Font Size:     

Month: July 2023

Fri. July 21, 2023 – which has come far too quickly this week

Hot hot hot. Humid, humid, humid. 100F or more today, with sun. Like yesterday. It’s hot.

Got my trailer, got to SA, got it loaded, and safely home. Today I will take it to the BOL and unload. Still not sure if I’m just staying up there and installing the stuff or if I’m turning and burning for home. I have not gotten enough stuff done at home recently, but there are jobs to do at the BOL too.

D1 going to camp on Sunday complicates things, as W and D2 will stay home to get her ready and then to camp… otherwise, I think my wife would just bring the kids up for the weekend too. Staying at the BOL by myself feels a bit like hiding from the work down here. Which is really weird.

Oh well, I’ll play it by ear. Maybe I’ll split the difference.

In any case, I’ll be heading up later today. I do have a pickup to make and I want to get a couple of things from Lowes so that should fill my morning.

There is always more to do. I will have to make choices.

Making choices sucks because once you do, you have collapsed all the possibilities down into that one choice. And what if it’s the wrong choice?? Don’t be paralyzed by that fear. You can change it later. There may be more cost, there may be opportunity lost, but for almost everything, you can fix or modify it later. So make a choice. It’s also why I try to have costs as low as possible, so the impact of a wrong choice is minimized, at least financially.

One choice NOT to make is to put off prepping. Do it. Stack some things. Otherwise, you will be cursing yourself later.

nick

Read the comments: 61 Comments

Thur. July 20, 2023 – lots of driving today

Hot and humid again and still. Well over 100F in my driveway yesterday but I missed the peak. It was still 99F in the shade at 7pm. Today will likely be similar. Which should be miserable.

Didn’t do much yesterday. Got my trash and debris from the BOL disposed of. Took D1 to an appointment. Mostly caught up on auctions. Several things I need are in this week’s sales. Hope I get a few.

Today will mostly be eaten by picking up a trailer, heading to San Antonio, picking up a load of stuff there, and heading home. Should be about 7 hours round trip, once I have the trailer. I’ll be driving the Expedition as it has more towing capacity. It’s more comfortable, but drinks more gas. At least I’ll have the Jim Butcher audio book to listen to. Should be pretty close to the end by the time I get home.

I ordered a set of the first 4 books in the series since I’m liking this one so much. I’ve read them, some more than once, but I’m laughing at the humor and turn of phrase. There is a lot of detail in the books, and knowing where the story goes, it’s easy to see where some of the arcs start. One inconvenient thing is that the set is MP3 audio on CDs. I’ll have to convert and rip to regular CDs to listen in my Ranger, it doesn’t play mp3. I think it’s about 10 hours per book, so it will take me a while to get through the first ones, after I finish the current one. The MP3 sets are MUCH cheaper than standard 10 disc CD sets. 4 disks vs 40 is a dramatic reduction.

It might be easier to move them to my phone and play through an FM modulator. That’s how I have my XM radio attached in the Ranger. Or move them to a different phone… android really doesn’t handle concurrent audio from different sources very well. I’ll lose the turn by turn navigation, or the audio stream. Or I could swap out the older factory radio for something more capable. I’ve got the upgraded radio, that will play mp3s, on the shelf as a backup. Nothing is ever as easy or straightforward as it should be though, and I’ve got more projects than I can get to already.

———————————–

All the chattering aside, the work on the BOL will be eating up the majority of my time for a while. Somehow I’ll have to fit in the changeover to new tenants and all that entails at the rental house too. Got to keep that income stream flowing. That’s a backup too. And doing all the stuff around the house here, and the vehicle maintenance, and getting the kids started in the new school year…

Yeah. Don’t weaken. Don’t falter. Get ready. Stack.

nick

Read the comments: 72 Comments

Wed. July 19, 2023 – home sweet home

Where it is hot and humid. Because Texas. Hoping we don’t cross 100F again, but not betting against it. It was certainly that hot at the BOL yesterday.

Did some stuff before heading home, details are in yesterday’s comments. Mostly little short tasks that weren’t critical. It was too hot to do much.

Today I’ve got to get caught up here at home, make arrangements for a pickup in San Antonio, and get rid of all the trash and debris I brought home with me. It would also be nice to take a load to my auctioneer… but I’m not counting on that.

And I need to take a look at the current auctions. There is still stuff I need for the BOL and even some things for home.

I may even break down a buy some stuff directly, mainly sprinkler stuff. I need pipe, connectors, and sprinkler heads. I’ll give the auctions a chance, and even cruise ‘the bins’ once before paying retail though.

There is always something needed, and something missing. And usually something that needs replacing or updating. So get to it, stack some things.

nick

Read the comments: 73 Comments

Tues. July 18, 2023 – still plugging away, but progress is happening…

Hot and humid. Duh. Extra hot in fact. Dunno what the high in the sun was, but in full shade we cracked 100F. Humidity was down though which helped, and we had a fairly steady breeze.

I spent the day working on sprinklers. I got the manifold working with 6 zones and one ‘always on’ spigot. I hooked up a sprinkler head to an adapter and a garden hose and ran that most of the afternoon. The goal was to get a feel for pressure, capacity, and usage by the big rotating heads, while at the same time, actually watering some of the yard.

Then I started working on the existing ‘trunk line’ to the front yard. I expected some issues, as I could see a break, I needed to get into it somehow, and it ran near where we did a bunch of trenching for the septic- with a Ditch Witch.

I was able to build a mess of adapters to get the water into the pipe. Running water through it got me water gushing up from the ground… So I spliced that. Water gushing up 10 ft further up the hill… can’t find the pipe to splice. So work back from the next spigot. Find a break in the first foot of digging. Yup, pretty sure we ripped out almost 20 ft with the Ditch Witch.

Since I could see the pink lines for the septic drip field in one of the holes, I didn’t want to go digging around. I set up one of the zones with a hose and a pressure wand and spent an hour ‘trenching’ with the wand. MUCH easier than digging with shovels in 100F sun. Yeah, I’ll stand there with a hose and wand for an hour if that’s what it takes. Anyway, cut a trench about 6 inches deep and pretty much exactly as wide as the pipe, for 20 feet. Cut some roots out with pruning shears. DIDN’T find any more septic parts.

Today I’ll think about running into town for some plumbing parts and to see if they have the 1″ poly irrigation line and fittings. If not, I’ll bring it up with me next time. Which will be soon, as I’ve won some stuff to do a temporary deck in back. I’d like to get that in before it rains and turns the red clay dirt and dust into muck. It’ll involve another trailer rental and speed run. Joy. Pickup in San Antonio, drop off a couple hours north of Houston. I don’t think I’ll be doing that in one day but I will be doing it before the end of the week.

It’s a great life if you don’t weaken…

So DON’T WEAKEN.

And stack stuff. Plumbing parts. Electrical repair stuff. Tools. And know how, or reference materials*.

nick

*adding a Hoyle’s book of card game rules to the next trip up. A copy of the Home Handyman might be good too.

Read the comments: 48 Comments

Mon. July 17, 2023 – New week, same work…

Hot again, and humid. The little bit of moisture from the sky we got yesterday didn’t help anything, just made it more humid. And when it finally cleared up in the late afternoon, it was hot and sunny, and humid.

I was fortunate to be mostly working in the shade, and I did set up the pop-up canopy for the area not covered by the roof, which helped.

I got the pump tested, the pump discharge pipe fixed, extended, and reconnected. It was mostly repairs and not much pipe in places. I built a manifold for the valves. Connected that. Mounted a couple of valves. Didn’t want to fire up water under pressure until today when the glue has really cured. Cleaned up and switched to yardwork.

Did a bit of weed-wacking around the dockhouse. Used the battery powered trimmer, which I still like for small jobs. Rigged up a pump and hose to water the bushes next to the dockhouse. I watered them all last summer as they were transplants and needed it. So far they were fine but showing some signs of stress, so I watered them. I just dropped a submersible pump in a bucket in the lake and fed a hose. The hose was connected to last year’s drip irrigation for those bushes. I’ve been meaning to try it out, but didn’t have power at the dock…

The lake level dropped a couple more inches yesterday. We really need some rain.

Called it a day before the sun set, and got some fishing in. No catching, one nibble. Tried 4 different baits. Oh well.

Today we’re still here, so I’ll be working on the sprinklers. Should be able to get the zones set up, at least with hoses and temporary heads. That will be enough to do what I need, and to test the system. Wife will be trying to work remotely. Kids will be sleeping late and playing the new Zelda on the Switch. So it should be a good day.

Fix something, learn something, meet someone, or stack it up. Or all of the above.

nick

Read the comments: 49 Comments

Sun. July 16, 2023 – yeah, it’s still hot, and I’m still working in it

Crazy hot again, but at least the RH is a bit lower. In some ways that is bad, because I didn’t notice just how hot it got. I stayed a bit too long in the heat and ended up having to take a break to cool off. Today should be about the same, but I’m taking the afternoon off if it’s that hot again. 97F in the shade with a breeze is pretty dang hot.

I did get work done, just not as much as when it’s a bit cooler. I have lights and power at the dock and the dock house again. I did have to jerry rig the main breaker in the workshop to feed the dock area, but I’ll clean that up on my next trip. For now, there is power down there.

Today will be cleaning up the install, putting covers on everything, then doing some more work on the sprinklers. I did get the pump motor wired up, the pump relay in place, and the control box mounted. The new breaker panel is up and working. I need to strap up some of the conduit, and put the extra bits and pieces away too. Then I’ll look at the output from the pump, and see if I can build the manifold and install the sprinkler valves.

If I can get a couple of zones working, I’ll run hoses and oscillating sprinkler heads to the areas that need it the most. There is still a ‘trunk line’ of pipe running up the fence line to the front yard that I’m going to try to get back into service. That will save me a ton of work trying to get irrigation to the top of the hill. Then I’ll do more hoses and temporary heads up there.

If I can get sprinklers working on this trip, it’ll be a major accomplishment and we can get some grass going in the front yard. That’s gonna be critical if we don’t want all the red clay dirt to dry up and blow away. Eventually we will get some rain, and it’ll be just mud without grass. The lake is down about a foot from normal levels so the rain is overdue.

Nothing like last year, yet, but if we don’t get some rain, it will continue to recede.

@brad said I have a lot of energy, but that’s not quite right. It’s more that I’ve learned to focus and just keep pushing when that’s what the job requires. Jenny is the one with all the energy!

I did push a little too hard yesterday afternoon, and had to go inside and lay on the cool concrete floor for a bit. Harder to judge the state of my body without sweat dripping from my nose and eyelashes…

So I’ll take it a bit easier today. Still working though, still stacking. Recommended.

nick

Read the comments: 87 Comments

Sat. July 15, 2023 – boy howdy it’s hot

Yes, it is hot. Humid, and hot. Sunny and hot. So I’m out working in it… The highest I saw in the shade yesterday was 95F at the dock, with a cooler breeze off the water. The sun was hotter by a lot. I struggled to stay hydrated, but at least the humidity was only 50%RH. That helped quite a bit.

I did get a bunch of work done on the new electrical for the dock and dock house. Got the conduit and wire in for the little house, that was run as feeder without breakers. It’s two circuits in conduit now, with breakers (when I get them installed.) Got the feeder conduit and wire installed. Got the panel mounted. Brought two existing circuits into the panel.

I still have to install breakers and land the circuits. I need to add a box and some romex to straighten out the lighting circuit before connecting it, and I need to install a circuit for the sprinkler controller and the pump motor circuit. Once I get all that done, I’ll change the fused disconnect for a breaker/disconnect and power up to see what I’ve got…

I’ll admit that late in the afternoon, the sun and heat did get to me a bit. I was banging my head against a wall trying to get my fish tape through the conduit and it just wouldn’t go. I finally just cut the pipe near where the tape stopped and jiggled the tape past the binding spot. Should have done that sooner, but I wasn’t 100% at that point. Took a break and cooled down. Felt more rational after that.

It was a long day and I spent it entirely doing electrical. Running the conduit under the dock and around existing obstacles took much longer than it should have. Working in the heat just takes longer too.

Today the rest of the pack arrives at some point, and I’ll probably take a short break when that happens. Otherwise, I’ll be doing electrical work.

Always be working… and stacking…

nick

Read the comments: 57 Comments

Fri. July 14, 2023 – Windy and hot

Hot, humid, and windy too. That’s today at the BOL. Wind was crazy last night, blowing steady 5-10mph with significant gusts beyond that. Couldn’t keep a lantern lit on the dock last night. At 84F it was pleasant for my radio and tiny little fire.

Got my morning stuff done, and eventually got out of the house and on my way yesterday. Had D1 and the dog in the truck so my pack was a bit different. Not as much stuff coming up here loaded into the back.

Got here and installed the stairs. Had help from my fisherman friend, with the main work done by the block and fall. Stairs fit without modification. Spooky how my life works sometimes. They aren’t perfectly suited to the job, but are more than merely adequate. A bit longer with a few more steps would have been ideal, but hey, they’re in, I didn’t have to build them, and they will be fine for as long as we need them. I have a little bit of fine tuning to do for the bottom landing, and some lights would be nice, but I got really freaking lucky with them.

Today will be electrical work on the dock. I think I have a plan and all the stuff I need. If it goes well, hooray. If not, we’ll plug away and do what we can. After the electrical, it’ll be time to do some plumbing for sprinklers.

There is plenty to do. I did add some frozen food to the stacks up here, and some more paper products. There were a few medical supplies as well.

Keep working on somewhere to go if you have to get out of Dodge. Keep stacking.

nick

Read the comments: 96 Comments

Thur. July 13, 2023 – Friday the 13th falls on a Thursday this month

Hot again, and again, and again. Humid too. 84F in the morning, but 100+ later. Humid too. Did I mention humid?

Did my speed run to get the staircase to the BOL. Picked up the uhaul trailer, got on the wrong freeway, corrected that, bought and loaded the stairs, and headed out. A couple hours and some to and fro to get the truck and trailer into the right spot, and a bit of rope, and the stairs are unloaded on the grass. There is a well positioned tree to help me get the thing up the hill and in place too. This stair will replace the concrete shitepile that I removed when I had the machines up there. It will be temporary until we get a deck designed and installed. Without something there we would have no direct access to the back yard, and down the hill to the dock and the lake.

I turned around and headed home as quickly as I could. Got the trailer returned, and switched to the pickup truck to head to Lowes. Did a bunch of head scratching in the aisles and picked up enough plumbing fittings that I should be able to cobble together a manifold for the sprinklers. Also picked up a few more electrical parts and fittings to complete the electrical replacement at the dock and dock house. Hopefully.

Electrical is first on the list, as is stairs… yeah I know. I’ll alternate if I get stuck, but stairs are really first. I will probably not have everything to finish the stairs though, so I’ll jump to electrical.

Plan is to head out today, stopping to pick up rigging stuff and hit one auction pickup along the way. I’ll take D1 and the dog with me this time. W! and D2 will join us later.

I’ll probably also do some raking and shoveling to clean up the front yard and new drainage ditch in between other tasks. I was in a big hurry with the machines coming off rent, and didn’t get everything as nice looking as I would have liked. It’s just red dirt, and without working sprinklers will STAY just dirt. Sprinklers are now officially moved up the list, as is getting a quote to sod the front yard… there’s always more to do…

So work to improve your situation. Think hard about getting away from big cities, especially ones with failing services, rising crime, or lots of violent amish and tatted up invaders. Several people that frequent this place have followed RBT and Barbara’s lead and moved already. The BOL is my effort. Better to move a little early than to leave it too late and get stuck.

Stay or go, in either case stacks will help, so keep stacking too.

nick

Read the comments: 74 Comments

Wed. July 12, 2023 – when I say ‘jump’, you say ‘how high’

Hot and humid, again, and still. Clear for the next few days too. It was another really hot day yesterday. A/C couldn’t keep up in the late afternoon. Cutting down the tree that shaded the back side of the house made a big negative difference. The slightly lighter roof color must help some, but not as much as shade.

I did my pickup yesterday, and stopped at Habitat for Humanity reStore looking for doors and cabinets. I found a staircase that will work nicely for the rotten old concrete and brick one I tore out just before leaving the BOL last week. Unfortunately I need to rent a trailer to get it home, or to the BOL. THAT is my task for today. Rent the trailer, buy the staircase, run it to the BOL, unload, then come home to return the trailer. I have until Friday morning if I need to stay, or don’t get back early enough.

Then I need to do what didn’t get done yesterday and head back up to the BOL with D1 on Friday. What was supposed to be a leisurely return to the BOL and a few days with just D1 and working on projects, has turned into a mad dash and lots of coordinated messing around. But I don’t generally say ‘no’ when the universe drops what I need in my lap. The staircase is at least a 90% solution as is. Can’t really say no to that. I’m pretty sure it will take a whole lot less effort to adapt it to work than to build something from scratch. Rough cost in money is about the same, but there should be a huge savings of time and effort. Right now, all three of those things are in short supply. And it could be an even better fit than I expect. I won’t know that until I get it roughly in place.

I really really hope it’s still there this morning. The way the reStore deals with holds, and delayed pickups is just plain retarded. It’s causing me anxiety this morning and could cost me a day of trailer rental for nothing, if someone buys the stupid thing before I can get there. Fingers crossed that it wouldn’t have been there for me yesterday if it wasn’t meant for me today.

Anyway that’s what I’m doing, working on improving my position. Stacking will wait for a day or two. Pick one or the other and just do it. (stacking is easier)

nick

Read the comments: 65 Comments
// ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- // end of file archive.php // -------------------------------------------------------------------------------