Done! (roof painting, that is)

— Posted inUncategorized — 1 min read

Just a quick "breaking news" report to say that I finished putting the last bit of second top coat on my roof exactly at 12.30, 31 March NZDST (23.30, 30 March GMT). 😀

I've got a couple of translation jobs to do right now, but will post a full report of the final stage in due time. Thank you everyone for your encouragement and support. :happy:

[Update]
Now completely in the gloomy wet weather, writing about roof painting seems not quite relevant. So I will just add this update to conclude my Project-R reporting.

I have finally uploaded the last of the last lot of photos to album, Project-R. The album is now concluded, and arranged in ascending chronological order (the oldest first). If you want to skip the earlier photos and see the newest ones, click the image.

To all my Northern Hemisphere friends. When are you going to start your painting project? 😀

:coffee:
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  10. Thank you, Sami :cheers:Originally posted by ersi:

    but plumbing is mission impossible

    😆 Tell me about it. :DOriginally posted by ersi:

    Congrats to your roof. And to you

    Thank you, Eric. Glad it's done before winter comes. :happy:

  11. There's a serious rebuilding of the bathroom going on in my apartment. Masonry is somewhat manageable, but plumbing is mission impossible :(Congrats to your roof. And to you 🙂

  14. It's been quite a project, and I only caught the end of it. Well done. :yes:

  15. Thank you, Mick. Yes, it turned out quite a bit more than I'd expected. (I started in November, expecting to finish by end of January :p) Now it's done, I feel quite relieved. 🙂

  18. Thank you, Angelika. :happy: :coffee:No more big project for now but a few moderate ones. One of them is to tidy up my overgrown untended garden and possibly making a vegetable bed. Food prices are getting so ridiculously high these days. I'm thinking about trying my hands on a couple of easy winter greens now. And then hopefully more vege patches next season for my favourite summer vegetables (beans, capsicums, egg plants and such likes) 🙂

  19. Congratulations from Germany. That was a very time-consuming action. What do you do now with all that free time that you will have now? New actions are planned?:) :coffee:

  20. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    Done! (roof painting, that is)

    :yes: ! Ready for rainy, snowy, sunny days at will !

  21. Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    to tidy up my overgrown untended garden and possibly making a vegetable bed

    This is one of my passions. I love to whirl in the garden. And I would gladly help you. Have fun!

  22. I tried planting a tomato plant in a pot last summer, but it didn't really do well. :awww: Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    Food prices are getting so ridiculously high these days.

    I have heard that this is playing into the unrest in a lot of the developing world where they traditionally spend a larger percentage of their income on food. 🙁

  23. I used to spend reasonable time in my garden,but stopped doing any form of gardening when I took up tramping seriously. It's time I made up for it. :pOriginally posted by debplatt:

    this is playing into the unrest in a lot of the developing world where they traditionally spend a larger percentage of their income on food

    There is a perception among us that we kiwis are being made to pay unreasonably higher (international) prices for the produce, because we are aspired to be a free trade country and a top exporter of meat, fruits and vegetables. It is frequently said we produce the best lamb, milk, squash, whatever in the world in large quantity for export, and still have to pay higher prices than those in London, Tokyo, or Los Angeles. :(Originally posted by debplatt:

    I tried planting a tomato plant in a pot last summer, but it didn't really do well.

    I understand tomato is a big feeder and requires to have soil moisture level kept up over hot season to bear good fruits. Gardening books and sites said, though you can grow tomato in pot, you need to water and feed regularly. Maybe you were too busy with other things during tomato growing season? :rolleyes:

  24. Well, I'm not sure where I went wrong. My daughter thinks I didn't put it in a pot with enough soil. Nonetheless, I am tempted to try to do some more container gardening this year. Perhaps I can get a friend to give me a few pointers.I thought what you were saying about the price of food in New Zealand was interesting. I'm tempted to itemize how much food costs after my next grocery run and post it at my blog. It could be interesting to compare prices with some of my international friends.

  25. Originally posted by debplatt:

    I thought what you were saying about the price of food in New Zealand was interesting.

    According to this article the price for 2L branded milk is NZ$4.80. NZ$1 = US$0.75-6. So we are paying US$3.60 for 2L of of brand milk. How does this compare to the price at your supermarket?

  26. I actually have a grocery store advertisement in front of me. They are running a sale on milk, so you can buy 4 half-gallon bottles for $5. That's 2 gal. for $5, or 1 gal for $2.50, or $0.66 per liter. On sale.

  28. In US$, I will have to double check, but I'm thinking around $3.60 per gallon (3.78 liter). So that's about $0.95 per liter, so $1.90 for 2L. That's way lower than what you are paying. On top of that, the federal government has zeroed in on milk more than any other agricultural product. The U.S. government actually causes the consumer to pay more for milk than they would if the market determined the price. Among the ways the U.S. government intervenes in pricing milk is to guarantee a minimum price that producers will get. If they produce more milk than they can sell on the market, the U.S. government promises to buy their surplus. More info on this at Dairy Price Support ProgramInterestingly I found this page where people in the U.S. were comparing milk prices this past January.

  29. over the years, milk has reached a premium price in South Africa. :faint:.Cheese is considered a 'luxury' item by most. Dairy products have risen much more than any other product. :insane:.

  30. Originally posted by qlue:

    Dairy products have risen much more than any other product.

    Same here 🙁

  31. I'm not meaning to make people sad. I am genuinely curious about how food prices compare. Maybe milk is cheaper here, while other stuff is more expensive. :confused:

  32. Food prices are rising exponentially here. :faint:.Yet the prices of consumer junk is more moderate these days leading to everyone having a cellphone. :rolleyes:.

  33. We are also experiencing considerable food inflation. An Obama administration official was recently explaining during a Townhall meeting that consumer electronics, like the iPad, were cheaper, so the overall inflation rate wasn't that bad. At which point an elderly guy in the audience said, "Yeah, but I can't eat an iPad."

  34. No, MM. The federal government is artificially raising the cost to consumers by putting a floor on the price, and promising to buy the excess dairy products that can't be sold at market. Otherwise the excess would drive the price lower. And because of all the financial guarantees to farmers, milk is a safe bet, so we are actually overproducing milk. That's why I think it is a bad choice for food comparisons. You have no idea the huge quantity of cheese that the federal government owns and stores in warehouses lest the price of cheese drop precipitously by flooding the market.

  36. Originally posted by debplatt:

    The federal government is artificially raising the cost to consumers by putting a floor on the price

    And I thought the US runs a capitalist economy … :rolleyes: I'm no economist but there may be a huge international dairy price fixing going on … :sherlock:

  37. Originally posted by debplatt:

    I am genuinely curious about how food prices compare. Maybe milk is cheaper here, while other stuff is more expensive.

    I think the answer is already in our previous comments.Originally posted by mimi_s_mum:

    we kiwis are being made to pay unreasonably higher (international) prices for the produce, because we are aspired to be a free trade country and a top exporter of meat, fruits and vegetables

    So here in NZ, the prices of agriculture produce were not determined by local supply & demand, but already prescribed by the international market. On the other hand from your comment, the US government seems subsidising the dairy farmers, which I should imagine help keeping the local milk price down.Originally posted by debplatt:

    Among the ways the U.S. government intervenes in pricing milk is to guarantee a minimum price that producers will get. If they produce more milk than they can sell on the market, the U.S. government promises to buy their surplus.

  38. We are of course affected by global markets. So if there is a huge crop failure elsewhere in the world, a lot of our food is exported. And because of the increased demand globally, it will cost more here. We also buy a lot of produce fron South America when it is out of season in the northern latitudes.However probably the biggest reason our dollar is worth less is because the federal government is printing money to pay the federal debt. Whenever you artificially increase the monetary supply, you decrease the buying power of that currency.

  39. I would say that we aren't all that capitalist any more. The federal government intervenes in the market all the time here. For instance two years ago we had two auto companies that should have gone into bankruptcy proceedings. The federal government stepped in to keep them from going under. The huge banking crisis of 2008 was in many ways instigated by the federal government. It basically insisted that the banks provide mortgage loans to people who weren't really credit worthy. These bad mortgages were then bundled into sub-prime investments and sold. And in the end, lending mortgages to people who were bad credit risks turned out the way that you would have expected… the people couldn't handle the loans.

  40. That would only happen for a very short time. The price would soar after that as farmers switch to other agriculture products. :left:. You don't realise it but, ironically, what the US Government is doing is keeping dairy products cheap for US citizens when compared to the rest of the world where most farmers consider dairy farming unviable. :awww:.I'll have to do an actuall price check to get accurate prices since I tend not to take not of individual prices anymore. (they in up every month anyway! :faint:)but dairy products are some of the most expensive food items here. :insane:.

  41. Originally posted by debplatt:

    We are also experiencing considerable food inflation.

    Because of local/national supply and demand balance? Seasonal fluctuation? Do you know which food items receive government subsidy and which don't? Do you have any food item you know locally produced in abundant but still sold at a high price?

  42. Aadil, when it comes to dairy, I believe the federal government has put up barriers to exporting our huge surplus of milk and milk products, and they have put up barriers to importing dairy products from elsewhere.

  43. Originally posted by qlue:

    it may be totally unrelated then. 😆

    Maybe 😆

  45. In the early days of the 'Mad Cow' scare, researches didn't even know how it was transmitted or if people could contract it. :up:.All bovine products were suspect. :rolleyes:.But since there policies pre-date that era by quite a bit, it may be totally unrelated then. :lol:.

  46. Our government dairy policies began during our Great Depression, so in the thirties.It's really late here. TTFN.

  47. Originally posted by debplatt:

    the federal government has put up barriers to exporting our huge surplus of milk and milk products

    Seems the source of high international dairy price is found. :sherlock:Originally posted by qlue:

    That probably stems from the 'Mad Cow'

    I'm sure the BSE is only transmitted via nervous tissues, eg brain & spinal cord. Milk shouldn't be problem.

  48. I am using my cellphone. It takes me much longer to type on it than a real keyboard, so by the time I've thumb-typed a lengthy comment, I discover there have been a couple intervening comments that I didn't see.

  50. That probably stems from the 'Mad Cow' back in, was it the nineties? :sherlock:.(gees, I'm starting to feel old! :insane:)

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