Christmas Days Have Come And Gone." John Prine
Merle found some good ones for us this week, radial diesel engines! You can see a bit of information about these by clicking the YouTube logo and viewing on YouTube. Thank You Merle!
Time to make some firewood! Here's one from two years ago.
Back To The Old Grind!
Click The Pic To Enlarge.
We enjoy that special time in the morning when the sun rises and the golden light hits the top of trees and works its way down. The geese often entertain, and this morning we had turkeys darting around amongst the trees.
A good friend called today and had treasure for us. Her husband found three big clumps of oyster mushrooms and they gave one to us! Susan separated them, cleaned them, and sauteed them in ghee. We had 1/2 of them with Christmas Eve dinner, with pork loin and a salad with the last of our garden tomatoes. The bedtime treat will be fruitcake bars made by Patti. There are just enough for one more Christmas. Thank You Sally and George! Merry Christmas!
Merle spotted this, and it's too good to wait for the weekend! Thank You, Merle! Merry Christmas!
Sunka arrived underweight, and we are struggling just to hold even. He will like a food one day, and the next turn up his nose. At age 15, being skin and bones is bad. We don't want his organs to fail. Otherwise, he is a happy, and well adjusted house dog now. Susan made some new treats for him with graham crackers and sardines, and he likes those. They are high calorie, too. It's not a Grind; it's a joy.
I had the good fortune to meet Kory last year at Rollag and got to visit with him a bit. He's a genuine nice guy, and a real Iron Man. Thanks for the great pick, Merle!
Lisa went to St. Louis today for her follow-up appointment at VSS. She checked out OK, but is going to stay on meds for a while in case of residual infection in her bones. As we left St. Louis we were behind a load of walnut logs. That was a nice treat.
Susan and I put that hickory on the ground with a cut that will be new to most of our followers. It worked great, and we pulled it off the stump with a come-along rather than the tractor. We have the video processed and we will start the upload at bedtime. It should be up in the morning and then we will post it here on the blog.
And Here We Go! It finished uploading about 4:30 this morning so you can watch it come down with your morning coffee!
This stack was a white oak log earlier today. Freshly split white oak smells delicious!
While out in the woods bringing the white oak rounds in, I spotted a hickory that had tipped over and lodged. I shot a little video about it, and we will go back tomorrow to take it down and shoot a video showing the process.
I brought Lisa home on Thursday after a four day hospitilization. The good doctors at VSS in Manchester, MO saved our little girl's life. We still do not know what caused the infection in her right leg, but it is healing and the swelling is down. We will go back in a couple weeks for a follow up appointment.
Merle found another great one. This makes a traction engine look like a toy. Thank You Merle!
UPDATE: A personal note to us from John In Philly, who has a great deal of experience working down deep in ships. Thank You John!
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I think you will like Derek. Pop some corn and pour a cup of coffee!
Here's another great one by Good Old Brother Ben, aka Brassman Bart!
...is to let the little ones alone. Let them get to know you, too, if you have the time to be in the woods.
I've been in St. Louis with Lisa at Veterinary Specialty Services. She has a bad infection in her right foreleg and is undergoing IV therapy. It appears she is recovering now, and she will have a CT Scan tomorrow to see if there is something in her leg/foot. A holiday weekend during Covid restrictions is a bad time to have a sick dog, but they are taking care of her.
"Sweeter than saccharin at a drugstore sale." We miss you, John Prine.
The Brass Man's notes: Hello! This week's music is a number written by Iowa's own Karl King, “Hosts of Freedom”. Originally published in 1920, this music is 100 years old this year, and is public domain. The town band I played in when I was a teenager always played this number every summer, and when you listen, it may sound familiar, especially if you have ever played in a small town band in Iowa. The music is available as a free download on bandmusicpdf.org, and is very nice to listen to. All parts in this video are performed by me, and I hope you enjoy. Please like, please share, and please subscribe. Thank you. Brassman Bart
"Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best. Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789." G. Washington
Do you get nervous about the tie-downs on these engines holding? This is edge-of-your-seat excitement!
Here's some useful information for you to digest and think about!
Merle is really good at finding the exotic locations. Thank You, Merle!
Old Jack had been going downhill for the last several months. He had back pain, hip pain, weakness, and then kidney failure. The old boy was 14 plus years old, but still enjoyed going out, but he was often falling down by the end of his walk. Skipper left us last week, too, at age 18 1/2.
Another Great Pick By Merle! Thank You, Merle!
SUV RVing is one of our favorite YouTube channels, and we often watch Tristan during dinner at our house. Here is an incredible hike/climb he did recently.
Many years ago Susan and I visited Chicago to visit relatives and to do a museum crawl. We navigated to Columbus Foods to buy bulk soapmaking supplies. It was a bad looking neighborhood. Creepy, Scary. The house next door had chain link with razor wire around the top and pit bulls on the porch. We rang the bell and had to talk through an intercom. They told us to get back in our car, leave the way we came without taking any side streets, and phone in an order. We also lived in Eastern Kentucky for several years and that looks quite familiar. Poverty, welfare, alcoholism, Mountain Dew teeth, and now Fentanyl. Holy Crap. There is a lot of beauty in Eastern Kentucky and we have some great memories, but we also saw too much of the trouble there, too.
...does not make a good year! Gravel eats them up.
Two new skins this week, then Back To The Old Grind!
Looking up means you will trip once in a while in the woods, but it is a necessary habit for all woods workers. Never sit down, or even pause under snags or trees with dead limbs. Soon it will all be on the ground.
That one would have smarted!
I think it is fascinating that Ford isolated his team and made them work with outdated equipment. They worked it out, though! Interesting thing about patterns and casting is that antique engine parts are quite difficult to duplicate today. Foundry practice has changed over a century, and special techniques have been lost to the modern pattern maker.
Jerry Jeff Walker passed away a week ago. Not everybody knew his name, but who doesn't love the song Mr. Bojangles? That is a great legacy, and he did so much more. Al Jolson passed away on the same date 70 years before in 1950, shortly after returning from entertaining troops in Korea. My favorite Jolson song is whichever one I am currently listening to.
...courtesy of Merle! Great Picks! Scoot the slider over to 40 seconds on the first one.
Brother Ben knocks out a great one for our listening pleasure. Everybody loves this song!
Merle's Pick this week! There aren't many details in the writeup and I wonder if they had this boiler inspected before they pressured it up. They had a few leaks that I think an inspector would have made them correct, but who knows. I've read enough about boiler explosions that I would have insisted or gone far away. Anyhow, it's good to see one going that could have mouldered away. Thanks, Merle!
The Carmi Rifle Club usually has two events for the public in May and June every year. We start out with Women On Target, and then in June we do the NRA Day. Both events are popular. The Covid Lockdown shut us down earlier this year, but we were able to organize for NRA Day in the Fall. There is safety instruction, shooting a variety of firearms that our members provide for the day, lots of fun and cheeseburgers for lunch!
Well, it's not a Triumph, it's a Briggs! Road King has been working on this neat project for two years, and now it is up and running. Click it over to YouTube and give him a Thumbs Up!
American Threshermen had their Fall Festival over the weekend at Pinckneyville. These shows celebrate work, and people love it! We had a call from our friend Gary, who showed the Falk 5 horse engine there this weekend. It ran for two days solid, and it ticks along like a new one. It got a lot of looks, and he also showed his little Plunket engine, which is unusual and quite rare.
The grinder is a video we shot at Pinckneyville in 2009, and it is still getting views. I don't know why, because most grinder videos die a quiet death. This one keeps plugging along.
Back To The Old Grind!
We really missed you while you were gone Merle! Good to have you back! Thanks for the pick!
We watched this tree decline for two years, and the woodpeckers have been working it over. It dropped all of its leaves this week, the ground is dry so cleanup should go well. We will split it small and burn it this winter.
The Moon was just below Venus this morning. It was beautiful! Old Jack needs frequent walks and I get to enjoy the stars and planets at both ends of the day while I walk the old dog.
Boonville, Indiana had their Fall show over the weekend and Pinckneyville, Illinois will have their Fall show over the upcoming weekend. You never know what you will see, because exhibitors make their own choices for what they will bring. Many of the machines at shows are unique, like this homebuilt tractor with John Deere, Ford, IH, and Wisconsin parts in it.
Back To The Old Grind!
The weather for working outdoors has been fantastic and we have been hitting some tasks that have been on the back burner. This one is a big one. The dam has had trees popping up and getting out of hand. Whoever taught us that trees grow slowly did not know what they were talking about. This cypress is nearly a sawlog, and luckily, we were able to put it on the dam and not in the pond.
I kinda like the two row New Idea pickers, but they had a big disadvantage. Opening a field was something that still had to be done by hand, or by a tractor mounted picker. The huge advantage of the New Idea pickers was that no operators joined the Nub Club by maiming courtesy of the rollers. Tractor mounted corn pickers wrecked a lot of arms when the farmer tried to move stuck corn stalks in the rollers while running.
We lit up October 1; the earliest we have ever fired up the stove. We have a pretty good stack of wood in the barn, a bit at the house, and plenty to cut now that weather is cooler.
We gather firewood year round, and we especially appreciate wood that is close to the house and easy to process. This black oak snag was a good one. It just needed a bit of extra thought for safety's sake.
...depending on donations for pizza, porta-pots, bail money.
Back To The Old Grind!
Many Thanks to Engineering Johnson for spotting this one!
The Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation is located at 2261 Hubbard Road, Youngstown, OH 44505. Their mission statement is to preserve Youngstown area's steel industry history and heritage on their 1.2 acres of land.
58 was originally built by the Jones and Laughlin Steel Co. by the H.K. Porter Company in 1937. It is a 23" 0-4-0T with 15x16 cylinders, 33" drivers, a traction effort of 16,700 lbs, and in working order it weighs 93,000 lbs. It worked the J&L's Pittsburgh Works mill moving ingot trains around. In 2015, Youngstown Steel Heritage Founder and President, Rick Rowlands, purchased the locomotive from a private owner in Middlefield, OH. After a full restoration, J&L 58 ran once again on March 24, 2019. On select weekends, it gives rides to the public. ----------------------------- Thanks for watching! Please hit that subscribe button and like this video! Enjoy this video! There is more to come!That little quote from Exodus has been a favorite for many years. It happened. Our burglars came back, and examined the Weber Grill sitting outside the garage. It held a secret, and the heinous perpetrators got a nasty surprise.
Susan rode along for a couple of rounds with our farmer today. That was a huge thrill! One more 40 to go.
We are going to look at a few Avery tractors firing up, and note that a blue polo shirt does not mean the same thing as a blue flannel shirt.
One of the commenters on our Monarch Butterfly post mentioned that there might be readers out there who don't know milkweed. It's so common to us that I didn't even think about that, so we are correcting that right now. I even found a couple more caterpillars this morning. It's a thrill.
I bet I've had this .303 brass on hand, unopened, for at least ten years. Components that have accumulated are being assembled, and that means every case is scrutinized. This one was a surprise. It should have been caught at the factory, but I have wrecked a few myself in forty years of loading, and one case is not worth worrying about. Anyhow, if you are catching up on loading, be meticulous. Check for stretch on rifle cases. Check length after sizing. Do not exceed published loads. Use hard primers for semi autos.
You probably know that Monarch Butterflies are in trouble. Monarchs need milkweeds to reproduce successfully, and there just aren't enough of them. The researchers don't seem to know why, and I think this problem began with genetically modified beans that tolerate glyphosate herbicide. You don't see any milkweeds in bean fields like you used to. Monarchs prefer to lay their eggs on milkweeds far from the edge, so the roadside milkweeds are not preferred, but that is what they are using at our place. Leave 'em be. You can mow those areas after frost when the little critters have moved on.
Susan's pumpkin patch is picked, except for a big Cinderella pumpkin that is still very green. We had a couple kinds of squash with dinner today, and also some nice watermelon. The foxtail got out of hand, so we are going to mow it down, till it in, and hope that it sprouts so we can kill it out with a pre-Winter tilling. You are supposed to follow pumpkins with a legume, so we have some planning to do. Maybe a big patch of green beans?