Coffee 4-23-11

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 5:15 am

Today is the best breakfast of the year.... Lobster! Thanks to Eddie we have lobster omelet and lobster scrambled eggs. I'm going to try the lobster scrambled. I talked the chef from the Monhegan Island Inn to come prepare her favorite recipe for us and it's smelling good! Ahhhhh, the little luxuries of life.

We had 25 degrees yesterday & right now it's 27. I don't mind the occasional frost before June first, but mid 20's is not frost, it's freezing! At least the days warm up to the high 40's. I think I did hear the weatherman say something about a warm change next week. I hope so! I "ran out of coal" this week. For the first time I had to reach in the bin & rake a little to move coal toward the auger. Thirty seconds of raking moved a week or more of coal. No biggie, but I certainly have used more coal this year than the last two. I'd rather rake for thirty seconds than pay the oil man!

Enjoy the weekend! I think we are headed to camp to play some cribbage & see if the ice is out.


 
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cokehead
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Post by cokehead » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 6:09 am

Lobster.......LOBSTER!! for Breakfast......that is just decadent. :lol:

Preped my first serious garden yesterday and bought fencing to go around it. I've been looking to garbage pick for wire fence for a couple month but no luck. Cost me a c note for a hundred feet :mad: but at least IT was made in the USA. After delivering some diesel fuel this morning, I'm going to put the fence up and at least get the tomato plants in. Maybe I'll go to a plant farm for some other starter plants. I bought a bunch of seeds already but I think it is to late to start them for this year. I'll have to take it case by case. I have a lot of learnin to do. 20' x 12'. That is all I dare start for now. It might evolve bigger. We will see.

I'm jealous Freddy. My breakfast is likely to come from a gas station. :sick:

 
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watkinsdr
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Post by watkinsdr » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 6:11 am

My wife and I will be starting our Easter Saturday with copious amounts of black coffee as usual... Saturday breakfast of eggs, toast, oatmeal, etc. normally follows after my wife runs 5 miles; and, I workout for 30 minutes on the stairclimber. Our three kids are normally semi-awake after watching their usual mind numbing nonsense on TV. Today is my son's "opening day" for Little League in Amesbury, MA. We'll see how things go with the weather...

Yesterday (Good Friday) morning was 33 degrees; but, it warmed up during the day with plenty of sun. During the afternoon my wife and I bicycled 28 miles to get our hearts thumping. I had a couple of celebratory brews while enjoying replays of the Boston Bruins and Red Sox games from Thursday night.

This morning it's much warmer at 42 degrees; but, the Weather Channel is calling for wind and rain most of the day. Another great day to be burning coal instead of OPEC oil. :D

I took delivery of 6 tons of pea last Saturday. We'll see how much coal my new S130 burns this summer and fall. This will be my first experience burning coal all summer---so far my draft looks good on warm days.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend! :!:

 
KLook
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Post by KLook » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 7:00 am

Morning all, ya Freddie, it is cold here as well. I ran out of coal on the 18th so it is shut down. However, I burned much less then last year and it was colder this year. Good changes to the system. Lobster for breakfast? I grew up on a boat but havnt had it for breakfast. Blah, I would rather have crabmeat anyway. Well, of to a class.

Kevin

 
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gaw
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Post by gaw » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 7:12 am

Raindrops indicate that the weekend is here. Still can’t work in the garden and it is getting discouraging. :sick: There may be little or no cool crops for me this spring. Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, and corn still have lots of time because we generally don’t plant those ‘till May around here.
Last weekend while driving the pickup I heard a strange kind of grinding noise coming from the front left side of the pickup while applying the brakes. :shock: Maybe I can pull the wheel off and see what’s up with that today. I was crawling around trying to get a look but with old fashioned stock steel wheels and the dust covers in the back you can barely see any part of the pads or rotors. I dread looking at it because the solution will involve money but if I have someone else look for me it will cost even more money. If I wait long enough will it just go away on its own?
So the agenda is set for the weekend. Check the lawn mowers out, look at the truck brakes, work in yard if weather permits; or plan B drink plenty of beer and forget about it all. :beer:

 
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lowfog01
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Post by lowfog01 » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 7:17 am

Morning all,

This morning marks the end of our Easter Week spring break. I was able to get most of the things on my “to do list" done. We have rain and a chilly 45* in the Nation's capital region this morning. It's supposed to be like this all day. That's ok though - I got my one flower bed in yesterday before the rain and the rain should help it. My summer garden has been reduced to 3 tomato plants that I have no idea where I'm going to put - that's the only drawback we've found to living on the woods - no space for a garden. There's still a lot of planting in the backyard but I got started with that, too; any little bit helps. Maybe we will actually have the time and money to put in the patio this year - miracles have happened before.

I also worked with the Harman - vacuumed it out and checking out various parts. I have to replace 5 firebricks and the cast iron piece that holds them in place. I'm looking for a name to that piece if anyone has one. It's a 90* angle shaped piece of iron that sits on top of the firebricks and draws them in tight. The one I have has seen better days. I'm going to clean out the chimney after the weather warms up a bit. I was thinking about the "rust" that is forming around the top on the outside of my SS chimney. The inside doesn’t have the same issue. When I looked it up in the archives I found that it's probably more likely corrosion from the flyash. If anyone has any ideas on how to counter that, I'm all ears. I'd like to maximize the life span of the chimney.

I hope everyone has a beautiful, peaceful Easter. Take care, Lisa

 
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Poconoeagle
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Post by Poconoeagle » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 8:06 am

Morning. 35 and raining. Having the Kodiak in the semi-ashed up state has allowed the draft to stay "business as usual", and thats a good thing :) .

I really don't feel like schelping more bags of coal but alas the last one is on deck....

I've gone so far as to hang up all the cold weather gear for the "2 months" of storage before it is needed again :D . I removed the old destroyed garden fencing and rolled it up, bigger garden this year and the 100 ft tree that came down smack dab in the middle of it last fall , crimped it's style... ;)


 
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SMITTY
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Post by SMITTY » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 8:12 am

Lobster for breakfast! This poor boy is livin' large today! :D

Been a good week here (not counting this crappy weather - it's SNOWING here now! Way over 5 tons this year. Down to less than 20 bags now, so this damn weather better straighten out! :mad: ).

I bought a couple kids bikes back from a buddy of mine last week to sell. He needed them gone - because the new thing this communist state is doing to enforce their "no motorized recreation for anyone under 14" law is to make insurance companies DROP your homeowners insurance if you even have one on your property!! One kid crashed out in Plymouth and the whole state has to pay. I know - what's next right???? :mad: Typical communism. Unbelievable ..... but anyway I was able to turn them over in less than a week at a sizable profit. :dancing:

That time of year again - been getting lots of mowers & lawn tractors to work on. Fine with me! I love working on that stuff. GM doesn't design them - so they're easy to work on! :lol:

Got my first sunburn yesterday - even though it never got out of the 40's. It's 100% on my face and nowhere else because I had 10 layers of clothes on. Went out freshwater fishing for the first time this year. I got skunked - I can never catch fish in 47° water - but I learned how from my buddy. He reeled in 15 fish in less than 2 hours - one of them a 6 lb. largemouth!! Was out there for almost 10 hours, and the sun was sort of playing hide-go-seek behind thin clouds -- perfect for a nasty burn. Even with all the insulated layers I had on, I've never been so cold in my life! At least somebody caught fish though!

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Poconoeagle
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Post by Poconoeagle » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 8:15 am

Nice fish! :)

 
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SMITTY
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Post by SMITTY » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 8:18 am

My buddy says thanks! :lol:

 
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Hambden Bob
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Post by Hambden Bob » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 9:10 am

Nice to see so many Folks with alot to say ! That would be what an Easter Saturday at Freddy's is all about. I had ice pellets hitting me as I worked yesterday morning. It stayed about 38 for the majority of the day until a T-Storm rolled me out of the rack at 3:00 a.m.....It's 60 now and I'm ready to get out the lounge chair and the suntan oil ! This Spring has been a stinker. Here's to hopin' all of you enjoy your Blessings and suck up the Curses :lol:

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 9:13 am

Yesterday, everything pasture-wise was getting real dried out & I was going to do some fence work today--BUT-- Have a good Easter week-end all :)

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jpete
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Post by jpete » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 10:07 am

Well, this will be my last weekend among the ranks of the unemployed. Start the new place on Monday. I'd heard all the horror stories so I was a bit surprised when this place called me and offered a job. I guess manufacturing isn't totally dead in America. :D

On the home front, I have to make the last two connections on my new water filter/softener system. Looking forward to seeing how that works out. If you believe the salesman, I'll be able to walk on water and world peace is right around the corner. :lol:

On that note, has anyone successfully used the "Gatorbite" style fittings for connecting copper to PEX? I hope I didn't just turn my water lines into a lawn sprinkler. I should know by the end of the day.

And now for the weather......it stinks! One of the kids baseball games is already canceled and I'm expecting the others practice will do the same. At least I don't have to sit at the ball field freezing my butt off on aluminum grandstands all day.

I did have to turn the blower back on on the Harman. It's a little chilly in here. I pulled the baro and capped it and that seems to have been the trick for keeping things going in the warmer weather. We did have one windy day and she almost blasted into orbit! I may have to just live with the tin foil cap in the future so I can easily use the baro in cases like that.

I suppose I should make some eggs, hold the lobster. A friend of my wife has a farm and they went on vacation so we went up and took care of their chickens. As payment, we got to keep all the eggs we collected. I have about 3 dozen farm fresh eggs. And that's after I gave some away! Another new experience though. I never had to fight a maternally outraged chicken for my breakfast! toothy

 
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freetown fred
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Post by freetown fred » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 10:25 am

And that's why you'll usually find a whifflball bat or some such weapon outside big chicken coups--mostly for the PO'd roosters. bop2 :stretcher: :clap:

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Sat. Apr. 23, 2011 9:19 pm

LOBSTER !! Man am I jealous.. of course you earned 'em :lol:

I got back to Michigan this afternoon, had five days of flying up and down the east coast. Dodging thunderstorms and dealing with lots of wind. But it's
now behind me, next week I fly back and forth to the west coast as usual.

When that line of severe storms came through Michigan, it dumped a lot of rain.. all the ponds, and streams are full to overflowing.

Tomorrow is traditional Easter dinner !! I'd rather have lobster. :D

Greg L


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