Clubhouse Grille (*** NO LIV DISCUSSIONS ***) (*** NO POLITICS/RELIGION ***)

[BIG STU]

Now a suggestion for the American postal service, you are too expensive.

 

My chickens need a new water feeder, plenty on EBay. Nice antique galvanised water feeder in America, $12, bargain, the down side, postage to Australia $750. We decided on the $3.95 model in plastic from Hong Kong, free postage.

 

Happy owners, happy chickens, more cash for feed. :)

 

It's not the USPS that's too expensive, it's bringing stuff across the border that gets you with brokerage, taxes and any applicable duty.

 

A number of years ago, we shipped some wine home from Italy. Upon our return I got a phone call from a UPS agent saying that there were fees owning to get the wine out of customs. The provincial liquor control authority wanted $100 duty on 6 bottles and the beauties at UPS wanted $100 for collecting it for them! All of a sudden my wine became $100/bottle! :swoon:

 

Ahh, but it gets better than that! #2 son shipped a case of wine home from New Zealand -- small lot stuff that he purchased from the winery he was working at. He got a registered letter from customs that it was illegal to ship via mail without going through a registered importer. He could have the shipment returned to sender at his expense or it would be destroyed. You know damned well that the wine most likely didn't get destroyed and a bunch of customs officials had one helluva party, but thems with the power make the rules... They're from the gov't and they're NOT here to help! :angry:

 

Same in Australia, customs can stop anything for as long as they want, we ordered a new chain for my chain saw from Hong Kong, same brand as local half the price. It was in Australia within 4days, has now been held up in customs for 8weeks, no explanation, just being held. It's only worth $15.

 

I think they must have a stupidity transplant as part of the induction procedure for new employees.

I know lately some of the smaller component golf companies have had trouble getting shipments from China. I talked to the owner of one company last week and he has 4 40 foot sea containers full of heads being held up for no apparent reason.

 

I know when we were trucking into Canada many moons ago we had absolutely no problem with Canadian customs it was the jerk wads on the US Side. But I could be a arsehole too. I reported several of the Us Customs name and badge number to my senator at the time who was no other than the Honarable Strom Thurmond. I got action too!! Ended up getting an inquiry started and two officers fired in Pembina North Dakota. In fact after that we preferred to cross at Pembina. The folks knew who we were and treated us with kid gloves. Got one officer suspended WITHOUT pay for 30 days in Windsor and after that we had no problems either. In fact we encouraged other truckers to report their smart arsses to their state senators.

 

I had a problem in Canada one time. Had some wet behind the ears female agent ask me if I owned any guns? I told her I do not have any guns in the truck and that she could look if she wanted to. She replied that was not what she asked me. I told her I refused to answer that question as an American citizen and took my 5th amendant rights . She told me I had to answer her question . Ok I told her the list she replied why do you own so many guns. I told her because as a FREE American citizen that happens to be a veteran I have that RIGHT. She held me up and when the supervisor heard the story he laughed and told me have a nice run into Canada and apologized for her behavior and she would get a good talking too that she was way out of line.

[scomac2002]

That's priceless STU! What is it about Windsor anyway? They have quite the reputation there.

[BIG STU]

That's priceless STU! What is it about Windsor anyway? They have quite the reputation there.

Don't know for sure I guess it may be having to deal with some of the folks from Detroit

[tolmij]

Plenty of exercise today, my wife's friend gave us two, year old fig trees that would not grow in her garden. Stripped the grass off the soil and knocked the extra soil off, about 4ft dia for each one, fertalised and water granules, planted said trees. 2 1/2 hrs start to finish.

 

Our other fig tree which is now 4years old produced several kilos of good sweet fruit last year, next year should see the results of today's labour. Nothing beats the taste of a sun ripened warm fig straight from the tree.

 

The unfortunate reality of living where we are, the state Forrest harbours a good population of possums who also like sweet sun ripened figs straight from the tree, it's a race to see who gets there first.

 

Life has its balance, the up side of living where we are is sharing our bounty with the local wildlife.

 

The Mrs. bought one of those miniature Meyers (?) lemon trees at least four years ago. They were advertised to yield a bountiful crop of lemons every season. It has yielded one pitiful crop of four or five lemons in the time we've had it. Watering it, replanting it several times, and moving it indoors and outdoors again with the change of seasons. I'm not much of a drinker, but I had these visions of fresh picked lemons for an occasional Rum and Cola, or for the ice tea I normally drink.

 

Like the sub captain in "Das Boot," I can't recall ever eating a fresh fig. I've eaten the dried variety, though. I buy Kiwi's every once in a while. I marvel at the distance they travel to Pennsylvania. Really amazing.

 

Cheers!

 

 

There bye lies your problem, pick a good spot, water, feed on a regular basis, leave it in one spot, spray it for insects and it will flourish. Never had a lemon tree fail. Never moved one once it was planted.

 

Our new tree is two years old and is having its first full crop now as we speak, one of the best ways to fertilise a lemon tree is to pee on the ground then water it in so it gets to the roots. Lemon trees love human pee.

 

 

Fresh figs are awesome.

[tolmij]

Give some people a badge and a title then stand back and watch the fun.

[thug the bunny]

This looks like a friendly place.

 

All the right ingredients for a 'Grille'.

 

Regards, from a place of soon to be coming wind, rain and the occasional snowdrift.

 

Welcome Hits. This is a special place. Music, food, drink, personal stuff, oh, and some golf (we got some really good players and club techies). The main appeal is the camaraderie. Dive in!

[scomac2002]

 

Our new tree is two years old and is having its first full crop now as we speak, one of the best ways to fertilize a lemon tree is to pee on the ground then water it in so it gets to the roots. Lemon trees love human pee.

 

 

I've heard that before, but the advice was from a Kiwi. His name was Burt Munro... ;)

[Gauchograd99]

This looks like a friendly place.

 

All the right ingredients for a 'Grille'.

 

Regards, from a place of soon to be coming wind, rain and the occasional snowdrift.

 

Welcome Hits. This is a special place. Music, food, drink, personal stuff, oh, and some golf (we got some really good players and club techies). The main appeal is the camaraderie. Dive in!

 

Some of these guys are scratch (or better) with music and music videos... so beware. I try to avoid it as much as I can as I will get run out the door with the wicked knowledge base. The only place I have a chance to run anyone over would be on the course or my knowledge of "worthless" stuff... like chemistry and physics. :)

[SixtySomePing]

All is well with my aunt's family, everyone is doing fine, that's a relief, more of a celebration of her life is going on, that's the way it should be.

 

So glad to see the Grille is open this morning at 4:40 AM... I needed a cup of coffee and Gus was making French Press, magnifique...

 

I would love to play a little golf right now, it's not chilly, but too dark, either way I don't have any glow balls warming. I haven't been practicing much lately either as we had an all week quality audit at work, which made for a long week being the quality manager. We had a good time though. I liked the auditor, he keeps me on my toes, which always makes me feel a bit taller thasn5'10". He was telling me he tried to audit a place the week before that made fire hydrants, but you couldn't park anywhere near the place, so he gave up.

 

Gus says he's in early today because just as the sun comes up he's going to catch frogs because for lunch he's going to have frog legs. That should be very interesting because today he's wearing khaki shorts...

 

Ok, well I hope everyone has a nice day :)

[tolmij]

 

Our new tree is two years old and is having its first full crop now as we speak, one of the best ways to fertilize a lemon tree is to pee on the ground then water it in so it gets to the roots. Lemon trees love human pee.

 

 

I've heard that before, but the advice was from a Kiwi. His name was Burt Munro... ;)

 

It's something you can only do with a private garden :) Or after dark.

[tolmij]

All is well with my aunt's family, everyone is doing fine, that's a relief, more of a celebration of her life is going on, that's the way it should be.

 

So glad to see the Grille is open this morning at 4:40 AM... I needed a cup of coffee and Gus was making French Press, magnifique...

 

I would love to play a little golf right now, it's not chilly, but too dark, either way I don't have any glow balls warming. I haven't been practicing much lately either as we had an all week quality audit at work, which made for a long week being the quality manager. We had a good time though. I liked the auditor, he keeps me on my toes, which always makes me feel a bit taller thasn5'10". He was telling me he tried to audit a place the week before that made fire hydrants, but you couldn't park anywhere near the place, so he gave up.

 

Gus says he's in early today because just as the sun comes up he's going to catch frogs because for lunch he's going to have frog legs. That should be very interesting because today he's wearing khaki shorts...

 

Ok, well I hope everyone has a nice day :)

 

 

Happy to see you are doing OK Sixty, off load as much as you need over a drink with your Grille friends.

[tolmij]

Until recently we owned several donkeys, they are a very friendly and intelligent animal. When we moved from our 5acre block we just could not keep them any more.

 

 

So that is the inspiration for my wife's latest offering for the walls of the Grille.

 

 

https://imgur.com/a/zZkqn

[BIG STU]

Until recently we owned several donkeys, they are a very friendly and intelligent animal. When we moved from our 5acre block we just could not keep them any more.

 

 

So that is the inspiration for my wife's latest offering for the walls of the Grille.

 

 

https://imgur.com/a/zZkqn

Man that is cool as heck. Will show my wife later after she gets up. She is sorta an artist too but not as good. She does abstract stuff. She will like that especially since we have a running joke (for 30 years now) we call donkeys by her maiden last name

[BIG STU]

This looks like a friendly place.

 

All the right ingredients for a 'Grille'.

 

Regards, from a place of soon to be coming wind, rain and the occasional snowdrift.

 

Welcome Hits. This is a special place. Music, food, drink, personal stuff, oh, and some golf (we got some really good players and club techies). The main appeal is the camaraderie. Dive in!

 

Some of these guys are scratch (or better) with music and music videos... so beware. I try to avoid it as much as I can as I will get run out the door with the wicked knowledge base. The only place I have a chance to run anyone over would be on the course or my knowledge of "worthless" stuff... like chemistry and physics. :)

That's ok we have to have out chemistry and physics too. I would probably make someone with real chemistry knowledge cringe. Another guy and myself when I was racing cars used to mix our own fuel and some mixes were nasty stuff. Some one with chemical knowledge like you will know this but racing "gas" is only about 25% pump gas and the rest is chemicals. We used among some things Nitro , Methanol , Methyl ethyl ketone and such.

 

Right before I got out of the VFD and moved down here we had a class on drug labs because the deal with meth was just getting started. We had a guy from our State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) teaching it. He got to the part of telling about how to spot a lab by barrels of stuff out back and other stuff. Some of the guys got to looking at me and snickering. On break he privately asked my Chief why> the Chief told him and he got a laugh. He ended up coming by one night after class. He was an ok guy.

 

One time I mixed some fuel heavy on the Methanol Alky and Alky was strictly against the rules and you can smell it when running it. I had mixed it a little too hot so I had dumped a bunch of castor oil in to kill the alky smell. I over did it too. My running partner ran behind me that night in the heat race. Now his dad and I were doing the mixing. He asked "did you and the old man mix some fuel?" I told him yeah he said it smelled like we had crapped in the fuel tank. Another time I mixed some too hot and at the time I was running a Toyota 1800 and the exhaust comes out the left side on those motors. I was running a shorty header and got the mix too hot with Bananna oil and MEK and ended up burning the floorboard out of that poor car. Really messed that engine up. Ended up scorching the tops on all of the pistons and burning all the exhaust valves up not to mention warping the header but it ran like a scalded dog while it ran. It did run the whole race but would not start the next morning to unload off the trailer. The greedy promoters took all the fun out of the fuel thing now. They make you buy the fuel at the track from them and each track has several "trace elements" in their fuel to tell if it is theirs or not when they test it.

[SixtySomePing]

Hey Stu, here's another answer if you get asked if you have any guns: "Do you have any guns?"... "What do you need?" :dntknw:

[Fellaheen51]

Stu, based on your extensive knowledge of the intermolecular forces and chemical reactions inherent with the blending of racing fuels, perhaps its now time to add another title to your sig. The Grille's resident "Mad Chemist". Or Alchemist. Choose whichever you deem to be most appropriate.

 

To be hung in the Physical Science wing of the gallery, a self portrait:

 

 

[tolmij]

Until recently we owned several donkeys, they are a very friendly and intelligent animal. When we moved from our 5acre block we just could not keep them any more.

 

 

So that is the inspiration for my wife's latest offering for the walls of the Grille.

 

 

https://imgur.com/a/zZkqn

Man that is cool as heck. Will show my wife later after she gets up. She is sorta an artist too but not as good. She does abstract stuff. She will like that especially since we have a running joke (for 30 years now) we call donkeys by her maiden last name

 

 

Thanks Stu, the only thing that stops my wife is lack of confidence in her own ability

[tolmij]

Stu, based on your extensive knowledge of the intermolecular forces and chemical reactions inherent with the blending of racing fuels, perhaps its now time to add another title to your sig. The Grille's resident "Mad Chemist". Or Alchemist. Choose whichever you deem to be most appropriate.

 

To be hung in the Physical Science wing of the gallery, a self portrait:

 

 

 

Brilliant Fella, it's as I imagined him :lol:

 

The way it's running at present we may need a larger Grille.

[BIG STU]

Stu, based on your extensive knowledge of the intermolecular forces and chemical reactions inherent with the blending of racing fuels, perhaps its now time to add another title to your sig. The Grille's resident "Mad Chemist". Or Alchemist. Choose whichever you deem to be most appropriate.

 

To be hung in the Physical Science wing of the gallery, a self portrait:

 

 

Either one would do--- Honestly I do not know much on the intermolecular forces and chemical reactions per say just know what certain crap will do

[BIG STU]

Hey Stu, here's another answer if you get asked if you have any guns: "Do you have any guns?"... "What do you need?" :dntknw:

It was sorta a running joke among the Law Enforcement community when I lived in the upstate of SC. If the mess hits the fan we are going to Stu's to upgrade our weponery. My race shop was sorta an impromptu hang out place for everyone sorta like the Grille here. Among our hang arounds were several law officers. In fact two troopers were partners on a car and they kept it and maintained it in my shop. If those guys were on duty they would take their radar and time us down the back stretch in the trap as we called it. In fact one called my wife on the Nextel during the heat and told her I was off about 3 MPH at the end

[PeanutsDaddy]

That's priceless STU! What is it about Windsor anyway? They have quite the reputation there.

Don't know for sure I guess it may be having to deal with some of the folks from Detroit

 

Most definitely our close proximity to the US. How else could you explain the boorish behaviour of Windsorites ; )

[scotee]

Give some people a badge and a title then stand back and watch the fun.

 

And a clipboard and a uniform :)

[scotee]

Until recently we owned several donkeys, they are a very friendly and intelligent animal. When we moved from our 5acre block we just could not keep them any more.

 

 

So that is the inspiration for my wife's latest offering for the walls of the Grille.

 

 

https://imgur.com/a/zZkqn

 

Oh! I really like that one, As a kid my dad got us a donkey named Petunia. She had been bred and we ended up with Pokey a calico colored Jack. We rode them in the hills behind our house. It took gloves and a very firm grip. There was no "neck reining" She could gallup and buck at the same time and a few times when she went sideways I ended up on the ground. It kind of reminded me of road runner cartoons where coyote hangs in the air for awhile before he goes down. (just like Rad's Avi) Good times!

[Conrad1953]

Give some people a badge and a title then stand back and watch the fun.

 

And a clipboard and a uniform :)

 

Oh my, we've encountered many security guards over the years. Most are normal

but every now and then we'll encountered one of those "self important, self appointed

masters of the universe types", lol.

[Conrad1953]

Most security guards we encounter these days though treat you as an

intrusion because they have to put down their smart phones for a couple

minutes and actually work.

[Conrad1953]

All is well with my aunt's family, everyone is doing fine, that's a relief, more of a celebration of her life is going on, that's the way it should be.

 

So glad to see the Grille is open this morning at 4:40 AM... I needed a cup of coffee and Gus was making French Press, magnifique...

 

I would love to play a little golf right now, it's not chilly, but too dark, either way I don't have any glow balls warming. I haven't been practicing much lately either as we had an all week quality audit at work, which made for a long week being the quality manager. We had a good time though. I liked the auditor, he keeps me on my toes, which always makes me feel a bit taller thasn5'10". He was telling me he tried to audit a place the week before that made fire hydrants, but you couldn't park anywhere near the place, so he gave up.

 

Gus says he's in early today because just as the sun comes up he's going to catch frogs because for lunch he's going to have frog legs. That should be very interesting because today he's wearing khaki shorts...

 

Ok, well I hope everyone has a nice day :)

 

Good to have you back bro! The 'other' Gus (Augustus MacRae) showed

up to sub and though he is famous for his biscuits he got on this "blackened"

kick and was serving up everything else burned and then chiding us for being

narrow minded and not appreciating "fine" cooking.

[Conrad1953]

Plenty of exercise today, my wife's friend gave us two, year old fig trees that would not grow in her garden. Stripped the grass off the soil and knocked the extra soil off, about 4ft dia for each one, fertalised and water granules, planted said trees. 2 1/2 hrs start to finish.

 

Our other fig tree which is now 4years old produced several kilos of good sweet fruit last year, next year should see the results of today's labour. Nothing beats the taste of a sun ripened warm fig straight from the tree.

 

The unfortunate reality of living where we are, the state Forrest harbours a good population of possums who also like sweet sun ripened figs straight from the tree, it's a race to see who gets there first.

 

Life has its balance, the up side of living where we are is sharing our bounty with the local wildlife.

 

The Mrs. bought one of those miniature Meyers (?) lemon trees at least four years ago. They were advertised to yield a bountiful crop of lemons every season. It has yielded one pitiful crop of four or five lemons in the time we've had it. Watering it, replanting it several times, and moving it indoors and outdoors again with the change of seasons. I'm not much of a drinker, but I had these visions of fresh picked lemons for an occasional Rum and Cola, or for the ice tea I normally drink.

 

Like the sub captain in "Das Boot," I can't recall ever eating a fresh fig. I've eaten the dried variety, though. I buy Kiwi's every once in a while. I marvel at the distance they travel to Pennsylvania. Really amazing.

 

Cheers!

 

 

There bye lies your problem, pick a good spot, water, feed on a regular basis, leave it in one spot, spray it for insects and it will flourish. Never had a lemon tree fail. Never moved one once it was planted.

 

Our new tree is two years old and is having its first full crop now as we speak, one of the best ways to fertilise a lemon tree is to pee on the ground then water it in so it gets to the roots. Lemon trees love human pee.

 

 

Fresh figs are awesome.

 

Haha, I grew with fig trees in our back yard. I ate enough figs for a lifetime.

Other than a fig newton I haven't eaten a fig since childhood.

[Fellaheen51]

That's priceless STU! What is it about Windsor anyway? They have quite the reputation there.

Don't know for sure I guess it may be having to deal with some of the folks from Detroit

 

Most definitely our close proximity to the US. How else could you explain the boorish behaviour of Windsorites ; )

 

I've noticed this in this past as well. Not the boorish behavior part. My profession before retirement entailed frequent travel into Canada visiting clients and a distributor there. It required taking various pieces of diagnostic equipment. Use to really get hassled at the Windsor border crossing. Explaining the equipment's purpose, what was the work intent for entering the country, etc. One finally explained to me that they were concerned about U.S. citizens coming across and taking employment away from Canadian citizens. ???, whatever that was suppose to mean. Finally had my company fill out multiple customs forms to show the Border Agents as I crossed. Sometimes they would check each and every item, other times they'd just wave me thru.

 

Then there were those occasions when the Border Agents would have some beef with the Provincial or Federal agency responsible and would slow crossings down to a snail's pace. I guess to make some point. That was always a fun time, sitting on the Ambassador Bridge or in the Tunnel for two hours waiting.

 

If I didn't have the need to be in Windsor or Chatham, would cross at Sarnia. Was actually closer and so much easier to cross in both directions there. Never once was asked to furnish any paperwork IIRC. And was my choice for re-entry back to the U.S. when I was "bootlegging" a couple of cases of Molson Export that I didn't want to pay duty on.

 

FWIW, always enjoyed my time going to Canada. Several family vacations to Grand Bend when I was young. Ski weekends to Blue Mountain up at Collingwood when older and on the prowl. Those Toronto girls.

 

Met some very nice folks that I got to know rather well over the years. Always enjoyed talking with them, in the evenings at dinner, about things other than work. Their perspective on Americans. Hockey. And donut shops seemingly on every corner. LOL.

[Sir Hitalot]

Okay, okay, firstly, apologies for the slow response. Must be an 'English' thing.

 

In no particular order......Conrad, Wriggles, Stu, Scotee, Tol, Reasy, Thug, PD, Fella, Bill, Sixty, Gaucho, Scomac, BsC and last but not least Michael.

 

Thanking you for your hospitality.

 

Let me introduce myself....

 

I'm a 46yr old male with a wife and 2x kids of 5 and 8. Jeez, i'm tired, lol!

 

Played about 2 years. Best = 78 (par 68, short). Frankly, annoyingly, inconsistent. Short knock, but just bought M2, lol!

 

Dreadful, but i have a good putter. Love the game though.

 

Gus - give us your best meal pic - makes me hungry!

 

To all who have health issues and crisis.........Chin up, as we say in Blighty, and best to you!!!

 

Excuse my rambling and ignore my 'over excitement'. Pay something forward. :-]

 

Regards and keep up the good work.

[scomac2002]

If I didn't have the need to be in Windsor or Chatham, would cross at Sarnia. Was actually closer and so much easier to cross in both directions there. Never once was asked to furnish any paperwork IIRC. And was my choice for re-entry back to the U.S. when I was "bootlegging" a couple of cases of Molson Export that I didn't want to pay duty on.

 

FWIW, always enjoyed my time going to Canada. Several family vacations to Grand Bend when I was young. Ski weekends to Blue Mountain up at Collingwood when older and on the prowl. Those Toronto girls.

 

 

We prefer to cross at Buffalo. It always seems to be the quickest despite being the busiest (of the three local crossing available to us). I find generally there is usually more issue coming home than going over especially when I would make a day trip for skiing in Ellicottville at Holiday Valley. I always preferred skiing in NY state versus Collingwood as I could avoid the Toronto crowd and their attitude. The folks in upstate NY are just real nice down to earth people. No pretentiousness.

 

Coincidentally we were in Grand Bend this summer for a couple of days for a mini golf holiday at Oakwood Resort. This is the third or fourth that we have gone. I always enjoy visiting God's country along the shores of Lake Huron.

 

It's funny that two of our best friends that we travel with grew up in the Windsor/Sarnia area and they warned us about crossing at Windsor before we went a couple of years back. They were right! It was a long slow process! It makes you wonder how the economy even functions!