Welcome to my simple DIY blog space.

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11/1/22- I have been busy exploring freeze drying foods and homemade cat food. We have been working on installing 115ft privacy fencing in the midst of supply delays.

2/19/22 Thor suffered a bad case of severe constipation for the second time. I have now moved away from processed store bought cat foods and am focusing on nutrient rich carnivore based home made cat food. No not raw because this can harbor too much potential for food born diseases. I have also been busy getting ready to bring home a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer.

9/11/21- In other news we have been low key and keeping to ourselves. We explored Capitol reef National park, Bryan’s head, Yellowstone, and Zion is our next destination. I am working on canning with my pressure cooker, renovating our Autohome Maggiolina rooftop tent, making fire starters and refining our over landing and camping gear with the next idea being to upgrade the mosquito netting screens, adding a door rain fly, and making a winter thermal liner for the inside of the tent.

5/28/21 a lot of bad things happen recently involving the neighbors stalking us and we suffered multiple dog attacks over the last few months and the killing of one of our beloved rescue kitties Sophie by the neighbors vicious neglected dogs. The city permit office is still (5 years later) refusing to grant us a fence permit despite giving them to other people.

12/15/20- the city code enforcement has long since given up on upholding the duties of their job by enforcing written law and insist that I learn to deal with being bombarded by the unshielded parking lot lights from the business parking lot and neighboring properties because “people here just don’t have any pride of ownership and no one cares”. We have abandon any and all hope of a privacy fence or of having the harassing treatment towards us be stopped at all. This is a lesson learned about how ethics and morals are non existent is Republican run communities. How I miss Oregon and the overall knowledge that laws are enforced and upheld.

We installed a mainline water shut off valve on one of the properties and fixed yet another leaking toilet. Next up is to install electrical for doorbells into two different houses.

7/5/20 My water rights are being updated with the State department to reflect our ownership. Our neighbors are still finding ways to harass us and the city has finally started enforcing the reported code violations for light trespassing. For instance four of my neighbors all installed unshielded lights all directly pointing at our house which every side of our home including the front of our home happens to face the back side of of 7-8 other homes. The way that our home is positioned we are not parallel but set back from every other home surrounding us. This means that our home is unshielded by other homes and is exposed to tremendous amounts of light pollution.

I was able to upcycle an old door into a headboard, old bike tires into shoe tread, and I am finally installing the electrical wiring for the auxiliary power in the 80 series Toyota Land Cruiser and a 3 part installation guide is coming. I have not yet started making the outdoor pillows and cushions yet.

I was able to research and make Anti Viral cotton re usable and washable face masks that hold their shape and form in a duck bill shape and don’t touch the mouth. I have been making these in small batches for immediate relatives and friends.

6/3/20 we were off galavanting around Colorado , JACKSON Hole WY and just taking in the ski resorts when our traveling ended on 3/15/20. We arrived at Big Sky resort to be told “oh I am sorry the mountain closed for the season this morning and the hotel is closing”. So we came home and got to working on the yard and dealing with emotionally unstable neighbors and all the good stuff that it entails, such as them stalking us and driving by our house daily now!

I was lucky and I won a state financial subsidy that paid for the majority of our fireplace conversion and we tracked down and repaired a mystery leak that plagued us for years on one of our properties. We replaced toilet parts, multiple shower heads, faucet handles, shower handles and finally we had fixed everything in the house that the only place left to look was outside! There it was, a water leak in the mainline from the city connection to our house PVC mainline. Next we need to install a mainline water shut off inside the house because believe it or not but we don’t have one!

I did weeks of in-depth research into water rights dating back to pre 1920’s. I have learned about starting up a non profit organization and currently I am gathering supplies to make my own outdoor Adirondack seat cushions and pillows!

3/9/20 Thankfully it has been an amazingly uneventful winter, no basement water seeping in or major house issues. However we are planning on installing/retro fitting/converting our wood fire place into a gas fireplace. We have been traveling this winter from steamboat Colorado, Jackson hole Wyoming, to our next trip to Big Sky Montana Ski resort. I am getting excited to get back to the land cruiser and install the electrical wiring.

8/4/19 I have taken some time to start a new job and travel as our home projects simmered down for a while. Our current goals are to install a craftsman garden shed, another 40ft of privacy fencing, install ARB dual air compressor into the FZJ80 & add aux power. We recently added a pull out drop down fridge slide to the cruiser and a tailgate storage compartment.

12/31/18 The end of 2018 is finally here, with many challenges, losses, and accomplishments behind us. We welcomed a beautiful and loving Red Colorpoint rescue kitty, Thor, to our family! I completed my EMT conduit curtain rod and finials while making a huge leap and buying a sewing machine to make the warm insulated drapes for our home. So far I have finished the 11ft wide living room and dining room window bays.

10/20/18 The fall has been shortly lived and another project completed, you can now see how I made a larger than life Jack Skellington Halloween prop, an electrical overland on demand water system for the Reliance Jumbo Jug, and stay tuned for how to build your own 1/2 in EMT conduit curtain rods with finials, and no drill curtain rod mounting hardware!

8/1/18 summer is nearly at an end and a few outdoor projects have taken place. We started installing New corrugated fencing and are wrapping up the finishing touches on my Gabion boxed garden bed. As the temperatures begin to cool I will be racing to weed and prep the landscape for winter and the eventual spring sod installation.

5/15/18 We lost our beloved, charismatic, bold, lovable, bull headed kitty Cody to terminal cancer today. All projects and various tasks have been postponed as we grieve and recover from the loss.

4/18/18 I have been working on our raised gabion rock flower bed and contending with a recent Cancer diagnosis and treatment for Cody. It has been a lot of work to finish up this semester, get ready for our trip through Thailand, and the hardest part of all was finding a cat/house sitter and preparing to be away from Cody after finding out he has cancer. Look for upcoming blog posts regarding Feline Lymphoma and our journey.

3/11/18 It feels as though spring is here early and Eric is busting at the seams to get some work started, so we have started some projects early. We ripped out an old broken cement garden wall and pillars and are getting the garden beds ready for drip emitter installation from 1″ poly pipe to the emitters. Additionally we are looking at having to completely take out and reinstall cement window wells that have come away from the home foundation and we are underway of building a gabion garden bed.

2/19/18 We hunkered down and prepared for a winter that just didn’t show up. I have focused my attention back to school and on starting a new life journey of volunteering and redirecting my career energies. We took Cody in for radiation treatment of a hyperthyroid and are still taking care of our very allergic cat, Loki. The very warm winter has been pretty uneventful as we eagerly await for the spring weather and all the DIY projects that follow.

11/17/17 As the chill in the air turns the leaves yellow I am changing gears and getting ready for the colder winter months. I will be looking for worthy DIY sustainable air fresheners for the house and also as gifts for the holidays.

10/31/17 This Halloween I was inspired and am finishing up making my own Jack Skellington Prop completely adjustable and collapsible for storage. I have added a few of my favorite recipes and a quick tutorial on how to make an adult Karate Kid costume for $20.00.

10/1/17 We just wrapped up our camping season with a 7 day back county camping trip through white rim. We managed trips this year to Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Moab, and Canyonlands Back Country camping so I will have some updates on the modifications and gear we used.

The additional Rotopax mount to our Eezi-awn roof rack worked flawlessly on the white rim trail as did the maxtrax mounted to the Maggiolina. The extra interior roof space was an essential upgrade as well as the new and improved kitchen set up that were all amazing time and space savers.

We were retro fitting/building a sound barrier in a common wall between two townhouses.

 

Here I was modifying a harbor freight 6×8 greenhouse