Running Bear's July 2023 Coffee Shop

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Good morning gang and HAPPY FRIDAY!

Flo can I get one of the garbage omelets that Sherrel keeps raving about, with some light toast and a side of scrapple?

Started another Micro Engineering bridge kit last night until I was distracted by another episode of The Why Files. Its a little series on YouTube where urban legends, science, and other weird topics are discussed, explained or debunked. Last night was a very interesting episode about AI (artificial intelligence) , its origins, the present state and its future. The state of AI between Google and Bing was almost scary. The autonomous weapons section WAS scary. The YouTube series has been going on about 2 years, I only recently discovered it and have binge watched almost all the episodes. AJ (the host) and his companion Hecklefish keep it light and interesting.

Back to work, BBL
 


Since we're on GG1s again, here's one in Altoona;
20230510_185013_HDR.jpg
20230510_185033_HDR.jpg

And good morning.
 
Good morning!

It's supposed to average 85F for most of the weekend, so it's going to be a hot one.
The wife will go to work, and I'll be free to do what I wish. Except for those last spurts of 'honey-do' as she's walking out the door.
So far, I have to extend the deer stop netting around her Hydranea plants, because she caught a deer red-handed trying to eat them overnight. Lucky for the deer she don't know how to shoot.

I found out yesterday, that there is the Alberta Railway Museum within a couple hours easy driving distance of us. Looks like they are holding some interesting stuff, including a pair of steam engines with one operational.
I would like to make a visit. The tough part is that they are only open on weekends over the summer. We are a one truck family, and the wife uses that truck to go to work on weekends. That's the only days she works. So, I'll need to figure a way to get there.

Here's an SD40-2W that was parked by the workers down in the yard yesterday. If I can, I'll try to get better photos when I can get closer:
CN Yard_07-06-2023 (3).JPG


Here's a couple of shots of the machinery the workers are using. I'm not sure what they are, but, must have something to do with track laying.
CN Yard_07-06-2023 (4).JPG

CN Yard_07-06-2023 (5).JPG

Even though you can't see them, there is an operator sitting in each of those units. I'll take the opportunity to see what they are up to when the workers are done and gone.

I also have some photos to share of a gondola in use in BC. This train was stopped for some minutes in Blue River. I was able to get a few poor shots before the train moved on. It seems the sun is always on the wrong side for my photos.
Gondula_PRSX 6566_06-28-2023 (1).JPG

Gondula_PRSX 6566_06-28-2023 (2).JPG

Gondula_PRSX 6566_06-28-2023 (3).JPG

Gondula_PRSX 6566_06-28-2023 (4).JPG

I'm not sure if those racks in the gondola are the product they are carrying, or if they are meant to hold some other product.

That's all I have for today, folks! Except, that I hope you have a good one!

Damn the torpedoes! Damn the deer netting! The dog and I are going down to the creek!
 
Morning all! 57 degrees looking for 84 later with blue skies- interesting that the following two days are showing 54 low and 84 high? For this time of year - that is wonderful.
FLO, some coffee and a breakfast sandwich this morning, please, and I'll tell you about WALDO!
Little bugger has whittled out a hole for herself under the bush I mentioned - now the top of her shell is just barely above ground. Yesterday he came out about 9 in the morning and stopped exactly where she was fed the prior two days. Wife and I are interested to see if that is going to be her breakfast table today! We had a really great mellon yesterday and gave him her a couple pieces - she loved if taking it very gentle from our hands! She is a great time waster for sure.

Daughter and her 13 and 15 boys left last night headed back to close to Pensacola.

Tomorrow, the middle daughter with 8 and 10 YO boys will be living with us for "who knows".
She and her Marine hubby are calling it quits - at least for a while - not in stone!

Had a fire yesterday about 1-2 miles south of us - I hear that it burned 33 acres. Was interesting to watch the fire bombers attack it. I would have loved to be able to still do some flying like that!

OK , I'll quit for awhile.
 
Good Morning All. It looks clear with 76° out there right now. Cooler today at just 98°, down one degree from yesterday. Mostly north wind yesterday, which didn't cool anything down, but brought that damn Cottonwood fuzz into the pool.

Yesterday was a mixed bag. The grocery trek went OK, everything except the liquid chlorine was out of stock at Home Depot. Since I stay ahead of that, I still have about two weeks worth left. Then my wife was making some of her own recipe of salsa and while canning it, noticed a burning smell in the kitchen. Turned off the burner, and it wouldn't come back on. No clicking but she smelled propane. So she dragged me out of the train shed to investigate. OK, I believe that it is most likely the ignition switch wiring harness. Stove top still works with manual lighting; oven is not affected. Accessing the harness requires removing the top of the range. That's where the trouble begins. First, I could only remove three of the five knobs easily. The other two will require "extraordinary means". That means the pry bar. Then all five burners have to be removed, some of the screws may be rusted really badly and will most likely break in the process. The appliance is over 25 years old, so some screws may have to be drilled out.:mad: If the power supply wires are burned, a temporary fix with a wire nut will suffice, a whole new ignition harness is less than $100 on Amazon. Won't know anything until later today when I can get the time to work on it again, in the meantime it can be manually operated. Wife of course, just wants to buy a new one. She doesn't realize (or wants to hear from me), that a new one may not be available readily, and most likely won't last as long as this one. She didn't listen when the trusted and experienced appliance repair guy has repeatedly told us to fix what we have and don't trust any new ones.

Then we hit the Mexican restaurant for supper. You would think that after her nine day stay in Mexico that she would want something else, but oddly enough there were no Mexican food places nearby where they were staying!

My time out in the train shed was cut short yesterday by the damn stove. I did get a few of the trees planted and some bushes in place. I ran out of glue/water mix for the ground cover and was about to mix another batch. I didn't get any pictures yet, as the in-process ones would be lacking. I do have holes drilled for the additional trees and they are ready, so the next visit should be productive quickly.
Some more engine pictures from the archives. Probably some repeats here.
IMG_2439.JPG

IMG_2442.JPG

IMG_2685.JPG

IMG_2971.JPG


Troy - Happy Birthday. Too bad about the pizza place closing their dine-in facility. We dine-in wherever we go, because everything is far away and the food gets cold coming home.
Guy - We did the one vehicle thing for four years before reverting back to two a couple of months ago. While it's rare that we actually need both, those times that it is convenient makes it worth while.

Everyone here have a great day and an awesome weekend.
 


santafewillie said:
Good Morning All. It looks clear with 76° out there right now. Cooler today at just 98°, down one degree from yesterday. Mostly north wind yesterday, which didn't cool anything down, but brought that damn Cottonwood fuzz into the pool.

Yesterday was a mixed bag. The grocery trek went OK, everything except the liquid chlorine was out of stock at Home Depot. Since I stay ahead of that, I still have about two weeks worth left. Then my wife was making some of her own recipe of salsa and while canning it, noticed a burning smell in the kitchen. Turned off the burner, and it wouldn't come back on. No clicking but she smelled propane. So she dragged me out of the train shed to investigate. OK, I believe that it is most likely the ignition switch wiring harness. Stove top still works with manual lighting; oven is not affected. Accessing the harness requires removing the top of the range. That's where the trouble begins. First, I could only remove three of the five knobs easily. The other two will require "extraordinary means". That means the pry bar. Then all five burners have to be removed, some of the screws may be rusted really badly and will most likely break in the process. The appliance is over 25 years old, so some screws may have to be drilled out.:mad: If the power supply wires are burned, a temporary fix with a wire nut will suffice, a whole new ignition harness is less than $100 on Amazon. Won't know anything until later today when I can get the time to work on it again, in the meantime it can be manually operated. Wife of course, just wants to buy a new one. She doesn't realize (or wants to hear from me), that a new one may not be available readily, and most likely won't last as long as this one. She didn't listen when the trusted and experienced appliance repair guy has repeatedly told us to fix what we have and don't trust any new ones.

Then we hit the Mexican restaurant for supper. You would think that after her nine day stay in Mexico that she would want something else, but oddly enough there were no Mexican food places nearby where they were staying!

My time out in the train shed was cut short yesterday by the damn stove. I did get a few of the trees planted and some bushes in place. I ran out of glue/water mix for the ground cover and was about to mix another batch. I didn't get any pictures yet, as the in-process ones would be lacking. I do have holes drilled for the additional trees and they are ready, so the next visit should be productive quickly.
Some more engine pictures from the archives. Probably some repeats here.
View attachment 171292
View attachment 171293
View attachment 171294
View attachment 171295

Troy - Happy Birthday. Too bad about the pizza place closing their dine-in facility. We dine-in wherever we go, because everything is far away and the food gets cold coming home.
Guy - We did the one vehicle thing for four years before reverting back to two a couple of months ago. While it's rare that we actually need both, those times that it is convenient makes it worth while.

Everyone here have a great day and an awesome weekend.
Click to expand...
From my own experience wives and generally women are absolutely horrible with money management. When it comes to anything that a man can fix and wear...and drive, a man needs to make that decission. Yep, i know, there will be drama nad tantrums.
 
McLeod said:
Good morning!

It's supposed to average 85F for most of the weekend, so it's going to be a hot one.
The wife will go to work, and I'll be free to do what I wish. Except for those last spurts of 'honey-do' as she's walking out the door.
So far, I have to extend the deer stop netting around her Hydranea plants, because she caught a deer red-handed trying to eat them overnight. Lucky for the deer she don't know how to shoot.

I found out yesterday, that there is the Alberta Railway Museum within a couple hours easy driving distance of us. Looks like they are holding some interesting stuff, including a pair of steam engines with one operational.
I would like to make a visit. The tough part is that they are only open on weekends over the summer. We are a one truck family, and the wife uses that truck to go to work on weekends. That's the only days she works. So, I'll need to figure a way to get there.

Here's an SD40-2W that was parked by the workers down in the yard yesterday. If I can, I'll try to get better photos when I can get closer:
View attachment 171282

Here's a couple of shots of the machinery the workers are using. I'm not sure what they are, but, must have something to do with track laying.
View attachment 171283
View attachment 171284
Even though you can't see them, there is an operator sitting in each of those units. I'll take the opportunity to see what they are up to when the workers are done and gone.

I also have some photos to share of a gondola in use in BC. This train was stopped for some minutes in Blue River. I was able to get a few poor shots before the train moved on. It seems the sun is always on the wrong side for my photos.
View attachment 171288
View attachment 171289
View attachment 171290
View attachment 171291
I'm not sure if those racks in the gondola are the product they are carrying, or if they are meant to hold some other product.

That's all I have for today, folks! Except, that I hope you have a good one!

Damn the torpedoes! Damn the deer netting! The dog and I are going down to the creek!
Click to expand...
We'll be waiting for those pictures of steam locomotives. BTW it's good to have a spare car, i call it a "junker", just to put around for small things and go to work.
20230524_191101.jpg

Allmost 400K miles on it, i have it now for well over 10 years. Paid $1650 cash for it and it paid for itself many times.
 
santafewillie said:
Wife of course, just wants to buy a new one. She doesn't realize (or wants to hear from me), that a new one may not be available readily, and most likely won't last as long as this one. She didn't listen when the trusted and experienced appliance repair guy has repeatedly told us to fix what we have and don't trust any new ones.
Click to expand...
Want can supersede logic. I can personally attest to that. I have boxes full of frivolous things I wanted, despite logic being I already had more than I needed.

A range is not a frivolous thing. The rusted screws help make her case for wanting a new one. With a new range she may want to do more cooking, giving you more time for other things. God knows you have more than enough to keep you busy!

Whatever you decide I wish you well.
 
Welp... I got dirty on my birthday. Had to take another shower.

Did get my two chocolate frosted donuts from the "Amish" place (with "English" working it... ) I even brought the wife a donut.

Then I started on the garage vents. This is a converted carport that now has a flat roof, four walls and a door (2 car width). Very basic....

With a black tarred flat roof, it gets HOT in there. A lot of people here add floor resisters (aka vents) mounted on the walls. Open the louvers in the spring, and close them in late fall.

I'm lazy, so I found the automatic crawl space vents.
vent 1.jpg


vent 2.jpg

It was that second one that me all worked up.

I gave the vent a test fit from the inside. Fits between the not-on-any center, half-arsed layout of studs. Fortunately, the old Carport with its main support poles are the main structural support. The stud framing holds the siding up. And yep, this gap is right between one of the 4x4 support posts and a 2x4 on the other side.

And it was about a quarter inch too narrow. But I didn't discover that until I cut the hole. The vent has a two-level cowling and I only measured for the inner level... I got the circular saw out, and cut into the 2x4 side three saw blade widths with plunge cuts. And we get good airflow through them. Despite having slip-on safety glasses, I still got sawdust in my eyes... while on a ladder, with power tools in hand.

Once that was taken care of, I fetched the strap-on goggles. No more blowing sawdust into the eyes, but I was already sweaty and covered in sawdust.

So, a second shower was in store for me after I got the vents all caulked up.

If I need to install any more, I may just use the floor registers like everyone else.
 
KriegslokBR52 said:
We'll be waiting for those pictures of steam locomotives. BTW it's good to have a spare car, i call it a "junker", just to put around for small things and go to work.View attachment 171302
Allmost 400K miles on it, i have it now for well over 10 years. Paid $1650 cash for it and it paid for itself many times.
Click to expand...

VW never made a Jetta in the US with dual headlights/fog lights like the GTI used to have. Did you swap the headlight/grills on this? The front plate is not US but you're in the US and the background looks like the US (house and trash can etc).

I had an 89 Golf with square headlights and took it to Germany where it got into an accident. I replaced the front grill/headlights with the GTI style with fog lights like you have there as they didn't have the standard US style square lights for the Golf there.
 


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