The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[Fenlason]

We had thunderstorms and heavy rain over night.. it has cleared off today. I woke around 3:00 this morning.. yawn..

I went out to do a little work.. I had some branches I wanted to prune around the entrance to the skinny farm... a few dead fir. I used my sawzall.. I also pruned up some lower branches on some nearby smaller pine. I have not picked up the branches yet.. I will put the pallet forks on the tractor and put the large pallet on.. to haul them away.. I will probably wait for Laurie to help me.

I did run into town for a few errands.. it was nice to get out.. but it was exhausting. I haven't done much for 2 weeks... It's still pretty painful.

I want to do some work on the old cub cadet. My father-in-law had made a pretty solid bumper for the front of it. I want to add 1" thread rod.. so I can mount some weight plates to it. [To help keep the front end down when climbing steep hills.] I also want to add a mount to carry a chainsaw.. clippers.. and something for a rod.. so I can fling sticks out of the way.. from the seat... along with other work. I am trying to get it better set up for trail mowing.

[Fenlason]

I have "good" days.. and not so good.. with the neck. It was fairly painful today. It's hard to know.. what from specifically.. if anything. As painful as it was today.. it was still much better than it was not that long ago.

I have puttered on the tractor some more. I did wash it. It was really pretty dirty.. I have greased it. I mounted a steering wheel spinner on it, a new beverage holder. It's old enough it didn't come stock with one. We had put one on it, but it got broken. I have got he weight added to the front... maybe about 40 pounds. I have added a mount for my stick flicking pole. I also added the rear box for a chainsaw and a pair of loppers. I have yet to put some type of tie down.. or something. I have extra room in the box.. I might had a place for a few tools.. maybe fuel and oil for the saw..

I still have to change the oil and filter.. and sharpen the blades. I might add weight to the rear wheels. It already has wheel weights.. but there is space inside the wheel for more.. I might make something. hmm I keep forgetting.. it needs brakes.. it doesn't have much for brakes. We had rain coming today, so I didn't want to get to far into that. {I was working outside in front of my bike workshop}.

I have ridden a couple of times inside.. and have done some stretching and range of motion stuff.

[toypusher]

Man, the last 3 days have been way humid and miserable to work. Yesterday we got caught out in the rain. Only lasted about 15 mins, but was intense. So,did not finish yesterday and have to go back out today.

[Fenlason]

Yesterday.. we were up and out early. There was a Cancer research benefit up on Bangor [where I had my surgery.] One of Laurie's relatives is one of the one that works at putting it own... We have also lost a lot of people.. Laurie has lost two of that family in the last year.. as well as many others. Anyways much of the family got together. [we did the 5k walk] We then went all went to her cousins for a get together after.

It was a good day.. but physically very tiring and painful for me. It was my longest walk.. and longest day being up and about. By the time I got home I was pretty sore.. and exhausted. Surprisingly I didn't feel all that bad this morning. I have done some PT this morning and that felt pretty good.

We have a funeral today.. one of the relatives that I mentioned above. She was a fairly recent death.. but we were originally informed.. things would be later this fall. We learned yesterday.. it's today. It is fairly local.. so we will go to that.

I will probably go to see about PT tomorrow.. I have just been doing stuff on my own so far.

We had a cloudy drizzley day yesterday.. getting better through he day.. it did just finally clear off a few minutes ago. We are supposed to have a few days of hotter humid weather coming up.

[toypusher]

Had a 'do nothing' or more correctly almost nothing day yesterday. Today I need to go to the grocery store, mow and trim my lawn, then go to the range with my great nephew who is on leave from the Army for a couple weeks.

[toypusher]

I am thinking that today is going to be a rough day. It will be hot and 'oppressive' humidity. And I have to work with a temp guy vs the regular guy that I usually work with. We have worked together before and I really do NOT enjoy working with him.

But after today at least the weather is supposed to be nice. Mid 70s to low 80s and low humidity the rest of the week.

[Fenlason]

Kerry.. I hope your day isn't too bad.

Another, not so good night of sleep... I am sort of sore and tired all over [not horribly sore] from a variety of workouts. The "cancer" walk Saturday.. my weight workout Sunday.. and last night my first BKool ride.

We are supposed to be uncomfortably warm and humid today also.. although getting better later in the week.

I got the brakes fixed on the cub cadet yesterday. Taking he wheels off I was able to see it still had plenty of pads left. They did need a bit of adjustment.

I still have to sharpen the blades... hmm but I might do my zero turns first.. I don't know yet. The Cub does give me a better cut than the zero turn.

I am going to hold off on the extra wheel weights on the rear. I trie it out yesterday.. and it seemed pretty good as it was.

[Fenlason]

I got the blades on the Cub and zero turn sharpened. I had purchased a new angled die grinder, and used it. I do like using it for this. It works really well for it. It's light.. manueverable fairly fast, but easy to not overheat the blades.

I do need to come up with a better way to get at the blades on my equipment. I ended up using ramps and my floor jack along with jack stands. I forgot I have a motorcycle lift.. that might work better. I do have a chain hoist also. I just need a new place to use it.

We went to Dave and Angela's for dinner last night. Kassidy one of their daughters is going away to college [today] so it was a send off dinner.

We had some thunderstorms come through last night.. we are still showery and humid this morning, but are supposed to be improving through the day.

[toypusher]

Yesterday was not as bad as I expected. Not great by any means, but not too bad.

Heavy storms last night and early this morning so things are really wet. Won't be starting work until 10 or later it looks like. It is cooler and will only be in low 80s today with the humidity getting lower as the day goes by - so they are saying anyway.

[Fenlason]

Our humidity is gone.. and we are quite a bit cooler.. and are supposed to be this way for several days

Yesterday was workout day.. I went for a walk in the woods.. came back and did a weight workout.. then later did a BKool ride... I did feel better in everyone.. there was a little less pain in most motions.

of course I am tired today..

I just did a little more work on the Cub Cadet.. I built in a way to hold down the saw.. built a separate lopper holder. It's fastened to the chainsaw box.. but it is a separate "rack" that holds the loppers upright angled behind the seat, so I can reach back for them from the seat. I also have a mount for a chainsaw tool.

Laurie will be home for the day at lunch time... I am not sure what we will do...

[caseydog]

Hello folks! Remember me?

Wow, I haven posted since May. I won't lie and say I've read all the posts since then. So, I hope all is well with you.

Since May, I spent some more quality time in the hospital. More upper GI bleeding. I recovered a lot faster, this time. This is going to be a long-term issue -- the gene pool on my mother's side has some issues.

But, I'm on meds! And, I've lost about 30 pounds, or, you could say, "the baby was born," because most of that weigh loss was in my belly.

Other than that, not much is going on. I still live in the "boring burbs" of Dallas, where "recreation" is shopping and eating out, neither of which appeal to me. Hiking is done on a treadmill, and bicycling is a deathwish.

I spent the week of July 4th in NYC, which was kind of fun, between work. I ate some good food. No fancy restaurants, just hole-in-the wall joints and local bodegas.

That's all I got for now.

CD

[toypusher]

Hey CD! Nice to hear from you. Congrats on the weight loss (or birth I guess)!

Nice weather here the last couple days, but heavy dew in the mornings so we can not get started until mid to late mornings mowing. Had some light rain about 4 this morning so things are really wet and the sun is not out to much yet either.

I will have to mow my lawn tomorrow before I head out to the range for some practice.

[Fenlason]

Hey CD... I was just thinking about you yesterday..

Was it a boy or a girl? Congratulations on the weight loss.. but sorry to hear you have been sick.

[Fenlason]

We have another gorgeous day on tap for today. Sunny.. or mostly sunny.. low humidity.. and temps into the 70's. Yesterday afternoon Laurie and I moved some stuff from in front of the barn [where the new addition will go]. We also took some measurements, so I can work more on the plans.. so that when I am capable of working on it, I can get right to it.

We then went for a good walk in the woods.. some.. we just wanted to walk, but of course we were scouting trails.. new and old.



I am not sure what's on tap for today. I am not sure if Laurie is taking the afternoon off or not?? I would like to make a chainsaw scabbard to haul a saw on my "bigger" tractor. Generally if I am heading out for work, I use the RTV.. but if I am out trail mowing.. or using the rake etc. It would be nice to have the saw if needed. Once upon a time I have a larger box mounted to the back of the ROP.. but it was in the way of certain attachments.

I am not sure what I will do for PT / workout today. I will have to wait and see how recovered I am.. or whether I need another day off.

[Fenlason]

Well no workout Friday. I was still pretty tired.. and I ended up sort of cranky.. but not sure why.

Today... still no workout..

I was going to mow the lupine area. Which meant putting one of the mowers on the tractor. I wanted to do it when I could have Laurie's help.. for some of the heavier lifting / moving. I thought I would trim a few more branches while still have the pallet forks and big pallet on up front. I was hauling the first load, and I rolled a tire off the rim.... on the rear.

It's a pretty big tired to try and get seated. I tried a ratchet strap to help.. and I wasn't getting anywhere. So the next step was to take the chains off [a big job with these chains] and then take the wheel off. Of course that also means taking the wheel weights off. [120 pounds]. I got the wheel off.. spread dish detergent on each bead.. got put the ratchet strap back on.. and after a bit I was actually able to get it to seat. I didn't find any leak.. to have caused it to come off to start with.. so at least no damage.

It was of course a bit of a chore to get everything back together... but we successfully got that done. Of course now it was time for lunch.. and going in the house Laurie noticed our phone showed our line was in use.

All our phones were dead. hmmm great.. so a couple of hours later... of trying different things and checking different things... it seems as if the problem is outside. Laurie called to report it.. and they asked if I checked the box outside. While they couldn't tell for sure.. they said it seemed to be outside also.

I checked on the consumer end of the outside box.. and found a lot of bugs and debris in it.... There were two connections that seemed pretty close.. and maybe touching.. and maybe a little loose. I did fix them.. and whether that or a co-incidence.. we have a phone line again.. although a little scratchy.

Both "projects" were a little frustrating.. and left me tired and maybe grouchy again... / still.

We ended up working on more branches.. we have some 10-12 foot pine trees.. that I wanted to prune up the lower branches to.. I did also mower around them after cleaning up from the pruning. Some of the trees were close enough.. that before pruning.. I couldn't get between them to mow.

That is looking better.

I still didn't get those lupines mowed though...

We are now.. heading out to eat with our munchie group.