Running Bear's April 2020 Coffee Shop


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Morning all,

Got the screws and shelf brackets yesterday and on the way home realized I got the wrong brackets......They were cheap enough I'll save them for another project. I must have had a stroke last night as my spelling this morning is BAD....

Supposed to be mostly cloudy and a high of 68*, currently mostly clear and 47* in Doo-Dah.

Edit: Wondering why I had to log in this morning and was blaming a windows update , then I read last month's coffee shop...Didn't even occur to me it was Bob's fault. lol

Thanks for the security upgrade!!!
 
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Mornin' folks!

Oooo man I need some steak n eggs! Zing it with some Tobasco sauce! 30 degrees this morning....sigh. Spring hasn't quite realized it's spring yet.

Ya'll have a good day! I hope to make some more progress this afternoon after work on the layout we shall see.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 49° here today. I like the new place with all of the isolation cones available. Apologies to Maxwell Smart!
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Pleasant spring weather for us right now. The garden is coming along well and I picked some more spinach yesterday. Also picked parsley and stuck it in the freezer for later use. Parsley is easy, just pick, stick it in Ziplock bags and freeze. Spinach on the other hand must be blanched before packing into containers and freezing. Neither one survives when the temperature regularly gets above 85°, which will be here soon.

Sausage, hash-browns and sunny-side up eggs this morning Flo. Tell Mel not to break the yolks.

Thanks for all of the likes and comments yesterday regarding the switching maneuver; Johnny, Guy, Karl, Rick, Garry, Jerome, Sherrel, James, Patrick, Chad, Phil, Paul, Curt, Tom, Mike, Ken, Chet, Joe. I'll have to do more soon.

Here's the latest update from the train shed. As mentioned yesterday, I completed the roof for the structure on Monday.
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Now to work on the porch. Here I deviated from the instructions because I didn't feel that there was an adequate number of glue joints. The instructions even mention it but do not offer any alternatives, so I added thin strips of wood and recessed them to make things much stronger.
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A little additional trimming of the supports was required but all worked out nicely. I think that this works out better than gluing to the edge of the joists.
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While that was set aside to dry, I started on the covered stairway for the back of the building. They don't supply a floor and the door was not supplied. That aspect would be visible, but since I am rotating the structure, it most likely wouldn't matter. But I decided to use the solid door that I removed from the front rather than construct a staircase inside. That required a bit of trimming of the door opening for it to fit.
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Added the supports and bracing.
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No roof yet, but here it is placed but not glued in position.
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Barely visible in this photo is the trim on the eaves that I also painstakingly did. I'll get a better shot of that today.
Today I will add the roof to the stairwell and attach it to the building. I will also begin with the porch rails, one of which is visible laying on the workbench in several of the preceding photos.

Patrick - You may have already gotten your answer, but I use silicon caulk to fill in those imperfect joints. Used to use joint compound, but found that it tended to crack when the wood expanded and contracted.
Greg - Prayers and best wishes for your BIL and his wife and family with the Covid-19. Keep your distance.
Chet - I agree that figuring out the switching movements add a whole new dimension to the hobby.

Today is National One Cent Day, honoring our penny. Sorry those of you from the Great White North, you don't have them anymore.

Everybody have a great April Fool's Day.
 
Oooo man I need some steak n eggs! Zing it with some Tobasco sauce! 30 degrees this morning....sigh. Spring hasn't quite realized it's spring yet.
Yes sir James makes me feel like doing some ice fishing.

So this morning with not much going on I decided to try and link my phone with my computer. I have an android phone so it was fairly easy. I also got DriveOne going. It took about an hour to download and set up the Microsoft's YourPhone app but I must admit it works real well. Now I can see all my phone messages, photos etc. on my computer. I also set up DriveOne to access any file I want to store there from my phone. How this will enhance my model RR? I'm not sure yet?

George
 
Well... This is interesting. I'm not sure exactly how to feel about this one. If anybody else uses PayPal, or PayPal Credit (Bill Me Later), they have had an ongoing promotion for Ebay purchases. If you make a $300+ purchase, you get 12 months zero interest. If you make a $600+ purchase, you get 24 months with zero interest. Yesterday, I gathered up some stuff in my Ebay cart, intending to use this promotion, but Ebay kept dividing my order into smaller, non-eligible purchases. I finally was able to get a cart they didn't divide, but PayPal then wanted 12.99% interest. Hmm. Must be some kind of bug, I'll try again tomorrow (today). Today, I went back to my cart, which Ebay again tried to divide, but I was again finally able to get a $600 cart together. Now, however, PayPal has removed all financing promotions. Either 6 months, or 24.99% financing.
I think I'll pass on my purchases. It's not like I was buying Lysol or toilet paper...
 
Good Morning Everyone.....again overcast and dull.

Couldn't sleep so I when down to the train room and run a train and opened a NIB locomotive that's never been run and and its maybe 15 years old. As I handled the locomotive the shell cracked and pieces fell off. I was amazed when I checked another locomotive and opened the box and guess what it too had a broken shell. Both locomotives unusable. I called a contact I have at a major hobby shop and he said that certain years production of locomotive shells used a defective plastic mix and this was common and now just showing up due to their age.

Taking my wife to the cemetery to visit her brother and mother. Both who had recently passed away. No news on the BIL who lives in Mesa, Arizona and the nephew and his wife who are in Virginia.

Maybe in the afternoon I'll work on the railroad and those dwarf lights. I just have trace the common wires and then replace all the wires and reconnect to good terminal feeds.

Willie: Nice work on the recent model. I like the color.

One of my doctors don't want me out in the general public for three months and until we're positive the Virus is gone. He's afraid of what may happen to me if I did contract the virus with the underlying conditions I experiences and recovered.

That's about all for now.

Greg

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Howdy ....

This is our 21st day of being hermits. The news is saying the number of virus cases is getting much worse. Very tragic. ... I pray none of you guys or your families catches the virus.

Willie .... Your structure looks like a very fun project. You are doing a great job. Good idea not to include steps.

Terry .... You are very wise not to make a purchase based on what you described.

Greg .... That is interesting your locomotive disintegrated while in storage.

Beady ... Thanks for your reply. I hope nothing I said was annoying. Best wishes.
 
Willie: Thanks for the tip. While the basement is fairly temperature stable, I hadn't considered expansion of the wood underneath the foam. I like your newest structure. When you paint brick\rock work how do you get the mortar between the bricks right? Paint it first then the bricks and rocks a little more individually?

Flip: There was something about the mid-century Empire Builder that appealed to me, and when I looked into that railroad and saw the route through the Glacier National Park, it liked it even more. One of my bucket list items is to take the Amtrak Empire Builder through what remains of that route. It may never happen, but a guys gotta have a dream.....
 
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HO HUM - Another day to pass! Spousal Unit is starting to have cabin fever. She's not having any of her hairstyling ladies over, sitting around worrying about all those cruises that she cannot go on, and worrying about how she is not going to have any money for her bills and the cruises - she even has made several remarks that I should get a job - like I should get out in the fray of the virus while everyone else is being laid off? For self-preservation, I may need to load up the RV and head out - but where do I go?

Well, good morning FLO -- How about another order of what Willie has - that looks good: Sausage, hash-browns and sunny-side-up eggs this morning Flo. Tell Mel not to break the yolks.

James -- You have been putting up some funny remarks last night and early today -- keep it up!

GREG - Very down that your kin is havibg a hard time with the current happenings! MY thoughts and prayers go out for all involved. I mentioned it to my wife last evening and she was shocked and sad!
What make were those locos? curious people want to know.

I really don't have much else to jaw about - supposed to reach 76 today - that is as high as it got up to yesterday. Everything is very green this time of year; it will start browning turning "golden" about the first of May.
Did manage to snag a 12 pk of TP yesterday, so all is well.
 
Terry .... You are very wise not to make a purchase based on what you described.
I think I could take what I see at least one of two ways.
First, Synchrony could be trying to take advantage of people with what is going on.
Or, Synchrony could be trying to limit their exposure to people not paying.
Honestly, the only thing hobby-wise I really need is more structures for the new layout, and I do have a way to go before I get to that point, anyway. Adding the socks/underwear/odds-n-ends was just filling out the order.
 
Willie: Thanks for the tip. While the basement is fairly temperature stable, I hadn't considered expansion of the wood underneath the foam. I like your newest structure. When you paint brick\rock work how do you get the mortar between the bricks right? Paint it first then the bricks and rocks a little more individually?

Flip: There was something about the mid-century Empire Builder that appealed to me, and when I looked into that railroad and saw the route through the Glacier National Park, it liked it even more. One of my bucket list items is to take the Amtrak Empire Builder through what remains of that route. It may never happen, but a guys gotta have a dream.....
Yes, in this case I painted all of the foundation walls with Krylon Gray Primer from the rattle can. Then I went over them with at least six different shades of brown and dark red with a brush, randomly painting individual rocks. I normally always use gray on rock walls as they usually represent older foundations/structures. If they were newer such as retaining walls, I would use concrete or aged concrete as a base.
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This sheet was plain wood prior to the gray coat.
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Without thinking about, I accidentally spent time painting the part of the wall that was eventually covered up when I added the annex foundation to the front.
 
Barely visible in this photo is the trim on the eaves that I also painstakingly did. I'll get a better shot of that today.
Willie-Does it aggravate you when you spend a lot of time and effort on a detail that can barely be seen when a project is completed?
The building is progressing very quickly, or so it seems to me.
No fooling, stay isolated and do your social interactions on electronic devices.
 
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