Potpourri started 17 Jan

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A day off must be nice! I have to go and build a wall and then paint a small room-- I HATE PAINTING:(
Mark

[mickyd]

I own a very similar one sold by Sears a few years back. After my garage was robbed I needed to replace some nix bits ( self centering bits used to install hinges and such). ......

nix bit = hinge bit drill set shown in second photo here? If so, your right. None came in my set.

[Ed in Tampa]

nix bit = hinge bit drill set shown in second photo here? If so, your right. None came in my set.

Yep those are the ones. I like the ones that everything comes apart and everything is replaceable.

[shipwright]

Gee, for you 'retired' guys, do you ever wake up thinking you have to go to work??:D

No

Paul M

[dusty]

Gee, for you 'retired' guys, do you ever wake up thinking you have to go to work??:D

Yup, I sure do. It is like a nightmare! I go immediately to the shop as a cure.

[robinson46176]

My wife and I have been retired for 4 years, but because of our horses we are up every day at 6:30 and work 7 days a week. What were we thinking

I convinced our horses that they liked sleeping late in the mornings. Actually they are not all that much more work than the cats and dogs.
If we want to take off for a few days our son is just down the road and he does the feeding. He occasionally does the feeding for a friend of his (and ours) that has a professional boarding and show training stable just around the corner when they are out of state at a show. Our horses are on pasture 24-7 with a barn to run in when they like. We never stall them unless it is for feeding (separate diets) or working on one. I need to work on separating them more. The 3 year old especially is "herd bound". Yeah, I know, there are only two of them but she is still herd bound.
I don't spend enough time with the horses especially at this time of the year. Too many miserable days when we just feed and water them and head back to shelter ourselves. Of course I don't spend enough time with the Shopsmiths either.
As retired person I keep wishing I had as much time to do stuff as I had back when I was working.

[baysidebob]

2009 I had decided that I maybe would retire come the first of the year, 2010. Had I realized all the ground work that was required what with lawyers and accounts I would have started earlier. Now here it is almost the end of January and I still don't have all the paperwork in order. But I am getting closer.

I like Dusty's idea that if he wakes up and thinking he has to go to work today, just to the shop and create sawdust. He is a very wise man, in more ways than one. He not only gives us good information about our SS but he is also able to give us guideance counseling. We are truly lucky to have his expertise on this forum.

[mickyd]

How do horses react to thunder and lightning? I drove by a horse ranch during the recent San Diego storms this week when it was thundering and a large pen (pen my not be the correct term but you know what I mean) of 8 or 9 horses were all running around like they lost their minds. I was afraid that they were going to hurt themselves. They would run TOP SPEED toward the fence and at the last second make an immediate 90 degree turn. A couple were even bouncing up and down like they were trying to buck someone off. Is all that behavior normal or did they get into the horses equivalent of cat-nip?? I stopped in to tell the owner what was going on but there was no one home. I walked over to the area where the horse were to see if they needed human contact to calm them down but when they spotted me, they got worse so I left.

[efmaron]

Our horses do not spook easily, we work with them every day, I can ride a ATV right up to them and they will not move. As part of there training we desensitize them so that they will not react to sudden movement or loud nose. That is not allways true to horses that are kept in a pasture with out humane contact.

[robinson46176]

Our horses do not spook easily, we work with them every day, I can ride a ATV right up to them and they will not move. As part of there training we desensitize them so that they will not react to sudden movement or loud nose. That is not allways true to horses that are kept in a pasture with out humane contact.

The 3 year old is "energetic" and more prone to spook but not bad. The other is about 20 and is pretty bullet proof. Both ignore things like tractors and mowers etc. except they do like to come see if the mower is blowing any outside grass into the lot. Its the same stuff as on the inside but... You know...
I have never seen either of them spook during a storm but they do sometimes get frisky as a storm is about to come through especially if it has been hot and the air cools quickly. Lots of playing.
We have a neighbor who is into target shooting (about a half mile away) and he often has friends there shooting each week in nice weather. The horses are pretty used to it and while they may flinch at a particularly loud report (I sometimes do too) they never panic. This group is very careful and I never worry about their shooting and I just consider it part of the training. I shoot a little myself. The only problem we ever had was one day the fellows were blazing away when the farrier was here to trim hooves. For some reason the old gal that is bomb-proof wasn't being bothered by the shooting but was freaking out over that farrier in his leather apron. We have had all manner of people in and out of that barn and she hardly looks at them but when she saw that farrier she said "I'm outta here". I called the neighbor and asked if he could give us 5 minutes of quiet. After we got her walked back in the barn the farrier did her quickly and we called the neighbor back and told him to have at it... We are good friends. All I can figure is that she must have had a bad experience with a farrier at some time in her past.
She normally only gets excited when she sees a feed scoop...