Monthly Archives: November 2010

Used Books I Bought From the Book Barn

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In my previous post about the Book Barn in Niantic, CT, I told you that I would make a quick post indicating which used books I purchased during our visit. Here is that post.

I took some pictures of the books. I guess the best way to do this is to post the pictures with title and author. This is more of a type of documentation for myself than an entertaining post for you. Yo may still be entertained if you wish.

I can’t wait to read The Fountainhead, The Road, The Last of the Imperious Rich and Wealth and Democracy. Hmmm, I guess that’s all of them. What a sense of humor I have.

Peace out.


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The Black Sheep Restaurant in Niantic, CT

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I just wanted to quickly mention that we stopped to eat at a really good restaurant in Niantic, CT the other day, after visiting the Book Barn. The restaurant is called, “The Black Sheep.”

The Black Sheep Restaurant - Niantic, CT

The Black Sheep Restaurant - Niantic, CT

Video screen capture photo courtesy of Restaurant Insider. (video below)

I am so happy we decided to go to this place. Usually, what happens is that, while driving around, we begin to feel hungry. Then, we spend the next three hours driving around trying to find that perfect restaurant. During that time, we pass about 300 of them. This is the story of my life. Don’t make fun.

A few nights ago was different. We were in downtown Niantic and saw a restaurant. It looked warm and inviting, so we parked and went inside. Luckily for us, we arrived in very early evening, so there were no crowds.

Let me tell you about the Black Sheep. It’s a really nice setup. Whoever put this place together took there time and used a great mix of contemporary ideas and a bit of history. Honestly, what this restaurant looks like only has a small part of what I really liked about it. What put me over the top is the fact that they have Guinness on tap and this awesome salad with pears in it. The Guinness thing is getting more and more difficult to find. Seriously. Here’s a piece of advice for all restaurant owners out there…get Guinness on tap. It’s just one of those things.

Okay, whoever made that salad with the pears in it, please let me know who you are. You deserve a round of applause. I actually had difficulty sharing it with my better half because it tasted so good, and that’s not like me. The funny part is that I recommended this salad to a couple walking in the restaurant as we were walking out. Bravo to the chef.

I had the fish and chips, she had the salmon. Nuff said. It was great. We’ll be back. Why? Because when you watch the video below, you’ll see that the owner of this restaurant likes Guinness just as much as I do.

Here’s that video:

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The Book Barn – Niantic, Connecticut

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We visited a really awesome used book store the other day. It’s called The Book Barn and it’s located in Niantic, Connecticut.

First of all, getting to this place is a really nice drive. We take the back way through Salem, CT and then travel through a state forest. After that, we take a nice wooded road all the way to the water. The Connecticut shoreline is really nice, so whenever I get the chance to go down there, I take it.

The Book Barn was a surprise. I wasn’t expecting all the outside buildings to be filled with used books. It’s really a very large collection that was developed over the years. For a little background on the Book Barn, check out this video:

…and for a neat commercial, check out this one:

When we arrived, we brought a pile of our own books to sell to the Book Barn. They buy used books you know. They took some of them, but not all. They gave us $5, which I was happy with. It’s better to get a small chunk of change and give someone else an opportunity to buy the books than to have them sit on a shelf here at the house.

I found two sections that I liked. The fiction section out back and then the biography/history section in the basement of the main barn. Actually, the latter is my favorite. It has all the good political and financial books there. I haven’t visited the downtown location yet, but from what I hear, that’s where all the philosophy and business books are. I will have to make it there another day.

I took some pictures of our visit. In my next post, I will show you which books I bought from the Book Barn in Niantic.

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Fixing Up The Treehouse

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We have this really cool treehouse down in the woods. It was here when we moved in. I wasn’t planning on doing anything with it, but the more we walk around down there and see this thing, the more we are reminded that time hasn’t changed us all that much. We simply look older.

A few days ago, I decided that the time was ripe to start some restoration work. I had some extra wood from another project and thought of some things that the treehouse might need right away. If we were planning on hanging out in this thing, a few items needed to be addressed.

First up was the ladder. The one that was there wasn’t very trustworthy. I mean, we used it a few times going up into the treehouse, but I wouldn’t like to have it around for much more than that. I made a new one. A strong one.

Second up was the little front porch. What basically existed was a few 2x6s and 2x4s with these thin rotten pieces of wood used as a walking surface. Any weight over 100lbs would break right through these things. I decided to add two more 2x4s as joists and then use more 2x4s as the walking surface. Unfortunately, I ran out of my extra wood, so I only got about half way through the front porch project.

These two small projects came out very well. One of the things I am really enjoying is not making anything perfect. What I do is plenty strong, but if things hang over or are crooked, it’s part of the charm. Treehouses are about letting go, not bringing your hang ups to them.

Next projects to be completed are to get up on top of the roof and clean off all the leaves. Then I need to cut down a tree that has decided to rot away. One corner of the treehouse in attached to this tree, so I need to make a leg out of a 6×6. That’s not a problem, but I am going to need a few bags of cement for a footing.

After that, I want to make a nice sized porch for the side with the window. I want to be able to sit out there and hang my legs over the edge, just enjoying nature.

Here are a few pictures of the treehouse. I just took them a few minutes ago.

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The Hickory Tree Fell Down

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I noticed that a tree had fallen down the other day. I was driving down the road and there she was, laying right across the front lawn.

I hadn’t gone out of the house for a few days. I was battling a cold. The area where the tree fell was all the way at the top of the driveway…to the right. There was no way I could have seen it from the house. I bet the neighbors saw it though because it was easily seen from the road.

Once I discovered that the Hickory tree fell, I got a little nervous that someone driving by might think they were doing me a favor by cutting it up and taking it away. I wanted this wood for myself.

So, what did I do? Well, I got out my trusted chainsaw and started cutting up the tree. I was going to cut the pieces in five foot lengths and then cut them up into log size once I got them down the driveway, but I decided to do it all there. There really is no sense in doing things twice, especially when it’s Autumn and working outside is sheer pleasure.

Once I had the logs cut up, I tossed them into my trailer and used the lawnmower to pull them down to the bottom of the driveway. I threw them to the side of the driveway and that’s where the lay today. Next up, log splitting.

Cut Up Hickory Logs

Cut Up Hickory Logs

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Keyword Density Analyzer Tool For SEO

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I just thought I would quickly share this with you. It’s a great tool.

Yesterday, I was doing some work on one of my websites. I got thinking about stuff I was into way back years ago when web page keyword density came to mind. I started reading up on the long lost art of putting the correct number of keyword and keyword phrases on a web page when I came across a pretty good keyword density analyzer tool.

You can find it here.

What makes this keyword density tool so good is that fact that it not only analyzes the visible keywords on a page, it also analyzes the invisible ones, such as words in the title and meta tags, alt text, descriptions, headings, etc…

If you need to analyze your keyword density for your website, go ahead and give this tool a try.


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The Best Snowboard Video – Filmed From Helicopter

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I have been watching snowboarding videos for two night now. It’s getting absurd. The video I came across last night topped the cake.

The video is below. It’s a bunch of shots filmed from a helicopter. I mean, these things are awesome. All I can do is sit here and feel bad that I am too old to do any of this. I do plan on going riding this Winter, but nice easy speed is all that’s in the forecast. Unfortunately, all these jumps were invented after my time. That’s a shame, because it’s something I really could have gotten into. The feeling of flying is something special. Just ask about my addiction to Jeb Corliss and his wingsuit. Nuf said.

Here is the video. It’s up there with the last snowboarding video I posted. I can’t directly compare the two because they are different, so you can be the judge about that.

Just to get you hooked, go to the :10 second mark. Then, go to the 7:22 mark and watch the two jumps. Breathtaking.

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Old Rag Mountain Hike In the Shenandoah National Park

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This is a fun one.

Every so often, someone sends me photos and I ask if I can post them on my blog. This time, it was my brother who sent something over my way. He sent some pictures of his hike up Old Rag Mountain. The only problem was…all the pictures had people in them. I emailed him back and asked if he had any pictures that were people”less” and he sent me the ones below. In the future, I have a feeling that I am going to be getting a lot more photos with no one in them.

When I got the photos, I was impressed with how good they looked. I opened them in Photoshop to play around a bit. I cleaned them up and added some effects. I would say they came out pretty good. The pics I am going to post below are my edited versions of the pictures. Enjoy.

Old Rag Mountain Hike in the Shenandoah National Park

In the Woods - Old Rag Mountain

In the Woods - Old Rag Mountain

Mountain View - Old Rag Mountain - Shenandoah National Park

Mountain View - Old Rag Mountain - Shenandoah National Park

Cliff View - Old Rag Mountain - Shenandoah National Park

Cliff View - Old Rag Mountain - Shenandoah National Park


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Hiking At a Connecticut State Park In Autumn

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About a week or so ago, we decided that it might be a good idea to go for a nice walk in one of the many fine Connecticut state parks. We chose a park about a half hour away, so the ride wasn’t that bad.

The reason we had to get this done is because we have learned that Autumn comes and goes pretty fast. If you don’t get out there and enjoy those beautiful days, you might miss them. Just to let you know, apple picking is the same way. If it’s a nice day in Autumn, you better get in that car and go pick apples. If you don’t, chances are you might not have another opportunity.

We took a pretty good walk. I would say it was about a half mile at most. It wasn’t about the distance, or even exercise…it was more about enjoying the leaves falling around us. The weather was almost perfect. It wasn’t sunny, but the temperature was just about right.

Here are some pretty Autumn photos in the Northeast.


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First Autumn Fire In the Fireplace

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It’s been getting kind of chilly around these parts lately. The days are very nice, but the nights have been getting cold. I think we may have broken the freezing mark last night. I did see a bit of frost on the lawn this morning.

What does this mean? It means that I get to start making fires in the fireplace again. Albeit they are very inefficient fires that make the rest of the house very cold…but the romantic side is worth it. I just have to remember to let the fire go out around 9PM. If it doesn’t, any warmth in the house gets sucked right out the chimney overnight. That’s not good.

Here is a nice picture of our first fire in the fireplace for the season.

First Fire In the Fireplace

First Fire In the Fireplace


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