Welcome To The Weekend!

 And I have yard work out the gazoo to do. Glad my son is here to help, as some of this stuff is getting hard for me to do.

We're doing hand-to-hand combat on the weeds this year, and are attempting to reseed and regrow the backyard ourselves. Our "Landscaping Service", basically a lawn care service, came and reseeded it, and then a few days later, a different guy came and sprayed Preemergent weed killer, which kills the weed seeds before they can germinate.

And gee, guess what? It killed the new grass seed, too.

So, profuse apologies were offered, and they took the cost of seeding and the weedkiller off our bill.

We've spent the last week getting rid of the last of the dead junipers (stuff cuts like it's steel!), and raking out the HUGE pile of sawdust the tree carver left. We figured it would decompose and make some decent mulch, but Mother Nature had different ideas, as in a mushroom infestation. I've NEVER seen as many mushrooms come up, repeatedly, as that pile of sawdust produced this year. HUNDREDS of the little bastiges at a crack, in several clumps. I bought some 30% "Vinegar" and cut it back and sprayed everywhere they came up, but now I know how Michael Caine felt in Zulu. "They Just Kept Coming...." SO....we raked and dug the pile of sawdust out of there and bagged it. I'm still spraying vinegar almost daily, but I think we broke it's back. For now....

Got another 100' hose, and put it on the rear faucet with a "Y" connector. This lets me leave one hose in place, running to our "South Forty" (the large front yard to the South of the garage) to water it, and one hose for the backyard that has a sprinkler we move about. We looked into getting a sprinkler system "Pre-Covid", and they wanted $5k~$6k to install a system. I'll bet it'd double that these days.

The front yard I can nicely cover with one sprinkler head and a hose thanks to SLW's garden area in the front. I have soaker hoses for the plants now, but I'm gathering up the stuff to install a drip system. Looks pretty easy, as it all snaps together.

Meanwhile, down in the basement, I've been reorganizing things, and (finally!) getting rid of the two-sawhorses-and-a-door "workbenches" I've been using. Really bugs me that a hollow-core door would sage when supported by the ends, and loaded up with 100 pounds of test gear!

I went and ordered two eight foot, folding leg, utility tables and one four foot version of the table. I've got the "mechanical" bench replaced, and I'm surprised how much floor space getting rid of the two sawhorses made. Geez....now I can store things under the benches, and not have to worry about tripping over a box of electrolytic capacitors.

These tables are also 6" deeper than the doors, so large pieces of equipment fit nicely, and leave 6" of table sticking out so I have some maneuvering room for what I'm working on.

The four foot "side table" will be great to keep my hand tools, soldering gear, and variac readily at hand.

That's it here. Have a great weekend, and be safe out there!

Memorial Day

 Presented without comment on this somber day....

Friday Already.....Again?......

 And we're going into our Summer weather pattern. We only got some sprinkles today, but the areas to the East, out on the Plains, are getting pounded. Haven't seen any lightning yet this year, but I've heard some thunder, which is "Pull The Antennas!" to me. Time to get off my keister and get my new support posts planted, the ground rods driven and bonded together, the Surge Supressors installed, and the 20 Meter vertical antenna moved off it's "temporary" tripod. I also have a new 6 Meter, 5/8's wavelength, vertical to mount. And in a month or so, we're getting a pergola installed over the back patio/concrete area, which will allow me to get my Big Stick back up in the air, like I had in Long Beach.

It's a Shakespeare AT-1011(U) military antenna, and when properly installed, is a real flame thrower. Many people look down on vertical antennas as a "Radiates Equally Poorly In All Directions" device, but I can guarantee you that if they perform poorly, you have a faulty installation. I use it with an SGC AutoCoupler with four, elevated radials, and it works extremely well.

We had both Little Guys over yesterday for about 4 hours, and it's interesting to watch how the NLG is exploring things. His Big Brother adores him, and they had fun playing in TLG's "Avengers Room" (aka Bedroom #2), which is where all his Super Hero figures, Paw Patrol stuff, craft stuff, and wood building block sets are. It was pretty funny to watch how fixated he became on the drawers in craft storage rack. DOZENS of brightly colored toys are scattered around on the floor, and what does he want to do? Open the drawers and take all the stuff out! His Big Brother did the same thing, and I remember opening the kitchen cabinets and dragging out my Mom's pots and pans, so I guess it's a Guy Thing. And they'll be appearing here again Saturday morning for a few hours while their Momma has some things done, and then SLW is taking the daughter-in-law out for a birthday breakfast at a local French restaurant.

And besides doing yard work and attempting to get and keep the garage clean, I finally bought some new tables to replace the two-sawhorses-and-a-door workbench I've been using. Hollow core doors have a tendency to sag a bit when propped up by their ends and used as a work surface! These should give me a better surface to work on, and extra space under the table, as the sawhorses will go into storage.

Enjoy the weekend, rock on, and be safe out there!

If You Like Rhapsody in Blue, You Have To Watch This

 Rhapsody in Blue is one of my favorite compositions. It's too complex to call just a "song". I've heard dozens of recordings of it, watched it live at the Hollywood Bowl, and recorded it for the high-school orchestra way back when. I've known some very talented people who could play the piano part, and they all agreed it was very challenging to play correctly.

The young lady pianist in the video, Khatia Buniatishvili, is astoundingly good. She doesn't miss a single note, and puts a lot of emotion into a piece that most pianists are  struggling to play correctly.

This is also an excellent recording, and I think it's worth the 15 minutes to watch it.

Annnnnnd....We Got *ZERO* Snow

 It snowed a bit, but it didn't stick. From looking at how the storm formed up and progressed South, it looks like the heavy precip started about 10 miles South of here, and proceeded to dump a LOT of snow on the Denver/Boulder Metro area. Like up to thirty inches in some areas.

EDIT: Forgot to add that we received about .2" of rain, which pushed the monthly rain total to 1.07".

So it's 50* and sunny today, with more rain forecast for the coming week, and we ducked a BIG one...

Batten Down The Hatches!

 'Cuz here it comes.....

The Winter Storm Advisory went to a Winter Storm Watch, to a Winter Storm Warning, in the last 24hrs.

The temperature dropped about 30* in 20 minutes, along with a rise in humidity, and a change of wind direction, indicating the leading edge of the front came through.

And we did our best to cover up all the pretty little plants that SLW has been nursing along in the front garden area.

Friday will be rain changing to snow, and a Very Good night to stay in. I reloaded the wood holder alongside the fireplace with some apple and ash, along with some "pallet wood" which burns really hot, and gets the hardwood going. Friday evening/night we get clobbered with between 3" and 9" of snow, so we're going to watch a movie, and enjoy the fire.

Heavy, WET snow, that causes damage. One year we came out here the day after a late Spring snow like this, and the National Guard was out helping to collect all the broken trees and limbs. The homestead up in the canyon is expecting 10~12" total, based on past experience.

Promises to be an interesting weekend...

Y'all be safe out there!

Ruh-Roh! Winter Storm Advisory, and a Damn Good Knife Sharpener

 Yowie.....We have a major cold front coming through, bringing COLD temps for the season, and SNOW!

Per the NWS:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Denver/Boulder CO 257 PM MDT Wed May 18 2022 ...LATE SPRING STORM MAY BRING HEAVY SNOW TO THE FRONT RANGE MOUNTAINS AND FOOTHILLS THIS FRIDAY AND SATURDAY... .Confidence is increasing in moderate to heavy snowfall in the Front Range mountains, Foothills and along the Urban Corridor starting late Thursday for the mountains and higher foothills and late Friday for elsewhere through Saturday afternoon. There is still a lot of uncertainty in snowfall totals but significant impacts seem likely, especially for broken trees that could lead to power interruptions or outages.

Larimer County Below 6000 Feet/Northwest Weld County- Boulder And Jefferson Counties Below 6000 Feet

* WHAT...Heavy snow possible. Total snow accumulations of 4 to 10 inches possible. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph. 

* WHERE...Portions of central, north central and northeast Colorado. 

* WHEN...From Friday afternoon through Saturday morning. 

* IMPACTS...Travel could be very difficult. The hazardous conditions could impact the evening commute. Heavy snow could break tree limbs that could lead to power outages.

 

I don't expect us to get that much snow, and the full synopsis of the advisory calls for almost immediate melting, but still, we'll be running around covering up all the new plants SLW has put in the front garden area. Friday night sounds like a nice evening for the last fireplace session of the season, a pizza, and a movie or two!

I've never been particularly good at sharpening knives.  I can get a decent edge, but it never seems to last. Some years ago I bought a "Chef's Choice" from Cabella's, and I could at least get consistent results out of it compared to other methods.

About the time I was asking for recommendations for one, Kenny, over at KnuckleDraggin My Life Away, popped up and said the best one he'd ever used was a "Work Sharp" unit, so I bought one of those and tucked it away. Fast forward six or seven years to yesterday, and I dug it out to try it.

It put a perfect edge on my beat up hand axe, the shovel we've been using in the newest backyard projects, and resharpened my EDC knife to like new. Well....almost like new. I now know what happens when you put the serrated edge through the wrong side of the sharpener. It Wipes Out The Serrated Edge.... Oh, well, it was an old knife, anyway.

These things:

Are fabulous, and get my 5-Star approval.

Must Be Some "Big Wigs" Coming In...

 As witnessed by all the air traffic just circling around...

OOPS....Scratch that. It's a WIND delay, first I've seen for DIA.

KRFC Increases Power From 3,000 Watts to 50,000 Watts

 YAY! My favorite local radio stations, KRFC, has flipped the switch on their new transmitter and antenna. They're still tweaking the audio settings a bit, but their signal went up 13dB here.

13dB is a factor of twenty in strength, and should make a big difference in their coverage area.

Before:

After:

If you look at the upper right corner of the spectrum analyzer display, you'll see the center frequency of 88.9 MHz, and directly under that you'll see the signal level in dBuV, or "Decibels Referenced to 1 microvolt".

Some of the increase is due to the increased power level, and the remainder is due to the new antenna. 

This will expand their coverage all along the Front Range, from Denver to Wyoming.

Well done, and now I can listen to them all the way to the Denver airport and back.

What A Beautiful Day.....

 For a Colonoscopy!

Well, at least the weather was nice. Everything checked out A-OK, and other than being a little more spaced out than usual from the Propofol, I'm back home and waking up.

Be back on-line tomorrow...

The Awakening....

 Has begun for the season. It hit 82* here today, and supposed to be really nice through the coming week.

So besides my yard duties, I'll be cleaning up the garage so I can start waking this baby up.....

 If I had the viewership that Phil at Bustednuckles has, we'd have an unending series of memes and jokes about Jim's Supra, vis-a-vis Phil's Sprite....

 

But not tonight. The son and I are "helping" The Little Guy with a new Lego set I got him.

Have a good weekend, and be safe!