Running Bear's Coffee Shop LXXII
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santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Good Morning All. 44° with dense fog and light rain together. Visibility is officially less than 1/4 mile, but I cannot even see the road 135' away. And yes it is daylight already. I am getting tired of all this rain and no sun, but that's supposed to change later today. Already had over 7.5" of rainfall since last Saturday. The clearing is expected to last until Tuesday when rain is back in the forecast for three more days. At least the temperatures will be considerably warmer. I intend to fire up the grill this evening, rib-eye tonight and spareribs tomorrow. My porch is not covered which sometimes limits usage.
Another afternoon in the train shed after doing laundry, dishes and other household chores all morning. I did a little more wiring under the layout, connecting various barrier strips together. Now that the trackwork on the upper level SW corner is completed, I am starting on one of the industries that are planned for that blank spot. It is a Walther's kit, "Vulcan Manufacturing". I have had this kit on the shelf for quite a while, it's old enough to be in the older Walther's light blue box. Price tag shows $21.98, about a third less than the current sale price. I got all of the walls together yesterday. I will add the mortar lines and paint all of the concrete window sills before I add the windows, a little out of the sequence that they recommend, but I usually "dull coat" things before adding glass. FWIW, these instructions are better than the usual non-existent instructions that come with Walther's kits. I don't follow them anyway!!!
Joe - Good luck with the branches. I only have broken ones from this tree and one other. It's more than enough though. While this is not favorable weather, it is not at all unusual for this time of year. I keep a steady supply of firewood drying out under the wood-burning heater all of the time, although I can add wet wood to a good bed of coals most of the time. It only gets wet on the outside and evaporates quickly, but my wife doesn't like to handle the wet stuff, sissy! It has been five years since we had a February with this much rain though; it usually comes in April-May.
Eric - Working with Larry seemed to have it's ups and downs. Good money but lousy background music if I remember correctly. Make the best decision for you.
Curt - I was referring to your comment regarding my cork roadbed looking like yours. I took it as kidding at the time and I was kidding back.
Heavy thunder and rain has just came and went. Cleared away the fog. Here's a couple of views from the front porch. The first looking SE and the second looking at a different wheat field directly S.
Everybody have a great day and weekend.
Willie
Another afternoon in the train shed after doing laundry, dishes and other household chores all morning. I did a little more wiring under the layout, connecting various barrier strips together. Now that the trackwork on the upper level SW corner is completed, I am starting on one of the industries that are planned for that blank spot. It is a Walther's kit, "Vulcan Manufacturing". I have had this kit on the shelf for quite a while, it's old enough to be in the older Walther's light blue box. Price tag shows $21.98, about a third less than the current sale price. I got all of the walls together yesterday. I will add the mortar lines and paint all of the concrete window sills before I add the windows, a little out of the sequence that they recommend, but I usually "dull coat" things before adding glass. FWIW, these instructions are better than the usual non-existent instructions that come with Walther's kits. I don't follow them anyway!!!
Joe - Good luck with the branches. I only have broken ones from this tree and one other. It's more than enough though. While this is not favorable weather, it is not at all unusual for this time of year. I keep a steady supply of firewood drying out under the wood-burning heater all of the time, although I can add wet wood to a good bed of coals most of the time. It only gets wet on the outside and evaporates quickly, but my wife doesn't like to handle the wet stuff, sissy! It has been five years since we had a February with this much rain though; it usually comes in April-May.
Eric - Working with Larry seemed to have it's ups and downs. Good money but lousy background music if I remember correctly. Make the best decision for you.
Curt - I was referring to your comment regarding my cork roadbed looking like yours. I took it as kidding at the time and I was kidding back.
Heavy thunder and rain has just came and went. Cleared away the fog. Here's a couple of views from the front porch. The first looking SE and the second looking at a different wheat field directly S.
Everybody have a great day and weekend.
Willie
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25 as we speak - 62 for a high "Dry conditions will continue".
Finally got the dishwasher installed among all the "runnin around" yesterday. The only problem is that it sticks out a little more than an inch from the cabinet because there is a piece of coaxial cable in the way at the back. It will stay this way for awhile until I recover a little and then I will pull it out, cut a chunk out of a stud and press the wiring cable back into the slot. (lots of trouble to gain an inch of space) What should have been about an hours work turned into two trips to the hardware and much flameboyant language. All the connections were behind the disposer, and of course, hard to get too. I simply don't bend as easy as I used to be able too!
More later, right now I had better build up the fire again!
Finally got the dishwasher installed among all the "runnin around" yesterday. The only problem is that it sticks out a little more than an inch from the cabinet because there is a piece of coaxial cable in the way at the back. It will stay this way for awhile until I recover a little and then I will pull it out, cut a chunk out of a stud and press the wiring cable back into the slot. (lots of trouble to gain an inch of space) What should have been about an hours work turned into two trips to the hardware and much flameboyant language. All the connections were behind the disposer, and of course, hard to get too. I simply don't bend as easy as I used to be able too!
More later, right now I had better build up the fire again!
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
Good morning gang,
Left work early yesterday to go for my bi-annual check up with my new GP
Never had a female GP before. I kinda like her style. Shes happy with my numbers, but she's tweaking my mefs a bit, so blood tests in 30 days, but otherwise she says I'm gonna make it
Went to the shop this morning, had to replace thw door latch for the extended cab, plus install a cold air intake. Driving home is sounds better and a little peppier. Time will tell.
More rain now til Monday forcasted, get thw hip boots ready!
Left work early yesterday to go for my bi-annual check up with my new GP
Never had a female GP before. I kinda like her style. Shes happy with my numbers, but she's tweaking my mefs a bit, so blood tests in 30 days, but otherwise she says I'm gonna make it
Went to the shop this morning, had to replace thw door latch for the extended cab, plus install a cold air intake. Driving home is sounds better and a little peppier. Time will tell.
More rain now til Monday forcasted, get thw hip boots ready!
D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
Yeah, but you fit under the kitchen sink a whole lot easier than I would.
Greg@mnrr
Section Hand
Good afternoon Everyone...cloudy and mild here in Wisconsin, rain tonight quarter to an half of rainfall total. That will make 3.5 inches of rainfall in a week...thank goodness that wasn't snow.
The storage room project is winding down and one can walk into the room for a change. I did run the trains a bit today and did some odds and ends that I have been putting off. Spring must be near since in today's mail were proposals for lawn care for 2018. March 15th is the usually date for the Red Wing Blackbirds to return to our feeders.
Decided that to finish some track work, I'll remove some buildings and trees that are in the way to make the process easier. I think Ken recommended not to wear long sleeves when working on the railroad. Good Advice when reaching into the layout for what ever reason.
Sherrel: Have to hand it to you on the dishwasher install. That's one project I would never tackle. The neighbors did kitchen cabinets and counter tops and the dishwasher they brought was to high for the new cabinets and counter tops. They did their measurements. We're on dishwasher number three and what a difference in the newer models with the options and lack of noise during the cycles.
We're planning new counter tops and cabinets. The old cabinets are 40+ years old. This simple remodel project is going to cost one fifth of what we paid for the house when we purchased it new in 1976. To avoid problems we're paying a design expert a few $$$ to measure for the counter tops and cabinets.
Willie: Your photos of the rain soaked soil is minor compared to what some people in southern Wisconsin are experiencing with all the rain, the rivers and creeks rising. The ground is frozen and no place for the rainwater. Saw one guy who was sand bagging his house and two days later the water froze and now he's driving over the 3-4 feet of flood water.
Nice to see something green in the background of your pic.
Played with my new Cannon camera, but I'm having trouble with focusing on close details. Smart phone camera seems to work better.
That's all for now.
Greg
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The storage room project is winding down and one can walk into the room for a change. I did run the trains a bit today and did some odds and ends that I have been putting off. Spring must be near since in today's mail were proposals for lawn care for 2018. March 15th is the usually date for the Red Wing Blackbirds to return to our feeders.
Decided that to finish some track work, I'll remove some buildings and trees that are in the way to make the process easier. I think Ken recommended not to wear long sleeves when working on the railroad. Good Advice when reaching into the layout for what ever reason.
Sherrel: Have to hand it to you on the dishwasher install. That's one project I would never tackle. The neighbors did kitchen cabinets and counter tops and the dishwasher they brought was to high for the new cabinets and counter tops. They did their measurements. We're on dishwasher number three and what a difference in the newer models with the options and lack of noise during the cycles.
We're planning new counter tops and cabinets. The old cabinets are 40+ years old. This simple remodel project is going to cost one fifth of what we paid for the house when we purchased it new in 1976. To avoid problems we're paying a design expert a few $$$ to measure for the counter tops and cabinets.
Willie: Your photos of the rain soaked soil is minor compared to what some people in southern Wisconsin are experiencing with all the rain, the rivers and creeks rising. The ground is frozen and no place for the rainwater. Saw one guy who was sand bagging his house and two days later the water froze and now he's driving over the 3-4 feet of flood water.
Nice to see something green in the background of your pic.
Played with my new Cannon camera, but I'm having trouble with focusing on close details. Smart phone camera seems to work better.
That's all for now.
Greg
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Ken D&J - I have met and looked up at you! You would have to pull the disposer to get there... NOT an easy chore as I had to replace it- I think - about two years ago!
GREG - except for the coaxial electric line and having to buy all new sized hoses (drain and supply), I just flat lucked out. I measured the width and height, but thought I was looking at a 30 inch depth - did not realize that there was a 6 inch wall behind the old dishwasher.
GREG - except for the coaxial electric line and having to buy all new sized hoses (drain and supply), I just flat lucked out. I measured the width and height, but thought I was looking at a 30 inch depth - did not realize that there was a 6 inch wall behind the old dishwasher.
D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
My video editor has died an awful death. It just can't get much past the opening screens of the video editor. I've used System Mechanic to try to fix it. It says all is fine, but in fact the machine keeps crashing.
I've been looking on line for video editor software and trying to determine the specs. They are about as specific as old Hebrew.
I started out years ago with a software program called Canopus which was later bought out by another company and the software was renamed to Edius. Later, GrassValley bought Edius and they have all gone to TV switching software. That's what they use for NFL or other sports to go from screen to screen and do it with transitions, like the screen flips away to reveal a different camera perspective or superimposed items on the screen. I don't do that stuff. I just shot video and edit away footage that I don't need for my final video product. They don't seem to understand what I'm talking about when I asked them about the software that I need.
Anyway, I'm looking for new software that I can use for simple editing. Most of the stuff I've tested is way to basic and has way to much phone home stuff going on. The screen is so clunky, its like something a freshman software writer would produce. Sometimes it works, most of the time there is a 30 second delay in response to my mouse movements.
It's really bugging me. I like to shoot and produce video stuff for model railroading as well as supporting my church. With my legacy editor being dead, I'm completely lost which means any advice I try to act on will most likely just put money in someone else's pocket and I get a virtually useless editing software package that requires several thousands of dollars of hardware additions to utilize.
I've been looking on line for video editor software and trying to determine the specs. They are about as specific as old Hebrew.
I started out years ago with a software program called Canopus which was later bought out by another company and the software was renamed to Edius. Later, GrassValley bought Edius and they have all gone to TV switching software. That's what they use for NFL or other sports to go from screen to screen and do it with transitions, like the screen flips away to reveal a different camera perspective or superimposed items on the screen. I don't do that stuff. I just shot video and edit away footage that I don't need for my final video product. They don't seem to understand what I'm talking about when I asked them about the software that I need.
Anyway, I'm looking for new software that I can use for simple editing. Most of the stuff I've tested is way to basic and has way to much phone home stuff going on. The screen is so clunky, its like something a freshman software writer would produce. Sometimes it works, most of the time there is a 30 second delay in response to my mouse movements.
It's really bugging me. I like to shoot and produce video stuff for model railroading as well as supporting my church. With my legacy editor being dead, I'm completely lost which means any advice I try to act on will most likely just put money in someone else's pocket and I get a virtually useless editing software package that requires several thousands of dollars of hardware additions to utilize.
D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
I downloaded the Coral video editing software. The specs say it will work with my online computer. I tried to edit about 20 seconds of train video. 45 minutes later, I'm still trying to trim a few seconds off the front end of the video clip. The on screen tools have such an amateuristic look to them and they don't really respond right away. I can't cut the video right were I want to. It will jump around in 5 second increments.
steelwheels
Member
Hello,
Got a tip to stop by the coffee shop, missed it at first...... "ANPL" thru me LOL... takes me a sec sometimes.
Have my own weather station.....
This is the current weather in Woodstock GA, the day was nice trimmed up the yard a bit. If the weather is the same or close to it Sunday. I'm planning on dropping the oil pan too replace the gasket.
Greg
Got a tip to stop by the coffee shop, missed it at first...... "ANPL" thru me LOL... takes me a sec sometimes.
Have my own weather station.....
This is the current weather in Woodstock GA, the day was nice trimmed up the yard a bit. If the weather is the same or close to it Sunday. I'm planning on dropping the oil pan too replace the gasket.
Greg
Early Morning for me again. For some reason I am having trouble sleeping, therefore I will be forced to take a nap, or I will be too tired to stay up once the sun goes down.
It's 38 this morning - much better than the 25 we had yesterday ... the high is supposed to be 69. No rain is called for, I cannpt see any clouds - the sky is dark. lol
Maybe I will work on straightening up the garage so I can actually start building something again - maybe even work on a train related item for something new?
It's 38 this morning - much better than the 25 we had yesterday ... the high is supposed to be 69. No rain is called for, I cannpt see any clouds - the sky is dark. lol
Maybe I will work on straightening up the garage so I can actually start building something again - maybe even work on a train related item for something new?
santafewillie
Same Ol' Buzzard
Good Morning All. 38° and clear skies this morning. The Weather Underground is reporting wind gusts of 1 mph from the north at the station about a mile south of me. Must have recorded that gust when I sneezed on the back porch this morning. It's absolutely calm, a bit unusual for here. Looking forward to high temperatures in the 60's for the next ten days. Rain again on Tuesday and Wednesday. Counting the rainfall yesterday morning, we received right at 8" last week. There's still some small puddles left in the yard in the low spots. Plans changed last night and instead of firing up the grill, we went with some friends to a new local small-town BBQ establishment. While walking up the sidewalk, I noticed a new winery/wine bar across the street. Found that the BBQ place served wine from their winery that was pretty good, so we stopped in over there after eating. I drink beer with BBQ, wife had the wine. It was a nice find and we bought a few bottles before leaving. Good Texas BBQ as well.
Yesterday out in the train shed, I started adding the mortar lines to Vulcan Manufacturing - got two sides completed. Started to play with track arrangements over where I intend to put it and another unknown industry. Worked a bit with the new yard, if I use it as strictly a staging/storage yard, it will hold 105 railcars. I intend to use it as a classification/switching yard to begin with to see if that interests me enough to continue. To some extent, both can be accomplished with it, but my idea of classification yards is short term storage only.
Sherrel - Sometimes it takes me longer to get in and out under the sink when doing kitchen plumbing than it takes to do the actual work.
Greg (WI) - I refrain from wearing long sleeves when working on the layout, learned the hard way over thirty years ago. If I have to wear a long-sleeved shirt in the train shed, I confine myself to either general clean-up/organization or sit at the workbench and roll them up. Rainfall here has actually been much more dramatic than what I posted. But the topography at my place is really good regarding run-off. There are some places on the road to my mailbox that can be underwater from the rushing run-off at times, but that usually dissipates quickly. There are fields of winter wheat across both roads that border my property that provide greenery during the winter. Normally my yard would be that green from the native wild rye and oats, but not this year due to the drought from September til this week. After this rain, I'll be mowing in about ten days, I'm usually mowing by February 1!
Greg (GA) - Welcome to the Coffee Shop. You're pretty close to Eric over there in Acworth. We sent a lot of windows and doors to Woodstock when I still worked for my employer at the window company.
Everybody have a great day.
Willie
Yesterday out in the train shed, I started adding the mortar lines to Vulcan Manufacturing - got two sides completed. Started to play with track arrangements over where I intend to put it and another unknown industry. Worked a bit with the new yard, if I use it as strictly a staging/storage yard, it will hold 105 railcars. I intend to use it as a classification/switching yard to begin with to see if that interests me enough to continue. To some extent, both can be accomplished with it, but my idea of classification yards is short term storage only.
Sherrel - Sometimes it takes me longer to get in and out under the sink when doing kitchen plumbing than it takes to do the actual work.
Greg (WI) - I refrain from wearing long sleeves when working on the layout, learned the hard way over thirty years ago. If I have to wear a long-sleeved shirt in the train shed, I confine myself to either general clean-up/organization or sit at the workbench and roll them up. Rainfall here has actually been much more dramatic than what I posted. But the topography at my place is really good regarding run-off. There are some places on the road to my mailbox that can be underwater from the rushing run-off at times, but that usually dissipates quickly. There are fields of winter wheat across both roads that border my property that provide greenery during the winter. Normally my yard would be that green from the native wild rye and oats, but not this year due to the drought from September til this week. After this rain, I'll be mowing in about ten days, I'm usually mowing by February 1!
Greg (GA) - Welcome to the Coffee Shop. You're pretty close to Eric over there in Acworth. We sent a lot of windows and doors to Woodstock when I still worked for my employer at the window company.
Everybody have a great day.
Willie
montanan
Whiskey Merchant
A quick good morning. 21 degrees and partly cloudy.
Didn't check in yesterday because we got an early start and headed to West Yellowstone to do some snowmobiling. The frigid temps broke and with all of the new snow, couldn't pass up the chance. I am paying for it today because parts of me hurt that I forgot that I had.
Justin - Interesting video. I am a big fan of NWSL can motors having remotored all of my old Athearn locomotives years ago. What a difference in performance. Like day and night. After over 25 years, they are still running like new.
Willie - May take a while for thing to dry out by you. More time to spend with the trains I guess.
Sherrel - Installing dish washers has become second nature to me. When we remodeled our kitchen a couple of years ago, we had new counter topps installed and a nice deep stainless steel sink. The drain pipes were the pain as the garbage disposal had to be moved because the smaller of the two sinks was on the other side from the old one. I had traps running into traps with what I had on hand to have the sinks operational that day. A stop to the hardware store the next day took care of that problem. The dish washer was a simple installation. A few month back, the LG dishwasher that was less than two years old started having major problems. The service man, who I happen to know well was on the phone with LG constantly. All they wanted to do was to throw parts at it. Parts aren't cheap. We did li=uck out finding a nice Maytag dish washer on sale at Home Depot at $300 below retail. The LG went to the dump and installation was fairly simple. I do keep a box full of plumbing parts that I have accumulated over the years and had everything that I needed to get it up and working. The only part of the installation was working in the small space under the dishwasher with all of the sharp edges. Looked like I was sorting wildcats when I was finished. The wife likes th Maytag a lot better also. Happy wife, happy life.
Ken D&J - I sure hope that you can figure out the video editor as I really enjoy your many videos. Good luck with it.
Greg - GA - Nice to see you stopping by. Nice weather station. I had one that was given to me over 40 years ago that was worth over $400 at the time. When I left Florida for Montana, they figured it would come in handy. Got a lot of service out of it. Worked well for over 35 years but age caught up with iot. Now I have a lot more simple one. The way the weather guessers have been this yea, my weather rock has done abetter job. We have been under a winter weather Advisory for the past three days. The sun has been out for the past three days.
The NASCAR race at Atlanta is coming on soon so I will get into my recliner and try to move as little as possible. When the race is over, I hope to visit the train room as I haven't had a chance to get down there for a couple of weeks to run trains.
Later.
Didn't check in yesterday because we got an early start and headed to West Yellowstone to do some snowmobiling. The frigid temps broke and with all of the new snow, couldn't pass up the chance. I am paying for it today because parts of me hurt that I forgot that I had.
Justin - Interesting video. I am a big fan of NWSL can motors having remotored all of my old Athearn locomotives years ago. What a difference in performance. Like day and night. After over 25 years, they are still running like new.
Willie - May take a while for thing to dry out by you. More time to spend with the trains I guess.
Sherrel - Installing dish washers has become second nature to me. When we remodeled our kitchen a couple of years ago, we had new counter topps installed and a nice deep stainless steel sink. The drain pipes were the pain as the garbage disposal had to be moved because the smaller of the two sinks was on the other side from the old one. I had traps running into traps with what I had on hand to have the sinks operational that day. A stop to the hardware store the next day took care of that problem. The dish washer was a simple installation. A few month back, the LG dishwasher that was less than two years old started having major problems. The service man, who I happen to know well was on the phone with LG constantly. All they wanted to do was to throw parts at it. Parts aren't cheap. We did li=uck out finding a nice Maytag dish washer on sale at Home Depot at $300 below retail. The LG went to the dump and installation was fairly simple. I do keep a box full of plumbing parts that I have accumulated over the years and had everything that I needed to get it up and working. The only part of the installation was working in the small space under the dishwasher with all of the sharp edges. Looked like I was sorting wildcats when I was finished. The wife likes th Maytag a lot better also. Happy wife, happy life.
Ken D&J - I sure hope that you can figure out the video editor as I really enjoy your many videos. Good luck with it.
Greg - GA - Nice to see you stopping by. Nice weather station. I had one that was given to me over 40 years ago that was worth over $400 at the time. When I left Florida for Montana, they figured it would come in handy. Got a lot of service out of it. Worked well for over 35 years but age caught up with iot. Now I have a lot more simple one. The way the weather guessers have been this yea, my weather rock has done abetter job. We have been under a winter weather Advisory for the past three days. The sun has been out for the past three days.
The NASCAR race at Atlanta is coming on soon so I will get into my recliner and try to move as little as possible. When the race is over, I hope to visit the train room as I haven't had a chance to get down there for a couple of weeks to run trains.
Later.
Greg@mnrr
Section Hand
Good Afternoon everyone...just checking in. Sunny and windy today.
Changed the front porch light...was going to use a 60 watt - 130 volt lamp instead of a 75 watt - 120 volt. A 130 volt lamp operating on 120 volts lasts so much longer, 5,000 hours verses 725 hours for the standard 75 watt lamp. But, the lumens for the 130 volt 60 watt lamp is like 475 lumens and the 75 watt lamp at 1,120 lumens. Used the 75 watt lamp. The 130 volt lamps are like using 14 volt lamps on the layout and operating them at 10 volts, a bit dimmer, but last forever.
Chet: The owner of the appliance service company who does our service work told us that the new appliances, stove, dishwashers, laundry are not made as well as the older models. Maybe more features on the new ones, but no longevity. He said the engineers know what many cycles a dishwasher will last before a major break down happens. "Keep the wife happy".
No weather stations for me...I just look out the windows.
That's it for now...short and sweet.
Greg
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Changed the front porch light...was going to use a 60 watt - 130 volt lamp instead of a 75 watt - 120 volt. A 130 volt lamp operating on 120 volts lasts so much longer, 5,000 hours verses 725 hours for the standard 75 watt lamp. But, the lumens for the 130 volt 60 watt lamp is like 475 lumens and the 75 watt lamp at 1,120 lumens. Used the 75 watt lamp. The 130 volt lamps are like using 14 volt lamps on the layout and operating them at 10 volts, a bit dimmer, but last forever.
Chet: The owner of the appliance service company who does our service work told us that the new appliances, stove, dishwashers, laundry are not made as well as the older models. Maybe more features on the new ones, but no longevity. He said the engineers know what many cycles a dishwasher will last before a major break down happens. "Keep the wife happy".
No weather stations for me...I just look out the windows.
That's it for now...short and sweet.
Greg
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