Whatcha Up To???

[w_r_ranch]

Made bread.

Fed the cattle.

Pulled the trigger on the new weather station. I settled on the Ambient Weather WS-2000 as it offers the best bang for the buck.

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[ksk]

Pruned crape myrtles and blackberry bushes.

 

[wolffman]

A couple pics from the drone Santa brought Luke for Christmas. I'm amazed at the picture quality from such a small camera. These are just screengrabs from 1080p video. Ranch, you would have a blast with one of these at your place.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Refilled bird feeders.

Burn accumulated trash.

Made a big pot of vegetable/beef/barley soup out of the leftover pot roast as the weather is fixing to get cold again.

 

[w_r_ranch]

A chilly 39 degrees & windy here... we also received another 0.95" of rain last night, so everything is soggy.

Since it is a crappy day, I went & had the new tires put on my Jeep (got 90K miles out of the last set). I'll do Mrs. Ranch's Jeep in March & then all 3 vehicles will be done.

 

[ksk]

1.1 rain here last night.I was going to go to town for weekly groceries but decided tomorrow may be a better day. Low water crossing between me and main highway had 2' water going through it.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Water everything in the greenhouse.

Fed the cattle.

Installed more apps on the TV/DVD player to give Mrs. Ranch more selections.

 

[w_r_ranch]

The new weather station arrived last night so I'll work on setting it up this weekend.

Made bread.

Put out another suet block for the birds.

Did the weekly shopping & picked up a load of cattle feed.

 

[SQWIB]

Peed!

 

[w_r_ranch]

The new weather station is now fully set up & online. Piece of cake compared to the old one. I especially like that it connects directly to the wireless router so I no longer need to run Windows in a virtual machine.

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Fed the cattle & put out hay.

Made stuffed jalapenos for supper tonight.

Filled 8 flats of starter pots w/my mix, then planted the eggplant, both varieties of peppers, basil & both varieties of tomatoes. Watered them & everything else in the greenhouse & turned up the heat. I'll continue tomorrow as Dieter is demanding some attention.

 

[Mr_Yan]

-16 F when I left the house this morning at about 8 a.m. we're now up to about 3 F.
Snow starting to fall.

Pinewood derby. My Tiger cub-scout won the tiger level which sends us to the council derby. I made him build the whole thing but I know most of the cars are built mostly by the dads. I'm not too happy with what pinewood derby has turned into. Our pack derby had three classes of cars: scouts, siblings, adults.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Continued filling starter pots & then planted 3 flats (54 pots) of marigolds.

Mrs. Ranch is quilting so I spent most of the day hanging out/playing fetch with Dieter. He'll sleep good tonight.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Last Monday the washer agitator dog assembly needed to be replaced - took about 15 minutes.

Now the dryer isn't heating. The thermal fuse rings out OK. The igniter looks like it is starting (I can see glowing). I suspect the gas valves need to be replaced.

 

[Mr_Yan]

7 inches of snow overnight. Already spent about 90 minutes shoveling today. Expecting another 1" to 3" by the end of the day. Supposed to get REAL COLD in the next few days.

Took the day off as two kids are off school due to weather and one kid is sick. Plus I have to fix the dryer.

 

[w_r_ranch]

72 degrees & sunny. Perfect cooking & working outside weather!!!!

Made bread.

Seasoned up 2 pork steaks that I'll smoke for supper.

Installed one of the irrigation extensions & move a rose bush to the new ring in front of the greenhouse. I still need to transplant the Lirope to this area.

 

[Mr_Yan]

Dryer fixed - had to replace the gas valve coils.

Had to replace kid mittens (kid + mittens went to school, just kid came home). Local big box store Meijer does not carry kid mittens right now but you can buy swim suits.

 

[wolffman]

My son is a Bobcat this year. Our school pack is co-ed but my daughter doesn't want to leave her brownie troop. The scrub-scout pack is much more active than the brownie group and the logistics would be much easier. I'm not a fan of girls in boy scouts and they're only there because of lawsuits. I don't think it will change much with the cub-scouts but boy scouts as we knew it is over. I looked into Trail-Life USA but the closest troop is over an hour drive away.

-16 F when I left the house this morning at about 8 a.m. we're now up to about 3 F.
Snow starting to fall.

Pinewood derby. My Tiger cub-scout won the tiger level which sends us to the council derby. I made him build the whole thing but I know most of the cars are built mostly by the dads. I'm not too happy with what pinewood derby has turned into. Our pack derby had three classes of cars: scouts, siblings, adults.

You would have been hating on us haha. Luke learned some CAD in the process, and it gets him familiarized with the machines. There were a couple cars faster than his though, these folks are out for blood.

 

[w_r_ranch]

The cold front blew through last night... we received 0.17" of rain as it arrived & it was 38 degrees in the morning. Made it up to 49 for the high (big difference from yesterday).

Went to pay the quarterly taxes.

Watered everything in the greenhouse.

 

[Mr_Yan]

So this is the 5 day forecast. Notice the 73 degree swing from the low on Wednesday to the high on Sunday? If we hit that -31 F low we will set a new record low temperature.

We currently have 18 to 20 inches of snow on the ground.

Kid's school was canceled for Wednesday and Thursday. That will make 3 snow days this week.

 

[Mr_Yan]

You would have been hating on us haha. Luke learned some CAD in the process, and it gets him familiarized with the machines. There were a couple cars faster than his though, these folks are out for blood.

I like that our pack had the three classes / divisions so dads could make a car and not try to pass off the car as the kid's work. It is one thing for the kid to be learning how to use the machine and do that then put his own work in but there are far more people out there entering a car like you posted saying they used a scroll saw, rasp, and files to shape it. There's no way a 6 year old is going to freehand that with a file.

We had one scout's Grandpa bring in the car he built with the scout's dad in 1988. All the scout cars were running 3.1 to 3.8 seconds down the track (maybe one broke 4 seconds and a few were in the 3050 ms range). Grandpa's car ran 5.1 sec plus.

 

[Mr_Yan]

7 am. Has not warmed up.
Guys on the radio is reporting that the windchill is around -55.

Cold enough my office is closed for the day. Most everything is closed around here today even the USPS is not delivering mail.

Preston-The-Tactical-Terrier is not liking this weather.

 

[w_r_ranch]

No thanks, it's bad enough at 48 degrees for these old bones...

 

[w_r_ranch]

Fed the cattle.

Watered the flats in the greenhouse. Marigolds are starting to sprout!!!

Set the trap (baited with a can of cat food) as I have a big possum visiting the bird feeders.

Mix a wheel barrel full of topsoil/perlite/peat moss, then back-fill the new 'rose ring' in front of the greenhouse in preparation for planting the Lirope. That's it, it's too chilly for me.

 

[ksk]

Weeded all planter boxes.

 

[Mr_Yan]

NWS website has us listed at -27 F / -33 C. That ties the all-time record cold for here.

Now to go see if my car will start so I can go to work.