Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion
What are U doing today?
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What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread)
Started off the day with Pip treeing a baby coon on one of the bird feeders about 4:30am. Got Pip inside & tried to chase the little guy off, but he jumped right at me & got punted for his trouble. He wandered along the top of the fence for a while before finally taking off. Looks awfully young to have left his mother. I don't need that sort of excitement before I finish my first cup of coffee.
Everyone still alive & doing well? Things are pretty stable here. Nothing exciting going on, which is a good thing.I'm now feeding 6-8 cups of sugar water to the hummingbirds each day, roughly twice what I was feeding a month ago. Not as many woodpeckers on the feeders either, just swarms of hummingbirds. The Rose of Sharon bushes are in bloom & two of them bracket the back yard gate out to the horse barn. Walking between them takes me past a hummingbird feeder too, so it's like walking into a swarm. Quite often one or two will hover a few inches from my head & chitter. It's almost as if they're asking if I'm friend or foe & if they should poke my eye out.
I miss my Rose of Sharon bushes. Moved from them twenty years ago. We are OK here. My ninety four year old husband still climbing ladders to clean gutters. Good to hear from you Jim. I envy your hummingbirds.
Finally, 2020 has been weird in a good way. We got more hay from the second cutting than the first - 196 bales this time compared to 160. Usually the second cutting is less, often a lot less. We put up another 66 bales tonight & I'm really glad I had the hay elevator to do it. A new neighbor stopped in to lend a hand, so it went fast & easy.
Enjoyed having your update, Jim. I envy the hummingbirds at your feeders. None here. Tell them to quit squabbling and come visit here. We also are in need of rain. It hasn't rained here but once briefly for six weeks and ironically my son in law was on the deck steps ready to paint them with non slip paint when it started to rain and as he tried to make it back up the steps to go inside he fell and broke his ankle. He has to be off his feet for seven weeks and this past week he has been vomiting for three days. The dr thinks it is caused from taking the various medicines for pain and trying to heal the bones. So goes it in KS
Oh, that's a mess. I've heard ankles are bad to break. I hope he gets his stomach under control. I've had similar issues with my stomach with all the antibiotics I've been on. I have to be really careful when & what I eat which is hard since I've never paid much attention before.Did your steps get painted?
No hummingbirds the past couple of days. We were supposed to get rain last night from the hurricane that just blew through LA, but it's dry here now. They're still saying we have a good chance today, though.
The weather is gorgeous so I've been getting a lot done outside. I trimmed up some trees yesterday. It's great having the tractor with the front end loader. I had to trim up some that were hitting Marg's bus & they were too big for my long pruning shears. I just parked the tractor, walked over the hood & climbed into the bucket. Then I was able to cut them out with the chainsaw easily 15'-20' up.
Jim, the deck steps are at my daughter and son in law's house so no they aren't painted yet.
While Bella was cutting my hair yesterday, we saw a hummingbird eating off the flowers on the front porch. I haven't seen one in over a week & was thinking of putting away the feeders. We've gotten down close to freezing a couple of nights now, even had frost 2 mornings, so I wasn't expecting to see one.
They know a good thing when they need it. Regardless of the weather.
No more hummingbirds since that last sighting. Now it's cold & wet with a freeze being likely tomorrow night, so I cleaned & bleached the feeders. They're put away until next April. We had enough rain & warm days that the hay field greened up nicely. I had to build a second gate about 16" tall to go across the 6' opening into the grooming area. For over a decade, just the 4' tall gate was fine, but Tango injured his back & had to be rested. He's a young Thoroughbred & is bored, so he's taken to reaching into that area over the gate & playing with whatever he can sink his teeth into. We don't have enough room to move everything out of his way & it wasn't too bad until he got ahold of the hose to the vacuum. He tore it off & that's just to expensive. Sigh. He reminds me of a bored 5 year old kid.
or the cooped up kids out of school for months.
It's gorgeous out & dry enough so I took the tractor & chainsaw out into the woods to do some clean up. I filled in a couple of sink holes, pushed some dead trees over that were ready to fall on the fence line, & such chores. It's been a productive morning so far. Besides, I paid off the house on Friday, so I'm kind of walking on air. I guess most of you have a mortgage or paid yours off, so you have an idea of the feeling. Yeehaw! :)
Good for you; working outside and also paying off the house. I think you are around the same age as us when we paid ours off/fifty seven years old.
As usual, the animals are keeping life interesting. A week or two ago, the neighbors' chickens crossed the road & were searching the garden next to my front porch for treats. The dogs & I didn't see them at first as we headed out to get the mail. Then Pip did see them & I spent the next 10 minutes chasing him & them around. Luckily his mouth is small so he just pulled a lot of feathers.A few days ago, a miniature pony stud wandered up & challenged Tango to a fight. He was about 30" tall while Tango is a big Thoroughbred retired from the track & is well over 5' tall. Thankfully the fence was solid. The people across & just down the road had a herd of them. They belonged to the son who sold them all after his parents died & he sold the farm. He said he couldn't catch this wily little beast, though. My daughter managed it & we had to put up with the little bugger for most of the day.
Two nights ago, a skunk came by & Pip got sprayed. I wish he would learn, but he's a terrier so has no brains when something invades his territory. The skunk got away & Pip got a bath at 1am in the morning.
I've been avoiding taking the dogs out until about 7:30am when it's good & light out just because of skunks. A couple of years ago Lily loped around the shop & got a face full of skunk spray. She does avoid them, but this one surprised her. She was miserable & I had to hose out her eyes & mouth.
Ugh not fun, But, enjoyed hearing about your early morning adventures. On a more pleasant note, you must remember that my daughter who lives on four acres and usually has horses but not right now, looked in her back yard by one of the fences and there amidst some grass clippings and leaves were a dozen eggs still in the shells. I guess a neighbor's chicken's decided to share with her. She was happy that they did.
From USA Today, "We're celebrating Thanksgiving amid a pandemic. Here's how we did it in 1918 – and what happened next" is instructive.https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/new...
And I doubt there were protests raving against wearing a mask.
If you read the article, you'll find out they were.
Happy Thanksgiving, all. It will be pretty much a normal day for us. The kids are coming over for dinner tonight rather than on Saturday & I shouldn't get any calls from work (unlike other vacation days) but otherwise nothing different. What are your plans?
Have a Happy Thanksgiving evening. We are blessed that my husband are together in this time of virus. We will celebrate at home this Sunday our seventy third Wedding Anniversary
Happy Thanksgiving & anniversary to you & yours, Nina!
I got a Xmas email from Joy, so she's still kicking.
Jim, Could you email me her address as I would really like to send her a card. We used to correspond at Christmas. Thanks
Nina wrote: "Jim, Could you email me her address as I would really like to send her a card. We used to correspond at Christmas. Thanks"Done.
Merry Xmas to all. We've got a cold, white one. It's 15 degrees out & it was 54 just 2 days ago. Quite a change with snow coming down. It's pretty to look at from inside, but miserable outside. Marg's chestnut pony has turned white on top as the snow is piling up on him.
Merry Christmas to you all. No snow here but cold; not quite as bad as KY.
Shortly after my last post, we lost Internet service until about 5pm today, Sunday, due to the Nashville bombing. It proves how intricate our infrastructure is. I live almost 5 hours north of Nashville, TN in Kentucky.
I am flabbergasted by how bad the fence estimates were. I'm not talking about cost, but the information & how it's presented. Getting a badly handwritten document is ludicrous, but both were. Measurements on one weren't mentioned for one section, were in fence panels (8' sections) for others, & linear feet for others. The other was just in linear feet, but I had 6 different sections numbered on a map so there would be no confusion. One doesn't number them at all while the other uses letters that don't correspond to the numbers. Worse, their measurements aren't even close for what I think are the same areas!If I could afford to do all 6 sections, it's a $10,000 project. That's my entire budget & I still have buy gravel which will likely be about $1500, so I can't do them all which means I really need to pick & choose, but I can't glean the information from the estimates well enough to do that. I explained that to them while we were going around measuring.
My brilliant daughter mentioned that the rolling measuring wheels could be way off if they weren't used properly. Usually that's because they're run too fast over hard ground so they're either bumping up & spinning in the air or not spinning, depending on how old & free the wheel is. She suggested using Google maps, so I did. A few of those I can estimate by eye & Google looks right. I'm going to go out & use our rolling measuring wheel (Marg's Xmas present this year) & count paces for a couple of sections just to double check. I guess I'll make up my own estimate. Sigh.
Sounds frustrating. Good luck with your own measurements.
The stimulus check let me get Marg a new laptop without touching the fence fund. (Yes, the fencing comes first.) I got her a nice one from Dell, an Inspiron 15 5000 Win 10 with an i7 cpu, 12 gb RAM & a 500gb SSD. Hopefully it will last her another 5 years.I'm definitely getting better. I made it into work on Thursday despite the snow & cold. It was tough, but I was able to get through the morning & didn't pass out as soon as I got home. Probably sounds pretty minor, but a few weeks ago I couldn't walk out to get the mail. I'll be really happy when I can get out into the shop again. It's been over a month.
Oh, take care of yourself. Did you get me email about the letter I wrote to our newspaper?
My daughter and son in law who live in ID got their stimulus check also but can only use it on their taxes.
Nina wrote: "Oh, take care of yourself. Did you get me email about the letter I wrote to our newspaper?"I did. Glad you both got the shot.
How come they can only use the money for their taxes? I didn't see any restrictions on ours. It just appeared in our checking account.
I wanted to get another section of fencing done & was going to add it to the estimate, but I found a lump in Lily's (my 11 year old English Pointer) side that has to be removed. It's pretty deep, so I'm not sure how much the surgery is going to cost, but I'm sure it won't be cheap.
Poor you, Poor Lily. First my daughter got no money in the bank and when inquiring they told her they would get the money but it could only be used on their taxes. Bummer.
A new couple moved in next door with their 2 kids a few weeks ago. Their dog, Oreo, is a 6 month old intact male that was given to them by a relative in an apartment. Wasn't working out in the kennel at their place & Ceirra doesn't have time to walk him enough, so they gave him to us last night. He's supposed to be an Australian Shepard, but he looks & acts more like a Brittany Spaniel, so who knows? Seems like a nice little dog. We hate his name - 4 letters & 3 syllables - so we're going to shorten it to Reo. Animal names should only be 1 or 2 syllables, just like little kids, but I repeat myself.Pip, our JRT/beagle mix, thinks he's tolerable & occasionally fun to play with. Lily ignores him unless he gets close to her & then she grumbles, but that's typical. The cat, Raven, is not happy & has been living on top of our kitchen cabinets since Reo arrived. They'll figure it out eventually. I'm more concerned with him getting comfortable with the dog door.
I'm hoping the fencing crew will get here today. Their materials were delivered last week, but we've had a few rainy days which slowed down their other jobs. Last night featured quite a light show with a lot of thunder & about an inch of rain, so it's pretty sloppy out.
We're getting better fencing put up on 2 sides of the paddock & really need that right now. Cloud, an 18 year old rescue, doesn't need all the spring grass & his feet are getting a bit warm so he's in a stall most of the time until it is done. If he founders again, we'll probably have to put him down. His health is pretty touchy due to getting EPM
https://www.irongateequine.com/educat...
He came from Texas after some flooding a few years back & it was quite an expensive struggle to cure it. Unfortunately, it leaves quite a few health scars such as a tendency to founder.
I'm doing better, but still not up to par. Not sure I'll ever get back to what I consider normal, but at least I can get the mail & do some small chores again. I'm almost back to 150 lbs, only 20 lbs underweight & still struggling to eat more, kind of the reverse of Cloud.
Hi Jim, I haven't heard anything from you or the other Goodreads people for months it seems. I note that you did send something on Jan 31 but didn't know what caused your health problems. Sounds serious and hope you are feeling better by now. My daughter and her husband were in a bad accident last Sunday. The car was totaled but no serious injuries I hope but son in law still in pain. He is seeing a dr. Other driver came from a side street and didn't see the yield sign and speeded into the driver's side of the car. If it hadn't been for the air bag he would never be alive today. police had to free him from the car. He hit his head was bleeding down the side of his face. Not much success with the other INS. company so they had to get an attorney.
No, without Joy here, the group is pretty much done. All the groups on GR have slowed way down since they took them off the home page & they've stopped doing some of other group promotions. Now tech support is almost nonexistent, so it leaves moderators in a bad position, too.The new antibiotic I was taking for my MAC lung disease caused issues & I've been very sick since before Xmas, Nina. It got really bad about a month ago. It's only in the past couple of weeks that I've started to recover. I'm still not doing great, but I am better. It's complicated & quite debilitating. For a while I wasn't able to walk out to get the mail, but now I'm able to do a few light chores. Haven't been able to do any work in the shop since December, though.
I'm sorry to read that about your kids. That sort of sideways knock can really do some damage. I'm glad he had the airbag, too. I hope all works out without too much additional hassle.
So sorry about your ailments, Jim. Glad you are not alone, however. And hope your health improves as the days go on. You will be in my prayers. Sometimes St. Jude does wonders for me so I will add you to his list. Take Care.
I got the gravel in yesterday for the double gates. Terrible driver, a surprise since they're usually excellent. I gave him instructions & he told me what he was going to do, but he wound up not doing anything right. On the third try, I just had him dump about 2/3 of the load by the gates & the rest on my stock pile. The man was hopeless. I had to bring 6 buckets back off the pile to get the grading right, so the job took longer than it should have, but we got it done. Here's a picture of it. The dirt in front is a swale so water coming down most of the hill won't wash out the gravel. I dug that while waiting for the driver. The gates are 2-12' gates, the posts are 8' apart, & the fence is 4' high to give you an idea of scale.
The load was 23 tons & cost $480, that's $130 more than it was 3 years ago. Behind the new, larger pile, you can see my old stock pile. We use it up quickly at times. Lily & Pip butts are visible, too.
The picture below is taken from my shop & shows most of the fencing on the south (shop) & east sides of the same field. The left gate post is about in line with the double gates on the other side of the field. On the left & right, you can see plum trees in bloom.
Taken from just inside the north field at the shop gate, the picture below shows the south fencing & about 200' in the distance (west) along a neighbor's field. Pip is just in the picture, too. He's a big help.
Here's Cloud in the paddock which got new fencing on 2 sides. It's stock wire with an oak board on top. The paddock is just south of our house.
I saw a Purple Martin on the houses this morning. Except for a couple of scouts last month, that's the first. I have to put up a couple of hummingbird feeders today. They usually don't come for another week or so, but I like to be ready for them early.
Oh, loved seeing photos of your house and layout. Thanks for showing us. My ninety almost five years old husband painted our back fence, rebuilt the gate, trimmed the bushes, made a new frame for the outdoor mirror and painted it and the other things we put up on the fence. One was difficult as it was three tiny birds on the water gage and he had to paint the tiny beaks. After multitudes of work the back garden fence and surrounding area looks pretty good. Yesterday my daughter who teaches in middle school in Kansas City Kansas was in lockdown for twenty minutes as there was a shooting across the street from the school; one man killed.
I saw our first hummingbird of the year yesterday on the front feeder. I've had two up for a couple of weeks now. No worries about cleaning them weekly since I didn't put much in them & the Downy Woodpeckers have been draining them.
No hummingbirds here only predicted snow tonight and freezing temps. for the next three nights. Bah Humbug.
It was 70 degrees out yesterday afternoon. This morning it's close to freezing & we got 2" of snow overnight. My hummingbird feeders are covered in snow.
last week we had the most snow this late in the season since 133 years ago and it was gone by noon. Tomorrow is supposed to be seventy degrees so I will be planting my annuals and thank goodness my azaleas survived all of our below freezing temps. this frigid weahter.
We had some hot weather (84 degrees) on Wed, so tried to turn on the AC only to find the outside unit wouldn't come on. Turns out it was poor manufacturing. Two pipes crossing each other rubbed together creating a hole in one that let all the freon out. There was no reason they should have been so close as there is plenty of room.I texted the installer, the husband of a gal at work, with the news of what went wrong. His response was, "I'm not the manufacturer." That pissed me off. I called the company he bought the unit from & got a much better, if unsatisfying response. They said they had used Goodman units until shortly after mine was installed & then they started having too many quality issues. They no longer use them, but have fixed over a dozen with the same problem I have.
I called Goodman, the manufacturer, since I have a 10 year parts warranty. I wasn't surprised to find that they didn't consider it their problem & freon, the most expensive part of the fix, isn't a part so they will do nothing. I posted a few reviews online & found quite a few others who had the same problem. One even had pictures identical to mine. Of course, all the bad reviews were posted a year or two after I'd bought my unit. It's a shame that a once good company suddenly went bad. It seems as if they got rid of the QA department.
My kids had their new heat pump installed by a young guy with a new HVAC business that lives nearby so I got him to stop by to fix the unit. That didn't go as well as it could. He hit a deer with his truck the week before last, so it's still in the shop. Last week, he bought a new truck, but still doesn't have it fully stocked, so I supplied the tubing he needed to fix the leak & the ladder so he could get inside the unit to work on it. He didn't think the compressor oil I have would work in his vacuum pump though, so he couldn't finish the job yesterday & is supposed to be back this morning. Of course, we needed the heat last night since it got down almost to freezing, so we had to set up a few space heaters.
Ah! The joys of homeownership! What's not to love about the privilege of spending a few frustrating hours & paying $300 for something that never should have happened? It certainly could have been worse, though. It's actually a good time of year to have a problem with the heat pump since it's fairly temperate out. Sure, we had a hot evening & a chilly morning, but that's it. No worries about heat stroke or freezing pipes.
My youngest grandson, Ryan, has set a new family record for the youngest with a broken bone at 2 years old. His father waited until he was 5 to break his leg & his aunt was 3 or 4 when she broke her arm for the first time. Like them, he got his playing with a sibling. He was bouncing on a trampoline with his brother & managed some sort of compression break in a lower leg bone by the knee.Now the kids realize that it's tough to figure out when a kid cracks a bone, so we're finally off the hook for the times we made them wait a day before taking them to the doctor. Now they agree that, all things considered, we actually did pretty well. Sheesh! It only took them a few decades to come to the realization. Parenting is tough & it's rewarding when your kids finally figure that out with their own experiences.
Not much happening around here except a lot of rain which is making the grass pop, but making mowing difficult & the digging easy for Rio. We have some moles invading the backyard & while he has no interest in them, digging is fun. Sigh.A storm yesterday evening took out our new canopy. We put a cheap, 10x10 one on the back deck each year in the late spring to block the worst of the western sun from coming in the back sliding door. It's a redneck look, but they usually only last the summer before sun & wind tear them up. This one didn't make it a month, though.
Marg's wanted one of those good Sundowner canopies, but I won't do it simply because of storms like yesterday's. I'm sure that if the wind hit one of those it would tear it off the side of the house & we'd have a real mess. These cheap canopies cost about $80 & standalone, so it's not a big deal when they die.
Yesterday, I tried publishing my Inkle Loom book as a paperback through Amazon's CreateSpace. It's gotten a LOT easier & much cheaper, but it's still pretty tough. It takes a lot of tweaking & time as the online previewer grinds away. Still, they now have a cover designer & other tools which make it possible even for a tyro like me. Hopefully, it will be worth it. It's still averaging sales of over a dozen copies a month as an ebook.
Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group
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My big project right now has been to move my chisels from the end of my woodworking bench into a custom drawer under it. Seems simple, but it isn't & with all the interruptions it's literally taken days. I should finish it this morning.
The hummingbirds are sucking down at least 4 cups a day. I've even seen them on the front feeder which is usually being hogged by various woodpeckers. I've never seen so many of those going after the hummingbird food. There's at least a pair of red-breasted woodpeckers & another pair of Downy. Their squabbles are entertaining, but the hummingbirds, aggressive as they usually are, stay well clear.