April in Like a Lion Too #3

Time for a new thread the last one was getting long. We came from here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/974600/

Adina – Love the article!
Rann- Hildur Eva is getting so tall! It’s sad to know the children are so affected by the recession. It’s hit here too. I think life is rough right now for most people all over the world. The tourist industry is still hurting here. Gardening in sand is difficult at best!
Joey – Good luck tomorrow on the test. We’ll be thinking of you! The Baltic ivy is so pretty! How is Mr. Jack doing?
Celia –nice pic!
E_B – I’m cracking up! He’s adorable!
Kelli – I’ll be checking out your video after I post this.

80.6 °F
Clear
Humidity: 33%
Dew Point: 49 °F
Wind: Calm
Wind Gust: 0.0 mph
Pressure: 30.30 in (Steady)
Heat Index: 80 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 13 out of 16

It's currently 82º heading for 85º
Maybe 90º by Sunday! YIKES!

Ric

Kelli - The video isn't shaky. You have the normal driving movement, but that's all. The tunnel did freak me out a little. I don't do spaces like that well LOL! You live in a very scenic area.

Very cool video Kelli! Very scenic area - reminds me a bit of Spain ..... Gives me an idea for a scenic tour of Iceland video series ;-) lol I have a new video camera that's easier to upload videos from than the old one .......

Thanks Sharon - very pretty amaryllis

EB - what an adorable face! :-)

Rann

Back to a reasonable temp, 72º. NO WIND!!!

Dinner time, then I'm not sure what is happening this afternoon.

Sharon, you are such a flatlander. ;-) I love tunnels.

Rann, yes, do some Iceland videos. That would be interesting.

Bernie, that is interesting that you call the noon meal "dinner". Some of my people back in PA used to do that but it seems to have died out.

I'll tell you what is funny. The video loaded overnight and probably was done around 2AM my time. By the time I had gotten up this morning, two people had looked at it. I can't imagine they would have watched the whole thing, but it's funny that some complete strangers had looked at it. Just a "warning" to those who haven't looked at it yet. It's not exciting or anything like that, though DH and I find it mesmerizing. Could be a sign that we need to get a life. ;-)


Anyway, cloudy and not hot today.

Van Nuys, California (Airport)
Updated: 11:11 AM PDT on April 24, 2009
64 °F
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 56%
Dew Point: 48 °F
Wind: 6 mph Variable
Pressure: 30.02 in (Steady)
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 5 out of 16
Clouds: Scattered Clouds 2700 ft
Mostly Cloudy 4100 ft
(Above Ground Level)

blue larkspur - The camera always picks them up as dark Dodger blue, but really they are grape juice purple.

lichen

Ready for some fall color? - miner's lettuce finishing up for the year

live-forevers

meadow rue

Kelli, I'm sorry I can't see the video, they said the program is not available in Romania. Love the pics!
Sharon, thanks for starting a new thread, the amarrylis are great! That picture of Pea is too funny!
Joey, another test? Good luck!
E_B, what a sweet baby!
Mau, please, post a picture with your granddaughter!

Kiska & Kelli, I love the pics.... I too am waaaayy behind so I am sorry for missing y'alls other posts!!
We have had dandy rain storms here lately which are welcome as we desperately need rain... today it is windy with temps close to the 90's!!

Yes, we are old fashioned. We do breakfast, lunch, (mid-morning), dinner, lunch, (mid-afternoon), & then supper. Also have bedtime snack.

We don't go out to "dinner" either. We go out to eat!

Probably overeat either way. LOL!

We had breakfast, dinner, and supper when I was a little kid, then it later became breakfast, lunch, and supper.

Adina - nice article that you wrote. They sound like something that would grow here but I've never tried them. Do you often come across web sites that don't work in Romania? That surprises me. I always thought that the internet was the internet.


creek monkeyflower

globe lily

chocolate lily

I'll start with Bernie: LOL at the "dinner" thing! I almost missed my first date with my DH Buddy many years ago because he asked me to dinner(lunch) and I thought he was asking me to dinner(supper)! We both grew up in Arkansas and still had different ideas about when one eats "dinner". LOLOL We managed to get things straightened out though, when I asked him what time he was picking me up. It was about 11 a.m. and he said, "in about 30 minutes". I nearly fell out of my chair but I managed to say, "Sure, I can make it then." I'm still chuckling about it!!
Adina: great article about the Snowdrops--such a pretty little flower. and the picture of my DGD is posted below. :o))
Celia: nice pic of the flag--was that the sun or the moon behind it?
EB: your little DGS is adorable--what a little flirt!! :o))
Sharon: thanks for the new thread--the amaryllis are lovely. One of mine has two buds on it--the others aren't showing any bloom stalks yet. Did you find any ajuga locally?
Ric: It's hard to believe that it is 90º in Ohio in April!! YIKES, indeed!
Kelli: nice video, thanks for the "tour"--what were the yellow bushes along the road in the beginning? We have a tunnel like that on I-540 in NW Arkansas heading toward Fayetteville. I think those tunnels are pretty neat myself!
Those are lovely flowers in your photos--I love the color of that larkspur.
Cindy: I'm glad to hear that you got some rain which you needed.

It's been unseasonably warm again today. Currently 79º. I haven't turned on the a/c yet but I did have the ceiling fan on last night all night.

Here's my youngest grandchild. Gracie, age 1 year as of April 15th.

This message was edited Apr 24, 2009 7:17 PM

and here she is sleeping peacefully in her carseat

Windy and hot. We reached about 83 or so. Wasn't too bad as long as the wind was blowing.

The bad thing about the wind today was that it tore my driver's side door out of my hand this morning and messed up all the inner workings. It's currently sitting in the body shop waiting to be worked on and the current estimate is about $600 worth of work.

Oh, man, major bummer, Pepper.

Gracie is a cutie! The bushes with the yellow flowers are Spanish broom. It is invasive but seems to stick pretty much to disturbed places. The flowers smell very good. You might have noticed trees with white flowers. Those are locust, the same as you guys have.

This message was edited Apr 24, 2009 5:53 PM

oh marsue what a cute little girl! We HAD to turn on our A/C a few days ago as our dogs were really feeling it & they had their summer cut too! We try to put it off as long as possible as our electricity is expensive in the summer!!

Pepper OUCH! Been there!

Kelli I love the shots. We have a red Monkey Flower that is hardy here.
Thanks for the drive video and for reminding me.
I have a few here I need to get uploaded.
One driving Mt Gleason bottom to top and back.
One we took going to SanDiego in a Mystik.... think Hugo.... in a Santa Anna dust storm.

We hit 84° today.
Now they are saying mid 80's thru Monday.
Then lower 70's thru the rest of the week.
We should be at 68°.

Boss came in at quitting time.
They laid off 6 people at our main plant. Basically in our HVO division.
They make car tranny gears.
The bad news is one of them is Nissan and they canceled our contract.
But did buy out our existing stock.
The good news is the other ones we make are for the best selling Jeeps.
They won't go under.
We also have at least 12 months of heavy gear jobs lined up.
Filling contracts for companies that went under or can't handle them.
Plus we picked up 4 contracts that had been outsourced overseas by the Government.
So we may get lean for a while but no more layoffs.

Here's a pic of a 1.66 MGWatt wind gear box (light blue) that came in yesterday.
34,000 pounds..... w/ the shaft 52,000 in total.
Imagine this sitting 212' in the air w/ 115' blades stuck on it.
The speed at the tip of those blades is 183 MPH in a 27 MPH wind.
Those racks next to it are 5' across for scale.

Ric

Wow!! That gear box is huge!! And I didn't know that they could go 183 mph. That's something I hadn't heard before.

youse folks have way more puter time than I do!

Ric, are there many wind turbines around your area ? They are hundreds around here. A number of local people work on them. A guy was telling us the other day about the tip speed. Sure don't look like it's that fast.

Went out to "eat" tonight. Ended up at a little place that is only open for the summer. I had a ¼ pound burger & DW had a pork tenderloin. Also had a basket of cauliflower with cheese sauce. Very good food!

Cold front has arrived, it's only 50º now. I hope it brings the rain along.

Bernie

That is one serious gear box! One time a saw a truck hauling the housing (or whatever its called) - that thing that sits at the top of pole, where the gearbox and all the other mechanisms are. It was huge.

Bernie there are a few around here but more in the northern part of the state near Lake Erie.
On the tip speed... at 20 R/Min on the blade side w/ 115' blades.
if my math is correct.
(circumference x 20) x 60 is how many feet the tip travels in an hour then divide that by 5280.
So 164 MPH.
What's wild is that the area covered in one revolution is almost an acre.

Here's the business side.
The generator bolts on here... and you can see the rest of the cooling system.
That's a 55 gallon hydraulic oil tank plus what's in the radiator.
It uses a huge disc brake and the blades feather to control the speed.

Here's what happens when one of those systems fail.

http://www.livevideo.com/video/8CB184B132BE43CAB906F64C3AA3C225/exploding-windmill.aspx

Ric

We just sent a smaller unit to Mohave this week Kelli.
It's just about 5000 pounds.....
These are coming out of Oregon and Washington State mainly.
The big one will be the only one we get of that size.
We are building a manual to work on them and will be training a crew in Iowa on the repairs and maintainance.
Iowa's a LOT closer than us.
The weird thing is they are all owned by Florida Power and Light..... lol!

Ric

How do they get those things up in the air?

BIG Cranes

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.townnews.com/mcpress.com/content/articles/2008/02/04/news/news01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mcpress.com/articles/2008/02/04/news/news01.txt&usg=__wxj-fIqn1gBpQ7_uwdGMzMjvWVI=&h=478&w=400&sz=18&hl=en&start=10&um=1&tbnid=JBq06-9xV8QpRM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=108&prev=/images%3Fq%3Derecting%2Ba%2Bwind%2Bgenerator%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1%26newwindow%3D1

Ric

Redoubt Volcano Latest Observations
2009-04-24 18:43:52

The eruption of Redoubt volcano continues. Seismicity remains elevated. Thermal anomalies visible in satellite images indicate continued slow growth of the lava dome.

Web cameras are showing more ash on the snow pack in the area around the dome. Winds today have likely re-mobilized ash in the area and frequent rock falls have been kicking up ash.

Additional explosive events are possible with little or no warning. The volcano remains at ORANGE/WATCH and AVO is staffed 24/7.
Otherwise, all's quiet at the volcano.
Didn't get up to the 50's today; held steady at 43-45*F mostly cloudy.
Thanks;
The cheese is so easy, and I think, inexpensive to make.
1/2 gallon skim milk
2 Junket Rennet tablets/crushed
1/4 tsp salt
Scald the milk
Cool to lukewarm
Add the crushed rennet tablets
Set aside in warm place for 30-45 minutes.
Pour into seive (save whey)
Form into ball.
Enjoy then, or wait for a day; it's good either way.
Good night ~have a great weekend everyone.
Careful of the bears:)
Good luck, Joey. Happy days for Jack again.
Cute babies; nothing quite like a baby to hold.
Ice on the way out~
Impressive ric

Kiska - another desktop picture!

Ric - I did not realize you were involved with wind power generation. Anything that cuts oil use is an endeavor to be envied.

Sunny and bright. Since the plastic was removed from the screened porch yesterday there is much painting to be done today.

Care to all

70° going for 85°

Years ago in an economic country far far away the company I'm w/ started making Wind Generator gear boxes.
This is way before I got on there.
(We also made huge gear boxes and shafts for the Navy.)
The gear boxes were a hit and we made quite a few for a company in CA.
THEY did so well in CA that they attracted the attention of a company called Enron.......
When Enron collapsed they owed us 6 million dollars...... we went bankrupt.....
We're now playing catchup and doing the refurbishing of existing boxes.

Since we have a history w/ the Navy (we do the LCAC Fan Boxes and repairs to Tankers)

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/LCAC.JPG&imgrefurl=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LCAC.JPG&usg=__lhozaVzfw-ru31nTJnDOYlEx_S0=&h=1500&w=2100&sz=344&hl=en&start=22&um=1&tbnid=6BWDlCGgfqI1gM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlcac%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*%26sa%3DN%26start%3D18%26um%3D1%26newwindow%3D1

We have picked up some more work from them.
Yesterday we laid of 6 people in our auto division but look even better than when I started in the other slots.
No more layoff predicted.....

Ric


This message was edited Apr 25, 2009 8:35 AM

Ric wish you well in the economic period. We are also experiencing a "shortage" all overtime has been cut - course they still want the product (circuit boards) out on time they just want it as cheaply as possible. Maybe some monkeys would do this for peanuts or bananas?

Just glad I am still employed at this point.

Oh yea - sunny warm and a nice breeze!

Guys, it just been an earthquake here, 5.3...very short, but it did shake us a bit. Lucky I'm not living at the 10th floor anymore....ugh! Still I got scared a bit . BBL!

Oh! Adina, so glad you're okay. Those can be frightening! I grew up is S. California and we'd get tremors all there time. I was there for the Northridge quake in 1994 while visiting. My first big one was in 1971 for the San Fernando quake. We get tiny shakes here.

Somehow I missed the jump to the new thread so I'm behind.


46.1 °F with 50º predicted for the high. It feels warmer than that now. It's raining again.
Mostly Cloudy
Windchill: 43 °F
Humidity: 86%
Dew Point: 42 °F
Wind: 5.3 mph from the West
Wind Gust: 13.8 mph
Pressure: 29.76 in (Rising)
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 5 out of 16
Clouds: Scattered Clouds 1900 ft
Mostly Cloudy 4800 ft
Mostly Cloudy 10000 ft
(Above Ground Level)

The new plants arrived yesterday.

Got the Miscanthus Super Stripe in the ground. On the right.

Good evening everyone!

It's been a beautiful day here today, sunny with a slight breeze. Clouded up this afternoon and seems pretty calm at the moment. Temp. around 44°F.

It's election day, the polls will close in half an hour, we just got back from voting. Now we'll just have to wait and see what the results will be ...........

It was also spring concert day today in the girls music school - we've sat through 3 concerts today, one piano (Hildur Eva's first recital) and two sting concerts .... we were pretty exhausted afterwards to tell you the truth. lol

Hope the weather tomorrow will be this nice too, I didn't get a chance to work in the garden at all today.

Hope you all have a great day!

Rann

Wow miss 1 day and I’m soooo far behind!

Joey – How did the test go? How is Mr. Freebird Jack?
Bernie – LOL at Dinner and Supper! It was dinner (lunch) and supper (dinner) when I was growing up. Now it’s lunch and dinner.
Kelli – LOL – yes I am!
Cindy – Hi! Love the rain!
Kelli – Love the chocolate lily. I think Celia has some?
Mau – Gracie is adorable!
Pepper – Were you able to get your truck repaired?
CG- Sounds like a good dinner to me!
Kiska- Thanks for the recipe. I think I’ll have to try it soon!
Adina – I’m glad to hear you are safe. That would have scared me too.
Rann- I hope the elections go well for you. When will you know the results? Pretty blooms! That’s a lot of concerts in one day. I’d be exhausted!

76.6 °F
Scattered Clouds
Humidity: 46%
Dew Point: 54 °F
Wind: 0.0 mphfrom the North
Wind Gust: 9.7 mph
Pressure: 30.33 in (Falling)
Heat Index: 78 °F
Visibility: 10.0 miles
UV: 5 out of 16
Clouds: Few 4500 ft
Scattered Clouds 25000 ft

Tonight
Clear. Patchy fog after midnight. Low 61. East winds 5 mph.

It was a picture perfect day here. High 81*. I went shopping today - had a great time! Action shot of Peanut chasing her tail.