What did you do today? - 2020 version

[NW-Bound]

Got my electric bill for July. $79 for 605 kWh usage. That's pretty darn good for several days with 110+ temperature.

The July bill used to be close to $400, for around 3000 kWh usage.

The off-grid solar power system certainly helps, plus running the two mini-split ACs instead of the central air.

It will take only about 10-15 years to pay back. And that's for a DIY system assembled from components bought at discount prices on the surplus market, and no labor cost. No tax credit claimed though. Going "green" is not cheap.

PS. The payback period does not include the cost of the two mini-splits. These count as "home improvements". However, without them, the savings in electric bills would not be realized, as it takes a lot more hardware to run the big central A/C off a solar system.

 

[RobbieB]

I put the last coat of spar varnish on my barbee table;

 

[Souschef]

DW took things under control and took me to our patio and demanded I take my shirt off. She said I looked like Sasquatch and went to work with the electric clippers.

She commented that my back looked a silver back gorilla complete with a DA down the center of my back. After her handiwork, with the hair removal, things may improve in the romance department. She dictated this whole post to me, so do not blame me but blame her.

 

[jollystomper]

Played golf early in the morning, to make it another week of golf Monday-Friday. There was a threat of rain/thunderstorms that never materialized, so few other golfers were out. After walking a round in less than 2.5 hours my friend (we are both members) decided what the heck, it is just 9:30, lets play another round but use carts. We were done by 11:40 so I still got home not much after noon.

I did some minor projects this afternoon, and talked with a contact via FamilyTreeDNA to figure out how we might be related, and got some good leads. Now preparing to Zoom with a few friends before a "game date night" with DW.

 

[aja8888]

Got my electric bill for July. $79 for 605 kWh usage. That's pretty darn good for several days with 110+ temperature.

The July bill used to be close to $400, for around 3000 kWh usage.

The off-grid solar power system certainly helps, plus running the two mini-split ACs instead of the central air.

It will take only about 10-15 years to pay back. And that's for a DIY system assembled from components bought at discount prices on the surplus market, and no labor cost. No tax credit claimed though. Going "green" is not cheap.

PS. The payback period does not include the cost of the two mini-splits. These count as "home improvements". However, without them, the savings in electric bills would not be realized, as it takes a lot more hardware to run the big central A/C off a solar system.

Nice work! It's always nice to see the fruits of your labor!

 

[harley]

We recently bought a townhouse in a new development, and as usual they planted the wrong plants in the wrong place. We have a 10' maple tree about 8' from our front porch, so in about 15 years we'll have a 50' tree dropping helicopter seeds in our gutters and roots will be tearing up our driveway and porch. Dumbasses. By the way, DW has a degree in landscape design, so all this knowledge comes from her. I just dig holes where I'm told. But over the decades I've picked up some knowledge too.

So we went out and bought a nice crape myrtle. Multiple trunks, and really pretty dark pink blossoms. It will get to be about 20', so there will still be some leaf issues, but that's pretty much unavoidable near woods, which we are. But you try to minimize the issues.

We also decided to move it much further out into the front yard, in a much more reasonable location. So I dug out a 44" circle of sod from the new location, dug out the maple, filled the hole, and covered it with the sod. That looks pretty good, and wasn't too incredibly difficult.

By the way, this is VA, and the ground is hard red clay (unformed brick, really) and rocks bigger than softballs. When they laid the sod they didn't put a bit of fill dirt down, just packed down the clay and rock.

So I started digging the hole. The plan is for 44" across and about 30" down, twice the width and depth of the root ball. Man, that was a PITA. I couldn't use a shovel to dig, it wouldn't go into the ground more than an inch at a time. So I got out my 36" crowbar and my 3 lb mallet, and started driving the crowbar into the ground. If I hit it 25 times I might get down about 4-6 inches, then I would lever the clay and rock out. Do that a few times and you get a shovel full or two.

I've gotten down about 2 feet. Tomorrow I'll finish the hole, then I'll get the tree in the ground. I've gotten old, and while I still do some hard work sometimes (hauling 40-50 lb bags of dirt, digging holes in real dirt, moving furniture, whatever), this has been the hardest I've worked in a long time. My hands are so sore that typing this post hurts. I think when we replace the (eventually 75-100') oak tree they planted in the tiny back yard, I'll reuse the hole they dug with the backhoe. At least it's in the right place. And I did save the $200 that the nursery would have charged me to plant it. I'm not sure that was my best financial decision ever. But as they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. The jury is still out on that.

 

[aja8888]

Harley, go rent an electric jackhammer for the day. We use those to dig fence post holes here where we have a lot of clay.

 

[Ronstar]

Harley, go rent an electric jackhammer for the day. We use those to dig fence post holes here where we have a lot of clay.

+1. We had a gas powered jackhammer at work for digging up old survey points that were several feet deep. Harley would have had his hole dug in minutes with that thing.

 

[Gumby]

Don't forget to fill the hole back up with real topsoil.

 

[harley]

The jackhammer is an excellent suggestion. I wasn't expecting the job to be as hard as it was, and once I get started I'm pretty stubborn. But great idea! SWMBO was talking about putting a few smaller (4') crape myrtles down the side yard, and I'm sure there are more ideas where those came from. An electric jackhammer would make me a much more effective manual laborer. Thanks.

And the reason the hole has to be so big is we need to make a 50/50 mix of planting soil and the mess we dug out of the hole and surround it with something relatively easy to get the roots going in. When the builders put the maple in they just pulled out a shovelful of dirt with a backhoe and dropped the maple in. No soil prep, nothing. About 10% of the trees they planted in the community are dead or dying, in less than a year. They build a nice house, but they didn't spend any extra money on landscaping. Plus it's been a hot dry summer, which is never good for newly installed plants. So we're going to do ours up right, splurging on dirt and fertilizer. Blow that dough!

 

[Souschef]

I can sympathize. When my condo was built, the idiot developers put eucalyptus trees behind each garage in about a 3 by 3 fort area. If they grew they would tear up the driveways. We turned them all into firewood.
Also the idiots planted sycamore tree around the pools, and every fall it was a disaster because of falling leaves.

Their final act of stupidity was to plant olive trees, so we had to spray them every year so they would not set fruit.Otherwise, all the olives would fall and stain the walkways.

 

[Walt34]

Early morning (7:30) grocery run for some filet mignon, potatoes, salad stuff and fixin's. Put all that stuff away, then take a nap. Woke up, mowed the rest of the "back forty" that I didn't finish yesterday because it got dark. Took another nap. Starting to see a pattern here.

 

[Walt34]

The jackhammer is an excellent suggestion. I wasn't expecting the job to be as hard as it was, and once I get started I'm pretty stubborn. But great idea! SWMBO was talking about putting a few smaller (4') crape myrtles down the side yard, and I'm sure there are more ideas where those came from. An electric jackhammer would make me a much more effective manual laborer. Thanks.

It just occurred to me that perhaps a post hole digger would work for the ground in that location? And if you don't want to buy one I'd guess that most rental places would have something similar.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sportsm...03870761;303296275;310987216;-_-301687344-_-N

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

It just occurred to me that perhaps a post hole digger would work for the ground in that location? And if you don't want to buy one I'd guess that most rental places would have something similar.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sportsm...03870761;303296275;310987216;-_-301687344-_-N

I don't know.... That does not augur well...

 

[harley]

I had actually thought about that, but my hole was 44" across.

I did finish the dig today. Then we mixed up the planting mix and fertilizer with the clay soil and put it back in the hole. Added water, then waited for it to absorb before we planted the tree. And waited, and waited, and waited...

I ended up having to use a hose to drain the hole enough that we wouldn't drown the tree when we planted it. It's a darn good thing the community is on a sewer system. This land wouldn't perk for anything. Amazing soil.

 

[Time2]

Watched part of the ISS spacewalk this morning.

Just wanted to tell my ISS story that happened many years ago.
I took my the 12 or 13 years old son out to watch the ISS. We were watching for it to come over the horizon, when it did it was confusing because there were two items very close to each other moving in tandem. We watched as they moved across the sky. When they disappeared, I rushed home to google and find out what just happened. It turns out the Space shutttle had just disengaged from the ISS and it was trailing away. It landed at 9am the next morning.
So, we got to see the space shuttle and the ISS!
Heavens-Above is a great sight to get times of visible satellites and their brightness, (lower numbers mean brighter), and much more.

https://heavens-above.com/

 

[MBAustin]

After online church I caught up on the interwebs. We had a nice shower from Hanna so I let the rain barrel fill up the fish pond as we're expecting another shower later this afternoon. Also chopped back a leggy sage bush in the herb garden. Sewed a custom pillowcase for DH - first time I've used my sewing machine in several years so I had to pull out the manual to reset the stitch pattern (a friend who actually knows how to sew borrowed it a while back). Replaced a part on DH's mobility scooter - it's brand new but the battery gauge stopped working right away, so the company sent a new console to install. No directions, but pretty obvious what to do fortunately. Remove 6 screws, disconnect two cables, reverse with new part. It works now!

Wrote postcards for a get-out-the-vote campaign for the fall election (they won't get mailed until September). Going to do a little genealogy before fixing Italian(ish) beef and veggie stew for dinner with some of the leftover tri-tip from Friday.

 

[W2R]

It has been raining hard here due to remnants of Hurricane Hanna. It didn't hit us, but an outer band did and we got a lot of rain. It is still raining hard.

And today, Frank was over at my house and water started dripping on his head, in the laundry room. He thought it was due to the air conditioner, but the AC guy came over, went into the attic, and said it's not the AC but the roof.

I wasn't really surprised because I had a slight leak inside my kitchen pantry during a heavy rainstorm a couple of weeks ago.

So... we don't know a good roofer. But our handyman is excellent, and also a childhood friend of Frank's. I called him and he's going to find a good roofer who has some time available, and get back to me on Tuesday or Wednesday.

I am hoping that since the leaks were about 30' from each other, the roofer will want to replace the whole roof instead of patching it. Then I'll be done with it and will have no more roof issues ever again. I am 72 years old so a new roof might last longer than I do. I know new roofs aren't cheap. Can we say, "Blow That Dough"?

Once the roof is fixed, maybe I can get our plumber over here to replace the hot water heater, which I think might be getting old (?) and also replace the fixtures in one bathroom.

If my annual spending is high this year as a result of all this work, I'll just blame it on the pandemic. I can afford it so might as well get it done.

 

[O2Bfree]

Finally got some hot-ish (lower 80s) sunny weather. DH and I took the kayaks out on Lake Union, then had a picnic lunch at our "secret spot" beach. Lots of people were out today, and the little beach was pretty busy with young folks launching mostly paddle boards. People usually go to the bigger park just down the road, so the little beach and nearby parking is usually wide open. But since the big park closed, our secret spot and its parking area have been pretty crowded. Though the big park was busy today too, people are just parking on the surrounding streets and walking in. I don't want to think where all those people are going to the bathroom, since the park's bathrooms are closed. We have our bucket and snap on seat in the van, so we're covered for that.

Made a big batch of pad thai on Friday, and we'll finish that for supper along with a couple fish bowls (big frosty mugs of beer with a big green olive dropped in).

 

[Chuckanut]

I've been giving some thought to my charitable giving lately and decided to focus more on local organizations. After talking to a guy in the know on these issues, I found a local group that intervenes with youth traveling down the wrong road to drugs, gangs, etc. So, I made a small donation, and instructed smile.amazon.com to send them the 1/2% from eligible purchases instead of sending it to the Big Name national charity.

Shop at smile.amazon.com and we’ll donate to your favorite charitable organization, at no cost to you.
Get started Same products, same prices, same service.
Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases.

 

[Souschef]

I've been giving some thought to my charitable giving lately and decided to focus more on local organizations. After talking to a guy in the know on these issues, I found a local group that intervenes with youth traveling down the wrong road to drugs, gangs, etc. So, I made a small donation, and instructed smile.amazon.com to send them the 1/2% from eligible purchases instead of sending it to the Big Name national charity.

I think that is a great decision to keep it in the community. We donate to a local food bank, and I volunteer at a local hospice repairing their walkers and wheelchairs. I also donate to a local organization helping our local homeless population.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We've been putting the finishing touches on setting up the solar fairy lights in our backyard and sat out there tonight after dark enjoying our handiwork. If we have to sit home more because of COVID we're trying to make it as festive looking as possible. I've always liked fairy lights and now with a credit card, a lot of free time on my hands and an Amazon account, the possibilities are endless, and with solar lights there's no electric bill.

 

[Gumby]

We went out to our garden at about 6:30 am, before it got hot. Picked some cucumbers and greens beans. I canned six pints of beans when we got home and put a bunch of Principe Borghese tomatoes in the food dehydrator. They should be done tomorrow morning, when I will pack them in olive oil.

I also spent a very long time working to create a crossword puzzle for the NYT. Not done yet. I'll work on it again tomorrow.

 

[unclemick]

Old fogey's hour at Costco. Did 3 small Grocery lists including ours. Dropped one off on the way home. DW delivered the other this afternoon.

Wasted two plus hours trying to debug my full systems scan. After reboot, reinstall and a lot of swearing at the digital universe it self corrected??

heh heh heh - I will take credit for?

 

[braumeister]

I've been giving some thought to my charitable giving lately and decided to focus more on local organizations. After talking to a guy in the know on these issues, I found a local group that intervenes with youth traveling down the wrong road to drugs, gangs, etc. So, I made a small donation, and instructed smile.amazon.com to send them the 1/2% from eligible purchases instead of sending it to the Big Name national charity.

Amazon Smile is great. I've been using it for years to help my county library. If you shop at a Kroger supermarket, they have a similar program.