Random Photos ‘You took’

[my56chevytruck]

Originally Posted by special-K

I didn't take that Huntington Beach picture, but I took this one outside my door back when we used to get snow

wowza, we here in NW Indiana got only a few inches this winter, I've seen my share of blizzards over the years.

[special-K]

I haven't touched my snow shovel this year. Plow boys are making zip! The Mid-Atlantic gets the full variety 'weather' we like it or not!

I got behind this workhorse going through the dogleg on Old Frederick Rd that parallels I-70. They rerouted it when they improved the state road crossing (MD97) as part of I-70 construction. It was good to see the ole boy still earning it's keep

[72c20customcamper]

Winter finally came . But it’ll be 48 and raining by Thursday .

[special-K]

We got rain. They said chance of snow but it was all rain, not even sleet. It was 55 today. Trees are budding. They say the Cherry Blossoms in DC will be flowering way early. May 15th is our frost free date. That's 2 1/2 months away! Makes me glad I took pictures other winters so I can see snow... that nobody messed up

[68bowtie]

Random photo I took of some air and water molecules.

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by 68bowtie

Random photo I took of some air and water molecules.

Attachment 2262282

Beauty, it's everywhere you look.

[special-K]

Beauty can be found everywhere, but not everywhere you look



Turn to the left and... (look up not down)

[Steeveedee]

^ So true. That one shot looks like my neighbor's yard.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

^ So true. That one shot looks like my neighbor's yard.

Funny you'd say that. Both pictures are my neighbors behind me. That's the back of my barn I just moved. I took the first picture after they turned me in for my buildings I built 15-20 years earlier. That was back in '07. The inspector didn't cite me on the barn but that is what they had the biggest problem with. The afternoon before the zoning variance hearing they had a survey crew come out to survey our side property line. Their place starts at my backline and along my sideline is their 15' easement for access. They look at my fence and I look at their rat farm. Funny thing is, here is the back corner stake, 14" beyond my fence. That's their trash shed 14" onto my property

Since then I've finished it off, windows, closed in under porch, new (higher) fence, soffit, fascia. Code states 5' offset and that is building footprint (foundation) and that's what it is. The steps and porch don't count. This picture was in '10. A month ago I finally did the soffit & fascia

Not always a good thing when they clean up, either. Burning trash on a clear blue sky day

The meadow beside us they are squatting on. They figure filling it with junk constitutes land use. Picture is '07. It's 5x junkier now

Another fall picture

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by special-K

The meadow beside us they are squatting on. They figure filling it with junk constitutes land use. Picture is '07. It's 5x junkier now

I don't get it. They move into a beautiful place and then proceed to trash it up. If they are squatting then it's probably a family thing but why trash the place. I've rented places, they weren't mine but I kept them up because that's where I lived. I probably took better care of them than my own stuff. And I certainly wouldn't piss off the neighbors... Well with the exception of noise. Guilty on that one. Party's, drums, electric guitars, and women yelling at me late at night doesn't always go over well with the ole neighbors. But the yard was always neat as a pin.

In all fairness to my neighbors, the party's did get a bit out of control. I knew that when the police showed up. Ah those were the days.

[special-K]

Well, it's a story. When I bought this place the realtor told me that property was tied up in a title dispute. I looked into it and it was between descendants of the man who built my house and a family who felt they bought it somewhere along the line. It was an unfenced meadow with a stream running through it, I kept it mowed, and all the kids had a place to play football, soccer, baseball, ride bikes, catch crayfish, etc. It runs way back along the house behind me. On my opposite side is an open lawn with a house (Wade & Joan) set back and up the hill. There is another house farther up, farther back, and farther away from my house was owned by the father (Jerry & Bonnie). He was our grandparent's age and he originally owned all that land, then sold the piece beside me to his son who built his house a few years before I got my place. Jerry's property went behind me and this house behind me and he also owned that house, a separate parcel. He rented that to his daughter (Debbie) & husband (Junior), then another daughter, then another son, then his brother, and back to Debbie who still lives there. When Jerry passed away she was sold the house for next to nothing. The daughter who was born since I've lived here is married with four children and lives with mom.

A builder guy who puts first right to refusal on properties with title disputes got the property with the stream. He divided it and built a house on the far side of the stream and back. I knew the lot beside me would never perk. One day this builder stopped by and asked if I wanted to make an offer. I said get me a copy of the plat so I knew what I was buying and I'd be glad to make an offer. Before that happened, I was mowing it , Jerry stopped by and said, "I appreciate you keeping my land mowed", and I never mowed it again, Jerry fenced it and put cows on it. He said he bought it but didn't have the title because IRS had a lien on the builder. Hard to believe money was exchanged but no title. In '07 I learned the truth. Jerry passed away and the junk started rolling in, fence is rotting away.

So, I am surrounded by this clan and it became obvious they resented that they didn't get my place to complete the puzzle. The woman who had lived here for ages refused to sell to Jerry. Little old me has no problem standing up to this clan and they would try to push their weight around. Proud of their ignorance and unconcerned with friendliness. One day I stood up to Junior not long after an incident with Wade and they turned me in for my screen house, woodshed, and barn I built w/o permits. The county was ok with the barn, but the result was I needed a zoning variance for being too close to the property lines. For the hearing I had to give notice to surrounding properties. Went to assayer's office for the land beside us and found that builder never paid taxes and the land is in the hands of county commissioners. I learned squatter's rights exist still, use for 20 years without owner complaint and title can be awarded to the squatter. That was Jerry's plan. When he passed, the 20 years reset for Debbie. That has probably passed now but she hasn't filed for title because that would mean commencing to pay property tax. So my county owns it, no complaint, and that allows these people to junk up the property they didn't buy and don't pay taxes on. That's the system at work

[special-K]

Yep, that they do. The good news is I never turned them in for their zoning and building permit violations or the health dept. for their health violations. I don't want to start a war. Debbie is the only one left alive and the other two houses are out of the clan now. I have a better higher privacy fence and moving my barn recently puts the side offset within zoning code and I only have the one unregistered vehicle allowed by zoning code, and that's just my spare cab which is under a tarp. Probably doesn't even count. They consider a large part as a the one vehicle. Although they are slobs, I get along with and talk to the daughter and her husband. Debbie still has the cold heart she inherited but it's like she isn't even there. The younger family will be there after she croaks. He's a Squarebody guy, though his approach to trucks is not the same as mine. What counts here is he probably wouldn't like me much if I drove another brand . The little kids all love me. It's like I'm grandpa, but they call me Mr. Tim. They talk to me, tell me things with excitement, and I have handed down things like a pogo stick, trolley line, and a bicycle or two. I gave the dad my cast-off tires last year when I got new ones for my Suburban and they're on his '87 Suburban now. When I move it will be to the mountains. I'm no stranger to hillbillies and they keep me prepared for what will come . I'm not too far from being one myself, but do have some class. Things could be worse. I keep my place as best as I can and keep my junk consolidated in the far corner ... nearest to them

[GOPAPA]

This is a photo of two of the 3 Louie's that Ho455 worked on ,, I grew up around these tug boats and as a young man was a sawyer in the mill here where these tug boats towed log rafts to the mill

[72c20customcamper]

Blaaaa had to go out and rake off the roof of the house and the tent garage

[special-K]

Our weather is strange today. We're getting the Nor'easter, too. But the sun is out, clouds rolling through and wind roaring like a freight train. extreme outer edge, only getting the wind. That shows how nasty that mean mutha is for the N/E

[FleetsidePaul]

My ole flatbed sitting high and almost dry.

[special-K]

Only 100' he says... ONLY???? Not many want to climb that ladder, but most will gladly climb down from a burning building.

I spent many years working off of pump jack poles generally 24' - 36' off the ground. One job requires assembling two 24 footers... 48 feet of wobbly wobbly! I got the heebie jeebies at about 40'. Finished it up with knots in my gut. Couldn't even do that now. Older and wiser, maybe, but surely not so brave. I should sell off my scaffolding. It just sits mostly and when I use them at 30' I can have a panic attack. Never thought that could ever happen. I have climbed Half Dome and many precarious rock faces in my younger years. Using this scaffold was easy peezy. Never gave it a thought. I have fallen a few times. First was 24', second was 16', third was 8'. The 8' was five years ago and I got slammed to the deck from a ladder that did a twirl. Broke a rib and that one really shook me up. I retire!!

I didn't like doing this more recent job. That's 30' of pole. I climbed out a dormar window around the back and walked the built-in gutter at the edge of the roof to set the poles. I tried off the tippy top of the fully extended 32' ladder and came back down. Wasn't enough ladder to reach above the roof. I had to rebuild that whole wall piece by piece, so it was strip the siding and planking, cut plywood to screw back up, remove and reinstall each day. The homeowner was supposed to supply masons scaffold and the cheap SOB never came up with it. Not the right job for pump jacks. I was pumping up and cranking down constantly and reaching high and low while handling the plywood. Never again!

[FleetsidePaul]

Heights really creep me out. Just looking at pictures of heights creeps me out. There's a reason that my house doesn't even have stairs.

Some people that I knew in the 80's may disagree but I don't like to be high. Ground level is fine with me.

[CG]

Got the hood to my panel home today. One ton is leaving on the first then I’ll have room for the rest of the panel.

[jweb]

Took a trip to the coast last weekend. Nice sunset on Friday.

[special-K]

Originally Posted by CG

Got the hood to my panel home today. One ton is leaving on the first then I’ll have room for the rest of the panel.

Someone's been cuttin' and a buffin'

Originally Posted by jweb

Took a trip to the coast last weekend. Nice sunset on Friday.

Very nice indeed

[special-K]

Now that I'm not up on the pump jacks every day I have a hard time. I put siding on a house a friend built for his daughter, with him helping. A big wide and tall end wall that took 36' of pole for a 30' walk board in the middle with 30' poles at each end with 12' planks. So about 50' of wall I guess. With this set-up you go up until you don't need the shorter stuff at each end and drop those down.

This wall was so high I had to crank it all down, to remove the shorter planks, then pump back up. Once up I had to reach off the ends to get some of the siding up. And this was LP Smartside, a wood siding and heavier than vinyl, plus there was soffit to run out there. It was a weird feeling because you ran out of walk board at the ends. Plus high enough for the poles to be swaying. And a 30' one man walk board with poles at the very end is a very springy twisty thing.

I got the heebie jeebies up there. I got to where I had to keep one hand on the wall. Impossible to hang siding with one hand. Also the tall cypress trees not far next to the house screwed up my perception, plus window wells below with rebar sticking up didn't help. I told Larry I had to come down before a panic attack froze me and the fire dept would have to rescue me. I had an awful time making my way back to the ladder at one end and a hard time climbing down the fully extended 32 footer. We sat for a good while but I was still all upset, so I said time to call it a day and try again tomorrow.

I really didn't want to go back up there but I conjured up all I had a went on up, fighting fear the whole time. It was a race against anxiety catching up again. Once the ends of the walk board were above the roofline and too close to the pole brackets to go past I felt better. But now I was higher yet! I had to stand on my tippy toes to reach the peak.

I think I left out one other come back down to settle my nerves session in there somewhere. The thing with doing that work off of pumpjacks is you have to run all the way up before coming down. You stay until the wall is done. Taking lunch or going home for the day is not a good thing. You adjust as you go up. To climb up and start fresh is a very hard thing to adjust to. These days they build them so big that's not possible. So screw that!!

[Boog]

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

[Killer Bee]

speaking of fear of heights...

some years ago out on point loma, we had to place our antenna farm nearest the edge possible for sea level coverage up to the coastline

roughly 400' to the bottom, we wanted to look over the edge to see how high it was

along with the gusty winds, ocean crashing below, and washed out fencing dangling over the side, I was way too scared to walk out any further.... so I crawled

mangled fencing in lower left corner of this shot



arrow pointing to the tip of land's end

[special-K]

Yep. Being high up with flat land all around is one thing. But depth perception gets all screwed up when you have varied points of reference. Plus, ha is ha I don't care who y'ar