I got my bottle of Cykick insect killer this weekend. I sprayed all of the bushes and the entire lawn in hopes of controlling the mosquito population. It is supposed to be mixed as strong as 5 oz per 100 gallons. I mixed it at .5 oz per gallon, which is about the smallest amount I can measure anyway. It seems to have helped some, but not like I would have expected. When you walk up to some of the bushes, it was like a swarm of those big mosquitoes... and it still is to some extent. I thought the residue on the plants would continue to kill. Perhaps not.
I also finally got some vegitation killed to get the weeds popping up in the planter beds, cracks and in the woods. That stuff worked well. It's dead now for sure. That should keep the vines down in the woods now that I cleared it out.
We mowed the lawn for the first time this season too. It looks pretty good. The back yard has some weeds in spots, but the front yard looks great. I need to get some more gas so I can make a batch of 2 cycle gasoline so we can edge and trim.
The light fixture in the upstairs bathroom fell off the wall! It was mounted oddly, so I tried to mount it to the electrical box, but the box was some sort of plastic and cracked. I got some new anchors and fixed it though.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Unhinged
I fixed the hinges on both the shed doors as well as the garage side gate this past weekend.
The shed was easy, but it won't last. I simply pried up the doors and tightened all the hinge screws. Both of the doors swing freely, but they're just too small for a door that weight. Perhaps it will last a season, who knows.
The fence gate by the garage was another matter. The lag bolts holding on the hinge to the 6x6 post were short and fairly well rusted. Just replacing them tightened everything up and made the gate swing without hitting the path and aligned the latch up again so it works correctly now. I got some galvanized lag bolts, about 4" long and put them in with the impact wrench. Not that it was much tighter than by hand, but it saved my hand from putting them in with a ratchet! Anyway, the gate swings nice and latches securely now.
I noticed a TON of mosquitoes in the front yard. It's like a swarm out there. I need to get either some Cyanara or Cykick and spray out there ASAP. It's bad. I was hoping to wait until all the shrubs stopped blooming so I didn't kill any bees, but I may not be able to wait that long.
The rose shrub in the back yard, which looked dead to me, is in full bloom! It's got hundreds of buds coming too. I know it needs to be pruned back, but I don't know how to do that. I've never worked with roses before, but they look great.
I am done with all the brush burning too. There's a lot of left over junk out there to be burned, but I cut up some stuff and left it in a nice pile. If we have recreational fires in the pit the next few weeks, I will burn it. I'm pretty sure fires will be unpopular once it gets a bit hotter. I know the wife unit is disappointed we're not using the fire pit we bought, but we have no place to burn it. We can't burn inside the patio, and we can't put it on the lawn, so really, there's not much we can do with it. The dug pit in the yard is nice, except there is no real place to sit. The benches have rotted in the weather. I wish the benches weren't used as such though because they are two shelves of the built-ins from the living room! We really could have used those shelves, but they were moldy benches when we moved in. It's a shame.
The lawn is greening up, and it will have to be mowed this weekend for the first time. Luckily, we don't have as much sidewalk to edge any more. While I find tending to the trees and burning brush somewhat relaxing, I detest lawn work. Luckily, I have a son. There's a few weeds here and there, but for the most part, the lawn looks really good. I will hit the weeds with some weed control soon.
The shed was easy, but it won't last. I simply pried up the doors and tightened all the hinge screws. Both of the doors swing freely, but they're just too small for a door that weight. Perhaps it will last a season, who knows.
The fence gate by the garage was another matter. The lag bolts holding on the hinge to the 6x6 post were short and fairly well rusted. Just replacing them tightened everything up and made the gate swing without hitting the path and aligned the latch up again so it works correctly now. I got some galvanized lag bolts, about 4" long and put them in with the impact wrench. Not that it was much tighter than by hand, but it saved my hand from putting them in with a ratchet! Anyway, the gate swings nice and latches securely now.
I noticed a TON of mosquitoes in the front yard. It's like a swarm out there. I need to get either some Cyanara or Cykick and spray out there ASAP. It's bad. I was hoping to wait until all the shrubs stopped blooming so I didn't kill any bees, but I may not be able to wait that long.
The rose shrub in the back yard, which looked dead to me, is in full bloom! It's got hundreds of buds coming too. I know it needs to be pruned back, but I don't know how to do that. I've never worked with roses before, but they look great.
I am done with all the brush burning too. There's a lot of left over junk out there to be burned, but I cut up some stuff and left it in a nice pile. If we have recreational fires in the pit the next few weeks, I will burn it. I'm pretty sure fires will be unpopular once it gets a bit hotter. I know the wife unit is disappointed we're not using the fire pit we bought, but we have no place to burn it. We can't burn inside the patio, and we can't put it on the lawn, so really, there's not much we can do with it. The dug pit in the yard is nice, except there is no real place to sit. The benches have rotted in the weather. I wish the benches weren't used as such though because they are two shelves of the built-ins from the living room! We really could have used those shelves, but they were moldy benches when we moved in. It's a shame.
The lawn is greening up, and it will have to be mowed this weekend for the first time. Luckily, we don't have as much sidewalk to edge any more. While I find tending to the trees and burning brush somewhat relaxing, I detest lawn work. Luckily, I have a son. There's a few weeds here and there, but for the most part, the lawn looks really good. I will hit the weeds with some weed control soon.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
What a Gas (Stove)
I have to admit, I was jazzed to see a gas stove at the Trace. With the two big power burners, I thought I would get some heat going. What I was really suprised to find out is the electric burners put more heat on the pot faster. I like the control of the gas flame, but I find I essentially have to run them wide open all the time.
I got the stove leveled today. Just my luck, the front was high. I can get to the front legs easy, but I bottomed out before I got level. So, I had to pull the stove out to get to the back legs... YUCK!
There was a bunch of junk, food and toys under there. Every house has a little area, and I found this one's! I got it cleaned up, and the stove is perfectly level now, so when I saute the oil should stay in the middle of the pan now! I also cleaned out the warming tray, even though we'll never use it for that.
I burned the LAST of the brush today. I've got more weed trees out there, but I will get to them in the fall. There is a LOT of poison ivy out there! I can see it all over the place. It is time to get some heavy duty vegitation killer and spray that stuff down.
I'm done with the wimpy Lowe's bug killer too. I'm getting some Cyonara 9.7%. That stuff will put the bugs down, and for $41 I can make like 20 gallons of it. There's a ton of mosquitoes out there too.
I got the stove leveled today. Just my luck, the front was high. I can get to the front legs easy, but I bottomed out before I got level. So, I had to pull the stove out to get to the back legs... YUCK!
There was a bunch of junk, food and toys under there. Every house has a little area, and I found this one's! I got it cleaned up, and the stove is perfectly level now, so when I saute the oil should stay in the middle of the pan now! I also cleaned out the warming tray, even though we'll never use it for that.
I burned the LAST of the brush today. I've got more weed trees out there, but I will get to them in the fall. There is a LOT of poison ivy out there! I can see it all over the place. It is time to get some heavy duty vegitation killer and spray that stuff down.
I'm done with the wimpy Lowe's bug killer too. I'm getting some Cyonara 9.7%. That stuff will put the bugs down, and for $41 I can make like 20 gallons of it. There's a ton of mosquitoes out there too.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Rain baby, rain!
It's so yellow out there, we need it to rain, now! The pollen is crazy and early this year. If it would just rain like it is threatening to do, we'd be a lot better off.
I had a curious problem. We had the FM intercoms and they worked fine at the other (bigger) house, but when we got here, Todd's just wouldn't transmit or receive. So, I thought it was broken, but on a hunch, I thought maybe putting it on a power strip was the problem..... Flashback.
When Dad sent us the intercoms in Germany, we had to plug them into 120V transformers and plug adapters. The adapters could never accommodate grounded plugs (3 prongs) since Germany runs the ground through the common. So, I cut the ground prongs off, and they didn't work anyway since the transformers messed with them.
Flash forward now... I discovered that no matter what outlet IN Todd's room I used, I could not get it to communicate with the other units. When I plugged it in to the outlet in the hall, a mere 2 feet from his room, it worked beautifully! So, I cam to the conclusion his outlets were on another leg, and couldn't communicate. I figured tapping into the ground would fix that. I got a new ground plug end at Ace, and yup, it works!!!
So, now we don't have to yell for Todd. Two story houses should not be built without built-in intercoms anyway.
I think we have one last burn this weekend to get rid of the last of the brush. At this point, I think I'm done clearing out the weed trees. The rest can stay. Perhaps when fall comes on and we have cool mornings, I will get back to it. I got 75% of that stuff cleared.
I wish we had most of the parts to the built-in vacuum! We essentially have a hose and a hard floor attachment. No beater bar, no brush attachments or crevice tools. It makes the very convenient built in system pretty much useless. We have to use the Kirby upstairs on the carpet.
I had a curious problem. We had the FM intercoms and they worked fine at the other (bigger) house, but when we got here, Todd's just wouldn't transmit or receive. So, I thought it was broken, but on a hunch, I thought maybe putting it on a power strip was the problem..... Flashback.
When Dad sent us the intercoms in Germany, we had to plug them into 120V transformers and plug adapters. The adapters could never accommodate grounded plugs (3 prongs) since Germany runs the ground through the common. So, I cut the ground prongs off, and they didn't work anyway since the transformers messed with them.
Flash forward now... I discovered that no matter what outlet IN Todd's room I used, I could not get it to communicate with the other units. When I plugged it in to the outlet in the hall, a mere 2 feet from his room, it worked beautifully! So, I cam to the conclusion his outlets were on another leg, and couldn't communicate. I figured tapping into the ground would fix that. I got a new ground plug end at Ace, and yup, it works!!!
So, now we don't have to yell for Todd. Two story houses should not be built without built-in intercoms anyway.
I think we have one last burn this weekend to get rid of the last of the brush. At this point, I think I'm done clearing out the weed trees. The rest can stay. Perhaps when fall comes on and we have cool mornings, I will get back to it. I got 75% of that stuff cleared.
I wish we had most of the parts to the built-in vacuum! We essentially have a hose and a hard floor attachment. No beater bar, no brush attachments or crevice tools. It makes the very convenient built in system pretty much useless. We have to use the Kirby upstairs on the carpet.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Burn baby, burn!
I put the burn pit in the back yard to good use this weekend. I had a brush pile of all the downed branches plus those stupid weed trees that are everywhere. Since most of them had been sitting for a week, they were a bit dryer and burned easier.
I burned some Friday night, and got up at 6:30 on Saturday and was burning from 7:30-11:00 before it got too hot. The pollen was SO bad, it turned my boots yellow. I finally found the nozzle for the hose too, so I could have it out there already turned on in case things got out of hand, which they didn't.
Later in the day, I finally got the chainsaw running right and cut all the growth from the roots on the trees by the playground. So, after I cut all that down, I now have a pretty big pile again. I'm tired of cutting and burning, so I will tackle those next weekend after they dry out a bit.
I also sprayed some insect control in the back yard. There are a LOT of those BIG mosquitoes out there. It seems to have helped some.
I took it easy Sunday and painted our propane tank a custom design. It may take longer, but filling it at the propane store is about 1/3 the cost of the rip off tank exchange places. The problem is, you don't get a nice shiny tank back, so I cleaned it and painted it... all I can say it is will be the most unique tank in the fill yard!
I also discovered Tri-sodium Phosphate does a great job cleaning the tank. It also does a number on the skin on your hands if you don't wear gloves!
If you have a square milk crate, it does wonders for transporting propane cylinders! The tank is probably the most difficult thing to transport since it rolls everywhere and there really is no way to secure it. So, put it in a milk crate, and it stands right up every time!
I'm going to have to look at the stove. It is quite obviously not level. You can see it against the cabinets, and when you saute something on the stove, all the oil runs to the back of the pan. I'm sure it has adjustable legs in the front and back. I also need to adjust the cabinet doors on the island, they interfere with one another. That's an easy adjustment with the hinges they have.
Speaking of hinges, I don't think there's a hinged door on the outside of the house that is tight and aligned! The gates and doors all bind on something or sag. Many are loose, so that may help, but a lot are simply just inadequate for the weight. The shed doors are a pain. I'll see if I can boost up the door with a 1/4" shim and re tighten them, but they look totally too small for a heavy door like that. We'll see. A massive flat hinge looks impressive, but if it's still attached with 3/4" #6 wood screws, it's not going to have staying power.
We also found out Todd's room, the small bedroom, has no Ethernet cable outlet. It makes a degree of sense, but we can't run a wired connection up there. I played with the idea of re-routing the cable from the purple room to his in the attic, but I really wasn't sure if I wanted to get involved in that. Ultimately, we got the wireless working on all his devices, so I think that will suffice. I KNEW I should have verified if there was a Cat 5e outlet in there myself. It turned out he saw a telco outlet and figured that was it.
Never, EVER, buy LAN cables from stores like Wal-Mart, Staples, etc. They RIP you off big time! We paid $25 for a 25' cable in our room for the Blu-Ray player. It works GREAT now. I bought the same cable on Amazon for $3.80! So, if you can wait a few days, save the bucks and order on line!
I burned some Friday night, and got up at 6:30 on Saturday and was burning from 7:30-11:00 before it got too hot. The pollen was SO bad, it turned my boots yellow. I finally found the nozzle for the hose too, so I could have it out there already turned on in case things got out of hand, which they didn't.
Later in the day, I finally got the chainsaw running right and cut all the growth from the roots on the trees by the playground. So, after I cut all that down, I now have a pretty big pile again. I'm tired of cutting and burning, so I will tackle those next weekend after they dry out a bit.
I also sprayed some insect control in the back yard. There are a LOT of those BIG mosquitoes out there. It seems to have helped some.
I took it easy Sunday and painted our propane tank a custom design. It may take longer, but filling it at the propane store is about 1/3 the cost of the rip off tank exchange places. The problem is, you don't get a nice shiny tank back, so I cleaned it and painted it... all I can say it is will be the most unique tank in the fill yard!
I also discovered Tri-sodium Phosphate does a great job cleaning the tank. It also does a number on the skin on your hands if you don't wear gloves!
If you have a square milk crate, it does wonders for transporting propane cylinders! The tank is probably the most difficult thing to transport since it rolls everywhere and there really is no way to secure it. So, put it in a milk crate, and it stands right up every time!
I'm going to have to look at the stove. It is quite obviously not level. You can see it against the cabinets, and when you saute something on the stove, all the oil runs to the back of the pan. I'm sure it has adjustable legs in the front and back. I also need to adjust the cabinet doors on the island, they interfere with one another. That's an easy adjustment with the hinges they have.
Speaking of hinges, I don't think there's a hinged door on the outside of the house that is tight and aligned! The gates and doors all bind on something or sag. Many are loose, so that may help, but a lot are simply just inadequate for the weight. The shed doors are a pain. I'll see if I can boost up the door with a 1/4" shim and re tighten them, but they look totally too small for a heavy door like that. We'll see. A massive flat hinge looks impressive, but if it's still attached with 3/4" #6 wood screws, it's not going to have staying power.
We also found out Todd's room, the small bedroom, has no Ethernet cable outlet. It makes a degree of sense, but we can't run a wired connection up there. I played with the idea of re-routing the cable from the purple room to his in the attic, but I really wasn't sure if I wanted to get involved in that. Ultimately, we got the wireless working on all his devices, so I think that will suffice. I KNEW I should have verified if there was a Cat 5e outlet in there myself. It turned out he saw a telco outlet and figured that was it.
Never, EVER, buy LAN cables from stores like Wal-Mart, Staples, etc. They RIP you off big time! We paid $25 for a 25' cable in our room for the Blu-Ray player. It works GREAT now. I bought the same cable on Amazon for $3.80! So, if you can wait a few days, save the bucks and order on line!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Garage Remotes
Aaagh!
Having a hard time with the garage remotes! While we have every manual under the sun for the house, the garage door openers escape us. So, not having the keypad entry code, I had to reprogram it. After some fiddling, I finally got the right combination of codes to make the keypad work.
Yay!
Then I find out once I did that, it kicked one of the car remotes OFF that opener. Since there are two doors, but only one keypad, we essentially had to make the keypad door the primary door.
No matter what I do now, if I re-program the car remote, the keypad gets kicked off, and vice versa.
It's very frustrating. Genie says each door opener can learn seven remotes, but this one seems limited to TWO.
Since Sarah and Todd rely on the garage door to open when they come home from school, I had to live with only one remote for the door.
I guess I can try some other options, but it seems too complicated.
Having a hard time with the garage remotes! While we have every manual under the sun for the house, the garage door openers escape us. So, not having the keypad entry code, I had to reprogram it. After some fiddling, I finally got the right combination of codes to make the keypad work.
Yay!
Then I find out once I did that, it kicked one of the car remotes OFF that opener. Since there are two doors, but only one keypad, we essentially had to make the keypad door the primary door.
No matter what I do now, if I re-program the car remote, the keypad gets kicked off, and vice versa.
It's very frustrating. Genie says each door opener can learn seven remotes, but this one seems limited to TWO.
Since Sarah and Todd rely on the garage door to open when they come home from school, I had to live with only one remote for the door.
I guess I can try some other options, but it seems too complicated.
Up and running!
Well, we finally can say we're done with the move into the home on the Trace! We no longer have anything in boxes, we've hung the pictures and shelves and all that stuff.
The living room is a challenge. It's such an odd shaped room and really, despite nice built-in shelves, noplace to comfortably put the TV. We decided on the mantle. Its a little high, and makes routing all the cables to the TV a challenge. We had to put the surround sound speakers up there too. It's hard to arrange the loveseats too. We went back and put them against the walls, but now it seems to me like I am twisting my neck to watch TV. I liked the flying V we had, but it took up way too much room and made the room feel tiny, which it kind of is.
It sure sucks coming from a house with about 50% more square feet! Everything just feels smaller, except the 3-bay garage. I was surprised how well it all fit in the garage. Sure, the small bay is essentially full to the ceiling, and there is NO WAY there will ever be a car in any part of the garage, but it is still workable. The cabinets in there saved us. I found out I would spring for 18" wire shelving in the garage... 12" is too short to hold totes or large stuff in a garage. I have a couple of 24" shelving units free standing, so that helped take care of most of the large outdoor gear.
The bedrooms are done. I like the three zone A/C that actually works though! We had to turn it on last night.
We figured out the wired LAN in the house. Wireless is nice and all, but the wired cables are so much faster and reliable. We also had to switch the CATV system from the dish over to cable. That took some experimenting, but I had a hunch and it turned out right. I should go back and lable the inputs, but probably won't now that it is all working. Everything else in the house is labled, I was kind of suprised the cables were not.
Finally finished the inspection too. The house was essentially spotless, but the biggest issue we found was the gutter and soffet damage in the rear. We told the prop management company about it, and I hope they fix that for the owner's sake. It's open to birds and bugs now, plus the water is pouring off the roof onto the shed and porch. There was one broken window latch that is a security problem too, that needs to be fixed.
I started in the back yard too. I cleared a LOT of the weed-trees (I wish I knew what that junk is actually called). I got about 75% cleared, and used the nice burn pit to get rid of a lot of the deadfall and new brush. I have a big pile and need to get burning before the ban starts next month. I also began to burn some of the old brush piles, but that's going to take some time since there is so much of it. For some reason, I find the clearing work relaxing.
Well, that's a lot! I don't have pictures at the moment. Cheers!
The living room is a challenge. It's such an odd shaped room and really, despite nice built-in shelves, noplace to comfortably put the TV. We decided on the mantle. Its a little high, and makes routing all the cables to the TV a challenge. We had to put the surround sound speakers up there too. It's hard to arrange the loveseats too. We went back and put them against the walls, but now it seems to me like I am twisting my neck to watch TV. I liked the flying V we had, but it took up way too much room and made the room feel tiny, which it kind of is.
It sure sucks coming from a house with about 50% more square feet! Everything just feels smaller, except the 3-bay garage. I was surprised how well it all fit in the garage. Sure, the small bay is essentially full to the ceiling, and there is NO WAY there will ever be a car in any part of the garage, but it is still workable. The cabinets in there saved us. I found out I would spring for 18" wire shelving in the garage... 12" is too short to hold totes or large stuff in a garage. I have a couple of 24" shelving units free standing, so that helped take care of most of the large outdoor gear.
The bedrooms are done. I like the three zone A/C that actually works though! We had to turn it on last night.
We figured out the wired LAN in the house. Wireless is nice and all, but the wired cables are so much faster and reliable. We also had to switch the CATV system from the dish over to cable. That took some experimenting, but I had a hunch and it turned out right. I should go back and lable the inputs, but probably won't now that it is all working. Everything else in the house is labled, I was kind of suprised the cables were not.
Finally finished the inspection too. The house was essentially spotless, but the biggest issue we found was the gutter and soffet damage in the rear. We told the prop management company about it, and I hope they fix that for the owner's sake. It's open to birds and bugs now, plus the water is pouring off the roof onto the shed and porch. There was one broken window latch that is a security problem too, that needs to be fixed.
I started in the back yard too. I cleared a LOT of the weed-trees (I wish I knew what that junk is actually called). I got about 75% cleared, and used the nice burn pit to get rid of a lot of the deadfall and new brush. I have a big pile and need to get burning before the ban starts next month. I also began to burn some of the old brush piles, but that's going to take some time since there is so much of it. For some reason, I find the clearing work relaxing.
Well, that's a lot! I don't have pictures at the moment. Cheers!
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