A Time for Planting…

55 blocks + 34 bags of soil = our new garden.
What use to be a rotted out sandbox in our new back yard is now our vegetable garden. The girls and I decided to try our hand at growing something that we could eat (and might actually be good for us) which is a notable departure from the Banquet meals and French Bread pizza we have lived on for a year! This evening, we planted peas, broccoli, lettuce, carrots, and a bunch of herbs for good measure.
Provided that our experiment actually works, I will post periodic updates as things begin to germinate (a new word for me).

Structured Wiring Project

Diagram-701286After nearly 2 months of research, drawing, crawling around in the attic, and cutting holes in the walls, we have finally centralized all of our home electronics. This all started as a concept to free up space in my home office and eventually grew to the consolidation and centralization of all of our digital services.
Initially, I wanted to outsource the whole thing to Jerry’s Audio/Video but after several un-returned phone calls, I decided to man-up and do it myself. I started with this drawing and began ordering the components online. We have a coat closet in the main hallway that I would convert to serve as the distribution point for telephony, digital music, digital photos, digital movies (via Apple TV), and HD cable TV. I also wanted to centralize our network and storage as well. To get power to the closet, I had to run a 20amp circuit from the panel outside to a new outlet in the closet to power everything and also learned how to patch and texture drywall. We no longer have 5 separate remote controls, it’s all done with one Logitech Harmony 890. If you know how to get Dual link DVI to span 45 feet without noticeable signal loss, leave a comment. I want to move the G5 server in to the closet as well, then feed the 30″ Cinema display remotely – that would be very cool!

Labor Day Weekend

_KRN6956-701169We spent Labor Day weekend at the Duhon’s cabin in the northern Arizona mountains. It was nice to be able to get out of the heat and enjoy the cool weather in the pines. After breakfast Saturday morning, we took a long quad ride through the forest and spotted several deer. Later that day, our friend Kerry drove up and helped build a fort in the woods and also joined us for another quad ride. Sunday, we had church in the woods and then visited the Tonto Natural Bridge where we hiked to the canyon floor and braved the slippery rocks.  We spent much quality time this weekend singing songs, praying together, playing board games, and performing various skits.  This was certainly one of those “I don’t want it to end” weekends.