Status: Completely changed so I am rewriting it. It’s raining all the way home so we are staying put in Ocala. It’s raining heavily and probably will all day. PU Truck is full of cage steel that needs to be offloaded. Gate is locked incorrectly. House looks really good and we’ll probably stay there from here on out since the buyers are not local. We have run out of clean clothes since our original stay was until Saturday. There is a washing machine/dryer at grandpa’s since we’re probably staying until Friday.
Plans: Keep moving forward on cleaning up the Bumpkin and to a lesser extent the surrounding land.
Narrative: Got up around 4AM and drove to the farm to recover the Bumpkin cameras that were offline. The problem turned out to be the wireless router would not allow any connections. I rebooted the router and the cameras came back online. Yea! Locked up the house, hopped back over the front gate (Didn’t have a key) and headed for the hotel.
We got up and headed to grandpa’s to get the PU truck to haul the wire cages to the recycling center. I was also tasked to find the serial number or VIN of the mobile home so they could get a duplicate title. The trailer ends are terribly rusted, I could not find any stamped numbers. I did find a serial number on the master bedroom closet wall that will probably work.
The trip to the recycling center was a bust, they don’t take any wire or anything made of wire. I moved the wire from the PU truck to the box trailer so that I could use the PU truck for hauling other things. We headed back to the hotel and Chili’s for Dinner.
Tomorrow: We have to check out of the hotel and move into the farm house for the remainder of our stay.
Status: There is a pile of stuff in the living room and somewhat less on the porch in the house. There are so many nook and crannies in that house, it took a minute to bag everything yesterday.
Plans: Two teams, one cleaning one moving. The stuff in the living room we’ll just load all of it up and move to Grandpa’s in box trailer first thing. Second is a the stuff in front of the Bumpkin, again we’re down to four hours. Just move it to Grandpa’s. Inside the Bumkin had been compressed considerably with the collapsing of the dog crates. We should be able to get all of the dog stuff moved in one shot. R can mop the floors while I am moving the stuff, she should be on the farm by 8AM. I might be able to unload the tac shed, but that’s a stretch. M might be able to help, but we’d have to go get her with child in tow.
Tough Stuff: The square platforms that the puppies were on are too big to carry in the trailer. (They are also covered in dog feces.) We should be easily out of the house by Noon, we’re not likely to be finished with everything by noon.
Narrative: Ate breakfast at the hotel and made it to the farm shortly after 8AM. Moved all the loose stuff in the living room and the porch into the trailer. Loaded the bags of trash onto the PU truck. 09:00 left for the recycling center while Auntie mopped the floors. Dropped off the bagged trash and headed for grandpa’s to empty the trailer of house stuff into grandpa’s shed. Emptied the PU truck bed that was full of wood onto Grandpa’s burn pile and headed back to mom’s farm.
10:00, time is running by so quickly… Loaded all the big wood stuff into the trailer and the metal cages we crushed last night into the PU truck and parked it near the gate. We left for lunch for the showing at noon. We overslept just a little and Auntie called wondering where we were. I asked her to meet us at grandpa’s to save time. We drove to mom’s farm and I drove the PU truck back to grandpa’s farm and unloaded the large pieces of wood from the bumpkin lawn onto Aunties burn pile.
I had bought mom a new and familiar battery charger and a pile of rechargeable batteries for her landline cordless phone. The batteries are also for their 6 or more cute LED lanterns that I bought them in case of power failure.
We called it a day and went to Chili’s for Din Din and a Margarita to relax. In the hotel typing on the blog by 7PM. Wife is watching NCIS reruns with commercials. YUK
Tomorrow: It’s unlikely that a Blog entry will be made tomorrow morning.
Status: The editor for this Blog has changed and I don’t have time to figure it out this morning so I am keeping this simple.
Planned:Wife didn’t sleep at all and of course I didn’t sleep much either with all the drama. All I can do now is run until I get to tired and will have to lay down for a nap. (There is still one bed at the farm.) I plan on getting breakfast here at the hotel at 6AM. Drive to the farm with the car and drive the PU truck to grandpa’s. Empty the box trailer and haul it back to mom’s farm and start loading up. I don’t know what R has planned.
Narrative:Very busy day, sheesh. Ate breakfast at 06:00, drove to Mom’s farm to get PU truck. Loaded PU truck and drove it to grandpa’s. Unloaded PU truck and unloaded box trailer. Attached box trailer and headed back to mom’s farm. Auntie showed up and she took a load of trash to the recycling center while I loaded the box trailer by rolling the heavy furniture into the trailer. She found out that the recycling center near her accepts furniture, so we both drove there and unloaded two recliners, two dressers, mom’s old mattress and a large headboard. Auntie was glad they all didn’t end up at her place. Our second load was about 10 bags of trash and the couch from the living room. We broke for lunch and started cleaning the house with a box of large trash bags. I grabbed Auntie and we brought another 16 bags of trash to the recycling center. We’re working on the stuff we brought into the living room and the stuff on the porch. (There’s nothing on the lawn)
M and D came to help later in the day and we broke down about 10 wire cages for transport to the recycling center tomorrow. We also packed up a heavy table saw in D’s truck for recycling. There is still quite a pile in front of the Bumpkin. 1st priority is to clear out the living room, then the porch. Then the lawn on the Bumpkin, then the Bumpkin itself. We have visitors at 12 Noon when work will cease for the day.
Status:The PU truck is full of wood components and the box trailer is empty tonight.
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status: Packed for a trip to Florida today.
Narrative: We had our morning coffee until 8AM when the house turned off the TV as it will for the duration of our trip. We spent the next two hours packing and cleaning up for the trip. We got on the road at a reasonable 10AM and made good time. We sent D a message informing him of our expected arrival time. D on his own, got off 2 hours early at 4PM and called me from the gate while we were eating dinner. I offered a compromise of letting him get dinner while I drove to Aunties house for the keys. We all ended up at the house around 6PM, dusk. M stayed in the truck as instructed while D and I walked the buildings and worked up a plan for tomorrow. Their Cousins arrived sometime later and spent a good amount of time on the farm D and M. Auntie did a bang up job cleaning the kitchen and left maybe 10 garbage bags in the living room floor. I couldn’t tell from the contents whether they were going to the dump or to Grandpa’s. The night was falling apart with everyone and the baby so I decided to call it a night. D was quite willing to work, I was just done for the day and the were too many distractions. Everyone went their separate ways and we are at the hotel unwinding and getting some badly needed rest.
Tomorrow: Clean up the inside of the buildings and take trash to the recycling center.
Project: We are planning on hitting the ground early tomorrow as best we can and bag the house trash until the recycling center opens. Then we’ll start hauling trash pickup load by pickup load. (They only take bagged trash so the furniture will take another path.) The metal should have a separate recycling bin, we should be good with all the wire cages in the bumpkin. I will ask them if the bundled bags are paper and can be recycled without being bagged.
We still have a significant amount of stuff that is more than a pickup truck full going to grandpa’s, Baseline land fill and the recycling center. We’re planning clearing a room, cleaning it without taking more than an hour and moving on to the next room. My best guess is that we’ll be 80% on the house by noon except for the porch and the office. If R is helping us we might be done with the office a little after lunch. Hopefully the shop-VAC in the shed works good enough to use on the office closet. (Feces and dust)
I plan on emptying the box trailer before D gets off work. When D gets there we’ll load all that’s headed for the baseline land fill into the box trailer. (Probably furniture only.) The second option is to drop it all off onto grandpa’s burn pile, it would be quicker and get the stuff off the farm by tomorrow night. Not sure we want to drive the box trailer at night, but we might get it to Grandpa’s in one load.
Hopefully this comes together by early morning, if it does we might be done tomorrow.
https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status: Land contract still not signed, tubs still on living room floor.
Narrative: Didn’t sleep well, but that’s about normal these days. Had a nice couple cups of coffee while I talked to my sister about our plans for today. We got word about lunch that the contract was signed, closing is Wednesday. We are making plans to do a quick cleanup of the property. Sent a list of items to be picked up by the Auction people tomorrow to my Auntie. I am bringing a new type battery charger and I’ve bought batteries and a new charger that should arrive next week at Grandpa’s.
Purchases: Got a great deal on six Patriot Fuel USB charging Lithium batteries at Fry’s.
Tomorrow: Drive to Florida and stay in a hotel this time until Sunday.
https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status: Land is still up for sale, living room still has tubs to be sorted.
Narrative: Not planning on doing much until After 11AM. Cleaned out another tub and put a lot of stuff away today. Tested the backup power source for the TV and the computers in the “Cave”, each have a pure sinewave inverter with a takeover relay. It also appears that the three isolation diodes are going to work out between the three banks of batteries. The network came to our rescue today at the 11th hour no less. I was able to print a document in Florida from Atlanta, have them sign it, then scan it back to Atlanta across the network. (I was pretty proud how well it worked.)
Tomorrow: Too Early to call.
https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status: We have baby German Roaches in the bathroom, so apparently we brought some egg sacks from Florida.
Narrative: I had planned on spending a little time keeping the roaches from gaining a foothold in our homestead. We’re currently counting on roach hotels with pheromones to attract them and borax powder under the fridge. Having only seen a few and we’ve killed the ones we’ve seen I’ll call that even. Seeing the baby today doesn’t make me happy, but it’s only one so far. If they start appearing in larger numbers we can get an exterminator service for a year for roughly $250.00 where they spray every three months.
I am still playing with the tunnel configurations to grandpa’s house. I was able to stop the ping to mom’s farm and the link stayed up. I am trying the same configuration for the Atlanta link. Both the Tampa links are down. The two links are still up this evening, so that appears to be the fix. (We’ll really need the tunnels tomorrow!)
I’ve been a secretary all day doing follow-ups and writing documents. The wife is getting bored now that her class is over with. (It didn’t help I was so busy.) She did go to the pool and got groceries. Updated mom’s monthly budget and sent them a copy. Transferred the monthly allotment into the Expense account so Ricky can pay her bills.
I did sort through two more baskets of stuff from Florida today, we’re almost to a point that I can put up the Christmas tree.
Engineering: I worked on the house power distribution today and repaired the backup battery power for the Television. (The TV has it’s own power source if the power is off more than about 7 hours.) The solar panels charge three banks of batteries, TV battery backup, Refrigerator Battery backup and CPAP battery backup. The CPAP battery backup is currently located in a closet where it’s not much use. I don’t want to move it to the garage (Too Hot) and there’s not enough room in the bedroom for it. The “Other” option is to locate the batteries in my cave and run the wires through the wall to the inverters. Undecided whether that’s the direction for all the batteries in the garage. The heat in the summertime is very detremental to the length of service for the 2,000.00 worth of batteries in there.
Tomorrow: Sign the offer letter!
https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status: Living room still has a few tubs left, a family of four made an offer on the land that’s almost palatable.
Narrative: It’s Sunday morning and I’ve checked the tunnels I worked on yesterday only to find out that the two tunnels to Todd are also restored. Yea! There are at least two Raspberry Pi’s on each of the three locations, most of them are configured as a “Pi-Hole” DNS filter. All of them can be remoted into using an VNC graphic interface or an SSH session. I setup a ping to each endpoint to maintain the links, I know it’s crude. But it’ll work until I can find a way to keep the tunnels up. (Maybe a keep alive?)
The printer on the farm has a bad printhead, but it can scan documents. The printer at grandpa’s farm is fully capable of scanning/printing remotely. After we sell mom’s farm we can discuss any cameras that mom/Auntie want on their farm. It would make sense to have a camera in grandpa’s shed since it is fairly remote from the house. It would also make sense to have a camera on the horse barn and or Tack room. There are 12 cameras on mom’s farm that can be repurposed after the land sells.
Church services was hard today, I was tired and it was a long day with the Christmas Play dress rehearsal. (Which wasn’t because everyone wasn’t in costume today.) I did have a script, what I didn’t have was how many people speaking, light cues and other details. She said that she’d provide someone in the sound booth with us next week. Audio cue was easy, One song. One graphic on the screen. Light cues also are pretty easy, one scene with a spotlight otherwise a simple lit stage.
Sis sent me a 12 page document that I’ve got to read by 7PM. Daughter is bringing a laptop to repair tonight after work.
Engineering: The primary UPS on the house is only designed to keep things running for a couple hours with two 100AH batteries. The secondary “Pure Sinewave” UPS has a significantly lower load and should last about 7 hours at which time my Internet and landline phone die. It doesn’t make sense to try and extend the secondary UPS to provide power for the two CPAP machines in the bedroom. If I locate the CPAP UPS in the garage then the summer heat will reduce the life of the batteries. If I locate them in the bedroom it takes up considerable space and I need to run a wire from the solar panels to charge the batteries. The space is the tall pole in the tent today.
Tomorrow: Make a counter offer for the land if we can get through the paperwork.
https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status: Going to be a rainy day, good for getting organized.
Narrative: Sent a link to my network using GMail to mom in Florida. Called her and had her click on the link I sent her. (Raspberry Pi) When she clicked on the link her firewall in Florida dialed into mine here in Atlanta. Once the tunnel to Atlanta was established I could build a link to the farm (As a backup link.) That link came up without any problems.
I then added her printer to my laptop so I can scan and print to grandpa’s house from Atlanta. (Like I can with the farm printer.) I’ve reconfigured the Grandpa-Atlanta link using the Farm-Grandpa link. What I don’t know is if the links will reestablish themselves upon a power failure. We’ll have to wait on that one, right now I’m enjoying everything talking like it should. I successfully logged into the 2nd Raspberry Pi and configured it to be a Pi Hole to protect the DNS entries. I also configured the firewall to use the two Pi-Holes as DNS servers. The only remaining thing to work on is the firewall time configuration.
I had a really good day today, weird since it’s been raining all day.
Tomorrow: Church services and Christmas Play rehearsal.
https://www.verywellfamily.com/feelings-words-from-a-to-z-2086647
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith
Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No
Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes
Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes
Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes
Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes
Did I DMBT be happy? Yes
Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes
*Did My Best To
Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News: