Paid taxes?

North Carolina is a very religious place. The offices were closed this Easter Friday, so forget getting my business "launched", but I did pay my taxes. I'm in the second quarter now. Going to get more organized. I washed my cell phone so a hundred bucks for that. The front walk post at my brown house was cheap at 6 bucks but the router and bits cost $125.00 on sale. The front walk is actually a bridge going from the parking area to my front porch. The decking was replaced last summer.

A is not coming back to the green house so guess who took the siding down off the inside of the back porch. Me. Hardiplank is really not designed to be reused. Still, it was already the right size for the walls and I really did not want to get more. So, first a really nasty glance at it and a nail or two just slid out (with a little help). It's nailed into treated yellow pine cripples. The yellow pine in question is Loblolly. If it had been Long Leaf....forget it.

I did everything I could think of to avoid buying more. Pried from above...gently, below...gently, and behind....gently. Tapped on the back with a wide wood block, and when all else failed, cut the nails with a sawszall. The ends were problematic, and seven pieces suffered. Of that, six were salvaged for other areas of the porch. The door sides were short pieces and there's plenty of scrap, so they got blown out and new pieces cut. So, in the end, no new hardiplank needed.

I'm also adding block to extend a pier. The footing is pretty broad. Need to get that knocked out soonest, as once the green house gets painted, it's time to hurry up and get all the finish in place. The plasterers came and went. Third coat of mud and they fixed my little problem. It also has been below freezing the last few nights, so a heater is on and the house is closed as best as possible.

After ordering my new cell, I remembered people, who for a living, dry out flood-damaged servers and other electronic equipment, and salvage quite a bit. So, popped off the battery on the old one, opened it up and stuck it under a fan for two days. Stuck it all together and plugged it into the charger to see if it would smoke, spark, or melt. None of the above. The LCD lit up and it came back to life. Still, a second phone would be a good back up.