60+ year old thread.

I used to do icicle lights on all the gables, net lights on the ground cover, lighted grapevine deer, lighted wreaths on the front windows and over the garage. Damn squirrels chewed through the lights so many times I’ve given up on most of that. The lighted grapevine deer were always a PITA. A few times the neighborhood kids would arrange them so they appeared to be copulating and invariably we would experience a blackout on part of a deer. I got tired of my wife telling me “we have a 3-legged deer” or “we have a headless deer” so this year I only did the wreaths and some up lights on the dining and living room windows.
If you think the humping three-legged deer are funny, I am reminded of the time years ago when I got the wonderful idea to put the lights on a on-at-dusk/off-at-dawn timer. I worked all day setting out all the lights, tested everything and then went shopping with the wife. What I hadn’t considered was that once it got dark and the lights came on, the timer thought it was dawn and turned them off. We came home around 9 or 10 and every Christmas light on and around the house was flashing on and off every 10 seconds. I thought it was hysterical but my wife not so much.

 

A new New Year's tradition? Who knows? But was better than last time - first time with the stones!

 

Castor oil cow pies?

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!! Anyone watch the Rose Bowl last night? What a shoot out.

Stay safe out there!!

 

Have to say THAT was a fantastic game to finish up the year with. OSU went out with a resounding bang.

 

Welcome to the thread! Posting pics is kind of confusing the first time.

Sorry to read this Ken. Hope you already had the shots, and the sickness is not too bad.

Is this on the gravity fed grill. Looks scrumptious.


Finished up a shingle hatchet rebuild for a friend yesterday. One thing became apparent, I need an oscillating spindle sander. Going to keep my eyes open for one on sale this year. I have a few woodworking projects I could use one on to help make the project easier.

Going to make a project list today and list what I need to do to make the projects happen, man I would like to be 15 years younger and still be retired.

 

Gooooooooooooooooood Morning Porch!
Well, we froze, and the greenhouse didn't! But the door did blow open in the 30 mph winds, apparently around 5 AM, yet it held to 37*F at the lowest. Have to bungie that door!
Games yesterday certainly made up for the DUDS of the playoff games! Ended up rooting for the "legend of the backup QB in a Bowl Game" a couple times, even though my bet points were on the other team. (Son and I pick all the games every year, with confidence points, for bragging rights.)
Yeah, Tom - pizzas were on the Gravity Smoker. My second try, first with the Masterbuilt stones I found at their store for $5.99! Cooks are all over the map, so for what it's worth: pre-cooked the dough for 8 min in the oven. Got them ready, did 2 minutes at 500*, then got brave and went 550* for 4 more minutes. Took the bottom one in, came back for the top, and that would be about another 2 minutes. Next time, I go 700*F! And Carol has volunteered some better crust in the bread maker! I just used Pillsbury for my first experiments.
Looks like I'm making everyone pancakes in a few - more coffee. Put a fire in the fireplace for the wife and dog to enjoy while on their Yellowstone finale binge.
Everyone have a great one!

 

Good weekend for football watchers -TILL today -our Chiefs got beat by a very good Bengals bunch!

 

Man, good and bad.

 

Ouch!!! I hope Miss Debbie heals quickly!!! And, welcome home!

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!! Back to the grind this week. Oh, wait. Another week of retirement bliss begins.

My desktop PC finally decided to crap out - been nursing it for a while now. I have a back-up but it needs to have most of the programs I use downloaded/installed so that will keep me busy given the slow speed of our internet out here in the boonies of northeast PA. I'll be working off my Surface for a few days, I think.

Be safe out there!!!

 

Off to town today, pick up a few things, get a blood test so my doctor has a current one for my checkup next week. So nothing to eat this morning, just black coffee. Hesitant to eat out anywhere afterwards, damn Covid.

 

Snowing in DC. The first band of snow did not stick to the pavement. This second band is sticking.

Not much to do today, build a fire in the fireplace and prep a rib roast for smoking. Another project on the to do list, fix the coffee bean grinder. Went to use it this morning and it did not turn on. Put it on the workbench and tear it apart to see where the problem is. My bet is the on/off switch, it did not feel right when I turned it on.

 

Hope Miss Debbie heals up quick, and that was a 2021 injury!

Good Morning Porch Pals and Gals! Welcome to the first First Friday of 2022! Apparently, in celebration, Ma Nature had the thermostat set for 22* when I got up... but I was warmed to see the greenhouse at 56*!! Heater and insulation did their job all night!



Hauled a wagon of firewood up to the side door yesterday, to make the promised fire for wife and dog Yellowstone binge - then she didn't want a fire anymore. Oh well, I can roll it back and practice stacking wood.

Nothing to do but take down the outdoor Christmas stuff today when it warms up. Cloudless and in the 50's seems about right for it.

 

Well yesterday I turned 70. The best part was when my wife took me to brunch, my daughter and her husband from Boston and my daughter from Los Angeles were all there waiting for us. Complete Surprise!! Apparently she had been planning this for months and I never had a clue. (Of course I'm finding that to be true more and more these days) So it was a good day.

Enjoy your Monday everyone!

Any my son-in-law is looking forward to driving the Taco all week while they are visiting .

 

Well happy birthday, and welcome to a new decade Bill!!

 

That's so cool that everyone was there!!!

 

Awesome news!!!

 

If it ain't one thing, it's TWO things.

So, I'm happily putting up the outside stuff, dawdling along, and my garage computer/stereo won't give me my XM Oldies. The app was literally "frozen"! And the amp wouldn't do anything either. So, I tried my old phone and Bluetooth into the amp, and one by one things came up. Then went down. First, one channel of the amp just quit, then the whole thing did. Dang it...too quiet to work! Have to pick out a new amp.

So, when I finished putting up the decorations, I guess I will finally fire the generator up. Well, dang, the only thing I forgot to get was new gas! So, load up the new can, fire up the truck, and TICK TOCK TICK TOCK TICK TOCK. WTF!?! Turn off things one by one, turn on things one by one - everything works, have volts, nothing on fire under the hood. Finally hit the RECIRC switch, and there we go. The actuator has gone bad sitting in the driveway. Theoretically, adventurous old people can pull the glove box and fix it, so I ordered a part, and will do so next week when it comes.

And here I thought I was done ordering stuff! At least these aren't high $$ items.

 

Yup, the never ending replacement routine. At least the parts aren't too expensive to repair/replace.

Got my new(er) computer on-line pretty much by noon yesterday without too much loss of programs and no data lost - back-up hard drives are the best.

Oh, and Happy Birthday @billimich Bill!!

 

Congrats on the Birthday. Sounds like lunch was the place to be.

Glad to hear Miss: Debbie is doing better. Praying for a quick recovery.

Well yesterday was an adventure. I lost my canopy, over the cooking area, to the wet snow. It will be replaced. I can actually buy and part of the frame that was damaged and a new top. I am lobbying hard for a wooden pavilion this spring. Both my snow blowers had problems, the large Ariens has a primer bulb gas leak, already ordered the part, and the small Toro is stuck at WOT, and it will be fixed today. We could not find the ice melt on Sunday and that is an issue.

Today will be fixing the Toro, shoveling out the grill area, and guitar practice. Did I mention our coffee bean grinder stopped working so I need to look into that too!