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Spaulding Smails

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Posts posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. @T’Boo Ted Marshall, I'm glad this thread popped back up.  I'd been wondering about you too.  Sounds like you're doing all the right things to set a solid foundation.  I'm also intrigued about your thoughts around outside investment.  I'm at a crossroads right now regarding that exact concept.  

    On our side, I finally landed my HVAC master with an A license.  He starts next Monday.  Rounded out the MEP.  I may hit you up offline to talk shop regarding a few things.  I'm expecting this to be the 800-lb gorilla of our service arm, and I want to be prepared as we get him up to speed.

    We're kind of facing the opposite issues that you noted.  I'm building this from the ground up, so we have NO processes in place.  We've bumped our head a few times on the electrical side after a really solid start, and we've experienced higher than anticipated turnover there.  The Sparkies have proven to be a different breed.  But, plumbing has been solid.  We were obviously bolstered by the "snowpocalypse" which essentially allowed us to self-fund our capital investments for that division.  I've since hired two more master plumbers, and we're booking 3-4 weeks out.  I've been skeptical of what I had to pay to get them on-board, but they've both delivered in spades so far.  I'm of the mindset that, since I'm not a license holder, I pretty much need to have two license holders for each trade at all times.  I can't afford to have someone get bent out of shape and jump ship with their license in tow without a plan B.  

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  2. 10 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

       Not exactly. Back when I shot scores like this consistently I was largely playing bogey golf with the occasional par or bird mixed in. After that I worked myself to a single digit handicap, then life got really busy. Just in the last few years I had surgery to repair a torn ACL and Meniscus together with an OATs procedure. Then Covid happened, plus my daughter got really busy with vball.

       I went to Myrtle with 0 courses played since the last trip and 0 range work. I am a mechanical player so I can get away with some things. I open my stance to force myself to shorten my backswing when I wanna take yardage off of clubs. I hit cuts and draws with my feet and do not change my swing. But there are some things that you have to feel, and that 50 yard and in game is one of them. As one would expect, I wasn't striking my irons on the screws so I couldn't get close to pins. While I was hitting a lot of greens, I had long, low percentage puts, and couldn't make any birds. When I missed greens, not only could I NOT get up and down, but I had 0 feel at all. This was the Moorland course at Legends Resort in SC so greens were raised, crowned, and shaved so your score can balloon in a hurry. A pitch with too much on it and you are running off the backside. I pitch with not enough and it's back at your feet.

    You just described me to a tee.  I had played sparingly growing up and in college.  After graduating and getting married, I had a good buddy become the head pro at a local course.  I started playing 3-4 times / week.  Got into the single digits.  Then kids happened.  Three of them.  I still played maybe twice a month.  Then, I made a huge career change, then I broke my arm, then my oldest got into select baseball.  But, I'm finally getting my business into a good spot, so I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a club membership.  I'm excited to be able to work consistently and enjoy the game again.  Right now, everything is "off".  I'll flash the occasional signs of competency, but nothing is comfortable.  Looking forward to working on my game and making it fun to compete again.

  3. Just as "temporary taxes" like passing a bond never seem to return to their previous levels, I'm afraid we're going to see the same thing with restaurant prices.  And, I completely agree that restaurants are grossly understaffed right now for all the above mentioned reasons.  My son had a baseball tourney this weekend, so dinner plans for Mothers Day were up in the air.  If he lost early, he and I were going to cook something for the family at home.  If they kept winning, he and I would grab fast food and my wife and other two would fend for themselves.  They won the first, then lost the second, so we decided to call in a to-go order.  We called three local restaurants multiple times and nobody picked up.  Finally got the fourth restaurant to answer.  When we got there, they had us come in rather than have curbside because they were short-staffed.  I don't mind walking in at all, but it was just a curious observation of the shortage for labor in that industry.

  4. 42 minutes ago, Hank_Hill said:

    Not positive on take-out but know we're putting in at RM 15 and doing ~30miles. Camping at Del Norte Thursday then 2.5 days on the water.

    Awesome.  Paddle north a bit from your put-in at Del Norte.  Not the biggest fish, but I always catch a ton of both largemouth and smallies just up river from the Del Norte campsite.  If you're doing 30 miles, you may be going all the way to Rough Hollow.  I've only done the run south of Big Satan once.  The first stretch is awesome and some of the least fished areas of that river.  But, watch out for those headwinds about five miles south of the Big Satan takeout.  It's wide open and choppy from there to Rough Hollow.  

  5. On 5/2/2021 at 11:24 PM, Hank_Hill said:

    Welp, snuck my way in to a devils trip next weekend after a guy dropped out (dumb idiot). Will be my second time there, last time we had a constant headwind to the point that you couldn’t stop paddling to fish or you’d lose ground...and it was still fucking amazing. Hoping for better conditions and cannot wait.

    Good for you.  Enjoy!  What are your put-in and take-out spots?  I've now done the Devlis 20+ times.  My son's been with me a few times, but we did our first multi-night trip last year, and we had the same headwind situation.  I ended up being "The Mule" that carried the gear and paddled hard on open water.  It sucked.  Bad.

    Big rain last week.  You should be golden.  Lots of good fish being caught over the last few weeks.  Enjoy!

  6. 8 hours ago, ROFL BOX said:

    OK, so probably 2 miles due W of me.  Like, not bullshitting - if I got the opportunity to ride straight W of me, that would put me on to LRR.

    BTW, Jimmie Vaughan lives on Loop 165.  I've been down it a few times (work mostly, maybe 5 recreational times) to see if I can spot him, maybe walking to his car, checking the mail, whatever.  Never any luck... but I do like that short drive.  Some fine looking locations there.  & If I won the lottery bigly, I'd like to buy LRR.

    We need to meet up for a beer one day.  I'm on Creek Rd near Camp Lucy.  That Loop 165 is a cool little stretch.  I was looking at 5 acres that is on the market there.  The east side that fronts the creek is gorgeous with beautiful homes.  The west side of the road was hit and miss.  

  7. 14 hours ago, RMac5 said:

    @Spaulding Smails I ordered a set of those orange wall brackets off of Amazon. It’s missing the screw and anchor packet. Are there small screws that go in the vertical pieces just to keep the brackets from sliding down? Also, the spacer washer looking things, those just for wall clearance for the backside of the shelf piece?  Think I will just mount each vertical piece to a 1x6 and then mount that to the wall. 

    Correct.  There should have been some little black screws that keep the horizontal brackets in place.  You should be able to use any machine screw in place of those.  Good idea on the 1x6 behind it.  That will probably give you more flexibility on where you actually mount them.  Like I mentioned earlier, I have them loaded down, so I beefed up the lag screws from the little ones they sent in the kit.  No issues since then.

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  8. 6 hours ago, ROFL BOX said:

    You were on Pursley Road, just S. of Creek Road.  That's a whisper away from me.

    I knew we were close to you.  This was actually off Loop 165 near Longhorn River Ranch. 

  9. My go-to recipe is chicken fried breast.  I've tried to roast a whole wild turkey and even tried to smoke one.  Both were pretty tough.  From my experience, the breast is good, but the thighs and legs aren't worth doing anything special.  The last time I harvested a wild turkey, we actually used the wings, thighs and legs in gumbo.  That was probably the best use I've found so far.  Would love to hear if anyone has any whole bird recipes.

  10. Took my boy out Easter weekend to our place in Kimble County.  Didn't see any turkey the first two years, but my mom put out a turkey feeder, and we actually started to see them this last fall.  We saw a big group of hens, but no toms.  He did shoot the big boar (220 lb or so) that we've seen on the game cam.  Which was nice...

    The following weekend, I was cruising around looking at property in Hays Co with a big mug of coffee on an early Sunday morning and came upon THREE groups of big toms within a mile of each other along a little side road head the headwaters of Onion Creek.  I'll post pics when I can download them.  Any sound I made from 100 yds away in my truck had them blowing up.  Rios will come to a dog barking if they're chasing hens.  We used to have a tom that lived in the creek behind our old house.  We'd hand feed him.  During the spring, he'd gobble back at a fart once you got him interested. 

    • Like 2
  11. 7 hours ago, Grimas said:

    I ended up booking the Islander Resort on Islamorada for 5 nights. After digging through recent reviews the past day, it seems Covid has really messed up all the resorts in general in the Keys with crappy (or no) housekeeping as most of them have complaints of having dirty rooms seem to be the common thread.  Bummer that stone crab season ends in May and damn, what happened to rental car prices?!!? $88/day out of Miami for an intermediate?

    Good choice.  The Islander is nice.  Given your group, Islamorada is a great spot.  Plenty of restaurants in Islamorada and Key Lago.  The drive is manageable from Miami.  Robbie's is fun and has decent food.  Lorelei's and the Sand Bar are great spots for a drink.  Hit up the Green Turtle Inn for breakfast one day.  

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  12. Got my suppressor ordered today.  Just 8-10 months until it arrives!

    And, after three months of back-and-forth bullshit, I FINALLY got confirmation that my two-stage trigger shipped yesterday.  Should be able to finally assemble my left-handed AR this weekend.  Which, coincidentally, is perfect timing.  I'm taking it with me tuna fishing next week.  You know.  To finish off those pesky tuna.  Forecast calls for spotty squalls.  I hope it doesn't fall overboard via a rogue wave or something silly like that.

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  13. Not sure if this counts for this thread, but I've also found a TON of fossils at the creek behind my house.  Lots of common deer hearts but also a few gastropod fossils as well.spacer.pngspacer.png

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  14. I found this at our place as well.  Not an arrowhead, but pretty cool nonetheless.  Very limited production time and the ranger at Ft McKavett helped me identify it.  My mom put together the shadow box and we have it displayed in the house at the ranch.

    spacer.pngyed

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  15. Found my first one at our ranch last summer.  Not the prettiest and not fully intact, but still fun to find on your own land.  Haven't really gone searching, but happened upon it when trailing a little sow my buddy's son shot.

    spacer.png

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  16. After a multi-year quasi hiatus (averaged maybe 3-5 rounds / year over the last six or so years), I'm actually pretty damn focused on getting back into golf.  I've played a few times this year.  I finally got a few BIG work projects in my rearview mirror, so my schedule is much more flexible.  And, I'm looking forward to entertaining clients on the golf course as well.

    I live in Dripping Springs, so local options are fairly limited (Vaaler Creek is actually the closest to my house).  But, my office is in Southeast Austin, and I'm < 10 min from Onion Creek.  It's always been one of my favorites in this area.  And, honestly, it's easier for me to play during the week than on a weekend at this stage in my life.  I went there with a new set of eyes last week for a tour, and I'm strongly considering joining.  

    Anyone a member out there?  Any general feedback on joining a club?

    It's non-equity, and the initiation fee and monthly dues are reasonable.  No monthly minimum for food & beverage.  Decent range.  Nice practice area.  27 holes, so it'll be nice to get some variety.  They have over 500 golf members (more if you count tennis only and social members), which at a glance, seems like a bunch.  But, the cap in their bylaws is 750, so they feel like it's a manageable amount.  They were purchased by Arcis Golf who appears to be putting some decent money into the course and they recently renovated the pro shop, club house and fitness center.  They also reciprocate with Twin Creeks, River Place and The Dominion in SA.

    I'm optimistic that I can play 2-3 times per week, so I feel like the value is there.  I'm also digging the fact that I can hit the fitness center in the morning and shower before going to the office.  Or hit the range for an hour at lunch.  With the recent boom in golf interest after the pandemic, tee times seem harder than ever to come by.  So, that's part of the allure as well.

    I'll hang up and listen.  Thanks. 

     

  17. Good start to the thread!  I'm pretty much done planting for the spring.  I'll do a late round of maters around May 1.  I'll plant okra, eggplant and melons around that time too.  This spring, we have tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers and green beans.  Believe it or not, my garlic, onions and strawberries survived "snowpocalypse".  Garlic and onions are doing great and should be ready for harvest in about 30 days, but strawberries appear to be stunted somewhat.  

    • Hook 'Em 1
  18. 1 hour ago, Masshole Horn said:


    I have some friends up here who spend a lot on surf setups, but I’m not shelling out for a Van Staal.

    I like Tica and Star surf rods in the ~$150 range and Penn Battle/Conflict reels. I load them up with 50# braid and use a flouro leader.

    These rigs will be for chucking big baits out there. If you’re fishing for specks in the first gut, this will be overkill.

    This is good insight.  I fish the surf maybe once a year.  I have a Penn Battle with an inexpensive Shimano spinning reel that I use for chunking bait.  And, I take a 7' moderate fast rod with a spinning reel for fishing the gut.  I don't throw a baitcaster because I've dunked more than one reel in the surf.  

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  19. @Onboard 2.0 @RMac5 @McFly

    https://www.amazon.com/ECOTRIC-Steel-Lumber-Storage-Wall-Mounted/dp/B07BY5F99V

    I have three sets of these in my shop.  They're awesome.  The only criticism I have is that the lag bolts that come with them seemed a bit undersized.  I used larger ones for the one rack that I store my steel on to be safe.  I have every one of them loaded down.  

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    • Like 1
  20. The heavy duty shelves at Home Depot are actually pretty damn good.  I have these in the garage.  Only modification I made was to put a sheet of plywood in one section where I store smaller things that are prone to not sit evenly on the wire.

    I'm also a huge fan of these for lumber, pipe, etc.  Save tons of space by having them wall-mounted.  Cheap and easy to install.

    spacer.png

     

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  21. On 3/27/2021 at 11:22 AM, ztejas said:

    Greens across centex seem to be a mess right now. I think that freeze really did a number on them. 

    Agreed.  But the greens were the least of my concern.  Even if you can't control that, you can control the customer experience, interaction and perceived value.

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