Erich Stauffer

Blog

  • Laptops at Work

    Same new background. Aren’t I cool?

    [Update 1/7/2012: I still use a laptop like this that my parents gave me recently when they got a new one. It’s over five years old now.]

  • Theres a Reason Why Life Rymes with Wife

    I’m really sick of people constantly asking me to make life-changing decisions. I am not good at making decisions. My personal philosophy for the last three years has been the following:

    • Surround myself with people that I like
    • Dissasociate with those who hurt me
    • Be happy as long as it is not at the expense of others happiness
    • Try to make other people happy

    I followed these rules instead of a formal religion. I feel now it has culminated in these circumstances:

    • I have fewer, but closer friends
    • I have to make harder choices about WHO to make happy when conflicts arrive
    • I more frequently find myself giving up my own happiness for others
    • This last gift does not spontaneously mean I will support them, just get out of their way

    I still feel nothing.

  • Road Trip to Columbus with Jason

    Geek Road Trip

    Columbus Ohio Coffee Shop

    There were a lot of men, most sitting alone with their notebooks, in this coffee shop in downtown Columbus. Jason got a cappacino and I got a vanilla latte. It was pretty dang good, the best I’ve had in a while.

    Best Buds

    Columbus at night–on the move. Jason is getting mad about me being on the phone. Wife is mad that I went at all.

  • 96th and Allisonville

    This tree is old. I liked its gnarled roots sticking up from the ground as the cows most likely tread on it in the past. Does anyone know what type it is? I can’t place it. I wanted to get a picture of it before the area was developed further. Next door is a Walgreens. The White River runs in the background near the tree line. When I was a maintenance worker at a summer camp in Michigan, there was one particular tree that when I mowed under it, I couldn’t help but think the tree was majestic. It was a maple. I don’t have to mow under this one to consider it so.

    [Update 1/7/2012: This tree became known as The Watershawl Tree because of it’s use in the Watershawl logo for a time.]

  • 18-Year Old Apple Tree Struggles to Grow

    I planted this tree in my grandma and grandpa’s yard in Garden City, MO from an apple I was eating that day. It’s about eighteen years old in this picture, which is very old for a tree this small. It has been ran over several times I think. It must have a large root system though for being so old. I’m not sure. You may or may not be able to see the pond in the background just beyond the fence. Behind the photographer is a barn they called Erich’s barn because it was the middle-sized barn and I am the middle child of the three boys.

  • Hard Maples

    Hard maples are common in this area and grow very easily. I have transplanted several starts into pots to let them grow there before transplanting into the ground, but with limited success. Elm, walnuts, mulberries, and sumac also grow wild, but I tend to weed them out. Sumac have a very distinct smell when you pull them apart or up out the ground. This makes me dislike them even more. Sumacs are the opposite of hard maples for me.

  • The Tipton Collection

    I have started a new collection of shrubs, bushes, and ground cover called the Tipton Collection. I will post pictures later. I have been doing woodwork for the last two weeks making a tv stand for my little brother and a bookshelf for a co-worker. I delivered both this week so now I have moved on to scrap metal. There is a Goodyear building in town that has replaced it’s radiator heating system with a more up-to-date furnance so I am gutting the pipe for capital. Having the right tools makes all the difference so I took advangtage of Lowe’s 20% off deal this week and bought a cordless combo set. I hope to pay for the tools with the money from scrap steel. The current price is $70 per ton. I’ve got to sell four tons to break even.

  • Calling the Pot Black

    Here is the Mugo Pine, Serbian Spruce, Mum, and more from the Franklin Collection.

  • The Franklin Collection

    Here you see the Buddleia and others from the Franklin Collection.

    [Update 1/7/2012: This is my first blog post ever. It was originally posted on Blogger. I was inspired to start blogging by my wife, who had been blogging for a couple years prior to this. This post was originally posted on December 19, 2004. I called it The Franklin Collection because I was going to start a nursery and I was blogging about my progress.]