Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Yeah.. the Herons are protected..

 

Sort of. They can be dispatched legally with a permit. They were included in the Federal Migratory Act but frankly, they are a pest but got swept up in the desire to protect other birds. They can do a lot of damage, especially to fish farms and hatcheries so because of this, one can use lethal means to get rid of them but of course, non-lethal means are preferred.

 

How about chicken

 

It's Friday we have liquid dinner

 

Well, the fix for that is to get another Pyrenees or better yet, get two. I'm convinced two dogs are always better than one.

 

I think you maybe right Larry , they can keep each other company

 

My wife's grant application letter just resulted in $10,000 for our local library from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.
The town de funded the library last year. there have been some other decent chunks of money that have come in, but this is pretty major.

 

That's one of the saddest statements one can see on the future state of a community.

Some of these idiots that make up local and state governing bodies think that books are no longer important. I think they fail to see the real use of a library as a central point of learning for a community. I am not convinced libraries need to continue to exist as "warehouses" for books (digital is far more efficient). But having librarians on hand is important, and too often forgotten.

 

My redneck neighbors quickly made fun of me when I moved here, for reading books and going to the library.

We are very lucky to have the library community so vibrant here that has found a way to morph into the digital age,despite the large portion of the local population that believes reading and books are for children.

 

There was only 1 vote here last night. After counting the vote, burger on the grill was unanimous

 

ROFLMAO

Actually not, I did not even know about such things.

The old ranch house had oil heat and a fireplace, and after that storm dad installed a trash burner type wood stove in the kitchen.

 

Sitting here yesterday afternoon surfing on the web and my phone rings, i'ts the gal who lives in my downstairs apartment.

She wants to know if we have power, seems hers is off

Ahhhh, we have power as I was surfing when she called.

Ohhhhh ~!@#$%^

Run downstairs and check the first set of mains at the meter panel (400 amp twin disconnect that feeds a full 200 amp panel down and the 200 amp panel upstairs)

The breaker is tripped and the panel inside the cover is WARM

Flip the breaker back on and all seems OK for the moment ?????

Head off to get some tools to get the panel opened up and see Wassssssup in there.

Get the panel open and one of the 4/0 cables heading out of the breaker is very warm and there is a real nasty hot spot on the side of the breaker.

Oh my, this is not a good thing as these breakers are not what you can buy at the local ACE HARDWARE STORE .
This sucker is 3 inches wide and seven inches tall with 4/0 lugs on both ends.

I get on the web and find several electrical warehouses locally and start calling.

Seems that Siemens is not a real hot ticket as far as stocked items go.

Finally find a local electrical shop that happened to have a "good used" breaker on the shelf.

I sent them a picture right quick and we were able to identify the beast, WELL MAYBE

I decided to have one of their guys head up here with the unit and a few other "Work around" options to get things working.

Turns out that it was the right breaker and we got it all fixed FOR NOW.

Luckily with the big transfer switch where it is we were able to kill the power to the main disconnects without having to yank the meter (Power co gets real upset when ya do that)

Sooooooo
All ended well with little more that some serious stress while trying to find parts.

Here is a piccy of the pair. The left hand one failed.


I spent a while snooping online and scared up a spare.

Might never need another, but the suckers have been in there over 20 years and there is another identical panel the feeds the horse barn and another building that uses the same breakers.

The best part was that it was not pouring down rain while we fooled with it.

Ahhhh yes, the joys of being a home owner.

 

i agree with all of that. but just for context, and not at all for justification, this entire region is exceptionally depressed economically.
but if there were a will to keep the library in the budget, they would have done it.

it's going to be interesting watching what this town becomes as the years pass. i believe it's going to become more and more a retirement community, and not just the folks who have lived here and are now older.

it is becoming more and more common that people from elsewhere are buying good houses at rock bottom prices and retiring here. yay, more people to help me pay taxes!

but there is a lot of support for the library, both in town and in places as far away as california. (that's another story)
the road running/marathon community has started coming here to do fundraising races, and have adopted the library as their cause.

but yeah, i saw it as a real defeat that the town stopped funding. i don't use the library, but just losing it as a symbol of a healthy town, and what the message of no longer having a library says on a sort of constant ambient level "we've given up", i was hugely disappointed in the choice to de fund.

whenever i talk to people here about what the town is going to become, they just laugh bitterly.
to most folks who lived and worked here when it was the most prosperous town in the state, it's just dead and it's never going to be anything.

we'll see.

 

Well spent some quality time on the phone to two companies technical support groups. I thought that mess went the way of the dodo decades ago.

Anyway I at least had a trip to the sewing machine repair shop first, which resulted in having a meal out and little ride, first we dropped off the RMA at the FedEX drop box in Staples, then down 35 towards Sanford. Picked up two machines and dropped off one. Will likely be back there this coming Friday. The boss now has her workshop machine fixed and tuned, and her somewhat computerized unit fully functional again. The one we dropped off needs a tune up and cleaning, almost need a fork lift to move it. The boss doesn't take that one anywhere any more. At times it seems that she collects them.

 

Great day out on the trail..trail on the left and the old Bethlehem Steel, Steel Stacks on the right and the Sands Casino behind that.