Meta tags:
description=A blog about just about anything and everything;

Headings (most frequently used words):

and, stuff, 3d, get, another, catching, up, finished, posts, grouchyfarmer, garden, update, backyard, astronomy, printers, weather, updates, finally, getting, laser, figured, out, plus, yes, going, to, printer, even, though, swore, never, one, smoke, signs, solar, flowers, everywhere, engraving, lighters, silly, cats, no, more, hip, pain, somehow, omg, it, been, hot, project, astro, image, from, last, night, 101, the, pinwheel, galaxy, pagination, archives, recent, categories,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (334), and (192), that (115), for (76), this (51), with (50), have (49), but (49), you (40), out (39), get (39), they (39), just (36), about (34), one (32), from (30), was (30), them (29), are (28), like (28), been (27), there (26), here (24), had (24), when (23), now (22), going (22), more (22), can (21), laser (20), even (20), july (20), 2026 (19), all (19), because (19), what (19), things (19), #grouchyfarmer (18), got (18), down (18), some (18), almost (17), printer (16), back (16), has (16), stuff (15), june (15), how (15), time (15), well (15), into (14), good (14), off (14), first (14), march (13), not (13), much (13), would (13), categories (12), getting (12), january (12), february (12), april (12), may (12), december (12), 2016 (12), august (12), 2017 (12), 2018 (12), 2019 (12), 2020 (12), 2021 (12), 2022 (12), 2023 (12), 2024 (12), still (12), she (12), don (12), few (12), years (12), around (12), lot (12), did (12), only (12), comments (11), weather (11), another (11), never (11), september (11), november (11), posted (11), better (11), something (11), last (11), year (11), house (11), could (11), october (10), author (10), her (10), then (10), heat (10), power (10), being (10), materials (10), etc (10), solar (9), cats (9), 2025 (9), very (9), processing (9), little (9), image (9), our (9), think (9), were (9), over (9), right (9), way (9), people (9), see (9), thing (9), will (9), lumos (9), make (9), every (9), system (9), making (9), other (8), smoke (8), finally (8), 2013 (8), than (8), enough (8), day (8), where (8), onions (8), used (8), engraving (8), using (8), life (8), hip (8), while (8), new (8), couple (8), flex (8), these (8), use (8), printing (8), also (8), railroad (8), already (7), wood (7), uncategorized (7), silly (7), astronomy (7), figured (7), yes (7), before (7), put (7), actually (7), celery (7), mrsgf (7), nebula (7), 000 (7), again (7), need (7), those (7), does (7), grown (7), half (7), want (7), change (7), model (7), crafts (6), though (6), garden (6), ever (6), took (6), having (6), bit (6), didn (6), away (6), finished (6), really (6), old (6), once (6), anyway (6), weeks (6), long (6), flavor (6), nice (6), putting (6), varieties (6), fiber (6), isn (6), keep (6), hit (6), batteries (6), conditions (6), matter (6), ago (6), find (6), battery (6), room (6), ready (6), com (5), gardening (5), swore (5), works (5), cat (5), gardens (5), today (5), looking (5), point (5), idea (5), turn (5), might (5), hot (5), under (5), flowers (5), lighters (5), buy (5), any (5), doesn (5), take (5), heart (5), let (5), bed (5), anything (5), give (5), wecreat (5), probably (5), three (5), both (5), start (5), bambu (5), most (5), side (5), everything (5), coin (5), work (5), color (5), through (5), gopro (5), basement (5), family (5), sign (4), wordpress (4), blog (4), working (4), bicycle (4), plus (4), printers (4), 2015 (4), page (4), 101 (4), images (4), sure (4), post (4), original (4), catching (4), his (4), charlie (4), went (4), outside (4), local (4), clear (4), skies (4), tonight (4), telescope (4), beets (4), meanwhile (4), kind (4), too (4), home (4), goes (4), less (4), normal (4), able (4), week (4), turned (4), two (4), looks (4), days (4), seem (4), unless (4), try (4), doing (4), tomatoes (4), plants (4), pull (4), storage (4), store (4), moment (4), wow (4), minutes (4), done (4), four (4), should (4), cost (4), rate (4), who (4), say (4), grid (4), pretty (4), end (4), top (4), p2s (4), moisture (4), equipment (4), lasers (4), reason (4), set (4), filament (4), cans (4), part (4), area (4), peppers (4), rain (4), website (3), loading (3), tools (3), select (3), updates (3), update (3), backyard (3), 2014 (3), next (3), results (3), scope (3), huge (3), entirely (3), after (3), different (3), looked (3), until (3), gotten (3), carrots (3), full (3), market (3), bad (3), white (3), heck (3), thought (3), tried (3), left (3), rather (3), frustrating (3), night (3), called (3), butterfly (3), light (3), caused (3), intense (3), gas (3), project (3), woodworking (3), tags (3), mid (3), high (3), keeping (3), signs (3), pain (3), 12000xp (3), space (3), forgot (3), bike (3), miles (3), absolutely (3), zucchini (3), eating (3), starting (3), fantastic (3), compared (3), commercial (3), ourselves (3), either (3), hour (3), various (3), thanks (3), guess (3), which (3), cheap (3), mean (3), massive (3), future (3), since (3), considered (3), running (3), aren (3), run (3), case (3), storms (3), smell (3), water (3), severe (3), labs (3), print (3), changed (3), settings (3), extremely (3), models (3), least (3), money (3), look (3), why (3), instructions (3), videos (3), 100 (3), test (3), price (3), haven (3), place (3), filaments (3), canned (3), main (3), storm (3), large (3), coffee (3), enjoyed (3), colors (3), material (3), removed (3), speak (3), piece (3), made (3), mostly (3), pickled (3), onion (3), drought (3), name (2), email (2), write (2), content (2), log (2), subscribed (2), subscribe (2), account (2), search (2), resin (2), engraver (2), radio (2), food (2), commentary (2), art (2), drawing (2), posts (2), archives (2), pinwheel (2), galaxy (2), cropping (2), often (2), seeing (2), yesterday (2), ooo (2), bring (2), giving (2), loves (2), great (2), fun (2), snipping (2), salads (2), harvesting (2), small (2), whole (2), supper (2), growing (2), wish (2), photo (2), kyle (2), fiddling (2), came (2), plack (2), frame (2), pro (2), issues (2), damn (2), astro (2), best (2), 1318b (2), emission (2), ultraviolet (2), radiation (2), star (2), improve (2), contrast (2), omg (2), coats (2), polyurethane (2), welcome (2), mention (2), 90s (2), far (2), holding (2), said (2), everywhere (2), somehow (2), eg4 (2), truck (2), remember (2), saying (2), sit (2), between (2), chair (2), law (2), cyst (2), genuine (2), riding (2), relatively (2), happened (2), times (2), leg (2), wrong (2), started (2), slowly (2), hurt (2), switch (2), normally (2), nothing (2), ripe (2), tomato (2), fresh (2), producing (2), beautifully (2), garlic (2), mowing (2), lawn (2), help (2), stalk (2), sell (2), lazy (2), green (2), transplanted (2), location (2), ones (2), grew (2), job (2), steel (2), taken (2), takes (2), metal (2), design (2), etsy (2), zippo (2), worth (2), charge (2), pay (2), apparently (2), wisconsin (2), across (2), border (2), minnesota (2), california (2), owned (2), hundreds (2), dollars (2), cough (2), state (2), facilities (2), building (2), bill (2), production (2), big (2), central (2), leave (2), discharge (2), pump (2), seriously (2), completely (2), afternoon (2), supposed (2), tomorrow (2), regular (2), summer (2), wind (2), step (2), towards (2), red (2), temperatures (2), dome (2), air (2), quality (2), shouldn (2), improved (2), shock (2), resistant (2), flexible (2), printed (2), heaven (2), sake (2), entire (2), gave (2), direct (2), flashforge (2), swearing (2), spending (2), standard (2), fine (2), excellent (2), diode (2), single (2), hours (2), your (2), coins (2), per (2), products (2), shows (2), everyone (2), deep (2), costs (2), version (2), emboss (2), ahead (2), amount (2), head (2), showing (2), wasn (2), mode (2), 500 (2), slightly (2), indeed (2), deal (2), its (2), camera (2), older (2), cameras (2), capabilities (2), self (2), their (2), problems (2), sale (2), early (2), course (2), priorities (2), parts (2), cut (2), needed (2), garage (2), okay (2), makes (2), technology (2), flash (2), forge (2), spool (2), changer (2), absorb (2), units (2), hold (2), astonishing (2), expensive (2), woot (2), generally (2), packing (2), sheets (2), table (2), easier (2), busy (2), know (2), winds (2), rains (2), town (2), menasha (2), trees (2), sat (2), toys (2), real (2), boat (2), click (2), worked (2), automatic (2), bizarre (2), read (2), seestar (2), sister (2), brought (2), dining (2), wife (2), anniversary (2), many (2), object (2), chili (2), calcium (2), pulled (2), frozen (2), vegetable (2), pepper (2), mild (2), bite (2), comment, collapse, bar, manage, subscriptions, view, site, reader, report, privacy, join, 396, subscribers, follow, turning, travel, sarcasm, warning, review, casting, photography, nostalgia, nature, motorcycle, media, health, ham, gssb, entertainment, electronics, economics, drones, computers, business, amateur, agriculture, category, recent, month, pagination, impressed, saw, celestron, example, evening, upset, dare, territory, kept, earful, inside, kitties, harness, leash, exploring, cardinals, exception, presence, flew, lilac, yell, hoping, stump, amazing, resist, stalks, snacking, thinned, dish, baby, crazy, retail, locally, shop, arts, persons, consignment, basis, younger, ambition, tempted, myself, lighting, basic, sent, sarah, pub, claimed, bored, photoshop, black, stag, standing, woods, found, sort, illuminated, picked, walmart, hobby, lobby, hadn, interesting, vision, result, lighted, dull, laid, sometimes, dying, ionizes, interstellar, decent, walnut, crafting, seal, proof, pleased, cooperating, domes, sweltering, daytime, highs, index, topping, 107, fingers, toes, crossed, wait, heading, couldn, distinctly, favorite, stot, scoot, forward, type, computer, squeeze, absolute, sweetie, seen, belonged, daughter, aunt, move, apartment, allow, pets, volunteered, happy, murmur, benign, neck, puts, bother, inoperable, tolerate, anesthesia, stopped, died, emergency, neither, nor, vet, willing, taking, easy, terrified, otherwise, limited, slow, pace, thinks, pinched, nerve, suppose, possible, suffered, excruciating, bent, woke, suddenly, realized, someone, threw, soreness, muscles, stiff, else, eagerly, awaiting, compares, plant, slip, nobody, notice, healthy, mushroom, stir, fry, lots, parmesan, cheese, thinking, curing, thriving, thin, picking, beautiful, snip, nibble, mower, yourself, please, won, believe, intensely, flavored, grocery, rest, pictures, settle, description, gangbusters, loaded, fruit, volunteers, pop, seed, brewery, logo, owners, playing, stainless, eteches, discoloration, etched, wear, gifts, telling, somewhere, rat, race, plain, each, order, anyone, smoking, shrunk, recreational, substances, shall, call, illegal, nip, illinois, michigan, pleasant, subject, electric, kwh, poor, buggers, newsome, legislature, lock, stock, barrel, utility, companies, thousands, campaign, donations, lobbying, handwriting, wall, amounts, data, centers, built, gulping, gulp, utilities, invest, millions, generating, substations, tension, lines, feed, damned, microsoft, meta, oracle, others, consumers, foot, bribes, milestone, inverter, megawatt, earlier, watt, unit, straight, shifted, pattern, decided, oomph, handle, suspect, become, uncomfortable, overnight, style, replacing, cards, known, gone, energy, efficient, weren, dreaming, twice, live, learn, together, spoken, panels, thunderstorms, topped, changes, patterns, increase, wildfires, droughts, climate, enduring, buttoned, tight, hepa, filters, soon, eyes, peer, street, past, hazy, fog, haze, thick, reeking, wild, fires, raging, near, canadian, 99f, milwaukee, south, bay, pushing, alert, extended, farther, children, elderly, necessary, happens, dithering, leaning, bang, buck, decision, weekend, happen, dramatically, sensitive, stronger, balls, bounce, engineering, reinforced, carbon, objects, consumer, level, strong, gears, racing, cars, hardware, accuracy, temperature, ventilation, controls, stability, control, systems, improving, process, amd, perhaps, importantly, universally, crappy, junk, degraded, rapidly, exposed, sunlight, fragile, stand, stress, figurines, gaming, useless, serious, application, afford, ps2, gimmick, trinkets, crude, decorative, items, machine, dandy, lockets, rings, pendants, bracelets, perfectly, leather, additional, ability, embossed, remotely, effective, maximum, craftspersons, gig, craft, outlets, announced, excited, hands, unheard, visions, extra, bucks, engraved, challenge, engravings, brings, topic, upgrade, hefty, chunk, six, embossing, likely, effort, wasted, trying, nail, included, replacement, except, mount, zilch, problem, powerful, differently, utterly, inadequate, minute, company, resorted, shudder, joining, abomination, facebook, forum, answers, wondering, convex, speed, line, density, 300, layers, 200, frequency, layer, trick, focus, size, iphone, messed, brass, actual, paragraph, experimentation, burning, accomplished, sample, projects, advertising, reached, recommend, pick, longer, feel, alarming, chemistry, discharges, lose, stored, aside, simply, excuse, modern, chemistries, action, frankly, abysmal, claim, lie, notorious, dabble, spring, intention, shut, feeling, cleared, considering, procrastinate, lost, interest, variety, reasons, foresee, major, carpentry, railroading, partly, structures, accessories, upcoming, moved, 1998, rooms, reserved, scale, occupied, viable, option, especially, winter, became, woodshop, upon, buick, ford, advanced, enormously, dream, fedex, holder, doubles, dryer, plug, origami, shelving, assemble, basically, unfold, screw, wheels, construction, flimsy, plastics, weight, packed, goods, paint, electronic, yeah, show, snag, cases, months, care, overflow, dedicated, supplies, bits, hardwood, plywood, thicknesses, plastic, blanks, associated, rotary, sliding, paints, airbrush, instead, scattered, wherever, cleaning, moving, shelves, worst, missed, thankfully, hardly, noticed, portable, bedrooms, retreat, temps, intolerable, fortunate, internet, cellular, service, track, friends, updated, following, news, hammered, monday, roared, grapefruit, sized, hail, downpour, tornadoes, surrounding, tornado, 135, mph, damage, buildings, destroyed, streets, blocked, uprooted, outages, miraculously, seems, killed, facility, christ, rock, church, opened, shelter, displaced, worse, above, 90f, goof, sneak, careful, lean, reach, jump, without, knowing, speaking, mornings, reading, short, video, timelapse, developments, honest, designing, scenery, come, mentioned, layout, obligations, resources, obligatory, benchy, enlarge, multi, wanted, switching, middle, meaning, setting, ams, simple, installed, initialization, procedure, shake, rattle, roll, sorts, noises, odd, gyrations, calibrates, relax, book, watch, patient, zip, ties, clipped, tape, screws, carefully, unpacked, includes, becoming, distracted, halfway, cup, quicker, unpack, faster, holds, spools, fly, arrived, astrophotography, talk, detail, remodeling, melancholy, explain, married, friend, john, passed, sudden, attack, connections, ways, gift, furniture, ash, boards, harvested, farm, barn, hundred, during, ice, cabinet, passing, wrenching, memories, 1318a, darken, sky, cloud, ionized, hydrogen, emissions, nearby, young, stars, causes, glow, reddish, faint, require, aperture, dark, 900, automated, sitting, driveway, opportunity, nights, pot, grin, award, winning, sauce, grow, ground, beef, butcher, sources, meat, farmers, simmering, sidenote, issue, blossom, rot, usually, deficiency, told, supplement, maybe, check, finding, bottom, rotted, grrr, mrs, morning, par, boiled, later, meal, snack, late, crop, lettuce, cleaned, base, always, protect, beds, frost, protection, rabbits, season, amazingly, lush, flavorless, forget, originally, herb, added, knock, socks, habit, munching, quite, spicy, banana, bell, fruits, eat, diced, recipe, refrigerator, experiment, pint, along, event, loved, burgers, jar, keeper, fairly, interested, commercially, taste, sweet, apple, hard, sharp, pungent, aroma, whatever, mix, yellow, tops, inches, bulb, cure, net, bags, hanging, ceiling, term, despite, dry, means, empty, barrels, resort, quarterly, comes, moderate, watering, officially, listed, fact, localized, checked, rainfall, monitor, palatial, headquarters, inch, judging, soil, classify, locality, skip,

Text of the page (random words):
of my woodworking tools out in the garage just wasn t a viable option especially in winter so the railroad came down and the room became my woodshop and it s been that way ever since priorities change as i said i ve lost interest in woodworking for a variety of reasons i don t foresee having to do major carpentry work on the house in the future and for some reason i want to get back into model railroading again and that s one of the things i ll be using the p2s for making models and parts for that that s also partly why i got the laser to cut out parts to make structures and accessories for the upcoming railroad of course considering how i procrastinate and how lazy i am i m probably going to be oh 90 or so by the time i actually start building the railroad gopro stuff i really want to like gopro cameras i ve had a couple of them over the years even though i don t dabble much in videos but i did buy an older model on sale early last spring with the intention of putting it on the bike well first my hip and then the smoke and heat dome and all of that shut that down but now i m feeling up to getting out on the bike again and after the storms the weather has cleared gopro s have their problems the most notorious is heat every single one i ve had no matter what model had heat problems you d have thought that they d have figured out how to deal with that by now but they haven t the other is battery life for what is supposed to be an action camera battery life is frankly abysmal they claim a battery will last up to 75 minutes that is a lie i ve never gotten more than about 30 40 minutes life out of the batteries the batteries also self discharge at what i feel is an alarming rate every battery no matter what its chemistry is self discharges a bit that is they lose power when they re stored even if they aren t being used i can charge the gopro batteries to 100 set them aside for a week or two and when i want to use them i find that they re down to 75 there is simply no excuse for that with modern battery chemistries i ve reached the point where i don t think i could ever recommend a gopro camera not unless you can pick up an older model at like half price there are cameras out there with longer battery life and capabilities almost as good for a heck of a lot less money author grouchyfarmer posted on july 28 2026 categories 3d printer bicycle commentary weather 5 comments on weather and updates finally getting laser figured out plus yes i m going to get another 3d printer even though i swore i d never get another one i m finally getting the new lumos flex laser figured out it took a great deal of experimentation and time and burning through a lot of test materials but i finally accomplished something that turned out as good as the sample projects wecreat shows in its advertising for some reason my iphone messed up the color it is indeed brass and the actual color is what you see in the image in the next paragraph the design is from wecreat s website this photo will give you some idea of the size of the coin in case you re wondering here s the settings i used emboss mode fiber laser convex mode power 100 speed 500 line density 300 layers 200 frequency 30 z step per layer 0 01 and another little trick i figured out is that it works better if i had the laser ever so slightly out of focus before starting what was really frustrating was the amount of time and effort i wasted trying to nail down the right settings wecreat included absolutely no instructions at all when i got the flex replacement head for my lumos except showing how to mount it about using it absolutely nothing zilch the diode laser was no problem it works just like the one in the original lumos only more powerful but the new fiber laser works entirely differently than the ir laser in the original lumos does and the only instructions i was able to find were a couple of utterly inadequate 5 minute videos on the company s website i wasn t the only one who had issues i even resorted to shudder joining the abomination that is facebook just so i could get on the wecreat flex forum looking for answers anyway i got it figured out now and it does work but embossing like this is not something i am likely to do again why because guess how long it took to emboss that little coin up there go ahead guess try six and a half hours just to do one side of that coin and that brings up the topic of money the lumos flex costs about 2 000 or you can upgrade a standard lumos to the flex version for 1 000 no matter how you look at it that s a hefty chunk of money a lot of craftspersons out there do this as a side gig they use lasers 3d printers etc to make products that they sell at craft shows on outlets like etsy etc and when the flex was first announced everyone got excited because now we could get our hands on a fiber laser at a cost that was almost unheard of and everyone had visions of making a few extra bucks using it to make things like engraved challenge coins deep metal or wood engravings etc only no you aren t not if your maximum production rate is going to be 2 coins per day the flex is a very nice machine don t get me wrong but i don t think it s worth spending 1 000 more for this when the standard lumos works just fine and dandy for engraving things like lockets rings pendants bracelets etc with the ir laser and does a perfectly fine even excellent job engraving wood leather etc with the diode laser spending an additional 1 000 just for the ability to turn out a single embossed coin in 12 hours that doesn t seem even remotely cost effective to me 3d printing now i gave away my flashforge 3d printer some years ago swearing off 3d printing entirely as being little more than a silly gimmick and only being good for making trinkets crude decorative items etc and swearing that i would never ever get another one and here i am about to get a bambu labs ps2 in a couple of weeks so what happened well a lot really here s the thing when i gave up on 3d printing it was because no matter what i did no matter what settings i used no matter what materials i used the results universally looked like cheap crappy 3d printed junk that degraded rapidly if exposed to moisture or direct sunlight that was extremely fragile and could stand little or no stress etc it was good for little more than making figurines for gaming or models and was useless for any kind of serious application at least with the equipment and materials i could afford to buy well things have changed a lot amd they ve changed both with the equipment and perhaps more importantly with the materials on the hardware side everything has gotten better i mean a lot better much better accuracy much better temperature and ventilation controls much better stability and yes ai control systems that help with improving the entire printing process on the materials side things have improved even more dramatically we now have materials that are less moisture sensitive far stronger more shock resistant even flexible materials that let you do things like oh print balls that actually bounce and even engineering materials reinforced with carbon fiber and things like that you can now make 3d printed objects at the consumer level that are strong enough and shock resistant enough to use for things like gears in rc racing cars for heaven s sake anyway more about that when it happens i am still dithering about which one to buy i m leaning more and more towards the bambu labs p2s it looks like it has the most bang for the buck at the moment i ll make a decision this weekend and once things start to happen i m sure it will turn up here author grouchyfarmer posted on july 23 2026 categories uncategorized 5 comments on finally getting laser figured out plus yes i m going to get another 3d printer even though i swore i d never get another one smoke peer down towards the end of the street there past that red truck and you ll see just how hazy it has been here today that isn t fog or normal haze that s smoke thick reeking smoke from wild fires raging up near the canadian border with minnesota so not only are we putting up with temperatures in the mid 90s it hit 99f in milwaukee yesterday and 98 here at the house south of green bay but the heat dome is pushing the smoke down right on top of us we re under a severe air quality alert until tomorrow afternoon and that might be extended farther unless conditions change they re saying children and elderly shouldn t even go outside unless necessary we ve had the house buttoned up tight with the ac going for days now already because of the heat plus we have the three big hepa filters going full time so i the house here we can t even smell it but as soon as i step outside it wow just the smell is enough to make my eyes start to water this is getting to be a regular thing every summer now because of the changes in wind patterns and the increase in wildfires because of droughts both caused by climate change we ve been enduring this every summer for the last three or four years now we d been running the house completely on solar for about 5 days now but i ve had to switch back to grid power by 5 this afternoon because we just aren t getting enough power from the panels to keep things going i could just run the house off batteries but we re supposed to get thunderstorms tomorrow so i want to keep the batteries topped up in case the storms take down the grid author grouchyfarmer posted on july 15 2026 categories uncategorized 6 comments on smoke catching up signs finished solar stuff flowers everywhere engraving lighters silly cats no more hip pain somehow mrsgf finished up the last of the welcome signs the other day with about three coats of all weather polyurethane we did four all together we re keeping one and these three are already spoken for they turned out pretty nice i think we hit a milestone with the new eg4 12000xp inverter we hit half a megawatt of production earlier today we re going to need every watt we can get out of that system because the big central ac unit is still on the grid and it s been going for something like 3 weeks straight now since we shifted into this hot weather pattern we decided to leave it on the grid because while the 12000xp would have enough oomph to handle it i suspect it would would discharge our batteries to a point where i would become uncomfortable overnight it s the old style ac system but it s only a few years old so replacing it isn t in the cards at the moment if we d known better at the time we would have gone for a heat pump system which is much more energy efficient but at the time we weren t even dreaming of putting in whole house solar i looked into it but a heat pump system would have been around twice the cost so i never seriously considered it oh well live and learn as they say our electric rate here isn t bad about 20 kwh which is cheap when compared to what those poor buggers out in california are getting hit with thanks to newsome and the california legislature being owned lock stock and barrel by the utility companies and the hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes cough cough i mean campaign donations and lobbying they pay out every year but the handwriting is one the wall as they say thanks to the huge amounts of power the massive data centers being built here in the state are gulping down now and will gulp down in the future the utilities are going to have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in new generating facilities substations and high tension power lines to feed them and you can be damned sure that if microsoft meta oracle and the others building those facilities have anything to say about it it s going to be us consumers who are going to foot the bill not them but on to a more pleasant subject laser engraving i had no idea but apparently zippo lighters are still a thing with some people i thought that with the rate of smoking going down every year the market for lighters would have shrunk as well but i guess i forgot about the people who smoke recreational substances shall we call it that s still illegal here in wisconsin but all you have to do is nip across the border to illinois minnesota or michigan if you want to light up i did the first one with the brewery logo on it to give to kyle one of the owners and then i started playing around using the lumos flex from wecreat and the fiber laser and wow it does a nice job engraving stainless steel doesn t take long either with the ir laser in my old lumos it would have probably taken half an hour to do something like this with the fiber laser it takes about 4 minutes it actually eteches right into the metal so that design isn t just discoloration it s actually etched in there and will never wear off i ve done about four of these for various people to give as gifts and they keep telling me i should put these up on etsy or somewhere but no thanks i do not want to get into that rat race plain genuine zippo lighters cost me about 18 each in order to make it worth my while i d probably have to charge 35 40 for one and i don t think anyone would be silly enough to pay that and then we got flowers wow do we have flowers here are a couple as for the rest of the gardens i m too lazy at the moment to go out and get pictures so you ll have to settle for a description the tomatoes are going gangbusters they re already loaded with green fruit we have 6 plants this year we were only going to put in 3 but we had 3 or 4 volunteers pop up and mrsgf didn t have the heart to just pull them so she transplanted them to a better location and they re looking just as good as the ones we grew from seed ourselves the carrots are thriving and we really need to thin them out the beets we ve already been picking some and eating them they re doing fantastic the celery is looking beautiful this year when i m mowing the lawn i can t help but snip off a stalk to nibble on when i m riding on the mower if you ve never grown celery yourself please give it a try you won t believe how intensely flavored the home grown varieties are when compared to the commercial varieties they sell in the grocery store the onions are getting to the point where we re thinking of starting to pull some and curing them off and putting them in storage we have a few zucchini plants as well and they re producing beautifully the nice thing about zucchini is that it has almost no flavor so you can slip it into anything and nobody will notice they re eating something healthy tonight i m going to do a zucchini mushroom stir fry with lots of garlic and onions and parmesan cheese i m eagerly awaiting the tomatoes absolutely nothing compares to the flavor of a ripe tomato fresh off the plant from the garden let s see what else oh the hip almost forgot about that i suffered for something like 3 weeks with pain in my right hip that was almost excruciating at times when i bent my leg the wrong way it started to oh so slowly get better over time but then the othe...