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What are you doing today, II

1 - Our part time foster son Kobe turned 2. We had a party. His grandmother, 2 of her sisters, and 1 of her daughters came to the party. Also in attendance was Kobe's full sister. In addition to our family and friends.

2 - Dasha, our foreign exchange student who is now a varsity fencer at Notre Dame, family is reunited and now in Belgium after fleeing Kiev the day the Russians invaded Ukraine. Dasha's status remains in limbo. She has a Russian passport, but her family is Ukrainian. Her father walked away from the family about 5 years ago. On the bright side, Notre Dame won the NCAA Fencing Championship today, so back to back wins for the team and that earn's Dasha her 2nd NCAA Championship ring.

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Happy birthday Kobe.

Not much on the agenda today as we're back into a deep freeze at -21 Celsius. We have another major snowstorm coming this week that should shut everything down again for a couple days. So today, I'm headed to the city to pick up some tire chains for the plow truck as last weeks snowstorm showed me that I need more traction for plowing in the spring time with glare ice underneath the snow.
 
Today is a very special day for me. In 1967, on Valentine's day, I received my induction notice to join our nation's efforts in saving South Vietnam. Having just met the love of my life I had to make choices. The military gave me the choice of Army or marines. I chose Marines.


By the end of March, it was a sure bet Crumpy and I would be a couple so I promised to marry her if and when I returned. I reported for duty on April 1st as requested. And after a full day of medical, physical, and intellectual testing, I sat in a room with about 1,000 guys and waited to be assigned a bus that would take me away to an unknown future.

Eventually I was the last one sitting when a big, massive, no neck staff sergeant yelled, "Boy, get your chicken sh!t @ss on the bus!"

"What bus?" I responded

"Boy, you say SIR when you address me!"
"Sir, yes sir. But they didn't call my name."

"SIR! they didn't call my name SIR. Show some goddam respect punk or I'll have your @ss!"

"SIR, But,,,,

"I got 10 buses outside idling while you sit with your lily white @ss is parked on a bench."

Gimme you G'dam name boy!"

"Sir Franc Rau.. Sir"

I gave him my name and he stormed off.
Twenty very long minutes later, he came back.
I'm trembling a bit now expecting this would be a very bad meeting I would pay for, at the very least , in boot camp.

"You signed up to be a Marine?"

"Sir, yes Sir,, uh sir"

"Well you ain't gonna be no Marine"

Oh boy what now? I thought.

My mind is spinning a bit, worried about what kind of trouble this 240 lb black officer was about to lay on my 130 lb white @ss .... when he broke into a big grin and said...

"This be your lucky day boy, you ain't supposed to even be here. They was spos'ed to send you home this mornin'. "

Apparently, my broken back, which had not been an issue in my "pre-induction" physicals, kept me out of the military service. As a result, my draft in to the military, which I had dreaded for years, was over.

But now I had a promise to keep with Crumpy. And she called the note in. We married the following year in May.

Like I said, April1st,,,my lucky day. So today, I am celebrating.
 
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FrancSevin said:
Crumpy and I are doing a winery run with the Crossfire club today. Running southeast MO wine country. Brunch in Bloomington MO and then wine tasting our way to Farmington.

Looks like good weather. Maybe I can put the top down.

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We'll be lucky to have green grass and leaves by June. Lol. We've had lots of snow this year. Last year's Facebook memory was of bare grass and a fire in our firepit. This year, we still have 3ft of snow in spots. Have fun. We won't be out to camp till late may this year.

This damp spring weather sucks balls. 😒 I can barely move and have been pretty much housebound for 2 weeks in pain. I can only stand for short periods of time.
 
Spent Saturday in West Lafayette, IN at Purdue University. Purdue Fencing hosted their annual SPRING OPEN fencing tournament with roughly 80 people entered in the 3 events. I've been guest coaching for the Purdue team since January of this year because they currently don't have a team coach. So I go there as often as I can, on Sunday afternoon for their practice. I was coaching the Purdue saber fencers in the event. There were quite a few fencers from my fencing club that attended. I didn't formally count but I'd guess we had 15 or 16 competitors attend from our club.

In the Saber event 11 of the TOP 16 finishers were either members of my club or were Purdue fencers, with one of the Purdue fencers earning the 2nd place/Silver Medal in the event.

Today has been doing fun stuff like changing water filters, vacuuming the house, and otherwise getting ready to pick up Kobe to come back home to stay with us for a few days.
 
Trying to talk myself into heading down to the garage to do some tlc on the snowmobiles before putting them away for the summer. There's still riding spots available but with above freezing temperatures during the day, it's not enjoyable and hard on the sleds so I decided to park them while they're still running strong and ready for next season.

I shouldn't have but I looked at the long range forecast for the week and they're calling for more snow Wednesday. Hopefully it's light but the forecast calls for 15-20 cm. Thankfully last week's predicted 35cm of snow never materialized.
 
Swapped out the batteries on the quad and side by side. They're both the same size so I take the battery from the side by side and put it in the quad. Take the quad battery in for an exchange on a new one for the side by side.
 
Fertilized and seeded my front lawns tonite. I have two "front" lawns as I am a corner lot.

Crumpy wouldn't let me put down Crabgrass killer as the violets are blooming. I'm not sure how to kill the crabgrass without effecting her precious violets. It's not like we don't have a bunch of them in the backyard gardens.

What a man must endure to keep marital things peaceful. I'll do most anything for sex, but this gets close the line.:ROFLMAO:
 
I often get land scape blocks for free. I offer to build a neighbor's retaining wall properly and for free if Icankeep the oldwall blocks tohaul away.

"Handi Stone" and "Keystone" are no longer made.. Yet I have several thousand involved in my landscape. So additions would be different stone or at the very least new un weathered block that would be obvious.

Also, my BIL worked for a stone company and I often picked up entire pallets of product that did not pass inspection, but were perfectly fine for my projects. He retired 10 years ago but, I have at least ten full pallets yet and some partials.

I love building retaining walls and patio structures.

It is one of the reasons I drive a "real" truck.
 
As suspected, the school buses are all canceled for today. The snow started around 6am and it's now whiteout conditions with strong winds. I can't even watch TV as the dish is covered in heavy wet snow and I have to go up a ladder to sweep it off. Oh well. There's worse things I could have to deal with.
 
Cat mechanic is here installing an auto steer system permanently in one of our tractors.
Windy 40mph., 43 deg. cold SOB outdoors. Rain showers as well.
Spring is welcome any day now....
 
No it is more like city folks keeping up with the Jones's lol... ;)
If you don't have it, every one can tell at a glance looking at your crop rows.
You don't want to seem like your technically/financially challenged so you do as they do!!!

Plus you can leave your planter markers folded up and out of the way. Those markers are a high wear item,
and prone to damage. That is the best part I think...
 
So, you can go to AG college, get a degree and then play video games whilst sitting in the Airconditioned tractor cab. Otherwise, your neighbors think you cannot drive a tractor or have the sense to buy AC and an auto steer. ????

Isn't that like putting a tiller tender on your sailboat and bragging what a competent old salt sailor you are?

LOL

I grew up farming.
Just having fun guys.
 
FrancSevin said:
So, you can go to AG college, get a degree and then play video games whilst sitting in the Airconditioned tractor cab. Otherwise, your neighbors think you cannot drive a tractor or have the sense to buy AC and an auto steer. ????

Isn't that like putting a tiller tender on your sailboat and bragging what a competent old salt sailor you are?

LOL

I grew up farming.
Just having fun guys.
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:lmao:

Your pretty good at it too!!! :yankchain:
 
We also tried to replace a 2.5" return to the pump line from the Hydraulic oil tank. We drained 25 gallons of oil out of the reserve
unfortunately, into a dirty cut off plastic 55 gal. barrel. Of course, it had to overrun onto the floor as it was just a bit to small.
Then we discovered we had the wrong line, and it would not fit. Jason did however discover 2 bolts on the connection under the tank were loose a full turn. He tightened them and we will cross out fingers till a new hose is here.
This time he is bringing a suction devise powered by his air compressor that seals to the top of the tank, and holds the oil in the reservoir while he changes the line out.
Said he will have to barrow one from the "dirt" machine side of Caterpillar shop tools. At todays prices that will save me $250.
Of course he may have to come with clean buckets if un-successful.
 
I've been "under the weather" since Wednesday morn.
Hold on! Don't anyone panic!
It's a freaking horrible head cold.
You know.. head stuffed with cotton, nasal passages keeping me up half the night singing a tune.
I'm taking care of it.
Today went to see my doc for antibiotics just in case it goes something else.
Doubt if it will.
Today I wore a mask at the pharmacy and grocery store because I figured I was already "delicate" and didn't want to catch anything else.
🤧😄
 
FrancSevin said:
off to Hippie Ridge this weekend. Assuming the backhoe starts I'll be leveling and compacting gravel in preperation for the modular house.

If not, I'll be working on the shed/bathhouse transformation
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Be careful the last time you did that you got COVID :ROFLMAO:
 
I'll be taking a liberal approach to today. The plan is to sit on my butt doing as little as possible all day until I have to go out this afternoon to play music at the church.

Temps are supposed to be +7 Celsius today but with the foot of snow we got weds and thurs, it'll be a sloppy mess outside. The dampness kills my back.
 
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