Rental property repairs

My brother R intsalling basement window at my Franklin St. house. 

I own a rental poperty on Franklin St. in Watertown, NY.  It has two apartments, one up, and ne down. When I first bought it I went to work and re-did the ineterior. I updated the electricity and plumbing, put in new kitchens and other odds and ends. About two years ago I put a new roof on the house. Other than that I have nit addressed the exterior. Mostly it needs painting and some minor exterior repars. So for the past two days I have been replacing the lattice work around the front porch and my brother R replaced one of the basement windows. As you can see from the photos the building needs to be painted. I plan to get that done in the next week or so. The window cost $60.00 and I paid him a hundred for the installation.

New lattice work on the front porch of the Franklin St. house. Next I have to fix up the railing and paint the house.

The lower apartment has been vacant since June. I may have trouble renting it because a large number of new rental units have come on the market in Watertown.

Praski cookies, Macedonian peach cookies

Today I went to St. George Church in Syracuse to photograph the start of thei Macedonian festiva. I was photographing it for The Post-Standard and syracuse.com. Of interest was a woman making Praski, which are Macedonian cookies decorated to look like peaches.
They are quite colorful.

Woman making "peach cookies" at St. George's Macedonian festival in Syracuse, NY. Photographed by Gary Walts for syracuse.com and The Post Standard.

Praski, cookies decorated to look like peaches, at St. George's Macedonian festival in Syracuse, NY. Photographed by Gary Walts for syracuse.com and The Post Standard.

This link takes you to a gallery of other photos from the event posted on syracuse.com
 http://photos.syracuse.com/4456/gallery/st_georges_macedonian_festival/index.html#/0

You can also view a video I made at the event by clicking on the link:

http://videos.syracuse.com/post-standard/2013/08/st_georges_macedonian_festival.html

Fireworks in Chaumont

I have had plenty going on in my life the last few weeks but simply have not had the ambition to post daily, or even weekly reports. Last night we had a fireworks show in our village of Chaumont. I had only the iPhone with me for a camera. Too bad because my Nikon could have made this photo a hundred times better.

I created this blog entry with the iPhone Blogger app so the photo was sent directly from the iPhone too, otherwise I would have tweaked it with PhotoShop. I will make PhotoShop adjustments later on. Right now I am at one of my Franklin St apartments taking time out for this post.

My Mother goes shopping today

My sisters C & S  are visiting from Tucson AZ. Today they and the Better Half are taking my mother shopping. She is 80 years old and this is just the first recreational outing she has taken since she nalmost died a year ago March first. I have been taking her to her doctor visits and each month she has an easier time getting in and out of my van and going up and down the stairs at her house. It is incredible because a year ago we were told she had six month at best to live and that she would never walk again. Amazing.
The photo I am inserting here was made with an iPhone, snapped through a dirty windhsield at sunset. The Better Half was driving while I snapped the photo. I used instagram to add some effects.

Sunset on RT 12E, Limerick NY, snapped with iPhone and filtered with instagram. Photo by Gary walts

We were returning home after a fun day at my mother's home in Calcium. We had a surprise 50th birthday for sister S from AZ.

Wolf spider with egg sack

I photographed this Wolf Spider with an egg sac with an iPhone 5. I recently had ten cord of wood dropped off in my driveway. My sister C happened to be visiting from Tucson, AZ and was helping me stack it. She picked up a piece of wood and revealed this spider. Ten minutes later we uncovered another one. The photo quality is under par for my liking. My Nikon would have been a better choice.

Wolf Spider with egg sack found while stacking fire wood.

Geneva on the Lake

The Better Half and I are at Geneva On The Lake which is on Lake Erie. We are visiting her family and are at the moment at The Firehouse Winery. I just snapped this photo there a few minutes ago.

Dodge Caravan Over heated

Today I am doing errands prior to tomorrow's road trip to Cleveland when my Dodge Caravan over heated. I pulled into a shady parking spot behind the old Globe Mini Mall to let it cool down. After a few minutes I folded upan old shirt and covered the radiator cap with it as I removed the cap. Good thing I did that. It was under a lot of pressure and the orange anti freeze shot up like a geyser. Am now waiting for friend Tom Bintz to meet me. He was going to the auto parts store anyway.

Beautiful Summer night

It is a beautiful Summer night here in Chaumont. There is a nice breeze blowing through the trees, rustling the leaves. It is approaching mid night. I am sitting outside and hate to glen to bed. It js so cool and peaceful.

My son's birthday

39 years ago today my son was born. The photo presented here is of his two sons. I snapped it today with the iPhone V. I had dinner with him and his family after which I went to an open mic event at Johnny D's in the Paddock Arcade in Watertown. That event was hosted by Joe Foy.

Baseball Photo

I snapped this photo last night during a Syarcsue Chiefs game against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. I usd a Nikon D700 and a Nikon 200-400mm F4 zoom lens.

Today I am going to one of my apartments and install a new floor in the living room.The tenant that just moved out left the apartment in pretty good shape, and very clean EXCEPT for one thing: He tore up some of the old hard wood flooring in the living room. It is unexplicable to me what he was up to.  It was an area about 2' by 4'.  He didn't get his security deposit back.

Jerry Garcia necktie collection

I wore a new tie while playing a wedding reception today. It is from the Jerry Garcia necktie collection. Very colorful. I got a lot of compliments on it. Garcia was a guitarist for the band Grateful Dead.

I bought it at Kohls. This particular tie was the only one of it's design and for some reason I do not know, was marked down to $11.00 The photo below shows it and another one that I bought at Kohls. I paid $21.00 for the second one. The Jerry Garcia ties on display had a list price of $38.00. Anyhow, they are beautiful ties.

Two neckties from the Jerry Garcia collection.

The wedding I was playing at was on Wellsley Island in the Thousand Islands. It was a fun event, on the small side, about 30 people or so. Over all I was pleased with how I did. However, I really botched up Bach's prelude from the first cello suites. I have played it for years and is probably my all time favorite piece, but for what ever reason, I began to play it and I don't know where it went. Not a big deal.

Smuttynose IPA

Just got home from playing a wedding reception for an older couple on Wellsley Island. I am relaxing in my back yard with a Smuttynose Indian Pale ale.it is a mighty good beer. I have seen it on the shelves for a long time but just now bought my first 6 pack. Wow! It is bitter which is good. Most refreshing and I highly recommend it.