Solstice didn’t work out too good for us Marty. Had a storm come through early this morning that dumped about 3 inches of rain in about a half hour. Heat index over 100 for the next three days. Road is washed out in spots but about 10 miles north of us they got pounded with golf ball sized hail. Big money for roofers and body shops. Probably means they will be trying to increase our house and car insurance again to cover their losses. Luckily our power was only out for a few hours. Enjoy your winter. Ours was tough but I thinking much more kindly about it now.
14 Likes
I agree Tom. During those hot, humid days in the States I would always think about how that staying warm during winter meant putting a few extra layers on. When it’s hot, what do you do once you get down to naked and you’re still overheated?
14 Likes
Hi all, happy solstice, the best time of the year in the northern hemisphere as far as I’m concerned. Winter let up late here, summer came early, many things are a couple of weeks ahead of normal.
Sorry to hear about the hail and severe weather, when the warnings are for softball or bigger hail I know things are changing, and as mentioned the insurance industry has close tabs on that, while the oil companies and supposedly responsible governments just whistle by the graveyard on the way to go golfing with better people…
Still looking after a growing herd of cattle and living life off-grid, there’s worse ways to live on earth. We have made it another half orbit, that’s good reason to be thankful.
13 Likes
I’m thankful that very few years do we see a 90F. This is an anomaly for us but mainly because we are only a few miles inland from Lake Michigan and always have at least a 10 MPH breeze. We had over 200 inches of snow the past winter and that’s a challenge for a geezer like me but as JO wisely said, you can always add a layer but stripping anything off past naked is just ugly. And of course there was no hoard of ticks trying to kill me in January, no mosquitoes or deer flies though the last two have been thankfully no bad so far this year which I attribute to something they are putting in the chemtrails. I start seeds for the garden in early February and honestly I’m about sick of gardening by now but no help for that. My favorite is fall. The bugs leave, the vegetables are getting eaten and stored, the garden looks like crap but I won’t even go down there until spring so I don’t care. Not hot, not cold. The best of all worlds.
11 Likes
Started summer by pulling down twin Ash trees that died last year. Sad to see them go but they will heat our home this winter.
20 Likes
What kind of machine did you have with that kind of pulling power?
11 Likes
I dug out the roots with an old (1960s ?) Case 580 CK backhoe. Then hand dug under for a good fulcrum. I fastened a cable about 25 feet high down to the base of a large Oak. Then pulled sideways on the middle of the cable with the backhoe.
16 Likes
In my best Maxwell Smart imitation voice: “Ahh, the old guitar string force multiplier trick”.
Good job!
6 Likes
Don’t you just love it when a thunderstorm with 60mph winds knocks trees down along with your power? I guess we didn’t learn from Helene. Guess who forgot to do a charge up every couple of months? This guy. Running the little baby suitcase generator through my low frequency inverter while I top off the batteries. When the 400ah is charged it’ll last up to 3 days based on my last test.
Oh joy. I still don’t have my well hooked up to the generator so I’m hoping this doesn’t last more than a day or two. My cousin is running to Belmont to get his two big propane tanks for his generator, and he has a whole home hookup so I can get water from him if need be.
I’m blessed to have made this battery bank, and blessed to have the foresight to put it on a cart with wheels. At least at night I’ll know my fridges are fine and the generator will be cut off to save guzzoline.
22 Likes
I am glad you guys are safe and no one is hurt. You are in a much better position then you were with Helene. Maybe not perfect, but an improvement. 
9 Likes
Oh yeah that’s for sure. We got our power back in the early morning following the storm. One benefit of getting power from a co-op is their staff is more trained for maintenance and they leave the big picture stuff to the energy generators.
14 Likes
Like a bear? Does that mean we won’t hear from you all winter?
8 Likes
I was mentioned recently about my annual summer fighting with hornet and wasps bees.
This is from just the last five days:
Under our back sitting deck.
The girls found this one last night. Right over where I’d been installing a trailer hitch and wiring on the Wife HiLander Hybrid.
And this one I searched out just this morning:
And a fourth one in the girls play station cooking pot. That one I tossed into a wheelbarrow of water. Dissolved no pictures.
The first and second pictured ones I am applying commercial spray can killer. From as far back as it will spray reach.
In-ground bees I can dump-kill with 2-stroke mix gasoline. Still risky as they are the most aggressive.
The under the gasoline filler door one . . .
I already got stung once getting this picture for you all. They nurture and defend the remaining capped birth cells.
Tonight; I will spray.
Always risky. Any; if perceiving a threat will first individual, then group attack. If at possible scope out a building corner to fast run around. Works most of the time to shake loose chasers.
S.U.
16 Likes
On the bright side, they don’t appear to be the giant asian giant hornet, aka murder hornets.
Raid and the powerwasher usually take care of ours.
7 Likes
I need to redo the boiler room, and need to solder copper.
Do you have any tips on a burner that I can buy, I want one that can be turned upside down too.
6 Likes
Interesting. New boiler or more storage tanks?
I’m doing some plumbing myself at the moment. I’m installing an external electric heater to my tanks - to be able to be able to burn some occational negative prices. The heater was given to me years ago, but I’m using only leftover steel plumbing parts - the old fasion way, threading with lin and linseed oil.
I’ll be interesting to see what kind of torch you come up with - that can be turned upside down.
5 Likes
While I’m at it (and it’s raining) I can tell you a not so pleasant story from the day before yesterday.
I was doing some clearing and chunker material harvesting in the woods when I got a phone call from my 79 yo dad. He was mowing the lawn at the summer cabin down by the river. He had managed to tip over the mower tractor, partially into the river, and wanted help to pull it up.
When I finally got there I was unaware of his state. He had been taking a rest in the cabin, because he didn’t feel very well.
I pulled the mower up with the pickup and started to untie it when he suddenly kneeled down. A few seconds later he was laying on the ground throwing up, but managed to answer my questions and confirmed chest pain. I called the ambulance and within 20 minutes they had him on the stretcher and had all the neccessary plumbing and wiring attached. By that time he had regained consiousness and told the female nurse how lucky she was to be able to get out in nature on a sunny day like this.
Yesterday I took my mum to visit at the hospital. We learned that one of my dad’s three main coronary vessels had resieved a stent and one more was about to get one, as soon as he’s been able to get some rest.
All in all a happy outcome. Hopefully this fix will allow my father a few extra years.
Experiences like this makes you re-evaluate priorities in life. I’m only 22 years behind my father and knowing years get shorter with time…
18 Likes
I am sorry to hear that JO but happy with a good outcome. 
Perhaps the mower incident was a good thing so you were there when it happened, it would probably have happened sooner or later anyway possibly with noone there to help but now he got help and something gets done.
Life is short, live it to the fullest. Do things.
This is also partly why we downsized the farm to focus on ourselves and family / life.
14 Likes