Landscaping: Plug it!

For the past couple of yard our yard has been dirt.  Plugs cost money. Reseeding with two active dogs seemed like a waster of time We had some old seed we thought would be to dead to plant but what the heck just in case, we threw back in the back yard to see what would happen. Believe it or not it came up. 

I looked at plugs. PLUGS are REALLY EXPENSIVE! All  a grass plug is is a chunk of grass root and all. Cutting our own to transplant in the front yard since its the beginning of spring and we are still here any way seems like an idea.
This is not a hard thing to do. You take a sharp knife cut through your grass down through the roots and into the dirt, then cut under it to get the roots. The thing s you wants LOTS OF ROOT!  Pull and you have the basis for a grass plug.  After I have a bunch  in the bucket, what I did was sit down and take a good look at each one. If it was large enough to cut into more  parts I did so. Its just like dividing house plants.

 

 This grass that we do have has not been cut yet this season, so we use  the same sharp knife to tip the plugs off. By tipping I means I cut the grass. We are literally gong to give the grass a hair cut. Make sure you do not take more then 1/ 3 off the top.

Plug Before Hair cut

 Now on to planting the plug.

 This is  not rocket science.

Dig a hole large enough for the plug. What we have been doing is digging 5 or 6 at a time  to keep the pattern right .

  Pour some miracle grow in the the hole.About 2 tablespoons is more then enough. I would use root stimulator but our car is down an I did not want to have to wait til we could go to a different store so we just not some regular miracle grow at Dollar General.

Plant the plug and your done with that one.

Looking good!

We did this in a couple of hours.

A Bit of Humor

As we are all getting older, i would like to inform my friends on new acronyms so we can understand each other.)
ATD- at the doctor)
BFF- best friend fell)
BTW- bring the wheelchair)
BYOT-bring your own teeth)
FWIW- forgot where i was)
LMDO- laughing my dentures out)
ROFLACGU- rolling on the floor laughing and cant get up)
TTML- talk to me louder)
T4M- time 4 meds)
PMA- pissed myself again)
SHTTF- shouldn't have trusted that fart.)

now that you're up to speed, be a pal and pass it on.

Floors: Bed and Bath

I don't know how well it will show on your monitor but the reflection of the door to the closet shows up really well. SHINY!!!!!

Except for a bit of caulking, trim board and plumbing  small bath room is done!

Bath

Monkey and The Gator

Ran across this and thought it was really cute and made a good  point


A monkey and alligator came across a banana tree lush with ripe fruit. Banana trees were rare in that particular swamp, so they soon became engrossed in an argument to who the banana tree should belong to. After much debate, they agreed that they would split the tree and each take a half. The monkey who knew much more about banana trees coyly asked the alligator which half he wanted.
The alligator replied, “I will take the top half.”
The monkey said in fake angst, “That is not fair! The top half has all the fruit. I will be left with a no good stump.”
The alligator countered thinking he had fooled the monkey, “You agreed we would split it.”
The monkey relented, “Fine, I will take this worthless stump.”
Both took their halves back to their homes and planted them. The alligator’s plant to his great anguish quickly turned brown and died. The monkey’s stump with the roots, split off and produced another green lush plant with an even larger bunch of bananas than the original.

Moral of the story: In the long term, sometimes what is brown and dirty is better than what is green and lush.

technology/Space Hurricne? Solar Storm? Either way its why I dont rely on "JUST"

Here is the text.

 GPS and all that may be a good thing . I don't want to become to dependent on any thing like that since one of these could theoretically wipe out the entire grid.

Taken off of Yahoo news. 

This story was updated at 1:28 p.m. EST.

A wave of charged particles from an intense solar storm is pummeling the Earth right now, which may trigger stunning aurora displays and cause minor disruptions to satellites over the next two days, NASA scientists say.

The storm began when a powerful solar flare erupted on the sun yesterday (Jan. 23), blasting a stream of charged particles toward Earth. This electromagnetic burst, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), hit Earth at about 9:31 a.m. EST (1430 GMT), according to scientists at the Space Weather Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"It's a minor to moderate storm," Yihua Zheng, a lead researcher at the Space Weather Center, told SPACE.com. "Probably in the next 10 hours or so, people at high latitudes can see auroras. This could maybe cause communication errors at the polar caps, but the magnetic activities are probably not too strong."

The northern lights displays will be especially visible for people in northern latitudes where it is currently night.
"For parts of Europe already, and further points to the east, we should expect to see strong magnetic storm conditions," Harlan Spence, an astrophysicist at the University of New Hampshire, director of its Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, told SPACE.com. "There's a very good chance tonight that we'll be seeing some very strong auroral displays. Typically auroras occur at relatively high latitudes, but for events like this, you could get auroras down at mid to low latitudes."

When a coronal mass ejection hits Earth, it can trigger potentially harmful geomagnetic storms as the charged particles and the fields within it interact with the planet's magnetic field lines. This can amp up normal displays of Earth's auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), but a strong CME aimed directly at Earth can also cause disruptions to satellites in orbit, as well as power grids and communications infrastructures on the ground.

Yesterday's solar flare set off an extremely fast-moving CME, Zheng said, and the associated radiation storm was the strongest since 2005. But the ejected cloud of plasma and charged particles was not directly aimed at Earth, and is hitting the planet at an angle instead. This glancing blow will likely lessen any impacts on Earth, she added. [Photos: Huge Solar Flare Sparks Major Radiation Storm]

"Earth's magnetic field served as a shield, and pretty much shielded the radiation so that it doesn't penetrate that deep," Zheng said. "It's like a car collision: head-on or off to the side. A CME is like that too. For this one, if it was a direct hit, Earth would receive a much stronger impact. This one was on an angle — toward higher latitudes and a little off the ecliptic — otherwise it would be a much stronger impact."

Still, the storm does rank as the biggest space radiation event in about seven years, Spence said.

"It's not as big as some of the big, historic storms, but the chance for re-intensification is still possible because this active spot on the sun that created the initial havoc could go off again," he explained.

Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), and the Stereo spacecraft observed the massive sun storm. Data from these spacecraft were combined to help scientists create models to calculate when and where the CME was going to hit Earth.
"A CME is kind of like a space hurricane," Zheng said. "You have to predict how it will form and evolve. From the models, we can see which spacecraft will be in its path, and what will be impacted."
At the Space Weather Center, scientists were able to pinpoint the arrival of the CME more accurately than ever before.
"We predicted it would arrive at 9:18 a.m. and in reality, it arrived at 9:31 a.m., so ours has a 13-minute error," Zheng said. "Usually for this kind of model, the average error is seven hours, so this is the best case."

Yesterday's solar flare was rated an M9-class eruption, which placed it teetering on the edge of being an X-class flare, the most powerful type of solar storm. M-class sun storms are powerful but mid-range, while C-class flares are weaker.

The flare erupted from sunspot 1402, a region near the meridian of the sun that has been active for a while now, Zheng said. The powerful solar storm could be signaling that the sun is waking up after an extended period of relative dormancy.

The sun's activity waxes and wanes on an 11-year cycle. The star is currently in the midst of Solar Cycle 24, and activity is expected to continue ramping up toward the solar maximum in 2013.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of the auroras sparked by the solar storm, or other skywatching image, and would like to share it for a possible story or gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com.

Do I need to say more?

Rude and Crude but it works danged it

Murphy's Law

 Some where in this house I am about 99.9999 % certain I have a 1/2 inch notched trowel for  ceramic tile work.  Murphy's law says if something can go wrong it will.  I'm betting some where there is a law that says after you go out and replace something you cannot find,  it will show up. Serendipity comes to mind.  You know, the one that says when you stop looking for something it will show up. I did some checking. One of the local hardware stores offered me a 5.00 discount off of a new  notched trowel. That's not a bad discount.  Money is tight and spending 11.95  on a tool for one small job like the wood stove surround, if I  don't have to, aint happening if I can figure this out. I can get the plumbing stuff for the sink or a new trowel.

  Time for the Dremel to earn  it's keep again.

It's rude and crude and did not cost me one red cent, unless your including the electricity to cut it out with the Dremel. It was fall off from all the plexiglass we used to replace windows  recently

 

Bath room lavatory pre cut

I put the sink on top of the counter upside down and  traced the sink outline. ( Outer marks)

Then I  measured the under side of the sink and marked inside the  tracing to know where I wanted to cut it.

 After cutting it out with  circular saw on  main lines and using a hand saw to get the corners it's ready to put the sink in.

Now all we have to do is go get the plumbing and we are done with it!

This week has been busy. We are finishing up the bathroom,. Have been installing trim, painting and all that good stuff. We are sanding the bath room floor to get it good and clean for vinyl tile to go down. I do not want any thing making the adhesive on the tile to not stick. I'm cheating.We are using the self adhesive tiles.  I had bought these to use in the kitchen. On a whim, becasue I really want to get this bathroom finished, I took them in there, They match the tan commode, sink and counter  my son picked out perfectly, so it's a done deal.

Barnes and Nobel nook

Nook
I'm not a regular customer of B & N for the simple reason  they do not show up  on my searches as the cheapest place to buy books on a normal basis. I suppose if they did this would not be an issue. I'm a regular amazon customer, eBay, half.com and other places online, on several levels and if they have this criteria it would not be an issue since my info is already on file with them.


 Just like Kindle they have a freebie for PC users and other devices. I did a fast search. There are a LOT of ebooks on sailing for free! The only thing is if you only want to download free ebooks it still wants a credit card on file, even if your not a regular or even occasional customer. It's not a big deal. The problem is am I really going to remember to actually do this when I have  money in the bank to let it tag the account.  Like many I'm o n a tight budget. Once I pay bills and get the stuff I need to get and the things on the want list that have a priority, the account is broke for an optional situation such as this.  I gather they tag your bank account for a small amount that IS replaced just to make sure the card is good. It's not like it actually cost you any thing.
Then there is the idea of just not liking the idea of handing this information out  arbitrarily. Called the Banes and Noble customer service to see if they have any provision in place for those of us who don't want to put our credit cards on file. I got a standard rhetoric answer about its a different department,. When I asked to be transferred to that  department I was asked for my email address. Now any one who has done  internet for a while realizes giving out that  kind of information is a guarantee to have your email flooded with spam, I pointed that out and asked the lady to transfer me and we would deal with that  at this other department. She transferred me. Still waiting  so far about 5 minutes.  Supervisor finally came on. NO solution. It seems according to Barnes and Nobel the publishers demand a credit card or debit card to be on file even for the free ebooks. I asked her about a customer suggestion box. She gave me the following email address.    bnmanagementdigital@book.com
If I understand it allegedly it has something to do with royalties. How they figure royalties on a free book, I did not ask.

 I sent them a suggestion that if they want more customers making an account for those of us who do not want our info on file just to down load a few ebooks might be a good idea. Lets face it if we see something we want that is not a free ebook, we can order it then. It is called building relationships with potential new customers.

The Demise of Common Sense

I pulled this off one of my groups. It is definitely relevant to today's ' Modern" life style.



ALAS 'common sense is reported to be dead'  the following memorial article tells all....

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: -Knowing when to come in out of the rain; - Why the early bird gets the worm; - Life isn't always fair; - And maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies, don't spend more than you can earn and adults, not children, are in charge.

His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place.

Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.  It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and then the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife Discretion, his daughter Responsibility, and his son, Reason.  He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers; I Know My Rights, I Want It Now, Someone Else Is To Blame, and I'm A Victim.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, do nothing!!... .

Wood Stove Surround Update

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are two photos.

You can see the ventilation holes in this photo. Once the tile is done there will be better balance between the intake and out put holes.

A close up some of the tiles I am planning on using for this.

Finally got the honey do shipping list pared down to just a few more items that need to be bought.  Finally I can start looking at boat equipment again! Yippppee!!!!!!!!!!    I ordered a puck GPS to go with the Open CPN. I have been playing around with the software just to get familiar with it. Down the road I want to be able to use sextant and old technology more then any thing. Lets face it the satellites are great and all that. GPS will tell you exactly where you are as will AIS. I don't have any thing against all that.  In the back of my mind I cannot shake this thought of what with the news reports of a major solar storms cycle being in progress, what good will GPS do if one of the solar flares they are talking  about as possibilities comes close enough to make an EMP that affects the satellites? The way I see it better safe then sorry.  Am I going to feel foolish if nothing like that ever happens? Absolutely not! Being prepared for worse case scenario is part of sailing the way I see it. Equipment breaks down. If I am not dependent on it, I do not have to worry about my trip being held up for lack of electronics.  For now I have a cheap plastic sextant  to use.  All I have to do is drill a hole in  it and put a lanyard through it to hang around my neck while I am using it so I don't accidentally drop it over board and I am good to go. Yes, eventually I want to get a better sextant. But I figure if  this cheap one is good enough to use as a back up it is good enough to use. as my main one until finances allow for a better one.