Kevin Ludlow is a 45-year-old accomplished software developer, business manager, writer, musician, photographer, world traveler, and serial entrepreneur from Austin, Texas. He is also a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives.
Please take a moment to view his complete resume for more information.
Note: the entirety of this website was architected and developed from the ground up exclusively by Kevin Ludlow.
The Husqvarna Chainsaw and accessories I purchased
My dear friend Claire purchased a sizable piece of property in the general Asheville, North Carolina area about a year ago. I had been wanting to visit her for awhile and unfortunately wound up canceling a few potential visits with her towards the end of 2021. So I thought I'd make the drive out her way and spend a few days with her. A few days turned into a week and a week turned into three weeks. It's a beautiful area.
Since I always love having a good project that I can work on - this is generally how I thrive the most - I asked her if there was anything at her house that she needed done. She explained to me how she wanted to clear out all of the smaller trees in the forest next to her house so that it was walkable and so that the larger trees would continue to thrive. Unfortunately, she mentioned how she only had a small electric chainsaw.
Since I hadn't gotten her any kind of house-warming present, I drove over to the local Tractor Supply Company and purchased her a nice 14" Husqvarna Chainsaw. I also had to pickup a gas can, some oil, and a few chains.
I'd basically spend the mornings cutting down trees with the chainsaw, lopping off the smaller branches, and then either cutting the trunk into firewood logs or dragging the trunk (in the case of smaller trees) up the hillside to our giant pile.
Cutting down one of the trees in the forest
Over the course of about 3 weeks, I wound up cutting down somewhere between 250 and 300 trees. I referred to this as "chainsaw therapy". We had a massive snowstorm come through sometime during my visit with her. This cut into my morning therapy sessions, but as soon as the snow cleared, I got right back to it.
The massive firewood pile that I wound up creating for Claire.
In cutting down all of the trees, I wound up creating five massive brush piles. While this is to be expected, we still needed to get rid of them. Her friends Geoff and Ashleigh came over one afternoon just as I had started burning off some of the brush. Everybody wound up chipping in and helped me drag literally thousands of branches to our massive brush fire.
While we didn't burn off everything (namely as we'd have needed a few more hours and we had a birthday party to plan for), we got three of the giant brush piles entirely removed.
Geoff helping me to burn off some of the extra brush
Standing in front of the ember pile the next morning
Finally, and just before I wound up leaving, there was another giant snowfall. It was spectacular seeing the snow cover the area that I had just cleared out. It entirely changed the look and feel of her property. I'm going to head back there in a few weeks and work on cutting out some hiking paths. I'm told I need to get there before all of the giant forest spiders start coming back out. I'm not a fan of spiders.
I went through about 400 movies from a few different lists I have and picked 10 of my favorites. I hope you'll find them interesting and cinematically appealing.
After making this list, I realized that pretty much all of them are about overcoming adversity, generally where there is some sense of massive injustice (racism, sexism, authoritarianism, etc.). Most of the main characters are facing seemingly insurmountable odds, but then through some rather substantive change to their character wind up overcoming those odds. ...or in a few cases, they do not, but rather fall graciously so that others around them gain some benefit from their plight.
I'd guess they're all pretty famous in one sense or another and so at the very least, they should be entertaining to watch. But just to note that they all focus on pretty dark topics and a few of them have rather sad and tragic endings. I suppose one might say they're "powerful" movies, but I just happen to really enjoy them all.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Shawshank is almost a cliche of a "good movie". It’s remained the #1 highest ranked movie on myriad movie review sites for decades now. It’s beautifully directed, it’s beautifully edited, the cinematography is just spectacular, and the story is extremely touching. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s about a guy (Tim Robbins) who goes to prison for killing his wife and his experience inside -- mostly the platonic love he strikes up with another man (Morgan Freeman) over their shared experience within the prison. It was actually a short story by Stephen King. If I recall, the movie wasn’t a huge hit in theaters, but went on to be extremely successful in time.
American History X (1998) I would argue that this is perhaps the best exploration of racism ever told through cinema. It’s an absolutely brilliant movie starring Edward Norton. He plays a skinhead who grew up as a brilliant and “normal†kid until his father happens to be killed by a group of African Americans. From that point on, he holds this horrible hatred in his heart against the entire race of people. He eventually comes to see the error of his ways, but it’s the path of destruction he leaves in the wake that the story is really about. It’s both a beautiful and awful movie at the same time. It has a few very hard scenes to watch, but it’s truly an amazing movie. I remember showing this movie to a girl a few years ago. As I recall, she cried pretty hard at the end of it.
La Vita É Bella (Life is Beautiful) (1997) This is a beautiful Italian movie by writer/director/actor Roberto Benigni; he plays the lead role in it. It’s basically about a whimsical, fun-loving, Jewish-Italian man who falls in love with a woman just before WWII. They have a child together and then the war breaks out. As Italy was part of the Axis powers, he winds up having to protect his son from being taken and killed by the Nazis/fascists. That being said, it’s not your typical Nazi movie. Instead, the movie is about the father not wanting his son to be traumatized by the events around them. So he basically convinces his son that it’s all a big game that they’re playing with the storm troopers. In short, it’s about the limitless love a parent can have (or should have) for their children. And like the previous one, it has a tendency to make people sob.
V For Vendetta (2005) I actually just rewatched this movie last week for probably the 20th time. It stars Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving and is basically about a dystopian future version of England that has descended into full authoritarianism. It’s very similar to some kind of Orwellian dystopia where the government feeds people constant propaganda, people live under the strictest of rules, and any kind of dissenting voices are met with prison or death. That is, until the main character decides that he’s going to implant an idea into the society and see it rebel. It’s very loosely based upon Guy Fawkes’ attempt to blow up the British Parliament back in 1605. Suffice to say, he wasn’t successful and his death was rather brutal. Most former Crown countries (New Zealand and Australia, for example) still celebrate the event to this day; I’m not really sure why the United States doesn’t. Anyway, it’s yet another movie of challenging the authority of the state and refusing to remain silent to the pacified masses all around oneself.
Paths of Glory (1957) If you like Stanley Kubrick (The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut, etc.), I believe this was his first feature length film. The movie is about a regiment of soldiers in the trenches of WWI who can’t advance because of ensuing German gunfire (despite orders to do so). The general is furious and decides to implement the ancient tactic of "decimation" (which if you’ve never heard of, is where the Romans would take 1 man from every 10 and just execute them for any number of slip-ups that the army unit may have been part of). The men who were picked, however, were actually NOT cowards and in fact had run directly into machine gun fire in an attempt to follow their orders. Now they’re to be executed because of the slip-ups of other men. The larger story is essentially about soldiers who were routinely executed during WWI for “cowardice†simply because their brains broke. It would be another 10-20 years before we learned the science behind this, but these men were actually suffering from acute PTSD that had manifested itself in any number of physical ways. Unfortunately, and during this particular war, they would have just been executed for this kind of “behaviorâ€.
Count of the Monte Cristo (2002) Yet another of these similar stories. This is probably the most famous betrayal and revenge story ever told; it’s ultimately about a prison break. It was originally written in 1844 by Alexandre Dumas (a Haitian descendent of former slaves) and has been made into several different movies and miniseries over the last 100 years. The 1934 is also pretty well regarded, but I think the 2002 version is just much more exciting and interesting. Anyway, this movie is actually cited in both The Shawshank Redemption and V For Vendetta and actually co-stars the original Dumbledore (Richard Harris).
To Kill A Mockingbird (1962) This happens to be one of those stories I really love and was Harper Lee's "great American novel". It's probably the quintessential fictional story about racism in the deep south and is about an African American man who is falsely accused of raping a Caucasian woman. He’s put on trial and nobody will defend him save for Atticus Finch (which incidentally is my dog’s name). Anyway, the movie version of this story is every bit as great as the book itself and Gregory Peck is pretty awesome in it. If you’ve never seen it before, I think you might like it.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) This was my most favorite movie for a very long time, though I think at this point in my life there are probably many others that have eclipsed it. Still, it’s a truly wonderful movie and will certainly take you back into cinematic history given the age of the film. It’s directed by Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) and stars Jimmy Stewart (who was basically the Tom Hanks of his time). It’s about this really ambitious younger man who is eager to improve the political situation in his home state. He runs for Congress and ultimately gets the position, but is quickly used as a pawn in a pretty horrible political scheme. I don’t want to ruin how it ends, but it builds to a pretty wonderful climax and has a pretty famous ending (one that I believe has been parodied a number of times too).
Dead Poets Society (1989) This one is more of just a feel-good kind of movie. I remember seeing this movie shortly after it came out and it was just one of those movies that tends to have an impact on young, impressionable minds. It’s basically about a teacher at a fancy prep school who teaches the kids to always challenge authority figures rather than accepting whatever they’ve been told. I don’t know if it was Robin Williams’ most famous role or anything, but it was certainly one of his most endearing ones and is pretty beloved. You’ve probably seen the ending parodied in a bunch of other movies and TV shows; it’s pretty famous.
Good Will Hunting (1997) This happens to be another one of Robin Williams’ more endearing roles and one of my very favorite dramas. It was actually written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck when they were in their early-mid 20s. It’s basically about an orphaned kid (Matt Damon) who grows up in the slums of Boston and turns out to be a mathematical genius. He’s lived a rough life and so he doesn’t have any kind of formal education and typically resorts to violence to solve his problems. He gets arrested one day and is forced to spend time with a therapist/psychologist (Robin Williams). He winds up meeting a girl and ultimately falling in love with her, but because he doesn’t have the emotional capacity to love, he doesn’t know what to do. Anyway, the movie focuses on a bunch of tough social and emotional issues.
It's not so much that the movie is bad as it's wondering how on Earth they managed to get Liam Neeson and Laurence Fishburne to feature in it.
Sometimes we all just need a "turn off the brain" fun kind of movie. And it's not like those movies have to be based fully in reality, but they at least make sense. This movie just doesn't make any sense at all.
I don't want to give an spoilers, but suffice to say that the "conflict" part of the narrative is just such nonsense at to make it hard to even care about the plot. What's more is that the writing and the acting are really subpar.
The main problem is that the movie tries to sell itself as one where the characters actually have some emotions for the situation that's going on. But then a character dies and it seems like more of a "welp, that's a shame".
It's just a bad movie. There are MUCH better random action movies to tap into if that's what you're looking for.
All in all, this has been a pretty entertaining show. It's silly at times, but it's also entertaining and the plot moves pretty well.
I have NO idea how the writing team thought this episode was a good idea. I made it about 25 minutes in and had to skip it. It's SO poorly done. It's SO stupid. It's just unbearable to watch it.
The ratings on this episode are very accurate. It sucks.
Don't let this episode summarize the show for you in any way. The show itself is nothing like this episode, but this episode was just plain awful.
If you're wondering how to vote on Austin's PropB this May, I can't help you with that. But if you're wanting to get a deeper perspective as to why the homeless camps have continued to run as they have, then look no further.
Using C-Channels to Construct a Steel and Cedar Fence
This is a new method that I came up with for building a Steel and Cedar fence using stainless steel C-Channels in place of other methods like angle iron.
A section of the fence shortly after completion
One of the difficulties of building a steel and cedar fence is the process of physically adhering the cedar pickets to the steel itself. While this might not be immediately obvious at first, the mechanics behind it actually create quite a lot of work for anybody building this type of fence.
The typical method used is to weld angle iron pieces to the vertical posts. They are positioned on the inner tracts of each section and allow various types of backing boards to be screwed onto them. These backing boards can then be used to affix the cedar planks.
I came up with a new method for accomplishing this same process by using Stainless Steel C-Channels. The channels allow for standard pressure treated 1x4s to be slid into the channel slots. These are then used to affix the cedar just as in the standard method.
Here's a detailed video of how I made this work. Full textual instructions can be found below that.
Acquiring C-Channels
Once I came up with a proof of concept for the work, the first challenge was just acquiring all of the C-Channels. I found what I needed at Home Depot, but I thought surely my local metal distributor would have these at a better price and quite possibly in longer segments.
It turns out that I was mistaken.
My local steel company sold C-Channels too, but unfortunately they were quite different from what I actually needed. If you look at the two of them side-by-side, you can see that one of them has angled edges. The reason for this is how they manufacturer them.
Two different types of C-Channels, one with straight walls that I found at Home Depot and one with angled walls that I found at my usual metal distributor
The C-Channel on the right (which I'm told is called "pig iron") is actually manufactured in the forge. They start with a solid brick of steel and then use a press to carve out the channel. The problem is that excess steel has to go somewhere and so it's left behind in the channel. That's what forms the angled grooves.
Some of the C-Channels I acquired at Home Depot just before cutting them
By contrast, the C-Channel on the left is made from an existing piece of flattened stainless steel. They use a machine to bend the two sides of it. This creates the channel with the straight walls. This is an important distinction for the method that I came up with and these types of C-Channels are required for the process to work properly.
Once I had all of the C-Channels that I needed, I laid out half of them on a ladder next to me and started on the process of preparing them.
Jig to Cut the C-Channels
Given that Home Depot only sells the stainless steel C-Channels in 36” pieces, I needed make literally hundreds of cuts for the 3-1/2" pieces that would be useful on the fence. To ensure they were done with relative precision, I built a simple jig out of some scrap wood.
The jig was designed so that the C-Channel could be slid into a groove with walls on either side locking it firmly into place. The outermost edge had a wall that would stop it from being inserted any farther into the jig. In order to get the proper cut, the C-Channel had to abut this outer wall. I left a several inch wide gap in the two side walls. The 3-1/2" cutline that I needed was where the gap first started. So in other words, so long as I cut the C-Channel as close to that edge as possible, the resulting piece would be sufficient for what I needed (with a precision of maybe +/- ¼").
The jig I built for cutting the 36" C-Channels into 3-1/2" pieces
It took about three hours for me to cut all of the pieces that I needed. It should be noted that safety equipment is of the utmost importance here. In addition to always needing safety gear when working with a grinder and cutting steel, the sheer volume of the material being cut produced an unbelievable amount of metal dust and shavings. For that reason alone, I would strongly advise wearing a breather as well as an apron.
Metal dust and shavings are incredibly difficult to get out your clothing. What's worse is that because so many of our modern conveniences rely on strong magnets (your phone, for example), the tiny shards of metal will get stuck to everything and are very difficult to remove.
A view of the jig I used after cutting hundreds of C-Channels
Some of the metal dust that resulted from the massive amounts of cuts made
The Homer work bucket filled with 3-1/2" C-Channel pieces
After each cut, I'd just toss the 3-1/2" C-Channel into a Homer work bucket. The bucket eventually became extremely heavy, but not so much that I couldn't move it around. It provided an easy way to move them to each fence section as we worked on welding them into place.
Welding the C-Channels
Welding the C-Channels into place wasn't especially difficult, but it did require some reasonable welding skills. Admittedly, they don't require a lot of welding to secure them to the frames, but rather can be adhered with just a few well-positioned tacks. We found that placing a tack on the underbelly of each C-Channel as well two tacks on the outer portion of each one worked just fine.
One of the C-Channels tacked into place. The board in this photo is a standard 1x4 untreated common board. This was used as a test, but only pressure-treated wood was used for the final product
Assuming each fence section is 8 feet wide, you should plan on having 3 pairs of C-Channels per fence section. One pair on each of the outermost parts of the section and then one pair dead center.
If you have any sections of fence that exceed 8 feet in width, you might consider using 4 pairs of C-Channels for such a section. In that case, use two pairs on the outermost posts of the section and then space two more pairs equally within the section itself. Keep in mind that if you do this, you’ll want to divide the width of the fence section by THREE and not by four. The reason is because you need to use the number of gaps required (3) for the math and not the number of channel pairings (4).
Once you have all of the C-Channels welded into place, you'll want to paint them. For a black fence, I'd recommend using Rustoleum Black Gloss paint. You can use a brush if you prefer, but I found the spray was much easier for painting the C-Channels given their irregular shape and how small they are. Still though, this is entirely a preference.
At this point you'll be ready to start attaching the 1x4 backing boards. These should be pressure treated boards and you'll want to make sure that you spend time carefully choosing the boards to ensure minimal warping. Horizontal warping is especially problematic with this method given the boards will need to be properly fit between each pair of channels. You'll want them to be as straight as possible.
Pallet of pressure-treated "Yellawood" 1x4s at Home Depot
I found that cutting all of the backing boards was probably the most labor intensive part of the entire job. Because of the unusual shape of the C-Channels, it can be difficult to properly measure the height that you need. Ideally you would run the tape measure from the floor of the lower C-Channel to the ceiling of the upper C-Channel. However, given that each C-Channel is just ?" thick, you can simply measure the distance between the two horizontal steel tubes and then subtract ¼" from the total required height. This is what I found easiest.
I also tended to err on the longer side of my measurements as I needed to ensure that each backing board was snugly fit into place. Consequently, I would measure the distance needed and then subtract just under ¼" from the measurement before making the cut. This would usually result in the board being slightly too long to fit inside of the C-Channel pairing. I would simply set the bottom part of the 1x4 in the lower channel and then see how close it was to fitting inside of the upper channel. Once I could see how much was left to cut, I could usually eyeball it from there and make very small adjustments. While this took a lot of additional time, I wanted to ensure I got the height of the 1x4 as perfectly fit as I could. This would occasionally mean I had to make 3 or 4 cuts on the same piece of wood, but I think the results speak for themselves in terms of the precision that I ended up with.
A section of the fence with three backing boards and a single cedar picket held onto the bottom. This was still testing the proof of concept
I should also note that just because the left side of your fence section measures some height does not mean that the right side will have an equal height. While you should have certainly used a level when installing the horizontal tubing, it's very possible that there will still be a slight angle to the tube resulting in one side being slightly higher or lower than the other. While this isn't generally perceptible to the eye (provided you indeed used a level), it makes a significant difference fitting the 1x4s given the precision required to slide them into the channels.
The backing boards should fit perfectly into place between each pair of the C-Channels. While you don’t want them to be loose in any way, you also shouldn’t require a great deal of force to knock them into place. I found that they worked best when they required a gently tapping from my hand or a mallet.
But that's basically it. Once all of the backing boards are in place, you can proceed with installing the cedar pickets as you normally would. Cut them to width and then screw them into the backing boards.
Various sections of the fence with the backing boards exposed
Attach the Cedar Pickets
Assuming that you're using 1x6 cedar pickets and paired with the 1x4s, this means that the total amount of usable wood depth should be 1-½". I used Spax #8 1-¼" decking screws for the job. This ensured that none of them would penetrate the 1-½" of depth. The brand is generally very well-received for these kinds of jobs.
The boxes of Spax screws required to affix all of the cedar pickets
If you have any questions about how to apply this method, please feel free to contact me!
Working on cutting and affixing the cedar pickets to one side of the fence
Me, after getting the first few sections of fencing finished after weeks of hard work
