Blog Income: 63% YoY Increase in Google AdSense Revenue

26 February, 2017 | Blogging | 9 seen

Learn how I increased revenue from Google AdSense by 63% Year over Year and how you could too. 

For a prelude: I have been using Google AdSense for already seven and a half years by now, from whom first four and a half years have generated a really modest sum of EUR 100 from many low traffic and let's be totally honest - thin content websites (I had installed AdSense ad units on dozens of sites).

Earnings from Google AdSense 2009-2016

By accessing my Google AdSense reports today (02/26/2017) I noticed that my lifetime revenue from this channel has reached EUR 1305.68 for a time period Sep 4, 2009 - Feb 26, 2017. It is for a seven and a half years. Nothing much, right?  About EUR 174 per year, on the other hand the real increase have started from 2014.

How I Made $1,000 with Google AdSense in 7 years

If compared year over year, during the past year, it has been a whooping 63% increase. 

There was a time when I took a pause from any attempts to build new or maintain existing low value websites for about two years, as they just didn't generated income at all, but took way more time and efforts to maintain them..It's clearly visible on above graph for time period 2012-2013.

At the end of 2013 (October)I decided to start fresh (after my second Summer long trip to US I had a feeling I need to launch a blog to share my travel notes, ideas, findings e.t.c.) - and launched this blog (you currently are reading it).

For the first three months I didn't installed any ad units here, but at the start of the New Year of 2014 ad units were back. In my first month of monetizing this blog I earned whooping eight dollars, and I already felt I'm on the right track. Right now, earnings from AdSense are still relatively low, making about EUR 2 per day. I see a great potential here to grow.

So, where is the magic?

There is no magic (at least for me) - not a black/white hat SEO, just a continuously everyday blogging for more than three years already. I'm not doing keyword research, and not using any other third-party tools to check competitor or whatsoever data. I'm just blogging, and the traffic is rolling in and earnings from Google AdSense are increasing year after year. I'm blogging on many different topics, most of the articles published in this blog probably aren't earning a dime, while some are performing very good. Yup, I understand a little keyword research wouldn't do any harm and might probably help me to double revenue from Google AdSense, but I'm still not focusing on technical details, instead on content.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Secaucus, NJ

26 February, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 11 seen

Once in the Burger bar - order burgers. That's how in short I could describe my experience at Red Robin Gourmet Burger in Secaucus, NJ.

Located in the some building were La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands, in which we stayed during my latest US trip Red Robin was an oblivious choice for meal. They indeed have gourmet burgers and super delicious milkshakes. 

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in Secaucus

No wonder it's called Red. Everything is so red around you.

Fish & Chips at Red Robin

I wouldn't order them once more. Yes they were eatable, fur far from fish & chips IMHO. Remember - once in a burger place, order burgers and not fish & chips. That's a life lesson I feel I have finally learnt.

Milk shake and shot of Vodka

Yup a strange combination. Let me explain, at that day I felt a bit ill, and a shot of Vodka usually helps :)

First Rows of Aerated Concrete Block For Pump Room

25 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 6 seen

Let's keep building walls from aerated concrete blocks - the material I really love - it's easy to install, it's durable and it should be cost effective in combination with proper insulation.

Today I was left alone, no handy hands, completely on my own - at start I was worried, but result turned out really good.

Walls from aerated concrete blocks

Yesterday I did the soil grading, and this part of the house starts looking decent. A couple of days later, we will dig another trenches and for the first time in house's lifetime water will be inside the house. Amazing. But, not so fast, there are still a lot to do, like to finish this wall at first.

View toward house

How To Install GlobalSight Translation Management System on Linode VPS (Ubuntu 14.04)

24 February, 2017 | Servers | 49 seen

There are plenty of translation management systems available on the market, some are better, some have features that other's don't have. And some are paid while some are Open Source (free)

In today's servers article series I will share my configuration I used to install Open Source GlobalSight translation management system on Linode VPS running Ubuntu 14.04

It took me about 8 hours to get it finally runing, but using following tutorial you should be able to manage it under 2 hours (including some testing).

About GlobalSight Translation Management System

GlobalSight is an open-source Globalization Management System (GMS) that manages and streamlines all of the tasks involved in the translation process - from requesting a new translation to quoting, project management, translating, reviewing, Desktop Publishing (DTP), reporting and so on.

Setting up Linode VPS server

For this test I will purchase a brand new 10$/mo VPS server from Linode and will deploy Ubuntu 14.04 on it. Read Getting Started with Linode guide.

After you have successfully purchased a VPS from Linode, deploy  Ubuntu 14.04 on it and follow security guide to make your server protected from bad guys, see: Securing Your Server

Installing GlobalSight

Now, once you are all good and your server is deployed, let's put GlobalSight translation management system on it. For a reference I'm using official guide here: Installing GlobalSight on Ubuntu

Open putty and connect to your server using IP address you got from Linode and username/password you created after you followed Securing your server guide.

Downloading source files:

Unzip

You might need to install unzip first

Install MySQL

Update APT repository list

Install MySQL Server and Client at the same time

You will be asked to enter password during installation

Configure database

Edit file /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Add following lines under [mysqld] section

Uncomment and update below line

Update below line

Replace below line

Comment below line

Creating the GlobalSight database and user using the MySQL command line

Log in to MySQL as root

You will be prompted to enter MySQL root user's password.

grant the privileges

Create the GlobalSight database

Commit the changes

Exit MySQL

Installing JDK

Following written is inspired by: How to Install Oracle Java 8 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Add PPA

As a matter of best practice we’ll update our packages:

Then let’s install Oracle Java 8 with the PPA installer:

Be sure to accept the Oracle license!

Now verify that Java is installed and is of version 1.8.x:

Set system variables: JAVA_HOME and PATH

Edit /etc/profile file and add contents as below:

Use source to load the variables, by running this command:

Then check the variable, by running this command:

Create a user called jboss for the GlobalSight core application

​Log in as user jboss

Unjar GlobalSight.zip to /home/jboss directory

Go to the install script directory and add the executable attribute to script file Install.sh

login as root

Create GlobalSight documents and file storage directory

mkdir -p home/jboss/data/{docs,filestorage}

Update GlobalSight daemon template

Insert -c ${JBOSS_USER} -d ${JBOSS_HOME} between --background and --user

Note: this modification ensures that GlobalSight daemon are always running as user jboss.

Installing GlobalSight core application

Run the install script

Follow installation screens and adjust settings.

If no errors occurred, you should be able to start globalsight service with following command:

That's it. Open browser and visit http://yourip:yourport/globalhost

La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands

23 February, 2017 | Hotel reviews | 12 seen

La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands was our first hotel in United States, during our latest trip here. We booked this hotel as a secret deal on hotwire, as we wanted to get a reasonable price for a hotel with easy access to the Manhattan, New York city.

Our booking price was about USD 140 per night here.

Once our reservation was confirmed, it turned out to be located in the New Jersey, we paid for a limo service about $140 to get here from JFK airport, after a long flight, see: About Tbilisi - Kiev - New York Flight by Ukrainian Airlines

Just off I-95, this Secaucus hotel offers easy access to Manhattan attractions with a bus stop right at the hotel. It features spacious suites with free WiFi and a cable TV.

Our hotel room at La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands

We got two king size beds, which in fact is nice. At this hotel we stayed for about 4 nights at te end of 2016 and start of 2017. From this hotel it was easy to access Manhattan (Port authority) using a bus ride for about 6USD per ride. Bus stop is located some 200-300 meters from this facility,

A refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker are provided in all warmly decorated rooms at the La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands. Each room includes a large work desk.

Guests of the Secaucus La Quinta Inn & Suites can enjoy free access to the indoor pool and the on-site fitness room. Local transportation is provided to locations with 4.8 km of the hotel.

New York City’s Times Square and Radio City Music Hall are both within a 10 km of this hotel. The Newark International Airport is 20 km away from La Quinta Inn & Suites Secaucus Meadowlands. 

Grading Soil Around Foundation

22 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 13 seen

I could probably come up with an article How to grade soil around foundation, but I'm not an expert on this topic.

In today's home remodeling series I will show with images how I leveled soil around foundations using just two tools - a shovel and a rake.

Technically speaking, here is what you should know about grading soil around foundation:

Proper grading around the foundation of your home keeps many potential issues at bay. Without the right grade, water collects at the base, causing erosion, foundation cracks, mold and unhealthy vegetation. To ensure a proper grade, slope any landscape additions away from the base of the structure, so water flows farther out into the yard.

Let's start with what we got:

Newly poured foundation

After intensive couple of last weeks, major foundation works are done, with even one wall been constructed (in the background)

See: Constructing Foundation From Fibo Ceramsite Blocks For Pump Room and The Last Row of Aerated Concrete Blocks Masonry

Grading soil around foundation

After couple of hours work was done. It was originally planed to build a nice outdoor deck (summer terrace) at this part of house this summer, but unfortunately the terrace works have been postponed to the Summer of 2017.

See: Home Remodeling - Season 2 starts now

Grading soil around foundation

Can't wait for the Summer of 2017 to construct a summer terrace here. 

Zen Ramen and Sushi House, New York City

21 February, 2017 | Restaurant reviews | 11 seen

Nestled in the middle of financial district, New York City, we discovered this place by an accident. After wondering around Manhattan, I took the wrong subway ride and once we left subway, we were in a cool neighborhood somewhere in Midtown.

This place promised some 50% discount on some select sushi and we decided to go inside.

Zen Ramen and Sushi house in New York City

if you don't read Japanese you should take a careful look around, as it was bright banners that attracted our attention, and just then we notices this might be a sushi place.

Sushi set at Zen Ramen and Sushi house

Wow, that was something really great. I would say the best sushi I have tried (though I haven't tried them too much). But sushi here, was defiantly 200% better than I have tried before. 

More sushi

Spending $4 Per Day On Facebook Ads - Case Study

20 February, 2017 | Blogging | 59 seen

When it comes down to the Facebook Ads, I have love it / hate it relations, let me explain - I believe Facebook Ads are one of the simplest ways for small business to spread the word, while, at least, speaking about my experience the results are questionable.

I'm spending on Facebook ads regularly, my spending/promotion habits are pretty simple - I can spend actively for one month, then stop for some two months and start again.

Generally I'm promoting blog articles related to tourism activities in Georgia. For the better (cheaper) results I'm targeting local Georgian audience as well. Though, during my latest Facebook ads campaign I experimented with targeting other countries as well, and got some decent results.

Facebook Ads reach

For the record, population of Georgia is about 3.72 million. Making my reach of Georgian audience to stand at about 2.6% in January 2016. Awesome.

That's in fact I'm trying to achieve here - build some brand recognition about myself and mine services offered to the people of Georgia.

Now, about two years ago I did come up with and idea: Should Every Blogger Should Spend At Least $1.00 Per Day On Facebook Ads? 

Idea was simple, 1 dollar per day might help to build brand awareness / recognition. Soon I started my first 1 dollar per day on Facebook ads, I had to stop it shortly, because of, it generated some really good buzz, my ads got clicked and yes I got some good visitor traffic to my website, on the other hand, my images got stolen and re-used, my texts got re-used. Not the best way to spend money to promote you to the copyright infringer guys, right?

See my findings about my first campaign: Why I Stopped Facebook ADS Campaign: Case Study

I had to implement some basic security of helping not stealing pictures and article from blog: How To Protect Drupal Content (Articles and Photos) From Being Copied

After some time I decided to make another experiment with Facebook promoted posts - spent 2 dollars per day, by promoting one article from blog every day. Again - a lot of likes, shares and .. I started notice fewer click actually back to the website. 

There are two things have kept me sticking with Facebook ads:

During my activities on Facebook in past couple of years I have built small, but pretty engaged follower base from Georgia (I'm mostly promoting my photo articles from Georgia to the Georgian audience). As of January 2017, I have about 3,500 followers to this blog's fan page. The vast majority of audience is Georgian. 

At the end of 2016 I rise my budget on Facebook ads to spend $3.00 per day, and during one month promoted about 30 posts (every day another post). I stopped that monthly campaign at one point, because it was really hard to manage 30 different ads, and most ads didn't generated a lot of clicks back to the website, though got shared and liked a lot. 

For the start of 2017 I come up with an idea to spend $4.00 per day on Facebook ads, but  minimizing total article count I'm promoting.

I come up with following ad campaign on Facebook for 30 days - one article for two days with 8 dollar budget. God, that helped a lot, it was way more easier to manage my campaigns. And I had an option to choose the best possible articles related to the interests of my audience.

My top performing ads gathered more than 1,000 likes and shares for a budget of 8 dollars, I got some 50-200 clicks per day back to the website, and nobody was stealing my content anymore. Just perfect.

This time I experimented with more audiences as well, for the start I went with ads in Georgia, then expanded them to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Spain, Philippines, United Arab Emirates and at the end United States.Mostly I was targeting audiences who were already somehow engaged with content on blog.

My ads in Georgia couldn't even reach their total budget, as they were perfectly targeting audience willing to like and share (Georgia related content for Georgian audience).

I had a decent results from Bulgaria (I promoted an article about my future travels plans to Bulgaria)

Very good results from Spain (Promoted article from my latest trip to region of Andalusia)

and even article targeted to the US audience get some decent results (promoted Prometheus cave in Georgia for speleology lovers in United States) 

After each campaign ended I manually invited all the persons who have liked posts to follow my Facebook page. It helped me to acquire about 600 new followers. 

Speaking of total visits back to the website - at the end of month they totaled at around 4,000, which is about 6% from overall traffic I got in January. Pretty decent, but I would say very expensive traffic. As the rest of the traffic I get, I get it for free, and that's about 80,000 users in January.

Constructing Foundation From Fibo Ceramsite Blocks For Pump Room

19 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 7 seen

The long story short - we are continuing to build a pump room, a room to store inside pumps and other aggregates, earlier this Summer we drill a bore hole and we are looking to draw in water to the house. For that we need a pump room.

Unfortunately the old log walls have been rotten and we started to replace them with aerated concrete blocks, prior to that we had to strengthen foundation. During foundation works we found out that there are parts were there are no foundation at all for house, it has been sitting just on few stones for more than hundred years. We had to change that.

The task is neither complicated nor hard, it involves a lot of dealing with different things, planing, leveling, organizing materials and so on.

Constructing foundation from fibo blocks

Fibo blocks are sitting on foundation footing. See: Pouring Concrete Footing

Few days ago we finished pouring footing for this part of house and some week earlier we demolished wall.

Pouring concrete

Concrete is poured over and metal rods are added to strengthen foundation

Support for roof

Yup,we actually changed roof first about a year ago, see: Meet the New Roof (Pictures Before and After)

Who said foundation works cannot be romantic?

How To Open A Bank Account in U.S., As A Non-resident Non - citizen, Wells Fargo Bank

18 February, 2017 | Doing Business | 141 seen

Long story short - after the long and painful check operations, originally sent from the U.S., and redemption in Georgia (or probably in any country except USA), which takes at least some 40 working days and huge bank fees for check procedures - I decided enough is enough, I'm going to the United States and I will open a bank account there, in order to receive direct payments to my bank account instead of checks.

Yes, there are companies in U.S. which sends checks instead of direct payments for international partners, Amazon Associates, for example

If you are looking for a way how to open a bank account in the USA without actually visiting USA, this guide is not for you, as to make it work, I actually visited a Wells Fargo branch in Manhattan, New York City.

Now, the U.S. has been on my radar since 2012, when I first headed there to scout my options on how to incorporate a LLC there. I didn't incorporate after all, though made another trip in 2013. As it might happen when you explore the World around you, and if you look around and listen, you will start notice some things. And so, during last 4 or 5 years I have heard many times that non U.S. citizens are opening bank accounts at Citibank. And when I planned my latest trip to the U.S. I thought - OK, I will try Citibank. 

Now, being in the States at the end of the year (December 28), in the second morning we decided to head to the Manhattan and look for a branch of Citibank, though my better part suggested me - hey, maybe you should try to enter each bank which will cross our route, and try there (as we had no idea where some branch of Citibank might be located), and so we did, we visited some 7-8 different banks in Manhattan, most of them told either it's not possible to open a bank account for a non citizen, while others asked for some more of proof of identity, which basically means an actual address in the U.S. (not a postal box).

Then Citibank appeared, I walked in and get it straight to the bulls eye - what are my options to open a bank account at Citibank, being a non resident, non citizen, without an address in the U.S.? The bank's clerk replied, basically it's not a problem to open a bank account at Citibank without permanent address in the U.S. but they would need some additional proof of address from my country, like some bill with my name on it and the address. It sounded easy, so I told, OK I will return then tomorrow with some utility payments from my base country. Sounded like a deal.

Now, we continued our route exploring Manhattan, when Wells Fargo bank popped out, as I'm receiving checks sent via Wells Fargo bank, I decided to enter and just ask my options. And then the surprise come - sure, buddy we can open a bank account for you, no matter which country's citizen you are, and we don't need a proof of your home country's address, as long as you can provide us with a debt card info issued at your home country. 

Luckily I had a Visa card issued by Bank of Georgia, and that's it - the process took less than 15 minutes, I had an active bank account with my name and my address in Georgia, the bank's clerk issued an temporary bank card, and told that after some 5-7 days I will receive my permanent card in Georgia by mail. Now since this is an international mail, it could take longer than 5-7 days, and in case of me, I actually didn't receive any mail at all here in Georgia after all, though it's just technical details. Continue reading to learn more.

Now, while at Wells Fargo branch I deposited USD 500 to my bank account, and then we went shopping using my new, though, temporary bank card - bought some nice Aldo shoes, ha ha. 

Once back at the hotel, I checked my mail, and there were information from Wells Fargo on how to activate online banking and so on, I did setup online bank account and now I was ready to start accept direct payments, by providing account and routing numbers to my customers in the U.S. As most of the money comes from Amazon Associates, I edited my banking info there, and at the end of the next month I actually received first payment from Amazon Associates. Awesome.

Now, I told above, that I didn't actually get my card shipped to me in Georgia, yes at start that sounded as a big issue, but then I just phoned Wells Fargo Support and asked could they change my address (to address where mail is not lost usually) and in less than 15 minute conversation I was done. Wells Fargo promised to ship a new card in the morning (again 5-7 days), and right now I'm actually still waiting my new, replaced card to arrive.

Now, you have probably heard, and you should be aware of thing called - paying taxes. A non resident, non citizens cannot apply for Social Security Number, but instead they can apply for ITIN (which is kind of SSN for foreigners). I didn't applied for ITIN yet, as I'm planing to return one more time, this Summer to the U.S. and in my next visit I'm planing to deal with ITIN thing. I will keep updated. Wells Fargo didn't asked for ITIN when opening a bank account, but I'm aware that I should submit it at some stage.

Now, a little bit about Wells Fargo bank account

Make sure you inform bank's clerk that you would like to setup an international payments from online banking (of course if you want to make international payments), as later it turned out, I cannot make any international payments (just payments inside U.S.) as such option is not enabled for my bank account. When applying for a bank account I didn't even know that online bank might come with option excluding international payments. International payments must be enabled in person at branch. This is another thing I will need to handle, next time I will visit U.S.

Opening a bank account at Wells Fargo is free, there is no monthly fee, if on your account is $1,500 or more, otherwise it's some $10 per month. Lear more about Wells Fargo Consumer and Business Account Fees

My Start at Investing on Mintos Peer to Peer Lending Platform: Depositing Funds

17 February, 2017 | Peer to Peer Lending | 42 seen

I first heard about Mintos.com peer to peer lending platform at the start of 2016, later that year I decided to give it a try, as I was looking for investment opportunities especially in Georgia.

Back at these days Mintos operated already in Georgian lending market. I even made an article later that year, see: Invest in Georgia - Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending - Mintos.com

Both individuals and entities can invest through Mintos. Individual investors must be at least 18 years old, have a bank account in the European Union or third countries currently considered to have AML/CFT systems equivalent to the EU, and have their identity successfully verified by Mintos. At the moment, US citizens or taxpayers cannot register as investors at Mintos.

Affiliate link here: Signup to Mintos.com here. By using this affiliate link for registration both you and I will receive — 1% of our average daily balance which should be paid in 3 installments for the first 90 days.

Unfortunately, or for good, it took me some 8 more months before actually starting investing in peer to peer using their platform. The kick start was kind of New Year's resolution to invest money wisely for the next 29 years, or until I will turn 60 and to retire with a million dollars in bank account. see: Road To Million Dollars in Saving Account

Now, after financially successful year of 2016 I just returned to ideas I had thought in past, and yes, Mintos was still a top of them. My overall goal for 2017 is to invest about $8,561 throughout the year in several batches. Not mandatory all money I'm looking to invest in Mintos, I'm still looking on other types of investment -  kind of stocks and mutual funds. But some amount will go to Mintos this year for sure.

At start I wanted to deposit USD 966.00 in January, but as I have been located in Georgia, for such bank transfer and money exchange, in bank commissions I would loose about EUR 65 for 1000 EUR. Which is not nice. I contacted Mintos help desk, and got advice to use transferwise system to save some money on international transfers. Unfortunately it turned out Georgia is not supported by transferwise (you can receive, but not send money from Georgia).

For the second I thought - It would be really hard and expensive for me to invest in Mintos from Georgia, with Georgian bank account (see: Opening Bank Account in Georgia - Bank of Georgia), but then I remembered I've seen an article about Opportunities to invest in Georgian lari on the Mintos marketplace, transferring funds within Georgia and saving on costly international transfers:

...investors will have the opportunity to invest in loans denominated in Georgian lari (GEL) on the Mintos marketplace. The loan originator Creamfinance is offering investment opportunities in Georgian lari.

...

By facilitating investments in multiple currencies, Mintos is helping investors and loan originators eliminate one of the most significant financial risks – currency risk.

I contacted help desk again and wandered could I probably split my initial payment into two parts, like fund half of my account here in Georgia (avoiding international bank transfer fees) and transfer second part to Latvia (Mintos Head Office and bank account is located there)

...

I noticed you have started to issue loans in GEL, and I could transfer fund to Liberty bank here in Tbilisi but again, as I understand that money will be in GEL and just for Georgian loans. Which, in fact, is perfectly fine for me,as I'm mostly interested in Georgian market, just I'm concerned about currency (in this case GEL) fluctuations against both USD and EUR (as a passive investor in past I have lost more than 20% of my assets in GEL).

As I'm just looking to give it a try for Mintos and peer to peer lending I decided to split my initial USD 1000 investment into two parts, half I will transfer to Liberty bank in GEL here in Georgia, and the second part I will transfer to Latvia using wire transfer in EUR to give it a try for Baltic market.

Is that correct or I'm not getting something?

I sent this question on Friday evening just shortly after 6:00PM, and had to wait until Monday morning for the reply, but it was worth of waiting, as I was told, that I can transfer all funds in Goergian lari (GEL) here in Georgia, and it can be exchanged on Mintos Marketplace for market price without additional fee:

Actually we could offer you a different and a cheaper way, how to do it. You can transfer funds in GEL to our account in GEL currency and then we can exchange funds to any other currency, which is supported in our platform. Conversion rate usually is mid-market rate and we don't deduct any fees for the exchange. This means that you will be able to invest in several currencies.

Sounds good.

Anyhow, I still decided to play safe and decided to transfer to my Mintos account using Georgian bank just half of the amount I initially planned to make sure there is no catch or something. Get some overview. I still had to exchange USD to GEL (which in fact I don't love to do) for USD 500 I got GEL 1,317 (as on January 23) and transferred GEL 1300 to my Mintos account using Liberty bank. I hope money to arrive soon on my Mintos account and I will have a chance actually to start investing in Georgian loans soon. Anyway I'm still looking to add additional USD 500 to my account this month or next month, to complete my goal of investing 29% of my income I made in 2014 (It's actually USD 966.00)

I will keep updated about how it goes after around month. For now I have invested USD 500 or 0.05% from my goal - 1 million dollars.

How about you? Are you investing in peer to peer? Can you leave your thoughts? Readers and me would love to hear.

When Foundations Crumble - Home Remodeling

16 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 7 seen

When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psalm 11:3

Today was meant to be an easy day, we had to continue foundation works, pouring in concrete, nothing complicated in fact, just a manpower to carry gravel with wheelbarrow for some 100 meters from the pile to the concrete mixer. I had two workers helping me out today, what could go wrong?

It was planned some visitors will arrive in the evening and we will grill some meat and look on overall progress of home remodeling. 

See: Home Remodeling - How It All Starts

Work in progress

Author of this blog standing next to the concrete mixer.

And then it happened:

Rock fall on the foundation

A minor landslide and rock from the old foundation felt in the free flow. Concrete was still fresh  it was just a matter of removing that rock and making sure there is no more landslides around foundation

Somebody had to remove that rock

Visitors arrived but I was still busy managing rocks out of the foundation.

Central Park, New York City

15 February, 2017 | Tourism objects | 16 seen

Central Park is an urban park in Manhattan, New York City. Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States, with about 40 million visitors yearly, also it's one of the most filmed locations in the world.

Central Park should be on every travelers, going to the NYC, bucket list, I first visited it in the Spring 2012, and was really amazed of an elegant urban/nature solutions in the middle of... New York. At the end of 2016 I had a chance to visit New York again - this time I was prepared with a tripod and camera.

Central park in New York city

Originally park was established in 1857 on 778 acres (315 ha) of city-owned land. 

Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1962. The Park, managed for decades by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, is currently managed by the Central Park Conservancy under contract with the municipal government in a public-private partnership. The Conservancy is a non-profit organization that contributes 75 percent of Central Park's $65 million annual budget and is responsible for all basic care of the 843-acre park.

One of the park's bridges; no two are alike

This one seems pretty much featured in many movies, like Home Alone 2: Lost in New York city.

Urban nature

There are four different types of bedrock in Manhattan. In Central Park, Manhattan schist and Hartland schist, which are both metamorphosed sedimentary rock, are exposed in various outcroppings. The other two types, Fordham gneiss (an older deeper layer) and Inwood marble (metamorphosed limestone which overlays the gneiss), do not surface in the park.[68] Fordham gneiss, which consists of metamorphosed igneous rocks, was formed a billion years ago, during what is known as the Grenville orogeny that occurred during the creation of an ancient super-continent. It is the oldest rock in the Canadian Shield, the most ancient part of the North American tectonic plate. Manhattan schist and Hartland schist were formed in the Iapetus Ocean during the Taconic orogeny in the Paleozoic era, about 450 million years ago. During this period the tectonic plates began to move toward each other, which resulted in the creation of the supercontinent, Pangaea

First plants for Rock Garden

13 February, 2017 | Home Remodeling | 3 seen

Last summer we not only concreted a lot and demolished walls, but planted some plants and trees in the surrounding territory. 

See: Planting an Apple Tree (Doch Melbi / Daughter Melbi / Дочь Мелбы)

After we shaped a little bit our rock garden it was time to plant first plants.

First plants at rock garden

For the record - thyme and rosemary

Short Day Trip To Kiev, Ukraine

12 February, 2017 | Travel guides | 8 seen

Long story short - we had a chance to spend in Kiev couple of hours, during our latest flight Tbilisi - Kiev - New York city, after our flight was delayed for about 10 hours at Kiev's Borispol airport we decided to use these hours by exploring Kiev, instead of waiting at airport's transit area.

Out of the airport terminal at Borispol, there are buses taking passengers either to Kharkivksya or Vokzalnaya. The ticket prices are really cheap there. Since we didn't had any clue which station should we go, we asked just a bus going to the city center. We were taken to the Vokzalnaya from which we took a taxi and headed to the Khreshchatyk street to try some Ukrainian cuisine, see the Maidan square. At the end We did some metro ride to the Kharkiskaya station, from which we were taken back to the airport.

Despite harsh weather (end of December 2016) I really enjoyed Kiev and was surprised to see that city is not at all expensive (taxi's, metro and even meal on central street were under USD 10). Amazing. Kiev - I will come back for more, most probably during Summertime.