Lighted Path

Installed the motion lights, GFIC, and painted the fence. Street side fence painted to match house and cedar stained on the opposite side.

New Storage Closet

Delivered, painted and installed the new storage closet (old shed). Reused the old 5'x6' shed and made a new 5' x 2' 1/2"storage closet for the backyard.

Last Juniper Stump Removed

Pulled out the last juniper stump.

Storage Shed Redo

Power washed and a whole bunch of custom cuts to turn the old 5' x 5' shed into a 2' x 5' storage closet. Patched a few holes with some type of super duper plumbers epoxy and figure out a way to reattach the sliding doors with new rollers. Need to paint inside and outside of the entire shed and take it over to Mom and Dad's house. Could finish it on Sunday but it's Talladega and the Sharks play. So this maybe a done deal on Monday. Pictures to follow soon. Also removed the Land Cruiser top today.

Gutter & California Gold

Custom cut for last fence board next to the house. One more stepping stone put in place near the hedge. Downspout installed and painted. Cable line put underground about a foot, holes patched in the stucco and painted. 1/2 yard of California gold rocks put down. Back of the cedar fence stained and the front will be primed on Saturday and ready for painting next week.

Pictures to be posted soon. Still need to install motion detector light and missing vent cover. Could use some wasp spray and we'll be working on customizing shed.

New Gate

Before and after. Old shed disassembled and the new fence with gate are in place.

New Path

Before and After. More pictures and update tomorrow.

In the Beginning

The stump that started it all on the 18th. 5' in diameter and 2'-3' in depth.

Power Wins - Next Dega

Danica smanica - Will Power wins the final Champ Car race at Long Beach.

Next up Talladega!

Friday – April 25, 2008
	7:00 Parking Lots Opens 11:30 Grandstands Open 1:30 - 2:30 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Practice 3:05 - 3:55 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Final Practice 4:05 The Birmingham News Qualifying - Nationwide Series
Saturday – April 26, 2008
	5:00 Parking Lots Open 8:00 Grandstands Open 10:15 The Birmingham News Qualifying - Sprint Cup Series 1:30 NASCAR Nationwide Series Driver Introductions 2:00 Aaron's 312 (117 Laps)
Sunday – April 27, 2008
	5:00 Parkings Lots Open 9:00 Grandstands Open 12:30 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Driver Introductions 1:00 Aaron's 499 (188 Laps)

Juniper Ground Cover

Removed all of the dirt mounds under the junipers. Found another dead juniper stump which makes four total. About six wheel barrel loads of rocks, dirt and old trimmings taken out.

Long Beach Grand Prix

The final Champ Car race at Long Beach this Sunday, April 20th.

DC Power Jack Repair

Didn't know you could replace the DC power jack for under $10.00. If I would have known this I could have saved $500-$700 and not have purchased a new laptop (2-3 years ago). This 'new' Gateway laptop 6518GZ is beginning to have the same symptoms of the old HP ze4210 (power switching to battery power). One would assume it is the power cord but no it's the DC power jack that's connected to the motherboard of the PC. So got the HP service manual for the ze4210 and have begun the disassembly process to replace the broken DC power jack. The DC power jack is the needle that connects to the power cord. The DC power jack is notorious for getting stepped on at coffee shops and the solder/needle gets loose. Then DC power jack eventually fails and no more access to your laptop.

Spent the past couple of hours disassembling the ze4210 that includes the following:
- Hard Disk Drive
- Keyboard Cover
- Keyboard
- CD Drive
- Display Assembly
- Top Case
- Floppy Drive Bracket (who really needs a heavy floppy drive anymore)
- Heat Sink
- Various other screws attached to frame and motherboard.
- Got a big box of various laptop parts and diagram of screw placement
- 2-3 Budweisers to get through this endless task - better pictures tomorrow

Front Sprinkler Weak

The sprinkler on the side of the house, next to the junipers, is spraying only a 1'-2' half-radius. Going to add a sprinkler to the corner end of the grass to 'resolve' the problem. Pictures tomorrow it's too dark for any good photos.

Darlington: Pearson Returns

David Pearson takes the 21 around for a few laps on the new surface at Darlington Raceway. Looking for the video to post. Here's the link to the story and more pictures. Another video link here (engines roaring begin at mid-point.

Backyard Sprinkler Move

When work began on replacing the sprinkler system the lawn was in bad shape. Prior to the placement of the redwood and rock edging I guessed the lawn would end where the sprinkler was placed. After planting new grass decided to let the grass get established before moving the sprinkler. The grass was getting established then we cut the limb off the tree (go here to see pictures) and between the limb hitting the lawn and the saw dust the grass diminished.

The plan is to get the sprinkler soaking the lawn and will plant some blue fescue grass mix to fill in the dirt gaps. Will continue to use the blower to remove and remaining saw dust. Suspect the cracks in the lawn are due to the clay soil used from Mom & Dad's yard to cover this rock and root plagued area (hope it's not the roots). Filled in the cracks with soil conditioner.

Spring Chimney Sweep

Took about an hour to sweep and shop-vac the fireplace. Used the 6" wide brush to sweep the entire chimney. Here's pictures of before and after the sweep.

Compare to last November's sweep pictures here...

Turf Builder Wednesday

See if we can get the green back in the grass.

Project 914 Get's Going

After a few months delay project 914 gets going again. Still have that pesky peeing oil leak (read about it here and see VIDEO of it in action here) that could be either a crankcase seal (best case-remove transmission) or crankcase plugs (worst case-drop motor). From what I've read this will take a couple of hours so I figure half-a-day job. Still reading up and researching before taking this on...

This guy in Australia goes step-by-step on replacing the main seal on a Type IV VW engine. Since this 914 2.0 has a Type IV engine and other than the drop out the engine procedure the replacement of the seal should be the same click here for the link...

In the mean time removed the oil strainer sump/gasket. Here's before picture and will post the clean picture in a little while. The before picture had a couple of pieces of Permatex we used to seal the oil plug or maybe a gasket that caused the oil leak???

Deep Cleaning

First try at using clay to remove 10+ years of oxidation on the clear coat paint. Great experience using Meguiar's Deep System products wash, paint cleaner, polish and carnauba wax. So when the clay bar kit went on sale decided to try it out. Washed, clayed, washed again and did the three step process. These pictures are the results.

Will do the clay job again in a few weeks. The oxidation on the roof and the hatchback need a few more clay applications to get that deep black and gold flecks looking new again.

Saratoga Eucalyptus Mix

Mix of seasoned four year old eucalyptus, cherry, redwood, etc. Update... it's all eucalyptus...

McDowell Crash in Texas

Campbell Eucalyptus

20 rounds with average weight between 175-200lbs.