u/LGreyS

October is my birthday month and Halloween is my favorite holiday. This year the wife went all out! She got me the Creator 3-in-1 Haunted House, the Icons Midnight Valley Mayor Manor, the Scary Haunted Tree and the Jack-O'-Lantern Pickup Truck! What makes this even more special is that I'm only able to make about one big purchase a year this year she did it for me!!! She even hunted down, and found, the haunted house and pickup for really good discounted prices! Unfortunately the truck hasn't arrived yet. She also got me the Vintage Steam Train, at a discounted price; which I'm wanting to turn into a Halloween excursion train taking visitors around the village.

Last year She got me Baron von Barron’s Haunted House from a Bricks and Minifigs shop, so that was actually the start of my Halloween village, but these will definitely increase the village.

As to the von Barron’s mansion... I'm hoping to customize it and make it the centerpiece of the village.

Well now... this was rather surprising... I've been trying to sort through my small LEGO collection and come up with a better storage system. While doing so I found an 158 Railroad Crossing Gate! I have no idea how I came to have this either since I don't have either 4.5 or 12v systems.

It appears to be incomplete though.

Following on my post in re the book 'war' by Ludwig Renn, I thought I'd recommend 'The Holocaust - From a Survivor of Verdun' by William Hermanns.

Unfortunately it is a rather pricey book.

There is a photo of William and his kameraden in the book entitled 'the Argonne Forest - June 20, 1916, but it isn't very clear (I've attached it). Hermanns states: "the trench warfare was for us the dark valley of dearth, but Verdun was the dark mountain of death. Four months later none of those in the photo had survived - but I."

And he closes with his epilogue: "If I were once again to hear the call of my country, I would respond; but this time I would realize that though the responsibility for my actions belongs to my superiors, the responsibility for my conscience is mine."

Your Majesty's volunteer,

William Hermanns

Machine Gun Company

67th Regiment

Have any of y'all read this book? If so, what did you think about it?

I really like vintage covers.

I'm trying to find the original painting, and artist's name, of the painting used on the front cover of the 1963 paperback edition of 'Over the Top' by Arthur Guy Empey. The artist's name isn't credited in the book, and when I tried to do a picture search it wasn't found.

Do any of you out there have a clue?

What the bloody hell?!?! We bough a GE AWCS24WWF1 24,000 BTU window AC unit last year on July 21(2025).

We came home Friday night, July 31 2026 and the damned thing was dead, completely dead. Evidently the control board fried out.

The warranty ran out on July 21st.

Now what?

How many of you read the lesser known novels that were written during the war or up into the 1930s? Books such as 'Over the Top' by Arthur Guy Empey, the 'Army Boys' series by Homer Randall, or the 'Over There' series by Captain George H. Ralphson to name just a few. I've collected several of these over the past several decades. The writing styles are definitely different than most, especially current styles, yet they have an appeal.

Charley's War - British comic strip written by Pat Mills and drawn by Joe Colquhoun.

Was wondering if any of y'all have read it and what you thought.

Hello Everyone!

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Does anyone know what's happening to a tree that has new growth all over it? Several old oaks in my part of south central Kansas have this happening within the past couple or so years. The très look more fuzzy than anything.

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I use to know what it meant, but can't seem to remember.

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TIL that the Hogan's Heroes set was used for the movie 'Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS'.

My favorite piece in my WWI collection. I use to lug this thing around to reenactments. I'd shoot repro Wurfgranaten 14 & 15 from it. She is known as 'Belching Bertha'.

I have a question for those of you that use grease in your Rovers swivel balls. How do you know when you should add more grease?

I use a hybrid in mine ('63 SIIa 88 SW), corn head grease. Here's some general info about it from the net.

"Corn head grease is a specialized, NLGI #0 semi-fluid, lithium or polyurea-based lubricant designed for agricultural corn head row-unit gear cases. It flows like thick oil when in use, preventing cavitation, but stays in place with leaky seals, making it an excellent solution for older equipment and high-moisture conditions."

Here's a great video on it:

https://youtu.be/7zNhli-J0Gk?si=aGZkIorSltGEnDo3

I've had no sign of leakage in almost 10 years, but I'm now wondering if I need to add any to it.

Compare the price and piece count of the Vintage Steam Train they are releasing in June to the Lions, Pirate Ship and other sets. Lion = 839 pieces for $65. Pirate Ship = 1074 pieces for $100. Vintage Steam Train = 575 pieces for $100. WT?!?!