Pretty much the same as yesterday, lots of humidity, some small amount of moisture from the sky, and some sun to keep things a bit too hot… that’s my forecast anyway. It would be nice if the rain held off.
Stayed in Houston this weekend despite having been away from the BOL too long, and having stuff up there that needs to be done.
So I was motivated to work my list here at home.
Got the wall closed up where the water heater used to be. It’s just temporary, because we’ll need to get back in there when the house gets re-piped with pex. And in theory, there will be a cabinet in front of the wall patch so you can’t even see it. It will probably be the same as now in 5 years, if I’m honest about it.
Got the bird netting up over my blueberry <s>bushes</s> sticks. I’ve got berries on a couple of the plants already, so it was time. That net is so nasty to work with, it gets stuck on literally everything and you can barely see or feel it. We don’t think of netting as a weapon, but the Romans used nets in the Colosseum. I think there might be a use for stronger netting inside a fence, for example, as a defensive measure. You’re gonna get tangled up but good, especially if you don’t expect it to be there.
Got one raised bed cleaned up, two bags of dirt added, and zukes and peas planted. Got another cleaned up, added the two bags of dirt, but they were wet and mucky so I’ll wait to plant until today or tomorrow when it’s dried out a bit. I removed and potted several ‘volunteer’ trees from the bed. I’m pretty sure they are the ornamental chinese cherry we have along the fence, and if they survive, I’ll find somewhere to put them.
I’ve got one more raised bed to clean up and plant, and I’ll save a couple of ‘volunteer’ oak saplings from that bed too. I’ve got space for trees at the BOL.
Did some weeding, pruned the apple tree. The peach needs some pruning too. I cut all the dead branches out of the potted grapefruit and got rid of the dead lime. There is room for another raised bed on the side of the house now that the orange and grapefruit trees are gone. I’ll have to think a bit about that. I have some plastic tubs that would make good beds but they look bad. It’s basically next to the neighbor’s driveway and right outside their kitchen window so I have to consider the appearance out of neighborliness.
Wife and child returned from camp, much dirty laundry was piled on the machines. Both of them had a good time.
This week will be more catch-up locally, and pickup of some more stuff for the BOL. It’s mostly lighting this time, but also a gas powered chainsaw. There are some big limbs and trees that need to come down at the BOL. I have a dozen non-running saws, and it’s time to just buy a new one that doesn’t need fixing. I have enough projects.
Speaking of projects, I picked up a 12v fan for a car radiator for $6. I have been picking up 12v stuff when it’s cheap and useful. It will go in the pile of “solar system” stuff. Seems like a good idea to have some things that run on 12v natively if we ever end up on the solar for any length of time.
Along those lines, I’ve been rotating my charger and topping up all my random 12v batteries this weekend. I have a matched set of three that stay connected to a smart charger/maintainer, but I also have a bunch that I’ve been lax about charging. They are big industrial lead acid batteries that I got at auction a year or more ago. They’ll be part of the solar project if I can find a reliable charge controller for the right price. I’ll keep rotating through them all of this week.
There’s always more to do.
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The title is a classic form of story telling, common to soldiers, cops, and others who were in the right place to get a good tale… I’m sure there must be some good stories out there… this being the anniversary week of the Rodney King Riots in LA. They were one of the formative events in my prepping journey. Watching the city burn from your front porch while the smoke blows in through the door will focus your attention on safety and security issues like very few other things could. Lots of people were ready, I was not. I didn’t have enough guns or ammo, something I never really want to feel again.
Stack something today. One or all of the ‘three Bs’, a skill, or a contact, doesn’t matter, just DO it.
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