Monday, June 30, 2008

Working on my week off

I've started painting the house this week. I've completed painting the stucco on one side and the front of my house. I've been using a power sprayer to paint for two days, and I'm ready to take a break from using that machine. It's very loud (I wear earplugs when using it), and it vibrates such that my hands get numb after a couple of hours of use. I've spent a total of ~10 hours painting the past two days, plus prep work and clean-up (probably ~8 hours). I'm going to paint trim tomorrow, by hand, and I will post some pictures of the house.

TTFN

Monday, June 23, 2008

Cleaning up Clutter

The new shelf is in use, and the kids helped put the toys away. I'm sure this won't last...

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Updates: fungus, motorcycle and shelf

The fungus block Eric sent me has fruited. (That's the correct mycological jargon.) I harvested the mushrooms, and I had them for dinner last week with rice and vegetable stir fry. They were delicious, and I'm currently letting my shiitake block dry out before growing my next crop. I expect to have fewer and larger mushrooms the second time around. I'm also trying to grow another tray of shiitake from spores collected from my first harvest. We'll just have to see how that goes. It hasn't gone afoul yet (no unwanted growth, i.e. molds or the wrong fungus), but it hasn't done anything yet, either...


I've installed the new petcock on my motorcycle, and it seems to be running fine. I can rev the engine up to 9k rpm without trouble. In fact, I was running the engine at around 8-8.5k in third gear coming home earlier this week. Those revs and gearing put me at around 60 mph. You'd think everything on the bike is taken care of, but no. Not ever, it seems. I need to replace my front brake rotor (worn well beyond the service limit), and I am most likely due for new brake lines (replacement schedule of 2 years; likely the original ones are still on the bike-1999). I expect to take care of those things and give the bike a through tune-up this summer. Then, there's little to stop me from attempting a SS1000. Check out IBA's website for details.

The shelf my father and I began when he visited is now finished. I painted it today, and we've moved it into the house. Tomorrow it will fill with the children's toys. For now, it's clean and white. John will be sure to change that.


btw- We've moved our love seat into the garage to make room for the new shelf. We called it the "man couch," and the kids had a blast playing on it in the garage.


TTFN.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

What a thoughtful present!


I arrived home from work today to a package. It was a basketball-sized box from Fungi Perfecti LLC. My surprise birthday present from Eric had arrived! I opened the box and removed a cake-shaped white and tan lump of sawdust and fungus. Eric sent me a shiitake mushroom patch. It even looks like a cake when I put it on a platter. And bonus, it smells like yeast, too!

I will be watering my fungus for the next several months. If all goes well, the first crop of shiitake mushrooms will be ready for harvest by the time Eric is out here...

Monday, June 9, 2008

Long time, New post.

I've been keeping busy around the house, and it's time for an update.

The pergola over our back patio is now gone. Check out Liz's page for a couple of shots of the backyard destruction. I've now got a decent-sized pile of wood on the side of my house that I am slowly throwing away. I expect it will take several weeks of garbage collection to remove all of the pergola. I am now moving on to patching stucco in preparation for painting my house. Our house is currently medium tan with off-white trim. We're painting the house light tan with brown trim. We are some wild and crazy guys!

I've also just completed assembling a monster of a piece of furniture. Liz asked for a toy shelf for the kids that would fit under the window in our front room. The window is about 8' wide, and Liz wanted shelves 18" deep. So that's what she got. A 8' wide, 18" deep, and 30" tall shelf. I'll be doing some painting next weekend...


And, I just got a new petcock for my motorcycle. Check it out. (A petcock is a fuel valve. I just like the word.)