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Month: November 2024

Sat. Nov. 30, 2024 – headed home

COLD. Crisp is too generous. It was 34F when I went to bed at 2am. Winter is here, at least at the BOL. It will warm up, but hoooboy, it’s chilly.

Didn’t spend a lot of time outside Friday. Did some small things in the house. Mainly I got down the Christmas decorations and lights and put them up. Later we put up the tree and decorated. Ate leftovers that were just as good or better than yesterday, and stayed inside where it was warm.

Watched “Alone” until early morning hours, then went to bed.

Today will be wrapping up and heading home. I have a pickup about 2 hours away that has to happen before 2pm, so I’m out of here before noon. W and the girls will follow a bit later. I’d like to stay, but it didn’t work out this trip.

Lessons learned this trip were that I have a lot of rice in buckets up here. I need a bit more of everything else…

Now to get busy, so I can get home, and adjust the stacks there.

Take stock, make adjustments, stack what’s needed.

nick

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Fri. Nov. 29, 2024 – Slightly less red Friday

Cold but clear. Warming later but IDK how much. Funny thing is that at the beginning of the week the forecast was for warming. Cooling happened. Oh well, that’s why I no longer pay much attention.

Thursday was a lot of cooking, some great smells and even better tastes, sitting around watching tv, and the smallest bit of work… and only because it enabled cooking.

I made bread in the machine. Had to hit one of my “bread kit” buckets for sugar. The buckets have 10 pounds of flour, 5 pounds sugar, yeast packets, and a liter of peanut oil. I realized I should add some salt to them too. Add water and there are several variations on bread that can be made from the bucket. I’ve got buckets of the bulk ingredients and salt, oil, and yeast in other places, but the “kit” bucket puts them conveniently together. Oh, there is a pound of corn meal in there too, for variety. Yeast was from 2022 but worked fine.

All the milk for cooking was LaLa UHT full fat milk in shelf stable half liter cartons. I keep them in the fridge for even better life. They are a great choice to have milk on hand in places where you don’t use enough to keep fresh around, or don’t have fresh. I have the single serving box milks too, but they tend to age out before we use them. They won’t kill you, but the taste changes and they get chunky like tapioca if you let them get more than a few months past ‘best by’.

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Plan for today is to put up the Christmas lights and some decorations, and then maybe do some of the other stuff on the list. The attic work gets pushed to another day.

We’re headed home on Saturday, without much time to do more than pack up and secure the house. I don’t think I’ll get into the bigger projects in the attic without an extra day of wiggle room. I’d love to stay until late Sunday like normal, but wife and kids have stuff to do in Houston, and I have an auction pickup Saturday afternoon- ham radio stuff for me and for my swapmeet in March.

“Plans are worthless, but planning is invaluable” or something very close to that was said by a very successful General. I’m going to go with it.

Do some planning. Use some preps. And do some stacking. Maybe there will be a sale!

nick

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Thur. Nov. 28, 2024 – Thanksgiving Day

Cool and damp with a small chance of rain today. We’ll see. Most of the local weather goes around us here. Yesterday turned out very nice, with moderate temps and not too much sun.

It was a good day for working and I did get stuff done. I spent some of the afternoon doing meatspace things, building relationships. Getting a feel for people. Trying to become an insider, rather than an interloper. This is not an easy process. It takes a lot of time. And a lot of work.

Speaking of work, I think I’ll try to not do to much of it today. This is a great time to be mindful of what we have to be thankful for. And there is a lot. Time together, and time to get our stuff together.

Thank you all for continuing to come around and participate in this shared endeavor. Thank you Barbara for your continued support. Thank you Rick for all you do.

Count your blessings today, and give thanks.

nick

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Wed. Nov. 27, 2024 – progress is being made, albeit slowly

Cool, even cold this morning, warming later, then cold again. Another beautiful day, if a bit on the chilly side.

Got the walls in the dockhouse buttoned up. Still need to buy and install the trim, but at least the walls are closed.

For every new receptacle I put in two duplex outlets. I flip one upside down so that no matter how the flat plug is built, you should be able to plug in and have the cord point down. I do quad boxes because if you need a receptacle, you probably need more than one…and I’m doing the work anyway…

Today I’ll clean up my mess, put the room mostly back together, and move onto the next thing on the list. Not sure what that will be, but I’ll do something.

I should probably start brining the turkey, if we’re going to brine it…

Time to do the ten thousand things.

And stacking. Can’t forget about that.

nick

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Tues. Nov. 26, 2024 – more “vacation” work to do…

Cool and clear, but supposed to be warmer than the last couple of days later on. It was another beautiful day. Sun was warm, and there was a nice breeze.

I mostly worked on getting the dockhouse back together. More insulation and wainscotting was installed. More electrical was replaced. I did change a couple of things, and added an outlet to the wall that didn’t have one. We’re not quite code compliant, but we’re closer than we were. One more day and I should be done with the work I can do until I get the base board and chair rail molding.

If I finish, I’ll switch to networking, or the vent fans for the baths, and kitchen. Wife is working from home, and Starlink is mostly adequate. The latency messes with her VPN and the servers/databases at her office. Plus it’s not as fast as the fiber at home, so her expectation needs a bit of calibration…

Dinner was bambi burgers courtesy of my fishing buddy. He got a nice buck this week so there might be more coming my way soon. Kids love it. He mixes beef brisket into the ground venison for burgers and chili. It’s very tasty.

I’m making progress on my list, but the pace is still slow. Hopefully I have enough time.

And enough stacked.

nick

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Mon. Nov. 25, 2024 – a week off… sorta

Should be cool and clear again today. Other than the crazy wind, yesterday was very nice, staying in the 70s most of the day. The sun was very hot, but the wind kept me cool. Today is supposed to be a little warmer, and without the wind.

I slept in,but not as late as some times when we’re up here. I was up and productive anyway. Although daytime reading is like daytime drinking… once you start, you won’t get much else done.

I got the speakers hooked up on the dock, did more of the electrical work, and started on finishing closing up the walls in the dockhouse. Then I ran out of daylight.

Had a nice fire and chat on the patio instead of my usual time alone on the dock with my radio and tiny fire.

Today I’ll keep working on getting the dockhouse back together from the flood damage. After that we’ll see about some networking or some other stuff on the list. There’s plenty on the list, but if it’s nice out, I might shift stuff around a bit to take advantage of the weather.

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The turkey is defrosting in the fridge, and we’re debating whether to brine it and bake, or brine and smoke… or maybe some other technique will jump out at us. Dunno, brining seems to be a common denominator, so maybe I’ll start with that. I generally cook at home, and my wife does most of the cooking when we’re up here. Thanksgiving will take both of us though. And maybe the kids will get involved with something other than just the baking. Maybe.

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Meanwhile the world continues to race headlong towards global conflict. Make your preparations. Learn what you need to know. Meet the people around you. Stack.

nick

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Sun. Nov. 24, 2024 – 11242024 – Maybe I’ll get some work done today…

Cool and clear, warming later. I’m hoping for another gorgeous Fall day. Saturday was a fantastic day, weatherwise. Today should be too.

Did my stuff at home, then headed to the BOL. Had D1 riding with me, so we did an hour of her required “watching someone else drive” time for her learner’s permit. W is teaching her the rules, I’m teaching her to survive. Defensive and offensive skills. She was p!ssy an grumping when I made her put her phone away. The time only counts if she’s paying attention.

And it’s a good thing she was because the universe punctuated my lessons with a wheelbarrow in the middle of the toll road, and then later a basketball net post and base. Fun times.

It was so nice when we got here that I just hung out with the wife and later the kids.

Today I’ll get some work done, honest injun!

There is plenty to do, and I’m the man to not do it 🙂

Seriously though, I should be able to crank through some stuff since we’re here all week.

Always be working to improve your situation. Always be stacking…

nick

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Sat. Nov. 23, 2024 – headed to the salt mines

Cold and clear, probably. It makes a chilly morning but the days have been glorious. Yesterday was no exception. Hoping for a few more like this.

Spent the morning doing auction and domestic bliss. Two loads of laundry, so exciting. Much fun. Spent the afternoon doing auction pickups, and talking to my auctioneer. Still not caught up on his own stuff, no room for mine. I am going to have to talk to another company.

Went shopping for stuff I need at the BOL. Loaded the truck. I am taking the Expy as it has all my network and camera stuff in it. I want to spend the week in the attic, pulling cable, installing bath fans, and new outlets. All the stuff I put off for so long. There are a few things I probably won’t try to get in the wife’s minivan that will just have to wait for the next trip.

So today I’ll button up a few things here, then head out. One of the deciding factors was how tired I was Friday. Nodded off while driving. Very not good. Didn’t want to take a chance with driving in the dark making it even harder to stay awake. None of my usual tricks worked. Better to just not risk it. We’ll have a week up there, on night and half a day won’t make a difference.

Although we will miss the street fair in the local town. I won’t get to buy raffle tickets for a chance to win rifles and shotguns. I didn’t win last year. Dang it.

Anyhow, I’ll survive.

Time to do some serious stacking. Things are heating up. The nuclear fire might stay leashed, but some conventional death from above will surely splash on some folks. Pray that it isn’t us. And stack.

nick

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Fri. Nov. 22, 2024 – so much to do, so little actually getting done

Cold. Clear. And damp. Some combination of those three seems to be the most likely… like yesterday. We started at 44F, got to high 60s with sun, which was very comfortable outdoors, and then back down when the sun set. I don’t know what the temps have been at the BOL, but I’m guessing lower. Time to winterize.

Did very little yesterday. One pickup. No, two pickups. Some kid taxi service. A tiny bit of poking at computers. Funny how little bitty tasks can suck up a whole day.

Won’t be able to do that today. I’ve got one pickup on the other side of town, then I need to get ready to head to the BOL. My plan was to go Friday afternoon, but now I think I might have to do stuff here on Saturday. I’ll know later today. In the mean time, I’ve got stuff to load and unload in the truck, shopping to do, and other preps that need to happen. At least I probably won’t be going to my client’s house. My sometimes business partner forgot to send the part I need to install.

I’ve got enough to do without spending a couple of hours on install and commissioning some new tech.

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And not to get all doomer, but the Ukes shot US and UK missiles into Russia, and Putin responded with either an ICBM or a new mid range missile that it seems we didn’t really know about.

War is coming. Think hard about what it might mean to you. External, and internal wars are on the horizon. The elephants are getting ready to dance. We wee mice need to scamper…

and stack, because war ALWAYS leads to privation and hardship.

nick

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Thur. Nov. 21, 2024 – slip sliding away…

Cool, damp, but clear. And then more of the same. Warming to high 70s, low 80s, and maybe some wind to help dry things out.

I started Wednesday with a pickup on the way to my client’s house. That went well, so I got to work only a little bit behind my best guess at arrival. After confirming his issues, I found the piece of gear common to all 4 TVs, and it was failed. Stuck in a boot sequence. Not recoverable. It’s the second one of two to fail in the same way. Just locked up. Talked to my business partner for this client, and he’s ordering a new one to be delivered today or Friday. I asked him to go with the hard wired version this time, as this wifi version was only used because we couldn’t source the hard wired version when we did the initial upgrade and install of the parts. It’s available now, and 1/3 the cost as a bonus.

I’m always going to chose simpler, and hard wired, over wireless if I have that option. There’s a lot less to go wrong with wired ethernet.

On the plus side, while looking at the ubiquiti logs to be sure a new IP address was available, I noted that most of the infrastructure devices on the net had uptimes of ~750 days. Considering the power/lightning situation in the countryside, and the age of some of the gear, and that before all the upgrades and money spent to fix stuff we’d go down every month, that is awesome. FWIW, the biggest factor for reliability was probably re-dressing the rack with sensible layout, new cabling, and cable ties for management. Lots of cable ties and management. An AV rack has a lot of connectors that don’t latch or get captured, so any cable movement risks pulling out connectors. Tie that stuff in place. And label everything.

Today should be me doing stuff at home to get ready for a trip to the BOL for the holiday. Dunno if the universe will allow that- it’s been pretty insistent that I do other things. I don’t mind getting interrupted to go earn money… my client pays me very well to take good care of him. Plus, I invoiced for the year, and that money will come in handy (and it will go right back out of my hand-y too.) BUT, I have stuff I really need to do here.

Guess I should get started.

The stacking will take care of itself, the maintaining won’t. Do some of both this week. Winter is coming. . .

nick

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