Belated Christmas/Birthday Gift

This is my first post from Rebecca's new iPhone. I must say I am quite jealous.

Anyways, Rebecca and I finally bought our Christmas/Birthday presents to one another yesterday evening. Rebecca had been wanting this since we got married, but I managed to convince her to hang onto the futon and re-covered couch from her parents for a year and a half. Her time finally came last night when we found one that met my comfort and her looks requirements. Hopefully they'll last us a long time.

DIY - Compost Bin

One question I get asked a lot when I tell people what I do is, "What do you during the winter?" Business does slow during the winter, but doesn't completely stop. The slow season allows me to catch up on other projects for the business and get geared up for a new year.

A project I've had on my to do list for a while now is a compost bin. I have not intention of saving the world with this addition, but rather as a way to make money. I collect lots of yard waste and need a way to dispose of it. The phrase "One man's trash is another man's treasure comes into play here." With a little bit of time, heat, and small organisms; the leaves and grass clippings I collect will turn into a nutrient rich soil. Mom also contributes her food scraps to the pile. All of which will be ready to sell in a couple of months.

I wanted to build a 3 bin system so I can have different bins for the progression of decomposing. The first and largest is for fresh material. The middle for halfway. And the final for the finished product. Big thanks to my mom for allowing me to put this in her back yard since its not exactly adding to the aesthetics. I came up with the basic design and my dad engineered it so it would actually work and last for a while. If you added a roof it could double as a tornado shelter.

The structure is 18' long, 4' high, and 6' deep. Each wall is essentially like the frame of a house with studs spaced at 20". The siding is treated 5/4" x 6" decking boards. The front of the bins have removable slats so you can have easier access depending on how much material is in the bin.

The project took the better part of two days. I'll let the pictures explain the course of the project.

The soon to be home of the compost bin.

Lumber from Lowe's

The spot cleared off and tilled.

The base.

Plate holding the base together.

The base in place.

The frame for the back wall.

The back wall installed. This part took the longest.

Two walls up.

Day 2 started off very cold.

The frames for the remaining walls.

More of the frames and Mom's new nail gun. Its a Pasolade cordless framing nail gun. Very cool.

Three walls up.

The first bit of material added to the pile.

The first inside wall

Second inside wall up.

The front slats being added.

Dad and me with the finished product.

 

The finished product.

The first of many bags of leaves I had collected.

Christmas in Georgia

Our Christmas travels began this past weekend. We made the trip to Griffin, GA to see my dad's side of the family. I had some free time so I made this little family tree instead of explaining who's who. The party takes place at my Aunt and Uncle's house. Everyone on the tree except Matt was able to make the trip. We always have a great time with family. Uncle Bob always has some project going on around the house so every visit there is something new to play with. This year was the new playground in the back yard for his grandkids. Fortunately he built it to withstand adult weight so I could play too. The next addition to the playground is a zip line.

Doug

Cori & Kate

Alexa

Rob & Alana

LONG FAMILY TREE

(Names in green are married into family)

                                                              W.C. - Ann (Both Deceased)

                                                                /                               \

                                                   Linda-Bob                            Joe-Delana

                                                  /           \                                    /         \

                                  Alana-Rob         Kris-Jacob         Rebecca-Brett     Matt

                                    /        \            /        /     \

                              Kaitlin   Doug   Corrine Alexa James(due any day)

My 1st cousins once removed are all under the age of 4. So when they are awake there is always plenty of activity. Each visit it takes them a little while to get use to me again. Fortunately it is taking less and less time. So by the end of breakfast we were friends again. Kaitlin and Cori are who Rebecca and I spent most of our time with since they can communicate back and don't wear diapers. We played with blocks, colored, built trains, and watched Toy Story 2. The action was non-stop most of the day. In our many conversations throughout the day the thing that continued to stand out was their imaginations. Everything about them, their toys, appetites, attention span, and bodies are all so small. The only thing not small aside from their loudness, is their imaginations. The simple games with the toys that didn't amount to much in my view, were intricate designs with endless possibilities. Listening to what was going through their heads was the most fascinating thing of the weekend. I know I often think of children having simple minds, but in a way it's not that simple. Jesus often referred to having 'faith like a child,' 'becoming like little children,' or 'the Kingdom belongs to children.' Does he want me to have a more simple mind? Or is he wanting me to not limit my view of him? We were made in God's image, including our minds. We come into this world closest to complete innocence that we'll ever be and the sin nature begins to immediately take over, and without the grace of God, our sinfulness would take us further and further from him. I'm thinking our mind does the same thing. We come into this world with no problem of comprehending God. Why are children so receptive of the gospel? Some would say they don't know any better and are just gullible. But after spending time with children and attesting to what's in the bible, I would say it's just the opposite. As children our minds are the least removed from its creator. So their acceptance of God is not ignorant faith, but a natural fitting piece to the puzzle in our minds. Why are the Narnia and Lord of the Rings movies so intriguing, even to adults? Perhaps they speak back to our childhood norm. As we grow without Christ, we try to fill that piece with everything else and forget how we were originally designed. So as we grow and become more 'learned' and less 'imaginative,' I think we are devolving from how our minds were originally formed.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." - Matt. 19:14

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. - Matt. 18:1-5

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. - Matt. 11:25

"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, " 'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?" - Matt. 21:16

Snow Days

The cold weather seems to be dominating my latest posts. The fact that it has been so cold is why I have the time to write this at the moment. I had to take a 'snow day' from work. I even got up with the full intention of working outside today. By the time I got to my parents to get the equipment, the rain/sleet had become quite persistent. I hoped I could wait it out to no avail. With this cold and the amount of precipitation that had fallen, yard work would not happen. So I went back to the house to help Rebecca with photo stuff.

Monday I also did not work outside because of the cold and wind. When leaves are the main culprit being cleaned, any amount of wind can make the job quite frustrating. Thinking I would have plenty of time the rest of the week I decided to stay home. So Monday was also a photo day.

Sunday I did work outside on the coldest day of the year so far. However it was not with Longscape, but with Rebecca. A family needed pictures for a Christmas card and adoption process, so we had to go ahead with it. I bundled up like Randy in A Christmas Story. I had 6 layers on my torso, 2 pairs of pants, boots, gloves, and toboggin. I was nice and toasty. However the poor little girls in the family did not have the luxury of so many layers since they had to look good for the pictures. They were quite the troopers and managed to smile through their chattering teeth.

Its suppose to warm up tomorrow, so hopefully I can get back outside.

Its Like a Sauna in Here

I placed a call to my Dad, a jack of all trades, and told him our heater situation. He was able to come by that afternoon to look at it. We confirmed it was the fan not blowing any air through the vents. He got a dowel rod and pushed on the fan. With the little boost it started spinning. The only problem was he pushed it the wrong way, so still no air being blown through vents. We tried it again and pushed it the correct way. Sure enough it started running again. I couldn't convince Rebecca to just give the blower a push whenever she wanted to heat to come on, so we went to the store and replaced the capacitor. It was suppose to be acting as the dowel rod electronically, but apparently wasn't doing its job.

We're over 24 hours into it and its still going strong. We're up to a balmy 66 in the living room. Rebecca is down to only one blanket while she works.

Many thanks to Dad for coming through on the repair. We are so fortunate to have handy family members. I don't know how much a service call would have cost me and hopefully I won't for a long time.

Angry Cold

Our first major problem with the condo arose yesterday. The heat stopped working. This is the second time this year this has happened to me. The first was back in January, on the coldest night of the year. We had gotten out of school for the minor threat of ice. The ice didn't happen, but the cold did. I decided to install my new digital thermostat during my free time that afternoon. After consulting my dad about the wiring, we decided we had it right. It worked for about 2 seconds until whatever function tripped the two wire we had misconnected. My uncle, who works on these things for a living, told me I had blown the compressor (I think that is what he said). Anyways, the whole system wouldn't work and we were without heat for the night. Fortunately the landlord got it fixed the next day and didn't charge me for it. Yesterday, Rebecca noticed a funny smell coming from the furnace. She turned it off until I got home. I turned it back on that night. The thermostat seems to be working as I can hear the furnace trying to turn on, however no air is coming out of the vents. Dad is coming over this afternoon to diagnose the problem. Hopefully it won't be too expensive. Our condo did come with a one year warranty on all appliances paying up to $550, so hopefully that will cover most of the repair if needed.

Meanwhile we have sectioned off the condo and basically staying in the bedroom as much as possible with our space heater. I had to work outside today and even though there's no heat in here, its still much warmer than outside. Our thermometer in the living room says 55 degrees as of right now. Having spent a heat-free winter in the Sycamore House I feel adequately prepared for these situations, however Rebecca is not so use to it. She refers to it as "angry cold."

St. Jude Marathon

An event we've had on the calendar all fall finally arrived this past weekend. Rebecca and I participated in the St. Jude's Half Marathon. David and Emily invited us to come along for the weekend, so we decided to run it with them. A good many of our friends and my brother also signed up so it ended up being a large MSU group in attendance.

Rebecca and I gave ourselves most of Friday off so we could get up to Memphis. We arrived around 5 at Emily's mom's house. She was again such a gracious host to us. When the rest of the crew arrived we headed downtown to pick up our race packets. Everything went very smoothly and we got in and out. Matt met us at the convention center. We then went to Macaroni Grill to get the standard pre-race pasta dinner. Matt stayed with Loren's brother so we dropped him off after dinner. On a side note, there are two Macaroni Grill's in Memphis in case you were wondering.

Race day began at 5:45 AM. The girls rejoiced again at their Panera Bread breakfast. The weather for the day was absolutely perfect. It started out in the upper 50s and overcast. Not too hot and not too cold.  I went with just t-shirt and shorts. Most people who dressed too warmly had ditched their extra clothes in the first mile. By the time everyone finished, the sun came out providing that extra warmth for standing still bodies. We left for downtown around 6:30. The race started at 8. Most everyone there must have had pre-race jitters as indicated by the crowds around the porta-potties. Both races were sold out so there were about 10,000 runners along with their supporters. I lost Rebecca early on as I went to check our bag and she headed to the starting line. I started in the pace group to do the half in 2 hours or the full in 4 hours. This is the same pace I did my full marathon back in 2006, so half the distance at the same speed. As you can tell, I didn't really put in the same amount of training as last time. The race got started and my group didnt' start until 9 minutes later due to staggered starts. Having to recalculate my time at every race clock I saw helped to keep my mind distracted. The atmosphere of a big event like this helps so much to keep you motivated. There were very large crowds for the first couple of miles and it was such a neat experience having everyone cheer you on. We also got to run through the St. Jude hospital complex which reinforced the whole point of the event as you saw families and friends of the cancer patients cheering and thanking you.

Course Map

My problematic knee held up until about mile 5 when it started it aching. That was really the only problem I had until the mile 11 drink station. I tried to drink while running and ended up choking on the water. I spit it all out and almost threw up. Fortunately I pulled out of the spasm and kept going. The last couple miles I could feel my legs getting weak and my whole body slightly aching. Needless to say I was glad I was only doing the half when we split courses during mile 13. The race finished at Autozone Park. You entered through the outfield wall and ran along the left field warning track to the finish line on the first base side. It was great coming into the stadium, hearing your name on the PA, and crossing the finish line. You forget about all the pain for a minute. I met my goal of two hours and finished with a time of 1:50:05. Afterwards I always seem to think I could have done better, but I was happy with my time. Results

After I finished I wanted to go get my camera and take pictures as the others crossed the finish line. Once you left the field area they weren't letting you back on. I decided to try it anyways. I got my bag from the bag check area and started back down the stands. One lady immediately came after me. I talked my way past her to the next guy, but he wasn't budging. I told him I wanted to be down there when my wife finished, but much like Monty Python's black knight, he stood strong with his orders of "none shall pass." I haven't figured out the reason why they were so adamant about not letting you back on so I stood there frustrated for a few minutes. I decided I had paid enough money to see my wife, brother, and friends cross the finish line and get a picture of them. So I stood on the first row of the bleachers away from the Barney Fife's and waited for them to look away and just slipped over the wall. David made it as well. Amazingly, the race went on unaffected even though we had broke this major piece of protocol. We took up our spots in the outfield as the runners came in through the outfield wall and got pictures of them. Everyone made it in varying states of pain. All the girls had found running/walking buddies to keep them company. Rebecca, who planned on walking the majority of it, had a great time walking with Emily's sister Sarah. Unlike everyone else the soreness did not hit Rebecca until the next day. That next morning I told her it was about time she started hurting. Matt did the full and had a blazing time of 3:05:46. He met his goal of 3:10:00 and I believe qualifies for the Boston Marathon.  I asked him how this compared to the Half Ironman and he said he "felt much worse after this one," which surprised me. We all hung out on the field for a while. Unfortunately Rebecca got trapped behind the "Great Wall of Memphis" and couldn't sneak back past the guard. We exited through the food line downing some pizza which felt like it was consumed by my body before it even reached my stomach.

Megan

Emily

Taylor

Rebecca and Sarah

Matt

Kelsey

We all hobbled out to the car (except Rebecca) and went back to the house to relax for the rest of the day. Overall it was a great day. The atmosphere of the race was great and hopefully all the raised money will benefit some kids. After I did the full marathon I told myself I probably wouldn't do another full. The half is just long enough to be quite challenging but not overwhelming like the full. If I can get my knee back to full speed I wouldn't mind doing these more often.