Rick Kargaard
27 followers -
I am overfed, over confident, over 70 and still over the grass. I am underpaid, under suspicion and misunderstood. (Definitely not undernourished) I have been married to my second wife for 35 years and she is still beautiful at 74. We are quite happy together. I am good with my hands. My mother used to say I could fix anything but she was my mother. I once took a clock apart and never could figure out how to get the darn thing back together. I love technology, good sci-fi, and anyone who will listen to me.
I am overfed, over confident, over 70 and still over the grass. I am underpaid, under suspicion and misunderstood. (Definitely not undernourished) I have been married to my second wife for 35 years and she is still beautiful at 74. We are quite happy together. I am good with my hands. My mother used to say I could fix anything but she was my mother. I once took a clock apart and never could figure out how to get the darn thing back together. I love technology, good sci-fi, and anyone who will listen to me.
27 followers
Rick Kargaard's posts
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I have added two posts to my blog. They are specifically about radiant under-floor heating, an eco-friendly choice.
http://boardsandbricks.com/
http://boardsandbricks.com/
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I have added a new post to my blog. http://boardsandbricks.com/a-nearly-finished-home/
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Finally have all the permits for our new house. I have found some time to write a few new blog posts. The most recent is about living small and titled Size Matters.Check it out at
http://boardsandbricks.com/size-matters/
http://boardsandbricks.com/size-matters/
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We have to be move out of our house April 15. We will be moving into our motor home on the site where we plan to build our new home. I sure hope this weather in Alberta improves a lot before then. -15C and two feet of snow left on our lot. It has a ways to go. Follow our trials and tribulations here or better yet on my blog.
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Public
The firstpicture is what we woke up to this morning. The secondis taken from the same spot yesterday morning. Wonderful variable Alberta.
2013-11-03
2 Photos - View album
boardsandbricks.com/raising-walls/
Published a new post today about house building progress.
Published a new post today about house building progress.
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Today in Alberta it is beginning to look a little bit like spring might soon arrive. The prairie dogs or gophers as most of us call them are out and playing chicken with cars on the highway. My wife saw her first robin today and flocks of starlings are foraging bare spots. I walked out my door this morning and the bright sun brought on a resounding sneeze. An immediate response came from a flock of Canada geese overhead who tried to out honk me. I think they were a little indignant that I spoke their language with such a bad accent.
The long gloomy winter was hard on the aged and infirm as usual. We lost a few of our friends and neighbors forever. Some of the wildlife has suffered as well with the more than normal snowfall and few warm periods.
My wife has been leaving a few apples on our front steps for the deer that are coming to town nightly searching for food. They have abandoned most of their caution of human beings. Last night one ate the apples and then deposited a pile of pellets on our front walk. I am not sure whether she was showing her disdain or leaving the only gift she could in return. My wife likes to think of it as a gift. We will use them to fertilize the flowers a little later.
Yesterday I nearly ran off the road ogling a huge majestic bald eagle flying overhead. Yes the symbol of America was gracing Alberta skies. They are very rare in this part of the country. They are normally fish eaters and all the water in this area has been frozen solid for the last five months.
It gave me a wonderful feeling that he (or she) had survived the winter. We had seen him early in the winter chowing down on road killed deer. Yes they are rare enough that I am sure it was the same one. Besides he is extra large even for his species.
I had originally intended to write today about mechanical and electronic systems in homes. When I sat down at my laptop I was feeling a little too frivolous to write about such a serious topic. Yes spring can do that to a person. Even one as old as me. No I didn't say frisky I said frivolous. I used to feel frisky in the spring but I got over it. Come to think of it I used to feel that way most of the time.
Yes getting old can be a challenge but I am not in a hurry to accept the alternative either. I get a lot of my exercise nowadays getting up at night to go to the bathroom. In the morning I check to see if anything else has grown on me. I spend more time now trimming nose and ear hair than I used to spend shaving.
Another thing that spring can do is make you want to lay down in a warm spot and have a nap. Several times a day. The old folks (well they were old to me then) used to say it was because your winter blood was too thick for the spring. Almost makes sense in a weird sort of way. Of course getting old makes me want to have naps anyway. Those same old folk used to complain a lot about their “room-a-tiz” when the weather was bad. What the heck is “room-a-tiz”? Could it have been a reference to rheumatoid arthritis? Beats me.
One advantage of age is that now I can spend the time writing that I used to spend getting in trouble. My idea of a good night now is one beer and a book. It used to be---well let's not get into that. Suffice it to say I am not sure how I managed to stay alive this long.
When I was in my teens a color television cost almost as much as a new car. Now they cost about as much as a couple cartons of cigarettes. When personal computers first appeared I wasn't young any more. Does anyone remember the Vic 20 or the Commodore 64? No they weren't battleships sunk in WW2, they were computers. They had about enough memory to save the name of your Saturday night date if she wasn't foreign. Now I have a telephone that has more memory than a hundred of those and is smaller than a twenty dollar stack of one dollar bills. Oh, I forgot, we don't have dollar bills in Canada anymore. Or two dollar bills. Or pennies.
My mother used to say “Look after your pennies and the dollars will look after themselves.” She was usually right but in this case they both went extinct except for a few in captivity. Maybe it was climate change that took pennies out of our change.
Now the desktop PC is obsolete and it is beginning to look like the laptop might go the same way. In our house we still read books but we also have three or four E-readers and tablets laying around . We have GPS in every car and our phones and computers know where they are all the time. The only way to get lost now is to give your phone to somebody else and head for the sewers. The VCR has nearly gone extinct but I still have a couple. We have been buying the old movies for a buck a piece and now have a huge collection we could never afford before. Some are good ones that we never had time to watch in the past.
Getting back to spring. It is not about getting old or going extinct. it is a time of renewal, a rebirth, a time for new grass and new lambs. It is nearly here and we made it.
Have a good Easter Weekend everyone.
Published first on http://boardsandbricks.com/
The long gloomy winter was hard on the aged and infirm as usual. We lost a few of our friends and neighbors forever. Some of the wildlife has suffered as well with the more than normal snowfall and few warm periods.
My wife has been leaving a few apples on our front steps for the deer that are coming to town nightly searching for food. They have abandoned most of their caution of human beings. Last night one ate the apples and then deposited a pile of pellets on our front walk. I am not sure whether she was showing her disdain or leaving the only gift she could in return. My wife likes to think of it as a gift. We will use them to fertilize the flowers a little later.
Yesterday I nearly ran off the road ogling a huge majestic bald eagle flying overhead. Yes the symbol of America was gracing Alberta skies. They are very rare in this part of the country. They are normally fish eaters and all the water in this area has been frozen solid for the last five months.
It gave me a wonderful feeling that he (or she) had survived the winter. We had seen him early in the winter chowing down on road killed deer. Yes they are rare enough that I am sure it was the same one. Besides he is extra large even for his species.
I had originally intended to write today about mechanical and electronic systems in homes. When I sat down at my laptop I was feeling a little too frivolous to write about such a serious topic. Yes spring can do that to a person. Even one as old as me. No I didn't say frisky I said frivolous. I used to feel frisky in the spring but I got over it. Come to think of it I used to feel that way most of the time.
Yes getting old can be a challenge but I am not in a hurry to accept the alternative either. I get a lot of my exercise nowadays getting up at night to go to the bathroom. In the morning I check to see if anything else has grown on me. I spend more time now trimming nose and ear hair than I used to spend shaving.
Another thing that spring can do is make you want to lay down in a warm spot and have a nap. Several times a day. The old folks (well they were old to me then) used to say it was because your winter blood was too thick for the spring. Almost makes sense in a weird sort of way. Of course getting old makes me want to have naps anyway. Those same old folk used to complain a lot about their “room-a-tiz” when the weather was bad. What the heck is “room-a-tiz”? Could it have been a reference to rheumatoid arthritis? Beats me.
One advantage of age is that now I can spend the time writing that I used to spend getting in trouble. My idea of a good night now is one beer and a book. It used to be---well let's not get into that. Suffice it to say I am not sure how I managed to stay alive this long.
When I was in my teens a color television cost almost as much as a new car. Now they cost about as much as a couple cartons of cigarettes. When personal computers first appeared I wasn't young any more. Does anyone remember the Vic 20 or the Commodore 64? No they weren't battleships sunk in WW2, they were computers. They had about enough memory to save the name of your Saturday night date if she wasn't foreign. Now I have a telephone that has more memory than a hundred of those and is smaller than a twenty dollar stack of one dollar bills. Oh, I forgot, we don't have dollar bills in Canada anymore. Or two dollar bills. Or pennies.
My mother used to say “Look after your pennies and the dollars will look after themselves.” She was usually right but in this case they both went extinct except for a few in captivity. Maybe it was climate change that took pennies out of our change.
Now the desktop PC is obsolete and it is beginning to look like the laptop might go the same way. In our house we still read books but we also have three or four E-readers and tablets laying around . We have GPS in every car and our phones and computers know where they are all the time. The only way to get lost now is to give your phone to somebody else and head for the sewers. The VCR has nearly gone extinct but I still have a couple. We have been buying the old movies for a buck a piece and now have a huge collection we could never afford before. Some are good ones that we never had time to watch in the past.
Getting back to spring. It is not about getting old or going extinct. it is a time of renewal, a rebirth, a time for new grass and new lambs. It is nearly here and we made it.
Have a good Easter Weekend everyone.
Published first on http://boardsandbricks.com/
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some recent posts on my blog you may find interesting
http://boardsandbricks.com/building-your-retirement-house/
http://boardsandbricks.com/heating-fuels/
http://boardsandbricks.com/energy-efficiency/
http://boardsandbricks.com/building-your-retirement-house/
http://boardsandbricks.com/heating-fuels/
http://boardsandbricks.com/energy-efficiency/
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Hi everyone—I have a blog about building your house and like to advocate reused material. I would like to write a post about recycling items into articles for use in a house or furniture. Things like silverware used as cabinet pulls. I would appreciate ideas.
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