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Jim wrote: "My son-in-law & I trimmed up the paulownia tree in my backyard; 3 loads of branches in my S10. I was really impressed by his pole chainsaw. It's an attachment that fits on to his battery powered we..."

What brand is that battery powered pole chainsaw?
Mine is electric with extension cord. Stupid. I don’t know what i was thinking. I'm looking to change.

It's a Ryobi 40 volt. It's kind of pricey when you get into the attachments which can be half the price of the basic weedeater. I think it's $150 & most of the attachments were $70 each.

Hey Jim!

I keep aircraft gas in my 1973 Jacobson with the 3 foot wide tiller. I only start it once or twice a year and aircraft gas doesn't spoil.

I have nice dependable plug in drills and heavy duty extension cords. I do have a cheap lithium screwdriver that comes in handy but for real work I'm old school.

I saw photos of Japanese and European mini trucks, and pickup trucks smaller than an S10 (see, if the put the engine under the driver you can make a real short truck with a decent bed! The one door is front entry.) But they don't sell such things in the USA.

Is that the gas without any ethanol? If so, great idea & I can do that. The local store sells it & I use it for my 2 stroke engines - chainsaws & such. It's quite a bit more expensive, but that shouldn't be a big deal.

I don't have many cordless tools, just a screwgun & drill. They're really handy & I'm glad I got them, but I still usually use & buy corded tools. They used to have more power, but that difference is shrinking. They certainly last longer, though. My son pointed out last night that my circular saw is the same age as he is. I bought it in the early 1980s & see no reason to buy another since it still works great.

I usually have access to electric even if it's just my little Honda generator. To use my electric hedge trimmers around the farm, I put the generator in the back of my pickup & a 25' extension cord gives me quick access to everything. The electric trimmers are a lot less expensive than battery powered ones & I only use them a couple/few times a year. I can also store them in the overhang with no fear that cold weather will hurt the battery.

I had to prove I wasn't a robot to add a review today. Sigh. I guess they've had a rash of automated reviews, but it still sucks.

Our A/C wasn't working this morning & our repair guy can't get here until Monday. Of course, this weekend has to be in the mid 80s while all the surrounding days are in the 70s.

Well, the heat will be good for the hay. Russell cut it Thursday night. It's incredibly thick & we've had really heavy dews each night. It's been 10 or 11 am before even the mowed areas of the lawn dry up. He hasn't tedded it, which is weird. Oh well, his lookout since he's buying it all this time. We filled the barn with the first cutting.

Important! ŷ������ has changed everyone's profile to ignore PMs except from friends. This setting keeps anyone who isn't a GR friend of the moderator from receiving broadcast messages about polls & other group updates. I recommend changing it if you want to get group messages.

You can change it back easily enough by going to your account settings, the settings tab, & change "Who Can Send Me Private Messages:" from "just my friends" to "anyone".

Hmmm... Hey Jim, I'm not sure where to post a post about a book. NOT a book review, more along the lines of "I bought a book on model rocketry and now I'm radioing instructions to the space station on how to fix the toilet"

How about a new category like "About DIY Books"

Meanwhile I'll put my book post in Miscellaneous.....

That works. Might have gone under 'Home Repair', too. No big deal.

Happy Thanksgiving. We're going to have our dinner tomorrow as the kids are going elsewhere today, so it will be a nice lazy day with a long weekend.

Jim wrote: "Happy Thanksgiving. We're going to have our dinner tomorrow as the kids are going elsewhere today, so it will be a nice lazy day with a long weekend."

Happy Thanksgiving! I watched part of the Plymouth parade on tv.
No turkey here. Went for a drive, it's fairly quiet out there. May go pick up some chop suey later.

My wife got a bonus & used the money to buy a robo-vacuum, so we're playing with it today. I'm not sure about it since it seems rather stupid & scattered. The kids have one & says it takes a while to work out efficient patterns & fully clean rooms, so maybe it will improve in time.

It would be nice, if it did. Our new dog, Rio, is a Border Collie with really long hair that he tends to leave clumps all around. The robovac just got done with the living room floor & 2 hours later there's more of Rio's hair on the floor. You'd think we never brushed him even though we usually spend at least 15 minutes doing it every night. It takes twice as long when he's gotten into burrs & hitchhikers which he does regularly, too.

Jim wrote: "My wife got a bonus & used the money to buy a robo-vacuum, so we're playing with it today. I'm not sure about it since it seems rather stupid & scattered. The kids have one & says it takes a while ..."

My house is too small for a robo. It would constantly be turning around from bumping into things. Plus I'm positive the old cats would freak.
Sounds like it's going to be useful with your new dog !
How are you feeling these days ?

Some of Rio's hair is defeating the robovac. It's too long, but at least it gets wrapped up into a long string so it's easy to pick up. I'm doing OK, not better, but not worse. More doctors in my future.

Fun day today fixing the toilet in Marg's bathroom. (That was sarcasm, BTW.) The floor under it has given way, so the toilet rocks a little & it's leaking a bit with each flush. That's particularly ugly since there's a vapor barrier in the crawl space which is now bulging with nastiness AND it is full of insulation which has sponged it up.

I've fixed such problems twice before & it's never pleasant. It's so unpleasant that I couldn't find a contractor to do it, so I've roped my son-in-law into helping me. I'm too sick & weak to do the whole job myself this time. There's no way I can pull & reset the toilet.

I'm hoping that after cutting out the floor, I'll be able to stick something down & cut the vapor barrier to release the nasty water. That would be so much nicer than having to cut it & lay there getting flooded by septic water. I'll give it a while to dry some before crawling under there to cut it open more, remove the nasty insulation, & eventually will replace it. Wish me luck & stamina enough to finish it today!

The toilet started to leak between the tank & the bowl. Josh tightened it & broke the tank. Sigh. Well, I'd wanted to replace the toilet with a new, taller one that would be easier on Marg's knees. Looks like I'll get the chance today.

Jim wrote: "The toilet started to leak between the tank & the bowl. Josh tightened it & broke the tank. Sigh. Well, I'd wanted to replace the toilet with a new, taller one that would be easier on Marg's knees...."

The whole cutting floor and vapor barrier ,etc. Sounds like a huge job. I hope it all goes smoothly for you. I know you are not feeling well so it's concerning.
All that is way beyond what i could manage.

We got the floor cut out & replaced by lunch time yesterday which wore me out completely. We poked a hole from above through the vapor barrier, but all seemed dry. I was planning to go under the house today, but I'm too wiped out. Josh had to work - he writes code for web sites & there was a problem - so he got a late start today. We'll probably get the new toilet in this afternoon. Thanks for the kind thoughts.

It's been an 'interesting' few days. We bought a comfort height toilet & installed it. Poor Josh was light on sleep & time since he's a web developer. Fixing the Log4J vulnerability kept him up until 3am & then busy again in the morning. All went well, except the supply line wouldn't reach, so he had to make another trip to town to deal with that. Any trip to town takes at least an hour, so it was evening before the new toilet was functional.

The trip to town wasn't bad since someone else had gone through & pushed all the fallen limbs & trees to the sides of the road. The storm we had Friday night here was pretty bad with high winds & almost 3" of rain. I live in Kentucky, but I'm in the north central area over 250 miles from Mayfield in the southwest end of the state where the town was flattened by tornados & dozens were killed inside a candle factory. That's a terrible, sad mess.

Jim wrote: "It's been an 'interesting' few days. We bought a comfort height toilet & installed it. Poor Josh was light on sleep & time since he's a web developer. Fixing the Log4J vulnerability kept him up unt..."

I normally try to focus a piece of time on gratitude. Given what is happening due to the tornado devastating some of several states i have been even more grateful this morning for what i have.
We had high winds here and we usually lose power. Yesterday i was thankful for temperatures that meant we had rain instead of a blizzard.
Today, even though what i have is old and not in good condition, i am focused on being grateful to have a roof over my head.

I'm glad to hear you are ok Jim.
So many ways...i am full of gratitude.

Merry Xmas, all.

I've been looking into a present for myself, either an oscillating spindle sander or a scroll saw. So far, I haven't convinced myself I really want either one & I'm really disappointed in the reviews I've been finding. It used to be the woodworking magazines were OK at evaluating tools, but those I've been reading could be written by a computer from the company marketing materials.

Stroke length in an oscillating spindle sander is pretty important, but not one review mentioned it. The tables come in a variety of shapes, but not a single review got into them, either. Most picked the same 3 as the best, but none of those seemed particularly good to me. There seem to be 4 classes: $200 or less, $350, $700, & those well above that. They only picked from the $200 or less category while those around $350 were a huge step up with half the stroke speed & twice the stroke length.

I haven't gotten too far in the scroll saws yet, but none seem to have any dust collection, one of the main reasons I'm looking for a new one. The other reason is the difficulty in attaching pinless blades. Their top pick is a Dewalt that handles them better, but won't use pinned blades at all. While it plugs in, it requires a lithium-ion battery, too. Somehow I doubt they'll be available in 30 years or more, the age of my current scroll saw.

It's almost funny that they still have poor dust blowers. That was a problem on my old one & has been a constant complaint with almost every model I've read about since before it was made, but it's STILL a problem with them all. Why the hell can't they make a decent dust blower?!!! We all wind up hooking aquarium pumps to the nozzle. Seriously, it's not rocket science.

Since 2014, I've summed up my year's reading in the year on ŷ������. I update it occasionally through the year with the books that really strike me & I always list quite a few. 2021 on ŷ������ was no exception, even though I wasn't able to read nearly as much as usual. Here's my review:
/review/show...

I wound up buying a couple of Xmas presents for myself. My computer monitor died. Luckily, the kids had one I could borrow until my new one got here. I just got it today & I'm loving it. It's a 4K 29" one even though my video card doesn't support 4K yet. I'm sure I'll get one soon. In the meantime, the extra real estate is nice. The width is up from 1980 to 2560, while the height is still 1080. I usually keep quite a few apps running, so it's easier to put them side by side now.

Happy New Year to all !
Best wishes for a healthy one !
📚

Did i relate my shoulder procedure? Calcium deposit broken down with a sonogram needle removal. A fairly simple procedure. Drove myself home afterwards, then it got bad for a bit after the injected pain killer wore off.
Now it's 6 weeks approx later ...just a dull pain sometimes.
I've shoveled snow already.

NOT looking forward to the 24+ inches of snow forecasted for Saturday!!
I contacted a guy down the street to plow out the area by the road where the road plows pile up a snow berm that usually freezes pretty hard. I have the feeling my shoulder won't like me trying to attack it with my snow shovel.

Glad the procedure went well, Jaye. That's way too much snow, though. We're just cold here in KY - single digits this morning.

Blizzard. I couldn't open the door. Finally got out. Cleared the stairs, got to the ground. The snow is to the top of my thigh.
Sheesh.
Shovel broke. I gave up for now.

I an extremely GRATEFUL that the power is still on. It went off a few times, but its back 🙂❄❄��

Good luck! Still just cold here. Almost hit 0 yesterday morning. We're warmer today, about 20.

It was a weird week of weather that culminated in a rather funny story. It was 1 degree on Sat morning, 63 Tuesday afternoon, & raining all day Wednesday & Thursday with dropping temperatures. Thursday was especially nerve-wracking since anything over 1/2" usually means major losses of electric. It stuck at 33 degrees all day so we only got 1/4" ice on twigs & shaded areas. Pretty, but not dangerous. The rain stopped just before dark when the temps dropped into the low 20s. The rest of the precipitation was just some light snow. We're back to single digits this morning.

Lexington is just an hour SE of us & they got more ice on Thursday which caused some real problems for the buzzards. A few dozen had to be rescued because they got iced up.

Jim wrote: "It was a weird week of weather that culminated in a rather funny story. It was 1 degree on Sat morning, 63 Tuesday afternoon, & raining all day Wednesday & Thursday with dropping temperatures. Thur..."

We've had weird weather here too. Rain yesterday melted down the snow a lot, then it froze, then snowed a little. I'm just waiting for this coming week. It's supposed to be 40 degrees a few days.
My left shoulder (as opposed to the just repaired right shoulder) took a beating with the snow shoveling. Advil.

We have those turkey buzzards here too, but they go south for the winter. South of here anyway...i don't know where they go. Sounds like climate change is going to make them go further south if they're smart enough. I read about them last summer when they were sitting on my little barn a lot. Quite yucky.

Jaye wrote: "Jim wrote: "It was a weird week of weather that culminated in a rather funny story. It was 1 degree on Sat morning, 63 Tuesday afternoon, & raining all day Wednesday & Thursday with dropping temper..."

I shared the article you linked about the Buzzards with a Massachusetts birding group on facebook. Turns out some Buzzards do winter over here in Massachusetts (though I've never seen them). Snow today, hopefully Buzzards will not be falling out of trees.
P.s. i think goodreads notifications are down. Many people not seeing any for 2 days. Me included. I wish the people who run the show would communicate. But noooooo0o.
I miss the feedback group.

Do you get much freezing rain up there? I think that's the big issue.

I open the discussion page for GR. It lists all my groups & shows new messages with a red number after the topic.
/topic?ref=n...

Jim wrote: "Do you get much freezing rain up there? I think that's the big issue.

I open the discussion page for GR. It lists all my groups & shows new messages with a red number after the topic.
...."

Yes, at times. Sleet too. That last blizzard was some of each.
I'm on the southcoast of Massachusetts so we get mixtures often.
This current storm is just ending and it's fluffy snow this time. It's still rough on my bad shoulders. I was able to sweep part of it even though we got about 7 inches i think.
Still have to do by the road where the plows berm it. Not sweeping there. Ha.

I looked at the discussion page, then at each group i found that my comments button. So between the 2 it's working.
No notifications yet, no communication from the worker people.
I picture empty office, empty desks , gone on vacation.

For fluffy snow, a leaf blower is supposed to work really well. Corded ones can often be found for a few bucks at yard sales.

It's the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend. It started yesterday, I think. It's a great way for all US citizens to help plot the distribution of birds. I'm not sure if folks in Mexico & Canada can participate or if there are other lists like this around the world. This one is done through Cornell University. There are apps for the phone or computer.

The New York Times has an article about how a book is printed from keyboard to finished hardback. It's an interesting, complex industrial process.

Happy Mother's Day to all. It's also our 40th wedding anniversary. Typical for us, we're celebrating by Marg going to a hunter pace, a kind of a horse show.

Jim wrote: "Happy Mother's Day to all. It's also our 40th wedding anniversary. Typical for us, we're celebrating by Marg going to a hunter pace, a kind of a horse show."

Happy Anniversary!
I hope you had a great day. 🐎

Sorry i haven't been communicating. Life just seems so much harder these days.
I think this is the last summer I'm going to be able to do without air conditioning. I end up feeling too tired from the heat and don't get anything accomplished.
Age has changed the way the heat affects me.
I definitely know it's changed because i delivered mail for years in a vehicle that would be 100+ inside it and i just misted myself with a spray bottle and carried on.
Anyway, if anyone is reading this, i hope things are ok for you.

Good to hear from you, Jaye. Life sure does get tougher as we get older. Summers are hotter & winters are colder plus we have all the fun old age issues to deal with.

I haven't been around much either, same issues. My MAC lung disease isn't getting any better even though I spent 3 months with a PICC line giving myself IV antibiotics, so I'm on oxygen a lot now. The hot, humid weather we're having means I can't breath at all outside in the afternoons plus I get dehydrated really easy. I'm not working at all & am on disability.

On top of that, my wife retired & got back surgery she's been needing. Instead of fusing 2 vertebrae, the surgeon wound up doing 6 & she didn't come home in 3 or 4 days as expected, but wound up a full week in the hospital plus another month in rehab. She's home now, but her right leg doesn't work much so she's confined to a wheelchair & walker. I'm doing most of the housework & I'm not really up to it. Thankfully the kids are picking up the slack.

I'm sorry to hear that you and your wife are having such a hard time.
More than a hard time by the sounds of it.
It's good you have family to help. Do you get to ride at all? Sorry if that's a sensitive question.

I'm on the bed with my cat and 2 fans providing a breeze, watching old NCIS episodes, reading The Great Man Theory...which you may, or may not like...depending upon your political views. I'm enjoying it so far.

No rain here for a long long time. Starting to hear dry well reports.
��
Stay safe !

No riding anymore, but I haven't been too interested since we had to put Chip down, anyway. It doesn't help that a side effect of one of my inhalers is an enlarged prostate. I usually sit on a donut now. Probably TMI.

That doesn't look like my sort of story. I mostly read nonfiction now & in audio format. I'm currently working on Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors. Just about finished & it's been a hoot.

Jim wrote: "No riding anymore, but I haven't been too interested since we had to put Chip down, anyway. It doesn't help that a side effect of one of my inhalers is an enlarged prostate. I usually sit on a donu..."

I was just commenting on the book I'm reading, i can't recommend it because I've just begun. I thought the subject of being a Luddite in these times is interesting.
I told my son about Humble Pi just the other day. He is very smart, but has mental health issues so life is a crap shoot. He still breaks my heart from thousands of miles away.
...which is just another reason i read a lot of fluff. It's distracting.

We may get rain on Tuesday i heard. I'm going to look for a car, maybe a subaru impresa. seems like it would be fine. I can't justify the money for anything larger.

That's tough with your son. I've read my share of fluff for the same reason. Sometimes rereads are nice. I find a lot of nonfiction even more distracting. Much of the science I learned as a kid has been extended wildly or even overturned.

I just don't get Luddites. My wife & mother both suffer from that in far too many cases. Eventually times have made them cave & start using devices with no real knowledge of how they work so they're constantly frustrated & have to memorize exact instructions for each operation. It frustrates me to no end. for instance, my wife doesn't understand how to use a file system & won't learn. I have a computer hooked to our TV with a lot of media available, but the only way she can use any of it is if someone else finds it for her. Ridiculous.

Jim wrote: "No riding anymore, but I haven't been too interested since we had to put Chip down, anyway. It doesn't help that a side effect of one of my inhalers is an enlarged prostate. I usually sit on a donu..."

Jim, google prostate artery embolization. Sounds scary but I saw one guy recommending it. I'm considering it myself.

Interesting, Earl. Thanks.

Bad news today - the Brooklyn library is no longer allowing out of state lending. For $50/year, I was getting access to twice as many audiobooks than my local library has. Does anyone know of another big library that allows it?

Hi everyone, I have a question. I acquire craft books but I don't actually read them cover to cover. I typically read parts of them & choose projects to make etc. How do you handle those books, in terms of the book challenge, do you list them as a read book? Or do you post as read & put on a shelf in ŷ������? Thanks so much.

Cindy wrote: "Hi everyone, I have a question. I acquire craft books but I don't actually read them cover to cover. I typically read parts of them & choose projects to make etc. How do you handle those books, in ..."

I figure I'm going to be coming back to the book other times so i post it as read and shelve it. I get books from the library too and do the same. That way i have a record of it and can reorder when needed.
I usually go through the book enough to figure out if it's going to be helpful to me and rate it accordingly.

Thanks so much Jaye, that makes sense to me!

I agree with Jaye. I usually put the ToC into my public review & will note if I haven't fully read the chapter, but at the bottom of the review, hidden under the "details" link, is a section for Private Notes. That might suit you better.