Just moved 2 fish tanks, one 54 gallon, weighing (with stand, sand, rock and water) about 800 lbs; and one 105 gallon, oak stand, glass top, weighing (with stand, sand, rock and water) about 1700 lbs—out of their corners on carpet with scuzzy padding and back to their corners on laminate about a third of an inch higher than the subfloor.
Yay us.
Jane has retired to go shoot things (video games) having done plumbing and shoving and lifting, and I, having mostly pumped water from one receptacle to the other and run stairs, am thinking about shooting things. 😉
We had a gasket fail on the filter for the 54, and that will be reworked. We had an aged-hose issue in restoring the 105 to function, all of which we dealt with. But the floor is done on that side. Now we have to move the upright grand piano and the tv console/credenza.
The key is having glides under the heavy stuff: we used a dolly to heft the tank (we drained water down to 1/10th and removed rock)—just the half inch necessary to switch carpet glides to hardwood glides, and we are taking a (deserved) break. 😉 And lunch.
Mighty women! Does this mean the flooring is almost done?
Ten fairly straightforward feet to go.
It’s all about using brains, not brawn. So very well done. And only ten fairly straightforward feet to go on he floor? Very nice.
Definitely go shoot things. 🙂
…and may all the best loot fall into your l33t hands!
Yow! Mighty women are mighty!
BTW, loved this in view of and response to recent news: http://twistedsifter.com/2016/02/the-shirk-report-volume-357/einstein-told-you-so-statue-sign/
Love it!
I can’t remember, is this the final bit of carpet removal? I am in awe of the work!
I personally carried the very last of the awful brown semi-shag out the back door. We have a pickup load of it out there, and we will rent a truck and take it to the dump where I hope it will decompose while furnishing birds some safe short yarn for nests.
What we did for the floor situation.
a. pulled up carpet and pad in sections, rolling same for disposal.
b. leveled Jane’s bedroom floor west end, which was significantly lower than the rest of the floor—and tilted. Jane did almost all this, cutting 3/4″ plywood in a jigsaw that floored the closets and a good third of her room, then using leveling compound, a mixed goop that flows slowly to level an area by gravity, until we had a level floor. Then we had 2 structural beams, three closets, and a doorway to deal with, and after underlayment went down, we sawed laminate, then tapped it into place, being sure we were absolutely on the square. Baseboards aren’t down yet, but they’re coming.
c. next, the hall and living room are 1/4″ lower than the bedrooms. So we coated it in nailed-down 1/4″ plywood, coated it in underlayment, then laid the flooring contiguous with the first bedroom. Then I had eye surgery #1.
d. When we got back to work, Jane had stripped the office and stored it in the kitchen/dining area, just having gotten her bedroom furniture back out of same. From this point on, I did the sawing (much lighter work, but a good deal of trudging in the snow—with sandals between house and garage.) Jane did the figuring, marking the cut lines, and positioning. We took turns either standing on the joint or hammering the other end. We got the office and its closet.
e. We added my room to the pile in the kitchen and got it done.
f. eye surgery two.
g. Jane attacks the living room and move all the stuff back where it belongs, mostly, except some stuff piled in the kitchen that is going to charity…while I’m forbidden to lift anything at all.
h. Jane lays plywood and underlayment, while together we move a ton and a half of fishtanks and piano. I cut boards, we install them, and then we discover the 8×6 picture window is failing, and we need that replaced. We have a quote on all the windows, all of which have problems. We are thinking about it. So…
i….but we have the hard part of the living room done. Now we just have to paint all the baseboards and reinstall them everywhere. The fish tanks are up and running, in final position. And everything we own is on felt glides, which slide easily on the new flooring.
This is what the flooring sort of looks like, but it has a bright heartwood stripe (sort of wheat colored) that runs through that they don’t show in the finished pic—silly people. If you aren’t expecting that stripe, it could really conflict with your decor, but with ours, it’s great—tropic wood, but a replica of it, not the real thing, so we get the pretty, made with fast-growing pine sawdust and some sort of binder. It’s real glossy, and pretty tough. We’re banning tennies (which pick up basalt rocks) and providing guests Japanese-style sandals or slippers.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-High-Gloss-Redmond-African-8-mm-Thick-x-7-3-5-in-Wide-x-47-7-8-in-Length-Laminate-Flooring-20-20-sq-ft-case-HL1049/203556488?MERCH=RV-_-rv_nav_plp_rr-_-NA-_-203556488-_-N
I have located my travel slippers 😀
I’m curious, do you intend to use small rugs for various areas or will it be all laminate?
We will use a small rug where we have a table, eg, which is difficult to felt-bottom re its curved metal legs.
Good for you two! You always have projects and you do them well.
Getting the shag out will do wonders for any allergies. There was horrible shag in my house when I bought it. I tore it up while waiting for the moving truck to arrive and lived on the subfloors until I could budget for wood tiling.
The stuff that I found between the so called carpet and the sleazy pad was mindbogglingly disgusting!
Very nice stuff; it looks vaguely like the koa laminate that is in vogue around here, koa being a Hawaiian native hardwood: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Pergo-XP-Hawaiian-Curly-Koa-10-mm-Thick-x-4-7-8-in-Wide-x-47-7-8-in-Length-Laminate-Flooring-13-1-sq-ft-case-LF000340/202882881
I can hardly wait until we can pull up the battered industrial strength carpet we presently have and put down laminate. It was a good solution when we moved in 12 years ago, but is starting to look very ugly now. OTOH, the laminate we put down in DH’s shop still is going strong after 7 years, despite having copiers and computers scraped all over it.
Hmmmm… Each block on floor glides; each ramp surfaced with polished wood; those wooden ‘cradles’ at the top of each ramp; persons holding ropes and jumping over the top of the cradles to land one ramp down. Might work.
T’is a day to tackle household projects! I just came in from the garden. It’s in the high 50’s (Farenheit) here on the north side of Boston and my wintered-over garden called me outdoors. I had meant to prune roses and the apple trees but instead found myself snapping off all the various, dried flower stalks and stems that had given the December and January garden some height and texture and birds some seed. What a difference a cleaned-up garden looks! And so nice to be messing around outdoors in the garden after three months of absence from it!
Our snowdrops started blooming about a week ago, a bit early but nothing too alarming. And, as I snapped and cleared my way through the yard and various garden beds this afternoon, I found some light purple croci which I had just planted last fall! They were blooming in the most surprising of places, a shady, north-facing part of the yard that just cleared of snow this week in the rains. They’re even earlier than the snow croci, whose tips are just beginning to show. I think they may be a species crocus (i.e. one of the original, wild types) but can’t remember and need to go back and see what I had ordered from the flower catalogs.
Now I’m eating my late lunch and wish the two of you an enjoyable repast, seasoned with the satisfaction of a house beautification project well-done.
@Joe, Have you read the IPBES report this week?
http://www.ipbes.net/article/press-release-pollinators-vital-our-food-supply-under-threat
It’s largely based on what’s going on in North America and Europe. It finds the threat to polinators is primarily due to changes in land use, loss of habitat diversity, intensive agricultural practices, pesticide use, alien invasion species, diseases, pests, and climate change. In other words, just about everything about the way we practice “efficient, modern” agriculture.
not yet….sorry, your post was partially blocked by the links under Foreigner Who’s Who, it extends all the way over into the post window…..I know C.J. is going to be working on it, but it’s hard to read your post….I’ll have to take a look at the article. I did read something earlier this week, though.
okay, I found it… thanks.
Paul, I don’t know how interesting this is to a non-beekeeper, but I thought it was fascinating:
https://boingboing.net/2016/02/29/ct-scan-of-a-bees-brain.html
I found myself hoping for more analysis of the bee’s brain to go with the fascinating image.
Separately, a friend is trying to persuade me to start bee-keeping (which I have been highly intrigued by/wanting to take up for several years) at her new farm which is a medium ways off from where I live: about a hour drive or so. She is terrified of bees from a childhood experience but wants a really fruitful orchard. I’m being tempted by the proposal but haven’t succumbed yet.
It really shows like with everything else (weight loss anyone?), we’ve been grasping for the “magic pill”, one simple thing we can do that will fix the problem. “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” (HL Mencken)
I worked the Home & Garden show for the local ARS rhododendron chapter Friday. Awareness of lace bug, Stephanitis pyrioides (another one of those invasive species), is growing. We are recommending use of imidicloprid, after our once-blooming rhodies are finished blooming. Most people got it, but it took us three tries to get through to one woman who wanted to treat immediately.
It really shows like with everything else (weight loss anyone?), we’ve been grasping for the “magic pill”, one simple thing we can do that will fix the problem. “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” (HL Mencken)
I worked the Home & Garden show for the local ARS rhododendron chapter Friday. Awareness of lace bug, Stephanitis pyrioides (another one of those invasive species), is growing. We are recommending use of imidicloprid, after our once-blooming rhodies are finished blooming. Most people got it, but it took us three tries to get through to one woman who wanted to treat immediately.
@Joe 1) It’s clear to me that the activists/Europeans who think banning neonics is the answer are falling prey to Mencken’s famous quote: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” They insist there’s a “magic pill”.
This is a test. I guess the filter doesn’t like me mentioning Mencken?
Who does? He liked Nietzsche, but that’s nothing.
On a practical note, triple click on one of paul’s words above, like Europe, and the paragraph will reveal itself.
I’ve been trying to post a couple paragraphs for two days, but nothing happens. This time I tried taking out the “b” and “em” tags, but no joy. It doesn’t even tell me I’ve already posted it once is I try again.
I can’t figure. I’ve checked the ‘pending’ and the ‘spam’ file. Something’s weird.
I can’t either. I just copied the file to a twin computer, thinking perhaps some cookie on the first one might be the problem. Still no joy.
Obviously other posts work. 8o
Is there a list of banned words? It seems my posts with the word “neonics” are the ones disappearing. Maybe this one will too?
No. WE don’t have any banned list that I know of. And this one got through. I wonder if it’s the source server that’s banned for some reason. (We don’t have any list of those either: that would be a tiff between that server and our server, which is not under our control.)
But other messages have gone through, just the ones on this particular subject disappear. I’ve got FIOS, I can’t say which servers I hit the backbone from, but it seems a little unlikely your servers would blacklist Frontier’s (if, indeed, they HAVE their own servers). Maybe the hive Queen is censoring me…. Naw!
I wanted to comment on Raesean’s post about beekeeping.(there was no reply tab on the post itself) My Dad kept bees in a standard suburban lot all the time I was growing up and it’s a fascinating hobby.
Do your reading first. Analyze what the flower supply is likely to be in the area when your friend’s orchard isn’t blooming. Are there other bees around? Is it legal to keep bees in your area? (doesn’t prevent you, you just have to be sneaky and get the neighbours onside).
It doesn’t have to be expensive if you can buy used equipment and make some as well. (other local beekeepers are endless fonts of information, usually to the point of obsession) Most of the year you must be able to regularly go through your hive(s) without fail, or have a reliable backup person.
There have been technical developments recently that have made hobby beekeeping easier. I never took it up myself because my Dad’s equipment was all the traditional full-sized supers (boxes)and I didn’t have enough upper-body strength to handle them smoothly. You start crashing and jerking an 80 lb. box of honeycomb and larvae around and you will have some seriously pissed off bees.
Apiculture is addictive, as I only gave away the last bee-veil and smoker a year or so ago. (You never know when you’ll need to catch a swarm in somebody’s garden)
I’ve mulled over raising bees myself, but I believe I would need a permit from the county, plus getting DH on my side. Honey, yes; bees, not so much 🙂 I believe there must be a small wild swarm in the area; every day the aloe flower spikes are covered with bees gathering nectar. There’s also the fact that bees are generally beneficial insects, and I would rather a hive of them than the paper wasps that build on the eaves of the house. I’ve seen a collection of supers in pastureland about 2 miles from our house, so someone must be raising bees and caring for them in the area.
That happens if the reply depth gets too deep, >5. What I do is reply on the one above.
I’ve done a fair amount of reading on bee-keeping and gone to a few courses/lectures on the topic. I had been wanting to keep bees in our semi-urban yard but my spouse doesn’t want that and spouses get veto power over such a proposal.
My friend’s new place is rural and should have plenty of bee “forage” but it’s a good point that I should check the prospects out. The main downside of setting up bee keeping at her new farm is that it is, relatively for Eastern Massachusetts, quite a ways away from where I live… And I don’t drive. Commuter rail goes out there but if something goes wrong with the bees, I would not be able to get there easily, failing willing spousal transit.
My friend is eager to get bees “now!” (She’s eager to get going on all things farming) but I agree that getting to know the lay of the land is wise.
Devil’s advocate here: (let me give a little background first, then I’ll continue. Kept bees since 2001, Past president of Tidewater Beekeepers Association – Virginia’s largest association, Past president of Miami Valley (OH) Beekeepers Association, now Secretary/Treasurer of same MVBA)
Being a rural area is great for many reasons, but there are downsides, too. As you’ve said an hour’s commute or so, maybe longer if by rail. If you have to carry supplies, it’s not going to be easy. I’m presuming that your friend will let you keep your equipment, supplies, etc. at her place, and that’s a good thing.
As Teasel said above, used equipment is fine – but NOT used woodenware and comb. You can re-use the hive bodies, I’d recommend you use a small propane torch and run the flame over the inside walls. Not enough to burn them, but enough to kill off any foulbrood spores that might be dormant on the wood. You do NOT want to get foulbrood, because inspectors will immediately destroy the hive if they detect it. Frames, etc., aren’t that expensive, although foundation (the wax sheets used to start comb) is a bit pricey. This is due to the processing that must be done to refine it. Some people can make their own foundation, but the equipment used to make it look like commercially-produced foundation is upwards of $2,000.US. A used smoker is a good investment, they rarely wear out. I still have my original – a little battered, but quite usable.
If you’re planning to keep more than one hive, I’d recommend you use one deep hive body for the brood chamber – that will be on the bottom. You might want to use mediums, instead, and if so, then use two medium hive bodies in place of one deep. You want to ensure that the bees have plenty of brood space, plus space for storing honey and pollen. Mediums are also a lot easier to lift if you’re working inside the hive. A fully loaded deep body can weigh upwards of 80 pounds or more. Shallows for the honey supers are much easier to handle, too. The comb is only about 4-1/2″ deep, and a loaded shallow is maybe 30 pounds, as opposed to that deep super’s weight. Shallows are also less expensive, and you can switch them much more easily than with deeps or mediums.
I’d recommend if you are planning to use shallow supers for honey, let the bees build out the comb on 10 frames in the super, then remove one of the frames and re-align the supers so they’re evenly spaced. This will cause the bees to deepen the comb, holding more honey, and making it much easier to uncap when you harvest the combs. There are metal frame rests you can put in that will space the combs out for you in a 9 comb arrangement. Of course, you don’t have to go with the traditional 10-frame Langstroth hive, you could use an 8-frame hive, and the bodies would be much easier for you to handle.
I’d check to see what the local flora composition happens to be, such as trees, shrubs, etc., and whether or not the neighbors use pesticides, how often they use them, how they use them (spray, sprinkled on the ground, etc.). In Ohio, it is a state law that any use of pesticides near a registered apiary must be controlled, and the pesticide applicator must notify the apiary owner 24-48 hours prior to spraying. I’ve gone round and round with the State Pesticide Administrator on this, even showed him the exact law, and he still argued that it didn’t mean what it said. Hmm, English is English….well, anyway, if you’re in good with the neighbors and let them know you’ve got bees, the chances are very good that they’ll be careful. It’s the suburban homeowner who has the mindset that if a little bit of pesticide is good, twice as much is twice as good – which is where we run into problems with pesticide runoff, poisoning beneficial insects, etc. I don’t like the use of neonicotinoids, they’re banned in the EU, but still widely used in the U.S. In winter, you might need to feed them a 2:1 sugar syrup or use a fondant cake, and I’d recommend you check them on days when it’s sunny and not too cold. Usually, opening the hive for a few seconds and peeking in to see where the cluster is and how much honey they’ve got, plus if they’re close to the honey isn’t going to do any harm. On warm days, they’ll fly around the hive on cleansing flights. If they can’t get out to take their “potty breaks”, they could develop nosema. So, in winter, some beekeepers add Fumigilin B to the fondant or 2:1 syrup as a counter-measure.
The queen will start laying “spring eggs” around the end of February, and these are the new “house” bees, while the workers that wintered over are going to be the foragers until the new bees are grown and old enough to forage. If there are insufficient pollen stores in the hive, you might supplement them with a pollen substitute, there are several varieties on the market.
As far as suppliers, I’ve had very good results with all of them. Dadant and Sons, Brushy Mountain, Walter Kelley, and others. I’ve had master beekeepers recommend that if you buy a particular manufacturer’s equipment, you pretty much want to use just that manufacturer on a hive. Slight differences in machine work, dimensions, etc., but I’ve never seen a problem mixing say a Dadant hive with Brushy Mountain supers, or vice versa. Langstroth hives are pretty much all the same. There are variations in frame design, and each beekeeper has their own preferences. I like the wedge top bar, grooved bottom bar and use the reinforced foundation. I also run wire across the foundation horizontally. The bees will just build comb over the wires, or if you have access to someone who can embed the wires in the foundation, that’ll give just a little bit more space in the cells.
I don’t have all the answers, I’ve got a few years of experience, and if you feel you’d like to carry on this conversation through email, my screen name here @gmail.com works. I’ve got access to at least 2 Master Beekeepers, and one or two other beekeepers who are very close to getting their Master Beekeeper certification.
See Raesean, what I said about the willingness of other beekeepers to provide information? Maybe your friend might be satisfied with asking around to find a hobby beekeeper who might be willing to keep a hive in her orchard if the whole idea seems too daunting for you at this point. We usually only had one strong hive at “home” but several others at other locations. Elderly ladies who lived alone in slightly remote locations midst the blackberry canes thought a hive in the yard deterred potential vandals and troublemakers.
Anyhow there are lots of options. One of my co-workers will talk my ear off about some sort of new, small hive system he has (some sort of top-bar I think) that he swears by.
But whatever happens it is very important to be a responsible beekeeper –clean, organized, aware. You can’t omit going through the hive at the proper interval just because its not convenient. Most neighbours won’t tie the yellow spots on their cars or washing back to your bees (those early-spring potty breaks), but if you get swarms they will hate you!
OMG, I’m late again! Gotta change costumes.