Category: lakehouse

Low 70s today with a lot of damp. Lake is high, with soggy ground everywhere. Yesterday got pretty hot in Houston in the afternoon, to the point where I was soaked to the skin loading my trailer with my new bed.

I started my Saturday with my non-prepping hobby. It was good to see everyone, and we had a nice meeting. I sold some stuff, which is always good. Followed that up with a pickup in the Woodlands (the bed and some vintage pipes) and then on to the BOL. Had a nice dinner, which D1 and friend grilled. Radio was wide open later that night. I really need to get a radio and antenna set up here.

Today I’ll get the bed set up, and work on some other small things. I forgot/didn’t have time to get the electrical stuff I needed to do the work in the dockhouse, so I’ll probably just do the speakers and sound stuff, and whatever other small things I can get off the list. Can’t do much major as I’ll be heading home tonight.

I did bring up 4 gallons of the lamp oil, a Coleman propane stove, and a couple of bottles of propane. I brought a few more books for the library up here too. Some prepping is happening…

Oh, and D1’s friend caught a fish off our dock. The kids are making a big deal about it since I’ve only managed to catch one fish in 2 years of trying. Clearly it’s possible. The problem must lie with me. 🙂

Do some stacking of your own, and work to improve your situation, whatever it is.

nick

Probably damp and cool, but maybe raining… It was really humid yesterday, and got up into the low 80s in the afternoon, but after the morning showers, the rain held off until after midnight. Mostly. Today I’m doing stuff that I would prefer didn’t get wet.

I started yesterday with volunteer work at the kid’s middle school. Then I headed south to do a pickup. On the way I stopped at Northern Tool and bought two small furniture dollies and a drywall dolly. I want to cover my bases for moving the mattresses and bed frames today. Stopped at Habitat reStore on my way home, but they didn’t have anything I needed. Seems like they are getting fewer donations…

Did kid taxi stuff in the late afternoon. Got my trailer and stuff from storage for my non-prepping hobby swapmeet this morning. Put stuff in the truck… Basically got ready to do my things today.

Hobby, pickup bed for BOL, head to BOL… I should be moving non-stop for most of the day.

Not much choice in the matter now either.

Fortunately we have choices when it comes to prepping. I choose to stack!

nick

Hot and humid, although it will start cooler. Yesterday was a mix of sunny and hot, crashing downpours, high winds, and gentle rain. What kind of weather? Yes. Today shouldn’t have rain, but we’ll see. Still very wet out so the humidity will likely be high. Joy.

I did indoor things yesterday. Fixed some cables for the school, and for me. Did some troubleshooting on other tech that’s been stacked up waiting to be fixed. Nothing complete, but some small progress made.

Did a bunch of auction stuff. Won a very nice new bed for the BOL. The mattress we’ve been using is small (queen vs the cal king we have at home) and not very comfortable. I won a split king Tempur Pedic. Picking it up and moving it will be the hardest part. Everything about the Tempur Pedic is heavy. At least it’s 2 mattresses. Moving the cal king was almost too much for me and the wife. Being able to sleep for more than a couple of days without causing crippling neck and back pain will be nice. I’ll probably rent a trailer and a drywall dolly. That’s about the easiest way I can think to handle it.

Today I’m starting back at the kid’s school. I hope to get a couple more problems resolved so the kids can start actually working during the rehearsals. They have two weeks (a bit less actually) before opening night. Then I’ll be getting some auction dropoff stuff together, even if I don’t hear back from my auctioneer. I want it ready to go and all in one place. Well, I can dream, right?

Then there will be kid taxi service in the afternoon, and the rest of the domestic bliss…

Dunno when I’ll stack anything, but I’ll try. After all, we have an extra hour in the day, right?? ;-P

Stack while you can.

nick

Muggy, maybe rainy, and warmer today, although yesterday had those things too. Just enough rain to wet stuff, and not enough to matter to the plants. And humid too.

So I went in to volunteer some more time… and instead of getting out in two hours and doing the stuff I really needed to do, I was there 6 hours, and then kid taxi service, and all the rest of the day killed my todo list.

So TODAY I’m trying to salvage some of that.

But first I’ve got pickups to do.

And the usual list of domestic bliss, with the addition of cleanup from Halloween.

Busy, that is me. Just a busy bee…

Anyone here ever keep bees? I bought a starter kit, and I’ve bought some other bee keeping stuff as it came up cheap in auctions, and I’ve got a bee hive in a hollow tree at the BOL. The tree needs to be cut down, and I thought this might be the perfect time to use some of the stuff I picked up… but other than a vague idea, I got no clue about bees… I’m pretty sure this is the starter kit I have…

It’ll bee at least a week or two before I get up to the BOL again, so I have time to get a clue.

And I’m thinking that a beehive is a pretty good stack, if it doesn’t just turn out to be food or home for wasps.

Gotta stack something…

nick

Bonus points to anyone who names the inspiration for today’s post title.

Cool, but still warming later, all the way to hot, depending on where you are. At the BOL, it was tolerable, except in the sun. In Sugar Land, 99F. Today will likely be similar… and no lake breezes for me.

I got a late start Monday and eased into the day… but I did get stuff done. Not finished, of course, but made progress. Ran the sprinklers all afternoon again, and now most of the back yard isn’t crunchy. Still have dead grass and crunchy weeds in the front, because the sprinklers really don’t work well there. Yet. Maybe some day.

Continued insulating and putting up paneling to fix the walls I had to open up after the flood. I realized it’s money and time I didn’t expect to spend. The time is the worst part… did some other small chores around the place too. W was painting all weekend, then cleaning. If you aren’t there, it’s surprising how dusty it gets and how many spiderwebs the place will sprout in just a couple of weeks. Cleaning is a never ending chore, and we don’t even have a sandy beach.

Today I’ll be working the list at home. And doing all the normal things. Plus the extra things. Lots of kid stuff on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and that kills my afternoon. It’s good for the kids though.

I’m stacking time with them, and that’s good, even if I sometimes get frustrated by all their demands on my time. Being the stay at home means doing the delivery and taxi runs…

Stack some time with loved ones, the memory will help when times are tougher. And stack some food, because everything is better on a full belly.

nick

Cool to start, warming later. Another clear day. It’s pretty hot in the sun, despite the thermometer saying mid to high 70s. It’s nice with the breeze and in the shade.

Didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. Dang sprinklers ate more of my time. If I run an aux pump on the input side of the jet pump, I can get the big pump to run the sprinklers. I’ll run them again today. It’s probably too little too late, but it can’t hurt to put some water on the crunchy grass.

I’ll do what I can to continue closing up walls in the dockhouse. And I will probably pull in the speaker wires. I put the pull lines in the conduit yesterday. I need W or one of the kids to feed the wire while I pull though, which is why I didn’t just do it yesterday.

It’s a big list, and it ain’t getting shorter…

Meanwhile, things continue to deteriorate, and get weirder. Stack what you can, because time seems to be getting short.

nick

Cool and clear. Really nice Fall weather, although the grass is crunchy from lack of rain. Still, really nice for working outside. And I do have outside work to do…

Yesterday I didn’t do too much of it. I did get to my rent house and solve the plumbing issue. I dropped off one of the 4 things I meant to take to my secondary location, the other three were left sitting in my foyer. Doh. Did one pickup of a rat trap, and then hit Home Depot for insulation and paneling to repair the flood damaged walls in my dock house at the BOL. Also got some spray foam, and a few treated 2x4s for the dock, and the bill was over $500. Yikes.

I spent too much time commenting on other peoples’ blogs too. The perennial “what radios should I get” and “you don’t need a ham license, TEOTWAWKI won’t have no FCC” discussion came up over at Cmdr Zero’s place. He’s also asked for opinions about fuels and power for BOL, so I spent some time on that. It’s not like I don’t have this place that could use some content… or something.

Today I will do my meatspace networking and interacting with actual humans. When that’s done, I’ll change trucks and head to the BOL. Lots to do up there. W has stripped the ‘popcorn’ off the hall bath ceiling, so I’ll get shanghai’d into doing the spray and knockdown texture so she can paint it later. That wasn’t on my list AT ALL. On the plus side, I probably won’t have to cut the grass… it is crunchy according to her. Grass doesn’t grow without water.

There are other projects in the dock house that I can do too, like finishing up the speaker install, and maybe working on the rotted window sill. Or hanging a TV and getting the wii set up there. Or hanging the IR heater strips on the dock so I can be warmer this winter while having my tiny little fire and radio time.

Plus there are “winter is coming” things to do…

At least the rent house plumbing wasn’t a big issue.

Stacking is EASY compared to maintaining multiple properties. So do some! It’s the easy way out…

nick

Cooler, but warming later. Maybe not hot though. Yesterday stayed very nice even in the afternoon. Perfect shorts and t shirt weather. Clear too, so really a very nice day. I am looking forward to a couple more days like that.

Yesterday my day got off to a very weird start, and didn’t really improve until later. I spent the morning doing domestic bliss, and shuffling some stuff around the house. Set up and tested the gear I bought to resell last week in Leander. There are issues, but I think they are worth fixing rather than selling “as is for parts or repair.” Worth a quick look see anyway. Spent the late afternoon running kids around.

Wife and kids headed to the BOL for the long weekend, but I stayed behind. I’ve got my non-prepping hobby meeting this weekend, and I’ve got a maintenance issue at my rent house to address today. I’ll head up after my meeting on Saturday, and because it’s a long weekend, I’ll have an extra day to work up there…

That does mean I have the house to myself for a bit. I’ll do some more cleaning up today. Then I’ll head to my rental, my secondary location, and an auction pickup. Those three kind of clump so it makes sense to combine them. I like to combine trips and do my part to save the environment.

,

,

,

I said that with a straight face! I like to save the gas money, my time, and the wear and tear on the truck… which is good for my environment.

Dunno what or how much I’ll get done here or at the BOL, but I’ll give it the old school try. And I’ll stack. Oh yes. I will.

nick

And the weather is hot too. Yesterday got very hot in the sun, so I tried mightily to stay in the shade. Humidity was a bit lower than last month, so there was that.

Changed the belt on my mower deck. I hit a piece of 2×4 that was under some leaves last time, and shredded the belt that was new this year. Good thing I bought several in the auctions. I should have changed the blades too, while I had the deck off, but I just ran a file over the edge. The cheap chinese steel is very soft and the blades wear quickly. I’ve got a bunch from the auctions ready to go, but I didn’t feel like taking the time, and I was hoping to get through the season on one set. I should have changed them or done a better job sharpening. I got terrible cut quality.

I did spend some more time on the irrigation pump. I rigged a second pump to fill the supply side, and try to get and hold prime. I was able to run all the zones one at a time doing that. That’s good news, as both the pump motor and the impeller seem to work fine, it’s just that it won’t prime and hold prime. That’s a plumbing issue and I can work on it. New pump would be about $700… so I dodged a bullet there.

Today I will try to get the wife’s speakers installed at the dock. I just didn’t get to it yesterday after mowing and working on the sprinklers. (and the grass was so crunchy I needed to water even if I had to rig it or do it manually.) Then it’s clean up and stow the new stuff on the stacks, and head home.

There is always plenty to do.

And plenty to stack.

nick