Posted in Building the Ranch on Aug 25th, 2010 3 Comments »
At a conference center, there are two purposes for water: people uses (like bathing and flushing toilets) and fire suppression uses (sprinklers, hydrants). When the city delivers water to your neighborhood, they take care of both uses. What if you are building a conference center where the city has not yet laid water [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on May 18th, 2010 5 Comments »
We got our Land Disturbance Permit. Our application was especially complex because we have a well, geothermal HVAC, and a fancy-schmancy sand-filter septic field. It took a surprisingly long time, and everyone on the project is heaving a great sigh of relief.
Here is the photo that Russ, the civil engineer sent me from [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Mar 7th, 2010 2 Comments »
It has been a while since I posted anything, so I wanted to send a quick update: We’ve applied for our land disturbance permit so we can begin construction of the Big Nerd Ranch facility. Fulton County is supposed to send us approval (or, more likely, comments) any day now.
Walden, Otto, and I went [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Mar 31st, 2009 2 Comments »
I have a few little bits of news that I wanted to share:
On Sunday, I completed the ING Half Marathon through downtown Atlanta. It was cold and dark when we started, but as we ran the sun rose and the streets were lined with blossoming trees. It was quite lovely. I [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Mar 11th, 2009 2 Comments »
Google has a great free 3D modeling tool called SketchUp. You can download it here.
Last week, my architects dumped the AutoCADD files for two of the buildings into SketchUp. And I am sharing them with you. These plans and this model are still very much a “Work in Progress,” but I thought [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Jan 8th, 2009 4 Comments »
For hundreds of years, the human race has been grappling with the question “What do we do with the stuff that comes out of the bottom of the toilet?” but I, personally, never really worried too much about it. Until now.
(While writing this, I looked up the synonyms for feces in the thesaurus: [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Nov 6th, 2008 1 Comment »
The government is spending $700 billion to increase liquidity so that a business like mine can get a loan to do a project like mine. You, the taxpayer, might wonder how it is working for me so far. In order to explain that, I need to tell you how I get money.
I have [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Nov 1st, 2008 3 Comments »
Your refrigerator works on an interesting principle: When you put a gas under pressure, its temperature goes up. When you release the pressure the temperature goes down. In your fridge, there is a compressor that pushes the gas into a tube under great pressure. That is the coil behind your fridge that [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Oct 22nd, 2008 3 Comments »
For any heavy topic, there is one person who is “The Best”. For example, if you want to learn to write apps for Windows, Jeffrey Richter is the best person in the world to teach you.
Big Nerd Ranch is trying to attract the best. We don’t really care what the topic [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Oct 5th, 2008 4 Comments »
Walden and Otto went out to the site with me today. Here they are helping saw up a fallen tree.
It reminded me of an exchange that has not yet happened:
Aaron: How was school today, Walden?
Walden: OK.
Aaron: Did they teach you how to make breakfast for 18 people, yet?
Walden: No, Dad. Still no lessons [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Sep 27th, 2008 5 Comments »
When I started Big Nerd Ranch, I recognized my strengths and my weaknesses. I am a good teacher and a good programmer, but I’m not much of a sales/accounting/strategy kind of person. I really needed a boss.
I met Emily Herman when I was six. We grew up in the same neighborhood near [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Sep 25th, 2008 3 Comments »
The forest where Big Nerd Ranch will be built is quite lovely. It is filled with White Oak, Hickory, Sweet Gum, Red Maple, Dogwood, Tulip Poplar, and Ironwood trees. There are Christmas and Broad Beech ferns. There is at least one turtle.
I know these things because Fulton County arborist Leah Pine wandered around [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Aug 24th, 2008 6 Comments »
I love my architects.
Main building viewed from rear. Mostly brick. Metal roof.
Thursday, they broke up with me over lunch.
Posted in Building the Ranch on Aug 7th, 2008 5 Comments »
As part of the use permit application process, one must invite everyone who owns land within a quarter mile to see and comment upon your plans. So, I wrote a nice invitation and delivered it to the 17 landowners near the future site of the Big Nerd Ranch.
Tonight, a lovely spring-like evening, was the [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Jul 27th, 2008 1 Comment »
Fulton County accepted my application for a use permit. They gave me a big orange sign to post so that my neighbors know what I am up to. I posted my sign today.
Posted in Building the Ranch on Jul 14th, 2008 2 Comments »
Before you can start building something in Fulton County, you need to go through the entire process to get a use permit. We are applying for a “Country Inn” use permit. The first step is to make a site plan — where are the buildings going to go.
Here is the site plan. [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Jul 10th, 2008 5 Comments »
The Big Nerd Ranch is now 13 acres. The buildings will be located at 9055 Terry Road, Fairburn, GA.
You’ll remember that I had already purchased 6.7 acres. The lot was rather long and narrow (about 900′ x 300′). So I hunted down the people who owned the long, narrow lot next to [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Jun 16th, 2008 1 Comment »
Today we started the demolition of the Carey’s house. There is great excitement these days about folk art. This house is folk architecture. The house sits atop a couple of cement block walls, and about half of it seems to be made from a kit for a barn. There are a [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Jun 15th, 2008 5 Comments »
The activity on my blog has been falling off. I’ve been quite engrossed with the building of the ranch, and the blog has not been getting the attention it deserves. Thus, I’m going to take quick turn, and begin blogging about the project.
After we were married, Michele and I volunteered at the Omega [...]
Posted in Building the Ranch on Apr 30th, 2008 10 Comments »
Today is my 39th birthday.
Yesterday, Michele and I celebrated 8 years of marriage.
On Saturday, I did my first triathlon. This photo is me coming out of the water after the swim.
On the Tuesday before that, I got the braces off my teeth. (For about 18 months, I’ve been living [...]