Good morning from smokeville. YUK! YUK! YUK! BLAH!!! Way worse than yesterday.
Being in the farm belt Agriculture Canada showed up pretty quick to check out our little visitors and had a good look and said very close but no cigar! Giving us a call was the right thing to do they said. I asked if they wanted to take the nest with them while they were here and they said, na, it’s all yours. They are excellent pollinators, it is a shame they are where they are.
So I suited up in my gear and let them have it along with a wasp nest I discovered on the back of the basketball backboard. Normally I would hit them with my big torch, however, I did not want to be the cause of another massive fire so I when to the armoury and chose my canned weapon of choice and launched a night time assault.
We had an invasion of Asian Murder Hornets off a ship a few years ago in BC and Washington and they found a huge nest right by the mailboxes about 700m away. Watched the agri folks handle that one from a distance as they lured them all into a container of some sort and then proceeded to dig up the surrounding ground with an excavator. Murder Hornets are more like small birds than insects. They think that they got them all and I have not heard of any others for a couple of years. They apparently didn’t bring their snowsuits when they packed for the trip and did not fair well.
That funicular accident in Lisbon was terrible. My Brother-in-law and his family were on it just last week and last night he posted a video of their ride on it.
I have not eaten a thing since our cod and chips and beer feast yesterday as it was more than a days calories for me. I will see if I can find my way through the smoke with a dog and burn some off with an easy slow walk and then have a heap of bacon and eggs for lunch.
There were 6000 lightening strikes in two days in the Province. Water bombers are grounded as the humidity level means the water evaporates before it even hits the ground. The wildfire service said that one fire started from a concentration of lightening in a small area and was instantly a 10 Sq km fire from nothing.
Howdy diners. Zoe, I’ll just have a glass of sweet iced tea please. TGIF
I’ve been trying for years to get the family out there. Rumors are swirling again that we might actually go next year. I’m not holding my breath.
And did that ever look tasty!
You and Dawn have clearly done something right with as often as your grandkids are over. The kicker is, with as much as your grandkids like to visit, you probably like them coming even more.
I had the same thought!
I hope everyone is having a good Friday. I for one am ready for the weekend. Lots I want to get done around the house, but I fear my wife and oldest daughter will throw a wrench in the works.
It must be the clean livin. I went out for what was going to be a slow-mo walk through the 100 acre wood in the smoke. I was a 100 metres up the trail when the wind shifted from the SE to the SW and we had instant blue skies and clean air. Turned it into high gear and pounded off 8.04kms in the sunshine. Got home just in time for the wind to shift back to the SE and the smoke was back in seconds.
Ugggggghhhh! Western Pennsylvania really needs to get a new food scene and bad. We’re basically a wasteland when it comes to decent Asian and Mexican food along with decent model train shops. I’m pretty much McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Burger Kinged out and I certainly ain’t interested in more hobby shops that mostly sell comic books and games or RC and slot cars.
Hmmmm I need to get an agent or something. I’m wasting my time giving away comedy gold and hot takes for free on message boards for magazines when I should be in those magazines sharing my gift with the world and getting paid for it. I wanna be on Joe Rogan Experience too but I’m not famous enough so I need to get my model train humor writing gig going so I can get famous and get interviewed on the show. There’s yachts to be bought and super models to be dated. Also I want a personal train like Kid Rock’s got in his song Cowboy. You’ll hear my whistle blowin’ when my train rolls in it goes *whistles like Dust in The Wind.
Believe me, from my own personal experience, the yachts and super models are very nice, but I did find them a little boring after a while. For real excitement and self-satisfaction, there’s nothing like laying down ballast on an N model layout!
Good morning from the Pacific Rim where we can actually see the sky today and it is sunny and warm as usual.
There is still smoke in the air but not too much at this time, but that can change in a heartbeat if the wind shifts.
I cannot remember the last time I was ever in a fast food joint, it has been years. The wife and I eat out a lot, but it is always at better one-off restaurants. If we are on the road and are getting hungry she gets on her tablet and starts looking for good restaurants in towns coming up. You may have to go off the highway a few blocks but the food quality makes the extra five minutes worth it. On the odd occasion she has been unable to find something, we will go to the restaurant in a higher end hotel.
My wife’s canine semen made it to the storage facility in Vancouver from Europe so she is breathing a little easier today. Now she just has to wait for the bitch to come into season and we should be off to the races.
I rarely see anyone on my scoots but a few days ago I ran into three people from Germany that were looking for “the Stargate”. I had to tell them that after years of sitting in a meadow in the middle of the forest it had been removed. I showed them where it had been and also showed them where there use to be some Viper fighters from the TV show Battlestar Galactica. The production companies use to just leave them sitting where they were for years as they would just come back to the area and shoot whenever they needed an alien world for the episode. Only the locals who are very few new they were there and nothing ever happened to them.
Time for a quick 5 to 10 km scoot with the mutts, then I will hop on the Deere and then who knows where retirement will take me.
Inspirational quote “If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe.”- Joe Rogan
Is it Fall yet? It’s so refreshing to go out in the morning and not be hit in the face by high temperatures. I have to enjoy this – in three months we will struggle to get above freezing:
Not much going on today, but the week ahead has something scheduled every day.
I finally made the trip to the train store yesterday and got more ballast. Not exactly something to rejoice about, but I am close to finishing ballasting all existing track! That’s a day I’m looking forward to.
My Saints play the Cardinals today at noon. I don’t hold out any high hopes for this season. At least I lived long enough to see the Saints in one Super Bowl.
Wife is ready to head out the door to church. It’s donut day! Have a good Sunday everyone.
Good Sunday morning from a cloudy West Coast. We got a wee bit of rain yesterday along with some thunder and lightening, however, we were spared any local strikes. We only hear thunder maybe once a year in this part of the world, however, if you go East into the mountains there is always plenty to go around.
I am heading back to the hockey rink with my son today, it has been a few years since I have gone. Who knew when I took this tiny little human to the hockey rink all those years ago that he would thrive and become the president of an organization associated with Hockey Canada. His is a volunteer position and he runs the show, it has a good sized paid staff and a large budget. There is a big event happening today for the season opening and the kid asked me to go with him for old times sake.
15c is my perfect temp and I wish it was always 15c. Perfect for working and/or playing outside.
Speaking of weather, it has been a perfect year for the local farmers. The corn is the best ever as is all the fruit and veggies. When driving or walking to and from the house we come home with arm loads of the spoils of farming as the neighbours load us up when they see us, or it is just left on the front step.
One neighbour just has a small acreage like ours and she grows a ton of stuff and takes it all to the food bank and homeless shelters. She is a wonderful lady.
Four more Mondays until hockey season.
Now my daughter is done with University I am missing those cruises back and forth to Vancouver Island.
Sunday in september! Chilly here in NE Ohio, too. Presently 64°F (17.7C) and I’m glad to say I’ve got more than enough firewood stocked for the coming months. Last night I spent an enjoyable two hours or so at the caboose with a nice fire going and four cats surrounding the stove.
Shorpy has a fascinating photo of the Pennsy docks in Erie, Pennsylvania (about 40 miles from me). I have been to this site several times and just like Sandusky, Cleveland, Ashtabula and Buffalo — a fascinating Great Lakes port!
So much to see in this scene! The two girls in the midst of it all. They wouldn’t be picking coal, would they? Maybe bringing lunch to daddy? Look at that track in the foreground! A tie every three feet and hardly any spikes!
Here’s a closer look at the ‘Whirleys’ and the ore stockpiles. Interesting how they stack the cribbing to hold the piles in place.
The guy in the front is the mechanic charged with figuring out what the problem with the railbus is.
The other 11 guys posing are his supervisors waiting their turn to give useless advice and beat the mechanic about the head for not solving the issue fast enough.
My Steelers really pulled one out of the fire today. Aaron Rodgers was looking like Big Ben out there keeping up with the Jets score for score like us real ones knew he would back when they were making a move to pick him up. But mang, that D tho. They were lookin’ rough. Fortunately, Chris Boswell got a last minute field goal to win it.
Summer got away from me.
Just love you guys, and my absence is excusable, because my Mach 1 was drove through its first thunderstorm.
Those little windshield wipers still worked after 53 years being dry, and Judy thought they were cute
Her mom’s hip surgery took, but wasn’t too happy about hanging out in northern Wisconsin for 3 weeks
Many things to do and can’t even see myself catching up anymore. Sure wish sleep was better, cuz I’m missing my rem.
I went out for what was going to be a slow-mo walk through the 100 acre wood in the smoke. I was a 100 metres up the trail when the wind shifted from the SE to the SW and we had instant blue skies and clean air. Turned it into high gear and pounded off 8.04kms in the sunshine. Got home just in time for the wind to shift back to the SE and the smoke was back in seconds.
They could still visit later.
