Good Morning All. Cloudy and 66° on the way up to cloudy and 83° later on. NWS is continuing to stick with their forecast of thunderstorms Thursday night into Friday morning. Cool front and more showers Sunday through Tuesday. It's about time! Spring???
I missed many of the TV shows that you all have been postinig about, since we didn't get a TV until 1959! Some were still on but Dad controlled what we watched and iit wasn't even allowed on until 5:00 pm.
Out in the garden yesterday, I did completely mulch 50 tomato plants in the twin row pictured last week. I'll get the other 15 done this morning. I also got the first 12 tomato cages in place. This is usually a major hassle since I usually don't start until the plants are 24" tall and quite bushy, lazy instead of intentional. The ones that I did yesterday are between 8"-12" tall and the branches aren't really developed yet. I am also continuing to deal with a very persistent colony of "piss-ants". Since they set up their nest in the middle of the vegetable garden, I don't intend to use poison on them, it is an organic garden. Initially I used boiling water on them and killed many, but the queen survived and they moved 2' west. That's when they came too close to existing plants which the boiling water would damage. So I had to start using Peppermint oil. They hate that stuff. I sprinkled it around and on the nest, leaving a small escape path for them to use. It worked but they didn't go far enough, so now they're enmeshed in and around my row of green peas. So I have to repeat to get them to move farther west, either far enough to resume the boiling water or even farther into the yard out of my way. It's still better than contaminating my harvest and me with the poison.
Moving on to the train shed, it was an insignificant day. Still just moving down the line of structure cleaning, cleaning vehicles along with them yesterday. Moving south, I came to Harrison's Hardware, one of only three "non-kit" structures that I have.
For some reason, this is the latest picture that I can find right now. I have since added sidewalks and figures, and taken pictures but I can't locate them.
Next we have a series of Smalltown USA structures starting with the drugstore, then H&R Block with Bonnie B's Boutique.
If I recall correctly, only Bonnie B's came with signs and window treatments.
Additionally I ran trains for about an hour. I tried something once again that others, especially
Greg,
Chet and others posted about, running trains in a continuous loop while working at the workbench. Still as I posted before, it does nothing for me other than to prove that my trackwork is good and they can run endlessly without an issue. Maybe it's because the scene above the workbench is just a bare, unscenicked staging yard.
Mikey - Glad that you liked Lou's Cigar Shop. Here are the other two sides taken during construction.
Curt - I always really liked Rick Wakeman's music. He now plays that ambient space-age music that is better suited for art galleries. TRIVIA: That's Rick Wakeman playing the synthesizer parts on David Bowie's
"Space Oddity", (Ground control to Major Tom).
Tom O - Whoops! Positive test for Covid is not good, but at least you know what the issue might be. Get well soon.
DHL is the worst for me. Followed closely by Fedex. Amazon and UPS, and by default USPS are the best in my area. DHL has taken my packages to the local Post Office and they pay them to deliver. Except they can't deliver most of them into my standard rural mailbox, and I have to wait at least another day (usually 2) before I can go there to pick them up. No experience with DHL International, but I suspect that the same guys would not be able to follow GPS to get here. Fedex just delivers to the wrong homes, mine going to neighbors, theirs coming here randomly. I'm sure that different areas of the country get different results.
For lack of a human birthday, today is Sylvester the Cat's 84th birthday.
Everybody have a great day.
