other dog

Holy mackerel!

This is true.

I went back to the scene of the crime. Looks like little yellow jacket carcasses all right. This one was still in the shed, but it didn't look like it felt very good. Then it got stepped on. This was what was left of the nest. The whole compound was housed in that paper looking stuff. That thing was huge, had like 5 of these compartment apartment complexes in it.

Yeah, I dug up an underground nest before and they'll have those type of nests in the ground. I thought this was a hornet's nest at first, that's what it looked like. Had the "paper" wrapping all around the part with the holes in it that the eggs or larva or whatever you call them are in. I would have hated to have gotten stung multiple times by these, the one still hurts- almost 24 hours later. As many as there were I still feel lucky to have only been stung once. And when I was washing the big green International that runs now I found a good size wasp nest up under the visor, that one had the big red wasps on it. I always considered those the most painful stings of them all. I just sprayed it with the water hose and knocked it down with the brush handle. If we got stung by a wasp when we were kids my grandfather would cut off a little piece of his plug of Peach and Honey and tell us "chew this a minute or two and then hold it on where it stung you and it'll stop hurting". Worked too.

I already burned one shed down, better not try the starting fluid flame thrower trick in this situation. 🤣 I didn't look at them real, real, close but they appeared to be yellow jackets. They're just mean anyway. I think that was the first yellow jacket nest I've seen that wasn't in the ground. I burned 3 or 4 when I was in Gladys. Got stung several times cutting the grass one time but it took me a while to find the nest. I finally saw some go in a hole in the ground so just before dark that evening I poured half a red solo cup of gas in it. Non ethanol gas. That probably would have done the trick, but I got a can of ether out of the shed and sprayed a trail on the ground back about 10 feet and lit it.

I only had a little more to do, but I had to come inside and cool off. It's about as hot as it was yesterday.

I brought the Brigadier home today- I need to think of a name for it too- and I was going to give it a quick wash job. I went out to the shed to put a couple of wrenches away, and I picked that blue bucket up to see if I wanted to use it for a wash bucket. It had some polishing wheels in it so I just put it back and decided to use the bottom part of an old shop-vac, like I'd been doing. Then I heard what I thought was flies buzzing. So I thought "🤔 what's up with these flies?" Then I noticed a few dozen yellow jackets. So I moved that socket set in that plastic case to the side and saw a few hundred more zooming around. The nest was up under those shelves, under whatever that black thing there is. So I sprayed it with my one can of several years old wasp spray, and pulled the nest down with a rake. I only got stung once, on the ankle. I've been in and out of there I don't know how many times, drove the lawnmower in and out, and never saw a thing. I'm going to get more wasp spray and spray more later, just because.

I think I solved the mystery of fox or coyote. My first thought was fox, then I started thinking 🤔 about it. But this morning these hounds that live somewhere around here were running something in the woods across the road. They're somebody's hunting dogs and you might hear them anytime of day or night. Usually they're running a deer and they'll run the deer right across the field out here. So I was standing on the back porch and heard them getting closer so I watched to see if the deer was going to cross the field. And I saw the fox running across the field, going the same way it did when it had the dead ground hog in it's mouth. I got a good long look at it this time, it went all the way across from the tree on the left in the field into the woods on the right. And Rocky just bush hogged the field a couple of days ago. And here's a big Mack truck and a dog.

You know, nocluejoe66 had a great idea. Maybe I could find somebody with a gooseneck trailer that would rather have a nice Brigadier. Then I could haul the big green International that runs now to truck shows with the Mack. Or Joey Mack could buy it, that's a great idea too. 😁

I got that big green International that runs now out of the carport and drove it down to the stop sign and back, then washed the dust and pollen off of it. Had to come inside and take a break before I finished because the heat was about to get me. Might take it to the "Cars and Coffee" tomorrow, a little car show they have in Appomattox from 8 to 10 at the old Thomasville Furniture Factory.

Well said!

I used to smoke, and I would trade a pack of Marlboros for a pack of those Canadian cigarettes whenever I'd see a Canadian driver smoking them. They always seemed very happy to make the trade. They were OK, I just traded because they were something different. Just like when I would smuggle Old Style beer back from the Chicago area. I'd bring a case home periodically not because it was so great, but you can't get it around these parts. And I don't remember it being so bad either.

Yep, 5 speed, 3.87 rear.

Here's the latest on the Brigadier. Anybody looking for a nice single axle pulpwood truck? And here's what my exhausting research on foxes and coyotes turned up. They look nothing alike really. This is a fox- ...and this is a coyote.

The 300 I drove would turn 2400, and the pump had never been tampered with that I know of. I know it still had the seal on it. They put a pump on it one time, or had that pump rebuilt- by Mack- and when I got it back I was expecting it to turn 2100 but it still turned 24.

At the Keystone Antique Truck and Tractor Museum. They have several Detroit powered Olivers at the museum too.

My first toll booth experience when I got a T800 after driving only a cab over for 10 years was memorable too. I was getting on the Pa. Pike at Breezewood, and I had been advised by other drivers that were in the same situation to be careful. I didn't want to knock the mirror off, so I got over too far to the right and couldn't reach the ticket , so I had to open the door and step out to get it.

This was the first brand new truck I got. Before this truck all the trucks I ever drove had been driven by somebody else. I had driven a couple of Transtars, then a couple of F models, and none of them had power steering. That's probably why my arms were as big as a stovepipe then. 🤣 I still remember the very first load I pulled in this truck, a load of structural steel going to Boston. H.H. was telling the guys in the shop to hurry up, because I had to go, had to be in Boston in the morning. They were working on it after 5 o'clock, finishing things up, putting the headache rack on, etc. When they finished I hooked to my trailer and left, and I had to pull over at a wide spot on rt. 24 to see how to turn the headlights on. After only driving the Internationals and Macks that Kenworth seemed like it was 10 feet wide. I went down rt. 24 from Appomattox to rt. 60 to rt. 15, and 15 to Culpeper where I got on rt.29. Two lane all the way, until I got to 29.

It's pouring rain...again!

Yeah, he makes me feel like a slacker...well, I kinda am- anyhow, I'm at the tire getting place having 4 tires put on my car now because I saw dry rot cracks in them. The tread isn't half worn out, but we all remember what happened with the red Ford pickup, they had good tread too. Then I'm going home and have a few cold ones before I cook Zina a smash burger.

Here's unit 234 right after I got it. I had just loaded a load of kyanite down at the mullite plant in Dillwyn. I've got to go now, the new apprentice is waiting down at the garden. She wants to learn how to pick pole beans.

More wildlife in the yard. This looks like a rabbit. It's not unusual for there to be 4 or 5 squirrels out there any time eating bird seed but we don't see many rabbits.