07:15 – Things are a lot more pleasant around here now that the heat wave has broken. I had Barbara pick up a bottle of barbecue sauce at the supermarket yesterday because I wanted to try making barbecue sandwiches with the Keystone Meats canned pork. I could have made the sauce myself with stuff we stock, but I just wanted to try the pork without spending too much time in the kitchen. So we had barbecue sandwiches for dinner last night. Barbara is used to the Western North Carolina barbecue, which uses a thin, vinegary sauce, but I think she liked the Kansas City sauce just fine. KC sauce is, after all, just a derivative of Western North Carolina barbecue sauce. She’s still not crazy about any kind of canned meat. I agree that fresh meat is better, but the canned pork was certainly okay.
A lot of my time this week was devoted to working on science kit stuff, including development work on a new kit, but here’s what I did to prep this week:
- I spent a lot of time on relocation research issues, as well as figuring out what needs to be done to continue our kit business uninterrupted while we’re in the process of moving.
- I spent more time researching solar power. As of now, we have what we need to keep a reasonable number of AA and AAA cells recharged using only the sun, but my goal eventually is get beyond that. It’ll be a long time, if ever, before we have a full off-grid solar installation, but I intend to make incremental progress over the coming months and years. Prices have fallen dramatically and will continue to fall, so I’m not in a hurry to buy solar panels, controllers, inverters, batteries, and related gear. Nor am I interested in a grid-connected system or selling back power to the utility company. We’ll eventually have an off-grid solar system, or perhaps a grid-connected system, but never a grid-linked system.
So, what precisely did you do to prepare this week? Tell me about it in the comments.
16:33 – We just got back from a trip to West Jefferson, where we looked at seven houses. Five, we ruled out; two are possibles. Of those two, my favorite is a 2,500 square foot ranch with a full basement, sitting on a bit less than an acre. That’s 2500 SF of living area on the main floor, with an extra 1,800 SF of unfinished basement, with the remaining 700 SF being basement garage area. It was built in 1951, which means it was built without the shortcuts that builders started making in the 60’s and 70’s, such as eliminating a row or two of concrete block from the basement walls to yield a 7-foot ceiling rather than the previously standard 8 feet. All carpeted, but with hardwood floors under the carpet. Like the other house we liked, this one was listed as having two full baths, but both also had an extra bath with sink/toilet/shower in the basement. Both also had completely dry basements, in contrast to the five rejects, all of which had water problems.
One of the homes was obviously owned by preppers. It’s a dead giveaway when there are piles of cartons in the basement with labels like “Beans – 2012”. Several of the homes had shelves in the basement loaded with scores to hundreds of canning jars, but that’s par for the course in the mountains. The one we liked best also had a spare stove in the basement next to the laundry area, which tells me that a serious canner lived there.
There should be a lot more homes coming on the market in the next month or two, so we’ll schedule another trip to see what’s newly available. But I don’t think we’ll have any problem finding something that suits us and is within our budget.
I ordered $50 or $60 of canned meat from Walmart; should arrive any day. My Amazon royalty payments were more than usual this month, so I could manage to do that and also buy some birthday presents for my daughter, on top of the payments making their normal contribution to monthly expenses.
Also, I’ve continued rebuilding my stored water supply, using 2L PETE juice bottles as the juice gets drunk. It’ll take a while, but I’d previously built up a hundred gallons or so by the same method.
I did some solar prepping this week, also. I bought a Anker 14W Dual-Port Solar charger to try out. I found this ridiculous web site with videos on how to make your own solar panel (here’s a youtube of one). The videos show how to use solar panel seconds found for cheap on eBay to solder together to make your own panel on the cheap. Even though the guy is kind of nutty, he does demonstrate you can make a panel for a fraction of a new one. I may try making one, but not embedding it in resin like he does, framing it and buy some used control stuff just to see how much it can generate.
For prepping: I got tomato cages going in the raised beds and planned out perimeter fencing while also installing half a dozen solar-powered motion detector floodlights. Also got shelving in for basement food and water storage and we have to empty the dehumidifier down there daily, I guess. We also need to get a plumber in for the outside faucet that runs outta there. Some other cleanup has to be done in that area and I’m debating whether or not to repair the broken and exposed cement floor in one corner.
Taking a pretty good online ham license course for the Technician level, and will be moving on to the next level when I finish this one and try to take both exams on the same day; guy running it has been in amateur radio for 35 years and teaching it, too, and lives 30 miles south of here. We also have several local ham clubs in the area and I hope to visit one or more, with a Field Day coming up this summer, too.
Some more defense gear and associated stuff showed up.
On the way down to the dump I witnessed half a dozen Army vehicles, mostly Hummers, traveling on I-89 south, and on the way back saw half a dozen more; there could have been additional vehicles traveling up there while I was at the dump. Seemed to be some kind of support unit, with some possible commo gear; vehicles all OD green and uniforms Woodland Camo. Dunno if it’s a routine Guard or Reserve weekend exercise or sumthin else.
Vignettes from the Hannaford’s sooper market: a fugly wallyhog in her 40s waddles in wearing a Metallica tee-shirt. Hot, hot, hot! J’ever notice how female cashiers hand you your change and receipt/s all in one hand, when what you wanna do is dump the change in your left pocket and shove the receipt into one of the bags? And the male cashiers give it to separately so you can do just that?
Now to do some mowing and weed whacking…nice sunny day with blue skies and a light breeze; rain showers expected later, when I have to head down to the airport, natch, and Mrs. OFD is flying in over the lake, where there is always turbulence. Doesn’t faze her anymore.
Wow, one of my cousins came out of the closet on Facebook yesterday with a picture of her and her partner. I had been wondering for a while due to some things that I have been hearing. Oh well, her life and her choices.
lol I logged into my wordpress account and the banner is the gay flag colors.
I’ll be coming out on my new web sites soon. Try to be patient, fellas.
I went the Solar route too this week. Bought an ALLPOWERS 16W dual USB solar charger for $45. Tested it out and it charged my phone & my Android tablet in 4 hrs direct sunlight. I too noted the need to charge smaller cells for flashlights and cameras so I ordered a LingsFire® LS-S2 Universal Intelligent Automatic Fast USB Port Dual/Double-Channel Rechargeable Battery Spring Charger for $10. It will charge a wide variety of small cells 1.2V and 3.7V Rechargeable Battery, 1.2V/AA AAA 3.7V/18650,18500,17650,16340,14500,10500. I will test it this weekend.
Here’s your DX challenge for tomorrow.
http://hackaday.com/2015/06/27/the-alexanderson-transmitter-very-low-frequency-radio-rides-again/
I just hung my Anker solar panel in my East facing window and am running down one of those small round portable usb charged batteries. I’ll plug it into the Anker tonight and see how it charges till the sun goes over. The Twins have South facing window and get Sun most of the day. I’ll hang it there next.
“Here’s your DX challenge for tomorrow.”
Looks kinda interesting. And good tips on antennas there, too.
Wife’s plane w/mechanical issues/problems AGAIN. Instead of 8:40 it went to 9:10 and now it’s gonna be at least 10:30 or later. This is becoming a regular thing now, didn’t used to be this bad. So she’s gonna stay at Grandma’s tonight, or actually, to be more accurate, Great-Grandma’s. Wife is Grandma. I’ll pick her up tomorrow and we’ll do another rare lunch together.
Dead calm here right now after a sunny day; like a t-storm is gonna blow any minute.
Really slim pickin’s in the yard sale/estate sales today. Ended up hitting a bunch of new pawn shops and a couple of thrift stores too.
Still bought almost nothing.
I did get a sphygnomonometer. sp? Blood pressure cuff. $3, so in the bulk medical bag it goes. I pick them up, and stethoscopes, when they are cheap.
Might have received a couple of upper receivers, if I had ordered them that is.
Garden continues poorly. FINALLY the lettuce is bigger than my thumb. The spices and herbs are doing well. Almost all of the spring onions and carrots failed to thrive. I have a few carrots left that are mostly tops. I planted 5 different types of carrots, with really poor results. I went ahead and planted some zucchini and squash in the beds. Also a whole bunch of yellow onions and strawberries that were on closeout. Some of the onions have sprouted, so I may have some by fall. If we had to eat out of the garden we’d be pretty hungry. {update on the square foot garden kit I got at Costco- nothing grew past the seedling stage. It was slow to grow, and then disappeared, probably eaten. I have planted other stuff in the bed. Oddly, it’s the only bed that gets a full day of sun.}
I have some small buds on some of my brussel sprouts, so I may get some after all. If I can keep the snails from eating them.
A couple of beans, one small tomato, and 2 tiny peppers.
The blackberry and blue berry bushes have started to grow.
And it looks like I’ll get some limes and lemons. No peaches, oranges, or grapefruit this year.
You need a lot of practice and a lot of space to grow enough to feed yourself and family. WAY more than people think.
I have been working on a possible side stream of income. I have a vinyl cutter, and have been playing around with making signs and stickers. There is a learning curve of course, and since it’s old, I have to have an XP machine to run it. One interesting thing is that the accuracy and resolution are good enough to make PCB masks. At least on the size and spacing of 70’s thru hole components. There are other techniques, but it might be interesting to try. It’s also possible to do sand blast resists. The kids like the stickers. They are fun to make, and it opens up some possibilities for signs etc for my other businesses.
Didn’t get any work done on my antenna, so I’ll probably miss getting on the air this weekend. Maybe tomorrow.
nick
-blink- You’re a Martian? And a TV personality, or Martian equivalent? And you don’t want to get on the air unless you look good for your audience? That’s cool, I guess. It’s a little surprising that you outed yourself so casually.
“You need a lot of practice and a lot of space to grow enough to feed yourself and family. WAY more than people think.”
We’re looking at our garden this year as an experiment; we’ll see what comes up or not and proceed accordingly; we discovered over the past year, however, that our blueberries weren’t gonna make it, and they didn’t. Not sure if we got bogus plants or the soil just ain’t right for them. We do have wild blackberries, though. Might try growing more of those. And so far our tomatoes and peppers are doing well; alternating days of full sun and drenching rain so far. More rain the next three days, looks like. All the flowers, including the rose bushes, are doing SWELL. Lilacs were great while they lasted.
“It’s a little surprising that you outed yourself so casually.”
My favorite Martian.
The wife and I went took a look at a house today also. Very, very nice 5/3/2 about a 1/2 mile away from our present house.
http://www.har.com/7726-silver-pond-dr/sale_28185414
But, the house has two fairly serious problems for me. One, the garage is a 90 degree turn from the street with a 16 ft door. That means that I cannot swing my Expedition to the right bay, only the left bay is good for me. Two, the back and side fences are metal bars instead of wood for zero privacy in the back yard. We would need to add some shrubberies at the fence to be able to hide from our neighbors and the people hanging around the ponds.
Looks like our house would fit in one of the wings there, with room to spare. But there’s only two of us. That price here would get us a house about the same size as that one, either on one of the Champlain islands with shore frontage and boat dock, or a 40-acre+ farm out in the sticks with a nice old farmhouse on it and barn.
And to my way of thinking, it’s still way too close to the Houston metropole and the Gulf coast, but of course YMMV.
Looks like our house would fit in one of the wings there, with room to spare. But there’s only two of us.
Yup, there is three of us here. Our daughter is 28 and very disabled, she rarely leaves the house. She has two of the bedrooms, a 11 ft x 12 ft and a 12 ft x 14 ft. She has a very small 5 ft x 7 ft ensuite bathroom. If she has to use a wheelchair in the future then I’ve got an immediate problem in our present home. This last winter her arthritis was so bad that she was using a walker a lot.
She and I just watched the Yankees beat up on our poor Astros. And the Astros hit three home runs!
Nice article on what the Christian perspective on same-sex marriage should be:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/june/same-sex-marriage-is-legal-what-now.html
“Regardless of how cultural issues like this are decided, and no matter what sort of authority Christian values have in culture, we must always be about Jesus’ mission.”
I have no doubt whatsoever that Jesus, were he to walk this earth, would eat dinner at a married gay family’s house.
However, this article worries me:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/june/supreme-court-states-cant-ban-same-sex-marriage.html
“Roberts looks ahead to the likelihood of future conflicts between gay rights and religious rights, such as the tax status of conservative Christian colleges. He notes:”
“Hard questions arise when people of faith exercise religion in ways that may be seen to conflict with the new right to same-sex marriage—when, for example, a religious college provides married student housing only to opposite-sex married couples, or a religious adoption agency declines to place children with same-sex married couples. Indeed, the Solicitor General candidly acknowledged that the tax exemptions of some religious institutions would be in question if they opposed same-sex marriage.”
“There is little doubt that these and similar questions will soon be before this Court. Unfortunately, people of faith can take no comfort in the treatment they receive from the majority today.”
I see a lot of lawsuits coming in the next few years between individuals and religious institutions. Many of the same type of questions that religious institutions are raising about Obamacare. Like I said the other day, my preacher feels that he will be arrested in the next decade for refusing to marry two men or two ladies.
@Lynn
Looks like a nice place, but awful close to the river…
I’d bet money that you can’t obstruct the view to the pond due to HOA.
I’ll also bet the dining room is too small to actually use.
A friend had a floorplan similar to that one, and with a real table in the dining room, you couldn’t get the chairs in and out.
Builder grade counters in the baths, nothing wrong, but my wife would say “needs updating.” A lot of the homes like that we looked at had LOTS of little issues due to sloppy construction. Mostly leaking from poor flashing, badly installed windows, and general sloppiness. (Screw pops in the drywall, visible seams, trim details missing or wrong, insulation details missing, that sort of thing. Probably most people wouldn’t see it, but my wife and I both have construction in our backgrounds.)
On the other hand, those things give you bargaining power, and a quick way to add equity when you do upgrade them.
I can’t get a bicycle in my garage at the moment, but even if I emptied it, my Expy wouldn’t fit.
Location wise, on the one hand, there is limited access to the subdivision, on the other, that makes it hard to get out. Hop on 59 to flee, but you’re also on the path out of Houston, so it’s a toss up there. Really only the one freeway out of dodge and the one direction. All of Sharpstown will be driving by if the horde decides to flee. I guess you could hit 99 north if you had to.
It’s amazing that there is so much agriculture right there, just a minute or two outside of town.
This is NOT my house, but the house, location, and neighborhood are similar.
http://www.har.com/2731-durban-dr/sale_17783424
It has a much nicer kitchen than mine, and higher end finishes throughout, but it is really just an updated version. Even the floorplan is similar. It’s listed for about $100k more than I would get, I think.
Just for comparison sake, I paid $85/sqft 7 years ago, so the price for Mr Lynn’s seems pretty fair.
Houston is a funny market. There is a nice home for ANY budget. If you scroll around my map, you’ll see stuff within a mile that is $1.2 million. There are still nice homes on decent lots a little farther out for $140k and if you relish a challenge in a ‘changing’ neighborhood, tan easily, or don’t worry about kids or schools, or a wife, you can buy a home for <$80k within a few miles of my home. Go 5-10 miles north, and you can get 3000 sqft in a (almost) gated community for $220k.
Sales velocity is slowing slightly in our area, but that could be that people are asking higher than the actual market.
nick
We live in Greatwood right now, close to the Brazos River (about the same) and about a 1/2 mile from this house. I would not live in Sharpstown if you paid me, that is a “transitional” area to put it nicely.
<i. It’s amazing that there is so much agriculture right there, just a minute or two outside of town.
Yes, and only three miles away from my office building and business. There is an amazing amount of agriculture going on to cut the property taxes.
Sales velocity is slowing slightly in our area, but that could be that people are asking higher than the actual market.
Yes, the $300K and above market is slowing down significantly. I suspect the entire house market in Houston is getting ready to come to a screeching halt. The oil and gas boom is over for a few years, probably ten. Maybe twenty years. Instead of 75% of the jobs in Houston being connected to oil and gas, it is only 50% nowadays. The second major industry is Houston seems to be retirement now.
I don’t think that Obola realizes how the economy is slowing down. Being a typical lawyer, he thinks that all you have to do is throw money at the job market and people will magically get jobs. As far as I can see, Obamacare is total drag on the job market and increasing the cost of hiring somebody, especially for blue collar positions.
Partially agreed on the lawyerly mindset: those who go into politics or into lobbying think that passing a law, optionally with a bucket of Other People’s Money, will solve any problem … and the unintended consequences of passing that law are always completely unforeseeable.
I’m not sure if I mentioned here before, but half of my classmates in law school were like me: small businessmen, including a lot of medical doctors, who wanted to learn enough to protect ourselves in a hostile environment. We didn’t want to be lawyers, per se. The other half… Typical lawyer larvae. Some were going to Make The World A Better Place and some just wanted to get into a good-paying job* which was easier than computer programming. For all that they were sure they were among the Best and Brightest, they sure were a bunch of useless knobs. And, yes, all problems could be solved with a law and/or money.
* More fools, they. A lot of lawyers have left the law field because the pay is not very good at the junior level, especially considering the required hours of work per week. It may no longer be true, but 15 years ago a flood of people were coming out of law school, driving down the rates.
US law schools are producing at least three times as many lawyers as there are jobs for. Most do not end up practicing law, and the vast majority of those who do end up as sole practitioners or partners in very small firms, where they don’t make nearly enough money to pay off their law school loans.
Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit is a law-school professor, and has been going on about this for years.
“I have no doubt whatsoever that Jesus, were he to walk this earth, would eat dinner at a married gay family’s house.”
He might also advise them while He’s there about the non-cancellation of previous Old Testament laws and was not shy about telling off various people during His time on earth. It’s one thing to talk with prostitutes, beggars, soldiers and tax collectors and would be a little different with people who engage in relationships like that outside the Law and against nature. Leviticus 20:13
Jesus is not always our friend, our pal, our buddy; He is also a judge.
But we have much bigger fish to fry in this country; so what if SCOTUS just told us all to sod off, they’ll do what they want, regardless of the vast majority wishes? We need to get out of the business of Empire and try to make the breakup as painless as possible for most of us.
@Lynn,
Re Sharpstown, I meant that the residents of there and all the surrounding mega-apartment complexes would be headed out of town, right past your community. Well, thru it as I’m sure the whole lakes development would be prime looting territory.
Your main problem, as I see it, is lack of mobility and freedom of movement. Any movement with your daughter is equivalent to a medivac in terms of planning and resources. If you bug out, your business and livelihood is gone too.
So, you either need to be able to hide in plain sight in your primary residence (which must continue to provide for your needs if the end DOESN’T come), or you need a bolthole that you can get away to, once you decide to abandon your business, and primary home.
A modest but well set up vacation home outside the likely disaster zone, and isolated from the economy of Houston but close to regional medical resources should do the trick!
See how easy that was! Now if I was a lawmaker, I’d just pass a law saying you should do that. I wouldn’t provide any funds, and I’d ignore that the benefit of the law is removed if EVERYONE does the same thing.
Students used to be told that studying the law developed researching, logical, and critical thinking abilities that were desirable in any field. Engineering students were told the same. Unfortunately, all studying the law seems to do is teach a moral flexibility and cynicism that is incompatible with good citizenship and ethical business practice.
OLD joke:
What is 2 + 2?
Man on the street says “four”
engineer says “4.0”
accountant says “what do you want it to be?”
lawyer says “depends on the circumstances”
nick
@OFD – good a correct points IMHO.
Before the Episcopal Church turned way radical and forgot what they were about, all the Priests (old line, Low and High Church) taught acceptance of sinners as long as they followed Jesus’s word and “sin no more”. What that means in my mind and what was discussed when I had a Church, in the case of a Gay person (or LGBT person for that matter), they had a place in the Church and could receive Communion as long as they were remaining celibate. They was never any discussion that a Gay couple could not live together, just no doing the nasty and the same applied to Heterosexual couples.
Now back to frying the bigger fish.
Yeah, I grew up Episcopalian, baptized, confirmed, church school teacher and verger. The church left me a long time ago, and officially on Easter 1996 when I became Roman Catholic. We were taught to hate the sin and not the sinner throughout. But now we’re supposed to celebrate both or be Anathema.
The fish we gotta fry are LOTS bigger; there is no attention paid to LGBT stuff in the New Testament, if memory serves. But then again, there is that nagging reminder, that the Law has not changed with Him, not one jot, not one tittle. Matthew 5:18.
Speaking of fish to fry, our plan for today is me picking up wife at Great-Grandma’s and going to lunch for seafood, on the Lake Champlain shore. A nice rainy day, 60 degrees, so the chowder looks dahn good today.
One of my very very bright relatives gave up lawyering because the pay was pathetic and she couldn’t see it getting better. She’s now a grade school teacher. Law schools here in Oz also are pushing far too many grads out the door. A law firm just advertised positions where grads pay $22k to come to work. Not my cup of tea.
Re Sharpstown, I meant that the residents of there and all the surrounding mega-apartment complexes would be headed out of town, right past your community. Well, thru it as I’m sure the whole lakes development would be prime looting territory.
Ah, I understand now. Yup, they would loot Sugar Creek and First Colony first. Get shot there first too. Then the bridges across the Brazos River would become a kill zone. Would be the most horrible thing that you have ever seen.
A modest but well set up vacation home outside the likely disaster zone, and isolated from the economy of Houston but close to regional medical resources should do the trick!
El Campo looks real nice most times of the year. Except when the dust is blowing. My parents live in Port Lavaca which is another fifty miles down the road from El Campo.
I love this shirt! 2 + 2 = 5 (for extremely large values of 2):
http://www.kleargear.com/1002.html
I don’t get it. I don’t consider 2.25 to be an “extremely large value of 2”. Or is this not referring to rounding?
We just told our agent that on our next trip up we’d like to look at a place we originally decided not to. It’s a bit out of town, but it’s 3700 square feet with seven bedrooms and three full baths. There’s also a barn on the property. I told Barbara she could store her farming equipment there.
That’s about the size of the house I grew up in, though we had only two bathrooms. It was a century-old farmhouse, extended and then with central heating added and then extended again and then indoor plumbing added and then coal heat replaced with gas heat. We had a barn and a chicken coop, though my dad tore down the coop because the city extended to include the house and forbade raising livestock. Blackberry and rhubarb patches, and a 1/4-acre garden, which was a lot of work to weed and to harvest and to can.
What is 2 + 2?
Man on the street says “four”
engineer says “4.0”
accountant says “what do you want it to be?”
lawyer says “depends on the circumstances”
2 + 2 = 5 (for extremely large values of 2):
1. A programming joke about round off
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_%2B_2_%3D_5
It’s a bit out of town, but it’s 3700 square feet with seven bedrooms and three full baths.
Are you going to have to heat the entire place? BTW, what is your heat source? I am guessing that you will not have A/C since the night are so cold XXXX cool there.
I would not live in Sharpstown if you paid me, that is a “transitional” area to put it nicely.
Hey, I grew up in Sharpstown, right behind what eventually became Sharpstown High School. I was in the first class that went there for all 3 years of high school.
@ech,
I’m guessin’ that was a few years ago?
nick
We moved to Sharpstown in 1963, my parents moved to Kingwood in 1974 when I was at Rice.