11:25 – Barbara just finished cleaning house. After lunch, we’re back to doing science kit stuff. In one sense, it’s fortunate we moved to the new house when we did. Our busiest season is mid-July through mid-October, when we do probably 75% of the total business for the year. Things are hectic then, much less so in this first half of the year. That’s given us time to do all the move-related stuff without worrying too much about business demands. On the flip side, our income drops way, way down during the slow times.
Sunday, 3 April 2016
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A Wannabe Supervillian Builds His Own Thermite Cannon.
lol! I want one. Come here little goblins.
“…our income drops way, way down during the slow times.”
Ditto here, when we’re waiting for wife’s employers to get around to processing her invoices and they deign to pay us. Or when she’s taking a month off to relieve the stress brought on by constant travel all over the country, airline security b.s., airport layovers, hustling for accommodations and car rentals, and then taking several hours to do said invoices which now go to an outside party which recently sent automatic error/replies to her saying that she was over the 5MB limit for the .pdf format they require. Yes, you read that right: 5MB. For multiple receipts, documents, etc., some with graphics on them. And so fah this year, my SS checks have come in before her pay checks do. Which saved her bacon at least twice for reserving her accommodations, for which she gets reimbursed, when her employers get around to processing the receipts and then deign to pay her for them again, which can take anywhere from two to six weeks, and more often the latter.
Just back from mass, where I was sitting behind a young couple with four little kids, fairly well behaved but very fidgety. A good mix in our little congregation of young married couples with young kidz, several middle-aged folks like myself, and the ancients. A couple of groups seem to be from the southern Med tier background or Balkans, I’m gonna guess Croatian Catholic, maybe, or Romanian. Naturally I’m the lone towering Visigoth there, continually surprised and in wonder at how short people can live.
“I want one. Come here little goblins.”
A gonzo geek who wears a tie while he does this, with his shirt untucked. OK. I want one, too. Just the thing for that pesky APC down the block where guys are jumping out to take away our guns and religion.
And the insanity continues…
http://takimag.com/article/the_week_that_perished_takimag_april_03_2016/print#axzz44bo8WNri
The day is surely gonna come when all the imbeciles like these will be pretty much wiped out. They just can’t last.
Temps down in the thirties, overcast, very windy, and the pier is mostly underwater again, with ocean-like surf crashing against it. This side of Lake Champlain between us and the Champlain Islands is known as the Inland Sea part of the lake. Not a good day for kayaks or canoes.
Last night here, the low was mid-20’s with winds of 40MPH gusting to 60.
Temps down here last night; not sure how low. We had an inch of snow on the ground this morning, adding significantly to the season’s total.
Currently 73 F with 78%RH, sunny blue sky. Occasional light breezes.
I’m in the sun baking my brains, working on my grape arbor.
And doing remote tech support in between.
nick
“Last night here, the low was mid-20’s with winds of 40MPH gusting to 60.”
Pretty much exactly the same here overnight. No snow.
Working on kitchen and vehicle cleanup and getting the Princess car paperwork ready to register it here in VT in her mom’s name; the stuff we’d have to do to register it in Quebec is mind-bogglingly complex and expensive and she’s likely to only be up there another eight months (unless she extends the current six-year BA Plan to seven or eight years by changing her major again.) I anticipate us having to finance yet another European Tour after that somehow. Wife has supposedly told her that any such capers or grad study is gonna be on HER dime. We shall see.
After that, I’m fiddling with attic space stuff again and playing around with a new download/install of Tails, which is also kinda complex lately. I dig the idea of persistence on a USB stick, though. SW is still kinda dead today and the scanner has the usual small-town crapola. Boring. We need some zombie hordes attacking from the big cities ASAP so we can try out that British geek’s thermite grenades.
I’m also pondering the idea of building my own garden shed for the outside tool collection; it’s tempting to blow money on one of those plastic pre-fab jobs but they look sucky and still require a fair amount of labor to set up. Might be able to do it cheaper and learn some basic carpentry skillz, which I’m a noob at, of course. I’ve got a set of plans and parts list from Mother Earth News and it doesn’t look that hard. I’m thinking maybe I’ll start it with the foundation and walls and then let somebody more experienced do the roof with me. Ideas? Thoughts?
I wanna store the lawn mower, snowblower, string trimmer, stuff like that, in there, plus the gas cans and thermite grenades.
re shed, unless you’re talking a big enough shed that “pole barn” would be a better description, you can do it yourself. (Unless you have vertigo or some other reason you shouldn’t be up off the ground.)
It might be better (less work, possibly better construction, possibly cheaper) to buy pre-made tresses if you want a typical peaked roof. If the shed isn’t too large, a non-peaked (but still sloped) roof should be fine, and easier to build, and a possibility for solar panels or planters if you angle it south.
That said, an assemble-it-yourself metal shed might be cheaper than a wood option. Fifteen years ago I got an 8×10 shed for a bit over half the price that the lumber would have been. YMMV; lumber around here is very expensive.
For the foundation, a small shed does fine with cinder blocks (either 4″ solid or 8″ hollow, depending on how much elevation you want in case of ground water). In my experience, the loose blocks are actually better than a poured slab because they won’t break if the ground shifts. (Yes, all ye critics, I know that with proper site selection and ground prep and a thick enough slab, it won’t crack. In practice, I’ve seen a lot of sheds and garages and patios with big-ass cracks up here.) (Pun of course not intended. I would never make a pun!)
I’m also pondering the idea of building my own garden shed for the outside tool collection;
You may need to get permits from the city and others. My homeowners association has a covenant that prohibits sheds. I had a small “closet” I kept tools in for a while, but it was not visible from the street.
Metal sheds are worthless today, the gauge of the metal is about as good as a soda can.
Check with places like home depot, they have assemble it yourself wood kits. No cutting, prime painted. Look cost effective to me.
Two years ago when my 20-year old Arrow metal shed got taken out by a big wind burst (wife and I were eating breakfast, heard a “sonic boom” and saw the shed go flying through the cedar fence). I wanted to upgrade that 10×16 shed, so the insurance company was ready to deal. I got a 16×20 wood shed built to home code standards, on a concrete slab, and fully painted for less than $3,000.00. Yes, that is the same shed that lost its shingles a few months back. The contractor used standard shingles and I should have specified 150mph architectural to match the house.
BTW, the restoration company that took care of removing the shed recycled the steel for me (this was just before scrap steel became almost worthless) and I got a nice check.
Currently 77.5°F, 30% humidity, hazy sky, slight breeze and the dandelions have all of a sudden taken over. The yard chemical guys are coming this week, thank goodness.
Here’s a drone that you *want* to shoot down. Watch the end where they finally fcuk it up.
If there was ever something worthy of being called a chopper, this crazy contraption is truly it.
The radio-controlled helicopter not only has rotary blades, but it also has a chainsaw attached to it.
The three friends from Finland who made it have nicknamed the invention their ‘killer drone’, and used the test flight to hack at trees, icicles and snowmen.
“…and a possibility for solar panels or planters if you angle it south.”
Probably not applicable; small yahd with overhanging trees anyway.
“You may need to get permits from the city and others.”
Noted. Will check with neighbor, as he has at least three of them (prefabs). Still took him a couple of days with a helper just to put those up.
“Two years ago when my 20-year old Arrow metal shed got taken out by a big wind burst…”
Most certainly a consideration here! We’re having some nice 40-50 MPH gusts right now! It’s gotten windy enough to make it hard for us to stand upright or move across the yahd, and fairly heavy canvas chairs have gone flying.
Given all this, I’ll take a look at the Big Box places for DIY wood structures, per DadCooks, for now. We also wanna do a bit of fencing and a deck at some point but the shed will be a priority before next winta.
Thanks for the ideas, gents!
“Watch the end where they finally fcuk it up.”
It’s Finland. Nothing to do there since the Germans and Russians left. Reminds me of northern Vermont, though.
Just saw this video of the Volcano Grill (by Powerderhook?). https://www.facebook.com/Powderhook/videos/571330026353478/ . Uses propane, charcoal, wood as fuel. You can grill, use a
Interesting option for cooking. Amazon has what appears to be the full package here: http://amzn.to/1M91B1V for about $190. Also available at the Emergency Essentials site (www.beprepared.com ).
Interesting, I thought.
Indeed. I’d be interested in seeing a range of comments on Amazon about it, though. Somebody always has a dud or a bitch/gripe about stuff.
Which reminds me; I gotta clean up our PK Grill and also haul down the deep turkey fryer gizmo that wife got several years ago and we never used. Plus a big-ass cowboy grill kettle thing I never got around to setting up. Fun stuff for the summa!
Oh wait–we don’t get summa here.
I’ve got a Butterball branded turkey fryer. It works like a champ. Works as advertised.
I’d sooner use a few buck’s worth of bricks or concrete blocks to build a rocket stove (or stoves). You can’t burn propane, but wood or charcoal works fine. You can build as many as you need to cook with several pots and pans or even a Coleman oven, all at once.
It is currently 72 and cloudy here with 32% humidity. I just got back from a 3 hour sail on the Columbia River. Off to see “The Pianist of Willesden Lane” this evening (http://pcs.org/pianist/index.html)
All in all a very good day.
Rick in Portland
” You can’t burn propane, but wood or charcoal works fine.”
The ability to burn propane would be the minor selling point for me; our outdoor cooking gizmos all use charcoal or wood. We do not currently have any Coleman-type stoves.
I started watching “The Witch” a couple of times but either I got a crappy downloaded version or they’re using vaseline on the camera lenses.
Started “In the Heart of the Sea” (notice the ancestral interest trend here?) but the dialogue was kinda wooden and the story is pretty effin depressing. Read the book ages ago. Know all about it. Ancestors again.
Next up: “10 Cloverfield Lane,” I guess, on the recommendations of others here.
Every time I do the math on build vs buy for sheds, buy wins. Our big box stores have some very nice and sturdy wooden sheds in every size, style, and budget. Some can even be used as cabins. Plus we have at least one local company that does pre-built wooden sheds.
Keep it under 100 sq ft of roof and you usually don’t need permits or permissions if you don’t have an HOA with their own rules.
I vote for blocks as a foundation too. If you want to, dig a hole first and fill it with crushed stone, compacting as you go. Then put the block on top of that. But its probably overkill.
Any kit will have suggested or required minimum foundation designs.
If you design yourself, don’t skimp on the floor structure. You won’t regret making it BEEFY. you will regret if it sags and bellies…..
nick
Got my grape arbor standing! It’s basically a 2 ft wide ladder, 14 ft long, held up by 4 posts. It straddles one of my raised beds. Looks nice, and I haven’t even finished the trim yet. Grape vines are starting to leaf so I thought I’d better get it done.
And it got a pile of lumber out of my driveway.
nick
Will probably go for a kit and also with a beefy foundation here, as it gets wet and muddy when the ground isn’t actually frozen.
I like that grape arbor idea; will run it by the wife. Blueberries failed, and whatever else she put in their place, which I forget, also failing. I’d like to try blackberries along our stone wall in the back, though.
Looks like it might NOT have been a trial run:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3521938/Man-28-caused-terrorism-scare-Times-Square-ditching-truck-gets-10-summonses.html
n
@ofd,
It’s funny. Blackberries are an invasive weed here, and I can’t get them to grow.
The grape vines look like their doing well, but the proof will be in the fruit. I put red at one end and purple at the other end, both table varieties. We’ll see if they meet in the middle 🙂
Just did a craigslist sale in the grocery parking lot. Feels SO illicit. Nice to have the $100 bucks for an estate item I bought for $5. Still, told the wife who I was meeting, what they were driving, and I go everywhere heavy anyway…. Friendly guy, quick sale, bit of chat, and my garage has one fewer item.
nick
“Blackberries are an invasive weed here, and I can’t get them to grow.”
We get wild blackberries growing on the fence between us and the neighbor but it’s not what we want; we gotta do the big fat ones that will grow in this climate with some shade for half the day. I’ll even try raspberries, gooseberries and huckleberries. And I know grapes can be grown here but there are several vineyards/wineries in Vermont, although, truth be known, well to our south. Probably have better luck brewing beer and/or distilling likka. That gets done up here all over the place.
You “go everywhere heavy,” eh? Good policy. Ditto up here. Including to Mass and gummint buildings, the latter of which explicitly prohibit doing so. They can kiss my ass; I was good enough to carry really heavy for them over forty years ago and I’m mos def good enough now.
For the foundation, a small shed does fine with cinder blocks
Built our own mower building, 10×12 with 8 foot interior walls and pitched roof. Did everything ourselves including the foundation. Built our own trusses which was a mistake, should have contracted with Home Depot to have them built. The foundation is poured concrete with re-bar reinforcement around the edges with 18 inch deep footers. Standard mesh in the middle. Specified fiberglass in the concrete that was delivered and that stops the cracks from forming. Side walls are some type of cement/fiberglass/whatever board that looks like siding, immune to rot or degradation and easily painted.
Everything was done by my wife and I with the exception of the concrete slab. Brought in a couple of young friends as moving concrete is hard work. The delivery truck was able to pour directly into the location but the cement still had to be spread. Placed anchor bolts in the cement before it hardened so the building is fastened down quite well, with steel straps on the studs at the bottom and top. Also buried an electrical conduit before the concrete was poured so I could get electrical. Placed a sub panel tied to the main panel ground. 220V circuit to the building and split in the sub panel into 110V legs with the outlets on GFCI. Motion sensitive security lights by the door. Three way switches for the lights so either side of the entrance door can trip the lights.
I figure that figure of speech won’t trigger any keyword searches 🙂 Might have to grab my roscoe and ankle down the way….
nick
@ray, that’s more than a “shed”, that’s an outbuilding 🙂
nick
There’s a whole internet “thing” with people turning sheds into cool things, like writer’s retreats, pub style hangouts, labs, mancaves, etc Some people cram a lot of stuff into a small space.
Mr. Ray kicks major ass with sheds/outbuildings and FLASHLIGHTS. I’m nowhere near his league in either category. Just wanna put together a wood kit from Home Depot on a solid foundation above the wet ground. For our mower, snowblower, etc. Don’t need juice to it; as it is, we gotta figure out why half the outlets in wife’s studio/shed ain’t working, probably just a blown fuse. That building that Mr. Ray put together could be used for assembling thermite grenades.
“Might have to grab my roscoe and ankle down the way….”
I stay heeled all the time just in case I need to pull my smokewagon. I’m betting lots more peeps pack heat these days. Good policy.
Blackberries are an invasive weed here, and I can’t get them to grow.
In Houston, those are probably dewberries. Native here. When I was growing up, the field behind the house had several big patches of them. Always took a snake stick when i went picking them. The field is now Sharpstown High School, opened just in time for me to go there all 3 years of high school. Now a very, very different school. One thing I noticed driving by a week ago. The one of the temporary buildings by the east entrance is still there – for over 40 years….
Tried to post something else earlier but the connection timed out again, not uncommon for this site, at least at this location.
So here’s a long piece on Trump and the ‘revolt of the masses’…
https://thefifthwave.wordpress.com/2016/03/29/the-revolt-of-the-public-and-the-rise-of-donald-trump/
“Your vote will no longer count much at all.”
Hahahaha…good one! When DID it???
http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=7038
Speaking of carrying,
A little refresher:
https://www.texaslawshield.com/case-study-what-not-to-do-after-a-gun-incident/
“She added that John could have prevented officers from trying to obtain evidence to use against him in a criminal trial if he had just said the simple words, “I invoke my right to remain silent, and my right to an attorney.”
John is now facing charges, and as the case proceeds, we will keep you informed as to the outcome.
Texas Law Shield’s advice to members: Don’t just know your rights, use them!”
nick
The police are NOT your friend.
NOT LIKE US
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3522681/Four-men-charged-gang-raping-nine-year-old-girl-mom-left-sleeping-sofa-went-visit-friends-Utah.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3522589/Violent-footage-captures-shocking-moment-mother-drops-baby-ground-throw-punches-brutal-brawl.html
n
Things are getting sporty:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3521831/Racial-tensions-erupt-Dallas-opposing-armed-groups-clash-outside-Nation-Islam-mosque.html
Note that this was not an ordinary mosque, but a Nation of Islam mosque, which is the radical racist violent mish mash of ideas of Louis Farrrrakaan.
So really this group no one ever heard of before the other day was protesting a group that is really radical violent black racism dressed up as a religion.
nick
For those of you thinking about well pumps and solar:
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/solar-water-pumps/
Short summary and some links.
Judging by the mugshots, I’d say they’re … of Nordic descent?
@steveF, yep, look like Rhodes scholars too.
There are good evolutionary reasons why we prefer good looking people. Outward appearance is an indicator for the good stuff inside.
These mugs look like their genetic legacy came out of the slop bucket at the 24hr video and syphilis palace.
nick
[music playing]
instant karma gonna get you….
“Shocking moment crowd of people are engulfed in flames after crashed fuel tanker erupts in a fireball as they try to steal fuel from it in Egypt”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3522523/Shocking-moment-crowd-people-engulfed-flame-crashed-fuel-tanker-erupts-fireball-try-steal-fuel-Egypt.html
For you “budding” gardeners out there: How long has it been, or ever, since you had your soil tested?
Improper soil minerals and pH may be at the heart of some of youz guyz problems.
Our Master Gardeners Club, County Extension Agent, College Extension Agent, and most garden centers will do a free or low cost full soil test (if you plant in several areas have them all tested). Depending on the plants you would be surprised what some vinegar, baking soda, or calcium will do.
Now let’s get back to heirloom seeds. Plants tend to become localized. It will be best if you start planting some of those heirloom seeds and selecting next year’s seeds from the plants that showed hardiness and production, as well as taste.
Dad’s short story for today: My Aunt Juanita (from Newberry SC “adopted” our family during WWII, long story) gave me some tomato seeds that had been in her family for over 100 years, huge 3 to 4 pounds of the most solid, meatiest, sweetest tomatoes you have ever tasted, one slice hangs over the side of a sandwhich. When I first tried growing them in WA State they did not do well, but I kept selecting and in about 5-years I was getting good germination, growth, hardiness, yield, and flavor. Nothing better than a big warm tomato fresh off the vine, eaten right there in the garden with juices dripping down your face and arm (I always carry a salt shaker in my pocket when harvesting tomatoes, quality control you know).
Yep. Landrace is one of the issues seldom mentioned.
I’ve got the paperwork/forms ready to send off with a sample to the UV agricultural office that does the testing; our back yard seems to be a mix of decent dark topsoil (over the leach field) and clay. Stuff got dumped out back over a couple of hundred years, too.
Anyone starting the Hillarity Clint on diet plan? It works by suppressing your appetite, and making it harder to keep food down…
Sounds like love at first sight to me. Shudder. Gack. Shudder.
nick
Hell, I’ve been advertising my diet service for decades. Just talk to me before every meal and watch the pounds melt away.
So, have you ever thought about Nancy Pelosi in high heels, a pair of thigh-high stockings, a black corset, and nothing else?
The Huma marriage must be pretty weird; hubby is a creepy Jewish perv and she’s connected to radical hadji groups who would happily slaughter all the Jews in the world; plus the obvious “symbiotic” relationship with Cankles.
OFD has a diet plan, too; I eat what I like to eat, period.
My diet plan is the “light” diet.
I eat whenever there is light. BTW I have lots of flashlights.