Running Bear's April 2025 Coffee Shop

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Well, howdy there internet peeps and those trying to understand how Root Beer isn't really beer.

It's Troy again

TOM O Hope you are feeling better, and your Diet Dr P hits the spot and stays there this morning.

Our dinner last night was yum... double smoked ham.

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I used the glaze packet of syrup from the package the ham came in, but mixed in some Costco Scottish Whiskey to give it an adult bite.

I also made the cornbread myself. Followed the instructions on the print out, but mine was off somehow. Made sure I used Baking Powder and not soda. The top was a tad more brown than normal, but the center collapsed when I set it on the stovetop to close the oven door. Evidently I don't have the "touch" to remove cake-like confections from the oven and not have them "fall". It's still yummy, but the center is a bit less airy than normal.

The texture of my cornbread is much better than what the wife was doing substituting in her flour and sugar substitutes.

As for using the new Fireboard brand Fan Controller - LOVE IT!

The tricky part was not overshooting the initial grill temp before I added the fan to the lower vent. I started the cook at 250° F and had to bring it up to 330° to get the ham done on time. I'd jump it by 10° at a time, then 20°. Only had to go adjust the top vent once to help it out. If I do an overnight brisket, this will be well worth the money!

Not sure what today is going to bring. Probably leftover ham for lunch, then take the wife out to pizza.
 


Good morning. I slept well and have had no need to hug the porcelain throne. That was miserable yesterday morning.

I joined the walkers and we did just over 3 miles this morning. My IPhone says 6693 steps. The group goal (I’m in their group chat now) for April is an average walking speed of 3 miles per hour or 20 minutes per mile. My steps at that speed per my iPhone should be 2197 per mile

It’s 18f degrees now so that first 1/2 mile at 6am was basically to get warm. I wore a hat and some gloves at start off. By time I was home at 6:55 I had the windbreaker tied around my waist and the gloves off. The high this afternoon should be in the mid 40’s.

Troy the ham looks super.

My issue with root beer is so many of them at full strength taste so damn good. But as a diabetic I have to drink the diet, sugarless lesser tasting stuff. I enjoy A&W’s Sugar free as it still has the smoothest of the original and IMOO the closest taste. The local craft breweries in Wisconsin make some great tasting root beers but beyond a sample I do not venture. The once or twice a year rootbeer float though has to be a full strength root beer

Enjoy your day
 
Good mornin' crew. It's mostly cloudy and 45 in Cheyenne this AM. Winds are W @ 17 gusting to 19 with higher winds gusting to 45+ later today. Expecting a high of 66 this afternoon and a low tonight of 39 with a 25% chance of precipitation. This afternoon will be mild with clouds and sun; breezy this afternoon; gusty winds and excessively dry weather result in a high fire threat.

Productive day yesterday. Assembled the first benchwork module, and clear coated and weathered a couple more boxcars.

Root Beer: Any y'all remember Triple XXX root beer. The local drive in/hangout had a big wooden barrel in the front window. It was good stuff. Don't know if they still are in business. Even better with a shot of cherry syrup in it...
NJ(ret) and D#2 are hardcore Dr Pepper drinkers (no period after Dr). Never had a birch beer.

Y'all have a good day and take care.
 
Good Morning All. Clear and 47°, going up to 75° later on. The 10 day forecast has changed somewhat since yesterday, now instead of 80°+ every day, a couple of days have been revised downward to the mid-70's. Nighttime lows still in the mid-50's. No rain predictions right now. I'll take it for now.

I spent much of yesterday in the garden with the hoe and also hand-picking weeds. They are a bit more prolific this year than normal. It's a hazard of living in the country surrounded by pastures and un-mowed road ROW's. But two days after a rain is the best time for hoeing. Johnson Grass is my worst nemesis. Makes great hay, but when it gets tilled, every little 1" piece of chopped up root sprouts a new plant. Even those that are 8" deep.
Once the dew dries this morning, I will resume mowing. I need to get my schedule set, as it will need to be done about every five days until June. I generally mow approximately 3 acres and I don't even attempt to do it all in one day like I used to have to do when I still worked. I also mow a greater area now than I did then. This year I'm also not dodging nearly as many fallen trees.

Nothing special out in the train shed yesterday, I continued cleaning structures. Did another half dozen and added a couple of figures to two of them. I also made a few laps with the engines and well cars that I did the minor repairs on Saturday and Sunday. All seems well now. Today I need to get out the shop vac and clean up. I tracked in a lot of grass clippings and other yard debris from walking through the wet grass for three days.

Patrick - Just curious, but how does a bathroom sink get stained from the cigarettes?
Tom O - I have considered BRK-A before, but I decided not to put that much $$$ into a single stock. I did buy some BRK-B in 2020, but couldn't resist the profit-taking in 2022. Should have held it, but at the time the opportunity was too good.
Marco - Root Beer is nothing more than carbonated water with a bunch of flavorings and preservatives in it. Nothing like real beer, but it does taste good.
Troy - My wife has been making cornbread for well over 50 years and she still had batches collapse occasionally up until about 15 years ago. I'm probably tempting fate now that I posted that. Her mother who made it for years as well, occasionally had a batch fail, especially in her later years when she would forget an ingredient. She always made it from memory. My wife now uses her own handwritten recipe to avoid that pitfall. I've never tried as she won't let me try, but I do have the recipe.

Everyone have a wonderful Tuesday.
 


It IS a good morning!
  • Rolled out of bed just before 6am without any real stiffness.
  • The dog waited until I was done with breakfast to go for a walk.
  • I'm having a section of my 25 year old fence replaced. The demo and galvanized posts were placed yesterday. Finishing today. I went with metal posts because this section is at the bottom of the slope and there is a lot of water accumulation. I kept the rotted posts stable with those metal fence menders, but this section is gone. Any wood/cedar fence only lasts about 20-25 years here in the Pac NW. We paid $18/ft when it was built and with inflation/cedar prices it's up to $50/ft now, with a gate.
  • The bargain priced stocks I picked up Friday are up 13%-20% this morning.
  • Looking forward to seeing TomO's email with my grain car photos.
I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy day! Now it's off to the gym.
 
Good mornin' y'all: Doing something I've never done before, complete and file a Form 1041 - Tax return for trusts. To avoid conflicts of interest, we have been using a CPA firm, but last year they screwed it up completely. I may even amend last years return if I'm successful here. I do have a software designed specifically for this so........here goes nothin'.

I'm making progress on the model railroad, but it's a slow go right now. photos when I have something to show. I'm considering acquiring a Walthers PC NW2 through the PC Historical Society...Member price is good especially the DC version. I have decoders.....But, I need a new engine like another hole in the head.

Right now, it's sunny, windy and 40°.....significantly cooler than our 80° Saturday.

Have a wonderful day!
 
Len Turner said:
Root Beer: Any y'all remember Triple XXX root beer. The local drive in/hangout had a big wooden barrel in the front window. It was good stuff. Don't know if they still are in business. Even better with a shot of cherry syrup in it...
NJ(ret) and D#2 are hardcore Dr Pepper drinkers (no period after Dr). Never had a birch beer.

Y'all have a good day and take care.
Click to expand...
Go to: Triple XXX Root Beer
 
Morning all,

Clear and sunny, high of 72° later with south winds of 25-30mph.

Last Wednesday morning, we had a thunderstorm drop some hail, which I didn't think amounted to much. Roofer came Friday to fix the broken tabs from the windstorm 3 weeks ago and found significant hail damage that wasn't on the pics he took then.
Met with the claims adjuster and roofer this morning, we're getting a new roof and gutters.
 
Patrick said:
Last Wednesday morning, we had a thunderstorm drop some hail, which I didn't think amounted to much. Roofer came Friday to fix the broken tabs from the windstorm 3 weeks ago and found significant hail damage that wasn't on the pics he took then.
Met with the claims adjuster and roofer this morning, we're getting a new roof and gutters.
Click to expand...
That's awesome!

Nice to get something back from paying premiums all this time!
 
Good morning all!

Haven't had a lot of time today to post.

Going to be a cool day with temps only reaching the low 50s. but with a mostly sunny sky.

Been taking care of some loose ends. We leave on Saturday for Florida while my daughter is on spring break. Had to get updated vaccination records for the boarder from the vet. When I booked the appointment several months ago they were good but have since expired. Got the mail stopped for the week and ran to CVS for some sunscreen. Were going to do Destin again. I wanted to try something new like Gulf Shores, or Savanna GA, but wife and daughter wanted to do Destin again. This will be the 4th time we have gone over spring break. Were going to stay in the same place we had, but this time instead of the condo building we are going to get villa. No stairs or elevators, and our own entrance.

We shall see what else the day brings.

Have a safe day everyone!
 
So I was going through my reloading bench and found a reminder of always check the reloading book before changing recipes.

I had a really nice depression (1930) era heavy barrel Colt Officers Model.:confused: I had a very accurate load for a 158gr lead wad cutter, so being young I figured I could use the same load for a jacketed 158gr hollow point. Very bad assumption.

I fired 5 rapid fire rounds before realizing what was happening. Thankfully no damage other than ramming 5 rounds in and a bulge to the barrel. I was able to find a new barrel within about 100 digits of the original. I sold it after replacing barrel due to bad karma.

I went back to the loading manual and it does advise against using jacketed 158gr bullets.

OUCH!

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Yeah you'll need a bigger charge for 158 grain jacketed. And a slower powder. Which may reflect as a heavier recoil. I'm sure there are bounteous safe loads for 158grain jacketed 38 specials. Maybe not in the conservative loading manuals but it should be doable with the right powder. They'll be standard loads and not light target loads. Most wad cutter loads are super light for accuracy.

I was just chatting with my brother about general powered versus bullet weight etc issues this past weekend. How you need to match the expansion rate of the powder burning with the bullet diameter... A .357 bullet (38 special diameter) will be different from a .22 caliber bullet as the .357 is almost 3 times the area so the expanding powder has a lot more space to fill... Anyway, that's more theoretical detail than necessary.

Avoid +P rated loads but the Hornady 9th edition lists a lot of loads that aren't labeled as +P for 158gr XTP jacketed bullets. They only list the hottest 750/800 fps loads as +P. The lighter 600-650 fps etc loads should be fine.

As an example, a 158 grain wadcutter might have 2.8 grains of Bullseye. A non +P load on the 158 grain XTP is 3.4 to 4.2 grains. Even the slowest load is 20% greater and a reasonable load is 40%-45% greater than the wadcutter. So you don't want to just use wadcutter data.

Of course it's all theoretical once you've sold the gun.
 
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Afternoon all,

Wife reminded we didn't talk to the adjuster or roofer about the mini-barn shed in the backyard. When I got the emailed material of work\loss\etc. the shed was on it. It's getting a new roof as well. We basically need to pick a roof color and we'll have it in a couple of weeks. We do have an additional consideration the roofer is heading us to. He wants us to consider what's called a called a Class 4 roof. Turns out my insurer gives a healthy discount if you have one installed that looks to pay for the difference in reduced premiums. I just have to pay the difference out of pocket, roughly 15%. If my math is right, paid for in year 2. Class 4 roofing is warrantied for 30-50 years instead of the normal 15-20. In 20 years I may no longer live there, but might get me a premium when I sell.

Willie: I forgot to answer you this morning on the cultured marble. It isn't cigarette burned, but badly discolored (yellowed) by the smoking habits of previous owners. It gets into the faux marble and you can't remove it. We figure the old man who owned the place before us was a carton a day man. He was retired Air Force and outlived 4 wives. Died at 73 years of age.

See kids, another reason not to smoke...😆
 
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