes in. You know that the fescue won't last anyway and once the zoysia fills in what's left of the fescue will go away. Actually, I did just that when I plugged the bare spot in my lawn that used to be my vegatable garden. It worked great. Making the switch to zoysia is something I don't reqret and as I said I'm getting ready to put down plugs in my backyard. Good Luck, Lisa

lowfog01 wrote:Hi Cap,

Since your yard is so far gone and you are concerned about erosion and the like you may want to throw out some cheap fescue to provide a ground cover while the zoysia comes in. You know that the fescue won't last anyway and once the zoysia fills in what's left of the fescue will go away. Actually, I did just that when I plugged the bare spot in my lawn that used to be my vegatable garden. It worked great. Making the switch to zoysia is something I don't reqret and as I said I'm getting ready to put down plugs in my backyard. Good Luck, Lisa

I wouldn't be worrying about erosion because there is a thick layer of thach. See the image. The layer of thach concerns me as I understand anything over 1/2" thick is too much. The 2nd image, I discovered this hook buried in the yard today when I was mowing low or should I say I blade found it! probaly used to tie off the PO's dog.

Wow - bet that made you jump. I hate to unexpectedly hit things with the mower. Good luck with what ever route you decide to go. Lisa

Got some more block laid for my coal storage shed. It's three sided 150 sq ft 8" concrete block walls. Every other course has "Durawall" in the mud plus three re-bar poured concrete pilasters. I plan on dividing it in half using 2x lumber and also having adjustable height 2x lumber in the front. It will have a shed roof with front overhang. Filled to the top it will hold 20 tons +/-. Seven more courses to go.

A day late for coffee again, I am. Spent the day yesterday fishing Jeffreys Ledge, about 25 miles of the coast of NE MA. Came home with a cooler chuck full! For the keepers, I got a decent sized Cusk & a couple big Cod, & my brother & my buddies hit some Pollock & Cod as well. Overall probably 50 or more fish in the boat between the 4 of us. Most weren't keepers. Didn't see too many whales this time out, but we had a shark come within 20 feet of us. Wasn't a Great White - was only about 10' long and dark colored. The fins out of the water were unmistakable though. For one of my buddies this was his first time ever on the ocean. He had a blast. All of us got a nice sunburn. My buddy took all the pics this time, so I'll have them later on.

Wasted a few hours in the morning trying to launch. As is par for the course in MA, there are more rules & regs than you can shake a stick at. Tried to lauch at Plum Island, & the kid told us he couldn't let us in until 8am ... and it was 4:45AM!! Guess you need a season pass to get in that early ( a way for the state to make $$$) ??? So the kid told us the closest place was Newburyport. After driving around that yuppie filled town for longer than it should have been, we discovered the ramp was shut down. How convenient! So the states greed in trying to make us buy a season pass sent us to Hampton, NH. $15 & we were parked and on the water in minutes. Trying to get out of there was a different story though! BUSY!!

I've got about 250 miles on the RD so far, & everything seems to be in order. Been too busy to put on any more than that. With all the extra power this thing has, & the fantastic suspension, it's more fun to ride than ever. I take the long way everywhere. Zero stress. Much needed!

Glad you had fun fishin'...
The towns now charge to launch a boat at most ramps on The Cape...
$7 per day $75 for the season...
Not a tax...
Just a fee so they don't have to raise taxes that much...
Fees are a nice work around to prop 2.5% tax limit...
Sharks can be seen from dry land in Chatham...
Nice 15 foot Great Whites...
Was down in Chatham at sunset...
Tourist watchin' and all
A woman with a 4 year old asked if this was a nice beach to swim at...
Told her it was not for beginners...
With the tide currents rippin' past the beach and the Great White sharks...
The potential for a mishap with a 4 year old was too great...

Holy cow Yanche, you could use that as a blast or fallout shelter if Fidel Castro is right!!