Uncle_Bob What next, driving around Austin while singing "Boomer Sooner" over a loudspeaker?
What next, driving around Austin while singing "Boomer Sooner" over a loudspeaker?
AWW HELL NO!!
Hook'em Horns!
Top O Page!
This rounds on me!
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
Where are we going in April ?
I suggest Illinois .... Chicago has long been the railroad hub of the nation, and there are plenty of active rail lines in all parts of the Prairie State.
For May .... I suggest Utah so we can celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Track fiddlerA simple dinner tonight. My wife Judy calls it polka dot macaroni and cheese. She worked all day today and I didn't, so I make it. It isn't that simple, I don't make the crap out of the box that'll kills you. It involves the Velveeta trailer cheese, milk and butter. 100% all beef wieners. And elbow noodles boiled to just the right texture, very important, underdone to start. I don't like mush. Of course you throw about four slices of American cheese in with all that to make it real. Some pepper and just a whisper of onion powder. Something thick to soak it up on beer night is a good idea! Then you put it in the preheated oven on 400 degrees for about 10 minutes and when it comes out, halfway between cooling down your grab a big handful of potato chips and crunch em all over the top. Perfect, it was good. I wish I could have shared it with you. I don't believe in much but I do believe I will have another beer. Happy Saturday Night
TF, that looks great! My kind of comfort food!!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Hello, Folks
I woke up to THIS this morning!
Pond_2019-sm by Edmund, on Flickr
Tomorrow is supposed to be the start of the baseball season in Cleveland! Sure...
OK, Birders. On my walk this morning (glad I had the camera!) I spotted this and managed to grab a quick shot. I first thought it was some kind of wood duck but it has more of a woodpecker beak.
Pond_bird_crop1 by Edmund, on Flickr
Here is a crop of the above photo.
Pond_bird_crop2 by Edmund, on Flickr
Any guesses?
The Fox got into our duck house last night and killed ten of our ducks.
Cheers, Ed
I could be wrong Ed but I do believe that's a belted Kingfisher. Kind of hard to tell. he's fluffed up, he looks cold.
TF
Sorry to hear about your ducks. Damn Fox
Track fiddlerI could be wrong Ed but I do believe that's a belted Kingfisher.
Kingfisher for sure!
gmpullmanThe Fox got into our duck house last night and killed ten of our ducks.
That's terrible Ed! How upsetting!
Why would a fox kill 10 ducks when it could barely manage to eat one at a time? Mother Nature can be pretty brutal. Not too long ago I read an article which pointed out that very few wild animals die a peaceful death. Most are eaten alive.
Small comfort to you Ed. I'm sorry for your loss.
Thank You, TF and Dave!
I agree with your assessment. First one I've seen here.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Belted_Kingfisher/id
Yes, the little guy does look cold. He's only a hundred feet or so from the owl box. I'd be glad to let him use it for the night. Still snowing here!
Thanks for the support, Dave. We have been at odds with foxes in the area for the past few years. Maybe land (mis)use and development have forced them to be more aggressive.
hon30critterWhy would a fox kill 10 ducks when it could barely manage to eat one at a time.
They do the same with our chickens, too. The fox will attack and kill, then drag the bounty off to a "holding area" go back and kill more and stockpile while the gettin's good. We have caught them in the act and they are so bold that they will grab a chicken right in front of us while we try to scare it away.
In the case of the ducks this morning, the wet snow had made a mud puddle where the fox could dig under the fence. They must have been working on it all night. We keep the chickens fenced in too, but sometimes a fox will get in. Hawks will come down and grab a chicken now-and-then but not too often, and only ONE at a time.
Life on the farm
Afternoon Folks
Flo, give the gang and I a please and leave a stein outside for Ulrich.
Been working in the yard. Wish it was a train yard, but oh well. Rear patio is now just a mess, not a disaster area as before. Going to work on it some more Monday.
Little good news on the leaking again roof. My handy man thinks it will cost me only around $100.00 to trap the section that is leaking again. He all so gave me the number to the company that did his roof. Never hurts to have 3 bids.
Train Front Played with the first Bessimemer SD 7 #453. Yep the decoder is dead, but I don't think it is the engine's fault. It ate both decoders on certarin section of track. I think that section of track needs more feeders. I am going to give a thrid try. Motor runs fine with a DCC jumper, or is a DC jumper?
Running a forgotten engine. I bet I have not ran this engine in a year or so. It is a Bachmann DCC On Board B&O GP 7. Bought it used for $25.00. While it is pretty quite the decoder sucks. Running it with only 5 cars and after a 1/2 hour of running it seems pretty smooth again.
Over all a pretty good day.
Later, Ken
I hate Rust
gmpullmanYes, the little guy does look cold. He's only a hundred feet or so from the owl box. I'd be glad to let him use it for the night. Still snowing here!
There must be open water nearby. They feed on small fish.
As far as him (her) being cold, he probably wasn't actually. His feathers are puffed up to retain warm air next to his body. All birds do the same thing. That's why most of them look bigger (i.e. 'puffed up') in the cold.
Oops I seen you posted somemore and that answered my question. Thanks
Nature can definitely be cruel and unfair sometimes. The area I used to live by the Canadian border had a problem with the blue heron population declining. Nobody understood why.
The DNR put cameras in the trees and found raccoons were climbing the trees and eating the Blue Heron eggs. They put rolled aluminum around the tree trunks at the bottom to solve the problem from the raccoons climbing the trees.
A simple solution in that case. Unfortunately it's not always that easy for every situation. A fox sure can be cunning and crafty. Again sorry about your ducks Ed.. I hope you can find some sort of solution so it doesn't happen again.
Sorry about your ducks Ed, We have chickens and a couple years ago one got attacked by a hawk, but we heard the noise and got outside in time. she is still living happily, minus an eye. After living in the house for a couple months she is very friendly. It's the black one in the middle:
This year we lost the Brama to the left by a mistery creature, possibly a fox or fisher.
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
Howdy ..
March is nearly over.
Again, I suggest we go to Illinois for April ..... Any thoughts from any of you?
The first guy here after midnight can start April.
For a period of time Judy and I used to visit Chicago every year. I have known people from there and know the city very well. Believe it or not, one time we took Amtrak down there from a coupon off a Wheaties cereal box, we didn't have to pay much.
I always enjoyed seeing Judy have fun down at Navy Pier. She has always had the little kid in her.
Chicago & Northwestern is in my top three favorite Roads. I'm easy, no complaints about Illinois and the Windy City from me Garry.
Chicago is always good with me Garry, I have lots of friends there. My kind of town.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Raccoons and fox have given us some challanges here from time to time. Generally Mr. Ithica, or Mr. Mossburg give us a big assist in the challange. My Mother liked to have roast goose for our Christmas dinner, and as a back up we would raise two grey barn yard geese just in case Dad or I were unable to provide Canada geese by that time.
Just before Christmas one year, (no Canada geese were hanging in the ell, or in the freezer) plans were made to use the "back up". When I went down to the duck pen I noticed an unusual amount of tracks in the snow around the enclosure, and soon found a mass of feathers,no geese, and lots of fox tracks.
In those days dynamite was fairly common here on the Island, (used for stumps in the field, breaking rock, and in the quarrys)
I tracked the fox to it's den, used a bundle of five sticks of dynamite with a 2 1/2 foot fuse, and resolved the situation for nearly three years.
It was interesting to see the fox tracks in the snow, it apeared to do a Kubuki Dance to get the body of the goose up over it's back to facilitate moving it to the den more rapidly, compared to draging it on the grouwnd. It did this with both geese.
One of our neighbors on the other side of the Island had to wrap the hen house in 1 inch mesh, heavy gauge chicken wire, after the raccoons ripped the cedar siding off, and made holes in the siding boards to get at the laying hens.
The picture of the bird is that of a Kingfisher. They have not shown up here yet. My wife and I have seen a pair of early Ospery, and some buzzards, along with two flocks of Robins. The Robins have been feeding heavily on Sumac pods left over from last year. Until last week we had a lot of snow cover, but as of this evening there is much bare ground showing in the woods, and around the house.
I have tried to call Ulrich, and contact him by E-Mail, but to this date have not had any response, I am concerned.
Ken--
On the roof thing--you might check into having the roof sprayed with a chopper gun, and fiberglass. This is done in the South in places where there is a high probability of hail damage. It protects the roof, and makes it water tightf
Prayers for those in need,
herrinchoker
herrinchokerI have tried to call Ulrich, and contact him by E-Mail, but to this date have not had any response, I am concerned.
I could have sworn he mad a post in here just a couple of days ago, but it's gone.
His last post, other than the one above, was in a thread in General Discussion, March 25.
Mike.
My You Tube
I saw Ulrich post a couple of days ago.
cudaken wrote: "Played with the first Bessimemer SD 7 #453. Yep the decoder is dead, but I don't think it is the engine's fault"
I just found a Proto2000 B&LE S7 #453 myself a few weeks ago.
I tried putting a Digitrax DH126 decoder into the 8 pin slot, it wouldn't fit right. I ended up taking out the factory light board and using a SoundTraxx MC2H104at. I first tried securing it with the little plastic "wire retainers", but they wouldn't hold, so I soldered the wires in. First time I ever did that. Took the trucks apart and cleaned the old grease out, too. It runs pretty good now.
The one I have has the old "snap-on" plastic coupler covers. They're just a little too tight for a Kadee #5 and the centering spring. The coupler won't move. I found I could leave the spring out, and the coupler moved side-to-side properly. So, with this one, the brakeman has the center the coupler manually before making the hitch!
mbinsewi herrinchoker I have tried to call Ulrich, and contact him by E-Mail, but to this date have not had any response, I am concerned. I could have sworn he mad a post in here just a couple of days ago, but it's gone. His last post, other than the one above, was in a thread in General Discussion, March 25. Mike.
herrinchoker I have tried to call Ulrich, and contact him by E-Mail, but to this date have not had any response, I am concerned.
Ulrich posted in the thread trade-offs between scales located on page 3, March 25th.
For the rcord, before it's locked, Ulrich posted in here a couple of days ago, Brent seen too.