Forgot to mention that I made a small bet on WM at $3.83

Not sure what to think with DUG and SMN. Short term looks down and long term up. I may be setting myself up for a loss but I'll hold on for a bit more.

I want to see PCU reverse $3 before I think it has bottomed. But I think the bottom is near.

MAT and DOW are generally slow movers so it might be a while before they hit bottom.

I'm getting mixed signals on GDX. I think it will move lower but it is acting like it wants to reverse now.

Pure bet puts on SKF $85 Aug are still iffy, but looking ok. SKFTG briefly jumped to 50 cents before dropping to 40 cents. Open interest is up 100.

WM is moving up nicely. Which makes me wonder about SKF's bounces. IYF is showing the drops that are causing SKF's bounces but I'm not sure what is pulling on IYF. WM, WB, and BAC are all up.

Dunno

Made a pure bet of a few Aug SKF $85 puts. Should see that price in 3-6 days if it is gonna move that way.

Thinking of the following:

Moving both accounts to 3/5ths high div paying positions, 1/5 into GLD, and 1/5 into riskier plays.

Perhaps set the sharebuilder drips on the divs and gld.

Weight range this week

271.5 - 273

Seems the range is shrinking.

In my geekdom, I've created daily and weekly charts. Weekly chart indicates I'll not see the 260s until 7th

Things to keep my eye on for dividends

DOW
MAT
GDX
PCU

PCU and MAT might be close to a bottom.

GDX isn't close. I noticed that I bought at the year's high.

=\

Forgot to post.

The week of the 11th with 2500 calories had my weight moving in a range of 274-277.

This irritated me a great deal so I decided on moving down to 8x body weight in calories. I'm planning on dropping 100 calories a week until I get there.

My bodyweight range on 2400 calories this week has been 274-278 and an average of one pound less than last week.

Entered SMN

Entered SMN at $35.77

I would wait for a pullback but many of these short etfs just skyrocket.

Bought DUG today

DUG hit $30 today.

I bought at $29.83.

Prolly jumped the gun on that. Might drop to $27 before starting up.

Found a cool website

"Name That Plant!"

They were the ones that identified the pokeweed.

Gonna ask them about a weed that has been troubling me since I moved here.





Broadleaf poison just browns the leaves. I've tried removing them by hand and if I miss any of the root it comes back very quickly. It spreads so quickly that by the time I move onto a new area to clear, it is coming back in force.

=====

Seems it is violet and they appear to be a bad pest.

They like acid soil and with all the trees around, they have it. Lime over time should help.

For now? Not sure. I'm hearing good things about weed torches.

IYE broke under $146

Thats a signal to ditch. Trying to determine if I should try to sell a bounce or to get out now.

====

Sold at just under $149 for a 51.3% gain.

Trying to determine if this is just a pull back or a reversal. I don't see any signs for a true reversal.

I may place a bet on DUG and hop back to IYE after it is done with its pullback.

Trying to figure out what this plant is

It comes up very fast in the wooded areas of my property.

Ahh, pokeweed.

Apparently poisonous.

Sold EFA

Breaking below $68 was the marker.

10.26% gain on it.

I was expecting it to do better.

Strange things are afoot in the global market.

Keep your debt down is all I can say.

Watching Wachovia as well. If it hits somewhere around $3-$10 I may enter as a pure bet.

June was a strange month

For the whole of June I felt like my allergies had taken over.

The whole month was a blur and yet pollen.com said pollen was low in my area. Not sure what to think.

Weight today is 277. I had been hoping that I'd drop under 270 by mid July. I still may but I'm not sure.

I hit 279 the first day of June which made me very happy. Then I proceeded to bounce back up to 286 and then down to 279 twice more.

I'm assuming this was due to my lowered activity level from my allergies taking over.

Presently taking in 2500 calories or x9 body weight. That seemed to get my weight loss back on track.

Total weight loss - 51 lbs
Monthly weight loss - 2 lbs

Entered GLD today.

It may still fall to $80 but I was seeing signs that it was about to jump.

Sold VAW today for a 33% gain.

$92 was the marker for me.

Much of the market is acting strange but leaving the cash in the default money market means that I'm losing money as USD keeps dropping.

Pump is here

I've affixed the flexible tubing with marine glue and need to wait twenty four hours for that to cure.

I'll test the pump in the morning when I've stronger sun.

In the meantime I'm soaking some portulaca seed for the top planter.

================

6/12 update -

Portulaca seed should not be soaked as it disintegrates. I've planted direct into the pot outside.

I've planted three seeds to the pot and will thin to one. I'll also use something I learned with my Swiss chard: I'll not thin the sprouts but will thin once they've grown a bit and I can better see which one is hearty.

(I'm still debating if I should turn under the current chard and replant. The thing keeps trying to thrive though).

The pump does work, but needs moderate to strong sunlight. I was unable to get it to go in a small sun dapple, but worked when I brought it into unobstructed sunlight. This means it'll probably work from 11am to around 5pm in the place I've put the birdbath. If that is not enough to keep the mosquitoes from breeding there, I'll look for some chemical control.

=================

Not sure if it is a summer bug or the smoke drifting in from the east coast (big fire over there), but I'm feeling crummy.



I'm not happy with this pic but I'm not feeling well enough to care. I need to change the water as the dust and pollen have turned it brown.

It didn't turn out as well as expected but I'm not displeased. I've seen no birds at it yet, but #1 I've been inside feeling ill and #2 while moving the saucers around to improve flow, several birds flew just feet over me checking things out. They normally don't come that close to me.

Things to do differently should I make another terracotta fountain:

1. File deeper channels
2. Make repeated tests of water flow at the site that the fountain will sit
3. Use primer
4. Make sure metallic paint (if used) is rated for outside
5. Cut the feeder tube slightly too long

Re #1 -- I'm having issues with the water dribbling over the lip of the saucer. This has it sliding down the side of the pot instead of going to the lower dish. This problem might be avoided with a stronger pump. I'm using a 6v solar pump and even in strong light I need to tilt the pots.

Re #2 -- (related to #1) Doing this to begin with will prevent you from realizing after the fact that the base saucer has a slight peak at the center which keeps the pots from laying flat. It will also point out ahead of time any shims that will be needed in the base and under the pots and saucers. This will allow for a more permanent and pleasant looking fix.

Re #3 & #4 -- Use primer. Just do it. I'm not sure that the other paint has to be rated for outdoors. I see no separation between the layers of acrylic, only between the terracotta and the metallic paint.

Re #5 -- I cut my tube with just enough length to reach the bottom. This prevents me from placing a shim under the pump tower.

Ball of Confusion

Sold ADM at a loss. I think that everyone is so down on ethanol that they just sold without thinking. While ignoring the fact that ADM does other things as well.

Well, not just that... perhaps it is like what's happening with Tyson's and the rising cost of chickens. Perhaps more value at the start of the line instead of near the end? I don't know.

Been thinking that I need to sell IYE. Hearing noises that there will be a massive pullback. Not at all sure.

GLD may or may not have hit the bottom of its pullback. I was planing to hop on at around $80, but I'm getting mixed signals on direction.

Still no pump

Seller is reshipping.

grr

No pump yet and

WOOT!

I'm under 280 today. My wife said my pants are way too loose and in trying to figure out what size to get it looks like I may be down to 42.

Yay

Update: Yep, 42" jeans. A 42" in dress pants fits at the waist, but the rear and thighs are too tight. Seems they make pants for chicken legged people.

Weird that the jeans fit well and the dress pants don't. It's normally the other way around.

Ehh

---------

Rereading the ebay listing for my pump, yesterday was the earliest it would've arrived. So sometime next week.

---------

Oh, we picked up the Angel Food chow. First up was the breaded frying chicken. This was interesting because my quartermistress has proscribed fried foods. This meant that the thick breading that might have been real good fried up ended up being a bit soggy baked. Regardless the meat was flavorful and juicy. A bit more fatty than she normally picks up but that added to the flavor.

I had thought I liked it as much as I did because I was doing a lot of yard work and was pretty hungry. That was until I saw that my daughter cleaned the bones on her serving. Which is something I've never seen her do.

Blasted Allergies

and a squirrel update.

Seems that three days of spending a great deal of time outdoors has got my allergies up.

Gotta love that dizzy, tight chest feeling! Add in the weird very-aware-of-my-pulse thing that happens when the pollen gets to me.

WHEEEE!!!

But in better news, it appears that squirrels don't like hot sauce. I've doused both front and rear feeders and while I've seen them foraging around the fallen seed, they haven't been gorging at the feeder itself. The birds continue to come and they are now hunting a larger area of my property.

The hot sauce doesn't work so well for the normal suet. Seems the squirrels just scrape away the outside and eat away. I'm trying a hot pepper suet that my wife picked up on a lark. Hopefully that'll do the trick.

Oh yeah, I heard an owl the other day. I need to read up on if they prey on some of the birds I'm pulling and if they take the chipmunks and squirrels I'm seeing.

Birdbath

After watching the birds go from feeder to hunting/feeding about my property I googled around for more ways to pull them in.

Seems that birdbaths are a big draw. But birdbaths are silly expensive. So... I googled around some more and found this and this.

We were unable to find a 18" saucer but the 16" we did find looks alright. Also we couldn't find deep saucers like those shown in the links but as I'm looking for this to be a birdbath and not just a fountain, I think it'll do.

I've ordered a solar fountain pump off of ebay and it should show this week.

In the meantime ---

Here are the components with spouts filed out with a round bastard file and the hole drilled in the 8" platter.



Per the directions I soaked the pots over an hour (ended being over 2). I did not have a bastard file on hand and tried a rasp bit in my drill. That didn't work, so off to the store again. I had assumed that the soaking would make the filing easier, but no. It is to cut down on chipping at the work site.

It didn't occur to me to put a work glove on my working hand until I worked up a good sized blister on my guiding/pressure finger.

heh

Assembled --



I wasn't keen on leaving them natural. For one thing the pots were different colors and for another... well, I wanted to play and got it in my head to try to make a lapis finish. After googling around a great deal I found this site.

I picked up the materials last night. I'm a little worried about the "water-based gloss varnish". Of the places I checked out I found no "water-based" varnish. I did find varnish for acrylic and for oil. So I made the first of my assumptions that the acrylic varnish is water-based. My second assumption is this: the directions for the faux lapis have a step where paint and varnish are mixed 1:1 .. well, the varnish indicates that is "should not be used as a medium". I'm going to cross my fingers and disregard that directive on the label.

Here is the base coat of gold spray paint --



The additional 4" pot is for a decorative plant that will sit on top of the overturned 4" saucer in the pump tower.

I had thought to apply 2-3 coats on one side before doing the other. I'm glad I didn't because I ran out of gold very shortly after doing the flip sides. Also, the paint can was incorrect about being able to handle the pieces right away. In moving the pots to my deck box I noticed that I'd smudged away the paint in areas when I flipped them to do the other side.

Ehh, I'm trying for a faux finish and natural rocks aren't perfect so I'm not gonna worry about it.

Sill I'm not touching them again for a couple hours to cut down on damage.

Next up, the aquamarine plus black wash. I was able to find that a "wash brush" was both a brush and a technique. But I have found no specifics as to what "aquamarine plus black" means. I'm gonna wing it.

-----------



Well, aquamarine plus black creates a nice denim color. Main problem I had was trying to figure how much paint I needed and I kept underestimating. As a result some wash is a bit different than others. But, at this point, I like the slight color differences.

On to the strips of color and fly specking ---



As can be seen in the big dish, the paint + varnish dries in well under 5 minutes. I came back to smooth the stripes in and they were all dry. Not the effect I originally wanted, but I think it'll be nice under water.

The thing that is really irritating me is that from what I read I did not need primer for terracotta. That is false.

False false false.

I had seen some flaking of the gold early on and thought it wasn't dry. Well, large bits peeled away when I picked up some of the pots. I'm hoping the sealant will stop all of that cause it is really ticking me off.

Next up -- the gold hash marks and gold fly specking.



I read that the acrylic would darken after drying but I didn't realize what it would look like. I'm happier with the large saucer now.

The gold paint that I used didn't blend out nicely with the round brush and for some reason made a significant amount of specks with the toothbrush. Not sure why it would make more than the other paint. I'm hoping its colors will calm down with drying.

Next up, putting a couple coats of UV resistant sealer on all of the pots.

Should have seen this coming. As I said, use a primer.

When putting down the first layer of sealer one pot fell into another and knocked a large paint chip away. When I picked it up to see how bad things were, the paint pulled away where my fingers were. I'm thinking I can touch up those areas. Not sure.

After letting it dry for a half hour, I came out to see if it was dry to the touch. Most of it was but there were a few wet areas (I had problems seeing where the sealant had coated the pot and ended up spraying much to much sealant on). Well, some paint stuck to me. Luckily it was in a hidden area. But based on how the pain is acting, anything that hits it will knock chips away.

I'm really not sure what to do. Strip the paint and start again? I just don't know.

I'm going to let the current coat sit to 8pm and then flip them to do the other side.

============

I put three coats of sealant on both sides and then put 3 coats on the parts that chipped away.

Then I mixed gold, aquamarine, black, and gloss varnish for touching up. After doing that I put on three more coats of sealant over the problem spots.

The issue now is that heat from the sun causes the paint to bubble around the chipped areas. It also makes all surfaces sticky enough to pull the paint off.

At this point I think it looks ok. The bubbles are in hidden areas. I'm not sure that I'm liking it because it's nice or because I'm almost done.

Heh.



I don't like what the flash did to that pic, but I don't have a stand up tripod. Ehh

I'll grow some short flowers in the top pot.

I had thought of gluing the tower parts together. But it is looking likely that I'll be doing piecemeal stripping/repainting over time. So no gluing.

Next step is to wait for the pump to come in. Then buy some tubing based on its outflow port's diameter. Lastly, some marine glue.