Saturday, October 7, 2023

Blogorado, Day 1

 

We gathered at the Obligatory Cow Reference for breakfast, nominally at 8 am, but stretching a point for those who were late getting out of bed.  I enjoyed their Western omelet with hash browns, all topped with a generous helping of chile verde, accompanied by sourdough toast and blackberry jam.  My diet is going to be so shot by the end of Blogorado...

We drove out to the farm after breakfast, and spent the morning catching up with each other's news while more arrivals rolled in.  I napped during the afternoon, and by the time I got back to the farm for supper, there were about a dozen of us.  We feasted on lasagna with garlic bread, helpfully accompanied by this year's crop of barn kittens, who were anxious to demonstrate to us that lasagna was, indeed, cat food - just look!  Let us prove it to you!  They're a cute bunch, all bounce and purrs and claws.

Farmgirl introduced Miss D. and I to a very handy gadget:  the Milwaukee M18 Inflator.



It's a heavy-duty tire inflator:  the Farm Family uses it for cars, pickup trucks and farm equipment, and find it very useful.  It may be "too much gun" for occasional use with small cars and urban vehicles, and it's not cheap, but it did a great job of reinflating our SUV's tires and spare wheel very quickly (the change in altitude and temperature dropping their pressure by at least 5 psi overnight).  Even better, you can tell it what pressure you want, and it inflates to that level automatically, eliminating constant checking.  We were seriously impressed, and are thinking of buying one (or its smaller, lower-cost brother, also highly rated by customers) for ourselves.

Saturday morning we'll gather at the Obligatory Cow Reference for our usual breakfast, then it's out to the farm again.  I'm sure the kittens are looking forward to mugging us for half our food once more.  They're cute.

Peter


8 comments:

Jeff B said...

I'm saddened I cannot make it this year, but Jean or Dawn can give you the details about *why* I had to pass.

Give my best to everyone, and enjoy the weekend!

JRB

Anonymous said...

I don't believe the kittens are as cute as you say.

You'll have to post pictures to prove me wrong 😉

Bob C. said...

Those air pumps look good, but... Why an internal battery, which only increases the price and adds no value, since every car and truck already *has* a battery? A simple power connection to the 12V outlet present in every vehicle, or even alligator clips to the battery, would work just fine. Check out thios one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07QR4Q42L
Just my 20 mills...

Jack Ward said...

Hi Peter:
I was happy to buy Dorethy's latest, Dust. She hooked me quite some time ago with Going Ballistic, which I have read at least 3 times. I'm looking forward to your latest books and will, of course, buy each and every one of them.
Seems Hamas and the IDF are locking horns again. It seems a rather serious effort on their part. The IDF seems to have dropped the ball somewhere with considerable surprise on their part. We'll see. Stay safe and much profit to your family.

Spencer E. Hart said...

I had a similar inflator with internal battery some years ago. Sadly it ended up stored in the breezeway for a few months without being needed. The battery drained down to zero and could no longer be recharged. So a doorstop after only a few uses.

I suppose the lesson is to keep your batteries from ever fully discharging. Test your devices every so often and keep the batteries topped off.

Anonymous said...

Portability relative to the cab when towing anything long, as well as being able to service wheelbarrows and such in-place without needing to return to shop or move the under-pressurized implement to a driving path. Granted, it's less convenient if it's your only m18 tool, but if you already have tools on the m18 battery platform, you'll always have batteries and chargers ready.

Hamsterman said...

I keep my 'rechargable but rarely used' devices plugged into a timer that turns on one hour every week. While not ideal, it is better than leaving them always charging or letting them run flat.

Doonhamer said...

Milwaukee has always been a name for good quality tools. Even on this side of The Pond.
But then that was true of all USA made tools.
I hope it still is.