Good Morning Guys. 39° and cloudy. Got a lot cooler than the forecasters had predicted. While the wind from the north should gradually die down today, it most likely won't go above 50° until tomorrow. 80° by Tuesday, quite the roller coaster. Had to start a fire in the wood burning stove around noon yesterday; I was hoping that I was done for the season.
The self-imposed quarantine is still ongoing with the exception of the grocery store visit Thursday. My wife is getting itchy and will most likely go back to work Sunday and do some tax returns that have been languishing in her desk drawer for three weeks. Her clients won't let anyone else do them, nor is anyone else in her office qualified to do them. Management is making some accommodations for her since they need the $$$. Without her lucrative returns, their business is off almost 40%. At this point there have been NO Covid-19 cases reported for our county residents. Two persons tested positive about ten days ago at a nursing home east of Gainesville TX, both employees, but they don't live in our county so the state health department doesn't count them in our county. Unless mandated by corporate policy, most businesses (restaurants and bars excepted) have not shut down here. A few miles south in a different county they have shut down most businesses. Denton TX is a ghost town since they closed down the two colleges (UNT & TWU) and sent 40,000 students home.
Eggs over easy and sausage patties for me this morning Flo. And a toasted English Muffin to follow it down with.
Thanks for all of the likes and comments yesterday regarding the building progress pictures;
Patrick, Guy Tom, Mike, Karl, Phil, James, Garry, Chet, Mikey, Sherrel, Johnny, Chad, Curt, Bob, Hughie, BBob, Joe. I'll keep them coming.
A somewhat busy day in the train shed yesterday. Did some trimming of rafters above and support legs below and I got that covered stairwell attached to the building.
I also added the diagonal bracing to the porch supports and scratchbuilt the missing back railing.
I still have some enhancing to do to the railing as well as painting the rough areas.
While all of that occupied the workbench, I made the roadway along the spur that will be used to get to the elevator. Here it is with the Bar Mills structure in place.
Today I will start on the handrail for the stairs to the porch and the loading dock to the right. I also have a few detail parts to add to the structure that went into the paint shop yesterday afternoon.
Note the unfinished scenic divider to the left. Now that I know its exact placement, I can cut the final section to fit. It was salvaged from my previous layout.
Stay tuned. Next week I will resume my quarterly layout cleaning project with the next section. Y'all seemed to like the tour in January for the first section, so I will attempt to resume where I left off. For those that are new to the Coffee Shop, I have my layout divided into eight roughly equal sections. At the beginning of each yearly quarter, I start a different section. I visually inspect all surfaces and clean and vacuum everything. I remove structures and vehicles and clean/repair/upgrade them over on the workbench before re-placing them on the layout. It's a two year cycle since the layout is too large for me to want to do the entire thing all at once. As in January. I will take pictures as I go along, both finished and unfinished areas. I had requests in the past for a layout tour and this works for me. It takes a week to ten days since I am stopping to take and post pictures along the way.
Guy - Thanks for the compliment. Regarding the garden, it is my other main hobby. Been doing it for nearly 50 years. Yes it is early, but it is actually a few days later this year than normal. The season ends in late-June due to the heat, and resumes in mid-September
if I plant a fall garden. I'm usually still picking some produce in late November. All that grows here from late-June until mid-September are sweet potatoes, okra and peanuts. I can pick the okra during that time, but the other two are usually harvested in late October. Anything grown during the summer requires weekly irrigation.
I can see why no one uses that pedestrian bridge. Way too many stairs for me!
Greg - Those signals/turnouts sure have been keeping you busy lately. Good Luck.
Bob - Glad to read that you and your family are all right after the storm. Too bad about having to purchase another generator though.
Joe - Stay safe up there. Never thought about that ramp being for wagons. I'm going for a loading dock, just thinking about the size.
Haven't had to use that Telehealth thingie yet. As impersonal as it sounds, it might beat the heck out of sitting in a waiting room full of sick people, which I hate even with no pandemic.
Sherrel - Bricked footings was a thought, but ultimately the concrete pad was easier despite being tedious.
I have a buddy who always purchases his TP in 100 roll packs at Sam's Club. When his wife was making the list in early February, she mistook the package in their storeroom for paper towels, so they got another 100 roll pack. They now have over 200 rolls!
Ken - That sucks that you don't have the test results yet. I continue to wish you and your wife well.
Tom - I use Firefox and I don't have any issue with logging in. It may be just a browser setting.
Terry will figure it out.
Everybody have a great day and an awesome weekend. It is the weekend isn't it? A misnomer at best, only Saturday is the weekend; according to the calendar, Sunday is the week beginning.