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Category: lakehouse

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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Wed. Nov. 13, 2024 – hmmm, missed it by that much…

Cool and damp. Later, warm and damp. Maybe warm and slightly drier. It’s been really nice actually. Windows down, wind in your hair nice. I’m hoping for more of the same today.

Tuesday went pretty much to plan. Went to the volunteer work session at D2’s school in the morning, and only stayed a couple of hours extra… during which time I cleaned and tuned up both followspots. One is the school’s, one is a very cheap rental, and both needed attention. Now they look and function like they should.

I left school and did my two pickups, then picked up D1 from school. Dropped her at home, grabbed some refreshment, and headed to rehearsal. That went pretty well. It sounds ok. At this point it’s down to riding levels during the performance, and maybe tuning the individual mic EQs. With only 4 performances, there isn’t much time to do that, so there are some small issues with the ‘quality’ of the vocal sound, but you can hear the lines, hear the lyrics, and it only sounds a bit “mic’d” or un-natural. That is a vast improvement as far as I’m concerned. If someone comments on the ‘quality’ of the sound, I’ll use it as a conversation starter to suck THEM into supporting the shows.

So far, I’ve donated my time, a pair of powered monitor speakers, some mic cables, and adapters. I’ve cleaned and fixed two followspots, installed two new wireless mic receivers, and repaired some mic cables. There is also a powered Mackie monitor ‘on loan’ from me for the Music Director, and an 8 Gig thumbdrive to backup the settings in the board. I’ll be following up with some of the firmware updates and settings after the show is over, and probably trying to improve some of their other “pain points” as the corporate weenies say…

I probably should have done it years ago, when D1 was at the school. I knew it would be a huge time sink though, and I was trying to avoid Imperial entanglements. My thinking about community and local meatspace involvement has “evolved” over time.

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Preps have suffered while I did other things. That’s ok, because we’re already prepped, and the other stuff is important to me, and the kid. I have managed to put a bit more food in the freezer, so that’s a plus. My fisherman buddy’s son harvested two deer and a hog this past week, so some of that might come my way too. Speaking of which, if you are the praying sort, he could use some for health and strength this week.

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Today I am hoping to take down my Halloween decor, if it’s dry. Then I’ve got lots of stuff on the list, before turning into a taxi service…

It would be nice to do a bit of work on the food storage cleanup and organizing. Oh, and I’ve got to remove the dead rats from the traps, clean them, and re-set them. The new tunnel traps have worked, with 3 rats meeting their demise so far. Bait was blonde Oreos…

Bait your traps, stack some poison, and get your house in order. Bad things are still headed our way.

nick

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Mon. Nov. 11, 2024 – 11:11 – if you know, you know.

Cool but damp. Warming later. Weather yesterday at the BOL was hot in the sun, drippy with humidity, but cool breezes. Today, back in Houston, I just want a couple of dry days so I can take down and put away the Halloween decor…

I got a leisurely start to the day yesterday, but then did a bunch of work. After getting the truck unloaded and the bed set up, I did a whole bunch of yard work. I’d skipped the detail work the last couple of times I was up, and it showed. Time to get the string trimmer and blower out. Plus, tons of leaves on the ground and caught in all the underbrush, all of which needed blowing out so they don’t hold moisture and mold.

I followed that with mowing, and then string trimming and blowing again. It was getting pretty dark at that point, so I called it a day and put everything away.

Lots of stuff that didn’t get done, but it looked lived in and cared for when I finished the yard stuff. And for a place you don’t live in, that’s important.

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Today I’ll be returning the trailer, and doing all the other normal things I fail to do on a regular basis. Well, I’ll be trying to do some of them. Maybe.

I’ve got stacks to sort, move, and store. I’ve got auction stuff to get ready. I’ve got kid taxi duties and pickups around town too. A busy day, like most of them.

So get to stackin’. Don’t get caught lackin’.

nick

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