Spring

[Daren Todd]

Daren, what did you do in your spare time?

Spare time?? What's that??

 

[Grouse Feathers]

Daren, don't retire you won't be able to go back to work for a break.

Larry

 

[Grouse Feathers]

Well its spring here. It has been 60 a couple of days and now tonight the ground is covered with snow. Maybe up to two inches by morning. To reduce the risk of frost damage we never plant up here before Memorial Day(reduce the risk not eliminate). I suspect Memorial Day may be a tad late for sweet tators. I took the mmm mounts off my tractor last week. I think in the last 7 years I mowed twice in the month of May(total for all 7 years). There may not be many flowers here until late May, but in another week I will know its spring when I hear the trout rising to Mayflies in the river out front. Time to get the waders out and tie a few flies.

Larry

 

[skeets]

Damn Mayflies !!!! I hated those things back in the old days, when we went up to visit the clan in Detroit .. Crunch walking on the side walks , splatter on the windshield, and plug up the radiator of Dads old Studebaker... But I guess they are better than skeeters and black fly's

 

[Daren Todd]

I don't miss the love bug season in florida. Drive down the road and you would see a cloud. And end up with nothing but smears all over the window. Next to impossible to get off your vehicle. And so acidic they would eat the paint. Were even worse if you were out on a bike. You would end up covered in bug guts

 

[Tallahassee Kubota Man]

We have all kinds of bugs here in N FL. Skeeters, yellow flies, gnats, no seeums, ticks and love bugs. Daren, they surely will take paint off if not cleaned off quickly. Keeping a good coat of wax helps. My brother is one of the few people that's glad to see them in spring and fall..........he owns a car wash.

 

[Daren Todd]

We have all kinds of bugs here in N FL. Skeeters, yellow flies, gnats, no seeums, ticks and love bugs. Daren, they surely will take paint off if not cleaned off quickly. Keeping a good coat of wax helps. My brother is one of the few people that's glad to see them in spring and fall..........he owns a car wash.

Yup, he'll do a stroke of buisiness rain x worked great on road trips. Coat a rag and wipe down the whole vehicle. The florida turnpike was the worst. Used to have my boss wondering how I could get the truck so clean after a trip to ft lauderdale. It took me 10 minutes to clean the bugs off the truck. Used to take him 2 hours after the same trip pledge works good in a pinch also

 

[Tallahassee Kubota Man]

Yup, he'll do a stroke of buisiness rain x worked great on road trips. Coat a rag and wipe down the whole vehicle. The florida turnpike was the worst. Used to have my boss wondering how I could get the truck so clean after a trip to ft lauderdale. It took me 10 minutes to clean the bugs off the truck. Used to take him 2 hours after the same trip pledge works good in a pinch also

Sometimes he's got cars out in the road trying to get in. Never tried the Rain-x. Repels water, so makes sense. There's a product called Tarminator (by Stoner) that works miracles with bugs, tree resin and asphalt. Some folks use Pam cooking spray.

Turnpike is bad. They like swampy areas with lots of organic matter and exhaust fumes. I used to trim Xmas trees with a 2 stroke machine. They would follow me up and down the rows by the hundreds.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Mayflies or what we call fish flies dont appear til late june. By the ton. Some years a few inches deep on the streets under the lights. Makes roads greasy. But thats nothing, forest tent caterpillars migrate and devestate every tree with leaves in forest. Covers highway and makes them dangerous at times.

 

[Grouse Feathers]

I guess you really can't appreciate mayflies unless you fly fish for trout. Most of the mayflies from the rivers stay in the woods and around the rivers. The mayflies swarming around the lights usually come from big rivers or lakes. Most everyone up here is complaining about the snow this week. I just smile as it delays the mosquitoes and black flies. Jackpine savages always call them mosquitoes, we get savage from living in the jackpines and being attacked by the mosquitoes and black flies.

Larry

 

[OldeEnglish]

Well it's supposed to be spring here, last week had nice warm weather. The last few days, not so much, winter is still lingering . 3" of snow on the cars and trees up on the mountain yesterday morning, took this shot yesterday afternoon. Cold with snow flurries today, Even the pooch looks confused

 

[Daren Todd]

Yesterday the yard was drying up nicely, and needed one more dry day to mow. Mother nature through a kink into that plan. Solid rain today, and heavy thunder showers tonight. Grass is currently up to my knees if the rain keeps up, I'll have to hook the bush hog up instead

 

[Grouse Feathers]

After a day on the tractor grading the still to wet driveway, I tried to excavate for a gravel pad to park implements. The excavation is on the north side of the tractor garage and I found the ground is still frozen like a rock. So I took a picture of the still dead brown grass to show it is a long way from green or knee high. I did however capture a surprise visitor in the picture of the grass. The real surprise was he ran up to my shoe and kept coming when I shuffled my foot. Not wanting a mink running up my leg I gave ground. He still was not in any hurry to leave and drifted off toward the neighbors house.

Larry

 

[OldeEnglish]

Yesterday the yard was drying up nicely, and needed one more dry day to mow. Mother nature through a kink into that plan. Solid rain today, and heavy thunder showers tonight. Grass is currently up to my knees if the rain keeps up, I'll have to hook the bush hog up instead

I see you folks have been getting some wicked weather, hopefully no twisters! I threw some grass seed down Monday where I scalped the lawn with the Dozer blade. Today I was looking at it wondering if grass will sprout in 30 deg weather . Ohh well, I guess I can wait another week before giving the olde lawn mower a tune up .

GrouseFeathers, that's a nice look'n mink. I saw one on a frozen pond a few weeks ago, but I can never tell whether they are a mink or a weisel. I haven't seen one in a very long time.

 

[Daren Todd]

I see you folks have been getting some wicked weather, hopefully no twisters! I threw some grass seed down Monday where I scalped the lawn with the Dozer blade. Today I was looking at it wondering if grass will sprout in 30 deg weather . Ohh well, I guess I can wait another week before giving the olde lawn mower a tune up .



GrouseFeathers, that's a nice look'n mink. I saw one on a frozen pond a few weeks ago, but I can never tell whether they are a mink or a weisel. I haven't seen one in a very long time.

Just about everyone around here gets the gitters with thunderstorms at the end of april. Four years ago on april 27th or 28th we had a twister come through 2/10th of a mile from my house. Last year, 3 days before the three year anniversary of the first twister, we had an f4 tornado come through 6/10th of a mile from my house. Wiped out down town vilonia which is three miles up the road. Town lost 3/4 of there businesses. Property owners said screw it and just hauled off the trash and put the lots are for sale

Here's some before and after pics of the back yard after the first twister

 

[OldeEnglish]

I couldn't imagine living in tornado alley, I give you folks a lot of credit! We had a twister rip through 3/4 the length of our state a few years ago. Right after that, it seemed the weather people became a bit gun shy and issued tornado warnings every time we got a thunderstorm. The global warming freaks came crawling out of their holes and started blaming man kind on the tornado. If they opened up the history book, they would see that we have had them before. Anyways, I hope you have yourself a good concrete bunker, if I lived where you guys do, I would have one anchored with pilings and built to the teeth!

 

[sheepfarmer]

Geez Daren, that's scary hope you have a nice basement. We have tornadoes around here, but not as often. If my old wooden barn got hit there wouldn't be anything left but kindling.

 

[Daren Todd]

We're working on getting a storm shelter. Fema will kick in $1500 towards one, but your still out around 3,000. The money goes fast so you have to get on a waiting list. Price doubled last year, so we're waiting for the price to come back down to where we can afford one

 

[skeets]

That's a lot of fire wood to cut up there my friend. What kind of shelter are you looking to put in, poured cement, a steel box or one of those poured fiber glass units? Glad it wasn't worse for you!!

 

[Daren Todd]

There was about thirty cord down. Ended up making a deal with a couple of old guys. They hauled the wood off. I got use of a back hoe for a month

Thought about a safe room attached to the slab in the garage. But would lose quite a bit of space out there. Plus only enough space for two people. Would feel like you were sitting in a coffin And wouldn't work due to the lay out.
Seen a couple of those prefabbed fiber glass ones around town. Not too sure about that one. I haven't met anyone who had one of those installed. I understand the principal but your still betting your life on fiber glass

We're looking at concrete. Prefabbed concrete ones are going for 2800 and up plus install. $2800 one is really small. Wouldn't be bad for two people, and dogs. But you would have to draw straws to see who got a spot in it if you had company