Running Bear's August 2022 Coffee Shop


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Good morning all! Can't believe it's August already. Where did the summer go? 73 degrees on the way to a very humid 87 with a heat index of 98. Hoping I get to stay inside as much as possible.

Didn't do much of anything yesterday. Worked a little bit on my disaster area, er, home office but only a little. Watched the NASCAR race and that's about it. Pretty lazy day.

Back to work today with lots of things to do. Hope you all have a great day!
 
Good morning!

I had a very productive Saturday. The weather was beautiful here in Central Ohio, and I got a lot of yard work done. I have a 4-gallon backpack weed sprayer, and went through about 10 gallons of total vegetation killer, most of which went on the gravel drive. That took me a couple hours, then I mowed, which takes a good 3.5 hours. So I got done with all of that around 2:00PM and then jumped into the pond and played with the dog for a while.

Then we had burgers, corn on the cob and onion pie for dinner. Lit the burn pile around 9:30, and then had grilled peaches with vanilla ice cream and reduced balsamic vinegar glaze, while listening to classic rock at the bonfire.

Then Sunday, I ran errands and cooked my summer stew... Kielbasa sausage cut up in stewed tomatoes, onion and zucchini... Heavy on the Oregano, with some Basil and Mrs. Dash. It's the only "soup" I can eat when it's hot outside.

I did spend some time on the layout yesterday, coming up with plans for my river scene. It's the only part of my layout without any scenery yet. I'm waiting for cold weather before I actually do any significant work on it, but I am planning and acquiring stuff to build the waterfront area now.
 
Good morning from the quiet of the love seat in the big room in So. Central Wisconsin. That is until Terry comes in and turns on the television monitor. While the NWS is telling the WeatherChannel app it is 70f degrees outside both decks are very wet and it looks very dreary. I feel like I can touch the clouds. I have been surprised by 2 things already this 1st day of the new month of August. 1-that Terry is not out of bed at 7AM CST and 2-it rained and heavy overnight when the weather guy on TV said no rain and the Weather App had a 2% chance overnight. But it’s weather, should I have been surprised? But, I left the cushions out and they need the sun to dry

chicken, definitely not a fan of the Chik place. Too spongy and lacking of flavor, Terry agrees with me, YMMV of course. Popeyes, the regular chicken sandwich was ok in the 1 time we have been there. There were no Popeyes in No. Central Wisconsin and since retirement we rarely need or want a fast food place. Culvers is not fast food and if you have been to one you know that.

deer, veggies, plants and things that fly while humming, all part of interesting conversations. Deer destroyed every tulip Terry planted up North even when protected. 6’ fencing around the veggie garden was great in keeping them in once they easily cleared the fence. Why couldn’t they jump back out? Added a couple feet making the south and west ends of the fence ugly until her peas, beans and other vine growing things got going. Never raised the north or east end of the fence. After the extension the deer left the veggies alone but we did have one smallish bear crash the west end. Terry was in the garden and thought she was going to die of fright. The bear never got in but I had to repair the wire fencing. Humming birds I don’t recall seeing up north but in almost 8 years in this area maybe once. Love the pictures of the humming birds when you guys post them

today, if we have plans I am ignorant of them. If I was told I wasn’t paying attention. I know either way, bad boy! Wait, I do remember, Terry has a doctor appointment at 1:10pm that screwed up any plans I might have been ignorant of!

Down to the train room for some me time. No dinners with guests here or going out this week. I was promised. Having the grandkids for dinner here doesn’t count and I am ok with that.

I see blue sky, maybe the sun is next. I have another set of cushions in the storage room, I am heading to the deck

enjoy the day
 
Things that fly while humming...

Yesterday, we had a humming bird get "stuck" in our garage. All the garage doors were open, but the bird wouldn't get low enough to see the exits... it stayed up near the ceiling. Google was our friend and informed us to add bright colored objects just outside the doors. It worked, and the poor bird eventually found its way out. It's the first time I have been close enough to hear the little "chirps" coming from the bird.

When I first went into the garage, I though we had a swarm of bees in there, the buzzing was so loud. Never realized how loud a hummingbird can be.
 
Good morning all, 61° in East central Minnesota

Headed for 76 mostly sunny.

Jeff - we had corn on the cob Friday for supper, with brats cooked on our outdoor fire. Bought the corn at a roadside vendor, was delicious.

Karl - at least 62 years old for the Varney! My second one is an older version, however have not put that on the track yet or cleaned it up.

Tom - you would certainly be seeing hummingbirds if you put out feeders. Kind of a pain to keep them fresh, but they can be fun to watch. A friend of mine living on the Canadian border had hordes of hummingbirds, putting up about 6 of the liquid feeders. We have one feeder and see several fighting at it daily.

I ran the train around last evening, tried out some of the freight cars recently taken out of storage, tuned them up a little. Some of them have never been run on a track

Wooden truss bridge: I can't remember who commented on the truss bridge, I copied the dimensions of the prototype from a photograph, and it was built so there was a minimum of clearance on the top. I have some 50' box cars which are my tallest, and they fit so good to go. The era is well before the double decker's so no worries about that

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The close up shots always show off the rough spots. I broke the bell off the loco, haven't gotten around to repairing it. The pier is carved from wood, however looks like stone in the pic!

more later, Dave LASM
 
Good Morning All. Mostly cloudy and a warm 83°, probably headed up to 102° today. If you're keeping track, it was 103° yesterday. Getting a little tiresome with all of these triple digit days!:mad: Not getting enough time to do tasks outdoors after about noon, unless one considers getting into the pool and checking chemicals as a task. At least mowing is not a concern right now. There's some minor rain showers about 50 miles east of this location, but it is rare that they come here from the east. There's more light showers across the border in Oklahoma that stand a better chance of getting here, but they look extremely light and may not be hitting the ground.

The pool was wonderful this morning after I walked. I have upped the trip to 1.25 miles now. It has cooled off to 83°, actually the same as the air this morning.

I was busy enough in the morning yesterday, after church, I cut up part of the tree that I felled Friday. It got too hot to bother stacking it yesterday, and I may not get to it today. The rest of the tree (75%) is still laying in the yard.
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I did not go into the garden yesterday since I made such a clean sweep Saturday. Later today I will be canning more tomatoes, today will be plain sauce as that's the easiest to make.

My hummingbird feeders have been overtaken by honeybees looking for nectar. They're keeping the birds away. Since they are empty right now, I will wash and refill, and then smear peppermint oil all around the feeder openings to repel them. Let them go to the remaining sunflowers in the fence rows instead.

Thanks for the comments and likes regarding the layout upgrade progress; Karl, Tom O, Guy, Troy, Dave B, Rick, Smudge, James, Joe, Sherrel, Jaz, Gary, Louis, Patrick, Hughie, Curt.

Yesterday didn't quite work as planned out in the train shed. I took the phone with me and ended up talking to a good friend for an hour! Highly unusual for me. All that I really got done was to select, trim and file smooth the DPM wall panels that I am going to use for the first background structure on the backside of the RR spur to the coffee distributor. I also glued some of the pilasters to some of the sections. Since I left the camera in the house, I did not take pictures, although they would be boring to some.
No time for the archives today as I have a full plate this morning. Stay tuned.

Gary - I failed to mention yesterday that your wife's gardens are quite nice. That in spite of the deer population. Fortunately, the nearby grain fields and low population of deer keeps them away from my place mostly.
Guy - The heat is what it is around here. It is to be expected. It is rare in Texas for a home not to have at least one window air conditioner.
The ties look quite good. On most all of my structures, I do not glue the roofs on, in case I want to go back and add interiors. Many get interiors when I build them, some just get curtains to mask the emptiness. If I have a troublesome roof, I will use the repositionable adhesive to hold it in place.
OB Ken - In Texas we have a five day grace period on expired license plates, unless you register online and print your receipt which gives you 31 days.
Sherrel - CA wouldn't have had the plastic bag problem if they would just enforce the littering laws already on the books. But that might be too much for George Gascón or Chesa Boudin to do!

A couple of different holidays for our friends up north, depending on which area you are in. Over in Nova Scotia, it's Natal Day, and in Alberta it's Heritage Day.

Everybody have a great Monday.
 
CA wouldn't have had the plastic bag problem if they would just enforce the littering laws already on the books. But that might be too much for George Gascón or Chesa Boudin to do!
Would be nice, but impossible to do with the intense traffic and freeways having 7-8 lanes in each direction. When I first moved to CA the State had low offence prisoners gathering trash on the roads, but some idiot decided that if was demeaning and cruel punishment - crime needs to be cruel and demeaning, thank you!
I personally think that the bag fee and plastic bottle and alum. cans should all be at least a dollar rather than 5 cents. Make it worthwhile for the homeless and those of us who recycle them.

Supposed to be 91 temperature here today with mostly sunny. The intended thunderstorms yesterday never materialized.

Love the pictures from all - Keep them coming!
 
Hi

I am selling again and on 2 of these three trying again. If interested see the Model Railroad items for Sale forum, thanks for looking:
 

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Not selling anything...yet! Not patronizing fast food joints or theme restaurants, (which is much of what is around me). Can't remember the last time we went out to eat,unless traveling. Currently, it's 71° and cloudy. 0.16" of rain has fallen since midnight. While it has been hot and dry, we haven't been close to a record yet, but the water utility has imposed "mandatory" alternate day outdoor water use. We are not short of water, it's just that the utility doesn't want to spend Capital for infrastructure improvements...just acquisitions of smaller water utilities. Two thoughts based on hindsight....1. we need to re-regulate utility companies. 2. the township should never have sold the municipal water system to a private company.

Down in the train room, I have installed a silent decoder in an Atlas RS-11, and am in the process of patch painting and numbering the unit to conform with PRR's 1966 renumbering.
 
On a motorway near us there is an ‘American’ restaurant I had this with a tomato sauce maybe Heinz and French’s mustard, it was tasty.

I have an issue with chicken places as when I was younger my dad was friendly with the health department and those big fat fryers had a bad habit of getting kamikaze rats, and the health department would warn the other departments, so I inspect my ‘chicken’ carefully. I also know if a burger place e.g MacDonalds had icecream milkshakes off the menu it was usually because the machine was mouldy, so I love them but again view them suspiciously and have had a bad tummy afterwards.
I make homemade milkshakes with real fruit,bananas a favourite, but since the diet began last year, they are harder to justify, have just found a nice icecream recipe which I plan to rest.
I used to eat burgers in buns, but a homemade burger or two and fried onions and/or mushrooms plus French’s mustard and heinz tomato sauce is way yummier.
KFC is dodgy,but I have eaten it many times over the years and enjoy it, yum yum, fries are rubbish,and I used to buy the bbq ribs which disappeared from the Uk donkeys years ago.
I have showed this picture several times, but it is worth a repeat the best desserts I have ever seen or tasted, I seriously doubt you have had better,fortunately or unfortunately this place is over a hundred miles from me, or I would be the size of a pregnant porker…grins….
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JAZ-av - The sandwich has the look to kill for! I have never been a BIG sweet eater. I do like a small dish of ice cream maybe with a fruit topping, i.e. strawberry, blueberry, peaches - you get the idea ... and I simply like plain cake (love a pound cake). My #3 daughter has been making me occasionally a lemon pie; don't know how she does it, but it is not tart, and it is delicious!

DAVE B -- That bridge you built is fantastic!

RE Wood Railroad crossings: I have seen ones that you better not go faster across than a person can walk, also beautifully done smooth ones that you never have to slow down.
 
Afternoon All,

Started out with a couple of chores then put full coal loads in 2 cars and 3 cars just got some on the bottom (empty's). I bit the bullet and purchased 2 more hoppers which I will put full loads in. The last 7 I bought have bought are the older H21a model (clamshells and no CK). After lunch I cut fascia board (Luan plywood) to finish the right wing of the layout. Tomorrow I plan on painting them (5 boards).

Willie- Great looking homemade crossings.

Patrick- I sand the sides and bottom of the wood for a better fit (and helps with trip pins). I use Foam Tack glue and place a flat pencil on top of it (perfect width size for HO) then place a cordless drill battery on it to hold it down until dry.

Dave- Your layout shot looks great.

Jeff (IL)- Sounds like a busy weekend. All that food sounds delicious.

Smudge- That all looks tasty but makes my gut hurt just looking at it!

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
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