About Carlsbad's South Side

Paying it forward. It's really cold here.

This past week has really been cold. We have had a few inches of snow and it's been cold all day. In the last couple of days it's been warming up a little at a time.

With that said, The wife had a neice move here from San Antonio Texas. She brought her four kids with her as she wanted to start a new life closer to her family.

One of her kids is a big boy. he has not stopped growing and is really out growing all of his clothes.

They stopped over or dinner and I asked where his coat was and he said he did'nt have one. His mom said he had "out grown his clothes".

After they had left, I told thew wife we are going to Wally world to see if we could get him a jacket or coat. We went there and found a good jacket and bought him a couple of sweat tops as well.

This did'nt set us back by any means. We stopped by where they were staying and gave the new clothes to him. It was like seeing a child at Christmas all over again. It was priceless.

Now he is warm and we are warm in our hearts as well.

Here's to evreyone that's a member of the Active Rain Comminity

Merry Christmas, let's not forget what it's all about.

Best, Clint McKie

Attic's, what are they hiding?

Attic's seem to be an anomoly. They are places and areas we don't think much about. This is probably why when contractors do work in the attics they think there will be no one that checks up on the work.

That's where having a home inspection comes in.

As you can see in the picture. The fan is not hooked up to an exhaust vent. Also the electrical connection is not hooked up with a junction box. The wireing connection was left exposed to the attic.

Just another day inspecting homes in SouthEast, New Mexico.

Have a great day every one.

Chimney's, inserts, and caps "Oh my"

As we get into the heating season, we need to use common sense when using the fire places we have in our homes. Regular maintenance of these fireplaces do'es not stop by cleaning out the ashes from the fire box.

If you use your fire place on a regular basis, then you should have the chimney flue cleaned. This way you can reduce or eliminate the chance of a fire from the soot build up in the chimney flue. Always call a professional to clean your Chimney. They are called "chimney sweeps".

Also there is a lot of maintenance that goes into operating and just plain having a fire place or any wood burning appliance within the home. Here are some photo's of what you don't want to have when operating a fire place.

Notice this chimney has no protection for the elements. No cap, no fire spark arrester. Also the cap for the mason work needs to be sealed to help keep out water and insects.

Here's a look at the fireplace from the inside. Looks like a good fire place at first glance.

Bu there are several "issues" with the fireplace.

1. It has no screens for the fireplace 2. there are no doors for the fireplace.

But here's the kicker. The fireplace needs to be properly sealed within the home. This will keep unwanted gasses from entering the home.

See tha damage to the masonary work at the base. This is a problem all the way around the front of the fireplace. Even though the fireplace has a steel insert. The gasses and sparks can still get to the home and this would create all kinds of problems. Time to put in a CO detector.

I don't normally do this. But here goes.

Every one on Active Rain knows I like to post about a lot of diverse subjects.

I like to post about as many things I think the Active Rain membership would like to see.

But today I am writing this post with a heavy heart.

Today at 10:30 A.M. I will be at the interment of my Mother in law.

Her name was Alberta Duarte. She passed away at 5:00 P.M. Saturday. She was at home with all of her family around her. She was born in May of 1922. And was a life long resident of Eddy county New Mexico.

She had a really good and a very hard life. Working the fields as a young mother of five children. Her husband of 50 years passed just before I met My wife and we quickly become good friends. After nearly thirty years of friendship, I have found there are still people out there who really care about making others happy. She was a person who would do any thing she could to help you out. Even if it was the smallest thing.