2/23 Anderson

Spring is not officially here but it sure seems like we are already there?  We are having great weather no rain and that is about all that is missing?  I think we are 10 -15 degrees above the normal seasonal averages for temperature.  It is still a little cool in the morning but the sun warms things up very quickly.

We are having a great week end here in Anderson.  Kathy took off Thursday and yesterday was her AWS ( alternate work schedule) so we are having a great 4 day week end.  Kathy only had a 2 day work week last week - talk about spoiled.  She was very busy and paid the price for the short week for sure.  The lab is going through lots of financial exercises to try and cope with the government's budget woes and sequestration.  That clock is clicking down very quickly - - 3-4 days to address the issue.  Good thing that congress took the week off last week to  think about it?  Not holding my breath that they will make good choices - - - not good business practices for sure.

Getting ready for Spring yard work here in Anderson.  I had to get a new battery for my mower - the old one was on it's last legs.  I also had to get some more propane for my weed dragon.  I did manage to get rid of  my burn pile.  I also was successful in removing one of the blackberry bushes that was hanging on the fence on the back pasture.  I tried using the weed frog but it would not catch fire - just burned a few branches.  Today, I cut the branches put them in a big pile and torched them and the pile was gone in 15 minutes or less.  I have other areas that need to be addressed as well but not looking forward to the extra work of cutting the branches.  Somehow, I need to find a way to generate a pile for kindling then let it start the fire ans sustain it.  I have some work to make that happen.  I know that burning the bushes down will not get rid of the bushes but it does reduce the size of the plant to a manageable area.  At any rate - I am happy with the progress thus far and look forward to having this project done in the near future.  The County will allow open burning for the next 2-3 months.  They cut it off in the summer after things have dried out - the clock is ticking!!

Kathy is deeply entrenched with her drawing.  She is learning a lot in her on-line class and yesterday she was able to spend part of the day with her art/craft buddies here in Redding.  Several of the ladies have opened a shop and has opened a workshop up to others.  This is beneficial for lots of reasons - that ladies have something in common and I am sure the creativity and competitiveness kicks in a little when they are working together on their respective projects.  I am sure the ladies spend lots of their time with babble but that is part of the process and the interaction is nice for all. 

Lots of fun with golf last week - got to play 2 days.  On Monday, I played  (holes) with several different people and was able to collect a record 156 golf balls.  I was also able to sell some balls to a regular at the course.  I also returned balls to several of the other regulars at the course.  I cleaned up about 1300 balls and found with special markings, I know lots of the golfers by their markings.  I give them their balls back after I clean them up.  This is a win-win - lots of those folks have bought balls from me in the past.  I did re-post my golf balls again on Craigslist but have not had any takers recently.  I suspect that things will pick up in a month or so.

Not much else to news - - hope you all have a great week. 

More later

Ron, Kathy, Tessie and Sammie ( the cat)

2/9/13 Anderson

Spring is just around the corner, getting warmer each day and hopefully we will even get some of those Spring showers.  January was one of the driest months on record - I think we had 3 days with rain fortunately we got some good rain in December which helped to fill up the lakes and lots of snow for the mountains.  The Northeast sure got dumped on yesterday sure glad we don't have snow and cold systems like that in these parts!! 

I am still not sure if the Baltimore Ravens are for real?   The 49er game was terrible - they did not even show up for the game until the second half when they turned on the lights.  The Ravens have been very lucky for the last 3 games of the post season.  They should have lost each of those games - take away 2 or 3 plays in the entire game and they would have lost for sure!!!??  Guess I just have to get over it and move on to next season?  If I were a betting person I certainly would not bet on Baltimore to repeat!!

Two weeks ago I ordered up and received my "weed dragon". I used the propane tank from the BBQ put it into service yesterday - - - - not really that happy with this product, it certainly works as advertised on weeds in the yard but does not do much for the dead or dormant blackberry bushes I wanted to burn out.  The conditions were not perfect so I will wait until next time to give my final verdict.  We had a pretty good rain Thursday evening and the wind was blowing pretty good yesterday - both of those factors may have played a part in preventing the dragon from working better.  It certainly burned 1 or 2 branches when I had the torch on but for some reason I could not get the brush fired up.  Previously, I have had good luck with the blackberry burn piles that I have created and eventually burned off.  Those piles were pretty dense and dry which made it easy to burn??!!  I did burn out some weeds but will have to wait a couple of weeks to see if the plants are dead?

While watching the boring football game - I finalized our 2012 taxes and sent them off.  The Ca taxes were accepted almost immediately.  Got a not back from TurboTax about the Fed taxes - turns out our wonderful government still has to finalize some our deduction items and our Federal taxes are being held until they get the issues resolved.  Based on their performance last year, that may take a very long time!!  We have some very big issues when it comes to our government financials.  It is a terrible shame how they are managing or (not-managing) our budget.  In business, one of my big jobs was to manage my budget and I was measured accordingly for my efforts.  There was accountability in that system  - - that (a) word is non-existent in our government.  Enough already - I can only hope they get their act together, our overall economy is driven by their actions - failure to act will result in yet another recession or opportunity to kick the can down the road for someone else to manage?

This blog has been a little on the "downer" side now it is time to pick it up and share some of the work that Kathy has been involved with lately!!  Creation is the name of her game and she is certainly producing some great work.  Each time a new project comes out of the studio I am amazed at the advancement from the previous work.  These pieces have been generated as part of  a on-line training program she is participating in with lots of other folks around the world.  Press HERE to go to the album of her work.

Pretty amazing how our communication media of today allows us to interact so freely with the rest of the world.  I am sure there are many downsides to this - one being the US postal service, my guess is that it will go private in less than 2 years.  On the up-side, the commercial carriers are picking up the slack and meeting the demands of their customers.  Last week they announced in Tracy that Amazon was going to build a new 1 million sf warehouse.  That will add about 1000 jobs plus construction jobs and the Tracy economy will certainly improve as a result.  I am sure there will be many other hi-tech companies that will come in to help support Amazon which will only increase the number of jobs.  This is certainly an upbeat story!!

Played lots of golf last week and yes got lots of balls as well but have not sold any yet this year?   My new golf shoes that I got last August were starting to split along the seams so I took them back.  Got a replacement pair and now I need to condition them from the moisture.  The shoes get pretty wet as I get out early and there was water from the dew or frost and now they are starting to water.   I have another pair of shoes that I rotate so I don't have to walk around in wet shoes.  The other golf folks don't seem to have problems with their shoes - guess that is because they are setting in the little carts and now walking much.  Lately, I have been averaging 27 holes and that seems to give me a pretty good workout.

Enough babble - - hope you all have a great week!  Also - hope the 4 boys (Pete, Bobby, Jodi and John) had a great day on their b-days.

More later

Ron, Kathy, Tessie and Sammie  (that fat cat)