Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
The drought is back in force. We haven't had any rain in several weeks & it's really stressing all the plants. One of our crepe myrtles now has powdery white mildew. I've cut off the infected branches & it's less than half the size it was. We're going to start feeding it the stuff Marg gives the roses since it contains a systemic fungicide. Hopefully that fixes it, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope. It gets killed off most winters & has never done very well. Odd because my neighbor had one that was huge & over 35 years old, but the winters started killing it off, too. I guess we're getting short blasts of cold that are just too much for it.
It's been a busy weekend. I took Friday off so my daughter & I could go to the Wood Expo at Masterson Station, a place we generally go to ride. They also have a Fiber Festival in the spring, too. Anyway, this featured a lot of big equipment, chainsaw artists, other woodworkers plus wildlife & tree information booths. It was great.A couple of woodworkers made toy vehicles. Most were pretty common, but a few were works of art. One guy made a school bus that was 3' long with a lot of detail. Another guy did really incredible vehicles. A fire truck had over 200 pieces in it, but that paled beside the excavator which was on a lowboy tractor trailer. He made treads for the excavator out of tiny pieces, 109 pieces per tread! It's not a great picture, but I think you can get an idea of the detail.
Jim wrote: "The drought is back in force. We haven't had any rain in several weeks & it's really stressing all the plants. One of our crepe myrtles now has powdery white mildew. I've cut off the infected branc..."Hi Jim, sorry to hear about your plants. The cold, dry weather can be rough on them. Maybe some of them will survive. Keep your hopes up.
Jim wrote: "It's been a busy weekend. I took Friday off so my daughter & I could go to the Wood Expo at Masterson Station, a place we generally go to ride. They also have a Fiber Festival in the spring, too. A..."It's amazing what the hobbyists can do. They really are passionate about what they do. They must enjoy it a lot.
Thanks for the amazing picture. The kids must LOVE it!
I don't know if any kid will enjoy the excavator or tractor trailer, Joy. They're $450 each! It would take some deep-pocketed, really nice grandparents to give a gift like that. The little booger probably wouldn't appreciate it.
Jim wrote: "I don't know if any kid will enjoy the excavator or tractor trailer, Joy. They're $450 each! It would take some deep-pocketed, really nice grandparents to give a gift like that. The little booger p..."Wow! That's expensive!
Glad the rains came. Us too since last night. Drought is so bad; we were starting it. So we welcome the rain. Sun finally shining in time for the Chiefs to play.
Nina wrote: "Glad the rains came. Us too since last night. Drought is so bad; we were starting it. So we welcome the rain. Sun finally shining in time for the Chiefs to play."Hope your drought won't get worse, Nina.
We're getting the rain this morning, Nina. Like you, the rain is much needed.
Jim wrote: "We're getting the rain this morning, Nina. Like you, the rain is much needed."Good to hear!
Back to reality after a dream vacation is the lovely town of Coeur d' Alene ID. A city surrounded by a beautiful lake and snow capped mountains.
Nina wrote: "Back to reality after a dream vacation is the lovely town of Coeur d' Alene ID. A city surrounded by a beautiful lake and snow capped mountains."Sounds wonderful, Nina!
Here's a WIKI link to information about Coeur d' Alene ID.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeur_d...
"Coeur d'Alene ( French: Cœur d'Alène, lit. 'Heart of an Awl') is the largest city and county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States."
What took you there, Nina?
Nina, this is a coincidence. I'm currently listening to a book which starts out in Idaho!Educated by Tara Westover
I just started my GR review page for this book. The link is:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I was visiting my daughter, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren and three grandson in laws; plus, a son in law who is a master chef and teaches French in high school and college. My daughter was a children's librarian in a neighboring city for twenty years/ since retired. My son in law takes his class to France every other year.
Nina wrote: "I was visiting my daughter, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren and three grandson in laws; plus, a son in law who is a master chef and teaches French in high school and college. My daug..."How exciting! Such a lovely family!
Guess what... my sister, Carina, is currently visiting China with her son and his wife, who is visiting her mother in China.
Carina just got back from a tour of parts of England!
I don't know how she does it. She is 81 years old.
Just about froze this morning in Costco parking lot with icy wind blowing.
It's chilly here too. I stay home a lot. :)
I am resting from working on getting rid of all the pine needles on our patio. It took me an hour and then ready to quit. Finely got the dead plants in the compost barrel. Lots of work there too. Next have to mulch and done then until spring.
Have an overdue library book? Watch out. This is a horror story.https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Wom...
Nina wrote: "I am resting from working on getting rid of all the pine needles on our patio. It took me an hour and then ready to quit. Finely got the dead plants in the compost barrel. Lots of work there too. N..."Yes, it's too much work!
Jim wrote: "Have an overdue library book? Watch out. This is a horror story.https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Wom..."
Incredible!
Sorry I have not posted in so long. Health and computer problems but everything is okay now and so I will be visiting in more this fall. Hope everyone is well and happy.
Mary JL wrote: "Sorry I have not posted in so long. Health and computer problems but everything is okay now and so I will be visiting in more this fall. Hope everyone is well and happy."Hope all is well now or at least much better with your health and computer. I'm not sure if I've read any of your posts. If I haven't it may be a timing issue for me being in this group. I'm not from Glens Falls but became a follower of the group as my second novel uses Glens Falls as one of its settings. I did change the name. Again, glad you're doing better.
Good to see you back. It's getting chilly here now. Frost every morning, so we're battening down. The vents under the house are closed, hoses off their bibs, & I need to get hay moved today. I fixed my farm pickup in approved redneck manner. The plastic 'quick' connect (Nothing quick or easy about it.) on the fuel filter broke. A proper fix would mean buying an expensive hose that runs through the firewall & is a nightmare to replace. Instead, I just cut the end off & used scrap fuel line & some pipe clamps to make the connection - all stuff I pulled out of stock in the shop.
My son-in-law was impressed. He used to tease me about how much stuff I keep on hand, but now that he lives out here, he understands. It's an hour round trip to the nearest hardware store, so having a variety of stuff on hand is a necessity.
WELCOME BACK, MARY JL!
Poor Marg got scared half to death yesterday morning. Something big suddenly ran up behind her in the dark as she went out to start up the school bus. Turned out to be her pony, Pumpkin. She had no trouble putting him back in the field since he really hated being separated from his buddies.We got woken up about 4:15 by the dogs barking. I looked outside & saw the horses running around like wild men. I don't know what got them running. I didn't hear any coyotes, although they were quite loud last night. Since they stopped & looked over the fence at me, I just figured they were having fun or being stupid over some deer running through. I got dressed & left for work.
I guess they continued their shenanigans since I would have seen Pumpkin if he'd been out already. From the tracks, it looks like they were tearing around by the pond in the northwest corner of the property & he half jumped through an old spot. That put him out on the road & he didn't know how to get back in. The others didn't follow him, so he must have followed the fence back to the front yard & hung around there until Marg came out around 6am & he got to surprise her.
Jim wrote: "Poor Marg got scared half to death yesterday morning. Something big suddenly ran up behind her in the dark as she went out to start up the school bus. Turned out to be her pony, Pumpkin. She had no..."Glad everything worked out OK, Jim.
We FINALLY got decent Internet. For the past decade, 512kb was the best we could get. Now we finally have 6mb with no data limit. I know that sounds small in these Gb days, but it's actually quite sufficient for 2 old folks that only have 1 TV & don't do much online. I could actually download a 20mb file, pictures of the grandkids my DIL posted, in about 20 seconds. I used to do it at work because it took 20 minutes or more.The only big issue I can see is if there's a problem. The 2 guys who run the company work full time, so they won't be able to fix issues too quickly. I guess I'll set up our computers to use our cell phones in an emergency.
Good luck with your new set-up, Jim. Sounds good. Thanks for posting.
Good luck with your new venture/not that you need it as I suspect you are a computer guru.
I had a wonderful day in the shop yesterday. It was nasty out (cold & rainy) so I spent the day working on Xmas presents & did some modifications for the tablesaw that I've been meaning to do for ages. It was a thoroughly relaxing day; no rush since I've got all next week off. I'm working on Quoridor games for each kid's family. I've never played it, but it looks like a neat game & I like to do some sort of toy or game each year. I'm making these out of maple boards made from a tree I cut down at my daughter's house. I'm going to mount each as the top of a box with a drawer in it to hold the pieces & instructions. It's coming along well.
Hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving 🦃
We had a good one. I spent the day mostly working in the shop & then we had dinner with one set of kids. Talked to another & my mother via phone. We also listened to "Alice's Restaurant" while playing 500 Rummy. A nice, typical day.
Oh my goodness, "Alice's Restaurant" - do you know Arlo had tired of singing this ... great to see him live in concert.
Today is our seventy second Wedding Anniversary so I am celebrating by going out for beer and bratwurst. Unfortunately my husband has sore throat and is on antibiotics and can't join our "children" and me but we'll bring him bratwurst. Just read the Updates and one of them, Joy Peck is our granddaughter.
Congrats to you & your husband, Nina. 72 years. Wow!
Fabulous, Nina. Hope hubby gets better soon. Congratulations!!
Today is a sunny day. Quite cold. Snow coming tomorrow. We will head out for a ride and see where we end up.
Making game pieces, I decided to try doing a 3D scrollsaw piece. It requires gluing the template on to 2 sides of the block, cutting one side, taping it together, & then cutting the other side. The finished figure pops out & it's really cool.
Here's another view of the block popped open.
I found that it's best to make as continuous of a cut as possible on one side. Makes sense since then it holds itself together better & less tape is needed.
Here's a couple of pics of the Quoridor games I made up, one for each household in the family, for Xmas. It's a fascinating game, far more complex than I originally thought. I made up the game boards as the top of a box to hold the pieces. 20 walls & 4 game pieces are needed for each, so it would be easy to lose them. The squares on the tops of the board are 3/4", to give you some size reference.
Here are most of the game pieces I made up. Obviously, I went a bit overboard. Painting them was the most difficult part for me.
Jim, these pieces look great. Lots of patience and skill.
Looking up on line to see where the snow geese are being sighted and to see if any snowy owls are anywhere local. I usually have better luck in March/April with the snow geese. Been on a hunt for the snowy owl. Mentioned previously I did see one in flight at a local park reserve area but still haven't seen one perched. Trying for about 30 years with no luck.
Even on ebird with alerts. I go to the location where 1 or more were spotted and the owl is not to be seen. Go home and someone saw the snowy around the time I left. May have to camp out!
Today is bowling followed by our bowling holiday luncheon. Fun group of ladies. My first year with this group. I used to bowl evenings and now bowl with a morning league. Find I'm better suited with this group and bowling in the morning. More energy! Feels good to socialize and get exercise in the a.m. Have a fun day everyone.
We once had a white owl sitting on a tree branch in our back yard in Overland Park KS.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Educated (other topics)Pride and Prejudice (other topics)
Moby-Dick or, The Whale (other topics)
The Count of Monte Cristo (other topics)
War and Peace (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Tara Westover (other topics)Ann Howard Creel (other topics)
Ann Howard Creel (other topics)
C.W. Gortner (other topics)
C.W. Gortner (other topics)
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During the storm, the hummingbirds ran out of food in the back yard & were obviously very hungry. As I poured water into the ant trap on top of one refilled feeder, a hummingbird landed on it while another hovered only a few inches from my nose. I wondered if she was going to try to peck my eye out, but after a long few seconds, she landed on the other side of the feeder & started drinking. Apparently service is just too slow. Can't get good help, you know?
;)