Coffee, metal, and random babble

Today was a pretty good day for a lazy holiday. Lisa made a big dinner, like she does on every holiday, and the kids came over to eat. We had both a ham AND a turkey, (her son doesnt care for ham), fresh roll, mashed potato's, corn,stuffing, and for dessert, brownies with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Yep....I'm one FULL guy, but I'll be digging out more to snack on later, lol. What can I say? I'm 6'3 and 220ish, I can pack away some food! hahaha Lisa and her daughter went to her sisters after dinner, her son had to work, (hard to believe they have bowling tournaments on Easter sunday), and I opted to stay home. I love Lisa's family, but I would be the only guy there among her, her daughter, mother, 2 sisters, and neice. I promised to do the dinner dishes, so I was off the hook, LOL.

I did the dishes, went out and covered the chicken tractor where the peeps are, checked everyones water, and headed for my little basement retreat. I sat with a fresh cup of coffee and went through the local craigsist.....drat, nothing today. Yesterday I met someone and got a freebie Coleman inflatable matress. It just has a minor pinhole somewhere and he didnt feel like repairing it. That will be one of the next rainy day projects. That makes 2 of them I have, which is perfect since someone is sharing our tent with us on our weekend trip this year. I planned to start re-skirting the spinnerbaits, but decided to read a bit and write here instead. I've got some Plasmatics playing, (stop rolling your eyes Lisa, lol) fresh coffee, a good pipe of black cavendish, and feelin' pretty relaxed.

The new chicks are all outside now since I made the new run for the other young birds. The 3 barred rocks are bigger than the other 2, so they went out first yesterday. It's warm during the day, but still chilly at night, so I covered the tractor, put in a heat lamp, and rigged up a door to keep them inside. They got through the night just fine, so today I put the Buff and the NH Red out there with them. The 3 older birds were a bit bitchy and looked at them funny, but they are getting along fine. The one Barred is doing the same thing she did inside the house, sitting on top of the waterer, lol silly bird. I took pictures of them all today, but I didnt get to upload them before Lisa left earlier. She wanted to show her mom the chickens. Some people show up with pics of their kids, their flowers, some exotic bird they saw at the feeder......not us, LOL, chickens and dogs.

This week I have quite a few things I want to get done outside, weather permitting of course. The lowboy needs a hose replaced, I have more soil to move into the cold frame, (which will be another herb garden this summer), I want to get the garden tilled and leveled out, I need to fix the fuel leak on the John Deere, fix it's flat tire, put the mowing deck back on, and possible get a battery for it. The garage is going to be a BIG project, it's a mess. I need to get it all cleaned out, put away the tools I have scattered all over, get both tractors in, and still make room for straw bales. I found someone who is only 20 minutes away with straw for $3.50 a bale. It's $7.50 at the garden center and $6 at the feed store, so thats a great price. Hopefully soon I can get 6 or 8 bales from them.Since it's almost that time of year, I have to get a bag of cement and fix the one clothesline pole that somehow never got tight. The strawberries need cleaned out and mulched, the arbor for the grapes needs built, the brush pile needs ran through the chipper I'm borrowing from the neighbor,Lisa's garden pond needs cleaned and put back together......am I SURE this is only an acre?

If I can get either one of the tractors going, I'll need the trailer cleaned out so I can get the trash out of the mud room at Lisa's sewing room to the street, then pick up all the sticks and branches from the yard. (oh yea, more for the chipper) I have to fix or replace the kitchen faucet too, that should be a hoot. Whoever did the plumbing in this house shouldn't have been allowed to run more than a garden hose. I've fixed pipes that were held by bent nails, wire staples, and even a hibachi grill that was jammed over a square heating duct to hold it in place.(no kidding) Some people should never be allowed to do work on a house. I sware, some tools should come with a competncy test!! ( I won't even mention the copper twisted maze I spent 2 days fixing in the basement bathroom a few years ago.) Anyway...the kitchen sink was straight piped and sweated in copper all the way to the top. No flex pipe, no fittings, just straight 1/2 inch copper from the shutoff vales, which are in the BASEMENT rather than under the sink where they should be, arrghhh.
Ah well; I'm thinkin' its time for a turkey sandwich...........................