The Hobo Camp Fire Is going well #X.. Stop In!!!

[sir james]

Sunday 8/17/25
Hello Blue
We have a break from the 90s. it's 77 right now.
We had an outing on the calendar for today but they wimped out seeing there was a chance of rain. It hasn't.
Dreams of family can be so real sometime. No train news. Sadly summer is slipping away as the daylight hours get shorter. sigh
S.J.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Part;y cloudy and 66 outside my window this morning. Supposed to get to the mid 80s later on.

Lots of work yesterday. First stop was Menards for paint chip to try to match colors with the new area rugs. After that it was time to start emptying my office. Talk about an archeological expedition! I found manuals for DOS 5 and 6 and installation cd's for Windows Vista among other things. I have about half the carpet removed. This morning I need to make a trip to Menards for some 1X2 and stain to make trim strips for the base board. That will slow the project down while I wait for the stain and varnish to dry.

In other project news I called FedEx about my delayed area rug. The automated voice said it was delayed and had no further information. Then this morning it has moved from Kentucky to Cedar Rapids, IA so progress is being made.

All stay safe.

Tom

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

It's cloudy and 61 outside my window this morning. Supposed to be in the low 80s today. Next week it's predicted to be in the upper 60s to low 70s with lows in the 40s. Looks like fall is on the way.

Tuesday afternoon I finally got the third area rug. Also got the yard mowed and the sidewalk cleaned but not without some delays. Both my string trimmer and blower had dead batteries. Yesterday was spent emptying the rest of my office and installing the new trim boards. I'll work on that more today. I ran into a delay as there was some kind of putty or caulk preventing the trim boards from laying directly on the floor. Removal of that is causing some delay Once that's done all I need to do is put down the new area rug and put the room back together. Other than new curtains that will complete the remodel of my office. Then the living room project will begin. That will take longer as I need to paint the walls twice, once with primer to cover the very dark paint that's there now and then with a light color to eliminate some of the dungeon feel.


Today is the 15th anniversary of groundbreaking on the Backyard & Southern.

Gas prices range from $2.73 to $2.99

All stay safe.

Tom

[hillyard999]

Tom,
You are a busy guy.
You have WAY more energy than I do.
: )

[tompm]

Good afternoon folks

It is currently 79 heading up to 80. We have had a couple of cool days. Yesterday I was wearing a light sweatshirt watching the contractor knock down some of the toll booths at the Fort Washington exit.

Last I worked on breaking in a B&O NW2 from Walthers Mainline. I also tuned up and checked over some Accurail wood reefers I built a few months ago.

This weekend I am not sure what I will be doing around the house. We have some heavy-duty cleaning to do on the floors. We usually do it in September but this year we are going on vacation in September. There is always some laundry to do.

I want to finish breaking in the NW2. After that I will run with some cars and take some video. I have some scenery to work on around the Golden Valley Canning Company.

I hope everybody has a good day.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Clear skies overhead this morning in the remote reaches of northern Iowa. 61 now going to the low 70s. Early fall weather.

Yesterday was another productive day. I finished the trim boards and put down the new rug. This morning the rug has relaxed and is laying flat. There was one corner that got scrunched when it was rolled up but I put my networked attached storage device on it overnight and it's fine. Since the new rug is rather thin I left the old carpet pad underneath so today I'll be trimming the excess pad and pulling staples. After that it's time to put the room back together. Yay! then I need to select the colors for the living room and get started on that. I'll paint the room first, using the old carpet as a drop cloth. When the room is done the carpet will come and the area rugs will be put down. I'm figuring a week or two for the living room. One labor saving device I invested in was electric scissors. It makes cutting up the carpet much easier.

Hillyard - thanks. It's long overdue and needs to be done.

Tom - I traveled about 40 miles on the Oklahoma turnpike about once a year for many years. Cost was about $4. Sometime in the last year the toll booths were removed, eliminating jobs since they were manned 24 hours a day. Now it's plate readers and the send you a bill. $10.50 per trip Apparently eliminating many jobs and installing automated equipment is more expensive. Personally I think it's a legal form of "highway" robbery.

All stay safe.

Tom

PS I will say that I've been sleeping quite well this week!

[FiatFan]

Happy 30th Anniversary of Windows 95, gang.

50 clear degrees outside my window this morning. The NWS has allotted us with 20 additional degrees to be handed out throughout the day.

Yesterday was another day of crawling around on my hands and knees pulling up excess padding and removing staples. Then I put things back together in my office. There's still a few things to go back but it's essentially finished except for the new curtains. I''ll be ordering those in the next few days. I have noticed some fumes coming from the new rug. I'm hoping it will warm quickly outside so I can open some windows. Today will be a day of complete rest. Then tomorrow I'll start buying paint for the living room.

All stay safe.

Tom

[sir james]

Sunday 8/24/25
Hello Blue
Well it was 59 degrees this morning, 70s for the week. Summer plants will notice the change. 
Wife and #2 son are off to an outdoor flea market. I didn't go, don't need to be buying anything. 
Had a chemical stress test yesterday, it didn't hurt, will see the doctor next week.
S.J.

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Copy yesterday's weather and paste it here.

Yesterday was definitely a day of rest. The closest I came to any work was taking a sack of trash out. Today starts the Great Living Room Project. Of course as with any household project it begins with a trip to Menards. This trip is for paint and blue tape. Upon my return I'll begin by taping off the crown molding and baseboards. That will probably take up most of the day. I still need to decide on which shade of yellow for the walls and some gray (grey) for the trim.

It's definitely turning to fall around here. My neighbor's oak trees are dropping acorns. I can hear cars crunch them as they drive by. Fortunately my oak trees don't appear to be dropping this year. In years past I've hauled out between 200 and 300 pounds of acorns. I am already finding a few leaves in my yard though.

All stay safe.

Tom

[TMo]

A busy few weeks.

Just prior to our vacation to the Outer Banks to celebrate my wife's 60th birthday my A/C unit's compressor up and died. Had my son and his family in town during the outage and they were staying upstairs, so something had to be done. While we were away, we called around to have a couple companies come around to diagnose, hoping to have them fix it before we got back. Didn't work - took too long to get a replacement compressor and after the eventual replacement it appears that the whole outdoor unit was on its last legs.

I'd been debating a redo on my HVAC system in my house. When we built it, my builder was nearing the end, and I think he was over budget on a few things and elected to try re-negotiating some things in our contract including the HVAC. He convinced me that his A/C guy thought they could get away with one big unit to cover both floors (my 2nd floor is much smaller than the first), 2 thermostats and a damper. Worked fine in the winter, not good in the summer. But heck, the kids slept upstairs, so we told them to quit whining and we all lived with the situation for 26 years. Anyway, after considering a redo, I went for broke and had the two systems (one for each floor) installed, one in the attic, the other in my basement to replace the aging system. I put a little SWEAT equity into the job by installing a platform for the unit in the roof trusses along with a platform to stand up on to service the unit. Just so happened that was two weeks ago when the ambient temps were in the 90's and I'd estimate it was 125 F up there in the attic. I now know an effective way of losing weight in a hurry, but don't plan to do so again. 5 HVAC guys spent 4 days last week in my house, my bank account took a hit, but we're now cool just in time for the ambient to get nice enough to open the windows.

Other than running some trains and taking some pictures, no railroad activities, but winter is coming along with the end of lawn-cutting season. I'm starting to get some ideas together for the lower section of White Haven, which will be the last uncompleted section on the layout. It's all foreground in front of the tracks, so it's likely to be very detail intensive - probably an 18-24 month build, mostly businesses and industrial, so I'm looking forward to it.

[ngauger]

Slowly getting cooler here day-to-day.
The berrrr months are coming..... Monday is Labor Day

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Another cool start to the day. Currently 46 headed for the mid 70s later on.

Yesterday was an elevated day for me. I spent most of the day on a ladder, taping the crown molding in the living room. I did get parts of two walls primed. More priming will occur today. I also need to make a quick grocery run and mow the yard. My legs are not happy with me for having spent so much time on the ladder yesterday. I woke up a few times during the night with leg cramps.

All stay safe.

Tom

[Charlie B]

Hi Folks

It has been a while since I got to the campfire. 

We had a lovely cool dry day today and I got the trim around the new shower finished. I also started to build the doors for my mower shed 
I am feeling much better, and my legs are starting to look pretty good too. They are not swelling as bad as they have been and I am able to get more done. My wife is about 75% back to normal so we are doing well.

I worked on another caboose tonight and had I known how this one was going it would have started in the round file.  Nothing fits as it should and noting glues as it should either. I just walked away for the night. I have too many hours in it to quit now. 

I got gas on Sunday for 2.69.  

The city is still fighting NS over the derailment  and now the school thinks they are going to win a suit for another 50 million. It will be intereting to see how that pans out. 

Until next time
Charlie

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

Currently 59 degrees after a brief rain shower. Our very good friends at the NWS are allowing us to have about 20 more degrees have promised some intermittent cloud removal.

Finished priming the walls yesterday in half the living room. Next up is color selection and then yet another trip to Menards. I also managed to stock up on some groceries and took a walk around the with the mower.

Charlie - glad to hear you and Mrs. B are recovering.

All stay safe.

Tom

[FiatFan]

Greetings, gang.

60 headed for 80 today. Looks like our daily allotment of degrees is stuck at 20 (see yesterday's forecast). Some clouds now but the NWS has assured me personally that they will be gone before too much longer.

Progress in small steps yesterday. I bought two small samples of paint and applied them. I pretty much know which one I'm going with but wanted to make sure they are completely dry and to see what they look like in the morning light. So y'all know what that means - yet another trip to Menards. Also managed a 12 mile bike ride yesterday but the NWS was playing games with me. On the way north there was no wind to speak of, as evidenced by the total lack of movement of the tall grasses I rode past. Shortly after I turned back south the wind picked up and fought me most of the way home. Grrrr! Other than painting the only item on the to do list for today is a cross country track meet for one of the great-grandsons at 5 PM.

Gas is holding steady at $2.79 except for one station that likes to think its gas is much better. They are charging $3.19. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the rapidly approaching 3 day weekend.

All stay safe.

Tom