Summer’s End John Prine

Posted on by Tim Carter

Summer's End by John Prine

small girl in cemetery

Watch the video below. Listen closely to the lyrics.

I had the good fortune fifty years ago to see John Prine in concert. It was a small venue in Cincinnati.

I'm not quite sure people understood at the time how talented he was. In my opinion, he was in the same class as Bob Dylan.

That said, it turns out John had the ability over time to create amazing new songs late in his career. Bob didn't.

Here's one of my favorite songs and it's one I listen to each Labor Day.

After you listen to the song, watch the video just below it by the folks John hired to create the stunning music video.

Sewage Ejection Pump

Posted on by Tim Carter

Sewage Ejection Pump - It's a Septic Tank Inside Your Home

A sewage ejection pump is normally found in a sealed sump pit inside your home. Solid and liquid human body waste flow into the sump.

sewage ejection pump

Brown nasty water lives under this lid. It's the last thing you want in your basement or lower level.

They're disgusting. The sewage must be pumped up to some pipe where it then flows by gravity to an exterior septic tank or a city sewer.

The sewage ejection pumps get clogged or fail always at some point. Can you imagine the mess IN YOUR HOME that is created when it's time to replace one of these pumps?

How Do You Prevent Having a Sewage Ejection Pump?

It's easy. You simply purchase a building lot where you can use gravity to drain the lowest plumbing pipes in your home out to a septic tank or city sewer.

I offer phone coaching to share with you how to make sure you'll purchase the correct building lot. Go here to set up a phone or video call.

Slide and Negative Scanners

Posted on by Tim Carter
wolverine f2d mighty slide scanner

Color Slide Scanner | This is an older slide scanner perhaps 2015 vintage. It works really well! Keep reading to see which scanner I'd BUY TODAY.

Color Slide and Color and B&W Negative Scanners

In August of 2022, I started a massive project of scanning at least 2,000 color slides and well over 10,000 color and black and white 35mm negatives.

Years before I had purchased an affordable miniature scanner, but I had let it languish. It was a Wolverine F2D Mighty.

Look below for the scanner I would BUY NOW if I had to get a new one.

You can see all the scanners that interest me right now here.

Slides and Scanner Bed Must Be Dust-Free

I got it back out to scan about 400 of my slides from a 1972 geology field trip to the Southwest USA. The first few scans were horrible as there was all sorts of black spots on the digital image.

I looked at the slides and there was some dust on them. I got out my trusty hand-squeeze air brush for cleaning camera lenses and took care of the slides. I re-scanned them and the black nasty spots were still there. I used a flashlight to look inside the scanner and there was the problem. The glass scanning bed was covered with dust and debris. I had left the scanner out in my office uncovered for a few years. What an idiot!

My tiny scanner did a marvelous job. Here's the exact scan from one of my slides. It's me at age 20 out in New Mexico.

How Fast is the Scanner?

Once you press the C (convert) button, it takes about two seconds to scan the slide on my Wolverine scanner. Newer scanners might be faster. You then press another button to SAVE it and the digital file is sent to the SD card you insert into the back of the scanner. Once again, new scanners may be a single push of one button to complete the scan and save it as a digital file either internally or on a removable SD card.

How Many Slides Can You Scan?

You can scan an unlimited amount of slides. The only limiting factor is the capacity of the SD card you use. Most scanners have an upper limit as to the storage capacity of the SD card. Suffice it to say I can scan hundreds of my slides on the one SD card.

Where Do you Store the Digital Images?

I store my digital images on a separate hard drive and up in the cloud on my Google Drive.

How Do You Organize the Digital Images?

I decided to have nested file folders. My structure depends highly on years, then events within that year. Here's an example:

Carter Family Photos

1967

Summer School

Hike to Subway Tunnel

1968

Date Nights

Birthday Party

Mass Rumble Events

1969

Woodstock Rock Festival Rain-Soaked Photos

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Is it Easy to Scan?

Yes, it's easy. The most important thing is to insert the slide or negative with the shiny surface of the slide/negative UP. The slide and scanner bed MUST BE dust-free.

How Do You Clean Dirty Slides and Negatives?

Dirty slides and negatives can be carefully cleaned with water, a small amount of mild liquid dish soap, and a SOFT artist's brush to remove hard-to-remove dust or debris. Dry them very carefully with almost no pressure using a clean very soft cotton cloth. Do not let them air dry as water spots can form. Arrange a phone consult call with me if you have detailed questions about the best method I use to clean the slides and negatives. Remember, I have YEARS of darkroom experience working with processing film and prints.

What Scanner Would You Buy Now?

Here are several scanners you should look at:

kodak slide scanner

Here's the Kodak Slide-N-Scan scanner. It's got a huge screen much bigger than my Wolverine.

minolta slide scanner

Here's another one with a BIG screen. I recommend always having a big screen. My Wolverine screen is SMALL.

 

GO HERE to see ALL of the Slide and Negative Scanners. Be sure to READ the reviews before purchasing.

Septic Tank Installation

Posted on by Tim Carter
septic tank leach field distribution box

Septic Tank Installation | This is an elevated leach field ABOVE a septic tank. The sewage effluent is pumped up to this small sandy area and enters the gray distribution box at the far end of the sand. Do you think you could install all this correctly? I think you can with my phone coaching. Go here to set up a phone call with me.

Septic Tank Installation - It Can Be DIY with Coaching

Septic tank installation is not too hard to do. It starts with a septic design which must be done by a professional.

What Size Tank Should I Have?

The size of a septic tank is usually determined by the number of bathrooms in a home. The reasoning is more bedrooms means more full-time occupants who will be sending sewage into the tank.

What About the Leach Field?

The design and size of the leach field is critical. Unless you have lots of time and muscle or slave labor, you'll need a machine to help you install the hundreds of tons of sand that's required.

Watch these videos to see what's involved in installing a septic tank and its leach field:

 

 

The next video in the series will be uploaded as soon as the workers on the job site get the pipes installed from the house to the tank and from the tank to the leach field.

Haughty Professor Bill

Posted on by Tim Carter

Haughty Professor Bill Plays Checkers Instead of Chess

As you might suspect, I get lots of email from all sorts of people.

It's a kaleidoscope of humanity and I find it fascinating.

On Monday, August 22, 2022 I received the following email from Professor Bill who lives in Tulsa, OK:

Thank you, Tim Carter, for yet another very helpful column.  Might you email me the brand name of the wood preservative that lasts for up to four years?  If you'd rather I wouldn't, I'd not quote you on the matter.

All best,

Bill Last Name Redacted by Tim Carter to Shield the Guilty

Professor Bill had just read a recent column of mine where I shared why exterior wood rejects sealants and paint.

I responded within hours sending back:

Prof. Bill,

It's right here: Deck Stain Test Results

My response didn't sit too well with Professor Bill.

After my simple suggestion simmered for a few days, he dished up a whopping serving of passive aggression:

Mr. Carter,

Might I pay you the high compliment of total candor?  Your unwillingness to tell me the brand of the wood preservative that lasts up to four years unless I pay you $20 strikes me as dirty pool.  I already pay the Tulsa World to read your column -- thinking that your motive is to inform, not to exploit, your readers.

Am hoping you will rethink your stance in this matter.

Wishing you well,

Bill

I took a deep breath after reading the above retort. I thought back to what my oldest daughter told me about twelve years ago. She said, "Dad, I've read some of your replies to your followers. You have to learn to LOVE them more. You're bad at loving your followers."

Well, it's hard to love people who don't respect one's knowledge and work. It's damned hard to love someone who talks down to me. It's almost impossible to love hypocrites.

After my daughter's words drifted away like a dandelion seed in the wind, I remembered the last moments in the one scene from Jurassic Park. You know, when the waiter leaves the check at the outdoor table:

After re-reading Professor Bill's email that my mother would have appreciated, I responded:

Bill,

When the Tulsa World publishes a book review, do you expect the author of the book and/or the book publisher to give you a copy for free because you pay for the review in the paper?

When the Tulsa World publishes a movie review, do you expect to get to see the movie for free?

Why can't I have access to ALL that the Tulsa World publishes? Why do I have to pay for premium content? Look here.

Why do you hold me to a different standard?

CHECKMATE

Days have passed and not a peep out of Professor Bill.

Don't EVER BE LIKE Professor Bill. Not EVER. Don't play checkers if your opponent is a grand master at 3D chess.

travel chess set

Travel Chess Set | This is a rare wooden-peg travel chess set with inlaid wood squares. Buy one if you can find one. CLICK or TAP HERE to start your search.

 

Cincinnati April 3 1974 F5 Tornado

Posted on by Tim Carter
f5 cincinnati tornado april 3 1974

F5 Tornado Cincinnati Ohio April 3, 1974 | Here's the beast. I had never seen anything like this in my life. I was speechless and somewhat frightened. I was 21 years old. Copyright 1974 Tim Carter ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - DO NOT REPRODUCE without permission

F5 Cincinnati April 3, 1974 Tornado - Stunning to Behold

On April 3, 1974 I witnessed the F5 tornado start to break up and go back up into the sky. I was standing in the middle of Riddle View Lane in Clifton Heights.

This tornado touched ground at about 5:30 PM just north of Rising Sun, Indiana. It then crossed over the mighty Ohio River into northern Kentucky. It then re-crossed the Ohio River targeting Sayler Park, the far-western Cincinnati suburb along the Ohio River.

map of f5 tornado cincinnati oh april 3 1974

The magenta line represents the line of sight I had from the center of Riddle View Lane to the base of the tornado in the photo above as it was departing the suburb of White Oak, Cincinnati. The red arrows indicate the rough path of the tornado after it crossed the Ohio River. (C) 2022 Google Maps

After pulverizing the floating restaurant on a barge my father-in-law built, and countless houses and businesses in Sayler Park, the swirling tornado then clawed its way up out of the river valley ravaging Bridgetown, Mack, Dent, and Delhi, Ohio.

This tornado was just one of many in the historic Super Tornado Outbreak that spanned April 3-4, 1974.

By the time it got to White Oak, it started to dissipate. This is when it came into view on my street, as seen in the above photograph. Here are a few other photos of the beast that moments before killed three people and injured 210 others.

f5 tornado april 3 1974 cincinnati

April 3, 1974 F5 Cincinnati Tornado | I captured this photograph standing in front of my childhood home. There was no sound just a surreal spiral dance in the sky. Copyright 1974 Tim Carter ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - DO NOT REPRODUCE without permission

f5 tornado cincinnati 04031974

The tornado lost its appetite for killing and maiming and is going back up into its lair. Copyright 1974 Tim Carter ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - DO NOT REPRODUCE without permission

 

 

Solar Panels Return on Investment

Posted on by Tim Carter
solar panels pv on asphalt shingle roof

Have you thought about what has to happen to put a new shingle roof on this building? It might be a good idea to exercise your tiny gray cells.

Solar Panels Return on Investment - Moving Target

In August of 2022, Robert reached out to me after receiving last week's newsletter. Here's part of what he said:
"Along the line of conservation of resources, what are your thoughts on solar panels on one’s home? I live in North Richland Hills, Texas and have been thinking about it. As I am 81, I don’t expect to live to reap great financial benefits but think that it is something that might be worth pursuing."

It's very important to realize, I LOVE solar power. I love both active and passive solar heating. I love solar hot-water rooftop or parabolic-mirror heating systems.

All you have to do is stand outside in the sunlight on a calm day in central New Hampshire on an early January day at solar noon and you can FEEL the infrared rays warming you even through a winter jacket. Infrared as well as visible electromagnetic energy is such wonderful magic God created for us!

It's All About Money

Robert zeroed in immediately on how you should always assess energy-improvement decisions.

He realizes that the return on investment may take longer than the amount of time he hopes to be on this side of the grass. Good for him to display that amount of honesty.

You should also consider data from the National Association of Realtors. Back in 2016 while compiling data for my Roofing Ripoff expose' book, I reached out to them asking, "What is the average length of time a homeowner lives in their home?"

At that time, the answer was between eight and nine years. Yes, I know you have no intention of moving, but things come up. Health issues may force you into an assisted-living facility.

How will you square your ROI when you move out of your home?

That said, you may have so many acorns stored up that money is meaningless to you. You might be able to pay for your solar panel system with what you make in interest or dividends in several months so who cares what they cost? Installing them may make you feel warm and fuzzy. Unfortunately if this describes you, you're in a very tiny minority as most people don't have lots of acorns or the ones they have are small.

When Do You Start Saving Money After Installing your Solar Panels?

It's important to realize that you don't start to save even one penny until such time as you've repaid yourself in full, including interest or investment income, ALL OF THE MONEY you spent to install your solar panels, battery array, and transfer switch.

Do you understand that? Here's a very simple example.

Imagine after all tax credits, incentives, rebates, etc. that I'd still have to write a check to a solar-panel installation company for my new 10 kw solar system. Let's assume I have to finance the purchase as most people do. Based on an online calculator I used the cost in August of 2022 would be $19,181.

table showing cost of solar panel installation

My average electric bill is now $260 per month. There are connection fees, taxes, etc. included. Let's assume that, on average, the amount of electricity I have to pay for each month is $230.00.

In one year I wouldn't have to give the NH Electric Coop (NHEC) $2,760.00.

Assuming all things stay the same, which they wouldn't, simple math shows that it would take 6.94 years just to break even. At that point the loan is now paid off. The money I had been sending to the bank can now be used to pay for other things that I want or need. Now the panels are truly saving me/you money. But not until the loan is paid off.

Keep in mind this is the most simple ROI analysis. It's far more complex in real life. Yes, the ROI period shortens as electric rates go up. But keep in mind your solar panels degrade and produce less and less power each year. See below.

The ROI analysis should also include what happens if you pay cash for the solar panel installation. Prior to writing the check to installer, your money was making money in the marketplace. Granted, you can't predict future results, but whatever money you were making each could have been allocated to pay your electric bill. Once your check is cashed, that income stream disappears.

But what happens in year nine or ten when all of a sudden I realize I need a new roof? See below.

What About Your Roof Structure?

Can your roof support the extra dead load of the panels? You might be surprised to discover that your local building department has a pre-solar-installation inspection. If you live in an area where heavy snow is possible, will a deep, wet snowfall that sticks to the panels and roof cause a collapse?

What About Your Roof's Warranty?

There's a very good chance that the installation of solar panels on your asphalt roof will immediately VOID the shingle warranty. Look at the language and you may see a reference to third-party foot traffic. That's exactly what solar-panel installers are - they're third-party people.

What About Your Home Insurance?

Did you know that some insurance companies won't cover houses with solar panels? A story in the Sun-Sentinel talked about homeowner Holly Strawbridge's modest 8 kW rooftop system. Edison Insurance Company was her carrier and sent out an inspector. Once the company heard back from the inspector, they cancelled Holly's entire policy. "I was shocked," Strawbridge said. "I've never filed an insurance claim and I've lived in this house since 2001."

You better check with your insurance company BEFORE you install your system. Find out if there's going to be a premium INCREASE to cover your system. If so, this needs to be factored into your return on investment.

Be aware that solar panels can cause fires. Amazon had a spate of solar-panel fires at their fulfillment centers that they kept private for as long as they could.

How Well Will the Panels Work?

Is your house oriented the correct way to get the most amount of electricity from the sun? My roof isn't. The long axis of my own home runs north/south. Putting solar panels on my roof means I only get great sunlight to the panels for part of the day.

What about trees? Does your lot have an issue with shade or partial shade? If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, the panels need to face south for maximum benefit.

Are you going to get solar panels that have a bypass diode that's connected to a string of solar cells connected in a series? If so, when just one panel is shaded and not producing power the entire string of cells stops creating electricity.

What about ambient air temperature? It's a known fact that solar panels produce less power in blistering-hot climates. They produce extraordinary amounts of power if the air temperature is cold. How will this affect your return on investment?

What about snow? How much electricity do the panels create when covered with snow? If your panels are beyond the reach of a typical snow rake, what is it going to cost you to have the snow removed? What are the chances the panels will get damaged during the snow removal? What will that cost to repair? How do all these costs eat into your electric savings?

What Happens When It's Time for a New Roof?

A vast majority of homes in the USA, possibly yours, are covered with asphalt shingles. In a rooftop installation, the solar panels are placed on top of your roof using brackets. How long will your asphalt shingles last? In my Roofing Ripoff book, I shared with you that asphalt shingles made today don't last as long as ones made decades ago.

What is the EXTRA COST you to have to pay the roofing contractor remove and reinstall your panels so he can install your new roof shingles? How many years of electric savings does this wipe out?

To help put this into perspective, one of my newsletter subscribers shared a tale. Greg lives in Ocoee, FL and sent to me, "When we retired two years ago we moved to a home with 34 solar panels on it. For my wife, this was a HUGE plus. Me? I already was thinking how when we would get a new roof 15 months into the future that there would be an added expense for removal and replacement. It was $5000 extra for that remove and replacement, so this is truly a factor that will come into play eventually for anyone with solar panels. Plus, our lowest possible bill used to be $13.13. Now Duke energy has added a "minimum bill adjustment" so now our lowest possible bill is $35.35. Just an arbitrary fee tacked on. Having the solar is still good, but your caveats are absolutely accurate."

What Happens as the Sun Destroys Your Solar Panels?

A small percentage of ultraviolet rays from the sun contain active photons. When these strike your solar panels at 186,000 miles per second they blast apart the molecular structure of the panels. It's a known fact that solar panels made today, in 2022, degrade and year after year produce less and less power because of this photon destruction.

What Happens When your Local Utility Company Changes the Monthly Connection Fee?

Have you thought about how the cost to maintain the electric infrastructure in your area is going to be paid for as time goes on? As more and more people install solar panels and not send the utility company money each month, the cost to maintain the wires on the poles goes up. Your system is connected to the grid. As the utility company revenue DROPS as more and more people install solar panels, your monthly connection fee will surely rise and rise logarithmically.

As you can see, it's not all unicorns and rainbows when it comes to solar panel return on investment. Don't allow your decision to purchase solar panels to be controlled solely by emotion.

I wish you the best of luck.

Column 1471

Why Exterior Paint Peels

Posted on by Tim Carter
peeling exterior paint on wood siding

Why Exterior Paint Peels | The reasons why this exterior paint is peeling are as plentiful as bread toast crumbs on a kitchen counter. Copyright 2022 Tim Carter

Why Exterior Paint Peels

Two weeks ago in this column I shared why it’s so hard to preserve exterior wood using any number of products. One of them was paint. You may have been one of the many readers that reached out to me.

If I had to boil down all the emails I received to just one, it would have said, “Tim, I have to paint my exterior (fill in the blank). I don’t have a choice. Why do paints fail, what can I do to get the longest-lasting result, and what is the best exterior paint in your opinion?”

Hoo Boy! Do you realize countless professional papers have been written about these topics? Did you know that people with PhDs in chemistry spend their entire careers wrestling with these questions? I know as one of them was a close friend of mine back in college. That said, I’m going to do my best to share the most that I can in the limited space of this column. Let’s get started.

First and foremost it’s important for you to realize that common exterior house paint is really just glue with color added to it. Think about it. Glue sticks to things, right? That’s what you want - you want your paint to stick to your house siding, your windows, your furniture, deck railing, etc. And if given the choice, you’d want it to do so for say 20 or 30 years!

Two weeks ago I shared with you that paint and wood don’t play well together because wood has a propensity to expand and contract when it gets wet and then dries. Most paints can’t take this back and forth motion and eventually crack and lose their grip on the wood. Peeling paint is the result.

Have you noticed that you don’t often see paint peel from your car, aluminum siding, wheelbarrows, etc.? The reason is simple. Metal doesn’t expand and contract to the degree wood does. Yes, paint will peel from metal, but the root cause is often based in poor preparation or cheap paint.

Glues work best when they’re applied to clean, dust-free, and dry surfaces. The same is true with exterior paint. Let’s exorcise the pressure-wash demon here and now. Pressure washing the object you’re about to paint does not get it perfectly clean. You can test this with ease.
Take your dirty filthy car to a DIY car wash where you spray it with a pressure washer. Go ahead and use the soap setting, get the wand as close as you feel comfortable to the paint, rinse it, then pull your car out of the bay and drive to the edge of the lot. Let your car dry in the sun. You’ll see there’s still a light film of dirt on the paint.

To get any exterior object really clean, you need to rub the surface with a sponge or brush using soapy water. You then rinse with clear water.This mechanical agitation gets the object clean just as your hands rubbing across your skin gets you clean in the shower. This is an indisputable fact.

One of the root causes for paint failure on exterior wood objects is the lack of pre-painting each piece of wood before the thing is built. Think of how you build a deck railing, fence, picnic table, etc. You make all the cuts, assemble the pieces, and then paint it. The issue is each place where one piece of wood touches another you’ve got a tiny crack. Unless you live in the Atacama Desert, water enters the unpainted wood at these locations and you know the rest of the story.

Most people don’t have the patience to cut all the pieces of wood and then prime and paint them. The end grain of each piece requires at least three coats of paint for ultimate protection. Once the paint has dried and cured for a week, then assemble them. I can see you shaking your head now!

Years ago I knew this was really important. When I built my last house, I covered the entire exterior with thousands of linear feet of redwood siding and redwood trim boards. It took extra hours of work, but each time I cut a piece of siding or a trim board, I painted the cut edge of the end grain of the wood that would butt up against another piece. I didn’t paint all the sides that would be hidden but this one simple step paid off in spades.

You can drive by this house in Cincinnati, Ohio. I painted it with the best paint available at the time. It had a urethane resin. The resin is the glue component of the paint. I painted the house 25 years ago and drove past it a year ago. There’s not one place where the paint is peeling. The current owners do what I do and wash the outside of the house every two years. The paint looks as good as the day I put it on.

The last thing I want to share is the adhesive-chain issue. If you’re painting something that’s already got multiple coats of paint on it, realize that you have a chain. Each previous layer of paint is a link in the chain. While you may do everything right when applying the last coat of paint, a layer three levels down may fail because that painter didn’t do things right or he used a cheap paint with inferior glue.

This is why it’s so very important to use the best paint, read the label instructions and if the manufacturer says to prime bare wood, then do it. For best results, apply the finish paint within hours of the primer drying to get the best mechanical and chemical bond between the two linked layers!

Column 1469

Klein Thermal Imager TI 220

Posted on by Tim Carter

 

klein thermal imager ti 220

Klein Thermal Imager TI 220 | Look how small this is! The black circle is the lens for the sensor.

Klein Thermal Imager TI 220

I tested the new Klein Thermal Imager and it's a real dandy. You plug it into a smartphone and the phone's screen allows you to see the thermal image.

I've tried no less than three others and this one is:

  • easier to use
  • takes fantastic clear infrared photos
  • is extremely compact

This is a tool that you can share with family members so you can discover all sorts of heat loss and heat gain leaks in your home or small business.

Go here to order one now.

Is the App Easy to Use?

You need to download the Klein Thermal Imager TI 220 app from the Google Play store. It's free. Here are two screenshots showing how easy it is to turn on/off the different settings:

klein thermal imager ti 220 settings 1

This is the first thing you see when you cilck Settings on the app. You can scroll down to see more settings.

klein thermal imager ti 220 settings 2

These are the rest of the settings in the app.

What are the Specs for the TI 220?

You can view all the specs for the thermal imager here.

What do the Thermal Images Look Like?

See for yourself:

klein ti 220 photo library

Your photos that you capture each day look like this. Click any one to enlarge it full screen. It's easy to share them via any method on your smartphone.

 

klein ti 220 thermal imager window AC

I took a photo outside my home of a window AC unit. The sun was shining on it and bouncing the infrared rays from the top of the AC unit to the bottom rail of the window sash. Look at how hot the sash is compared to the other parts of the sash frame. The right side of the sash frame is bright red because the sun is hitting it at almost a 90-degree angle.

klein thermal imager ti 220 lake water temp

I took a photo trying to take the temperature of the Lake Winnisquam water down from my deck. It's ACCURATE at 200 yards away! Amazing. 80.2 F

klein thermal imager truck tire and hood

My Ford F-250 Super Duty 4x4 was sitting in the sun for about two hours. It was mid-morning. Look how HOT the tire is. It's black rubber and I had not been out driving. That's just heat absorption from the sun's infrared rays!  Look at how HOT the hood is. YEOUUUCH! 150 F

klein thermal imager ti 220

 

klein thermal imager ti 220

klein thermal imager ti 220

This is the handy little case you get. The imager and the two spare USB connectors fit inside.