I took it easy today. Worked on the Relay card trying to get a telnet type feature working. It rained overnight so everything is pretty soggy. Around noon we decided to walk around the flea market at the fairgrounds. Saw some interesting Jack in the Pulpits by an eclectic couple. There weren't too many vendors out. We saw a collection of food trucks. We tried some Spring rolls from one of them. They weren't too bad. Libbie made her wonderful pizza again for dinner. I'm reading 50 shades of gray, it's an alright book with lots of sex but doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Today I tried finishing the door trim inside the greenhouse but ran out of caulk. Ran to Lowes for more caulk and stopped in Office Max and bought a Nook Tablet for Libbie for our 40th anniversary. Listened to Macbeth live from the Met this afternoon then we had a pre anniversary dinner of pork chop, sweet potato and Shiraz. After dinner we sat on the backporch where I gave Libbie a caramel Russel Stover egg with a 40th anniversary 8x10 featuring honeymoon pics and the Nook Tablet. I will order an 8 gig flash card for the tablet to load Android on the device. Without Android it can't access the google app store where all the good free apps are.

Worked on the relay card in the morning then investigated how to root a Nook tablet. I want to get one for Libbie for our 40th anniversary. Started working on the door frame but had to quit because Libbie started watering in the greenhouse. Earlier today I charged the tractor battery at the greenhouse so Libbie could mow. Not sure if it will hold a charge. Time will tell. Dinner was a Pork Chop with beets and potatoes and chocolate cake for desert.

Tried to stay inside and do clean things today since we're going to the live ballet in Hd this afternoon. Romeo and Juliet from the Royal Opera House was about the nicest ballet I have ever seen, especially the Act II Pas du Deux leading up to their kiss. Wow, was this good. We need the DVD. The performance started at 3:30 which was 7:30 London time. There were 6 other people in the theater with us. We got out at 6:30. At home we heated some BBQ in the microwave which we ate on sandwich rounds.

I built the relay card this morning. Looks great!!! Dug the concrete and old post out of the railing on the deck walkway. Put in a new post and poured dry Sakrete into the hole to support it Libbie and I went to Wyatt Quarles and the Farmers Market this afternoon. Looked at the herbs for sale. It's still too early but I'm planning. We had BBQ chicken breast for dinner. Yummy although Libbie said I bought one that was too big. I liked it.

We had an incredible thunder storm at 6 am this morning. We both lay in bed and listened to the booms. I checked the radar on the Nook, it was a single cell. The PCB came today but it was not by 10:30 but more like 5 PM. All the components seem to properly fit. VanWingerden also did not call. I had to chase them down once again. Angela said she will mail the check on Friday. She didn't even have my address. This wasn't good. I finished 20,000 leagues after dinner while listening to MacBeth live. Dinner was BBQ chicken with sweet potatoes. his afternoon around 3 Libbie called that she drove the Prius into the compost pile at the greenhouse. I went over with a jack, come along, chains and hand tools. I ended up jacking up the front wheels and putting wood and bricks under the sunken wheels. Drove forward one foot onto 2 scraps of Plywood which kept the car out of the muck. To get the jack under the car I needed to dig out s spot for the jack under the frame on each side. Once up out of the muck, we lined the tire path with wood and then drove off the compost pile. Time to do this was about one hour.

Cleaned up the yard of wood scraps, benchtops and a sheet of glass from the porch and took it all along with the water heater to the landfill. They took the water heater but couldn't take the wood because there was no bin and couldn't take the sheet of glass because the compactor was broke. Went home. Joy came over and was helping Libbie with shipping. While doing the yard cleanup a huge thunder buster moved through. Late in the PM Libbie and I took the trailer full of wood and glass to the Old Stage Road dumpster. Afterwards I struggled with the USPS click n ship and created all the mail labels. The Boarduinos came today, I assembled one in my shop of the three. We both filled up at Krogers since we had 1000 fuel points giving us $1 off per gallon. We took 15 gallons at 2.77. Dinner was Rotisserie chicken, baked beans and potato salad.

Lib wanted me to see the cucumber seedlings in the greenhouse this morning. Went out there and noticed the water running down the wall from the water heater overflow. Went upstairs and found the water heater leaking. Went to Lowes and bought a new Hotpoint 9 year heater. Spent the rest of the morning dismantling and removing the old heater. Made a trip to HD for plumbing parts and gas pipes to replumb the new heater. Got it hooked up by late afternoon. Libbie made her super pizza once again, this time with fresh tomato.

In the morning I experimented with the drip mister. Set up some cups at various distances from the emitter then ran the solenoid for first one minute then 3 minutes. Coverage seems even but quantity is not great. I guess this is a good thing since it can be regulated with time. In the afternoon I stayed inside and listened to Kavaschina from the Met while working on the irrigation relay program. The Boarduino from Adafruit is on it's way and the relay PCB should be here from AP circuits on Tuesday. I'm going to build two of these, one for greenhouse use and one to test programs on. Dinner was pork chops, potato and beets with Santa Barbara (Trader Joes) Chardonnay. Still reading 20,000 leagues and also downloaded the 1954 Walt Disney movie starring Kirk Douglas.

Worked a little on timer software then went outside and experimented with the sprinkler hookup to the greenhouse water. It puts too much water out all over the bench but that's the best I may do. Worked on the bench and finished installing the greenhouse center bench. We went to kroger and picked up pork chops and steak for weekend dinners.
Dinner was steak, potato and beets along with shiraz. Chocolate cake for desert.

Worked on the autoroute of the relay 4 board. My version of Orcad does not have Autoroute but it does have an Allegro router which is what I used. It works OK. Sent the job to AP circuits. Went to the greenhouse and removed the rest of the shrubs and planted them next to our brick sidewalk. Dinner was Lobster pasta. After dinner I went to Krogers for a gift certificate because of 4x points then used it at Home Depot to pick up a solenoid, pressure regulator and misc plumbing fittings. Out on Old Raleigh Rd a construction project started this week to put sidewalks along the road all the way to Foodlion. Yes!
Took a trip to the Farmers Market. It was disappointing since the shed building was closed for maintenance. The vendors were in the parking lot. There wasn't much in the way of plants to choose from.

Doing the schematic entry today for the relay 4 board. I also put in an order to Adafruit for some Boarduinos for the relay 4 controller. This will plug into the board I get from AP Circuits next week. Went to the greenhouse and took some of the shrubs and the rest of the phlox. Planted them at home and mulched the phlox with pine bark from Home Depot. Dinner was spaghetti with chicken chunk and curry sauce. This morning Libbie came with me and we did a Trader Joes run.

Violet club today. Linda Ablanalp was guest speaker talking about design. She did a nice job. We served lunch beforehand which consisted of salads and buns that Sheila brought and Broccoli salad that I made yesterday. The meeting went extremely well. After the meeting Libbie and I planted the packages of seeds into 6 packs. I need to come up with a watering scheme. Dinner was BBQ sandwiches.

Getting ready today for Violet club tomorrow. I went through and got the wood scraps out of the greenhouse and into a trash bag. I also took the opportunity to chop some of the wood scraps into smaller pieces so that they will fit into the bag as well. Did some rototilling in front of the greenhouse deadmen. Took 3 of the phlox from the Jessie Rd greenhouse an relocated them to Downing place. For dinner we went out to La Cosina where I had a Quesadilla La Cosina.

Spent some of the morning on Orcad then left at 10:30 for the Bolshoi performance of Le Corsaire. It was a spectacular. I'm glad we went it was so good. My favorite spokeswoman was there, Katarina NoviKova. She had on a black sheer lacy top. The woman is gorgeous. This performance was a large company spectacular. At one time we counted 50 tutus on stage along with another 50 other dancers and none of these were the principals. Wow. Dinner was Libbie's fantastic pizza.

The low temperature alarm went off last night at 11 am. I was in a deep sleep. It was supposed to go down to 33 but only went to 39. The outdoor temp when the alarm went off was 41. Tried swapping sensors with the good heater but no dice. The heater starts uo but quits after a few minutes and then won't restart. I cranked up the porch temp to 70 and turned the fan on full blowing hot air from the top of the hot tub into the greenhouse. This morning when I woke at 7 I tried jumping out the flame rollover sensors and all worked well. I read online that on some heaters the upper rollout sensor was prematurely tripping. Tried the upper then the lower sensor individually. Either sensor by itself causes gas valve shutdown. For now I removed the rollover sensor. It's the end of the heating season so there is no rush to get a rollover sensor in there. I will probably put one back in mounted on a bracket away from the flame but close enough to detect anything bad in the firebox. Cut the bench legs while listening to Don Giovanni on the met Saturday broadcast. Installed the Northernmost bench and moved the half bench inside and placed it on top temporarily until I cut proper legs for the upper bench. I'm pretty tired this afternoon! Dinner was ribs, brown rice, broccoli and Melbac wine. Tonight is Daylight Savings switchover, we went to bed early but I read a little more of Jules Verne.

Tackled the greenhouse this morning and put straps on the water pipes. Also put a shade on the vent thermostat ot keep the sun off it. Removed the last of the Mondo grass and started cutting bench legs for the next bench. The Orchids are getting burned so Libbie and I put the shade up inside the greenhouse on the deadman shading the orchids on the Southernmost bench. Yesterday I ordered the shade for the tops. In the afternoon I resumed reading 20000 leagues under the sea. I never read this book by Jules Verne before. It's quite good. Dinner was Scallops and brown rice with Chardonnay. Went over to Krogers in the evening to get an apple turnover for desert.

Nancy came over at 9:30 this morning to help Libbie move back into the greenhouse. So far the new sensor is working fine. Stopped working on the walkway while they were in the greenhousse, then cut the rest of the boards when they left. Used the morning time to work in the flower garden removing the old fence and out in the woods taking the downed trees to the wood pile. Finished the walkway today. it looks pretty good. Dinner was spaghetti!!!! We had red velvet cake for desert.

Started putting down the wood for the next walkway. the heater worked flawlessly all night long. Yeah!!! The Honeywell IUniversal sensor is working as advertised. I will still send back the old sensor to Dornback. Dinner this evening was curry chicken with Broccoli. Very nice!!! I studied some of the control system I will need for watering the next round of plants in the greenhouse. Will order from Sparkfun and Adafruit to prepare for our early April vacation in New Orleans.

The low temp alarm went off at 1:30 this morning. The heater is going into lockout. Adjusted the sensor again and monitored it. Lockout happened again. I set the fan up and blew the heated porch air into the greenhouse for the night. Overnight low was 28.
Called Dornback again. I have to send back the controller to get a new one. Went to Trader Joes and Krogers for Tuesday groceries. On the trip I began to think about the sensor. If it opens up when heated the controller will lockout the heater. I think that's what's going on, we're getting intermittent at high temperatures. I went to Home Depot and picked up a Honeywell Universal ignitor. Will try that tonight to see how it performs. The great news is that it works at all!!! It's shaped differently. Managed to shovel up the dirt for the next walkaway. Removed 7 wheelbarrows worth of dirt. I'm now ready for the walkway framing. Dinner was lobster pasta. Afterwards I listened to Kovaschina live from the Met.

Went outside in the new greenhouse today from 1:10 am to 5 am fooling around with the heater. The flame only runs a few minutes before going out and the green led blinks indicating a lockout. Libbie and I moved the orchids into the porch at 3 in the morning. We went to bed and slept until 7:30 am. This was a groggy day because of the lack of sleep. Talked to Dornback and they suggested moving the sensor probe which Ii tried. Also swapped the controller. I picked up a thermostat and buzzer in Home Depot and worked the rest of the day wiring a low temperature alarm in the greenhouse. Dinner was BBQ pork from Trader Joes on a bun.

I waited for it to get warmer today then turned the greenhouse fan on and moved the rototiller into the space and tilled the space for the new walkway. This worked well. This week I'll shovel out the dirt, rake and level it and build the walkway. I also moved some of the logs in the back onto the pile. I want to do a little bit of this each day. Dinner was Libbie's nice pizza once again.

How did we get to March 3 already? It rained pretty hard overnight. In the morning Libbie and I went to Home Depot and got white paint for the back porch. When I got home I finished the door threshold but the sweep I bought is too short. Needed to buy a 2 inch one. Stopped by Krogers and bought Burpee seeds for $1 per pack. The package says #2.49 on it, wow! Dinner tonight was pork chops with apple sauce, broccoli and shiraz.

Picked up some trim boards from Home Depot then started trimming the door out on the inside of the porch. Finished this, now I
need to work on the threshold and get a door sweep. OpD was called, I got the money this morning and bought more WSR and also added SPH, an old friend from years back. Stopped by Litmus for First Friday then did Artspace and went out to dinner at Boku. Service was not great. I had prawns in a nice spicy rice. Also had some Annabelle Cab which was $10 per glass and very good.

Nancy came over this morning to help Libbie. I drove to Graingers in North Raleigh to get the transformer. Of course, they didn't know about the will call. They took one out of stock and I mounted it in the relay box. The fan and the shutters now work as expected. This fixed the problem of the chattering relay. Next step was to work on the door frame. Got the frame cut and mounted as well as some shims installed. Next step is to complete the inside trim. moved to the backyard to move logs. It's a glorious 80 degree sunny day so I went and knocked myself out which is satisfying. Libbie watered the orchids in the greenhouse for the first time today. this is goodness although the water pipes still need clamping down to the structure. Dinner was a center cut pork chop with broccoli, apple sauce and Chardonnay. Wagner Tannhauser on WCPE tonight which is nice. I contacted the Modine distributor today and getting my money back for the warranty heat exchanger last year sounds positive. We shall see. I also had to deal with the Post Office because of multiple charges for the postal labels. The Feb 27 labels were charged 4 times for the same item. Their records only show 3 charges so I have soe work to do when the bill comes!!!