Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
A few weeks ago, I realized I needed three new tools…a pressure washer, a leaf blower and a snow blower. I am going to have to wait on that snow blower, as they are pretty hard to find these days.
Yesterday, I picked up a RIDGID 3000 PSI Gas Pressure Washer. I got a pretty sweet deal. I had a 10% off coupon as well as $100 worth of Home Depot gift cards, so I didn’t feel too guilty buying this thing.
I put it all together this morning and let ‘er rip. Everything works as expected, but the soap is a little quirky. I can’t get it to turn off. I am going to have to look at that. I tried it on one side of the house and I think it worked ok. I may have not been using the soap in the beginning. All I know is that the green stuff needs to come off the siding. I got some of it off, but not all of it. I will try again in earnest another day. My fiend also does this a lot, so I will ask him for advice.
This machine came with four nozzles. The first one is for soaking with the soap and the other three are high pressure, “tear your hand off” nozzles. I have to be careful with them.
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Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Secrets of Stonehenge unearthed
Now that’s a pretty impressive tombstone. New research suggests that Stonehenge was used as a cemetery for more than 500 years, much longer than previously thought. The new findings also show that people used the area as a burial site long before placement of its trademark stones (or sarsen stones) was complete.
How to harvest solar power? Beam it down from space!
The satellites would electromagnetically beam gigawatts of solar energy back to ground-based receivers, where it would then be converted to electricity and transferred to power grids. The floating power plants could provide round-the-clock clean, renewable electricity.
Scientists Invent Machine to Suck CO2 & Fight Global Warming
Scientists say they have invented a machine that can suck carbon dioxide out of the air – potentially creating a vital weapon in the war against global warming. The blueprint for the CO2 ’scrubber’ raises the prospect of a generation of machines which would help reduce the billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere.
The Coming Energy Wars – A Bargain at $200
Oil prices could hit $200 a barrel in the next few months. How the spike changes everything. This spring, America hit a historic point. With average gas prices per gallon edging toward $4, America’s notoriously profligate ways started to change fast. Americans are driving less, using mass transit more, buying fewer gas guzzlers.
How Man-Made Noise May Be Altering Earth’s Ecology
The contamination of biophony may soon become a serious environmental issue — Scientist Bernie Krause says that man-made sounds are already wreaking havoc with animal communication. We worry about the carbon emissions from SUVs and airplanes; maybe we should be equally concerned about the racket they cause.
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Thursday, May 8th, 2008
We took another trip to a different town today. We went food shopping at Stop and Shop in Colchester. Colchester was a pretty neat town, but a little busy for my taste. It was cute with a nice park right off main street. I think it may have seemed busy because rush hour was getting close.
While in Stop and Shop, I felt a bit tired. I kept wondering why. Then, I remembered what I had done all morning…raked leaves. By the way, Stop and Shop’s prices were waaay lower than Whole Foods. We got about triple the product for just a little mo’ money. That’s cool with me. I think we are still going to go back to Whole Foods because I like the atmosphere. Stop and Shop seemed much more like just buying food to survive. If I am going to go out somewhere, I like to have an “experience.”
Anyway, back to those leaves. Since this propery is a bit larger than our other one, it is taking a little while to get used to. One thing I noticed was that there needs a lot of raking to be done. There are many gardens (which are very nice and right up my alley), but they need a bit of TLC because of the Winter. The good thing is that they have a nice variety of plants already planted. There isn’t much in the way of running out to the nursery to get new stuff. Yesterday, we went to Home Depot for some spruces and pachysandra. I got the spruces, but there was no pachysandra to be found. When we got home, I noticed there was pachysandra already scattered throughout the front. They were just kind of buried with leaves.
A few days ago, I decided to it would be best if I picked one area per day to rake. There is no sense me killing myself and I can always use a nice break from the computer. I already did about three or four areas and things are starting to come together. Today, I did part of the big front garden and along the front of the house.
Believe it or not, this area had three tarp fulls of leaves. One tarp full equals about four wheel barrow loads. Crazy. If you are wondering what the heck a tarp full is, it’s me laying a big tarp on the ground and raking the leaves onto it. When it’s full, I pick it up like a big sack and carry it into the woods.
The front of the house was easier with only one tarp full. I needed to get the leaves away from the house because, well, it looks better and I can also get to the foundation for insect spray.
After I am all done getting all the leaves up, I am really going to focus on getting the lawn in order. I already have been doing some stuff, but it needs to be raked and reseeded.
Also, this is the month I get my new ride on lawnmower. I am planning on this towards the end of the month, so there maybe one tough day with the push mower.
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Monday, March 17th, 2008
Well, we visited the house again this afternoon with the realtor. We liked what we saw and headed back to the office to sign all the paperwork and give a deposit. Before we did, both Laura and I took lots of pictures and even a video of the road the house is on.
Just a few minutes ago, as I was resizing the pictures, I thought to myself, “How would I like it if someone posted pictures of the inside of my house on the internet?” I mean, I know the realtor posted them in the online ad, but still, we took pictures of all the bedrooms and stuff. I don’t think it would be too cool if I posted them. After thinking about it, I decided that I will just post the outside shots and then the video of the road. That way, no one will get mad at me if they ever come across them. Hey, you never know.
So, without any more fluff, here you go.
This is obviously the front of the house. The master bedroom is over the garage and is pretty big. It also has that nice dormer to let in the sun.
This is the back of the house, looking up from the woods.
This is looking into the woods from the back porch. There are 4.25 acres of land.
This is looking into the woods from the backyard.
This is me asking, “Where’s my room?”
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Saturday, March 15th, 2008
I thought I would give you a little update on the house. The homeowners accepted our offer. The real estate agent is drawing up the contract and we are going to visit it once more on Monday. We are going to walk up and down the road for a second once-over. I guess it would be called a twice-over. If everything is cool, we are going to head to the real estate office and sign the contract. I will be sure to take photos of the neighborhood and post them.
I already called the mortgage company and gave them the revised numbers and I have an appointment on Tuesday morning to get everything done. He says that we could have the closing before the end of the month. I would say that’s pretty fast. He told me that he had a closing in four days, a few weeks back. That is just nuts.
Needless to say, I am a little nervous. We are going to be swimming in the house, but at least Laura will get her own office and so will I. There will also be another bedroom with a bathroom, so if we ever have guests, they will be hooked up. We can then have another whole family living in the finished basement. Also, the two car garage is something I have always wanted. No more scraping ice off the windshields. Ye haw.
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Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Well, what do you think? Laura did this over the weekend. I like to see her all motivated like that.
I was busy installing her new car stereo for her and she was setting up the Halloween lights. It really can’t get any better than that. Like I have said, it’s the little things in life.
I took Monday off and hung around the house with her. I told her that I had a great weekend and meant it. I really can do that every day, especially if it’s sunny and about 62 degrees.
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Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Well, well, well. I think we’re going to do it. All that’s left with the house is to re-do the bathroom, kitchen and the back porch. Yeah, just the bathroom, kitchen and back porch….ya know, those cheap and easy projects.
We are going tackle the back porch first. The one we have is in pretty bad shape. It’s made with that Trex stuff…only, I don’t think it is Trex. It may be some knockoff, who knows. All I know is it’s gray and very washed out looking. Also, the porch may be a little crooked, which drives me absolutely mad. The railings are hanging on by a thread due to poor workmanship and the top of the porch collects water. The whole thing just looks really bad. Are those enough reason to get this thing done? (Oh yeah, the bugs out here are TERRIBLE! The current porch is pretty useless as is.)
As you may already know, I made our front porch. I am a pretty handy fella, but I just don’t want to do this one. The first reason is that this one will be screened in…meaning there will be a roof. I am really not in the mood to attempt to build that by myself. Also, I want it done quickly, so no messing around. It would take me about two years to get home all the lumber strapped to the top of my car again. I like to do projects little by little.
I am going to use a contractor that is a friend of my neighbor. He seems like he would do a good job of coming in a putting this thing up quickly. The porch will be 16′ out the back of the house and 20′ wide. There will be 6 sonotube footings, 12″ wide. There will be 2 main girders holding up 2×10″ joists. Everything will be pressure treated. For the floor, he will put down 6×1 5/8″ boards with a 4×4″ every 4′ to hold up the roof. The main beam holding up the roof will be a 4×6″. The roof will have to be built into the current roof, which is the tricky part…to me. I am sure it will take no time for these guys. Also, they are going to put in a set of 4′wide stairs about 4′ out from the house. Currently, the stairs are slapped right up against the house and very loose.
I asked that they don’t complete the railings and the screening. I want to do them. Those are things that I can take my time on. Also, I am going to tear down the current deck. My neighbor, Tim wants to burn it. I have to keep him away because it is pressure treated and I can use the wood for another project. Tim is disappointed, but still willing to help me.
I picked up the building permit from the buidling inspector yesterday morning and have to fill it in and drop it off so the contractor can draw his diagram.
Now, of course, you are going to see lots of pictures of this. I hope you are as excited as we are!
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Monday, February 19th, 2007
Now, I know that only a few people on the planet will think this is funny. Some of you may even think it’s vulgar (no, not like the movie). Anyway, those people…I’m guessing…would be, Rob, my sister Laurie and my other sister Stephanie. Up until a few weeks ago, I thought Rob and I were the only ones at this event, but I was wrong. Laurie and Stephanie both told me they were there, and by the way, requested that this story be one of my posts. Craig would probably get a kick out of this too, just because he knows how Rob is.
It was a bright and sunny afternoon, a lazy Saturday, if I remember correctly. I was sitting at home, just eating my turkey sandwich watching some television. I think I was petting my cat, Smokey, who was sitting next to me on the couch.
Now I know this is not Smokey, it’s Simon, and he is not on the couch. I thought that if I posted a cute picture here, someone might stop to read the post. It’s all marketing, baby.
Anyway, I was just minding my own business when Rob called me on the phone. “Hey, can I come up?” he asked. “Sure,” I said, and hung up the phone. It wasn’t a very long conversation. He lived two houses away, so it took him about three minutes to get there. He knocked on the front door and I yelled for him to come in. He walked over and sat next to me on the couch…on my right side. We both sat there for a few minutes. No words were exchanged. He was probably wondering why I didn’t offer him any of my turkey sandwich. I didn’t care, I just wanted to finish the sandwich because I was hungry. Maybe during the four minute wait, I gave him a look or two and perhaps he smiled back. Being friends for as long as we have been, we didn’t need much as far as pleasantries.
This is where it gets interesting…and I have no idea why I did what I did. Every day of my life I look back and wonder why I did some of the things I am guilty of. We are all guilty of something, but I may be more than others, especially to Rob.
Ok, the TV show had just ended and it just so happened that I had just put the last bite of my sandwich in my mouth. I was chewing and trying to get everything down. A few more moments passed and I was basically done. A couple of commercials had gone by and I was at the point of using my tongue to clean out any excess turkey from my mouth. I am sure we are all aware of what I am talking about. This is the disgusting part…and by all means, close this page if you are offended by disgusting things. I had one little chunk of turkey left in my mouth (about the size of a “Nerd” candy), when all of the sudden this urge came over me. I looked at Rob, who was watching the television and I said, “Hey.” He turned his head towards me and his gaze settled upon mine. I worked up the chunk of turkey on the tip of my tongue and used a forceful blast of air to propel the chunk in poor Rob’s direction (I am really trying to keep this clean). The chunk of turkey struck Rob somewhere, but I wasn’t sure where. In my mind, I thought, home run! Rob’s head flew backwards just like Kramer’s did in that episode of Seinfeld when he thought he was spit on by Keith Hernandez.
You are probably sitting there thinking, “Jay, that’s not very funny.” I assure you, it was funny, but not as funny as what happened next. Rob has a very special way of reacting to such events in his life. He doesn’t get upset for some time…and surprisingly enough, his initial reactions are very subdued. Rob recovered from his sudden jerk backwards and straightened up his head to face my general direction. I was laughing so hard. He didn’t even say anything. All he did was slowly lift his left hand up to his left eye and pull down his left eyelid. Low and behold, there was the chunk of turkey, sitting on the inside of his lower eyelid. How it managed to get lodged in there, I will never know. At this point, I was on the floor, laying face down, pounding it with laughter. He still didn’t say anything. He slowly got up and walked into the bathroom. This is where it gets a little fuzzy, because both Laurie and Stephanie say they went into the bathroom with him and saw him pull his eyelid down again to remove the turkey. Can you imagine being Rob and having to walk to the bathroom…all the way, feeling the pressure of a Nerd sized chunk of turkey in your eye? Stephanie says she almost lost it when she was standing on the edge of the bathtub and began to realize what Rob was going through. Laurie says she was a witness too…who knew?
Rob got everything taken care of and really didn’t even say anything to me about it. I think the extent of his comments were, “Jay, what in the world would possess you to spit a chunk of turkey in my eye?” To which, I responded, “Whoops?”
I want to take this moment to warn you about two more episodes that have to do with Rob that I will write in the future. I can guarantee that you will agree that they are the most incredibly hilarious things you will ever hear of. Stories #5, #4 and #3 are wickedly mild compared to what you are in store for in #2 and #1.
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Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
…well, my family. Ok, my house.
You have to check this out:
UpMyAlley.US
This is a new online shopping storefront. Through some pretty neat technology, created by a very talented company other than mine, we are able to pull in every single item from Amazon.com. This is huge because while being able to offer an extremely large variety of products, I am able to micro-target (you like that?) my classifieds audience. Say for example, if someone visits PetClassifieds.US and is not able to find the dog collar they were looking for, they can easily follow the links to the appropriate category on UpMyAlley.US to make a purchase.
By the way, Laura made up the domain name, so I must give mad props to her.
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Saturday, October 14th, 2006
There won’t be many more days to get my plantings and gardening done this year, so I better finish up fast. Today was the day of the triangle. We have a triangle garden right in front of the house that was just a mess. There were 3 patches of Iris and Mint (well, it smelled minty) that had run wild. Both the Iris and the Mint spread underground, so you really don’t know the extent of their growth until you start pulling. There was also some Hosta. Over the past year, we haphazardly planted a wide variety of about 50 bulbs in this garden. None of them have bloomed yet. As I started pulling out the mint, I started stumbling across these bulbs, that have started rooting quite nicely. I also found many bulbs under the iris. Great bulbs, I’m sure…just strangled, that’s all. I placed all the bulbs in a bucket for use later.
Well, all morning I pulled and pulled and pulled, until the garden was cleaned out.
I moved the Hosta to the front corner and left the pretty little tree where it was. I also planted our new Bartlett Pear tree. This is going to be very cool when we get our new pears. I placed this tree here because it is going to be surrounded by Boxwood, and deer don’t like boxwood. Also, it is right next to our peach tree and is in full sun, like the tree label said to do. I got it for a great deal of only $12. That’s the beauty of buying these types of trees late in the season.
As I mentioned above, I had to wrestle with some iris. There were three areas, and here is one of them…
This should be a real treat for you if you have never seen overgrown iris. This is why iris doesn’t bloom that well after a few years. It strangles itself. I pulled the iris apart and made a trench along the rearmost border. I layed the separated iris in the trench and covered it up.
I then made two trenches on the other two sides and placed all the bulbs I collected in them. I placed the largest bulbs towards the center of the garden and the smaller ones towards the rock walls. This way, I will have good height proportion come Spring.
I am going to pick up a few bags of mulch this week and cover the entire garden with it to protect the bulbs. I am also going to grab about five boxwood shrubs and place them towards the center of the garden, so they surround the pear tree. This should look good…green at the center, tree in the middle with nice color along the edges.
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