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Category: lakehouse

Sun. Aug. 4, 2022 – nothin’ but a step for a stepper…

Hot and humid later, but just humid to start the day.   We had intermittent and light rain throughout the day yesterday.   I’m thinking we might have more of the same today.

I got a bunch of stuff started, and nothing really finished.   That said, lots of progress was made.   I’m missing a couple of pex connectors, and 75ft of romex so those projects are now on hold until I get back with the parts.   I will shift to gas lines today, and maybe some other stuff.   There is always other stuff.

Kids and wife got out on the kayaks and paddle boards.   Gotta remember the whole point of doing all this work…  I floated on a tube and watched the bats cleaning up the dusk sky.

Find something that needs doin’ and do it.  Find something that needs stacking and stack it.   Take your joy where you find it.

nick

 

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Sat. Sept. 3, 2022 – plugging away

Hot and humid, but less so than Houston.    It was mostly in the high 80s low 90s yesterday.   Lots of humidity, but overcast kept it comfortable most of the day.  Unless one happened to be engaged in physical labor, then it was miserable soaked to the skin sweaty hot.

Like it was for me.   Every stitch of clothing soaked completely with sweat.   Lost track of the gatoraid I drank, and used my cool vest 3 times.   The gas line is in the trench, enters the garage, runs to a manifold.   I started work on the supply side of the water plumbing too.   Discovered I need 4 specific pex fittings that I don’t have.   May head into town to see if Tractor Supply has them, if not, I’ll work the other end of the system.

Family made it here safely.    Had dinner.

Brand new gallon of costco milk was sour when opened.  Seal was bad under the intact cap.   I might go into town for milk, and just stop by the hardware or TS store on the way.  I’m not the only one with milk going off before its time lately.   One more thing failing amongst many.

I REALLY am feeling pressure to have this place ready as a real refuge.   Politics are getting more divisive and the rhetoric is escalating.   Pretty sure the current president just declared war on more than half the population.  Since he said last week that we’d need more than guns, and finally stumbled around to saying we’d need F-15s, that sounds a lot like he intends to use the Armed Forces against us.    Wonder how that will work out?   Nice for the heads up though.

You aren’t stacking enough.   Get busy.

nick

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Fri. Aug. 2, 2022 – busy as a beaver, that’s me

Hot and humid.  Yeah, really.  I know, you think I’m kidding but I’m not!  Highest I saw it yesterday was 92F in the shade, but it might have exceeded that in the sunnier areas.   Not much breeze either.   Fortunately  it was overcast with spotty drizzle for much of the day.

Got the power undergrounded, and a new panel in place.  We thought the co-op had screwed us up by not replacing the pole ahead of time, but it actually saved us time when they stuck around to do the reconnect.  4 hrs total, and I got a trench dug for my LP gas line.   Still need to upgrade all the branch circuits, and do something proper to supply the outbuildings and the dock, but at least the burnt stuff is gone, and I can turn off the house without pulling the meter.

Today I think I’ll get the gas line in the trench, and maybe do some plumbing.   There’s a lot on the list, I’m sure I’ll find something…

Stack some spare parts, or supplies for the project you know you need to do.   You’ll be glad you did.

n

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Thur. Sept. 1, 2022 – well waddaya know

Hot-ish.   And humid.  Less hot than Houston, I guess.   I’d like it to stay dry so the electricians can work quickly, safely, and expeditiously.

They are supposed to start around 8:30am so I’m hoping!  It will be nice to get one of the big items started.  It will be super nice to get it finished.

I had plans yesterday, so of course they got disrupted.   Heavy rain did them in.  Eventually I got out of town and up to the BOL once the rain stopped and I could load the truck.   Not a huge load coming up, but stuff needed to move this way.

Plan for the day is help expedite whatever needs doing for the electricians.   In between, I’ll work my list, including plumbing and other stuff.

No power means no internet so I won’t be surfing news or checking in during the day.   I brought the Honda 3000 gennie if things get bad, but I’m hoping we don’t have to use it.  Fingers crossed….

While I’m riding herd, y’all should be stackin’.  Not slackin’.

nick

 

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Wed. Aug. 31, 2022 – ain’t nothing but a thing…

Maybe not hot.  Maybe only pretty warm with some moisture from the sky…  supposedly rain for the next 7 days, but given that it’s Houston, some people will be getting rain, and some won’t.  It’s a bit harder to guess what the weather will be like a few hours north at the BOL, which is where I’ll actually be.  Since we’ll be digging trenches, it would be nice if the forecast of light rain was REALLY light.   The lake needs rain, but I’m selfish.   The following week we’re digging a big hole for the septic, so NO rain next week would be ideal.

We certainly got some rain here yesterday.   It hammered down and we got more than an inch at the house.  We didn’t have any flooding on our street so it wasn’t long enough.   The yard is a squishy mess though.  Everything will probably grow crazy amounts, and split open like a fat tick.  Gah.   Dry, then too wet.

Did more cleaning and organizing, since I was confined to the house.   Poked around in the garage, and didn’t find any dead critter.  I did find some chocolate milk boxes scattered around.  I think that is what was dripping, not body fluids.   It certainly stinks like rotten something, but I think the something is milk.   I sprayed it with clorox cleaner, and I’m letting that work over night.

Today’s agenda is – work.   Get some stuff done around the house, load up, head to the BOL in the afternoon.   Plan is to stay  there while the electricians are working, then have the family join me for the long weekend late Friday night.

I’ll be doing stuff while up there, mostly plumbing I think.   I think I won’t want to do much outdoors if it’s raining, even a little.  LOTS of plumbing, including the replacement gas lines and the bathrooms.

We’ll see how it shakes out.

Stack some stuff.   Stack some skills.   Worst comes to worst, stack your enemies like cordwood.

n

 

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Tues. Aug. 30, 2022 – ‘tell me somethin’ good….’

Very damp and a bit cooler today.   Rained like crazy yesterday, depending on where you were, and when you were there.  Similar forecast for today.

Did 4 pickups, making a big loop.  Not many items at each place, so not super efficient, but even with gas and tolls it still nets out to a savings over retail, and these were mostly for the BOL.

I’ve got a couple of pickups today, maybe an auction drop off if I can get my stuff together, and getting ready to head up to the house Wednesday night.   Electricians are still supposed to be working Thursday and Friday, and then we’ll be spending the weekend up there. Well, fingers crossed anyway.

Out in the wider world, gas prices continue to slowly come down.   We dodged a bullet with diesel prices as they follow gas down.   One of the guys I chatted with at my show told me that Texas cattle auctions were running round the clock to sell off herds.   They don’t have the water to keep them.  He sold his just before the drought got going.  The current glut is driving beef prices down.   That won’t last.   Fill the freezer is my advice.   I’m doing it myself.  Of course you might look at the situation and make other choices.   Take  that look though, decide, and ACT.

Stack it up.

nick

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Tues. Aug. 23, 2022 – like sands through an hourglass….

Hot and humid, seriously.  Why would I lie?   It was certainly humid yesterday.  Even just sitting outside while working on my gennie I was soaked to the skin.  Today should be the same, with the BOL due to get T storms and heavy rain, but Houston just sweltering…

Did some inside desk stuff to start the day, but finally decide it was time to get the gennie running.   The kit went in and the directions were pretty clear and straightforward.   The longest time was taken up putting stuff back together before I could take it apart and add the propane conversion.

There is one thing that doesn’t make sense, so I’m going to take the advice in the instructions and call them today.  If it needs fixing, a simple drilled hole should solve the issue.   It took more adjustment than I expected to get it running and the idle circuit seems to have an issue.   Since the missing hole is part of the idle, it all makes sense… sorta.  It does run, and I can run with it how it is.   Still, I think it can be better.   I still have to figure out a good mounting solution for the regulator and drill a big hole to pass the hose through.   My drill and step bit are at the BOL though, so that detail will have to wait.  With a couple of minor tweaks it should be great.

I also cut the grass and did some weeding.   Ants.  Freaking ants.  Raised bed is full of them.  I hate ant bites, I’ve got 3 new ones  on my hands from the BOL, and another from my garden here.   I’m going to have to look at the poison to see if I can use it in the raised bed and still plant veggies later this fall.

In other pest news, whatever has been moving around in my garage and knocking stuff off my shelves found the rat trap bait yesterday.  Stupid thing ate its way into the box and snacked on the bait.   I’m hoping it doesn’t die in the garage walls or soffits, but I’m hoping it does die.   Drought is causing stress for the wildlife and vermin too.  One of my buddies reports coyotes moving around his property, eyeballing his chickens.  His dogs aren’t up to fighting coyotes, and he has reasons why he can’t be armed properly.   I think he’s gonna be feeding coyotes.

Pickups and driving around today.   And maybe some prepping for my sale/show this weekend.   But certainly lots of stuff to do.   (ha, fragments, and style violations! I’m feeling saucy.)   I was still pretty sore and stiff yesterday from the sledgehammering and breaking rocks in the hot sun, I’m hoping to be back to normal today.   Say it with me — “we’ll see.”

Time to stack some things.

nick

 

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Mon. Aug. 22, 2022 – Might get some weather this week

Hot and humid is so boooorrrrrriiiiiinnnngggg.   Why not some hail?  Or a hurricane? Or the way things have been going, a rain of frogs?  Just kidding, boring is great, and time marches on.   We’ll be in Fall soon enough.  Heck, August is almost gone already.  It was butt-sweaty-hot at the BOL despite the occasional overcast and nice breeze.

I did manage to get some stuff done, despite the power outage.   Just a little over 2 hours, and even the upright freezer in the kitchen fridge barely warmed at all.    I will move the big UPS for the comms support up the list… can’t go online to report the outage if the cell booster is dark.  I did drive to the county road at the entrance to the subdivision, and got good signal there.  The electrical co-op has an interactive outage map and it lied.  It showed no outages at all, but I was down, and so were a bunch of my neighbors, and for over an hour at that point.  Some of them had already called it in.  Interesting thing to learn was that my neighbor to the north had power, but my neighbors to the south were dark.  Everyone thought the last two on the road were on the same circuit as me.   Guess not.   I’m going to have to spend a little time looking at the local infrastructure at some point, like I’ve done at home.

Today will be a couple of pickups, then a bunch of home stuff to do.  That stuff won’t stack itself…

Get busy…

nick

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Fri. Aug. 19, 2022 – so MUCH stuff to do…

Hot and humid, but definitely less so today after all the rain and the cool front yesterday.   We got a smattering in the early afternoon, like a snow flurry, only wet.  A little later the temperature dropped 20F, the sky darkened and the wind picked up.  Picked up stuff and flung it around!   And that was when the power went out.

Took  a little over 2 hours for power to be restored.  It was pretty dark with the storm clouds.   The FLASHLIGHTS and mini lanterns got used.  The rain crashed down.   One of the nearby monitoring stations got 1″ in 15 minutes.   Of course the rain put an end to me working in the yard.   I did manage to get one gas powered string trimmer running.   It needed new fuel lines, new primer bulb, and a good carb cleaning.   I put the string trimmer attachment on it and attacked the back yard.   It’s been a long time since I ran the trimmer in back, and I had some real bushwacking to do.   Trimmer ran great for a whole tank of gas.  The engine part had a $6 sticker on it.  Fuel rebuild kit was $12, and a can of carb cleaner was $3.  I don’t  remember but I think the string trimmer attachment was probably less than $12.  I don’t count the cost of the string since that’s an expendable.  It took time of course, but still pretty cheap over all.  I’ve got a pole saw attachment for trimming limbs, and a blower  attachment for sweeping leaves, as well as extra string trimmer attachments.   If I can get another one of the power units running, I’ll leave one as a trimmer and one as polesaw.

In hindsight, I should  have been working on the gennie, either the propane conversion for the Honda inverter, or cleaning the carb for the bigger Generac.   But I couldn’t find the conversion kit- it got ‘cleaned up’ and moved.  And I got focused on getting one of the trimmers running so I could cut the grass.    I did find the kit later in the evening so it will be going on the gennie this week.   I’ve decided to ask a neighbor for an extension cord to keep the freezers running while the electrical work is happening.  I’ll send the gennie with my wife next week just in case.   Thought I’d have more time before the next hurricane to get the Generac prepped…  Prepper fail.

Today I’ve got a ton of stuff to get together and load, scattered in a couple of different places.  I think I’ll be driving around most of the day, and then driving to the BOL, with a pickup or three on the way.  Wife and kids have more Girl Scout Mariner stuff this weekend, and I have to get some stuff done at the BOL before the electricians get there.

Subsequently I’ll be away from the keyboard most of the day.  Hope they can keep the world together a few more days…

I need to stack some more, and so do you!

nick

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Wed. Aug. 17, 2022 – aye, que loco

Slightly less hot today, but clearing with less chance of rain.

Kids start a full day of normal classes today.

After the late start yesterday, I got some stuff picked up.  Went by the Habitat reStore looking for stuff for the BOL.   The southside store used to have a great selection of doors, but they were pretty much all gone.  Their tile selection was meager too, and it used to be extensive.  Most of what they had appeared to be from a closed Ace Hardware.   The whole reStore system is dependent on donations, and it looked a bit sparse the last couple of visits.  Could be there is less slack in the system, could be people are being more careful so they don’t have excess to dispose of, or it could be people are buying the store out…

 

The thrift stores are looking a bit sparse too.   And I noticed a couple of closed strip joints, and in my neighborhood, a closed pawn shop.   I think things are probably worse than they look economically.    The closed auto dealerships and especially the little used car lots are another bad sign.   Even one of the big Ford dealers is still spreading cars and trucks out to fill the lot.

 

Today I’ve got fence to fix at the rent house, and a few more plumbing items to find for the BOL.   I’ve got stuff in deep storage that I need for there as well, including the pex compression tools I bought years ago, well in advance of need.  Later I need to get to the bank and have my septic permit application notarized so I can get it to my contractor this weekend.  Septic is the only thing you need a permit and inspection for at my BOL.  While that might make some things easier, remember that the  inspection is to protect you, the building owner.  It’s another set of eyes to make sure your contractor is doing the work to minimum standards.

I did notice that Lowes had 2×4 studs for just under $5, which is down from just under $8 not too long ago.   The reported record number of home buyers walking away from their contracts and the slowdown in home sales might be contributing to that.  Make of it what you will, but rising home prices make people feel good (owners and sellers) while falling prices make them nervous.   Some price lowering in general should help with inflation, but if it is really the beginning of deflation in the non-core sector, then bad times are right around the corner.   I mean, worse times.   Given the recent increase in crime and violence, and in costs,  I’d say we are already in bad times.

There is still food in the store and stuff to buy, and generally if you want to work you can.   That can change, and if it does it will change rapidly.  Preps are a cushion against rapid change, especially when it’s for the worse.

So stack it up.

nick

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