What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[GrumpyFarmer]

They say Walnut Syrup is really good, but others say it's an "acquired" taste.

I've heard it can be a challenge to make, as it can burn easily.

Heard the same with Birch syrup.

I think both are short on sugar content, so it takes a lot of sap to make a little bit of syrup.

We have the black walnut and it has as much or more sugar as maple. It’s the same process for maple as black walnut sap…there is a lot of pectin in the black walnut sap though that needs to be strained/filtered.

That being said, BW doesn’t seem to give as much sap (in volume) as our maple does. Not sure it is more concentrated or not, but it Tastes great though.

We are budded out here now though.

 

[jaxs]

Other than Walnut, I wouldn't know any of those trees if they fell on my house but we have Bois-D-arc trees that weep when cut then become hard as nails when dry. If I tapped one and made syrup the boys would probably become hard as ball bearings.
I wasn't aware it was still common practice to harvest and process Maple sap on small scale. When I was a kid many people grew small patches of Sugar Cane to make Molasses but I don't know of a single person these days.

 

[jaxs]

Down here on the lower end of the country, the Bradford pears have bloomed and almost leafed out, the forsythia, red buds and cherry trees are in full bloom. It's really pretty. The Bermuda grass is starting to green up, so it's time to get the mower ready.

I'll see your Bradford Pears and raise 2 Mulberries and a Cottonwood.

 

[g_man]

It ain't over 'til it's over. Yesterday weather man said snow during the night and this morning followed by a day of mixed and freezing rain, and finally plain rain Monday. We got 8" or 9", depending where I measured, which I plowed off this morning before the freezing rain and mixed. The road was soft so I kept the plow up out of the gravel.

gg

 

[Siesta Sundance]

Hay day. I'm really hoping this is last of the bales I need to put out til November. We finally got some rain this week, a bit over 3.5in of rain, that should help the grasses to grow.

 

[nerwin]

Well since it snowed, decided to work on the car and test the new exhaust. We put in an X pipe and flowmaster Super 10 mufflers. Still not quite done yet but just wanted to see what the sound will be like. I like it.

 

[fried1765]

Well since it snowed, decided to work on the car and test the new exhaust. We put in an X pipe and flowmaster Super 10 mufflers. Still not quite done yet but just wanted to see what the sound will be like. I like it.

License plate is out of date!

 

[nerwin]

License plate is out of date!

They're not needed anymore. Not in Vermont.

 

[DaveFromMi]

I moved some dead trees, logs, and vines out of the field using just the loader. Bush honeysuckle and bittersweet vines are thick in that fence row. Used the loader to pop some medium sized trees and bushes out of the ground. Next step is to use a pole saw where needed, then cut the vines and spray regrowth.

 

[fried1765]

They're not needed anymore. Not in Vermont.

I think not!

 

[nerwin]

I think not!

They're electronic now. Cars don't need registration stickers...you cant even get them anymore.

Act 41 as of June 1st 2023, the Vermont DMV removed the requirement to have a registration sticker on your LP. But you still have to maintain registration obviously.

Act 41 | Department of Motor Vehicles

dmv.vermont.gov

 

[NordTrac]

Used the FEL to get the uncooperative ATV in the trailer to get it to the repairman.

 

[jyoutz]

Spring yard cleanup is in full force. I’m just using the loader bucket to haul off pruning material and other vegetation to the burn pile.

 

[Kennyd4110]

They're electronic now. Cars don't need registration stickers...you cant even get them anymore.

Act 41 as of June 1st 2023, the Vermont DMV removed the requirement to have a registration sticker on your LP. But you still have to maintain registration obviously.

Act 41 | Department of Motor Vehicles

dmv.vermont.gov

PA did the same I think.

 

[Chanceywd]

PA did the same I think.

Call me paranoid but I find these things just another step in the ability to track you. NY went to plate readers during covid on the thruway. Won't be long and they will have them on non toll roads and catch you for inspections, registrations etc.
When they first were putting plate readers on cop cars around here they would cruise around the parking lots of Lowes and Home depot, etc looking for criminals.

Sorry, for the off topic rant,
Bill

 

[NCL4701]

Call me paranoid but I find these things just another step in the ability to track you. NY went to plate readers during covid on the thruway. Won't be long and they will have them on non toll roads and catch you for inspections, registrations etc.
When they first were putting plate readers on cop cars around here they would cruise around the parking lots of Lowes and Home depot, etc looking for criminals.

Sorry, for the off topic rant,
Bill

Not paranoid. I retired at the end of 2023 and some years before (I don’t recall exactly when) those of us legitimately in the private sector of investigations had access, via subscription of course, to a database that allowed the user to search a license plate number and a date range. It would return locations and images taken by whatever plate reader captured it. USA only. Not sure what the delay on it was. Definitely not real time for us private sector guys. I would expect public law enforcement would have more real time access.

Of course there was a vetting process on who had access to the database. Much more limited than just pay the fee to get in. You had to use it for legitimate business and the database owner had some pretty sophisticated automated auditing to ensure even those with permitted access didn’t use it for things unrelated to their assigned cases. It didn’t work great in NC because we have few toll roads/bridges. If there’s any other than the one near Raleigh, I’m not aware of it. But there are plate readers at places such as airport parking lots and a few other places you might not expect. Worked well to shortcut recovery of stolen vehicles dumped at airport parking lots and to track vehicles mostly through other states. Worked really well in states with a lot of toll roads and bridges such as northeast and Florida. Sometimes good for verifying folks were actually where they said they were during a specific time range.

Point being, the data is out there. Who can access it and what they do with it…

 

[johnjk]

Rainy Sunday. Sharpened the spare mower blade and greased up both tractors. Probably will be mowing next weekend. Will swap mower blades midweek.

 

[RCW]

Not me, but I was surprised to see a fellow mowing his lawn yesterday.

We haven’t even greened up yet….maybe he was doing a test run?!?

 

[Scottly]

First mow of the year today. Don't think I have mowed in March before today. Now awaiting the 60 to 80 MPH Straight line winds and storms predicted for this evening.
Hello Spring!

 

[dirtydeed]

Had some nice weather on Saturday and thought that I'd get lots of stuff done outside...

Nope! Neighbor asked if he could use my garage and tools for repairs on his rusted old subaru. Sure, I said.

Well he certainly didn't have a clue on how to change ball joints on lower control arms (both sides) on a subaru. It took close to 10 hours in total for me to get this @!!1&** ball joints done. They were the pinch bolt variety rusted in since the last century. I wound up getting them out with an air chisel. Had to cut a lower control arm mounting bolt to get that out too. Now I remember why I quit wrenching 30 years ago.

After cleaning up the carnage in my garage today, I did get out on the oranges for a bit to clean some ditches out. Oh well, at least the ditches should flow a bit better now with rain coming this week.

Hope you all had a better weekend than I did.