Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
Everyone survive the storms? My computer flickered once. Back and front yards look ok. Nothing more to report. Happy Friday.
Three and one half inches of rain but no damage yet. Another storm predicted this afternoon. Flowers are droopy. I know the feeling.
Linda wrote: "Everyone survive the storms? My computer flickered once. Back and front yards look ok. Nothing more to report. Happy Friday."I read in the Glens Falls Post-Star online about all the local damage the storm caused. Fortunately, we weren't affected.
Nina wrote: "Three and one half inches of rain but no damage yet. Another storm predicted this afternoon. Flowers are droopy. I know the feeling."Storms seem to be all around the country.
I was planning on sleeping in this morning, but the damn coon had other plans. I guess last night's narrow escape didn't properly teach it a lesson, so I woke up to the sound of scratching & barking at 4:30. Pip had treed the coon on the side of the house, just outside the kitchen window, so I could shoot it. What a good boy!!! I made a good shot to the heart with a .38 at 20' wearing only what I came into the world in, holding a spotlight in my other hand. Thankfully there was only a light rain. Ah, the country life. Don't you wish your life was so glamorous?
;)
Joy H. wrote: "Linda wrote: "Everyone survive the storms? My computer flickered once. Back and front yards look ok. Nothing more to report. Happy Friday."I read in the Glens Falls Post-Star online about all the..."
Some downed telephone poles and large trees on Lake Avenue in Saratoga. Major roads were blocked.
Saturday and I've invited a former coworker over for lunch. My husband will be making us crustless Quiche (gluten free). I'll be making a salad with spring mix, slivered apple slices, plump raisins, shredded cheese and sliced cherry tomatoes. Made some homemade iced tea last night. After lunch we plan on driving to the Outlets to do some shopping (or browsing) together. Two of the stores I want to visit are Christopher Banks and Chico's. Basically just to see what is new for the season. Don't really want or need any new clothes. But, if something truly strikes me and the price is good then I will consider a purchase.
Nice and cool this morning. Sun is shining and the birds have been up since 4am (sort of woke me up which I don't mind as long as it isn't a flock of crows!!).
Have a good day everyone.
Your night reminds me of our road out being blocked when we were at our lake house as the beavers had downed trees and they had fallen on the road. Also once a coon was in our chimney and that was a scramble to get him out.
Linda, have a nice interesting day. Good luck with shopping. Sad story: my daughter and her husband were taking us to have reuben sandwiches at our favorite bar for Mother's day. It was to be a couple of weeks from now as they were having to repair their fence on Mother's day after someone drove through wrecking it/I call it a horse country fence/white rails etc. Then a couple of nights ago the owner of the sandwich place was walking his two black dogs on a trail near his place of business and it is quite wooded on each side and he was murdered. The entire community feels shocked. He was always involved in charitable events; especially helping the poor and was beloved by his employees and even would help wash dishes if the need arrived. Such a waste of a good human being.
That's very sad, Nina.
Pip treed a coon on top of the bird feeders this morning about 1am. It got away before I could get to it, though. I'm getting tired of nightly wake up calls.Generally, we only have one that we scare off, but when their population explodes we have issues. A few years ago, my neighbor got a special dispensation to spotlight coons since they were wiping out his corn field. He got 25 in one week. We dealt with a few that year, too. I might have to start trapping them which is a total PITA. We have to keep the dogs locked in at night & I have to deal with them before I go to work which means getting up earlier.
Nina wrote: "Linda, have a nice interesting day. Good luck with shopping. Sad story: my daughter and her husband were taking us to have reuben sandwiches at our favorite bar for Mother's day. It was to be a cou..."Nina - very sorry to hear about the storeowner. The world is changing.
Jim wrote: "Pip treed a coon on top of the bird feeders this morning about 1am. It got away before I could get to it, though. I'm getting tired of nightly wake up calls.Generally, we only have one that we sc..."
25!! I can't even imagine!
That was just one week too, Linda. Crazy, isn't it? I'm surprised we don't get more, but I guess the scent of the dogs keep most away. The few we do get are the belligerent ones, though. They're certainly fat enough. The one I got yesterday was about 20 lbs & in great shape. Not fat, but certainly well filled out. I'm sure the place looks like a garden of delights to any coon. The only problems being Pip & I.It's a 1/2 acre backyard that I've built into a haven for the birds & is surrounded by a 4' board & wire fence. The fence has Purple Martin & Bluebird houses attached with trumpet vine & such crawling on it in places, plus there are plantings of flowers & bushes all over. The fish pond has a shallow section about 2'x6' with rocks so the birds can wash & get water. They use it constantly. I think Raven, our cat, got a bird there this morning. I woke up to find a dead, dripping bird at the foot of my bed, anyway.
The coon was on top of a big cross I built out of 4x4's which holds 4 different feeders: thistle seed, peanuts in the shell, mixed vertically, & on a platform. There's another feeder permanently mounted which serves mixed out of a feeder I built with the overflow falling on to a platform. 2 other stations have mealworms & hummingbird feeders. Plus the fish pond with all its frogs & fish all make it a great place for a raccoon to scrounge.
Mom just told me she hasn't seen any hummingbirds. My feeders seem to be going down, but I haven't seen any in weeks. Very few this year. I don't ever recall seeing this few this time of year in the decade we've been here.
Our count of 6 hummingbirds still holds true.
I heard a hummingbird while fixing the grill yesterday, but didn't see it since my back was to the feeder. The water level is going down, so I guess I'm just missing them.The poor grill needed some TLC. I had to redrill all the holes in the gas pipe. Too many years of grease, grime, & even some rust. I've cleaned them before with a pin, but they'd gone beyond that. The 1/64" drill bit was a bit large for the job, but I don't have a #79 or 80. Seems to work just fine now, but we'll have to see how it cooks.
We should probably break down & buy a new one. We're guessing this one is about 7 years old. It's just a small, table top model which is all the 2 of us need. We have the large Weber kettle type charcoal grill that's mounted in a table I made of horse shoes, but we haven't used that since we got this little Weber gas grill. I don't think the flavor is quite as good, but it's so much quicker & easier.
The kids are going to get the big one at some point. It is tied in place by a trumpet vine trunk growing through one of the bottom leg horse shoes. It's almost 2" in diameter! I guess it kept getting fatter as I pruned it along the railing of the deck. I don't let it get too bushy.
No visits by coons last night! Yay!!! I looked around about 1:30am, but all was quiet. I guess (hope!) Pip & I taught them that our yard isn't worth it.
My daughter who is in from Texas, my wife, and I just returned from far north Michigan where we attended a preschool graduation and a combined first communion and confirmation for a great niece and nephew. Before my daughter leaves tomorrow we are going to go a place that my wife and I have not visited since we have been in Ohio, and that's been 8 years - Landol's Castle. It's a place that was recently featured on Hell's Kitchen.
Thanks to everyone for posting.
JAKe wrote: "My daughter who is in from Texas, my wife, and I just returned from far north Michigan where we attended a preschool graduation and a combined first communion and confirmation for a great niece and..."Jake - sounds like fun. Can you tell us more about Landol's Castle?
Dreary day today. Cool with rain on and off. Getting paperwork done. Then, the mail will come which generally brings more paperwork to get done. A little vicious cycle.
Perhaps a cup of tea would be nice now.
Pouring rain and my husband just came in and said none of our TV's are working. Maybe something happened to our Direct TV cable on our roof. Hope not.
Such an interesting article on the Stuart Little controversy. Thanks for posting the website. I am going to give it to my children's librarian daughter.
Nina wrote: "Pouring rain and my husband just came in and said none of our TV's are working. Maybe something happened to our Direct TV cable on our roof. Hope not."Uh oh. Hope its the main office and not your own cable.
I had to add a third leg to our satellite dish because our winds are so strong. They just have a little foot, about 4"x6" which is completely inadequate, especially since the dish points south & most of our strong winds come from the SW quarter. Anyway, I just bent up a leg out some 1/8"x 1/2" scrap about 30" long & used one of their bolts to hold it to the dish. I used deck screws to hold it to the roof. It's made a huge difference. I haven't had to adjust it since I put it on.I asked the Dish guy when he was putting them on the kids' house if they had such a brace & he said they didn't, but agreed that they should. He said he'd asked for them before, too. Seems like a silly oversight to me. It's such a small amount that you can't even see it when the dish is out of line. We'd just have the signal go out more often in lighter breezes until I'd put it on the signal strength screen & get Marg to watch it & yell directions from the porch as I adjusted it. Real pain in the neck.
TV's came back on so maybe it was the main office. Your solution sound good Jim. I will pass it on to my husband. When the man put the thing on the roof he admitted he didn't know how to do and then cut one of the cables and it was terrible and the poor man worked ten hours trying to fix it. Finally someone came the next day and got it working. Oh the modern trials..
Glad to hear it's working now.
Me too, Watched some very old movies the last two night and what was interesting to me was the actresses that played the leading roles in each of them were never heard of again whereas a couple of actresses who were mostly extras turned out to be stars; especially the fact that one of them was Ginger Rogers.
A a bit of trivia about my family/my husband was a redhead and I had three red headed children and my movie husband also had red hair. It was kind of fun introducing one husband to the other one.
Before I got the bed made this morning, Pip was chasing another coon around the back yard. We must have made an interesting sight - the coon running along, then Pip with me trotting along in my birthday suit with a spotlight & a gun. The coon looked back at me & then decided to bail. Not sure what scared him more - the gun or me puffing up behind him naked. ;)
That would make a good video Jim. X rated.
I'm looking forward to a 5 day weekend starting the end of today. Marg's last day of school is tomorrow, so we'll be going out to dinner after she drops her bus off for the summer. It will be nice not to have that beast cluttering up the place for a couple of months.
Jim, enjoy your 5 day weekend.
two happenings in our family today one good and one bad. The good one is our granddaughter graduating from San Diego State after five years of hard studying/she had previously lived in Africa for ten years. The other is one granddaughter and her husband are visiting her sister, another granddaughter in Hanoi Vietnam and today they got into a cab or what they thought was a cab and turned out he was a robber. He took their money and then drove jerking up and down on the highway and threatened to wreck the car. My granddaughter said she was screaming and he finally went to the side of the road and they jumped out and got into a cab but this person followed them and threatened to take more money. Finally they got away and went home to her sister. They lost all of their remaining trip money. But at the least they were safe.
What a terrible experience. Glad they are safe.
That's great for the graduate & I'm so sorry for the others, Nina.
Thanks, Joy. The best part is neither she nor her husband were injured. She did say she was terrified she would be. It was like a nightmare but ended well. Except for the robber taking their money.
No coon this morning thankfully, so I got to sleep in until 5. I got a trap out of the barn yesterday, but forgot to set it. I think I'll set it just outside the yard by the trash cans. It would be best to set it just outside the fence by the main bird feeders, but that's in the horse field. Chip & Indy would beat it to death playing.Mom called shortly after I got up. I usually call her, but her phone has been flaky lately. Seems these fancy phones last about a year while my flip phone is over 10 years old now. I loaded up the phone Josh gave me with all sorts of cool apps, but haven't even turned it on in over a week. Occasionally it's handy. I like the app that tells me how tall a tree is, but my guess has been about right.
It a cool (mid 50s) rainy day, so I plan to spend it in the shop. I need to make up some hangers for network cables at work & want to start turning bowls out of the maple tree of the kids.
Sounds interesting, Jim. Do you work only from home, and how many acres do you live on?
JAKe wrote: "Sounds interesting, Jim. Do you work only from home, and how many acres do you live on?"No, I'm just taking a couple of vacation days to turn the weekend into a week off. I need it after the server troubles last week. I'm the IT department for a small manufacturing company. I go in early & get home by mid afternoon most days, though. We have a little farm, just 15 acres. Enough for a few horses, dogs, a couple of goats, & a cat.
I just turned the first bowl from the kids' tree. It was a splintered outside bit, so it wasn't my favorite, but it came out OK. About 15" in diameter. I microwaved it for a couple of minutes & now it's drying. I'll probably do that a few more times today & it should do some interesting warping.
15 acres of farm land is nice. My home is at the end of a dead end street - have 3 acres. Mostly woods. Lots of nature and few neighbors!
Nina wrote: "two happenings in our family today one good and one bad. The good one is our granddaughter graduating from San Diego State after five years of hard studying/she had previously lived in Africa for t..."Congratulations for your granddaughter graduating. My neighbors' granddaughter went to Africa for several years. Now lives in California.
I'm so glad the granddaughter with the "taxi" ride and robbery is safe. What an ordeal. Losing money is tough but when you realize you and your loved one are well and unharmed (except a bit emotionally) you count your blessings.
Stay safe this Memorial Weekend everyone.
Jim wrote: "JAKe wrote: "Sounds interesting, Jim. Do you work only from home, and how many acres do you live on?"No, I'm just taking a couple of vacation days to turn the weekend into a week off. I need it a..."
Jim, Not sure what you mean by "kid's tree." I'm guessing you mean that it was planted when they were born and now you have taken it down and using the wood to make bowls. At least that is the impression I'm getting.
Jake, the "kids' tree" is one I mentioned taking down a couple of weeks ago, a 60' Sugar maple in their back yard that had been damaged about 15 years ago. That left it with a bad spot in the base, perfect for making it fall on the house. So I dropped it in the direction I wanted & got about a dozen decent boards sawn out of it. I'm also turning some bowls out of the remains.
Reminds me of my husband using walnut to make things after that tree was cut down/he made bunny napkin holders/duck pull toys for babies/hippo note holders among other things but no bowls.
Linda before my granddaughter lived in Africa she lived in Siberia.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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Since we counted 6 hummingbirds at one time, this weekend we are going out to purchase on to stick on the garage window, and another small tube like feeder to put into a plant (which we don't have yet, need to wait until May 30th at least.)