I’ve spent the week in Las Vegas attending the Webmasterworld Pubcon and will be returning home tomorrow. The Pubcon sessions focus on education with regard to web site and search marketing. I’ve gained some valuable insight from each session and have already re-ordered my queue of projects. I enjoyed the Google sponsored cocktail party and am thankful for the opportunity to have direct conversations with key Google directors and engineers. Google’s own Search Evangelist liked my idea of fashioning something of a Google “FICO” score for webmasters; the idea being, the lower the score, the more that particular webmaster is at risk for crossing over from “white hat” to “black hat” tactics. My concern, being a “white hat” search marketing guru for my own web sites, is unknowingly crossing a line and damaging search marketing efforts. A Google “FICO” score could be made abstract enough to be less informative to “black hats” while helping folks like me walk the line. Anyway, the Google Search Evangelist wrote my idea into his little brown book of ideas to be brought back to department directors, so I’m hopeful I’ll see something akin to it appear as a webmaster tool in the near future.

Las Vegas has a lot to offer but I’ll be happy to return to Western Virginia tomorrow. I miss my family, my home and Virginians in general. This city is a concrete jungle. Any plant that exists is merely for landscaping purposes; all blades or branches have had all natural contours trimmed away to resemble the man made shapes that saturate one’s vision. My apologies to fans of Las Vegas, but the people here are predominantly the sort of people that like gambling and strippers. Except for the working folks in the hospitality industry, almost everyone here looks disingenuous. But it isn’t all bad; there are a myriad of shows and performances nightly and certainly no shortage of entertainment. And where else will you find such spectacles as a Lamborghini dealership in a shopping mall? I took two business associates to see The Blue Man Group perform at their dedicated theatre attached to The Venetian. It was easily the most visually stunning performance I’ve ever seen and it’s a must-see event. If you travel to Vegas, make sure to see The Blue Man Group, and if you have children 10 years or older, make sure you bring them along. The audience participation was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve just installed a network camera and fixed it towards Cahas Mountain. Click here to view the full size 1280×1024 photo. The image is updated every 60 seconds. Locally, I’m storing each image separately in a folder for the purposes of creating time-lapse movies. I’ll post those as I gain enough data.

My goal is to keep the camera fixed and active for at least 365 days so I can get a full year encapsulated in short time lapse videos. I did this once before on the farm in Vermont. It was pretty amazing.

Of particular interest now is the development that has begun on the 110 acre field visible in the photos. I suspect in addition to the changing seasons I will also be capturing the construction of homes and roads over a period of time.

I took a Gator ride on our Bunker Hill trail today to check conditions and get some late Autumn photos. Autumn reds, golds and yellows are beginning to give way to a different sort of beauty and agelessness.

A tall and lanky quadruple oak signals the highest point on Bunker Hill, which is +/– 1420’. I often wonder what this hill looked like bare of trees, which I’m certain it once was given the robust logging road that crosses its spine.

Oak, Maple, Dogwood and Poplar leaves on the first leg of their journey to become topsoil.

I find it interesting how trees furthest down the hollows generally shed their leaves first. I suppose this is because warmer air rises up to the ridgetops while cooler air settles down into the hollows, creating two somewhat distinct microclimates.

Treebeard stands sentry on the gnoll above the indoor riding arena. Grassy Hill in Rocky Mount, VA is visible in the distance, five miles away as the crow flies.

This is my brand new Rotomec PHD 200 post hold digger w/ a 12” auger bit, attached to my John Deere 3520. It digs post holes. It digs them really fast. How fast? Laugh like a schoolboy fast. It replaces the one man power earth auger that I tore up back in the Spring. Since then, I had been tearing up my elbows with a manual clamshell post hole digger. Well, that old digger can now be hung up for good.

I dug this 40” hole in 40 seconds. I dug five others in 200 seconds. That’s about 400 seconds less time than it used to take me to dig one hole! This morning I had six posts set in concrete in under an hour. I’m now much more optimistic about my wintertime roadside four rail fence project, which will require several hundred such holes.

For Sale: one torn up earth auger w/ 10″ bit along with one clamshell manual post hole digger. Cheap 

Work continues in earnest on the half bath remodel. I’m just about done. All that remains is cutting clean lines on the trim with blue tape and putting up the wrought iron hardware and accessory pieces. Looking at this photo that the wife paparazzi took, I’m also thinking that the white cabinet knobs will have to be replaced also. I’m also thinking, wow, that’s one bow-legged indian!

I’m beginning to come to an understanding with regard to some of the better approaches to painting trim. This job went alot easier thanks to the hour I spent sanding the window, base, chair and crown molding (along with the inside face of the door). The trim then only required two coats instead of three. I’ll post some other photos later once I have the new mirror, iron wrought hardware and accessories installed.

When I checked our mailbox today, this is how many catalogs that spilled out of it. We’re still two weeks from Thanksgiving and already the onslaught has begun. Given that Nancy and I run a household and three separate companies under one roof, I’ve gotten accustomed to massive amounts of junk mail every day. But the Holidays signals a tripling of junk and I can’t help but think, marketing directors are nucking futs. How much of a markup must these vendors make on their products in order to cost justify mailing me thousands of catalogs every flipping year?

It’s November and my south facing Maple trees are in full color. We call this side of the house our secret garden, because of the privacy and protection that our many trees and boxwoods provide us. This is my third year in Virginia after leaving Vermont behind and I still can’t get over the extended foliage season in Virginia.

Nancy and I picked out some tile for the mudroom. We’ve been putting off “finishing” the mudroom while we concentrated on other things but the plain concrete floor is beginning to drive me batty. After calling five contractors and learning that I’d have to wait at least four months to fit into everyone’s schedule, I’ve decided to install the tile myself. No, I’ve never done it before, but that’s half the fun now isn’t it?

I’ve filled holes in the bathroom I’m remodeling and soon I’ll be sanding the drywall (to remove dried remnant wallpaper adhesive) and sanding the sheen off the oil paint on the chair, crown and window moulding. Chloe’s four folding closet doors are fully painted on one side and I’m half done the other. This weekend, with any luck, I’ll have mounted them and begun work on Moira’s door. I’ll post photos shortly!

Living on a horse farm in rural Franklin County rules out trick or treating in your own neck of the woods. So we were very fortunate to be adopted this year by another North Cross School family who lives in the Old Southwest area of Roanoke. Near Yellow Mountain Road, their neighborhood is one of the oldest and most picturesque in the city. We had a wonderful pot luck dinner followed by trick or treating with our Tinker Bell and our Snow Queen.

This particular block is closed to traffic on Halloween Night. The entire neighborhood gets into the Halloween Spirit like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Apparently over 700 young trick or treaters is not unexpected. On this night, it looked more like 700 an hour. Some houses were offering, er, adult beverages fresh from the cooler to sooth the parched throats of any thirsty and foot weary parent   One house was projecting the movie Monster House on – you guessed it – the side of their house. It was a very friendly and festive atmosphere. Here are some spooky photos.

The Grim Reaper didn’t seem to phase our Tinker Bell and Snow Queen!

Here is the Monster House projected on the Tudor House. It of course was much cooler in person. Note the children locked in the TV Trance.

It should now be apparent why houses in the above neighborhood stick around for decades and realtors wrestle for listings when they so rarely become available, knowing that the house will sell amost instantly – even at a king’s ransom. If you’re a city person (I’m not), it’s hard to imagine a better place to raise a family.