Category: Blog

Status: Tubs and bags from the trip are still littering the living room floor.  Mom’s farm electric bills total up to $200 and they are due on the Dec 26th.

• Project: Make Mom comfortable
• Print mom a copy of the paperwork, DONE!
• Where’s the money? (It finally made it!)
• Burn the wood.  (Sent Doug a message asking his price for the job.)
• Bug treatments. (Ricky will get a chance first.)
• Recover password to E-Mail.  (Google flagged the account, Boo)
• Call Skunky Acres about dogs. (Sent E-Mail)
• Make a plan to sort pile in Grandpa’s shed.
• Cancel Windstream Internet service.

Plans: Clear the kitchen table, put the lights on the tree.

Narrative: Had a really good cup of coffee this morning.  Made some entries in my blog while sipping on it.  Worked on my UPS units for about an hour, I’m letting the DVR and a camera do the hard part of timing how long they run.  Kitchen table all cleared off, there are some loose ends like Windstream that I will get to later today.  Finished lighting the tree, looks pretty good with three strands of LED lights.

Time for breakfast, think I’ll make some eggs.  (I usually make four.)  Worked a little while on closing some loops on mom’s needs.  Had to clear out some of the pile so K can vacuum the floor under the tree.  I do have figure out what I am going to do with these two 50W solar panels.  They’d be great for two kids here in Atlanta if I can make a battery pack and inverter box for them.  The box I made for the horse stalls worked terrifically, but it’s waay too much of a hazard for little kids with all the exposed wiring.  I think the best thing is to retire both of the modified units with exposed circuit boards and repurpose the three units that are intact from Florida like the one below.

Our rose bushes in the front of the house were over 5ft high, they’ve finally died off so I cut them down today.

Engineering: Try to determine the life left in the batteries of the UPS units that were running the cameras on mom’s farm.  The three small BN450M unit’s batteries have been extended from 4AH to 16AH ~160WH and should support a 60W incandescent bulb for about 3 hours.  I stopped the test after 2 hours, they all passed.  The Grey topped one was almost out of battery.

I have two solar panels that I put onto the lawn if I need a little extra power.  The grass can reach over the panel edges reducing the effectiveness of the panel.  So, I bought some feet for it.

They also might be quite effective preventing damage to the asphalt shingles when I have to put the panels on the roof.

We played Scrabble and then watched Rudolph save Christmas once again before going to bed.

Tomorrow: I never did figure it out.

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? Yes
Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? Yes
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 full of tubs and bags from our Florida trip and our  “Pre Lit” Christmas tree has no lights left on it from yesterday’s efforts.

Plans: Church Christmas play is today, then a Christmas party in the afternoon.

Narrative: Well, it’s 9PM and I’m just now getting settled.  It has been a long day.  I got up around 6AM and made sure I was set for today, then went back to bed until 7 when the alarm went off.  My wife made me eggs and toast for breakfast and I was out the door by 7:40 to the school.  Set out the cones and the handicapped signs, people were already trying to park in between the buildings.  It makes me sad that people try and find the closest spot to the door knowing that we’ve got so many people with handicaps.

Christmas service went better than usual, but it was still a lot of work for everyone.  I had two helpers on stage today, that helped immensely.  We were done by 12 and I was headed home by 12:30, which is pretty good considering.

Christmas party also went pretty well, it was good to spend time with J&J.  There was plenty of food and fresh coffee of plenty!  We had fun and played a couple games before heading home.  We attempted to take a nap, but we were too restless to stay down more than a half an hour.

My son called from Tampa and he setup a Raspberry Pi to contribute to Flight Aware with a seriously small receiver  (USB dongle.)  I was able to log into it from Atlanta and see the traffic over his house for about 150 miles in all directions.  If that wasn’t amazing enough, it was using a 7″ magnetic mount antenna for a car.

Mom’s money for the farm has not posted and she apparently did not buy groceries today as planned.

Tomorrow: Finish the tree and clear the dining room table so the wife can wrap presents.

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: In Cordele getting some much needed rest.  We put all the UPS units that were supporting the three networks in the car.  Five UPS units took up a bit of room, but they did their job really well for about 8 months. Today is the first time mom’s farm has not E-Mailed me a picture of something moving!

Narrative: Woke up and had to clear my sinus so I’m catching up on my Blog.  It’s been a whirl wind for the last week and we’re exhausted.  We left the hotel about 08:00 and got home around 11 AM in good traveling  weather.  It took several minutes to figure out how long we were gone, as it turned out we left Atlanta about nine days ago.  Unpacked the car and filled up our living room with boxes and bags for the last time. 

Repaired one of my failing cameras so I can see the front porch for the first time in months.    I rebooted the camera on the side of the house, I’ll have to wait a little while to see if the ferrite core helps keep it alive.

I also checked our finances, we’ve got about $300.00 left on our credit card and there’s a little over  $1,000.00 in the checking account.  I had hoped to replenish our checking account next week, but it looks like it may be a couple weeks.  I have hours of work to do to account for all the expenditures this year moving mom.  I thought I’d throw together just the cash contributions to get some money back into our accounts as soon as I can.  I sent a list to sis and we’ll send it to mom when we agree.

Our tree has a lot of lights burnt out so we went to Lowes to get some more, they were almost sold out of lights!  We did get some LED lights, but it was very slim pickings today.  I’ll put them on the tree after updating the blog.  I made some Dominican coffee and put some Bailey’s Irish Crème in it.  Good Stuff!  Most of the lights were attached to the tree with little green clips, they’re not too bad.  The green wire ties however  are the same color and size as the wire.  I did manage to finally cut a wire trying to cut a wire tie, but I am also FINISHED de lighting the tree!

Purchases: Christmas lights and gift tags.

Travel: Cordele to da Homestead in good time.

Repairs: Front lawn camera and replacing the lights on our Christmas Tree.

Noteworthy: I am finally getting the hang of this new editor in Word Press. It doesn’t do the things the same way as the old one did.

Tomorrow: Christmas Play then Christmas Party that I am not sure I am up for.

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:  Accomplishments: Engineering: Project: Theme: Engineering:  Pi News:

Status: Buyer is very upset about the tower, it is raining pretty heavily.

Narrative: I got up very early this morning and disconnected the firewall and about everything connected to the modem.   Went back to bed for about an hour and we went to breakfast at Grammy’s.  Realtor should have arrived at 7:30 but didn’t so I packed the box trailer with the damaged fence from yesterday.  We also started packing the car and getting ready for the drive home.  After a few discussions about solutions for a tower they decided to buy a telescoping tower for their cell phone booster.  We finally closed on the farm around lunch and headed to Cordele GA where our room was waiting.

Tomorrow: Drive to Atlanta and get ready for the Christmas Play.

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: Still sleeping on mom’s farm until it is sold. Roach infestation prevents us from preparing food here also we don’t have anything in the kitchen to eat with or on.

Plans: Get up, eat breakfast and be back on the farm before the destruction team arrives. Remove the security camera system from the Morton building (Barn) today.

Narrative: Had breakfast at Grammy’s then met the destruction team for the trailer.  Spent most of the day helping them make that happen.  I repaired the broken pipe at the middle pen that repaired the water to the bumpkin.  I also fixed the pipe that the cows knocked the end off with glue this time.  The water at the trailer is a lost cause, the pipe is buried.  I worked on the fence and loaded it into the box trailer.  I also researched who to buy a tower from because the buyer was very upset we took down the tower next to the trailer.

Tomorrow: Hope to close on the contract to buy the farm and get home on Friday.  We can’t stay on the farm after it is sold.

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’re stumbling, but still moving forward.  The good thing is we’ve been given the command to stop cleaning!  Still hoping to go home on Friday.  We’re down to two days. (Hopefully)  So I’m pulling the cameras and DVR out of the Bumpkin today.

The Short, Short Narrative: Packed up the Bumpkin security camera network, took down the solar powered lights in the stalls and took 1000 Lbs of junk to the dump.  Took $1,400.00 out of our depleting checking account to plus up Aunties Expense account. Had Subway for lunch and watched The Christmas Candle on a laptop with the Mrs.

Status:  Still cleaning out Bumpkin and sleeping on mom’s farm.

Narrative: Slept in, Auntie had finished cleaning the Bumpkin floor and came in to wake us up.  We went to breakfast at Grammy’s and had a waffle, we returned to the farm to finish the cleanup.  Video tour started at 10:30 so we went to grandpa’s house to stay out of the way.  After the video tour was over we ran to The Home Depot for a breaker for the big barn.  When we got back we worked on getting rid of the red van which we ended up towing.  We’re short $1,000.00 for closing, so Kathy and I need to pull 500.00 out of our checking account for two consecutive days to plus up Nancy’s checking account.

Status: Still in Florida, checking out of the hotel today and moving into mom’s house on the farm.  Closing date is now Friday!`

Narrative: Today was a blur, moved into mom’s house and setup the UPS that I just bought batteries for on Monday.  We setup our CPAPs on the new UPS with no problems.  We cleaned the Bumpkin most of the afternoon after taking a small nap.  We watched a good Christmas Chronicles movie on my laptop before turning in for the evening.

Repairs: 700W 12V APC UPS, extended run time by using a 36AH battery instead of a 7AH battery.

• Empty the metal out of PU Truck
• Take out the bundles of paper. (PU Truck.)
• Take out the pens/gates to grandpa’s farm. (PU Truck)
• Bag and take out the junk. (PU Truck)
• Take out the wood shavings. (PU Truck or Box trailer.)
• Sweep the floors.

• Empty silver shed.
• Take 5 Gl oil to recycling. (PU Truck)

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.