Galen

Kit Sober: "I found the book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" at the Bank, and then I bought it at the bookstore." I have not read it, however I have read some reviews about it and it's author. Apparently the deeper anyone digs each example of he guy's 'two' dads are entirely fabricated. Also the ideas themselves are highly debated. We like: "The Millionaire Nextdoor". :)-->

Wacky- Sounds rough. Are you in a high cost of living area? maybe you should think about relocating. I would never have come to Connecticut, thinking to live on my income. We only came here as we already owned property. And now we are in the process of relocating to a cheapers cost-of-living area ourselves. Our eldest son [Daniel] moved 1 January, to Wichita Kansas. He found rents at half the level they were here, and even found that he could rent an entire 3-bdrm house for less than what he was able to find a 1-bdrm apartment going for here. Good luck.

Jim: I remember going to Vacation Bible School each summer. I dont recall hating it, or liking it for that matter. Nobody gave me the option of disliking it :)--> I really dont remember 'learning' anything there. But it got me away from home and away from the over-sight of my parents, so it was 'worth' it. These days among other Boy Scout parents and others, some of them do send their kids. I get the idea that over-all they feel poorly about the quality of education and up-bringing that their kids are getting. Not able to spare anymore time themselves in the raising of their children, and not wanting their kids to be running lose more than absolutely necessary; they see a solid week of church as a posetive thing. 'education' and religous background and 'saints' to watch the munchkins sounds like a deal. [to some] I am packing our Motorhome and getting ready to leave soon, so we will not be doing any Vacation Bible school this year. :)-->

WhiteDove: "not telling everything one knows (it was often said to me in twi, "telling the truth doesn't mean telling everything you know...it just means being truthful with what you do tell")" This is also the 'military' method of speaking. Routinely people know details to a World event, but can not say so. It still flavours their world-view. I can speak, and when I do speak I will endeavour to speak truthfuly and factually, but that does not mean that I will speak everything that I know [as many things I know are still classified]. It was not only TWI that taught such methodology. That is why in a court of law when witness is asked to swore or affirm to speak "The truth and nothing but the truth", still does not mean that the witness must tell everything they know. "... ignoring evidence of eye-witnesses...one's own, most often belittling and badgering those who present different 'evidence', and if all else fails, reject a person's ability to think, reason and run their own lives." This on the other hand could well be dis-honest. But there are times in life when we do have conflicting information coming to us. If someone tells you that they just XYZ, but then someone else with more authority tells you that XYZ did not happen. Rather they can offer some other explanation. It is up to the individual which story they beleive. Many times in life we see where two different eye-witnesses saw everything, yet they both disagree about what they saw. And they will both swear to their testamony. Which is right? I have dealt with Traffic accidents, and after getting both driver's statements and a statement from a by-stander; we commonly are left with looking at the damage and skid-marks to try and figure out for ourselves what happened. All because three or more different witnesses all saw different things. Are they all lying? Possibly not. "... Nice try when you have no proof discredit the truthbearer also a little Wayish I'd say." Ouch it sounds like where you were had a lot of 'witch-hunts', keep in mind that not ALL fellowships were like that. :)-->

Are you sure that we are suppose to ride these without the seats? Ouch ouch ouch, I hate those speed bumps!!

I am likely at 'fault' for dragging Belle into it all. Raf made a reference to a movie, that I did not recognize as such. In his reference, Raf used the name: "Belle". A day later I picked up on that usage of "Belle", which brought Belle into the thread. So you can vent at me. Its okay, I like you. :)-->

Cowgirl: "... I was referring to Galen and Pirate and their personal comments about women's breasts, that's all." I thought that it was well stated as being what teenage boys do and like. Both by saying 'teenage boys' and by saying 'submarine crews' [which I then had to go back and further explain are predominately teenagers]. Some days you never win. :)-->

Belle: "Hey! How did I get dragged into this???" I was rather surprized to see your name, and then it stayed there for almost 20 hours, so I felt that I needed to add a comment. "... I may project that "girl next door" image ..." And here I thought that 'girl next door' images were the best of all. ;)--> "Galen, I think it's attitude and an air of confidence, including sexual confidence that women exude that makes them attractive in a "come hither" way. An extremely naive or bashful girl can't pull that off without looking silly." Yes, maam. ;)--> "Cowgirl, sorry if this thread offends you, but the facts are that young men, especially pubescent young men think about sex and women and body parts 99.9% of the time....the rest of the time they're thinking about sports or cars." I would add 'food', to your list of sports and cars. "... saying that boobs make the woman ..." Besides that is just a two single areas, I like LEGS, or a flat belly, or flowing hair, or nice eyes, or a shapely rear, or .... Okay fine I like all parts. ;)--> I like red-heads too, and blondes, and brunettes, and browns... I know how to narrow it down, I dont generally care for seeing bald women. that narrows it right down.

Okay here is one for you. Oh look over there, smoke and fire and mirrors, oh lets watch over there. While over here ... How many folks noticed that 5 June a Federal law went into effect that cellphone carriers can no longer 'activate' any cellphone without an internal GPS? If you have an older cellphone, wonderful. But if you de-activate it, then it is junk, it can never be re-activated. I was looking at buying a bag-phone, as during my travels up in Maine, everyone seems to have one, if they get signal. I spoke with Verizon-wireless and they showed me a print-out about the law. Then Cellular, then US Cingular; they all said that yep as of 5June no more non-GPS cellphones can be turned on. So without anyone seeming to notice, all new cell-phones plus any cellphone that gets activiated after 5June, will have a GPS unit inside. Now who can access that GPS? I dont know. But with a digital phone, the cell towers have continous two-way communication with your cellphone. I already saw some software that cell-tower-repeaters can run to do tri-angulations on each cell-phone within their region. So 'Big Brother' can track you 24 hours a day, if you carry a cellphone; both by way of tri-angulating your signal, and by simply asking your cellphone for it's GPS coordinates. Both methods by the way, do not alert the cellpone user. You would have no idea that anyone was tracking your position. This could be great for Law Enforcement [tracking those terrible drug-dealers, and hostage takers, or anyone who makes a 911 call] the 911 dispatchers would automatically know exactly where you are calling from. :-)

Raf: I thought that the: "come hither' thing was a look that a person gave, or not. You are saying that Belle is not 'come hither'? Or is not capable of giving such a look? Or is 'come hither' more of an over-all look, and not a particular facial expression. I would have thought that anyone at any time would be capable of giving a 'get yourself here new' look.

ChasUFarley: "... Mothers who can not breastfeed ... will oftentimes let the babies starve to death than to be thought to be infected with HIV." Sounds about right. "It's a much, much different, and very brutal culture in comparison to ours." True. "... I remember ... a couple of people sign up for the class who were from Zire. ... They were very suprised that women - taught the Bible and often wanted to debate teachings after Twig, which was rather refreshing. However, they did not want to engage in conversation with my WOW sister or myself - even if it was one of us who taught or lead the meetings. That was just their culture." To hitch a ride on your derail, I have known [purely through face-to-face conversation] a few ladies of Nigerian culture who had been smuggled to Italy, they were working as prostitutes to pay-off their smugglers. They shared their dreams with me, the intent of saving enough money so they could each return to their native Nigeria and 'buy' into a prosperous high-class family. Maybe a villiage leader with lots of goats and five wives already, to those ladies in Italy it sounded like a paradise and all they had to do was save up $5k worth in British pounds to buy it for themselves. One fellow WatchCommander was a black female [MA1], a number of times, during shift rotation I had to go out to the scene of some incident to releive her on-scene. The scene of an American black woman commanding a dozen white MPs was such a novel idea, that it would stop all traffic. Italians would line-up on the streets to watch. From watching Hollywood movies on one hand, then seeing English speaking Nigerian prostitutes on their streets, and yet here was a black female MP commanding Americans; those poor Italians were just amazed and could not understand. A few times we had to get the Policia to respond to help clear-out the crowds. I have also seen her standing in the middle of the street and a Policia walk up to her and offer her a pack of cigarettes. It was the only time that I ever witnessed any American MP punch-out an Italian Policia. Our planet contains many widely different cultures. :-)

Hammeroni: "I find it interesting that God does not really outline what the good works in Ephesians are, at least the good works that we are called to do- just that they are prepared for us." A good observation. Even during the Gospels we can see the confusion. Judas had the mindset that to do 'good' included giving their money to the poor and needy. But no where is it recorded that any of the disciple's money ever went to support the poor. Now on occasion I give to someone hitch-hiking, or 'down and out', but more likely we give to help Children's Hospitals, and to help provide health-care. "But I heard a local preacher several sundays back- he said something almost "revolutionary"- that maybe God calls the vast majority of his children to a SECULAR calling. Chemists, engineers, etc. etc. and that if they have the impression that they are somehow a second rate christian for doing it, the church has failed to get the true message to them." Sounds about right to me. In the OT, we had an entire tribe called to maintain the temple. But through the NT, how many full-time ministers are there? Paul worked. Whether we understand him to have working leather-goods [thus why he hung out with tanners], or canvas [there is some disagreement on exactly what he worked], he was still working to support himself. How many are on salary, paid to minister and not have a secular job? The weekly collections are explained as are to whom they should go. :-)

Maybe I am too 'PFAL'ish, but I see our Salvation is being through Grace, The Grace of Our Heavenly Father and not of works. I also see a place for the works. The crowns and rewards are in terms of works. Grace gets you in the door, Works determines where you sit once you get in the door. I am envolved with a couple men's Fraternitys. They require that a prospective member have a stated beleif in a single Diety. We pray together and we seek guidance from Holy Scripture. But each man is left alone and to his church to find his salvation. They do not allow any preaching of salvation in the meetings. Your path to salvation is seen as a private thing. Together in our meetings, we have members of many different denominations [Jew and Gentile]. What brings us together is that once we recognize that we are saved through Grace, we soon recognize that one day we will have to stand before our Creator. And since we will all be one day staiding before Him, then maybe we should try and do 'good' things with our time. Good things without public recognition for doing them. What good deeds are seen and publically praised, may not be praised by our Father in Heaven. So most of our deeds we do for the public common good, but we do them quitely. I find, that I think, this is a good working relationship between Grace and Works. Yes it is strongly PFAL. But I can live with it as such. I am also surprized that I am the first to explain this here, as I am not the only member of such a fraternity here on GS. :-)

CoolWaters: "Did I follow you right, Galen? ....." Yes, you did. :-( We dont plan on doing anymore apartment buildings, this is jsut a home for Bonnine and I. Matthew is in Highschool now and will soon be gone too.

George Aar: "Infiltrator" I will look into those, thanks. "The biggest issue I see with the French drains would be from the local EPA." Same in Maine, the DEP is all into that. :-)

Jim: "If you have concerns about moisture coming up through a concrete slab, you might want to send me an email or pt me. I've had some up-close and personal experiences with it, but don't wish to talk in public due to legal entanglements." Thank you. Actually I had thought about drains around the house. The french drains were specifically for the rest of the property away from the house. It is 46 acres of forrest, and has a lot of standing brine water. Draining the surface water would facilitate further use of the property. Right now I have to deal with a new litter of beaver, that have been going crazy building levees everywhere this past three weeks. In one area of my property [where it is perfectly flat level] they have built a levee maybe three feet high encircling an area of maybe a 1/4 acre. No, there is no concrete slabs planned for this house. thank you anyway. I need a crawl space and wooden floors, as our house-plan calls for a sunken fireplace in the center of the building. An open round hearth four feet in diameter with four coaches around it, all sunken down about three feet into the floor. :-)

wingnut: "a burrito wrap" Cool. I was thinking about using those foberous socks I have seen to go over the perf pipe. I also think that when it is all done it should be 'hidden', DEP gets really upset about diverting water flows and such. My question is how far from one of these things will the surrounding soil be drained? Will it wick out the surface water for 40 feet in either direction? "Are you installing drains around you foundation? Common practice many places, many places don’t install them." Yes

dmiller: Ooops good catch, sorry about that, I will try harder to proof read my posts. I meant that while serving on active duty for those years, I was largely surrounded by 'kids'. They oggled at every female they had opportunity to see. By all means I realize that women should not be considered objects, and are individuals who each have their strengths. But in reality most 'Barbie Doll' girls you see, you will never speak with, you will never have any opportunity to get to know. So when you see all these girls out on the street today, what of them do you see? You see their face, their hair, their sway, their bounce. It is only after getting to know a female that a guy can finally learn who and what she is like. Those breasts are 'eye candy', and that is likely why females are apparently paying for them. I am not aware of whether or not I have ever known a female who had augments. :-)

Oh my goodness lets see: The driveway is 350 feet long and 15 feet wide. The house foot print is 100 feet by 40 feet. The foundation frost wall is a minimum of 5 foot tall with a 1 foot footer and lots of rebar. The foundation also requires two tie-in bars connecting both long sides t provide more support against lifting wall forces. The location of the house is on an embankment which is steeper maybe a 8% grade. Maybe four feet down needs to be dug, to get down below any organic material, then built back up to a level pad the size of the foundation footprint and graded out around that maybe 20 feet in all directions. The septic system design says: low profile concrete tank 1000 gallon capacity lift station. With 12” deep stone bed of 800 sq. feet [20’ X 40’] design flow is 180 gallons per day. The plan shows a field with three lines of 4” perf. Pipe with a 3 foot berm around it. And covered over with 10 inches of clean fill [to be graded and seeded]. Disposal field sizing is 4.1 sq. ft. / gpd. Soil classification: profile ‘B’, Condition: ‘A, III, C’, slope: 3%, limiting factor 18” ground water. The plan is 6 pages if there is some specific thing I missed please ask. I don’t have the estimate written yet, and thus don’t know what type or model of pump they would use. It should arrive any day now. The location of the house is about 10 feet below the level of the septic field and the street. and about 300 feet away from the septic field. He did tell me that everything could be put into place, but that he did not want to install the pump until we were actually ready to move in. He explained that for a pump to sit inside a lifting station and to have no effluent in it, will often damage the pump. As water may flood into the tank and without the power to pump it out again … He also went on about how the chunky makes heat which keeps the system from freezing. If the system is not in immediate use, it has no chunky, thus no internal heat, and will freeze.

Ron- Thanks. Jim- Speaking of: ‘wastewater districts’. A friend of mine is currently a wastewater plant manager in N.C. and he was just telling me about 'French Drains'. He thinks that I should cut parallel ditches across this property at about 80 foot intervals, and fill them in with gravel to wick the water out of the soil and to carry it into the nearby river. Do you have any knowledge of them, and do they really 'wick' water any better than a simple ditch would. I was thinking about digging some drainage ditches now, then later dropping leech lines in them. In my mind water would flow better and faster if it were in a smooth walled pipe, rather than through a bed of stone.

DaddyHoundog: "Not to point out the obvious, but is this the only bid you have gotten?" I have contacted other contractors though these guys are the closest and so far the only ones to respond to us.

wingnut: "... According to them a lift station should only be used when there is no other alternative." In December I met the "soil engineer - septic design engineer" dude, we walked all over the property and drill numerous test holes getting core samples underneath the snow, he finally found an area that he liked down by the embankment 400 feet from the road. But then just as the snow was mostly gone we met him again, to actualy design the site. This time we walked all over that property again and he insisted that the best location was up next to the road and could be built with the smallest field. We could have placed it down next to the house on the embankment but the drainage field would have needed to be far larger and included 'plastic tanks' which would have needed to be dug up periodically. I have been told that every five years or so the lift-station's pump will likely burn-out, but so long as it is close to the house and easily located [and you never park a vehicle over it] that should not be a horrible thing. I did ask if I could put the lift station in the crawl space to access it anytime, but everyone seems to think that is a bad idea. :-)

Cowgirl: "Galen......I think you're missing my point..." Yes, maam. I was in error, you are so right, I apologize.

Beginning when the snow was still spotty, I went up to our place just North of Bangor, and I sprayed for Mosquito [and black fly] abatement. I have a back-pack garden sprayer. I buy the cheapest veggie oil I can find at the grocery store, and I put in one Teaspoon of Malathion per gallon. I spray five gallons of this mixture along the road in the ditches and in all standing water puddles. This past Saturday, we met a contractor there and he commented that there was a noticible lack of black fly on my property, that everywhere with that much standing water the bugs are much worse. Give it a try. :-)

Cowgirl: "Galen and Pirate......I hope the two of you don't have any daughters and if you do I hope you're not teaching them that the SIZE of a woman breasts is what makes therm more acceptable or attractive. In my opinion it's is pretty shallow, if you open your eyes you'll see that there is alot more to a woman than just her breasts !!" In the context of 'teenage boys' and what those teenage boys want to watch in a movie, is far different from what I do. I have spent years at sea with lots of 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 year old boys. When a kid enlists at 17 1/2, for a four year enlistment, the military has them until they are 21 1/2 and turns them lose as a veteran. I dont currently have any daughters. I have had daughters. I have had a few foster-daughters and one was an adoptive daughter that lived with us under the intention of adopted her for three years [before we lost our license due to Bonnie's failing health]. The fact that young men ARE attacted to ladys due to their physical attributes, is a fact. When a young lady is yet still across the parking lot, and you cannot even see her face yet, young men will be watching her walk, her sway, her bounce. Are any of these things internal qualities? Obviously no. But they does not effect that when a lady steps outside, still men for a block in each direction still see her and appraise her on her outward appearance. This is simply a fact of life. Obviously I have known far more males in my life, than I have females. Though I have had the honor of working with a couple females, but only a few and obviously for very short periods of time. I do understand that underneath the surface may be qualitys and strengths, etc. But none of that has anything to do with the fact that a female's boob size and how much she bounces will effect how many men will watch her, and how long they will continue watching her. Even to this day, when I have the honor of being in the presence of a lady, I do know that she is a person, and an individual. But my body still functions as G-d designed it to, and the sight of a great beauty even at a distance will still grab my attention. This is simply the way that I am 'wired'. I am a man. :-)