FlyerInOKC

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Sounds like a very fun outing!

Clean

Ahhhh Flying. We're pretty much to our 5th inch of rain in a weeks span, Tomorrow is supposed to be nice if a little bit spongy. My Hen however has hatched out all but two of her eggs. I did see a pip on one of the last two and we slid by the local farm store to pick up some pullets because we usually run 50/50 pullet/rooster per hatch and we don't need any more roosters. So there are 12 under her now.

First three THEN All but two. Went and got 5 Pullets from the feed store and added them to the mix.

What the HECK? I know I'm bad at counting, 4 fingers a foot AND you know, I'm a chicken not Sir Albert Newton.
This just don't seem right!

Almost everybody underneath. Always room on Mom's back. THEN I went through all the trouble of putting a brooding plate in there
and they were all under momma, helping heat those last two eggs I hope.
.
Fingers crossed. Storm rolling back in outside. Lunch and nap I think.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Once they are grown will they be friers or laying chickens?

GREG DOE

Check this out!
AFAIK he was one of only two Hollywood actors who served in the armed forces ine WW2. The other was Jimmy Stewart."
Clark Gable and Henry Fonda also served. There were others but it seems like if they were at all famous they got shunted into public relations. There were also those who got famous after they served.
__________________

Clean

Layers. We moved out to the country and my wife saw that the neighbor had bees and chickens. She didn't want the bees, me neither, but her grandparents had the chickens and she wanted our grandchildren to have that. So, we have pets that cost a little less then dogs BUT they poop eggs and unlike do our dogs do, the eggs are tasty, Probably only cost us 50 cents per. I haven't done that math. We stock the basement fridge, Freeze some for backing with (crack the eggs into a silicone mold, freeze them then store them in a ziplock bag), and give away to family, friends and my daughter takes the overflow to work where she's a charge nurse and the other nurses appreciate the free eggs and extra produce that, I mean, you can't just grow a couple eggplant fruits. I end up shooting those through the spud-gun there are so many. I got her down to two plants last year and there was still too much.
Plus, I take the coup sweepings which are fine pine shavings, compost them and put that back into the garden beds. It's too hot straight off but in the fall, after harvest, I can clean out the coops and put it right onto the raised rows and till it in. Those are starting to get real nice. Once every year or two I have to till inside the runs to loosen it up and shovel it out, take that "dirt" up to the beds as well. Free fertilizer.
Hah! I said Free. How much did I say those eggs were?

GallopingGhostler

My father used to tell me when he was growing up, they'd take a few fertilized eggs from one of their ducks and slip them under a hen that was incubating her fertilized eggs. She was a proud hen, accepting the ducklings as her own when the brood hatched. But she freaked out when escorting her chicks, the ducklings upon seeing their pond made a beeline for it.

mgnostic

" I mean, you can't just grow a couple eggplant fruits. I end up shooting those through the spud-gun there are so many."
The spud gun, another fine tradition.

GallopingGhostler

Before they built houses, behind our house was about 20 acres of unimproved brushland. My son and his friends used to make potato guns, and fire them out back, ride their bicycles. There were colonies of prairie dogs living there. One could make a fuss and bothered no one. Now it is full of houses, all that is gone.

flyboy2610

My Feedback: (1)

Back in the late 80s I lived in a n apartment complex that was the furthest southwest development in the city. My apartment was on the western side of the complex. I used to be able to enjoy some glorious sunsets. Nothing but farmland and grass that way. Now there's apartments and homes to the west and to the south. Sometimes I wonder how much of 'progress' is really progress.

David John Davis

On the other hand where I live is losing population. There are several abandoned houses in my village and many second homes which people only visit for short periods each year, that's why houses are so cheap here. A few weeks ago an abandoned house actually fell down into the street in the nearest town blocking the road for several days while it was made safe.

GallopingGhostler

Much of rural New Mexico and Texas are like your village in France, David. Some are still hanging on by a thread, others continue to decline with many abanodoned houses and business building in decay. Some declined because the US interstate highway system bypassed them. Others, because trains no longer stop there. Laws made mining difficult and unprofitable. Oil shutdown affect those towns near oil drilling areas. Drought has moved cattle operations out of the New Mexico.

20 years ago, a film crew came to New Mexico to film a movie about a 1960's Oklahoma girl's high school basketball team, who became state champions, through the coach struggling to obtain support from a difficult high school board to help their team succeed.

IMDb: Believe in Me

The wife, I and our daughter were fill in's as spectators during the game filming at the Eastern New Mexico University old gymnasium. We dressed in our own clothing typical of the 1950's and 1960's. Compensation was a nice, free lunch The director filmed from various buildings in rural New Mexico and Texas, because many of the old buildings, towns and outdoor scenery resembled that of 1960's rural Oklahoma.

Although the story and filming was excellent, they had a hard time with finding a sponsor to buy the film. It wound up as an airline movie, unfortunately. I guess because it had no vulgar language, sex, promiscuity, violence and other weirdness, etc., the movie moguls weren't interested.

However, doing a net search, found the DVD and bought a copy.

I remember growing up in the 1960's. We still opened car and building doors for girls and women. Held umbrellas escorting them out of the rain into a building. Watched our language before them also. We treated them with respect.

We even dressed better when going shopping and to school. It was a different world then.

Telemaster Sales UK

Indeed it was GG.

I always make sure that I'm shaved and showered, that my moustache is waxed, that my shoes are clean and polished and that my dog has been brushed before venturing into the nearest town of Aigurande, population 1,500 and declining.

flyboy2610

My Feedback: (1)

When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s in a small town in SE Nebraska, the population was around 5,000. Today it's about 3,500.
Charlie Douglas, a radio personality of days long gone, said in one of his stories that "In big cities, you make acquaintances. In small towns, you make friends." Very true.

David John Davis

I have been without motor transport for much of the last week. As a result, yesterday morning I found myself without milk or bread after breakfast. My trusty VW LT28 van has developed an oil leak. It turns out to be a gasket somewhere in the bowels of the engine. Having dismantled the engine, my mechanic, who is a fellow Englishman, received a message from relatives in England informing him that his mother was dying. He left for England yesterday and is unlikely to be back before the end of the month.

Consequently I have spent much of the last week recommissioning my fifty year-old P6 Rover. Apart from a minor weep from the petrol pump and main beam not working the car has been a delight to drive. I'll sort out the minor problems if it stays dry.

On the aeromodelling front I am due to support my Belgian mate Frans this morning. Having gone solo for the first time in April he crashed his Radio Queen on take off about ten days ago by trying to take off with insufficient ground speed. Between us we've repaired it. I also received my Laser 50 engine yesterday which I bought on eBay. It's in fine condition but it is missing the slow running jet. That's not a problem because I have a spare carburettor, The organisers of La Coupe Des Barons are considering my request to have all of the four-stroke Barons fly together in the same group. The sound of up to ten four strokes in the air at the same time will be amazing!

I have a busy day in prospect, after the usual dog walking, shave, shower and breakfast and flying with Frans, there's a four-course lunch in the village for all of the old people. Today is a national holiday in France, it commemorates the end of the Second World War. They say there is no free lunch. There is in my village. Every Christmas and every 8th May if you're old enough!

Tomorrow is Ascension Day so France will be closed for two successive days. Good job I was able to stock up with provisions yesterday once I'd got the old car going.


1974 2200SC P6 Rover.

1998 VW LT 28 van with little brother.

Joe Nagy

My Feedback: (3)

Hi David;

You are just having too much 'fun' old Friend; ENJOY! And autos....Drats!!

All is almost well wid us'ins over here in Arizona; I mentioned about my RS hand problems a while back: had the Carpal Tunnel surgery a week ago, so am recovering AOK, but being unable to do hardly anything for almost 5 months has been a drag. Like, my own Blonde Blue Eyes, Shirley, Wife of 58 yrs, has to cut my steaks, pork chops, even liver.....oh man, and I can hardly hold a fork......[good thing though, Ta Dah! I'm losing weight]. Hoping for da best: being able to build again and hold/control my RC Trannie and FLY....Drats again!!

David. will close for now, best regards to you and All the Other Old Timees' reading herewith, let us All ENJOY!!

Joe Nagy. Wickenburg, Arizona.

David John Davis

Here's a bit of trivia which may interest you transatlantic gentlemen.

In the British Army and the RAF, soldiers and airmen salute with the palm of the hand facing forwards. In the Royal Navy, sailors salute with the palm facing downwards. All members of the American armed forces salute with the palm facing downwards.

In the 1989 film "Glory," a film about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, part of the Union Army, which was made up of black soldiers under the command of a white colonel, there is a scene in which there is an altercation between a white corporal and a black sergeant played by Morgan Freeman. This altercation is broken up by an officer who rides up on a horse. Both soldiers salute the officer who returns the salute but they all salute with the palm of the hand facing forwards, British style.

Is this how the Union Army saluted during the Civil War or is this just sloppy directing? If this is historically correct, when did the American armed services adopt the palm downwards salute?

mgnostic

As nearly as I can discover the palm out salute is correct for the American Civil war era. But, at least some of the time, only the highest ranking soldier in a group would salute the approaching officer. Everyone else in the group would come to attention until released by the officer. With the Civil war it can be kind of a crapshoot as to accuracy. There were units specifically raised by the US Army but there were also units raised by state militias and or raised /equipped by private groups. These militias and private units may or may not have been trained or even uniformed to the same standard as units equipped by the Army. As the war ground on things became more standardized. As for anything coming out of Hollywood, drama trumps accuracy every time.

Telemaster Sales UK

Did you know that about 900,000 British "Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle-muskets" were supplied to both sides during the American Civil War?

Flicker

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oops!
Bob

Flicker

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We stocked books from Bill Dean Books at Bobbye Hall's Hobby House in Dallas, Tx. He had titles, magazines, etc. available nowhere else.

Bob

AJ Sun

All the hobby shops in my area are closed only one remains and it's almost entirely ARFs. And Cars. Wife's battery went dead and I had to go give it a jump with my Jeep. Bought a new Battery almost $200.00 With a trade in. That's the fifth battery I've bought this year. Starting to see alot of Electric cars. Not kidding about this. Asked a young guy how much it cost to charge his electric car and how long the charge last. He did not know but he can go 500 miles on a charge. But really its sbout 300 and takes 4 hours to get a good charge. You csn charge it less and extend the miles but a full charge takes about 8 hours. Ive seen a few charge ststions at DFW airport and one at a resturant going to.Shreveport. thats it. But.I see several electric cars. Oh one was on a flat bed tow truck. Glad I am 78. Dont think I will see the end results of this one!

mgnostic

Over the last few years I've started seeing a couple of Teslas locally (Wichita Falls, Texas). I suppose them to be practical for urban driving but this is a part of the world where everything is a minimum one hour drive. I know of at least one trip that is about a half day run in a regular car but takes two days for an electric due to the need to stop for an extended recharge. I know a couple of people who have hybrids and are very fond of them. Some of the small towns allow people to tag and use golf carts on the city streets. Even allowing for the fact that there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, I'll concede that electrics have their uses and good points. I think we will need to see another generation or two of battery development before they are ready to be all things to all people.

mgnostic

I knew they were a thing but I didn't know the numbers. Some years ago I had a modern replica of what I think was referred to as a "three band musket". It was a lot of fun to shoot but cleanup was a PITA. I generally used black powder substitute as actual black powder residue is quite corrosive. It amazes me that any guns from that era survive to this day.

Telemaster Sales UK

I have two Belgian friends in the local model aircraft club, Gerard and Frans. The first language of both is Flemish, a form of Dutch, but both also speak French; Gerard is particularly fluent. I had a look at the language composition of Belgium the other day and 59% of Belgians have Flemish as their first language, 40% have French as their first language and just 1% speak German. There are two very small provinces which abut the German border where German is the first language of the majority of residents. Every Belgian I've ever met says that these are the only parts of Belgium which work properly!

Most of you transatlantic gentlemen would have heard about the Malmedy Massacre in which eighty-four American prisoners of war were summarily shot by the Waffen SS on 17th December 1944, but has anybody ever heard of Wereth Massacre? At Wereth eleven artillerymen, overwhelmed by the German advance, were captured and shot by members of the 1st SS Panzer Division. Before the Germans caught them they had sought food and shelter in the homes of some local villagers including that of a boy who was twelve year's old at the time. For the rest of his life that boy, Herman Langer, was determined to build a memorial to these men. He was not a wealthy man and it took him until 1994 before he could finish the memorial. There is a simple panel describing how eleven American soldiers were shot by the SS but the text is in German because that was Herr Langer's mother tongue and the principal language of that part of Belgium. In 2017 the Belgian government added a plaque with the names of the eleven men on it.

In 1944 the American Army was segregated along racial lines. All of these gunners were black soldiers.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I am deeply moved by the honor he and his countrymen have shown these 11 men!