We got our 1932 pumper out tonight to practice with her before the big antique fire truck muster ten days from now. Worked like a champ right up until the fan bearing seized up.
Now we're trying to figure out how to fix it, or find a new fan bearing assembly.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
evening
Ns still has a coal train in the siding at work.Took the other picnic table over to Deshler.Csx sent a couple trains by.One was lined to go around the SE connection but needed to come home.Took care of the yardwork. Need to get cleaned up.
stay safe
Joe
Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").
Norm,
So your uncle was out by the MMPA milk plant.
I have great memories as well of the summers spent as very cheap labor on my G/parents 250 acres east of Romeo. I don't remember it being as tough as it is now, (50 years might have something to do with it). At least now it's less than 20 acres of hay for the horses. The other stuff, fences, rotary mowing the pastures, 1/4 mile gravel drive, 4 + acres of grass and an 100+ year old barn that needs a lot of TLC.
A fresh cut alfalfa/timothy (hay) field is usually the memory trigger. Really to bad the old downtown of Byron burned down of couple years back, 1880's ?buildings. Had a good homey restaurant that I stopped at on occasion, may have been their original.
Farms here in mid Michigan are small compaired to the plains. Still are many farms operating with just a few hundred acres. Large here is 2000 to 6000, none of the 25,000 acre monsters. How do you milk a 1000+ cows anyway, I thought 70-75 was a lot of work!! (twice a day).
Bob,
My drives into Shiawassee County are among my favorites. There is a young couple who opened a pizzaria in Byron, and their product is well worth the drive. If I'm lucky Iwill see trains. CN, HESR, and GLC, formerly known as TSBY will show up while I am munching on a very tasty lunch. In the mean, I get to see the crops growing right from seeds to the production of the food they provide and have admiration for the farmers who put their chances of success up against the vagaries of weather.
A short drive west of there is Ovid, where, in the late forties my uncle bought an 80 acre farm. He was an employee of the postal service and he worked the RPO from Port Huron to Chicago. I spent many summers of my youth on that farm and still have fond memories of doing so. How many of today's youth even know where milk comes from let alone how to get it from a cow without getting kicked in the process? Some were cooperative, others were not.
Oh. I forgot to mention the ever-present barn cats. Their antics while trying to capture a drink were amusing to say the least.
Norm
Speaking of smelling like a hay field, it's 2nd cutting time. It's cut, raking it today, baling tomarrow as long as it stays dry.
Maybe I won't retire, it's less work to stay working.
Had to do partial mow on wet grass. John deer had to slow down thru thick grass. Just hate when cleaning mower that is a pain. Did not finish another downpour. More limbs down that take longer than the mowing. Yard smells like a hay field where mowed.
Ns had an eastbound coal train in the siding when I left work.CSX finally delivered the 2 pumps for the pipeline to the ND&W.Matt finished the 2nd picnic table for Deshler.We will deliver that tomorrow after work.Everyone liked the way they looked.Time to get cleaned up.
blhanel Nice weather out west... Saw lots of trains today between Sidney, NE and Ogden, UT. Half were moving, the other half were sitting, mostly around Rawlins, WY (parked westbounds). Currently enjoying a peaceful evening in Twin Falls, ID- tomorrow will head across central Oregon (no trains there).
Nice weather out west...
Saw lots of trains today between Sidney, NE and Ogden, UT. Half were moving, the other half were sitting, mostly around Rawlins, WY (parked westbounds). Currently enjoying a peaceful evening in Twin Falls, ID- tomorrow will head across central Oregon (no trains there).
Three and a quarter inches of rain since midnight - sheesh!
Finally done with the main part of it, although the scattered shower can't be ruled out.
Out a a tree down on branches call this morning. Of course, it was during some of the heavier rainfall... Aside from a push from the wind, though, I think the branch was coming down pretty soon anyhow.
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
CShaveRRYard work has been waiting for the weather to become decent all week. Maybe tomorrow, after a morning funeral for a church member. No trains for Carl until the mowing, sweeping, and aerial pruning gets done. Or until the trip to Michigan before the weekend, whichever comes first...
Carl know the feeling No yard work for 5 days due to every afternoon 90 degree plus and rain. Yard in morning does not dry until about 1 PM due to last day's rain. All the rain since March has caused many trees to grow limbs down until they become dangerous head knockers. Hard hat a must when mowing !
Aerial pruning is becoming a pain.
We of the Lombard Historical Society (one museum along Chicagoland's first railroad!) were lucky to get our Civil War reenactment in today (the Rebs won the battle this afternoon--Union won yesterday). Within an hour or so of the shutdown of the event, the heavenly artillery opened up. We got about 0.4 inches this time, but the storms dealt another wicked blow to other parts of Chicagoland, with some winds approaching hurricane force.Yard work has been waiting for the weather to become decent all week. Maybe tomorrow, after a morning funeral for a church member. No trains for Carl until the mowing, sweeping, and aerial pruning gets done. Or until the trip to Michigan before the weekend, whichever comes first...
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Another round of storms came by this afternoon.G+G house reports .6 in the rainguage.This morning csx sent tonka toys on track 1 to put in rail.Back to work tomorrow.
'Spotty Afternoon T'storms' picked my spot to stay all afternoon.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Mother nature filled the swamp this morning.Very muggy this afternoon.Saw a surviving wabash signal do it's job near St.Joe Indiana.They were also had a pickle festival going on.Tomorrow hopefully it cools off.
mudchickenGet to help some of the younger field pups play with the nuclear gopher holes next week (a railroad runs by it)
Make sure they don't play Whack-a-Mole!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Great Asparagus Barrier, it RAINED!
Get to help some of the younger field pups play with the nuclear gopher holes next week (a railroad runs by it)
WOOHOO!
blhanelI left my tin shoes at home
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Joanie and I are on the road today- will be passing through certain kitty territory later. Hopefully unscathed, however, I left my tin shoes at home...
CShaveRROh...speaking of ladders, I did spend one day at home going up and down ours, and cleaning the soil, sticks, and other gardens out of our gutters. I guess that counts.
I call that "laddercise" and submit that it is quite a good cardio workout if you do enough "reps" to make a difference.
We have our bedroom cooling off with a/c this evening, or at least dehumidifying. If the a/c didn't work I'd be wishing for terrycloth sheets!I'm hoping that the lightning and thunder, which seem to be getting closer for the past hour or so, are productive in slicing through the humidity tonight. Tomorrow continues the annual Civil War reenactment in Lombard, and I have nothing but sympathy for the soldiers and sailors on both sides who have nice, scratchy woolen uniforms to work in. I'll be volunteering on behalf of the Lombard Historical Society, but I can get by with short sleeves, shorts, and Crocs (as long as I don't step where the horses go!).
It's been an interesting week...
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday included train-watching at Elmhurst; Tuesday and Thursday included train-watching while at the Peck House (not that I didn't do--or attempt to do--other things at both venues!)
I haven't done any yard work at home this week yet--the heat and humidity have Pat very concerned if I venture outside. I was successful in installing our mailbox and some new hooks for rakes and brooms in the garage. And yesterday I purchased the third in this year's triumvirate of desired yard tools--a pole pruner to get at some of the branches that are too high to reach from the ground or a ladder (assuming I can ground it properly).
Oh...speaking of ladders, I did spend one day at home going up and down ours, and cleaning the soil, sticks, and other gardens out of our gutters. I guess that counts.
All three days at the depot platform in Elmhurst were fruitful to some degree. All three days I was able to steer passengers toward the proper side of the tracks to board their inbound scoots (we're nearly ten months after the changeover, and people still don't get it...I wish the railroad could be more consistent, but it IS about keeping everything moving as much as possible. Today I helped a blind person across the tracks (again) and onto his train.
Also today, I was finally able to meet an old friend's train-loving son (and a couple of his cousins). Pat was with me as we tried the new restaurant in Elmhurst (Beerhead). After lunch (excellent sandwiches...avoid the desserts!), Pat went home, while Julie and family stayed with me to watch a huge manifest enter the yard. Not sure of its identity...arrived early in the afternoon with a DP unit in the middle. That train had more "pay dirt" for me than any single train so far this month...unusual secondhand cars, a couple of new series, and a new builder of freight cars that I hadn't seen before (the car was built over a year ago, though).
Well for low humidity locations there is always the swamp cooler ? Found they worked fairly well.
afternoon
Ns had a westbound go by just as I clocked out.Then another westbound was right behind him.Did someone forget to put that train in the siding?He was stopped on the road 22 overpass as I left.Going to get stormy overnight tonight??? guessers say the cool off will be next week.Chores to do.
Ah, yes. The window fan or the attic fan made life bearable when you were up, but when you went to bed, there was no circulation between your body and the bed. A possible argument for a hammock?
Which reminds me of a pet peeve. Cars. They used to have ventilation from side vents that could be set up to scoop in or exhaust air, and there were vents that brought in fresh air from under the dash, seats were of fabric on kapok (sp?) filling which allowed for air circulation on your behind. Much of the time you didn't really need air conditioning. Today, you are forced to use air conditioners because there is only feeble circulation from the fan (no "ramjet" effect), and seats, even if they have fabric upholstery, are on foam cushions which block circulation. Enough ranting.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
We had one summer like that in upcountry South Carolina. We had an exhaust fan in one window, but it did not help much that summer.
The two summers in the early fifties that I visited my brother in Baton Rouge were not that bad; he had an exhaust fan in the attic.
Johnny
Norm48327Rember the fifties or sixties when a cooled house was not an option and we slept at the mercy of the weather?
Back in the fifties in New Orleans, most of us lived without air conditioning. We took it for granted that we would wake up on soaking wet bed sheets.
Norm48327Remember the fifties or sixties when a cooled house was not an option and we slept at the mercy of the weather?
Oh, yeah. Actually, it's not an option for me now - I don't have an air conditioner. Usually, though, it gets cool enough at night to be livable. A fan can make a big difference, although I'm not real fond of the sound.
My grandmother used to open her house up first thing in the morning, when things were cool. By 10 AM, more or less, though, the house was closed up tight as a drum.
Larry,
A bit warm in Milford and Waterford today but we can lve with that.Temperature is OK but humidity sucks. Air conditioner is on only long enough to deal with the latter.
Rember the fifties or sixties when a cooled house was not an option and we slept at the mercy of the weather?
The day started off summer-like, but cooled with the passing of a storm (that really didn't live up to the name) shortly after a group of us finished lunch on the shores of the St. Lawrence River.
Now it's back to warm and muggy...
Not quite as muggy today as yesterday.Mother Nature looked like she wanted to rain on us.Yardwork got done.Ns was clear when I got off work.Errands to do in town.
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