Sept 2021 Home Front Activities

[topdsm0138]

I've heard they weren't bad eating, don't do me any good though cause I can't eat fish anymore. Sure do miss it though.

Ugh...that blows man. I've been going crazy over here (BFE) but my (over 9mo..) tour is almost over, so I'll be back at it. I may have limited usage of my right arm now, but I'll try as I'm stubborn and persistent.

As for homelife. Today is my wife's 39th bday and our 19yr wedding anniversary. I honestly don't know how she's put up with me for this long.

[SHC286]

Missing birthdays and holidays sucked. I missed my sister's first wedding cause we got extended in Iraq.

[Donald Garner]

Good morning to everyone,
We're starting the morning off with Blue Bird Skies and forecasted temps of 72 - 96dgrs with 83%humidity and a NW wind @ 2 mph.  The little to no chance of rain forecasted this coming week.

Guys it was a Week in Hell at school this past week.  These kids got on this Tik Tok >sp?  BS on line challenge.  They go to school and destroy and steal stuff and post it on line.  They destroyed 13 soap dispensers and painted 3 walls in a restroom with some PINK Chit.  The soap dispensers got ripped off the wall and taken apart and dumped into the toilets.  They took a hand sanitizer dumped some pink liquid in and went at.  Thursday they tried to remove a sink from the wall and failed.  I did a service order to have the sink reattached and sealed. 

On top of all the chit going on with the kids we killed 5 Diamondback rattle snakes last week.   They caught one right out side my office door in the hallway. One of the night custodians seen it coiled up by the door.  Lucky for her one of snake catcher was outside walking around the bldg.  I caught one right outside a sitting area where the Special needs kids sit.  The pest control and grounds supervisor was working in this wooded area just across from the parking lot.  They  found a nest that had a 4ft female and a few babies.  Two days later they were back in the same area and caught a 6ft male.  In the past 2 weeks we've caught and killed 20 rattlesnakes between the elementary school that sits behind our school and my school.   

Last but not least we let other people use our facilities to hold meeting etc.  We had this one group wanted to use our Digital Learning Center it's a good size meeting area.  They had too many people show up so they asked the principal if they could use our cafeteria.  Naturally she told them yes.  They wanted to move a couple / three tables around not an issue.  I get down there and it turned into moving 1/3 of the furniture out of the cafeteria.  All of our cafeteria furniture are individual tables and chairs something like you see in an airport café.  It's all somewhat heavy stuff etc.  we use furniture movers to move the big stuff around.  I was told that they would put all the stuff back after the meeting.  Well Wednesday morning at 6:45am all that furniture was still sitting in the hallway.  Breakfast gets served at 7:40am.  I got done setting the cafeteria back up at 7:25.    Not how I want to start my day.  It was a challenging week for the leadership at school.  Hopefully this coming week will be better at least I hope.

My Fishing for Freedom Partner contacted me reference doing a prefishing trip.  Yesterday Dwayne, me and Tom spent the morning on Belton Lake fun fishing.  Dwayne ran the trolling motor and he was the only one to catch a bass.  Tom hooked into a 3ft gar fish on a crankbait and needless to say there's a gar swimming around in Belton Lake with a crankbait hanging out its mouth.  I finished burning out that old gas yesterday.  The weather was smoking hot to say the least NO Wind and Blue Bird Skies during the entire trip.  I went to bed at 6:30pm and woke up at 7am this morning.

Dwayne and I are off to church.  Afterwards we're heading to the BPS in Round Round and having lunch somewhere in that area.  The wife is coming home today after her 2 week stay in Alaska visiting our Grandkids.  Her flight lands at 6:30pm in Austin.  I'll be glad when she gets here.  Sure did miss her.

You guys all have a pleasant day today be safe in your travels.  Hope ya'll have the aches and pains in control.

[topdsm0138]

SHC, it really does. They keep trying to get me to fill a slot on a deployment extension fpr the new unit coming to replace us, I decline every time. I'm done, I'm OUT.

Don, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is wrong with them? I mean we did pranks in school but the unwritten rules were, you can't hurt anyone or can't cause permanent damage.

[Bud Kennedy]

Totally boring day today.  Nice weather in the mid 80s and humidity about 65%.  A very slight breeze from time to time.  Decided to go get the boat from storage and it is now sitting in the driveway.  Might clean on it a bit tomorrow but that is about it.  I do have some baits to put away in their proper places so that will occupy me a bit while the wife is at physical therapy.  Most likely will put in on the charger tomorrow because Tuesday has a 80% chance of thunderstorms and the tech is supposed to be here on Wednesday morning for the steering deal.  After the rain goes through this week the weather will be turning fall like and I am ready to hit the river as soon as possible. 

Donald good to see you back on line today, it has been a while.  Good news that your Wife will be home tonight.  Now maybe your life can get all back on schedule.   I haven't seen Rodney for a while either.  I hope he is able to work on his boat for a while.  In a few weeks it will be time to head down to Charleston to visit Terry G for our annual fall fishing day on the Cooper River.  We always have a nice time and even catch a few fish while we are at it.

[Oldfart9999]

Good evening. Sunny and cool day, felt good. Mass this morning, French toast for b'fast my son was over for dinner, smoked porkchops, eggplant parmigiana, pistachio ice-cream, good meal. The stuff for my boat came in yesterday, I started working on it, I must have had the new tier and rim off 4 times, twice to see how to mount the brackets, there are 4 choices. The boat slid over to the side and it's the side I have to do first, now that the new wheel and tire is on that side I'll do the other then the next day I'll dump the boat, take the trailer home and finish up that job and mount the new bunks I have, if all works out I'll be fishing Wednesday.
Top, I don't blame you for wanting to come home, congrats on your wife's b'day. I don't know why she's still with you.
SHC, I wouldn't try snakeheads either, they're too ugly.
Bud, enjoy playing with your boat, hope your steering goes well. I hope to have mine in the water fishing by Wednesday, it's more work than I care to do but I had no choice.
Donald, those kids are spoiled rotten and there's no teaching of right and wrong or discipline at home. Good that Mrs. Donald will be home today and that you and Dwayne got out. I'm itchy to get out and try my HOOK REVEAL out to see what it's all about.
Rodney   

[SHC286]

Don, I happen to be sitting next to my youngest kid while reading your post. He said yeah, school vandalism is blowing up on tiktok. He saw a video of a kid stealing a urinal. He managed to get it detached, into his backpack and took it home. And another of a kid who managed to steal every fire alarm in his school.

I showed him your post and he's agreed to report this kind of crap if he sees it, but has said nothing like this is going on in his school on a large scale, only the occasional punk that wants to act stupid. Other schools in the area though? Different story.
It's interesting. I was told by a principal at another school a couple years ago that he should stay in her school because, I quote, "Will is too white to go to Farmerville."
At least he can take a dump in peace and wash his hands afterwards. That previous school had to have a three day weekend to repair vandalism.

[Oldfart9999]

Good morning!!! 50/49 or 48 headed to near 80, sunny when it gets up, dry, nice day. Have a mid morning appointment with my new shoulder Doc then lunch and work on my trailer, I'm getting too old for this, last big job I do, the joints just aren't up to it anymore. I hope I can wet a line before my home waters turn over, that'll be about 2 weeks of difficult fishing.
SHC, I don't know about school vandalism but our murder rate is up big time, shootings are up big time, stabbings, all of it. We have dummies on dirt bikes not registered running crazy in the streets while not wearing safety gear, they're doing wheel stands in traffic, some have died but they keep at it terrorizing drivers. Most of the bikes are stolen but the perps are released with no bail and appearance tickets. Is it any wonder kids are running amok?
Top, tell them you have fish that requiring your protection and you'll bite the bullet and do that.
Bud, all the over 80 near 90 days have disappeared from the forecasts, Wednesday have rain forecast though, the day I was hoping to hot the water.
Donald, is Mrs. Donald home now? Were you and Dwayne able to get out? Hope this week goes better for you at school!!!
Have a great day, be well!!!
Rodney 

[SHC286]

Some Caney Lake turkeys y'all! Snapped this pic a few minutes ago about three miles from the spillway and Hooks Marina. There were about a dozen but I had to make sure to get the white Tom in the pic.

[SHC286]

And now this right behind my well!

[topdsm0138]

My boy on the right, my buddys son on the left and their tag along in the middle on Lake Osbourne. He sent me this with "It sucks you can't go fishing, but we can!" Little jerk..

[Mike Cork]

I wish the Pea's could handle just a little bit colder water. If they could survive in the lower 50's we could introduce them to many more places.

[topdsm0138]

I wish the Pea's could handle just a little bit colder water. If they could survive in the lower 50's we could introduce them to many more places.

When the little "fronts" push through Florida, they fare ok. They slow down, kind of like a "hibernation" for a few days (maybe 2 days max). But...(we always hate this word.), they can't handle it for long periods or they die. 64-66° if I remember correctly is their lowest water temp limit.

[BassmanRudy]

Wow a white turkey!! Rare!!

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

[Bud Kennedy]

Hopefully today will be the last funeral for a while.  My good friend Jeff Heath was laid to rest today at the age of 74.  Cause of death was severe pancreatitis.  It was just so sudden for someone who appeared to be in good health.  Seems like not too many these days actually have a full funeral as most seem to opt for a memorial style gathering.  Jeff had the full send off with a large number of folks attending.

Today was an overcast and windy day with a few tropical showers this morning.  Heavy rains are expected the next couple of days and a cold front passing through Thursday night dropping temperatures into the 70s for daytime highs and into the upper 50s for overnight lows.  Just a little taste of fall I guess.

[Donald Garner]

Good evening to everyone,

It was a smoker here today.  We had clear skies with forecasted temps of 74 - 102dgrs; 30% humidity and SE winds @ 12mphs.  Still very little chance of any rain in the forecast for the rest of the week.

It was pretty quiet on the school war front today.  We didn't have anything damaged and we didn't find any snakes. 

Dwayne got some good news today from his doctor in Anchorage.  He is now cleared to drive.  He'll be online tomorrow getting into the job hunting mode.  I'm really happy and nervous for him.  He seems to be doing a lot better overall since moving here from Alaska.  We picked the wife up last night and we're all happy that she's back home.  She told us that it's starting to snow in the mountains and the temps were dropping down into the 30's.  Winter has arrived in Alaska.  I'm glad we don't live up there anymore.  Dwayne is happy he doesn't live there anymore also.

Bud; Real sorry to hear of your friends passing.   We'll add you and his family to our daily prayers.

Top; Glad to hear you're getting better.  Man that's cold your son sending that picture and making that comment.  You'll have to remind him of that sometime.....   There will be a time when he can't go but you can etc.   BTW good looking young man you're raising there.

SHC; Tks for sharing those pictures with us.  I really like that area around Caney Lake.  We had a UBCS event there a few years ago.  I really enjoyed living in Louisiana.  My wife did too.  If we were ever to move back there it would be around Natchitoches.

Rodney; Buddy sure hope you don't over do it working on your boat.  I tried working on my G3 trailer once with the boat on it.  I found it was a lot easier with the boat off etc.  Good luck and have fun working on it.  Hope you can get it all back together and get a couple more trips in. 
Dwayne and my Fishing for Freedom partner went out for a 1/2 day trip on Saturday.  We had blue bird skies with NO WIND of any kind at all.  My partner hooked into a 4ft gar fish and it broke the line.  It's swimming around Belton Lake with a Crankbait hanging out of it's mouth.  I managed a big Skunk, Dwayne was the only one to put a bass in the boat.  It was caught it on 3/8oz Bleeding Shad Spinnerbait.
That no wind sure made it tough under those clear skies.  Dwayne was soaking wet from sweating.  He told me hadn't sweated like that in years.

Guys you all have a restful evening and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for us all.

[Oldfart9999]

Good morning!!! 67 headed to mid 70s, partly cloudy when it's not partly sunny, tomorrow starts 2 days of rain then a cool down. Doctors appointment this morning, had one yesterday, met my new shoulder Doc, got a cortisone injection in the left shoulder, I'll see how that works out before having the right one done. I/we are trying to hold off surgery. Should be the last day working on the fenders and bunks.
Bud, condolences on the loss of your friend. I've seen the inside of more funeral homes than I care for.
SHC, thanks for the pics, nice looking property, do you plan on stocking up on venison?
Top, another day closer to getting home and out from under the garbage.
Donald, it seems that challenge was nation wide, it hit here, this is what happens when you let the Chinese own a tech company in this country. Good that the week started quietly. Good news about Dwayne being able to start driving and now looking for work, you guys all are still in our daily prayers. I was able to mount the fenders on one side of the trailer and I have the brackets mounted on the other side, I drilled out the fender, matched it up with the other side, the boat slid over and still don't have the  room to mount the fender. Today I'll dump the boat at the club, come home mount the fender and mount the new bunks. Do you have any plans for fishing coming up? If I can't tomorrow there's Friday and Saturday. After I have the boat back home I'll remove the HDS 5 and remount the HOOK Reveal, I'm looking forward to using it.
have a great day, be well!!!
Rodney

[SHC286]

Don, I remember the UBCS event being there, I wanted to go so bad! I decided to stay near home because the grandson was due in the same time frame and I didn't want to risk missing that. He ended up being born within a few days of the event, before or after I can't really recall.

Rodney, I do want to stock up on some venison but if I don't get enough spare time on my hands the only way I'll be able to do it is if I hit a deer with my truck! I just hope it's my work truck and not my own!
Man, I've never even gotten around to taking the hunter's safety course. I've only hunted my mom's property since that became a requirement, I think a grand whopping total of maybe 6 times. I used to hunt all the time as a teenager. My school bus driver was one of the deacons at my church, he used to pick me up near the tree stand and just hang onto my rifle or shotgun until dropping me off in the afternoon.

[SHC286]

Wanna know something really funny? I've never killed a deer except with a truck! Everything else, sure. Squirrel, dove, duck, Turkey, rabbit, everything else I've ever hunted for. But I see deer everywhere except in the woods when I go looking for them. I've even been at my mom's doing some target shooting with a 22 and had a deer wander onto the range! Last time I went hunting I had several walk behind me on the opposite side of a ridge but they never gave me anything to shoot at.

[Bud Kennedy]

Some rain this morning and dry the rest of the day.  Service Tech for the boat supposed to be here at 9AM tomorrow.  It may be raining at that time so it is hard to tell if he will be able to do anything.  It may even turn out he does not want to tackle this job.  If so I have a fall back shop that has agreed to do it.  One way or another new steering will be happening soon.  All of a sudden it appears that I have an infected big to toenail on my right foot.  Having to wear slippers today instead of my pumas.  Hope this is a temporary thing as it is quite uncomfortable.  Gotta say this is a real first for me.

[Donald Garner]

Howdy from Belton, Texas 

Beautiful day across Central Texas today.  Our forecasted temps were 61-92dgrs with 44% humidity and a N wind @ 17mph.

It was a quiet day at school today.  They have caught a couple of the individuals that did some of the damage.  I don't know how they caught them but 2 of the 3 assistant principals stopped by my office with a couple young boys in tow.  They introduced them to me as some of the ones that did all the damage.  These 2 I met today are ISS > In School Suspension for a couple weeks.  I was informed that those boys are at my disposal to have them do some manual labor.  I need to recheck that because the last school I worked at I did that and found out there was suppose to be a teacher with us to control them.  Once that was found out they stopped that program.   Anyway I'm glad they have finally gotten control of this mess.

Got a card in the mail that our Silverado had a Air Bag recall on it.  I called down and talked with the Service Manager and had Dwayne drive it down there.  I didn't have to ask him twice either.  Guys tks for all the prayers for Dwayne and my family.  He is really doing well with his recovery.  One day here this week he'll start looking for work. 

SHC; buddy you didn't miss anything not coming to that UBCS Event.  The second day got canceled due to nasty weather that had moved in over night.  It rained and rained I want to say there was a tornado that moved into the area Saturday night.  Carl had boat motor issues on Day 1 so when we got back to the launch we loaded out and headed back home to Texas.   I really like Louisiana it's one of the prettiest states we've lived in. 

Rodney; My good man hope your doctor's appointment went well for ya.  I have doctor's appointment tomorrow morning.  I hate going to the doctor.  I already know she's going to tell me I need to lose about 40lbs.  I wish it was that easy to do.  After she briefs me on my blood work etc results I'm going to talk to her about my left knee.  Hopefully we can figure out what the heck is going on with it. 

Dwayne and I are going to attempt to hit Nolan Lake this coming weekend.  The wife being home now might have some say in this but we'll see.  You taking any pictures of this Trailer Fender make over?  Good luck getting everything back together. 

Bud; Hope things are going well for ya.  Is that Service Tech going to pickup the Ranger and take it to the shop?  Good luck getting the steering replaced.

Top; How's things going with your recovery?  We got ya in our daily prayers brother.

To everyone have a relaxing evening.  Be safe in you're travels if you have to get out and about.

[Bud Kennedy]

Donald the guy coming tomorrow to work on the boat a mobile service business only.  He does not have a shop.  All repairs are done right here at my house.  We shall see how that goes.  If this works out then will be great for some of the routine maintenance deals like oil changes and impeller changes and tune ups.  If not then it was worth a try.  I do know he stays pretty busy and has a growing clientele.

[SHC286]

Y'all my dang birthday is in two days and my gift is sitting on the mantle. Not even wrapped, it's just sitting there in the shipping box all lonely and stuff. Waiting for me to open it. I know what it is too, and I think that makes it worse!

[Dog]

Howdy everyone.
Hope all are doing good.
Don glad to hear Dwayne is doing so good. Some great news for sure. Glad they caught couple of the heathens that did the damage.
Rodney dont over due it working on your boat trailer.
Bud when I bought my new boat I also bought a warranty with it that covers it for 7 years they come to me even iif at a boat ramp. Had 2 repairs done at my house all within 48 hours of making the call. I like that. At least the repairs were super simple and minor things but hey the money I paid for that thing lol.
sch sounds like torture lol top when you get home be sure to post pics of your build on your boat.
Ok time to go get in the rain locker then take my pain meds. Note to self safety harness safety harness safety harness when your hanging upside down welding 2o feet off the ground. The fall wasnt the problem but that sudden stop about done me in lol.

[topdsm0138]

Doing good guys, still only ha e about 40% usage of my right arm back, but good.

Roasted my son on his social media for his fish pic stunt. Posted a picture of Bobby from The Waterboy with "Momma said, how come you got all them lures but never catch any big fish, just small ones?"