Month: May 2025

Warm and humid again, with some sun. That describes what ended up happening Monday. The sun poked through and broiled my brains. The same is on deck for today.

I spent the morning yesterday doing home things. I put stuff away. I got stuff down from the attic. I stacked some stuff for later. And then I took a whole pickup full of mostly speakers and amps to my buddy’s shop where I’ll meet people to sell them on Craigslist. That got a bunch of stuff out of my “library”. I took some of the stuff for my local auction over there too. I’m about to rearrange and move a bunch of things in my local home environment, as soon as I am sure of what I want to do. Getting stuff out of the way helps. I did some kid taxi later, and even got the broken sprinkler head replaced.

Little things, but needed things.

Today I have pickups. Some down in Missouri City, some in Cypress. More driving than I’d like in a single day, but can’t be helped. As long as I can generate some forward movement and momentum, I’m happy. Of course that will come to a slamming halt with the end of school year, Memorial Day, and then a week in central Florida with my mom and siblings. Or maybe just sibling, but mom is looking forward to it. Life. Overrated.

Or not.

Do what you can. Move forward if you can. Stay even if you can’t. Limit how much you fall behind if that doesn’t work. Stack.

nick

Hot again. Sunny still. Like yesterday. I ran out of time to procrastinate some of the outdoor work so I was out in the sun and heat yesterday. No sir, I didn’t like it. But it needed to be done. More will need to be done in the coming days too.

I didn’t do much in the morning. Took more rest than I’d intended actually. Felt good. But I knew I had to do some stuff on the list. So I did outdoor work. I fixed my mower and cut the grass in the back yard. I did some weeding and killed some ants in the raised beds. Grapes are developing well on the remaining vine. I didn’t cut any shoots back this year, so maybe it’s lighter than it should be, but hey there are grapes. I think it’s whatever variety the root stock is though after the die back of a few years ago. The skins are tough and thick.

The perennial collards are doing very well. I’ll harvest some soon.

I did some clean up along the fence line and pruned some of the foliage along the fence. Checked on the apple trees, and I’ve got apples on the older tree for the first time ever. I think the cooler spring might have helped there.

Did some work on the sprinklers and tested the zones. Some more work will be required as one of the heads was just shooting water into the sky… but I’ll get to that later this week.

I even moved a few things around the house and yard to sort and put stuff away. And don’t forget the domestic bliss, two loads of laundry! Now folded and put away.

I got a surprising amount of stuff done in half a day. If only I could keep that up for a week or two.

We’ll see, but I think my other responsibilities will derail the effort.

Call it ‘always be working’ and improving my situation. Or what it really is, finally getting to some of the stuff I’ve been putting off for too long.

In any case, stacking is easier than doing without…

nick

Warm bordering on hot, and well into hot later, if forecasts and common sense are to be believed. It was sunny and hot Saturday with my driveway thermometer showing over 100F in the afternoon. Probably be the same today. Although, the wind picked up a lot in the late night, so something might be blowing in on the winds of change.

I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped yesterday, but then I was pushing against the world and that never goes well for me. For some reason I couldn’t make the time math add up correctly, so I was late or missed most of my appointments. I did stop at the boat guy and finish the paperwork, so that was an important task off the list. Now to go to Fish and Game and complete the changes in ownership and get the registration in our name.

Today I’m sleeping in a bit, then putting away all the stuff that came home in the past week. I will also try to pull stuff for my local auctioneer. That is pretty much the extent of my goals for the day. Some yardwork can happen too, if it’s not too hot.

Not much stacking this week, more refinement and retrenchment, with a bit of stacking. I’m gonna have to work harder, and smarter. Joy.

We’ll see how I do. You- do as I say, not as I do! Stack.

nick

More warmth. It’s supposed to be hot again today. At some point yesterday it was over 101F in my driveway… of course in past years that would be normal for this week. The light overcast cleared late morning and then it was sunny and hot. Today should be more of the same.

I didn’t get much done in the morning yesterday. Took the kid to school because my wife took the other one on her field trip to the beach in Galveston. The school goes every year and it’s a great time for the kids. W enjoyed her time with the other moms, and got to know her new car on the way down. She likes some of the driver assistance stuff, but acknowledges that I would hate it, and that it falls apart in construction zones. The sales guys said the windshield, with the camera glued to it, was less than $900 not thousands, if it needed to be replaced. Still not as cheap as straight glass, and I bet there aren’t any aftermarket choices. Oh well, not my car.

I did a lot of driving in the afternoon and some of it was really a waste. IDK how I got the pickup days wrong for the two auctions in Dickenson (way south, only 20 miles from Galveston) but I didn’t roll two pickups into one trip, and even the pickup I did was on the wrong day, and it would have been cheaper to have the items shipped… I’m going to have to stop bidding in those two auctions, they are just too far away, and I don’t need the stuff that badly.

Took a break in the afternoon to get D1, but she didn’t want to practice driving to my other pickup. So I left her at home and got some camping/cooking supplies. I have a bunch of different ways to cook in a grid down scenario, and they all take different fuels. I picked up some of the butane cans very cheaply yesterday. I like the single burner butane “camp stoves” that so many asians use to cook at the table. Having more fuel for them is a good thing. The cans look like spray paint cans.

As an aside, my strategy is “choices” and “defence in depth” and those apply to all areas of my preps. Instead of having a huge cache of fuel for one type of stove and spares, etc. I have several different stoves, with different fuels, with the idea that I can use whatever fuel might be available… I have reasonable stacks of fuel for each, and combined across all the types I do have quite a substantial cache.

And it’s a little bigger after yesterday. BTW, I picked up a couple of Mr Heater refillable 1 pound propane tanks. I’d refilled the ‘disposable’ ones, but there are issues with that. These are designed to be refilled from a BBQ bottle, and they are DOT approved. Now I’ve got even more flexibility.

Today will be picking up the solar panels and another auction pickup, and doing stuff around the house. I might even get some done this time.

There will surely be stacking too.

nick

Warmer again. probably. Yesterday was pretty warm, especially after the recent cool streak. Today should continue the trend. It was pretty windy too. Neighbor had a big limb in the front yard, I have some stuff tossed around in the back yard. I am just hoping for no rain for another day or two.

Spent yesterday not catching up. The dentist appointment was a weird time for me, and kinda messed up my schedule. I did get my outstanding pickups done, and the kid got some time behind the wheel.

Today I’m not letting the universe mess with my plans either 😛 Not today universe… I’m not making plans. That’ll show it. I do have some goals. And some tasks that need to be done. So that might happen or it might not. The sad truth is that I’m not catching up, I’m falling behind. I’ve got more stuff to do than I can do. I’m going to have to do some ‘slash and burn’ and maybe get some of the back log out of the way. We’ll see, I still haven’t decided.

I’ll be starting the day taking D1 to school again. This time because W and D2 are going on a field trip with her class to the beach. They should have a nice day for it… I’ll be doing some pickups (more solar panels, and some other stuff), and maybe an estate sale or two. One has an item I collect in my non-prepping hobby, one has some nice MP5 clones… I just want to see pricing. Yeah, just looking. Sure…

The solar will go on the stack, and into the Project queue… The other items will stack.

There is something you need to stack. Something you’ve missed or forgotten. Walk around the house and figure out what it is.

nick

Supposed to be warmer, maybe a LOT warmer today. It sure was nice yesterday. The morning overcast broke up and we had blue skies and sun most of the day. Another stunning sunset too. At some point it was 95F in my driveway, but the sun might have been shining on the thermometer for a while too. There is apparently a warning that we might get dangerous and record highs in the next couple of days. We’ve had good weather for a while, some reversion to the norm has to happen.

Spent the day doing hobby stuff, then kid stuff, then wife stuff, and finally hobby and web stuff. Made dinner in there too. Picanha roast, or the “cap” from a sirloin roast. Prime, and on sale at HEB, I made one of the almost three pound chunks for dinner. Season, put in roasting pan, put in oven for 40 minutes. Slice and serve with sides. Easy peasy. In fact, I made canned peas, and instant mashed potatoes with some warmed up naan bread. Very low effort, very high payoff.

Today I’ll be at home doing computer stuff, auction stuff, and household stuff. I’ll do one local pickup in the afternoon, and then it will be kid stuff culminating in a band concert in the evening. I may get a trash run in, as I’ve still got debris in my truck from the BOL. Maybe a scrap run too. That is going to depend on the weather.

Who knows, I might even get some stacking in. You should to.

nick