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Seven things

December 26, 2007 By

Brought to you by Daryl.

1- I do ocasionally do memes. I have a category for them.

2- I’ve worked at 24 places in the last 30 years (ok, now I’m starting to sound old). My current employ, at a bit under 2 years, is the third longest stay.

3- I’ve been perusing the Mother Earth New magazine (MEN) almost as long as I have been working. After my father had been a subscriber a couple years, he received an offer from them where you could purchase all of the back issues. He did. I’ve flipped through more the first 120 issues (20 years worth).

4- Paradise Found linked to an online MEN article about solar power. Once we have sold the other house, we will be looking at taking advantage of solar and/or wind power.

5- I watch It’s a Wonderful Life every year at Christmas. Helps put things in perspective, I find.

6- When I started college 20 years ago, it was the second time I had ‘moved away from home’.

7- I know how to milk a cow by hand. Actually, my experience at milking a cow was consistently quite painful, not because the cow was uncooperative, but because my fingers are long enough that they pressed on my palms on every squeeze.

I’ve seen this too many places to tag anyone. If you haven’t done it and want too, here’s your invite :)

Filed Under: Meme

The newest, coolest blog on the internet

December 2, 2007 By

Chris has started a new site called ParentTech.com. Based on the content so far, it looks like one to watch.

Filed Under: Links

Homeschooling, etc.

November 19, 2007 By

I know it’s been a long while since I’ve written a homeschooling post. I’ve been keeping busy. Here and there, there have been things that Emma has said or done that I wanted to write about but never seemed to have them in mind when I had time to write.

Since we are now back under the same roof, Emma and I have gotten back to the routine of me reading her a story before tucking her in for the night. One night in the last couple months, I was going through a bit of a cold. I had to stop reading to get a kleenex from Meaghan’s night stand. I handed Emma the book to hold while I did that. She picked up reading where I left off and continued reading until I sat down beside her again.

One night this weekend I asked her if she wanted to read a few pages and she read the first 7 or 8 pages and then handed me the book saying, “You can read now.” Her reading ability has been developing steadily over the last year. Other than help with the odd word here and there, she is self sufficient.

Oddly enough, the main reason I haven’t been talking that much about homeschooling is that we aren’t doing anything out of our normal day to day family routine. We talk about things. If the opportunity comes up we talk about the math related to some subject or other. We share things we’ve learned with each other. In a real sense there isn’t anything to talk about outside of living. And those are the things that I’ve been talking about as of late.

The update on the green house is that it is still on the market. A second open house is scheduled for this weekend. The thing we had not talked about was that the first person who looked at the house did put in an offer on it about 2 weeks the first visit. It took about another week to come to a purchase-sale agreement. Due to extenuating circumstances, there were special consideration(s)/options (depending on which side you were on). A few weeks later we agreed to an extension. That extension was up in the last couple weeks. As it stands now, that deal has fallen through. We are hoping for good news in the next 3 weeks though. But, at this point, it is probably one of the things that is pressing on us most.

Even though I will not be celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend, I will enjoy being home with my family. For the readers in the US, I hope it’s a great weekend for you.

Filed Under: Unschooling Adventures, Us

Logo design contest

November 12, 2007 By

lifelearning.org is currently running a logo design contest for homeschoolers- Best Homeschooling Site Awards Logo Design Contest, the complete info is here:

It is open to all homeschoolers- kids and parents alike and 1st
prize is 100.00.

Contest deadline is December 1.

Filed Under: Links

Coincidence

November 12, 2007 By

I think not :D


You Are Socks!


Cozy and warm… but easily lost.
You make a good puppet.
Filed Under: Meme, Us

Pellet Stove Install – Part 2

November 2, 2007 By

You can view all of the posts on the pellet stove.

When I wrote the Part 1 post, I had already learned that I was missing an adapter to connect the vent to the pellet stove. I am going to Fredericton in the morning to get it.

The story behind the story on that is that when I ordered the pellet stove I also ordered a vent kit for it. The pellet stove came in 2 days after I ordered it, but the vent kit did not. The folks at the store where I ordered the stove spent 2 days trying to find a kit somewhere in Canada in their distribution channel and failing that, when some might arrive in Canada. They were not able to find that out, so, I told them I’d see if I could find one over the weekend and I’d let them know on Monday whether or not to cancel the order. I did find one via the telephone over the weekend and arranged to pick it up locally on last Thursday.

When I called on Last Friday to ask about the adapter I was expecting that I would just be able to pick one up on Saturday. The folks where I bought the vent were not familiar with it and I had to get Andrea to look up the part number. They looked it up, and I was able to arrange ordering. The line of pellet stoves that they sell are designed to connect to the vent without the adapter. So, that’s something to keep in mind to check about the pellet stove since most of the ones that I’ve seen pictures of have the same exhaust outlet as the one we purchased.

Even though I knew at the beginning of last weekend that I would not be able to completely install the vent, the missing adapter did not prevent me from working on the install at all. Prior to the weekend, Andrea and I had moved the pellet stove (weighs about 230 lbs) into what would be a rough guess at its final location. This is somewhat dictated by the vent requirements (at least 4′ from any door or window, at least 18″ above grade, etc.). And once it was there, it looked right, if you know what I mean. In it’s rough position, we haven’t pushed it close to any of the tolerances (i.e minimum distance to walls, etc.) so we will be able to adjust it to a good fit for the vent. I did a bit of math to ensure that I would be in a position to make some final adjustments. but I’ll save that for another post.

Last Saturday, I was away for about 8 hours which put a bit of a dent in the work time for the weekend. But I chose Saturday for that because it was supposed to rain most of the day (which it did). On Saturday night I removed all of the remaining plaster needed to install the thimble and remeasured using the partially assembled vent to ensure that I was on target.

Installing the thimble requires that the opening in the wall be framed in. The issue that I wanted to deal with before I started framing the hole was keeping the cellulose insulation above the opening from falling into the opening while I worked. The interior wood wall made this easier, but the same approach could be used with the sheathing on the outside of the house. This is the basic process I followed:

  • I drilled 3 3/16″ holes above that square that I was going to cut out.
  • Using a spade bit, I drilled a 1″ hole at each upper corner of the square to be cut out.
  • Using a reciprocating saw, I cut a rough 1″ hole across the top of the square between the 2 holes made with the spade bit.
  • I cut 2 pieces of double strength corrigated cardboard about the length of the hole (9″) and 1/4″ narrower that the depth of the wall cavity. (This implies that I measured the cavity to see how deep it was.)
  • I put the first piece of cardboard in through the hole and pushed it lengthwise until one end of it was up against the stud on one side of the opening.
  • I put the second piece of cardboard in and pushed it against the opposite stud.
  • Finally, I pushed the cardboard up above the 3 holes drilled in the first step and pushed a 4″ spike into each of the 3 holes drilled in the first step.
  • The result looked like this:

On the inside wall, the 9″ opening was cut out of the middle of a single board which is at least 12″ wide. I lucked out in choosing this this spot for the vent because the board had a crack near the bottom where the opening was going to go. So, for the next step I did not have to drill the bottom corners with the spade bit. Following the template I’d drawn on the board, I cut the sides of the opening down to the crack and removed the rectangle of board. The insulation behind it looked like this:

To complete the framing in:

  • I removed the insulation to about an inch below the bottom line of the template and about an inch to the left of the opening and put it into a grabage bag. (The opening is deliberately about 1/2″ from a stud on the right.)
  • I cleaned up the hole using the reciprocating saw to square up the 3 sides already rough cut and cut the bottom line.
  • I cut the 3 pieces to frame in the hole.
  • After dry fitting the frame, I pushed the top of the frame up against the 4″ spikes and pulled the spikes out of the wall.
  • After getting the top frame piece in its final position, I drilled 2 pilot holes above the opening and used 2 wood screws to secure it in place.
  • With the bottom piece of the frame being held roughly in place by the insulation under it, I secured the side using 2 pilot holes and wood screws.
  • Note: I added a temporary wood screw to the side and bottom to make it easier to maneuver them once they were inside the wall cavity.
  • Finally, secured the bottom piece of the frame using 2 pilot holes and wood screws.
  • Once the opening is cut in the outer sheathing, the framing will be secured to that, the existing stud and to the other pieces of the frame.
  • Here’s the final result of the weekend’s work:

Filed Under: Pellet Stove

Unschooling Voices Is Up

November 2, 2007 By

#10 is here.

Filed Under: Carnivals, Unschooling Adventures

My Rides

October 30, 2007 By

I saw this at Chris’s over 3 weeks ago. Since then samuel has done it. Before actually making the list, I expected it to be longer. I think I must have been counting some twice. I include motorcycles in this list because I bought them primarily for transportation rather than leisure.

- 1981 Kawasaki 440 LTD – I bought this from a guy who went to school with one of my older brothers in 1985. I had been acquainted with him since grade 6, but, knew all of his siblings better than him. Him and 2 of his buddies had all bought bikes at the same time. One of them had an accident and this bike had sit in his fathers garage for 2 years before I bought it. We had to tow it with a car and drop the clutch (several times) to get it to start. This bike was incredibly good on gas, consistently getting over 80 CDN MPG. It wasn’t a great winter vehicle though. By the spring of ’89 Andrea and I were engaged and I discovered that she was afraid of motorcycles. So, it didn’t see alot of use after that. Sometime in the mid 90′s I gave it to my nephew.

- 1980 Ford Econoline short wheel base 3/4 ton van – I bought this in late 1986. It had almost 200K km on it when I bought it from the local telco. It had a couple extra spring leaves on each side on the rear axle because at the time the telco’s service guys had at least 1500 lbs of equipment and supplies that they carried around with them, so it looked jacked up. It was hard on gas and brutally cold in the winter, but it was a good running vehicle. During the first few months I had the sentra below, I hardly used the van. My brothers did use it. The transmission died because the transmission fluid got way to low (I’ve always assumed due to a leak).

- 1983 Datsun Nissan Sentra – I bought this from my brother in 1989. If I remember correctly, his wife bought it new. It got better gas mileage than most of the hybrids on the market today. In a way, it was a free car because it and its running costs were less than the gas I had been putting in the Ford van. If I could buy a new one of these today, I’d do it in a second. After driving it for about 2 years, I sold it to a second brother who later sold it to a third brother. (Just to keep that straight, the car went through 4 brothers). We all thought it was a great vehicle. It had over 300K km (185K miles) on it before it was totalled in an intersection in Fredericton.

- 1990 Nissan Kingcab – This is the only new vehicle I bought in my life. Andrea and I put almost 300K km on this as well. Other than the gas mileage not being as good as the sentra, I liked this truck every bit as much as the sentra. I sold it about 14 years after I bought it.

- 1984 Cavalier (technically Andrea’s but when she was given it, she didn’t have a driver’s licence) Andrea’s grandfather gave her her first car in 1993. He was getting a newer one and wanted her to have something to get her license with. The thing I remember the most about his car was that her grandfather never drove it more than 70 km/h and for the first few weeks it shook violently when the automatic transmission tried to shift into overdrive. We saw this one all the way to the junk yard.

- 1984 Volvo 740 – I regret buying this in 1997. I didn’t know that it was the European model until I started getting work done on it. So, getting parts for it was harder & more expensive (alternator – $600). When it was working, it was a nice car. It had had a fair amount of work done on it by a questionable backyard mechanic. I wouldn’t use this one to gauge the brand. I’ve known quite a few people who owned volvos and swore by them.

- 1989 Cavalier wagon – I bought this at a federal government surplus auction in 1998. It need some work at the start. But, I liked this cavalier quite a bit better than the 1984 version. We sold this to friends of ours at a very low price because they were in need.

- 1992 Chev Beauville van – When Emma came along we needed a vehicle that could carry at least 6 people. In early 2001, we were shopping for used mini vans and found this. For its age, it had really low miles and had only had one owner who only drove it in the summer. It cost about 30-40% less than comparable minivans. We sold it this year. It’s gas mileage was quite a bit better than the Ford van (due to a smaller engine) and except for fuel costs we did really well with this Chev.

- 1995 Yamaha 535 Virago – In 2003, I wanted to get a second vehicle because Andrea does alot more driving in the summer. This was a nice compromise on economy and enjoyment. If I’d driven the van the extra miles required to share the van and take me where I drove the bike, the gas cost alone would have comfortably paid for the bike. I sold it in 2005 for $300 less than what I paid for it.

- 2001 Ford Focus – I bought this last year and went for a newer vehicle because I knew I’d be travelling across the province twice a week for an indefinite period of time. I think we have put about 80K km on this since we bought it. Unless we have an accident, I expect we will see close to 300K km on this one too. I think the Focus may be a redesign/remodel of a European car. We are planning on buying a second vehicle next year and a Focus is on the possibility list.

Filed Under: just fun, Meme

Bravo

October 29, 2007 By

I don’t normally talk about news in the blog. I talk about politics even less. Actually, several years ago we stopped watching the news on TV and buying newspapers since we found them so repetitive and narrowly focused to the point of being annoying and a waste of time. If we are looking for news, we use the internet.

The title of this post is directed to the President of Ecuador, who has asked for permission to set up a military base in Miami. A reasonable request, one would think.

HT: Roy

Filed Under: In the news

Famous

October 29, 2007 By

… in another small corner of the internet.

Andrea & I tossed the parental coin to decide who would go. Even though I would have liked to have gone, I’m glad she did. I probably would not have got a decent shot. She easily snapped 50 good ones.

Filed Under: Images, Us
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