Category: lakehouse

Mid 50s to start the day here at the BOL. Yesterday stayed overcast most of the day, but was warm enough for a T shirt and long pants. The attic got a bit warm, but not like summertime… today should be the same, but maybe a bit clearer.

I did my major task this weekend. I have installed the 50A 240V receptacle in the carport. I can feed an RV, or charge an EV now. I’m not completely done, I was short 4 wire nuts. They are to wire up the pass through to a second receptacle in a different style, so I can accommodate different plugs without adapters. I’ll have the two most common styles when I’m done. Won’t take but an hour when I get back up here.

I also got to clean up the yard with the mower, and it looks nicer. Old leaves and random weeds growing just look sloppy.

Today I’ll do some more cleanup and set up a water hose for the RV pad. I brought some drinking water safe hoses from home. I use them to fill my big water storage tanks, so they should be good for the RV. I’ll add an inline filter too, since I have it.

Then it’s back home for a couple of days, before returning.

I’ll catch a pickup on the way home to save a trip.

Stacks. Water hose, in line filters, electrical supplies. Knowledge.

Stack the stuff, but stack the skills too.

nick

Dunno about Houston, but here it’s a bit cool, then warmer. I will be in the attic so I am hoping for ‘cool’ to last a while. It was pretty nice all day yesterday, although very humid. Even with very light work I was sweating outdoors.

I did my home stuff, then went shopping and loaded the truck. Called one pickup and changed it to a shipment, moved the other to Monday afternoon. That got me some more time at home to get packed and ready before heading out.

I bought 3 apple trees at Lowes because they were in stock. I won’t plant them until later, but I learned last year that they don’t stay in the store very long. One tree for the house to replace a dead one, and two for the BOL. I’d have bought pears too, but they only had one variety in stock, and you need two for pollination.

The drive was uneventful, except seeing the cop pulling someone over outside of one of the small towns on the state highway. They had a rash of collisions, so they are upping enforcement. First time I’ve seen it.

I forgot we shut off the water main, so when I flushed and nothing happened I had a moment. Then I remembered and it was ok.

Only real goal for today is to get the new 50A 240V receptacles installed in the carport. I’m doing two, the most common styles, because I have them. That way, literally anything should be able to plug in- welding machine, EV Charger, RV, generator backfeed….

Good thing I had the receptacles and “in use” boxes. 75Ft of conductors and a breaker were expensive enough. If you see stuff you are thinking of using later on sale, or very cheap, it’s worth picking it up when you see it. I knew that eventually I’d put an outlet in the workshop area, and replace the RV outlet that burned up, but I didn’t have a timeline. I collected pieces when I saw them for pennies on the dollar. Having to buy the wire at retail was unpleasant. I’ll probably start seeing it in the auctions now that I don’t need it

Stacks saved a bunch of money on this project. They will certainly continue to save money, time, and effort on others. Stack wide and deep…

nick

STILL not freezing cold. I’m beginning to think the whole “winter returns” was ‘overblown’…. I expect today to be better than yesterday, ie. clearer, and about the same temperatures. I think it hit 82F in my driveway. Sun came out late in the day too.

I did a bunch of cleaning and putting away. Wellllll, putting somewhere else… in the morning. Then I did a pretty big round trip to pick up a bunch of auction items. The most notable from a prepping perspective included several dozen first aid kit reloads of single serving antibiotic cream packets. I put them in my altoids tin first aid kit, and altoids tin “everyday” survival kit. Of course I also put them in normal first aid kits too. I think it would be hard to have too much antibiotic cream.

The other interesting lot was several boxes of lumber crayons. I got boxes of black and of white. I put the lumber crayons in my bigger kits, in my vehicle kits, and just loose in the truck. They will write on just about any surface and if you have black and white, you can mark on dark or light surfaces. You can use them to leave notes for others in your party who are following you, blaze a trail, or to do the FEMA cross on buildings in a disaster… and they don’t dry out. Yeah, pretty extreme use case, but they are small, cheap, and durable. Low cost and low effort but might save a life later…

Speaking of blazing a trail, I also keep a couple of rolls of flagging tape in bright colors in my truck. It can be used for trail marking, but most often I use it for flagging lumber or pipe when it overhangs the back of my truck… or for marking guy wires for temp antennas. I’ve also used it as streamer to stabilize kites when I have big kites in the air at the beach. Florescent orange is the brightest and one I use most often. Cheap, small, and useful.

Today I’ll buy the rest of the electrical parts I need for my project at the BOL, and I’ll head up later in the day. I should be able to crank out the work, but may need to stay Monday as well. We’ll see, as always. And I’m sure there is something on the list that could be done too.

Whatever small steps you take, whatever small job you get done, that’s one more thing you’ve done to help yourself and the ones you love. Big steps are important, but little things are too.

Stack.

nick

Dunno what the weather will be today. Forecast shows ‘clear’ and I’m going with “starts cool, but warms to low or mid 80s”… because that was yesterday. Except for the “clear” part. We’re in the south Texas “run the A/C and the heat in the same day” season.

I got a couple of pickups done yesterday. Mainly stuff for the BOL (driveway crack sealer, amongst other things), but a couple of household things too. Picked up the kid from her practice, and made tacos for my Ben… Sorry, tacos for dinner. Tried a new flavor packet, and it was pretty much like the other flavor packets.

Today I have one, possibly two, pickups. And I have some auction stuff to clear up. I’m also thinking it might be a good day to get some electrical stuff for the BOL, so I can find alternative sources if needed. Wife has relatives coming to visit us there, and they will need a hookup for their RV. I will need to install that hookup before hand… and I need to get the wire and the breaker. I’ve got outlets. Then I actually have to install it.

Sun up to sun down a farmer‘s husband’s work is never done…

Neither is a prepper’s. Get to stacking!

nick

Well, it’s gonna be colder today. It was really nice yesterday. I actually was out in the sunny day in just long pants and a long sleeve shirt. The lack of wind certainly helped. Wife and guest even went out in the kayaks. It got cold when the sun went down though. Today I think I’ll probably find some indoor stuff to do…

I woke moderately late, had a nice breakfast, and got some stuff done. It took much longer than I thought to get the plumbing done and get the heater connected in the garage. I needed a fitting I didn’t have, but worked around it. The heater works GREAT. It brought the garage up to 72F from 55F before I turned it down. We did have the oven running in there for a bit too, but it was mostly the Mr Heater “Blue Flame” heater. IDK what the gas consumption rate is, but it puts out a lot of heat. I think it’s the 20K BTU unit.

Now we have a backup heat solution for the garage, and by extension, the house. When I get the living room remodel done, I’ll add a gas nipple in there too. I have the same unit for the Houston house, in a NATGAS version. I’ll do the same as here, plumb in a quick connect, but I’ll take it off the gas log in the fireplace. That will be much more efficient than the log if we need supplemental heating.

The garage heat was on my list, but I only got to it because I couldn’t do the electrical project my wife bumped to the top. I had collected most of what I thought I’d need to add a 50A 240V outlet on the side of the carport. The idea was it would be for any RV parked on the pad, an EV charger, or a welding machine. Turns out the wire I had was undersized and had one too few conductors for the application. I’ll need to buy the correct wire, and a new breaker for the panel. That will be top of the list for next visit. I did have suitable boxes and outlets, along with a box full of adapters and various 30A and 50A receptacles. There have been a surprising number of variations over the years.

Made a nice dinner in the garage oven– lamb roast, potatoes, and roasted brusselsprouts. The house was warm enough that it was nice to not have the heat in the kitchen. Had to tap a bucket to get more flour for the bread… preps, I got ’em.

After movie night, we had the first clear dark sky in months. Got out the big dob to look at Jupiter. It was very cold over the water though, and that was all the stargazing we did.

All in all, a very good day. I’m hoping today will be half as good.

I’ve got plenty on the list. Exhaust fans for kitchen and baths, electrical outlets for towel warmer, server rack; cat5 for cams and network drops… We’ll see what I get to. There is still baseboard to attach in the dockhouse too.

There’s always ways to improve your situation. Always be working, always be stacking!

nick

Cool and wet, maybe even cold. I’m also not believing the forecasts for 3″ of snow in Houston. It was kinda nice for most of yesterday, then it got kinda grey… there was some light fog in the valleys out in the country after nightfall too.

I did my pickup, hit the costco for gas and a couple of sale items. The gas line was possibly the longest I’ve ever seen it, at 3pm. No line at HEB and only 10c more. I opted for HEB for gas. I did go in the Costco since I was there, even with more cars in the parking lot than I’ve ever seen before. It wasn’t too crowded, but more than I’d like. They had a lot of lanes open for checkout, so it went quickly. Two observations. They didn’t have any chicken legs. Thighs, breasts, bone in or boneless, and even wings, but no legs. Lamb is a great value. Might be cheaper now in real terms than 4 years ago. That will end if the shipping gets too expensive. Oh, and a third observation, they had a new shelf stable bread. It’s a multi pack of small baguettes that you heat and eat. I’ll try them this weekend and let you know how they taste.

After shopping, getting the kid from school, getting gas, etc. I loaded up the truck and headed to my other pickups, on the way to the BOL. I underestimated the traffic. By a LOT. I made two stops, but I’ll have to beg forgiveness from the third.

Made it up here and decided to try for an early night. Hah. 2am might be considered early for me under some circumstances, but it wasn’t what I was hoping for. I’ll just have to sleep late.

I did bring some things to stack up here. I’ll be doing electrical today though. W just adjusted my priorities. She’s having guests, and they will need to plug in their camper. So that moved to the top of my list. I think I can make it work. I’ve been collecting parts, but it wasn’t top o the pile for me… until it was.

Flexibility. That’s a prep too.

Stacking is easier.

nick

Still, cold and damp. It did clear up and turn into a nice sunny day, so that was nice. I’m hoping for more sun today. Probably cool to cold though, since winter is coming through later.

I took a nap after breakfast and felt better yesterday. Did my southerly pickups. I’ll do the northerly pickups today. Hit the goodwill bins, but it was mostly clothes so I didn’t get much. Some days the product mix is off and there isn’t much for me to look at. I only had time to stop at the surplus because D1 kept moving her pickup time around. Kid doesn’t plan. It did give me more time for my stuff, but meant no practice driving time for her.

Today I’ve got a bunch of moving stuff around and putting stuff away to do, then pickups to the north of Houston. I am headed to the BOL for the weekend so I’ll load the truck and get ready first. Then I’ll do the pickups on the way. No sense in coming home, then going back up that way later. I’ll have to do my pickup in Sugar Land first. Most of the stuff is headed to the BOL anyway.

Hopefully, we won’t lose power in Houston and freeze while I’m at the BOL making sure we don’t lose power and freeze up there. I will stop and get some extra gas for the gennie on the way. I can always put it in the truck later if I don’t use it up there.

First world is sliding to third world status.

That’s just one reason to prep. There are many more…

So stack up what you need. And be prepared…

nick

Well, what do the weather gods have in store for us today? Probably cool, definitely damp bordering on wet. Like yesterday. Some days we have all the weather.

Did get some stuff done during the day. Finished up the trim in the dockhouse, with the exception of one baseboard. Did some other small things. Since I got a very late start, there wasn’t much time to do much more. I did get my teak patio table back together and swapped it for the decaying picnic table we’ve been using on the dock. It needs a power washing… but then most of the house, dock, patio, and brick need one too.

Today will be packing up, cleaning up, and heading home. Where I’ll have a day to do the same there before leaving again. Busy busy bee, that’s me.

Not much stacking going on this week but I am making progress on improvements. Oh, I did get 2 more 55 gallon drums up here for water storage, and more woodstove chimney parts, I guess that counts…

Stack something for yourselves. And always be working.

nick