Asberry.org

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  • Summer Heats Up

    I’ve had a lot going on recently and I haven’t been smart enough to blog about it, so let’s go over the highlights…

    • Finished the retaining wall by raising it and bricking up on the top so that it looks nice. I’ve even added 600 lbs of top soil to the other side to level it out. Will add more as needed.
    • Finished the upper part of the shed. When I built it 5 years ago, I only put an attic over half, in all honesty the plans didn’t call for it but it was safer to put up the roof. Now it’s completely built out with a pull down ladder to access the upper storage and there are even lights up there.
    • I installed a DIY mini-split into the garage with the outdoor unit hanging on the wall behind the garage. It looks good considering you have to loop the line set. It’s been an amazing change and it’s only a couple days old.
      • The AC was installed Friday, Saturday I cooled it down and was able to finally put the new carburetor on the pressure washer. And while I was at it I changed the oil and the spark plug. It was a pain in the ass to put it all back together but once it was, it fired up on the first start and ran like a champ. It wouldn’t have gotten done without a cooled garage to work in.
    • I fixed the back corner of the house. It has been screwed up since I rented the skid steer and leveled the RV parking spot. I had to pull it all apart, replace the fascia board (it was 7.25 but I could only find 6 so I had to buy a 12 foot piece and cut it in half and glue them together and then rip it down to 7.5) and put it all back together.
    • I’ve swapped out the trailer side connector for the blade type that the Dodge paper said is needed. I plugged it in and it didn’t say trailer brake disconnected but then again it never does until you get it on the road.

    I’m thankful that things seem to be working themselves out and that progress is being made. I’m not sure where its all going but forward is good.

  • Changes Afoot

    We’re going to be making some changes here at Asberry.org. This is part of the reorganization to better showcase things that are important to me. Travel, pets, nature and computers to name a few. We’re also going to be adding more recipes and articles about health, both physical and mental.

    Most importantly, I’m going to exercise my 1st amendment rights to say what I want. This platform is mine and controlled by me and while yelling into the void of Facebook or Reddit is fine, it’s controlled by their algorithms and terms of use while this site goes by my say. Hopefully the ride won’t be too bumpy.

  • Honey Garlic Salmon

    In the spirit of eating healthier, I’ve been trying to incorporate fish in the diet a couple times a week. My old go to for fish is battered and deep fried cod but that’s evidently not “healthy” fish. So there’s salmon (which is terrible battered and deep fried) and with proper cooking you can make a pretty healthy meal of it.

    The recipe is for 4 6oz portions of salmon but I’ve done the same for 2 and it works out perfect if you use the sauce for the rice. Steam up some broccoli and it’s a healthy and quick meal.

    Taken shamelessly from here.

    SALMON

    • ▢ 4 (6 oz each) salmon filets
    • ▢ 1/2 tsp kosher salt
    • ▢ 1/2 tsp black pepper
    • ▢ 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (or regular paprika)
    • ▢ 1/4 tsp blackening seasoning (optional)

    SAUCE

    • ▢ 3 Tbsp butter
    • ▢ 2 tsp olive oil
    • ▢ 6 cloves garlic minced
    • ▢ 1/2 cup honey
    • ▢ 3 Tbsp water
    • ▢ 3 Tbsp soy sauce
    • ▢ 1 Tbsp sriracha sauce
    • ▢ 2 Tbsp lemon juice

    Instructions

    • Pat salmon dry, then season with salt, pepper, paprika and blackening seasoning (if using). Set aside.
    • IMPORTANT: Adjust oven rack to middle position, then preheat broiler. If you broil this with the rack up high the sauce will burn.
    • Add butter and oil to a large, oven-safe skillet over MED-HIGH heat. Once butter is melted, add garlic, water, soy sauce, sriracha, honey and lemon juice and cook 30 seconds or so, until sauce is heated through.
    • Add salmon, skin side down (if using salmon with skin), and cook 3 minutes. While salmon cooks, baste frequently with sauce from the pan by spooning it over the top of the salmon.
    • Broil salmon on high (my oven is set to 550°F for high) for 5-6 minutes, basting with sauce once during the broil, until salmon is caramelized and cooked to desired doneness.
    • Garnish with minced parsley if desired.

    Here’s to your health!!!

  • Birthday 54 Down

    It was a good day, I heard from just about everyone that I know and it was nice. One of the last people that wished me a happy birthday happened to be my wife. Only when we were out to eat at 7:30pm when I told her that my step-daughter texted me did she ask why, I proceeded to show her the ‘Happy Birthday’ text from Brittney and watched the look on her face when she realized she didn’t say anything. Mom left me a message singing happy birthday, but she forgot who she was singing it to when it came time to say the name. But it was still nice, best steak I’ve had at Outback in awhile.

  • Change in Direction

    So I’ve decided the big desktop is being promoted to Linux and the old computer is going to be a windows box. I think.

    I was going to use the Fedora Plasma desktop but it does the same thing that KDE always does, it sort of works but not really. I’ve loved Mint Linux Cinnamon but I don’t like the Debian, but there’s a Fedora Cinnamon release that seems to be fitting the bill. And don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Debian, but I run RHEL server and (let’s face it), if someone were to hire me to play with Linux, odds are that it would be to administer a fedora/RHEL system.

  • Happy New Year!!!

    Wow, getting my first post of the year in and it’s already January 12th. Ah, I’d tend to be apologetic but the office refresh took longer than anticipated. The server was just brought up yesterday after being down for at least a couple of weeks. But everything is back where it’s supposed to be and running well. The main problem is that when you get the computers back up and running the rabbit hole is open and there’s tunnels to explore.

    So a recap, we’ve been on our first camping trip of the year to Tyler state park. Got back from there on the 4th and on the 5th I registered GenCaddy.com to bring the generator caddy that Tim and TJ built for me to market. I’ve been blown away by the Gemini AI doing the research for me and helping with the site verbiage and such. I haven’t gotten anyone to tell me it’s a stupid idea and my good friend and mentor even said if I was looking for investors he was in.

    The office remod is mostly finished and will be showcased in an upcoming post and I’ll be adding services to asberry.org like document management and shopping apps & grocery management.

    Assuming I don’t get called up to defend democracy against fascists it should be a fruitful and rewarding year if things track properly.

  • Closing Out November

    The RV is back together except for the toilet, oddly enough you have to replace the entire pedestal to fix the plumbing line. Another utterly ridiculous aspect of RV’s. I mean you can’t have a residential commode in there but you’d think the plumbing piece would be replaceable. But what are you going to do?

    I myself will be driving to Camping World tomorrow to get the new one and I’ll have it installed in about 5 minutes. Done and done and I’m ready for the road on Thursday. It’s shaping up to be decent weather for the trip although I’m mixed about making too much of a trip out of it.

    I’m heading down to lake Whitney here in Texas and Sandy will join me the next day. I’m then heading further on Sunday while Sandy will head home and back to work. I’m going to try to make it down to the Big Bend area to see some stars.

  • A Day in November

    Got the RV moved to the center bay of the house, I cut the lawn and was beat but tomorrow I’ll get the camp side washed and waxed. I still need to fix the lights but I’ll work on that and replacing the manual lift with the new one in the front.

    I’m ready to get on the road but the problem is we’re in the middle of winter and I’m not worried about any weather related issues but there’s a serious lack of daylight. So it kind of requires leaving out early as showing up at a campsite in the dark is harrowing with someone backing you in, solo it’s just crazy. I mean it can be done but eww…

    Still, it would be nice to be back on the road. We’ll see how it goes.

  • Whew, What A Week

    So it’s been a week, Wednesday I hit the longest streak off of the year and now it’s day 9. I’m finally beginning to unwind. But I was completely exhausted today. I didn’t even get my 30 minutes of active time and have a measly 2k steps. Oh well, I’ve been going full speed getting things done. I’ve had 7 years worth of maintenance on the RV come due and it’s finally coming together.

    • New hooks put in, including vacuum mount
    • New water pump that’s silent compared to the old one
    • Fixed heater duct to vent, it’s a jet now
    • New kitchen faucet including shut off valves
    • New AC, variable speed 18k BTU with soft start
    • Rewired heater since it was integrations with old AC
    • Washed & waxed/compounded the back and service side
    • New light in the range hood so you can actually see food
    • Cleaned up the above task mess

    I’m sure there are other things but they slip my mind. Also the Xterra is looking fantastic, got the front end components and shocks for the back to compliment the springs are on the way. And I still need to put in the plugs.

    Lastly, I trimmed the trees at the house. I had to cut all the growth from around the RV so I’m not damaging the new AC when I’m backing it in and out. I think that’s what did it, not used to the ladder work but damn, it looks good.

    I also brought up the new 2gbs network and got the development and Linux box connected to it. Put in the new router and have been trying to figure out how that all connects together, received the 3 new WiFi 7 mesh access points that should super charge the wireless network.

    It feels so good to be working on the stuff that I want to work with and I’m excited about how things are going. There’s something in the back of my head that’s complaining the bottom is going to fall out but I think that’s just always going to be there.

  • A New World

    Today is the second day this year I’ve been off of work on a non-federal holiday. And I’m not going back to work this year. It feels good and I’ve taken the day to start on stuff that I’ve been meaning to do to better my life. I pulled the back seats out of the Xterra and washed/cleaned the seats. I mean I had to unscrew the seats to get them out. They look much better. I also fixed and issue with locking down the longer seat, a little plastic tab had been squished down, I used a heat gun and a nail to get it back in place.
    While I was putting the Xterra back together, Sandy reminded me she wasn’t able to connect into her car via cable for Apple CarPlay. I had to pull that apart and the USB connection is an ancient type USB, I cleaned it with contact cleaner and put it all back together and it seems to be working fine now. The Xterra is back together too.

    After some supper, I headed out to the RV to work in there while watching the game. The Cowboy’s sucked but the RV has a functioning new kitchen sink. Everything is looking water tight also which is greatness.

    Tomorrow I’m going to look into silencing the RV pump so that it’s not shaking the damn trailer when we’re on 12V. Then it’s on to some other things, primarily seeing how to get the furnace working now that there’s a different AC. Always something to learn.