Coffee 3-16-2013

Good afternoon everyone,

Just finished working in the shop today and my wife is at her school making lesson plans for her students for next week. What a dedicated teacher she is. Her students reap the benefits of her dedication. I am taking the afternoon off to go riding snowmobile with some friends of mine. They are scheduled to arrive at my house at anytime. They left on sled from their houses at 7 a.m. and it is a 125 mile ride to my house. We will eat lunch and then out the door for a hundred or so more miles and then they will crash at my place and leave in the morning for the ride home. Tomorrow I will ride back with them, have lunch and ride back to my place. It will be great. I'm trying to get in as much riding as I can before mother nature takes my snow away. This season I am down on miles packed on the sled. I only have 4,200 miles on for this season. I usually have over 5,000 mile on this time of year.

The coming week will be heavy work days since I'm taking most of the weekend off. I have a large order of rocking chairs to be finished asap. Freddy, I want to retire at your place as well, provided your going to take care of me. I'll be bringing all of my shop tools so you will have a metal/wood shop. Oh, I will also be bringing the wife. She isn't high maintenance so it should be good. You might have to add on to your house with all of us forum members retiring to your place. I hear snowmobiles pulling in my yard so I am off. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

The snowman.

We had pancakes and bacon this morning and we tried something a bit different for the syrup. We blended 2/3 pure maple syrup with 1/3 local honey. This resulted in a nice tasting syrup that my wife actually likes much better than pure maple syrup alone. I'm tending to agree with her, but for me the jury is still out. I'll need a few more pancake breakfasts in order to firm up my opinion.

A few more pancake breakfasts probably won't "firm up" anything...

CoaLen wrote:A few more pancake breakfasts probably won't "firm up" anything...

Quite true!

LsFarm wrote:Rob: what kind of new wheels are you looking at? 'new' or NEW ?? a job commuter or another family vehicle??

Both...it has to handle a car seat and a trunk full of groceries with ease, and make for a nice/safe ride through the twisty snow-covered roads of Vermont. I decided to listen to my co-workers and test drive a Subaru. The all wheel drive is very impressive, and I was pleasantly surprised that their 4 cylinder doesn't sound like a lawn mower engine. I ended up buying a 2012 Subaru Legacy. It was a Subaru executive vehicle with 10,000 miles on it. This one is a "Limited" model, so it has all the goodies like heated leather seats, a nice stereo, and the "all weather package"....which I believe includes heated mirrors, heated washer fluid and a heated wiper area to prevent ice buildup.

32 mpg highway according to the window sticker...even 30 seems kind of optimistic, but we will find out next week. The color is a dark navy blue.

Here are some pictures. This car has more legroom in the back seat than my Grand Marquis!

Hi everyone,
Sorry I missed breakfast yesterday. I was on my way to Richmond to attend the Mid-Atlantic Organic Bee Conference. That was a very interesting conference and really reinforced the need for more folks to become backyard beekeepers. It seems the bees are in more trouble than we know and as bees pollinate a substantial portion of our food crops, which means we are in trouble, too. We learned that in 1994 there were 85,000 commercial beekeepers across the country but today there are only 45,000 and 30% of those folks lose 30% of their livestock each year due to disease and pests. That’s not sustainable for any business. The VA state apiarist says the government is looking to the backyard beekeepers to make up the difference. Personally, I don’t know how backyard beekeepers can do that but I don’t know what a different solution would be. It’s something to think about.

We have dropped back into winter as have many across the country. Our forecast is calling for a winter mix or rain tomorrow night and into Tuesday. We should be at an average of 55* now but will be lucky to get out of the upper 30s for the next few day. Hopefully, this will be Old Man Winter’s last gasp before allowing Mother Nature to release the spring. The DC Cherry Blossoms are predicted to peak on the 26th and any remaining cold weather could mess that up. Anyway, I hope everyone is warm and dry, take care, Lisa

Jimmie Cricket! It was ten freakin' degrees this morning and now they're saying a foot of snow for us come Tue or Wed! ....w-w-what happened to Spring?

lsayre wrote:I'll need a few more pancake breakfasts in order to firm up my opinion.

Oh yes, when a good new recipe hits the table & I'm asked if I like it, the stock answer is "I'm not sure, I'll need to have it served three of four more times before I can tell for sure".

the snowman wrote: I only have 4,200 miles on for this season

That's still a very good year of riding!

the snowman wrote: You might have to add on to your house with all of us forum members retiring to your place.

Funny you should say that.... I'm sure it will not occur at this point, but in the past we have talked about different ways to keep our heads above water during retirement. (we've decided to take the paddle like hell and gasp often route) One thing we discussed was building a 4 or 5 unit structure where all share a common area, and all have private areas. We occupy one of them the other four.... they pay us and that money pays all the bills and buys food for us to eat. The one tripping stone is.....what happens if we die? Even with Bill we try to think along those lines. Bill pays a monthly insurance premium that would pay for long term care. We considered dropping that & saving him the money, but, what if we died? It would suck for him that we tried to save a monthly premium & suddenly he needed that insurance to pay for a facility to take care of him. Getting old is a tricky thing! Speaking of Bill...the alarm worked again this morning.... for a guy that sometimes needs two people to help him walk 5 feet, at 4:30 AM he wrapped himself in a sheet & made it all the way to the front door without his cane! Yesterday he had several hours of very good, this morning he doesn't know where he is.

Ohhh... I'm rambling again... hope you all have a fine day!

PS the reason I started to write a reply was about bees! LOL I see bees only go about 4 miles for food.... they will go further, but the size of the nest dwindles after 4 miles. So, back yard bees are certainly a good thing, but they're not going to help a farm that's 20 or 200 miles away.

Lisa... how do you know, and what do you do, if someone sprays pesticide within your bee area? Are you somehow alerted & can you keep the bees home for a day or two?

Only Two Words Today: CORNED BEEF !

Morning all.. Ohhhh boyyyyy, that Bisquits & Sausage gravey is my favorite! Too bad I missed breakfast yesterday.
I got locally-collected honey in my green tea right now. It really doesn't stick to my ribs like Freddy's coffee would, but it sure is much easier on my system. I guess I am getting Caffiene-intolerant???

Stoves on idle, but still too warm in the house. Had to use Window-stats.
I just finished discing the church's "Neighborhood" garden. All the Oldies in town can get a plot to plant their vegis, without the hassle of tending their own garden. Its already in the 70's, and only 9:00am.

Then I get a call from a buddy who was out cutting old Oaks that had fire-damage the year before. A fire last year burned all the bark off hundreds/thousands of old growth trees on a neighbors plantation, and they all died. Anyway, my buddy was a little overwhelmed at the size of the trees, so "could I go help him"? Damn, I am thinking, I started burning coal just so I wouldn't have to cut wood anymore! But, being the good buddy, I went over with a couple big saws of mine, and spent the day cutting firewood for him. I even had to use my own gas We bucked up enough for him to last thru NEXT winter, so I guess he was happy.
He did give me a tour of his 'museum' of historical firearms. He has most everything made from early 1800s flintlocks, to WW2 submachine guns. He had rearrainged everything by era, so the displays were much more meaningfull now. I got a promise to fire ANY fully auto weapon of my choosing. That big .50cal on the tripod, looked mighty inviting.

Rob, good choice on cars. We have been buying Subaru Outbacks since 2003, and they are still going strong. I just replaced a front axle on my wife's 2004, cuz the boot had split. I was down in less than an hour. Probably closer to 30 minuts to replace it.

Freddy wrote:

lsayre wrote:I'll need a few more pancake breakfasts in order to firm up my opinion.

Oh yes, when a good new recipe hits the table & I'm asked if I like it, the stock answer is "I'm not sure, I'll need to have it served three of four more times before I can tell for sure".

Precisely the plan!

WOW those Subaru's have sure come a long way from THIS:





They say, "timing is everything" .... so on that note .... the RD is all timed & ready for spring. Even though it's NOWHERE in sight ...

Last March 2012 it was 80° this week.

March 2013? 25° ...



March Means Maintenance .... Got the 8 year old John Deere battery, which was DOA in '05, ready for another season too.

Time to go through all my lawn & garden crap to find things to make money on, while making more room in the barn. Been a LOOONG, slow winter over here. Great time for the wifey to make plans for a trip to CA. There's that timing thing again ... Flying is out. Driving our vehicles is out. Looks like we'll be borrowing a clown car from a relative - getting 30+ mpg is the only way this trip is going to happen. Good thing the wifey will be by my side while driving said woman-car ... or else I'd be getting propositions from MEN. It's a Honda Civic! (hangs head in shame ...) What an embarrassment .... Can't believe I'll be stuck in this tin can for 7k plus miles ..... but at least I'll be able to see my buddy, and the wifey gets to see her relatives. Haven't been out there for 13 years. She has limited time off from work, so the drive out there is gonna SUCK. We have to do it in 2 days .... so you know what that means. Yep - the wheels must turn 48 hours .... NON-STOP. More like work than a vacation!

Freddy wrote:PS the reason I started to write a reply was about bees! LOL I see bees only go about 4 miles for food.... they will go further, but the size of the nest dwindles after 4 miles. So, back yard bees are certainly a good thing, but they're not going to help a farm that's 20 or 200 miles away.

Lisa... how do you know, and what do you do, if someone sprays pesticide within your bee area? Are you somehow alerted & can you keep the bees home for a day or two?

Hi Freddy,

My county puts out notification signs of any spraying they are going to do in the area. I watch for those. I've also asked my immediate neighbors to let me know if they are doing or having a lawn service so I can keep my bees in until it's dry. I have tall hedges on both sides of my lawn so I don’t get a lot of drift. So far, I haven't had any problems. I try to keep my eyes open. That's one thing the bad economy is good for, we don't have the money as a county to do a lot of spraying this year. Lisa

Smitty: did you pull that Subaru out of the ocean?? man everything is corroded !!

What does Mass use instead of salt on the roads??? Hydrochloric acid??

Greg L

Yep - that's the fate of all MA cars if you park them without a wash after driving all winter long.