House Ghost

 

I have a house ghost.

Ok, that sounds very domestic. 

Basically I have a very shy ghost. I have 'felt' them not so much as a presence but when I do something stupid and they are questioning their after-life choices mostly when I startle myself and ugly scream. There have been a few times when I think they tried to help so I wouldn't scare the crap out of myself. but other then that? 

Now, normally I would be worried about carbon monoxide poisoning or other such out side influence, but fortunately thoughs things are soundly crossed off the list.

First, I have an old boiler but because my basement has all the drafts and part of it is open to the outside (my porch was not done properly) there is no build up of carbon monoxide. After I fix the draft problems? Well, that is one of the concerns in getting the drafts fixed.

Second, when I hear papers fall of the tables down stairs they are always right back in their place. When the mice move things they stay moved and well... Mice leave 'calling cards'. So many calling cards. The mice chase sound boxes have been working so far. 

Third, the ghost learned not to push the test button on the fire/carbon monoxide detector in the basement. The basement detector is the only one within arms reach as the other 2 are 8-10 up on the ceilings in their respective rooms. A 2am wakeup call with the test message blaring in the house was not fun and in the time it would take someone to run from the basement into my room there was suddenly the presence of someone clinging to my back like a scared cat, with the addition of 'i'msorry' & panic. 

That was the only big thing and while the ghost still moves a few things there hasn't been anything else. 

Besides, ghosts are much better then mice or rats or chipmunks or squirrels living in the walls.

Small business fail with no support

I have been talking about this for years. But I started writing this post on 5-1-2021.

 

Such a surprise (please note the sarcasm) that the unstable endless growth method for small businesses and startups... is failing. This is such a surprise.

No, no it's not. there is so much bad info out there pushing micro and small businesses to grow Grow GROW with nothing but then sell!

I literally got into an argument a few years ago at a lecture class thing that I paid for about this very problem. That nothing was actually helping or explaining how to do the business, it was only You Need To Grow!!!eleventy1!

This was the same lecture class thing were the gatekeeping useless guy was rude to people, told them to spend money on things they didn't need to and I explained everything he wouldn't after the lecture class.

This is why small business are failing, they are being given bad advise.

5-22-2021

Ah hahahahahahahahaha!

I hate being right.

If you can't afford to offer competitive pay & benifits then you can't afford to be in business. THIS INCLUDES SOLE PROPRIOTERS!!

Broken images in old posts

 

Just an update on the broken images from the older posts. They were cross posted from instagram when that was still allowed and then they changes it so that old instagram posts stop showing after so long.

This means I would have to manually fix them.

More then likely I will be deleting the post because I do not know how long that could take to fix.

At some point I might be switching to a Pillowfort account but atm that is far far down the line.

Plaster and Lath

 

Plaster and Lath. It would make a good name for a metal band because of how much I want to bang my head into a wall while working with it.

I need to get my photos sorted out to post but I didn't wait long enugh for the first coat to harden and... it pulled enough to crack.

The other thing we found is That I did put enugh plaster & presure to have it oooze out the back to lock it in place. On the rest of the wall I'm starting to think it was a lazy replacment from back then because their didn't. But a few other walls do have the ooze or keys. 

Which explaing all the poping and cracking if you look at the wall wrong.

So much work.

Also I started this blog post on 10-19-2020 and it is now 1-12-2021 as I'm finishing it. I have updates!

The normal easy to get plaster? I will work for a pretty good sized area if you are trying to get the look with a lot of work. Because normal plaster shrinks horribly and it shrinks fast. This is even with the 'protective coating' on the wooden lath.

And yes, you really do need to coat the wooden lath with something. Because my wooden lath had already been nailed back in place and I was on a deadline I painted a cement & plaster bonding agent on it. It was super helpful but because I couldn't get the back? it still dried out the plaster faster then just air alone.

Yes doing this during a very dry fall season also didn't help.

The good news is I didn't put up the lath for the first floor gap. I will be doing that section with the traditional plaster once I find the ingredients for it. It will be easier then the constant shrinkage and cracks with the normal plaster. It will also be sturdier.

The bad news is that the section I did on the second floor in the bathroom is in the best condition.

I am eventually going to pull down all the plaster in the bathroom and put drywall up onto the lath. There was a section don like that already which is why I am thinking about it. I wasn't able to properly examine the room before because of various bits of things and being under the gun to work in the plumbers window for appointments. Now that I have had plenty of time to poke around? It's the best solluton for that room.

The unfortunate catch would be that I would have to have the plumber come back and take the sink off the wall and then put it back up and move the base of the sink to it's new spot 1/2 inch out. Again. The joy of vintage pedestal sinks.

I also found in the bathroom that the original plaster is gone and there are 2 different ages of new & newer plaster. The top half is older and properly finished. The lower half is newer and just the scratch coat. In between them is this weird strip of plaster board that don't understand.

I'll probably get around to this in 2022 or when ever I can find a new & real electrician.

As a reminder, all posts show up on my Patreon two weeks earlier for $1+ supporters. Then two weeks later they will show up here on the blog. More support means more posts! And more experiments!

Mulch more

 

Yeah my 20 bags of mulch are still sitting in my driveway.

The spiders moved in and I went nope.

Good news is that the grass is now super long and laying flat so if i cover it then next spring it should smother much faster. I'm still going to try and put some newspaper on it but I don't have enugh for it to be much more then a passing hope.

oh well.

Adventure in Mulch

I have purchased mulch. This is really over simplifying it. 

I planted about 126 bulbs this past fall. I threw leafs over them thinking that all would be well and that I had no need for mulch. As time went on I re-thought this because it looks like just bare dirt and if there is nothing covering it then the weeds will take over.

By weeds I specifically mean ragweed. one of my garden beds was full if it last year and I don't know why. So I made the impulse decision to put down some mulch.

The mulch was in nice neat little bags. 1.5 cubic feet each. They were also wet from the rain and said rain was also frozen. I got 4 to start with because I thought that would be all I needed. Yeah, No. That was not all I needed. It barely finished off the small front bed.

Now after I had done one bed I called my dad for his opinion on the mulch. Because I have heirloom bulbs and 100 other bulbs of mixed whatever. He said two inches should be enough to stop things from growing through it but that one inch should still be ok. I'm just going to have to keep an eye on it and push the mulch away as needed from the bulbs.

There are some super tiny bulbs that I think might be Glory-of-the-snow. They are bright blue star-like flowers and they are in the front bed and a little in the grass on the other side of the sidewalk. I dug up so many of the little bulbs that before I put out the mulch I have been checking the surface of the bed to see if I missed putting any back. I have found about 10-15. They are in pots inside and I'll be planting them back outside when it's a bit warmer.

So! Today I went out to a local place that is a bit pricey.

The guy very kindly helped me out and the price wasn't too bad. This place was 7 minuets from home and totally worth it for that alone. They apparently will also do deliveries in the summer. The bags were, to me, much much larger. They were just 2 cubic feet. Don't know why they looked larger.

Well... it only took 6 bags for the front. I don't know how this math worked because there is so much more mulch that I kept re-checking the labels to make sure it wasn't 3cubic feet or something. I don't know how this happened but I an not going to complain.

I think I might be able to get most of one side of my lawn covered. I need to remember to put down newspaper to help smother the grass.

This will leave me with one bag to put around my 4 hostas so that the weeds won't compete with them. Then next year I can split them and have more hostas. All the hostas.

While putting down the mulch I did find that the red echinacea survived and there are a few seedlings near it. Then I found some normal pink echinacea seedlings hiding under my Japanese split leaf maple. Thats going to be a fun adventure to transplant.

I also picked up some green twister echinacea. There were two in a pack and I got two. The first pack had an extra little plant in it and the second had two large plants that I was able to split. All seven are in pots in my florida room so they can get their roots established. This will also make it easier for me to have them survive when I plant them.

Next will be organizing the seeds. Then once it is warm and the bulbs have bloomed it will be drawing up a plan of were to put things. Because I don't remember were I put the peony. I really need to uncover it more because if it's more then 1-2 inches deep it won't put out flowers. Also I got plant markers which might not help.

As a reminder, all posts show up on my Patreon two weeks earlier for $1+ supporters. Then two weeks later they will show up here on the blog. More support means more posts! And more experiments!

Dollar Tree seeds part 1

Hello! Yes this is about the wonderfully cheep Dollar Tree seeds that you can get 4 packets of for $1!

No this is not an ad and no I get nothing for telling you about them. I just happen to kill plants very easily and hey, cheep seeds that grow well even with my neglect? All over it.

I got three of their echinatia/purple cone flower grow kits. They each have a few seeds, a little pot and a puck of what I assume is coconut growing medium. I put the pucks in a separate bucket and added water to make them... grow. Basically I added enough water to cover them and then I waited until all the water was gone before breaking them up and adding more water to see if they would grow more. They did.

There is plenty of stuff in them that I was able to use it for some little seedling starting trays that I also got at the store. These are tiny and much more maneuverable then the huge ones at the big box stores. I might go back and get a few more.

In these I put cyanne peppers, dill, cilantro, thyme, and a whole bunch of lavender because why not? I had more seeds then seedling starting trays so I now also have two little pots and one poorly filled pot with a mix of everything but the cyanne pepper. That one i made fit.

This is not how to do this btw.

I also got two boxes on zinnia seed mix. I have never grown these before so... When it's warm out I post more about planting them.

I also got... a crap ton of seeds.

You want a carpet of snapdragons? This is how to do it. At lest, this is how I'm going to do it. I have a pot to put one pocket in and then I will make an area or two over grown with them. I hope.

I also have packets of marigolds, bachelors buttons, and a generic 'flower mix'. I'm going to try and make a flower boarder between me and the church.

More updates as the weather warms up!

As a reminder, all posts show up on my Patreon two weeks earlier for $1+ supporters. Then two weeks later they will show up here on the blog. More support means more posts! And more experiments!