We probably should have met with the septic guy right away…..
Beautiful day yesterday. Kids and wife all got out on the water. I played lawn Jarts with D2.
Much work was done.
Then we played the Lord of the Rings version of Monopoly. More fun than regular Monopoly. The tokens are movie character minis in metal. Neat.
Today is cleanup and secure for departure. And I’ll be back up here to meet with the septic guy as soon as he’s available. And a foundation guy. No surprises, but I was hoping we had some time before needing septic service. We did get the propane filled, and system inspected.
We’ll be upgrading gas stuff as we go too.
More good neighbors. They have a plan to isolate the development for the zombie apocalypse. They are thinking about it and at least jokingly planning… Which is a good thing.
Keep stacking my friends.
n
Hmm. Septic systems and foundations. Sounds like work and/or money… Good luck getting all remedied. Lake house sounds idyllic otherwise.
As "South Park" recently taught, the correct spelling is "tolkien" not "token", especially applicable in this situation.
Regardless, I’m still going to refer to my CGI manager as “Token”.
Just be wary of anyone you suspect might want to be a Warlord.
After I crushed my Colonel Bat Guano neighbors' home value in Florida selling for market price, they sold out for a ~$250k loss (my estimate), possibly a forced short sale, and moved to the boonies of Alabama, still not far from a military-friendly airfield for easy commuting flights to Gitmo.
The last time I checked, one of the mortgages on the FL house still wasn’t paid off so Mrs. Colonel Bat Guano, already a Warlord wannabe, is probably making some poor rural community’s life hard with her hangup about Spanish Moss in trees and property values.
IIRC, your criteria with the BOL was an hour from HAC.
Today is cleanup and secure for departure. And I’ll be back up here to meet with the septic guy as soon as he’s available. And a foundation guy. No surprises, but I was hoping we had some time before needing septic service. We did get the propane filled, and system inspected.
You are good as long as the house does not slide into the septic system.
Hopefully you budgeted $12,000 for a complete new septic triple tank system if there are any problems whatsoever.
I had my house system cleaned out with a reputable honey truck service last May and all of our frequent alarms went away. I stood there for two hours and watched the two guys clean all three tanks to the bottom of each tank. 3,750 gallons of crap. Even my finishing tank had crap in it.
In the future, I will have them out immediately after the first alarm. The cost is $700 around here so it must be cheaper at the BOL.
If they allow a new system without extensive county review.
Shooting on 6th Street during the final night of the SXSW bacchanalia? I’m shocked. Shocked!
The suspect must not be white or the Drudge Report would have put it at the top of the page along with the mug shot. Local Faux News doesn’t even have a story up yet.
https://nypost.com/2022/03/20/south-by-southwest-festival-shooting-leaves-4-injured/
Septic is the only thing you need a permit for out here. Neighbours just did a massive upgrade without issue.
And yeah that was one of the "ten grand for this, fifteen grand for that" list…
Gorgeous day though.
N
>> Is someone going to lean out the window to pour coffee into a mug? How's their liability insurance carrier going to respond?
But…but…fewer paper cups will help, umm,
global warning,the pandemic,the oil crisis, oh right the plastic mug makers. Now what was it again that we use to make plastic??Most plastic in the USA is made of natural gas and sea water (chlorine). Right here in Texas at the Formosa Chemicals plant in Point Comfort. Hundreds of millions of tons of plastic pellets.
Septic is the only thing you need a permit for out here. Neighbours just did a massive upgrade without issue.
And yeah that was one of the "ten grand for this, fifteen grand for that" list…
Gorgeous day though.
N
My neighbor two blocks north of us just upgraded from a 1,500 gallon aerobic septic system to a 3,500 gallon aerobic septic system. With a wife and two kids, they were continuously overloading the old system. The new system is a single tank though, I have yet to find out how it works.
My system is a 1,500 gallon trash tank, a 1,500 separating tank, and a 1,750 finishing tank. My trash and finishing tanks are concrete but my middle finishing tank is fiberglass. When they pumped out all three tanks last May, I had to put 200 gallons of water in the middle fiberglass tank to get hydrostatic pressure from popping it out of the ground. No such problem with the concrete tanks.
>> I played lawn Jarts with D2.
Got the good old-fashioned ones with the metal spike points?
Left Valley Mills early this morning and drove to Memphis to spend the night. Seven point five hours of driving. I checked the truck instruments and thus far on this trip we have consumed 125 gallons of gas and spent 51 hours driving.
Had a good visit the brother, his wife, step-daughter and her husband. Went out on a lake and rode in the boat while brother and step-son-in-law fished. Cold in the morning but a nice warmup in the afternoon.
Had hamburgers in the evening, 75% venison, 25% of 70/30 hamburger. Freshly cut jalapenos pressed into my burger before grilling. Really good stuff.
Traffic from the intersection of I30 and I40 in Little Rock heading east was heavy. Dominated by trucks who think passing another truck for 11 miles is fun, at 10 mph below the speed limit, stacking up 100+ vehicles, with nothing in front of the two trucks for five miles on the two lane portion. Left lane restrictions mostly ignored, camping in the middle lane for miles when there is three lanes forcing people to pass on the right. If that wasn't good enough there would sometimes be three trucks across all three lanes all doing about the same speed, generally below the speed limit trying to see who has the bigger pistons. Where I40 narrows to one lane on the left trucks would travel as far as possible in the right lane then force people off the road so the truck could squeeze in at the last possible moment.
The morning will be occupied with a trip to Graceland which the wife wants to visit. I really don't care. Then on to Hendersonville for the night. Then grandson's birthday the following day. And the afternoon we head home, finally.
"What Our Betters Have In Mind For Us In The Era Of Fossil Fuel Suppression"
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/03/20/what-our-betters-have-in-mind-for-us-in-the-era-of-fossil-fuel-suppression/
"As you undoubtedly know, back in January 2021 newly-inaugurated President Biden ordered the entire federal bureaucracy into full-battle mode in the crusade to suppress production and use of fossil fuels, aka “carbon emissions” (or maybe “climate pollution”). From Biden’s January 27, 2021 Executive Order (“Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad”):"
"It is the policy of my Administration to organize and deploy the full capacity of its agencies to combat the climate crisis to implement a Government-wide approach that reduces climate pollution in every sector of the economy. . . ."
“And thus we have every federal agency, under orders from the boss, whether or not its statutory mission has anything to do with “climate,” diligently devising schemes to outdo the other agencies in the fossil fuel suppression game. It’s not just EPA scheming to force closure of perfectly good power plants, but also Interior imposing a “moratorium” on oil and gas leasing on federal lands and offshore; and FERC putting out new standards of review to make it impossible for any new gas pipeline to get approved; and the Department of Energy imposing costly new efficiency standards on mobil homes; and even the Federal Reserve promising to make life difficult for banks that lend to fossil fuel producers; and the SEC imposing new and costly “climate” disclosure requirements on issuers; and on and on.”
The suppression of the federal government is working. Even though the oil and gas industry is producing more crude oil and natural gas than ever, future work is being actively suppressed by federal bureaucrats. They are trying to destroy our future as fast as possible.
Excitement here. There's a grass fire burning about a mile to the west of us. I spoke with my dad a little while ago and he was on the ranch involved to help move livestock. Paul just said it has burned to within a quarter mile of my dad's place. I can't move animals, but there are other family who can, and who are probably already on their way.
Evacuation order in place for a big swath west of town. Lots of traffic zipping back and forth, many with stock trailers.
https://www.koxe.com/2022/03/20/new-fires-reported-lake-brownwood-and-blanket/
https://dailycaller.com/2022/03/18/cdc-data-kids-pediatric-covid-coronavirus-deaths/
but it gets better:
A rope is the greenest execution method.
There is expert testimony on video that 1" hemp rope, soaked in water and stretched to 7/8", is optimal. Maybe we should take the opportunity to do some real-world side-by side comparisons.
But we need to be careful with the data. If the CDC coders get there hands on it, there will probably be 25-50% of the hanging deaths coded as C-19*
*aka Wuhan Lying Communist Chinese Bioweapon Killer Virus
>> "It is the policy of my Administration to organize and deploy the full capacity of its agencies to combat the climate crisis to implement a Government-wide approach that reduces climate pollution in every sector of the economy."
Except for Mr. DeJoy over at the USPS.
Methinks there's more than prime steaks, single-malt scotch and ladies of a certain ilk going on here.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/23/postal-service-defies-biden-administration-moving-forward-with-plan-to-buy-gas-powered-mail-trucks/amp/
>> A rope is the greenest execution method.
I'd say the guillotine is a close second.
>> Paul just said it has burned to within a quarter mile of my dad's place. I can't move animals, but there are other family who can, and who are probably already on their way.
@Pecancorner, probably covered but is someone hosing the roof in case of flying embers? Hoping everyone there stays okay.
CDC? More like chuckleheads at contractors like Lockheed or CGI Federal.
I saw an email list of CGI postings in Belton this week, and included on the list are openings for "Quants" and related Devops to technically work in Washington DC but based in Texas.
Pearls Before Swine: Crocs Give Out Free Coveed Tests
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/03/20
Yup, that is the swab they used on me.
Mail trucks can be required to run up to 30 years while being maintained by complete idiots. The current fleet ended production in the mid-90s. All of the politics involved in the pending replacement took this long to work out.
EVs are not a proven technology. We haven’t even seen one complete replacement cycle before declaring Tonymobiles and Jesus Trucks to be the future.
We came home today to news that the neighbor had to scare off a possible burglar casing the house on Friday morning. I'm going to practice a bit more op sec around here when we are out of town.
Fortunately, the neighbor did get the plate number and reported it to the cops.
“@Pecancorner, probably covered but is someone hosing the roof in case of flying embers? Hoping everyone there stays okay.”
Thank you! We have metal roofs, and my folks keep a huge area around their house and outbuildings mowed, no shrubbery. Their woods are also pretty far away from the house and yard.
For our house, we aren't as concerned as we might be if if were coming from the east. The block to the west of us across the paved road is mostly empty and mowed. I don't think fire would jump that road. This does remind me that I still need to deal with the brush pile from tree trimming last fall. Haven't gotten to that yet. But even it is far enough from the house we could manage it, I think.
I just spoke with my stepmother, and she is pretty confident it is moving away from them now. The wind currently is blowing away from their place. As long as it doesn't turn, they will be ok.
They have about 20 cattle, two horses, and some chickens. Daddy would need to move the horses if the fire threatened. Not sure if he would move the cows, or drive them into the pond and mow all around it as a fire break. I offered to bring their two dogs and extra vehicles over here to free them up for other things. That's about all I could do, other than of course help haul valuables and keepsakes from the house if fire was imminent.
LOL! Yes, that is what they feel like, especially in *some* hands. I've had a few of those tests that I would go to great extremes to avoid that person again. It's like shot-giving or IV-installing. Some people manage it without hurting the patient, others need more practice on oranges before being turned loose on people.
Yikes! That's scary. Good neighbors are often nosy neighbors, and thank God for them.
We've had problems with break-ins in the neighborhood since the road network around here received an upgrade to improve the commutes down to Dell and HP Enterprise.
Apple is always a consideration, but several direct routes to the other companies which allow drivers to avoid the I35 nightmare now run near our house.
"Vertical Farming" for strawberries – https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/15/bowerys-vertical-farming-strawberries-go-on-sale-in-new-york-.html
And other fruits and vegtables – like lettuce/etc. Small part of the market, but has potential to 'grow'.
Found it interesting that robotics (from Traptic https://www.traptic.com/ ) are being developed that can determine ripeness and pick only the ripe ones.
Yes, Mrs. Kravitz can be a PITA, but that’s the silver lining.
Just talked with my dad. The fire has moved off farther west, so they are out of danger. Other people still have to worry, but it is not coming our direction any more.
Supposed to rain tonight or tomorrow morning. I hope it is a good rain and covers the territory well enough to put the fire out, give our volunteer firemen a break.
Excitement here. There's a grass fire burning about a mile to the west of us. I spoke with my dad a little while ago and he was on the ranch involved to help move livestock. Paul just said it has burned to within a quarter mile of my dad's place. I can't move animals, but there are other family who can, and who are probably already on their way.
Evacuation order in place for a big swath west of town. Lots of traffic zipping back and forth, many with stock trailers.
https://www.koxe.com/2022/03/20/new-fires-reported-lake-brownwood-and-blanket/
The wife called her aunt in Abilene this afternoon. The wife's first cousin outside Ranger, TX has a fire about 15 miles away from their 20 acres. And her husband's mom's 150 acres next to their place. But, their only livestock is hundreds of rattlesnakes since his father passed away.
They are praying for rain tomorrow since they have a 70% chance in the forecast. We have a 100% chance of rain tomorrow here in the wilds of Fort Bend County.
must be cheaper at the BOL
— you might think that, but some things are a lot more expensive, due to longer supply chains, and lack of volume…
Home. Unloaded all the nasty trash at my secondary, where I have a dumpster that I rarely actually use. Filling one up with old mattresses once in 19 years shouldn't get anyone's panties twisted.
Surprisingly there wasn't a ton of traffic when I hit Conroe. I was expecting a lot of Lake Conroe and other Spring Break return traffic. Very pleasant drive for the most part. Pickup is very noisy inside at speed though.
House is fine. Dog has been picked up from doggie day care. He was with a friend all week. That was one thing we didn't need to manage while doing the other things.
I tried to stop at my newest storage unit on the way home but there was a strange lock on it and my lock is missing. The office is closed until tomorrow. I can't believe I might have been burgled again. F me. I'll know Monday.
Much email catching up to do. BRB
n
Wasn't it just a month ago there was an article about how the Osprey was finally safe?
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/four-us-marines-dead-after-v-22-osprey-crashed-during-nato-drill
n
Just a heads up, Dometic is having a sale on 12v fridges and other stuff that might be handy to have if you have a few extra drachma laying about….
https://www.dometic.com/en-us/lp/longerdayssale
n
And MicroCenter is advertising price drops on video cards. It's the first time they've advertised any video cards in a LONG time.
n
One issue is that the master bath has a 'curbless' shower. That means that if there is any problem with drainage, it's on the floor of the bath, and running downhill into the master bed. Because they didn't actually do a proper install with a waterproof floor and floor drain.
And it seems that the master bath is the last fixture before the septic system….
Bath remodels were on the 'list', but were FAR down the list.
anyone every convert a 'walk in' curbless shower back to a curb? Even a small curb would help.
The googles only have tub to curbless conversions, no one seems to put them back to normal.
n
"SUV Tire Deflating Eco-Terrorists Claim Public Support"
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/03/20/suv-tyre-deflating-eco-terrorists-claim-public-support/
"h/t Dr. Willie Soon; A sabotage technique which in my opinion creates a lethal risk for drivers. The eco-terrorists hide small hard objects under the tire valve cap, like a dry lentil, which subtly presses on the valve and slowly bleeds the air out. But this surely leads to a window of time after the attack, during which a driver might not notice their vehicle has been sabotaged."
Unfreaking real. This cannot be allowed to progress. Britain needs to get control of this right now.
Which chip/memory configuration.
A spot check at NewEgg shows a few GTX 1650 cards off of the insane highs.
Maybe 4GB won't cut it for mining anymore. Still, those should be $70 cards at this point.
Lentils. Seriously? How very 'People's Poet'.
Dear Britain,
"The Young Ones" was *satire*. You've been misinterpreting the show as a documentary for 40 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnZnnkJxoC8
Rik Mayall is dead. Adrian Edmonson lives like a fascist pig off of his wife's fortune, and Nigel Planer has moved on to the career phase where he's guesting on the UK "Murder She Wrote", "Death In Paradise".
Chris Ryan? He works for Adrian Edmonson's wife and guests on "Doctor Who".
>> Which chip/memory configuration.
More here: https://www.techradar.com/news/nvidia-rtx-3080-price-gets-slashed-by-35-overnight-is-the-nightmare-over
>> Even a small curb would help.
@nick, would something like this, set in place with some latex caulk, be high enough for a temporary fix?
https://www.lowes.com/pd/M-D-30-ft-x-1-1-2-in-White-Vinyl-Garage-Weatherstrip/1096027
Apple Studio changed the game for anyone doing mid-range GPU intensive work. Why pay a scalper?
Doesn't a conventional shower pan need a subfloor below the level of the bathroom floor?
I assume that the curbless conversions involve pouring some concrete. That would probably be difficult to undo and have it retain water reliably.
People need to lay off the HGTV.
Which chip/memory configuration.
A spot check at NewEgg shows a few GTX 1650 cards off of the insane highs.
Maybe 4GB won't cut it for mining anymore. Still, those should be $70 cards at this point.
The Geforce cards that my neighbor is using are 12 GB each.
Doesn't a conventional shower pan need a subfloor below the level of the bathroom floor?
I assume that the curbless conversions involve pouring some concrete. That would probably be difficult to undo and have it retain water reliably.
People need to lay off the HGTV.
Curbless is for ADA so people can walk in without having to step in / step out. Or, for people who use a PVC wheelchair, that is how they gave my father-in-law a shower for years at the nursing home.
@alan, thanks, that might help, but I really need at least 2 inches. I think I'll be looking in all the aisles at Home Depot for something to misuse. Wife suggested gluing a pool noodle down across the opening, and the idea is about what is needed, just not a pool noodle.
Someone asked about the Jarts, and the answer is "Yes" the NIB set I can't sell because it's a Federal crime to sell them. Far as I can tell, it's not a crime to play with them. Wife was the driver on that one, "get out those Jarts and play with the kids so they can see what freedom looked like." Well, I added the bit about freedom….
I can see a horseshoe pit in my future too.
—
true curbless does involve changes to the floor, not least of which is usually putting in a floor drain in case the shower overflows. It also involves waterproofing the floor and lower walls for the same reason. This shower pan is actually about an inch high, maybe an inch and a half, but it's basically flat so water can just flow out. And if the curtain is outside the pan, it guides water onto the floor nicely too. Later we'll be redoing the whole bath, but for now it would be very nice to use what is there. Some of our plans really only work monetarily if the projects can be stretched out over time. And it would be nice to USE the house and not just spend a year fixing it.
We knew it was a mess.
n
n
>> I can see a horseshoe pit in my future too.
Real steel horseshoes, or are those a felony too?
And don't forget the cornhole set.
Real steel of course!
Some people would be thinking of bocci ball, but not in Houston.
n
That is probably the original intent of the deisgn but Googling around, I saw shower remodels which were done for the "different" look of it, as if done for a "flipper" show on HGTV.