What did you do today? - 2021 version

[rodi]

Paid younger kid's tuition and housing for his freshman year at college... While he's busy traipsing around Europe. (He's paying for his trip to Europe). Had a nice snapchat DM chat with him about trainstrikes, covid tests, price of beer, and quality of bathroom facilities at hostels. Oh to be 18 again.

 

[ls99]

Went for coffee. On the way needed to put gas in car. The one "Top Tier" gas station closed up. Within twenty miles only cheap minimum standard chain stores gas stations, about 7, available.

But coffe, and BS sessison with the usual suspects present was great.

 

[street]

Left for the ranch about 530 to work on the new piece of land I'm buying. Been hauling junk to dump and piling up the iron, and got a pile of wood to burn once the snow comes.

Finding some very interesting antiques and old school tools/equipment. I also installed no trespassing signs etc..

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Dropped DS off for school, then went to the gym. Didn't feel like doing weight machines after cardio so I went for a paddle in the kayak. Made a batch of soap after lunch but it's turning brown. It'll be nice soap, but possibly ugly, dang it.

 

[Walt34]

With an outside high temperature of 103°F today we concentrated on staying inside and chilling out. Next week temperatures are forecast to be a more reasonable mid 80's

 

[mountainsoft]

I've been trying to catch up on video editing from my woodworking projects earlier this year.

Still have a few more to finish up before moving on to vacation videos.

 

[street]

mountainsoft>> that is absolutely work of art!

Beautiful work and what a great work area you have.

 

[aja8888]

doneat54 and mountainsoft.....beautiful work, and you both are very talented guys.

Heck, all I did today was play golf with my group of old guys over 75 years old in this south Texas heat.

Stopped at Cracker Barrel after golf for the lunch special meatloaf, mashed potatoes, cornbread and one veggie for $6.99. I may note that CB has raised the lunch special price from $5.99 to $6.99!!

 

[Gumby]

Today was The Day of the Tomato. We have 29 tomato plants and had amassed more than 50 lbs of tomatoes over the past week. Today was the day to deal with them. First off, we used about 35-40 lbs of sauce tomatoes (Amish Paste, San Marzano and Roma) to make 12 pints of sauce, which involved cutting them all up into coins, putting them on a baking tray with some thyme, rosemary and garlic, baking them until they are a little charred, scraping them off the baking tray (thank God for non-stick aluminum foil), cranking them through the food mill to remove the skins and seeds, and pressure canning them in Mason jars. It's a good thing we have two ovens, or we'd still be working. Then, I cut and seeded 100 Principe Borghese tomatoes and made tomato jam with them. I just finished water bath canning 6 quarter pints of it. While I was doing that, the young wife made panzanella with some of the Mortgage Lifter tomatoes and her homemade sourdough bread. We had that for dinner.

 

[Jerry1]

Day two of the storm related power outages. We were passed by from yesterday’s storms but lost power overnight. It’s Thursday night and they’re estimating we won’t have power back until Monday evening. Very thankful to have a generator that will run our whole house (air conditioning). I’ll shut it down tomorrow for a bit to check the oil and make sure everything is okay. Looks to be ok after about 16 hours.

The worst part of the day is driving around town with all the traffic lights out. I spent almost 6 hours in the car today taking my grandson to a cross country (running) camp. It took four trips (two round trips) to drop him off and pick him up. On a normal day, that would have taken about 3 hours, so very frustrating.

So happy to just be chilling in my chair on my iPad. Will be hitting the bed early tonight. With the storms rolling through, I only got around 3 hours sleep last night and no nap this afternoon. I’m whipped.

 

[street]

Today was The Day of the Tomato. We have 29 tomato plants and had amassed more than 50 lbs of tomatoes over the past week. Today was the day to deal with them. First off, we used about 35-40 lbs of sauce tomatoes (Amish Paste, San Marzano and Roma) to make 12 pints of sauce, which involved cutting them all up into coins, putting them on a baking tray with some thyme, rosemary and garlic, baking them until they are a little charred, scraping them off the baking tray (thank God for non-stick aluminum foil), cranking them through the food mill to remove the skins and seeds, and pressure canning them in Mason jars. It's a good thing we have two ovens, or we'd still be working. Then, I cut and seeded 100 Principe Borghese tomatoes and made tomato jam with them. I just finished water bath canning 6 quarter pints of it. While I was doing that, the young wife made panzanella with some of the Mortgage Lifter tomatoes and her homemade sourdough bread. We had that for dinner.

A very productive day and the rewards are priceless.

 

[Walt34]

Mostly chilled inside staying out of the heat. Worked a little bit on an R/C airplane. Fuselage and tail feathers done in the rough (no sanding done yet) and started on the wings.

 

[1242Vintage]

Son and girlfriend left early this morning for their trek back to their new place in Wisconsin and wife is in Cleveland helping younger daughter settle in to her new apartment.

That just leaves me home all alone today. Hate it when that happens.

Today it was a morning gym session, mid-afternoon nap in a quiet house, and I’ll close the day out with an early evening mtn bike ride.

Perfect!!!

 

[Walt34]

Still too hot to do much of anything outside but tomorrow we get a break in the weather so now I'm charging up a bunch of batteries to go flying R/C airplanes tomorrow.

I'm enjoying the videos I get with a Runcam2, a small lightweight video camera that I just stick on the airplanes with Velcro.

 

[Gumby]

I got up fairly early to mow the lawn and it was already about 80 deg. at 8 am when I started. I had spoken with the neighbor on Thursday about our mutual desire to mow our lawns soon, and I figured that since I was already hot and sweaty, I might as well get in a mitzvah for the day, so I mowed his lawn too.

 

[street]

Another early morning ranch trip, to work on the old shop and do some more sorting and picking up on new place I'm in the process of buying. I had a local rancher stop and visit for over an hour. Brought home a part from an old seed cleaner to fix and take back and install on antique seed cleaner.

 

[Ronstar]

Went for a run, helped a friend inspect the new road in front of his place, and took a ride down a portion of Route 66. Next up - the local cruise night.

Found a portion of Route 66 to my liking.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

We went to the hottest wedding reception ever. The heat index was 107 (not all that unusual in August here). We escaped after about an hour all dripping with sweat. On the way back to the car, I told the boys that there is money in it for them if they elope, and I recommend against outside weddings here in June, July or August. No disagreement from them.

 

[Walt34]

Spent a very pleasant day flying R/C airplanes. Temperatures were in the mid 70's, sky was overcast so no harsh lighting, and I'd wished I'd brought more batteries with me. I only broke two wood propellers (not unusual, they are considered "sacrificial" by breaking and absorbing energy that might damage more expensive components). And I had the whole site to myself, unusual on a weekend day.

Shot lots of video from the Runcam, a small lightweight camera designed for use with R/C models, be it airplanes, cars or boats.

 

[GoBears]

Too smoky to do much of anything outside. I walked the Airedale in the morning and spent part of the afternoon trying to navigate the Covered California website to sign up for insurance coverage beginning September 1. I need to call them because the website won’t let me enter 8/31 as the loss of insurance coverage date, only today’s date or one prior to that. Seems silly.

 

[street]

I did nothing productive today. Hot and smoke was terrible, so got ready for tomorrow when I go to the ranch, to do some more work in the morning.

We were asked, to have lunch with son and future daughter in-law at country club, so we accepted the offer.

 

[aja8888]

A friend and I went to the driving range to work on our game. I'm starting to hit a new driver and I want to get comfortable with it before we go play next week. It was hot (90 F), but that's the summer here.

 

[1242Vintage]

Only noteworthy thing is picking up wife from the airport. She’s is back from Ohio helping youngest daughter square away and clean up the boxes in her new apartment.

Tomorrow is day 1 of work for our youngest daughter, our new cardiac ICU nurse. Wife and I are planning a “launch party” at home here in No CA. As of tomorrow all three kids are settled (Reno, Madison Wisconsin & Cleveland), happy and working in their desired profession.

 

[Gumby]

Day 14 of the Lycopersicum War

After the initial skirmishes, we have drawn in our troops to face the main enemy assault. They are now here, and in force. We have battled them night and day this past fortnight, throwing every weapon in our arsenal against them: saucing, dicing, canning, de-hydrating, oil-packing, jam making, Caprese salads, BLTs and plain sliced tomatoes with salt. The pressure canner and dehydrator run night and day. And, yet, they still advance in numbers heretofore unknown to our people; nothing can stop them.

The troops fight with great skill and valor, but they are so tired. They sleep on their feet, wherever and whenever they can, until the oven timer sounds and they stumble to their posts to meet the next wave. Over and over they slice and chop and mill and dry and can. At one point, the tomato horde sends their demand – “Kitchen Defenders, throw down your jar lifters”. We reply with bravado that we do not actually feel “Molon Labe – come and take them!” And still they advance.

At this point, the outcome seems inevitable. We hope only that those who see our fallen remains will report back to our people – “They did their duty.”

Gumby – Canner First Class, 502nd Provisional Canning Brigade

 

[pacergal]

^^
Gumby--too funny! Nothing better than fresh Tomatoes from the garden--Yum.

Yesterday the cooler weather rolled in, No AC needed , hopefully for the next several days.
Today its off to the pharmacy, then DEQ/DMV, then to DD house to watch our youngest DGS. Happy day.