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 swiped at cashier desk before mine purchase to acquire that huge but trust me, fake discount.

And here you go - Edward  AW-BC620TH the brush cutter / trimmer

Edward fresh just from the shop

I decided to unwrap Edward just in the middle of it's new working field - the grass.

Edward unpacked 

It consists from few essential parts - an engine, stem, protecting device, trimming nozzle and few more. It took me about two hours to get Edward right. Thus instruction was provided, there were some unclear sections for me, after all I figured it out and Edward was ready for work.

Edward ready to work

Author of this blog captured in action - trimming grass

The fight with grass has turned to be personal already, see how I started this fight using a scythe about a year ago.

Now, huge was my surpirse when in evening I tried to find some reviews of this model - the brand name Edward never popped up, I was able to find this model by its serial number AW-BC620TH in some Russian and Belarus online stores listed under Grasshopper brand.  And for much less money. In Russian sites it costs about EUR 110, while in Belarus about EUR 140. It just confirms my theory about all those locality cards - they are scam.

But I'm not complaining and hope Edward will please us for years to come. I will keep you updated.

The Big Spring Cleanup Part 2 - Trimming Trees and Branches

| Home Remodeling | 7 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 autumn, for today we trimmer shrubbery around it.

View towards house from apple orchard

 

Former Kolkhoz Spartak

| | 7 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 division - replace location.lv.inc file (/sites/all/modules/location/supported) with following:

<?php /** * @file * Latvia. */ /** * Returns an associative array of states/territories. */ function location_province_list_lv() { return array( 'ADA' => "Ādažu novads", 'AGL' => "Aglonas novads", 'AIZ' => "Aizkraukles novads", 'AIP' => "Aizputes novads", 'AKN' => "Aknīstes novads", 'ALO' => "Alojas novads", 'ALS' => "Alsungas novads", 'ALU' => "Alūksnes novads", 'AMA' => "Amatas novads", 'APE' => "Apes novads", 'AUC' => "Auces novads", 'BAB' => "Babītes novads", 'BAL' => "Baldones novads", 'BAT' => "Baltinavas novads", 'BAV' => "Balvu novads", 'BAU' => "Bauskas novads", 'BEV' => "Beverīnas novads", 'BRO' => "Brocēnu novads", 'BUR' => "Burtnieku novads", 'CAR' => "Carnikavas novads", 'CES' => "Cēsu novads", 'CEV' => "Cesvaines novads", 'CIB' => "Ciblas novads", 'DAG' => "Dagdas novads", 'DAU' => "Daugavpils novads", 'DOB' => "Dobeles novads", 'DUN' => "Dundagas novads", 'DUR' => "Durbes novads", 'ENG' => "Engures novads", 'ERG' => "Ērgļu novads", 'GAR' => "Garkalnes novads", 'GRO' => "Grobiņas novads", 'GUL' => "Gulbenes novads", 'IEC' => "Iecavas novads", 'IKS' => "Ikšķiles novads", 'ILU' => "Ilūkstes novads", 'INC' => "Inčukalna novads", 'JAU' => "Jaunjelgavas novads", 'JAP' => "Jaunpiebalgas novads", 'JAI' => "Jaunpils novads", 'JEK' => "Jēkabpils novads", 'JEL' => "Jelgavas novads", 'KAN' => "Kandavas novads", 'KAR' => "Kārsavas novads", 'KOC' => "Kocēnu novads", 'KOK' => "Kokneses novads", 'KRA' => "Krāslavas novads", 'KRI' => "Krimuldas novads", 'KRU' => "Krustpils novads", 'KUL' => "Kuldīgas novads", 'KEG' => "Ķeguma novads", 'KEK' => "Ķekavas novads", 'LIE' => "Lielvārdes novads", 'LIG' => "Līgatnes novads", 'LIM' => "Limbažu novads", 'LIV' => "Līvānu novads", 'LUB' => "Lubānas novads", 'LUD' => "Ludzas novads", 'MAD' => "Madonas novads", 'MAL' => "Mālpils novads", 'MAR' => "Mārupes novads", 'MAZ' => "Mazsalacas novads", 'MER' => "Mērsraga novads", 'NAU' => "Naukšēnu novads", 'NER' => "Neretas novads", 'NIC' => "Nīcas novads", 'OGR' => "Ogres novads", 'OLA' => "Olaines novads", 'OZO' => "Ozolnieku novads", 'PAR' => "Pārgaujas novads", 'PAV' => "Pāvilostas novads", 'PLA' => "Pļaviņu novads", 'PRE' => "Preiļu novads", 'PRI' => "Priekules novads", 'PRK' => "Priekuļu novads", 'RAU' => "Raunas novads", 'REZ' => "Rēzeknes novads", 'RIE' => "Riebiņu novads", 'ROJ' => "Rojas novads", 'ROP' => "Ropažu novads", 'RUC' => "Rucavas novads", 'RUG' => "Rugāju novads", 'RUJ' => "Rūjienas novads", 'RUN' => "Rundāles novads", 'SAL' => "Salacgrīvas novads", 'SAA' => "Salas novads", 'SAS' => "Salaspils novads", 'SAD' => "Saldus novads", 'SAU' => "Saulkrastu novads", 'SEJ' => "Sējas novads", 'SIG' => "Siguldas novads", 'SKR' => "Skrīveru novads", 'SKU' => "Skrundas novads", 'SMI' => "Smiltenes novads", 'STO' => "Stopiņu novads", 'STR' => "Strenču novads", 'TAL' => "Talsu novads", 'TER' => "Tērvetes novads", 'TUK' => "Tukuma novads", 'VAI' => "Vaiņodes novads", 'VAL' => "Valkas novads", 'VAR' => "Varakļānu novads", 'VAK' => "Vārkavas novads", 'VEC' => "Vecpiebalgas novads", 'VEU' => "Vecumnieku novads", 'VEN' => "Ventspils novads", 'VIE' => "Viesītes novads", 'VIL' => "Viļakas novads", 'VIA' => "Viļānu novads", 'ZIL' => "Zilupes novads", 'DGV' => "Daugavpils", 'JKP' => "Jēkabpils", 'JGV' => "Jelgava", 'JUR' => "Jūrmala", 'LPY' => "Liepāja", 'RZK' => "Rēzekne", 'RIG' => "Rīga", 'VAM' => "Valmiera", 'VSL' => "Ventspils" ); } /** * Returns minimum and maximum latitude and longitude needed to create a bounding box. */ function location_bounds_lv() { return array( 'minlng' => 20.8848, 'minlat' => 55.723733, 'maxlng' => 28.1695, 'maxlat' => 58.147367, ); }

Clear cache and you should be done. For a live demo see here:

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

It took us three people, three sacks of the mortar and some thirty bricks to complete chimney repair works in some six hours. A chimney is an integral part of our rural country and now we can move on, keeping our place warm.

 

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 implemented by the Government and Georgian Railways that aimed to increase tourism potential and fit the interests of Batumi residents.

Parking lot near Batumi railway station

During train departing / arrival times parking lot is full of taxi cars. Near the railway station is located some bus station, seems marshrutkas are leaving from here as well.

Waiting rooms at Batumi Railway station

There is a luggage storage room available, I was asked to pay 5 lari for storing my luggage here for few hours.

Platfrom at Batumi Railway station

How To Make Burger Buns at Home

| Food blogger | 15 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
  • 1 tablespoon water

Cooking Directions:

  • Combine the milk, 1 cup of water, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then remove from the heat and let stand until lukewarm. If the mixture is too hot, it will kill the yeast.
  • In a large bowl, stir together the flour and yeast. Pour in wet ingredients and stir until the dough starts to pull together. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook to mix for about 8 minutes. If not, knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let stand until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  • Punch down the dough and divide into 12 portions They should be a little larger than a golf ball. Make tight balls out of the dough by pulling the dough tightly around and pinching it at the bottom. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. After the rolls sit for a minute and relax, flatten each ball with the palm of your hand until it is 3 to 4 inches wide. You may want to oil your hand first. Set rolls aside until they double in size, about 20 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Mix together the egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of water in a cup or small bowl. Brush onto the tops of the rolls. Position 2 oven racks so they are not too close to the top or bottom of the oven.
  • Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove the rolls from the oven and return them to different shelves so each one spends a little time on the top. Continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until nicely browned on the top and bottom.

    • Photos

    Divide dough equally in ten to twelve parts

    Dough for burger buns divided equally 

    Use your regular kitchen knife for slicing burger bun dough

    Give it a tennis ball shape form

    Put on a frying pan and leave dough to rest for some 30 minutes (so the yeast continue to ferment)

    Press them flat and add sesame seeds

    Put your burger buns in oven and bake for some 15 minutes

    The result:

    Freshly baked burger buns

    Now it's time to prepare your homemade burger

    For burger toppings you can use, tomatoes, pickles, salads.. just the usual stuff.. yes cheese goes in very well also.

    Toppings for burger

    • For patties recipe please see: Simple Homemade Hamburger Recipe With Photos

    From dough leftovers you can create really cool hotdogs (sausage wrapped and baked in dough)

    Simple hotdogs

    The result:

    Homemade hamburgers and hotdogs

    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 and bottles. We didn't made cleanup here last year, so it's vital to perform cleanup here. Afterall I hope to see lovely landscaped territory here - it consist from apple orchard and cherry trees.

    First flowerbed

    Flowers are essential for beautiful landscape surrounding house.

    The Bottom Line

    I believe landscaped territory makes 50% of home value. 

    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 walk.

    Glass house

    It turned out it's not allowed to enter glass houses at this garden, but hey, right here we started our trip.

    Hiking trails at Batumi Botanical Garden

    It's definitely worth of taking a hike here.

    Batumi Botanical garden

    Currently, the garden consists of nine floristic sectors, those of Caucasian humid subtropics, East Asia, New Zealand, South America, the Himalayas, Mexico, Australia, and of the Mediterranean. The garden collection comprises 2037 taxonomic units of ligneous plants, including 104 of Caucasian origin.

    Palms at Batumi Botanical Garden

    The Batumi Botanical Garden was started by the Russian botanist Andrey Nikolayevich Krasnov (1862-1914), brother of General Pyotr Krasnov, in the 1880s and officially opened on November 3, 1912. He was aided by two skilled gardeners and decorators – the French D’Alphonse and the Georgian Yason Gordeziani. Krasnov died in 1914 and was interred at the garden which still houses his grave and statue.

    Bamboo trees

    Under the Soviet Union, the garden was further expanded and developed, since 1925, into a principal institution for the study ofCaucasian maritime subtropical cultures.

    View towards Black Sea from Botanical Garden

    The Batumi Botanical Garden had formerly been operated by the Georgian Academy of Sciences. Since 2006, it is an independent institution.

    At Batumi Botanical Garden

    View toward Batumi city

    Might be a really cool place for sunset/sunrise photography

    View towards Kobuleti / Black Sea

    Surrounding Adjarian mountains

    Man selling kvass

    There are small cafeteria at main entrance of Botanical garden, also some souvenirs and gifts can be bought here. 

    The Bottom Line

    It took us about 3 hours to complete route from one entrance to second, and it was worth it. Grab your best gear and go Batumi.

    Official website: www.bbg.ge (Georgian only)

    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.