Running Bear's July 2022 Coffee Shop

[ctclibby]

Good too early morning. Nature called at 4:50 this morning and I been awake since. Finally climbed out of bed after trying to sleep but the tossing and turning was getting aggravating. Sitting on the front deck it is 63f/17.2c and not quite pleasant. But, I am protected from the breeze. We had a trace of rain last night!

Heading out for a 9am haircut. After a 15 year search the lady my wife has used the last 8 years I started using after a truly horrible cutting in January this year. She is super. Then back home to get Terry and we are heading 2 hours out on the backroads to Galena, Illinois, USA. US Grant spent quite a bit of time trying to live there prior to his call up as a General in the war of Northern Aggression or rather the US Civil War. We have a six hour window before we have to head back. Low 80’s there today.

We head to the ball park at 7pm to watch the granddaughter in her last Special Needs softball game this season. She was excited about it yesterday. Her cheering section from her neighborhood, former watchers and 3 sets of grandparents will number about 25. She had one of her teachers show up last week.

I traded the pulp car I had for sale for a coil car and if it’s in as good shape as the pictures showed I got a deal. This along with the retail therapy order the other night will get me to a good mix of rolling stock with the numbers sitting at the 70 car goal. I have been thinking of expanding the layout and adding the Junction City, Wi. junction of the CN’s Valley Sub that I originally started modeling and adding it’s Superior Sub. I no longer know what they call them now. By adding the junction I could run 6 axle locomotives again on train lengths of 40 cars in the 60-89’ range. Meaning I could buy auto carriers, ethanol and oil tank cars. I sold those off a few years ago when I decided my free lance version of the Valley Sub was 4 axle locomotives only. This would also bring back to the layout the unit trains of Wisconsin sand cars that ride these rails, still today 2-3 times a day. I would also need locomotives! Just thinking though for Winter season projects.
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enjoy the day

Tom.
That looks like a good place to go and watch the 1:1. Hopefully there are many that go by. Modeling on the other hand will be fun as it is a real land grabber. Pix please when you get-r-done!

 

[Sirfoldalot]

I'm with TROY this morning! Tap, Tap, Tap!
Looking for 88 later on - That's not an Oldsmobile either!

MEL - Couple eggs up on an english muffins with a pile of bacon, please!
A diet DP to go with the plate.

Dangit - The Spousal Unit fou nd a great single story only about a mile away from us!
We had just talked about staying put - now it's on again!
It's a beauty, I have to admit, and pricewise almost a tradeoff!
We will see what the day holds.

 

[troyphoto]

And the woodpeckers have returned. Getting the cedar shakes off the front of our unit. Wife had to close the curtains to keep from giving the amish dude (without a beard) an eyeful when she went into the master bed/bath for her post-walk shower.

I'm on the (crowded now that we moved front porch furniture back here) about to tackle writing. Got 500 words in before shower. Sammi our Canadian book store owner just realized the cat adopted her. She sent it to chase the mice in the bookstore.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll get to post a DONE pic later tonight as the woodpeckers drift down to the next unit.

 

[chadbag]

And the woodpeckers have returned. Getting the cedar shakes off the front of our unit. Wife had to close the curtains to keep from giving the amish dude (without a beard) an eyeful when she went into the master bed/bath for her post-walk shower.

View attachment 149332

I'm on the (crowded now that we moved front porch furniture back here) about to tackle writing. Got 500 words in before shower. Sammi our Canadian book store owner just realized the cat adopted her. She sent it to chase the mice in the bookstore.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll get to post a DONE pic later tonight as the woodpeckers drift down to the next unit.

So do the Amish contractors have the English drop all the materials off? Or is there a big horse wagon procession carrying it all?

 

[logandsawman]

Good Morning All. Clear, still and 80° in this part of the world. Still under a heat advisory with 100°+ days coming up. The rain that was in the forecast, then out, then back in, is once again out for this weekend. Trees everywhere are losing their leaves.

Got the weekly grocery list almost ready, have to watch it closely today as there are some "once in a blue moon" items on it that I don't want to miss. Sam's Club is on the itinerary to renew the membership, pharmacy is on there as well. Plus a couple of places that my wife wants to go that she missed last week when she wasn't feeling well. The ill feeling never really went away, so she finally took a Covid test yesterday and it was negative.

Well after seven or so years of badgering the County Road Commissioner (two different ones), he finally sent out the grader yesterday. The operator cleared the ditches alongside the road, that prevented runoff water from draining. The water ran across the road in a couple of spots instead and was both a hazard to traffic, and has caused the road itself to deteriorate. Across the road, in one spot, it caused a 2' deep gully to form for several hundred yards across the pasture. It's a two step process, yesterday he cleared everything and left a large ridge of dirt on the road. later he pushed that ridge into the ditch and today a front end loader will come out and remove it. I convinced him to think about grading our easement road that runs alongside the south property line. He's willing to do it even though it's not actually a county road. His solution which is better, is to talk to his boss and have a few loads of gravel brought out and build up the road itself. While technically they aren't allowed to work on private roads, they get away with it under the guise of preventing damage to county and local EMS & VFD equipment if they have to respond. View attachment 149324
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Now they don't have to send out the mower!

Interesting to read everyone's music tastes. I myself am an amateur rock & roll historian covering the 60's through the 80's roughly. I have over 2500 contributions to Wikipedia in that category. On the computer and backup, I have over 80,000 mp3's, with 30,000 of them on my iPod. That music is the main reason that I have to use hearing aids today. Went to too many live shows in the front row, and used headphones extensively.

Thanks for the comments regarding yesterday's progress report; Tom O, Gary, Chad, Sherrel, Troy, Louis, Hughie, Dave B, Steve J. Jaz, Patrick, James, Smudge, Tom, Rick, OB Ken, Guy.

Out in the train shed yesterday, I was able to make some more visible progress. I added a parking area to the left, and filled in with ground cover between the structure and the RR ROW.
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Next, I will be tidying up a bit here.

Steve J - Congratulations to your wife.
Ken (D&J) - Sorry to read of the back issues causing changes to your plans. It appears that you can still enjoy the trip though.

Everybody have a great day. Stay cool and safe.

Willie- that is great they worked on your road like that, too bad it took 7 years to get the county part right.

The area you finished in this post turned out very nice!

Dave LASM

 

[troyphoto]

So do the Amish contractors have the English drop all the materials off? Or is there a big horse wagon procession carrying it all?

In our area, they're allowed to drive company vehicles, use power tools on the job, etc. But, there is usually an English (Amish word for non-Amish) person driving.

This part of Indiana is known for its Mobile Home (Trailers) and RV (Campers) manufacturing. If you're in the US, there's a good chance you've seen some of the work done by Amish in either of those two vehicles. Amish love piece-rate jobs like RV Factories. They get a system down for cranking something out, and they go.

Evidently Amish communities have variations of rules. Some very strict, some not so strict.

A friend of mine lived in East Central Indiana, very rural, on his Grandfather's farm. The family sold off the land, but he kept the house and barn after Gramps passed.

Amish purchased the farm across the country road, and put a buggy making shop in the barn. Because it was a business, the local Amish Bishop allowed the use of a diesel generator to run electricity in the shop, for air compressors and power tools. They extended that permission a bit, and the family bought a freezer unit (restaurant grade) as a standalone shed, and had another generator run that. My guess was they kept the meat for the extended Amish community in the freezer unit.

My friend was a sound engineer and loved to listen to his music. That's why he moved to the middle of nowhere. Wanted quiet - understanding that farmers had planting and harvest season with power equipment... The tractor or odd truck down the road wasn't an issue. But the almost constant hummm of two generators running drove him nuts.

His front porch was noisy throughout the day. Both generators running was a noise level of almost 70 db, over 200 ft away.

He made an offer to pay the hookup cost for electric power to the buggy shop and freezer unit. Nope. Had be something that wasn't part of the grid. Bishop wouldn't allow it.

After two years of going to county council meetings, trying to get the sheriff to enforce county noise codes, and generally making a nuisance of himself after those lead to nothing, he sold and moved back to the big city. He'd rather have city noise, than a racket in a quiet zone.

 

[Patrick]

Posted my haul in the RPO thread.

 

[santafewillie]

Willie- that is great they worked on your road like that, too bad it took 7 years to get the county part right.

I always understood that logistics played a part in why it took so long. They have only two graders in the county (over 1000 sq mi) which are shared by four precincts. No trailer to haul them on either. So they have to plan and coordinate usage carefully. And since they have to drive from one place to the next, diesel and manpower are used. This worked out because they are going to repave parts of the road north of here, and do some work on adjacent roads in this part of the precinct. It may have all been part of some master plan.

 

[PRR Modeler]

Afternoon All,

Spent the morning doing chores and errands. In the train room I painted hopper car wheels and put KD couplers on them. I ordered 3 more hoppers yesterday and they should be here tomorrow. After the other 3 have painted wheels and KD's then I weather all 5 together and decide about coal loads. Tomorrow I need to trim bushes around the house and we have DMV in the afternoon.

Hughie- Neat looking kit.

Patrick- Enjoy your vacation.

TomO- I look forward to seeing your future layout expansion.

Willie- Good progress.

Joe- Nice 1:1 photo.

Sherrel- Good luck with the possible move. I cringe at the thought of packing up and moving after going through Mom and Dad's house move last year.

I hope everyone has a good night.

 

[Texas Hobo]

Good afternoon, all. Yep, it's hot.
Well, I finished what chores were on for today and then went to start my new project. Read the directions and then as directed went to become familiar with the parts. Half the pieces on an overhang were laying in the box. Imagine if you will, a ladder with half the rungs missing. One carrier sheet was completely missing, and this carrier contains the back wall, a side wall and many of the parts for the tower. I've emailed the vendor, so now I wait to see what can be done.

 

[TLOC]

Tom.
That looks like a good place to go and watch the 1:1. Hopefully there are many that go by. Modeling on the other hand will be fun as it is a real land grabber. Pix please when you get-r-done!

Todd, I have not watched trains at Junction City since the Summer of 2/2014 on a PTO day before I retired in September. In 4 hours 16 trains of which 9 where on the east to west tracks in the picture. That’s the CN main between Superior, Wi and Chicago with yards at Steven Point, Wi about 12 miles east, North Fond du Lac about 70 miles east and south to Chicago from there. It was very busy. I model the track heading north to Wausau, with my Paper Mill in Mosinee, Wi about 20 miles north of the Junction City diamonds. I have been mulling this over since 2016 just because it would take up so much space

and cause the need for a duck under.

 

[TLOC]

We are in Galena, Il. just sight seeing. Getting ready to head back but eating ice cream 1st. Its a old Riverboat town and mining center that in 1845 had 12,000 residents, 2000 more then Chicago had at the time. Now, the City sign says 2712 folks live there. The 320’ wide river in 1850 is now maybe 30’ wide and 2’ deep. It is an interesting history. A very hilly town as it is in the Driftless region of NW Illinois and the SW portions of Wisconsin. 12 miles from emptying into the Mississippi River near Dubuque, Iowa. The picture of the steps, that is called the old High School steps. Students climbed those 250 steps everyday to get to HS Until the 1960’s. Just some other pictures of many taken.

 

[bnsf971]

hmm...
A few days ago, I posted something about charging for bags.
Turns out it's more than just that store. I have no way to see how wide spread it is, but at the very least, every store in my city is being forced to charge a $.10/bag tax.

 

[Smudge617]

hmm...
A few days ago, I posted something about charging for bags.
Turns out it's more than just that store. I have no way to see how wide spread it is, but at the very least, every store in my city is being forced to charge a $.10/bag tax.

The UK, has been doing that in all stores for years now, it's one of those Green ideas, plastic bags aren't bio-degradable, so the idea is that as most people don't want to pay for them, you use re usable ones from thicker plastic or cloth bags (or "bags for life" as they're known here,) as they will last longer and won't get thrown in the trash as often, the money you pay for them is supposed to do two things, discourage you from buying the cheap plastic bags in the first place and go towards finding greener alternatives.

 

[bnsf971]

The UK, has been doing that in all stores for years now, it's one of those Green ideas, plastic bags aren't bio-degradable, so the idea is that as most people don't want to pay for them, you use re usable ones from thicker plastic or cloth bags (or "bags for life" as they're known here,) as they will last longer and won't get thrown in the trash as often, the money you pay for them is supposed to do two things, discourage you from buying the cheap plastic bags in the first place and go towards finding greener alternatives.

I must be a rare person, then. Every plastic bag I get is reused at least twice. I use the bag to carry my lunch daily, then I use the bag to hold the trash from my lunch.

 

[chadbag]

hmm...
A few days ago, I posted something about charging for bags.
Turns out it's more than just that store. I have no way to see how wide spread it is, but at the very least, every store in my city is being forced to charge a $.10/bag tax.

Those are usually a city or state (pr county) based ordinance. When we were in California a while back the Walmart was charging 5 or 10 cents a bag. Walmart every where else I've been does not. We were told it was a state thing. That's been my experience where I've seen them charge.

 

[troyphoto]

It's actually easy to keep a bag of bags in the car. Four years in Calif taught me to think ahead about what I was purchasing and take in enough bags to handle it. If I was short, I purchased a plastic bag.

Coming back to Indiana where "green" is a dirty word, it was easy to fall back into the old ways when Covid hit, and stores stopped filling the bags for you if you brought your own in.

I'm trying to get back into the habit now. I've got bags full of plastic bags all over the condo. Need to whittle those down. At the current rate of consumption, I've got about 10 years worth of the little target plastic bags. Only use them for waste bin liners and other odd jobs around the house. (Paint roller storage between coats, etc).

 

[chadbag]

I must be a rare person, then. Every plastic bag I get is reused at least twice. I use the bag to carry my lunch daily, then I use the bag to hold the trash from my lunch.

We re-use almost all of them for various things. Carrying lunches, lining small waste bins, etc. They eventually end up in the trash (especially the ones lining small waste bins ) but e re-use them as much as possible.

 

[OBTC 1909]

We re-use almost all of them for various things. Carrying lunches, lining small waste bins, etc. They eventually end up in the trash (especially the ones lining small waste bins ) but e re-use them as much as possible.

Yup, same here. We re-use ours usually until they get a hole in them and then throw them away.

 

[bnsf971]

Since I can find exactly zero about this "law", I wonder if it's simply the places I do business with finding a new way to make up $$$.