Power and Paint

I'll get into the details later, but I managed to turn a 20 minute project into a four day project - and it involved PAINT.  Painting is possibly the biggest time sink on the planet, and I find that the more painting I do the less I enjoy it. Thus rush through in more of a "slathering" than an accepted "painting" operation.

That said, one of the to do list items was staring me in the face as I wrapped up the other project. ..

Hard to take pride in the DWP with equipment looking like that. 

The propane guy had pointed out the blackening on the tank. "That's not from a fire on the ground, that's from the sun baking your tank!"  Looked at me like I was mildly retarded and said "you gotta paint this tank".  "Golly mister, I'll get right on that."

So, a little more than two months later:

Painted the deep sea diver helmet too

So this was not a cosmetic project, but to improve the efficacy and to extend the life of the tank. ...but it does look a little better...

Will post a final pic when the finishing touches are in place.

It's important that we acknowledge the brave volunteers who willingly gave their lives to complete this project. We will remember you - for as long as your crunchy little corpses remain stuck to our propane tank. 

I want one

Fire Scout helicopter can fly itself, http://fxn.ws/1hmIeST

Can we just program it to fly from here to the hospital and back?

Snake bite? No problem, just jump into the helo and push the GO button as things go dark.  Wake up in the emergency room, head back home. 

Panorama Pics

Let me know if these view OK, not sure what the blog software will do with them.

The front yard

360 from the roof of the shed.

180 from the roof of the other shed (that's the upper deer stand to the far right.

Anyone still wondering why I don't want to leave?

Former screen door

Now curing hickory nuts

Today's special friends

The big point in cleaning things up is to try to gain control over the spiders, snakes, and misc critters around our immediate living area. The point was driven home by what I found in the vintage wood pile by the house:

That's a walking stick, a cricket, and a baby rattler.

Two baby rattlers, and another baby snake of unknown genus. I did what all macho men do - I hit them with a stick 'til they were dead.

This guy gets to live

I also found a baby garter snake, and - except for taking away his house - I left him alone.

After hand-bombing all the crap wood into and out of the wheelbarrow (oops, I mean Nissan truck) I also found a scorpion in the truck bed.

Plenty of stuff here that wants to ruin your day. Hopefully by cleaning up some of this crap I can keep them away from the house.

Cleaning up the North side

On the to do list I have "skirt the North side" and "get the barrels up for the rainwater flush system".  However, there is plenty to clean up and get out of the way before getting to either of those projects.

Five year old firewood that is probably more closely related to dirt than wood. A couple of diesel fuel barrels,  one full of ???

Not that we have any company coming up to judge us on how Hillbilly the yard is...  ...but I need to start somewhere. 

Picked up the trash, moved the punky old firewood over by the burn pit, and hauled the barrels over behind the shed (where the barrels live).

Pulled 6 years of rotting leaves and "stuff" away from the house, and have things in hand for chopping up the old pump housing. The pump housing is a big box that used to control water from the well and the rain catchment system. Now it's just soggy rotted plywood with a couple of dead batteries in it.

Movies

The Heat
   (see Miss Congeniality 2)

Kick Ass 2
   Maybe more violent than it needed to be?  (did I just say that out loud?)  Just seems like the Kick Ass franchise should be more "fun" than shooting people in the face and cutting off heads. Yeah?

Wide Awake (via Netflix)
   Independent film maker about my age talks about his lifetime of insomnia. Some I found interesting and could relate to, but the latter half of the movie was a bit self indulgent.  Worth while documentary though, helped me get to sleep. 

Dispicable Me 2
  Meh, pretty good. Better than expected. Minions make the movie. 

The Suspect
   Got 7 1/2 minutes into this one.  Nothing but stereotypical racial small town white people saying stereotypical racial stuff to a stereotypical black guy. Come on Hollywood, is that the best you got?  Pushing the agenda that all small town people are racist?  That's it?

Catch .44
   You can almost hear them say "I wish I was Quentin Tarentino."

The Wolverine
   I know this movie was showered in critical acclaim - basically saying "if you were horribly disappointed in the last Wolverine movie, you'll find this one to be less horribly disappointing. "  But I may have to go back and watch the other one just to verify which was less horrible. 
  The beginning was cool, a little (way) back story, becomes reclusive...  ...seeks a little revenge, hot chick shows up. So far so good. 
   About 16 minutes in hot chick reveals a universal truth about warriors. I found it honest and sound. 
   Then they go to Japan and the whole thing gets stupid. He falls for this bread pudding milque toast empty shell of a generic girl - and spends the rest of the show saving her (often from herself).
   Yeah, watch and enjoy. Just try not to get your hopes up. 

X-Men First Class
   Bumped into this while putting away The Wolverine above.  Just barely holds your attention. Doctor X is a priss, and it's off-putting.

Room 237
   Goofy theories about hidden meanings of 1980 movie The Shining. Expose on the genocide of the American Indian? The Holocaust? Minotaur in the labyrinth?  These guys think Kubrick is a god communicating in code.  Pretty stupid. 

2 Guns
   Great banter movie. You'll catch yourself chuckling at the back and forth. They use some sloppy cuts, out of focus shots, and a few blips and quips to give it a 70s b movie feel - but they don't overdo it. Both gritty and slick. Great movie. 

Turbo
   Basically like every other kid's movie you've ever seen. But solid voice acting from Paul Giamatti and a small roll for Hollywood's hardest working man Samuel L Jackson help make the movie enjoyable. 

Pitch Perfect
  OK, yeah it's a chick flick, and yeah I've seen it before.   But now and then you just want to watch something that in no way will stimulate your brain.   Pitch Perfect is the perfect movie for a time like this.