The Contract
This is what the Tea Party came up with and presented to Washington on Tax day, April 15, 2010. It seems like a good plan to me.
My Website
I need to find a direction for this website. A way for me to possibly create a service as well as making a little money while doing it. The service could be free, my income would be made by advertisement revenues. Comments would be appreciated.
I also have an idea to create a YouTube channel (it would also be incorporated with this site). I’ll hopefully get enough things/props, people and ideas together (I’ve got a few) by the time summer comes around to start this. I want to create goofy short films (30 seconds to a minute) about anything…mainly about how I see things in real life. Again….leave a comment! Ideas would be great!
Me rambling on about a few things
So its been a busy time, I’ve been making lots of progress on the cabin. Bathroom is about finished, floors are in, and dad and I began working on the kitchen cabinets. It’s really coming together, and there is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe I’ll actually be living in there soon. I really can’t wait to get it finished up, and I’m ready for spring to come so I can do a bunch of yard work and make the place really look nice. All that’s left is the trim, wainscoting, kitchen cabinets, a little painting and a tad bit more work to do to the floor. Outside all I have to do is fix the yard, get the porch so the inspector approves it, and put the cedar shake siding on (I also have a short list of things to do after the inspector approves it for occupancy). Yea, sort of a long list but that should go quick if I get the time.
Today, finally, I started work with Joe on these two cottages on Tripp Lake that have been planned for over a year. It took forever to get the permits for these projects. The C.O.G. office is so slow (but I hear that they may be going out of business soon). It would be much better if they were gone. I can understand their purpose, but they slow down the progress of work around here. Our country has so much unemployment, you would think that our government would be trying to expedite the process of approving building and septic permits, instead of dragging them on for months or years. I guess thats what happens when people vote for big government. Government just gets in the way. But anyway, I should have a steady income for a while, maybe actually save some money up for a nice truck. And camp keeps getting closer and closer!! I’ve been counting down the days until I get to start working (which is usually the beginning of April!). Camp is always a blast, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get away from that place.
I do have to do some investigating before I start working at camp tho. Story for another time..
State of Cabin
So for most of the summer I did not have a lot of time to do much of any work on the cabin. But I did manage to finish the porch (except the siding) and I am currently working on getting electric service in the building. Let me tell you how our local permit and code enforcement is. So I had my buddy Joe come up and hook up the service from the meter box to the breaker box, and that same day I called the C.O.G. office so they would send an inspector up to inspect it so the electric company can turn it on. Well the next day the inspector comes up and he looks at the meter box, says everything there is fine, and then he looks at the breaker box and tells me I don’t have my ‘bonding screw’ in the box…so I found the screw and he told me to put it in and he’d pass it. Well I looked all over that box and could not find the place where it went, Joe also looked and could not find where it went…and to make things worse…the inspector took a good look and couldn’t figure out where it went!! The only thing the inspector could tell me is that it goes in the neutral bar. Well there are 4 neutral bars!!!
So after a while of not being able to figure out the location of where this screw goes I just jammed it in one of the holes that seemed like it could possibly go. I figured I could put it anywhere in the neutral bar and the inspector would see it there and pass it. Well the inspector came up the next day and still did not pass the breaker box, he said the bonding screw was not doing what it was supposed to do (which he then told me that it’s supposed to connect the neutral bar to the enclosing)…and we still couldn’t find where the screw went. I called Joe about this and he said the whole deal made no sense, but he then went to a store in Tunkhannock that sells the same breaker boxes as I have and he had to look on the back to find exactly where this hole was. The screw did fit but it was a place where I would have never guessed. So the inspector came up again and finally passed my electric service. Hopefully Claverac (the electric company) will be there soon to hook it up.
It’s Been A While
So it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post. I really wish I had the ambition to update this more (it’s much easier to micro-blog using friendfeed or twitter). Let me tell you what I’ve been up to. I think the biggest reason why I have not written a post is that I’ve been so busy with camp. Camp is my favorite place to be, and even though I’ve only been gone about an hour I’m wishing I was there right now. All the kids showed up on Sun. June. 28th, but the two weeks before that was rough trying to get everything ready. Camp had a lot of big changes which caused us to start working a month late. It was a great relief when counselors and alumni showed up to help get things ready. The two weeks before camp started, I would work everyday for 8 – 12 hours non-stop and then I’d get about an hour break and one of the counselors would be calling me to go out that night….we all must have partied every night before kids showed up…most nights I wouldn’t get home until 2:30 in the morning and I’d still make it to work at 7:30. Doing that for two weeks sure drains you, but I had a blast the entire time! Now that kids are here, camp seems to be running smoothly with no major issues. This summer is going by way too fast!!!
As far as the cabin goes, progress has been slow, I did put a front porch on and will be putting the bathroom addition on soon. I still have to finish painting inside, as well as put my floor in. Last week I picked up my hardwood flooring, and it is beautiful. It’s Red Maple, and was cut from trees that came off the same property as the cabin sits on (Very cool!). Hopefully now that things at camp have slowed down, I’ll be able to put more time into the cabin and get some serious work accomplished. The cabin has also acquired the name “Capt-Inn”. I wanted to keep the same theme as camp. That name was chosen due to my love of pirates and this beverage I like to drink 
. Check the photo gallery for recent pictures of the cabin.
A few other things….Yesterday I went to the Binghamton Air Show…it was amazing! I’ve always loved airplanes, they had some awesome ones on display, and they put on a fantastic show. You had to be there. I’ve also been working on two websites for camp (shhh it’s kinda a secret). One site is what was presented to be and looks very much like their brochure, the other is my own creation…I plan on presenting both when they are finished and let them pick the things they like out of both and then we’ll create an awesome site with all the things that everyone agrees is best.
Alright, that’s it for now…I promise I’ll write more soon!!
Current Job Situation
So all winter I haven’t had a real job let alone a steady one. The middle of last September was when I finished with camp for the summer, and I did not go out and look for another job. I spent all winter doing school work, working on my cabin and I did a little part time work for Joe Oruska. Joe is a building contractor. Winter was very tight, but i made it. Spring came, and things have been very busy. I’ve been continuing work on the cabin, as well as working a whole lot more with Joe. I’ve also started work at camp. I’m very excited that I’m working at camp, as I may have said earlier, camp has been the greatest job I’ve ever had. I’ll have to write an update on the cabin soon!
Working for Joe is great (even though sometimes I think he just hired me so he has someone to complain to about all his problems haha)…he’s a great guy to work for, I learn a lot and he pays very well. The Shafer family (the people who own my cabin and camp) are building two new cottages by the lake; Joe has informed me that he got the job building one of them and he hopes to get the other. Joe has already told me that if he gets one or both of those jobs he will most definitely hire me. That is great news to hear that he already has one, this job will give me steady work for more than a year, and hopefully it’ll give me a chance to save some money to buy a new truck!
I am very excited to begin work at camp. They’ve had us hold off for a while to save money. Camp has been having some troubles but I think they will be getting back on their feet soon. I’ve been doing a lot to help them as much as I can, and I have a lot more helpful ideas that they would like. It is good to hear that as of yesterday camp has about 95 kids enrolled. At camp we’ve been working hard on getting all the brush picked up, grass cut and getting up all the power lines. There were about 12 power lines that came down due to trees falling on them. I am counting down the days until the counselors and kids show up. This summer should be a fun one and will be very busy.
Reason why I love this song
Shuttin’ Detroit Down -- John Rich
That sure is a great song. Mr. Rich sings about Detroit but he really is talking about the entire country. Detroit just represents a place where there are a lot of hard workers losing a lot of their jobs. I know all of this bailout and misused government money is old news, but it is still going on. I don’t need to go on and on about all the things that bother me about this situation, you’ve seen the news. I just hope that maybe some people higher up have heard this song and listened to the lyrics, maybe it’ll get their heads straight and do a little more to help the people the represent. Both the government and big corporations are to blame. I don’t believe that we need to give big companies enormous amounts of money when they have failing business plans. Successful businesses should be able to operate in both up and down economies, even if it means changing their business model. Our government doesn’t need to give them our money when we don’t even know for sure if it’s going to get paid back. We all work hard for the money we earn. The people who control all this money much not have a clue how mad this makes people. Watch this video, these are two of my favorite people.
Just recently Chrysler filed for chapter 11. As much as a fan I am of Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge products, maybe they should go out of business just so all the executives and other important people learn a lesson that they need to change with the times. At the same time I’m glad they’re doing a deal with Fiat so all the thousands of employees may be able to keep their jobs, and hopefully they’ll keep their line of Dodge Ram pickup trucks.
Hey while we’re on this topic, check out this site: The 912 Project.
I’ll be writing more about this later….
Your comments would be appriciated
Digital Camera
So I’ve been dying to get a new digital camera. Its been so long since I’ve had a decent one. I used to do a lot with photography and I seemed to be pretty good at it. I had used my camera so much it was worn out. I think the old camera was an Olympus C-700 Ultra Zoom. It was a great camera to learn on. When I was in high school I had an opportunity to use a Canon Digital Rebel XT in a graphic 
arts class and I had learned a whole lot more about photography. It got me really excited about photography and ever since I’ve been thinking of doing it as a part time job. I’ve always wanted to buy my own Canon Rebel SLR camera but I could never afford one. I love the situation I’m in but unfortunately it does not make me a lot of money. This summer I plan to buy myself a new camera. I don’t think I’m going to spend the $800 for a big SLR camera even though I’m sure I would love it. I’m looking for an advanced digital camera that has many of the SLR capabilities but won’t break the bank.
Now I have a question….where is a good place to go look and handle cameras before you buy them now that Circuit City is closed? I’ve done some research and one camera has caught my eye. I am still open to suggestions, but I am really liking the Olympus SP-570 UZ. I read a PCWorld review and compared to ten other cameras it was on top. It has all the features I’m looking for and they claim it has the best image quality compared to the others. I also like some of the optional accessories, like I can buy an attachment to connect an external lens, which it something that I will most likely buy. The resolution is 10MP, which is plenty high for me, and for action shots it takes up to 13 frames per second. I haven’t completely decided yet, I still have a lot more research to do but this one sure does seem like a winner. I may just break down and go all out for an SLR, but I’m not sure that I really need one. Please comment or contact me if you have any suggestions. I’d love to hear them.
Social Me
Most of you that know me, know that I’m not a very social person. But if you want to know what I’m up to I’m connected with many online social networks. The best way is to view my FriendFeed. FriendFeed has most of my social networks agregated together. If you’d like to view them individually, the services I use most are Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. I also have an online photo gallery that I don’t update as often as I should. Here’s the link: Paul’s Photo’s.
If this site isn’t enough, connect with me with one or all of those services. Thanks!
Cabin
So I’ve been working hard on this cabin. I started the project back in August 2007 and have slowly but surely been restoring it. This building was built all by hand with wood that came off the same property sometime before 1900 (They approximate the building to be about 150 years old, no one has found out for sure). It used to be an old school house (Tripp Lake School) and used to sit right next to the road. About the year 1905 it was picked up and moved to it’s current location and had an addition built onto it so it could be lived in and it became a one season summer cottage. Over the years several people had stayed in it but for the past 14 years no one had occupied it and it became neglected all together. When I started to work on it, there was a lot of water and insect damage. 
Enough damage to the point of where it was not livable. Trees had also grown up to close to the building which damaged parts of the foundation and roof. I made an arrangement with the owners to fix the place up to make it livable, not only for one season, but for all year-round. I plan to live in it when it is finished.
So far a lot of work has been done. We took out all the interior walls and floors, and fixed all the support underneath. The leaking roof had caused a lot of support to rot, and the damage from wood ants and wood bees was unbelievable. But it’s all fixed now. It has all new floors and walls and we fixed the parts of the ceiling where it had leaked. They had paid a contractor to put a whole new roof on it. On the inside we framed up all new walls and put up all new dry wall, and we just finished the tape & spackle. By next week I should have the whole places primed ready to paint. On the outside we took off the front porch because it had already fallen down, the new one should be built soon. We are also building an addition off the back side for a bathroom since there currently isn’t one. I don’t want to have to use the outhouse in the middle of winter. I’ll keep you posted on what else goes on.
Social Me
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