Double YAWN.....

Ever wonder why it seems that people (using a fake name...well duh) bust on me all the time. Well, it's easy to explain in a sense, take the first bar trade. You don't need "ANY" indicators, you don't need any certain trading platform a secret coded sidewinder system or the galaxy universal world super daytrading system.......you just need price bars. So what would they have to sell? What deals could they arrange if all you needed was just price bars. WELL ZIP!!!!
So they spend their time giving me crap so I maybe I will go drift off into cyperspace. WELL,..........by now you should know the answer to that one.

The first bar today had an inside bar during the 9:34 to 9:36 time period, just meaning that neither the high or the low of the first bar was taken out. The rule is after the first bar has printed, if the low is taken out without taking out the high then go short. Since neither were taken out....It's still a valid setup.
Of course, the next question is always, Well Dennis how many inside bar until the setup is voided? ANSWER: Until the market closes. The most I have ever seem is 7 inside bars.......

As far as "your" data not being the same as mine....so your chart are a little different I can only tell you this:

1. Not all computers are the same.
2. Not all computers have the exact same software open during trading.
3. Not all computers process data the exact same.
4. Not all internet providers tranmit the data the same.
5. Dail up doesn't provide the same data as cable.
6. Cable doesn't provide the same data as DSL.
7. If everyone in the neighborhood is on their computers then the cable is different.
8. DSL doesn't provide the same data as a T-1.
9. Not all data providers send the exact same data.
10. and so on.

I use a T-1 full 24 channels to run my FT and TS. There isn't any chat room or chat rooms, browsers any other software packages on the computers that could even be open during trading hours.

Today I was at a prop trading firm in Vegas and as I walked around looking at what those traders were using.....all but 2 were out on the internet playing at some guru website. One trader was short and when I asked him why he said it was because of the all the bad news in the world the market had to sell off.....I didn't take the time to even ask his name........he is just order flow since he was short from yesterday and had moved his stop up a couple of times instead of taking the direct hit.

The rest were also playing around and no one had any logs to take notes and no one really had a clue of what they should be doing........SO I wished them well and went over to the Trade Station World International Universal Cruz Conference and ate a blueberry muffins and washed it down with 3 day old coffee.

There were only 14 booths at the conference once you took out the CBOT, CME, Traders Press and the rags. It took me almost 4.3 minutes to walk around the entire exhibit hall. It would have taken me less time, but I spotted another blueberry muffin and just had to give it to my "BELLYYYyyyyy".

After nine years of day trading, it was interesting to see and hear the pitch as you walked by the booth. Nexgen had 6 people to serve you the best curve fitting "after market" software out there. The charts had over 17 different things on it to give you the EDGE........so call today and I am sure they will send it out.....looked like they could use some business....ROTFL.

YAWN...........

Well, as I get ready and finish packing for the Trade Station Conference in Vegas....anyone want to meet me out there and trade live.........I'll be at the Wynn.

The first bar trade again was just a yawner right to the ATM machine.....took out the low of the first 3m bar........my indicator got oversold on the 70t...half off moved to BE.....and then trailed the stop using the 3m high of the last bar......and as I write this I am still short.

The prem spike this morning after 9:42 this morning was again to the down side, so hope no one is buying this.....well at least until "YOUR" ideal setup ......sets up....
You all have fun now..........

First bar trade did it again...and so did the first prem spike print....

The first bar trade is a simple idea that everyone seems to have trouble with. The chart on the right is a 3 minute ER chart and the chart on the left is a 70 tick chart of the ER. The chart in the middle is the prem, tiki and tick on a 1 minute chart.

The market opens and I wait until 9:33 and then will take the breakout of the first bar. Today was a classic because it had two inside bars after the first bar printed.
That just means those bars did not take out either the high or the low during each of their 3 minutes.

When it took out the low, without taking out the high on the same bar, then I shorted and used 652.5 for a stop. Why there???? well the first up spike in the tiki was at the time and price(POINT "B") .....so why just use the high of the first bar or a fixed stop......keeping the risk small is important.

Then around 9:42 again we had the first bar after 9:42 outside the KC which again was to the down side.....and look how the day unfolded......

The interesing point was the 50CCI had a nice ZLR on the open. However, with the spread being in the green I had to view this as a type 3 trade setup or a scalp instead of an ideal setup. But that is OK....

If you are using some kind of RSI, STOCH or some other OSC........then when it is oversold....move to breakeven take half off and use the 3m high as a trailing stop......that is how I have fun every morning....GREAT TRADING.
Develop a trading plan, and then just stay true to yourself....simple as that!!!!

So what does football and trading have in common??

Last night the Tennessee Volunteers entered the Death Valley.....Otherwise known as Baton Rouge where the LSU Tigers were waiting to tear up Ole Smoky and for 30 minutes Tennessee could not do anything right. The score was 21-ZIP. Have you ever had this in your trading????

The second half was a totally different game, as the defense for LSU was just plain exhausted and were standing around on one knee between plays, hanging their heads with their hands on their sides trying to get as much air in them as possible between the plays. They came up to the ball slowly, were not focused and missed their coverage. Several times, if the receivers could have actually put the ball away it would have been TOUCHDOWN TENNESSEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Then it was 21-7, then 24-7, then 24-14, then 24-21, then with time running out it was 24-24 and into overtime we went. In the end, it was Riggs driving in from the 1 yard line to score the winning touchdown as shown in the pic. It was the end of the struggle in Death Valley, what will the end be for you......defeat or victory?????

During the Spring and thru the Summer months, Tennessee was in full gear, 5 days a week, for 6 hours a day......Running, blocking, kicking and doing their tackles and drills. So they were able to stay with a game plan and DID NOT GIVE UP....they didn't go out and buy another indicator from BOB....they believed in themselves as shown by the end of the game interviews. They stayed focused on what had to be done and not playing in a chat room or with their cat, or even talking to the President. They stayed true to themselves.......what does football and trading have in common....everything. THINK ABOUT IT FOR A WHILE.

Do you stay true to your trading plan.....as a linebacker stays in his position and covers his areas of the field or are you runnig all over the place looking for the ball. Do you have a plan that can check off receivers and look for opportunity or do you chase trades and try to throw it out there like Ainge did last night and have it shoved down your throat.....see football and trading are very close.......There are only WINNERS AND LOSERS.......

Where you find the end of the rainbow.....is it really going to be the holy grail???????

Each day we search for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow....the holy grail...the mother of all systems only to end up back where we started. Is your trading going into the dumper slowly each and every day? No matter what you do or how you try......then maybe we can walk down a different path since the yellow brick road you are on now is just painted yellow and isn't really gold......and thanks Leon for a great picture.....:)


Lagging indicators fill your screens, as you try to figure out a nice safe winning trade without any risk. The gap today on this time frame made the 34 period moving average worthless for 16 long minutes. So you either made up trades or just sat there reading the chat room text and hoping either way a bad way to spend your time.


Click on the chart to make it larger
In Denver, I talked about using the first spike in prem to give you a tradable trend right after the open......Before I go any further, I do have a first bar trade and today I was able to get enough money for a cup of coffee and then got stopped out at BE and I will do a piece on that trade this week. But this prem trade, is also a goodie if you can lock it down. Today, the first spike was to the down side, so I just shorted it and the market rolled over, you can see by the Ninja order entry system that I was short a 50 lot, real money, real time and when we had the spike down in prem to a new low and the ticks to a new low at support....remember we also had support and timing down there.......and like I talked about in Denver, when you find yourself at an extension (fib) with spikes in the internals....just pull the trade and be thankful........which I did, and which I am.
So watch this trading idea, in real time, and decide. Then paper trade it for a while, then and only then should anyone try a 1 lot and test it with real money...just don't throw money at any idea without doing research first......simple as that!!!!

Comments are back on.....Who cares about a few sore fools

But keep it clean and no foul language

There were a lot of questions after Katrina ran over LA and MS...a lot of them

Katrina, the perfect storm, really put a job on LA and MS as it came ashore and it seems like everyone was trying to figure out how to help.....what can you really do to help, just send money....but to whom. Who would be able to help out the most?
That was the problem I was having....who.....who should I get in touch with to help in some way? Then I was talking to one of the guys working on the house and he told me that he was not going to be there the rest of the week, but would be back in about 6 days. When I asked why, he told me that his family was from the Gulfport area and his church was sending down supplies. They had talked to a sister church down there and got a list of things that were really needed..... Tooth paste, tooth brushes, windex, 409, filters, pampers, shoes and so on. He asked me if I could help...


They were given two trucks to use from church members who had extra equipment setting around....and U-Haul allow them to use a trailer to haul as much as they could into Mississippi.


When they arrived at the church this was all that was left. The sign and a parking lot....everything else was gone.


That is Nelson on the right, a great honest hard working man, that put this all together unloading the trailer.


The pastor told them that he wanted the rest of the supplies to go further down the road to another church that had a greater need, so the trucks headed deeper into Mississippi.


Into another parking lot, where supplies from all over the country were going into. I could not believe the stories that Nelson told to how much damage was done to this area...the smell....the miles of endless destroyed homes, schools, nursing homes, stores and churches . And how gracefully people were to see the outpouring of fellow Americans in their hours of need.

The interesting part to this whole story I guess, was my trading last week and how the market just seemed to hand money to all of us. Why, because when Nelson asked me to help....he wanted a $100.00 donation. I asked how much he thought it would take to fill the two trucks and trailer. He responded with about $46,000.00 and I then asked how much they had raised. His response was about $31,000.00 from several churches in our area. So I told him to buy whatever they needed and fill everything that they could haul to Mississippi and I would donate the shortfall. The amount is not important, but last week while they were helping the victims.....the markets, for the first time in a long time, just seemed to hand it to us....What a great week, if you were in TradersHaven you saw it first hand....trade after trade after trade.

Ruth 3:13, requires a lot of responsibility in order to maintain the level of blessing you receive. No matter what level you are at.....everything is provided when the time is right......when the need is the greatest...but you have to understand from where it is coming and where you need to go.

When a supplier gives you lemons, throw them back!!!!!!!!

Well, here we go again, 10 trees all set and ready for the third floor deck. Next week, hopefully by Thursday all the joists will be in place and we can get back to the main house. Hopefully also, Rita will blow by to the west and leave us alone.


So after the red cedar posts were in place and cut level to 12 feet 2 and a half inches it was time to place the arched beams. This was done with a new genie lift, the other one turned out to be a nice piece of artwork....during the fire...:)


After the beams across the support posts were set, next we had to set the beams that stretch across the bar/game room. We had entered into a contract for all the post and beam work and in the contract it stated that these beams not to notched or cut to the exact length just 20% cut off the side to make a flat top, so the beams look like they go into the ceiling. I received a phone call while in Denver that these beams didn't fit or were even close. So I called my dear wife and told her to go up and take pictures and call me with what she thought about them....."They look like crap", she replied once she saw them. So I packed up my stuff in Denver and headed for the airport....


As you can see, they not only cut them but they cut them way to short to have a nice tight fit. The cost per day is running about $2,300 for labor along with other expenses, so I don't have time to wait for suppliers to fit their mistakes.


In fact, I was so ticked off that I lost my voice for three day after the supplier came up to the property and I got done screaming at the idiot. I don't lose my temper often, but when I do....the wife, the kids, the dogs, the cat and everyone else seems to vanish. Nothing fit because the idiot was to lazy to field measure anything........So I canceled the $210,000.00 contract because of a paragraph that I had put in that clearly stated that all materials had to be delivered on the assigned dates and had to as the contract stated. So when life gives you lemons, just squeeze them hard and make lemonade...but when a supplier gives you lemons, have them escorted off the property and go to plan B, version 2934.


After we paid him for the stuff he had delivered, I had them cut the ends off and we used them in the exercise room. The beams for the exercise room were to be 10x10 square cut doug fir....but these look great. The doug firs are now in a bedroom and on it goes.


We use Genie lifts and I had bought one and rented another one to help set the posts and beams. We even rented a crane to help speed up the process of moving materials around. There were two rows of beams placed over the support posts to finish the look.


I flew back on Monday from Denver and drove up to Butler, TN about 2.5 hours into the back country to were we had purchased the 46 foot tree with a 50" butt cut and talked with them about replacing the beams. We went out in the saw yard and as I picked out the logs, they loaded them and took them over to the mill, debarked them, and after I marked where I wanted them cut.....they run them thru the mill...it was amazing and I wish I had a camera with me. The next day, a tractor trailer of logs arrived at the job site and we unloaded them while the third floor trusses were being placed by a crane.....those pics later......During the two days it took to replace one vendor with another they worked on the garages and nanny flat.

So never give up on a dream......and never let anything stand in your way......simple as that. On a side note....what a great week of trading it was this week.....and enjoyed busting on everyone in TradersHaven.

the ideal pattern for counter trend trading

I wrote an article for Active Traders mag about a little fib pattern that I called the Crown Pattern. You can go read up on it, but this morning as the market was again in trouble and moving south, it setup up nicely and then triggered at 10:18am ET for a long....now it held there for a while but then took off. By using the internals of the market was able to ride it to the top and make a nice profit.

Oh yea and the first bar trade didn't do to bad either...........got to love it.
Also using money management and with the profits this week we are now trading 25 instead of 20....loading the boat for next week....hehe

3/5 + 2/7 = the square root of 9...just don't tell anyone.

We have all been there....staring into space....trying to think but can't....it seems so simple at first, but as time goes by...it seems to get harder to make money trading.

There is so many things you can buy and way to many articles to read about every subject under the "planet" when it comes to trading. But trading is a very simple process, you either buy it or sell it. But everyone, including me just has a hard time with the keeping it simple.

The key in trading is not the indicators, the time frames and all that noise. It is having faith in yourself and trusting your own instincts. So maybe we can work on this will some ideas.......over the coming weeks.

We do need prices, but we don't need no side-wind-er.......that keeps curve fitting itself with historical market action.

Something we forget about the patterns of cycles.......

Yesterday was a nice example of measured pullbacks as shown here on the chart. The market rallied higher only to be met with sellers at or near the same amount of retracement as the last rally. When we combine this with the ZLR and other tools we talk about in the chat room.......It just all the more easy to take a trade....with defined risk.....oh yea the first bar trade cleaned up yet again this morning....YAWN.

When life gives you lemons...squeeze them hard and make Lemonade

On the second level of the house, we used trees as support posts to give the house a little character. They were all hauled away in one of the dumpster after the fire so we had to find new ones. As luck you have it, they are building a new subdivision and one of my friend called me because they were going to burn the trees they bulldozed down and he thought they would work for me.

So off I went and found a field full of red cedar trees, some as big as 27 inches at the base and they also had the root system in tack. So we cut the tops off and trimmed the branches and loaded them on a rollback truck and hauled them home. Cost....75 bucks a tree...and 85 to have them hauled to the house....I bought all they had........


The reason we took the whole tree and the root system was because I wanted the bottom of the tree to flare out into the floor, instead of being a straight cut. That created a new problem, power washing the ground from the root system so we could square cut the bottom....After 8 hours both my son and I had had enough of this noise......


So we talked to the 4 amigos....and offered them 150 bucks each to clean the trees on the weekend. Well, on Friday they showed up with the wives and girlfriend and they worked on them Friday....then the rest of the weekend the 4 amigos finished them up....


We had a crane come in and set the trees down on the second floor along with other supplies and they were cut so that each had at least a solid 10 inch squared bottom.
Even with cleaning out the dirt, we still used 8 chains as some rocks had grown into the roots and could not be seen....cost 14 bucks a tree....rotfl...at this rate I will have to trade a few more contracts.......


One by one, we lowered them down, cut them square and then set them...all 10 of them. Cost 110 bucks per tree.


By the end of the day, well it looked like a forest to say the least. But WOW, it will be outstanding once we have everything in place....Will post the rest of the second floor and how the beams were laid in later this week....GOOD TRADING

Right to the end........how sweet it was

Today, we had some many great setups in TradersHaven chat room. They just kept coming and we all (I hope) took advantage to it. I was short going into the 3:40 time period and anyone that knows me ....knows that on a trend day we watch around this time for a reversal....and our system bailed.

Then a few minutes later, I said, "That if we don't got have a short covering rally right now, the odds are we will end up lower and if you could hold to 4:13pm and give a little room in case of a jiggle at 4:00 as the stocks close for the day.

When our system spit out another short, I loaded the boat at 654.10 and rode it home.......What a great day. Can't trade, don't post it live.....pound sand!!!!!
I am waiting for anyone ...and I mean anyone that thinks they can out trade me to show up...anytime...any place. What size do you trade......just a couple of rules.

1. Trade up to a 50 lot.....got the stones for that FOOL.
2. The loser has to give what the winner made to the charity of the winners choice at the end of the trading day. Hope you don't have a losing day, besides just being a loser to me.
3. Trade from 9:30 to 4:15 during the open out cry market.
4. Invite everyone that wants to come so it open and free....I'll even pay for room and the buffet, that way you can't hide behind your Anonymouse name. Got the stones to show up for this....I doubt IT.

A lot of traders have sent me emails asking me not to turn on the comments ever again, so if you have a question or ideas you want to share...just email me anytime.
PEACE.....even to you FOOL....
3.

So you have an ideal trade with another reason to add in

The ideal setup that triggered according to the rules.....and then another setup....what to do....load that boat baby.....and notice this was very near the low of the day so far....
Any takers on trading live in person with real money against me....let me know my charity needs the cash.....FOOL.

First trad of the day.....WOHAAAAAA!!!!

OH yea, real time .....and real money....and today it paid big time.....up over 6k and it only less then an hour.......hope you enjoy your job at Walmart....

Trade Management and hanging for the long ball...

Folls asked the question about how to manage a trade for more profits.......and what a great question that is....a classic problem, wait to long and give it all back or take it to quickly and miss the mother load like today.

Well, my trading is divided into three parts to start with. Everyday, you have your first trade of the day and back several years ago I was having one of those periods in trading where I was my own worst enemy. I would end up just sitting there watching 11 times frames with 17 indicators and being a (analyst) fool. Then I would make up a trade and of course the market was more then willing to teach me yet another lesson in life. That is why I now have three types of trades and here they are:

1. The first bar of the bar trade, this is where I got that one out of the way, good, bad and ugly. Of course, today it was ugly was I could not get half off and move to BE so ended up taking a direct hit.........7 ticks on a 20 lot as posted in the chart on another update.

2. The perfect trade as I have defined it, this is the one you should wait for, your research and screen time has told you this is your best odds of making money. In this type of trade, I have rules to take half off, move to BE and then look for another perfect setup to add back in and trail a stop. Now, here is some ideas behind this trade. I watch a higher time frame to determine the trend.


Let's say you were using the stoch on the 15m chart on the right....and it just turned down from being overbought. You know that this could run for a while and has good odds of running for 5 points. Your perfect setup is on the 3m chart or the 250V chart...whatever time frame you enjoy trading with. You take the setup and entry the trade, at some point, using your indicator on the same time frame you found the perfect setup, you take half off and move to BE. Still watching the higher time frame you see the stoch is only half way down....implying more downside and you also see another perfect setup.....you then add back in and make sure your stop is at least BE......and when you trading plan says.....it's over.....then move the stop to just above the last high if you are short.....and keep adjusting it up until it takes you out...

3. Every trader I believe has one problem, "waiting" for that perfect trade...the mother of all shorts, the father of all longs and that brings us to this type of trade. You decide, for whatever reason you just have to take a trade, you can't wait any longer....all your stuff is either mixed or just flat out showing the market going the other way. All the indicators show you should be shorting but the price is moving higher and higher. So you decide, I'll buy the dang thing. Most of the time, you just bought the high.......has that ever happened to you. Well maybe the FOOL doesn't have this problem but I know I have. SO when I entry one of these trades it only for a scalp.....fast in and out at the sign of trouble...this is about the only thing the CCI is good for using the 14/6 settings. By the time, you see the setup, filter out the trades, entry the trade the 6 has almost moved to the other side and we all know that......so don't try and get a MOAS trade with short term setting on any lagging indicator.

So, I have three trades setups
1. First bar trade to get me in the game.....half off and BE....then hope the perfect trade comes along. This happened on the 14th.
2. The perfect trade using the higher time frame to confirm, half off and BE....then look to add back in if the higher time frame still has room to run. Trail the stop until your indicator on the perfect setup says watch it.....and use the high/low of the last bar as a stop.
3. Scaplers love affair......quickies.....easy in and easy out.....don't think this type of trade will earn you big bucks. How many times have you shot an eagle at the golf course using just a pitching wedge????

Great Day in TradersHaven

Well it was a great day in the TradersHaven chat room, well at least for me. I had the first bar trade for a long as Jim-rainman was shorting using his trading plan.
The market pullbacked just enough to knock me out before we got a nice auto trade long and made a few grand....that was posted this morning.

But the fun part was as the morning unfolded, the internals were showing that the market could reverse and go the other way....this happened as MarkB was talking about time and price....resistance on so on. Then we had a bull crown pattern that triggered and at 12:13 I posted in the room a couple of things.

First, I wanted everyone to understand there is nothing personal but if you are long.....good luck and I believe only Dharma was at the time with a runner.
Second I typed in ....way in advance in real time......that this was the mother of
all shorts.....which is the name of our auto trader. MOAS......The Mother Of All Systems....ROTFL.... now the secret is out.
Third, in response to a question about how slow it was....as the short just hung there...I said, it's like a freight train and it starts out slowly.......but picks up speed.......

673.20 was the entry......and we all know what happened after that....it was the mother of all shorts......WOW what a day......

On a side note....I heard today that someone has changed the settings to their sidewinder again.......I guess that means it isn't working the way it should...and don't believe curve fitting a system has never been a good idea.....changing it to 60 or 59 or 58 isn't going to change the outcome one bit.........crap in crap out.
Believe in yourself.....build a plan that works for you....

Another day.....another trade......

The first bar trade again didn't pay and with the tight range we didn't get hurt. Then the auto trader found this nice little long that I shared in TradersHaven on Hotcomm Relay7.,......LIVE.
Oh yea, and it made a few bucks.....so the world is just fine as we wait and watch for the Fed to leave interest rates alone...THIS TIME....

It had been three weeks to the day, and everyone had a mission.

It had been just 3 weeks when the crews showed with just one goal in mind. Going down the ladder and getting back to the business of building a home....not a house.....but a home.

Everything I try to do, works off fibonacci numbers and levels......and it was important that on this day.....day 21......we got back to business. And so they did, this is picture of the contractor and his 2 subs raising the first wall back up.


It might not mean a whole lot to the average person, but I have never been accused of being average .....and that, no doubt is an understatement.


The more interesting thing about this picture is what it doesn't show.....the gunite people were still working on the stairwell. The amigos were still cleaning off the second level deck.


As you can see, it was still about 3 feet high from the fire marshals shoveling and moving it out on the deck.


The guys really got into it, and before the end of the day.....three walls were in place. This is them setting wall number 2. BOTH a fib number by the way.....ROTFL.


The basement level, had very little damage and was protected by the second level concrete floor (now that concrete doesn't look so bad) and one of the first things we had re-ordered was the pecky cypress for the ceiling in the great room. This time of year it is not easy to come by. 6 and 8 inches T&G, here two ....well really one..of the amigos, Tino....applying the first of three coats.

Tomorrow will be 7 weeks since this went up in smoke....and we are up on the three floor framing walls and they will go up tomorrow...pics in a few days. So as the "boss" would say.....there will be NO retreat....NO surrender....PERIOD.

Either lead me, follow me...BUT DON"T STAND IN MY WAY!!!!!!!!......FOOL
Tomorrow eveing I will try an answer the question that FOLLS asked before I turned off the comment section about trade management for bigger returns....stay tuned

Yea I know I only made a point on that trade!!!!!

The auto trader is running just fine again today. The first bar trade was tough but keeping the stops tight helps. But there we have a nice short and got a couple of grand.....how did you do?????? You can see I again erased the account number and trading a 20 lot today....REAL TIME....REAL MONEY...still want to meet and trade live. My favorite charity sure could use some help, even from a fool like you.

OF COURSE.....the comments are back off....WHY???

I have turned the comments back off again and this time I guess it will be for a long time. I am personally tired of one person doing nothing by typing endless crap about anything he can think of instead of sharing ideas or commenting on my ideas. There are about 1370 hits a day to this blog and no one really posts anything interesting except JAB doing a Andy Rooney spoof. If you have anything interesting just email me.

I am not going to open a new chat room....PERIOD
I am not going to spoon feed anyone trades.....PERIOD
I am not going to join any new chat rooms, I am in TradersHaven and plan to stay there as long as I am welcome....PERIOD
It is about as simple as that.......

And by the way I can't trade.....good one.
I decided last week to post a chart with the ninja to back it up.....
SO here it is......other then that.....pound SAND.


Do you trade a 20 lot and add in another 10? Of course anyone that uses Ninja Trader can tell this is real money and not play money. I erased some of the account number, but the first two numbers are still there....now I would not want someone to get that number and screw with me.
SIMPLE AS THAT.

Any time....any place...I will meet anyone and trade live.....real money and let's trade up to a 50 lot just for the fun of it. The only caught would be.....if I make more money then you, then you have to send a check to my favorite charity for the amount of money I made. So stand up and be a man...FOOL.

Back on Track.....and working OT.

After 6 days the fire was declared "OUT" and the fire marshals moved in and they spent 5 days going thru everything....finding fan motors, saws, work belts, walk boards, genie lifts, extension cords, cans, and the list was almost endless at times.
And they asked, where was this, which floor and we had to draw layouts of the interior walls and mark it with everything we could remember. On Friday they turned the property back over to us and we started right after lunch to clean the remains of our dream.

We ordered 40 yard dumpsters so we could haul it all to a landfill and the driver would come up and drop one off and pick a full one up. This went on for 6 more days as we filled 14.5 dumpsters with everything you can think of. While I was still on vacation in Mallorca, I started a list of things that would need to be done first, checking the internet for resources and by the time Monday came I had already called or emailed everyone and asked that they ship the exact same materials.

Our biggest problem was the ECO block concrete walls that were 10 inches thick before the fire on the second level. Down where the footers are, they are 16 inches thick and the first level they come in at 12 inches. Because of the heat, as you can see, all the form was gone and it also had "popcorned" the walls. Some walls were down to 7.5 inches and had to be fixed. So I called and called and called and called every gunite person I could find in NC, GA, AL, KY and TN to see if anyone was between jobs and could come ASAP.

We had a meeting with the city inspectors, both engineering firms, contractor and the subs along with a Gunite firm from Nashville. It was determined to drill 5/8 inch holes and build the wall out to 9 inches. The next problem was according to the engineers there would have to be 870 holes drills in a certain pattern and 870 pieces of rebar cemented in and then hang a wire mesh over that with ties. So off to Home Depot we went and bought 5 new hammer drills and lots of bits. The Gunite people were on station in 3 days.


We ended up buying two trailer loads of fiber gunite before the walls were finished and that comes out to 31 - 2,000 pounds bags of the darn stuff.


The gunite process is an interesting thing to watch as they dump the mix into a hooper and an air compressor shoots it out the end of their hose while adding just the prefect amount of water..


Now the one thing they didn't tell us was how dusty this process was. Clouds of dust would raise as they worked. So we had to make sure everyone had a mask on that was even close to this puppy.


It seems pretty simple, just aim the hose, turn it on, and cover it. But the pressure of the hose was something else to behold.


But talk about a messy process. As you can see by Jason's right arm. The walls are smoothed and the floor is then cleaned as they moved up.


The gunite people were able to finish their work in 3 days and then we had to use a jack hammer to bust up the concrete floor and remove all the plumbing pipes that had
already been installed. The pipes that also went out of the house had to be dug back up and replaced under the concrete floor on the first level. But by day 21 we had a surprise for everyone and will post that tomorrow night..