{"id":2038,"date":"2016-07-04T16:37:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T16:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=2038"},"modified":"2016-07-04T16:37:14","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T16:37:14","slug":"first-bake-a-cake-or-uncle-kracker-and-i-set-a-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/04\/first-bake-a-cake-or-uncle-kracker-and-i-set-a-post\/","title":{"rendered":"first, bake a cake &#8211; or &#8211; uncle Kracker and I set a post"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My sister observed a phenomenon on facebook related to the high speed videos of baking wonder. The video promises to be &#8220;5 minutes to make cake pops&#8221; or some other such thing and the first step is to bake a cake. Now, it takes a bit longer to bake, cool, and crumble a cake &#8211; but the video skips over all those steps and just jumps right to the fun part.<\/p>\n<p>So it was with Uncle Kracker from Australia and his 10th video in a series for knuckleheads.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How to Set a Fence Post. FAST!\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qnIigpa7WSA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The mailbox at my house has just been sitting on the porch since I moved in and I&#8217;ve been meaning to put this on a post and secure it.<\/p>\n<p>So, I headed to the internet and Uncle Kracker &#8211; no relation to the &#8220;singer&#8221;, I&#8217;m guessing &#8211; and headed to Lowe&#8217;s for supplies. This weekend, I got all the gear ready and did my measuring.<\/p>\n<p>And then it was time for step one &#8211; dig a hole.<\/p>\n<p>As I set shovel to dirt I started second-guessing the placement, my ability to complete the project, and basically everything. I&#8217;m a geek &#8211; I had about as much confidence in setting concrete for a post hole as a duck would have landing the space shuttle. Yeah, the duck might be very clever and know a bit more about flying than say, a gopher, but still &#8211; not the duck&#8217;s element.<\/p>\n<p>But, I had all the materials and the weather was good. And a holiday weekend seems made for home improvement projects if you aren&#8217;t on a lake or something.<\/p>\n<p>So, I dug a hole &#8211; and it took me a lot longer than 5 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postHole.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2036 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postHole-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"postHole\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postHole-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postHole-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postHole.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I got the post cut, added gravel &#8211; then got the water ready and the quick-crete.<\/p>\n<p>The back of the bag promised a swift and painful death if you got it on your skin and a slow and painful death if you go it in your lungs, so I put on a mask and rubber gloves before I opened the bag. I got the concrete added and poured in the water. Then dirt around the braced post and clean-up.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postSet.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2037\" src=\"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postSet-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"postSet\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postSet-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postSet-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/postSet.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The next day, I took the braces down and the pole was sturdy. Somewhat to my surprise, admittedly.<\/p>\n<p>I put the mailbox in place on the brace and realized it was pretty well rusted. Seemed a shame to put an old mail box on a new post and so I went back to Lowe&#8217;s to buy a new mailbox. It&#8217;s very shiny.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/mailBox.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2035\" src=\"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/mailBox-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"mailBox\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/mailBox-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/mailBox-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/mailBox.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As I tightened up the last of nuts and bolts to secure the mailbox, I smiled. That quiet sense of accomplishment did me some good. For a just a moment, all the recent stress dropped away and I enjoyed the sense of doing something right.<\/p>\n<p>I cleaned up my tools and the work area and then went about my day.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, I need to trust myself a bit more. With the right planning and a little guidance, I can get all kinds of things done. And being a homeowner &#8211; while a little daunting at times &#8211; is pretty cool too.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow, back to work and to the web. I&#8217;ll build mighty websites and solve fiendishly complicated computer problems. And &#8211; with any luck &#8211; I&#8217;ll have mail in the new mailbox when I get home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My sister observed a phenomenon on facebook related to the high speed videos of baking wonder. The video promises to be &#8220;5 minutes to make cake pops&#8221; or some other such thing and the first step is to bake a cake. Now, it takes a bit longer to bake, cool, and crumble a cake &#8211; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2039,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions\/2039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}