Early Halloween

Had to do Halloween two days early this year because Cathrine's' mother wants her this year. It was fun. The girls got dressed up, and we went to a couple stops (witch and a penguin). Candy, candy,candy. They even had the chance to play with silly string. I wish we had the chance to share all the holidays together, but I guess Halloween is not a big deal...Had to go back and fix a problem with a job this weekend. I hate that. There is always something. It rained about three inches this Friday, and it flooded a job we did that wasn't graded perfect. It turned out not being that big of a deal, I just hate mess-ups. I will only be out another bag of fescue, and some good old fashioned hand grading. We put up a new ventilation fan in the greenhouse that will make the summer a lot cooler. It pumps out about four times the air volume that the previous fan did. I like improvements.

Sunday, already?

Oh boy. Don't really have much to say. Same old thing really. Homework, going back to work, greenhouse. Same ol', same ol'. We did a grading job today, and it went well. I loath working on Sunday, but money is money. It was a good job though, I basically sat and watched a bobcat for five hours. That is my kind of work. We are seeding the entire house this week, or I should say Hybrid Landscapes is. I pretty much have done nothing but talk on the phone, and make arrangements. Ah the life of the General Contractor. I would much rather talk on the phone than push a shovel all day. The money is just not as good......The folks went on a vacation to Cabo San Lucas, so Cat didn't get to spend the night with them, I was glad to have the whole weekend with her. I finally got around to planting some arrangements for the deck. I used all of our stuff, with the exception of the pansies, which I broke down and bought. Yeah, ours are still not ready. Those are our violas in the picture though. I put some tulip bulbs in them for spring. They don't look like much now, but in the middle of winter they will be welcome color....I ordered the plastic for the greenhouse, so I guess that is what we will be doing next weekend. I also ordered a new exhaust fan that we will be putting in. Next up a heater. Heat, heat, heat. Wish I had it now. I will turn that thing into a greenhouse, damn it!. I have finally got YouTube, so I will be posting some videos from time to time.

Video of the aquarium trip

1/2 rain day

It has rained for about 18 hours strait now. That is a good thing, and the only reason I write about it is because it has been very dry around here. I can literally count on one hand the amount of times it has rained this month. Whatever. We only worked half of the day, and I had time to change my site around a bit. I think it looks better. It is a lot easier to post also(better software). I also had time to mess around with the grow light set-up I have built for the plants(cactus). I hope it will help them make it in the house for a couple months. I wish I was further along in the greenhouse, or I should say I wish I had a "greenhouse" instead of a cold frame. I ordered the plastic today, so It will be closed in soon at least. I have learned a lot, and have realized that I need a lot of equipment that I had initially not planned on installing. So, in a way I am glad I waited, or procrastinated. We had our first frost last week, and it dawned on me that the cold is coming, duhh. It always sneaks up though. It is going to be in the eighties tomorrow. Pants or shorts?.....

My Vacation is over

What a week. We took a trip to the Georgia Aquarium this week. I was impressed. It was very interesting, and the girls had a lot of fun. I put a couple of pictures up(below this post). I was on vacation all week, although it didn't seem like a vacation. All I did was work. I enjoyed it though. We finished two jobs, both of which turned out nicely. It was even more fun, as I did the design for both jobs. I am always working on projects from someone else's design. There have been countless times that I have thought to myself I would never have put this plant here. So that was fun. I even made a little bit of money. So even though I worked all week it was good. I have two more jobs lined up, and a possible third on the way. I am contemplating starting a business, I just don't know when. I want to make it legal. Things are good though.......The greenhouse, or that structure with plastic on it, is o.k. I lost a lot of pansies, and that wasn't fun, but everything else is good. There is always to much to do there. I am becoming frustrated at the fact that it is not a full blown greenhouse, with a heater and adequate ventalation. Also I feel a bit cramped. I should have built it two times longer. Oh well. We had our first frost of the season, and it was a mild panic to rescue the cactus and succulents. So they are all over at the house, well half of them anyways. We have well over 100 arrangements and not enough room. Liquidation sale?. I have installed grow lights in the kitchen, which will expand the area a bit, but it will be tight. School is good. We went to Rambo nurseries, one of the biggest greenhouses in Georgia. It was amazing, about three acres of greenhouses, connected. It was all completely automated. I had to wipe the drool off my mouth from time to time. I also got some good advice and tips on growing pansies from a master grower. Good stuff....That's about it, need to do the old homework and get back into work mode.......Here are a couple of pictures of one of the jobs we did. Also the pansies are starting to bloom(violas also).

Trip to the Georgia Aquarium

Newer technology

Ah, the first blog on my new computer. I have finally set everything up and taken all the junk programs off that came installed on the computer. I love the convenience of getting a decent computer from dell, but I do not appreciate having all the resource hogging applications installed on it. It literally took four hours to un-install all the programs that just take up space. Oh well. The new computer is nice, and about twice as fast as my old laptop. The battery was giving up on my old laptop, running only about 20 minutes without power. I also installed a new wireless router. Finally. I had been putting it off for about a year, in part because the router still worked. It was just so old that I was not getting the 5 Meg that I pay for each month. So now are wireless connection went from about 1.5 megs to 3.5 megs per second. More than double the speed, a very good thing. I know this all sounds pretty dorky, but I love quicker. Faster computer, faster internet. I have realized that my knowledge of computer technology is quickly becoming outdated. I am out of date and am not even familiar with the latest processors. It is impossible to keep up with, it changes so quickly. I give myself three more years. I still understand the basics, but soon I will be like an old man trying to set the time on a v.c.r. , or d.v.d, or blu-ray disk player, whatever is around in three years. Whatever, I don't have the time I once did to keep up with computers. There are to many plants that need to be planted......I am on vacation this week. That is really cool, usually about this time on Sunday I am already gearing down to get back into work mode. I have a lot lined up for the upcoming week. We are going to take the girls to the aquarium, and to ride the marry-go-round. I am forcing myself to take at least two days off to spend with the family. It is not that I do not want to spend time with them, It is the fact that I have lined up so much side work that I need to get a lot of it finished up............Started the fall quarter at school this week. I really enjoyed the schedule, and the classes are enjoyable. Both of them deal with greenhouses. We will be taking "field trips" to the Atlanta area nurseries and greenhouses. I will be able to see how a real greenhouse runs. Fully automated, climate controlled, all that good stuff. I am sure it will not be anything compared to that massive mess of a greenhouse we own. Ha. Oh yeah lost about thirty more percent of the pansy's. That was good news. Temps were in the nineties on Wednesday. And for anyone that was wondering, pansy's don't grow to well when the greenhouse gets to 110+. In case anyone did not know that..... I will have pics of the aquarium visit shortly.

I have a second, better write something....

To say I have been busy would be an understatement. It has been a good kind of busy. Lots of things going on. The greenhouse is going good. I have started all kinds of annuals, and the first crops are ready. Well almost. I have learned that growing pansies in Georgia in the summertime is no easy feat. They are by far the most challenging annual I have grown so far. Not in the fact of getting them to germinate, but keeping them growing. Fluctuating temperatures, and therefore water usage make it hard to keep them growing happy. I have had about a fifty of sixty percent success rate. Not to bad overall, we will still have enough to be profitable. Live(or grow) and learn. We will end up with about 20 or so flats. Lost about 10. All of the other plants are doing well though. We finally have set up a wholesale account, which will allow us to buy seed and supplies for a fraction of the cost that we had previously paid. That is a good thing. It has been a good year at the greenhouse. We have decided(or have been forced to realize) that we will not have heat in the greenhouse this year. Not a big deal, as I don't know if I feel like babysitting it all winter. I have decided at least for now to shift my attention to growing perennials and landscape plants. No heat required.........Lots of work after work. Side jobs gallore. That is a great thing for now though. Who needs weekends off anyway? I have did a couple grading jobs, and I have a couple big beds and a complete front yard coming up. We spent Saturday, four of us, laying sixteen pallets of sod. That was a lot of work, and we are all sore today. Oh well. Good hard work. We still have four more to go. I will be glad to get it over with, then it is over to the neighbor's yard. I love word of mouth advertising. I just hope I can balance the day job, my work, and school. We will see. For know it is working out. I start school this Wednesday, and I am looking forward to it. It seems like I took half a year off. I have fourteen or fifteen more classes to take to get my degree, after this quarter. That seems like a long time. Seven more quarters if I only take two classes a quarter. Four if I take three classes per quarter. I am sure it will be over before I know it. I enjoy school, but I want to get it over with one of these years..........I am on vacation the week of the 9th, and I am looking forward to it. To say the least. It was a long summer at work, and it is time to have a week off. I am going to make myself have at least two days where I do nothing. The rest of my vacation I am sure will be spent working on the side jobs......That's about it. The girls had a fun weekend. They went to the local festival and watched the parade Saturday, and Cat got to watch the fireworks last night. They both had a lot of fun. Everyone is good. We all had our first round of sickness over the last two weeks, but everyone is better now. Between school and daycare the girls have managed to bring home some funky viruses......I will have some pictures next time. I have plenty to photograph, but always forget to bring the camera...........