Maybe this topic has already been discussed. I am new, here, so am not aware of it..

[Shootist00]

I'm note a Chit Chatter. What goes on in my mind is mainly technical stuff not social. Never been one for idle talk although I have been accused of being a talker. I don't see that in me.
If someone has a problem with an OBJECT, not an emotion, I get interested. I try to figure the problem out and to find a solution. The rest is just Bull Shit to me.
Have a great day everyone. Now I will go back to my hole in the ground.

 

[Herman48]

Don't forget your wife.
Gotta talk to her, too.

Eccellente! And one does not need to understand Italian (I do) to appreciate this video. Noice that I wrote "appreciated," not "enjoyed," because it is a very sad reality it portrays...

 

[FatDog]

Hell, I'm gonna jump in here just so you know I'm trying to participate, Herman48 . Actually, I do have a question: How did you wind up in Elba of all places, Herman48?

 

[Herman48]

Hell, I'm gonna jump in here just so you know I'm trying to participate, Herman48 . Actually, I do have a question: How did you wind up in Elba of all places, Herman48?

OK, here it goes: We were about to retire, and we would have loved to stay in Kodiak, but the cost of living there is twice that of Alabama, and as long as we were receiving full salaries we were doing well, but pensions are not as fat as salaries. We knew two Alabamians who lived in Kodiak, husband and wife. He was in the Navy and worked on the SEALS base in Kodiak. The wife was a colleague of my wife's--they worked in the same school. They, too, were about to retire. They suggested that we move to Alabama. There was a nice parcel of forested land for sale next to theirs, about 24 acres, between Elba and Brantley.So we bought it. The idea was that of building a house there. I retired a year before my wife and I was planing on coming down here to supervise the building of our house, or perhaps to buy a manufactured home and have it placed in a clearing in the middle of our parcel. Before Thanksgiving we got a call from the realtor who had managed the purchase of the land. He told us that there was another nice place for sale, this one with a not-too-old double-wide manufactured home already on it, a huge garage/shop, a shed and 19 acres of pasture and woods. My wife took advantage of the Thanksgiving break and came down here from Kodiak. She liked the house, the place, and we bought it. In June 2013 we moved here with our cat (still alive today--at least 15 years old) and our dog (that died in 2016, at 16 years of age, a very old age for a Labrador). I used the first parcel for deer hunting, but two years ago someone made us an offer on that parcel that we couldn't refuse. They bought it for 33% more money than I had paid for it.
Today I hunt on my place and on the place of a friend that owns some land next to where our old property is. We like Alabama, but we do not like the humid heat too much and we had some close calls with tornadoes. One grazed our home and took a few shingles off the roof. Another was coming in our direction, but after knocking dowm quite a few trees around the Coffee County public lake, stripping most of the shingles off the manager's home, and felling a huge tree that made the manager's SUV into a pancake, it changed direction. Another came really close to our house, knocked several trees down that in turn took down power lines almost all the way to Jack, plucked the front porch's cover from the house of the friend on whose land I hunt, knocked down two large pines, one across the front entrance, another across the rear entrance. My friend's wife was in the house and could not get out after the storm. Fortunately her husband was in the barn a quarter mile from the house, and with a chainsaw he cut the trees into chunks that he then removed with his tractor. While this happened, I was in my tornado shelter with my cats (my wife was out of town, in Phoenix, with our daughter), hearing the thuds of branches that hit the shelter. When it was over and I came out I was surprised that my house had not been damaged. I expected some of the windows to have been broken. If we were not so old (I'm almost 76, my wife 65) we'd probably move to Utah, where there are no tornadoes and we'd be closer to our daughter and her family. But we have moved so many times, from state to state, and from one home to another in the seme states, that we just don't have the energy to do it again.

 

[FatDog]

Thanks for the insight, Herman48. I understand the reluctance to move again. My wife and I seriously considered moving to western North Carolina. We finally came to the realization that we didn't want to move away from all our friends and we just didn't have the energy to clean out and pack up everything again.

 

[Chikn]

Because i just have zero patience for bullshit anymore.
I generally like people, till i get to know them or they talk enough to tel me who they really are, then i have about 98% rejection rate.
My circle is small for a reason,people today are dangerous.
We already have plenty of alphabet soup hanging out in here, so im not a blabbermouth.
As i said, i like people, and generally try to make friends. Why just the other day i was gonna invite a guy fishing. Would you believe the guy just went on a fudd tirade about how shitty my kind of fishing was, before i could offer to take him on a trip. So yeah....

 

[FatDog]

I know what you mean, Chikn. The more time I spend with people, the more I like my dog .

Also, thanks for that tip about checking out EBay. I found the scope.

 

[RaySendero]

But why do so few people write here? Heck, this morning I connected to the forum and felt lonesome!

Ciao Herman48, anch'io sono in pensione, parlo un po', non sono troppo lontano da te e mi piace la mia privacy.

Ma ho avuto problemi con il trattore e con gli pneumatici del mio camion.

Finalmente ho riparato il mio trattore. Non è molto divertente lavorare sui trattori con questo caldo estivo.

Poi gli pneumatici si sono trasformati in un incubo; ho ordinato 4 pneumatici e li ho fatti spedire al mio gommista, ma erano fuori forma e non potevano essere bilanciati. Questa settimana li ho appena tolti dal camion e li ho restituiti al produttore. Oggi sono stato al telefono con loro per un bel po' per trovare una soluzione.

 

[Drcrimson]

I first thought the site had been hacked or maybe I logged into the wrong site. I am getting old so then maybe a stroke occurring? The good news is I’m ok. I like being international. Maybe not so much about tires though???

This is interesting….

Buenaa noches
bonum noctis
Καληνύχτα
晚安

 

[RaySendero]

Herman wanted to talk. Thought he might enjoy exercising his first language.

 

[Ricochet]

Because i just have zero patience for bullshit anymore.
I generally like people, till i get to know them or they talk enough to tel me who they really are, then i have about 98% rejection rate.
My circle is small for a reason,people today are dangerous.
We already have plenty of alphabet soup hanging out in here, so im not a blabbermouth.
As i said, i like people, and generally try to make friends. Why just the other day i was gonna invite a guy fishing. Would you believe the guy just went on a fudd tirade about how shitty my kind of fishing was, before i could offer to take him on a trip. So yeah....

I agree with you completely, Chikn!

I have similar experiences. And society is broken just as the work place is broken.

I am thinking about quitting my job and eating forage.

People, my own species, were very important to me. Now I feel surrounded by traitors or at best tricksters. I literally expect the worst and the hope for the best is gone.

 

[Herman48]

Ciao Herman48, anch'io sono in pensione, parlo un po', non sono troppo lontano da te e mi piace la mia privacy.

Ma ho avuto problemi con il trattore e con gli pneumatici del mio camion.

Finalmente ho riparato il mio trattore. Non è molto divertente lavorare sui trattori con questo caldo estivo.

Poi gli pneumatici si sono trasformati in un incubo; ho ordinato 4 pneumatici e li ho fatti spedire al mio gommista, ma erano fuori forma e non potevano essere bilanciati. Questa settimana li ho appena tolti dal camion e li ho restituiti al produttore. Oggi sono stato al telefono con loro per un bel po' per trovare una soluzione.

Ray, although I enjoy writing in Italian (and I do so in an Italian hunting forum), I find it a little awkward and somewhat discorteous to do so in a U.S. forum where possibly 98% cannot understand what is being discussed. Though my wife is American-born (and raised), when we went to Italy on vacation (almost every summer) we tried to speak Italian in the presence of Italians. Besides, this provided for some absolutely hilarious moments when my wife, especially the first few times we were there, came up with some marvelous expression, like "mutandine di pizza," that is "pizza panties," whereas she meant "mutandine di pizzo," "lace panties." My mother darn near died laughing. But at times the laugh was on some of our Italian hosts. My wife, and my brother with his wife (also American, but speaking almost perfect Italian) were having dinner with a good friend's family. His wife served a fantastic "pollo alla cacciatora" ("chicken cacciatore"). We enjoyed it very much, and when our friend saw that my wife's plate was empty (except for a few well-stripped bones), trying to show off his knowledge of the English language, said to her (meaning "Would you like another piece of chicken?"), "Cathy, would you like another piece of my cock?" Understanding what he'd meant, I made a ferocious face and uttered, "ANOTHER?" My poor brother was drinking a glass of vino and choked on it from laughing. My sister-in-law, daughter of an ambassador and very diplomatic, hid her face with her napkin... The funniest thing was that Giancarlo, our host, could not figure out why we had reacted like that to what was such a corteous and innocent question. When we finally explained to him that in American vernacular the word "cock" meant much more than chicken and that in polite company one would refer to that male gallinaceous bird as "rooster," turned red, but then he, too, and his wife, joined us in laughing. Besides, even I, after so many years in the U.S., am likely to come up with some funny Italian, like when I, to praise my mother's home-made peach jam, said, "Si sente che non ci sono preservativi nella marmellata." I wanted to say, "One can tell that there are no preservatives in this jam." Unfortunately, in Italian "preservativi" means "condoms." The correct Italian for "preservatives" is "preservanti." My mother looked at me as though I'd gone crazy. "Preservativi nella mia marmellata? Ma che cavolo dici?" ("Condoms in the jam? What the heck are you talking about?")

Anyhow, I am about to buy a tractor myself. I'm going to pick it up Monday. Never had one before, nor do I know how to use one. But I have a good friend willing to teach me. I am also buying a 5' Bush Hog and a 5' Rototiller. I am going to turn my pasture into fields of wheat, corn, chufa, brassica, sunflowers, etc. to draw wild game in and keep it around. Besides it's become a jungle of dog fennel and thistles. I plan on spraying Grazon on it next spring before sowing anything.

Arrivederci qui, and good luck with your tractor tires.

Herman

 

[Herman48]

Wife talks but I cannot get a word in.

I actually get two words in as often as possible: "Yes, dear!" or "Sorry, dear!" At times even three: "I will, dear!"

 

[RaySendero]

Anyhow, I am about to buy a tractor myself. I'm going to pick it up Monday. Never had one before, nor do I know how to use one. But I have a good friend willing to teach me. I am also buying a 5' Bush Hog and a 5' Rototiller. I am going to turn my pasture into fields of wheat, corn, chufa, brassica, sunflowers, etc. to draw wild game in and keep it around. Besides it's become a jungle of dog fennel and thistles. I plan on spraying Grazon on it next spring before sowing anything.

Arrivederci qui, and good luck with your tractor tires.

Herman

Herman,

I have never viewed driving a tractor as work! For me I was all ways an escape from work.
If you also find this true for you, You'll have no problem and pick up the driving technique easily.
This time of year I like planting a mix of winter rye and oats.

As far as my problem I'm dealing with my tires, I'll have to negotiate through it now.
But learned a lesson - I'll not ever separately purchase tires and then have them installed.
Way too much finger pointing back and forth between tire manufacturer and tire service that installed them,

 

[Herman48]

As far as my problem I'm dealing with my tires, I'll have to negotiate through it now.
But learned a lesson - I'll not ever separately purchase tires and then have them installed.
Way too much finder pointing back and forth between tire manufacturer and tire service that installed them,

Excellent lesson. You may spend a bit more, but it's worth it.

 

[Herman48]

BTW, Ray, were you born and raised in Italy? Where did you learn to write so well in Italian?

 

[Chikn]

 

[RaySendero]

BTW, Ray, were you born and raised in Italy?

Nope, South USA all the way. Have always liked studying other languages.
Interesting what some will say in person when they think you can't understand.

 

[Drcrimson]

I speak a number of languages on an elementary basis having lived in Switzerland, Shanghai and Singapore. My mandarin isn’t great but the look on some of the Chinese ladies faces when I respond to their comments in mandarin is priceless. I also know a little Shanghainese which for many years I thought was just additional mandarin words/ phrases until I was politely told during an event in Chengdu.

 

[Herman48]

Nope, South USA all the way. Have always liked studying other languages.
Interesting what some will say in person when they think you can't understand.

Before some moderator gets mad because of all these Off-Topic posts, I must add to this how I, too, enjoy catching people who do not know that I speak and understand Italian like... a native! When my wife and I went to Italy, we spoke English in public places (never when we were with Italian friends or family). Now, my wife is a 6-foot redhead (well, "was"a redhead; now--like me--she is a grayhead!) and does not look like an Italian woman at all. And, thanks to my Norman ancestry, I don't look like an average Italian: a bit taller than the average Italian male, green eyes, light complexion, fairly light brown hair (years ago!). Furthermore, we had been living in the West--California, Montana and later in Alaska--and our clothes were obviously Western. I've always worn cowboy boots since 1975, I love bolo ties, and my pants and shirts certainly didn't look as fashionable as what fashion-driven Italian males wear even when they go to the stadium to watch a soccer game..
Anyhow, it was great when some stranger who thought we were a pair of ignorant Americans said or did something offensive, to be able to cuss him/her out in the most vulgar and vile Roman dialect. Their reaction was priceless.

Now back to the topic of this section of the forum!