Christmas leave

Well finally got some time off from work. been a while since i have had some real time off to spent with family. The family and I packed up and went to the Upper Peninsula to spend the holidays with my Wife's family. we drove about 16 hours total straight through to Michigan. once we got there we had one tired little boy on our hands but we got unpacked and got to bed. we did surprise Dale and Sally by showing up a day early though. we went to church Sunday morning the 23rd. then the 24Th we went to Dale's parents house for pizza and visiting. I love to talk to Bob especially when he starts to talk about some of his involvement in WWII. Bob and I have a lot in common as we both like hard work and we both have PTSD. I feel like i have a connection with him.after pizza wen went back to church for Christmas eve service and back to Bob and Ele's for presents from them. i got lots of useful stuff and had a great time. oh i should mention that at this time i was hit with a pretty bad sinus infection. that sucked. Christmas morning we got up and opened presents from Santa. then i went back to bed as i was feeling pretty bad still. about noon most of Sally's family came over for traditional Christmas dinner. this year was Sally's turn to host it. dinner was really great and there was plenty of it. after that great time we then settled down and cleaned up and relaxed for a bit before we opened the last of the presents and had sauna. after sauna its time for bed.

till next time

another week gone by

Well another week has gone by. it was a busy one. I started the week by doing the plumbing in a "reconstructed" house. that house should have been torn down completely, but for some reason they just tore out the insides, except for the original floors. So the company i work for did all the plumbing and heat ducts. Wednesday and Thursday i was at the Hi-Lite Farm, building roofs over the feed pads, to try to keep the feed dry. Then Friday i was back at the house finishing the plumbing. i also went and installed a garage door opener at a house here in Carthage. it was an easy week as that the house we did the plumbing on was about a half mile from my house. didnt have to travel far.

Last night and today we got about a foot of snow, and i went through a tank of gas on my snow blower. I like using my snow blower and i usually go all way down the sidewalk on my block and back. i don't know what the plow guy is going to do tomorrow and he hasn't been here all weekend, so there is a LOT of snow in the parking lot.

Wednesday will be my last day at work as i will be traveling to my wifes family for the holidays. It will be a great time. Robbie has been really looking forward to seeing everyone and is excited to be going.

Till next time

week in review

Well this week is finally over. to show the multitude of tasks i have to know in my lone of work, i will give a rundown of the jobs i did this week.

Monday - Remodeled a kitchen...take down all old cabinets, remove all fixtures off walls, repair walls as needed, locate studs in walls, hangs wall cabinets, and trim work, set base cabinets and trim work, hook up the plumbing for the sink and sprayer, dishwasher, ice maker, and garbage disposal.

Tuesday - Replace 7 upstairs windows... remove all window trim, remove all old window and hardware, remove any unneeded jamb material, remove storm window, insert new window, plum and level window in opening, screw window to jamb, insulate around entire window, replace moldings as needed, caulk as needed, get ladder from truck, working from ladder, insulate front of new window, add trim as needed, caulk as needed.

Wednesday - replace 9 downstairs windows...same as above but a little easier as ladder USUALLY isn't needed, especially by me.

Thursday - replace entire plumbing system for drains in entire remodeled house (3 bath, 4 bedroom, kitchen, laundry room, in three story house). finished almost all the drain lines, will finish tomorrow (Friday)

Friday - finish drain line plumbing and start supply lines for water, connected all gas lines for furnace, and water heater, got furnace running ( thank goodness for that, as it is COLD COLD COLD out right now)

Saturday - I will be replacing 3 windows at 2 different houses, install 2 storm doors, then go to my Boss's house to try to finish sanding his Sheetrock on his addition.

cant wait till vacation, 6 work days a week are long and tiring. need rest. speaking of which...I'm off to bed now. Have a great week and talk to you all again soon.

10 days in review

Well once again i have forgotten to update this little history lesson of my life. trust me I'm really trying to keep it updated.

Been working really hard the last ten days. Ive remodeled a kitchen, bathroom, rebuilt a 2 story deck with steps, painted cedar siding to FINALLY finish a job that's been dragged out for a month now, installed a dishwasher, garbage disposal and water line for an ice maker, re roofed a barn, and am now building sliding doors for said barn. tomorrow, depending on the weather ( lots of snow likely), will be either remodeling a kitchen, or completely renovating a bathroom in a high end house.

a few more weeks and i will be ready for the upcoming holidays with my family. i really enjoy spending time with them even my Father-In-Law (figure that one out). All Robbie talks about is when it snows is going to see Grandma, grandpa, uncle Rick, two Amanda's, baby Hope, and ......whats that big guys name?????(Carl), and of course Bob and Eleanore (Wendy)

Well that is it for now.

another week another job.

well another week has past us by with some cold wet weather. I'm still working for the same company but we have had a variety of jobs this week. I started the week by finishing up refurbishing a mobile home. piece of advice...if you own a trailer and want to redo it, its cheaper and easier to buy a new one. this one was a real piece of work.

then i did some plumbing work for another job did quit a few installs for Lowe's, and then finished up the week by getting the ceiling installed in by bosses addition and running the electrical lines for him.

i also had a small accident while replacing the deck boards for one job. i tried to take the fast hard way down without using the stairs but luckily b y leg got caught in between the joists and i stopped. good thing i had my utility knife in my cargo pocket or i may have broke my leg above the knee. but i didn't just some bruising and scrapes is all.

i now have to find something else to do on Sunday afternoons, as the NASCAR season has ended. My Driver (Jeff Gordon) ended up finishing 2ND best in the season, But Jimmie Johnson won the championship. Jeff actually owns half Jimmie's car, plus they are also teammates under Hendrick Motorsports. It was a great season and cant wait till February when the 50Th Daytona 500 is run. Guess i can get some stuff done around the house this winter.

well guess that's it for this week will update again really soon.

Last day in NYC and trip home

Well we woke up on Monday and it was time to go. Lani was really sore and walking funny(who would not be) so we took our time packing. I took some pictures from the window of our room on the 41st floor.

in the picture on the left i thought was neat that they were doing construction way up the building. probably 35 floors up. the picture on the right was cool because of the patio on the roof of the building again 35 or so stories up.

these pictures were taken of the East River or the Hudson River. we have yet been able to figure out which one. the second picture is of a ferry, which was taken with max zoom on my camera. you can kind of see it on the first picture.

the picture on the left is taken looking across the city. the last picture was taken looking down at the street at the horendous traffic.

the drive home seemed to take forever. we stopped a few times to eat and stretch. stopped once outside the city and i paid 10 dollars for 2 corn dogs and fries. what was surprising is that the gas was cheaper in the city than here in watertown. finally got home only to hear that we are expecting snow this week. oh what joy. speak again soon

NYC day 2

Just thought i would start off with a picture of a very tired little boy. he had a long day of traveling and then seeing all the sights in the big city.

Well here it is marathon dayt and Lani was gone before Robbie and I got up. we went to McDonalds for breakfast then came back to the room to watch the coverage on TV. we were waiting for the updates that i was supposed to get on my phone but all i got was the 30K and 40 K alerts. while Robbbie and i were out we saw some street dancers. they were dancing and jumping and such it was pretty fun and Robbie thought it was good.

we then started to walk to central park to try to see Lani running and boy what a mad house that was. the news estimated that there were over 2 million people there along the 26.2 mile route watching and cheering the runners on. so we took a casual stroll through central park where we saw the central park ice rink. it looks like a lake but it is really a ice rink with people skating on it.

We finally saw Lani about a half mile from the finish. she was really hurting but when she saw Robbie and I she really seemed to pick up and then we walked with her for a bit cheering her on then waited for her to finish as we could not get near the start finish line.

And finally on the way home i thought i would get a picture for all of you Late Show with David Letterman fans. the studio is right down from the hotel. BTW we are in the middle of the theatre district so i have see where they are showing "Chicago""the Color Purple""Mama Mia""Wise Guys" among others. wish we had the time and assests to see some of these. We have also seen the CNN Building, The Trump Plazas, the NBC Morning show studios, and lots others i cant think of at the moment. will be walking around more tomorrow and taking more pictures. will write again soon .

NEW YORK CITY

OMG that's about all i can say about this place. I'm sure glad that I'm only here for a few days. this place is a big mess.we first went to the expo center and what a place that is. had to pay 20 dollars just to park for a few hours. then we had to drive in circles to get to our hotel. then used the valet parking at the hotel. finally got to our room (which BTW would have cost us $300 plus tax a night) and start getting settled and i check the Internet and it is costing us $15.00 a day to use the Internet. we finally left to get to dinner and the pasta dinner was great with free drinks (including my favorite beer, Coors Light), which BTW was in the southern part of central park at tavern on the green in the crystal room. then we took Robbie to a cool play area while we waited for the fire works. the playground was provided by Ester and Joseph Louder (makeup fame). it was really nice and Robbie had lots of fun. and got really tired. then we watched the fireworks and finally got back to the hotel to get some sleep. Lani has to get up early in the morning for the marathon so she going to crash soon. will post pictures later and will write another blog on our activities tomorrow

good news bad news

well the good news is that im finally done at the farm as we have completed phase one of the remodeling. im also working 40 + hours a week. the bad news is that i fried my PC's hard drive and possibly the key board. i have a new hard drive but will have to go find a cheap keyboard till i can figure out why my keyboard wont work. thanks Rick for the help with the computer. without a keyboard its taking longer than i want to reload everything on it but now i have 160 Gb of space to use. so now my games should be a little faster. talk abain soon

another long weekend

well had another long weekend, but then again i get long weekends almost every weekend. im off today because the the job we had lined up for today wont be ready for a few more days. so i will be pouring a concrete slab that will be 200 feet by 202 feet and 6 inches thick, IF they have the site work done. yesterday RObbie and I sat down and had dinner picnic style in the living room. Lani was gone on a gig so it was just the two of us. Robbie went upstairs and got a blanket and we sat on the living room floor and watched a TV show called Dirty Jobs, which i like, which was on bug breeding. it was a good show and robbie like it. will talk more later

another work week

well this week started off with finishing repairs on the roofs of 2 old barns and clean up the barn we built to get ready for the cows to occupy it. this area is busy with corn harvest which is about 2 weeks early due to the lack of rain. Tomorrow i will be starting a remodeling job somewhere in Watertown. will let you know about that tomorrow. oh i forgot last week my boss gave me an air compressor that didn't work for him. said it was something wrong with the regulator or something. I'm going to get it looked at and see if i can get it fixed. so this is a possible new idea for birthday and Christmas gifts as air tools are pretty reasonable at most stores.

bye for now

got to catch up

sorry i haven't posted this is difficult for me to remember to write stuff down. well since the last time i talked we went to the Great New York State Fair. what a mad house that was. too many people crammed into a small space and it was a long day. but they had some cool stuff to see and i got to talk to the lady who runs the dairy farm where i been doing some work at. she was there showing some Jersey Heifers. she ended up with a 3rd place and a 4th place. i also have a picture of a calf that was about 2 minutes old at the time of the pic. if you get squeamish then i suggest you don't look. it does have a little blood on it and some other things. but it is awesome seeing a calf being born.

and of course i forgot i had my camera at the fair till the afternoon but i did get some with my phone of Robbie and Lani in the morning then i remembered i had the camera.

this is a giraffe that was at the petting zoo at the fair. there were 2 there and you could feed them and such but Robbie got scared. geez they are some tall animals. next we have Robbie bunny and then mommy and Robbie sheep. there were a whole lot of different animals at the fair which was surprising to me. it was a great time and lots of fun

FINALLY we get to see a race

Well mother nature finally let us see the race. it was a great race and Robbie got to see it too.



Here is Lani and Robbie getting ready for the race to start.


you can barely see it, but ESPN was doing live feeds from pit road before the race started.


Here is Jeff Gordon #24 (my favorite driver) leading the race. it took me about 15 trys to get this picture. he didn't win the race.:(


It was a great race and i will somehow post some videos i made from the race.

we will be going back home tomorrow so will probably talk to you all then.

another rainy day at the race

Well the race was rained out again for yet another day, so we will try again tomorrow. so we went walking around again.


this is a picture of the tunnels that are used to enter the infield of the track.


this is a picture of Lani from the top of the stands. Can you find her?



this is a picture of the Official Pace Car of NASCAR. the Chevy Impalla SS.








this is a panoramic view of the track from the top of the grandstands.




hopefully i will have more for you tomorrow. the weather is supposed to be better .

Rainy day at NASCAR Race

hey again all

Well went to the race track early this morning to sit around and get wet. the race was postponed till Monday at noon, so will be going back to hopefully see a race. still had a good time and got to see some things that i never got to see before like visiting pit road. that was really cool and pit road is where the teams will change 4 tires and add 18 gallons of fuel in under 14 seconds.

then i caught a picture of the official pace car for the race being driven by NASCAR president Mike Helton, while he was out checking the condition of the track from all the rain that was coming down

here are a couple of pictures of Lani and I standing at the finish line. usually at this point there would be sayings and such all over it but due to the rain our sharpies would not work.

and finally here is a picture of me and my wonderful friend and wife Lani with me at Victory lane where the winner is awarded the race trophy and such, plus gets to celebrate with his crew.

I will be getting more pictures tomorrow so stay tuned to this same blog channel, different blog time.

the start of a great weekend

well I'm now in the lower peninsula of Michigan. Lani bought me tickets to the NASCAR race at Michigan International Speedway. So tomorrow we will be spending all day at the race track (pray for no rain). its about a 10 hour trip to get to Ricks house from ours in New York. MIS is one of the few race tracks that i haven't been too yet. its even better that my favorite driver (Jeff Gordon) won the pole for the race.

another day closer to a great weekend

well i got a story to tell. a few days ago i was working in one of the dairy barns replacing a cow watering tub. i was ankle deep in cow poop and next thing i know a cow pooped on my foot, and another tried to pee on me. case you didn't know cows are literally dumb animals, but sure are curious. i was doing the plumbing work and two other guys were fending off the cows that were coming over to help me. seemed like they all wanted to get into it a little. especially the one cow that started licking the back of my arm and then grabbed my shirt and tried to pull me out of the way. i am including pics of the barn we finished building today and will be cleaning up tomorrow for cows arrival probably by Monday. this barn is going to be the "new" maternity barn and day care for calves. the calves will stay in this barn from the time they are weened till they are 2 years old and then can be bred and milked. they milk the cows for up to 300 days till the cows need to be bred again. these pictures are of the barn we built. actually have the pics backwards.the left pic belongs on the Right side and vice-versa. the little black truck you see in the left picture is my truck and I'm sitting on the pad that's used to feed the cows. there are 2 rows of 18 x18 inch tile to protect the cows tongues. to the left of the right pics is a feed corn field that covers about 500 acres. just one of many. they also grow their own hay, alfalfa, and a few acres of sweet corn for personal use. everything the grow (except the sweet corn) is to feed the cows. they have a patented feed formula that helps to let them get 3 milkings a day instead of the usual 2. don't ask me i don't know. this is my first time around a dairy setting. these cows never leave the barns unless they somehow sneak out. I'm used to free range cattle. well guess that was quite a day so talk to you again so.

start of a new era

hi all. I decided to start posting my daily and weekly happenings.



First off, in case you don't know, i started a new job about 3 weeks ago. I'm back to working in the construction field. I'm working for a company does specializes in dairy farm construction work. the pictures are of a concrete "poop chute" that's used to push all the cow poop out of the barn into the poop lagoon, which is then used to fertilize the field of feed corn, hay, alfalfa, and sweet corn.

The first picture is looking out from the barn to the lagoon. and the second picture is a side view. the reason for the chute is that the barn has a special attachment to their skid-steer that pushes the poop to the lagoon. The poles you see spaced out will have a top rail attached in the near future to prevent the c ow from getting out if the somehow get into the chute. This is my first project with the company that i did mostly on my own. i will take pictures of the barn we built and show those next time. Everything is going great and i really like this job as its with a small company with just a few people. i only work 4 days a week but sometime i do work 5 if i want to. so i get to spend more time with my family and get to relax more. guess that's all for now. Till next time