Final Post
Me Me Me, Puzzle News, Site News, Unexpected SegueAll,
This will be my last RustyRedRock post. I will leave the site up for a little while longer before I tear it down entirely.
As I have said, my wife and I are expecting our first child soon and I have a lot of projects to take care of before, during, and after the happy event. Maintaining a website is not really that big of a task, but maintaining one to the level of care that I would like to give is a little tougher. It’s sort of a “How many grains of sand are needed to make a pile?” sort of thing. I am just trying to reduce the size of the pile… For now, anyway.
I have removed the Puzzle for Charity and halted work on Puzzle 05: The Chalice. Don’t worry… They will be back when the new site is posted in a few months. The Prize Pool and Charity Pool will retain (at minimum) the values they had when I took them down. I will, however, be writing a $60 check to the current charity (Blue Ridge Food Bank Area Network) after I post this… No reason not to, really, and it’s only fair. That will make a total of $247.25 (and three huge blankets) donated to charity since the start of this site. Thanks again to Agmorion and Siun-Kelan for making Puzzle 03 possible.
When the site comes back up, I hope to have a few steady contributing writers to help me out. I have tried that with extremely limited success in the past, but maybe next time will be different 
. Also, I think I might switch from Wordpress/Yahoo to Blogger. Easier for a number of reasons, it seems. We will see.
Even better would be to write for someone else’s site, which is ultimately what I would like to do. If you know anyone that is looking for a contributor for puzzle creation or the style of writing you see in the Unexpected Segue or World News sections of this site, let me know. My contact info can be found in the Contact and FAQ link in the sidebar on the right.
Some final stuff:
I have started on a video project that I may or may not post in the future… The project was designed to be more of a historical archive rather than something for mass consumption so it depends on how the individual episodes turn out. If they turn out decent enough, you will hear more about them. If not, you won’t. Either way, it will be a while before I find my feet and have a few finished episodes, as any of you that have done any sort of video editing will completely understand.
Speaking of projects, I have finished building my scrap wood holder and nearly finished my firepit. I built both with (mostly) leftover items from previous projects. The irony of the wood holder project is that I used a lot of my scrap wood to build it, so the problem it was designed to solve sort of dispappeared… The design was taken from the book The Complete Book of Woodworking. It is very, very good with lot’s of step-by-step pics. Here is my (modified) version, front and back.
Thanks to jimmydunes who provided many, many hours of unpaid labor to help me create a firepit in my backyard. The exterior was made from the leftover bricks from the elevated garden project and the overall design was based on one at the DIY Network site. If jimmydunes and I were able to do this, anyone can. Important Project Scheduling Note: Brickyards (where you will get the fire clay and the fire bricks) typically have banker’s hours for some unfathomable reason, so plan accordingly. Below is a pic of the first “test fire”, and the other picture is the mold for the capstones that will finish up the project this week.
I have hung the curtains and ceiling fan in my new den, so the finishing touches of that project are done, at least.
The final sticks of furniture have been added to the baby’s room. We are looking to add a border, hang some more art, and add a clock. And some shelves for the closet… Hmm. It looks like we aren’t done after all… I had better get a move on… Here are some pics, though.
What else? Oh, yeah. I hate my Treo with all of the hate that it is possible to generate toward an inanimate object. It locks up constantly, stays latched in “roaming” mode whenever I go inside and then leave a certain building at work, I can’t send pictures easily, I can’t convert the video with any tools I have, the Bluetooth connectivity is random… The list goes on and on but it is really no different than any other piece of 2008 technology: something claims to do a million things, but does none of them well.
So what am I going to do about mine? The only action that makes really makes sense is this: It’s just a phone, man. Don’t worry about it. Unplug. “The only winning move is not to play“, style of thing… Sort of Zen, dontcha think? But, as God as my witness, my next phone will not be Windows-based.
After a rough start, it looks like the tobacco plants are going to make it. I have started picking the smaller leaves off the bottoms of the plants and the top leaves are starting to grow faster. I am storing the leaves I pick in a mason jar in my very hot garage to see what happens to them there. I will use these initial clippings to make my own insecticide, I think. The soy is also doing well, but the peanuts were a total failure. Everything else is doing just fine. Here is a photo of the garden and a close-up of one of the tobacco plants.
That’s about it. Thanks to all of the readers of this site. I had a lot of fun doing this and look forward to re-starting it when I can.
Cheers!
unplugnow
I have been working more on Puzzle 05 (The Chalice). As you can see, I have made some more progress in hollowing out the piece of maple.
Merry Christmas to everyone out there! I will be out of town for a few days so I have bumped up the Prize Pool for the Puzzle for Charity to $20. The link is there on the right. 
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