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Category: lakehouse

Fri. Jun. 14, 2024 – so you wanna run with the big dogs…

Hot and humid, because it’s Houston in the summertime… and it gets hot in the swamp. We had a brief bit of relief with some quick showers yesterday, but it was mainly hot and humid. I decided NOT to do outdoor work, and especially not to do work from the roof of the house.

I should have gotten the pole saws out and cleaned up the damage to the big tree. I want to get the branches onto the pile of stuff the city contractor left behind, so that when that gets picked up, my debris will be too. But. HOT.

Did my kid driving duties in the afternoon, and auction stuff in the morning. Got a second coat of drywall mud on the ceiling repairs. Haven’t seen any more rats, alive or dead. I’m sure they are still up there.

I did win some more bait boxes in the auction. These are “professional style” so maybe they’ll work better. They’ll be novel, and the rats won’t be used to them so maybe it will make a difference.

Today I’ve got one pickup in the afternoon, and might try to get another on the other side of town… There is some lighting for the BOL in that auction, and I’ve decided to go up for the weekend after all. I’ll do my non-prepping hobby on Saturday and then go up, W and the DDs will head up tonight. We’ll stay through Monday so I have an extra day. Father’s Day will happen up there…

It will give me some more time to work up there, and with the extra day, maybe I’ll get some time to just chill and try to catch some fish. That would be nice. Might even get a chance to do some floating in the lake.

W asked what I wanted to do for Father’s Day and I couldn’t think of anything. Doing nothing might be nice.

While I slack off, you should be stacking like your life depends on it. Because it might.

nick

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Mon. Jun. 10, 2024 – it’s probably rats

Hot today. Back in Houston, so back in the swamp. Not many cool breezes wafting around. Of course it was 113F yesterday afternoon according to the thermometer that gets hit by late afternoon sun. Felt like it too.

When I stopped sweating, I drank more electrolyte replacement…

I did get some stuff done despite the heat. It just took longer, and involved more drinking of water with stuff in it.

I got the cell booster back together. I was able to figure out the spectrum analyzer and got the antenna aimed. Pretty much where I aimed it by eye and cell phone originally. I still don’t have LTE which I did have until one of the power outages. Dunno if the problem is me or ATT although I have it a mile away where I get good signal without a booster, so the tower and site is probably ok. I may poke at it more next visit. I’ve got other antennas to try both indoors and out, but I didn’t have the right adapters.

I mowed. I stacked more downed branches. I fixed the chimney “cap” to be better at keeping the rain out. It’s now plywood and black plastic, instead of just black plastic. Wife and D2 put most of the furniture back in the dockhouse. The walls will stay open for a while, but we still need to use the space, especially with guests coming for the 4th.

I didn’t get to the generator maintenance. It was too hot, and by the time I got ladders cleaned up and put away, and all the tools back in the garage, I didn’t have time. I did do a little sorting and putting away, as part of looking for stuff that I needed. Like goes with like…

Which is how I organize the stacks. It works for me, and I can find stuff I haven’t used in years, if I haven’t moved it too much. Cleaning and organizing always has some risks for me as I might remember the old place it lived for years, but forget the new “better” place it’s only been for a few months. Stacks are most useful when you can find the thing you stacked.

Even if you have to look for it, stacks are good.

Today will be finding the cause of the dead rat odor in the house (probably a dead rat) and doing some of the stuff that has been back-burnered by disaster recovery. I’ve got a lot of repair to do, auction stuff, pickups, kid “enrichment” activities, all the usual stuff.

And I feel the need to . . .

Stack!

nick

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Sun. Jun. 9, 2024 – still got stuff to do…

Hot and humid, but less than Houston. Yesterday was clear, sunny, and although it started moderately it got pretty hot by later in the day. Ended up with a nice night.

I got a few things done. I did one last thorough vacuum and then spray down of all the parts of the dockhouse that got flooded. I scrubbed the 2x4s and the floor as well. W mopped and cleaned up all the muddy residue. It dried out pretty quickly with just the disinfection stuff sprayed on surfaces. I’ll still leave the walls open for a few weeks longer to be sure they are really dry.

I added back one electrical outlet, deleted one, and added a dusk to dawn uplight for the flagpole. The light is too bright and too wide, so I’ll have to do some sort of masking, maybe I can just lay a big washer on the top of the spotlight… it lights up the pole, rope, and the trees in the distance. Way too much spill light.

Had a nice dark sky but didn’t see anything too dramatic, I was mostly interested in the radio, with great DX on 20M.

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Today I’ll do maintenance like mowing the lawn, putting the cell booster antenna back up, and general cleanup. I might do another outlet in the dockhouse, if I can find the right box. I am moving all the outlets to about a foot above the high water line. Anything that got wet will be replaced too.

My buddy brought me the first 2 quarts of peas from our garden. There will be a bunch more over the next few weeks. And whatever was eating all my peaches last year has left me a few this year, so I might actually get a peach or two. There are a couple that are almost ripe, and good sized. I might grab them before I leave and ripen them at home. Better than letting them fall…

Next time we’re up will be the 4th of July weekend and we’ll have guests so I will want to leave the place ready for that.

I might get a chance to try the irrigation pump. It was under water, but I’m hoping that since it’s a pump, and rated for exposure, that it might be ok. If not, I’m seeing them in the auctions and I’ll bid a bit more aggressively. I’ve got two spares, but they are both smaller than the current pump, and it was barely getting the job done. I could go bigger, but I really don’t want to go smaller.

When you are providing most of your own infrastructure, and building backups for the rest, there is always more to do.

Of course, there’s always more to do anyway…

like stacking!

nick

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Sat. Jun. 8, 2024 – at the BOL, working… and a bit of relaxing

Hot but not Houston hot, and there is a lake right there… It was hot and sunny in Houston yesterday, but not as hot as I expected. The breeze helped. The BOL had nice weather that my wife enjoyed while working from ‘home’.

I got my truck issues resolved, getting through inspection and smog with the Ranger. Had the third brake light out, and didn’t know it. Had enough miles and start cycles that all but one buffer was good to go, and it passed with that one issue. The Tax office was comfortable in the waiting area, and dealt with my fairly unusual circumstance pretty well. In any case, I’ve got registrations and plates are on the way.

The drive up was uneventful until I was almost here, then the a/c stopped working. We’ll see if that was some sort of temporary issue, or if all the messing around under the hood did something bad to it. I’ll be back at the shop on Monday. Disturbing stuff that has been in place for 20 years often causes issues.

Today I’ve got a variety of work to choose from. Some indoors, some out, some on the main house, some on the dock house. I will get one more disinfection/anti-mold spray down in. The previous ones are working but I’d like one more before we start putting furniture back. I’ll leave the walls open to continue drying though.

There was a lot of dew on the grass, so it might be too wet to mow, we’ll see. I can wait for that until Sunday if need be.

The cell booster antenna needs to go back up, and there are tree limbs that need attention. Still. There is plenty to do…

And my buddy has a birthday on Sunday too. I got him an IFAK and a bag to put it in. I was surprised to learn that he doesn’t have a good first aid kit for gunshots or other trauma. He spends a lot of time hunting and fishing, so I figured I could close that gap. Heck, the life it saves might be my own at some point. You can’t have too many prepared friends.

Stack your network like you stack food.

nick

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Fri. Jun. 7, 2024 – having another go at the truck stuff…

Cool to start but warming to “yep it’s Houston hot”. Probably. It certainly has been the pattern for the last few day, storm front not withstanding. IDK about any fronts today, so I’m going with “pretty much like yesterday.”

And yesterday it did get hot. Started the day with D2 getting contact lenses. She’s going through the whole “touching my eyes is hard” stage. I remember it even if it was 40 something years ago… and the tech looks the same but must be quite different. She’s getting one day disposables with astigmatism correction. Which is a lot of tech in something that small and clear. Civilization is awesome and I’m sure going to miss it. Damn dirty apes.

Then I did a couple of pickups. One thing for the house, a new gas can, and a tactical belt… not much in the way of stuff but I haven’t really been bidding much due to being out of town and in disaster recovery mode.

Today I’m going to try to get all my truck stuff sorted out. I might do an auction pickup too, if it works out. Then I’ll head to the BOL to join the rest of the pack. Wife says last night was beautiful, relatively cool, and clear with a nice sky. I’m hoping for a nice weekend.

We’ll go back up for Independence Day, but that is a crazy busy weekend. This should be nice and relaxing.

Other than the work.

but there is always work, so that’s kinda baseline.

There should be some stacks to look at and organize too. Maybe a portable A/C unit to bring up. I should have grabbed one from my secondary location yesterday when I was disposing of the construction debris… but maybe it will be easier to get one out of the attic here. Yeah, probably a lot easier and hopefully I won’t regret it during the busiest hurricane season EVAH!

You can’t have too much stuff stacked. As long as it is the RIGHT stuff. Do your best to stack useful things.

nick

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Thur. Jun. 6, 2024 – D Day.

Cool to start but warming rapidly to “hot”. Because Texas and summer. And if I’m wrong? Well that’s ok too. It stayed cool all day yesterday, but then it rained buckets too. Low 70s cool, which was very nice.

So I mostly stayed in. I did swap vehicles at the repair shop. Eventually the Expy got smogged and inspected and passed. That’s one out of the way. The Ranger still needs some driving around before smog, so I’ll be driving it today. And probably this weekend to the BOL.

The rest of my day was taken up with driving the kids to their various things. Didn’t get my own stuff done because it broke up my afternoon. Some days are like that. It’s the “stay at home dad” thing, and it means I don’t get to do whatever I want all day. Compromises, I’ll make ’em.

The stacks did pay off with a new turn signal bulb. It saved me a trip to the store yesterday anyway. I’ll try to remember to stop and get new ones when I’m out and about, so I have one when this one fails, or it’s opposite number fails. Doesn’t sound like much, but in a day full of other stuff it saved the trip and about an hour. I’ll put it in the ‘win’ column.

Today will be a couple of pickups, and getting ready to head to the BOL. My non-prepping hobby meeting got moved to next weekend, so we might just head up early and make a long weekend of it. I’m sure there are things for me to do…

And I’m sure there are things for you to do too. I’ve learned the hard way this month that I shouldn’t have procrastinated about the vehicle inspections, renewals, generator maintenance, and auto repairs…

It’s easy to stack, harder to do the stuff needed to stay ready. Pick something you’ve been putting off and do it.

n

(added, and on this anniversary of one of the biggest things humans have ever tried to do, think about history repeating… the horns of war are blowing. Do what you can to be ready.)

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Sun. Jun. 2, 2024 – in the summertime, the livin’s easy…

Hot and humid. Possibility of rain. Possibility of scorching sun. It was nice yesterday at the BOL, with a cool breeze in the shade, and brain boiling heat in the sun… while Houston got some cooling rain.

I did get a bunch of work done at the BOL. Cleaned up almost all the remaining downed branches, cut up logs, and other debris. Now I have 3 burn piles as tall as me… Cleaned up the demo debris from the dockhouse. Reset the A/C in the dockhouse after the power failure. I’m running it 24/7 to help dry out the wood. Mowed the grass. Put most of the patio furniture back after moving it out of the way for the tree guy. Put away all the solar stuff I’d brought to Houston, and did some general cleaning up and putting away.

It was enough to fill the day.

Today I’m home in Houston and will be doing storm recovery stuff. I need to make repairs to our driveway gate, back fence, and some other things. I’ve got to get stuff back where it belongs, and sort some stuff out. I should do something about the rat situation, and my general pile of stuff that needs attention…

After resting and getting a slow start… if it’s hot.

Stacks. I got ’em. You should too.
n

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Sat. Jun. 1, 2024 – Saturday, in the dark, I think it was a month to July….

Cool to start but surely getting hot later. Unless it’s pouring down rain. Which is apparently a possibility. ‘cuz that’s what we need today. More rain.

The ground is getting saturated, and the trees are falling over whenever the wind blows.

I started yesterday with the best of intentions, got thwarted by my own procrastination, and ended up just doing auction stuff anyway after wasting the whole morning. Then I did some grocery shopping and loaded the truck for the BOL.

Now I’m up here, and my day will be dependent on the weather. I’ll either clean up debris, and load the truck for a dump run, or I’ll hang out indoors while it rains. I’m tempted to stick around if it’s storming, in case the power goes out again. Locals say the number of outages and the length of the outages are unprecedented. I say it’s probably the new normal for one reason or another. Some sort of automatic failover to a backup power supply is nearly at the top of the list now…

Infrastructure is awesome when it is intact. Lots of ways to break it, and only so many ways to fix it. Plan for losses.

Stack what you need to be 80% or more of what you are now. You’ll be better off than almost anyone else, and the 80/20 rule of thumb says you will be maximizing your result vs effort and resources.

Or choose a different path, but I think our choices now will be the major factor in how we live 1,2,5,and 10 years from now.

Stack.

nick

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Wed. May 29, 2024 – back at the BOL?? Maybe.

Cool, but warming. No idea if it’s gonna be nice for a while. Yesterday was certainly a kick in the teeth.

Started the day at the BOL when the tree guy arrived early. He said there was a storm on the way… He got done and gone in 2 hours, and I left another hour later, with black skies behind me. The storm was moving very quickly and chased me all the way to Houston. When I stopped running south, it caught me.

HUGE downpour, 3-5 inches of water in my buckets. An incredibly long hail storm with mostly golf ball sized hail. Before I could drive to shelter, one smashed my windshield. And the way things were spanging off the sheet metal, I thought the truck would LOOK like a golf ball. The damage to the windshield is in the lower corner, so it’s drivable, and the sheet metal held up better than I thought. Still, crazy storm.

Of course, it hit the BOL shortly after I left. Power went out around 1130am so it’s going to be almost 24 hours by the time I get up there to start the generator… This assumes that power isn’t restored overnight, since I’m planning and writing this Tuesday night. I’ll know in the morning if I actually have to head up.

Getting some sort of automatic power backup option for the BOL is rapidly becoming not optional.

This weather is nuts, but it is nothing like what will happen if people start targeting infrastructure.

Think about that if you are patting yourself on the back for not being in Texas…

And I don’t want to be the boy who cried wolf, but things seem to be getting out of hand in the political realm, and the geopolitical realm. Of course, in the end the wolf DID come… it won’t take much to break the grid.

A breakdown in previously reliable systems is one of the things that happens when a society starts to collapse. And there are plenty of people willing to help it along.

Think about your alternatives seriously. Make some plans and buy what you need.

Then stack it up.

nick

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Tues. May 28, 2024 – Tree work and more!

Another hot, humid day, with heat alerts and high misery index. Yesterday was crazy obnoxious between the heat, humidity, and the blazing sun. No wind just added the fuel to the fire. Just standing in the shade talking soaked my shirt with sweat. And we’ll probably get more today.

Gah.

I did manage to get a few things done, by going very slowly, waiting for small breezes, and sweating profusely.

I got the Wen inverter generator running. Turns out it needed oil, some shipping brackets removed, and then it started. Just needed to do the proper commissioning. Apparently it doesn’t ship with a bottle of oil, making it useless to you when it arrives. I’m sure whatever they save is far outweighed by the outraged buyers and returns…

I fixed a chainsaw. Fuel poured out immediately upon filling… so something must have been disconnected. I finally had the time and inclination to pull the cover and figure it out. One fuel line came undone. Took 10 minutes to fix. Thank you amazon returns. $25 and a bit of time and I’ve got another like new chainsaw as backup.

I loaded the truck for my trip home. I was already soaked, and didn’t want to get sweaty today. It didn’t leave any room for trash or flood debris. I’ll get that next time. I guess.

Finally I took down the cell booster antenna and cleared the path for the tree guy to work today. He’s fitting me in between jobs, and I wanted to be here at least when he gets started. I’ve got a pickup in Houston in the afternoon, so I will have to leave at some point, no matter what the guy is doing. He’s said he doesn’t need me here, so it’ll be ok.

Sometimes I feel like Dory in Finding Nemo. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”

Wish I could outsource some of this stuff.

You do what you have to do though…

Stack it up, you’ll probably need it sooner rather than later.

nick

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