22 Things To Do

There are a LOT of blogs to read on the Internet.  One that I have been reading regularly for some time now is written by Brian Meeks, Author of "Two Decades and Counting" and the "Henry Wood Detective Agency" books.  http://extremelyaverage.com/2012/03/5623/  Yesterday his blog was about this Blog project of "22 Things To Do" and after sleeping on it I have decided to give it a shot.

  It all starts at http://arichmondwritemehappy.blogspot.com/p/22-things.html?showComment=1332104511167

My 22 Things to do:

1. Transplant plants into garden outside. <Done>

2. Plant seeds for next plant rotation <Done>

3. Clean Back Porch <About half done>

4. Write Blog about this "22 things to do" <Update Blog - done!>

5. Drink more water instead of soda. < I have added a second glass to my sitting area, the second glass is for water and I now drink at least one glass of water for every glass of soda that I drink. (I lost 6 pounds in about 8 days)>

6. Work on building Cyndie's new desk. <Slow progress>

7. Work on enclosing back porch. <4/3/2012 - Whew! Got this done enough to keep out the cats and dogs - Birds and Squirrels may still get in through the space just under my roof, but not for long.  I still need to put in my temperature controls to let heat out or to trap the heat in as desired.>

8. Fill Trash barrel before taking it out to road each week until yard is cleaned up. <This is going good, I usually fill the trash before taking it out to the road now>

9. Trim hedges. <Trimmed my hedges, now I need to trim those of a neighbor across the street (She died and the house is sitting vacant)>

10. Build Treadle to replace motor for wood lathe. <On hold until I can get some money for good wood>

11. Buy new tip for Plasma cutter and cut sheet metal to size for storage. <On hold, working with old tip still>

12. Install Solar Panels on shed roof.  <I have repositioned the solar panels to get more sun, no money to build an enclosure to protect the panels from hail so I will leave them leaning against the shed on the ground for now>

13. Till dirt in garden for next month's plants. <Too many snails, putting all of my outdoor plants into pots and putting them up off the ground.  Leaving a bunch of plants indoors just in case>

14. Play MineCraft for 1 hour. <OK, slipping and not averaging an hour a day on this lately>

15. Play Wizard 101 for 1 hour. <Doing better with this, but still not averaging a full hour a day>

16. Write 500 lines of code (100 comments, 400 code) in TexLotto.asm  <Downloaded Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2010, going to develop this program in a more modern language like Visual C++ or Visual C#>

17. Install 600Gb SATA Hard Drive in old HP. <Done>

18. Install WinXP onto 600Gb drive. <Done, and even upgraded to Win7-64>

19. Move data from old 40Gb drive to 600Gb drive. <no need, had all the data on my backup 2TB USB drive>

20. Burn 2 DvDs of backup pictures. <Done, but 2 DvDs is NOT enough!  LOL!>

21. Take Nikon, 2-step pictures of the block. <Waiting for better weather, warm but not hot, and not so humid>

22. Take 3D, 2-step pictures of the block. <same comments as above>

I will be updating this blog with my progress.

#1: Transplant Plants to garden outside:

Here are the plants that I need to find a place to plant them outside.  I have already transplanted SOME of them into small pots inside as an experiment.  I used to just plant my garden in the ground but I had a neighbor that had brought in some plants from East Texas and they brought SNAILS with them!  Yuck!  I have been unable to control the snails to my liking, so most of my plants are now kept in pots and elevated to keep them away from snails (at least while they are still small and tender).

Here I show how I protect my small plants from the wind and other harsh weather when  I first put them outside.  I think the pots are about 10 inches, the plastic bottle is a 3 liter soda bottle with the bottom cut off, and there is one cut off top to a 3 liter bottle on the far right plant (I use that for really small plants).  I put the bottle over the plant and then tie the bottle down with twine.  If needed, I can put the cap back onto the bottle to provide a total cover. Some of my pots have 3 slots in the top ring for installing a hanger, but I use them to position my support twine.  I wrap the twine up and around the top of the bottle and back down to the same slot, the around the underside of the pot's lip to the next slot, then up and around the top of the bottle from there, and down, around the lip, back up and around the top of the bottle one more time so that there are a total of 3 loops around the bottle top.  I then tie the twine together where it comes out from under the lip of the pot to to up around the top of the bottle.

Left: Top of Plastic bottle after 3 loops of twine installed.  Center: Starting to tie up the twine where it comes around the lip of the Pot.  Right: Start of Square Knot at bottom.

I start my knot, then move it so it is under the lip of the pot and complete the square knot.  Now to continue until I have all of my plants in pots either inside or outside.