Having a Good Footing

With the end of the year here, Plan473 spent the last few days wrapping up some odds and end projects in preparation for next year.

To do that, the very first thing needing completion was the clean up and organization of the two conex boxes.  One box is mainly being used as a storage facility for all our crap belonging in the house and the shop when they are finally completed.  Other items in there are recreational activities supplies.  These are items only used occasionally, yet cannot at this time, be donated to those with more pressing needs.  Maybe these are someday activities since all of our time is spent on Plan473 but it is my hope a time will come when there is time to take a break.  One can only work day in and day out on the same project before a break is needed.

The second box is the box we are using as the temporary workshop.  It stores all the materials and supplies needed for this endeavor.  It too needed to be cleaned up and organized since the shipment of supplies delivered on Wednesday.

Being they came the day before the Planner was making a quick trip to big city #1, they were quickly shoved into the box.  By looks of the picture, there should have been plenty of space to work as it was but there was no room to store the tractor and additional tools and materials that were brought back.

And no, before you ask, the tractor cannot be stored outside.  Have I not mentioned the level of salt corrosion?  This is not our tractor, therefore it gets taken care better than anything we own.  On a side note, let me talk about this fantastic trailer the tractor come on.  Trailers are not all the same and I am not talking about length, sideboards, and weight capacity.  I am talking about ease of use.  This trailer has a hydraulic switch.

It is this installation of a simple machine that makes this trailer so fantastic.  Raising and lowering a trailer with the use of a jack is time consuming and can be very difficult.  This is especially true if there is a lot of weight on the trailer.  Lots and lots of rotations of the handle must be done before the trailer is lowered.  All parts of the body hurt when raising the trailer since it takes even more effort.  It is very tiring.  

 

But not with this trailer!  With this trailer, raising and lowering the tongue is as simple as the flip of a switch.  Easy peasy.  I just love, love this trailer.  One day when I grow up, I am going to have a fancy trailer like this one.

Anyhoo, I digress.  So yes, materials ordered were shipped and delivered.  There was a pallet of bagged concrete, rebar in various shapes and sizes and two concrete tubes.  Additional tools like a portable concrete mixer and materials, such as these base plates, were brought from big city #1 along with the tractor and a bigger backhoe attachment.  With all these new materials and the tractor, the work box is busting at the seams.  To prepare for the new project next week, the work box needed to be methodically cleaned and organized.

Completed projects such as the water management system hadn't been properly cleaned up after.  PVC parts were strewn about, electrical wiring had come unbounded and had become a tangled mess, and there was just a collection of dirt and debris from weeks worth of work in a construction zone.  The concrete pallet was divided in half and the remaining bags were moved into the storage box.  Even with half the bags removed, the tractor was at max carrying capacity.  Just look at those tires.  Concrete tubes were hung from the ceiling, rebar chairs were stacked as nicely as possible, and rebar sticks laid along side of the box leaving just enough room to drive the tractor in.  It was a very tight fit.  But that is okay, cause the new project starts next week and these materials will be used quickly.

With everything cleaned and organized, the rest of the holiday weekend was spent contemplating new materials and the work they just created.  New materials are so exciting.  In separate forms they are just rebar and concrete.  But together....  Together, the possibilities are endless.  Oh, this new project is so exciting.  Have you figured it out yet?  Can you see why I am so excited?  I mean just a few short months ago this was raw land.  Now it is home.  Here's to a great new year and the next new step towards our plan, our Plan473!  Here's to a Happy New Years!

The Dog Chompies

Aww, what a sweet dog!  How old is your puppy? If you believed in pictures, then you'd be right.

Honestly, how can anyone resist something with this level of cuteness?

She is loyal to a fault.  Her breed, which is pure-d mutt, must have some kind of pack dog breed mixed in because she follows the Planner around like a monkey on a leash.  He walks, she walks.  He sits, she sits.  She sits even when she doesn't fit.  Like in this picture.  See how she has crammed herself between the wall, the chair, and the shoes.  All just to be underneath the Planner.  What's bad about this habit of hers, is we forget she had wedged herself underneath our feet and when we move them she gets stepped on.  Then, because it out fault she is under our feet, she scowls at us.

She is a great travel companion.  Always wanting to go, never wanting to stay.  She even manages to stay awake while traveling.  For about two or three miles.  Then it's off to sleep.  Nothing like the gentle rocking of road travel to lull one to sleep.

Of course at her age, sleep is often.  In her old age of 11 years, she is turning more into a cat.  There are the early morning naps, mid-morning naps, late morning naps, before and after lunch naps, early afternoons, late afternoons, and the late, late afternoon naps.  Then it is early to bed.  And by early, I mean early.  She eats dinner at 5 o'clock. Not 5:25, not 5:05, but 5:00!  The minute it is late, there is the look.  The one that says, "Why the hell is my food bowl empty people!?!" Oh yes, if she could speak human speak she would most definitely curse. Upon completion, she sluggishly trods off to bed.  All five feet away.  But that five feet, for her old crunchy self, is just too far.  Once in bed, there is the nightly statement by us her humans: " Is the dog dead?"  She looks dead, she lays dead, but alas, she is not dead.  And there is where she stays until too late in the morning when she begrudgingly arises.  Of course, if the house is sleeping late, then she arises at 8:00 demanding food.  Priorities are priorities and she knows her priorities.

Like all children, she is only precious when she sleeps.  It is during her waking hours that turns into a maniac once again.  Argh, this dog!  This dog has been a maniac since day one.  DAY ONE! One minute she is curled up all cute and cuddly on the Planner's chest, the next minute she is running helter skelter through the brush.

 

Just look at those eyes!  I am telling you this dog has an alter ego.  She is Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.   She is Norman Bates and his mother.

One minute she is just laying there minding her own business looking like the perfect example of a well-behaved dog.

The next minute she hops up to yodel, grr, and r-r-r-rrrr at some passerby two streets over.  See, this dog owns the WHOLE WORLD.  Where ever she is at, she owns what she can see.  These people in the non-threating car are just driving down their street to their home.  But since she can see them, she must bark at them.  Barking, however, is NOT allowed at Plan473.  So since she cannot bark, she grrs, r-r-r-rrrr, and ruffs.  It is just as obnoxious as barking but not as loud.

Once the threat is over she goes back the sweet, loving, devoted family dog. But don't worry, the calm is only before the storm.  The storm that is, of the dog chompies.

The dog chompies are impossible to ignore because she becomes obsessed.  OBSESSED!  I am telling the truth, obsessed.  Once she starts, she can't stop.  She will chew until her skin in red and irritated.  She will chew and until I am red and irritated.  The chompies drive me CRAZY.  The chompies get her put in solitary confinement where she can chomp till her heart is content.

 

And as you might suspect, solitary confinement is seen as punishment by her.  Just look at that look she gives when she is being released.  "Oh me, you want to visit with little ol' me.  Well, if you must,  I will oblige your wishes but I am not happy about it."

Of course, her being a dog and all, means by the time she jumps out of the truck she is once again her happy, manic self.  To celebrate her freedom, she has to do her crazy thing.  All is right with the world once again with this crazy dog.  Goodness, don't we love this dog and all her nerve-wracking dog chompies.

The Water Management System

I am not even going to attempt to explain the water management system the Planner created.  I am not going to explain because I don't understand it.  There are pipes controlling the water flow from the collection tank to the IBC storage tank, from the collection tank to the either one or both of the 3000gallon storage tanks, from the collection tank to the trailer, and any other combination needed.  It a 5factorial (5!) math problem. All I know is the Planner is happy with his set up and there will water to the RV.

What I can tell you is ordering online is not always as it is cracked up to be.  These valves, $15 cheaper online, where two weeks on back order. With eight valves needed, that adds up to a substantial amount of savings.

This pump, that came with rave reviews, was shipped and delivered within two days but lacked adequate instructions.  Yes, the nerds here at Plan473 are firm believers of reading the instructions. 

Nowhere in the instructions did it say an external check valve was needed for proper working functions.  Confirming a check valve is needed requires the Planner to call the customer service hotline.  Hello, it is smack dab in the middle of the crazy season.  While it has not been confirmed it looks like there will be another online order, ie: more waiting.  Oh, the waiting place.

When buying supplies at the local box store, it is better to buy too much and in multiple different sizes than having to make multiple trips.  This is what makes the local box store so fantastic.  They do not care items are returned 45days later so long as there is a receipt and the parts are in working condition. What this picture does not show, is this largeness of this box of PVC parts.  Sure the majority will be returned, but it is better to be prepared. Otherwise, you guessed it, more waiting.

Building projects drawn from cocktail napkins is not always sound.  This is why the Planner prefers to design all projects in AutoCAD.  Detailed drawings will find any errors in planning and design saving both time and money.  However, the water management system did not allow for detailed drawings and there were many changes on the fly.  It is a good thing all materials were easily accommodating. Bet you cannot even see that one grove cut is larger than all the rest right?

See even with the PVC and valves in place the error cannot be seen.  It is about camera perspective.

Then again, there are times when no amount of perspective can fix the mistake.  The Planner made the perfect right angle on the left.  The other right-ish angle, well let's just I tried my best.  Hey, the pressure tank stand doesn't have to be perfect, nobody will ever notice.

See you can't see the stands are not square.  And besides, the whole system is going to be enclosed to protect against the sun so nobody except you, me, and the blog readers will ever know.  The Planner was not convinced. He is thinking he should have waited and designed the whole system in detail.

With the electricity installed, everything is complete.  Everything except for the check valve for the pump and the ball valve for the 3000gallon tank.  Yes, they are on back order until the next year.  It is a good thing the new year is only a few days away.  It was a busy few days. Can't wait to see it working in all its various water collection paths.  Again, the waiting place.

Kid in Space

Yeah, the holidays are among us.  There will ham, cranberry sauce, decorated cookies, and spiced drinks.  There will be good gifts, bad gift, forgotten gifts, and returned gifts.  There will be kids home from school, businesses open but workers not working, packed stores, and busy streets.  General attitudes will deteriorate at the biggest gift-giving day of the year nears closer and closer.  Unless of course, you do not celebrate holidays.  Then for you and me and many, many other people, these next two weeks are hell.  What worse, it is during these two weeks of hell where the non-celebrators are secretly hated, loathed, and admired by the hectic, stressed gift givers.  They are wishing they too could just sit at home and play instead of trudging off to this party and that party and not really caring about any party.

Yup, next year they will be debating celebrating Festivus for the Rest of Us.  It is a totally better way to spend the crazy season.

However, being what it is, schools are closed meaning there are many holiday camps open.  Yeah! Camp for the kid.  So off he went...to infinity and beyond!  OK just to grandma's where she dropped him off daily at SpaceCamp.  Can you image a whole week learning about robotics, jets propulsion, space, and rockets?  I know all my friends were jealous.  Hell, I am jealous.  I never got to go to space.  Did you?  And if the fact that the Planner and I are getting a mini-vacation isn't awesome enough, when asked where the kid is, we get to say he went to space.  I can hear it now: "Oh, the kid, I got tired of him so I dropped shipped him to space."  "Oh, the kid, he lost his mind and orbited into space."  Hehehe, yeah it is gonna be great telling people where the kid went.  Somebody, just one person needs to ask me. If I don't get to use one of these sayings it will have been an opportunity wasted.  Wasted.

Kids....In....Space.  Wonder if they are going to watch the Muppets.  If I were the counselor, I would totally work Muppet movie into the curriculum.  Oh, Kermie.....

Now that Plan473 has a steady source of water, we decided to splurge a little and decorate the yard.  Kinda tired of looking at a bare construction site.  Needed some color to liven things up a bit. That might be a stretch.  There is no color now but there will be maybe next year, if not, then definitely the year after.  Investment coloring.  Long-term coloring.  Citrus trees!

One grapefruit...

one lime (whose leaves smells ever so fantastic)...

one mandarin orange...

and one tangerine.

What was better?  After months and months of discussing planting our very own citrus grove around the septic spray field, the plants were on end of the year clearance.  40% off clearance!  This savings allowed the purchase of four instead of three trees.  Yeah! There was even enough saved a second purchase for instant coloring.

One red hybiscuc....

and one orange cape honeysuckle.  These small plants will adorn the deck along with the elephant ear my mother-in-law donated.  Plants are great.  They add instant happiness to a drab environment.  Yeah for plants. These plants will not only bring color, they are admired by bees.  Bees are good for the citrus trees.  See, they were not really impulse buys to add instant color.  They have a long-term goal too.

As with all things it seems, the purchase was the easy part.  Once home, holes had to be dug twice the size and depth of the tree.  Being the trees are in five-gallon pots, the holes were quite the hole.  This surprisingly did not take very long.  In fact, the holes were dug faster than the filling, planting, and watering of the trees.

Just as the last of the pots were saved for future usage and the garden tools were cleaned and put away, the sun started to set.  It was a beautiful day to begin with.  Now it is was a beautiful day with the start of a beautiful citrus grove.  The only way the day would have been better was if the kid was here.  Two days gone and my ears miss the non-stop chattering.  Two days ago I would have sworn there was no such thing as too much blissful quite.  Just two days.  Who knew.