Chugger

Bob

Julie

Terramadre

Albert

KT

Bernie

Jan

Sue

Sandy

Sherry

Julie

Kt

Always envy that asparagus patch of yours. We had a neighbor across the street who used to grow it an bring it over but he sold and dk if the new ones turned it back into grass.

Other than last year, I can't remember a year when It didn't happen.

Kt

Kt

Julie

Kt

J.

DD doesn't get out of work for another half hour and has a 40+ min drive, (in good weather). I sure won't miss this.

Tomorrow may be a record breaker for us cold-wise.
Winds are blustery. It feels more like January.

Julie

Al must be back down here somewhere.

I can't imagine having to drive in weather like you stated, Sandy.

Be careful, and stay safe, Yanks.

Kt

j

I read this last night and was going to post a reply on how wrong the weathermen have been down here, at least about rain percentages.

First of all, when a weather forecast calls for 50% chance of rain, it means that 50% of the viewing area will be getting wet, however, it says nothing for the amount that will be falling, although many believe that a higher percentage means more rain, but not so.

In recent years, if the forecast doesn't call for at least 60 or 70%, then we just ignore it, since it almost certainly won't rain.

A few weeks ago we had an 80% chance for rain but I don't think even 20% got wet, and very little rain fell if they did get it.

Yesterday, we had a 10% chance of rain, so no one even paid any attention, but we received 0.7" here and 1.0" out at the country.

I think I'll stop watching the weather on TV and let my neighbours chickens give me a more accurate forecast.

At least if they really mess up and don't get it right, no one can complain about them having a minimum four years of college thrown down the drain.

We newer see anything like that down here.

We used to see the county trucks with big V-plows on them but haven't seen one in 15 years. Mostly they have the undercarriage type of plow. and they added some winged plows this year that I have noticed. Instead of making 2 passes they can now just make 1 pass to clear the road. Anything to save money.

They also were experimenting with a pull behind plow. They only had it for a limited amount of time and there wasn't much snow either. It could do 2 lanes at once if I remember right. I'll see if I can't get some pictures of the various equipment just to show you what fun we have up here.

Here is a you tube of a tow behind plow.

V-Plow

Hope you're feeling better and back into your Fruit of the Loom.

Thanks Sandy. I am feeling about 90% and my Depends are in storage for another time.

That tow behind plow does look interesting. I see other states are looking into it.

We often see two snowplow trucks traveling the interstate, one behind and just to the right of the lead truck. Two lanes can be cleared at once. More tax dollars at work.

We may get 1" of snow tomorrow with the newest passing storm, "Virgil".

Julie

The most snow we ever had here was back in 1974, or within a year or two of that. It snowed 2 inches. South of here they had 8 inches a few years back on Christmas, but we had nothing.

No need for snow plows here.

Bern, if you put an extra gas tank on one of those snow plow trucks, and you drove it wearing your Depends, you could clear a lot of road without stopping. Just saying...

I would do that in a heartbeat but it would depend on the Road Commission if they would let me drive one of their (our) trucks. Our drivers are so dependable at their job that I wouldn't want to take food from their table. They need to work to support their dependents that are at home. I wouldn't want to see those children go hungry because we are depending on them to lead us in the future. So I'll just leave my Depends in the storage area for now.

I have an idea!!! Why don't you come up to the North country, I'll let you barrow one of my Depends and you could plow the snow. It would be something that you haven't done before and you could check it off your bucket list. But it would all depend on the weather, especially this time of year. Let's forget about it for now but I'll give the Road Commission your name and give them a recommendation that you are very dependable. Plan on mid-December. You can even sleep in an igloo to really get into the spirit of things.There's another thing for the bucket list.

I know that we can depend on you.

Bernie

Then what would y'all do? I'd hate to see you all playing golf all day, drinking wine, and bad mouthing penguins.

My bucket list is several miles long, and it ain't gettin' any shorter, but sleepin' in an igloo is not on the list, besides, it would definitely melt with my kerosene heater inside it. I like it hot, day and night.

Thanks for the invite, but I'd hate to put you all out of work. It's best I stay here where I'm really needed.

BTW, can you run a dozer, or a dragline, or a maintainer?

Kt

A dozer, front end loader. excavator, backhoe. sideboom. cherry picker, trencher, boring machine. compactors, but me best was leaning on a shovel. That was the hardest to accomplish. It took skill not to fall over.

I never ran a boring machine.

It was FINALLY nice enough to work outside today. Temps reached the high 40's, sunshine and little wind made for a couple hours of soaking up clean country fresh air. Well, sort of. One of my least favorite Spring chores is cleaning out the fenced back yard, where Taffy relieves herself. The neighbor dog also makes deposits there. It's a crappy job.

The yard has dry areas, and squishy low areas where snow is still melting, but I'm finding plenty sticks and twigs to fill my wheel barrow. I get to tell hubby about our mound system problem when he gets home...water is occasionally gushing out of a large hole, which wasn't there last Fall:( I can see down the hole to a pipe, and I'm thinking the pipe has a crack or worse yet, maybe a tree root has split the pipe. Oh, lovely.

Julie

Do you have a irrigation system there? Sounds like somebody didn't drain the sprinkler system last fall. Do you hear your water pump going when not using water in the house?

Bernie

Hubby thinks may a mole or mouse could have dug tunnels in the hole. As far as I can see the pipe isn't cracked. DH is first going to fill in the hole and the gulley formed by the water. The gushing water stopped and I didn't see it start up again for the two hours I was outside. I'm thinking it only rushed from the hole while the mound pump was pumping water into the mound system. IF the hole wasn't there, the water would probably drain through the layers of the mound as it's supposed to.

Julie

81F so far today. Very nice outside.

Kt

We are approaching 60* but I think we will be a couple of degrees short of it. The clouds are starting to come in form the West ahead of some rain.

Just talking...

Kt

Bernie, I'm not sure what you mean by "treatment" tank. The picture Kt provided is accurate. The liquid in the septic tank flows by gravity, downhill a bit, to the pump chamber. When the liquid in that chamber reaches a certain height and causes the float to raise to a certain height, then the pump is triggered on and the liquid is then pumped to the mound system. The liquid then filters through several layers of sand, gravel, and dirt.

I think your drain field is what some people here call leach fields. People who have a large flat area on their property have a leach field. But I've noticed more mound systems on smaller properties, or hilly areas. The mound system was here when we bought the place, and we are on a hill, so maybe that has something to do with why a mound system was built.

We've never had freezing problems in our tanks or mound system. Snow cover in our back yard melts faster over the tank areas.

Julie

As he was walking the yard, picking up windfalls, he wandered past the hole he had covered a few days ago, and noticed it had again opened up, and saw evidence of silt carried out by newly flowing water.

New plan for the afternoon...shovel out deeply, around the hole, deeper to the PVC pipe, and keep on digging about 8 feet along the edges and under the pipe leading across the mound hill. He discovered the pipe was disconnected from the corner elbow section (sorry, I don't know the correct term.) Neighbor came over to inspect, and the two of them determined the two sections had come unglued. The smaller section could easily be slid into the larger section.
The main pipe had a root growing tightly underneath...not a big root, but probably enough to cause bowing of the pipe, and gradual friction against the joining of the other pipe.

Anyway, I had to delay dinner until he fixed it. He had never repaired a pipe like that, but he can usually fix anything, once he learns how it works. He went to town and bought some PVC cleaner, PVC primer, and PVC cement. After cementing the joint, he put a snow saucer (you Northern kids would know what that is,) upside down over the pipe, then placed a 6 x 6 on top of it, just for a temporary cover to make sure the joint holds and doesn't leak. He then filled in around the rest of the pipe section with dirt. Later he will fill in around the pipe joint if all holds well.

Oh, and I found out why there's not danger of freezing in the mound pipe sections. When the mound pump pumps liquid from the pump chamber through the pipe going to the mound system, some liquid goes back into the chamber through a hole in the pipe close to the chamber. When the pump stops pumping, any liquid still in the mound pipes gravitates back to the pump chamber through the hole. I wish I could find an illustration of that. Anyway, no liquid is left in the pipes to freeze.

The photo shows where the joint had come disconnected. Hubby put a block of wood under the main pipe just for the picture. You can see the tree root he dug up off to the left near the yellow sponge. Not a big root, but pushing tightly next to the pipe.

My thought is that the Silver Maple tree growing near the mound system needs to be felled! When we bought the place in '99, we didn't know anything about mound systems or the pipes that ran through them. Now that we know the pipes are so close to the surface, growing tree roots can be a nuisance!

It was a beautiful day, almost 60*, but the temps have dropped at least 30*. Tomorrow will be chilly again:(

Julie

Another question, the 90 degree elbow appears to have a rubber washer in it, and an inside area where the pipe fits into it. We use simply elbows that we use cleaner/primer which is purple or clear, then immediately use glue, which dries almost immediately. It's best to turn the male pipe insert 1/4 turn as they are glued, but in your case, that is not an option, but the pipe still looks to me like it has an inner and outer part to it.

Never heard of a snow saucer. Isn't that an UFO that lands at the North Pole? 6X6? A piece of wood to weight it down?

After looking back at the picture, that elbow looks like it is going from a 4" pipe down to about a 2" inch pipe, so maybe that is a reducing fitting inside the elbow, and the 2' pipe fits inside of it?

Kt

I had to blow up that picture of the elbow because it didn't look right to me. Looks like the main pipe is 3 inch and they had to reduce in down to 2 inch. Looks like they put a reducer inside of the standard 3 inch elbow. It will work but they make an elbow with a reducer all in one piece. I wouldn't worry about it, what he did will work.

If that elbow was under pressure, we would have encased it in cement but that is under a golf course situtation.

Take care, Bernie

There is no rubber washer in the elbow.

The glue hubby used dries in about 30 seconds. And yes, he told me about the quarter inch turn but that it would be impossible since the pipes can't turn.

A snow saucer is a type of sled kids use to slide down snow slopes. It's a round concave plastic "sled" about 24" across that a kid can sit in. It has two rope handles on either side. We enjoyed twirling as we slid! Remember those days, Bernie & Sandy?

The 6 x 6 is a piece of hardwood. It's decking lumber used while transporting stacked semi's. DH uses them for cribbing.

Yes, there is a reducing fitting in the elbow. It's a 4" pipe going to a 2" pipe. The neighbor finds it unusual that the reducer is at the elbow instead of further down the pipe beyond the elbow. He explained something about the force of the water going around the elbow being great, and like Bernie said, concrete is usually used around the elbow because of the force of the pumped water.

Yes, the 2" pipe slid into the elbow with the reducer, and was glued back together.

Will update on the fix-it job later.

Julie

We don't have snow saucers, obviously, but we used to use garbage can lids to slide down sand piles at gravel pits, or down steep slopes along river banks.

Kt

There seems to be more robins this year. I can look out in the field and see 20 to 25 of them. Bluebirds are looking at the bird houses along with sparrows. No tree swallows yet.

Take care, Bernie.

Only saw a few robins this past Winter...was nothing for them to eat. They used to fly over late in the evenings by the millions. We were lucky to see a dozen in one day the last few years.

Calling for 60% chance for rain Wednesday...yeah right.

Kt

J

If it rained as heavy out there as it did here, I may be rebuilding my fence since there was no grass to hold the topsoil in place. We haven't had more than 1.9" in a 24 hour period in over 3 years, and as soon as I get my fence finished, it comes a gulley washer. Oh well, at least I don't have to water anything tonight.

Kt

It was WONDERFUL:)))))

Julie

I'm seeing 2 different Test Forums. One is filled with Spam about online pharmacies and gwTamara has 2 posts at the top with updates but the dates are Feb 1st abd Feb 11th both 2013.

Does anyone else see this? After I bumped off the spam, I refreshed the Test Forum page and everything went back to last nights posts.

OK Chugger, what are you up to now? Hehe.

Kt

Take care, Bernie

It's cold outside down here.

Yes, I did. How do you like it? That's what you get for teasing us with "Oh, it's 80 outside and I'm wearing a T-shirt".

We've had a lot of rain the past 4-5 days. Up to 4 inches and it's been cold outside. Thursday I think we only got up to 38 with rain most of the day. Sound like the rest of the month is going to be below normal. Oh well, I'll take that compared to the foot of snow that the upper Midwest is getting.

Take care, Bernie

Forgot to say, good luck with the knee Sandy. Hope it turns out OK. Also why don't you just read a book instead of getting a tablet. You aren't going to be there that long. Saying a prayer for you tonight.

Take care, Bernie

Sandy, look into laser therapy for pain relief and accelerated healing. It helps blood flow to affected areas and reduces swelling. Well worth having done although some M.D.'s don't know enough about it to recommend it and I don't think most insurance covers it...unfortunately.

Kt

Still stuck inside...dreary weather...snow flurries predicted tonight:(

J

Hehe, take that KT. You've got a suntan but we've got good sized puddles. But thanks for the laser suggestion. I'm thinking its a bit late for me but well worth looking into and knowing.

Julie, Yes, going in for hip replacement, finally. No cartilage left between hip bones makes walking tough and when a chip comes off each step is agony until it grinds down I guess.

Julie

Once surgery is done, routine laser therapy for about 20-30 minutes for at least 4 treatments will do wonders for the pain following surgery, and for increased healing time.

Just a thought, if you want pain relief and shorter recovery time.

Good Luck with the surgery.

Kt

Had snow flurries today.

More rain tomorrow and off & on all next week.

I thought the Farmers Almanac said this April would be dryer than normal. They were a tad off.

Soggy & signing off,

Julie

There must be something moving on into here. Forecasting wind chill down to 28 tonight and then 75 tomorrow! Must be a lot cheaper to live where you don't need clothes and outdoor equipment for so many different seasons. I'd really miss the season changes though. Especially a nice crisp sunny fall.

Without rain, my watermelons won't make it. I was worried aboout rabbits and deer eating them, but I guess the drought will be the culprit.

Bern, next time you leave the door open, do it when it's raining.

WHAT!!! And get the carpet all wet. Nope, ain't gonna do it.

Other than the rain , it's been on the cool side with sun every now and then. We got up to 60* for the first time this year. Might get some snow flurries Thursday night /Friday morning. As they say, spring is the transitional time of the year.

My yellow electus insulatus flowers popped up Monday. They always seem to come up when the deer are around, hmmm. Yes those deer nipped some of the tulips but they just got some of the leaves not the stem with the flower on them. What really makes me mad is, I thought about putting up the fence the day before but didn't do it. Next year I'll put up the fence in March.

Take care everybody, Bernie.

I pictured your yellow electus insulatus as something like this, until you said flowers.

Bernie, we didn't get quite as much rain as you did. Most of the storm tracked south of us, through Chicago, where some places got 5", then tracked up your way.

Last I saw recorded here (yesterday morning) was 2.85", and we got a little more rain after that,,,so maybe 3" total.

Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha wastewater treatment plants are sending their overflow sewage into rivers in order to avoid backup into peoples' basements.

Rural residents are urged to have their wells checked for contamination if their wells were covered by flood waters. We are O.K. since we live on a slight hill.

I just saw the SUN!!!:)))

Julie

Julie

I think this morning they reported low 70's for Sunday.

I had to come inside just now. I heard thunder and it's starting to sprinkle heavily. I hope it keeps up. The Texas weather map shows only a little rain just over us, not widespread.

Kt

Did Kt get some rain the other day? When I looked it was west of San Antonio.

Bernie

Still waiting on a good rain. I see lightining off in the distance and it sprinkled yesterday and others got about a tenth of rain.

Kt

j

I'm stuck inside today...mid 40's, windy and drizzly...not good gardening weather at all! My grass will need cutting soon. Weeds are growing like weeds. Garlic Mustard can't be sprayed until temps reach at least 60* w/little or no wind...so it's growing fast & furious, getting away from me:(

Everything happens at once, and I get further and further behind.

Julie

Just good living and go to church on Sundays. Hehe.

It was just like that here yesterday. The cities along the Lake shore were in the mid 40's with a West wind coming off Lake Michigan and 25 mile east of them, we were in the low 80's. with a South wind. Like I said, you got to go to church once in awhile.

My grass will need cutting soon.

I've mowed ours twice already. Last Friday and yesterday.

Take care you two, Bernie.

There was bubble gum instead or screws.

Had a frost Sunday/Monday. I don't think it was that bad. Talked to the neighbor and he said the grapes got nipped. Grrrr.

Bernie

Daytime temps are in the 60's and 70' lately, and dip to the 50's & 40's at night...very normal Spring (finally, after the frigid start in April.)

Julie

Have you use borax for your ant problem? The recipe that I have used is, 2 Teaspoons Boric Acid (Borax), 1/4 cup Hot Water, 1 cup Corn syrup. Put it in some sort of squeeze bottle. Cut yourself some 1 inch long painters tape and put some of the solution on it and just observe what happens. You can put this tape in several locations inside of the house and outside of the house. Beware of the children and pets. We don't want anybody going to the hospital.

Bernie

Kt

I added your recipe to my clippings.
Gosh, I haven't looked at my clippings in months! It gave me an opportunity to clean them out.

Julie

j

Getting muggy around here.

I hope it stops raining around noon because myself along with the ushers at church will be mowing the cemetery at 6pm tonight. We mowed it last Monday the 13th and it was like a hayfield then. Six inches tall. I wished they would have scheduled it this Monday the 20th and do it again tonight but I'm just one of the workers. What I should have done was mow it the 20th with my exmark and not tell anybody.

Bernie