Running Bear's Coffee Shop May 2018


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Good morning everyone, after a three day holiday weekend!! 71 and mostly sunny, heading for 88 today. Got some rain late yesterday but didn't check the rain gauge this morning. Good chance of showers for the next 2-3 days, then a nice weekend.

The 3-day weekend went by fast. Had the kids over for Sunday lunch along with two of our extended family (in-laws). SIL brought his compound bow and arrows over along with a target, and took turns shooting. Had the hammock and swings up for everyone to enjoy. Desserts included watermelon and apple pie and ice cream - made in the USA!! Doesn't get much better than this!

In the train room, I did get to run some trains while everyone was here on Sunday. Also got that DPM building painted, including a contrasting color on the windows, and sprayed with Dull-Coat. Next, the "glass" in the windows and then glue it all together.

Chet - looks like a big tourny. Have fun.
Willy - thanks for posting those photos from the Texas museum - very cool.
Toot - thanks for another interesting train video

Have a good day everyone.
 
Howdy ... Coffee to go please.... Still busy.

Visiting family will leave later today....

Clouds came back yesterday and we had a lot of rain late in the afternoon. Yesterday morning and early afternoon, we were boating.

I hope all of you are well .

David in CA .... I hope your situation turns out well for you.

I'm sad about my model train friend, Dan, who has been battling cancer for over a year. He's weak from all of the chemo treatments , and now he is talking about disposing of his train layout. Not good news....
 
Good Morning everyone....sunny and warm in Wisconsin. Home from the cabin where it was 98 degrees on Sunday. Even too warm for the convertible. Watched the trees bud out with days of growth in just hours.

The counter company will be here soon to measure for a template. Then fix a dead bolt lock that doesn't throw completely. Have to touch up and paint areas where the new counters and cabinets don't match where the old one were installed. Fun project. Looking at the cabinets, the pieces go together like a puzzle and inter-lock with internal bracing and reinforcing, not like our former, cheap 40+ year old "builder's special cabinets". Sort like building strong layout bench work.

Can't wait to get into the layout room, but I don't dare go down to the layout with the work ahead and the Mrs. wanting results on finishing small projects, but a long list of items to do. No stove, no kitchen water, no kitchen sink and not much to eat.

Next is selecting light fixtures. Found that giving her just two or three choices works the best and when we don't not have to look at hundreds of fixtures in the big box stores. I like ordering on-line, no walking around a store looking for a clerk and then finding out the item is only available on-line anyway.

Please stay dry and cool.

That's about all.

Greg

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Good morning fellers. It's been a couple of days since I've checked in. I hope everyone had a decent Memorial Day weekend. Haven't been down to the layout since my turnout fiasco. Did receive my engine house in the mail. Doing some digging on what color it should be. Aside from the engine house doors themselves appear to be wrong....oops! Oh well I'll pull modelers license on this and make it workable. I did come up with two known paint schemes for it. The C&O painted their wood engine houses I would assume C&O red like their caboose scheme. However the ones I've found in color one has red doors and the other white. And a red exterior aged to brown? Atleast I think. Push come to shove I'll paint it dark grey like the C&O depots were painted. That's all for now. I'll touch base again later.
 
Good Morning - 58 degrees heading towards 90 today. Weather guessers said it reached 98 yesterday. There is no rain anywhere in the forecast and as a note - Our rainfall total for the normal rainey season is less than 1/3 the average which means we are in for lots of fires this year.

In other news- the new-new battery for the laptop arrived and it appears to be a good one so that issue is resolved for the moment. The truck is running better than it has in a few years - maybe the gas mileage will show an uptick? (I still need to have the front aligned as it is drifting to the right pretty bad.)
Spent part of the day yesterday replacing the battery in the MIL's community car. She does not drive anymore, but all the family uses the car as needed.
The wedding went off as planned on the Queen Mary ship docked in Long Beach, but it was pretty cold - I wonder how many others had the "sniffles" other than myself. The wind was blowing with enough velocity that it would take anything not nailed down - including all our hats - overboard if not held onto. It was a 20's era dress affair - Ill have to try and find a "Mugsy Malone" photo of myself! All the ladies looked very "spiffy" in their sparkly dresses.
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RAY -- Impressive Video!
Love the way everything is all polished up.

Willie - Nice photos from the club layout!
 
Afternoon All,

Did the hookup on the lights today. Out of the 10 lights 1 worked and it was the last one in the series:mad:. Have I mentioned that I hate wiring and electricity? I'm going up to Jon's Thursday and hopefully he can figure out my mess. Tomorrow is the grandkids last day of school. Both will be in middle school in September (8th and 6th).

David- Good to hear from you.

Joe- You're right. Your son will discover the downside of home ownership.

Toot- Great video.

Willie- Great museum pics.

Garry- I'm sorry, that doesn't sound good.

Justin- If you are looking for a reddish brown give freight car brown a look.

Sherrel- Looks like a fun event.

Mikey- Nice build.

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
OK Joe & Johnny. I know that we all have differing garden seasons, mine is especially early while yours start much later, but I picked a yellow squash and two tomatoes this morning. First time in 45 years of gardening that I have picked tomatoes in May! One was a Roma and the other was an Early Girl. Looks like I will get a couple more this week. Usual first tomatoes come around June 8-10. I have gotten squash in May before.

Willie
 
I hope all you'se guys were able to glean some info from the Kiwi accent commentary on that video. I know I had some difficulty and I'm from there originally. That restoration business does some great work.
 
Good Afternoon Everyone.....sunny and warm here in Wisconsin this afternoon.

Finished some items on the "To Do List".... planted three annuals, made a temp work area in the kitchen, searched for an almond colored gas stove, hung a clock and straighten some areas.

Tomorrow med check followed by a trip to Home Depot for some electrical items and maybe the light fixtures for over the kitchen table and sink. For sure a new kitchen faucet.

Mikey...nice structure.

Willie...just planted our one and only tomato plant. We can get frost up to the end of May and I've seen frost in mid-June that killed a lot of corn crops. One year 7 inches of snow on October 10th and the next year 7 inches of snow on May 10th. Go figure.

That's about it for now....

Greg

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Mikey - That's what I love about O Scale - the detail really sticks out!
Great JOB on the build and the colors.
 
Garry, I'm sorry about your friend.

For everybody wanting to mount a camera onto your trains, go to Amazon and check out the Polaroid Cube. It'll be a wide but doable load for N scale, and downright perfect for HO. Mine showed up today, and picture/video quality is comparable to a really good cell phone camera. It mounts onto any magnetic surface via a magnet in its bottom surface. What's really neat is that it's a wifi hotspot, and connects wirelessly to your phone, and your phone acts as the camera's viewfinder (with a half-second or so lag). Pics and videos are saved to an on board micro-sd card (32 GB in the box, max 128 GB), and can be uploaded wirelessly to your phone.

I hesitate to mention this, but I'm almost finished putting the basement into shape. Should be done in only another year or two.
 
OK Joe & Johnny. I know that we all have differing garden seasons, mine is especially early while yours start much later, but I picked a yellow squash and two tomatoes this morning. First time in 45 years of gardening that I have picked tomatoes in May! One was a Roma and the other was an Early Girl. Looks like I will get a couple more this week. Usual first tomatoes come around June 8-10. I have gotten squash in May before.

Willie

Willie, that's fantastic. The earliest I ever see tomatoes is the middle of July. Small salad tomatoes maybe a week before that. So far, the three plants have three blossoms. The peppers, eggplant, peas and beans decimated by the bunny are recovering. Surprise of the year are two separate patches of tiny strawberries. No Idea where they came from. They are ripe, pea sized, and have no flavor. Guess that explains why the critters left them...I don't expect to see anything until the beans and peas are ready, sometime in late June. Of course if this rain continues, all bets are off.
 
I hesitate to mention this, but I'm almost finished putting the basement into shape. Should be done in only another year or two.

Basements! I hate my basement!

Finally got a layout plan that fits the constraints of my basement space and gives me what I think I am looking for after months of ideas. Then I started looking at the basement itself after I moved the shelves, benches, and work tables to make room for the benchwork. Sealed bare concrete floors, walls that were installed by a maniac (me) that have gaps, bows, and other defects, drywall ceiling in half of the space, the other half is joists and insulation. I refuse to not address the problems. I am not going to build a great railroad in a crappy environment. Have to fix the problems before I begin the layout or it will never get done. Spent all Memorial Day weekend fixing the walls. Cut the bottom of the panels to cure the bows, moved panels the fill the gaps, and filled the nails holes and sanded the walls. Currently installing trim pieces on inside and outside corners that will cover and hide the defects in the walls and give them a finished look. Will paint all of the walls as soon as the trim is in place. Plan to put down 24x24 carpet tiles in the whole space. The ceiling will have to wait until I can afford to have a professional install a drop ceiling for me. At least the LED lighting that I have will work with the new ceiling; I hope.

Two steps forward, one step back. It's the journey not the destination. Problems solved are learning lessons. No great achievement is without great effort. Insert stupid maxim here _________.
 
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