YouTube Parody

Crowded studio....

I don't know how many of you have looked at YouTube but there are a lot of silly worthless videos out there. And the how to's are overboard. Look at expertvillage.com. OMG.

Upon working with trying to improve lighting and sound I thought why not try something off the top of my head. There are folks out there making some serious dough with silly stuff like this. I'm sure I could have dreamed up more but the object was more on how to improve video quality and sound which has been bugging me to death. Almost to the point I'm looking at high def cameras.

I have improved sound after abandoning the on board Sony mic for a more professional setup that ran me about $500.00. The quality is quite noticeable if you compare to other videos I've done, but I did have the HVAC running in the background...hardly noticeable.

Still not happy with the clarity. I'm finding it difficult to get good lighting because of the limited space and dark cabin setting. I suppose I can't get over that high definition attraction either. What do you think? It's YouTube so the quality isn't top notch. Maybe I'll venture over to Vimeo and try something there for a difference.

Decent weather for a change. Finally out of the cabin...or so I thought until I looked at the weather radar. Geez dammit this is getting old.

Rain, Rain and More Rain

And I was finally getting into the mood to work outdoors! The first three months around here has been bizarre when it comes to rainfall totals. Maybe somebody is playing with the numbers but I now come up with 54 inches since January 1.

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KGAELLIJ3&day=26&year=2009&month=3&graphspan=year

Hard to say. Yea, my lawn has almost been impossible to walk on considering how soft it is. Footprints galore. Oh well. Some recent activity with spring color, but taking the pictures without sunlight takes the real effect away. Currently having problems uploading. The first are blossoms on some apple trees down the road.

Upon driving down to White, Georgia today to catch up with some folks I plan to do some stairs video with, spring is more obvious in the lower altitude. Considering it was raining I didn't venture out for pics. It's just a matter of days before I see the same kind of early foliage around here...maybe Sunday the sun will reappear.

More pics if they work. Running out of patience.




The above is a neighbor just off of highway 52. Their property backs up to mine at the creek over the hills. They've done some cleanup the last few months. Had alot of rusted farm machinery laying around. Some colorful tree buds.

Ooodles of these down in the lower elvations.

Dude. Your Lawn Kinda Suxs

No doubt. On my return from out west it looked like some parts of it was peeling off from the soil. So without thinking it through I began raking the remaining leaves and spots came up all over the place. Upon raking about one fifth I thought, maybe it will come back to life after I fertilize and allow warmer weather. Only time will tell. It was fertilized Thursday.

Itty Bitty Wild Flowers

Not sure if I saw the yellow ones last year. I'll have to look in the archives. Using a tape measure provides a better idea of their size. Did some garden maintenance out front and to the side to wee hat may be green. Not much happening here but it was covered with about two inches of leaves. Do these things grow back? I forget the difference..perennial, annual?

Is that part of new growth or a weed popping through? The things are so brittle.

Spring Trees & Flowers

If there's a barometer of what is blooming or growing in this area check out this place on 52 about 1/4 mile east of 515. It's amazing watching the changes over the year. As you can see not much except for some daffodils and some purplish stuff.

Dunno? Guesses. See below. Some prickly bush. The words aren't there today.

Some other white bush.

Near the set of mailboxes near home.

And the trees that line 515 going through East Ellijay.

I wish I had chosen a different blog set up. Sometimes this can be very frustrating. It loves to insert div tags where they're not needed. Then I gotta clean them out. I'm done, bye.

The Birds Are Singing

When the weather is nice. I'll be glad when this "rainy season" is over, but it's not really that season. Since January 1 about 40 inches of rain has fallen in the area. Isn't that enough? Can't I get those days back from last spring and summer? During that period it didn't seem like the weather channel was needed. Sunshine and more sunshine!

Okay today has been beautiful! About 70 degrees now with the same expected for Wednesday. Doors and windows open to get that musty cabin smell out.

How About Spring?

I'll take my camera along this evening when I head to town for dinner. In the meantime some pics of low laying greenery discovered this morning and buds appearing on some trees around the property. I wish blogger had an auto pic resizing function. This is one reason why I sometimes don't feel like doing updates. It takes time.

Weeds? Dunno, but it was marked last fall.

Can't be a weed.
How about this thing?

Tree buds...
More. Spiders are busy too

Looking for a handout...that's it!

Finishing Off The Drainage

Finally getting around to a project I've put off mainly because of the cold weather. Afterall, concrete and cement don't fare well with freezing temperatures. Incidentally, so much for spring being in the air at least until tomorrow. More rain is being dumped. Hasn't the area had enough? Temps in the 30's in the AM...better than teens though.

Okay the drainage from the driveway through the stone walls. Too much thinking about this one and I just thought... do it finally. The base was poured with quickcrete into wire mesh and some rebar I had leftover. After a few days I did some stonework to brighten it up a bit, but realized I used too much cement with the sand mix so the grout areas are kind of whitish. It's not shown in the pics as they were taken before the cement set up.

Time to finish it off when the rain stops. I figure I'll just fill in the area with dirt and find some kind of ground cover that can grow on and around the larger rocks I put into place.

A few birds are returning. The warm weather certainly brought on the chirping and other birds singing throughout the woods.

Spring Is In The Air!

...and it's about time..gosh darnit! Temperatures expected to be in the low 70's for the next 3-4 days and no freezing pipes at night. Oh, for those wondering; no snow last Sunday only flurries. But the eastern part of Georgia got upwards of 6-7 inches.

No shortage of stuff to do around here including completing my rain water runoff. Good time to get those steps done as well. The railroad ties are getting tossed in lieu of a flagstone stairway. I'll probably find a use for the old ties on the planned pathway steps next to the creek on the east side.

I've noticed some daffodils here and there driving back and forth to town. I should venture up the creek before the leaf cover makes it impossible. Could find all sorts of newish wild flowers, as long as I can get through that rhododendron jungle I encountered last time.

Thank goodness for the warm weather! I needed a break from the video work I've been spending my time with...all indoors. And thanks for that external hard drive I bought last weekend. I think my desktop crashed. That makes two PC's for the geeky fix it guy to look at. What good are those stupid battery backups? I had some power flickering yesterday and the backup failed.