Good morning NY!

[Clipper]

Good morning. I see that NY is finally seeing more typical spring weather than you have been experiencing. Temperatures are finally hitting the 70's and 80's during the day and 50's at night. I guess you are having a day of spring showers today, but at least it is going to be warm.

We are looking at a high of 87-90 here today with high humidity. People are being warned that it will be extremely hot and humid between 11 am and 4 pm and the elderly and those with health issues are advised to take precautions and to limit their time out in the sun during those hours.

I have been up since 6:30, had my second cup of that nectar of the gods, aka Folger's Classic Roast, and I am headed out to do some outside work until it gets overly warm out. I was supposed to have a cardiology consult with the VA docs at 1pm, but they called yesterday and I just have to have a couple of today's blood pressures written down, and my medication list ready, and they are going to call and do the consult over the phone. At least I won't have to drive to Johnson City and go through the routine screening as you enter the campus, walk from the parking area because the valet service is suspended for now, and won't have to sit in a waiting room with other patients.

I have a lot of restoration work to do where I ground the stumps. I have to lay down some topsoil where we removed the chips, and prep the areas for seeding, and I have still been unable to get the garden prepped for planting. So much to do and so little time to devote to it with cardiac rehab taking up my afternoons 4 days a week for the next 8 weeks.

I hope that you all are going to be able to take advantage of the second phase changes as they relate to the "reopening" of some businesses and resumption of other normal activity. I miss spring in NY, but with the covid19 exposures listed every day in the OD I have no desire to be there this year. I suspect that we will cancel our plan to come North in July.

What's on YOUR agenda for today? It is alarming to read of the exposures in the Utica area at all the popular large retailers such as BJ's, Walmart, Hannaford, and a few others. Enjoy the day but be safe and cautious.

[clarencebunsen]

I just checked and the only thing on my agenda is a B-12 shot. No yard work needed. No snow to shovel. I emptied the dishwasher.

[Clipper]

I was only outside for about an hour and it got pretty hot. I worked in the sun for awhile and it was soon evident that I didn't want to spend anymore time there. It was humid and hot with nary a breeze so I quite and came in where the AC is running full blast. They were saying on the news a little while ago that the sun is so bright and hot today that a person can be pretty badly sunburned in a matter of 20 minutes. My balding head is already burnt. My forehead actually blistered a little bit along my hairline.

I find it very encouraging that you did NOT have any snow to shovel, haha.

[Ralph]

   Scheduled today off as an extra day, along with my usual Mon & Tues, and since they sent us all home Sunday, it's been fun.

It's rained enough here that I can't get out back to cut the lawn there.  By the time I will be able to, I'll need to hire a guide to get through it!

   Called Family Practice across the street to schedule an appointment for my neck.  I think I really tweaked it good a few weeks ago.   They are doing only phone consults for the moment and will call me tomorrow to decide if I need to be seen or not.
While I understand the need for safety, it's irritating as hell.  Every time I need to investigate something it seems to take months to figure out.  The sinus issue is STILL going on and I have to wait until August to see my ENT so he can let me know what he wants to do.  It will be over a year that I started working on that.......crazy.

   But, plenty of chores to occupy me around the house today.

[BHU]

Fertilized the garden today. Weeds are sprouting but the weeding will have to wait till tomorrow. The handle broke on my garden hoe so that was my excuse not to do it. Tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny & I need to get out & get more sun. Had lab work done last week & I checked my results on their website. My vitamin D level is very low. I have my yearly physical next week & I'll see what my doc says about that.

[Clipper]

Jun 3, 2020 12:59:19 GMT -5 Ralph said:

   Scheduled today off as an extra day, along with my usual Mon & Tues, and since they sent us all home Sunday, it's been fun.

It's rained enough here that I can't get out back to cut the lawn there.  By the time I will be able to, I'll need to hire a guide to get through it!

   Called Family Practice across the street to schedule an appointment for my neck.  I think I really tweaked it good a few weeks ago.   They are doing only phone consults for the moment and will call me tomorrow to decide if I need to be seen or not.
While I understand the need for safety, it's irritating as hell.  Every time I need to investigate something it seems to take months to figure out.  The sinus issue is STILL going on and I have to wait until August to see my ENT so he can let me know what he wants to do.  It will be over a year that I started working on that.......crazy.

   But, plenty of chores to occupy me around the house today.

I can envision you tackling the back yard with shorts, knee socks, and a pith helmet and a compass or hand held GPS as you venture into the jungle, haha.

[Clipper]

I am going to be limited to a half day of work tomorrow again because Kathy has a doctor's appointment at 1pm in Abingdon Virginia.

Hopefully the rain will hold off most of Friday so I can get some more done. The tree guy came today to remediate some of the damage the crew did with the damned bobcat. He spread two full five gallon pails of grass seed all over the side yard where the willow was, and the front yard where the damage was limited to where large pieces of the tree fell and made holes. He even seeded where I ground out the stumps and roots. All I have to do is put a layer of top soil over the seed and roll it in. ( I run back and forth and pack it with the wheels on the tractor.)

I hope the weather is favorable for you to get the garden work done BHU. I managed this evening to freshen up the soil in a dozen five gallon pails with soil and put in a dozen peppers outside the back door where Kathy can tend to them, water them, and watch them grow from the kitchen window.

Sorry to hear about your hoe. I bet it broke your heart to have to stop weeding. lol. With the damned clay soil here a hoe is about useless. That was the original justification for buying the little tiller to cultivate with. It works good. I leave the wheels right on it and just run it up and down between the rows and plants, rake up the weeds, and call it a day. I wore out a little Honda Harmony tiller and now I have one from Tractor Supply called Earthquake MC43. It is light enough to pick up and carry to the garden.

[Deleted]

Yes it was very warm today. I was as usual of late rather depressed all day. I am glad it wasn't raining.

[Ralph]

  And that was why I paid out the yazoo for having Rick Turk take the tree down Clipper.  Not a branch fell, not a twig was left, now saw dust around, not a single tire print.  They even "fluffed up the grass before they left.

[Clipper]

The tree service owner himself came to do the restoration work and seeding. He was very apologetic and told me that the guy that was running the crew and operating the bobcat was just recently counseled for causing similar damage to a lawn and was shown how to simply minimize damage by going forward, picking up the limbs with the grapple, and then backing back away without spinning the machine around tearing the ground all to hell. He has experienced other instances where the guy simply didn't use common sense. I guess he had gone to lunch once and left $2000 worth of chain saws laying unattended. They were stolen along with a back pack leaf blower and a couple of cans of gas. After seeing the damage to our yard the guy was fired. It is too bad. The guy was an excellent saw operator and aerial worker. The trees were taken down with precision and safety. It was just that when he hit the ground he seemed to leave his common sense in the bucket of the bucket truck when he climbed into the bobcat.

[BHU]

Jun 3, 2020 22:00:30 GMT -5 Clipper said:

I am going to be limited to a half day of work tomorrow again because Kathy has a doctor's appointment at 1pm in Abingdon Virginia.

Hopefully the rain will hold off most of Friday so I can get some more done. The tree guy came today to remediate some of the damage the crew did with the damned bobcat. He spread two full five gallon pails of grass seed all over the side yard where the willow was, and the front yard where the damage was limited to where large pieces of the tree fell and made holes. He even seeded where I ground out the stumps and roots. All I have to do is put a layer of top soil over the seed and roll it in. ( I run back and forth and pack it with the wheels on the tractor.)

I hope the weather is favorable for you to get the garden work done BHU. I managed this evening to freshen up the soil in a dozen five gallon pails with soil and put in a dozen peppers outside the back door where Kathy can tend to them, water them, and watch them grow from the kitchen window.

Sorry to hear about your hoe. I bet it broke your heart to have to stop weeding. lol. With the damned clay soil here a hoe is about useless. That was the original justification for buying the little tiller to cultivate with. It works good. I leave the wheels right on it and just run it up and down between the rows and plants, rake up the weeds, and call it a day. I wore out a little Honda Harmony tiller and now I have one from Tractor Supply called Earthquake MC43. It is light enough to pick up and carry to the garden.

Looks like the tree service saved you a lot of work. When I had the stump done here I had to get rid of the grindings, etc. I piled them out front for city green waste pickup. I'm going to have to lay down more seed as there are still some bare spots. Today i will definately maybe buy a hoe & weed the garden.

[Clipper]

If I had them take out the stumps he would have cleaned all that up. He is a great guy and very apologetic for the mess his man made. I had my sister and brother in-law here helping me. They were wheeling loads of the sawdust across the road and putting in a pile for later use if I care to use it for anything. I did put a lot of it around the base of a maple tree that has roots above the ground around it. I put the chips and sawdust around it about 10 feet out from the trunk and 4 or 5 inches deep. When that rots down or deteriorates I will put bagged bark mulch there. My neighbor took three loads with my garden wagon behind my tractor and spread it between the rows in his garden. I am going to check with the extension service as to whether it would be a detriment or a benefit to amend MY garden soil with some of it when I till. The stuff is probably quite acidic.

[Clipper]

Good morning. It's going to be a sunny and hot day today with temperatures near 90. We had heavy downpours last night so it will be too wet and muddy to do much in the line of garden prep today.

We woke up to dense fog this morning. I could barely see the house next door. As I was looking down the road some dumbass appeared out of the fog, straddling the center of the road, doing probably 40-45 mph, in a white car with no headlights on. I think people here think that they are going to get an electric bill for using wipers or headlights. It seems that there is a lot of people that refuse to turn on their lights when it is raining, and the wait until it is almost pitch dark before they turn them on in the evening. As much as I love it here, driving is an entirely different experience when compared to NY State. These folks wouldn't get 10 feet in NY without getting a fist full of tickets for left lane driving, no turn signals, right turns on red without stopping, and a plethora of other miscellaneous offenses. I guess as a former professional driver I tend to notice it more.

We will have hot and clear weather thru Wednesday before any showers are predicted. The Utica weather looks great for the entire upcoming week, and just as hot or hotter than here in the South. Stay hydrated, stay safe, and enjoy.

[clarencebunsen]

Fairly nice today. Thunderstorm predicted later. We are planning a lunch with friends tomorrow with some friends at an outdoor restaurant. That will make a nice change to our routine.

[clarencebunsen]

Turns out we couldn't get into a restaurant. They all have limited seating capacity just now. Instead our host grilled steaks which we ate on their deck. Very nice weather. It gave him a chance to show off his latest project. He had screened off a portion of his deck to create a screen porch.