Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Picture time

I got the memory card which has pictures of how things have been moving along. That speed is slow and steady wins the race since I'm going the work solo. When I pulled the sod out I came across some more weird shit in the ground. A poker table. 22" Weber BBQ, a child's doll, what use to be 2"x12"x10' board. I'm not surprised by what I pull out of the ground any more. I've about seen it all at this point. What I want to know is what the hell was going on back here at those times?








Some of these pictures will show you the fence that I have taken down. Two layers of cinder blocks acting as a retaining wall with only a 2" footing and no rebar. The  retaining wall had pressure from the back neighbors yard pushing against it, so it was starting to buckle onto my side. While the fence was leaning a cool 30 degrees into their yard. There was 4-5" thick nails that were exposed as well. Pretty dangerous had a kid or a family pet been back there while the thing fell down. I'm still really confused by that neighbors lack of participation in addressing this fence.                                            





It kills me to walk out to my backyard and see it in this condition. It looks like Sanford and Son's       backyard. I'm still debating on whether or not to yank out that lonely ill looking lime tree. I don't use lime enough to justify it's existence. I'd find a Lemon, apple, pomegranate, or a avocado tree far more useful. I do have 3 neighbors that already have a lemon tree. So pomegranate might be more up my       alley. If I did a avocado tree, it would be the dwarf version. Avocado trees can get freakishly huge.    



I've been building new axles for my Jeep so they can handle 35" tires for rock crawling. There is also a Bushman 205 gallon water tank to the left. I rather like my local representative, Barbara Lee. She scored our area a grant so that Oakland residents can get up to 620 gallons in rain tanks for cheap. I chose to get a few of the 205's. Once the fence is rebuilt. I'll be relocating the veggie beds to the back towards the new fence. Its great southern exposure and I'm really hoping that it'll all blend in really nicely with the new native landscape I'll be putting in. Along the new fence, I'll be creating a living wall with herbs. I'd really love to use these cool felt sleeves, but they cost way too much. So I'm thinking I'll go shopping for some of those shoe organizers that you'd hand on your closet door and string them along the entire fence. Cheap and readily available at any discount box store (Ross, TJMax, etc). One of the 205 gallon tanks will sit back there on a drip system. I can't wait to get this all going either. I kinda dislike my current watering regimen. The other 205 I'm undecided about where to place it. I'm thinking up front of the house to make it visual and easy access. I think if rain harvesting had more of a resents, it would be the norm. No one would bitch how ugly it is or wonder what it is. It would just be as normal as seeing trash can. I also plan on washing my car with rain water. You might be thinking I wont get much done with 205 gallons. However I just ordered a 1550 gallon Norwesco tank. I wont be able to pick it up until I clear the driveway, it's full of the remnants of the fence I took down and the veggie beds are in the way. I'll be placing it where the beds use to be. As well as blending in more native landscape, organizing my berry bushes better, creating a sitting area with strawberry patches, and possibly putting up a waist high fence between the house and garage, so that I can leave Hans out back and not have to worry about him chasing off the local kids. The concrete slab where I'm working on the axles is also going away. I think it breaks up the flow of how I'll have the landscape done. Besides, I fucking hate concrete. I've been looking for someone to take it off my hands to be repurposed as urbanit. I don't want to see it go to waste. I'm making a really small 3'x3'x6' tool shed to store gardening tools. I have a Reel mower which I'll probably never use again, a few rakes, shovels, and hand tools that will fit beautifully in it. The big worm compost bin will be worked into it all as well. So that is where I'm at. This is the time of year you want to be doing landscaping. The first few rain falls have come. New plants should establish easily and putting them in their place will be much easier as well.                                                                  



What it use to look like

Backyard by zero7negative
Backyard, a photo by zero7negative on Flickr.

When I bought the house. This is what the backyard looked like. It looked "normal." I would have saved myself a ton of time, work, money, and effort had I just left it like this.
The bamboo screen against the crappy fence. That roof use to be a chicken coop. I couldn't stand those lava rocks. I cursed those things from day one.

Politics and voting

I hope you people vote. Some of my friends say voting is stupid. I actively listen to their points. And sure, the electoral college is a shame. I think we should be able to have every single vote count towards a president. We can put man on other planets, we can destroy another country with a few bombs, so why can't we get away with this primitive voting process?

My biggest thing is local voting. I know most people who vote only vote for a president b/c they lack the knowledge on prop's that are on the ballet. I think that's weak! People put all this effort into other useless bullshit like TV, Celeb gossip, and facebook (I deleted my FB account almost a year ago). So why not take a couple of hours to read through local issues? What's so hard about it? It seems people put more effort into purchasing a pair of shoes. It makes no sense to me.

I personally am a registered independent. I don't care what anyone says. Whether it be a Republican or a Democrat. They all spend a shit ton of money, they just justify it differently. Republicans love war and Democrats love giving our money to even poorer and lazier people. I understand we have a standard of living in this country. I also understand being humane and addressing social issues. But I do not care for being a welfare state. I know that probably pissed someone off.
I'm not a gung-ho democrat or republican. Living in the bay area democrats think voting democrat is the right way to vote. How is that being a informed voter? Little arrogant is it not? Same applies to Republicans. And if voting voting Democrat is the right way to vote, shouldn't Diane Finstein have done a shit load more in her 20 years in the same seat? Most of us would lose our jobs had we been that non productive.

I don't see a difference between the two ass hats running for President. I also think Californians are dumb asses for putting that failure Jerry Brown back as Governor. In case you didn't know. The state budget was passed only in hopes that Prop30 passes. Nice gamble huh? I voted yes for the tax increase. But I swear to fucking god, if the state comes back asking for more taxes I'm going to personally kick Jerry Brown in the dick. Especially after that high speed rail system non sense got funding. Sure its going to create jobs and be ground breaking for our state in the sense that we'll have the first thing like it in the country. I still think it's a joke of a project. Starting in Fresno of all places and ending in LA. At some point it will make it's way to San Francisco.

I also think Prop37 is stupid. If these so called "Organic" farmers wanted this kind of legislation. Why don't they take the liberty of labeling their own products? Isn't that being proactive? I'm 100% against GMO and Monsanto and it's affiliates. So don't get me wrong on that. I'm also a advocate for a food system that isn't tampered by man. USDA calls it, "Organic." I dislike that word too. All these bay area people puke the word organic like it's a new thing. I find it to be a excuse to charge an arm and a leg for produce and that's fucked up. Talk about separating classes. And I don't wanna hear a sad song about how farmers are broke. I've never met a broke farmer. And if they are indeed broke. Then stop ridding the coat tails of the government and work your farm. I come from a farming family and have known many.

I'm for the death penalty. I say put in a car pool lane. That's on the ballet as well. Not sure of the prop number, but California is trying to abolish it. Three strikes law is majorly flawed. How the hell is a dude going to be doing life in prison with no chance of parole over pizza? That is a non violent or sexual crime. Logic!
I would never claim to be a political scientist. Nor do I read through every little detail of legislation. I try to use as much logic possible and to ask questions about what is going on. So if you have a adult comment leave some words. And remember, opinions are like ass holes. Everyone has one and they all stink.

Monday, October 29, 2012

More obscenities and no pictures

Yep, just jibber jabber in this post. I gotta make it look like I'm still alive and kicking. I'm back to working at a real job 6-7 days a week. I'm still broke as ever, but at least I'm contributing to all my neighbors on welfare.
I have pictures to post. They are on someone else camera though..... I've got yet another fence to rebuild because it was about 50 or so years old. I say, "was" because I have now tore it down. This fence is what divides me and my back neighbor from one an other. That property is about foot taller than mine. So there was a cinder block retaining wall with a Jimmy rigged fence in place. You can tell it wasn't entirely original b/c it wasn't very uniform. There would be 5 or so normal fence boards then some plywood to cover a hole from once upon a time ago fence boards.
These knuckle heads that moved in have/had this dog that would jump through the fence. Shit all over my yard. Scratch at my side door. Dig up my recent redone front yard. And since Hans is a Rottweiler. These folks would freak out and ask me to take my dog inside b/c they were scared of him. Hans is pretty well trained and he minds me quite well. He was on my property not there's. So to have them tell me to take my dog inside, while they sit on their fat lazy asses, kinda pissed me off. I gave these people a chance at first. I was cordial at first. But after telling them to keep their dog outa my yard and not to throw things over the fence. I started to get irritated. So I became a little less friendly. I was just shorter and didn't gab it up with them if they were outside like I did at first. Then one day the lady sings me a song about how she's on section 8, a single mom of 4 kids, don't have a job, yada yada yada. Then my respect for her fell even lower. Before the fence started leaning 40 degrees to her side. I kindly asked to have the landlords contact info. She refused to give it b/c she said she felt weird giving it out. But this dude needs to help me flip the bill for this fence. And well. Now I've been stuck with footing the bill for it so far. The guys info is public record, so it's not like it's too hard to get. I just have to put in the extra effort.
Now after taking this fence down. I was shocked to see how filthy these lazy bastards yard is. Man I'm talking trash bags all over the damn place. There is MinuteMaid bottles, soda bottles, soda can boxes and trash bags everywhere! So one night I'm trying to big out some of the concrete from the retaining wall and all a sudden I'm surrounded by 8 fucking ninjas! Raccoons! I'm no stranger to raccoons. I'm from the sticks of Iowa. And in East Oakland we got some crazy things going on. But urban raccoons are no fuckin joke man! I'm not scared of the vato locos down the street with their assault rifles (they can barley hit a damn thing with it). I'm scared of these damn raccoons! They are freakin ninjas! And they have thumbs! Urban raccoons don't give a damn about humans. They don't just run away and find a new trash can. They stand up a little and do this hiss, that if they were English words would say, "Hey ass hole. I'm hungry and I have no problem fucking you up! Now make me a sandwich."
After the raccoons left I typed up a letter asking that they pick up the backyard b/c it was inviting to unwanted visitors. My only concern was whether or not if they could read. It took a couple of days to get done, but finally most of the trash was picked up.
Now don't get me wrong. I know while reading through this post it could be mistaken that I've become a judgmental and non sympathetic prick. I am opinionated, sure. My sympathy stops at laziness. People who don't seek out the better in themselves. And just plan ol' stupid! And that is where I'm at. East Oakland has weathered me a touch, just a touch though. California as a whole is a topic of in its self.
As for the fence. I'm workin on it. I still have prep work to do. Clearing space for the new footing for the cinder blocks. Acquiring the cinder blocks and rebar. Minor acquisitions, but very key in building a fence to last longer than the prior fence.
I'll post up pictures later. In the mean time. Have fun, read some books, make someone smile.