Home Theater

The upstairs area (above the garage) was set up for home theater by the previous owner.  The room is pre-wired for surround speakers, and not seeing any need to re-invent the wheel, we put our own TV and DVD player there. 

I have a surround receiver/amplifier, but haven't had it hooked up for ages because we've been renting.  My old speakers didn't attach to the brackets the previous owner left behind, and my speakers are now so old that I probably can't find brackets to fit them.  To solve this dilemma with a minimal time investment on my part, I pulled off the old brackets and bought new speakers and brackets.  The old brackets were black, and with the new light paint, I figured that perhaps white speakers were in order.  I also purchased new In-Wall speakers for the front pair, in order to keep the room as uncluttered as possible.

The box from Amazon is at the house, waiting for me to get a day off that isn't otherwise scheduled.  Here is what is inside:  Rear speakers with mounting hardware, plus front In-wall speakers.

For the front speakers, I hope the finished installation will look something like this, with the speaker grilles more or less blending in with the wall.  If they look obnoxious in white, well, they are also paintable.  And I have plenty of that around the house after painting the entire thing!

Silverwood - Boulder Beach

The last day of my 2.5 days off, I slept in.  I deserved that much.  Then we went to the local theme park for some summer fun.  Besides, I had promised Grace that if she overcame her fears about the dentist and orthodontist, we would go.  And it was fun.  Here are some web photos I picked out to show what it looks like.  Grace had a wonderful time, and they had a beer booth, so all was good!

Brew Day

On my 2.5 days off, after humping rocks all day, I managed to make up a couple of brews.  Earlier in the week, the UPS guy had dropped off some wonderful things.  Food-grade stainless steel pepsi syrup kegs for storing my brew!

So, I made a batch of Sarsaparilla for Grace.

And afterwards I brewed and began fermenting a clone of Deschutes Twilight Summer Ale

So here we are with the extract and hops lned up against the rocks.  Far left is the fermenter.  The plastic pail to the right holds sanitizing solution, a mixing spoon, and a wort chiller.  The shiny bucket in the middle is a brew kettle on top of a burner, and that's just a propane tank to the right.  Oh yeah, and an Alaskan Summer Kolsch front and center :)

Note to self:  During the winter months, build a brew stand on rollers! 

 The Kolsch beer at the bottom will be my next brew:

Cheers everyone!

2.5 Days

After I come off night shift, I get 2.5 days off.  This also was busy!  After sleeping for the first half of the day afer getting off work at 6:00 AM, I woke up to take Grace for her first visit to an orthodontist.  The orthodontist recommended two-stage orthodontic correction. The first phase is a starts with two baby teeth extractions, followed by a 12 month palate-widening process to make room for the crowding that will be created by the emergence of much larger adult teeth. She already has crowding issues, and more adult teeth are not going to help.  Fortunately my dental insurance covered the first $1500 of that, so we just paid the remainder of Phase 1.

Afterwards we went to a movie that Grace wanted to see. We watched "Brave", which was cute. The next day Corie and I shoved stones up against the new curb, and cleaned up the soil and rocks that were dug up when we had the curb poured.

Before we went to work on it, the stones were all rolled out into the driveway and there was a long pile of dirt in front of the curb.  We spent a lot of effort removing the soil and "ankle twisters", as I call the 2-3 inch rocks, moving large stones to hide the curb, and replacing gravel.  A big job for a couple of old people!

However, now the raw edge of the curb is hidden, the gravel and the grass are separated, and I don't have to weed whack the grass from between each rock.  I just run it along the inside of the curb.  Looks pretty clean, I think.

Busy!

It's July, and definitely time for a new post!  At work we had a two week outage in the first half of June.  That pretty much wiped me out, although on the days I got up early for night shift, we managed to complete the painting in the basement (except for the bathroom and doors).

On my days off after the outage, we had the main floor and upstairs painted professionally.  The ceiling was way too high for me to seriously consider messing with this job.  With a roller it would have taken weeks.  With a spray gun, it would have taken weeks to tape off.  So we had it done.  A neighbor of mine is a painter and he did it for a fraction of the going rate.  I owe him a case of beer.

Anyhow, they painted the main floor first, and so we moved as much of our stuff into the master bedroom as we could.  Then after they were gone, we moved it back.  The following day we moved all our home theater stuff and couches from the upstairs to downstairs while they painted there.  Then we moved it back.

So to a certain extent, it felt like I moved four times on my days off.  I was sore going back to work, that's for certain.

While the painters were doing their thing, I had an electrician at the house installing fluorescent lighting.  Yes, I could have done it myself.  It would have taken me way longer than it took him, and I already spent the first part of June at work.  I'd rather have family time than spend it in the attic running wires.

I had him re-do the garge lighting.  Here is the after photo.  Before it was just 3 socket fixtures, aboput where the right side of each fluorescent fixture ends.  So now I have (12) four-foot fluorescents where I used to have 3 screw-in bulbs.  It's a wonderful difference being able to see inside the garage.  The difference in lighting on the truck is due to the use of a flash on the before picture.

I also had the electrician rewire some lights in the shop that I wasn't happy with.  Again, I could have done it, but it would have meant having NO time for the things that I need to do, and other things that I enjoy.

So:  Here's the shop lighting before: (Note the orange extension-cord, exposed individual wires, and wire nuts)  Also the lights are up in the frame, so the light doesn't cast very far from each fixture.

Below is the shop lighting after.  These fixtures use a new type of bulb that has much higher light output.  The old fixtures are in the trash to the right. 



Forgive the mess. I have had no opportunity to unpack or organize the shop yet. We've had visitors for 6 of the weeks we have been here, outage for 2 weeks, and contractors the rest of the time. It's just been busy... We still need to accomplish a few other things outdoors before the snow flies. During winter I plan to install a rail on the stairway and on the loft. Oh yeah. And a shop heater!

Why we left Hermiston

Real estate is expensive.  Here is an example. 

▼Property Details

Price: $375,000
Beds: 2 Bed
Baths: 2 Bath
House Size: 1,570 Sq Ft
Lot Size: 9.97 Acres
Year Built: 1975

 
I paid LESS money for a new 3700 sqft house on 5 wooded acres that has a 40x40 ft shop instead of a tiny old farm house and a POS single-wide.

 
Another reason we left Hermiston is this:  AYP scores, formerly known as "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" 
 
2010-11 Final AYP Report (Public)


District and School Designations

AYP Designation

District: Hermiston SD 8 NOT MET

School(s): Armand Larive Middle School NOT MET

Desert View Elementary School NOT MET

Hermiston High School NOT MET

Highland Hills Elementary School NOT MET (The best elementary in town, where Grace attended)

Hilltop Jr/Sr High School NOT MET

Rocky Heights Elementary School NOT MET

Sandstone Middle School NOT MET

Sunset Elementary School NOT MET

West Park Elementary School NOT MET


And then there is this:  The gangs are arriving.

UPDATE: Three Suspects Arrested in Hermiston Shooting

By Collin Sullivan. Published Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

Hermiston Fatal Shooting

The Hermiston Police Department has confirmed that three arrests, two adult and one juvenile, have been made in the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old man at the Gotta Stop gas station which occurred on Monday.

Jason Edmiston, Acting Chief of the Hermiston Police Department, and Dan Primus, Umatilla County District Attorney, said information about who was arrested has not been released.

It is unclear, however, if all the three suspects are still in custody.

Primus said that one of the suspects has been released since his arrest, while Edmiston believes all three of the suspects are still in custody.

Primus has identified Salvador Valencia, 22, as the victim in the fatal shooting at the Gotta Stop gas station that took place in Hermiston on Monday.

Primus said that there are also a few people that checked into the Good Shepherd Hospital in Hermiston with wounds related to the shooting on Monday, but no details have been released about the exact amount of people and what type of injuries.

A spokesperson for Good Shepherd said security has been heightened in the emergency room as a result of the incident on Monday.

Valencia was killed Monday afternoon in a shooting outside of a Hermiston gas station and convenience store called Gotta Stop.

Workers at the Gotta Stop said the incident happened around 3:30 PM when a group of men started fighting in the parking lot.

The workers said a man, believed to be Valencia, ran into a SUV to get away, but was shot and killed.

Primus said there is still a lot of information authorities are looking for, and for now he will not say if there are any suspects in custody.

Steve Cline, Hermiston, lives close to the gas station where the shooting took place, he said he was very surprised by the incident.

I received a text from a neighbor that said there was a shooting, there was a death," Cline said. "I thought, wow, small town for that...pretty close by."

Authorities will neither confirm nor deny yet whether or not this incident is gang related.

 

Landscaping

Landscaping around the house - final report:  This stuff is gone.  The pile of heavy concrete sticks are buried.

 



I am not sure what these things were used for.  They were heavy-gauge PVC filled with concrete, and they had a braided steel cable running through them... odd items that I had no use for.  They are now buried.

 

 



Truck bed full of junk.  Gone.

Thanks for the help getting rid of the concrete sticks, Charlie!!!

And the front of the house went from this: (Love all the gravel on the grass that got shoveled along with the snow!!!)

To this:

Time to start sharing photos of the basement repaint.

More wildlife

Closer to home this time!  This poor little fellow was quite gaunt, considering the time of year.

Wildlife

We are blessed to finally live in a beautiful place that is rich in wild critters.  Unfortunately we are in outage at the power plant right now, and I am working nights.  Otherwise I might have been there for these sightings.  Corie and Grace saw a falcon in the back yard.  It pretty much had to be a falcon, based on its behavior, as it was chasing other birds around.

I was more unhappy that I also missed the first moose sighting, apparently an adolescent bull, about a mile from the house.

These are photos I found on the web.  Unfortunately Corie didn't have a camera with her when she spotted these guys.  Wish I'd been there, but that's how it goes some days!

Brewfest!

For Christmas I requested and received a home beer brewing kit. However, due to the recent move, I had no opportunity to get a batch going until this past days off. It was a lot of fun, and I think that I will be doing more of it! Since it took a fair amount of time to get everything set up and sanitized, I decided to make a second batch right after I did the first batch.

Here is a picture that I took while brewing my first batch.  (I really need to remember to clean the lens of my cell phone before taking pictures with it).   My first attempt was using a kit for an Irish Red Ale.  It called for steeping some specialty grains to impart a particular flavor into the wort.  At the edge of the boiling pot, you can see a paper clip holding a porous bag that holds the grains.

The wort is usually boiled for an hour. This accomplishes a few things: It converts starches to sugars for the yeast to feed on, it sterilizes the liquid, and it allows time for hops to bitter the sweet, sugary mixture. After that, the wort must be aerated and cooled to the point where yeast can survive, so that the yeast have a friendly environment to reproduce.

Afterwards the wort must be placed in a sanitized container and allowed to ferment.  Homebrewers often split the fermentation is split into two phases, a vigorous primary phase and a slower secondary phase.  The primary phase is fast, and produces a frothy foam so you need a large container to keep from blowing foam out the airlock.  The primary fermentation also produces a lot of dead yeast cells, which can create bad flavors.  After a couple of days the wort is transferred to a secondary fermenter, without transferring the dead yeast cells at the bottom.

Here is a photo my first two batches, freshy transferred to the secondary fermenters. On the left is the Irish Red Pale Ale, and on the right is Mark's Orange Peel Hefeweizen - a mildly hopped wheat beer.

The beer has to "condition" in the secondary for 2-3 weeks to complete the conversion of sugars to alcohol, and to reach its best flavor.  Then it can be bottled or kegged.

I know myself well enough to know that I would never wash and sanitize 40+ bottles every time I made a batch, so I decided to purchase equipment for kegging my home brews. Home-brewers use soda syrup kegs, because the lid opens up and they can be cleaned and sanitized easily, but can then be sealed and pressurized with CO2.