Horse show today, and the woman used my truck to tow the horse trailer. Her trainer drove, and claimed that the truck had no problems pulling the trailer. I would hope not, the horse isn't that heavy.

I got the flood lights wired on the side of the barn and hooked to the switch, and wired power to the coop expansion so I could mount the camera up to cover the gate area. Working well so far.

My repaired / RMA suppressor came back today, good to have it back in the safe. I don't have a before picture, but looking inside it now I can tell it's radically different. Looks like 3 layers of jet engine fins in there now. Because they reused the original shell as not to require me another $200 tax and 9 month wait it's about 1" too long for the guts now, but I'm not worried about that extra inch of wasted space.

Mushroom logs are producing again, so that's good news. They're supposed to produce for 5 years, but since we had no history with them I had no idea if that was true or just marketing hype from the spoor people.

My view as I'm typing this. The weather is perfect 73F and not humid. That can't last.

Wired the new interior lights in the barn this morning along with a few outlets. Everything turned out OK except for the final run of wire from the switch block to the existing splice point. I ran out of wire... sorta. I got it to reach, but it doesn't run back along the wall like I wanted it runs right across the top of the rafters. Tacky, but I didn't want to stall the project for lack of 3' of wire. It's "good enough" and no one is ever going to see it until I point it out.

What's more obvious is the fact that the woman hasn't painted everything yet. The half blue, half green wall says she didn't have the ladder...

While out running around yesterday avoiding all the in-laws I went to Agri Supply and got the last of the 1/4" wire needed for the coop. I put that up today, so now the woman can leave the door between the runs open and let the birds explore the new dirt. They're so happy to have new dirt to scratch. Who knows what sorts of treasures they'll find? Probably just bugs.

They sent out an update for year-end since end of qualified bookings was Friday. The district could be sitting at 130%! That's great news for me since my commission is tied to the district. I'm thinking I'll clear another $10k or something based on the activities of last week.

Also on the topic of money, one of the sales reps I work with gave me a $500 REI gift card as a thank you for helping close a big deal this week. That was truly unexpected because I don't even really like the guy. He's a douche, but a douche that tips well. I'm not even sure what to get. Perhaps some new shoes, or a rain jacket for my get-home bag, or some other luxury I would not normally buy. Pity REI is so expensive when it comes to electronics or I could get a fit bit.

The woman and the moms are at one of the Snap Pea Popups, and I went to Golden Corral with mom's sisters, my dad and father in law. I can't believe people like this place. Yes, there are a lot of choices but they all suck something fierce.

Got the call, my tires are in so I had to pull the wheels off the bike and will take them in this afternoon. Saves me $60 doing the wheel removal myself. I can't be that lazy as to not do that. I gave my jack stands to dad and told him not to bring them when the moved (apparently) so I'm stuck using cinder blocks. I was going to build a little wooden frame to hold the bike up but this will work just as well. The rear is quite squared off, they don't normally stand upright on their own like that.

Fence is finally in progress. They're digging holes and the guy is off to get concrete at Home Depot.

Raining like crazy on the way to the bike shop, but eventually made it and got the tires swapped. Don't want to go into the details again, but they did order the wrong tires in the wrong size, but fortunately had the right tires in the right size in stock so my trip was not a waste.

The woman got me a treat of sorts. I had the 'broad noodle' flavor last night, it was quality ramen, for instant, but the flavor packet stuff was just gross/weird. It wanted to be spicy and smelled spicy but had almost no flavor beyond salt. Whatever, it's food, I'm not picky.

Been a long, long 4 days. My schedule was super slow so I took Thursday and Friday off (boss gave me the time without having to use vacation which was nice). I got a lot of crap done, but now it's time to start thinking about work again. Hate Sunday nights.

My new EDC knife came in. It's a karambit ring knife, but with a regular tanto blade instead of the goofy curved thing typical on a karambit. What makes this one so bad ass though is the Emerson Wave hook. When you put your finger through the ring and pull the knife out, the hook catches on the edge of your pocket and pops the knife open. No manual step required, just POP and the knife is in your hand an open. Very slick. I got the training knife with the real one and on my first draw attempted it popped up as planned. Here is a pic of my old EDC, the Spyderco Delica that I've been carrying since 1999 or 2000, and the new one and the (orange) trainer.

Ripping the knife out is really hard on your pants pocket, but fortunately the 5.11s that I wear when not at work have reinforced pocket edges just for this sort of activity so I should be fine as long as I'm not drawing it out constantly.

Wednesday we went and looked at the goats. Technically it was my opportunity to veto us getting them, but really I have no say at this point. My building the goat barn and rebuilding the main bard was my approval. They're still babies, but even the adults were pretty small and these fainting goats can't really jump so we should be fine with the 4' tall fence. The woman was just happy that she was able to pick them up. They don't really "cuddle" but if she spends enough time with them I'm guessing she can get them leash trained. Yea, crazy goat lady out walking her goats. The black one is Decker (get it??), the mostly white one is Lugnut and the wildly pattered black/white one is Taco. That's the one I named.

They'll be fully weaned by the 20th, so if the fence gets put in next week then she'll get them on Saturday. The fence was supposed to go in this week but the installer said that the lumber mill did not have enough 16' boards. The guy has a super reputation in the horse community so he's probably not making that up.

Most of my vacation time was spent working on the coop expansion. As you can see here, it's now 6' wider and done other than paint (not my job) and the rest of the anti-noodling wire. I ran out and the only place to get the 4' 1/4" stuff is at Agrisupply which is not close. I'll get it later, it's not like she's getting new birds in the next month. I also have to wire it still, probably just an overhead light and a coop cam or something. There shouldn't be birds in this coop in the winter so it won't need headed water.

I think it looks like it's been there all along, matched the style exactly. There is a nice little gate so the woman can open up the two runs and let the birds move around, and it's got fresh sand (technically crushed something or another but it's like a really coarse sand).

Look how happy the birds are they're getting another 66 sq ft of run space to scratch around in.

Since I finished Wasteland 2 and replayed some of the content I missed I'm pretty much done with it. So, I had to find a new game. Baldur's Gate, the enhanced edition is sorta similar. We shall see.

Radishes are coming up fast. Those stupid pine pollen pods are everywhere, picked some out by hand but there are just so many of them. Wonder if I can get them out of the way with the blower without ruining the sprouts?

I also planted 4 potato halves that mom brought over. They're store bought but were growing so we'll give it a try.

Low key day today. Went to Home Depot yet again, got a latch for the barn door (which doesn't work and we'll have to take it back) and looked at 'muck carts' and mats to put down in the new coop. Mostly we wanted to go to the recycled building material place but they were closed. Lame.

The woman painted, I dorked around the house and then we went for a hike of sorts. She rode her horse on the trails behind the barn it's at and I walked along next to her. Strange, but at least we got outside together without having to do yard work.

I finally checked off one of those projects that almost never gets done because it doesn't have any real effect on anything. If you look at older Chevy trucks, you can see the (aluminium?) mounts that hold the hood latch hardware and provide a mount for the oil cooler in front of the main radiator, and what is probably a transmission cooler. They start black but oxidise over time which is why I'm thinking they're some sort of aluminium, or have a coating on them that gets blasted off by road grit. When you look at one front-on you can see the bars and it just looks ugly. I pulled the front grill off (which is not held on by a single bolt or screw, just some tension clips) and using some cardboard in front of the radiator proceeded to BBQ black those bars out. Looks better to me now, you can't really see them when the nose is back together.

Should have taken before and after pictures with the grill on instead of only with it off, but you get the idea.

Didn't maintain my 1st place standing at the autocross at the BMW event. Two people beat me, by a few hundredths. I had one run that was 22.8xx but I was out of the stop box by 6" or so and that means the run doesn't count. If I could have just stopped a wee bit sooner I would have dominated the event. Instead, I get the 3rd place cone. 42 people in the group this time, so it's not too surprising that someone capitalised on my mistake.

Back home, and my custom holster showed up. It's about as amazing as I had hoped, but it's actually different in two ways I wasn't expecting. First, the material is really thin. I know he showed me but I guess I didn't really know just how that looks/feels in real life. The other thing is that it's very soft. It doesn't dig into my skin like the stiff leather on the one I made. It almost feels like it's not staying in place but it is, it just flexes and moves with me instead of against me. Going to take some getting used to the softness.

Did some work on the coop today. Got the windows framed in, the rest of the front door frame done and the roof on using the funky plastic washer nails we got at Home Depot last night after dinner with Sean and Julie. I had to bum some 2x2s off the neighbour because I was short one 4' board and didn't want to fire up the table saw to rip one down from a 2x4. Plus dad is pretty protective of the table saw so I didn't want to use it without him here, he would probably get cranky about that.

While I was working on that, the illegals showed up to do the roof on the main barn. Once they got the old roof down, it was clear that most of the structure was sound, but that a bunch of the corners were totally busted. I kinda knew that, but didn't think to fix it ahead of time. While they started laying the new roof, I quickly fixed the corners using old wood so it would 'match'.

When they went to lunch around 2pm, I fixed the busted beam on the extra stall. Taking it apart was the hardest part, once I had all 50000 nails out it was easy to knock the beam out and put a replacement in using one of the 14' 2x4s we got from the reclaim pile. The woman needs to paint it, but at least it's solid once again.

After the beam fix, I changed the oil in the lawn mower, cleaned the air filter and sharpened the blade. I used the puck sharpening stone but the blade was pretty beat up (probably running over all those pine cones when using it as a brush mower) so I'll need to pull the blade back off and use one of the dremel wheels to clean the nicks out of it. I think I have a sharpening stone bit in the huge multi-pack I got for giftmas two years ago. I did quickly mow the lawns but the grass was pretty scraggly so even the quasi-sharp blade did a fine job.

They finished up around 5pm, but have to come back tomorrow because they ran out of the top cap material. Off by about 3' at the front.

Frost warning tonight, so I put the covers back on the garden box. They said that typically the last frost of the year is over by April 10th... so that's just about right for us to be done with this cold weather crap.

I've got some apple slices in the dehydrator, we'll see how they turn out. I've never actually made dried fruit in the thing, says it takes 12-24 hours. That's a lot of power.

On a little road trip for work. Yesterday I rode down to BCBSSC for a meeting, then road to my boss's house to stay the night. Today I've ridden to the BMW event in Greer, SC, and tonight I'll ride back to my boss's house again. Friday morning I'll head home, and stop by First Health in Pinehurst for a lunch meeting there. So it's 3 days of riding, but actually working a the same time. Not really sure how it's all going to work out by so far, so good. The route will look like this:

I picked up this little magnetic GPS holder and it works perfectly to hold the phone so I can use it while riding as my navigation source. Usually I tape a paper map or route plan to the tank, but there are so many twists and turns on these back roads it's better to use a live updating navigation source.

My tires are going to be worn out after this trip, so now I need to decide for real. Sell the bike and get out of riding, or spend the money to get fresh tires and plan on continuing to ride. At some point soon I'll need a new helmet too.

The woman wanted to get me an ice cream birthday cake, but they're expensive it turns out and I don't really need all that much ice cream. Instead she found this. My favourite flavor.... discount! :)

It's quite horrible, tastes like chemicals just like all pre-packaged chocolate based things. It's the thought that count, she had fun trying to find something.

The card she drew me. She used color this year, which was what I was going to do for her. Stole my idea!

Made jerky out of the almost expired elk the woman got at the store for $5/lb yesterday. Turned out OK, but I think this bag of spices was particularly old as it's not very flavorful.

Dad came by today and we busted out a lot of work on the coop expansion. Didn't have the right nails to put the metal on the roof, and ran out of brackets to finish framing in the door. That's when I knew it was time to quit, when we ran out of stuff.

This is amazing. One of the guys on the forum makes holsters and he's got some really good looking stuff. It's too big for me, but very nicely done. We were chatting about how I had made my own by cutting up a stock holster and how I would like to have one made off the pattern I came up with. He wasn't sure why, but I said it would be nice to have one that looked like it was made by a pro, not me just hacking something up with an exacto knife. One thing lead to another and he agreed to make one for me. It's 100ustom, and he said he'll never do it again because it's not a good use of time but that it was a fun one-off project. Custom horse hide backing, custom sized kydex shell, custom mounts, etc. We even picked the piece of material based on my preferred thickness.

It's a single piece of material so the stitching is not necessary for anything but it gives it a finished look. He kept saying it would be 4-5 weeks which I was fine with, but he did it all in a week, mostly because we kept going back and forth about design ideas and I think the dude was enjoying talking about his craft with someone who wanted something outside the box. Ships Monday, I'll have it by weeks end as I'll be in SC for a few days and not here when it arrives.

At our customary date night at Home Depot we picked up some herbs, white radish seeds and one lone cucumber plant to get the left side of the garden going. Herb plants are stupid expensive, but so are fresh herbs in the store so hopefully we'll get our moneys worth out of this batch.

I just realised that I used the "go back" feature of the journal software to change an entry a few days ago that was in March, and this is April and it regenerated the March page correctly without me even thinking about it. Sometimes my code works.

While at Home Depot date night we got the materials for the coop expansion. It's gone from a 4' wide addition with a wire roof to a 6' wide addition with a metal roof. That required a longer 4x4 for the front, some 2x6 roof beams, 1x6 cross beams, hurricane ties, 3 sheets of siding, 3 roof panels and assorted hinges and latches for the run door and coop door and window. Basically we're now building a mini replica of the main coop, just the mirror image. We won't need nesting boxes since only young birds will go in here prior to their introduction to the main coop. We're also going to do a proper 2x4 subfloor using reclaimed wood from the dumpster and then use the scrap concrete siding pieces as the floor. We've got enough material and I think it will be pretty cool for a 100% recycled job.

Today I dug the 3 post holes, got the 4x4s set/squared/etc and did the concrete. If it stops raining then tomorrow we'll frame it up and maybe get the roof beams in. It's sorta sunny now so the concrete should sorta dry, right?