Home & Garden

BassAckwards Bullsheet

rmiles7721August 31, 2007Home & Garden

Of course they brought the mulch first…

Now I get to spend tomorrow afternoon loading fill dirt on a tarp and dragging the shit AROUND this pile of mulch to the pond area. I have it set up where the pond area is right at the end of the driveway where all of my humongous Elephant Ears are so all I would have needed was a shovel.

Stupid…

I would get to it tonight but with it being a holiday weekend all of the multi-unit managers are working supper supervision tonight which means I go work in one of my stores from six until ten, get home shortly thereafter, write some more, get back up at four thirty and drag my sorry ass in to work. One of the joys of getting promoted is actually working more hours and doing more work.

Thunder…

rmiles7721August 17, 2007Home & Garden

Clouds have moved in and I’m getting a lot of thunder. Hopefully a bit of rain will follow. My plants are looking extremely pitiful

The wife called and I think she and the youngest are going out for dinner prior to coming home, which is fine as I have a small bit of writing to take care of. I’ve got what’s left of a wonderful Calzone from an Italian place in town to finish anyway. Since I was working on my day off I left at 11:30 and met another one of the district manager’s for lunch. It was great but the damned thing is huge.

Flying the Flag for NAHETS College

rmiles7721August 8, 2007Home & Garden, Uncategorized

Wade Vakulik is an instructor for the Oklahoma College of Construction. He is also in the Air National Guard. In July of 2006 they activated him and he spent six months in Iraq as a construction equipment superintendent. Anyone that has family that is over in Iraq knows just how difficult it is for them to be away from their loved ones and their jobs. I hate to say it, but the salary of an active duty air national guard member does not pay the bills and they have to get paid. Not only that but like a lot of people that get called up, he was extremely worried about whether he was going to be able to keep his job or not. The folks at OCC came through and told him he would be able to keep his job. Being very appreciative of what the Oklahoma Construction Company was doing he had this to say:

“I wanted to bring something back for the OCC and NAHETS from Iraq that
would truly be an honor to hang on the wall, not just the normal little
trinkets that one can purchase at the Base Exchange. I am truly
grateful for the OCC and NAHETS for understanding my situation…As a
result they helped to contribute to the freedom and security of the
United States of America and the Iraqi people.”

While he was there he purchased a flag and gave it to the Blue Wolves, 25th Infantry Division Aviation Brigade. The Blue Wolves are an Apache Attack Helicopter Squadron. They flew the flag in an AH-64D Apache on a combat mission especially for Wade and OCC, which he has presented to the college. Check out the press release:

As of June 2005, Wade Vakulick was an Instructor for the Oklahoma
College of Construction (OCC). In August of the same year, he was
appointed Chief Instructor. A year later…he was in Iraq.

In July of 2006, Wade was contacted by his Air National Guard unit.
They notified him that he was to be involuntarily activated to assist
in Operation Enduring/Iraqi Freedom. He was in Iraq for 6 months.

Wade’s duty in Iraq was construction equipment operator, as well as
project superintendent of the U.S. Army Iraqi Theater of Operations
construction projects on COB Speicher. Before his deployment in Iraq,
Wade was activated in October of 2006, spent four weeks at Ft. McCoy in
Wisconsin to do combat training, and then was deployed to Kuwait.

It was difficult for Wade to be away from his home and family for those 6 months, as it is for all who serve overseas.

He also was concerned about what would happen with his employment
while he was gone. When he learned that he would be able to remain
employed at the OCC when he returned, he wanted to do something special
for the college in order to show appreciation for its support of him
being in Iraq. He said:

“I wanted to bring something back for the OCC and NAHETS from Iraq
that would truly be an honor to hang on the wall, not just the normal
little trinkets that one can purchase at the Base Exchange. I am truly
grateful for the OCC and NAHETS for understanding my situation…As a
result they helped to contribute to the freedom and security of the
United States of America and the Iraqi people.”

While Wade was serving on Coalition Operating Base (COB) near
Tikrit, Iraq, he was able to purchase an American Flag. He gave this
flag to the Apache Attack Helicopter Squadron “Blue Wolves”, 25
Infantry Division Aviation Brigade. The Blue Wolves had the highest
kill ratio of any attack helicopter squadron in Iraq. The Blue Wolves
were able to fly the flag in an AH-64D Apache helicopter on an actual
combat mission over the skies of Iraq especially for the Oklahoma
College of Construction and the National Association of Heavy Equipment
Training Schools (NAHETS). Regarding the event Wade said that “This
flag is a one of a kind tribute to a one of a kind company. The flag is
a thank you for the support that was shown to my family and me by the
OCC and NAHETS during my 8 months away from work.”

Now Wade is back from Iraq and is the Business Relations Director for the Oklahoma College of Construction.

The OCC is a member college of The National Association of Heavy
Equipment Training Schools (www.nahets.com). NAHETS aims to fill the
needs of heavy equipment operators across the country. With
professional training, education, certification, and job placement
assistance, NAHETS graduates are qualified to operate equipment
anywhere in the country-and on occasion when you are deployed to
Iraq-outside of the country as well.

People like Wade Vakulick are the ones that make this country great and The National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools (NAHETS) like the Oklahoma Construction Company that support our heroes show the true meaning of being an American. Even when I post a sponsored article like this one I enjoy getting to learn about our unsung heroes and feel proud to be an American. I have a nephew in Iraq right now, and unless the war suddenly end my son will most likely be there before spring if not the end of the year. The bravery that these men show is boundless and we should do all that we can as American citizens to support and embrace our boys in the military and the people who support them.

Nine More Shopping Days…

rmiles7721March 14, 2007Home & Garden, Travel

…obviously not until Christmas. My vacation. I have gotten to where I am counting the days now. Kind of expected since I am a couple of months overdue for this one. Other than a get-together I am planning to have on the 31st that I have yet to send out any emails about (well, maybe one) I am just going to hand at the house and do some yard work. My yard looks like crap coming out of the winter and needs some TLC.

I need to clean out the goldfish pond and mulch the flower beds. I may put in another small garden, but I haven’t really decided about that one yet. Most likely just a few containers of tomatoes and peppers this year, maybe with some cukes as well.

I also need to decide what I am going to plant in my great grandmother’s flower boxes. They still need to be cleaned up a bit, but I have the heavy ass things out on my front sidewalk just waiting for something cool to be planted.

Here’s some pictures I have posted over the last couple of years.

That’s the pond (duh)

Here is the area right around the pond. This must have been taken a bit later in the year. My pepper plants were getting pretty damn big.

That’s the area right around the bottom of my back porch. Those suckers get bigger every year.

Here’s another shot of the pond from two years ago if I recall. A friend of my wife’s was moving and didn’t want to hassle with her pond, so we picked up a bunch of Koi out of her nasty ass pond. All of them are dead now. The only fish that seem to survive here year in and year out are the 10 cent goldfish that I bought at Walmart when I first put the pond in.

I thought I actually had some more pictures up. There seem to be some missing, and there is no telling what category I filed them under. I managed to clean up the categories last month, but there are bound to be a few lost posts in there.

It’s about time for me to get off my ass and get ready for work. It will be pretty busy today, and then tomorrow I actually get to leave for awhile. We are doing a Waffle Party for three different classes tomorrow, about 70 kids. They always have a blast, and it generally doesn’t cost the schools anything. All three and four years olds tomorrow, so that will be cool.


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Not too bad of a day for a Saturday…

rmiles7721February 24, 2007Home & Garden, Parenting/Family

Just got home from work. I ended up having a little bit of help today, so it was a short one for me, which is always nice. The boy is going to play paint-ball and the wife is napping, with Pete at the ballfields, so it is just RePete and myself. Once I have posted a bit and checked my email I think we are going out to plant a tree.

It’s about time to start cleaning my yard up and decide how big of a garden I want this year. I meant to bring some Jabanero peppers with me to the Helen blogmeet last year for Yabu, but I left them sitting on the counter. I have a couple of them in the ground that I am hoping come back this year. It was the first year that I have tried to grow them, so I don’t know how well the roots survive the winter. If not I will probably grow some in containers.

I had a huge crop of tomatoes, and peppers (bells, bananas, chili’s, jabaneros, hell even some I don’t remember) last year. I am thinking about a small area with corn this year. I have a pretty small yard, but I think I could manage a couple of rows of eight or ten plants.

I am also expanding the area around the goldfish pond again. I really need a tiller, but I will do most of it by hand. The soil sucks so bad here that I end up tilling it and then mixing with potting soil and top soil before I plant. Probably I will put in some more of the really big elephant ears. They look great later in the summer when they are really huge. There’s some pictures here somewhere if you want to see.