Home on the Hill

Well you can check out Jo-Ann's blog for the answer to that one. Let's just say it's been more fun around here than a doggie house full of.. Finally I have a pot to piss in. I picked it up at the local second hand ( note: not antique ) store. It now rests, ready for action, on the stairs with the some of our other found treasures. I brought the Boler home from where it was wintering over at Toms. So Xena and I had to try it out last night. Camping out in the yard. She was camping in it when she was just a wee puppy and she hadn't forgot about it. She just jumped in took over a chunk of the bed and asked me to turn the heat on a bit. It was a bit nippy when we went to bed. The Northern Lights were out and there was frost on the Tire covers this morning. I had got out of bed when the sun came up and was running around in my long johns and rubber boots, feeding the birds. I didn't want to wake up Jo-Ann but little did I know she was looking out the window wondering if...

Well hopefully. We made some mini green houses for the tire garden. We cut up plastic panel into 20 inch sizes riveted them together so they fit around the tires. As the plants grow we lift the plastic up to keep the green house effect happening. The corrugated plastic is covered with green house plastic that is bunjeed with cut up truck tire inner tube that we got for the asking from the tire store in Vanderhoof. At night I put styrofoam panels that are hinged with ductape over the tops to keep the heat in. Later when it warms up we will replace the green house plastic " shower caps" with white horticultural fabric that will let the air in, keep the bugs out and keep the thing a little cooler. It was +10 the other day and +30 inside the mini green houses. Today it was bright and sunny and the temperature went to +40. Have to work on some ventilation for sunny days. Last night it froze but the temperature inside was +8. Well we'll see how the plants like this one. This p...

The power pole at the blue shop building that is. It's been leaning since 1990 apparently. Yesterday my brother Tiny and friend Eddie decided it was the right time to straigten it so up they came. As we excavated the hole to pull the pole up we noticed that the reason it was leaning was that it was broken off just below ground level. Plan B. Add a 12 foot oak switching tie as a reinforcer. Tied the pole to the excavator and walked it backward. We bolted it together with 3/4" ready rod and there you go, slick as a whistle, pole upright. Which took a huge strain off of the hydro drop lines which, with the backguy to the building, were the only thing holding it in place. One more thing gets moved from the "To Do" to the " To Done " list.

So Here's the plan. When Xena and I go for walks she gets to carry her own snacks and foldable water dish. This was a pack we bought when she was just a wee pup and it was too big for her. Now it almost looks to small. But were not going on overnight walks either. Yet. We went to visit our neighbors yesterday but came across this flooded road. A culvert under the railway tracks has plugged up and caused the water to back up over the road. It's deeper than it looks. A guy in a full size pickup tried it and backed out when the water started coming in his doors.. Coding today so you just know it's going to be a wonderful, come out and play, sunny day.

I cleaned out the garden yesterday. Well, the turnips which we had left in the garden over winter. I cleaned out the tires and loosened up the soil. It was actually warm. I am going to build some covers out of corrugated plastic so we can get an early start on the garden this year. We've both been working on the computers most of the day. I am getting an update ready for release and getting a new website up. Trying to get a lot of the "inside" work done before the sun comes out in earnest and I start to feel like a kid in school on a sunny day. I am sure it will get sunny one day. Yesterday there was a hail storm that covered the ground in a few minutes.

It really has been warming up lately. We went to Prince George yesterday to pick up some office supplies and when we got back the fields had a green cast from new grass. It was amazing. We also picked up a bunch of seeds for the garden. I have an Idea for a plastic cover for the Tire Garden so that I can plant pretty soon. I will see how that works out today. We had so much fun last year, and such good results, we're expanding the operation this year. I took a couple of hours late in the day back blading the driveway to smooth out the ruts. In a couple of places, like in front of the house, it was so wet I just turned it into soup. Hopefully it will dry out today. Talk to you later.

Yes, sure, she's glad to see me. And Mom won't let her in the house 'cuz she's all dirty. So could I talk to her please... I have been slaying Dragons. Well the paper variety anyway. It's taken at least two days to get the office organized. Put some great shelves up in the closet, now stationary store room, and threw out a bunch of wonderful, gotta have stuff, that somehow turned into crap. I still couldn't bear to throw out my Texas Instruments TI59 programable calculator . Even tho the battery is dead and I don't have the charger anymore. Jeez I guess I could try Ebay.. It was just before desktop computers started to really happen. You program on little magnetic strips. Got me through Electrical Trades school. But really how many mice can a guy use. I was trying to get a KVM switch working but didn't have all the cables I needed. Oh well next week. Was a bright sunny day. I know because today was work in the office day. But I did get ...

Were home. It's great. I have been rebuilding my office to make it more efficient. Taming the paper dragon. I am doing a lot of programming and servicing clients and I hate working in a cluttered envoironment. Jo-Ann thinks its weird that I have the filing cabinets labeled. Well we were at the Coast we started a new software company: endatako. Now were doing all the administrivia to get it running. Mike Browne is working on the website. He's a graphic genius. Once we get ready for public viewing I'll post its URL. Here me and my pal Xena have been doing flood patrol. The weather has suddenly warmed up. Yesterday it was +10, ( 50F) and the land is shedding snow like it's in a big hurry to lose it's winter blanket. Keeping my 1 kilometer road passable is a challenge. Fortunately my Brother Tom walked an excavator up a few weeks ago and cleared the snow off the sides of the road and cleaned out the ditches. Made a huge difference. I took the ATV out with some sh...