New York April Nyc Meet-up

Having a 5-day weekend after having a week off allowed me to get on top of things at home. Sorry I have been inactive here.

The Knotweed war is progressing to a point where it is clear that the Knotweed is being defeated. It will still take a few years of tarps to smoother the roots and rhizomes though...

The view from the back-backyard is as if on a cliff. The field of marsh grass is likely about 40 acres and then there is a hill lined with a forest. Since I took down the fence the view is even better.

Learned that pretty much we went "rouge" and removed the Knotweed without a permit. Oh-well. Sometime living on the fringe of town means we don't need no building inspectors. Because of the slope and erosion control there are all these laws and regulations.

The Audi A4 can hold only 5 pressure treated 4x6's, and care must be utilized as any migration can touch the shifter for the transmission.

I finally figured out that a 24 foot gabled roof with a 10 foot attic with a pitch of 11/12 will provide 7 1/2 foot ceiling as an attic and 200 square foot of space in addition to the 420 square feet of the garage. If I decide to go hill-billy and not park the A4 in the garage then I will have a detached over 600 square foot "studio."

My studio with heat/AC and a solar array will be mighty cool next year, and I'll get that 26% tax credit, even for the battery back-up.

So Snarky Joe and Devil Christian say I draw out the crazies. Not only do I say, " I was just minding my own business," but I also say, "It takes one to know one."

One of my neighbors is an avid gardener, but she rents and does not own a home. I mentioned that our removing Knotweed was a rouge move, and that it is a little late to apply for a permit. We talk of enviormentalism, conservation, and erosion control..., but somehow I mention that I need a good ground cover, and she proceeds to show me a draping plant that is growing in her across the street neighbor's yard.

I was surprised when she grabbed a few fistfuls and handed me the harvest of the plants. Then she told me to plant them because they will root easily. She also showed me a section of her neighbors front yard where a "few sprigs" were planted and already they began a thicket of sorts.

So things get crazier. She asks me if I want any wheatgrass seed, and shows me a bag full of seeds. I could sproat them like mung beans I was told, but on the zip lock bag she left in my mailbox she mentioned that I could also plant them, so that is what I did in potting soil in a tray with a perferated bottom that some ivy came in.

I told "Maggie" the wheatgrass I'm growing as my lawn. She says it tastes terrible.

In the mailbox also came a long-long hand writen list of plants that are great for erosion control. Core Flower is written twice, so my forensics suggest that this woman is a crazy garden nerd with a vast ex-cyclo-PEED-I-A amount of knowledge.

I learned that my Japanese Maple was severely pruned because it was a "monster" that hid the house. Likely the real estate broker for the seller made an issue that the tree hid the house.

Also my crazy neighbor that has bad boundries gave me insights on how to monitize selling Japanese Maple seedlings. She mentioned that seedlings will sprout in mulch. Hmmm...

Know that my next door neighbor did not like the previous owner of our house. Police were involved, so a real feud existed.

Also know not only do I live close to a nuclear reactor, but also alongside Dickey Brook is a buried natural gas pipeline. Oh-well.

Part of the reason why I have been offline, at least today is that my cyclotron is broken. I await parts. Pretty much two o-rings have a 3 1/2 million dollar machine down.

While I was away for 5-days two guys tried to remove a "target selector" which was a task of removing 8 screws and pulling it out, but they somehow had jammed it.

I took some rigid tubing to use as a spacer and a rubber mallet and straightened and equalized the distance so that the cock was eliminated; and it came right out. Counter intuitively I pushed it in to pull it out. Who says I don't use my art degree. LOL.

The shoe gig after taxes looks like it will pay for the patio and a pergola. No more bluestone because Maggie found something she like better. We also are going to re do the front porch with French casements with no screens to get rid of the Jello-C windows, add two thin and narrow French Doors, and this concrete and brick stoop of concentric arcs that replicate the rear steps of a Church that we discovered exploring Peekskill.

A lot of things are finalizing.

Cal
 
MrFujicaman said:
Cal, you're finding out rule #1 of home remodeling-you need a van or a pickup truck.
Click to expand...

MFM,

Best would be a two wheel drive pickup with a "Tommy-Gate." Remember I'm a skinny-bitch.

Then that leads to getting a hitch and an enclosed trailer for storage.

I'm really-really a good recycler and salesman.

I can see me taking our current porch door and jello-C windows and selling that at a Stormville "yard sale" which is an airport where they have flea markets and yard sales.

I can see selling Japanese Maples so technically I can be the hill-billy farmer that I want to be. Again go to Stormville on the weekends.

The white refrigerator and gas convection stove in our kitchen are still fresh and are perfect for someone building out an apartment in their house. "Woman Factor" means that Maggie wants boutique appliances.

Then I have access to all these postings from Post-Docs that are forced to move and downsize on short notice where they sell fresh stuff for no money. I literally could load up the truck. No shortage of stuff to sell where I can make big mark-ups.

My storage would be limited, but the turnover rate would be huge as well as the cash flow. Hmmm.

Anyways this is a great job for a lazy slacker like me. Calvin-August the junk man.

BTW no crew cabs or extended cabs for me. Real hill-billies love bench seats and only need one cab with two doors. E-Haa.

Augie

POST SCRIPT: I can imagine making more money off the books than my current day job. This is no joke.
 
I'm having a productive day at work, the 3 1/2 million dollar cyclotron is down as we await parts (two o-rings), and I have no work to do.

So just pay me, and I think I will take the opportunity to walk to Home Depo and get a new innertube for the "Gorilla Cart" which is my garden cart with removable sides.

Kinda funny that the instructions had disclosure warnings that the tires can only handle a 300 pound load and that "overloading" "could result in death." LOL.

So on July 5th I blew out a tube due to overloading, meaning I cheated death if you believe the warnings.

Anyways I am a brute, and somehow I overloaded the cart and somehow I tore off the air valve, as it goes missing.

So off to Home Depo to buy a new tube.

Back when I bought this cart, "Maggie" kinda said, "Why didn't you just buy a wheel barrel?"

My response is that my garden cart is way better and more usefull, and know that this comes from a lazy-slacker with lazy-slacker approval. It did not take long to see that my Gorilla-Cart is very-very practical.

Easy to see how I can link this to a full size pickup (E-Haa) and then when "Maggie" isn't looking a enclosed trailer.

My friend Quentin is a carpenter and somehow he was offered a Econoline 250 with a straight 6 in trade for his Audi A4.

I would not do a trade, buy if I could find a deal on a van, especially a Econoline 250 with the heavy duty suspension, then perhaps I would not need a pickup and the enclosed cargo trailer, but the van lacks E-Haa factor.

Calvin-August
 
At Sotherby's near my lab on display is the baby blue and orange "Gulf-Porshe" number 22.

Interesting to note how low this race car is and how far forward the driver sits in his bubble cockpit.

A nice trophy of sorts, but for practical reasons it makes more sense to get a full sized van like an Econoline 250. A van has old hippy factor which is cool for me. I'm buying for utility and for the long term. I can think a van can easily pay for itself and even be a source of cash flow.

For contrast the low slung Porshe verses a heavy-duty utility van is kinda funny, but I'm a funny guy.

In the end my driveway is rather short, and in Peekskill they have no street parking regulations in effect during the winter to early spring. A pickup truck and a enclosed utility trailer is not the best, but a van combines both into one. No E-Haa factor though.

At Home Depo they had entire wheel assemblies for my garden cart, but no inner tubes. The wheels are the same size as on a hand truck. Oh-well. I researched through the big air conditioners. The 18,000 BTU LG I want might be too wide at 29 inches. Too bad. This would be overkill, but there is global warming, also what if I am cooking or baking...

A 12,000 BTU would do, especially if I install doors on the hallway that lead to both the kitchen and living room (parlor). I have the original hallway door for the kitchen in the basement, but it can also be used for the living room.

Using the vintage/original wood raised panel door for the living room makes sense because "Maggie" wants to use a nice wooden door that is art deco and has windows that kinda matches the original front door that leads to the front porch. Good thing the scrounger in me mentioned that we wanted the door otherwise it would of been thrown out.

So my idea is to seal off the hallway/entrance so that the AC will be limited to the living room, dining room, and kitchen. The hallway is 8 feet wide and also has the stairway that leads upstairs. Blocking off the hallway kinda allows me to cool the entire first floor with one big unit and will prevent hot air being displaced upstairs creating a burden and heat load there.

So to deal with woman factor it is my own best interest to make my utility bill as large as I can. My Dutch, English and Irish Maggie pretty much can't handle heat and humidity like I can. Ha-ha.

Also Con ED only has to pay me for 110% of the electricity we create (annual bill), otherwise any surplus just goes on the grid as a bonus to Con Ed.

Augie
 
jszokoli said:
Cal,


Why are you not considering split units??


Joe
Click to expand...

Joe,

I already have two 5000 BTU Fridgedaire units in the basement, one matching 5000 BTU unit in the garage and a fourth perhaps newer 5000 BTU Fridgeaire for a total of four 5000 BTU units that came with the house.

My experience has been that 5000 BTU in an old house with no attic insulation and no attic ventalation that 5K is maarginal, especially if you have a girlfriend with a PhD who does stuff like turn off the air conditioner without opening the window, or turn on the air conditioner without closing the window, or not turning on the air conditioner during a heat wave.

The LG air conditioners are deemed the most quiet, but I ended up buying a new GE 6000 BTU unit for our bedroom. The 5K we removed was loud and I am going to put it on the curb with a "Free sign" stating that it works.

One on the 5k's works and is quieter so that is in the guest bedroom which is for our spoiled brat grand daughter.

I figure one large unit would save energy, be more efficient, look better, be quieter than say three discreate air conditioners. Also from heat pumps I learned that the of cycling heating or cooling systems is where most energy is wasted. Always best to run a constant load for efficiency.

In a ways with a single in window air conditioner I can get a "central-air" kinda effect.

Cal
 
Austintatious said:
How about this as a compromise between a van and a pickup ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY6X_603MMc&t=6s
Click to expand...

Austin,

That is a mighty cool vehicle, but I'm not Jay Leno.

My van will get used and abused and does not have to be pretty.

BTW my 1984 Jeep Scrambler with a half cab and with a Corvette engine, Ford nine inch rear with Lincoln Continental disc brakes was way-way cooler.

Cal
 
We bought the Baby-Victorian in the middle of November last year, nine months ago, and the current value is up $40K over what we paid.

I expect mucho value added when I add a solar array and build out the garage as a detached and separate workspace.

In figuring out the required BTU I was surprised how small our first floor is, especially if you don't count the hallway. Pretty much the living room, dining room, and kitchen are all about 200 square feet, so all together they are about the size of our luxury apartment in Madhattan (was 650 square feet).

In measuring each room I then realized that the 200 square foot garage attic and 210 square foot garage workspace will be. A nice thing is that the garage space will have high ceilings that will be really close to 9 feet. My garage doors are square 8x8's.

So 1800 square feet of living space, and when and if I annex the other half of the garage then 2,000 square feet with over 600 square feet of work space.

So for mad money I think I will farm and sell Japanese Maple seedlings. In a lazy slacker manner, all I have to do is soak the seeds in water for 24 hours in the fall, and then I can sow them in the ground or a mulch pile.

Seeds are for free from my JM in the front yard, which I say is the most beautiful and interesting tree in Peekskill. No lie.

The leaves are serrated and have 5 fingers, so they closely resemble a Pot leaf, but smaller. My neighbor with bad boundries educated me that our tree has mucho "Witches Brooms" which is a genetic deformity where there are these wart like growths that spout out thin branches in a comb or brush like manner.

In the fall I should have many thousands of seeds. Before the Baby-Victorian was put on the market, the JM was severely pruned because it was a majestic monster that dominated the property.

Pretty much they hacked it badly, but now it came back with in a big way and is more monsterous than ever. Where there were thick stubs are now balls of thick growth like huge fists.

In the winter without leaves it looked scary. Know that my B-V is the "old-lady" on the block meaning the oldest house. This tree could be 100 years old. Pruning I would say is an understatement in how much of the tree they cut off. The tree I would say was hacked. "Brutal," I say.

Japanese Maples that are 2-3 feet tall sold in nurseries sell for $150.00-$300.00, but they are slow growers. Unusual ones sell for even more. So pretty much I will be a lazy-farmer. KAA-Ching...

Some of my seedlings I rescued from my front lawn that were rouge and feral are getting close to 5-6 inches tall. I already transplanted them into 3 gallon pots. Know that I found these pots being thrown out, so I recycled them.

The remainder seem to remain 2 1/2-3 inches. They are planted in half gallon pots I buy at Home Depo. Oddly these slow growers seem to be experiencing a self Bonsai effect. They clearly are struggling and are deforming.

One plant I put under a white pine with some empty pots. Pretty much I left it for dead, but it is making a comeback.

Also I planted three scragley plants under another white pine in the back yard, but the funny thing is the one I thought was the strongest is really struggling, and the one that I had labeled as a "goner" and neglected actually has become the most vigorous.

So already I have all these tree experiments going on. I imagine having a "container forest." Don't tell "Maggie."

Another plant of interest to propagate and sell are these Vietnamese pepper plants. Some people grow them for ornamentation, but I grow them to eat. I might develop an evil Deer repellent.

BTW the birds ate most of my first harvest of blue berries. I'm cool with that.

A surprise is that we have a European Pear tree in the back-backyard. There is a lot of fruit.

At Stormville I bought the carnivorous plant. It looks like an upside down Octopus, but these tenticles have sticky hair that glues any flies and has all the M-zines to digest the insect. The only problem is that our property is so insect free, even though right in the back is a 40-50 acre marsh (frog-ghetto). Pretty much when I capture or kill a fly I manually feed the plant that I call A.J. for "Alice Junior."

A.J. has these string of beads that are purple flowers that open and close every day, but only one bead at a time. This plant has grown, and I had to transplant it once.

Know that the frogs are not our only noisy neighbor, the birds are mucho loud. We have mucho-mucho birds. Last week I saw a bird land on the fence between our property and my next door neighbor's. I butterfly flew below, and then the bird swooped down and grabbed the butterfly. It all happened in a blink of an eye.

Cal
 
Saturday we went to the Stormville airport Flea Market and got lucky and found some "treasure" for us that cost "no-money." Then on the way home we went to Newburgh to look at house parts and visit a antique emporium. There again we scored big finding a small hutch that serves as a wine bar in our dining room that is in the mission style and the real deal meaning not a repo.

That Saturday night I saw the text from my next door neighbor, and it was about erosion in the back-backyard that leads to Dickey Brook.

Know that last week there was a monsoon like storm where there were reports of people having to wade through waist deep water getting out of the subway, and someone told me about a video they saw where someone was using a jet ski in a flooded Bronx street.

An unprecidented amount of water like 3 inches of rain fell in a short time. Know that New York state typically gets about 40 inches of rain a year, but this number seems to be increasing. Also what compounds this is that one could argue that it rains less often, but when it does it pours.

Last week the New York Times had an article about Chicago that explained how Chicago can have too much water and too little water at the same time.

Extreme heat causes evaporation, so Lake Superior is at record low levels, but then when it rains it floods. Understand that Chicago's drinking water comes from Lake Superior, and the Chicago River caries away sewage.

The water level in Lake Superior is so low that at times the river either does not flow, or worse it reverses and M-T's (empties) into lake Superior.

So I know the Hudson Valley where I live is kinda like a cloud forest where it can rain almost at any time. My altitude is 80 feet above sea level, but only 30 feet above the Hudson River within a valley within another valley that is Peekskill that's within the Hudson Valley.

Know that the northern end of Peekskill is the lower end of the Hudson Highlands and it is accurate to say that Peekskill is the "Gateway to the Hudson Highlands."

I love my neighbors, and I feel so bad that their retaining wall is now damaged. No doubt that my tarping to kill and smother Knotweed accelerated the movement of my neighbor's retaining wall.

My neighbors are so cool, and they admit their retaining wall was not perfect and is old. So Sunday we removed the big tarp, installed some "water-bars" to redirect water away from our neighbor's property, and planted "Contractor's seed" to provide some ground cover.

I expect that with global warming that these violent storms and a lot more rain are the future. My neighbors along with us have to come up with a unified "one and done" solution to handling lots of water and to prevent erosion.

So on last weekend we experienced a rapture of sorts. It went from a relaxing Saturday to handling an emergency on Sunday.

Cal

Postscript: Home Depo was out of Sod. I wanted to put down an instant ground cover. Also the cost of pressure treated 4x6's eight feet long went from $28.00 down to $20.99 in a little more than a week.
 
Last week our cyclotron was down, and it is still down.

I worked some O.T. and stayed late where I went home and just went to bed. Not sure if it will be worked out as comp-time or paid O.T. The lazy-slacker in me does not care either way.

So we thought we bypassed some problems that were a cascade of problems. Like an old car one problem led to another, and then some other things broke when we dug in. The controls for a stratigic vacuum valve we eventually bypassed and forced open bypassing any control system. Pretty much we bypassed interlocks and this is something "McGuiver" would do.

Of course it was my idea, and you know me, I'm a little crazy.

So like my weekend, we were so happy Friday thinking we fixed the machine though only in a spackle-job like manner, but this morning I found bad vacuum. Oh-well.

We left Friday thinking that once we started cryogenic cooling that things would be alright Monday, meaning today, but we did not wait around for the 2-2 1/2 hours to get below 20 degrees kelvin for liquid helium.

So here I am on RFF "monitoring" the liquid helium cool-down.

Around lunchtime I might have to work. Either the vacuum is good and I can begin to condition the machine to be operational, or we have a problem. BTW we might likely have a control system issue, and there might be even more problems.

So pretty much this is like performance art and one big improv.

Cal
 
At 7:30 AM I come through a door at work to enter my building and I get met by an anxious administrator who wants to know the status of my machine.

I try to explain that first I have to get to my lab, turn on a computer, and check the status. Because of his anxiety of course getting this message across is not so straight forward.

Boy the lazy-slacker in me hates anxious people, and at work the level of anxiety is close to full blown cronic panic. Things are and get really crazy. Even though I don't have the credentials I have the enough training to be a the-air-O-pist.

While I seem to draw out the crazies, here at work crazy is kinda mucho concentrated.

I can't wait till I retire to leave all this behind. Less than 5 months...

Cal
 
Cal, ever notice that people who have no idea how something works always think think your a "Montgomery Scott" worker who can fix anything in 5 minutes with a Swiss Army knife?
 
So now I fixed a cascade of problems. My boss has a shotgun approach likely because he is a hipster, but my old man ways is one thing at a time. Seems like I spent all this morning fixing stuff that didn't need to be done that kinda had to be undone.

In talking with a field rep and giving him the status of a cascade of problems, he finally asked why I called, and basically i said, "My boss wanted me to call you, and I have to listen to my boss."

He laughed because I had to wait for our helium compressor to make liquid helium. Oh-well.

See the anxious problems. Why can't I work with lazy-slackers. Likely more work and productivity would happen. All this second guessing is a waste of time.

So I determined we have a vacuum leak on the target selector. We tried to seal it with next-day o-rings, but they are fatter in cross section. Evidently they did not seal. Today we have the proper o-rings that finally were delivered. Oh-well.

So instead of working I'm busy writing this post. Oh-well again. Rushing and being anxious is counterproductive. Kinda funny how anxiety can be a waste of time.

Calvin-August
 
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