MacGyver

Brentwood turkeys were at contact distance tonight on my evening walk:

Actual residency is the requirement.

There's already been a bit of a production delay with the J&J vaccine - turns out supply chain logistics during a global pandemic is hard. But, here in Tennessee, they've been telling people to keep their existing appointments. The state has enough of the Pfizer vaccine to offer that as an alternative.

It should be noted that the pause is the system working exactly like it’s supposed to. Side effects get attention - and guidance modified if necessary. I personally hope the review will be expedited. This particular blood clotting issue - similar to the Astra Zeneca issue (they use the same delivery mechanism) that caused the pause in the UK is serious, but extremely rare. The number of cases detected is statistically below the background noise level for the population at large. Meanwhile, we’re still losing 750/day to the virus. There are no easy answers - but the messaging on this is going to be critical.

That tape is the bees knees. It’s kept lights stuck to my kayak forever. Do note the “permanent” part of the description though.

I don’t think it would matter whether I had stocked up or not. I’d throw rocks before I paid a quarter apiece for primers.

How's your 5G coverage been?

I do know someone who got to have fragments picked out of his hand because he just had to shoot the old rohm .22 his grandad kept in his tackle box all those years. Luckily he shot the .22 first because he had a .38 from his grandad too.

That’s a neat piece of family memorabilia. My only advice would be to shoot it sparingly. The metal alloy on those wasn’t much more than basic pot metal. It’s really soft. It work until It doesn’t - and your options are pretty limited at that point.

I had a situation one time changing a water heater where I turned the water off at the street, cut into a line, and found out that the water company's valve was broken and wouldn't close all the way. Water came pouring in - slowly - only about a gallon a minute - but it was a giant headache. SharkBite made a permanent customer out of me that day with their slip couplings. And, from that day forward, there's not a place in my house that can't be isolated and drained if the need arises. It probably cost a couple hundred bucks and an afternoon to retrofit. But, the goodwill it's saved me over the course of my marriage was totally worth it.

I am what I am. But my hose bibs sure as heck don’t leak. Truthfully, when I needed to replace the existing ones, the price of good freeze proof bibs was enough that two good quarter turn valves was less expensive. When winter comes around, I can just close the valve under the house and then open the one on the outside and drain that section of pipe. I’ve got good access to get under my house with basically standing room underneath - so what works for me may not work for someone else.

I know some folks have been iffy about the vaccine. But, I’m thrilled every time I see someone get it. I’m tired of losing folks to this.

This will give you insight into the type of person I am, but I put commercial quarter-turn ball valves on mine when they needed replacing. I also have shut offs with drains under the house that let me drain those lines come winter. They don’t leak.

Your 1894 is going to be jealous. If it looks to start running away - I'll be sure to take it in and give it a nice place to stay for a while.

If you’re not getting water in your crawlspace - I don’t know that it really matters. If you are getting water in your crawlspace - a few inches of soil is also unlikely to matter much. That said, if you’re grading anyway - gently sloping away from the house at up to a 2% grade is better than flat. If you need to add a bit of soil to get there - that’s fine.

It’s remarkable how many minor water issues can be solved with better turf coverage. If there’s nothing you care about saving, I’d grade it and seed it. You’ve got a couple weeks until prime seeding time. Wait too long after that and it’s going to be getting hot before new grass can get established.

That’s a great looking rig.

Personally, I’d want a little more space between soil and wood than 6” - just to deal with splashing and misdirected weed eaters. Is your crawlspace at ground level? As a general rule, if I had a preference - I’d rather have the ground inside my crawlspace be a couple of inches higher than the ground outside. Grading to flow gently away from the house is good - otherwise just go ahead and plan for the French drain.

No. On a frost proof spigot like the above, if you tighten it too much, it’ll leak the moment you turn it on - probably worse than it did before.

As those Bartles & Jaymes guys used to say, “...and thank you for your support.” (I wonder if they’re still a thing?) The infrastructure to do something like this is way less expensive than it used to be - but it’s still not particularly cheap when you get the traffic TGO does. Benefactors literally keep the lights on around here.

They were posting 200 errors, then 503, then the 522 errors. Their host machine is having issues - and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. One of the realities of a small forum - or even a big one - is that while redundancy is not a particularly hard problem. It does require a specific set of skills, and is quite expensive. Backups are your friend. I hope they get it squared away.

I think the “once and done” nature of J&J is appealing to a lot of people. It creates a good response with one shot and is “known technology” in terms of vaccine development. For what it’s worth, both of my friends who work in immunology and public health were happy to find out I got the Moderna vaccine (luck of the draw, first shot). They both noted it was more effective against some emerging mutations that have folks like them worried. But, as a general rule, I would still proffer that people should get whatever vaccine is on offer at the place that’s most convenient to them. I would have taken the J&J vaccine if that’s what they had.

Bunnies and squirrels won’t be able to tell the difference.

That’s never good. I’m glad for you.

There’s a hanger on the right side of the grill that keeps it a few inches off the ground. Webers typically have this sliding gauge with a spring that’ll indicate roughly how full your tank is - or at least that’s the intent. It might work fine if you keep your grill inside. On every grill I’ve ever owned, it indicates full until is flat out empty. YMMV. On the linked model, it looks like they sort of hide it behind that side panel. You can see the tank if you look closely in a few of the pictures.