ordered the cinva ram

[benevolance]

Plans that is ....Hope to get them any day...Going to start making earth blocks for a greenhouse and a fence around the property...

Anyone out there used the ram to make blocks....Anyone have some info to share? I checked with the local quarry and they have abundant sand and clay so I was going to get a load dumped in the yard

Figure I will use a little portland cement and some colouring (wife wants the greenhouse to be coloured)

Greenhouse will be 26 wide and 24 deep and the inner structure will be a garden /tool shed...It will be 12x20 outside measurements...

the roof will extend to the front of the shed 4 feet and out the sides 6 feet and that area will be enclosed with glass....The recycled windows out of my house the outer shell structure will be the greenhouse

Getting pretty excited about it...My wife loves to garden so she actually is pretending to love me again

If there are do's and don'ts with making these blocks I would love a heads up from anyone...

I went to a few sites and looked at some blocks other people made....That is what made me decide to spend $50 and order the plans....I think that the ram does a good job and the blocks look damned good

Went to other sites and looked at the area and shape trying to determine the amount of heat and all that to keep the greenhouse warm...But this is south carolina...Just a little tiny bit of thermal protection is all the orange and lemon trees will need from the half adozen nights where frost hits here....I will need to worry more about designing the water pipe for inside the greenhouse and drainage....as well as ventilation in the summertime.

Now that I am the master of central air and heating installation....I am ready to work on the outside of the house a little...It is planting time here in South carolina for grapes and Fruit trees....So the wife and I are excited to get some food growing....

Going to hurt to cut down half a dozen oak trees to make this happen though....I hate cutting down trees...the dozen fruit trees we are planting will balance it out I guess?

Need to save up some serious money for new windows....The old windows out of the house will be used to enclose the greenhouse....I need 31 windows for the downstairs of my house...Mostly they are 34 inches wide by 5 feet tall....Expensive is all I can say....

The downstairs will get windows this year and the upstairs will get windows next year....Unless I make more money than usual

Central heating and air and new columns under the house with the new windows will have to keep the wife happy for year 1

maybe the greenhouse will distract her from the fact that the house will not be finished? Smoke and mirrors is sometimes needed in marriage?

we will need to grow a lot of food if I keep spending money at the current pace....Stuff is so epensive!..I must be getting old....Remember when we were all kids and our uncles or grandparents would moan about how epensive everything was....I am turning into that cranky old uncle...but damn it if it is not true....It is very expensive to do anything....we save and save and the money gets spent in one day what it takes us a month to save.....

no use to complain.... but dang it I hate being broke....I made $2000 profit last week off car sales and I spent it all over the weekend here at the house with the wife....

My wife is pretty good I have to give her credit...She did not complain at all about not having a bed for the last 4 months....We got one over the week-end....I told her I would buy her whatever she wanted when we had the money so we got a orthopedic plush queen size pillow top set....Expensive but it was what she wanted...

Just that you think you have a pocket full of cash and then poof you are broke....I got lucky and installed central heating and air for $1000....But it will cost me about $8000 for windows....

I told the wife she needed to get a second job....I was kidding...sort of

[glenn-k]

We got a orthopedic plush queen size pillow top set....Expensive but it was what she wanted...

Congrats on the new workbench, Peter.

The formula for most earth building is 30% clay 70% sand including aggregate.  Try around 5 to 7 % added Portland Cement powder well mixed in.  I'm sure you will be using a pretty dry mix - just enough moisture to make it stick together under pressure.  This will feel like damp soil.

[benevolance]

Glenn

I thought a move to the other side of the state would eliminate the problem of having neighbors...Well I was WRONG!

Nobody lived here for a year and nobody raked up the leaves for several years...So I have been raking my arms off.. and burning leaves....Had some 90 year old dude park in front of my house get out walk upto the house to get the house number and get back in his cadillac SUV and call the fire department on me....

So this afternoon 4 firetrucks showed up to dump water on half a dozen wheel barrow loads of leaves raked up in a small pile in my yard.

I checked with the fire department and there is no restriction on burning the leaves and a permit is not needed....But they have to come and extinguish the fire when they get called...

It was hilarious to think of...I was out raking leaves and picking up broken limbs and pulling wysteria out of the ground....I need help on how to kill that....It is like some alien plant from another galaxy...all consuming!

I was out there raking and I heard all these sirens...the 4 water trucks and then a couple pick ups and the fire chief in his car...They all come up my little street a hundred miles an hour to my lawn....I just stood there and sort of laughed and said...."you gotta be joking me right?"

they were nice enough about it....But kinda lame...Dude says to me....Try to burn in the winter time..when it is cold.....This is winter time in South Carolina and weather in the daytime below 50 degrees is usually unheard of...

the other guy says to me...Try burning the leaves in the pouring rain....Yes leaves burn so well when they are soaking wet...Brilliant

I just love having neighbors

Sometimes I wish we had bought land out in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Tennessee....

So now I have to explain to my wife that we need to bag up a hundred large garbage bags of leaves and haul them across the county to the dump.....

We have to do this, despite it not being illegal to burn leaves...... Why don't they just make it illegal and be done with it....I mean if there is all these hoops to jump through...

you gotta love having neighbors

you just gotta

[desdawg]

Sounds to me like you had trespassers. Maybe a few signs..........

[benevolance]

well the tresspassing sign only does so much....There is a little smoke from burning some leaves....They could call 911 and say there was an out of control fire or something....

I dunno....It just pisses me off to think that someone would complain about anything....I mean people have burnt their leaves for hundreds of years....When they were young I bet they burnt leaves...Only now it is wrong and I am a horrible person for burning leaves and cleaning up my property?

I cannot wait to get started on walling up my property fast enough.......And the no trespassing signs are a damned good idea...Never though I would need them though

[glenn-k]

That is really something, Peter -- That is why you just have to hate at least some people.

How about composting them and using them on your garden.  A bit of nitrogen fertilizer, water every few days - turn them over every few days and you have great soil to grow your food in.  They will get hot and decompose themselves into soil if you do it right.  Takes around a month depending on how well you take care of it...Just a few minutes every week if the pile is not too big.  It will go down to about 1/3 of its volume when done.  Worms help too.

[benevolance]

Glenn

I was trying for the ashes as fertilizer....I have reason to believe the ashes are better than mulching the leaves for fertilizer...Just some research and a hunch....read somewhere that in asia fetrilizer and leaves are burnt and then the ashes get dumped in the fields or on the garden....to increase productivity of the soil....Supposed to increase the amount of nutrients the soil is capable of holding for tremendous gains in yield

Guess I should 've just mulched

Yes Hate is a funny thing....I mean you would think we would save something as terrible as hate for a holes like Hitler.... or Tim McVie

I guess some people just are not happy to leave others alone...

Funny thing is that a small part of the leaf pile they watered down was still going so I raked it up and helped it out and it has been burning ever since...It is 1:22 am here and I went out an hour ago and lit another huge pile...they are blazing out there and no fire department...

I should not have to burn my leaves in the middle of the night to avoid being told on to the local fire department....I mean this is so juvenile...I feel like I am 10 and sneaking down to the icebox for a snack after my bedtime

[glenn-k]

Fireplace wood ashes contain nutrients also - I researched ashes and posted something about it here a long time ago.  You are correct on the future growth enhancement - takes a couple years to get best benefit.  I am starting to carry a little sack of ashes around in my front pocket.  Planning ahead. :-?

BTW McViegh was likely a scapegoat and probably somewhere sipping margaritas.  No way an open air anfo bomb blew up the Murrah Building - besides it was still full of bombs after the main explosion.  More NWO fear mongering and false flag operations just like the WTC.

Now look there -- you went and made me make an off topic remark.

:-/

The building department taught me how to shift the blame and liability that way.

[benevolance]

Well if the ash is great for future growth in the front pocket area my wife will be a happy camper

And yeah I wondered about McVie...I mean they had this guy within minutes in their sights after the explosion...It was almost too easy

I doubt he is drinking margaritas though.....

I mean if you want to blow up something and you are a mastermind you steal the van... you do not rent it in your name or someone's name  who is linked to you

those things just do not happen unless it is fox stupidest criminals show

Off topic is my favorite...I am all over the place in life...stream of consciousness...In conversation and in everything I do....It should be no different here Glenn.

[glenn-k]

Or unless you are a government insider in a false flag operation.  It was said that he didn't look dead after he died - opened an eye-took a squinty little peek.  So now with his new government secret identity and a pocket full of coin, he's off somewhere sipping margaritas.

[desdawg]

I guess some people just don't have enough to do so they try to mind other peoples business. I get along much better with dog's than I do with people. I have always had so much going on in my own life that I never had enough time to try to paddle anyone elses canoe. I like it in the mountains with no one else around. I think every one else is tied up at the HOA committee meeting writing rules to make their neighbors more acceptable.

[benevolance]

paddle someone else's canoe...That is brilliant...Can I use that?

Well between trying to eke out a living, paying bills keeping my wife happy and working on this old piece of junk house I too have no time to even look in my neighbors yards...I could not tell you how many cars they have or the size of their homes.....I also don't care...

What really amazes me is that on your own land it used to be you could do what you wanted within reason...and it was nobody else's business... If they did not like it....Too bad not your land.. go away

Now it is like....Please can I plant a tree, or trim some bushes....Yes I know chainsaws are too noisey So I will chew the old tree branches down with my teeth and....Later on superman will come by with his laser vision to incinerate the leaves because we know you do not want your new lexus to be exposed to a little smoke.... Oh and I plan on painting the trim of the house and landscaping....and I know it might make your house look too drab or clash with the theme of the street so I will make sure to forward my plans to everyone else on the street to make sure you all agree with my plans before I start.

I scared away the baptist cavalry the other sunday.....I was outside trying to kill wysteria....The stuff is unstoppable I swear....Anyways a couple of guys in a Mercedes drove into the yard with bibles trying to get us to go to the church....

Here is what happened...

Them: Brother, praise the lord we found you...Why are you out here working on the sabbath when the lord has given us this day in his name...

Me: Well when Jesus comes down and pays my bills, I guess I will stop working.

Them: How much money is ever enough Brother? The sabbath is holy

Me: Easy for you to say...you have gold rings on every finger and a brand new Mercedes..I drive a $300 Chevy and the only jewlery I own is a wedding ring... this house is not as nice as some of the others, but you know what, it is paid for and it is mine...And so is my car and the clothes on my back.... I will not have someone come here and tell me what I should be doing, when I should be working... What I am doing is not perfect but it is working for me. What I am doing is without debts when 90% of the people I know are swimming in debt...etc...

Tell you what guys....When you donate everything you have that is not essential to your survival to the church....And are content to live a meager live with bread water and basic shelter....We will talk....Because you do not need earthly possessions to serve God's will.... Then when you come here and tell me what is the best way for me to live my life on my own land then you will not be hippocrits.....

Hehe... The wife was mad because it is a small town and she works with teachers that have tried to recruit her to their church....I guess door to door recruitment is a every so often thing here....I just hope I sent them away running fast enough that they will tell all their friends I am a heathen.....And they will leave me the hell alone.

I am not a gun person....I have never owned one....Just felt like I never really needed one.....Makes me mad when people run their mouth or act tough... but when someone stands up to them they mention that they have a gun or go get a gun....

It would be satisfying to ask one of the people bothering me if they wanted to meet the lord in about oh say ten seconds as I load the gun in front of them....

Yes I am getting some tresspassers will be shot signs and posting them

[glenn-k]

Did you mention that the sabbath is actually on Saturday, Peter.  That probably doesn't fit into their schedule.

Most of the holidays they observe have major pagan origins so if you end up in Hell for your bad attitude you will probably see a bunch of them there too -- at least the ones who were wrong, eh?

I'm indifferent - had enough of man's style of religion as a kid.  Now I figure that God is powerful enough that if there is a way for me to go he will direct me without me donating to one of mans churches.  If he is the god directing dubya then I know I'm still looking for the right one.    God doesn't cost money - self appointed middlemen do.

The two greatest commandments do it for me, and they don't cost money.

http://blogs.salon.com/0001847/stories/2004/08/25/theTwoGreatestCommandments.html

Note -- I am not preaching - will not even try - just posted that for those who haven't heard of them.

[benevolance]

Not bad advice...Mind you I do not want to go to a place where Dubbya is going...

And yes I know the sabbath is on Saturday...7th day adventists practice saturday as the sabbath