The pot of coffee is always on [even after 2 years have passed]. Come on in. Sweet ice tea too.

[dwiemer]

Chief,
Hope ya get to feeling better soon. A nice bowl of grits and some mountain medicine should fix ya right up.

Roy,
If you like Beer, and are heading to NYC, right behind the point on times square, is the times square brewery, where you can get the board sampler with several different beers, all good. My parents are only 15 minutes from Manhattan, so if you want, get me privately and I will give you their number in case you have any problems. FYI, FAO schwarts is right on the corner of 5th and central park, cool place to go. I can give you lots of great places to eat and things to do if you want.
Dennis

[FJ and G]

We left the Dead Sea and Jericho and have been climbing the winding road leading up to Jerusalem.

Stopped at a Bedouin encampment where saw a sheep dog, baby camel and some adult camels. Bedouins let my daughter (front of camel) and another lady ride a camel.

Left the camp and continued upward on the road, where elevation high enough for trees to start appearing (last photo). We’re almost to Jerusalem!

















There are dozens of more stops will be making. If you’ve not been following this series, here are the Coffee Post pages to find the previous ones (a quicker way to bring them up is to go to the advanced search engine and type in “caesarea” which will bring all or nearly all up quickly):

Tel Aviv 622

Caesarea 624

Armegeddon 645

Nazareth 661

Galilee 673

Mount of Beatitudes 675

Capernaeum 677

Dan Part I 688

Dan Part II 792

Hermon 794

Jordan 797

Beth-Shan 804

Jordan Valley 807

West-Central Dead Sea area 823

Ein Gedi Part I 824

Ein Gedi Part II 844

Dead Sea 847

Near Masada (just south) 851

Masada 853

Dead Sea Scrolls 854

Jericho 856

[More to restore]

Hello everybody,

I am happy, because I have just finished my cardboard building of a freight station in scale 0. It is Metcalfe 0801 goods shed, which I bought in England on my holiday.
Lionel boxcars fit nice into the station, but much to my surprise, ETS cars are to wide to fit in. So, I will use it on my still very empty Lionel layout as a first building in 0.
Here are the pictures:

[ChiefEagles]

More to restore , Great building there. Finally made it in the house. Ranger fixed [glove box latch, had to build bracket as the shop broke it out of the dash, Durham NC[V]] Got fan mounted and shutter installed. Found out why the fran did not work in the attic. Thermostat is bad. Got it on timer now. Will pick up one later. Got to book airfare to New England!!!!! Raiding up there next Tuesday thru Thursday PM. [;)] Thanks for the call Jim A. Could not talk as in the middle of project and wanted to get inside. Off to Kerr Lake if pnuemonia does not get me first. Having bad coughing spells to almost black out [:0] [you know Chuck]. Also sweats. Shower and calapse. Later cough cough cough. Tussinex is not working right now.

[Blueberryhill RR]

Chief...WATCH IT WITH THAT COUGH. BEEN THERE.

....Chuck

[Brutus]

God bless you Chief - take it easy!

Cool building! I've seen some stuff like that in HO, but not in O gauge before.

Great pics David! Love the camel pics!

[jefelectric]

David, That sure doesn't sound like the old Sears, maybe being purchased by K-mart was not a good thing. I have always had good service and warranty has been outstanding. Nothing recently though. Hope you get it resolved.

[mitchelr]

Good morning from Gettysburg. Sittin' here sippin' my second cup and thought I'd pop in to say good morning.

Chief- Hope you get that cough taken care of- sounds like you are really having a bout with it.

David - Sorry to hear about Sears customer service- I'd always heard pretty good things about them, although I've mostly buy hand tools etc. Hard to kill a Craftsman wrench. Their lawn and garden is pricey and I find better prices and selection on clothes at Kohls.

TomS - sounds as if you had a full weekend for your daughter's graduation. We just made hotel reservations for our son's graduation next May. I am thinking about taking the week after graduation off and maybe taking the wife on a trip (with or without the graduate). Let's hope he really graduates in May. [;)][}:)]

LAZ - 12 more days, not that I am counting[;)]. Natives have been restless in the last week or so. Making some progress with some first graders though. First grade is a tough year. For some it is their first all day experience and the first time in a structured classroom setting. Next comes the fun part...staffing, grouping students, enrolling new students, etc. And lest I forget, the ever popular staff development for administrators. Ten years ago if we had two days of mandatory staff development in a summer that was a lot. Now everybody thinks their issue is the most important and we are required to attend an all day or half day training. I bet I have two weeks worth of training booked already for the summer and more come up every week.

Have a great day.

Mitch[swg]

[Jumijo]

Feel better, Chief. I look forward to seeing you next week.

Did any of yuz guyz try to call me last night? I got a call from a 616 area code, but no one was on the line.

Jim

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,
47 and cool to get to 68?

MITCH, our ADMIN. has to go away to the Poconos for a 3 day retreat.
They have to pay for it themselves, for their professional development.
What it seems they are trying to do with our whole professin is cram a bunch of useless information down our throaths that has very little to do with teaching.
Why can't we just do our jobs the way we learned?
Take one step forward and two steps back?

CHIEF wish you a speedy recovery.
Eat more GRITS? Or take a shot of ROCK & RYE?

Have a good one.
laz57

[ChiefEagles]

Morning all. Saw parts of an old John Wayne movie on AMC [now] and the bad guy big shot had a nice Lionel layout. Also showed him looking over what looked like a scale Berk.
Off to Kerr Lake for a couple of days. Got to sober up to drive [codeine]. Have to take something or cough to death and not be able to drive. Should be OK in a couple of hours when I hit the road. OK REBS, keep the Yanks in line. Back tomorrow afternoon late. God bless.

[Jumijo]

I started my new forest last night by making some new trees. I took a new path this time and tried something different. I used wooden skewers instead of tree branches for the trunks, and a lot less furnace filter material, which makes the tree more airy, and realistic. Then I glued on some ground foam and painted them up. Best trees yet! The ground foam makes them much more realistic. These are gonna go in the front of the layout, so I want them to look good.

Jim

[Blueberryhill RR]

[code]Good Morning from Blueberryhill [/code] It's a cold 39 degrees outside. Had a little frost
last night. Sunny, though. Suppose to go up to 70 today and remain SUNNY all day.
That's a good sign. Yesterday was beautiful.
Chief..... Have a good time at Kerr Lake. Take care of the cough.
Buckeye....Should be fishing all the lakes dry.
Well, I think I will spend some time outside today and work on some light projects. I have
to transplant some things to larger pots. We will have a small garden. I like that.
Jim Fortner.... I hope you are healing up.
Time for breakfast.
Y'all have a great day.
Chuck

[spankybird]

Good Morning All from NE Ohio

where the temp is 46 and going up to 62 with Blue Clear Skies

OTTS Meeting this Friday at The Western Reserve Model Railroad Museum. 7:00pm Anyone wishing to join us can e-mail me for directions or visit www.wrmrrm.shutterfly.com

We have started the benchwork for the large layout at the museum this week. We will also be making plans on finishing the landscaping on the tin plate layout.

Some of the OTTS boys are planning a trip to AC & J RR, Jefferson, Ohio for the short line train trip and then head over to the NKP museum in Conneaut, Ohio. This will either be June 3 or 10.

The Contest is on: Who will catch bigger and more fish, Chief or Buckeye. My money is on Buckeye of course.



Pick of the Day


All be safe
Tom

[cnw1995]

Good morning from a cool and sunny Chicago. Today is my late night because of class. Had an unexpected delightful two hours of working on the layout last evening (because I didn't want to watch TV insteaad) - so I tried all sorts of turnout configurations to get some sidings. I ended the evening by running the GG1 and three K-Line Santa Fe passenger cars - boy, is that engine heavy - it shows up all the dips and bumps in the layout as well as actually presses down the track into the carpet...

Can't wait to see your new trees, Jim. How did you glue on the ground foam?
More to restore, I wish it was easy to get those Metcalf buildings here in the US. I've seen them in British model railroading magazines and they look great. Nice to see that the Lionel cars fit. They've looked too big.
Tom, what is that engine?
Chief, how are you feeling?
David, this is going to look stupid in print but what were the camels like? I've heard they are mean critters.
Mitch, it's the same thing in higher ed - we just finished two days of a faculty retreat that was less about collective issues than individual complaints. Unfortunate mindset. Too bad we don't break for Summer.

[cheapclassics]

Good morning all,

It is sunny and cool in SE Indiana with temps heading to the 70s today. I played soccer last night in my last practice before the season starts. I got a rebound goal, which was quite startling. I have to clean gutters out tonight, but otherwise it should be a quiet evening. I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[spankybird]

Doug - This is an MTH RTR 2-8-0 consolidated. This is on one of the OTTS members layout.



with PS2, I only paid $150.00 NIB.

[1688torpedo]

Hello All! Dave-Very nice photo's of the Holy Land. Wonder what your neighbor's would think if you owned a Camel & not a Beagle?[;)][:P] Then they would beg you to keep BB & would be very nice to her.[:)] Chief- your cough does not sound good. You need to rest for a while.More to Restore- You have some nice buildings for your layout. Looks nice.Bob- Good luck with the restless natives at your school.Take Care all.

[wrmcclellan]

Morning all!

Another day in the 90's. Actually yesterday was not so bad. Had a breeze most of the day. Rather balmy.

Dave - thanks again for the "tour".

Spanky - I really like the photo of the day today!

Mitch and LAZ - As a parent - we also see the teachers getting pulled in so many directions with the teaching fad of the week that it is a wonder the kids learn anything!

Chuck - good to hear you are doing more each day!

Chief - we are holding the fort - get better and be careful not to over exert yourself.

Jim - I am in the 972 area code so it wasn't me.

Dennis - thanks - I will touch base with you off-line about some restaurants in NYC>

Have a great day all!
Roy

[Jumijo]

Buckeye and Chief should have their fishing contest up here. Someone caught a 10 lb carp on one of the flooded streets here last week. That's one big gold fish!

Doug,
I sprayed the trees with a cheap hair spray, then sprinkled course ground foam on them, followed by more hair spray to seal it all. Then I spray painted them. They look fantastic. My next experiment will be to try and duplicate fall foliage trees using the same methods. Until now, I've only been making conifer trees. I want to "Branch" out a little.

Jim

[cnw1995]

I got a bag of foam - now I need the hairspray. Thanks!

[jefelectric]

Good morning all, Just got back from baby sitting duty. Haven't had time to read all the posts.
Hope everyone is doing well. We are finally going to get a little warm weather later this week, at least that is the forcast..

I'll check in later.

[FJ and G]

Doug,

A geeky lookin photo[:D][:D][:D]

[dwiemer]

Chief, hope you are better soon.
Doug, getting a list together, I will send to you.
Laz, heard they had a big bear attack someone in Ohio, yours did not get loose did it?
Dennis

[laz 57]

NOT MINE DENNIS.
He went to CANADA to drink it dry.
laz57

[JeffPo]

Good afternoon from sunny central North Carolina. Blues skies and temps around 75 degrees. On the motorcycle again today.

Haven't done any train stuff lately. I think my next project will be adding some red lights to the back of some cabooses. Kids love lights. I figured I'd use a red LED with a diode, as suggested in the thread on adding marker lights to passenger cars.

[cnw1995]

LOL, David. I found it by accident buried in a 'here's what your faculty look like' webpage so I thought I'd make fun of myself.

[mitchelr]

Keith/Roy/LAZ/Doug and others - Thanks for the encouraging words. This gets to be a frustrating time of the year. For the past few weeks we've been dealing with some first graders. Finally got some things in place for the 1st graders and today I dealt with 3rd and 5th graders. Today I handled 16 discipline referrals ( and that doesn't count the 4 or 5 others that got off with just a warning), so much for being the Instructional Leader in the school. In addition, I probably had 80 or more e-mails, some tech issues, a cut in staffing for next year, two parents who just happened to drop by and needed to talk to me, and flood in a bathroom.

I really need a break. Hurry up Memorial Day.

Still don't have my 1688 back. Usually the shop is more prompt than with this repair. I hope it is done soon.

Mitch [swg]

[csxt30]

Mitch ; do you get all summer off ?
That bear attack was just south of us here, & according to the paper, animals get loose from there all the time. The owner breeds them for the state & he saw the bear leave his property, then found it at that house & shot it, finally. I think he will get shut down now & may even go to
Sing- Sing !
Thanks,

[mitchelr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxt30

Mitch ; do you get all summer off ?

No John, I don't. I work 12 months. I get vacation days, but it gets busier and busier each summer and it's almost impossible to take vacation when school is in session.

Mitch[:(]