Running Bear's April 2023 Coffee Shop

[bnsf971]

Good morning gang!

Happy hump day to one and all!

BBL

Madonna’s favorite day of the week…

 

[kbkchooch]

Meatloaf sounds good

Trivia,
Which 2 Meatloaf albums included the following line??

I remember every little thing As if it happened only yesterday.

 

[Smudge617]

Trivia,
Which 2 Meatloaf albums included the following line??

I remember every little thing As if it happened only yesterday.

Bat out of Hell
Dead Ringer ??? not sure 'bout that one.

 

[santafewillie]

Trivia,
Which 2 Meatloaf albums included the following line??

I remember every little thing As if it happened only yesterday.

Paradise by the Dashboard Lights was on Bat out of Hell. I don't know the other.

 

[Patrick]

Morning all,

Awake most of the night overthinking today's issue. I'm ready to retire and the older I get the more I think I want to. Still need to work and am finding that HR people want 22-26 year old's with 30+ years of experience, and pay them entry wages. Why do we have no IT people in the local area??? Ask someone in the IT field.

Once again predicted rains petered out long before they reach my area. Good news for the western part of the state. They received over an inch in many areas for the first time in almost a year. Supposed to rain here this afternoon and tonight. I did finally set the sprinkler instead of 10 minutes of hand-watering, followed by 15 minutes of no water and repeat. Still a lot running off, but at least I'm at the plants root level. Still nothing on the determination on whether we got the leak in the sprinklers resolved. Newest layer of epoxy putty finally hardened, but I haven't applied water to the system since.

Called away while writing this an hour ago...Gonna be another one of those days...

 

[TLOC]

Be aware that not everything Kohler sells is made in the USA. We've bought the toilets (TOTO) and the fancy shower stuff plus shower pans etc (All Kohler). The TOTO stuff is made in China, India, Malaysia (based on the seller's website declaration) for the actual toilets, while some of the smaller stuff is elsewhere in Asia. But a lot of the fancy shower stuff from Kohler is from China based on what the seller lists on their website as country of origin (and I remembered on the boxes seeing various non US locations on the Kohler boxes). Some of the Kohler does list USA as origin country.

So you've not done bad with TOTO. We wanted TOTO as we wanted the Japanese style "bidet" toilets and TOTO invented them. They have the best ones in my experience.

Thank you. I was unaware of some Kohler not being made in the USA. We
had TOto the last place, other than we really want to try to stay with USA products in this house, they were fine. The issue really is what we want and not what the designer and buyer wanted.

 

[ctclibby]

Yeah, Cottonwood is a type of poplar, and most poplar wood is sought after for being tough and rot resistant. They make good fence posts and pallets too. They grow quickly and they are strong. But they are nasty trees. The gooey green seed pod things will stain anything they come to rest on. And they get stuck in dog fur, on the bottom of your shoe, on the entry way carpet... and in lots of other things... sticky, nasty green seed pods all over the place.

The rounds are hard to split. I just don't like them. Give me a Swamp Oak over a CottonWood any day.

Jeff: The trick of splitting Cottonwood is to do so when wet. I have been splitting 14 -16" rounds x 18" with 2 whacks. I hit the 1st edge, then 2nd; 180 degrees away from the 1st. If I really miss the alignment on the 2nd edge, middle whack is in order. That said, we get them down and wait for the next season to chunk up and split. Bark is much easier to remove at that time ( before chunking and splitting ). These things will mush up before they dry if the bark is intact. Before we went to pellets, Cottonwood was not our primary heat fuel. We do burn it after dry in the fire ring in summer/fall when we want to sit outside and enjoy that. A couple of years ago we had something like 25 down. Guy came by wanting to know if it was forsale. I asked what he wanted to do with it and he said 'heat'. I said 'You know this is Cottonwood ... right?'. Said it didn't matter, so I told him he could have it for free. Never saw him again; dang!

Later

 

[ctclibby]

Good morning math experts and not. Going down on my knees, nope...forget that. Carpeting, I get it now! Terry and I did a wood floor in her old office in the last house. How tough could that be, the flooring was fine, I think my knees still hurt from it though.

Still watching the grand kiddos. The g/d‘s ride is unavailable for school today so I will drive her. The grandson has late start today. 9:30 instead of 7:20. He gets on the bus 3 blocks away. We will head home after he gets on the bus. Terry already has stripped the bed and has the sheets in the washer. It will be great to be in our own bed tonight.

The daughter and hubby get in at 6:30 tonight, the flight is San Francisco to Austin. Austin direct into Middleton, Wi. One of the neighbors is playing chauffeur so I’m not involved. The son says he will be the pilot on the daughter’s flight into Wisconsin. We will leave a car for him at the FBO parking lot. I asked about the co-pilot and cabin person. Said they are a hired crew and have another flight out of Madison on Tuesday and their company handles the lodging. He has a 9AM meeting on Tuesday with the Bank of Mom, his sister and the attorney. He said he will fly back alone Wednesday morning, unless he can pickup some passengers. Then he will need a crew. Something different than pizza for dinner Tuesday night was his only request.

My plan is to work on some trees this morning. Trying to create these Quaking Aspens is frustrating me. I get the trunk right and then the canopy sucks. For the trunk I have switched to 14gauge wire instead of my normal 22.

enjoy the day

Tom: Got to looking at those Quaking Aspens - They have pretty much the same form as Cottonwood, except smaller. You might be able to see more of how the canopy expands looking at Cottonwood. I thought that I saw a pix post of the Quaking Aspen but could not find it, so a pix is in order:

Later

 

[ctclibby]

Good Morning All!

38F @ 68% and *should* be near 70F bout 1500

We think we wore ourselves out cutting/splitting/burning stuff. Getting dang tired of it. Might be time to move on to other needed Spring/Summer stuff that needs done. I suspect that today will be a burn day but we seem to go out starting later and later then quit earlier and earlier. We will see.

Next HoneyDu is remove the old field fence and posts. That should be pretty easy, but takes time. The posts are well aged and will be good for cook stove fuel after chunking; should only have to split those in 1/2.

Don't remember ifn I told y'all or not ... found out the the roof over the 2nd story has NO insulation, don't think the walls do either. Insulation is in between the floors which doesn't help much keeping the upstairs cool/warm. Thought about doing ceiling from the outside top down, but just don't want to get on the roof to play. The 2 rooms upstairs are only bedrooms so they are smaller than 12x12. Demo them and put in what is needed. Carpet is destined to be torn out too and will put in wood lam flooring. I can add electrical outlets at that time also cuz there ain't many electrons up there. So, that is coming up fast for the next/next HoneyDu.

Boy, good thing we retired ... right?

Oh, almost forgot. The Turkey dusting pix I did yesterday - went out and kicked the burnt ends together and within 5 minutes we had flame. Turkeys had to be getting a little warm!

Later

 

[TLOC]

Good shining bright sky morning to all. After 6 days of 80f degrees + followed by 8 days no higher than 45 we are heading into the 50’s today. No clouds in the bright blue sky. Yippee!

I need to go to Michael’s today for some cheap Arcylic paints and paste. Still working on the Aspen trees and I just can’t see using my Vallejo paints on the tree trunks. Of course the cheap Arcylics I do have even if I mix the them will not create the colors I want. I can’t believe I have no whites, blacks, browns or grays but I have not used any of these bottles in years. Since Michael’s is also near the LHS, I believe a visit there is required. I also might but doubtful stop at HobbyLobby. They moved last year and are much more convenient even though I still disagree with a few of their business practices. Sometimes it’s worth going there.

I patted myself on the back yesterday! I did not buy ANYTHING from the 40% off with free shipping direct sale at Athearn. I had a list of things in the cart for days and I deleted them at midnight when the sale ended.

The 3-90 minute focused sessions at the bench yesterday went great. I feel I accomplished quite a bit. Today at least 2 of the 3 sessions will be the trees. Yesterday, I also worked on a few weathering projects for myself. A couple yellow TBOX boxcars, 2 Scaletrain tank cars and another Genesis acid tank car.

The son flew out this morning at 6. He said on the ride to the airport the Bank of Mom, his sister and cousin (business partners) are in agreement with his plans. Sell 3 of the 4 planes and operate the one for the main client in a on-call basis. He has a deal in place. Terry will let me know her take on all this on the drive to Michael’s this morning. He was very happy as this will allow him to concentrate more of his energy into his other businesses. He did say he got tired of kissing corporate “..s” trying to get air charters. Also moving to 4 planes from 2 changed lots of things. He wants to fly more and the logistics of keeping his flight crews busy is very taxing on him and staff. Plus the delays getting his planes just increased his desire to reduce the business. It will cause tougher scheduling for his mom to fly when she wants though…

He has 20 employees in the window washing business. 12 came to him at Christmas asking if they could buy the company. He asked them to wait till March and if they were still interested he would discuss it. They were and got the books in March and made him an acceptable offer last week. He brought out his business partner in the meantime and the partner moved to one of the Carolinas. He told me they now only want the commercial side of the business not the residential. Said he told them yes as his insurance liability insurance was about 40% of the overhead. Cleaning Austin skyscraper windows is also not for the faint of heart. He said once the deal is finished in May, he will sleep better. The residential side will continue with the manager and 7 others already in place.

I am going to hit some golf balls and then head out to Michael’s.

Enjoy the day

 

[TLOC]

Tom: Got to looking at those Quaking Aspens - They have pretty much the same form as Cottonwood, except smaller. You might be able to see more of how the canopy expands looking at Cottonwood. I thought that I saw a pix post of the Quaking Aspen but could not find it, so a pix is in order:
View attachment 167239

Later

Thanks Todd. I will be posting pictures I hope tomorrow with the canopy leafed out. I think my biggest issue with making these is I cannot remember ever personally seeing a quaking/trembling Aspen.

I made a few of these ( in front of the tank cars) and then decided they resemble birch more the q/t Aspens

 

[Patrick]

Trivia,
Which 2 Meatloaf albums included the following line??

I remember every little thing As if it happened only yesterday.

Wasted Youth is the other song.....Jim Steinman\Meatloaf fan.

Jim Steinman wrote almost all of Meatloaf's music. He also wrote "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "It's all coming back to me"

 

[chadbag]

Thank you. I was unaware of some Kohler not being made in the USA. We
had TOto the last place, other than we really want to try to stay with USA products in this house, they were fine. The issue really is what we want and not what the designer and buyer wanted.

I fully understand that.

I had kind of an opposite issue yesterday. I got something done that I did not really care about (as far as I had seen and understood the implications).

Last week a few walls for 3 rooms at the front of the house were put up by the framing crew. These are structural as they support the bonus space floor above them. The stamped plans were not dimensioned by the architect and so they were scaling it from the printed scale. They weren't using a scale ruler but a measuring tape and were off in a few places by an inch or so. One wall was wrong but they fixed that last week. The framing boss had a a copy of the (non city stamped) dimensioned plans. (There is no difference in the plans other than the architect adding dimensions to everything on-plan and supposedly there is a $50 fee for each changed set of plans submitted to the city [not that I've been charged on the two times I've submitted changes] soI had not sent in the dimensioned plans but provided them in PDF format for them to look at).

Anyway, their boss told them to go measure everything and compare it to the dimensioned plans and make sure they match. A few places they were an inch or three off but what they had done was fine with me anyway but their boss told them to change it, so there was a larger crew there yesterday moving walls etc. It was a case of the way it was done had been fine with me. Maybe there was an issue with the bonus room floor or something. I don't know. It did narrow the entry way hall a couple inches (fine) and moved one wall a couple inches closer to the top of the stairs to the basement (making the landing a little narrower) but it probably made the master bedroom bigger.

They have a flat fee for this stage so any extra labor was on them. Their boss wants everything to be down to as precise as possible. They are not one of the fly by night sloppy framers you see throwing up stuff in a day.

 

[TLOC]

Good Morning All!

38F @ 68% and *should* be near 70F bout 1500

We think we wore ourselves out cutting/splitting/burning stuff. Getting dang tired of it. Might be time to move on to other needed Spring/Summer stuff that needs done. I suspect that today will be a burn day but we seem to go out starting later and later then quit earlier and earlier. We will see.

Next HoneyDu is remove the old field fence and posts. That should be pretty easy, but takes time. The posts are well aged and will be good for cook stove fuel after chunking; should only have to split those in 1/2.

Don't remember ifn I told y'all or not ... found out the the roof over the 2nd story has NO insulation, don't think the walls do either. Insulation is in between the floors which doesn't help much keeping the upstairs cool/warm. Thought about doing ceiling from the outside top down, but just don't want to get on the roof to play. The 2 rooms upstairs are only bedrooms so they are smaller than 12x12. Demo them and put in what is needed. Carpet is destined to be torn out too and will put in wood lam flooring. I can add electrical outlets at that time also cuz there ain't many electrons up there. So, that is coming up fast for the next/next HoneyDu.

Boy, good thing we retired ... right?

Oh, almost forgot. The Turkey dusting pix I did yesterday - went out and kicked the burnt ends together and within 5 minutes we had flame. Turkeys had to be getting a little warm!

Later

As you are finding out, being retired is a full time job. At least for the 1st 5 years it seemed that way for us. How did we ever get anything done while working the real day job?

 

[TLOC]

I fully understand that.

I had kind of an opposite issue yesterday. I got something done that I did not really care about (as far as I had seen and understood the implications).

Last week a few walls for 3 rooms at the front of the house were put up by the framing crew. These are structural as they support the bonus space floor above them. The stamped plans were not dimensioned by the architect and so they were scaling it from the printed scale. They weren't using a scale ruler but a measuring tape and were off in a few places by an inch or so. One wall was wrong but they fixed that last week. The framing boss had a a copy of the (non city stamped) dimensioned plans. (There is no difference in the plans other than the architect adding dimensions to everything on-plan and supposedly there is a $50 fee for each changed set of plans submitted to the city [not that I've been charged on the two times I've submitted changes] soI had not sent in the dimensioned plans but provided them in PDF format for them to look at).

Anyway, their boss told them to go measure everything and compare it to the dimensioned plans and make sure they match. A few places they were an inch or three off but what they had done was fine with me anyway but their boss told them to change it, so there was a larger crew there yesterday moving walls etc. It was a case of the way it was done had been fine with me. Maybe there was an issue with the bonus room floor or something. I don't know. It did narrow the entry way hall a couple inches (fine) and moved one wall a couple inches closer to the top of the stairs to the basement (making the landing a little narrower) but it probably made the master bedroom bigger.

They have a flat fee for this stage so any extra labor was on them. Their boss wants everything to be down to as precise as possible. They are not one of the fly by night sloppy framers you see throwing up stuff in a day.

Sounds like a good contractor, congrats.

 

[santafewillie]

Good Morning All. Cloudy and 51°, during a break in the thunderstorms that were mostly thunder and very little storm. The rain gauge currently has 0.2" in it, barely enough to make things wet. Thunder woke me up at 0200; many times I cannot hear it without the hearing aids, but I did last night. I laid back down around 0330 and slept another two hours. The next wave of storms is 100 miles west - may or may not hit us.

Yesterday, I mowed the east side quite intensively. Since the ground didn't have a layer of dust on top, I was able to get under the tree line along the road where grass/weeds are spotty due to the shade.
Today is still up in the air, depends on the weather. The train shed will be dry though.

Speaking of the train shed, I did plant some more weeds out there. I mostly ran some trains since I don't seem to be able to go more than 2-3 days without that therapy.
How about a repeat of some pictures that I probably posted in 2020 when I built the Bar Mills kit "Majestic Hardware".

Troy - Here are my thoughts on your layout area. First, I think that you can get away with 14" of separation, but this will still work with 16". Start your no-lix on the bottom outside of peninsula "C" and loop along the right side and back wall gradually going up. Keep away from the back wall enough to allow for a return track to fit between this "up" track and the wall. Go all of the way to peninsula "A" and keep to the outside (but inside the lower level radius) at the blob, and reverse and retrace back to peninsula "C" and you should have risen at least 14" depending on where on peninsula "C" you started to begin with. That's keeping the rise to 1" every 48", thus a ~2% rise. By not using peninsula "B", you eliminate several problematic curves and also don't have to disguise the track in the middle of your viewing area. You may actually have enough clearance along the back wall to stack the tracks instead of allowing clearance. Oh! And make your decks along the back and right walls a bit narrower than the 4' you have in your benchwork plan in post # 1254. Quite honestly though, with that much space you don't need two levels in my humble opinion. While I have two levels, I most likely will never get to the point of connecting them and will continue to have essentially two layouts.
Bob - Good luck preparing for the upcoming move. Good luck also with the donations!
Todd - I got the same reaction from my wife when it came to her cookbooks. And I took over the kitchen duties when I retired 8 years ago! She might cook twice a month now.
Karl - Good move paying off the IRS ASAP. But you do realize that you've been flagged for review for several years to come.
Terry - The John Deere repair situation needs to be corrected everywhere. The man who farms 5,000 acres across the road from me quit doing business with them in 2019 after 40 years. He bought New Holland instead.
Joe - In years past, many times the missionaries came by when I was already outside. I occasionally asked them to lend a hand. The answering the door naked with the one group, and discussing Jesus with the other both occurred after I retired and I haven't even seen either in 8 years.
Tom O - I do like how well her attire matches the JD color. Think of the boots as tires.

Just checked the radar and the next wave of storms is just 30 miles away.

Everybody have a great day.

 

[kbkchooch]

Wasted Youth is the other song.....Jim Steinman\Meatloaf fan.

Jim Steinman wrote almost all of Meatloaf's music. He also wrote "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "It's all coming back to me"

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner!!!!

 

[TLOC]

Enjoy a chuckle today

 

[kbkchooch]

Karl - Good move paying off the IRS ASAP. But you do realize that you've been flagged for review for several years to come.

Yeah, I realize that I have a target on my back. Gonna start using H&R Block or something similar, I'm not doing it anymore!

 

[troyphoto]

Morning all.

Thanks for the input, Willie. I haven't run final easement rights past SWMBO, but I'm thinking I may go with a helix after all. I leaning into the idea of building C and B out right away on lower level. With B having room for the supports in the center to double deck it. Helix should fit right at the end of Peninsula C. The cat will have to relocate the chair he sits in next to my desk. Or, I'll build him a box under the helix when that time comes.

Almost ready to move the final hobby desk over to the new section. I've moved all but one short shelf over. But first I need to cut the OSB board for the lower storage under the gaming table. Then I can clear off the top of the table, and use it to stage the stuff from the very, very cluttered L shaped hobby desk.

Oh, and happy birthday to this classy lady. She turns 90 today.