Coffee 9-10-11

Come in! Come in! Join us for some good hot Folgers and a hearty breakfast. I'm thinking eggs over easy and sausage patties. For those that just want toast we have home made chokecherry jelly. Sometimes it's hard to find chokecherries. This year we saw some good looking bushes that made a hedge around a house. We stopped & asked if we could pick some berries. The owners didn't even know what they were! He was happy to let us have them.

I hope the flooding has eased up. What a nasty year for flood damage. I pray no one had personal loss during this mess.

I filled my coal bin yesterday. I usually think of each step in blocks of time. Half hour tp take the tarps off the big pile, 20 minutes to get the roof off the bin, etc. I didn't realize that I had to add "An hour to kill seven wasp nests". Arghhhh! I usually have one in the roof, but have never had any in the coal reserve. This year there were five! Three nests were inside the cement blocks that I use for tarp weights and two nests were under the tarp itself. The cement blocks are the half blocks with holes. I think I'm going to change to solid blocks! None of the nests had walls, they were all so well protected they only needed to build the comb part. I came prepared with a can of foaming wasp killer in each hand and although I had a few close calls, I did not get stung.

I wish I knew how much a back hoe bucket held. It took eight scoops to fill the bin. I'm thinking that was about 6 ton.

Hope you all have a decent weekend!

Damn that coffee is good my friend. Yep, over easy & patty's hit the spot & what a treat with the chokecherry jelly. You da man Freddy , Things are back to normal here in Freetown & even Binghamton & Johnson city have water & power this AM. An incredable amount of damage done south of me in those areas Apparently, nobody can return to thier homes or business's until the local code people check for structural damage--I know that wouldn't work out here!! I think IOF found out, so please, don't anyone else ask--" what the hell else can go wrong" Have a good week-end all. Freddy, alot of different size back-hoes & buckets my friend I know one thing I'll be doing is mowing the old lawn area that just loved all this flood water.

Morning All,

Freddy just what is a choke cherry? That sounds ominous - I'd better stay away as I tend to choke easily. It seems that my blood pressure meds has that as a side affect. Not much I can do to change meds because of the cost, $7 versus $50 a month. I watch what I eat and chew well just as Mom always advised.

Today, I'll finish clearing out DK's den/storage/spare bedroon for the arrival of a friend who is a recent college grad. She is going to be staying with us for couple of months (hopefully, just a couple of months) while looking for work in the area. She has degree in Chinese language so hopefully that will get her foot in the door at some where. I'm always amazed at how much stuff we collect; vast amount of paper, old software and electronic equipment. We are glad to be able to help this young woman out but adding one more body to the already crowded house will be interesting to say the least. We'll just deal with it.

I know that many of you will start cleaning up after the flood, please be careful. They are saying the flooding here is the worst since Agnes came through in '72. What a mess! Take care, Lisa

Eggs & sausage sure sounds great to me. Any scrapple for the PA crowd?

Freddy, as I was mowing the lawn yesterday I saw from hornets going into a hole in my shop wall, and a big wasp nest under the roofline of my shed. Looks like I need to go buy a 6-pack of long-range spray. Speaking of of mowing the lawn, I couldnt believe how thick and green the grass was. It was the first time I got to try the new zero-turn in moderatly heavy grass. Not only did it laugh at the tall grass, I set a new record for the "green"...4 acres in 1.5 hours.

Things are warm and toasty in the basement...the EFM is throttled back as much as I dare and still making plenty of hot water. A fresh load of rice should be here sometime next week, so once I get it in the basement I will be set for winter.

Folgers in the cup, a good way to start the morning. After one of the wettest weeks in history the forecast for the weekend is for a chance of rain today and tomorrow.

Freddy, half the fun is getting stung. Wasps are a pain in the ass but hornets are the worst, they have a bad attitude and when I find a nest I adjust their attitude for them.

I don’t know what I’ll get done this weekend. There is grass to mow if it doesn’t rain and the ground is dry enough. Two vehicles are due for maintenance and there is always stuff to do at the house.

There will be a lot of people cleaning up after the flood in this part of the state. I know a lot of people had basement water and low lying homes near the creeks got flooded. I was away for the flood so I didn’t hear too much about the extent of damage in this area but the wife recorded a lot of the news, I have to catch up on that tonight, and from what I saw on line it looks quite bad. I can’t imagine having my house flooded and don’t want to imagine it.

I hope next week is better for all than this week was.

Wow. You folks sure do get up early I rolled out of bed at 8. Have been getting up earlier during the Time Of Mother Nature Showing Us Who's Boss.
No wonder I still have so many projects to get to. I'll keep the details to other threads here. I asked my neice in Owego, NY how her town did; and all she emailed me was, "It aint pretty."

Just finished my oatmeal with raisins and I'm working on the coffee and bagel. The sun is trying to peak out from the clouds. First time in almost a week. Soon I'll be headed off to a steam and antique tractor show. I'll take my camera and post some photos later. It's going to be a sight to see after a weeks worth of rain, 8+ inches around here. It's the first of two local tractor shows I go to each year. Next weekend is the larger of the two. A few years ago when they had the 50th show they wanted 50 steam tractors. Got 52 to show up. Quite a sight and sound. There's a railroad within throwing distance and when a train goes by it's a contest who can make the the loudest noise with their whistles. Fun event, lots of tool type flea market stuff. I've hauled home lots over the years. Need to take some back.

markviii wrote: the new zero-turn.....set a new record for the "green"...4 acres in 1.5 hours.

When I bought my zero turn I asked the dealer "How long will they last?". He said "Exactly twice as long as any mower before it". Huh? Then he went on to say "The reason is, you will get the job done in exactly half the time, thus they last twice as long". Ohhhh, now I get it. He is close to being right. Depending on how many obstacles you have. One thing with my Toro though. It is a lawn mower, not a bush hog. It does not like tall grass. If I try to mow stuff over 7 or 8 inches tall it just doesn't like it. The 14 HP bush hog will jog through 2 foot tall crap, but the 20 HP Z-turn won't begin too. Both are 48" wide, but the Toro is three blades and the hog is one.

Lisa.... your BP med....is it a "pril"? Lisinopril, or some other that ends in "pril"? They are ACE inhibitors and usually the ones that cause a cough. My wife understands all that stuff, she's a CCRN (critical care RN) and deals with drug interactions every day. I quizzed her & she said while it's possible that there is no cheap alternative, it's also quite possible there is. If you take it for blood pressure only, Metoprolol or Lopressor might work for you and they are cheap. Gosh, now I can't remember everything she said. I think it was if they change you from an ACE inhibitor to a beta blocker the coughing should stop. They do make beta blockers that are about the same price as the "prils". Bottom line, ask your Dr. Tell the Dr you'd like to stop coughing and you'd like it to be cheap! Maybe there is a solution for you.

Oh... Choke cherries. Here's a couple of pics. Yes, off the branch they are bitter as heck. But, made into jelly they have a unique flavor. There is a very similar berry that is NOT a choke cherry.

Yea, I usually take stuff to them kinda things to clear up some space & end up bringing home more then I took--don't figure

Morning all. Yep, Folgers and a little generic artifical creamer, that tastes like cr@p. My wife is experimenting with generic creamers. I told her that she can experiment if she wants, but get my Carnation French Vanilla for me.

Freddy, tell me you didn't use the backhoe bucket to load your bin? Did you mean the Loader bucket? I don't know about yours, but my backhoe buck holds about 1 or 2 cubic feet.
YES! Use the solid half-blocks to hold down the tarp. Thats what I use. I can even cut(or break) them in half. A block that is 8 x 8 x 4 seems to hold the tarp ok. Although during Irene they went saling, and the tarp got shredded. But the insurance adjuster says the tarps are covered too, since the tree fell on the tarps as well as the garage.
No word yet, what they will be giving me for the 100 year old garage. True timber. 2x4's really are 2" x 4". They had to go back to the office and figure out "Replacement costs" for it.
I got the smaller of the two Oaks cut up already. The trunk section is 32ft tall. My little tractor can drag it along the ground, but the loader cannot lift it. I'll get it to my friend's sawmill and make some beams for the new garage.

Our antenna stopped working during the storm. I bought a new one, and just to test it, I hooked it up in the TV room, and placed it on top of the Media cabinet. We get about 6 channels from here. I'll have to get it up to the chimney to get best reception of about 18 channels. I'll borrow our local firehouse ladders to do that.

Time to go work on a chainsaw...

My wonderful wife has decided to bake us something to go with the coffee..apple sticky buns! The apples are from the tree in the backyard, and the dark amber maple syrup and pecans really top it off. The house smells wonderful, if anyone is interested in the recipe let me know.

markviii wrote:apple sticky buns!

<pushing through the crowd> Yummmmm! I'd love to have the recipe, but does your tree have enough apples for everyone?


If I used the digger bucket to fill the bin...and 8 scoops was 6 ton... how big a back hoe do I have? Heeheee! Here's a pic if it helps.

My ediecated guess would be that about 8 scoops with a bucket that size would make about 6 Ton-- --you know, we really don't have to know everything--takes the mystery out of life. NOW, if you were sellin or buyin then I'd measure the bucket & do the math--exactly what math, I haven't a clue but I know somebody on here does

Yanche wrote: Soon I'll be headed off to a steam and antique tractor show. I'll take my camera and post some photos later.

The weeks worth of rain and the resulting mud, made today's steam and antique the smallest tractor show in recent memory. One forth the normal crowd turn out. Only two steam tractors showed up. Many of the regular flea market vendors were not there either. The antique car show was held on a paved parking lot rather than the usual grassy area. Only bought one tool and came home.

The two steam tractors that did show up were driven there on public roads. A Frick Eclipse and a Farquhar. Both are owned by the same man and I think he towed the smaller one with the larger steam tractor. Enjoy the photos.







How's that for a stack? I would think he had to take it down when he was towing it to the show. Decades ago steam tractors were a common sight on the roads as they were driven to the September tractor shows. Now most are just transported on low boy flat beds.

Cool pics Yanche, thanks for sharing!