Running Bear's June 2022 Coffee Shop

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


Status
Not open for further replies.
Good Morning!
Thank you for all the well-wishes with regards to this toothache.
From now on, I will suffer in private, and not complain so much here in the shop. I like to talk about happier events. Like modelling; or fishing; or pretty women (photo required).

A little while back, Willie posted photos of items-n-critters he purchased through Mini-Prints. So, I revisited that companies site and ordered some items that will become realistic scenery fill on the layout.

I'll use some of these 55gal drums in the foreground of my oil dealership loading dock, and the plastic Atlas 55gal drums as background fill. The drums will be painted in Shell colours, and I have decals for the foreground drums:
MinPrints_55gal Drum_06-28-2022.JPG


I also ordered some items to fill yard scenery in a natural way, like garbage cans, picnic tables and dog houses. One has a dog in it, which should prove testing to paint:
MinPrints_Garbage_06-28-2022.JPG

MinPrints_Picnic_06-28-2022.JPG

MinPrints_Dog_06-28-2022.JPG


A nice looking wheel-barrow for a construction site or garden;
MinPrints_Barrow_06-28-2022.JPG


And this is my favorite. I thought I was only going to get one bull moose in the package, but, there was two. I'll try to be very careful painting these. Nice to get them to look right;
MinPrints_Moose_06-28-2022.JPG


If I get my draw this year, I'll be hunting one of those moose come the fall. I'll know if I was drawn in one months time. There are only 80 tags available for the local area I hope to hunt.

It rained all night, and the rain continues today. So, I believe I'll try and continue with the oil dealership. I would like all the parts and buildings built up, so I can find a final resting place on the layout for the models. It does seem that HO takes up considerably more real-estate than I originally figured.

Suppose I'd better go get wet walking the dog. This is turning out to be a very wet year. No fire season at all, and the forest is lush.
Have a great day!
 
Good morning,

Looks like a quiet day at work. Temp at 46° when alarm went off, headed for 77.

Sick of the news feed so I started a project scanning all our road project plan sets with Right of Way indicated from the latest plan set. In some cases, our latest plan set is 1965. There is lots of government BS we deal with as we work with Federal highway projects as well as State. Lots of BS paperwork gets sent back for some minor change.

Tom - you are getting great mileage with the Jetta. Our Chevy Sonic gets 38 mpg averaged over a month of driving, which would include all types of driving. It was made in 2013 and does not display any rust. No, it is not all plastic. Good to hear the trip turned out fine.

Guy - hang in there with the tooth. I had one thy wouldn't work on until the swelling went down, after antibiotics worked. That was many years ago. My wife was a dental assistant at one time, she is always harping on me about my tooth care.

Ken DJ - I just have the 2 screens at work. At halliburton we had a special "big" screen which was divided into 6 windows so essentially 6 screens plus one in front of me that I usually put data into. The multi screens was to monitor the frac operations.

Willie - Those tomato plants are really something.

more later, Dave LASM
 
TLOC said:
Normal for me is 33-38 mpg in city. In the Eco mode yesterday we hit 45 mpg on open 4 lane highways at 70mph speed limits doing about an actual 77 on cruise control.
Click to expand...

I really like our (wife's) 2019 VW Jetta. That 1.4 turbo can move if necessary and it is pretty miserly. At our 4500-5000 ft elevation (admittedly running on 88 mid grade no ethanol) the wife gets consistently 35-36 on her "suburban" driving (city like with some stretches of suburban "highway", which just means a little longer stretches btween lights). If we use any freeway driving in the mix it can jump up to 37-39. Pure freeway we get into the 40s. (I have put it in eco mode for the above -- not sure the wife knows that or how to change it -- so it is a little less aggressive on where it shifts)

This replaced my wife's 2013 VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI diesel, which was always mid 30s anyway (with automatic transmission). (My diesel same year but manual was always upper 30s touching 40).
 


Willie: The Conoco in Shamrock is defucnt as a gas station, and based on what I've gleaned hasn't been operational for a long time. Some videos I've seen have it out of service by the early 90's and maybe before that. It is a gift\snack\tourist information stop.

I will say we had a good time as we really hadn't been anywhere for over a year before the pandemic. We are planning to do the Carthage MO.\Edmond, OK run as a day trip in the future. While there are the tourist traps we stay out of, it can still be fun. We tried to avoid the chain resaturants on Saturday, stopping at local eateries. Highest gas we bought was $4.99 on I-25 in New Mexico, otherwise, not much above $4.69. When we planned on the car getting worse mileage and budgeted a minimum of $6.00 per gallon, we actually did OK. $280 for meals and gas, and another $240 for the 2 motel rooms for a total of $520, which I don't think was too bad for the weekend.

While I would have liked to at least get a picture, we stayed out of the Tourist trap steak house in Amarillo. I would have liked to have gone to say we did, but the time line didn't line up.
 
WOW, You Guys - are prolific yesterday and today; I may never catch up!
Just a quick note to say that our 3 car garage is full of MIL "stuff" for the planned garage sale with more to come? I am thinking that we should have bought the house rather than try and move all this "stuff"!
The middle daughter, Marine husband and two boys (8-10) are supposed to arrive tomorrow - actually today, but the flight from Japan to Seattle was x-celled for some reason. I forget how long they will be here, but I have planned to dig out a bunch of Lionel "stuff" for them to play with. Their mom is very limiting on their computer/phone time - which I think is GREAT!
The Spousal Unit has me digging holes for planting flowers from the ranch home - I'm telling you that I am very limited on the digging part to only a few minutes at a time!
Willie, sure wish I had a way to get some of those tomatoes - they look wonderful!
GUY, sure wish that everything comes together on the teeth problem and that it is solved rapidly for you. Hope you get a moose ticket too!

Trying to not play favorites with the "shoutouts", but am very limited on time.
I have been staying up a little later at night, but it causes me to sleep later in the morning -- AT Least I am getting SOME BETTER SLEEP!
Later, Gang!

So much to do and so little time!
 
@santafewillie those tomato plants look odd being that big without a lot of fruit yet! Hopefully, you get a really good harvest now that pollination has started.

As a kid, my father always had a huge garden. His parents and grandparents taught him to grow as much as you can, and to share with your neighbors.

We easily had a couple hundred tomato plants each year. Probably 2/3 of those plants were volunteers from the previous year's fruit that dropped. We would get volunteers even after the farmer down the street would stop by and plow and disc our garden for us in April so we could get ready to plant the seeds he had started in the house back in February.

Our garden was about 1.5 acres.
Tomatoes, string beans, peas, radishes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, Heads of lettuce , leaf lettuce, spinach, zucchini, occasionally sweet corn (although we never did real well with sweet corn). There was a patch for perennials, like Horseradish, currant bushes, raspberry bushes, and Leaks.

I'm probably forgetting some things. He was bug on Kohlrabi. I love Kohlrabi, and will eat one raw, right out of the garden.

I grow a few tomato plants each year. I usually get enough to freeze 3-4 gallon size baggies each fall.

Fun fact: You don't need to blanche tomatoes before freezing them. Just cut out the stem and freeze the whole fruit. When you want to cook with them, run the frozen tomato under lukewarm water for a few seconds, and the skin will peel right off, leaving the fruit part still frozen... It's super simple to dice a frozen tomato. Good for cooking with, but not for slicing like on a burger.
1656524087825.png

1656524107623.png

1656524129573.png
 
Last edited:
JeffH said:
@santafewillie those tomato plants look odd being that big without a lot of fruit yet! Hopefully, you get a really good harvest now that pollination has started.

As a kid, my father always had a huge garden. His parents and grandparents taught him to grow as much as you can, and to share with your neighbors.

We easily had a couple hundred tomato plants each year. Probably 2/3 of those plants were volunteers from the previous year's fruit that dropped. We would get volunteers even after the farmer down the street would stop by and plow and disc our garden for us in April so we could get ready to plant the seeds he had started in the house back in February.

Our garden was about 1.5 acres.
Tomatoes, string beans, peas, radishes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, Heads of lettuce , leaf lettuce, spinach, zucchini, occasionally sweet corn (although we never did real well with sweet corn). There was a patch for perennials, like Horseradish, currant bushes, raspberry bushes, and Leaks.

I'm probably forgetting some things. He was bug on Kohlrabi. I love Kohlrabi, and will eat one raw, right out of the garden.

I grow a few tomato plants each year. I usually get enough to freeze 3-4 gallon size baggies each fall.

Fun fact: You don't need to blanche tomatoes before freezing them. Just cut out the stem and freeze the whole fruit. When you want to cook with them, run the frozen tomato under lukewarm water for a few seconds, and the skin will peel right off, leaving the fruit part still frozen... It's super simple to dice a frozen tomato. Good for cooking with, but not for slicing like on a burger.
Click to expand...
That is exactly how my wife freezes tomatoes, easy peasy

Brings back memories of our garden as a kid, it was always huge. Money was always tight with 5 kids and Dad and Mom neither one making big money. We ate out of the garden all summer and usually had frozen sweet corn and green beans in the freezer to last all winter.

Grandma and Grandpa were big fisherpeople and would also supply us with 1/2 gal milk jugs full of Sunfish and Crappie fillets. We grew up strong and healthy.
 
I always liked processing the horseradish. It had to be done outside, with the wind at your back, lol. I remember that once word got out about our fresh horseradish, we couldn't keep up with demand. But we always had fresh horseradish.

This was before food processors, so we used an old blender. Sometimes, the wind would pull those fumes back into my face, and I would be blinded as I stumbled backward so I could even take breath. Usually took a few seconds for the effect to wear off. Those were the days, lol!

Edit to Add: Interesting... I wonder... My Father and I would do the horseradish, so undoubtedly, we were subjected to a lot of horseradish fumes. We both also had Lofgren's Syndrome, which is very uncommon. Not much is known about Lofgren's Syndrome, which is an acute onset of Sarcoidosis. It's not usually much of a concern, and in most cases, it runs its course with no lasting effects. It affects the lungs. I wonder...
 
Last edited:


Afternoon All,

Spent the morning at the VA for Dad's appointment. I have to drive him to another tomorrow to get X-rays of his shoulders and ribs. After his primary care appointment there's always a plethora of his appointments and since he isn't safe driving on a highway type road I'm selected. The Key West vacation was so-so. Everything was super expensive (and I mean everything) and parking availibility was horrendous. On top of that oldest grandson had a stereotypical teenager attitude the entire time. The trip was 5 days and I was ready to come home on day 3.

One highlight of the trip was the Coast Guard sailing ship Eagle was there for a change of command ceremony.

Patrick- Very cool photos.

Guy- I hope the bump is nothing and you get some tooth relief. I've been there many times. Nice duct tape in the photo.

Troy- Happy Birthday to your wife.

Terry-I shared the photo with my daughter.

Ken (IL)- Good job on the class.

Willie- That's a jungle of tomato plants. Very cool details especially the Moose..Mooses..Meece? 😂

Left is son, middle is Dad, and then me.
20220624_102006.jpg

Mini Prints skunks I painted today.
20220629_134433_copy_1612x1209.jpg

I hope everyone has a good night.
 
Boris said:
Guy, that sounds about par for the course. years ago, I had this molar that needed to be extracted. extractions were beneath the Dentist I had then,so he sent me to an Oral Surgeon in the next town, who removed it before I even had time to think about it. He found a growth, which I had removed and biopsied. I smoked then and was concerned. It turned out to be negative. Never had to go back to the guy, but he was good.

I'm looking at several extractions and two new partials, hopefully, later rather than sooner. The price of dentistry is high, and the care quality is down. Last really good dentist, ended up going to jail, as he fitted cameras in the ladies rest room...and got caught.
Click to expand...
I came out of a dentist have had gas which had I been more experienced I would have refused to find my bra done up wrong,surprisingly never went back but did not report it as too hard to prove
 
PRR Modeler said:
Afternoon All,

Spent the morning at the VA for Dad's appointment. I have to drive him to another tomorrow to get X-rays of his shoulders and ribs. After his primary care appointment there's always a plethora of his appointments and since he isn't safe driving on a highway type road I'm selected. The Key West vacation was so-so. Everything was super expensive (and I mean everything) and parking availibility was horrendous. On top of that oldest grandson had a stereotypical teenager attitude the entire time. The trip was 5 days and I was ready to come home on day 3.

One highlight of the trip was the Coast Guard sailing ship Eagle was there for a change of command ceremony.

Patrick- Very cool photos.

Guy- I hope the bump is nothing and you get some tooth relief. I've been there many times. Nice duct tape in the photo.

Troy- Happy Birthday to your wife.

Terry-I shared the photo with my daughter.

Ken (IL)- Good job on the class.

Willie- That's a jungle of tomato plants. Very cool details especially the Moose..Mooses..Meece? 😂

Left is son, middle is Dad, and then me.
View attachment 148041

Mini Prints skunks I painted today.
View attachment 148042

I hope everyone has a good night.
Click to expand...
The human pictures are nice B~ut I love the skunks excellent
 


Status
Not open for further replies.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top