Good Morning All. Clear and 69°, another cool one. Never made it above 86° yesterday, maybe 89° today. The rain that was not in yesterday's forecast left me with 0.84" in the rain gauge, enough to cool things off and settle the dust.
Learned something new yesterday when I was returning the unneeded mower deck through Amazon. UPS shipping and The UPS Store are not connected, so at the UPS Store I had to pay for the carton that was demolished upon delivery; and then file a claim with UPS Shipping for my $100 back. That's a ludicrous price for a cardboard carton, but the thing weighs 69 pounds and is 32" x 60". Hope that the guy who took it out of the car and carried it in by himself didn't get a back injury.
Made another batch of spaghetti sauce with the homegrown tomatoes, garlic and onions yesterday after I got home. Didn't grill last night because of the chance of rain, but I made a really great tilapia piccata. First time that I tried that recipe and it was an astounding success. I normally am not a big fan of tilapia, but my wife likes it so we have to have it occasionally. I prefer bigger fish like swordfish, halibut, salmon or tuna.
Pineapple on pizza is OK with me, pieces not slices, just make sure that there is some pepperoni and Italian sausage on it as well. Even though I make lots of Italian dishes with chicken, it just doesn't go on pizza!
Speaking of chicken, let me have a chicken salad sandwich with fries this morning Flo. Onion roll please. Sugar-free A&W Root Beer to go with it. Why am I partial to A&W? It's our initials,
Arlene &
Willie
Thanks for the likes and comments regarding yesterday's current layout improvement project;
Guy, Karl, Sherrel, Garry, Patrick, Hughie, Chad, Gary, Tom, Ken, Rick, Joe.
Pause while I go and watch the rocket launch.
Back now with the train shed update. I spent all of my modeling time (while not running trains elsewhere) on piping for the vinegar storage tank.
I think that the shorter tank fits the scene much better than the taller one.
Much to be done here, piping to connect to the pump house, the unloading platform and associated piping needs to be planted, and the pipe from pump house to the cannery itself. The smaller tanks between the two spurs are for corn oil. I think that I will replace the vertical one with another horizontal one since I still have an unopened tank kit. Nothing yesterday on the upper level quarterly cleaning project, I actually finished all of the track Sunday and now I just need to remove structures and do them. Since almost everything there is relatively new, it won't take long. But I do need to look at adding details and figures in some areas
Guy - The more that I see of that pedestrian bridge, the more that I am amazed that they actually built it! Does anyone actually use it besides the fire department for their training exercises??? Four flights of stairs up and four more down when you could just look both ways at ground level!
You don't have to post pictures when you visit the Coffee Shop. Just drop by and say hello and leave a nice tip for Flo or Francine.
Christian - Sorry, but there is no thread devoted exclusively to my layout. Much of it is documented here in the Coffee Shop. I simply never had the time and I have other hobbies as well as maintenance of the estate! I started to post pictures more heavily in January 2018, if you have time to review. If you see anything that you would like more details of, just ask away. That goes for everybody else as well. I am however, looking at documenting as much as possible in a picture-heavy blog. I am still learning the software right now.
Garry - Yes there always seems to be something interesting going on on the layout. I need to discipline myself to be able to spend more time in the train shed, or not to pick up the throttle and run trains so often...not! This current project area has been waiting almost seven years for completion. Track (plan) was completed (except the RH corner) around 2014 or 2015; the two businesses in the LH corner and the cannery have been more or less in place since then as well. I did shift the cannery tracks when I started this area recently. I have always found that I need to be inspired to do a particular area in order to do it well. I am not short of places to finish up as you can see by the fact that there is always something going on. My original ambitious goal of completing everything by mid-2022 has been set back by about a year, but there is still hope. Meanwhile I am still having lots of fun. I have a whole south aisle with nothing on either level on either side that I am purposely holding back on until I get more of the current partially scenicked area done.
Troy - Positive thoughts and best wishes for your MIL.
So, depending on when wife heads down to mother's, I'll be without a car. That leaves me, the cat, and the Kamado grill.
And I see nothing wrong with that situation!
We're experiencing some of the same thing when we decided to shrink to a one-car couple. Scheduling is sometimes a hassle, but we do most things together anyway. It did cut our insurance payment in half. When I travel 65 miles to go to my LHS, I just drop my wife off at one of the grandkids homes since they all live less than five miles from the train store.
Sherrel - Sorry to read about your BIL's misfortune.
Karl - Thanks.
Curt - Welcome back. We have all missed you. There hasn't been a week go by that someone hasn't asked about you.
Phil was giving us some info but as you explained, he is having some current issues. Thanks for that update.
Everybody have a great day.