^That episode is my favorite bit of Tolstoy.
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^That episode is my favorite bit of Tolstoy.
That is a ridiculous price. Our rents are £18 a year for a plot that are around 30 x 50 at least. A lot of people rent 2. It sounds like a bit of a money scam from the council.Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
For the first time in quite a few years we're full. We have about 170 plots covering 16 acres. We do have the option of reclaiming land that has been let wild should the need arise.
Another week passed. The oat-harvest began, and all the men were a-field under a monochromatic Lammas sky, amid the trembling air and short shadows of noon. Indoors nothing was to be heard save the droning of blue-bottle flies; out-of-doors the whetting of scythes and the hiss of tressy oat-ears rubbing together as their perpendicular stalks of amber-yellow fell heavily to each swath. Every drop of moisture not in the men’s bottles and flagons in the form of cider was raining as perspiration from their foreheads and cheeks. Drought was everywhere else.
—Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, Chapter XXXIII
Lammas is August 1st, the festival of the first harvest of wheat.
This bloke is great. How to do it Albanian style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RyZCCl3OE0&hd=1
Enjoyed the video, particularly the peening and sharpening techniques. I'll be happy to loan you these when the time arises:Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/a...psebfcdc58.jpg
Note the WD-40 to wet your stone and the sock to slip it in.
RE: Ornithology
The Red-breasted nuthatch is an absolutely adorable bird. Recently a pair of were making the rounds clasping onto the shaft of sturdy Oak penetrating acorns with their beaks.
Another common bird in my neck of the woods, is the Bridled Titmouse.
Just what I need - a decent peening hammer. Not to mention a planisher. I made the mistake of buying a peening jig because the old eyes are a bit dull, but there is no satisfaction using it. Anyway t'other day I had a go with an ordinary claw hammer and polished up a lump hammer for an anvil - and made a fair job of it.
That WD40 idea sounds good. oil tends to clag up the stone.
Do you have Bustards in Texas?
.......
"Lump hammer"? I'll need help with that one.Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
What you see in the picture is from my father's sheet metal tools, used on many VW Beetle and Corvair Monza fenders.
The sharpening stone is one I picked up some where along the way. I once tried some 80 weight oil on the stone, normally used as cutting oil on the drill press, that really gummed up the grit.
As requested, here are two pictures of the new lassie, her name is Isis:
http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps771626a9.jpg
http://i963.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9b347ca9.jpg
I had her sit by some wood I'm splitting with the new 10 lb sledge hammer and the ole family wedge. I figured anyone who cuts grass with a scythe, would appreciate a classical method of splitting wood.
How many times have I thought, "If I had a long handle on this wedge it would be a very good thing," and never pursued the idea.
That's a grand looking dog, do I detect a bit of collie in there.
Don't lend me those heirlooms, I'm a terrible loser of hammers.
A Yorkshire sheep farmer, eh? I'm sure we have one of those around here.....
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/c...n-9582960.html
Strange folk them North Yorkshire types.
We have a piece of genuine Tour de France art work in our meadows by a genuine artist. She created it by sowing different coloured grasses into the sward in April, it covers about 10 acres and can be viewed from le route of le Tour. I have no idea what it is supposed to be, when I asked her she said "It's totally abstract". I was jealous of my mate -Miles who has a nice picture of a man and his dog in his field, Miles was on telly the other day talking about it. Anyway mine is supposed to be curves and stripes but by last week no stripes had appeared , my original native grasses have smothered them. So last weekend the stripes were sprayed in with a liquid nitrogen rich fertilizer and a green dye. The dye was useless - green dye on green grass - I only knew it was there because the sheep had green legs after a running through it. The Nitrogen might be kicking in though, I thought I could see something this morning.
Jo, the artist, is a bit distraught because there is an "Interpretation board " by the viewing point across the valley showing what it is supposed to look like , with her name on it. She was planning to go up one night and obliterate it with spray paint (vandals would be blamed) " don"t worry" sez I " If there's a picture of what it's supposed to be like, people will stare and squint and think they can see it." True art is in the mind of the beholder.
Finally! All three of us... myself, my wife, and my brother (who lives with us) are off tomorrow. We had the most fabulous burgers on the grill on Pretzel rolls with some absolutely magnificent Belgian Trappist ale. I'm on my third bottle... all the size of a wine bottle and just as strong (10-11% alcohol). Now we're listening to Willie Nelson full blast... to be followed by Elmore James and the Rolling Stones and finally a magnificent double chocolate stout with a dark chocolate bar and some chocolate cake. If we don't go into a diabetic coma, we'll all get up around 2 PM tomorrow. Thank God for spell check!!
http://www.stpeterslist.com/wp-conte...08/chimay.jpeg
http://d2qdgu53yc9lue.cloudfront.net...de_1674_lg.jpg
http://johannasvisions.com/wp-conten...lie-nelson.jpg
Shake Your Money Maker!!!!
http://www.soundstagedirect.com/medi...ster_works.jpg
"Gimme Shelter"
Oh, a storm is threat'ning
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Ooh, see the fire is sweepin'
Our very street today
Burns like a red coal carpet
Mad bull lost your way
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder!
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder!
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
Rape, murder!
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
The floods is threat'ning
My very life today
Gimme, gimme shelter
Or I'm gonna fade away
War, children, it's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
It's just a shot away
I tell you love, sister, it's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
It's just a kiss away
Kiss away, kiss away
http://wwwrollingstones.wpengine.net...ed-600x537.jpg
For me it's not the words but the WOWOWOWOWOW guitar on that track.
Yes indeed. As the payment of 2.6 million quid for an unmade bed showed.Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
LOVE Elmore James, that slide is so damn good...Quote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
^I gotta gal, she lives up on a hill
Yeah, I gotta gal, she lives up on a hill
Shake it but don't break it, baby.
Yes, well, so anyway, I finally decided to do something about the tremendous pile of broken down junk I have out in the barn. Nope, I did not call Ed the salvage man - I resolved to start fixing stuff. So Monday I bought a mig welder from a guy down the street who needed some cash. Yeah baby, metal-inert-gas, wire feed, 250 volts, 200 amps (or two-oh-one, whatever it takes), arc welder. I inserted a 10 lb spool of wire, hooked up an 80 lb tank of argon/CO2 shielding gas, laid out a half-dozen implements that needed a bead burnt across them, and gassed up my generator, but then the trouble began. When I went to plug in the welder, the plug didn't fit.
No big whoop, sez I, I'll make it fit.
1st problem: the power receptacle on the generator has 4 holes, but the plug on the welder only has 3 prongs. In the parlance of the American National Electrical Manufacturers Association, I had to plug a NEMA 6-50P into a L14-30R. Hmm, what to do about the spare hole? I found a box of old power cords in the garage and decided to fashion a converter out of a heavy-duty power cord (30 amp) from a now-defunct clothes dryer. Green wire, red wire, white wire, and black wire.
So green is ground, red is hot, black is hot, and white is neutral (whatever that means). After much hemming and hawing, and racking my brain trying to remember a basic circuits course I took years ago, I just clipped that white bastard off.
Voila! Problem solved.
2nd problem: Feed speed, Dial-a-Volt, and Polarity. Trial and error worked here.
3rd problem: what to do about the sunburn.
As it turns out, I could've saved myself a lot of time if I'd'a visited the welder's forum on the web. It's set up just like this one (only with much more traffic) and all the things I had to figure out on my own were already laid out for me right there in the "general questions" area.
Yep.
Think I'll keep my eyes peeled for a 3-phase Heliarc Welder.
"Trappist ale take my mindQuote:
Originally Posted by stlukesguild
Don't let her mem'ry torture me..."
A pair of jumper cables and electrical tape can sometimes get you around those confounded NEMA problems, but I wouldn't count on a pair of isotoner gloves when operating.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sancho
Thanks, her bio from the shelter indicated "Collie mix". Who knows what the rest of her is.Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
Just right for an Austrian scythe!Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sancho
I have the same problem. I've decided to build a new barn.
Ha ha, sounds like a sound plan. In fact I'm in the early planning phases of a new barn myself. Which is to say, I'm thinking of putting up a new barn. Unfortunately whenever I start to do something around here the lyrics to the children's song, There's A Hole In My Bucket, starts ringing through my head.Quote:
Originally Posted by prendrelemick
Sounds like Henry's a bit of a whiner.Quote:
There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.
Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, mend it.
With what shall I mend it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
With what shall I mend it, dear Liza, with what?
With a straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With a straw, dear Henry, dear Henry, with a straw.
The straw is too long, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The straw is too long, dear Liza, too long,
Then cut it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Then cut it, dear Henry, dear Henry, cut it.
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
With what shall I cut it, dear Liza, with what?
With a knife, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
With a knife, dear Henry, dear Henry, with an knife.
The knife is too dull, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The knife is too dull, dear Liza, too dull.
Then sharpen it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry
Then sharpen it, dear Henry, dear Henry, sharpen it.
On what shall I sharpen it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
On what shall I sharpen it, dear Liza, on what?
On a stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
On a stone, dear Henry, dear Henry, a stone.
The stone is too dry, dear Liza, dear Liza,
The stone is too dry, dear Liza, too dry.
Well wet it, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Well wet it, dear Henry, dear Henry, wet it.
With what shall I wet it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
With what shall I wet it, dear Liza, with what?
Try water, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Try water, dear Henry, dear Henry, water.
In what shall I fetch it, dear Liza, dear Liza?
In what shall I fetch it, dear Liza, in what?
In a bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
In a bucket, dear Henry, dear Henry, a bucket.
There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza,
There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, a hole.
Use your head, then! dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry,
Use your head, then! dear Henry, dear Henry, use your head!
Well - the daughter is off to Thailand to an Elephant park for two weeks. She's done her exams and will be back for the results. I'm off to Seville on the 5th with the lad to try to reinvigorate his interest in Spanish. It looks fantastic. My wife is going to make an Autumn holiday in Florence - though she has time to change her mind. My wife and I are hoping to get away to the coast later in August. It'll be a busy summer.
If you don't mind me asking, how many children do you have, is it the two?Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulclem
Thailand, Seville and Florence...choices...choices.
I'd have to give the nod to the wife and Florence. Maybe you'll run into Papayahed in Seville.
Elephant Park ?....
I just have 2 children. The lad is now 22 and has finished university. My daughter is 18 and is about to go to university.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilliatt Gurgle
My daughter is asleep as we speak in a hotel in Northern Thailand ( they are 6 hours ahead). She has signed up for a volunteer holiday at an Elephant Sanctuary - I wasn't clear in my last post - for 2 weeks. She'll be looking after rescued elephants, dogs, cats and other animals.
The lad and I will be going to Seville whilst my wife will be taking an Autumn holiday to try to break the rather poor health she's had in Autumn and winter over the last few years. Last winter she was out for 3 months with chest infection, then pleurisy and finally pneumonia. I'm hoping that a holiday before and one after Christmas will help her this year.
I'll have to ask Papaya if she'll be around. I met Mick last year which was great to put a face to his internet prescience.
The Elephant Sanctuary sounds like a worthy and fulfilling endeavor.
Here's to your wife's health and Florence, I would be hard pressed to imagine a better destination when I consider my bias toward the art and architecture.
She really loved the elephant. One of the trainers, a woman, had rejected the traditional methods of training elephants and my daughter said they really loved her. She posted a great pic of herself sitting on three elephant's trunks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilliatt Gurgle
My wife is looking forward to Florence. I'm hoping she'll take a post Christmas break too to break the cycle.
I'm now on holiday with the lad in Seville. It's pretty hot 36 degrees but it is a very shady city. I'm off downtown to buy The Times ( I think that's what all Brits have to do abroad plus they didn't have the more liberal Guardian). Then I may have coffee and buy souvenirs.
Just watched Operation Wild on BBC1. There was a vet trying to get a bullet out of an elephant, but failed as it kept on threatening to stomp him - happily both survived! All very blokish, all very Hemingway, unlike the nursery of baby Panda's...Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulclem
Beyond the myriad of obvious must see's, I'll throw in a quick pop in at the Basilica of Santa Croce. (wife's Florence trip)Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulclem
36 deg - hot? it's 100 degrees here today in my neck of the woods.
Yeah, I know that's a lame joke, but a classic.
Never made it to Seville, just Barcelona...perhaps a couple of pics of your favorite haunts.
Of course. I'm from temperate climes and have no tolerance. I must get photobucket sorted to link some pics.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilliatt Gurgle
I'll mention the Basilica of Santa Croce. She's booked 2 weeks so she should have plenty of time.
I have revealed my lamentable language skills every day this holiday. I'll confidently ask for coffee or beer but am immediately thrown by a further question whereupon the assistant switches to English to help me out of my bluster and I surrender any attempts at Spanish and we end in amicable thank you-s. I suppose you have to start somewhere. It keeps the local population amused.
When the time comes, I'd like to hitch a ride vicariously.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulclem
I read your blog, sounds like a great time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulclem
Thanks Gil.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilliatt Gurgle
Tomorrow my wife and I will be travelling by train to Margate which is a seaside town in the South east. We're having a few days of doing nothing except perhaps a short trip to Canterbury. We've both wanted to visit Canterbury before and, by all reports, it's a nice, historic place.
So later I will be loading up the kindle for lots of reading and lounging about. We're currently undergoing one of those periodic reviews of the house and so furniture is being changed, and we are having a clear out. The skip outside is full, the small bird cherry and hedge is trimmed and away we will pop.
I will of course give you chaps a full report on Margate.
So, the other day I found another Yellow Jacket nest.
Unfortunate hand:
http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps9de694ce.jpg
Regular hand:
http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps637a10ac.jpg
Li'l bastards
Yeowch!Quote:
Originally Posted by Sancho
Since this is the manly thread, can I assume your hand is swollen from punching the yellowjackets so hard?
Yep, that'd'a been an manlier option than the one I chose, which was to scream like a girl and run across the pasture shucking and jiving and whirling my t-shirt over my head like a helicopter. It's what I've always done in that situation. That black and white, spotted fellow in the picture came up with a doggie version of the same thing.
i have stopped reading at this point but I am hoping you also mentioned rushing back home to take pictures of your poor hand and post them on the net for everyone to see!Quote:
Originally Posted by Sancho
;)
Hey, who let the innie in? Bloke's have outies. Don't they?Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
But, good point, Scher. Misogyny lurks around every corner of the language, especially in dusty old cliches.
So how about:
Screamed like a banshee - hmm, naw, it changes the whole idea
Screamed like a screaming mimi, uhh, somehow seems redundant
Squealed like piggy - nah, that one gives me a picture of Ned Beatty up on the Chattahoochee <shudder>
Ran like a river - too artsy-farsty
Ran like a bad dye job - doesn't quite get at it
Shook like a dog sh*ttin peach pits - that one makes me laugh, but it's not really what I was doing
Hey, we should do a simile thread. It'd be fun.
Tossed and turned like a crack baby
Sweated like the crack between a fat man's butt cheeks
Giggled like a...
Shook like a...
Danced like a...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sancho
For some odd reason, this ^ hand reminds me of Glenn Langan in The Amazing Colossal Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgpv7_4uonQ
Catch the line at about 0:57
Haha.
Don't LOOK at me. I'm hideous. Arrggg!
No biggie really. I get swarmed by 'jackets every couple of years. Goes with the territory. We'd just gotten to talking about yellow jackets on these forums a few years back as part of a discussion of Flannery O'Conner's novel, Wise Blood, so I decided to demonstrate. Anyway, that was a single sting. I got stung by around 25 of the little bastards once when I climbed down into an old junker car that was up on its side out in the woods. It took me a while to extricate myself from the vehicle, and then I ran for miles and miles, until I got to the river. The cool water felt pretty good. There was a guy a few years back in my neighborhood they found lying dead next to his lawn mower. I don't think they ever got a definitive answer on the cause of his death, but the speculation was pretty strong that it was a single yellow jacket sting to the temple.
Sounds nasty, Sancho!
Just popped in briefly, so Jynnan Tonnyx all round, unless anyone feels like a Ouisghian Zodah.
Haha!
Welcome back, A'
I'll have a Jack...ahem...John Daniels. When you've known him as long as I have, you can call him John, perhaps even Jim...Jimmy...Jimbo.
Okay, I ripped off that idea from Scent of a Woman.