Short Video of the stump grinder

I don't know I just think this is cool. Sorry for the camera moving around alot.

Ax men 2

Here is an after shot of the yard, looking kinda bare. Molly and Sugar are surveying the landscape.



Here is just some shots showing the scale of the tree and just how large it was.

Ax men

Had a couple tree guys come over a couple weeks ago to give me quotes on removing the trees in my yard. Now before some tree hugger starts to go off on me about global warming etc, just let me say "kiss my ass" I am going to replace them this spring.
The two White Locusts and the Norwegian Pine were growning into the foundation, creating cracks and leaks. The neighbor told me the pine had been there more than 40 years so I suspect it was towards the end of its life span anyway. Limbs would die and fall off all the time into the yard. The locusts? You get out there and rake those leaves. They gave good shade but are really messy in both the spring and the fall. I have tracked in the leaves through the house for a year now and they just never go away. So now that I justified my genocide of the trees, I called 3 guys to come and give me a price to remove them. I figured that it being "off" season for tree removal and these guys are looking for work I would give it a shot.
Stuarts Tree Service did a great job! Cut the trees, ground out the stumps, filled the holes with dirt, raked the whole yard and gave me a credit for the locust wood because it is good burning. Can't say enough about them. They also came in $300 less then the other guys.

I stood outside at lunch watching them cut these bad boys down and the thought occured to me that if I tried to do this myself, A:I would still be trimming the branches off the first tree. B: I would be hanging off of something with a chain saw in my hand. C: cussing like a sailor, and D: where would I put the cuttings?

I like option D: Let the pros do it from a bucket truck.

You can see how big the spruce grew to be in the pictures below. You never really knew how big it was from looking up.

Pantry Door

Made some progress on the pantry door this weekend but ran out of stripper towards the end. There is easily 8 coats of paint on the door. It was taking 4 applications of stripper to get down to the wood. The kitchen really took a beating when it came to paint over the years. Like the rest of the room there was a peach color applied somewhere over the years that kept leaching out from behind the white. Most of the white was just primer that some PO painted on and just left it.
I cut out the top part of the door (reluctantly) so I can put in some etched glass to allow the light to come through. Like the rest of the room the door and trim are made of pine that has yellowed and hardened nicely over the years. I am just gonna sand, prime and repaint white.

Brain damage and forgotten projects

I found some pictures of the pantry that I put together around the first of October just before I left for fall vacation to Army boot camp. I ran bead board on the inside of the closet to match the rest of the kitchen. Painted it gloss white and then measured and cut some shelves to fit the space. I bought some decent plywood, stained and then clear coated everything. I like the contrast of the shelves and the white. Beth came up with the idea and good one it is. I added a dual electrical outlet for the microwave and whatever we need to plug in.







And the final product.
Under the Micro we put in some bins that hold the dog food and dog treats. The bins will hold a 50 lbs bag of dog food with no problem, and a good space saver.

Slacking the month away

You know after my boot camp vacation I had great plans for restarting work on the house and I have done absolutely nothing. No idea where the time has gone. Thinking that being cold as hell, snow on the ground, furnace running, I would hibernate and just plow ahead with the renovations. But no! The holidays, work, and everything else spinning around me I did nothing but think about doing something.

I did have an addition to the family, Molly!!!!


She is 7 years old, and retired. I got Molly from the same kennel as Sugar (aka Princess). She is a good old girl and spends a good 23 hours a day sleeping. She LOVES her pillow and tennis balls. Did I mention she LOVES her pillow? Anyway Molly has done her duty at producing pups and needed a good home. Molly has no real people skills, don't know how to walk on a leash, took a few days to get the idea that we pee and poop outside and not in the house, little things like that. But she is a good girl and only wants some attention and love. We have lots of that here! Sugar is playing the spoiled snot but thats ok, she gets just as much attention as she always did.


Ok so I bought a few toys for me that came from "Santa" I bought a planner and a joiner. I was thinking that the cost of all the stripper I buy it would pay for the planner. As long as what I need "stripped" is less than 10" wide I am ok. I still need the stripper but the planner is much quicker.

Here is a stack of trim needing stripped.


And a pile run through the planner.

And below is the wood primed and repainted with 4 coats of gloss white. I had a guy at work ask me why I was redoing all the woodwork and why didn't I buy new trim to replace the old? I thought I was gonna smack him. In reality I should be smacked in the head, but I just cannot throw away 80 + year old wood in the trash to replace with press wood. This pine is really neat, hard and has a great yellow look to it. To bad I have to paint it.

Here is the final look of the refurbed trim around the kitchen window and the door leading to the living/dinning room.

3 am and no customer service

So here I sit at the Oklahoma City Airport waiting for the United Airlines rep to show for work so I can try and change to a earlier flight, no such luck. The kiosk's don't start to operate until 4:30.

Why am I in the OKC airport? well I graduated from my Army boot camp school on Wednesday and after a litany of comedic errors I am now just leaving on Friday morning, EARLY! and no one is around to change my flight and lesson my agony of no sleep for the last 24 hrs. Again I have to say that 208 older men and women that are prior service made it through the "class" and are now officially American Soldiers. Let me tell you the next time I have a mid-life crisis I think I'll just go and buy the red sports car and just dye my hair.
I am 44 with 17 years of Naval service and I thought "hey! why not do the extra 3 years in the reserves and get some retirement out of the deal." I will tell you all some thing, I am not 20 anymore and those 4 in the morning 3 mile runs blow donkey dick when your at the back of formation sucking wind trying to keep up with the young bucks and a drill Sargent is gnawing at your ass to catch up. I did not have a good time and I wouldn't do it again. I did learn a few things, but mostly it is a young mans game I am playing in and I should stick to remodeling my house. The first two pics are a before and nearly after shots. I shed 20 + pounds and moved allot of fat around my abdomen.

A shot of me just waiting around, we did allot of that. Not really being sad, just bored.

This was actually one of the more fun days, we were waiting to patrol a "town" looking for a downed pilot. (this is all training not real life, the Army does employ Iraqi expats to role play for us) and gather intel. What happened and really surprised the Drill Sargent's and instructors was the planning we put into our operation and totally turned what had been a miserable experience for the previous 3 platoons, and a mission accomplish for us. Here is the scenario:

Picture a small town with buildings etc. We were suppose to patrol and gather intel to look for a downed pilot, ala Behind Enemy Lines the movie scenario. Previously the other platoons just wandered en mase down the road pissed the locals off and got into a fire fight, most got killed in a cross fire and that was the end of the scenario for them.

Not 4th platoon, we split up send one squad around to the right the other around the left and a small and heavily armed fire team up the middle to do the meet and great the locals. The instructors said we did a classic Shaka Zulu maneuver with sucking the bad guys into the middle and enveloping them from the sides and behind, a set water buffalo horns as minds eye picture. We got the pilot and only "lost" a few men. Mission accomplished! That was one of the fun days, after that we did a 5 mile march back to the barracks with 50 lbs on our backs. Fun!

The below pictures are of everyone marching back to the barracks, really what a sight! 208 men and women stretched over 2 kilometers "rucking" down the road. Pretty awesome sight.

Some of the gear we had to wear all the time. About 50 lbs worth. Inside the "flak vest" or IBA are two SAPI plates, ceramic plates that protect your chest and back. Very inflexible pieces of gear, and they create a person to sit differently, lay prone differently, shoot your weapon differently, and use the latrine differently. Those bad boys will stop a 7.62 round from tearing your body up if you were ever shot, but a major pain to wear until someone does take a crack at shooting you. Glad we have them, but suck to wear daily. Add your canteens, ammo, helmet (ACH), M16-A2 and you can have a real weight loss party hauling that shit around! Who needs Jazzercise? What I found most helpfull in the attitude area was doing pushups with all that gear on! I was able to do more pushups by the end of the course, but it didn't help with my attitude!

That is what helped with the weight loss, that and really crappy food. I am not kidding, I have eaten in many 3rd world countries and the food was better than they gave us sometimes. My favorite? oh well that has to be the "we ran out of food for you guys and here is baked beans and hamburger meat mixed in for texture shit dinner"

bon appetite!!!

What you do when you drink alot of water and stand around all day? Hang out at Big Bobs porta potties and? wait to use a stinky toilet!

Waiting to be searched for brass and ammo. Every time you go to the range the Army wants to make sure you don't bring ammo and spent brass casings back to the barracks, so you have to be searched!

Liberty Village waiting to be cleared of insurgents. We got our buts kicked on that exercise.

The big guns! fun to shoot! but really suck to clean, and I mean suck! This bad boy will throw more lead down range than any nail gun you can buy at Home Depot!

Don't get me wrong there were and are some very motivated people willing to serve their country at a moments notice and are very good Soldiers. Out of the 208 men and women in my class about 1 % were held back for various reasons. Mostly medical. Everyone else finished what needed to be done and moved onto more training or back to our civilian jobs until needed. The oldest was 53 and the youngest was 20. SO you can see there was quite a cross section of expirence. Most guys had already been to Iraq or Afghanistan at least once in thier lives and want to do more by serving more. All of us are prior service (Army, Navy, Air Force) and wanted to go active duty Army, the other half of us are Reserves and National Guard. This course is a mini boot camp the Army has for all returning prior service personel that want to be in the Army, Army Reserves or Guard. A boot camp with cell phones is what I call it. We had a bit more free time than the young kids in regular boot camp and got to use our phones more, but not by much.

I remember standing there watching these young guys march by and thinking they are so young, anyone could be my kid. The world by the balls and nothing that they didn't know or anyone could tell them! Come on you remember how it was! not an once of fatality, we are going to live forever! Back to me standing there; my knees hurt, my back hurts, I have a headache, and the food sucks here! Hey anyone have Icy/Hot that I can use? Motrin? how about an aspirin that has been in your pocket for a couple of days? no? A tear forms in my eye, I wanna go home and cuss at the kitchen ceiling instead of getting up a 4 am! I want my mommy!

Sucks to be old!!

Im proud to serve and will continue to do so if called. I am also proud to be an American Soldier and have the oppourtunity to continue to do my best and defend our country.

Thanks to everyone that has supported me the past 6 weeks and I am glad to be home!

What is OK about OK?

I just looked and relized that I have not written in a month! My excuse? well the month of October I really didn't do to much around the house at all. My excuse now? I am for all intensive purposes in lock down. I had a mid life crisis and went and did a really foolish thing and joined the Army Reserves. Now I am sitting in "boot camp" for middle aged men and a few women. We have all served in another branch of the military and decided to join the Army for various personal reasons. Most people are here just because of the economy. Others, who knows, only them? So I am in week 2 of this fun little summer vacation located in Ft. Sill OK. And so far there is nothing OK about this place. Out of 208 soldiers I am the third oldest at 44, out here humping on road marches, push-ups, sit-ups, and anything else that the drill Sargent's think up to do for there own pleasure and sick sense of humor. I swear 90% of them are suffering from PTSD as most of them are multiple combat tour veteran's of Iraq and Afghanistan. What the Army does is take prior service and cram them into a 4 week course that "normal" boot camp kids get 8 weeks to complete. This last week has been the hardest physically, all 4 platoons of our Battery are physically burnt out with all the physical work we have done. Compounded with the daily grind, we really only get on average about 5 hours of sleep. So needless to say I am burnt out. I would give any day to work on the kitchen in the summer heat again. But that is my twist on my predicament. And I made my own bed.
But for all the tax payers out there, I want to let you know that your money is being spent on some very highly motivated, skilled, and professional soldiers. We have the best fighting force in the world and we should all be proud of the money and personel that we spend it on. These people are true warriors. Gotta go, times running out for my pass and I have to get back to the barracks

Too much, too little

Here are some nice pottery that Maezie put together for the front porch. Some spiky stuff and some cabbage looking stuff. All in all the stuff looks pretty good. She even spray painted the pots. I don't want to take away from the hard work by saying stuff, she did a great job and it has been something that I thought about doing for some time. But when you have $50 to spend on building materials, or plants? Well enough said.

I have written about this a long time ago, but here I go again. There is a closet in the kitchen that was used as storage (duh) but was just kind of strange being there. I have postulated that it was originally built as an access to build stairs up to the second floor, if the home owner (a) could afford to have it constructed when the house was commissioned or (b) when the home owners family grew he could add the stairs at a later time. My neighbor told me when she moved into her place 40+ years ago she had the same setup with the exception that she actually had stairs already in place but they ended topside in the unfinished attic. Over the years she and her husband finished it off and made a large bedroom. Simple and nothing extravagant.

Having said all that, We took the time this weekend and set about "finishing" the closet and transitioning it into a full fledged butlers pantry. Don't get me wrong, the room is a closet. 4 ft deep and 3 ft wide, so there is nothing at all fancy or spacious about the tiny room. It will consist of two large bins to hold Sugars food, a shelf above that, then a microwave and coffee pot, then more shelves above that.
You also have to keep in mind that as picture two below shows (looking up), this is the only way to get into the attic. A nice and tight little hole eh?

The box like shelf below is really the only way I could hide the sloping wall beneath and still square the room out. Why does the bottom 2 1/2 ft slope in? Well on the backside of this wall there is the stairs that run down into the basement. On top is where the doggie bins will sit.

Originally, many moons ago, I had made a false panel on the front of the "box" that one could push in and the panel would pop out. why? I dunno, I thought instead of having a dead space underneath, although sloping I could store "stuff" in there. Maybe some liquefied potato's? (inside joke)

Me doing something and looking handy with my tape measure hanging on my pocket.

So having tried to kill myself the last two days to get this room going I am paying the price of ambition tonight. My body is killing me! I feel like I went 5 rounds with Mike Tyson (in his prime). Notice I didn't say 12 rounds? I would be dead, and Mike probably still could whoop some ass even with that crazy tattoo on his face.

Only 6 more weeks and I am leaving for 5 weeks. To little time, to much to do.

I did splurge and bought a HP mini netbook this past Friday. I am still on the fence as to if I really needed this thing or not. I mean, I could have bought a neat power tool or something for the same money. I still have a need for a large planer or sander and then there are those bills.......... But having said all that, it isn't to bad. See my laptop of 5 years is dieing slowly, the hinges on the lid are broke clean through and it is just slow as hell. You can't even watch midget porn on the thing without it chopping the video and heating up so badly one would thing it was going to spontaneous combust. I also thought while I was away on Army training this winter it would be a hell of alot easier to carry a netbook around that a 12 lbs laptop.

I don't know, we will see if I even have time to use it while I am away. http://www.notebooks.com/2009/05/26/hp-mini-110-netbook-introduced/ don't let the pics fool you, it is tiny! the screen is 10" diag and wieghs about 3 lbs? about the size of a notebook or a day planner that people use to carry around. I was going to do the Verizon wireless deal that they have but after I got looking at the numbers of a 2 yr contract? you really need to have a use for that type of service bad. Other than that? You are going to spend about $1200 for a $300 netbook in the long run. They have a 24 hour plan that will give you access for $15 a day as needed.