Blog Archive: May 2016

Edward The Brushcutter AW-BC620TH Trimmer

| Home Remodeling | 58 seen

Meet Edward, our newest team member to help us out in our home remodeling works. I first met Edward at local DEPO DIY store in Liepāja, Latvia. The sales person wanted me to buy  a Jasper, as Jasper was listed just under EUR 100. In my mind I had already allocated about EUR 400 for a new brush cutter / trimmer purchase and I asked to the salesperson can he show me something more powerful than Jasper?

I was introduced with many never heard brand names before, when Edward popped up. Sales guy told me - hey take a look on Edward! I asked who the hell is Edward? Ahh - you know, some Chinese guy, but really great guy. Edward  AW-BC620TH was listed for EUR 220, but owners of DEPO loyalty card could own it just for EUR 189. 

I took a look on Edward's technical capability, enjoyed that it features both string and knife nozzle and it runs on petrol. So I opted for Edward after some 10 minute wondering around Jaspers, Hetchs and other never  before heard brand names.

There were still few formalities to pass, before acquiring Edward, like to get other buyer and ask his DEPO loyalty card to be…

The Big Spring Cleanup Part 2 - Trimming Trees and Branches

| Home Remodeling | 8 seen

After the successful Big Spring cleanup of territory surrounding our rural house, and after masonry works with chimney it was time to get rid of old and broken branches.

Frankly speaking I thought it will be enough just to cut one broken branch from our apple orchard and trimming some smaller bushes in garden. Turned out I was wrong. After all we trimmed many trees and way more branches. For this task I hired a professional saw guy, which I was already familiar since last summer's home remodeling works. We made a first barbecue picnic today as well. 

Let me show exactly what we did today:

Cutting trees and trimming branches

Some good firewood for winter can be made from some trees.

Man with a saw in action

Guntars or Guncha how we call the saw guy is a wonderful guy, he is master of many tools, but the chain saw is his heart thing. I was just amazed seeing him in action, how virtue this guy works with a chain saw. Just amazing.

First Barbecue this season - Chicken wings - yummy

Cutting osier shrubbery 

Some major fish pond works are planned for this…

Former Kolkhoz Spartak

| | 8 seen

It was on a still and tranquil Friday evening when we took our cat Tiger on a walk. I took a tripod and camera and just documented were we went. Turned out we were walking with our cat at former kolkhoz Spartaks territory,

A kolkhoz was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz. These were the two components of the socialized farm sector that began to emerge in Soviet agriculture after the October Revolution of 1917, as an antithesis both to the feudal structure of impoverished serfdom and aristocratic landlords and to individual or family farming.

Former kolkhoz "Spartaks"

Located in Laidi parish, Kuldiga district, Latvia, nowadays this former kolkhoz Spartaks seems is used by locals to store a firewood and some small animals.

Nearby fish ponds

Skew roof

Seems these guys need a little help in roof works

Transformer building

Piece of Life after all!

Drupal Patch For Location Module To Update Province List for Latvia With Latest Data

| Drupal Development | 4 seen

Made a simple Drupal patch for Location module to display latest administrative divisions of Latvia. Default one is still showing outdated data using old "Rayon" as administrative divisions of Latvia.

Will try to submit this patch to official module release on Drupal.orf

From Wikipedia:  

According to the Administrative territorial reform of Latvia (2009), Latvia changed its administrative divisions from two-level municipalities (the districts were the first-level municipalities, while towns, cities, towns countryside territories and parishes were the second-level municipalities) to one-level municipalities - districts were liquidated, but towns (Latvian: pilsētas), towns countryside territories (Latvian: pilsētu lauku teritorijas) and parishes (Latvian: pagasti) were merged into 110 municipalities (Latvian: novadi) and there are 9 republican cities (Latvian: republikas pilsētas) with their own city council and administration.

To update to the latest administrative…

Repairing Old Brick Chimney

| Home Remodeling | 7 seen

On April 20, 2016 we completely changed a top of our brick chimney at our rural country house. It was not planned actually to change all top of chimney, just to add two rows of bricks. Thus after a quick inspection it was clear - it's time to replace it all.

Read how we lost a chimney in past: Replacing Roof - Part 3: Removing the old roofing (Losing Chimney)

Workers inspecting chimney

It was clear - there are no other option, but to remove brick by brick from atop of the chimney, and rebuild it from scratch (almost)

Removing old bricks from chimney

It was much easier that it seemed - due to the harsh weather and lack of any maintenance for the past 25 years (at least) bricks were detached from the mortar and in fact it was already dangerous to have such an unstable and unsafe chimney.

Red bricks for chimney

They are not new, they are actually some 80 years old, as we took them from the second chimney base (the one we lost last summer)

The mortar

Half way there

I was told a chimney should have seven rows above the roof.

Done…

Restaurant "Ukrainochka" in Batumi

| Restaurant reviews | 23 seen

Restaurant Ukrainochka is located at Batumi Railway Station terminal building, some 3 km from Batumi city centre. Food served here is true masterpieces of Ukrainian cuisine, not to mention blonde and beautiful Ukrainian girls serving your meal here. 

We enjoyed our Ukrainian meal here, while waited for train departing back to Tbilisi.

Spacious space at Ukrainochka in Batumi

Menu at Ukrainochka restaurant

Both traditional Ukrainian cuisine and Georgian is served here

Traditional Ukrainian Borsch served with smetana (sour cream)

Really delicious

Pancakes served with cold milk

Milk was not offered in menu, but I asked to the blonde Ukrainian girl, is it possible to manage it, as pancakes and cold milk is the best. She was a quick learner and sold us milk as matsoni (Georgian yogurt). 

The Bottom Line

Restaurant Ukrainochka in Batumi central station is one of the best Ukrainian cuisine restaurants I have visited lately, great food, excellent service. The price? We paid about 60 lari here, which might be a bit above average.

Batumi Railway Station

| Railway / Bus / Ferry | 369 seen

Batumi railway station has been recently constructed and opened for public, making travels by train from Tbilisi to Batumi a little bit easier.

Prior that, train stopped at Makjinjauri station (some 7 km from Batumi city center)

I took a train ride from Tbilisi to Batumi at start of March 2016, and was 100% sure that new station will be located somewhere in Batumi city - I was wrong. The new station is still located some 3 km from city, and to actually get to the city, you must take additional taxi or bus. Very strange.

Newly constructed Batumi Railway Station

It has been opened in Summer of 2015. Former Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili praised the opening of the new railway station.

"This is a very important investment for Batumi. Partnership Fund and Georgian Railway contributed significantly in implementing this project. Batumi’s potential is growing and we all should support the city to use its potential,” said Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

A Georgian Railways representative said the new train station was another major infrastructure project…

How To Make Burger Buns at Home

| Food blogger | 16 seen

If you asked me how to make hamburger buns at home question some eight years ago - I would say - it's complicated and most probably impossible. Ask me today - and I will not only exactly tell - but I will show some cool pictures of both how to make burger buns at home and some really delicious home made burgers and variation of hotdogs.

Allow me to inform you - I'm not the original creator of what you will see next (I was allowed just to photograph) - but since we made burger buns at home - let me say - there is nothing impossible a man can handle. For today's photography I used 100mm zoom lens (My findings: 100mm are really cool for food photography).

  • See my first attempts of simple homemade hamburger recipe (using buns bought at local supermarket)

For burger buns dough we took Belle's Hamburger Buns recipe from allrecipes.com

Ingredients: 

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 tablespoon white sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
  • 1 egg yolk…

The Big Spring Territory Cleanup

| Home Remodeling | 7 seen

Few days ago I announced start for Season 2 of our home remodeling adventures. We have some really big plans to achieve this year - like getting a water supply and constructing from scratch few walls. Also a bathroom is planned to be finished until end of this Summer.

But our home renovation tasks starts with outdoor territory. More precise with the big Spring cleanup. We had to clean area not only from old leaves and branches, but also from plastic bottles, cans and even TV picture tubes.

Let me introduce - The Big Spring Cleanup of 2016

Dump with old TV picture tubes, plastic bottles and cans

We got this together with house already last year. Previous owner (RIP) seems have collected TV picture tubes and sold nonferrous metal parts from them. I don't have other explanation why there can be so many of them at one place.

Sacks of dump

Today we collected 13 sacks of dump - 9 from TV dump, 4 old leaves and branches from garden. It will ask another 25 sacks to complete our Big Spring Cleanup.

The Big Spring Cleanup in the garden

Old leaves and branches, as well few cans…

Batumi Botanical Garden

| Tourism objects | 32 seen

Batumi Botanical Garden is a must have to visit tourism attraction site when in Batumi.

Botanical Garden is actually located at the place called Mtsvane Kontskhi ("The Green Cape") in distance of some 10 km from Batumi city on the Black Sea shore, it is one of the largest botanical gardens in the former Soviet Union. 

You can get here either by hiring a taxi from Batumi (I negotiated price for about 10 GEL .March 2016) or using mini vans (marshrutkas) from city,

If you have already visited Tbilisi Botanical Garden you will notice that Tbilisi garden is a weak echo of botanical garden if compared to this one, located in Batumi.

Our taxi driver recommended us to take second entrance, instead of main entrance. Which means - you don't have to walk twice (forth and back) the same route, instead you start your walk from the end and reach main entrance, from where marshrutkas departs back to Batumi.

Entrance fee at Batumi Botanical Garden: 8 GEL

Tourist cab at Batumi Botanical Garden

For additional 3 GEL you can take a ride in such vehicle to explore garden, we decided to…

I Will Miss This Tbilisi Wall

| Living in Georgia | 6 seen

I have observed this wall for the last three years (with short interruptions, when on longer travels) from our Tbilisi balcony. Probably, right at this wallI started to improve my photographer skills when about two years ago I reported first time lapse - Brick Wall turning green.

Looking on this wall I have spent countless hours by zooming, experimenting with f stops, changing lenses and so on, making many photographs for my 365 days photo challenge project. The following picture is how I will  remember you, my dearest wall, for next couple of months, until I will return back to Tbilisi to our lovely apartment, probably I will visit you even sooner, who knows, right now I', spending my days in another interesting walls and roofs project, see  Home Remodeling - Season 2 starts now

Tbilisi wall

See you soon Tbilisi and Georgia.