Apropos of nothing, but its been so quiet here I thought I'd say what Ive
been up to.

Fixing that dang ugly swamp cooler is what. I showed pix here last year, I
think.

I must have bought it 8-9 yrs ago and never - I mean never- did any sort of
maintainance to it. The cooling pads were completely encrusted in CaCo3
crust even to the point it was creeping under the paint in a layer 3 mm
thick. Over the years various home renovations created airborne dirt and
dust, which was sucked through the pads, making them a dirty, crusty brick.

So, it came to pass that on the hottest day of the year (so far) with the GH
receiving little or no benefit from said swamp cooler, I chose to replace
the cool pads. The motor still works great, but the air through the pads
was only a few degrees cooler than ambient temperature. Indeed, the GH in
full sun was at the same temp as it was on my patio in the shade (on July
4th that was 95F, might have been higher, I tend to block out bad news).
July 5th I found a hardware store that carried cooling pads, and working in
the horrid heat, for it never occurred to me not to - am I stupid or what? -
I set about tearing the cooling pads out of their panels.

Luckily the metal holding the pads in place were totally corroded and rusted
so bending it open was easy work, many times bending it by hand. The old
disgusting pads fell away from teh panels and now the real work began.

After several trips to the hardware store I finally got a wire brush that
mounted to my cordless drill to scrape the paint and CaCO3 away. An old
bottle of Naval Jelly helped a bit, replacing my 1st attempt to dissolve the
CaCO3 with vinegar. If I was smarter a layer of paint remover would have
moved the project forward faster. It was on one of these hardware store
trips that the man at the store said, 'you aren't working on this *now* are
you?' meaning wait till the sun goes down you idiot. But my heat stroked
countenance must had marked me as a liar when I answered 'Of Course Not!'.
He kindly allowed me to save face. (I have always depended on the kindess
of strangers.)

July 5th saw the 1st panel of 3 cleaned of CaCO3, the preponderance of
cruddy paint removed, a new layer of paint sprayed on, and the new pads cut
to size and installed. Placing that one panel back in the swamp cooler at 8
PM dropped the GH temp 5 degrees in 2 minutes. Yes, the swamp cooler was
still running at 8PM. Interior temps (operating w/o one panel - so it was
sucking ambient air into the GH), had gotten to 100F inside the gh. By 8PM
the interior temp had dropped to 85. Installing the one panel dropped it to
82, the thermostat's set point. July 6th saw the second panel repaired in
the same way, and today July 7th I'll complete the project, which I've
gotten pretty quick at, though the cordless drill isn't happy. I think its
suing for new rechargable batteries.

What are you doing this weekend?

K Barrett

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 07:43:15 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote:

What are you doing this weekend?

Earlier today I changed 25% of the water in my big fish tank. Then I
sat out in the Sun for a hour. Now I will continue implementing all
the user requests in my software.

I don't know what I will be doing tomorrow - it's too far in the
future for my planning.

Steve

--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software Ltd

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.

http://www.easynn.com

"K Barrett" wrote in message
...
Apropos of nothing, but its been so quiet here I thought I'd say what Ive
been up to.

Fixing that dang ugly swamp cooler is what. I showed pix here last year,
I think.

I must have bought it 8-9 yrs ago and never - I mean never- did any sort
of maintainance to it. The cooling pads were completely encrusted in
CaCo3 crust even to the point it was creeping under the paint in a layer 3
mm thick. Over the years various home renovations created airborne dirt
and dust, which was sucked through the pads, making them a dirty, crusty
brick.

So, it came to pass that on the hottest day of the year (so far) with the
GH receiving little or no benefit from said swamp cooler, I chose to
replace the cool pads. The motor still works great, but the air through
the pads was only a few degrees cooler than ambient temperature. Indeed,
the GH in full sun was at the same temp as it was on my patio in the shade
(on July 4th that was 95F, might have been higher, I tend to block out bad
news). July 5th I found a hardware store that carried cooling pads, and
working in the horrid heat, for it never occurred to me not to - am I
stupid or what? - I set about tearing the cooling pads out of their
panels.

Luckily the metal holding the pads in place were totally corroded and
rusted so bending it open was easy work, many times bending it by hand.
The old disgusting pads fell away from teh panels and now the real work
began.

After several trips to the hardware store I finally got a wire brush that
mounted to my cordless drill to scrape the paint and CaCO3 away. An old
bottle of Naval Jelly helped a bit, replacing my 1st attempt to dissolve
the CaCO3 with vinegar. If I was smarter a layer of paint remover would
have moved the project forward faster. It was on one of these hardware
store trips that the man at the store said, 'you aren't working on this
*now* are you?' meaning wait till the sun goes down you idiot. But my
heat stroked countenance must had marked me as a liar when I answered 'Of
Course Not!'. He kindly allowed me to save face. (I have always depended
on the kindess of strangers.)

July 5th saw the 1st panel of 3 cleaned of CaCO3, the preponderance of
cruddy paint removed, a new layer of paint sprayed on, and the new pads
cut to size and installed. Placing that one panel back in the swamp
cooler at 8 PM dropped the GH temp 5 degrees in 2 minutes. Yes, the swamp
cooler was still running at 8PM. Interior temps (operating w/o one
panel - so it was sucking ambient air into the GH), had gotten to 100F
inside the gh. By 8PM the interior temp had dropped to 85. Installing the
one panel dropped it to 82, the thermostat's set point. July 6th saw the
second panel repaired in the same way, and today July 7th I'll complete
the project, which I've gotten pretty quick at, though the cordless drill
isn't happy. I think its suing for new rechargable batteries.

What are you doing this weekend?

K Barrett

I should mention that today the marine layer has moved onshore and its now
freezing outside. Had I but sat and dithered for 48 hours I could have
saved myself a ton of work... *G*! Never do today what you an put off till
tomorrow.

K Barrett

K Barrett wrote:
Apropos of nothing, but its been so quiet here I thought I'd say what Ive
been up to.

Fixing that dang ugly swamp cooler is what. I showed pix here last year, I
think.

It was on one of these hardware store
trips that the man at the store said, 'you aren't working on this *now* are
you?' meaning wait till the sun goes down you idiot.

What are you doing this weekend?

K Barrett



Well, there IS something to be said for doing things at night when it's
cooler, but then you can't always see well enough to do them, even with
supplemental lighting.

What am I doing this weekend? Well, it depends on how one defines
'weekend'. If that's 'Saturday and Sunday', well then I'm working long
hard days, as I always do on weekends, as does everyone else in the
restaurant business (and many, many others). If, however, it means what
I've come to know it as for the last twenty-five years or so, the two
days off after one's workweek, in my case, Monday and Tuesday, well then
I'm finishing attaching the shadecloth to my newly-built GH (got the
shadecloth on and the sides attached but held off on the far end til I
got the gutter on - which was done this week) and building benches and
hopefully (if my roommate has run out the utilities as planned) moving
plants out of the growrooms and into the GH.

Wish me luck! Mothing else has gone as quickly or smoothly as expected
with this project!

"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 07:43:15 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote:

What are you doing this weekend?

Earlier today I changed 25% of the water in my big fish tank. Then I
sat out in the Sun for a hour. Now I will continue implementing all
the user requests in my software.

I don't know what I will be doing tomorrow - it's too far in the
future for my planning.

Steve

The aquarium water is good for your orchids!

K Barrett

"tennis maynard" wrote in message
...
I'm finishing attaching the shadecloth to my newly-built GH (got the
shadecloth on and the sides attached but held off on the far end til I got
the gutter on - which was done this week) and building benches and
hopefully (if my roommate has run out the utilities as planned) moving
plants out of the growrooms and into the GH.

Wish me luck! Mothing else has gone as quickly or smoothly as expected
with this project!

A new GH! How fun! I loved framing/sheathing mine, but found the finish
work tedium. Many skinned knuckles. And I only sawed partway through the
saw horse, I *never* actually made it all the way through. (True story)

Measure twice, cut once and still be bewildered that it isn't right. That's
my motto.

K Barrett

Puppy sitting!

Our chocolate Labrador, Baci, had a litter of 6 pups (4 chocolate and 2
black) last Monday night and they have been keeping us busy ever since (see
pics on ABPO). It was quite a traumatic evening as the first one was born in
the back seat of the car outside the vet's surgery, the next one came about
40 minutes later at home but after a wait of another two hours with no
further births we had to take her in for an emergency Caesar. Found that
Baci had a ruptured uterus and one of the pups had blocked the birth canal
and had died blocking the birth of the other ones. Another was deformed and
didn't make it but we managed to save the other four. Baci is now stitched
up and doing fine.

Ever since it has been a case of watching the pups eat and sleep
continuously all day. They have doubled their weight in 5 days!

Unfortunately the orchid collection is being neglected.

~John


"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 07:43:15 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote:

What are you doing this weekend?

Earlier today I changed 25% of the water in my big fish tank. Then I
sat out in the Sun for a hour. Now I will continue implementing all
the user requests in my software.

I don't know what I will be doing tomorrow - it's too far in the
future for my planning.

Steve

--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software Ltd

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.

http://www.easynn.com

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 08:09:08 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote:


"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 07:43:15 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote:

What are you doing this weekend?

Earlier today I changed 25% of the water in my big fish tank. Then I
sat out in the Sun for a hour. Now I will continue implementing all
the user requests in my software.

I don't know what I will be doing tomorrow - it's too far in the
future for my planning.

Steve

The aquarium water is good for your orchids!

K Barrett


I don't know. It's very alkaline for the Lake Tanganyika fish. Do
orchids like pH 8 ?

Steve

--
Steve Wolstenholme Neural Planner Software Ltd

EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.

http://www.easynn.com

"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 08:09:08 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote:


"Steve Wolstenholme" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 07:43:15 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote:

What are you doing this weekend?

Earlier today I changed 25% of the water in my big fish tank. Then I
sat out in the Sun for a hour. Now I will continue implementing all
the user requests in my software.

I don't know what I will be doing tomorrow - it's too far in the
future for my planning.

Steve

The aquarium water is good for your orchids!

K Barrett


I don't know. It's very alkaline for the Lake Tanganyika fish. Do
orchids like pH 8 ?

Steve


oof! No they don't! They like the, er, detritus.... But pH 8 is no good.
Lake Tanganyika fish, eh? I had to google those...
http://i.ugtz.com/gallery/Lake-Tanganyika-Fish There are quites a few more
than just ciclids, eh? Another fellow here used to have ciclids and we
discussed using the old water on orchids. Others I know have used old koi
pond water for orchids. Amazing what one learns online.

K Barrett

"John Varigos" wrote in message
om...
Puppy sitting!

Our chocolate Labrador, Baci, had a litter of 6 pups (4 chocolate and 2
black) last Monday night and they have been keeping us busy ever since
(see pics on ABPO). It was quite a traumatic evening as the first one was
born in the back seat of the car outside the vet's surgery, the next one
came about 40 minutes later at home but after a wait of another two hours
with no further births we had to take her in for an emergency Caesar.
Found that Baci had a ruptured uterus and one of the pups had blocked the
birth canal and had died blocking the birth of the other ones. Another was
deformed and didn't make it but we managed to save the other four. Baci is
now stitched up and doing fine.

Ever since it has been a case of watching the pups eat and sleep
continuously all day. They have doubled their weight in 5 days!

Unfortunately the orchid collection is being neglected.

~John

AAACK!!! Poor sweet Baci! She does look good in the photos though. Y'all
must have been worried sick.

K Barrett

John Varigos wrote:
Puppy sitting!

Our chocolate Labrador, Baci, had a litter of 6 pups (4 chocolate and 2
black) last Monday night and they have been keeping us busy ever since (see
pics on ABPO). It was quite a traumatic evening as the first one was born in
the back seat of the car outside the vet's surgery, the next one came about
40 minutes later at home but after a wait of another two hours with no
further births we had to take her in for an emergency Caesar. Found that
Baci had a ruptured uterus and one of the pups had blocked the birth canal
and had died blocking the birth of the other ones. Another was deformed and
didn't make it but we managed to save the other four. Baci is now stitched
up and doing fine.

Ever since it has been a case of watching the pups eat and sleep
continuously all day. They have doubled their weight in 5 days!

Unfortunately the orchid collection is being neglected.

~John
The puppies are beautiful! I just love puppies. Used to breed Shar-Pei
puppies. Sorry you lost some; that's why I quit - it was just too hard
to lose a puppy. One of the chocolates looks consistently darker than
the others - is is a trick of the light or is it really darker?

What am I doing? Beats me, but I seem to be busy always. We're trying to
finish repotting, but it appears to be an endless loop. As usual!

As for this board being quiet, IIRC it gets this way around the turn of the
seasons. Same holds true for many businesses. People go into a different
mode for a while, and then settle back in. One of my sons is in sales here
in FL. Business always falls off for him at the beginning of summer, and
then picks back up around the second week of July.

Still, if you want noise here, I'm sure I can go outside and find a problem
plant to talk about, LOL!

Diana

"K Barrett" wrote in message
. ..
"tennis maynard" wrote in message
...
I'm finishing attaching the shadecloth to my newly-built GH (got the
shadecloth on and the sides attached but held off on the far end til I
got the gutter on - which was done this week) and building benches and
hopefully (if my roommate has run out the utilities as planned) moving
plants out of the growrooms and into the GH.

Wish me luck! Mothing else has gone as quickly or smoothly as expected
with this project!

A new GH! How fun! I loved framing/sheathing mine, but found the finish
work tedium. Many skinned knuckles. And I only sawed partway through the
saw horse, I *never* actually made it all the way through. (True story)

Measure twice, cut once and still be bewildered that it isn't right.
That's my motto.

K Barrett

Yes they are adorable and yes, you are right about the colour. The male
chocolate is a darker chocolate colour than his sisters. Might be a new
strain for breeding purposes. Heaven forbid I have to start looking at
hybrids and genetics!

I can certainly understand why you gave up breeding. I am paranoid about
Baci sleeping on one.
~John

"tennis maynard" wrote in message
...
John Varigos wrote:
Puppy sitting!

Our chocolate Labrador, Baci, had a litter of 6 pups (4 chocolate and 2
black) last Monday night and they have been keeping us busy ever since
(see pics on ABPO). It was quite a traumatic evening as the first one was
born in the back seat of the car outside the vet's surgery, the next one
came about 40 minutes later at home but after a wait of another two hours
with no further births we had to take her in for an emergency Caesar.
Found that Baci had a ruptured uterus and one of the pups had blocked the
birth canal and had died blocking the birth of the other ones. Another
was deformed and didn't make it but we managed to save the other four.
Baci is now stitched up and doing fine.

Ever since it has been a case of watching the pups eat and sleep
continuously all day. They have doubled their weight in 5 days!

Unfortunately the orchid collection is being neglected.

~John
The puppies are beautiful! I just love puppies. Used to breed Shar-Pei
puppies. Sorry you lost some; that's why I quit - it was just too hard to
lose a puppy. One of the chocolates looks consistently darker than the
others - is is a trick of the light or is it really darker?

Not to detract from Baci and her troubles, but in case you missed this about
cats:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/...ence/29cat.php

K Barrett

"John Varigos" wrote in message
om...
Yes they are adorable and yes, you are right about the colour. The male
chocolate is a darker chocolate colour than his sisters. Might be a new
strain for breeding purposes. Heaven forbid I have to start looking at
hybrids and genetics!

I can certainly understand why you gave up breeding. I am paranoid about
Baci sleeping on one.
~John

"tennis maynard" wrote in message
...
John Varigos wrote:
Puppy sitting!

Our chocolate Labrador, Baci, had a litter of 6 pups (4 chocolate and 2
black) last Monday night and they have been keeping us busy ever since
(see pics on ABPO). It was quite a traumatic evening as the first one
was born in the back seat of the car outside the vet's surgery, the next
one came about 40 minutes later at home but after a wait of another two
hours with no further births we had to take her in for an emergency
Caesar. Found that Baci had a ruptured uterus and one of the pups had
blocked the birth canal and had died blocking the birth of the other
ones. Another was deformed and didn't make it but we managed to save the
other four. Baci is now stitched up and doing fine.

Ever since it has been a case of watching the pups eat and sleep
continuously all day. They have doubled their weight in 5 days!

Unfortunately the orchid collection is being neglected.

~John
The puppies are beautiful! I just love puppies. Used to breed Shar-Pei
puppies. Sorry you lost some; that's why I quit - it was just too hard to
lose a puppy. One of the chocolates looks consistently darker than the
others - is is a trick of the light or is it really darker?

On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 07:43:15 -0700 in K Barrett wrote:

Ah the joys of trying to induce heatstroke.

Events since Canada Day started...
1) Cussed and swore at how bad Canada Day messes up traffic if you're
trying to get to the airport to head back to the US.
2) Started recovery and detox from the technical conference that had me
in Canada.
3) Picked up 42" walk behind mower from the 'rents on the 4th and mowed the
lawn. Was quite amused that I was able to mow what normally takes 4-6
hours with a 21" push mower in 2 hours.
4) Watered herb garden
5) Recuperated from jogging behind the mower.
6) Looked at fridges, stoves, and tubs, while picking up replacements
for the perennials the puppy ate. Picked up low wire fencing to keep puppy
out of perennials.
7) Placed perennials, put up fence, and watered herbs.
8) Picked and chopped herbs for spaghetti sauce to feed to the step kids
I haven't seen in 3 weeks as well as the wife and myself.
9) Started pondering the honeydo list of chicken coop, shower in the 2nd
bathroom, landscaping, greenhouse, tree removal, gutters, siding, painting...
--
Chris Dukes
elfick willg: you can't use dell to beat people, it wouldn't stand up
to the strain... much like attacking a tank with a wiffle bat