Ulrich, many times I see little birds dive-bombing hawks. I think it's probably after the hawk tries to go to their nests and suck their eggs.
"The active ingredient in medicine made from willow bark is called salicin. Some people use willow bark as an alternative to aspirin, particularly those that experience chronic headaches or back pain. It comes from the branches of 2 to 3 year old willow trees."
I thought I'd share that with you just in case you have any willow trees in Germany and knew of Euell Gibbons in the 70s
Google it, interesting stuff!
TF
herrinchokerYou might consider in line tankless hot water heaters.
Hot water heaters here do very little, and the tankless ones do not save much money in actual practice. "Cold" water temperature into a house 10 months out of the year is 90-120 degrees from the munincipal supply. The garage is quite hot, so the water heater is mostly just a storage tank.
The idea of the solar pre-heaters is that they heat the water to about 170 degrees before it gets to the hot water heater, making it do even less.
I take my showers on full cold nine months out of the year, 110 degree water is just fine for me. I get out of the shower feeling refreshed.
My wife and the dishwasher are to only users of heated water in this house.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
When I talked to a local plumber about an electric tankless heater for our house, he told me that in our area with very hard water, unless we had a water softener, the heater would get scale deposits and lose efficiency within several years. There are ways to cleans the tubes, but it involves more plumbing and work.
We are in an all electric neighborhood. I don't know if gas heaters have the same issue.
That was several years ago. Maybe they have solved that problem.
York1 John
York1When I talked to a local plumber about an electric tankless heater for our house, he told me that in our area with very hard water, unless we had a water softener, the heater would get scale deposits and lose efficiency within several years.
This bloke tried to sell you a gas heater with a tank! Our tankless electric heater is 15 years old now and still works as good as new, although we have "hard" water.
York1 I don't know if gas heaters have the same issue.
They do!
Happy times!
Ulrich (aka The Tin Man)
"You´re never too old for a happy childhood!"
Yes they do. We have a gas HWH, and our water has lots of lime deposits in it. With burner maintainence, so far we have got 14yrs. out of it, but....?
Because of the lime, we use bottled water for the coffee maker. Extends the life of the coffee maker a long time.
The two reason I wouldn't install a tankless WH, the ground water is very cold, and the lime deposits.
We have thought about filtering the water before it gets to any appliance, like the WH, but that never happened.
Mike.
My You Tube
Tinplate ToddlerThis bloke tried to sell you a gas heater with a tank! Our tankless electric heater is 15 years old now and still works as good as new, although we have "hard" water.
Our neighborhood is all-electric.
We have an electric tank heater.
Even though it is not as efficient as a tankless, it was much less expensive to install. Sixteen years ago, they took the old one out and put the new one in in less than an hour. A tankless system would have meant moving some plumbing lines.
Sixteen years is a long time for a tank heater. I replaced one electrode about 6 years ago.
It has been a very good heater. When we have family visit, we have two showers at the same time over and over for 8 adults, a dishwasher running, and we have never had an issue.
We have a water softener for the whole house, and we have a reverse osmosis system for the kitchen that my wife uses for tea and coffee.
I would like to check into a tankless heater next time I have to replace this.
One for TF. His hero and my hero hangin.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
SeeYou190 "Cold" water temperature into a house 10 months out of the year is 90-120 degrees from the munincipal supply.
Maybe some geothermal activity under the aquifer Cape Coral draws from.
Good Afternoon,
A cloudy, cool day here with some even cooler,wet weather tomorrow. Cool as in 40F.
I change my water heater every 10 years. I once had one leak and it made a mess of our finished basement. Since then we did a lot of remodeling down there and it is far cheaper to just change the heater regularly rather than repair water damage. We changed from gas to electric last year because of a code change that would have meant an expensive chimney upgrade. On demand heaters aren't very popular here possibly due the the cold water. Our mains are buried 8 feet to avoid frost and even then they can on occasion freeze.
Our Juncos are still here, well it could be different ones. They all look alike. A hawk landed in the back yard yesterday. My wife only got a glimpse of it. She thinks it was a Coopers. Not good for Juncos. Luckily the squirt gun arrived. When we had our yard redone 25 years ago we were having trouble keeping our 2 westies out of the planted area. We thought a water pistol would be a good, safe deterrent. It worked on one but the female would just stand there with her face dripping, likely thinking 'Is that all you've got'. She was very stubborn. Not sure what the neighbours thought when my wife would say, 'Get the gun'.
Nothing much on the agrenda today. Can't do anything in the yard yet.
I'm looking at a Tenshodo baggage car on ebay to go with my Hudson. They weren't correct for detail or size but short looks better on my small railway. Wonder why the term 'pike' isn't used anymore?
Have a safe day,
CN Charlie
BATMAN One for TF. His hero and my hero hangin.
Johnny Cash and Gordon Lightfoot hanging together, what a classic photo
Thanks Brent
P.S. Music therapy at 3:00PM in my home on a Sunday. An album of each on deck
BigDaddyBird lovers I heard an unfamiliar bird on this morning's walk It chirps twice at 2.0 and 2.9 seconds. Any ideas?
Hi Henry,
You were listening to a red-bellied woodpecker.
There is a free app called 'birdNET' that will allow you to identify birds when you hear them. Dianne and I both have it on our phones. It works well, although the less background noise the better. I was able to crank the volume up on my computer to allow my phone to record your sounds and birdNET immediately identified it.
https://birdnet.cornell.edu/
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I think you edited your post or I misread it. Red bellied woodpecker it is, that's a pretty amazing app. I will be using it more.
Home made pizza for dinner tonight.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I did edit the post. At first I couldn't hear your recording but I went back after I posted and cranked the volume up to full and it worked.
Sorry about the confusion.
Yesterday I practiced extreme social distancing and rode up to Flagstaff to visit my daughter and grandson--in the open forest, of course. The weather was perfect and the views were spectacular. Mrs. ROR followed along in the car and took this picture.
Richard
Richard I love Flagstaff. Yours is the second Flickr pic I clicked on in the forum today that says it is a Private Picture.
BigDaddy Richard I love Flagstaff. Yours is the second Flickr pic I clicked on in the forum today that says it is a Private Picture.
Does it show up now?
Evening Kids
Flagstaff sounds and looks beautiful. Ain't never been there but you tell me it's nice
Just got back home from my buddy Erv's in Prior Lake. A little car care seminar today, I needed to change my oil.
Wilson is still on the post of the Mastercraft.
Erv bought us a go-kart to restore this summer. We ought to be able to find some trouble on that thing this July or August.
We pulled the smoker grill away from The Vinyl Siding and cooked a couple steaks
I had a really fun afternoon into evening. I'm looking forward to talking to you guys right after I grab a beer and make a sandwich.
Post Hog
Erv saw me cleaning my chrome and glass with Windex. He laughed at me and brought out this cleaner called Zep and newspaper to wipe it with. How did this ever escaped my attention, newspaper cleaning chrome and glass.
Good Lord! can you see the twig reflections in my bumper and the tree is about 15 feet away. The trunk of the tree in my driver side window looks like Angry Orchard
Zep and newspaper from here on out for cleaning shiny reflective surfaces for me
P.S. Check out the reflection on the gable end of the garage next door. I think Erv used the Zep and newspaper on the side of the building
sandjamMaybe some geothermal activity under the aquifer Cape Coral draws from.
Nothing so fancy.
When they put the city water in my neighborhood 22 years ago, the pipes were run underneath the streets. I am not sure what the engineering concerns were, but I live in one of the very few Cape Coral neighborhoods with drainage ditches in the front yard parallel to the road. Most Cape Coral neighborhoods drain to the back yard. That might have had something to do with it.
When the sun is beating down on that roadway, surface temperatures can reach well over 140 degrees. I assume some of that heat is transferred underneath the roadway and into the pipes.
Anyway, the water into my house was 108 degrees today, air temperature was 93 degrees, humiture was 104 degrees, and roadway surface was 145 degrees.
Kevin, I haven't talked to you lately but Judy and I are going to the post office tomorrow morning.
Your package from eBay is on its way I think you and your wife will like it
P.S. Judy helped me decide what to send that you would both enjoy, and I listened to her. Then again, I always listen to my Judy.
Good Morning!
Again, it is bright and sunny. Our little animal friends also paid the morning visit, all five of them. The herd will become a little bigger within the next couple of weeks.
Starting from today, a first small step back into normality has been made. More shops are allowd to open, but restaurants, hotels, schools and kindergarten remain closed. This is the time for high schhol finals, but this year will graduate without any further exams - not a wise move, IMHO. Uneasiness is growing and more than just a murmur can be heard.
We´ll be having home-made pizza for dinner today - yummy!
BigDaddyMike Anything I should be aware of when I get my house inspected.
Just make sure the inspector has complete access to everything. Attic, any crawl space, basement, furnace, electrical panel, etc. He'll (she'll) take the covers off of everything.
He'll look for double tapping and wire size compared to breaker ssize (e.g. 20 amp breaker needs 12 ga. wire, etc.).
He'll take the panels off the furnace, probably want to start it so he can watch and listen, and use hie reference guides to determine the age of the appliance, along with WH and A/C unit.
He'll run water and flush toilets.
If any appliances go with the house, he might want to start them, like dishwasher, garbage disposal, etc.
He'll be all over the exterior as well, checking shingles/roofing, how many layers, caulking, etc.
Overall, as I said, just make sure there is access to everything.
I think a pre-sale inspection is a bit of a waste, unless you completely don't have a clue as to how a house "works". I did them at a much reduced price, and was basically just a walk-though with the current owner, and look for obvious defects.
This is the biggy, as far as home inspector organizations, https://www.homeinspector.org/
And this one: https://www.nachi.org/
This section of the ASHI web site has some good info: https://www.homeinspector.org/FAQs-on-Inspection
Good morning.
Cool and cloudy this morning, not much Bird activity, just a cardinal.
A good day for some modeling and then I have a small job this afternoon.
I brought some Johnny Cash and Gordon Lightfoot out to my friend Erv's yesterday. It had been a while and was good to see him. He enjoyed my pic of music and we cranked it up a bit in the garage. Erv knows a few of the Lightfoot songs and played along on the acoustic.
I have some ideas how to darken the tones on my portals so I can put the done stamp on them. I think I'll work on that this morning.
Make it a great day all.
Good Afternoon!
I am spending a considerable amount of time going through some older photographs from way back when we could still travel, had the cash to do so and were not locked up in our apartment. In 2005, Petra and I went to Dresden, which has rsen from the ashes of WWII.
A few miles southeast of Dresden runs a 750mm narrow gauge line, still with regular steam trains on a daily basis.
Not much going on today. Same as everyday.
Ulrich, nice pictures. I had no idea Dresden was such a picturesqe place. I'm glad to hear that some freedom is beginning to come back into your lives.
I'll have to cut the grass today. That puts a dark cloud over everything. Just three days ago we had six inches of snow. It melted in one day. Now the grass is using the moisture to grow.
York1I had no idea Dresden was such a picturesqe place.
Dresden is IMHO the most beautiful city in all of Germany. The river front view is breathtaking!
75 years ago, the city looked very much different.
I almost got into the business of installing those in-line water heaters, but I heard it was a tankless job.
So anyway. Welcome to Monday. Let's all load up on some carbs to fuel our brains for a new work week. Bagels for everyone! Man, I could just murder one of those cheese bagels right about now.
Hope everyone is staying happy, healthy, and home!
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Steven OtteSo anyway. Welcome to Monday. Let's all load up on some carbs to fuel our brains for a new work week. Bagels for everyone!
Steven, you can have my bagel. I don't care for them. I'll have a glazed donut (or a dozen).
Steven Otte for a new work week.
I am no longer recognizing the term "work week".
SeeYou190 Steven Otte for a new work week. I am no longer recognizing the term "work week". -Kevin
Welcome to the world of retirement leisure. It's everything it's cracked up to be.