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After the girls departed and the dust settled I have some time to finish the fabrication of the duct work and it time to return to the basement to double check what I have done. Here are some images.

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The last detail I added was an access panel to allow me to reach inside the duct durring installation time to back up the the sheet metal when I drill holes to tie everything together. The two section are telescoping one inside the other so I can make up for any errors in my measurements between the two sides of the basement and aligning with trunk that will go up to the second floor.

I am going to attempt my first go at cloning a grape vine using an air layering device I acquired this afternoon just to get an idea what is involved with that.

Then it will be a movie night for us.

Ben
 
It’s 2:00 am. I’m sick to my stomach. The crazy person has been screaming at me for hours across the street. Cussing and carrying on in English and Spanish. Singing and screaming and yelling at me. Screaming “don’t tell me to hush “cuss cuss cuss“ “ All sorts of stuff. Clearly the husband told him to knock it off too and now he’s really angry with me. The renters wife or x wife or whatever they are now clearly is at work and why he started in. Kept making himself madder and madder the more he screamed. Called the sheriff and recorded some of his screaming. Hours later the sheriffs showed up. They could hear his “singing” at the top of his lungs but he was in between rants at that point. They didn’t contact me to hear his rant or anything. They went back there and he was just as nice as could be and clearly can speak excellent English. I heard the whole thing. They told him the neighbor called complaining about the noise and he apologized super nicely like he had no idea. Then the sheriffs left. Not even a do you belong here? Do you have id? Have you been harassing the neighbor? Nothing! Music is off and he’s doing stuff out there completely silent. I am very uncomfortable with the situation at this point. Definitely no sleep for me tonight. Who knows what he will do next.
 
Double R said:
It’s 2:00 am. I’m sick to my stomach. The crazy person has been screaming at me for hours across the street. Cussing and carrying on in English and Spanish. Singing and screaming and yelling at me. Screaming “don’t tell me to hush “cuss cuss cuss“ “ All sorts of stuff. Clearly the husband told him to knock it off too and now he’s really angry with me. The renters wife or x wife or whatever they are now clearly is at work and why he started in. Kept making himself madder and madder the more he screamed. Called the sheriff and recorded some of his screaming. Hours later the sheriffs showed up. They could hear his “singing” at the top of his lungs but he was in between rants at that point. They didn’t contact me to hear his rant or anything. They went back there and he was just as nice as could be and clearly can speak excellent English. I heard the whole thing. They told him the neighbor called complaining about the noise and he apologized super nicely like he had no idea. Then the sheriffs left. Not even a do you belong here? Do you have id? Have you been harassing the neighbor? Nothing! Music is off and he’s doing stuff out there completely silent. I am very uncomfortable with the situation at this point. Definitely no sleep for me tonight. Who knows what he will do next.
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Be safe. Have had crazy neighbors before too, hope daylight brings peace.
 
I'm off today, but deadlines mean that I need to work....

Thinking of @Double R 's problem. I once had a neighbor who played music when I was trying to sleep. He did it over and over. Finally, I got some really big speakers and an AMP, connected it to a stereo and a simple timer. Made up an hour tape with one song of of really hard rock and 25 minutes of empty, a new song followed by empty, repeated on both sides (different music). Set it to start playing about 15 minutes after he would normally get quiet.... Then I went to work.... I got home at 06:00 and I turned on some nice music and washed the car, the guy came out he looked like hell, not happy. We came to an understanding......
 
Amish Heart said:
I didn't mind dress code rules for our kids and grandkids, but I really did not like uniforms. They end up costing more money.
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Definitely true!! We had to buy the ones for our kids at a specific company and they cost a lot. Definitely more than walmart clothes...but then they went to public high school and wanted expensive stuff from the mall so we couldn't win ....:) Daughter ended up getting a job at some point at Abercrombies, and spend most of her paycheck on clothes from there ! "but mom, I get them half off!!"

Weeded one garden yesterday ( husband and son helped so it got done) put old hay for mulch and forgot to wear my face mask and ended up coughing half the night ( hay covid)
Planning on doing the other garden today, it's worse.
 
They say hard work is rewarding, well, I am rewarded with sore and painful muscles, lol. Worked outside all day yesterday trimming and just generally finishing up spring cleaning.

Today I goof off, cook some baby back ribs on the grill.
 
Spent a few hours yesterday swinging my 20 odd year old Echo weed eater beating back the jungle around the edges of the yard and solar panels. High moisture content kept the dust and allergies to a minimum thankfully. Still a LONG ways to go but not sure my body is up for more right now. Might be a good day to plow and disk since there is the first moisture in months in the ground from rain a couple days ago. Or maybe put the bush hog on and start working to clear new fence lines down through the woods. I need to find a cheaper solution to hanging electric fence wire on wood posts if anyone has ideas. I need to run about a 1/2 mile of 5 to 7 strands of electric fence.
 
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Ribs, sausage, Salmon, chicken Kebabs with onions, small potatoes, mushrooms & sweet peppers.
Bacon wrapped Jalapenos & potato's skins with cheese & bacon on the grill. Cold slaw, potato salad, Watermelon & cantaloupe, ice tea & BYOB.
 
Yesterday we got the word that our Church will be going back to a full pre-Covid footing. Everyone is very excited, all in person meetings, masks not required, will have singing if the county doesn't ban it. They will be removing the tape used to enforce social distancing because the occupancy limits have been removed....

Before COVID-19, the wife and I were having difficulty dealing with people coming to church with colds or the Flu, I know it's just a cold but when you are in end-state congestive heart failure, even a simple cold is non-trivial. The leaders were hesitant to tell people to stay home when they are sick and it does not appear that they are anymore willing to now, someone could be offended. In the past 3 weeks half a dozen families have come down with bugs, mostly stomach issues. One family got COVID but they couldn't figure out how they got it, they had already discarded any COVID type protections months ago and had been to several reunions states away... who knows where they got sick....

This year I have had 3 dreams that shook me, 1 indicated that I lost something important, the next was that I was going to end up with a scatterbrained female supervisor (Ladies, please don't shoot me, I just don't know any other way to describe what I saw), and the last one I posted in #26445.


Well my work has been overrun by political types and the direction that I spent a decade developing has been cast aside to follow a politically correct agenda. I have lost the focused direction and purpose that has always driven me.
I ended up with 3 layers of female management 2 are AOC types and the third is incompetent.

Now I am wrestling with deciding what tact to take with church, I want to be supportive but I also feel that we are rushing into back to normal so fast that we could open ourselves to a major relapse... Troubling times....
 
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Not much will be accomplished today other than regular chores. Absolutely exhausted and have a headache. Trying to sleep after last night to be ready for tonight’s drama. We’re in a heatwave so definitely will have to check everyone soon and water the garden this evening. Can’t wait to see how bad the neighbor will be tonight. Will be calling the sheriff at 10 pm on the dot if he starts in. Still disappointed they didn’t even ask him about his targeted screaming or anything.
 
Before breakfast I watered my gardens.

Before lunch the wife and i fell a big birch and a big spruce tree. Both were standing deadwood. We fell, cut, split and stacked both. The spruce is ready for this coming winter and the birch we will let season for one more year.

Having lunch now.

After lunch the wife said we are moving some big rocks for a retaining wall next to her new rhubarb plantings. That is close to the edge of our firebreak, so I will clear a little bit more while the wife figures out what rocks she wants where.

After dinner it will be a beer and some more work in the shed.
 
Ducting looks great, Ben!

Nice handle on that hatchet, cbrianroll!

Yesterday a guy who owes mom a lot of $ actually showed up to do yard work. He's trying to work the debt off at $20/hr. Did 5 hours of bush-hogging (stopping to pick up branches and debris) and got the front 10 acres mowed. I really want him to get the blackberry bushes and weeds around the house, but he didn't have the right equipment with him. He was hoping he could bush-hog them but the fallen tree is in the way. He was supposed to come back today-- but I sort of knew he wasn't going to. He messages me to say the helper who was supposed to come help him with the tree forgot about it and went to a bbq instead. Helper is my best friend who forgets things a lot since the traumatic brain injury in a wreck. Tuesdays are usually better for him to come help with stuff anyway. I do have to take Mom to the DMV to get her truck registration updated but I can do that in the afternoon.

I need to get pics of the blackberry bushes as they are to have a before and after. They are wrapped around the AC unit and taking over the whole yard around the house.

This morning the birdies were active at Mom's window. Female cardinal was slamming in to the window. She took a break and a brown finch had a go at it for awhile. The male cardinal was chasing some poor little yellow bird. Bird sort of looked like a leaf- but was too large to be a hummingbird. I was helping mom organize her stuff in her room a bit. She still has a LOT to do, but she got rid of a few cardboard boxes and got some of her art supplies sorted into clear plastic bins. She needs a lot more bins. LOL. But they stack nicely so it will be better than all the cardboard. I had to bring things to her, move boxes around, and stack boxes where she wanted them. She can't walk with both hands full without tipping over.
 
K got the window A/C unit installed in the girls' bedroom window. We figured that having the girls continue to share a room at night will keep the electric bill down this summer since it will only be one unit running all night and not two. Just like running one space heater this past winter rather than 2.

Roo helped me make a few paper bricks. I had some pulp sitting in the bucket from our late summer batch so we used it. It smells like dirty paper but when they dry out they are fine. Once we got as many as the bucket would yield I strained the remaining pulp and refilled the bucket with paper shreds and water. The leftover pulp went on top of the fresh paper and it will sit for a few days to get mushy! Roo had a ball playing with the pulp. She was my pulp monkey! ;) Might need to upgrade our pulp bucket to a storage tote for maximum production as the weather heats up.

Our garden is in full bloom except the strawberries. We got a cup full of sweet smaller berries a month ago but it seems the plants want to grow tons of leaves right now. I froze what we got for jam when we get more of a harvest.

For the most part we are just chugging along.
 
Went outside and took some video and photos of the yard, barn, etc. Barn is a complete mess. Was going to get screenshots from the videos but the phone overheated so I had to shut it off and stick it in the fridge for a couple minutes. It actually told me it couldn't perform functions until it cooled down & I could smell hot plastic coming from it.
 
@UrbanHunter For those sinus days, take a zinc maybe morning noon and night. Not a cure, but can feel the pressure decrease in about 20 min. Also, re. the surger, have you changed the needles? If the eyes of the needles get worn, they will start cutting the threads.
@MoBookworm1957 Glad you are feeling better.
@Neb Gates look good. Not sure what the plan is for a finish, but there is some stuff called Ducks Back that is about the best I've found. The Thompson's water seal and like products are garbage (my opinion).
@Spikedriver If she thought that was unrealistic, you should watch King Kong or Godzilla next :cool:

Got tons done in the past few days. Friday early, we headed up the river so Hubby could install the UV water treatment system and I did one last mowing of the yard. Left a note and flowers to welcome the new owners. (House was closing Fri.) It was about 10 til 5 and I still hadn't heard that it actually closed, so I called. They had just received the log numbers back from the courthouse so check should be in our acct. tomorrow morning. I have/had a 27 year old bottle of kahlua my grandmother (who passed in Nov.) made me. I'd been saving it for a special occasion. Well, this was it! We actually waited until Sat. evening. We ended up going to my in-laws early Sat. so Hubby could take his step dad out fishing. He's 86 years old and can't do much. Hubby is the only one who will take him fishing (in a boat). Sat. FIL caught one small fish but was the first fish he'd caught in a long time. Sat evening, we celebrated and had 27 year old kahlua over homemade Mexican vanilla icecream. It was superb! Sun. at 0 dark thirty, they headed out again. They both caught a fish on Sun.
Now that we are finished with the river house, I need to concentrate on getting things sorted and cleaned up here. I've been going all day in the summer kitchen, have 2 boxes in the car to go to donation and have filled the trash can (how do we end up with garbage???) Not finished but getting close, then will move on to the garage.
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Hey @winds-of-change we'll be praying for you, hope it isn't too serious.

@Bacpacker I remember my G-grandpa he lost a leg in WWI. Dad was in Korea and my uncle got invited to visit Vietnam on his wedding day... We owe so much to so many who put duty and honor above themselves.


I did take time today to finish setting up the wife's back up serger, it is a 25 year old singer, but it works. I think her main serger was improperly threaded (they have to be done in a specific order) after she broke a thread. Anyway she can work on her project, she is making new curtains for the bedroom to match a quilt that I got her...
 
Going to work so I can get some rest... :cool:

For yesterday being a holiday it seemed I was awful busy. Worked on the riding tractor, cut down a large dead tree and chopped that up mostly. Still have the cleanup of limbs and such but that will be tonight’s excuse for a small fire.
 
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