The moving of house and home to Florida has reached that maddening stage. No - the other maddening stage. This one is where so much of my "stuff" has been transported down here .... but it's all in boxes, on pallets, sitting in the way. I can't find anything. It's difficult to gather up enough tools to plant a flower. Whatever I need, for any task; is missing. I'm convinced that; when there is nothing left in Maryland but one old tin bandaid box .... it will contain EVERYTHING I need to do anything required. Had I only known, I could have bought that box, alone.

We've moved worlds already. But until it's all in place - it's not functional. It's sort of like the big toy that has been assembled - but it still lacks the "battery" to make it work. It's difficult to console all of those waiting for work. "I'm givin' it all I've got Capt'n". But I can only move at the pace of the slowest element in the march. Recently, that's been arranging for others to complete work and have it approved.

I've been holding up pretty well. Aches and pains - workable. I've come down with a lousy chest cold. That's a bummer. Florida in Sept., and I'm coughing my lungs up. But - I have Vicks and Cough Syurp!

Let's see - the tractor has been wonderful. Use it all the time. It will really save the back. It's been great for unloading and moving tools and materials. I brought down half a ton of gun stock blanks in the back of the truck this time.

I've been refining the ideas for the shop set up more and more. As I've said many times - I couldn't use one huge open space if I had that. The various operations require to be seperated. I'm getting closer to making sense of that.

I find that I'm impatient to get on with everything. The days pass quickly. Even if I get four big things crossed off the list, I expect it should have been eight.

We are getting in some family time. That's great. Good to see everyone. Kelly (Nana) is delighted to spend more time with the grandkids.

I realized yesterday .... "You know - there has NEVER been a time in my life ... when I've been seperated from my tools to this degree. Even as a young boy, I had my tools in a box by my bedside card table workbench ... and all over it too. And, there was a space in the furnace room downstairs, with a bench, a vise, and the rest of my tools. I've moved before - but quickly. Short distances. Quick turn around. And - even when I had a housefire in 1980 - and the tools were covered with debris and water .... the turn around was pretty quick. And ... I was much, much, much younger. hahah. This is maddening. To want to/try to do what's needed. Constrained by having to wait to unload a trailer. To wait to get permission. To wait to have someone ELSE do work for me. Almost unprecidented.

I did bring everything required to shoot an airgun! I hope to get to a point to do just that! It's been far too long!! I was going to have that garden shed spray foamed for a better/quieter insulation. But - the $900 estimate seemed a bit much for that. I'll probably get $1,100 worth of materials and take three days to do it instead! hahaha.

We were supposed to have the cable guy out here between 4-6pm yesterday. Kelly waited. I worked. At 6:15 she called them. Found out that they had scheduled our appointment for a tech. that wasn't working yesterday.

Here are a bunch of pics, Thought of you and snapped these to have you share in the days as they pass. Hope you enjoy.



Evenings in the shop. More later.



Bucket forks fit and are worth gold



We must have deer. This was a very bushy plant yesterday!



The pines are relaxing



A local Bud.



Patterns in the sand. I actually think that dark is grains of oil. Beach at Destin



Lowes has a few generators now - if you need one.



Walk along the beach, while in Destin



About 3am. Can't take the artist out off the Gary.



Fascinating find. No - it's not a landscape in the mideast. This is the hillside behind my new shop. Atop those points (which are about 4-5" high) there rests a pebble - pc. of bark, etc. That hard cap protected the column under it, as the rain erroded the hillside. Is that amazing? I suspect someone saw this and related it to the Western landscapes in large scale.



This "Fort", is really a bent stick - which laid on the hillside. The stick protected the soil beneath. Like a reverse EDM machine, the rain produced the 5" walls below the fort walls, and the pc. of red shale created the corner tower.

Hope you enjoyed the report.

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2012 01:32AM by barnespneumatic.

forks look great and thet are quite useful. stay away from that cough medicine when your on the kubota! try some good old fashioned lemon and honey in your cup. and i was just thinking... when will we see more pix? Oh and get some sun

Sounds like you are getting a lot done toward getting back to gunsmithing. Here may be a tip for the code office. Get a permit to install a 200 amp breaker box, one 110 and one 220 outlet just below the box. You, or an electrician, can install this and have it inspected and thus get the power to your new building. All the future wiring can be done as needed without additional inspections or paper work. You'll gain by; getting the power on quicker, not have to get all the wiring done at once, you'll pay only for two outlets for permit. That's the way it works here in MS, YMMV.

Kent

Wow, it must have really rained there for those towers to form. I have to admit that the first thing I thought of when I saw that pic was "boy, those termites sure have been busy". I guess I've been watching too many nature shows about Africa, where the bugs build big mud skyscrapers to live in.

Strangely enough, I've seen similar formations while on military maneuvers in the White Sands area north of Ft. Bliss in Texas. We made camp in an area that seemed like nothing but flat sand but while walking around we found clusters of old .50 caliber machine gun bullets all standing perfectly balanced on their tips, each one atop a tiny pillar of compacted gypsum sand. They must have been fired in a high arc and then buried themselves point-down in the white sand, compressing the column below each bullet. I guess it's not too surprising, since Ft. Bliss is primarily an anti-aircraft artillery base and has a gigantic, virtually uninhabited firing range where you can safely do things like fire a quad-fifty at target drones, or shoot anti-aircraft missiles. When we found them years later, the relentless wind there had eroded away the surrounding sand until nothing was left except the polished bullets, each with a rusty tip, resting on it's little column. It looked like some sort of eclectic art installation in the middle of nowhere, an interesting counterpoint to the odd bits of blown-up and crashed drones that we often came across there.

Of course, right after that we also found another field filled with inch-long steel flechettes, which quickly gave all of our vehicles four flat tires (this was before the Hum-Vs with their run-flat rims). It took two days to get out of there, even with a load of extra tires and patch kits flown in by helicopter. You win some, you lose some.

Glad someone commented on them. I was amazed. Hate to bulldoze them, but the pics shall remain. The rain must have come straight down to do this. It did pound, in cycles, for hours. The 6" rain gauge overflowed. But there was some confusion as to where it started or when it was reset. Nevertheless, we got a boat load of rain. Wild artifact of that.

The bullet story was wild. Amazing. And the flechette field sounds real nasty. Can't believe they haven't made them return the site to its pristine format. Wait! An idea for a grant!!!!

Following through on the final inspection thingie. We managed to get the right paper to the correct department of the company that assembled our building. Got the right numbers, liscenses, signatures, and got it to the correct department. These things practically sort themselves.

May, may be able to get an inspection Monday.

Lots of other stuff managed today.

Chillin' now.



Gary

Glad to hear that you finally pierced the red-tape barrier at the Department of Bureaus, it can get formidable in a hurry when you're deep in the heart of building inspections and planning and zoning and such.

As far as "restoring" White Sands Missile Range, well...since it's basically the same desert where the worlds first nuclear weapon was detonated, I think they've got bigger challenges than sweeping up a few spend .50 cal rounds. The place is huge, bigger than Delaware. Basically lots of (you guessed it) white sand, a few lonely roads, and not much else.

Glad the pines are relaxing, nothing worse than a stressed tree. I know what you mean though, so calming.

Fascinating photos, we miss the little things when we don't slow down.

Neat Pics. Amazing stuff all around if we just take the time to Look. As Big Blue used to tell us...Take time to Stop & Smell the Roses.!..( Just make sure to do it on YOUR Time. )
Glad things are starting to 'Come Together' as it were.

Is that painting Oil,or water color or Pastel or What.? It's Very Good,

Rick

Hi Rick,
Thks. The painting is done in acrylics on canvas. I like oils too. But they take forever to dry. For these quicker paintings, I use acrylic. Great fun and relaxing for me. Seems I often paint at night.
Gary