So somebody's walking around with a mustache parakeet I'm tripped out. Did he just walk in with a mustache parakeet and leave? Peek-a-boo! I have a kiss. Peek-a-boo! Tars! Hello my fellow Snippers and welcome to my channel especially for you newbies. Today we're gonna do something very very strange. When I went to Petco with all my pets do not forget to watch the video. They told me that they're having a Halloween costume party for reptiles. Really? How does one dress up a reptile? Wait a minute. This might be interesting. Now of course, if my chameleon doesn't wanna go my chameleon's not gonna go. By the way, I'm already very angry this morning because George promised me he was gonna make the costume but no I had to wake up and do it and I am not one that sows and this guy actually asked me this morning if I have a pattern for the costume. Like a pattern. Oh excuse me. A pattern? Okay, yeah. So now he's super gluing the eyes and I want you guys to check out my handiwork. No hassle sewing. So don't judge. I had to do this really fast because we're late and I wanna go to bird mart today. Not the one with my booth. I just wanna go hang out, walk around and look at birds. How's my costume coming? Is it good? Trying to find the eyes. Here's my costume. She's gonna wear it. Ignore this side, I needed to draw it. This is my sewing, it's kinda no hassle. I just did it real fast. Sometimes I forgot to, you know, I went around instead of through. What are you laughing at? It's a common problem with you. Whatever. So if George sewed this, it would have looked a lot different if anything in the house happens that he's sewing. That's his job.  Whatever. Let's see if he's gonna wanna wear this. Go see if he'll wear it now. I gotta do this? I'm gonna put it on the lizard? I don't think so. Aww. More than it was Yorkie. You look cute. I think you made the mouth a little too big. All right guys, change of plans. So the chameleon did not like the costume. The chameleon was fine in it for a second, but in good conscience, I just don't think I could have taken her all the way down to Petco in it. And then one option was kinda like bringing her and then putting the costume on later, but I'm not a believer in like torturing animals for my videos. I just don't think it would have been the best thing for the chameleon, honestly. But good news is we're at Bird Mart. I had Bird Mart in Orange County. We're very late. Yeah. We almost didn't make it, but we're here, so let's go see. I'm gonna make him pay severely for this. Severely. Oh my God, guys. Carolyn's here. She has no idea that I'm here. Oh my God. Hershey needs to come back already because I wanna like scare her. So it costs $10 to get in and they only take cash. No, come here. Guess what? We were like, Carolyn's in there. She didn't see me. Really? She did? But I waited for you to like go up behind her. Hold on, hold on. Hide, hide. We have to come up behind her. She can't like see us first. Okay, well, we need that. Here. Thank you. Oh no. There's like nothing going on in here. Seriously, right? I missed a wizard costume party for this. Okay. I guess I'll go see what's entertaining in here. Let's make sure nobody has Picasso. One thing. Right? Hi. I'm such a fan. Oh my God. What's your name? Good year. Good year? Nice to meet you. Yay. Do you have a bird? I have a lot of lorikeets. Lorikeets are insane. They're fun though. They're the most fun. Hi, beautiful. Are you beautiful? Mustache? No, I didn't. I thought I'd come see if he's here by any chance. Got a nice bird to use too now. Thank you. Hi, mom. So beautiful and silver. Big eyes. She's a female, guys. I can't. Look at this one being all naughty. These are from Lebanon. They're called Lebanon. Oh my God. They're sitting on their babies.  He's going to help me with this. Obviously, he breeds these birds. And you guys know all my birds are rescues and we believe that if you have experience with birds, you want to adopt the ones that needs homes. But he's going to tell us something amazing about birds that have been bred that are extinct. And because of breeders, we're able to release them into the wild again eventually. So tell me about that. Yes, so pretty much you have birds that are going more extinct each year. The Scarlet Macaw, the Military Macaw. The Military Macaw has recently hit the lid. They're critically endangered and there's less and less of them in the wild because of deforestation, the pet trade, and also the natural predators. So you don't find, you know, militaries as babies. This one, she's only 10 months old. Same thing with a lot of these birds. When you breed a bird, you actually expand the species further on instead of pushing it closer to extinction. For example, take the Spix Macaw. Since the movie Rio came out, they put the bird more on a radar. Everyone knows that the bird is more valuable. It has a high ticket on its head. So you have poachers taking the babies, killing them for feathers, trapping them in illegal pet trading. There are facilities around the world that breed them that's focusing on preserving them. Once you breed them, then the species will survive as a whole. The Spix Macaw, they're extinct in the wild. There was 100 as of a few years ago, there's zero now in the wild. So it's not a bad thing to breed them. I do encourage rescue. There's a lot of birds that need homes. A lot of people give up on them because they're pluckers, they're chewers, they're screamers, they're aggressive. I think a lot of people don't understand the importance of the fact that there's people that are able to preserve the birds that are becoming extinct. We've been able to save a lot of them. Yeah, take the African gray. The African gray is the most sought after bird. Everybody wants it for their talking ability. As of now, they're getting harder and harder to produce. So that's when you get people start smuggling and posting these animals out of the wild to try to get them in other countries. Wait a minute, you're saying, I never thought of this before, you're saying that if we don't breed them, that's when people import them illegally and that's also what leads to deforestation. Interesting, I never thought of that. So for example, when you have less captive bred offspring, there's gonna be few of them. So when you have few, you have poachers that go, the supply isn't there, but the demand is. So we go and take these birds from Africa, put them in a very tight shipping crate, cram them all in and bring them here, we can make a bunch of money. So every bird they take from the wild and put them in captivity, that's one less bloodline out in the wild to produce, to preserve them all. I honestly never thought of it that way, but yeah, if there's an abundance of these birds here, then we're not gonna go to Africa and South America and import them. Not necessarily importing, because importing in the US have been outlawed in 1992, but they're being smuggled where they put cockatoos in two liter bottles. They put hundreds of grades in small crates and the portion of those birds don't survive. So that's less birds for the world, for future generations. It's better to breed them and preserve them. Look at all these guys, these guys are all happy. They look great. Your birds look great. Hi. And they're loving. You've got a lot of loving birds. They're obviously getting a lot of attention. Oh no, look at trouble. I know trouble and I see trouble. Do you come to me? Yeah, of course. You don't like my camera?  You're so beautiful. Oh, I know you don't like the camera, it's a big one.  There's that tongue I always talk about. Look, he's trying to like look for nectar in my hand. The powder's right here, little bud. There you go. Look at you. So somebody's walking around to the mustache parakeet. I'm tripped out, I'm sure it's not Picasso, but I wanna see. George went up to him, let me ask him. What did you say? I don't wanna go over there and be a creeper, but I still wanna meet him. I just asked him, he's a pretty bird with his name. It's a Charlie, but I can tell like his chest is like. It's not Picasso. No, it's a different chest. But I still wanna see it. He's cute. The guy nice. He didn't really respond like as soon as I was talking to him, he was like turn around and walk around the other direction. Oh my God, somebody has a mustache parakeet on their shoulder. It's not Picasso. It's not Picasso, George says, but like I wanna go see it and read it. Let's go. Oh, look at the fluffy toucan. George was like, yeah, it's not Picasso. Not that I'm gonna accuse anyone of a mustache parakeet, but why is this guy not here anymore? Did he just walk in with a mustache parakeet and leave? And it's like, I would have loved to have met one and cuddled one. We might run into him. It's so small here. It's small because they're competing with another day in Arizona. Oh my God. Pigeons. These are like cockatoo pigeons. They're so cute. There's some really cute birds here, guys. I don't see them. Guys, look at this, wow. Look at all the feathers. I can't believe I never found the mustache parakeet guy up close. The guy at that booth over there, he knew me and he was like, I'm sorry about your mustache parakeet. And he's like, I've been looking. Everyone's been looking. That guy with the cute eyes? Right here? Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Hey guys, all the promoters here don't wanna be on camera, but you gotta come out to this bird mart. It's small, but if you guys keep coming out, it'll grow. And we can promote responsible parrot companionship. Oh my God. Look at all these amazing toys. That's a good toy. Oh my God. How long? That's probably the one and only time you made that, right? No, I made quite a few. How would it be worth the effort? Like this for the price? Like that would be so many hours of work. This is nice. Oh my God, amazing toys. It's all just little puzzles. Amazing toys, right? Guys, her last name is really Bird. And she made all, this is like, have you guys ever seen the episode of, what do you call it, emergency care where they actually say that people's last names detect the emergency they're gonna have? Like yeah, like people have had all sorts of emergencies like pole man and they got like a pole stuck through them. That was a bad example, but like spear and they got a spear, spears, stuff like that, yeah. This is amazing. This guys is beak busters. Beak busters. Do you guys go to the Pomona Bird Mart? Yes, we do. Yay, they're gonna be both there too. A big YouTuber booth. Yay, Pomona's. So yes, at Pomona Bird Mart, I'm gonna open the Silver Play Button, yay. Silver Play Button. Oh my God, this is gonna be so exciting. I don't know if you've fallen in love with any bird. I did, she was over there. Don't know. Wow, hi, he's in love with me. I'm such a macaw person. Yeah, hello, he chooses people.  I'm like, I'm like an African gray person. What? Birds go away. Like what bird? Like, is he up there? There's always flyaways at these things. Where? Oh. They're gonna get him down. He's in there. It's a conure? It's a conure. I don't know if that's a good idea if they're running that room up there. I don't think so. All right, so they're trying to get this bird down and it's like disturbing me. I don't know.  Never rise anymore. That bird's not coming down, right? What'd you do? I'd leave it until it gets.  She makes one comment and we're like, tell it more. Okay, they're gonna come back and get him tomorrow. If I didn't take him home first.  What are you doing, George, kissing all the birdies? Yeah. One of your friends looks like Jenna's boyfriend. I'm not kidding. No way. You'll see, you'll see. Caroline just asked me if George finished the stand for Rocky and he finished it, but he's still gotta change out something. And she goes, see, trust your guy. And I'm like, it's not ready yet. We love you too. Bye. Guys, come to Pomona Bird Mart. Yes. Play button. Yes. And you will have red carpet and everything? Yeah, I have a little plastic red carpet. But I have a big backdrop with a step and a repeat. Yeah. I'm all set. Yeah, I'm all set. This is a girl on fire and she's leaving a dreamer energy work. I love that. We're gonna have a cake. Gluten-free? No, but I won't be able to eat it. Jenna's gonna make me gluten-free brownies. But for everybody else, normal cake. Yeah. Yay. Yay. He's getting a new one. Yeah, the pump. Can you get this off my finger? I fell for it. Come on, let's go. The five-decker, it's fun to touch them. Oh my God. So here's the situation with the bird that's up there. Because I don't wanna leave you guys not knowing. Maynard works here. He's gonna keep an eye out. And we're gonna get one of the vendors, actually, Jay, to leave some food. I'll leave you my number if you wanna. Contact just in case. I mean, if the guy doesn't come back for him, I think the guy's gonna come back. But if he doesn't, you can call me. So we're setting up something so that the bird can at least find some food. Maybe we could put it in here. I think on that table, probably best. Okay, we'll put something on this table so that when it comes down, he has food to eat. We're gonna put food for you right here. Here's a little birdie soul that needs help and maybe making his great escape to my house. Just kidding. What do you have? Oh, perfect. Okay, let's show him. See if he's interested. Look, mama! Is this where the table has to stay? We could move it. Maybe we could move it so that he sees it. Oh, good. I hope you guys get him. Yeah. The last thing I wanna do is leave a bird here by itself. They're gonna turn the lights off and see if that helps him. I really want this bird to come down. I know. I left you some food and water. I did that. That was all me. What about us? But he's gonna watch out for the bird, right? Yes. You know what? Pay attention to see if the seeds are actually getting up. If you see leftover seeds all around, maybe it came down. He came down and ate. Good call. It's closing time. Thank you for watching this episode and coming with me to this very special Orange County Bird Mart, do not forget to come out. It's a Pomona Bird Mart. It's a big one. On November 25th, I'm so excited to see you there. One more thing, guys. This is a small bird mart, but it's important to go out and support your fellow bird vendors. There's toys, there's cages, there's vitamins, supplements. You can learn a lot and you can see a lot that you've never gotten to see. So always go out and support the bird world because we need it. We need it, guys. I love you. Bye. It's so beautiful.


here we go again with gray sky so we ended off with the last episode with dirty old Lamont was secretly calling and texting someone who we find out is now Tiffany and in the meantime Kendra suspects something that's going on so she asked Tiffany who's her good friend hey can you give me a call I need to talk to you about something you know she suspects Lamont is up to his old ways again right so fast forwarded like literally the next evening she ends up talking to Kendra Tiffany excuse me Kendra and Tiffany end up talking her and Tiffany end up having a conversation you know good girl talk and Tiffany reassured so she's like look why don't you just ask him what's going on Kendra I'm sure it's nothing and Kendra's like I don't know you know lately I can tell he's really distracted a couple of weeks ago he even smelled alcohol on his breath and I really do hope he's not back to you know drinking heavily again I mean yeah he has a beer every other night but I haven't seen him drink no more than two cans so I'm just not sure what's going on so girl that's the thing about a marriage you got to have communication you just can't be going on thinking everything's okay you need to speak to your husband Kendra so anyway Kendra thinks about it and so she finally you know decides okay I need to talk to Lamont so I don't know what he's hiding and so she's like hey you know I noticed that you know the other day when I came when you came in that I'm pretty sure you were on the phone he's like look I know you thought I was on the phone on the phone but what I really want to do is share with you some some good news girl who we gonna manipulate and ask Lamont trying to steer the conversation she's like what he's like you know that business deal I have to go out on a second trip when you have your doctor's appointment and she's like yeah he said we got it she's like really he's like yeah baby you know we will be able to have enough money to pay off a couple of bills and even have a little leftover to play with and she looked in I'm just like play with she's like well you know maybe what she's saying he's like well yeah yeah that's what I mean we could save it so y'all a couple of weeks go by Lamont doesn't have to leave out of town much because again he got this big deal and like I said they were they're able to use some of this money to pay down their debt because they're still paying down debt y'all to pay off some of these debts and have some money to save not play with Lamont but he's still in his office trying to secure future business deals you know he's still working just not as hard he wants to play really so anyway y'all Byron still comes over now two to three times out of the week and they're all there at least one time a week he has dinner with them and the Lamont stills is a little suspicious of Byron because he was with his lady like for a few hours why he was away on his trips anyway now Kendra is in her seven months girl we are almost there she is seven months pregnant and she gets a call from her mom and she's like so hey um what are you doing she's like nothing she's like well have you thought about having a one of those virtual baby showers she's like no I really don't want to have a baby shower truth be told Kendra was so nervous about this pregnancy that she ended up getting a lot of stuff herself and she didn't want to have to bother with having a baby shower cuz I mean they moved from Chicago she didn't want to move back she didn't want to fly back this late in her pregnancy she just didn't want to do it especially since she's high-risk I don't know how many times I have to say that but just a reminder so she's like no that's okay I don't want to do a virtual shower she's like well why don't you go ahead this is her mom why don't you go ahead and put a baby registry together I know you like to be in control and I know you I'm pretty sure you have tons of stuff already but just go ahead and pick out a few things and put together a regular registry and I can send it to your cousins and the rest of the family and she's like yeah I'll think about it she's like well Kendra just do it okay do it for your daddy and I Kendra thinks about it and of course over the next week or so she mustered up enough you know courage I should say to go ahead and put together a registry and she put she picked out a couple of things. Meanwhile Byron is sometimes showing up a little later than usual Kendra notices that he's acting a little funny and she can't understand what it is like why is he acting this way she doesn't know if it's because my mom is here a lot more and they don't have that you know quiet time they used to have because they were having they were spending a lot of time together you guys for like two or two to three weeks so she just brush it off because she ain't got time she's trying to get stuff ready she's getting ready with the nursery and so that's when she asked Byron one day since he's hardly ever you know around she's like hey Byron I'm getting ready to paint the nursery do you want to come in here and help me so he's like yeah I can you know help you you know with it and so he's helping her paint it she's like hey I noticed that you haven't been staying around for dinner lately is everything okay at home is everything all right and that's when Byron puts down the paint brush and he's like you know it's my aunt it's it's my auntie he's and she's like what's wrong he's like it's her old her old Thomas girl they call it old Thomas it's her Alzheimer's it's getting worse and I'm afraid that I may have to put her somewhere soon and that's when Kendra looks at him and she's like I am so sorry Byron if there's anything Lamont and I can do for you please let me know and he's like I appreciate that Kendra and so they continue to paint the nursery in silence another paint in the nursery like a gray neutral color and they get finished painting the nursery in like two or three days girl that's it so y'all fast forward what's wrong so Kendra figures okay that's what's been going on with with love with Byron you know she said these men all these men all of a sudden they're you know having all these issues so Lamont seems to be okay but every now and then she still sees him on his phone or when she goes into walks into the room he herds me put his phone away and it's higher week goes by and Lamont is acting real crazy like he's barely talking to her he's acting jittery and nerdy nervous and Kendra's like what the hell is going on she said Kendra do you want to go out for dinner tonight you know and she's like yeah that's fine now kids a little surprised cuz they haven't been out the dinner in the small town at all she loves to cook you know if she's able to she loves to cook or byron could grill something anyway y'all so she's like okay so Kendra goes ahead and get ready cuz it's a little nice spot you know that they're going to so she gets already gets really pretty she puts on something that she thinks is fitting well meanwhile Lamont is being quiet acting real nervous and she's like what the hell is going on so she turns around and looks to him she's looking in a mirror right adjusting her dress and she turns around she's like is everything okay with you he's like yeah yeah I'm fine I'm gonna go downstairs okay she sits in the car right so they driving Lamont is really quiet a lot more quiet and she's like Lamont are you can I ask like what's wrong with you he said what do you mean she's like what do I mean like you barely spoken to me all weekend not all of a sudden you want to go out he's like yeah yeah yeah this let's just get there and I promise you know everything will be okay it's like everything will be okay she's like what I don't know what's wrong but I think that you know whenever we have you know anything that we should be open and freely to discuss things is yeah yeah I agree with you honey let's just wait to get it she's like no I don't want to wait I don't want to wait I just don't understand like lately you've been ignoring me you hardly be giving me any attention and he looks at her and they're almost at the restaurant you guys and he's like word is coming from she's like it's not coming from anywhere I've been feeling this way for a long time and he's like for a long time for how long it's just like well for like a couple of a couple of weeks that now and so he's looking here kind of funny he parks the car because at the restaurant like he gets out and he opens up the door and he's like so is it around the time when Byron was hired and she looks at him she's like Lamont this has nothing to do with Byron this has to do with you and I we had issues before he came into play like you told me when we moved out here that you would try to do better but now I'm noticing you know a little bit of alcohol on your breath you being really secretive and hiding things like are you back to gambling and he looks at her he's like no I'm not back to gambling and so they walk walk them their way up to the hotel to the restaurant you guys and she's like then what is it he's like it's nothing I promise you they know I know when you're lying there's something that's going on and I want to know what it is and she's like I promise you you know I'm not gambling anymore why don't we just go in here and have something to eat and just to get your minds off things so he opens up the door for her and she's not looking y'all she's like he didn't believe you barely spoke to me all week the one doctor's appointment that really was interesting you meet you miss and yes I wasn't gonna tell you but Byron ended up coming with me he said what Byron when she's like yes Byron went with me because you're never here I mean I understand now you got that business deal but what I'm trying to get from you is that I feel like something that's going on and I need you she's still talking y'all and as she wrote they're walking around and he said Kendra you need to you need to come back she's like no I'm not gonna come down and she's still heated and they're walking as she's coming around the corner she turns the corner and she sees Tiffany her parents some of her friends from Chicago and some of his friends around the corner and it is a surprise baby shower y'all and Kendra is overwhelmed with emotion and she starts crying and she looks over at Lamont and he looks embarrassed her family heard cuz they were all quiet getting ready to surprise her her family heard the entire fight and she's like she looks at Lamont she's like I'm so sorry and she just starts crying and that's when Tiffany excuses herself and go over and hugs her all right thank you guys that's it for this part


TfNN headline news update Good morning everybody. I'm Tommy O'Brien coming to you live from TfNN headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida 10 a.m. Eastern Time Wednesday morning 30 minutes into the trading day We got markets starting off to the downside right now. S&P futures negative by seven points trading at 3,084 Got the Dow Jones off by 35 points trading 27,655 Dow had been off about a hundred at one point Nasdaq negative by 24 trading at 8461 Gold count gold contract catching a bid after quite a tough run to the downside on gold gold contract up $10 at 1464 silver up 17 cents at 1686 notes and bonds getting a little bit of higher price and lower yield We have the chairman of the Federal Reserve speaking at 11 o'clock his remarks already becoming public the 10 year up 11 ticks 128 28 the 30 year up 20 ticks at 157 20 and the dollar index basically flat up barely 17 ticks at 98 325 We'll start things off. We'll start it with the indices jumping over the charts. We'll start it off with the Dow currently trading December futures 27,612 you back things up to the overnight low 27,525 so approaching a hundred points off that low in the Dow futures Nasdaq 100 trading at 8253 right now Spike to a high right after the opening bell of 8262 the overnight low of 8220 so about 35 points from that level S&P 500 trading at 3084 right now the lows made just before 5 a.m. Eastern time of 3075 so about 10 points above that level there's your crude oil contract quite a big crude is catching just in the last hour Going from 56 34 now training at 57 18 We get the EIA inventories. I believe 10 30 today. We'll have to check it out Monday was a holiday Sometimes those EIA numbers get pushed back a day because of that gold contract There's your acceleration a bit higher gold training of 1463 the low yesterday 1446 quite a number in gold and the euro US dollar train at 110 14 Lots going on today across the markets big day for maybe bonds maybe not Powell says policy Appropriate I'm in noteworthy risks outlet Powell said in the current stance of monetary policy is likely to be sufficient Provided the economy stays on track, but warned that noteworthy risks remain to the record US Expansion Powell speaking at 11 o'clock. We got a peach impeachment hearings beginning at 10 o'clock lots going on folks Stay tuned. We'll be right back


This is the SF Productions podcast network Join us on the donut trail from the pop culture bunker I'm indeed and I'm mark you can check out our audio podcast how I got my way three comics on itunes or on our website SF podcast network comm Well, we just completed what they call the Butler County donut trail Yes, they actually I saw this online a while ago and then they had an article in our local paper about it Right, and so this is just north of Cincinnati It's apparently well known for its donut shops or I don't know. Maybe it's not well known Maybe it's just because there are so many donut shops there and so You had to go to nine different donut shops. We did it in two days Yes, because we didn't want to have to drive to Cincinnati again, right? and So in each place you had to get a special code and if you got all the special codes and felt out your book We can send in and get a donut trail t-shirt. Oh So let's go take a look and see how that went Sweetest little thing sweet precious just as fresh as flowers in the spring of me precious She's got something they're calling for and while they're calling She's falling for your truly just a girl.  Right. The actual first doughnut place we went to was Milton's and we had our doughnut at Milton's and then we realized, oh no, if we're going to eat doughnuts from all these places we can't even eat half a doughnut at each shop. So at each shop we got two doughnuts and we each ate a quarter of the doughnut and now we brought doughnuts from the rest of the places home, almost all the rest of the places. So right now the one that we have from Martin's was really interesting, I don't know how well you can see that, but it was a chocolate and yeast bread braided dough and it was really quite tasty. I thought so. So, I don't know, are you going to have another bite now? I will say that probably one of my favorite doughnuts was the first one that I got at Milton's which was a lemon-filled doughnut with a lemon frosting, it was very, very tasty, although some of these certainly compete. This was probably one of my second favorites. Is this from Oxford? Yeah, and it's like almost a crawler-like doughnut. I would call it almost a crawler, yeah. It's got a really good, tasty dough with a crisp brout side, but still a doughnut-y inside. It's not a yeast dough, but it's a rich buttery dough, it's very, very good and tasty. I really like this, it would be really good dunked in your coffee. The next one that we have is from Broth Bakery and we didn't actually eat any of these, we were too full yesterday and we couldn't finish it. So this will be our first try at the Broth Bakery doughnut and we've got one that's a cake ice doughnut and one that's a traditional glazed doughnut. So you get both types basically. Yes. Mark prefers the cake doughnut I think, well I kind of prefer the yeasty risen doughnut. How was that one, Mark? It was very decent, the icing is very rich and then you've got your yeast doughnut which is more of a traditional just a glazed. Yeah, this would be, it's much bigger than say a crispy cream doughnut or something, it's very much taller. Okay. This is from Mimi's and this is the last one we hit on day one. Yeah, again we didn't eat any of the doughnuts there, we just brought them back. Mark is not going to try this chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting and coconut because he doesn't like coconut. I'm not a fan of coconut. I, on the other hand, love coconut and what do you have? And this is just a cinnamon sugar coating cake doughnut. That's pretty good. Pretty decent. Now normally I wouldn't have gotten a cake doughnut but by this time yesterday it was almost two o'clock and they were running a little low on their doughnuts. A lot of these places closed early on the weekends but they did appear to have sold out of doughnuts rather than, you know. So moving on to day two. So we went, stand the doughnut man and the guy there was really nice, I thought, or the people there. I'm not sure it was a guy. And they had this thing called a Davey Crockett which was sort of a different kind of braided sort of cinnamon roll that was really cute and also very, very tasty, did you think it was tasty? I thought so. And then you had a like more just chocolate glaze. I have to say I think this was probably one of the better chocolate glaze doughnuts that we had. Are you going to have a little piece of that? Okay.  Okay. Mmm. The next up is Kelly's where we had our first really non-traditional flavor doughnut which is a blueberry doughnut with bacon. Yes. Which I really like. You should have a piece of that. I ate a little piece of it when we were there. All right. I'm going to leave the rest for you. Okay, all right. I'm not really into those non-traditional ones. This was a really pretty, pretty one. It's a cherry doughnut, nice cherry color inside and a pretty cherry frosting. I really liked that. And then we also had a Bavarian cream doughnut there. I think that was Bavarian cream. Might have just been vanilla cream. I think it's vanilla cream there. Vanilla cream there. I'm a big fan of the cream doughnut. Mmm. All right. So now we have from Jupiter. Jupiter, it was interesting, is one of the only places that build itself as coffee and doughnuts. Mmm. A lot of these places didn't even have anywhere to sit down, but Jupiter actually appeared to roast their own coffee there. I had a cup of coffee. It was pretty good. Mmm. We got a jelly doughnut and their doughnut of the month, which was a chocolate cake doughnut with mint frosting and chocolate chips. Which was excellent. Sucker. Mark's a sucker for that mint chocolate. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. There's a little bite for you. Okay. You can even have the rest if you want, but not right now. All right. The raspberry one I liked, it had lots of frosting. And I think that sometimes that on these filled ones, you need a lot of frosting. It depends on how much filling there is too, but. Okay. Our last doughnut. Our last one. From the doughnut spot. Yes. It looks like we have two halves of one doughnut, but we don't. No. It is two different doughnuts. This is the Barbarian cream. And they also had this peanut butter filled doughnut. Mmm. That was interesting. Yeah, it was very interesting. Yeah. Do you want to try it again? I thought I would try a little piece of that. And you said it reminded you of a. Of those little Halloween candies that are like kind of like a chewy taffy almost that have the peanut butter inside. And they're usually wrapped in orange or black wax paper. And this is to me more like if you had peanut butter pie. Oh, I see. I don't like peanut butter pie. Well, this is very much like peanut butter pie. Yeah. No, I'm not a fan of the peanut butter pie. It seemed like most of them were doing a pretty good local business today. Oh, yeah. There wasn't a single one where we walked in and there weren't other people there. Yeah. And a couple of them, there were people that were buying actually like two or three dozen doughnuts. So that was very interesting. I mean, I guess I've not had an occasion to need that many doughnuts. Right. And I don't think I will have an occasion to need that many doughnuts for that. For what? After this, I'm not sure I want to see another doughnut. And yet I'm surrounded by doughnuts. And here we are. So check out it. It wasn't just this past weekend. Yeah. It was in fact. Yeah. So if you're in, what is it? Southwestern Ohio. In north of Cincinnati. Right. It's near an IKEA and the best grocery store in the city, which is Jungle Jim's. Yes. Go on to any of these donut shops, pick up a donut passport. They have, they have them there.  There you go. You can see us sporting our doughnut trail T-shirts. But in the meantime, you can check out our audio podcast, how I got my wife's treat comics on iTunes or on our website sfpodcastnetwork.com. From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark. Thanks for watching.


You're welcome back. It's still the Breakfast on Plus TV Africa and right now we're taking our first hot topic and that is the fact that federal government has granted six firms license to import petroleum products into the country. Okay, we are being joined by Nick Agulay, a public affairs analyst. Good morning and welcome to the program Nick. Good morning. Good morning to Nigeria's. Okay. Well, we've been told that six companies, that is five, including Dangote refineries have been given licenses to import petrol into the country. Let's begin with that. How does that make you feel? I wish me to feel very happy because this shows that Nigeria is now ready for business. And this is what we have been advocating all the time for a total deregulation of the downstream sector. And this step that has not been taken is what is now going to make Nigerians to pay the correct price for petrol. And I believe that if there is total deregulation and competition is allowed in the sector, then Nigerians will buy a little petrol at far less than the current 500 plus that the NNPC is forcing down our troops as a monopoly. Okay, but does it not worry you? In the report ISO, maybe there are other reports that have names, but the report ISO, these people, these companies, the six companies were not named. Recall that last week or so, the House of Reps rejected the call or the move by one of the members of the House to suspend the license that was given to Dangote to be the sole importer of petrol into the country. Even though NNPCL has said that they don't have that power to give those licenses, that they didn't give Dangote the license, the House of Reps rejected the motion. How do you reject the motion of something that is not existing? Which means that it does exist, that he was given that kind of a license by whom we may not know, but he was given that kind of a license. And now this report has shown or has told us that six firms, that is including Dangote, will now have that power to import in July. That all, so many other people applied for it, they can also import on later days, but the people who were ready to import in July were six, that is including Dangote. Does it not worry you that it is shrouded in the kind of secrecy that we don't want at this time? It worries me. And the two aspects that you have addressed, both of them will worry me. First and foremost, the one on the House of Representatives. I think they have started off very badly. And there is time for them to take, to have everything and ask themselves what are they in that House of Representatives for? Are they there for themselves or they are there for the Nigerian people? Because if they are there for themselves, then they should better pack their bags and go home so that those who will be there for the Nigerian people should come in. You cannot factor that emotion was before the House to say that the NNPC giving a so important license to a company whether Dangote or any company, and that kind of emotion to reject such a license insurance is being rejected by the House of Representatives. Why are they rejecting it? Why? Is it that the so important can now continue from where the NNPC left by forcing down our troops, prizes that are in-built with a lot of inefficiencies or what? So they also represented this for me. They have started off on a very wrong footing and it's time for them to correct their steps. I would have preferred that they accepted the motion to reject that so important license and then it turned out to be that there was even no license that was issued. But by not even knowing whether there was a license or not for them to reject, there is just no basis for that. They should be working for the Nigerian people because ultimately it's the Nigerian people who will suffer these inefficiencies that we have been forced down to suffer by the NNPC. So that's about the House. Then about the second aspect that you have taken which is the lack of transparency. Again it worries me. People in government should understand that they think government for themselves. They are in government as servants of the people. That is why they are called civil servants or public servants. It looks as if that name servant is lost on them.  You know, there is no way they can issue such an amorphous statement and say we have issued import licenses to cis companies and don't name the companies. We are the masters of these servants. They should report to us who these companies are so that we on our own can do due diligence of these companies and go and check the background of these companies and know whether these companies are genuine businesses or they are some sort of shared companies that have been set up by people who want to continue to object us and loot us as they were doing with the few subsidies. So I am not happy that the downstream authority have shrouded in secrecy the companies that they say they have awarded these license to. And I would also like to say that cis companies is not enough. Cis companies is not enough. Cis companies will still constitute a cater. But we license about 50 to 100 companies to import petrol. We are not going to see through competition. And for so long as we don't see through competition, we are not going to pay the right prices at the time. I mean at the pump. And that is what Nigeria means. We need to pay the right prices at the pump and not believe that the right prices would be far less than the 500 Naira per liter that we're buying now. Yeah. It's another thing they said is that NNPC, what the spokesman said is that NNPC has 30 days fuel sufficiency. So there will be no gap. So in July, these six companies are going to import fuel while NNPC will supply the nation with this fuel that they have in stock. Now the question is when did they buy this fuel that is in stock that they are going to sell to Nigerians. Was it when the subsidy was still being paid? And if the subsidy was still being paid by a country, the subsidy was still paid by tax payers money. And then NNPC is now selling at the price. They will start selling. They have already started selling at a new pump price. Why are they short changing us? Is it possible that we can monitor and make sure that there's more transparency in this regime, that the new regime that has come of us surviving without fuel subsidy? Okay. They have bought fuel for 30 days in July. They are going to have sufficient fuel. They have given licenses to six companies. But this fuel must have been bought when there was subsidy. Why are they suffering Nigerians? What can Nigerians do in the face of this kind of situation? I think you touched on a very important topic there. And this is what we have always said. You see, if we go back a few days ago, President Inigo on May 29th made his inaugural speech where he said subsidy is gone or he does not have the budget for subsidy. And the following day, the 38th of May, the NNPC hikes the price of petrol from about 180 to 195 to 500, 540, 550 depending on which region. And to me, that was totally unfair on the NNPC to engage in such a business practice. Because as I did date that President Inigo made his inaugural speech, the NNPC would have carried at least 30 days of fuel sufficiency, which is what they are now conferencing to us. And it would have made that those 30 days fuel supply had subsidy on them. And remember, the budget for 2023 has gone subsidy all the way to 38th of June. So today, maybe the 21st of June, we still have budget provision for subsidy for another week plus. And in all these, the NNPC then decides that they are going to post on Nigerians a hike in the price of petrol, regardless of the fact that the petrol that they are now selling at 500 and something, Naira, was imported under the subsidy regime and subsidy was paid on it. So these are the kind of sharp practices that are unfortunately a government owned company that should be protecting the citizens because we are the owners of the NNPC. Well, we are the owners of the NNPC. A lot of people even misconstrued NNPC to be like a regulator. The NNPC is not a regulator in the petroleum industry. The regulator in the petroleum industry used to be the Department for Petroleum Resources, GPR. But the PIA, the Petroleum Industry Act, actually split the regulator into the upstream commission and the downstream authority. So the NNPC for its upstream business is being regulated by the upstream commission and then for its downstream business by the downstream authority. The NNPC is just like Shell or Chevron or Mobile. The NNPC is a company that is expected to be running business. You know, the NNPC shouldn't be the one that should be controlling the petroleum sector. They are just one of the companies and the shares and mobiles and Chevrons and totals are their competitors. And the ownership of the NNPC is by Nigerians. We are the owners of Nigerian army of the NNPC. So how can the company that we own continue to perpetrate this kind of shark practices upon us? I think President Tunibu has started well. He is placing all the areas that have been pinning us down in the past and the next place he needs to look at is the NNPC. I believe that the entire management of the NNPC has had to leave their usefulness. They should be allowed to go home and rest so that new people who have the vision of the president should come into the saddle and run NNPC like a business and run NNPC for the benefit of Nigerians and not the benefit of a few people who have been subjugating us and looting the common word and even now we can see the transparency that is coming in as simple as naming the six companies that have been given the licenses. We don't know them. So the NNPC structure as we have it now has to leave this usefulness. Okay but aside from the fact that we're talking petroleum and all that in this the new era we're talking electric cars we're talking some renewable energy we're talking solar systems and all that. Yesterday I even saw a video clip on the social media where someone was using a tree to generate electricity I think yeah a tree to generate electricity and which means the alternative means of doing a lot of things nowadays. Do you really think what we're spending so far in in this exploring for oil and every other thing is worth it? Shouldn't we be branching off to other things how to get our energy and how to run our cars? Because even a company a car company in Nigeria is already looking at running cars on gas and then others are thinking about electricity to run cars and all that. Is it really worth it all the the hullabaloo about petroleum? Okay so this is an interesting conversation and it's very important that we should be having this conversation. There is something that is called the energy mix. The energy mix means the different sources is like bringing in different ingredients into a pot and cooking your soup. So the different sources of energy how they are mixed to ensure that a nation has uninterrupted power supply and also a nation has in abundance all the needed energy requirements for that nation and you will see that globally fossil fuels which is what crude oil is called and gas is called. They are still carrying a large chunk of the energy mix. Also globally as we speak today there are companies that are still taking final investment decisions to think otherwise or to build families or to build all the other infrastructure that we ensure that crude oil is produced. However the renewable energy as part of the mix is also growing in importance and influence. So it's going to take a while for the coexistence of the fossil fuels and renewable energies as a mix. So as there is a declining share of fossil fuels there will be an increasing share of renewable energy. But as we speak today 2023 we cannot just uproot fossil fuels and throw them into the trash can. They are still very important especially for gas. The gas is still supplying the greatest chunk over 70% of electricity in the world as we speak today and you spoke about gas and gas that's what is called compressed natural gas CNG. It's something we should also be looking at other nations are using this. You spoke about electric gas it's something that is also coming up if we use gas to generate electricity and then use them in the gas we will totally avoid crude oil we will totally avoid petrol in our cars. But these things require money they require investment and in Nigeria we are not having enough of this investment and that is because the business climate in Nigeria is not right and so what the current government needs to do is to ensure that they fix those things that are making Nigeria not to be a beautiful bride to invest money. As we speak today there are trillions of dollars of investor funds that are floating around the world. The world is no longer having boundaries when it comes to investment and financials and all of that and Nigeria a market of over 200 million people a country with almost no natural disasters a country with beautiful fertile Arab land a country with all sorts of energy sources. We have the winds all over the place we have waters you know every community in Nigeria has a river around it not far from it. So we should tap into these terms. Nigeria should open itself up we are guaranteed and I'm looking at the solar panels you are showing there we are guaranteed about eight to ten hours of pure sunshine every day that is one of the countries like the UK don't have the UK during winter they don't even see the sun for two hours that is why you see all the trees shed their leaves and and all of that but they are not seeing enough sunshine but in Nigeria we see sunshine every day so we should and the the other good thing that has happened is that President Chinibu has kicked the ball rolling he has signed into law the electricity bill so how an electricity act now and the input of that act is that only before where electricity generation transmission and distribution were solely in the hands of the federal government now it has been liberalized such that states and local government corporate entities and individuals communities can generate and distribute electricity within their within their clients and and and that is a very good one but I also want to tell the federal government that as we speak today the federal government is the one that owns most of the infrastructure in the two city generation and the federal government President Chinibu needs to take the next step haven't signed the electricity act he now needs to take the next step by looking at the current structure of the electricity sector in Nigeria that has been delivering to us 3,000 megawatts of electricity for so long 3,000 megawatts of electricity is so abysmal for 200 million people look the the tiny nation of Qatar that hosted the World Cup the last time Qatar population is about three million and three million is population of and most states in Nigeria have more than three million people and Qatar's electricity generation transmission and distribution is 8,500 megawatts per day 8,500 megawatts for three million people and we are giving three mega three thousand megawatts 200 million people doesn't make sense I mean you look at a nation of brazil that has a similar population to us over 200 million people brazil has supplied 150,000 megawatts of electricity every day to the economy check 150,000 and our 3,000 our 3,000 is so abysmally low he's not be allowed to even last for any longer and we we have electricity stranded in a federally controlled electricity sector president tinu boon needs to go in there that should be one place he needs to go to because to be honest if you don't have sufficient power supply there's nothing you can do to economy it will never go okay this will be a good place to leave it president tinu boon has kicked the ball rolling we do hope that the ball is not rolling to offside or corner kick or penalty where we will be shooting ourselves in the foot but we do hope that things will get better and better but you touched on power and all that what do you think is the reason hindering the development of this alternative means of power generation and all that in Nigeria that you think now that you are advising the government what they need to do to make sure these things come to come to be because we have sufficient sunlight as you said we have sufficient water bodies we have everything that we need to generate power alternative power sources and all that and we're still operating on a 3000 megawatts electricity in this our country what do you think are the things that need to be removed if we need to get to that point you are wanting us to get to thank you very much for that question it's very important that the the people who have come into government now should hear us out you know the first thing they have to do that i have to open Nigeria off of business Nigeria needs to be opened up for business and the different aspects i have to open Nigeria off of business include our security nobody wants to bring their staff and their money into a company in a country where they can be kidnapped and nothing will happen so the government has to tackle security yes a presidential book has now changed the service chiefs and the other heads of security agencies we hope those guys are going to keep the ground running and other things like the ease of doing business how easy is it to incorporate a company how easy is it to get licensing how easy is it to to get government officials to do this those are the kind of things that needs to be done but then in the very short term the low-hugging food that we have is the existing infrastructure that is there we had the generating companies most of them now privatized we had the transmission which is government controlled and we had the distribution companies president in a group needs to call a conference of all the stakeholders in this electricity sector to understand what the issues are to ask a singular question why are we giving 3000 megawatts and what can we do immediately to increase that to at least 10 000 in the short term and one thing I would tell him is that generation was privatized and it was privatized to business people like octet dollars and the Tony Lumerus of this world they can bring money in there and generate more but the bottleneck is transmission because the transmission is in the hands of government and government is not investing there the generation cannot generate more than transmission can carry and distribution cannot distribute what transmission has been giving them so one of the first steps that president Nibu needs to take now is to privatize the transmission sector totally privatize take regulations let financial capital come in expertise the engineering everything to expand that transmission network to at least 30 000 megawatts in the next one or two years and then generation will start will start pushing enough power through the transmission network but then there is a big issue with distribution distribution companies were sold to politically exposed persons and president Nibu needs to go into that sector either these guys who don't have the money or the expertise to you know actually develop the distribution sector we now either have to be forced to have technical partnerships with people who can come in and do it or those licenses have to be cancelled and new licenses issued to people who have the way with them to do it you see the difference between the privatization of the distribution sector and the telecoms is that the telecoms where the licenses were sold to operators in the telecom sector the mts and the enters and that is why they are doing better in the distribution this thing was sold to politicians who never had a pay degree in the power sector and they had just been you know sitting on those licenses and increasing our tariffs you know when you hear cost-reflective tariffs what we are saying here is that the cost of running the electricity sector is rising but not the output so if you look at the equation the unit cost of electricity which is total cost divided by the megawatts megawatts has remained 3000 as a denominator why the numerator which is the cost of running has been rising rising because we used to have one network you know and one managing director now we have how many generation companies with so many managing director how many distribution company you hear just disco ekeja disco listen these are all managing directors we all set up executive directors with all the distance that is rising the cost and nigerians keep getting additional tariffs additional tariffs whereas the output which is what should be increasing to reduce the unit cost has remained 3000 megawatts so president tini who just needs to go into that sector and just he needs to desegregate that sector he needs to unbundle it he needs to just open it up to world global capital to come in and just generate electricity for nigeria if president tini will succeed in his in his four years tenure to increase the electricity supply from 3000 megawatts to 30 000 megawatts nigeria economy with jackoff he won't even need to do anything the private sector will just carry on and you will not even believe this is nigeria again the jobs created it will be unbelievable well before we round off you said something about regulators or in the in the petroleum sector being split into two and there are now the regulators will you be comfortable if the people or those groups or those agencies are still the regulators or if we are talking about removing subsidy and privatizing or whatever we need to do in the in the oil sector do you think a different body should run or should yes should take up the responsibility of guiding that sector to where it should be or it should still be the people who are regulating it right now because they were there before the deregulation and they are still here after the deregulation are you comfortable with them being at the helm of affairs the the the structure itself the these two regulators that we have now for the petroleum industry that is the upstream commission and the downstream authority which were created by the PIA as structures they are they are okay the structures are there the reissue are the people who are running these structures look if i give someone a BMW car now the BMW car itself will be a super car a very efficient car but the driver of that car one can either one can crash that car because he's he's managing the car very badly and the other can actually travel with that car for years without any problem and so what is happening is that the people who are running these regulatory agencies are the ones that need to be changed you know they they haven't delivered from Nigeria like i speak to you now and i was reading here in a report about this majority of petrol stations in Nigeria are not giving consumers the liter of petrol that they have paid for you pay for one liter of petrol at 500 plus and what goes into your tank is less than the liter and the person who is supposed to ensure that Nigerians are not scammed in that way is the downstream authority and the downstream authority have offices all over Nigeria in every state of Nigeria they are there ask the officers in this in this authority if they came to work today as they are at work as we speak now why are they allowing Nigeria to be scammed but operations but not giving us the the the liter that we paid for so what happens there is leadership if the leadership of this you know you you cannot have new wine and then put it in old wine skins if you have new wine you must put there or rather you cannot have new wine skins and we put in old wine you have to have new wineskins and new wine put inside so since we now have these two brands new regulatory agencies government also needed to assort away their leadership and bring a leadership that is now going to use these structures these legal instruments that we now have to ensure that Nigerians get their just due from the petroleum sector all right that's what's needed my president needs to go there all right uh nick thank you so much as usual for giving us insight into this topic we're very grateful that you were able to make it this morning thank you okay we've been talking with nick agule public affairs analyst we were looking at the fact that federal government has granted six firms licenses to import petroleum products into the country and sundry other issues that we were able to delve into we'll take a short break now when we return it will be time for sports stay with us


The North Carolina Institute for Transportation Research and Education presents pavement structure repair techniques, shoulder maintenance. In a roadway each part of the road, the pavement, the shoulder, and also the ditch has a specific function. The shoulder may be defined as the portion of the road between the edge of the travel way and the front slope of the ditch. What are the functions of a shoulder? The shoulder protects and gives lateral support to the pavement edge, base, and sub-grade on each side of the road. The shoulder provides emergency stopping area for the traveling motorist. It also provides a recovery area for vehicles that may leave the road surface accidentally. And probably the most important function of the shoulder is to provide a surface to drain water from the pavement surface into the roadside ditches. Proper drainage is vital to a good roadway. This shoulder will allow drainage away from the edge of the pavement. The shoulder elevation is the same or slightly lower than the edge of the pavement. The shoulder is sloped toward the ditch. This slope should be approximately three-quarters inch per foot or as originally designed. It should be greater than that of the pavement. Shoulder widths may vary depending upon geographical location. The width is measured from the edge of the pavement to the foreslope of the ditch. A minimum width of 6 to 8 feet would be desirable. It is also desirable to have established turf composed of grass or other vegetation on the shoulder. This will reduce damage due to erosion and blowing away of shoulder material. There are three types of operations that may be performed in maintaining a shoulder. These are reshaping of the shoulder, low shoulder repair, and high shoulder repair. Reshaping of the shoulders is performed where no material needs to be added or removed from the shoulder. This operation restores the typical cross section and slope of the shoulder. The steps to be taken in this operation are number one, place proper traffic control. Number two, blade shoulder with motor grater and windrow material at the edge of pavement. Number three, spread material back across shoulder at the proper slope. Number four, compact shoulder with the motor grater. Number five, remove traffic control. The second shoulder maintenance operation is the repair of a low shoulder. A low shoulder condition exists where the shoulder is considerably lower than the edge of the pavement. Generally one and a half to two inches or more. This situation generally requires the addition of material to the shoulder area. The steps to be taken in this operation are number one, place proper traffic control. Number two, till or scarify existing shoulder material. Number three, place material in low areas of shoulder. Number four, spread material with grater to rough grade. Number five, fine-grade shoulder with motor grater. Number six, compact shoulder material. Number seven, remove traffic control. The third shoulder maintenance operation is the repair of a high shoulder. Repair high shoulders when material has built up higher than the edge of the pavement. Generally this buildup is an inch or more. In many cases, excess material is hauled away from the work area. The steps to be taken in this operation are number one, place proper traffic control. Number two, cut away high spots on shoulders with motor grater. Number three, pick up excess material and dispose of it properly. Number four, remove traffic control. In any maintenance operation, it is extremely important that proper traffic control procedures be followed to ensure safety of the motoring public as well as the maintenance personnel. For more information on traffic control, refer to the videotape basic traffic control for pavement structure repair techniques. Once proper traffic control is in place, the shoulder maintenance operation can begin. The first type of shoulder maintenance is reshaping of the shoulder. No additional shoulder material is added and no excess shoulder material is removed. Reshaping restores the desired cross section and slope of the shoulder. The end result is a smooth shoulder with a smooth transition from the edge of pavement sloping down to the front slope of the ditch. Reshaping is required on an unpaved shoulder that has deep ruts in it. Reshaping is also needed to repair corrugations, ridges, buildups, and areas that have eroded. In general, the shoulder is not smooth and water cannot properly drain. A motor grater is the primary piece of equipment used in this operation. The motor grater can do an efficient job of reshaping the shoulder and eliminates the above problems. To begin, the operator positions the grater on the shoulder, angled the blade at approximately 45 degrees. The toe of the blade rests at the outside edge of the shoulder while the heel is set at the edge of the pavement. The blade pitch is upright or slightly back. Use a 10 to 15 degree wheel lean with the wheels leaning in the direction that material is being moved. The operator proceeds at a slow speed of three to five miles per hour. Cut just enough material on the first pass to remove unevenness, ruts, and depressions that exist. Pull the material from the outside of the shoulder at the front slope of the ditch. The material is neatly windrowed at the edge of the pavement. Note that the windrow is placed outside the rear wheels of the grater. All ruts, unevenness, and depressions have been cut smooth during this first pass. On the second pass, pick up the windrowed material and spread it back across the shoulder. Again, a 45 degree angle is used for the blade. The toe of the blade rests at the edge of the pavement. The heel is at the edge of the shoulder. Set the blade height at the desired slope for the shoulder, typically three-quarters inch per foot. The heel of the blade is loose so that material will be spread at the shoulder evenly and not create another windrow. If the heel is not loose, a windrow will be formed, creating a berm. This will interfere with the drainage of surface water across the shoulder into the ditch. Use a front wheel lean of 10 to 15 degrees in the direction that material is being moved. Operating speed is relatively slow, about three to five miles per hour. This prevents the blade from bouncing and creating an unevenness in the finished shoulder. The reshaped shoulder is flush with the edge of the pavement. Take care not to cut into the pavement with the edge of the blade. Depending upon the width of the unpaved shoulder, additional passes may be needed to reshape the unpaved shoulder area. As a final step, the motor grater rides over the shoulder area to compact the material with the wheels. This reduces the potential for material being blown or washed away. In some cases, it may be necessary to seed, fertilize and moch the material to restore vegetation. Vegetation is desirable to stabilize the shoulder material and prevent erosion caused by water or wind. The reshaped unpaved shoulder has a smooth transition. It is properly sloped toward the front slope of the ditch. The shoulder is now smooth with no unevenness, ruts, corrugations or depressions. Now, let us review the steps required for reshaping of shoulders. Number one, place proper traffic control. Number two, blade shoulder with motor grater and windrow material at the edge of pavement. Number three, spread material back across shoulder at the proper slope. Number four, compact shoulder with the motor grater. Number five, remove traffic control. Now, let us look at low shoulder repair. A low shoulder condition is generally caused by erosion or traffic riding on the shoulder of the road. On a narrow road, the outer wheels of a vehicle may ride at the edge of the pavement or possibly off the edge. This is especially true where there is a lot of truck traffic. One thing to be considered prior to this operation is the location of additional material. Possibly, material can be recovered from ditch maintenance performed in conjunction with the shoulder repair. Ditch maintenance or high shoulder repair performed on a nearby roadway can provide excess material. Borrow material or stock piled material can be hauled from the nearest available source. The quality of the material and the hauled distance are important factors to be considered when obtaining this material. Regardless of where this material comes from, the procedure to be followed in repairing the low shoulder is the same. The pieces of equipment needed for this operation are a motor grater, dump trucks for hauling, and a loader to load shoulder material into the trucks. Till or scarify the shoulder to a depth of approximately four inches. This permits the old and new soil material to be mixed and allows it to bond together better. Also, it allows oxygen to be mixed into the soil, which will enhance the ability for vegetation to grow on the shoulder. Place the additional material on the low shoulder areas from the tailgate of a dump truck. Place the material near the edge of pavement. Once the material has been dumped on the shoulder, spread it using the motor grater. Position the grater blade so as to rough grade the shoulder material. Spread from the edge of the pavement out toward the foreslope of the ditch. Take care not to windrow material along the edge of the shoulder with the heel of the blade. Additional passes may be needed depending on the width of the shoulder. Perform another pass with the motor grater to fine-grade the shoulder material. Angled the blade at approximately 45 degrees. The toe of the blade is flush with the edge of the pavement with the heel of the blade resting at the edge of the shoulder. Set the blade height to obtain the desired slope for the shoulder. Again, more passes may be needed depending on shoulder width. The last step is to roll the shoulder material. This can be done with the motor grater compacting the material with the tires. It is important that the shoulder material be rolled and compacted to prevent it from being easily washed or blown away. The finished product is a smooth uniform shoulder. It has the proper shape and slope. There are no low spots or drop-offs remaining. Place seed and mulch as needed to establish vegetation on the new shoulder material. Now, let us review the steps required for low shoulder repair. Number one, place proper traffic control. Number two, till or scarify existing shoulder material. Number three, place material in low areas of shoulder. Number four, spread material with grater to rough grade. Number five, fine grade shoulder with motor grater. Number six, compact shoulder. Number seven, remove traffic control. The last of the shoulder maintenance operations is high shoulder repair. On this roadway, the shoulders are approximately two to three inches higher than the edge of the pavement. This condition can be created by several things. High shoulders can be caused by soil material being washed away from driveways or other intersecting roads and collecting on the adjacent shoulders. High shoulders create a problem because water will pond at the edge of the pavement. It is trapped there and not able to drain across the shoulder and into the adjacent ditches. Water standing on the edge of the pavement may filter through the roadway and down into the base and subgrade below. Vehicles running through the standing water can suffer a loss of traction because of hydroplaning. High shoulders may be a problem for a driver trying to make a smooth emergency stop on the shoulder or perhaps trying to recover control of a vehicle in an emergency situation. Now, let's discuss how to repair a high shoulder. The equipment required to perform high shoulder repair includes a motor grater, dump trucks, and a loader. If the shoulder is very hard and densely compacted, loosen the material with a scarifier attached to the motor grater. Position the grater on the shoulder. Angle the blade at approximately 45 degrees. The blade pitch is upright or tilted back slightly. Place the toe of the blade at the edge of the shoulder. The heel of the blade is flush with the edge of the pavement surface. Use a front wheel lean of 10 to 15 degrees in the direction that the material is to be moved. The motor grater proceeds at no more than three to five miles per hour. This prevents the blade from bouncing and creating an unevenness in the shoulder. As the motor grater moves along, the blade cuts away the high spots of material and wind rows it along the edge of the pavement. Cut the shoulder to the desired slope. Behind the motor grater, a front-end loader picks up the wind-road material on the edge of the pavement. Load the material into dump trucks and haul it away to a waste area. If necessary, broom excess material off the pavement with a power broom. The repaired shoulder is flush with the edge of pavement. No build-up remains. Place seed and mulch as needed to reestablish vegetation on the unpaved shoulder. When high shoulder repair is performed on a fill section, it may be possible to waste the excess material over the edge of the fill. This eliminates the need to haul the material away from the work area. The cost of loading and hauling the excess material would be saved. Set the blade with the toe of the blade flush with the edge of pavement. The heel of the blade rests at the edge of the fill area. Cut off the high material and wind row it over the edge of the fill slope. This should only be done in areas that are approved by the maintenance engineer. Be sure that the proper slope is established and the shoulder is smooth and even. Let us review the steps required for the repair of high shoulders. Number one, place proper traffic control. Number two, cut away high spots on shoulders. Number three, pick up excess material and dispose of it properly. Number four, remove traffic control. Certainly proper shoulder maintenance is important to the performance of a roadway. This roadway has properly maintained shoulders allowing for lateral support of the pavement and proper drainage of surface water into the adjacent ditches. These shoulders are able to perform their intended function on the roadway. Shoulder maintenance is a necessary maintenance operation and when done the proper techniques should be used.