Tales from the Shed

New tool for the job: Framing nailer. Its a refurbished Campbell Hausfeld. Yeah, I know its not a sexy name brand like Dewalt or Porter-Cable (I really wanted a Porter-Cable. To match my finish nailer), but it was a lot cheaper, and honestly, I won't use it for more than 2 or 3 projects. It's pretty awesome using a framing nailer. Makes the work go real fast. Unfortunately, Lowe's only sells 4000 count boxes of nails. That's a lot of nails, but since this thing is so much fun to use, I've been shooting in extra nails, where maybe I wouldn't have otherwise because swinging a hammer is kind of a drag after the 100th nail.



Two weekends ago I poured the piers for my shed. Luckily, the rain had stopped for a few days and I only had issues with water in two of the holes. What to do what to do. I just started dumping concrete into the tubes and when the water level was high enough, I bailed it out with a cup. Seemed to work ok.





I waited a week and slapped my beams and floor frame on. I had the hardest time trying to get the floor frame square, until I decided to measure the width of the frame. Hmmm. Apparently, a 10 foot board isn't always 10 feet long. Oh sure, I know that a 2x6 is actually 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 but who knew that a 2x6x10 could actually be anywhere from 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 10' 3/8" to 1 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 10' 2 3/16". Not me.

This part was finished on Saturday. It was supposed to rain, but actually turned out alright. It's a little higher off the ground than I wanted. Oops. I didn't have too much choice though because of the slope.





Sunday was miserable and cold and rainy. In the high 40s. I had to keep stopping to bring all of my tools inside because of intermittent heavy downpours. Got the framing done though.

Bodycount '08

Cat killed a frog, a bird and a mouse this week. Here's some video of him playing with the mouse in my weedbed. He bit the head off too and left it there. I never found the body.



In other cat news, our other cat, Trixie, got herself knocked up and out came five kittens. The one in the forefront is a runt, and we've had to supplement what little she can get from ma with some kitten formula. Yeah, I know, I didn't want them in the first place, nor the mother frankly, but I can't just let something die. The tiny bottle I bought is too big for her, so we've been using a dropper.

Shed: Part I

This will be the first in a series of posts about the shed that I began this past weekend. I've never tackled a project this big, so, no doubt, it'll get interesting.

I dug holes for the concrete piers that I will be putting in. As soon as I dug them they filled in with water. Just like at the beach.

I knew that this part of my yard was always damp for 9 months out of the year, but this I wasn't expecting. With rain all day today, the holes are completely full. I might have to wait a while.

Get Out of My Head

I've had the theme song to the Odd Couple stuck in my head for several weeks. It's a great tune, but starting to get a little old.

Things to which I have been up

Planted a row of 33 lilacs. In 10 years I won't have to look at that junk pile anymore.

I planted a bunch of other stuff too. 54 plants total I think. To date, 3 have died, but the rest seem to be okay, including all the lilacs. One of the trees I planted, a white birch, has already doubled in height. Maybe I won't have to wait 10 years for some decent trees in my front yard after all.














One thing that bugs me is when builders don't put overhead lights in all the rooms, and instead wire up an outlet that is controlled by a switch. The past two weekends I fixed that problem in 3 of our bedrooms by installing ceiling fans. Luckily, there is an attic above.

New tool for the job, a 4 1/8 inch hole saw. Makes quick work of putting holes in a ceiling. If you didn't like someone, you could sneak into their house and put about 10 holes in their ceiling in about a minute. That would be funny.




















I should probably fix that.



















You know what hurts more than embedding a roofing nail into your head? When about a half dozen gouge your lower back.



















I had to fabricate a frame around each because the joists are 24 inches apart which is too wide for the fan brace.



















There's something very "boarding house for drunks" or "Somersworth Hotel" about operating ceiling fixtures with a pull chain, so I also installed switches that control the fan and light.



















Other than suffering from fiberglass poisoning, it was a pretty easy project.






















































Next up, the living room needs an overhead light, not a ceiling fan just a light. I am going to make it more difficult for myself by installing 3 way switches. That should be good for a headache or two.

Guess What's in My Neighbor's Junk Pile

Alright, ok, I'll be the first to admit that this game isn't very fun. Let's try something new.

First, the answer to the last Guess What's in My Neighbor's Junk Pile. It's a jack.








How about we do this, guess as many things as you can.

Kip Journal 5/10/1999

I think that Kip is trying to put the moves on the female contractor.
GET IN THERE KIP!

Kip, in his infinite wisdom was bragging about his great hacking skills. Trying to impress the slew of temp personel. Lets all [effing] envy kips vast skills.

[Again, grammar/spelling not mine. Ed.]

Read the Kip Journal FAQ

Malibu Stacy

A hot rodded Chevy Malibu Wagon would be a sweet ride.

Fabulous Movie Review®

No Country for Old Men
Absolutely phenomenal. One of the best written and most original movies I have ever seen. It's not the type of movie I could watch more than once, but that's only because the story left such an impact that watching it again would be like eating a filet mignon and then barfing it up so you could enjoy it again.

Gagknee's grade: A+-

Luck of the French Canadian

Walked to a convenience store. Got a big can of Arizona iced tea. Walk to the capitol. Approached a bench. While sitting on bench I found 8 bucks on the ground.

Life is good.

Although, I wish I had found it before I went to the convenience store.

Kip Journal 5/7/1999

Kip explaining to new guy, that he is so wanted head hunters call him many times every day he is so full of [poop].

[Grammar and punctuation not mine. Ed.]

Read the Kip Journal FAQ

Guess What's in My Neighbor's Junk Pile

The answer to the last one was a microwave, specifically an above the stove type model. I probably shouldn't have zoomed the picture in. It blurred it too much.












Have a try at this one:

Guess What's in My Neighbors Junk Pile

Here's a cut out portion of a picture of my crazy neighbor's junk pile. Guess what it is. First person with a correct answer gets nothing. Except my everlasting respect. Or nothing.

Live Your Drearm

Drunk graffitiing. Like drunk dialing but anonymous, unless you get caught, then its equally as embarrassing.



Here's the rest of the pictures from my most recent lunch excursion.

The water pipeline.


The ladder to get down to the pipeline.


A view down the pipeline.


The spot from where I took the 2nd picture.


Blue Heron nests.


Just a shot of the river.


Looking down.


Manchester bridge.


Oops. No more railing.


Don't fall in.


Time to turn around.


The view back.


Random pictures of the river.




Other photos, if you are so inclined.

Pipeline
Richmond
Herons

Toodles.

Trees

Transplanted some trees in the past couple of weeks. River birches. In ten to fifteen years they will look like this:

Fabulous Movie Review®

Gone Baby Gone
Based on a Dennis Lehane (an excellent writer) novel and adapted by Ben Affleck (a bad actor, but a good screenplay writer when helped by his buddy, Matt Damon) to the silver screen, I was a little skeptical that this would be good.

A little background first. Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite authors. All of his novels are set in and around Boston, so you get that sense of being there. My two favorite books of his are Mystic River and Shutter Island. The former already made into an excellent movie and the latter in the process, which I am very excited about.

However, its been 6 or 7 years since I read Gone, Baby, Gone. I honestly didn't remember anything about it. This was good in 2 ways. One, I could watch the movie and not curse every 5 minutes about how Ben Freakin Affleck ruined the story, and two, the ending was a surprise.

Oh, but, by the way, it's not a happy ending. It's a very sad tale. That much I remember from the book. I'm glad Ben I Know Matt Damon Affleck kept that intact.

Gagknee's grade: A-