Mrs Maryak's Mansion

[gbritnell]

Hi Bob, now it looks lived in. It takes a little while to get everything sorted out but once you do it's a great feeling.
gbritnell

 

[cobra428]

Bob,
Where the heck is the lathe and mill, your need to be in the trenches with the rest of us! No easy living...Make Engines...

Just kidding Bob, Congrats, the place is coming along very nice.

Tony

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Is that a netbook I see on the desk? I love mine! As a matter of fact, right now it's late, I'm too tired to sit at the computer desk so I'm laying down in the bedroom, the wife's watching the TV, I have the netbook on my chest, head propped up on a pillow, cruisin' HMEM. Now there's a picture. Pretty soon I'll fall aslee......... zzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Maryak]

Is that a netbook I see on the desk? I love mine!

Trout,

It's a HP Mini and yes it's a great little portable machine. Our internet here is a dongle through a router so when we go elsewhere remove dongle from router and internet access from car motel etc. I wish I'd bought one ages ago. Mostly I use it for Bureau Veritas documentation, (at least that's the excuse for it's purchase), and HMEM access is a byproduct of this : :

Best Regards
Bob

 

[Maryak]

Hi All,

Today was a red letter day on two fronts.

1. I cut the grass for the 1st time since it was laid. ;D

2. Our junk pile has been reduced to the point where...............There is room in the garage for the car.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[gbritnell]

Looks great Bob. Thanks for the update.
gbritnell

 

[Stan]

Wishing you many years of enjoyment in your new home. Put your feet up and just relax for a while. Stan

 

[wm460]

Congratulation Bob, great looking place.

 

[Troutsqueezer]

The house turned out beautifully Bob. I like how the the sidewalks there are placed a good distance from the street providing some extra space between pedestrians and moving vehicles.

Funny thing about rose bushes. My wife is the gardener here but I was conscripted to take care of the pruning for years and every January I was careful to prune them this way and that, studiously cutting just above the bud, facing towards the outside of the plant, cutting out the dead wood, etc. One year we were planning on re-landscaping one area which had a lot of roses. I didn't want them cutting up my arms as I was digging them out so I took my chain saw and in one fell swoop, cut them all to about 12" from the ground. Well, we changed our mind about the landscaping soon after so the rose bushes stayed. The next spring, they never looked better!

My wife belongs to two garden clubs, I've offered to show up and give a presentation of my rose cutting technique to both groups but for some reason my wife wants me to stay home. :big:

-Trout

 

[Maryak]

George, Stan and WM460,

Thanks for the kind words guys. :bow: :bow: :bow:

Trout,

I believe it - like you, I am the pruner and it's lop it off where it looks at the right height : no science, no book reading and no training.

There was a trial carried out involving three people and a bunch of rose plants. The first of the three was a rose expert with awards and plaques etc. for his roses and services to rose growing and propagating. The second was a keen rose grower, member of her local rose society and had been trained by the experts. The third was a Trout/Bob and you guessed it. The next year the Trout/Bob pruned roses had the best showing in both number and size of blooms.

Verifies:
EX = The unknown factor
SPURT = A drip under pressure.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[GailInNM]

Congratulations Bob. It is nice to see it all coming together.

Special kudos for getting a car in the garage. My garage is my shop. Last time a vehicle was in it was when I moved in here in 1982. Then I backed my pickup up part way in it while I was unloading machinery and other shop supplies.

Gail in NM

 

[Maryak]

Hi Guys,

Well this week was a dead duck as far as shop time was concerned. We were very busy with tank surveys and the weather was not kind, it was just too damn hot to stand in the sun all day. We knew it was time to quit when we started to get dizzy going up and down the ladders.

Our new home is located 30 km south of the CBD here and as such is considered rural. Upside car rego is cheaper by $120 per annum. Downside to telephone our friends in Adelaide is considered long distance and 19c per min peak and 9c per min off peak. We are on a rim exchange and are connected using a twisted pair which means we cannot get ADSL, let alone ADSL2. This will continue until Telstra makes a proper job of the phone system in our district.

We currently access the internet through a wireless broadband service. I spent quite some time this week investigating VOIP telephones for use with our wireless broadband. Our ISP was not impressed and said it would only work with ADSL. To cut a long story short, I was given a great deal of misleading information in various computer shops and when I went to buy an ATA router I had researched on the net, the salesman and I had quite a heated discussion. In the end he agreed to refund my money if it did not work.

Yes, we now have a VOIP phone and our landline as backup. There is a bit of latency in thw system at busy times of the day but I can livw with that at 18c per call anywhere in Oz as opposed to 19c per min.

Our Setup.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[Maryak]

Hi All,

Well today marked 6 months of living in our new home. Time flies when your having fun.

First up the joys of having a vacant block next door. If you see 2 generation Y walking around covered in red and blue paint, you'll know I caught the little Sebastians.

We, ( my son in law and I), have made a start on the backyard.

First up the Pergola all done except for the painting.

Agricultural pipe drainage system led to stormwater.

We have planted a few rose around the perimeter with more to follow then bark/wood chips.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[Blogwitch]

Very nice indeed Bob, you should be happy there for many years to come.

We love plants, but hate gardening. The wife can kill an indoor plant just by looking at it. If the seed growers could come up with grow your own green concrete, we'd be their first customers.

So we have all our greenery in big pots, and by moving them around, we can have a relandscaped garden every year. But I must tell the truth, a lot of them are actually artificial, and the wife just buys new each year and sticks them in pots full of soil, eventually, the weeds sprout around them and have their own live greenery, and sometimes they give a nice showing of flowers, dandelions, daisies and forget me nots are my favourite.

Non green fingered Bogs, unless he is painting the fence.

 

[rake60]

Looks great Bob!

On a side note:
Did you know that if you take a small piece of rock salt, wet your fingers and roll it back
and forth until it is just under .177" in diameter, then allow it to dry it can become very
useful. After it is dry coat it with talc powder.

Having done all of that it will fit the barrel of your favorite pellet gun perfectly.
It is a non-lethal deterrent to the young folks who think they should decorate your
property for you. It is also very effective on the stay cats who think they should sort
the the garbage bags before the pick-up truck arrives.

No permanent damage but they ALWAYS get the message.

Rick

 

[tel]

Did you know that if you take a small piece of rock salt, wet your fingers and roll it back
and forth until it is just under .177" in diameter, then allow it to dry it can become very
useful. After it is dry coat it with talc powder.

.. or pull the projectile from a rimfire round and shove the open end in a bar of soap. Wonderful deterrent and leaves a nice clean spot.

 

[Deanofid]

Nice garden, Bob. I definitely have a brown thumb when it comes to that kind of thing.
It's a blessing, I guess. Time not spent trying to get things green is extra shop time. ; )

Your comments on the criminal vandalism on your private property make you sound like a pretty
easy going fellow. I'm afraid my thoughts would have been much less.. charitable.
Sorry to see that trash.

Dean

 

[Maryak]

Non green fingered Bogs, unless he is painting the fence.

Bogs,

A man after my own heart.............concrete it and paint it green. ;D Galina is the gardener and has a very green thumb, mind you all our plants have webbed roots and take swimming lessons. : I just dig the designated size hole in the designated place. One more "Yes Dear" in my repertoire.

In Novosibirsk Galina's balcony was one of 240 in her quadrant which had planter boxes, (the balcony is 2.5m x 1m). If you want a garden, you can apply for some land outside the city and make a Dacha. The size of the land you opt for determines how many kg of fruit and vegetables you must produce each year. After this if you have time for flowers, well good luck to you. The land is totally unserviced and any improvements you make are not yours. Should you fail to produce the requisite amounts of spuds, carrots, onions, cabbage, beetroot, raspberries, strawberries, apples etc., you lose your lease. I have spent a couple of week-ends helping Galina's cousin at his Dacha and it's bloody hard yacka. By the time the sun goes down around 22:00 you are more than ready for bed. Not my idea of a relaxing week-end away from home.

Galina loves her garden and I am very happy for her.

Did you know that if you take a small piece of rock salt, wet your fingers and roll it back
and forth until it is just under .177" in diameter, then allow it to dry it can become very
useful. After it is dry coat it with talc powder.

Having done all of that it will fit the barrel of your favorite pellet gun perfectly.
It is a non-lethal deterrent to the young folks who think they should decorate your
property for you. It is also very effective on the stay cats who think they should sort
the the garbage bags before the pick-up truck arrives.

No permanent damage but they ALWAYS get the message.

Rick

Rick,

I am not very gun oriented and I did not know that. Probably the safest place to be if I have a gun in my hand is where I am aiming it.

Tel,

Trouble with 0.22" in a built up area is they make too much noise.

But thanks Rick and Tel for your deterrent tricks. I will investigate an air rifle.

Your comments on the criminal vandalism on your private property make you sound like a pretty
easy going fellow. I'm afraid my thoughts would have been much less.. charitable.
Sorry to see that trash.

Dean

Dean, age has mellowed me a little, (besides I can't run as fast I as used to to catch the buggers). If you had seen my initial reaction when I came round the corner and saw the mess you may change your opinion.

We now have a street telephone and observation group who will go together to deal with the next smart ass carrying a spray can. It was not only our property which was hit.

Thanks again guys. :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

Best Regards
Bob

 

[Blogwitch]

Bob,

age has mellowed me a little, (besides I can't run as fast I as used to to catch the buggers).

I had the same problem last evening when Bandit was taking me for a walk. Bandit is a free roamer, and when he was about 50 yards from me, some young kids, about 8 to 10 year olds, started to torment him with big sticks and he was really getting wound up. When I went after them on my new buggy, they soon realised they couldn't outrun me (I've got a turbo charged 8mph one, at the flick of a switch). No matter how far they run, even over the rough, they ran out of wind well before my batteries would have died, and after a few hundred yards, they gave up. A quick tongue lashing soon had them put to rights, and no back chat as I was leaving either, they now realise us old codgers can get to them whenever we want.

Bogs

 

[steamer]

My condolences on the mess from the little twits, though Tel, the soap trick is a new on me...guess the rock salt technique is more common here....

The garden and pergola look great!....and if it weren't for my wife it would all be green paint here.

Dave