oh, nearly forgot:
today's word:
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Mornin' everyone!
Zoe, I'll have a large bowl of Raison Bran and a pot of Seneca Lake Blent Dark Roast Coffee to start the day.
Currently 35°F going up to around 48°F this afternoon. I haven't been down cellar yet, But I bet I have water in the basement... The pool behind the cellar stairway had a couple in ches of water in it last night before bed. I did tak the time to pick up the boards laying on tyhe floor and put them on a couple sawbucks I have and block the 4 x 8 siding sheets up off the floor. My son brought all that stuff over last fall to stain, seal, and put polyurathane on. His back cellar covers are completely rotted at home. I wouldn't want to step on them. last years big work on it was to borrow my little trailer, buy the needed lumber, and dump it off at my house. I dunno!?
YGW, I don't need to send you a PM on the subject of MTH. You can find out all you need to know here.
Looking at the curve of power from the solar panels last night, they all of a sudden came on at about 5PM yesterday. That tells me that a large section of snow came off the panels. I did notice that all but 2 panels have completely cleared and can now produce power. Today they should be all up and running. I did some math last night. Gas and Electric bill came in yesterday. This year was considerably colder than last year, and last year I was running the wood stove as much as possible. This year it has been shut down half of the month of February. Last year the solar panels produced a savings of about $25 on my electric bill. This year $0. If I do the math, my Gas and Electric bill is lower this year once I take the loss of Solar Electric into consideration. Hmmmmmm. Guess the wood stove isn't saving me anything.... I used to be able to get free wood, and now buy it. I guess I am making the right decision to take it out and not have the hastle of moving firewood all the time. Some of the ice dam problem may have to do with the chimney heat from the stove as well....
Guess I better get down cellar and see what is going on down there.
73
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
There is a full-sized back hoe slash front loader in front of my house. They're clearing the storm drains. The plows have put so much snow to the side of the road that they are thouroughly buried, and with warmer temperatures that part of the road will become a lake if it's not drained. (Just went out to offer assistance. They are having trouble locating them, so I told them where I think the drains are.)
Ray, remember that fuel prices are generally lower, although I don't know about gas. That should make electric bills lower, too. I heat with oil, and although I've had more deliveries this winter, I don't think I've paid any more in total.
I live right on the border of another town. My town does a great job with our roads, but the next town over, not so much. I have to drive over their roads to get anywhere, and it's starting to look like one of those apocalypic, dystopian visions of the future. There are some genuine wheel-eaters out there, even on their main roads.
I took myself out to the local bar and barbeque place for my birthday dinner last night. I had a half-rack of ribs, a couple of sides and corn bread, and washed it down with Shipyard Breweries' "Monkey Fist" IPA. Now that was a dinner worth braving the bad asphalt for!
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Extra strong coffee in a Undecorated mug, please.
Speaking of wood stoves, it is my hope to put in a second wood stove for this side of my house. Certainly have enough wood on my farm to last the rest of my life. Only place for it presently would be the train room, which I would not do. However, if I enclose the space under the back screened porch (where the train room windows are) and insulate the "new walls", then I could put a wood stove out there and open up the train room windows and door to allow heat transfer. Would also install a ceiling fan just outside the train room door instead of the current light fixture. And naturally the new wall would have plenty of windows, so there would still be some natural light coming into the train room. A little hard to describe without including pics.
Busy day ahead. Slow getting going.
Cheers! Rob
MisterBeasleyRay, remember that fuel prices are generally lower, although I don't know about gas. That should make electric bills lower, too. I heat with oil, and although I've had more deliveries this winter, I don't think I've paid any more in total.
I used about the same number of "therms" of Natural Gas as last year, and the price has remained about the same. Electric is the same cost per kWh as last year round here as well.... Good thought though... Thanks. I did spend $360 for 6 face cord of wood though.... I just looked up the Quarintine of Firewood in this part of NYS and we can still move firewood 50 miles within the quarintine area (we have a Emerald Ash Borer quarintine and several other invasive species that are raising havic with our trees. I will be able to move the remaining wood over to my son's house this spring. I will just have to certify that the firewood came from right around Geneva. We'll be moving it about 8 miles. There is a form I have to fill out and carry with us we we move it.
Rob, that could work well for adding more heat to you place. Yes if you are able to cut and handle your own home grown wood, absolutely a good solution!
Later!
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/4309
Hi guys long time no posting in the diner.
Yesterday I got my Atlas Conrail GP35s in the mail including the six boxcars and three covered hoppers.
Yesterday I felt sad about buying the diesels since they out for almost two months. I barely get sad buying locomotives. I didn't act this way when getting Union Pacific or BNSF and Amtrak. I wonder how that happened?
I tested the GP35s today CR#2268 runs fine around 40% of power, but CR#2321 can't reach power until 50% before moving and the Kato F40 Amtrak moved along at 20%. The test track is clean, but it's not a circle.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Coffee refill, please and thank you.
***Ray, all that paper work just to move some fire wood 8 miles. Wow! The heat pumps I have work pretty well, but when I use the wood stove, the electric bill drops by 2/3rds or so. For me, this is well worth doing. And with a second stove for this side of the house, I wouldn't need to turn on heat at all.
I believe there may be some more trains showing up here later this month.
OK, my short coffee break is over. Picked up a couple hand tools at Home Depot today, to replace the better/ideal one I seem to have lost out on the farm somewhere. Trees arrived, time to get them in the ground. Had a week long transit because of bad weather elsewhere, not good.
Good Afternoon/Evening...
46F out here and we are getting a scraping or two of sun today...
I am back on Coumerin ...again. My third lead has disconnected itself from the ICD and now they will have to do the through the ventricular wall thing instead...le sigh....
Our heating bills here are down substantially from last years clobbering, of course, this was because we did add the solar panels as well as the atrium with the stone tile floor. A pellet stove in our back area does the trick as well. Since the atrium faces southwest we also have the window blinds for the thing once it gets warm in here...we'll see how that works out next summer..
Today I did a lot of junk removal from my trainroom...again...seems everytime I go down there it needs all kinds of stuff to be removed before I do stuff ...
Flo, can I get the super quadruplex burger platter with the slathering of gouda cheese and the fried onions/mushrooms please? Oh yes, a barrel of coffee will go good with that as well as a couple of Strawbarry/Rhubarb pies thank you!!!
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Well
MOH spent most of today in bed..i think today is MOH's nasty day liek i had the other day when I wasn't sure if i had pneumonia again or not. I feel better, except for the cough.
RAY: the antibiotic is a double measure to be sure no infeciton sets in while the hsoudler's incisions/damage is healign too.
SArona Terry: I mentioned your son in the Healing seciton, but tell him Thank you for his service as well....
I foudn out from the Dr.s assitant IF I can keep the incisions DRY [maybe with a garbage bag?} I can take a well deserved shower! It's been a week...and I couldn't stand my self for another week!
NOTE: ULRICH FUND: I BELIEVE i HAVE all donations? IF you snet one and I have told you one way or the other that I got it, PLEASE PM EM SO I KNOW WHETHER I GOT IT OR NOT. ULRICH WILL KEEP THE overage for future glasses... though at $1150 - $75 wire transfer, for $1075 won't give him much overage over the $900 he needs! but its a start towards his next pair.
Heating bills; it is hard to tell with ours...NYSEG screwed up the billing on ours so ours got jacked up artificially high, because they have overcharged us for the last 2 years, so they downgraded the balanced billing to far to low, so in order to make it up, they had to jack super high...then we should hear about HEAP by next Friday{if they haven't run out of funding} FINALLY so that will cut the bills out for the next 2-3 months, then we will be right back to being severely overcharged again as they won't reduce it again, I guarantee you. They'd have been best if they left alone? They HATE giving away 'free months" {no charge as you pre-paid} as they don't have revenue coming in form your site. The last 2 years we had each year nearly 6 full months of "free billing' as we OVERPAID THAT MUCH.
I think that about covers it. I stink...so I'd best get on to the showers... adn run some laundry so I have clean clothes for after....
later
Now here is AnOTHER "adorable" {?} Caboose house...mayBe one can move into one cheaper than his house?:
http://tinyhousetalk.com/caboose-tiny-house-vacations-in-essex-montana/
Evenin' Folks!
Chloe, Ill have the Fish and Chips and an ice cold . Celebrating? Well, sort of, but sometimes I just like to indulge... As I had hoped, the solar panels are almost cleaned off and have started to produce some electricity again. They should end the day just a bit under 5 kWH. That is 10 times what they produced in the whole month of February..... The temp will stay above freezing overnight so I think the last bit of sn*w on the two panels holding things back should be gone by tomorrow. Not only that tomorrow may be "partly". That is better than dark and gloomy which we had all day today.
Rob, really not a lot of paperwork, just a single page with 5 quick questions on it. 1. Name of transporter, 2. Address, 3. Origin of the firewood being transported, 4. Destination of the Firewood being transported, and 5. Approximate Volume being transported. Then signature at the bottom. The page is mostly what and why the restriction is in force. You wouldn't be too happy if your neighbor brought in a truckload of firewood that had some insect amongst the wood that will kill off those new trees you planted today would you? The certificate doesn't have to filed with any agency or anything, it is just supposed to be with you while you are transporting the wood. I know that all the local parks will now not let any wood to brought with campers, etc. You can by from people right near the park that are licenced by the park. Our Boy Scout Council will not let any troops bring in their own firewood anymore as well. We already have lost most of the ash trees at the local Boy Scout Camp back a decade ago from an infection they got.
Hey Barry! Good to see you. Sounds like you spent some money wisely my friend... One thing I get hear is a lot of passive solar heating in my Dining Room /Office here. About 80% of the outside wall is double pane insulated glass. A couple days ago when it was very sunny the furnace didn't kick on untill the sun was near to setting. My cats love to find the sunny spots on the rugs.... In the heat of the summer, the roof overhang blocks out the bulk of the sun so it doesn't heat up the place much. One of the few intelligent things the builder did. Probably an accident....
I saw the lady next door today. She was out shoveling sn*w away from the foundation of the house hoping to prevent much water from finding a way in and ruining some newly renovated walls down there. She has a cousin who works for the city. She said he told her that the city is responsible for the drainage area behind our two properties, and that some improvments are long overdue there. she is going to call the city tomorrow and see what can be done for us. Our neighborhood is built on what was a nursery farm. The entire hill had field tile layed down on it draining the water over to a stream that ultimately leads down to Seneca Lake. of course the contractor didn't pull up the field tile, but just dug out and put in the cellars of the houses. Our two houses get the brunt of the water that seeps down from the whole hillside developement. I told her it runs in during the spring though a hole somebody drilled through the outside wall (to relieve the water pressure) just like a running hose. My sump during the worst of it will run every 3 or 4 minutes.
I'm waiting for one more address to print the envelopes for the MLK Scholarship Dinner Invitations.
Chamomile tea, please.
***Ray, sounded worse than it was. I can understand that. Seems like there was a pine beetle problem acorss some states. Not sure if it still is an issue!?! I have a Japanese beetle problem here. Going to try yet another approach (4 steps) this year and see if I can keep the damage down to a minimum. Ray, I can't imagine having your water problem. That could be frustrating.
***Galaxy, cool pics. The locomotive is especially interesting. What a fun project that would be.
Got all the trees planted, T-posts w/ fencing (for those trees in the dog paddock), and soaked in well, plus other stuff. Feeling completely spent and sarcified. Definitely using the cpap tonight, maybe O2, too. Sooo glad that is done. Now to rest and recover.
Have a good night all. Be back for morning coffee.
(Note to self: Update the retirement plan to include the following: Buy a real wooden caboose, put it in the back yard, and turn it into the coolest train room ever.)
Richard
It's late, and I will post briefly. had a busy day.
JohnBoy .... You might not see this in time. .... I recall the 11th (tomorrow) is when you have your proceedure. I hope it goes well for you.
I leave early for Nashville, TN for my doctor appointments.
Cheers.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Thanks Garry,
I caught this before heading to bed.
I wish you all the best tomorrrow as well.
Safe and happy miles to ya.
Johnboy out......................til then
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
today's quote:
The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words. -William H. Gass, writer and professor (b. 1924)
weird words:
Anglewitch - Obsolete word meaning a worm used as bait in fishing
Thwarterous - Adjective meaning twisted or gnarled
Hoghenhine - A member of one's family.
Hogo - A stink {me rihgh now until I get my needed shower.}
Jiffle - To fidget or shuffle.
Now, before i Jiffle too much here, I'll leave ...
Strong coffee in a Columbia Basin Railroad mug, please.
Healing thoughts for those in need.
Good morning everyone! It should be going up into the 50s today, and there's bright sunshine outside. This is slowly clearing the snow off the roof. I've noticed that my house, which is very well insulated, has held its snow cap longer than most. I'd expect that I'll be looking out the window at water dripping from above for at least another week on the north side, anyway.
All the talk about tree infestations reminds me of the gypsy moth invasion we had many years ago. Basically, they arrived in the spring and ate every leaf that came out. They weren't fond of evergreens, but they started on those when their preferred food ran out. If you had a single tree, you could often protect it by putting a band of tape around the trunk and coating the tape with grease. We saw a lot of those. We have a lot of catalpa trees in our neighborhood. The gypsy moths (or rather, the caterpillars) completely left those alone. My most striking memory of them was from the hockey rink, seeing the caterpillars crawling up the side pipes on the goals. They were everywhere.
Good morning diners, The snow is almost gone in SE Ohio this morning after last night's rain. Howmus, I understand your wet celler issues. I just spent the past hour with the shop vac sucking up the rain leakage in my basement. Part of the joys of an 80 year old concrete block basement with a very thin basement floor full of cracks. The leaks should deminish after new gutters and downspout later this spring. Already signed the contract for the work, so just waiting on warmer weather. Have to give the basement floor an other hour to dry up before I head back to lay some more homesote road bed. Sure am glad the dehumdifier keeps plugging along. It read 65% humidity this morning compared to 35% two weeks ago when it was freezing cold outside.
Healing prayers for all that need them.
Time for a cup of tea.
Jim
hi gang:
My left arm is now officially tired of doing the work of both arms! Dont' forget teh L shoulder needs to be done too. It is paining me in the msucles...
Wonder how JOHNBOY made out???
I finally got my shower {with a grabage bag taped over my shoulder} this morning! MOH stood by to help, but I was able to most by myself with little effort. MOH did mainly my back, which i COULD have reached with the back brush, but not to see where the bandages are on the right shoulder back there. I feel 100% better ! and not so "slimy"
well, we forgot to deposit the last check {?} for ulrich, but I will cash it out of my personal account so it goes into U's account as cash for next monday's transfer..AsSUMINg I have all the donations.{??}
Thanks again everybody! I knew we could do it, AND wiht one BIG generous donation, we did!
MOH s car still stuck in driveway! good thing MOH is off work this week. nad next.
Ray...you know the fun we had with our backyard lake? Well, it is no longer going to be an issue. The city went in late last fall and put a proper drainage into the area. The last few big showers left no lake this time. As for our basement, let me just say that even with our mild weather we're having i do not hear our sumps working like they did last spring. and with a fieldstone/mortar basement that is a good thing.
One of our friends nearer the old south end of London just went and booked a contractor to redo the entire foundation of their house...a $26,000 job right there. His basement seems to have developed a few leaks around the floor/foundation and when he went in to find out why discovered that the foundation appears to have been cracking/crumbling...so...guess what he will be doing this Spring...
Sunny and mild here now...37F and still going up...we be happy here.
ICD lead reinsertion operation scheduled for 1st week in Aprril now...le sigh...
Afternoon folks!
Chloe, I'll have a cup of hot chocolate with those little tiny marshmallows please.
Heh, heh, heh.... The solar panels have finally fired up! Yep right now they are holding to around 2900w and have already produced 16 kWh of electric today. I am back in business! Currently 46°F with a high supposedly of 50°F sometime this afgternoon. Sn*w is clearing off all the roofs in town and in a couple more days we might even get glimpses of something called lawns....
Barry, so where will you go fishing from now on? Seriously, glad they have finally fixed the water back-up problem in your neighborhood. I'm hoping the cityh will be able to do some retrenching in back of my place and get more of the water to drain around the houses rather than through them. Not holding my breath though.
I've been airing out the house every day for the poast few days, and my sinuses are better. Thinking the headache was allergy to mold and mildew. I do hope the contractor will get back to me soon. i know he is swamped with a lot of similar jobs at the moment...
Catch you all later!
"La-Awn" RAY? What is a "La-Aw-NN"?? I dont think i know, it's been so long...
We can see most of the rutted driveway.
now to write that letter to the park..I have to do it with a level head so it doesn't come off nasty...it is not my intention to get them mad at us. Just to inquire nad see who's responsibilty it is to maintain it. I think we'd like a concrete drive actually, though you have to watch out for oil stains and such. blacktop, unless the 6" think a concrete would be will just rut like what is out there, already.. don't want to be in the same boat in the next 5 years! OF course if the park does it, we will have to deal.
we shall see what we shall see...
Good Afternoon Diners,
Flo, I'll have my usual giant cup of coffee with boo coo cream, please.
I took a look at those caboose houses, thanks Galaxy. They have some interesting possibilities. I think it would be fun to design the interior to one. I love the wood work on the walls and ceilings. Looks to me like hickory, which is a gorgeous flooring material. Back in the 50s, a lot of basement spaces were finished with knotty pine. These kind of remind me of that. The bed in the cupola space is nice, logical too. Children would love a bed like that. I'll be kind and leave the kitchen pictures alone. In a word, those caboose cabins look cozy and inviting.
Do the railroads still pull private cars, or are these things no longer "rail worthy?" It could bring a new definition to RV camping. :) You could do a rail fan trip to Bailey Yard by actually going through it! Now that's railfaning!
To make one livable and movable, the fuel source would most likely have to be propane. Not sure on regulations for that. I think one could forget building codes. Being movable would be under a whole different set of rules. Just thinking out loud so to speak.
I hope everyone is OK, safe, and warm.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
UP831:
I belive those are now stationary vehicles, you can go tthere and RENT them to stay in , I believe. But better get your ressy in quickly RR afficionados are likely to beat a hasty "retreat" there!
Well the letter for the driveway is written, See they promised to repave the drives years ago when they put in city water sewer and repaved the main park roads. They succeeded in paving just 3 lot's drive's, the ones around the entrance to the park naturally. About 5 members at the south end of the road pIAD a contractor together to come pave theirs, and the park manager {who is a do-nothing anyway} Had a hissy fit.
So i sent it off tothe owners of the park and asked :
~Is the driveway the park's item to look after, maintain, and be responsible for,
~or is it MY responsibility?
~It CANNNOT remain the way it is now. It needs to be completely dug out and repaved immediately.
--preceeded by an explaination of what is going on now and the stuck car preventing MOH form going to work and costing the price of a tow, and followed by a :
Looking forward to you SPEEDY mailed reply as this item cannot wiat,
sincerely, etc etc &E.
I WANT IT MAILED< so's we haVE it IN WRITING!
If it is our responsibilty, fine, we will have it done somehow...but i believe it is THEIR resposibitlity.
We shall see what we shall see as soon as we shall see it.
galaxy
Here is a CABOOSE tiny house you CAN BUY:
http://maximusextreme.com/max-models/max-no-7-the-yellow-caboose/
MAX™ Tiny Homes ~ The Caboose™
Evening Dinners
Flo, please.
MR B Happy Belated
Member who's son was wouned. Sorry I could not find the orginal post for your name, but I am glad he will be home and safe. VA Hosptials do a pretty good job.
I stop by twice a day and read what is going on, just have not felt like posting. Just plain nothing good to say. Trains have been a pain in the caboose. Cannot keep them in line so to speak. Think the cold weather had somw what to do with some of the problems. While the garage / train room is heated, I think with it being colder by the garage door has cause some track problem.
Health front, not looking good to me. I am starting to lose the feeling in my hands. They feel a tad numb. I all so have a wound on the back of my right calf that will not deal. I finally figured out how I keep hurting it, so I maybe be able to get it to heal now.
Later, down in the dumps again, Ken
I hate Rust
Ken: Hnag in there buddy: could the hands be a simple issue of Carpal Tunnel? I had both my hands doene {by the same surgeon as shoulders} a few years ago. they were always numb and tingly AT BEST, if not losing feeling at worse.I am more worried about your foot. Do some online reseach, and start doing what you can do to reverse diabetes!
Do what you cna to get your caboose in order.
AND,that is an order, soldier!
The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be. -Douglas Adams, author (11 Mar 1952-2001)