Good Morning to All. 66° and mostly cloudy. Very high winds continue, they averaged 25-28mph out of the south all day yesterday. Forecast is for them to drop to 15mph around sunset and shift from out of the west for 36 hours. That means a dust storm tomorrow afternoon as West Texas comes by for a visit. Semi-regular occurrence here. By the way, for those that follow my gardening adventures, critters ate most of the spinach planting but I am picking radishes and asparagus right now. That's all that I expect right now. Lettuce in about a week.
Out in the train shed, I did complete the third oil loading platform minus the feeder pipes which haven't been decided on yet; depends on the final layout of the ethanol plant. Might be another month or two before I build the final one and start imagineering the plant more precisely. Current plans for the complex include a grain receiving facility, propane receiving and storage for the power plant, grain storage, two fermenting tanks, and a processing building. Yet to be decided is whether or not I add the power plant and ethanol storage tanks. Most of the buildings will be low-relief structures made of PikeStuff walls along the backdrop. I don't expect to start until late summer as I have other half-finished projects that I intend to complete first. Just baiting you all right now!
Ken (D&J) - While I wasn't in as bad a situation, I was no longer being used but was being paid, I was also counting the days towards retirement. I ended up leaving earlier than planned (at 63 1/2), simply because I was bored and the entire company was moving to a different location. On a brighter note, it sounds like a great operating session coming up tomorrow.
Joe - You're right about the rural VFD's. The trucks used around here can only hold about 750 gallons each and my pool has 13,000 gallons. Normally the tanker truck from the county gets here before they need a second refill. Interesting that this came up yesterday morning, as there was a hay/barn/grass fire about two miles south of me yesterday, dangerous because of the high winds. Different county but much the same except they have more than one tanker truck. Fortunately it was contained quickly because it was in the midst of fields that are lush in wheat right now, as well as horse pastures. They do keep a list of available water sources which I readily volunteered for. Hey, it gets me a free BBQ dinner at the annual fund-raiser, but I donate as well.
Johnny - The irony is that by the time that I get the workbench completed, I won't need it anymore!
Chet - Yea! I start to run some trains while I am waiting for glue or paint to dry and get sidetracked for hours!
Toot - When did you move to
Terry's neighborhood???
Justin - I hope that all goes well in your contract negations. Thankfully for me as a management member for over 35 years, we were in Texas where unions are not exactly prevalent except for a few occupations. At least at our company, we always treated all employees fairly and equally so they never even considered it. I know that it is not true in many other cases.
Eric - I have not heard the expression "ring the bell" except at supermarket check-outs, but I am going to assume that it means successful treatment and the cancer is either in remission or gone. That's great news. As
Karl posted, get the rehab therapy for the stroke and you will be good to go again soon. We're still behind you and I look forward to regular layout updates in the future.
Let's all go out tonight and celebrate
Eric's good news.
Everyone have a great Friday.
Willie
