Vol. 1, Issue 4

Been a while since I had time to post.  The last few months have been busy with birthdays, holidays, over time at work, tons of yard work around the house, tons of house work, working on the Jeep, and researching The Conch Republic.

The weather has definitely been strange this year.  In May alone we had record cold, record heat, and an out-right blizzard giving us record snow fall.  The month was also almost garaunteed to drop rain during the weekends.  Granted we had drought conditions almost all through last year, but it really didn't need to make up for it in one month this year.  Almost daily one county or another (or more) have had flood warnings.  I also can't remember the last time I saw the floor of my basement.

It hasn't been all bad though, I was able to get the decorative border stones from the East side of the house relocated to the along the front where the flower beds used to be.  Turns out there was already a cement border along the front.  Not being the most motivated with gardening, I took the lazy way out and just removed enough grass, dirt, and weeds from the cement to place the new border stones.  Looks nice though.  I was also able to hack down most of the jungle that resided on the East side of the house, install a patio block walk way for the meter reader, relocated the lawn mower shed, clear and de-weed the West rear side walk, mow countless times, had the power company trim a very large set of branches from the maple tree out front over the highway (they still haven't removed what the cut down), and spent an afternoon scrubbing and relocating the kayak.  Now I just wish I could remember where I put the tiki decals for it.

Probably two of the biggest things I've done so far this year is remove the old clothes line pole and the old broken jury-rigged light pole from the back yard.  The clothes line wasn't too bad, just dug around it, wrapped a cargo strap to the base, hooked it up to the D-ring on tow hitch on the Jeep, and pulled it out.  The light pole was another story.  I dug a smaller diameter hole (learned from the clothes line) and encountered a good number of thick roots from the old maple tree that was removed a few years ago along with the bushes I took out when I first bought the house.  As I was hacking at the roots I got a nice shock.  Turns out there wasn't conduit around the wiring for the light after all.  Nope, instead it was an almost flat yellow-ish white coated set of wires.  Yes, I should have turned off breakers before digging.  Worst part is, I had.  Long story short, eventually determined the breaker for the wire was in the upstairs junction box marked "bathroom".  No, I have no idea why that was. After getting the power turned off I was able to snip the wires and the pole came out so easily I didn't even need to use the Jeep on it.

Some other random things I did so far this season are relocate the flag holder back to the front of the house, install a flag holder on the back, bought a Conch Republic flag for the back yard, picked up some faux plants for around the house, printed out and hung a number of photos from my trip to the Halifax area, and have plans for a short vacation in Duluth, Minnesota.  Sadly enough, I've never been to the Great Lakes before so I'm looking quite forward to it.  With luck I might get to see one of the rumored sea monsters that live in the Lakes.

Before I forget, I also went ahead and purchased an NX Frameless Trail Top from Bestop.  The fold back "sunroof" feature gets used every day it isn't raining.  While I was on Quadratec's site I also went ahead and purchased a pre-runner/light bar from Off-Camber, aluminum pedal covers from Drake Offroad, a new-style (1999+) front bumper with center mounts for the license plate, and thanks to eBay I was able to find some exellent condition factory front bumper stops.  If you squint, my Jeep still looks stock... if you squint really hard.

Had a few new arrivals around the house as far as tropical/nautical decor as well.  My mother picked me up a metal ghecko that hangs on the side of the house on the front porch outside, the kids got me a wooden seagull sitting on the end of a pier for my birthday, for father's day I got some japanese-style outdoor laterns, and my mother gave me a bottle of wine wearing a hawaiian shirt for my birthday.  For myself, I have a Conch Republic mini-flag hanging in the tiki porch next to our pirate flag (I got the super fan pack from King of Conch).

I was sad to hear however that 2013-14 is supposed to be the last season of the new Hawaii Five-0.  That show was a family favorite around here with not just my kids but also my parents enjoying watching it.  Glad I have all the episodes downloaded from iTunes.  Also disapointed that every time I schedule a kayaking day, it rains non-stop.  I think once the rain clears today I may install the roof rack on the Jeep so next time its nice after work I can just load the kayak and go to Clear Lake for a bit.

Not much else to say really, so I will end with "Aloha".