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Got 1.5″ Saturday night. Read it was coming so I ripped out an old garden and grass seeded about 70 sq ft. Ripped out plants and weeds, and while digging roots I uncovered about 30 peanuts in the shell buried by squirrels. Someone must have fed them the nuts. I had to add 2 yds of topsoil to the garden and leveled out some low spots around the…[Read more]

After record rain in July, August had 2 thunderstorms totaling 3″. Back to browning grass.

Wifey was leery of driving. I was kinds confident but didn’t want the potentials hassles enroute. The easy way out was to agree.

I could do 3-4 weeks easily but the wifey was getting antsy to head home after14 days. I think part of the problem was laundry. We never got the chance to get anything cleaned. We weren’t in a hotel long enough to send out and get it back before leaving. We had planned on a couple of 3 night stays while there but we encountered a bunch of…[Read more]

The rail system in Italy, throughout Europe is quite efficient. All of the major cities and some key villages are connected. Milan is about an hour from Como. From there Florence and Genoa and Rome, then on to Naples. Sicily is still disconnected; I think the only route in is by Ferry to Messina and Palermo. My wife’s grandfather is from…[Read more]

16 days 2 flights, 3 train rides 3 rides from uber, 3 ferry rides on Lake Zurich (crystal clear water down to 30 ft. None of the train rides or Ubers were more than 2:15….and a lot of walking. Our hotels were not more than a few blocks from the train stations, so we eliminated a bunch of cab rides. The train from Zurich to Como was most…[Read more]

Had an absolute blast everywhere. Zurich is a great city, a bit expensive as Europe goes but great food. We most of our time in Old Zurich. Across the river, new Zurich is very commercial with high end retail and banking. We did get a kick of looking at all of the high vehicles parked on the street. There had to be more Lambo’s per city…[Read more]

Some community groups build in the parks out here. Headed to Europe for a couple of weeks. First stop is to see a distant cousin that owns the oldest bakery in Zurich. The link which involves 2 brothers goes back to the 1500’s.

Just curious, is the library roadside for book sharing or just a backyard stash for outdoor reading on a whim.

At first I didn’t have intent to collect them. I bumped into the Kabar and thought it would be a good fishing knife for $15. The I ran into the Ranger jump knife and also from WW II. Then the French commando knife and said what the heck, make it a collection.

Over the years I’ve picked up a few WWII relics at estate sales. I don’t know why, but I did.

Pacific Theater Marine Kabar
Japanese bayonet from the same sale.
US Ranger jump
British made Fairbairn Sykes commando knife marked with an “I” that designates it was a contract knife made for French Commandos specifically for the Normandy invasion. I…[Read more]

A little diversion here about family property… My uncle was an Army captain and served in the Pacific on MacArthur’s staff. Enlisted in 1942 and was offered officer training school since he had a law degree for which he was made a 2nd lieutenant. He shipped out in late 1942. General Courtney Whitney was looking to add to his staff in China…[Read more]

I understand how you want to hang onto that table saw. My dad died when I was 6 so there wasn’t too much. An Ivers Johnson 12 gauge from 1939, a wedding gift from my mom to him, a bamboo fly rod and Pflueger reel, a camp hatchet and his WW II discharge card from the US Navy. I had a gunsmith cleanup the shotgun, cleaning up the rust inside and…[Read more]

3.5″rain in an hour Sunday morning. The ground is now saturated as we a little bit seepage in the basement along the perimeter of one side. It’s the one side that I have a problem with drainage off the roof. It’s 4 a foot area enclosed with pavers. I’ll have to tunnel underneath and sink another drywell in order to get away from the…[Read more]

More rain today, just shy of an inch. The weather is turning out to be completely opposite of last year. We’ve had more rain days so far in July than we had June to October last year. They more on the way too, Thurs and Fri.

Central part of the state had 6-7″ over 2 hours. It’s a hilly area so the runoff formed rivers. A section of the NJ Turnpike where it is 8 lanes wide looked like the Mississippi. It’s the major roadway going north and south on the east coast so there was a high volume of traffic that got stuck in the flooding. Fortunately, it was not so deep…[Read more]

The weather’s been a lot like Alabama, hot humid. You’re soaked when you walk outside. We get days like that but not a week at time. Thunderstorms at night, then low 90’s and sunshine steaming the rainwater out of the ground. About the only positives out of it all….the grass is still green and the vegetable garden is growing like crazy.

Sounds like, “If anything can go bad, it will.” Hopefully, it will turn out as you expect.

Survived the weekend of the 4th with the hoard. By Sunday night, my wife and I were beat, so we did minimal clean up saving it for Monday. Tuesday, 4″ of rain. Another 1″ last night with more today. I just looked at the 10 forecast, 10 days of rain…[Read more]

I hope the transplants work well for him. There’s much opportunity for infection to set in. His wrestling instinct will help him fight through all of this. His lung strength likely got him sufficiently through the pneumonia enabling the transplants. 2 friends recently died from pneumonia, one had COVID, that led to pneumonia. 5 years after the…[Read more]

UGH…just found out all 17 kids, kids coming for the weekend. Wifey flipping out. 3x3x19 meals. Daily trips to the grocer and ice guy.