Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[Latestarter]

I got a little less than 1/4" of rain. Barely registered in the collection tube. Not sure if the wet, the cool or the wind did it but the goats are frisky as hell today... they're charging all over the danged place, chasing each other and head butting. No snow forecast for here, but night temps later this week could get down to mid 20s.

Sounds like a plan MH. After loading and unloading 600 pounds of feed and another 4-600 pounds of fence posts I'm relaxing for a bit. Used up the last of the hay I had for the goats this morning so will do a hay run this afternoon. So will be loading and unloading ~600 pounds of hay. Supposed to meet the guy between 4-4:30. There goes another $120. Hope it'll last through the end of the month but not gonna bet money on it.

 

[Bruce]

Clearly you need a tractor and haying equipment Joe!

Nights supposed to be down just above freezing or down to mid 20s. Guess the fly problem is finally about to end for this year.

Yeah for no more flies, sounds like you are going to be colder than us tonight.

Gotta go get the danged property taxes paid as well. Longer I wait the higher they get.

Um YEAH! I don't know about there but here they hit you REALLY hard for being even 1 day late. Instant penalty of several hundred $$ plus a % every month that you haven't seen on a deposit of any sort in decades. Even if you've paid on time 3X a year for nearly 30 years. There is no slack.

 

[Latestarter]

Ours aren't technically due until January. The bill comes in October... should say bills because mine is broken into 4 separate charges on 2 bills. Just different allocations of the funds within govt. Anyway, they give you a discount for paying early. the discount disappears a bit each month until gone and full bill due in January and they also include payment amounts for February in case you have to be late. Not complaining about that aspect, they're really very fair giving a small break for early payment. Just wish the cost wasn't so high in general.

 

[greybeard]

Ours aren't technically due until January. The bill comes in October... should say bills because mine is broken into 4 separate charges on 2 bills. Just different allocations of the funds within govt. Anyway, they give you a discount for paying early. the discount disappears a bit each month until gone and full bill due in January and they also include payment amounts for February in case you have to be late. Not complaining about that aspect, they're really very fair giving a small break for early payment. Just wish the cost wasn't so high in general.

Similar here. Get the bill in Oct.
Except, No discount if paid before Jan1 and no different if paid as late as Jan31.
There's a chart on the tax bill that shows the late penalty for each month as far as July.
Oct thru Jan 31-full amt.
Wait till last day of:
Feb-add 7%.
March-add 9%.
April-add 11%.
May-add 13%.
June-add 15%.
July-add 18%+20%.

Over age 65 (or disabled) AND a resident on the property, you can elect to make 4 equal payments and pay no penalty or interest:
1/4 of taxes due by 1/31/2018.
1/4 of taxes due by 3/31/2018.
1/4 of taxes due by 5/31/2018.
1/4 of taxes due by 7/31/2018.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Our weather here has been crazy. Highs in 60's with strong winds advisory. Within 36 hours the lows in high 20's and highs only supposed to get up to 30's. It was weird yesterday breathing warm air that cooled to the point of freezing by afternoon. A real shock to the system to not have a gradual cool down.

 

[Bruce]

Over age 65 (or disabled) AND a resident on the property, you can elect to make 4 equal payments and pay no penalty or interest:

I ASSUME that means if you make the 1/4 payment by those dates?

Just wish the cost wasn't so high in general.

You really don't want me to post what my property taxes are again, right?

 

[Latestarter]

OK, weather change is here... cool: 40°f, pretty windy, & gray outside. A little damp, but not as much as the gray sky would imply. I've fed the goats, they're happy, have started a fire in the furnace in preps for several days of cold weather (supposed to be down to 21°f tonight ), put a 10 pound smoked shank ham in the oven to warm up, and now I'm with a nice large mug of freshly brewed Dunkin' Donuts blend coffee. Bought it for my favorite oldest daughter when she was here as she likes it (with pumpkin spice creamer no less). I drink tea, hot or cold, but last night got a wild hair and made a pot. It was good (sans the pumpkin creamer... I prefer french vanilla ) so I decided to make another pot this am. Also eating a banana for breakfast. Figured the potassium would do me good. Not really hungry though at the moment (maybe something wrong with me?).

Had a visit from @Devonviolet and her DH yesterday. Was great to see them again. Mel was really happy to give them a fond greeting as well. I think he likes them as much as their dogs like me I told them if they ever want to get rid of Deo and Violet, I'd be happy to take them. They brought me some duck eggs and more cheese YUM! Had to return the gift favor so gave them some yaupon cuttings that they wanted so she can try rooting them. She loves the translucent red berries and wants to try making yaupon leaf tea. (I may have to try this!) https://www.npr.org/sections/thesal...e-buzz-on-americas-forgotten-native-tea-plant

So what I originally thought was yaupon was either a male plant, (no berries) or chinese privet... and I have other plants that looks similar to both but have non translucent red berries... No matter to me, I had intended to cut all of them down and get rid of them. They're shading out my pasture grasses. Might change my mind after I try it. Have to learn how to prep the leaves. I guess they can be done as a green or black tea. Looks simple enough to do. Since I presently ham roasting in the oven I guess I'll go grab some leaves and add them in to roast. I'll report later on the results.

So things to look forward to: using the jacuzzi during sub freezing temps, tonight's football game as well as several others this coming weekend as there are like 4 or 5 games this week that have major playoff ramifications. OK, so maybe only important to the players and football fans, which I am one...

 

[CntryBoy777]

We did a ham yesterday for dinner....and now are on leftovers........and Joyce made up some chex mix. We are in the low 40s today but some sun peeking thru the breaks in the clouds....we've been cloudy for the past couple of days. So how did your daughter's visit go?

 

[Mike CHS]

We are on the chilly side also but the wind has let up a bit. At least all of that rain softened the ground up so T-posts are going in easier than the week before.

 

[Latestarter]

OK, so here's where it stands @Devonviolet : Here are the yaupon leaves after baking in the oven for 30 minutes at 250 then an hour at 400.

Here is a few... maybe 12-15 leaves boiling for ~15 minutes. Supposedly, this doesn't have the tannin build up issues of regular tea if steeped too long. I sued whole leaves vice crumbling them up. I'll do that next time and see if it brews better/faster/stronger/etc.

After boiling, I filtered it through my auto drip coffee maker by opening the filter area and pouring it in through the filter to the pot below. Here's the result.

I drink my tea sweetened with creamer. drinking it now it tastes fine... a but different than regular black teas and has a different aroma, but not bad at all. So, since I just bought 2 100 bag boxes of tea bags, I'll use those up first, then might consider switching over to this as I don't have to pay for it. We'll see.