What home improvement work did you do today?

Coyotes. Trying to slow them down a little…

 

Up in the hills between Amboy and Woodland.

 

I put up some Ring Gate Sensors to let me know if Jamie Sue (she's a lady who has been trying to establish herself at our address) somehow slithers past the cameras and tries to get into my yard.

 

Long story - basically we started getting mail for a lady named "Jamie Sue" at our address a few months ago. Bank statements, auto insurance statements, etc. She even got a drivers license with our address, even though she's never lived here or been here. With that drivers license, she could get a locksmith to let her into our home. She's from Corpus.

We've made every phone call and contacted all of the law enforcement. Nobody cares. Fortunately, she screwed up and had the drivers license sent here. We alerted a friend at DPS and they were able to put a note on her account so when she showed, she had to have current proof of our address, like a utility bill.

Apparently she showed up at the closest DPS office to us (in Bastrop) and tried to show her auto insurance card (it's not valid because I contacted them) but they wouldn't accept it. She threw a fit when they said they wanted a utility bill and said something like "Would a deed to the house work?!" They said "Yes." and after she stormed out, updated her "note" for a current utility bill.

As far as I can tell, she's in Austin now and I'm not sure what she thinks she's going to do. Our yard has more security in it now than Fort Knox. 8 cameras and now all of my gates have sensors.

There's more to it, but that it in a nutshell.

 

Damn. Sounds like one of those home title theft ads.

Have you ever met her?

 

Nope and she should be hoping we don't. From what I understand, she's very paranoid (we've done a lot of research on her) and I know she uses burner phones. Every time I get something for her in the mail with her email address on it, I try to log into it and click "forgot password" so it'll trigger gmail to send her a notice on her phone. Soon after, she'll delete the email account.

I have her new Post Office Box, I'm tempted to send her a letter.

 

Do you have an attorney friend who would maybe put a C&D warning on official letterhead?

 

No. We were talking about that last night. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. We're basically playing a shitty game of chess right now. She moves, I countermove, etc. I have the post office watching for any mail forwarding attempts at our address, the DPS things. Any bank mail that comes here, I've been contacting and letting them know she's using a false address. Not much more I can do until she tries to show her face.

 

Do you have a neighbor or a noisy establishment near by…….

 

Washed the deck and stairs yesterday and did a coat of semitransparent cedar stain on the cedar deck and stairs as well as the railing’s horizontal surfaces. Supposed to be good for 4 years. The stairs (not shown) are pressure treated wood but the stain made them look better.

 

Not that it's exactly the same, but we've had people show up @ our house 'to borrow gas' in the last year or two. We have very low crime where I live, but there's also a ton of meth and other usage; and it's gotten to the point that I'll carry while outside doing chores for quite a while. Last time it happened they said they'd 'follow us around to save time.'

I told them "no you won't" and asked my wife to take my son to get the gas can while I stood there with them. They suddenly remembered they 'had a friend down the road' they could ask.

Wife argued with me a few years ago against getting an alarm system...until someone she didn't know wanted to come in to use the phone and started to open the outer door. She slammed the front door and called me.

Suffice to say we've had an alarm system for a few years now *AND* she's demonstrated she knows how to load all of our firearms.

 

@TaquitoBandito , sorry to hear about your woes. I guess it would help to have someone always home. That is some seriously twisted situation.

Thermometer shows 106°F and I'm working in the attic because I'm an idiot and decided to install outside lighting on one of the hottest days of summer in lieu of winter. Running wires because fk. batteries and solar.

I may not make it out alive. Start placing dibs on my tundra.

 

Man, that sucks. We have people from "across the tracks" that come over this way and will hit you up for money or gas but they tend to stay out of our yard. Our cameras are pretty visible so that may be the difference. I think it also helps that somebody spread the rumor that I'm retired Special Forces (which I've never claimed to be, nor would I).

Even with the stupid shit that has happened to me in life, I consider myself very fortunate and I have no problem helping people if I can. However, there's a limit.

Our attic is lined with cedar and has a spiral staircase going up to it. I was vacuuming up there yesterday and almost had a heat stroke. It had to have been at least 100 up there. Make sure you stay hydrated. Your wife will have a hell of a time selling the house if there's dead person smell in the attic.

 

What I thought I read. ^^

 

Best alarms ever (current pack)....







Two have access inside the house at all times and at least one always has access to the yard. Even crazy knows the hospital visit after FAFO'ing this property is gonna really suck!!!

 

Is that a Malinois at the top? I didn't know they came in black. I'd like to get a military working dog retiree at some point. They halted adoptions for a while.

 

Yes yes that's very funny.

Anyways, that was hot. I did 120ft of wire in the attic. Worst is, I had to run it up against the edge and send wire into 4 corners to have lights at all eve corners. What a pain bro!! I don't blame the men and women who opt for those solar powered floods. Not sure I'd want to do it again any time soon.

Now just wait for the hardware to arrive.

 

He's actually a working line Dutch Shepherd (they will usually have a brindle coloring to them). That was him at 12 weeks!! His father is the dog at the bottom that looks like a tan Mal, but is actually lightly brindled Dutch Shepherd (dad was a big boy...his working weight was 98-105lbs). Mom was all black.

The Dutch Shepherd breed was created using a lot of Malinois blood, but w/the intention of developing a working line capable of functioning at the highest levels of performance and service (similar to the Malinois) with more stability in drive. So, blood from various other breeds were introduced to the strongest of the Malinois blood lines to stabilize their high prey, fight and rank drive.

Since the breed was new and without confirmation standards of the FCI (similar to our AKC), the appearance, consistency and conformity of the breed was not a concern to the breeders; just drive and workability (according to KNPV standards). Some people refer to them as a Malinois on steroids. We use them here for sport, military and police. I've owned 2.

Here's my first, he has since passed away... He has a more traditional Dutch Shepherd brindle coat:



Sorry, that may be more info than you were looking for...

I'm going to PM you later with a couple of questions regarding your interest in adopting a retired MWD.

 

No reason to be sorry, I enjoyed reading that. I know the Malinois are basically nuts with their super high prey drive. I thought the military mainly used them to patrol the base perimeters. I wouldn't want to tangle with one.

I've heard of Dutch Shepherds, I'd just never known anybody that had one. Pretty fascinating about their background.

 

Waiting for the plumbers to finish roughing in the basement bathroom. Apparently they don’t know their nail depths or care to look around the corner.

 

They look painted or is it the lighting?

 

Have they acknowledged their miscalculation?

 

Added a handful of new garage outlets while rerouting some wiring to "toss in" a service door! Cutting the concrete stem wall to make a flush door sill was a learning experience. Finished off with a flood light and small concrete landing. So nice to be able to have airflow through the garage and walk straight out back.

 

Fantastic work, @blackoutt !

I finally finished mine. Behold, the switch:



4 pairs, 8 lamps, total 120watts of LEDs



Enough to blind aliens across a galaxy!!

 

Installed a stainless steel flag pole mount and a 3’x5’ stitched American Flag for Flag Day. This has been on my list of things to get done for awhile. Glad to have it up and flying in honor of our country and the heroes that defend it.

 

I took some updated photos of the equestrian facility, barn, arenas and storage buildings I built after all the landscaping has been done. I’m always happy to see my clients still loving and enjoying the property. This was one of my favorite projects I’ve built to date.

 

yes they did

Just the lighting and also probably because the nails went through drywall.
It was the new guys fault. I’m not worried as they replaced them with shorter nails and I’ll just throw a pinch of spackle and paint over the holes. That whole stairway needs mud and retextured since you can see all the seams due to being done poorly by the previous owner

 

Incredible! I think you're now qualified to come build my 10x9 deck.