Tuesday #25 of the 2nd

KentuckySouthern · February 25, 2025, 07:31:15 AM

Feb 25, where has time gone? Warm up here this week, already 38⁰ at last check, went almost to the big 5-0⁰ yesterday with some sun, more of the same is guessed for today, too.

Big pot of hearty sugar shack brew on the big enamel pot on the pot belly glowing bright red over in the corner. A dozen eggs sitting under armed guard can be prepped as you wish, bacon and sausage are cooked and some ham is being chopped up with some chives for a big scramble if so desired.
Ms. Sweeter made us a platter of her wonderous S. GA biscuits and there is a bowl of her hand churned butter ready, peach preserves, too! Grits, of course, hot and thick. Iced Diet, Coke, Pepsi and DocP are ready. Tea and milk if you wish, butter milk from the churning is chilled as well.

The maples should be running today and the sugaring is ready to begin. It should be a banner year here in the Maple Valley leading up to the festival late in April. I see a Canadian company is taking maple sap, filtering it and bottling it up to sell unlike syrup. Never imagine such a thing.

Modeling today will be some track realignment on a curve in the yard limits of the big yard on the layout. A second entry using the tail track for the yard ladder.

Enjoy the day all. MIGHT be a road trip later in the day.

Larry C · February 25, 2025, 07:56:56 AM

Karl thanks for the 2nd java and the breakfast spread. Selling maple sap reminded me when I was a kid; and yes I was a "wee sprout long ago....in a galaxy....far, far away." My Mother would make simple syrup for pancakes when we ran out of the store bought excuse for syrup.

It's 40 with a high of 43 in New York.

Have a great day everyone.

Rick · February 25, 2025, 08:07:44 AM

Good morning everyone.

Wasco weather:Cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 67.
It's going to be much cooler where I'm headed to today.

Karl, thanks for the second cup.

Heading to Sequoia NP today and will look for a campsite just outside the park.

Have a great day everyone.

jbvb · February 25, 2025, 08:11:23 AM

Good morning, Larry, Karl, Rick and later arrivals. The NH seacoast stayed above freezing all night and I had to throw the heavy quilt off me to get back to sleep at 3. Last night at the Selectboard meeting I offered to clear snow away from our fire/police building, so I'm looking over the forum early.

It's a bit more than a mile away and not a big building, so the tractor and I should be back in time for work on the layout well before lunch. Reading my layout thread closely as I re-post it shows I'm most productive when I'm just up there, doing whatever's interesting and ready for progress. No computer up there except when I'm using the webcam to show one of the nearby NMRA Divisions something. Even the WinXP box I keep around for my Sprog and DecoderPro is downstairs.

deemery · February 25, 2025, 08:11:38 AM

Karl, can you imagine being the detective investigating the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist, eh? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Canadian_Maple_Syrup_Heist

It was at or above freezing all night, which helped melt some more ice off the driveway, but probably also contributed to the ice dams on everyone's houses. I checked my attic, there's some signs up there, but not too serious (at least not yet.) I'll need to keep a close eye on that.

More work on the Ambroid kit today. Once I swapped paint, I like how the trucks look. When the Tichy S scale turnbuckles arrive, I can do the truss rods. The brake gear would be easy to add even after assembly (I'm not doing rodding, just the castings.)

dave

GeorgeD · February 25, 2025, 08:42:06 AM

Good morning from a warming Tidewater Virginia. Thanks for the coffee, Karl.

My laptop was acting up, and after I figured out how to open it up, I cleaned a very dirty fan, and all is well again. After some chores and a walk, I plan to do some surgery on some little people.

George

GPdemayo · February 25, 2025, 09:01:44 AM

Morning all.....

ACL1504 · February 25, 2025, 09:10:07 AM

Morning all and all others,

Thanks for the Diet Pepsi Karl, good to kick off the day.

Pam and I have bowling at noon and then we plan on coming home and not going out to late lunch with bowling friends.

Not much else is going on here today.

Have a great day ya'll.

Tom

Jim Donovan · February 25, 2025, 09:11:59 AM

Good Morning Folks;

Thanks for the coffee and keep it coming. I finally threw the towel in yesterday and made a normal workable roof for the warehouse on my current project, sometimes I get too creative for my own good. Oh well, I always learn something when I fiddle around.

Today is another gray morning with drizzle. I'm told it will clear up later and be sunny and tomorrow will be great. I really need to clean up the workbench so if weather gets nice I will open garage (workbench is out there) and put everything back where it belongs. other than that nothing on agenda. Have a great day everyone.

Jim

friscomike · February 25, 2025, 09:22:40 AM

Good morning folks,

Karl, thanks for the coffee.

A little work on the shed is on tap for the day, followed by Masonic Lodge this evening.

Have fun,
mike

Zephyrus52246 · February 25, 2025, 09:25:49 AM

Morning all.

Wife's knee surgery went well yesterday. She has some discomfort today, and quite a bit of bruising.

My knee which has bothered me for a couple of weeks seems a bit better today, so maybe it IS sympathy pain.

Headed to 57 degrees today, most of our snow has melted, might even fire up the grill later this week.

Jeff

Philip · February 25, 2025, 09:40:13 AM

Morning all,

I remember processing maple syrup as a kid. Great experience but the yield ration was small after the boil.

Jeff, I wish your wife a speedy recovery!

Seizing the day. It is nice out!

KentuckySouthern · February 25, 2025, 12:05:13 PM

dave: Interesting tale, the syrup heist, don't cha know?

KS

deemery · February 25, 2025, 12:54:00 PM

Quote from: KentuckySouthern on February 25, 2025, 12:05:13 PMdave: Interesting tale, the syrup heist, don't cha know?

KS

When I was on active duty, I was the Report of Survey officer on the Class I (food) account after a major field exercise. There were two parts, perishable and non-perishable, with half of the perishable shortfall in ice. Mostly it was accounting errors, the unit would be authorized 12 lbs of ice, would be issued a 20 lb block, but only charged for 12 lbs (so 8 lbs was not accounted for.) Running around Ft Campbell from dining hall to dining hall, it got to be a running joke. "Here's that LT asking about ice." At one facility, the mess sergeant handed me a bucket of water. "Sir, here's that missing 8 lbs of ice you're looking for."

dave

Mr. Critter · February 25, 2025, 09:06:13 PM

Bonsoir à tous from the Land of Maple Syrup. One of my uncles on my mother's side had a maple syrup operation in the family, yonks ago. The last time I visited it, in the early '70s, the sap-collecting tank-sledge was still drawn by a great big pale horse the size of a bus.

In other news, I've managed to lay hands on some unobtainium: Some code 40 HOn3 flex track from a seller here in Canada, which I intend to use for dioramas and maybe a crittercentric pizza-box layout, and three whole boxes of code 70 HO/HOn3 dual gauge flex from a shop in Texas to drive myself insane with. I actually have some turnouts and transition track pieces for the latter.

I'm given to understand that the stuff's become rare because Micro Engineering's tooling wore out. Finding the code 40 in the next area code over was eye-watering. I also understand I might have functional problems with it due to wheel flange depth, thus my reserve about using it for anything operationally serious. But, oh, my, it'll look good. Provided I do my part, natch.