rogerhanson.com

In the last post, I mentioned that my plumbing tools were not to be found anywhere. I searched for around 3 hours altogether, looking in the house, garage and shop. After giving up, I went to Menards to buy another pipe cutter, pipe wrench, torch, solder, flux, pipe cleaning tools, etc. At the cash register, the lady said I should be sure and look one more time because now that I bought all these tools, I would probably find them.

It’s been a few days since I bought the tools and haven’t got around to putting the water softener bypass in. It snowed yesterday and I went to fire up the snowblower. There was some junk around the snowblower that I had to move to get it out of the shop, and what did I find in a bag of ‘garbage’ in front of the snowblower? Of course, it was my plumbing tools. So, I had the opportunity to go back to Menards to return the new tools I just bought, saving me around $50. Isn’t that just like how life is sometimes?

The progress with the Christmas lights is going slow and intermittent. It’s been so cold outside that I only go out for short periods of time, until I get too cold. The FM transmitter is on the air, but the rang isn’t quite what I was hoping for. I am still waiting for a cable from Hong Kong or China – don’t remember which (not that it matters) for the antenna that will hopefully work better than the way I have it rigged up now. A drawback is the big metal building that I’m having to transmit around. I put a long cable on the antenna, so I suppose that I could put it on a tall pole or something outside to get a little better range.

The mega-tree is working! It looks OK, but I see that more channels on it will be a necessity for next year. The strings are a little too far apart for my liking. It’s not bad, though. I have to update the profile in Vixen (the software that runs the lights) because right now it thinks there are 4 channels for red and green lights on the mega-tree.

I was informed by the company hosting my websites/email that they were closing up. I know from first-hand experience the decisions that go into coming to that conclusion – I did the same thing about a year ago. I had to move everything to a new hosting company. Hopefully I made a good choice and there won’t be a lot of problems or downtime. My website is running on the new host, but Holly, Mitch and my other domains need to be pointed to the new one yet. I have another week before the old one is shut down and thought I’d test the reliability on my website first.

Does anyone remember where I put my plumbing tools? I’ve been missing my pipe wrench, torch, solder, pipe cutter, flux, etc.  for a couple months. I used them to put the whole house water filter in, but don’t remember where I put them when I cleaned up the mess. I need them to put a bypass around the water softener so I can sanitize the well again.

I sanitized the well a month ago and it made the water smell better for a couple weeks, but the bad smell is back again. The guy at the well company said it may take a few times sanitizing it to keep the smell away – and they recommend doing it 2x per year after that.

After today, I’m off work for 9 days, then work 5 more and then off the rest of the year. It will give me some time to work on some things around the house and get the Christmas lights up and running. Things to do:

• Find the plumbing tools
• Put bypass on water softener
• Sanitize the well
• Put finishing touches on the church pew
• Floor registers in the kids’ bedrooms
• Put up more Christmas lights and connect them to power/controllers
• Sequence some songs to lights and turn them on
• Finish FM transmitter antenna and mount it
• Organize the shop
• Change oil in the van
• Replace brakes in van and car
• Split and re-stack firewood
• Finish other electronics projects (DMX controllers, LED flood lights, others)
• much more

There is ice covering the lake. That means work out there soon – getting the ice skating  rink ready. I’ll have to find the best way to get the snow-blower down there to clear the snow once the ice gets thick enough. I’m not sure about getting lights up there, but will try. It’s a long way for an extension cord.

The church pew is nearly done. Just a few finishing touches are left. I think it’s even sort of strong enough to support an adult!

See the before and after pictures

Before

After

After

After

It looks better in person. I have to slop some shellac on a spot I put a screw through the seat. We don’t want anyone getting a sliver in their hiney! There’s a little quarter round trim I need to put on, some plugs to cover screws and the hymnal holder on the back.

The Christmas tree is up in the house and it has lights on it. Everything about Christmas reminds me of last year, which is kinda tough for me.

I’m hoping the lights outside will be lit up next week. I need about 1000-1500 feet of lamp cord/SPT wire and maybe 400-500 feet of Cat 3/5, too. I really want to see the mega-tree dance. Gotta get sequencing the lights to some more songs.