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TV Shows
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My daughter was watching "This New House", an older episode she had on our DVR, this morning. It had a few interesting things.Thermo Steel Building Panels were neat. Styrofoam panels with thin steel framing that could be used to put entire buildings together, including the floor & roof. Each panel weighed just 44 lbs & went up very fast. Plywood was screwed directly to the floor panels, drywall to the walls. It's a neat idea, similar to the last 2 custom homes I built in the early 90's. Those were custom made wall sections with 2x6 bracing made in Canada, but these new homes won't have much wood at all in them.
Modular, folding homes were heavy steel frames on hinges that were double wide, but folded up into a single wide for transport. Kind of nifty.
There were other sections on appliances, heaters/air exchangers & such, too. Kind of a neat show. I'd never seen it before.
I saw part of another episode of "This New House". http://www.diynetwork.com/this-new-ho...
I'm a little peeved over the way they handle costs. They don't seem to think that's much of a concern. Since when?
As I mentioned, I grew up on a farm, own one now, & we try to save money & be environmentally friendly when ever possible. There is always a balance between initial building & maintenance costs versus what we'll get out of it, though.
We use a lot of city water & it costs us about $40/month - roughly $500/year. One of the big differences between KY & MD has been water. In MD, we always had our own well. In KY, everyone seems to either be on city water or a cistern. While we have a well, it is a shallow one that just seems to collect ground water runoff & is pretty typical - not exactly what we want to drink from, although people did for years. Of course, they didn't have as many chemicals floating around way back when, either.
One of the segments was on catching rain water & using it to water a garden, so I was interested. I've looked into it before, but the costs were prohibitive - $60 each for a 50 plus gallon barrel that looks pretty & is fitted out to accept plumbing fixtures easily. I thought that was too expensive since I'd need at least 6 of them to cover the house & my shop. (We don't have gardens out by the barns since the horses & goats would just eat anything we planted.)
This show had rectangular 50 odd gallon collection containers that were designed so they could stack in any direction & could even be used as a garden bench. They would easily hook together with standard plumbing fixtures. They could be stacked up to form pillars or walls. Very cool idea & they showed them putting 2 up against a wall to catch the runoff. Total project cost was $788. I figure each of those containers cost over $350 each! They're neat, but not that neat.
We use a lot of electric since our place is all electric. We heat Marg's tack room, my shop & the house. We have heaters for the fish pond, the paddock & barn water troughs. We also put out 2 heated dog dishes for the birds to get water from. According to "This New House", the average is 31 KWH/day. Last month, our lightest one, when neither the heat nor AC was running much (if at all), we averaged 41 KWH/day. During the winter, we can run up to 150 KWH/day.
A segment of "This New House" was on solar power. The big issue is storing it, so this MIT professor came up with a way of using it to break up water & then power a fusion engine or something. Nothing really new, but it is a cool idea. Right now it would cost $100K to build it for an average house, though.
The MIT guy is hoping to get his piece of this down to $2000, but I'm not real sure what that meant. There are 4 parts to the system he uses & I got the impression that the oxy & hydrogen collection tanks were fairly standard, so was his part just the piece that broke water up into the 2 gases or did it also include the motor that burned the gases & generated electric?
I've looked into alternative energy for my place & it's prohibitively expensive. KY has the worst rating for wind power according the the Feds & isn't much better for sunlight. We have lots of coal though, so electric is fairly cheap. That means any alternatives have a short payback time to be worthwhile. Even in 10 years, it doesn't look like either could come close with the technology I've seen.
Long ago before digital TV and when PBS was still broadcast out to the sticks I actually picked up a few tricks for faux finishing ( I forget the name of the show), formula painting (who hasn't seen Bob Ross, still often put down by "serious" artists, though I think any "serious" artist worth his/her salt should be able to do all Bob's techniqies without the proprietary Ross paints!), cabinet making (when the Yankee Workshop wasn't so much into prmooting newer and better (and MORE expensive) tools) and construction solutions (back when "This Old House" was actually about old houses and not rich peoples mansions. Uh oh.. guess that last really dates me!)Now what few channels I get over the air aren't worth watching very much....
Yeah, Norm does act a lot like a tool salesman. I was looking through Packard Woodworks catalog today since it came in the box with some new bandsaw blades & sandpaper.* They sell many specialized tools to do jobs that don't really need them. They're kind of fun to look at, but some are just silly.For instance, they have a $60 sanding mat. One of the big sales points is that you can set your palm sander down & it won't run off. There's even a special place to put it. I use an old bath mat, like a thick towel. It works just fine.
* There is something weird going on with Norton 3x sandpaper. I used to buy it in cardboard packs of 20, grits of 80, 100, 150, 180 & 220. They no longer sell 20 packs, just 10 packs that are in a flimsy plastic bag. They no longer sell 100 & 150 grit, just 120. That just sucks. What's up with that?
Jim wrote: "While I supposed some TV shows will get discussed under specific topics, here's a place to mention any that don't. There are plenty to choose from. We have a DIY channel on the satellite. It's a..."The 3 shows Jim mentioned are my favorites. I've also found some good craft (and cooking) shows on the local PBS channel. Yesterday, I watched a woman repair a stained glass window. Need tools, coordination and lots of knowledge. Seemed too tedious and precise for me but I totally enjoyed watching the show and learning that you CAN repair a damaged stained glass window. Now, I may go out and buy one....but not make one.
Marg & Erin took a class together & made a stained glass sun catcher. They didn't seem to need much in the way of special tools for that, Linda. Maybe you could try making some of those.
Jim wrote: "Marg & Erin took a class together & made a stained glass sun catcher. They didn't seem to need much in the way of special tools for that, Linda. Maybe you could try making some of those."A sun catcher. Small. Workable. Now, THAT idea I like. I'll go check it out. Something these little hands may be able to do. :)
Keep us abreast of your progress, Linda. I'm sure it will be a learning experience. I made a topic just for it here:http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...
Now see. I don't think all progress is bad (ebook= bad bad bad)....When DTV broadcasting came out, I lost PBS forever and NBC in the Winter, and the other two channels, CBS and NBC come and go. Having snowy pictures was much better than no picture and not knowing if you could watch a whole one hour show without losing the ending.
When I first got slow, slooowe, slooooowe DSL even you tube nonsense wasn't acessable at 750 kbps. The dsl did make shopping and sites like Goodreads work well!
Recently the players (except PBS) have begun using new software, so basically they broadcast shows online even over slow 300 kbps conections! OK, the content can be blurry at times, the equivalent of "snowy" TV from the analog days. Bt it's watchable!
Less commercials, and I can "pause" tv!
Yet as there were no shortage of "service" providers like cable to connect DTV to homes, now there are online "service" providers like HULU which will gladly charge you... for what you can get for free!
I now discovered I get about 27 channels on my computer! All the major networks (except PBS which apparently only caters to rich people with high speed connections), plus traditionally "cable" channels like SYFY, Bravo, Speed, CNN, TVLand, Discovery etc. etc....
OH no, now it's like when I lived in apartments and tapped into the neighbors cable tv line... 57 cannels and most may not be worth watching!
But of late if I feel like watching TV I'm no longer subject to "scheduled" programs or limited to the few channels... and best of all, it's all free (providing I have slooowe DSL) !! Now that's progress!
We have really slow wireless Internet. It's better than satellite, but not near DSL speeds. Still, we can watch a bit of TV on it, although we avoid it, if at all possible. HBO has a site where we can catch up on old episodes, but it's practically unwatchable at our slow speed. It pauses often. My daughter has Hulu Plus & that worked well, if a bit low rez & jerkily.I agree with the digital versus analog signals. I'd rather have snow than nothing. Worse, our new TV won't even allow me to manually put in a station to watch. It scans & whatever it finds, it will show you again, unless it is a major station. Most stations have 3 - 4 others associated with them. Channel 12-1, 12-2, etc.. Manual selection will only get 12-1, though. If the antenna isn't pointed right or it's a bad day, you don't get the option of seeing that station again.
Why, when we have satellite, a DVR/VCR, & a computer hooked up, do we need an antenna? Because the satellite company says we live in the Lexington area & won't show us Louisville channels. We're halfway between the two, I work in Louisville, & our weather normally comes from that direction. The antenna is the only way to get local info west.
:-(
My coverter box will let me program as many channels as I like! So I have "nine" channels programmed in, but I average four of the nine at any time with only two being "real" channels (I mean really..one "channel" is twenty four hours of a ten minute weather loop!)Politicians sucking up to big business.. lets make everyone buy new tv's while letting the big businesses spend less broadcasting and limit customer access if they don't have cable (who cares if rural areas get lost... not enough votes or money there to matter!) Ane here I thought citizens owned the airwaves!
Now if I spent $150 on a fringe antenna I might be able to get all "nine" channels, which are really just four... but I refuse! My 50 year old antenna in the attic worked just fine before DTV.... if they don't want to reach me (and everyone else more than 30 miles from Bangor) to heck with them!
Wot can you due!
I do enjoy my own channels, using a couple CCTV cameras left over from my business hooked up to 5" black and white TV's so I can watch the backyard or the driveway... often much better programming than whats on TV or computer..and NO commecials!
Someday I might find some inexpensive infrared lights and then I can watch them at night too! (I keep watching AS&S)
Actually, they delayed going to digital TV signal for a year or two because the politicians thought it was a right for everyone to have it. They even gave the converters away for free. The whole reason for it was to get rid of lossy analog signals so the bandwidth was freed up.What's AS&S?
Could your CCTV cameras capture IR? That would be awesome, especially if you put a feeder out. My cousins have done that, but with a still camera hooked to a motion detector. How expensive are IR digital cameras?
American Science and Surplus= as&sI have two of the free converter boxes. One given to me I keep for a spare as of the first two I got one already died!
My cctv cameras are not digital (but do pickup IR) and fifteen years ago I had a nine camera setup with controller and time laspe vcr (five more than needed but a deals a deal!) I'd bought used from various sources for about $300. A modern digital outfit new is $300 to $600 nowadays.
I know for a fact they protected my business from delinquents down in Southern Maine, now they're just a toy.
Now if I can just find a low cost IR light I can catch criiters at night!
We finished Downton Abbey tonight, except for season 3's Xmas special. I guess we'll see that next week some time. Very good & fun. I haven't enjoyed a soap opera since "Soap". Of course, I'm still devastated by them cancelling that. (Did Jodie ever recover himself or did he stay a little old Jewish man? What happened to Jessica?!!!) :sigh:
Well, the good news is we can catch up on our other TV watching.
;-)
Even with all the new channels, while I found a couple free movies this week betwen hulu and crackle (most free movies really s--k unless you like baliwood productions), but even with all the channels I now have to chose from usually the books win!
I hear there's a director's cut of Payback that's supposed to be really good. I'd like to see that. I'll agree that most stuff is pretty much mindless dreck, though.
LOTS of mindless dreck!! Apparently using the computer takes less electricity than running the TV.... my electric bill from the week of cataloging stuff on Goodreads (16 hours a day) plus using it more than the TV and my electric bill went down $5 to $23. Cool!
I have a APC 1500 UPS hooked up to the TV, PC, & all the other devices hooked to it. It has 5 lights to measure its output (1500 VA = about 1000 watts, I think). With our 32" CRT, it used stay at 20% (1 light) & to peg all the way out (5 lights with a red error) when we turned it on & run at 60-80% (3- 4 lights). Now, with a 47" LED LCD TV, it runs at 0 - 20% (0 - 1 light). I don't know what that comes to in wattage over any amount of time, but it's a pretty big drop. Sometimes newer is better. Besides, the old one died for the third time & it was a bear to get it to the shop.
We drop close to a $230 electric bill in the spring & fall, bu it's a best case scenario. We're electric everything; heat, hot water, stove, & all. KY has some of the lowest electric rates in the country & we still go over $600 when it's real cold. I think one heater in the pond or stock tank costs $50/month then.
OUCH! For me solar isn't cost effective... but at $500 a month you could buy a real nice solar setup that could pay for itself real quick... plus add soloar assisted hot water, a heat pump etc. and the electric company would be paying you!
Actually, KY sucks for solar & wind according to the government - the same one that hates our coal/gas plants & says we should use alternative energy. I really looked into it because I thought wind would be a great investment. Turns out not. A friend of mine in Florida is running her place on solar, though.
Now if Maine is viable for solar with our 7 hour days in Winter I know KY is! I'd talk to an installer next time Marg drags you to a home show.(not a government employee) Just think of all the toys you could buy with $600 a month!Wind is viable in Maine, and a couple years ago they covered a hill by the lake in town with windmills... What an eyesore! Everyone's complaining now (except the town govt eating up the taxes) and tourists are going elsewhere rather than see flashing red lights all night!
Meanwhile the complaints about the noise for anyone within a mile of the windmills never end... they produce a low frequency hum that drives people nuts!
From the research I saw, KY rated very low on the solar scale & didn't pan out well. I didn't check into it thoroughly, though. I spent more time on the wind & that was a real disappointment.
A tv show I enjoy lately is "Rehab Addict".I like that she rehabs using old materials when she can, making the house look like it originally was, or close to. Not just ripping things out willy nilly and throwing them away.
I also enjoy "Salvage Dawgs" ( i think that is the right name). Holy Moly they really know to make some money. To make a floor lamp, one of the employees took some old books, a wood base, a wood top and a handmade shade ( i couldn't tell what it was made of, maybe i missed that part of the program) and they charged $450. for the thing.
Having cats, it looked from my point to be a really expensive scratching post.
I've never seen either. They sound right up my alley, though. Unfortunately, everyone around here already works that way, so sales would be nonexistent. Need a market like around Baltimore or NYC to charge for it, I would think.
Jim wrote: "I've never seen either. They sound right up my alley, though. Unfortunately, everyone around here already works that way, so sales would be nonexistent. Need a market like around Baltimore or NY..."The salvage dawg people are in Virginia.
Today I watched http://www.craftsmanslegacy.comon Rhode Island PBS. The program was about being a blacksmith and featured Lorelei Sims. Here's her link:
http://www.blacksmithchic.com/
She seems to have an ideal life and appreciates that she does. She's got the shop and a farm. Says the secret to time management (for her) is no spouse and no kids. I think she said she owns the farm with a friend. The program showed some of the farm too.
It was very interesting to watch. I can't watch the shows on the internet but maybe others can.
I almost forgot:I have seen John Wilson the Woodworker on that program too. I enjoyed it very much. He's very interesting.
Cool! Gorgeous work. Sounds neat. Our Internet connection isn't good enough either. Hopefully they'll show it on our PBS station.
Has anyone watched the program Home Town on HGTV?I enjoy it and like that they show side trips to places where things are made for the houses they work on.
If you get Discovery+, the carpenter/woodworker on the show has his own program there making furniture, etc.
I would definitely watch it if i had that channel, but i don't.
The program is called Ben...something...i forget.
Interesting knowing where the materials come from. Our world is so complex & much is hidden. I just finished A Walk Around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day & a lot of it was eye-opening. Utilities are often hidden & seem almost magical, but they aren't. There's a lot going on that we're thankfully unaware of. When we do become aware, it's usually because they break & we suddenly realize just how much we took them for granted.
I discovered a new program on HGTV called Bargain Block. It's even more realistic than Home Town. The reason i say it's realistic is because with a lot of the house rehab shows they go really high end whereas this one is for average people.
Most of the houses are small and more in tune with what the average person (or apartment dweller) would be used to. I like watching the creativity of the 2 guys who do the rehabs. They bottom line everything that they can. Not that i like everything they do, but that can be said of the high end rehab shows too.
I just find it interesting and nice that they are helping neighborhoods.
Thanks, Jaye. I'll see if I can't catch a show or two. Your point about pricing is something that's always bugged me, too. I can't really get into the high end jobs even though I've been part of many. I just did the labor, though. I could never contemplate actually being able to do one myself.
Salvage Hunters:The RestorersOn the Discovery Channel.
Fascinating program !
https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/...This is a link to a program i came across on the Discovery channel.
I find programs like this fascinating as they restore old things for people. The workshop is fascinating too.
This repair place is in England.
I'm not doing too much these days as i recently had a calcium deposit removed from my shoulder and it's not progressing as quickly as i had hoped ( i just did some cooking and washed a pot, that pot did me in).
🌲 Merry Christmas all ! 🌲
That looks cool. Hope you get better soon, Jaye.
https://www.pbs.org/craft-in-america/This is a fascinating series. I've seen a few episodes on pbs and some on Create tv channel.
Now I've found the library has the dvds so I've been borrowing episodes to watch in my kitchen as i do things in there.
Even subjects i thought wouldn't be interesting to me I've found enthralling.
P.s. I've discovered that notifications for new comments here are hit or miss. Mostly miss.
That looks interesting. I recently watched an episode of "The Craftsman" which was good.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15423280/
While our backgrounds aren't anything alike, our work is very similar. He has some really cool old tools, though.
Jim wrote: "That looks interesting. I recently watched an episode of "The Craftsman" which was good.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15423280/
While our backgrounds aren't anything alike, our work is very simila..."
I'm just seeing this now. Notifications were working on and off but i didn't realize group discussions were affected at the time you posted this. I don’t know where they stand now but i do know i never never get notifications on book review discussions.
This program looks interesting. I'll see if the library has dvds.
On a craftsman aside, have you read One Second
After
?It's very interesting and frightening because it is entirely possible. One point i founf fascinating concerned the people and craftsmen that are revealed to be so important when modern technology goes down due to an EMP. An EMP from any cause, be it a nuclear attack or from the sun, would reveal the same consequences. The old ways would become essential. People, such as myself, wouldn't be of much use, not having knowledge of USEFUL old ways.
It's interesting to discuss.
I think there are 4 books in the series now. I've got the 3rd comingvat the library. The 1st was pretty brutal when you realize it's all spelled out there in its complete possibility and you start to wonder if anything is being done to harden off the electric grid, etc.
Oh yes! I have read One Second After. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
If you read my review, you'll see some other classic apocalyptic novels listed & I agree this is one of the more probable scenarios. I knew there were at least 2 others after this one, but have no interest in reading them. There's no way they can live up to the standard set by the first one. They can only become standard post-apocalyptic fare.
This one shows in graphic detail just how dependent we are on electricity on all levels & relates them through personal experiences which just hit me in the gut. After reading the blurb, I thought I was prepared, but I was wrong & I've thought about how much I rely on electric a fair amount.
I live in an all electric house now, but grew up in rural areas where service was spotty & not particularly reliable. We didn't have the need either, though. Flashlights & their batteries weren't very good. Most of the barns didn't have electric & power was out fairly often, so we always had plenty of kerosene on hand for the many lamps & lanterns. TVs weren't used all that much since we only got a few stations, at best. We didn't have most of the other electric gadgets I rely on now. No microwaves, cordless phones, or air conditioning. While we had a refrigerator, we still had well coolers & root cellars. The stove was kerosene or gas, too. The kerosene one had a built-in hot water heater. The biggest issue was water had to be hauled in from the well & we usually had an old outhouse to cut down on the need for that, too.
Back then, the electric could go out for days & it was a mild inconvenience, but now it's a disaster. We don't have any of the older things/systems around & all the appliances are electric. We're dependent on things we didn't even dream about back then like the microwave, phone, & computer. It's pretty shocking.
General Craft & DIY
Books mentioned in this topic
One Second After (other topics)One Second After (other topics)
A Walk Around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Roy Underhill (other topics)Norm Abram (other topics)
Some of my favorites over the years have mostly been on PBS:
The Woodwright's Workshop starring Roy Underhill. He's written quite a few books on Colonial woodworking. I have & have built projects out of most of them.
This Old House was of interest for years. Until 15 years ago, every house I lived in was an old one. Some were pretty horrible & any ideas for how to fix things were appreciated. No closets, rattling windows, & plaster coming down in sheets were just a few of the problems.
The Yankee Workshop stars Norm Abram who I first saw on "This Old House". I LOVE Norm's shop & collection of tools. His table saw & compressed air system is to die for.
What DIY shows do you watch?