Saturday, December 1, 2018

The WellHaus Barn Door Build Jason Michael Kotarski





Finally got some time to edit the WellHaus Barn Door Build! It was a really fun build and I hope to get the chance to do some more of these for customers!



Jason Michael Kotarski ---YouTube






Jason Michael Kotarski
Jason Kotarski
Spatial Recognition 

Friday, November 23, 2018

Finishing the Wood Carving Maple Root Bowl- Jason Michael Kotarski

The Big Leaf Maple Root Bowl is finished and ready to ship! It wad fun getting to finally use the branding iron my wife gifted to me for our "wood" anniversary. She just couldn't bring herself to find something in wood that I wouldn't say "I can make that", lol.

Check out the channel for more video as I hope to really expand the content during these rainy cold dark Pacific Northwest Winter days.

Jason Michael Kotarski- YouTube








Thursday, October 25, 2018

WellHaus Barn Door is Hung!!!!!




I finally got the WellHaus Barn Door hung!!!! This has been a loooooooooong time coming and it feels great to see some achievement on this part of the project!!!! We're detailing out the casing design to creating a secure locking device with minimal air gaps. If you noticed the R-MAX ThermaSheath-3 shining on both sides of the door, your looking at the continuous insulation (CI) over the CDX plywood sheathing. While we will be going for R-6 in future builds, the R-3 will help act as a wind rain barrier (WRB) as well as a thermal break. This is essential for reducing thermal transfer through the framing system of the building. After we add some mineral insulation we should have R-23 in the walls (since we build with 2x6 exterior walls) and the R-3 Sheathing just like we did the roof and ceiling. This should give us some great thermal resistance along with some quality noise absorption. 


Thursday, October 4, 2018

New Computer Build "GearGrinder"



Finally getting the pieces together for a new computer that can handle the amount of data I have with video editing in 4K HD with the Nikon D5600. Going to try and keep everything listed and up to date as possible as I acquire the various components.

Since I have been planning this for over a year I was able to keep my eyes open for some deals. Having my Google News preferences set on the list below I started seeing rumours that AMD was about to release a new, next Generation ThreadRipper 2990X. This means the last Gen should start being discounted to make room on shelves for the latest and greatest! I was able to score a combo pack on NewEgg that was exactly what I was after for a nice little discount! That takes care of the CPU with a AMD Threadripper 1950X and the ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme X399 Motherboard.

The Fractal Design Define R6 Full Tower Case happened to be on sale as well so I figured a little savings is better than no savings! Now for those pesky (and expensive) graphics proccessor unit! With Nvidia releasing the RTX 2080ti I thought I'd get a good deal on the GTX 1080Ti but alas, everyone else had the same idea and with the general specifications between the RTX and the GTX being close enough the cost savings on the older model are great, except there aren't very many left in stock.....

Now......to get some more parts.... Sponsorships or Discounts anyone????!??!!?!?!?!

GearGrinder on PCPartPicker


ComponentSelectionPrice
CPU $699.99GOT IT!!!!
CPU Cooler $159.99Buy
Thermal Compound $6.57GOT SOME!!
$6.57Buy
Motherboard $537.00GOT IT!!!!
Memory $276.99Buy
Storage $167.99Buy
Video Card $704.98Buy
Case $109.99GOT IT!!!!!
Power Supply $201.00Buy
Operating System $124.79Buy
Sound Card $149.99Buy
Case Fan $19.34Buy
Monitor $893.94Buy
Total:$4059.13

Monday, October 1, 2018

The trails are very active lately!!!

Had to change out some SD cards in the TrailCam but it was well worth it! So far it's the usual suspects but the bobcat did make a nice midday pass!


Two Bucks came down and walked by ( Upper Left Hand Corner Behind the Well)





Thursday, September 27, 2018

YouTube Partner Program Back Up and Running!

Well, it appears I have not blogged on this site since February when YouTube announced the demonetization plans. I'll admit I do the majority of my writing and video editing during the dark cold months so it's only fitting that I restart with entry at the beginning of Autumn! After a long hot summer my Channel finally hit 1000 subscribers and the requisite 4000 hours of Watchtime per past 365 days. While this is by no means a windfall in the grand scheme of things, it is a good feeling.

A double wammy on the YouTube channel struck as the demonetization went lock and step with the laptop absolutely imploding. I put in a new motherboard, usb board, power button, 8 G ram stick, battery and power supply, NOTHING! the only thing left that was original is the fan but even with that unplugged I get no lights. I'll probably continue tinkering with it as I hate to give up when I'm defeated but we'll start the HP Pavilion 15 obituary soon. The more important thing is the next phase. I'll be adding some random tech entries (as if I know what the hell I'm talking about) as I build the next generation computer. Editing video shot with my new Nikon D5600 brought the laptop to a standstill reminiscent of my college days trying to render video, computer animation, and autocad files. We only had one computer in the lab for rendering and you had to sign up for a timeslot with your anticipated final files size! A stack of sticky notes was always handy to jot down your name and location (ie, coffee shop, bar, couch...) as we didn't have cell phones!

Stay tune and check out the build, I'll have some YouTube videos coming up as well and a list of parts still waiting for funding on over on my Patreon page! 

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Youtube Partner Program #youtubesucks

Well they did it, today is D-Day, Demonetization Day.

As of today, your channel, Jason Michael Kotarski will no longer have access to monetization tools associated with YPP because it doesn’t meet the new threshold of 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers.

A whole lot of channels out there with horrible useless content ruined it for the majority of folks actually trying to share some skills and knowledge.

My channel is not political, uses no curse words, is family friendly, and instructive. It's sad that all Youtube cares about are the numbers. 4000 hours and 1000 subscribers? Why would that solve the problem if your problem is with the top tier of your content? 

This blog, however, does use curse words, Assholes.

#Youtubechanges, #YTPP, #Youtubesucks

Friday, February 16, 2018

Planting Season Gamble

Well crap............!!!!!!!

I decided to plant out an early crop of spinach, arugala, kale, peas and beans with the hopes of getting a jump start on the year after a relatively mild winter.

The forecast says otherwise with some nights dipping into the low 20's, thats cold enough to do cellular damage to the just sprouting plants. Well, I better scramble up some protection for them as it looks like its going to be a cold week at the shortest. Hopefully a little plastic cover and the warmth of the raised beds composting will give them what they need to survive!

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Mulching the orchard with the wood chipper

Although it is still considered Winter I am getting excited about this Spring's gardening. I plan on taking the orchard to the next level this year and have the next phase of the food forest installed. So far we have our Fruit trees laid out with Plum, Persimmon, and Apricot in the first tier terrace, Italian Prune (Plum) in the second terrace, Cherry in the third, Pear in the fourth and Apple in the fifth.



Each terrace has a row of fragrant herds for scent masking, pollinator attractant and cooking/ medicinal uses. these include Rosemary, Lavendar, Valerian, Borage and Sage.



Another row of flowers for attracting pollinators includes Columbine, Foxglove and Lupine (also a nitrogen fixer)



In between the fruit trees running perpendicular to the herbs and flowers are Goji Berry bushes. these are both extremely nutritious but also provide nitrogen to the soil. Along the edge, also running perpendicular to the herbs and flowers is  a row of ceonothus acting as both a pollinator attractant and a nitrogen fixer.



As the trees will take time to mature this year I will be adding bean and pea trellises to produce vegtables as well as fix nitrogen in the soil. The trellises are being contructed out of Alder that we acquired this year and will be inocculated with mushroom plugs. Like I said, I'm getting excited about what is in effect Year 4 for our Orchard and Garden turned Permaculture. Check out some of the videos on YouTube and Subscribe, we need all the help we can get! Also check out some of the links for products I use around the yard!



Like the new Nikon D5600 I picked up to help up the quality of the YouTube channel and spme of the photographs I put up on the blog!



http://amzn.to/2HeG2ws









Thursday, January 25, 2018

Hazelnut Catkins!!

The first signs of life in the garden are showing up! Surprise to me but the hazelnuts (filberts) have catkins on them! I'm really excited about these in particular because I started coppincing them and added lime to them. I really hope to add a small hazelnut crop in the next few years. The coppiceing has also provided wonderful cooking wood, walking sticks, and  mushroom mulch.

Cant wait to see what else starts blossoming!

Sunday, January 21, 2018

The Death of Small Youtube Channels

Once a small idea where people could upload their own content to share with others, Youtube (YT) is going all corporate and dropping the guillotine on small channel creators. Will this be the equivalent to your parent or boss friending you on Facebook? Probaly not, will it be the catylyst for creative minds to find a new outlet? Most likely. With moat things good, it's what makes something interesting and attractive that ruins it.
I started on YT in 2007, mostly searching for music that I had since lost records, tapes and cd's of. I made my first playlist and let it rip on random loop for months. I started posting my own content as a way to post what I was up to long before smartphones, skype and snapchat. It was a great way to share with people ovet distance and also show clients what was going on under, in and on top of the buildings. Photos are great but to show a client the view from the 7th tier of a scaffold with video and narration was exciting!
So I continued with it even though it wasn't all that popular, and then came the ads.......... yup, big advertisement. Before the video, during the video, ad nasuem. (HA!)
The first sign that things were changes over at Alphabet, Google, YT was they wrnt through and cleaned house on any old, unused, or otherwise fake accounts. The advertisers demanded it, what are we paying you for they asked. Then they started the purge, sure violence, bullying, generally inappropriate behaviour, definitely uncalled for and swept away. Then it was time to up the ad ante and get highr CPM (clicks per mille) rates. Get the new channels without the views out of the pool, 10,000 or less views? See ya!
In Febraury comes the next wave of the purge, any channel without 4,000 hours per annum and 1000 subscribers. Ugh, you SOB's, I'm freaking 200 subscribers away from that mark. If they decide to axe it, it won't make it through the algorithm and growth with at best come to a standstill.
You know, back in the day I had an awesome MyGoogle homepage. On one page I had email, calendar, weather, stocks, news and whatever else I needed for a 15 minute status update. They killed that and I had to setup each page separately, so I had MyFinance where I could get all the news I needed about the market with analytics. Nope they killed that too.
So I can I figure each time they kill something I find a new outlet to use. What will replace the YT of old?
Remeber when ETSY went all public? Yea, artists started exiting the site in droves as mass produced products from China took over. Well YT, your time will come as well, innovation turned commercial will be your parents and bosses channel so they can feel "hip".