52 Projects: Spring Cleaning?

It's March 26th - Four days into the start of spring. See the photo below and see if you can guess my project for this weekend (and it did take all weekend)




Well it took all week end but I think it was worth it. Still a lot of stuff I probably don't need but at least it looks better.



Probably should of shot more photo's cause I don't know how long this will last.

52 Projects: Winter Walk

I've been walking with my border collie Zoey for five years now. It's done wonders for me both physically and spiritually. Though we walk a lot of different places one of our favorites is Dash Point State Park by our home. We've walked it over 1000 times. I'm going to start a photo essay showing the park in each of the four seasons. These are my winter shots (with some minor comments).

Start of the trail

Can you spot the border collie? She's pretty camouflaged against the snow and damp dirt.

Winding trail covered with snow.

There are lot's of small streams and creeks running through the park.

Again - where's Zoey?

Snow covered bridges - you'll see more of this one in the spring shoot because it's beautiful.

Trails are well marked here - they're used by lots of cyclists (IMBA = International Mountain Bike Association).

Take warning they don't kid

Beautiful but cold winter day (I did this walk on Feb 28th)...do da do do do do...

Gak - Slippery. Under the mud was a lot of blood. Glad I didn't know.

The road out. Total for this walk is about 4 miles. The trails in here easily let me do 7 when time permits.

That's it. Took a lot more photo's but didn't want to post them all here. I'll do another "Photo Project" in a few months in the spring - the comparison will be fun.

52 Projects: Planting the Garden

It's time to start the seeds!  So cool.

First step was figuring out what can be planted when - in addition to my seed guide, I read each packet and developed a planting schedule for the next few months.

I carefully labeled each packet so I know what I planted.  I also (unlike last year) wrote not only the name but the variety of the beast.  Now I can get my hands dirty!

Today I planted (indoors):

• Spinach;
• Mustard Greens;
• Butterhead Lettuce;
• Romaine Lettuce;
• Arugula;
• Mesclun;
• A  bunch of tomato varieties: Brandywine, golden nugget, heirloom, sweet 100, beefsteak, and roma's;
• Eggplant (first time ever);
• Broccoli-Rabb; and
• Leeks.

 

 

We're going to try and get some dirt in this week (the second tier needs some more top soil) so we can put peas and fava beans next weekend.  They can be planted out doors now.

52 Projects:Baked I/O Board

Oh no...not another cooking post. Well kind of.

My tank of an HP LaserJet 2300 stopped working the other day. I was able to print a settings page and found out the I/O card was no longer being recognized by the printer. Last I checked these were around $300 bucks - cheaper than a new printer but still. So I started searching the intertubes and found this article:http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/laser/51585

It suggested "baking" your I/O board. Right - I wonder how many they got with that one. A day or so later I was talking with my friend Jeff who's involved in the electronics industry. I told him the story and he said it'd probably work. Something about cold solder joints and remelting the solder. Well what the heck - the board was likely shot anyway. Lets try an HP EIO board bake off!

I took out the board

Took the plastic bits off the board

Fixed up a baking sheet for my board

Fortunately the oven was preheated

Because Fran was making bacon for potato salad (I sure hope the board doesn't give off too many toxic fumes)

I baked my board for about 8 minutes (I was going to do 5 but lost track of time)

And TA-DA - the printer works like new!

Still think this was a bit crazy but - hey took about 30 minutes and saved $300.