Back in the 60s this song was made for the Merry Marvel Marching Society Fanclub.

7 Wonders of Middle Earth

Haters Gonna Hate

Dojo Radio: I’m real happy with how things are going with the dojo radio. We are having great guests and the conversations have been great for anyone interested in search and internet marketing.

Week 12 of the Dojo Radio Show features the always fun Joe Hall. Joe talks about his social media search tool Whos Talkin among other things. The gang talks more about Google Instant and eye tracking, some of the new Google interface testing that appears to be going on and we even get around to talking a bit about Bing.

Week 13 of the Dojo Radio Show features link builder extraordinaire Garrett French who talks about his tools and the current state of link building. We pick on Ross Hudgens a bit, talk a bit about using world record marketing, Google Bombing and much more.

Week 14 at the Dojo Radio Show features Brian Carter who visits with us about Search and Social marketing. The regular crew beats up on Eric Schmidt a bit, and we get stuck in a discussion about software patents.

In week 15 at the Dojo Radio Show we are visited by the lovely Virginia Nussey. Discussion about Google Places and Local, Reviewer reputation and much more.

Metal Monster Marketing: I spent some time writing about using World Records as Viral Marketing over at Metal Monster.

We also made a few minor fixes to make OpenCart a bit more Search Engine friendly in SEO Breadcrumbs for OpenCart.

Squidoo: We did some travelling recently and ended up in Kansas City. I decided to write a lens over on Squidoo about the city.

Red Fence Ridge: Diane and I started a new blog for our new home in Tennessee. Not sure what that will be about, but most likely just a home blog explaining what we are doing in our personal lives.

94 Acres

After several years of planning Diane and I have finally pulled the trigger. A couple of weeks ago we went down to Tennessee to look at some land. Next thing I know we are making an offer on 94 acres of rolling hills in west central Tennessee.

The land is stunning. It’s off the beaten track 20 minutes from the nearest ‘city’. The views are amazing and the neighbors are anything but close. There is a lot of planning and work be done yet. We have a house to build, barns to build, critters to move, but step one of getting on with part 3, or is it 4?, of our lives is about to start and we are totally excited about it.

We been working on floor plans for the new house as well. Well, more accurately, Diane has been sending me floor plans and pointing out what she does and does not like. Then I get the fun, it really is fun, of making the design work for us. Finally, after many years I get to use my architecture degree again.

To go with the new house I’m thinking about starting a new web site to document the whole thing, but I need to come up with a name for the property first. I was thinking about calling it Texas, but Diane says that name is already taken so I need to keep working. She then came up with Rohan, but it sounded a bit familiar so we will have to keep trying.

I’m ready to go now.

DojoRadio: In Week #10 of the Dojo Radio we rant on a few things from SEO being dead, again, to social and social search. This week’s guest Tom Demers from Wordstream talks about their Infographic case study and other link building tip.

Week #11 of the Dojo Radio has discussions on a few things other than Google, SEO for Bing, a little more on Google Instant and their social media. This week’s guest is the always Dazzling Donna Fontenot.

Metal Monster Marketing: I have worked with, or tried to work with, many charities over the last few years. The biggest stumbling block we have run in to is the charities themselves. This month I wrote a blog post about why charities are afraid of marketing.

Animal Charms: Over at Animal Charms I wrote about three great online pet services that can make caring for your pet just a little bit easier.

Squidoo: I don’t write much on Squidoo these days. I had thought it would be a great place to drop some knowledge and help me keep my different personalities separated from each other. With some of the recent, maybe not so recent, changes there I may stop all together. As a last hurrah I wrote a lens about Zuni Fetishes. And before you giggle, Zuni fetishes are spiritual totems not that other thing you were thinking.

Home sweet home

One of the things we discovered last spring wast that there is no footer at all under the front porch. This wouldn’t be “too” terrible if it were a small porch tied in to the house. But this is a massive concrete porch that runs nearly half the length of the house. This spring it finally started to settle. In the span of a couple months it dropped over and inch and a half away from the bottom of the front door creating this gap between the wall and the porch and a little step that was going to catch someone sooner or later.

But how do you fix something like this without tearing the whole thing down and doing it all over? I took the economical way out and gave the guys at 3d Structural Solutions a call. For about $700 they said that they could stabilize the porch and lift it back up in to place with  process call mud jacking. Basically they drill a few holes and inject a concrete /epoxy mix under the concrete until it lifts back in place.

Porch separating from the house

The guys that came out to do the mud jacking, the first time, appeared to have it all under control so I took off and left them to do their work. When I checked in before they left we had a problem. Not only had the porch not lifted up to where it belonged, It had actually pushed away from the house about an inch. I had gone from not great to wow, that pretty much sucks. Having been a business owner for most of my adult life I decided to not freak out on the guys doing the work and called the owner to have a chat. He impressed me by coming out to the house himself to see what happened.

Dan was great. He took one look at the porch and said that he would have his guys back out to do it right. Apparently how much the person doing the work weighs is a factor in how well mud jacking works. A one inch hole is drilled through the concrete, a hose is inserted in to the hole and the operator stands on a step built in to the pipe. Then they pump until the concrete lifts or the operated is shot up in to the air like a pogo stick. For heavy objects there is a different technique that requires more holes and a few jacks to take up the load while the mud is pumped under the concrete.

Look, it's fixed!

The second attempt went great and I am thrilled with the final results. Far cheaper and easier than tearing out the porch and building a new one. Most importantly to me, however, was how well the guys at 3d dealt with a problem when it landed in their lap. They could have easily thrown their hands up and said that’s how these things go some times, and I have deal with contractors like that, but they chose to stand behind their work and their product. And that means more to me than getting right the first time.

Now all I need to do is find the time to grind it all down a bit and put a new skim coat on top to make it look like new.