What did you do today?

[zannej]

I watched that whole video (the one with the cat coming out from under the model train bridge). Some weird stuff in there. Rollerblader on one wheel was cool. Liked the instant karma for the football player.

Rusty, I'm glad your wife's incision healed.

We've been getting salted pork instead of bacon because its cheaper and it works better in red beans & rice.

I've run out of cat food before and the kitties lose their damn minds over it.

Yikes about the homeowner having to put Xs on the floor so people wouldn't fall through. When my friend first started fixing up his house he actually fell through the floor in the laundry room.

I know all about the salty air and corrosion. Lived in Guam for 5 years and it was hard to avoid corrosion. Some of the beaches were nice though-- except Outhouse Beach and Tanguissen beach. Tanguissen looked nice but was contaminated with toxic waste from the military. Had warning signs all over saying we couldn't swim there. I wish I could remember which beach had a small freshwater pond inland a bit. Had a rope swing set up and everything.

Been working on cleanup. My brother stuck me with more cleaning again. His way of cleaning the living room was to literally throw stuff out the window on to the porch and then inform me that he felt it was my job to clear the porch off. I had to sit on the front step since bending doesn't go well for me. We couldn't even walk on the porch with all that junk.

Today I've fed kitties, cleaned and refilled waterers, fed puppies, cleaned up after puppies, cleared out some stuff from the back seat of the truck, charging my hedge trimmer so I can tackle those weeds, and let puppies out. Of course they came right back in to climb on my bed. I'm trying to pace myself because if I overdo it I'll sleep for the next several days.

Might get up and get myself some pork chops in a few minutes. Mom wants me to go to the store to get more icecream. I'll see if my brother can go with me so he can pick out good avocados. I'm terrible at telling if they are ripe or not.

Earlier today (female on left, male on right with paper in his mouth):


Yesterday (male on the left, female with her head on my leg)

I can tell them apart by the tails. Male's tail is the same color as the rest of him. Female has darker fur on the back of her tail.
They have already grown larger since I rescued them. Hoping we can find them a good forever home soon (although my Mom has been indicating that they might be welcome to stay-- I just can't manage them). Dogs that jump on the kitchen table to eat cat food and steal utensils from the kitchen and take them outside are not ideal. LOL.

 

[Tile Tom]

You guys will never believe this but the money tree is sprouting!

View attachment 14289

Going to have to pull my mom's card and tell her she's a damn liar!

Money does grow on trees!!!!

 

[C.J.]

What's your plan with that nice piece of live edge lumber your money tree is sitting on?

Not sure yet. The boss’s buddy rescued a couple of those logs from being turned into mantles at some up in Flagstaff. He brought one of them in the other day. There’s a couple splits in it so it will need a few butterflies but that ain’t nothin.

There’s a couple other live edge slabs in the shop that are going to be turned into shelves n such. I’ve already flattened them then ran em through the planer and now they’re just waiting for some finish.

Like most places they want an arm and a leg for anything live edge here. I sure do miss living in NC where you could be driving down some country road and see an old man sawing slabs in his yard. You stop and ask him how much and he gives you a ridiculous price like $20 for 4. It still happens, just not here.

 

[highup]

Went to the store to get some biscuits. They did not have any. The whole section was empty.

At the local Kroger store which I do most of my shopping at, the only thing I really noticed that's empty is two or three shelves that have some Ritz crackers, actually the Kroger Brand, that and the saltines are totally bare. Not much else is hard to find. I figured that company 4Patriots is paying people to make the shelves bear so they can sell their emergency food stuff for 30 bucks an ounce.

 

[highup]

I watched that whole video (the one with the cat coming out from under the model train bridge). Some weird stuff in there. Rollerblader on one wheel was cool. Liked the instant karma for the football player.

Rusty, I'm glad your wife's incision healed.

We've been getting salted pork instead of bacon because its cheaper and it works better in red beans & rice.

I've run out of cat food before and the kitties lose their damn minds over it.

Yikes about the homeowner having to put Xs on the floor so people wouldn't fall through. When my friend first started fixing up his house he actually fell through the floor in the laundry room.

I know all about the salty air and corrosion. Lived in Guam for 5 years and it was hard to avoid corrosion. Some of the beaches were nice though-- except Outhouse Beach and Tanguissen beach. Tanguissen looked nice but was contaminated with toxic waste from the military. Had warning signs all over saying we couldn't swim there. I wish I could remember which beach had a small freshwater pond inland a bit. Had a rope swing set up and everything.

Been working on cleanup. My brother stuck me with more cleaning again. His way of cleaning the living room was to literally throw stuff out the window on to the porch and then inform me that he felt it was my job to clear the porch off. I had to sit on the front step since bending doesn't go well for me. We couldn't even walk on the porch with all that junk.

Today I've fed kitties, cleaned and refilled waterers, fed puppies, cleaned up after puppies, cleared out some stuff from the back seat of the truck, charging my hedge trimmer so I can tackle those weeds, and let puppies out. Of course they came right back in to climb on my bed. I'm trying to pace myself because if I overdo it I'll sleep for the next several days.

Might get up and get myself some pork chops in a few minutes. Mom wants me to go to the store to get more icecream. I'll see if my brother can go with me so he can pick out good avocados. I'm terrible at telling if they are ripe or not.

Earlier today (female on left, male on right with paper in his mouth):
View attachment 14290

Yesterday (male on the left, female with her head on my leg)
View attachment 14291
I can tell them apart by the tails. Male's tail is the same color as the rest of him. Female has darker fur on the back of her tail.
They have already grown larger since I rescued them. Hoping we can find them a good forever home soon (although my Mom has been indicating that they might be welcome to stay-- I just can't manage them). Dogs that jump on the kitchen table to eat cat food and steal utensils from the kitchen and take them outside are not ideal. LOL.

I looked at the county maps tax rolls and that house is valued at about 600,000. The tax value is much less than the house would actually sell for. They've just put off fixing it I guess. It's a second home for when the family wants to visit the coast. They live 250 miles from here.

 

[Tile Tom]

Not sure yet. The boss’s buddy rescued a couple of those logs from being turned into mantles at some up in Flagstaff. He brought one of them in the other day. There’s a couple splits in it so it will need a few butterflies but that ain’t nothin.

There’s a couple other live edge slabs in the shop that are going to be turned into shelves n such. I’ve already flattened them then ran em through the planer and now they’re just waiting for some finish.

Like most places they want an arm and a leg for anything live edge here. I sure do miss living in NC where you could be driving down some country road and see an old man sawing slabs in his yard. You stop and ask him how much and he gives you a ridiculous price like $20 for 4. It still happens, just not here.

That still happens here quite a bit. Lots of Amish here with their slab wood and rough cut lumber.

 

[zannej]

I wish I could get someone to come haul off the trees that uprooted my fence. Looks like they would have good lumber. When I say uprooted, I mean the trees fell over and their roots came up and ripped my fence out of the ground.

Haven't been able to find anyone willing to come out to fix the fence or gate yet. Still trying to repair from the hurricanes 2 years ago and then subsequent hurricanes hit.

I hope we don't get any this year.

I got grocery shopping done yesterday- got everything on Mom's list except milk bc the store was out. We have a lot of empty space on shelves here. They just aren't getting stuff in or people are hoarding it. Not sure. Probably both. They did get cat food back in at least.

Had some drama with Mom because before I left she wasn't listening and I had to ask her the same questions 10x times. She kept changing the subject and I kept saying "MOM, I need you to answer! Stop changing the topic! I've asked you this already numerous times and you won't answer!" I said that after 5x and had to keep asking until she finally answered. Then she wouldn't hand over the shopping list and I was standing there with my hand out for several minutes. Then she asked me to get her something to eat right when I was about to leave. I brought the stuff she requested and she sat here playing with something on her desk and I had to repeatedly ask her to take it and was holding it out for 5+ minutes before I told her I was going to put it back if she didn't take it (no place to set it down bc her desk is so cluttered).

Popped in to see my friend and saw that his ex has moved almost all of her stuff back in despite him saying he was going to give her a definite move out date. She's now trying to claim he'll cause her to have a miscarriage and it will be all his fault if he makes her leave. She's the one who left him and cheated on him. She's the one who caused him to have a stroke. She ruined his life but tries to make him out to be the bad guy. She also got him to kick out a girl who was 8 months pregnant bc she was jealous of the girl and making up lies about her. Friend thinks she's too dumb to be that conniving and doesn't realize how much she's manipulated him. He was miserable bc she was there when we dropped by.

Got home and more drama with mom not wanting to make up her mind what she wanted to eat bc she didn't put what she wanted on the shopping list so we didn't have the ingredients but she expected me to magically read her mind. Argued for about 20min on that. Then I figured out something she would eat and she agreed, ate her food, thanked me (a rare thing) and calmed down.

I'm about to take my morning meds & let the puppies out.

 

[C.J.]

I made a clock today. Woo hoo.

The real excitement of the day is I completely emptied out my van today to give it a serious deep cleaning or at least vacuuming. Holy cow, it feels like I got a Hemi in there! That and it rides like crap now cus I don’t have any weight in it. It’s a Ford thing.

 

[Floorist]

I always put a sheet of plywood down on the floor of mine. Made it much easier to clean.

 

[C.J.]

Back in the day I would put a scrap piece of carpet in the back of the van and it would get changed out as needed and as another piece of carpet became available.

This is what it usually looks like now. I have shelves and a false bottom in there that holds my straight edges, levels and track saw tracks . Wasn’t too dirty behind the shelves but I’m sure glad I took out the false bottom to get all the crud that has gotten underneath. I clogged one of the vacuum stations at the car wash with how much crud got sucked up.

That’s Casper before I painted him white.

 

[Floorist]

In my early days when I was only doing carpet, I had some grocery rollers in mine.

 

[C.J.]

Took me a couple years to get some rollers in my van. Before then I would have to tie a tow strap around the carpet then find something to hook to so I could drive out from under it or, god forbid, pull it out. I can remember a couple times where the roll was so big I almost couldn’t get it out by myself.

 

[Floorist]

In one van I built a shelf across the bottom, with a removeable piece between the seats. My metal tube and tackstrip went under the shelf. Most of my tools were at the side doors. I had holes cut in the shelf near the back on the passenger side so glue buckets would sit down in and would not tip over.

 

[C.J.]

Ah yes, the old metals tube. Always starts out as an old carpet tube. Then you graduate to a vinyl tube, hopefully a little bigger and thicker. After a few of those you step up to a piece of PVC pipe. I used to have 2, one for gold and one for silver. I used to carry my stretcher poles in a golf bag and had a Kennedy tool box. Seam tape stickers went on the seam weight or my 3’ straight edge.

 

[highup]

I made a clock today. Woo hoo.
View attachment 14311
The real excitement of the day is I completely emptied out my van today to give it a serious deep cleaning or at least vacuuming. Holy cow, it feels like I got a Hemi in there! That and it rides like crap now cus I don’t have any weight in it. It’s a Ford thing.
View attachment 14312

That's an expensive clock you got there.

 

[highup]

I went and measured up a couple rooms for carpet.
Customer is converting the area above a large garage into a couple rooms for his two boys. The entire room is about 30 ft long and 35 ft wide before he sectioned off the two rooms.
The floor was hand painted on particle board. I'm guessing the paint job is at least 20 years old. Holding up pretty darn well.
Looks almost like it's made with bird feet.

 

[C.J.]

That's an expensive clock you got there.

Yes it is.

 

[zannej]

Nice clock! Also excellent job on cleaning the van. I need to clean my truck out. And the CR-V. Need to get an oil change on Monday after my dental appointment. Hoping to squeeze a haircut in as well. I'm planning to go to my friend's house for a shower while laundry is going here. Showers are still not hooked up so I've been taking sink baths. I'm going to see if I can get my brother to pick up any trash in the kitchen bc I keep tripping on it. Trash can he refused to take out got knocked over.

I went back out with some long-bladed fisker hedge shears and my new black & decker cordless hedge trimmer. Got more of the blackberry bushes and some other weeds cut back. Hedge trimmer will only cut smaller vines. Shears will get larger ones but takes some force. My back & arms started quivering and I realized I was gasping for air. Got overheated so I came in and had a green otter pop.

Cats have been fed, puppies were let out but they are now in my room play-fighting with each other. They want to be on my bed but there is a cat in the way and they are afraid of him. He's the wussiest little cat but they don't know that.

Sir Hammington ran into Mom's room when I was heading to the bathroom this morning and I had to sit there and sing a Celtic song to summon him to me. It worked fortunately and he even jumped up on my legs so I could pick him up and carry him out of the room.

I need some food now though. Time to see if I can find the cornbread I got yesterday.

 

[C.J.]

Z, when we had to gut our bathroom cus of termites I got a camping on demand propane water heater so I could still shower. That thing is so pimp I ended up building an outdoor shower. As long as a garden hose reaches it, I’m good to go.

 

[highup]

Z, when we had to gut our bathroom cus of termites I got a camping on demand propane water heater so I could still shower. That thing is so pimp I ended up building an outdoor shower. As long as a garden hose reaches it, I’m good to go.
View attachment 14319View attachment 14320

I like the roof pitch, it keeps the snow from stickin'