March 16-18, 2012

What happened to Spring -- it hasn't officially started and yet it feels like summer already. It was near 80 each day and dry (even though we had a hard 30 second rain Saturday morning). The red buds were already blooming, they were everywhere, and were just fantastic. I'll be mowing next time out.

Loveable Loo House

I started on the roof first thing. I had to use six pieces of half inch plywood for the decking since I had nothing wide enough or deep enough. I used 2 of the three pieces that came off the dog house, plus four other scraps from the barn. I got them cut and screwed down Friday afternoon. I was able to fit them by clamping down the highest/front piece and positioning the other two below it -- two rows of three. Saturday I cut the roof edge flashing -- using three pieces from the dog house plus one nice long scrap from the barn. I then screwed the metal roof down (also from the dog house but lapped one less time so it is wider). The roofing pieces aren't deep enough either (this house is six inches or so deeper than the dog house), so I used a piece of formed aluminum that blew off the barn to cap the front and extend back over the metal. I cut it with shears and hooked the crimp over the front and then screwed it through the metal roofing and into the decking. (I hope it doesn't blow off here the way it did on the barn.)

I had to re-charge my drill before proceeding further. Sunday I added a vertical 2x6 to the back to provide center support for the horizontal cedar siding I was going to use on the back. Sally came out in time to nail the siding up -- said she liked hammering. We had more siding than I had figured and only had to piece the top two rows with two pieces each.

I braced the door based on information I got from HowTo.com, but it already has a little bow vertically. I wanted to hang it, but I'm missing some nuts for the hinges and some screws for the handle (gate hardware from Houston). There is some leveling to do with the rocks in the bottom and I want to build up the ground outside on the south, but it is almost done. Tender likes it. Now its time actually build the Loveable Loo, which I hope to do in town.

Fertilize Pond

It had been two weeks, so I applied the rest of the pond fertilizer -- another half a gallon. Again I used my back pack sprayer which seemed to work just fine. I couldn't tell any difference in the water clarity though, so I hope this works. The grass is definitely growing and I am sure more applications of Cutrine Plus will be required.

Garden

The spinach I planted two weeks before was coming up, as were radishes and some other stuff Sally had planted only the weekend before. The summer spinach too is coming back (I don't think we will ever get rid of it). Sally put more seeds in the ground, watered, and spread leaves and pine straw. I spent an hour or so weeding the aisles, but didn't even cover a fourth of them. Those weeds in that packed down soil are hard to get up.

Move Cedar Posts

Sally let me tackle the cedar posts solo this weekend. Ted had warned her about breathing rat poop, and I think that kept her away. I wore a mask this time. I set aside the small skinny ones for shredding and the large straight ones for splitting into rails (10 or so). The others I extended out the South end of the barn door, measured to 6 1/2 feet, cut them off, and stacked them down the hill under the big oak. There are 75 posts in the stack. I then shoveled and swept out that corner/side of the barn.

The little ends I took up to the fire pit along with all my other firewood nubs littering the back of the barn. The longer pieces of cedar ends I have piled up and plan to use to build up the hill on the road to the spring.

DeVito's for Dinner

Saturday night we went into town to test out a restaurant for a possible rehearsal dinner venue. We had forgotten it was St. Patrick's day, so there was a crowd of revelers in the streets and the restaurants were crowded. We had about a 30 minute wait at DeVito's, but we got to sit at the bar with a glass of wine and watch the efficient staff handle the rush. We really enjoyed our meal and gave it a thumbs up -- of course we did each have a second glass of wine which didn't hurt our assessment.

Blue Bird Houses

While at the pond, I checked the blue bird house there and low and behold there was a nest and 1 egg. I have gotten a piece of pipe from Chris that I was planning to rehang the house on, with the addition of the extra raccoon guard we have (won't fit over the cedar post). But now that there is an active nest I won't disturb it. I just hope no critters get the eggs like they did last year. The house down the hill from the house has a nest but since I was driving up I didn't check it. There are signs of the beginning of nests in the ones in front and behind our house, but nothing substantial.

Pears and Apple

I am delighted that there are numerous blooms on both pear trees! I am so hoping that growing pears will be easier than apples. The large apple is starting to leaf out and there are signs there will be blooms. The tiny Pixie Delight doesn't look so good. For one it is still tiny, and many of the limbs appear dead though I don't believe the tree is (yet). The hot dry weather last summer was brutal on little trees.

March 9-10, 2012

It was another beautiful weekend with temperatures around 60 and mostly clear, although late Saturday it did begin to cloud up. Thankfully we had received a half inch of rain on Thursday!

Loveable Loo House

I had gone by Home Depot and purchased 3 4x8 sheets of T1-11 and 75 siding screws, as I was anxious to get some walls up. First I had to cross brace the back -- I used one 2x4 and one 2x6. (I still need a vertical 2x4 to nail the siding into.) With that done, I went ahead and put the T1-11 up on the north and south sides, Sally was a great help by holding things in place including the ladder) throughout this process. The siding will provide the bracing needed east/west. (The front will have the door with a bit of plywood spanning overhead. Hopefully that will be enough to keep it from rocking side to side.)

I then put a 4x4 across the bottom of the front for a threshold and to anchor a vertical 2x4 onto (where the door will close and the siding will be screwed. I then cut that 2x4 and one to go across the top of it (to be attached to the 4x4 posts). I messed up here (again) and measured from the bottom, but the threshold was not level, and so that cross 2x4 is not level. But it will work.

I then cut my last salvaged (and partially rotted) 4x4's to go across the top posts north-south. I had to notch these so my three 2x4 roof rafters running east-west would nest.Then I cut the door from the last sheet of siding and installed that piece sans the door. (I had found a 5" ripped piece of T1-11 in the barn which fit perfectly on the left side.) All the corners but one meet up nicely -- its good enough for a crapper.

The first picture shows everything I had strewn about where I was doing the cutting. The roofing is laid out so I could do the measurements for the decking (I'll have just enough 1/2" plywood though it will all have to be pieced in the middle) -- a task for next week. The last picture shows Sally testing it for size. I used all 75 screws.

Next week will be the roof, the back, and the door. I have some old gate hardware from Houston I plan to use with the door, but I am still uncertain about the bracing I'll use (and I'm out of long 2x4s).

Cedar Posts

Since Jeff agreed to take some of the posts, Sally helped me take two loads down to his barn. They are full of dirt and sawdust because some tiny borers are in them. Also the pack rats have nests underneath and have brought in lots of leaves and litter. Sally certainly did her part lifting some very large and heavy posts. We also took him the telephone pole (cut in two) that had been taken down that first year we bought the place
(ran the service from the pole by the barn underground to the house).

I didn't tell Jeff how many posts I had, and I was pretty sure he said to put them in the lower part of the barn on the east side. But when we got there, there was not a clear place to put them. We moved a couple of chairs and piled them between the defunct freezer and the stack of 4 tires (complete with wheels). I hope this is okay with him. He now has almost 40, and I'm not sure where we could put any more. Though, as we were leaving after the second load I noticed 4 or 5 bleached posts outside that end of the barn. Made me begin to question whether he didn't want them outside versus inside. This did convince me to just move the rest of mine just outside my barn (store them outside) -- at least those I don't end up using. Sounds like I may be making more rails.

Garden/Fruit

Sally watered and planted some more seeds. The ribbon of spinach seeds I had planted the week before had not yet come up. The onions are looking okay. Sally put some fish emulsion on them to give them a kick.

The nectarine is covered in blooms, and there were several coming on the alberta peach. The two wild peaches below the house were in full bloom. There were no signs of blooms on the apple or pear -- yet. I am really hoping for some pears this year.

March 3-4, 2012

Lyndsey was out of town, so Chris was available to give me hand at the farm. Since Sally wasn't getting back until noon Saturday, we decided to go on out Saturday morning and leave Tender at home to be her companion. Karen also came out, so it would have been tight with both dogs in the extended cab of the truck. This also gave me Friday afternoon to help Chris get the big Silver Maple cut down in his back yard. (He'd already gotten most of the limbs, except for the two highest. To reach them we stood his extension ladder in the back of the truck and I cut them by hand. After that, the rest was pretty easy with the Stihl.) Afterward I talked him into going to Home Depot with me to pick up materials for the LLH -- two posts, some hardware and 6 80lb bags of Quickrete.
The weather was great both days, clear and in the 50s with a light freeze overnight. Although, for the second Sunday in a row the wind picked up and it was really blowing.

Loveable Loo House (LLH)

We spent the entire day Saturday getting the posts up. The first thing we did is flip the rock floor around and remove the rocks from the middle. Since it is too far from the house to run an extension cord, I cut the pieces at the house first (I should not have pre-cut the posts). We decided to position the posts on site, tie the two North and two South posts together with cross pieces, and brace everything together with extra diagonal scraps. Attempting to get it all straight, square, and the right height was beyond our ability. We'd move one post and it would throw another one off. It was frustrating and getting late, so we had to finally just say that's good enough.

We brought a bucket of water over and hand mixed the concrete with a shovel in another bucket. It was messy and hard work. We kept the mixture stiff, and so pouring it was even difficult. I had about two thirds of a bag, plus the 6 I bought. I thought I would have Quickrete left over, but we quickly realized the opposite was more likely. So we began bordering the holes with rocks, lining the bottom with rocks, and stuffing rocks into the mixture. We used it all.
After all the figuring and planning I had done, I still screwed up in numerous ways. For example, its four inches wider than it was supposed to be and one post is too high and will need to be cut off by hand. In spite of my numerous mistakes, I am sure I will be able to make it work out, but it will not be neat. I could not have done it without Chris's help. And in spite of the more than 500 lbs of concrete, I'm still worried about it blowing over.

Garden

Another week with little to no rain, and with warm weather and high winds it is bone dry. Chris watered the onions Saturday and I watered them Sunday. They are surviving but no real signs of growth yet. Sally bought some spinach seeds embedded in a tape -- dig a 3/4 inch trench, lay the tape, cover, and water. I did two strips across one of our mounds. I need to do some weeding.

Move Fire Wood

Sunday morning we tackled the other goal I had for us -- get the firewood moved to the side of the barn. Its all in the open end of the barn. My stuff on the South side, and the shorter kids stuff a little to the North but not all the way over. The ground on the North/bluff side gets wet and so I've never stacked it there. Now we want to open up the view to the South, so I laid out some cedar posts and created the stacks on top of the posts. There are two rows of the shorter (16" - 20") logs, and a long stack of the 24" logs. We were done by 10:30, thanks again to Chris's help. It looks nice, and I have some un-split logs so our wedding guests can try their hand at splitting some White Oak.

Fertilize Pond

I bought some pond fertilizer from the Farmer's Co-op and was anxious to get it into the pond. It said easy application, but then said the best way was to pour into the prop of an outboard -- Ha. Then it recommended stirring it in with a paddle or using a hose end sprayer -- yea, right. It is heavier than water and I guess would just sink to the bottom if you just poured it in. I opted to use my backpack sprayer since it has and agitator that turns as you pump it. The one gallon ($26) is suppose to treat an acre, so I used half of it. I'm supposed to do it again in two weeks, then go to three week intervals, and then just to 4 weeks. Chris liked the clear water, but you could see the grass beginning to grow on the bottom. This is suppose to promote beneficial algae in the water to cloud it up and prevent sun from reaching the bottom. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Jeff

I had called my neighbor, Jeff, during the week and left a message asking if he wanted any of my cedar posts -- since they have to exit the barn. I never heard back from him, but he was down moving some dirt and saw us at the pond and came over. We had a nice chat and he said he would take the posts and they could be stored in his barn at the bottom of the hill. He even offered to help move them. That want be necessary -- I am just delighted that I have a new home for them.

Haul Off Recliner

Sally said the fake leather recliner in the house had to go, and Chris decided he wanted it. So we loaded it up and first secured it in the back with a couple of bungie cords. After a bit of the drive I realized it needed to be better secured, so we used a strap. But we had to let it all the way out to get it to reach. It later slipped through and the recliner flipped over in the back of the truck. I got a better strap for the remainder of the trip -- and slowed down.

Cedar Posts for Chris

Chris is going to build a garden in his back yard where the Silver Maple had been, and he needs to fence it to keep Karen out. So I talked him into taking 8 of the smaller cedar posts. We cut them to 5 feet for his purposes.