Friday, April 13, 2012

We were all busy today
Today was a busy day for all of us. Right after breakfast Bea put me to work. The task was building a frame for “Square foot Gardening” . If you don’t know what that means I don’t blame you. Because I didn’t either. Bea wanted a frame of wood which is to be filled with soil. The idea behind is to provide a mini garden (hence:  square foot gardening) for greens.
”Can’t you use the old boards you found on the beach last fall?” Regardless whether I might have had other plans I used 4 of those boards to make the frame. The picture might provide a clout of how I proceeded. The boards are 10 inches wide and therefore wide  enough to make a nice box for the soil. The corners had to be re-enforced by first putting a 2x2 on the inside, then on the underside I put small pieces across the corners which were also screwed down. Now I could move that frame around without risking it would break off in the corners.
It is always satisfying when old materials can be recycled into something useful. The pieces of wood I throw away are so small, they almost qualify as saw dust.  I have inherited that behavior from my grandfather, who could spend days straightening out old crooked nails.
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The Materials: old boards from the beach

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Re-enforcing the corners

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down on an even surface for mounting

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Painted, the box is now ready for service.

After I was finished with the carpentry part I went into the basement and found a can with dark green paint.
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My next task for this day was to continue scraping the red paint off the wall. I finished the part of the wall we left undone last fall. Since the shingles are a bit rough on the surface I took the sander and sanded the whole part over. Now that part of the wall is finished for priming.


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While I was busy with the box Bea had started house cleaning. Later in the afternoon I snapped a pic of her being busy in the former raspberry patch, digging and extracting raspberry roots out of the ground. Good gracious!


 

 

DSC_0021-mi                         But she also took pictures of birds today!

Molly was also busy. Early in the morning she had seen a squirrel clambering up on the roof of our shed. Whenever that happens to Molly she will neither eat, nor come into the house when we call. She is just way too busy with playing cat. She can lay in front of the squirrels hide-out for hours without moving. This particular squirrel was at times hiding in a pile of old boards and that was where Molly could be found today.
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Molly looking for the squirrel

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I was happy when my old Ford LTD Convertible started right up after the long winter. Some people buy quads or boats for toys. For me this stylish old lady is my toy for the summer.

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1972 LTD “The Fat Lady”

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And with that we have come to supper. Since Bea didn’t make any approach as to what to cook and the small hand of the clock was nearing 6:00pm, I placed the question of the day.  “If you want to have something in the meat way of things, you gotto go to the grocery store and buy something”, was her answer.
Since we were almost free of coffee I had planned to do that anyway.

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I returned with a can of Folgers Classic Roast and a pack of Wieners. For the Wieners part I got our Weber BBQ out and set up on the porch.

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Then I made a pasta salad which you can see the details of on Bea’s blog. Everything turned out pretty well. Tomorrow is Saturday and we have already been home for two weeks.

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Our motor home is sitting out there and I emptied out all water today. I am planning to remove the water tank. It appears that we might have to replace the bottom floor under the tank. Something is not right there. But that is gonna be a different story.

Just been reading up on Elaine and Ricks ordeal with Verizons Internet Stick.

The problem seemed to have been that Canadians have no Zip-code and that you cannot be customer at Verizon without a U.S. Zip Code. We have a Verizon MIFI 2000 and also needed a U.S.-address to get it going. We asked relatives in the U.S. to use their address. That worked out fine for us. Since we have online billing no invoice is getting to the U.S. address. Elaine, you have family in the U.S. You could do the same for a Zip-Code. Re.; pricing they were dead wrong to charge you 80 Bucks. 80 bucks is the price for 10 gigs and $50.00 for 5gigs. Tax on that is much less and NEVER 30 Dollars.

Also you can activate, suspend and re-activate by going online to MyVerizon.com. You need a customer ID and your password for that. We have done that all the time and it has worked just fine. You must be aware of that a suspending period can only last 3 months without billing. If you need to suspend for longer you have to suspend it again after 3 months. If you have a contract with them (we don’t) your total contract time will be extended according to the time you had suspended the service.

The rude treatment you received I would report to Verizons Corporate Office along with the pricing topic. I had a problem with them 2 years ago and wrote an email to the CEO. Coupla days later they called me and fixed the issue. (Mr. Harwerth, how can we do this right for you?

Hope that helps!

 

Keep it cooking!

 

Thanks for having a peek!
               

8 comments:

  1. great information on the verizon issue!..being fellow canadians we are going to be sure to remember about having a zip code!

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  2. Just read a story about a dachshund who climbed a tree and couldn't get back down. Hopefully Molly doesn't chase that squirrel into any place she can't get out of. You guys are keeping busy but I'm glad you took time out to make sure your baby would turn over after a long winter in a garage.

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  3. Learning about the different options offered to internet subscribers can be challenging. There are so many different options from so many different companies. Canadians have a little more to check out. Don't work too hard. You have all summer to do it.

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  4. Looks like keeping busy there, now that your convertible has been fired up soon time to take it for a cruise.

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  5. OK, So first of all - THAT IS WAY TOO MUCH WORK GOING ON !! Which is exactly why I'm glad I don't have a house anymore.

    Ahhh, The '72 Ford LTD - Memories for sure.

    Regarding the Verizon - that is also what I use while travelling in the States and it has worked exceptionally well for me with excellent signal most of the time. I originally bought the 'Stick' at Walmart when I first started travelling. I also got around it by simply using my Aunt's U.S. address. And I didn't want to get into any contract, so I pay $80 for 5GB's and simply don't buy any more data while I'm back in Canada.

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    1. We paid full price for the gadget and pay a $59.00 for 5 gigs. Yes, the price was higher a couple of years ago. I use it only about 2 months out of the year - the time when we are actually on the road. In Holtville we use a local provider and share the costs with our friends.

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  6. I would suggest that after your contract expires with Verizon you might want to try http://www.millenicom.com/

    Low price ($69.99 for 20GB/month), plus no contract. I have been using them since November and love it.

    Also they use Verizon towers.

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    Replies
    1. Jim, we never had a contract with Verizon. But the offer you took seems at a better price. Now, how's the coverage. Which of the big networks is behind it? I know by experience that Virgin (Sprint Network) has a lot worse coverage than Verizon.

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