Running Bear's May 2022 Coffee Shop


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Good morning all! Fair and 56 on the way to sunny and 88 for graduation day at the college. Been a busy week for sure. I'll be running the stream of graduation on the college YouTube channel this evening. None of us currently there have ever done that so it's been a learning opportunity. We're going to do a practice stream this morning during graduation practice just to make sure everything is working. I'll work today until noon then take off till this evening when I go back for the actual graduation.
Hope you all have a great day!
 
Just a few more items to prep for tomorrow's op session. Last job will be to clean up all the tools and sweep the floors down.
Went to the store yesterday and bought the drinks and snacks.
I usually put a YouTube train video playing on the big screen upstairs in the TV room for those who want to just take a break from running trains.
Gonna go on down to the cigar lounge about noon today and get my fix.
 
Morning all,

Cloudy and 73° this morning. Storms in the northern part of the county this morning cause the weather radio to sound 2 minutes before the normal alarm. I was already awake as I usually wake about 3:15a. Storm zone was 25 miles northeast, moving northeast. Only issue I have is that the alarm goes for the whole county, not just zip codes. No rain at the house nor on the way to the office, but I could see the lightning to the east and south as I drove in.

Not much going on yet this morning. Just setup 2 new hires for Monday. One is our 2nd IT tech. Once he gets up to speed, I'll start training our current tech to do some of my job, which will be nice to not get calls while on vacation or a day off. On the other hand, I don't want to get eliminated as extra quite yet.

I may BBL
 
Good Morning All. Happy Friday the 13th. Mostly clear and 69°. Heavy dew and no wind so that makes it trash burning morning on the SFW estate. No wind also enables me to water the garden since it has been eleven days since the 2.5" rainfall. The timing is actually perfect. The calm morning won't last long though. It was good to sleep with the windows open again last night, we might get another week of the night time temperatures in the 60's. While the humidity is high here in the morning, it drops off rapidly to the 30% range by noon, about the same time that the temperature reaches the 90's.

Garden is coming along well. No pictures today, but the broccoli is starting to form heads, there's small tomatoes everywhere, the remaining five heads of Romaine are holding their own, onions are forming bulbs and the peppers have flowers. Yesterday I removed the red lettuce and remnants of the spinach plants since the heat meant an end to their useful lives. I won't be planting that variety of red lettuce again as it is just not as heat tolerant as I would like. We did have an early heat wave this season which didn't help. I'm seeing more grasshoppers than I would like to see, that could be a problem later.

The repair shop should be bringing my garden tractor/mower back today, so that I can resume mowing. That will help by chopping up some of those damn grasshoppers. Despite their name, those thing don't eat grass, they eat trees, flowers and vegetables.

Good grocery/beer trek yesterday. I was able to grocery shop, get gas, stop by the pharmacy for a prescription, the Vitamin Shop, and Lowe's to pick up some additional tomato cages; all in just under three hours including the 30 minute drive each way. I see gasoline is now $4.15/gal. Seems like last May, it was hovering around $2.35. In May 2020, it was $1.40. I wonder what's causing this? That war didn't start until late February. I'll leave it at that since "poly-tics".

Thanks for the likes and comments regarding the progress on the latest structure; Karl, Guy, Smudge, Steve J, James, Sherrel, Tom O, Hughie, Patrick, Dave B, Curt, IB Ken, OB Ken.

I did not go out into the train shed yesterday, so no further progress. Grocery trip, laundry, gardening, supper prep and dealing with my late brothers inheritance took up my entire day.
Onward to the archive to see what I can find that I have not posted
How about a freight train passing through the town of Charlottesville, led by a pair of SD40-2's, only the lead engine visible.
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Jeff - Got to admit that those were petty random thoughts!!!
Troy - How did the brisket turn out? I normally smoke mine in the smoker for 2-3 hours and then wrap in foil and move it to the oven to finish off for 7-8 more hours. For me at least, the temperature is easier to control in the oven. You would be surprised at how much the July sun shining on a black smoker can alter the temperature. Smaller cuts of meat are much easier to control.
Dave B - Good for you prevailing on the insurance thing.
There have been better opportunities for pictures of those Longhorns, but they occur when I am driving by and don' t have the camera. I don't always carry the phone either. As a breed, they are really quite docile.
Tom O - Regarding smoked meats - I don't smoke beef cuts except brisket. I am much more in favor of grilled cuts of beef. I do smoke pork and poultry cuts much more often. Buffalo is best grilled as it is just another form of beef,
I am not a theater person. When the lights go down, I'm asleep within a few minutes! I look at the scenery whenever I drive through either of the college campuses in Denton. The scenery also strays into the grocery store. There's close to 50,000 college students in Denton, UNT and TWU.

Everyone have a great day and an awesome weekend.
 
Good morning, 63 and sunny in Central Minnesota

Some big storms rolled through last night, Highway crew is repairing a washout as I type. I am considered Administration so don't have to play in the mud anymore. Sometimes I want to, though.

Willie - super nice layout pics

Sherrel - thanks for the shout out

Joe - nice 1:1 pics

James - great to see your photo history/modelling lesson

Ken DJ - in my branch government we ignore lots of stuff, especially if it is going to make our job harder. Try to ignore the personal vendettas and getting between the neighbor fueds. In my life, however, I have encountered people that thrive on that type of contention. Go figure.

A pic from a project nearly completed, I posted this water tank a few months back and finally got around to adding some of the details. Not finished yet, but it is coming along.

I started assembling this water tank 18 months ago, it has been on the back burner simmering a long time, should turn out nice

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a fun shot from the half done scene

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more later,

Happy 13th!

Dave LASM
 
So I finally tested negative on the COVID did I mention that? This happened on Sunday this past...on Mother's Day.

Anyhow I am working from home with 2 days at home 3 days in the office and I alternate next week 3 days at home and 2 days in the office. This will be the new norm for me until further notice. I may change it to 3 days at home every week. We shall see.

My energy level is slowly coming back at a snails pace. Appetite is still low. I need to get my energy back as I have a lot to do inside the house and outside. Plus I gotta get on the water and get some fishing in too. The good doctor told me to pace my self and keep moving but rest as well. Fatigued happens quick. I have been pumping myself with lots of fruits like fresh pineapple and blueberries etc. To keep the antioxidants going in too. I may begin a regime on moderate cardio work outs etc. I have not worked out or exercised since I was 42 or so. I was pretty jacked then when I worked out on split routines 2x's a day. I may have to change things up again to but keep things in moderations. I was 264 lbs before COVID now I am down to 238 lbs. I am 5'10". I plan to go back down to 195 lbs. We will see how that goes.

I really wanted to do a garden this year. I may just plant a few veggies and call it done. Mostly peppers red and green bells also my usual Thai peppers. Love those! May also look at doing yellow summer squash or not. I did get some morel shrooms while foraging the last 2 weeks. I have been enjoying those. Also got one mass of Hen of the Woods Mushrooms. No luck on Lobster mushrooms yet.


No work in train room unfortunately. I need to do a thorough cleaning and organization before anything can happen. At the moment it's at a stand still.

Weather has been really nice the last few days. Today tomorrow will be good and then the rainstorms will start tomorrow night. We need rain and I hope it continues moderately.

I got a few weathered cars in this past week. If I get around to it I will post on the RPO thread. 4 weathered cars. One was a complete failure that looked good in the pictures from the seller and well in person it sucked. Glad I only bought one car from that guy! The other 3 looked and turned out fantastic! I also got another elusive SNC (Saratoga & North Creek) boxcar that's been out of production for about 7 years. I was glad to add that to the one I have on my roster. So that makes 2 out of 9 released. The quest continues.

I am enjoying everyone's post. Good to see ya'll here. Everyone stay healthy and strive for the good life.

later!
 
Morning all!
45F and partly in Libby
We were delayed going back out. Thought that it would be Thursday night, or sometime today. Nope, now have until Monday. 1200 - 1300 pick in Spo @ Cat headed to IL. Neither of use care if we stay home, or go out - we just want to know the when part. I say that with tongue in cheek as the current runs we have been doing have been great. Not exactly what we want, but ok since we can go out and see the sights between them. We are spending about 33hrs each on the road per week with downtime between. Have been running Olive Branch, MS to Aurora, IL and back for the last 3 or 4 weeks and we have found what looks like interesting stops that we want to do. We are loaded going North, empty coming back so we are free to do what we wish as long as we can fit 70ft into it. Don't really like the 'dedicated' part of our runs, but since we can play, that makes it better. Dispatch tells me that we are gonna switch around more .. we will see.
 
Morning again,

Leaving for home in a few minutes. I need to dig up part of the sprinkler system and fix the main feed line. Fortunately it's pvc so once uncovered it should be an easy fix. The bad part is actually digging up the landscaping. I'll need to help the daughter tomorrow to take out their last remaining deck. They are getting new siding and will be replacing it once the siding guys get finished. They would work around the deck, but if the deck is gone, they'll just put the new siding in where the deck was. The deck needed rebuild anyway.

Time to go...
 
Well, howdy there internet people

It's troy again

Brisket was good. Although I think I'll stick with just flats for the future. Shorter cook times and easier to control.

I did have one issue where I checked the smoking wood that I had added to the ashtray. about finger-sized pieces that slowly burn up as the hot ash from above falls on them.

I screwed up and closed that bottom door all the way... forty minutes later I checked the MeatR app on my phone and temp has dropped 20 degrees in the grill (despite it being in full afternoon sun!

Yep, door closed killed off most of the fire... flung both doors open, and ambient didn't budge the next 15 minutes. Grrrr.... :mad:

So, I pull the brisket in its foil boat out
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then the grates and drip pan, then the Slo-Roller smoker accessory... and the fire burned down through the center... I've got a ring of fuel with some ashes, but nothing that's going to flare into a decent heat source. So I push the coals back together, and it takes another hour for the fire to get the temp back up where I wanted it.

But, wife wanted to make Shakey's MoJos potatoes. Seems she picked up a couple of potato slicers from her mother's auction. The crank on the barrel style one made thin-chips, not thick slices. So wife got the slider style one out, and nicked her finger washing it up (new in box, never used, so it got a wash.

That left me to slice the potatoes while she applied bandaid and cleaned up. By now the finished brisket was resting.

The recipe called for a complicated process of dunking them in spice mix, resting, then applying an egg and milk batter, then re-dunking them in the spice mix. Finally, fry them in peanut oil.

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recommended frying time wasn't long enough, and the spice mix was nowhere close to shakey's flavour. May try them again, but I'd go with regular veg oil instead of peanut oil.

Oh, and this morning I'm on the patio, sitting following the process of cleaning the now cold grill. Had a lot of fat-coated foil to get rid of.

And I kept smelling wood smoke. Didn't see anything coming from my trash bin, nor the grill. Neither smelled hot.

Then I saw a plume rising from the other side of the fence...

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Looks like the neighbor got himself a Traeger or Napoleon-style offset pellet smoker. (The red one is mine).

Every time the machine drops more pellets, I see a smoke plume, then it evens out.

Wonder if he's doing brisket and MoJos too?
 
Pests - fun to talk about the skunks, squirrels, and woodchucks. I like them, just not in my yard. I was thinking about putting up a bunch of signs around saying skunks and woodchucks KEEP OUT. May have to use a pictogram, maybe pass a law. Or not.

Pests!!! Our neighbor has a large camper and over winter red squirrels nested in the camper and destroyed the interior and the camper smells awful.

At the cabin I just may start shortening the life of the red squirrels that live in our woods. I may use my rim fire .177 rifle or my .177 air rifle. The air rifle is powerful like a .22 and will do the job in a quiet fashion. The .177 rim fire is a .22 Mag necked down to a 95 grain .177 bullet.

Greg
 
Greg, I just bought a Crosman break-barrel air rifle in .22.

It keeps lead pellet projectiles subsonic which I like. I have yet to actually dispatch any nuisance critters, but there is a family of raccoons that I plan to thin out so the corn I leave out for the deer will actually be eaten by deer and not a bunch of fat old trash pandas. They are cute, but boy can they do some damage.

My wife uses squirrel tails in her crafts. She's always happy to get fresh tail. (BTW, that last sentence could get me in trouble if taken out of context...)
 
Willie. The scenery on the University of Wisconsin has its greatness. But nothing like the year round scenery at UT in Austin. Let’s just say, OMG. Sorry JazzA but I can’t be blind on campus. Terry truly thinks it’s funny

Willie again. Do you really think it’s poly with the gas prices? I think it’s the greed of the gas producers being able to stick it to the consumer and being able to blame someone else. That’s business not politics. If they wanted to help out, they have always stated, if oil would stabilize at $100 a barrel they can make good profits doing the fracking extraction. Now they have that chance and they will not frack for many excuses, including, it’s not profitable enough.

EV’s are not the answer but someone will find the answer someday.

Terry shorted Twitter a day after the official announcement that Mr. Huckster was buying it. Twitter called his bluff by accepting his bid and he had to go out and finance a deal he is desperate to get out of now. I find it interesting that he was going to fix Twitter by eliminating the bots. Now the internal report by Twitter says only 5% of the teeeters are done by bots. That ruins MR. Huckster’s so called plans. While I agree he might be the richest person in the world, he cannot divest his Tesla stock past a specific percentage per the know it all financial experts.

The brother called at 10 ourtime 5am for him. He is on Maui. Says our place may get done before 8/1 and his place still at Christmas. Do we want to sue the builder from the last project? Said no, let it go. He is pissed because the last builder was delaying and making excuses for everything until we sold the place to a blind trust we believe is owned by the guy who does deliveries. He was also the richest person in the world at the time who is buying up southwestern Maui. My brother believes in getting revenge not mad. Though this time he seems to want both. Terry agrees with my brother but I still control the trust and my no controls stupidity.

I am on the south facing deck where the shade is starting to disappear turning the deck into a full sundeck. The weather guessers were even off today about the sunshine. They dropped the high to 90 with it being 88 now. Rain at 4 has been moved to 6 and with now a greater then 50% chance. We shall see. Friday fish fry out to a place we have not been in since the 3/2020 Pandemic start.

Last night at the Theater I would guess more then 50% wearing masks. Terry did, I did not. This morning at out local HYVee grocery, 100% staff were wearing but hardly any of them last week, that must be a store policy. More then 50% of the shoppers including both of us were wearing. The liberal State of Dane County Wisconsin is leading the Covid surge of reported cases and deaths in Wisconsin. Now the Medical folks are saying these are only reported cases. How many are positive with the free test kits but are not coming in for medical support? Well give out something free, (kits) take away free Covid care and I am sure people are staying away from medical because they can’t afford it. How hard is that to understand.

Enough from me. Terry I hope i didn’t go over the politics line. I have been really good the last few months?

Tom
 
Greg, I just bought a Crosman break-barrel air rifle in .22.

It keeps lead pellet projectiles subsonic which I like. I have yet to actually dispatch any nuisance critters, but there is a family of raccoons that I plan to thin out so the corn I leave out for the deer will actually be eaten by deer and not a bunch of fat old trash pandas. They are cute, but boy can they do some damage.

My wife uses squirrel tails in her crafts. She's always happy to get fresh tail. (BTW, that last sentence could get me in trouble if taken out of context...)

JeffH. Out of context. No we know exactly what you meant
 
Man, y'all are talking about scenery - try getting in a tractor watching where you are a good 8ft from the pavement. You are looking down on everything! Love it when the halters come out. Makes life so much fun. No, haven't gone off the pavement looking. Well, ok so once when a couple of young Latino's were besides me in a convertable; had tops on, but that was it. Wife just laughs, then points out some good looking butt on that guy over there; well good looking to her.
 
Pests!!! Our neighbor has a large camper and over winter red squirrels nested in the camper and destroyed the interior and the camper smells awful.

At the cabin I just may start shortening the life of the red squirrels that live in our woods. I may use my rim fire .177 rifle or my .177 air rifle. The air rifle is powerful like a .22 and will do the job in a quiet fashion. The .177 rim fire is a .22 Mag necked down to a 95 grain .177 bullet.

Greg
Funny thing about the red squirrels, they are such cute things, but can be very destructive.

My parents old 1870 farmhouse had a couple as permanent inhabitants. Mom and Dad got tired of fighting them and let them be, calling them their "little fellas". Occasionally they would find Black walnut husks on the basement floor, otherwise they didn't wreck anything we could see.

We had a couple in our yard all winter, but this spring they disappeared. We have lots of raptors and many open grassy areas for them to hunt. I think it is the Northern Harrier that captures most of our rodents.

Dave LASM
 
Pests!!! Our neighbor has a large camper and over winter red squirrels nested in the camper and destroyed the interior and the camper smells awful.

At the cabin I just may start shortening the life of the red squirrels that live in our woods. I may use my rim fire .177 rifle or my .177 air rifle. The air rifle is powerful like a .22 and will do the job in a quiet fashion. The .177 rim fire is a .22 Mag necked down to a 95 grain .177 bullet.

Greg

FYI:

CCI makes a really nice .22 round called Quiet Load. You can get full lead round nose 40 grain OR a fragmented or correct term segmented lead load 40 grain at 710 to 720 fs. So quiet and it does get the job done when placed nicely on target.



Now CCI used to make a lead round nose copper plated segmented load as I have several rounds of that will not say how many and it looks like a bee hive dome but anyways they changed it to the hollow point version now. Why I do not know.

They also make a soft point load in the quiet load series as well for semi auto...


and then there is the .22 short load that is equivalent to a quiet load as well....


I have had success taking out squirrels and even ground hogs if you place your shot well with these loads minus the shorts on the ground hogs. It can be done but I do not recommend it.

The other loads shot shells are good to but again it's all about what you need.

I have been shooting all my life and .22 is one of my all time favorites as it helps on cost for practice and versatility. Plinking has been a favorite hobby of mine. I have several .22s in many different variety manufactures and styles.
 
Subsonic .22 can be amazingly quiet, especially if you use a sound suppressor to keep the escaping gasses that come out of the muzzle from creating the sonic crack. Almost all propellants used in bullets burns so fast it creates a sonic boom even if the projectile is heavy enough to get going faster than sound.

Generally, anything less than about 1,000 fps will be subsonic, but may be transonic, depending on altitude, temperature, humidity, etc. But the gasses that escape will still make a crack unless the gasses have a way to "decelerate" before coming out, which is what a sound suppressor does.

Some European countries require the use of sound suppressors. Most people in the States think they are illegal. They are heavily regulated, but you can own them, if you live in a NFA friendly state and go through the proper paperwork.
 
I have been shooting all my life and .22 is one of my all time favorites as it helps on cost for practice and versatility. Plinking has been a favorite hobby of mine. I have several .22s in many different variety manufactures and styles.
I too have been shooting all of my life - 1st was the Red Ryder BB gun - then went to 22LR single shot. I don't do much plinking anymore, although there are times when ya just have to have GSR on ya. Finally got rid of the 22's I had a few years back. Think that is when 500 rounds were upwards of $70. Went to a Savage .17 HMR and scope. Took a bit to get used to the rotary mag, but found that once I figured out how to load them fast they were better as I could put a couple of them in my pocket.
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The short rounds in the upper left are .380's that I had in the box for reasons unknown.
 
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