Compost Bins

Marcia mentioned "compost bin envy".  So I thought I would discuss it.  I built a really bad one many years ago.  It kind of just fell sideways...  Who wants a bad compost bin?

So when I decided to build a new one, I gave more thought to structure and support. That time, I drew on paper, saw weaknesses and corrected them.  Sometimes, I can just "build" something, sometimes, there need to be plans...

So that time, I thought in terms of repeatable pieces.  So I thought of 2 backs, 2 outsides and a middle one, all the same.  Easier construction; just make the same thing 5 times.  And since I had a 4' roll of 1/4" wire mesh, that defined the size...

So I made 5 identical frames of 2" framex4" pressure-treated wood and attached the wire mesh.  After looking at them, I decided to add an angled 2"x2" diagonal braces to each.  

The corners are 4'x4" posts, buried about a foot deep.  I dug larger holes for those than required, but it gave me some wiggle room for bad measurements.  Nothing actually ever fits quite like the measurements suggest they will.

The pieces in front had 1" boards to create slots for removable front boards.  So I could slide them up and get at the lower compost.

Then I built hinged tops with more wire mesh in frames.  Those were kind of heavy.   But it occurred to me that counter-weights on the back would balance the weight of the tops.  Two more 2"x4" boards attached to the tops supported 4"x4" posts on the back.

Mike McGrath (former editor of Organic Gardening magazine) had a once a week 5 minute radio spot at the time and mentioned building compost bins.  So I sent him pictures of my new one.  The next week, he mentioned mine saying it was the best one he ever saw!   High praise.

I only mention all this because someone might want to build (or have someone build) a similar one.  It really is a gem.

I posted about the entire process of building it at the time.  If you want to build a similar one, here is the starting link...

It starts at compost-bin-part 1 and moves several posts forward from there.  I hope the explanations of the construction are clear enough.  An average DIYer or handyman can easily follow the steps.

It is easier than it may seem from all the pictures.  I tried to be very detailed about it.

If you build one or have someone build one, I sure would love to see the pictures...

Fixing Suspender Clips

I wear suspenders (OK in some places they are called braces).  Well, I don't have a well-defined waist, so belts don't work for me.  But the suspender clips seem cheap and don't hold well.  Some men's pants have belt hoders in good locations around the back, but a lot don't.

So I was shopping at Walmart looking for something to glue into them to help them hold better.  As I went along, I thought a cheap mousepad might work. but those things are so cheap even Walmart doesn't sell them.  

So I looked for thin rubber mats in "Crafts".  Nothing there.  The bubble wrap interested me, but it wouldn't last long.  And then I noticed that rubber mesh shelf-liner stuff.  Hey I already have that!

A bit of cutting, a little rubber glue, it might work.  So I'll be giving that a try...  Better than buying new ones (I have black, brown, tan and camo).

I love trying to fix things creatively!  I'll let you know if it works...

Hose Repair

I took pictures, so I might as well use them...  :)

One problem with garden hoses is that, if you don't turn off the water, they tend to burst.  I had a 2nd episode of that recently (last one many years ago, so it isn't routine).

I looked out the window a week ago one morning to see water spraying from a broken hose.  I ran out to shut it off of course.  Totally my fault.  

But there are connections to fix such damage and I have a pot of various types.  The usual is a ribbed plastic piece 3" long you insert in the undamaged parts and tighten clamps to seal.

But hoses come in different sizes and I didn't have the right one.  So, maybe off to the DIY store...

Suppose I just considered the cut up hose as "2 hoses" in need of connections?  There are also connections that fix hose ends.  I had a male and a female connector of thge right size for the hose!

So, here is the busted section and the freshly-cut ends to be connected.

I attached the metal male connector just fine, but the female part would simply not push in the other open hose in spite of lubricants and pulling, yanking, and pushing.  

But I had a plastic female connector.  It worked!  

My broken hose now works just fine, 1' shorter.   

The New Computer

I'm sort of losing my mind here.  Everything seems to have migrated to the new computer fine, except for the email.  And I decided it was time to get a real security suite and a password manager.

ARGGHHH!!!

If I wasn't a DIY type, I would go nuts.  And I've generally been offline because I feel like I'm in a Twilight Zone episode.  Or one of those dreams with no monsters (I don't have "monster" problems) but nothing works at all.  I call those "frustration dreams", and those are my usual kinds.  Lately, those have been all too real.

EMAIL:

Several years ago, Verizon sold their email service to AOL.  AOL has plagued me ever since.  Rgey want me to use their system directly, and it SUCKS!  I have been redirecting my AOL emails to Apple Mail where I have 3 separate accounts.  One is "cavebear" for myself.  A second is "marksmews" for the cats.  A third is "yardenman" for home and yard stuff.

When I migrated everything to the new Mac Mini, the email wouldn't.  When I finally got most emails to import, the passwords for my Apple Mail accounts didn't.  Apple says it is an AOL problem; AOL says it "talk to Apple".  

I got an AOL tech on the phone after complaining enough.  She was very friendly and helpful.  After 30 minutes, I had a new password for the cavebear account.  Only it turned out all that was just a change in my AOL account password.  My Apple accounts still wanted passwords.  I had them all written down in a binder of course, but they no longer worked.  And then we got disconnected.

I called AOL techs again.  This time, I was told the 3 Apple accounts each needed a separate monthly tech help fee of $5 per month for them to help.  $180 per year just to have them do what Verizon promised I would get for free.

So, I can read my mail direct in AOL, all jumbled together.  I'm exploring other email apps, but it would require all new addresses.  I shudder at the idea of how to contact everyone I know about new email addresses!

An option is to leave the old Mac Mini online just for the email.  It works fine there.  The problem is that the working passwords there are hidden (all ***********).  I need to get a 2nd router cable to do that.  That's easy to solve, but awkward to keep 2 computers operating.

SECURITY SUITE:  

I've been coasting along on free Avira (which is well-regarded), but I decided to upgrade.  There are things Avira doesn't do.  Like protect from ransomeware, spyware, financial transaction, and keystroke protection.  I searched everywhere for "best apps".  No one agrees.  I finally settled on Kaspersky.  According to some sites, its weakest point was the password manager (see below) and it has a Russian origin but was otherwise the "best of the bunch".  

I downloaded it and am learning how to use it.  A "quick scan" showed no malware on the new computer.  I was concerned because I had copied old files and apps to this new one and I wanted "the best" to check on those before I started using it.  I'll do a complete scan after I leave here later and let it run overnight.

PASSWORD MANAGER:  

I started keeping passwords in Excel years go and keeping the printed pages in a binder, after which I deleted the Excel spreadsheet.  But who knows what remains behind even after a delete?  I got nervous. And that was after only saving the Excel to a thumbdrive and removing it.  But, you know how passwords go.  You repeat them many times and even if they re slightly different, there are patterns.  So I decided I needed a password manger app.  

One really bizarre and meaningless long (VERY STRONG) string and ll the esier ones re hidden (I think).  I went with the "1password" app.  It will take a whole day to enter all the other passwords into the app.  Maybe 2 days.  But I have so many, maybe I can eliminate half of them.  There are sites I haven't visited in years and have no interest in.  But just deleting bookmarks doesn't eliminate all records of them.  I'll need to dig further into the files to find them.

 ---------------

I'm getting through this one small step at a time.  And it will take more time.  I'm at the point where I COULD be back on line, but there is only so much computer time I can take.  I need to figure out the Kaspersky anti-malware and the password manager.  I need to figure out the damn email password problem.  I need to go through 5,000 emails and decide which to save (I'm a hoarder).   I probably have a few 100 pictures in the camera and they need to be viewed, deleted, saved, processed, etc.

I let it all sit ignored for 2 days while I puttered around the house and yard catching up on chores.  That was actually a pleasure.  But that's a subject for a new post...

Another Day In The Life, Part 1

So, I decided to renovate the lawn.  That means cutting the grass down to 1",  aerating the lawn, collecting all the grass-clippings so that new seed can reach the ground and get some sunlight, and watering the lawn slightly 2x a day to keep the seeds moist.

I thought I had the timing perfect.  Aerate the lawn with my core aerator (pulls 3"x1/4" plugs of soil out of the ground and deposits them on the surface.  That allows air and water and fertilizer to get deep into the soil, and reduces compaction.

And since I was going to be dragging the aerator across the lawn with the riding mower, I would mow the grass short in a pattern that threw the grass clippings into just a couple of 4" wide rows.

Then I would rake the grass up and save it for the compost pile.  Then spread the grass seed.  The weather forecast was for occasional rain for the next week.  Perfect for the seeds to germinate in 80 degree temps.

Well, that was the PLAN...

The aerator has a tray on the top for putting heavy stuff on the top to make the aerator tubes sink deeply. 

I bought solid cinder blocks for it years ago.  And I added more weight this time (the ground was a bit dry).

No plan works...  As soon as I started (1 pm Wednesday), I discovered the aerator tires were flat and one was tire was off the wheel.  I had to take all the heavy stuff off and raise the end of the aerator off the ground supported by bricks.  Taking off the tire was awkward.  There was one bolt on the outside and 2 on the inside.  Only the farthest inside bolt held by a wrench allowed the outside bolt to be loosened.  With the wheel off, I had to reinflate the tire.

Of COURSE it didn't have a tube inside.  That would have been too easy.  I had to get the tire re-seated onto the metal wheel in order to get any air to stay in it.  I know from past experience that pressure on the outside of the tire can get the tire re-seated onto the wheel.  I spent an hour struggling to do that, to no avail.  Well, I worked at a tire company briefly, and I remembered they had an air-pressurized tube that went around small tires to press the tire to the wheel.  I don't have one of those.  I was dripping with sweat and worn out, so I stopped for an hour.  Drank 3 glasses of water.

When I was cooled down, I tried to think of ways to squeeze the tire onto the wheel.  I have an air pump to add a lot of air through the valve all at once.  With that attached to the valve, I tried twisting a rope around it, and I tried turning a loop of rope with a crowbar.  That didn't work.  I tried putting the tire in my bench vise and using some wood clamps across the tire in 3 directions.  That didn't work.

Damn!  I finally thought of ratcheting straps (like you use to hold a boat to a trailer.  That was awkward.  12' of strap around a 8" tire takes a lot of winding.  And the straps I had only get to 6' short (from 12').  I finally managed to hook the end of the strap at a point where the ratchet would really tighten.

It didn't work.  Well, not the 1st time or the 2nd or the 3rd or 4th.    But eventually, by pounding the sides of the tire with a rubber mallet, the seal finally caught suddenly!  YAY, HOORAY, and HALALULEAH!!!  It caught suddenly and filled...  I couldn't find anything on the tire that said what PSI to fill it, but I went for 12 as that seemed tight but with a slight "give".

So I brought it back outside and put the wheel back on the axle.  Being a sensible type, I also  checked the other tire.  It was at "0" but the bead to the wheel had not broken.  So I dragged the air pump outside and filled it to 12 psi too.

By that time it was 5 pm.  I decided to stop for the day and make dinner.

Thursday, I went all around the yard, aerating and mowing at the same time (very slowly so the aerator tubes could sink into the soil).  Just before I was done, the mower ran out of gas.  Well, I had more gas in the can, so I refilled it.  And then the mower wouldn't start again! 

OK, I guess I put a lot of stress on the riding mower hauling the aerator around with all that weight on it.  But why the mower wouldn't start was confusing.  I'm barely competent with gas engines.  I thought maybe I flooded the carburator.  I decided to stop for the day and I covered the mower with a tarp due to the possibility of rain.

And the next day is tomorrow's post...

It's Always SOMETHING!

I'd love to go days without some problem or other.  A garden hose starts leaking one day so I have to splice it.  I go to my regular barber shop another day and all of a sudden, they want appointments.  Etc.

So I walked down into the basement after dinner and there is water on the floor around the heat pump unit.  The insides unit was almost entirely replaced just in April!  Well, I've had this happen before and there are various causes.  A heat pump inside unit takes humidity out of the inside air.  The condensation collects in a tray, which drains through a pipe to a reservoir that holds about a quart (liter).  When it is filled, a float activates a pump that sends it to the laundry tub for drainage. 

So, the collection tray can get loose and spill water, the pipe can come loose and spill water, the float can fail and spill water out an overflow hole in the reservoir, or the discharge tube can get blocked and spill water backed out the reservoir overflow hole.  There may be other things that can cause water spillage, but those are the ones *I* have experienced. 

After the 1st time, where I paid someone a few hundred dollars to reattach a loose pipe, I have solved them all myself.

This time was messy.  I quickly figured out that the reservoir was full of "goop".  I don't want to be gross here, but it seems to have been some combination of algae and bacterial slime.  Think of it as "thin jello" if that is easier.  LOL!  I knew I had to get the top of the reservoir off , but the modern things get, the more perverse the attachments are.  The manufacturers assume you will call them for repairs and so they consider the parts disposable.  THEY will just slap on a new part.  For several hundred dollars...  The parts aren't designed to be taken apart and fixed.

I took it apart and fixed it...

I had to break a few attachments to get the damn top off finally, cement and duct tape hold things together afterwards very well.  But getting the top of the reservoir off was just the 1st step.  It still wasn't a large opening, and I had to get the sludge out.  Aha, my wet/dry shop vac!  Sucked most of it out.  A large bottle brush grabbed most of the rest.  Refilling, bottle-brushing, and vacuuming the reservoir a few more times got it pretty clean.

But there was still "stuff" inside the reservoir pump itself.  I got into the slots where the water enters the pump with an awl and slowly got most of it out.  When I put it all back together and filled the reservoir a few times, it automatically emptied the reservoir each time.   Hurray!

I dried the floor with an old towel so that I can see if there is any more spillage overnight.   I'll add some bleach to the reservoir when I go shopping tomorrow.  Naturally (and somewhat ironically) I JUST used the last of it yesterday cleaning the laundry tub of some orange growth - which must have been coming from the reservoir discharge just before it failed). 

And it JUST occurred to me that I can add a PVC pipe to the overflow hole to lead into a 5 gallon bucket underneath it so I get some warning about a problem next time. 

Not that I will need that, but the effort will certainly assure the overflow problem NEVER happens again.  You know the rule:  Any problem you make efforts to prevent will never occur again (but if you don't, it will)!

I buy 3-month filters for the heat pump.  And because of cat hair and who knows what else, I replace them every 2 months.  I've added a note on the heat pump to add 1/8 cup of bleach to the reservoir each time too.

I hope the next problem gives me a few days before it occurs...

Assorted Stuff

Some days, I get more work done in the house and yard than usual.  I've been busy the past couple of days...

1.  The door to the garden enclosure is on a slope, so it is set above the highest ground (to allow it to open).  Unfortunately (in theory), that would allow Evil Squirrels to get under it.  The gap is 2" at one end.  So I need a barrier that doesn't block the door but blocks the gap.  I decided on a way. 

The door opens outwards, so a small barrier at ground level inside the door will work.  But I also need to get a wheelbarrow in there so it has to be removable.  And it is in ground contact, so it can't be wood that rots.  Well, I have leftover pieces of the composite decking and THAT won't rot.  So if I made some holder for the composite piece that could allow it to be lifted out easily, that would be perfect.

Being a woodworker of minor skill, I thought to cut a dado slot in 2 pieces of pressure treated 2"x4" wood 6" long (the width of the composite decking piece).  I've done router work before and am usually successful at it.  But I learned that router small pieces of wood does NOT work well.  Too late, I recalled advice from a woodworker magazine that said to do the routing first on long pieces and then cut the wood to size. 

Hindsight (or, in this case, hind-memory) is 20/20.

It was a disaster.  Trying of router 6' pieces of wood just chewed them up badly (Don't worry, my fingers were never in danger.  I may be only moderately-skilled, but I am EVER so cautious!).  But that attempt failed utterly.

So I decided to BUILD a slot.  A little table saw work, and I had 1"x1"strips of wood to glue to a 3" wide base |__| and the inside was the slot I needed.  When the glue dried I added screws for permanence.  The slot for the composite deck board is 3/16" wider than the board for easy removal.  It doesn't matter if the board is a bit loose; an Evil Squirrel can't lift it.

2.  The 3 areas I surrounded by edging last Fall are not working out as intended.  The closest one was planted with tulips and hyacinths in wire cages to protect them from the Voracious Voles and Evil Squirrels (who consider them delicacies), and daffodils (which are toxic and unpalatable to both).  But the hyacinths never came up (I suspect the 1/2" wire mesh was too small for the stems) and there weren't enough daffodils to cover the intended area.

So I have to dig up the hyacinth cages and try again this Fall, and add more daffodils.  The tulips did nicely and I expect them to be around for many year.   I have some tulips in places where voles and squirrels do not think to dig, and they have been blooming for 20 years.

But in the meantime, weeds are growing.  Most are easy enough to pull up by the roots, but there is a clumping grass with deep roots and pulling on them just takes off the tops so they grow back.  So for 2 days, I've spent an hour each day digging under the roots and prying them up.  I have some impressive piles...   Those will be composted after they spend a week in sealed plastic bags set in the full sun until they are as thoroughly dead as the Wicked Witch Of The East in Oz ("not only merely dead, really, most sincerely dead.”).

The poaching shovel really works well for that (a really narrow shovel).  I got almost all of those dug up!  The remaining weeds are kinds that can be cut off just below ground with my scuffle hoe.


3.  The Evil Squirrel live cage has been set again.  I didn't mind the 2 new squirrels around the birdfeeder (they can't get past the barrel baffle and the round disc baffle above it), but I saw one climbing on the garden enclosure trying to find a way in, and THAT one has got to go.  I'll get it; squirrels are suckers for peanut butter.

4.  The 2d edged circle is not planted.  I meant to move a plant called Lymachia to there, but it is too invasive, so I am killing all of it .  I thought it could be controlled in a circle I could mow around, but I've found them growing in 3 spots around the yard (1 spot 150' away from the patch) so they have to go.  I'll just keep cutting them down to ground level with my hedge trimmer until the roots are exhausted.  Meanwwhile, I will use the rototiller to turn over the soil in the circle and cover it in newspaper (the newspaper uses harmless soy ink).  That should kill off all weeds by Fall.  I think I will move the numerous Black-Eyed Susan volunteer plants from around the flowerbeds there.

5.  The 3rd edging area was planted with wildflower seeds last Fall, but it is mostly weeds.  I'm not sure what to do there.  On the one hand, there ARE wildflowers growing, and I want those.  On the other hand, 90% of the plants growing there are weeds.  I might try selective weeding, but not knowing what the good plants are (that might bloom next year) I might just undo some good plants.  But there are some plants I KNOW are weeds, so I think I will pull them and see what happens.

6.  I'm preparing to paint the rebuilt bathroom.  Have pale mossy green paint, dropclothes, rollers, etc.  Have TSP (trisodium phosphate to clean the 30 year old walls, gloves for protection, sponges, etc.  Ive painted every place I've ever been in (many apartments), so I know the routine..  It taking all the stuff off the walls that slows me.  That mirror has sharp edges!  I want to surround it with a wood frame.  And I have the frames.  But they are dark wood and the wood in the bathroom (towel bar, TP holder, toothbrush holder, light switch cover etc are light wood.  I need to see if I can stain those dark (danish walnut).  And I need to score the mirror smaller by 3" to account for the wood frame size.


7.  Weeded the old flowerbeds for an hour until I came across poison ivy plants creeping in.  I used to be immune to poison ivy, but 10 years ago developed a terrible rash from it.   It is one of those things that don't bother you until they do.  I'll need to wear heavy duty rubber gloves, have a bucket of bleach nearby and dip my trowel and gloves into it regularly.  And hope I don't forget and wipe my brow.

8.  Pulled up a dozen or so thorny thistles.  I wore heavy leather gloves that beat the torns, so it went well.  The thistles don't have deep roots, so they come up easily.  But they have enough stored food to mature their seeds after being pulled up (like dandelions) so they will go in the plastic bags with the poison ivy.

9.  A lot of my trees have the habit of sending out new branches from the trunks anywhere they can get sunlight.  So they drop down to walking level.  Since I get tired of pushing branches out of my way while I mow the lawn, I went after them yesterday.  I bought a pole pruner (a limb saw on a 10' pole) a couple years ago and this is the first time I used it.  It worked great!  A few cuts under the branch then more cuts on the top.  The undercuts prevent the falling branch from peeling off a foot of bark on the tree trunk (allowing diseases to start).  Hard on the arms though.  I may try my electric chain saw next time.

10.  Cleaned the riding mower deck completely.  The top collects dry grass clippings, the underside packs wet grass clippings on the undersurface like paper mache!  It took some real scraping.  Actually, I couldn't figure out how to get to the underside safely.  But I have these 2"x8"x8' boards with metal ends that you can clamp to trailers and other flat surfaces.  So I placed the boards on a 2' high landscaping box and drove the mower up on it. 

After detaching the spark plug wires for safety, I was able to crawl under and scrape the deck clean of packed dead grass clippings.  Took an hour though.  That mower blade really stays in the way. 

11.  I left the mower on the boards last night.  It occurred to me that I should sharpen the blades.  But I had enough old grass on my face and it was time to feed the cats.  So the blade sharpening is for tomorrow...

12.  The edged circles are too small for using my large roto-tiller.  But there are smaller electric versions.  The advertised gas one is called a Mantis.  But I found one with better ratings (Earthwise, with a 4.5 of 5 rating) and ordered it from Amazon.  It should be perfect for the smaller spaces and I've always wanted one like that.










13.  Next project is to whack down the underbrush in the far back yard.  It has gotten amazingly overgrown since just removing a few trees back there 2 years ago.  I have a 4-stroke gas powered Stihl whacker with a metal blade but I've resisted using it because I hate the noise (I'm really a very quiet person), and it seems vaguely dangerous, but it is time to bring it out!  Serious work needs serious tools.  I'll be careful with it.

Great Shopping Day

I had a long list of stuff to buy at the local DIY store.  And found most.

The mailbox door broke after 30 years.  Tsk, tsk!  Only 30 years.  But it is in good shape, so repairable.  It needed a 3/16ths bolt through the 7" wide front.  Was that easy to find?  NO!  I finally found a 12" metal rod with threads.  Have to cut it down to size though.  The good news is that I also found "stop nuts".  Those have nylon on the inside so you don't need nuts and washers.

I got tired on wooden sawhorses that kept getting loose around the brackets.  Found some adjustable metal ones with places to attach temporary boards to protect against cutting the sawhorses.

Helped 3 other customers there looking for other stuff I knew where they were.  If I wanted a retirement job, I know where to go, LOL.

Found some super-magnets. (rare-earth materials)  Wasn't looking for them, but I can sure use them.  Those feeble refrigerator magnets aren't worth having.

Got 150 new plastic 6" plant labels.  My old ones were written over too many times and exposure to U/V rays makes them brittle after a few years anyway.  So, new start.

Green garden twine, stretch tape, and a small seed-sower (little clicks send one small seed at a time down a narrowing slot).  Beats using a tweezer or planting several at a spot!  Or straining my eyes even with reading glasses...

I keep using plastic ties







and I seem to use them a lot.  Buying them a dozen at a time was driving me crazy.  So, at the very bottom shelf, I found bags of 1,000.  GASP!  And they were the same price as 4 packs of 25!  I bought a bag each of 8" and 4".  Talk about volume discounts...  Lifetime supply, I hope.

 The funniest part was the scissors.  I wasn't looking for one, but they were in front of me, so I tossed one into my cart.  The basement scissors had just rubber handles and they finally broke.  So the cashier picks them up and says "what are these".  OK, that really threw me.  Everyone knows what scissors are, right?  I couldn't figure out the question. 

But she meant there was no tag on them, so she couldn't ring them up.  I always seem to find the item with no pricing label!  I just told her to set them aside.  I didn't even know where to go look for another with a label...

I can get scissors anywhere.  But all in all, it was a great day shopping...

Rototillering the Back Yard

Well, the back yard was sure a change from the front!  The front was delivered "topsoil", the backyard was existing soil from the ridge.  What a difference in quality, and not the way you would think!!!  The ridge in the backyard was better soil...

When I finished the first 2" tilling of the front packed soil, I was worried about the backyard because they drove the equipment around there a lot more than in the front.  But when I finished the 2" tilling of the new front soil, I did one experimental row through the back.

The back soil is WONDERFUL!  In spite of all the equipment driven over it, it is (relatively) soft, loose, and fertile-looking.  The surface seemed also hard, but the rototiller just went through it like a spoon through flour...  That part is going to be so easy that I feel better about having to spend time on the front.

Hurray for an easy part to the project!

Planting in the backyard is going to be easy.

The important part is deciding what to plant.  The front yard is easy - lawn (keeps the neighbors happy).  The backyard is more important to me and the cats.  We live THERE when outside.  And we like bugs and butterflies and birds and bees.

So, I want a small meadow of native flowers that will support locals bugs and etc.  I think there will be an edging of 3' shrubs (some to each flower in Spring, Summer, and Fall) and 2 pieces of 225 square feet (21 square meters) meadow (separated by a mowable path).  I have some suitable plants I can divide and plant in clumps (coneflowers, black-eye-susans, goldenrod, and I will buy a large packet of native meadowflower seeds to scatter among them in 1 patch .

The other patch will be the Lysimachia Firecracker that has been bedeviling me in the regular flowerbed.  In a patch I can finally mow around, it won't spread easily.  I love the purple leaves and the yellow flowers, it just isn't a friendly neighbor to other plants.  So it gets it's own spot where it can be controlled.

For the Spring Summer, and Fall blooming shrubs, I am choosing Azaleas for Spring, a Rhododendron for Fall, and I'm not sure about a small Summer-blooming shrub, but considering Knock-out Rose and or a dwarf butterfly bush.  Suggestions for USA Zone 7 are welcome.

When I measure the new area for a scaled layout, I'll post it.

 ----------------------
I do have to add a minor accident.   I was guiding the rototiller along the edge of the drainage easement in the front yard yesterday and I hit a rock.  The rototiller tilted, and of course it tilted in the direction of the drainage easement.  You know how somethings tilt and, just for one brief movement all is seemingly balanced?  And then it falls...

In the wrong direction, of course.

Before I go further, I should mention that it seems to me that everyone has some particular problem that happens to them more often than to others.  One of mine is that gas equipment doesn't like to stop when set to the "stop" position.  They just sputter and cough along refusing to actually stop.  My regular lawn mower does that and I have to use a screwdriver to short-circuit the spark plug to the chassis to stop it.  My gas chain saw does that (when I can get it to start at all).  The rototiller has the same problem.

So there it was, balanced on the digging parts trying to fall into the drainage easement.  It succeeded!  My first thought was DAMN!  My second was "I hope nobody saw that"!  But I set the lever to the stop position and it wouldn't stop.  Of course...

At least the lever that disengages the digging blades (tines) worked.  So there I was with the rototiller on its side in the drainage easement, sputtering.  And besides, in trying to hold the thing up out of the drainage easement, I fell into it myself. 

Need I mention that there are brambles along the edge of the drainage easement at that ONE spot?  Probably not, what else would be there with my luck?  So I picked myself up out of the muddy bottom, pulled the rototiller upright, and got it into reverse and backed it up the side of the drainage easement side.

It's OK to laugh.  I wouldn't be telling you about this if I was easily embarrassed by the occasional failures in daily life.  After I had the rototiller back out of the drainage easement (and turned off), I sat down and laughed too. 

If you can't laugh at yourself, you have a problem...  LOL!

Rototillering The Front Lawn Soil

My Troy-Bilt Pony rototiller is the type with the digging tines at the rear.  The first kind I bought 25 years ago was a front-tine tiller with free-moving wheels, and those are AWEFUL.  The front-tines jump over everything and you mostly have to hold it back to let the tines dig into the soil (It's like making a mule go backwards).  30 minutes of that, and you have put in a full day's work!

The Troy-Bilt (and this is not an ad for them - I'm just really happy with it) has geared wheels and the digging tines behind them.  So the wheels have a set speed and actually prevent the tines from pushing the whole thing forward (mostly).  So you are steering it more than horsing it around.

There is also a sled-like bar under the chassis that controls how deep the tines can dig down.  Trust me, when the soil is hard it sure is easier to let the tines dig down just 2" rather than trying for 6". 

So I went over the entire front area 1-2" deep for a first shot today.  The area is about 2500 square feet (232 square meters).  It took 1.5 hours.  It was difficult to break down the track treads, but I got most of them turned into pellets.  I stopped for the day.  I was exhausted...

That doesn't mean I wasn't pleased with the results.  The hard-dried track-tread marks were all ground up, and that was all I hoped for on the first run-through.  Tomorrow, I will set the depth sled-bar another 2" lower and see how that works. 

I would LIKE to get the new soil tilled up loose to 6" deep (the maximum depth my hand-managed rototiller will allow) so that the grass will grow deep roots and hold the ground against heavy rains. 

There will be some annoyances.  I already discovered there is a large rock firmly in the ground (meaning I couldn't pry it out with a shovel).  And there are a few places where the rototiller just jumps up suddenly suggesting others I don't see yet.

In hindsight, I wish I had just had the contractor dump the 2 truckloads of soil and spread it out myself.  Spreading the soil by rake and shovel would have been easier than the rototillering.  But it seemed a good idea at the time.

But it will all get loosened enough for planting lawn grass while the weather is warm, so all will work out in the end even if I have to do more after-work than I expected.  Looking at the most positive view of this, I'll just say "Who can't use a bit more exercise"?  LOL!

More tomorrow...

New Soil Harder Than I Thought!

I got outside to prepare the bare front yard for new grass seeds, and the condition of the new topsoil wasn't as good as I thought!  It seemed loose enough when the contractor left on Tuesday, and I thought the track-tread of the spreader was light enough to not compact the soil, but I was wrong.

Yesterday, I realized the new soil had hardened like cement and there were deep tread-tracks embedded on it.  YIKES!  I sure can't plant grass on THAT. 

Well, I had expected to have to haul out my old Troy-Bilt Roto-Tiller anyway. 

I did that today.  I hadn't used it in many years, and equipment that sits around unused for 5-10 years doesn't like to start up right away.  But I filled up the gas tank, checked the oil, set the lever to "choke" (that's a good thing, if you don't know), set another lever to "start", and pulled the starter cord. 

Nothing!  20-30 tiring pulls later, nothing!  No big surprise, but I had hoped to get lucky.  I'm no expert with gas engines, but I know some basics.  So... I checked the levers to make sure they seemed to be working.  They were.  I checked the spark plug wire.  It was firmly attached and clean.  So I removed the spark plug itself.  Naturally, my socket set didn't have the right size cushioned spark plug socket, but fortunately it is slightly raised (sensible design) and I could loosen it with a regular wrench. 

I fully expected it to be fouled with old oil or needing to be cleaned and gapped, but it looked perfect!  Damn...  One always hopes for easy problems to fix.

Well, whenever I have repairmen around, I watch them carefully.  The last time I had a guy here to get a different piece of equipment (lawn mower) running, he said the fuel line/carburator was probably gummed up.  Now, you can either take the parts off and clean them, or get them running sneakily and they will clean themselves.  He did a "sneaky". 

He took the air filter off  (exposing the carburator) and sprayed a (flammable) cleaning solvent into it.  It loosened a stuck part and the lawn mower started right up on the next try.

Well, I don't have any fancy cleaning solvents, but gasoline is a basic solvent for old gasoline.  I took the air filter off to add a little gasoline into the carburator.  But I sure couldn't just pour gasoline from a big 5 gallon can into that small hole when I only wanted about a tablespoon of gasoline. 

I could have gone back into the house and gotten an actual tablespoon.  But I like to be resourceful.  So I decided that the socket that didn't fit the spark plug would work as a small container if I kept my finger tightly on the bottom.  It took a little work to splash just a small bit of gas out of the can, but I managed.  Then dribbled it into the carburator.  Puttng the air filter back on I pulled the starter cord.  Nothing.  Damn...

A second pull, and I'LL BE DAMNED, IT COUGHED A COUPLE TIMES, TRYING TO START.  ANOTHER PULL AND IT STARTED...  I had to play with the choke lever for a minute, but it settled down running smoothly.  I could barely believe it! 

Since it was running, I decided to use it on the hardened soil in the front lawn.  More about that tomorrow...

Garden Enclosure Screen Door

The garden enclosure door is giving me trouble.  The posts holding it keep getting out of alignment.  Sometimes the top sticks.  Sometimes, the latch won't catch.

I've bought some additional pvc pipes to help hold it in place, but I had to get the frame in alignment first.  One post had to be raised 1/4", and that was trickier than I thought.  Since it is stuck in the ground 2', the idea was to pry it up 1/4" and then hold it there while nature lets the soil below it expand and fill in.

So the first part was to lift the post.  Easier said than done.  I dripped water in around it for an hour, and that did loosen the post.  But lifting the post isn't just pulling it up a bit.  There had to be something to hold it up the 1/4".  And I don't mean to suggest that I am strong enough to just pull it up that much.

I had the idea of screwing a 2x4" board to the post and prying on the bottom of that board.  That would work, but how would I hold it there?  I tried putting a 4x4" post against the top of the frame and then lifting it with shims.  I did that, but the frame didn't rise.

All I was doing was pushing the post into the dirt...

Arggh...

And if I put a board under the 4x4" post, that was too tight to make it fit under.  I had to re-think it.  And the 4x4" post I was using to raise door frame was the wrong length by 1".

AHA!  I set a scrap piece on board in the screen doorway and set the post that was "just" too long on the board at an angle.  Pounding that 4x4" post that was at an angle, toward the post I wanted to lift worked!

Look at it another way.  The door frame post and the ground made a right angle, with the bracing post resting on a board at the bottom making the hypotenuse.  By pounding the bottom of the bracing board with a small sledgehammer, I pushed the top of the door frame up the required 1/4".  Hurray!

But how to hold it up?  The bracing post prevented the door from closing...

Well, that baffled me for a few minutes.  But then I realized that if I screwed on a board near the bottom of the door frame post  on the opposite side, it would hold it up for ever.  Well, I didn't need "forever", just long enough for wet soil to settle below the door frame post.

SO...   I set a cinder block next to the door frame post, stomped on it a few times to settle it into the soil so it wouldn't sink under pressure, and put a scrap piece of 2x4" board atop the cinder block.  And I screwed that board into place.

So the post holding the latch side of the screen door (that I had just raised 1/4") won't settle back down (the piece of 2x4" is resting on a cinder block that won't settle into the ground and the 2x4" board is screwed solidly into the door frame post).

I can leave all that in place forever.  Its not in the way of the door closing.

But the latch doesn't "catch",  I can solve THAT.  A small piece of aluminum fill fix that.  Actually some would a plastic credit card.

Just accept that the door and latch will now work, and that the screen door closes as smoothly as silk!

Been Busy, Part 2

Part B) of the projects this past week...  The PVC pipe frames for the concrete 6" mesh wire...

It was an adventure cutting, drilling, and marking the 1" PVC pipe for the trelises.  The cucumbers and pole beans are wandering around the garden surface looking for something to climb.  I thought the pole beans would climb the cornstalks happily, but the corn is a short bicolor variety  and the pole beans need higher supports.

So I'm late in adding the trellises to the enclosed garden.  But maybe not TOO late.  I tested a pole bean and it can be unwound from the corn stalks.  I'm barely getting to the trellises in time!

My delay was due to the difficulty in getting at the concrete mesh.  I stacked in against the fence last Fall to get it out of the way, and the Evil Vines from the neighbor's yard have entirely taken them over. 

It took several hours to rip the D*** vines loose from the wire mesh 2 days ago.  And things are so tight between the new garden enclosure and the fence that I cant just pull out the 30' of concrete mesh to cut it apart on the open lawn.  I'll have to do it where it is.

Fortunately, I have a saws-all.  The metal blade cuts through even concrete mesh like a hot knife through butter.  But I have to construct the PVC frames the comcrete mesh will be attched to first so that I know exactly what sizes to cut.

And that means making the PVC frames first.  I have them in pieces.  Tomorrow, I'll attach them to the framed garden beds.  When the PVC frames are attached solidly, I'll cut the 30' of old trellis concrete remesh to size. 

Pictures will follow...

Been Busy, Part 1

Well, OK, I always TRY to stay busy doing something useful around the house each day, but some things aren't worth reporting on.  I'm pretty sure no one cares that I mopped the floors, did laundry, paid bills, weeded gardens, cleaned litter boxes, etc.  Not that those things don't take time and have to be done, but they aren't generally things I bother to post about. 

So, having been busy with such routine things, I haven't posted for a week.

I am pleased to say that the last 3 days have been at least a bit more busy on interesting things.  They fall into 3 categories:  Garden, Clutter, and "Other Stuff".  And because each part gets a bit long, I'm going to address one of the 3 parts in separate posts.

First (today) is the garden, and there are several parts to that work over the past week. 

A) While I was pleased to announce that the free-standing screen door to the new garden enclosure was finally completed previously, it apparently wasn't quite.  The posts have settled slightly, and even with metal corner braces, the door rubs on the top of the frame, and I can see that heavy rains will always make it a little bit loose.  So I designed some support structures of PVC pipe braces that should help.

B) The climbing plants need trellises to, well, climb.  Pole beans and cucumbers mostly.  So I designed some basic PVC pipe frame that can support concrete mesh wire.

C) The vining crops like melons spread out in all directions and need to be constrained to their own framed beds.

D) Raising one side of the frame 1/4".  That doesn't sound like much, but it is the difference between the door sticking and not.

So, a week ago, for part A) I went shopping at the Big D-I-Y stores looking for the parts that would brace the free-standing screen door.  I don't want to get overly detailed, but the idea was to attach 2 PVC pipes from the door frame to the nearest upright PVC post on each side of the door, and 2 from the horizontal post above down to the top of the door frame.  It was just a best guess of holding the free-standing door frame in place. 

The D-I-Y stores didn't have the right attachments, so I improvised.  That didn't work.  Part involved cutting the upright posts to add a "tee", and I realized that the upright posts were so locked in place by the chicken wire enclosure that I couldn't get that tee installed.  There is something called a "snap tee" that doesn't involve cutting the upright posts.  Literally, you just cement and push the snap tee onto a pipe. 

But that part that sticks up in the picture has to fit into another pipe, and somehow it just wont.  I suppose it is designed for some other purpose.  Then it struck me that a connector fitting (intended to attach 2 PVC pipes together) might work.

 It wasn't tight as if designed for the purpose, but close enough to cement after several applications.  And if the cement doesn't hold, I can put a bolt though it to get the same holding effect.

The trellis frames, part B) were a lot easier.  They are just an upside-down "U" of PVC pipe with the bottoms attached to the outsides of the framed beds in the back of the garden (so as to not shade the other lower-growing plants).

"Easier" doesn't mean "easy" though.  I still had problems.  I wanted the PVC pipe uprights to be solidly attached to the framed beds so I could then attach 6" grid concrete mesh wire to them.  I wanted them to be level up and sideways, and 2' below the top of the enclosure (so the vines wouldn't crawl up through the top). 

So I made a cardboard template that was even to the top and side of the frames.  Repeatability is wonderful.  I used the cardboard template to mark drilling spots in the frames.  I then used the template to mark drilling spots on the PVC upright pipes. 

Since the uprights had to be 7' (from a 10" PVC pipe, they had to be cut.  I tried clamping the pipes to 2 sawhorses, but the vibration from my saws-all

kept knocking the clamps loose.  I had to bring the 6 pipes inside the clamp them to the sturdier workbench.  Cut to 7' lengths, I then had to mark the spots to drill holes to match the pilot holes in the garden frames.  That's where the cardboard template helped A LOT!  The same holes in the cardboard HAVE to match up to the pilot holes in the garden frames, right?

We'll find out tomorrow...

Part C) was serendipitous.   I needed a whole lot of small bamboo stakes to keep guiding my free-ranging melon vines back into the beds.  Packs of 25 bamboo stakes cost about $7 and I need a few dozen.  But I was shopping at Target today and found 12" kitchen bamboo skewers 80 for $1.27.  That works for me!

One of the most useful discoveries I've made in life is that products meant for a purpose are expensive, but very similar things meant for another purpose can be quite cheap.  My favorite example is a plastic scoop.



Not the exact product, but an example... In a pet store, it was $6.  In a hardware store, it was $3.  Same thing, different customer...  *I* use the scoop to transfer the kitty litter in the 35# buckets into more wieldy smaller containers.

But back to the bamboo skewers...  I want to guide the melon vines in circles to keep them in the beds and out of the paths.  The 12" skewers will work just fine for that!

Part D), raising one side of the door frame 1/4" is a bit trickier.  I've figured out a way to do it.  I'm going to screw a short scrap of 2"x4" board near the bottom of the post I want to raise 1/4".  I will put a brick on the ground and stomp on it hard to make sure it won't settle deeper.  Then I'll use another 2x4 to use as a lever to pry the attached 2x4 1/4" higher.  I'll clamp it temporarily until I can wedge shims between the brick and the screwed 2x4.

That will hold the post up the 1/4" I need.  But it is going to have to stay there for months until routine ground expansion and rain fills in the spot.  Bet it is still there several years from now, LOL!

Despite the 4x4 posts being set 2' deep in the soil, I bet I'll always have to adjust the screen door frame from year to year.  Some things never stop needing attention.

I originally got the idea of building a chicken-wire-covered garden enclosure from a website HERE 

But I found some problems with the design, and fixed them for myself.  Well, I hope everyone improves on construction ideas they find on the internet or elsewhere, mine included.

You would be amazed at the way things travel around the internet.  

Next posts:  "Clutter" and "Other Stuff"...

Headphones

I like to watch TV while I am am working in the kitchen.  But I also make a lot of noise in there (running water, etc) which overwhelms the TV sound.  And that's even with running the TV through the stereo speakers.

So I researched wireless headphones.  Most got poor ratings, but mostly for not trnsmitting through rooms walls.  Well, that wasn't my concern (I'm still in direct line-of-sight to the TV).  So I bought a well-rated wireless headphone.

I couldn't get it to work.  There were 2 ways to connect them.  One was  direct from the headphone plug to the back of the wireless headphone station.  The other was from the back of the headphone station to the A/V controller unit (whatever you call the device that lets you select the various other devices like TV/Stereo, DVD player, etc). 

The cable to plug into the device controller headphone unit was too small though the audio in/out fit perfectly.  No arrangement of plugs allowed the audio-out connection to work.  So I needed either an adapter plug to fit betwee the small plug and the headphone plug.  I hope that makes sense.  I assumed there was an adapter plug to fit from th small headphone plug to the larger one.  

So I went to Radio Shack, of course.  They opened and tried several adaptor plugs which didn't work.  I suggested maybe there was a cable that matched all the plugs.  The salesperson at Radio Shack didn't think so. 

I found it on the shelves myself.  Am I the only one how thinks Radio Shack personnel aren't as experienced as they used to be?  I had to find a rather obvious cable MYSELF!  At Radio Shack!

So back at home, I plugged it in.  It worked perfectly.  The wireless headphones work great.  But nothing is perfect.  Plugging the headset in cuts off the stereo speakers.  Worse, my radio won't play whether the headphone plug is in or out.  I'll have to explore that.

But I have to say that while the dishwasher is running and I an running sink water to clean dishes or get hot water, I CAN hear what is on the TV.

Small victory...

The Chicken Wire

So I finally got 8' wide (two 4' widths) of the chicken wire over the top of the garden enclosure frame...  It looked like this...

Up the side, across the top, and down the other side is about 45'.  Some there is some left over from the 50' roll.

 The black vinyl-coated wire looks good.   It's not tight yet.  That part will come later.  For now, it is just attached enough so as to not sag onto the garden.

It is temporarily affixed to the side PVC pipes with some overlap.  And the final steps will be to thread 100s of feet of galvanized wire sewing the edges of the rolls of chicken wire together tightly.  Otherwise the Evil Squirrels would wiggle in between.

The chicken wire rolls hang a foot or so long to spread out on the ground.  That will prevent groundhogs  and rabbits from going up the the chicken wire wall and digging in underneath.  If they manage that, I will just put down heavier mesh wire at ground level. 

But I don't think that will be necessary.  When critters decide on a place to dig at an edge, it seldom occurs to them to back off 2 feet and try again. 

After I have all the tops of the enclosure covered and tightened (and I have the frame supported in all directions by unstretchable nylon ropes until the wire is all installed - at which point the wire attached to the pipes will strngthen the structure sufficiently).

The next part will be to construct the door.  I think I have arranged that rather well.  I've built a 2x4" frame around the door that fits the hinge side and the door lock side and the top.  I will set 4x4" posts around where the door will attach.  And because the 2x4" door frame allows several inches of attachment "wiggle room", it should fit perfectly.

Not to say attaching the screen door will be simple.  Its heavy with the 2x4" boards surrounding it, and there will be some shimming required to make the door frame fit to the 4x4" posts so the door is level and swings easily not hitting the ground.  But I have some ideas on that too.

So many of the ideas for this project have come to me as I was trying to fall asleep.  I should try sleeping more often, LOL!

Next time:  The door installation...

The New Garden Beds

Pictures at the end...

They are finally all built and filled!  I started last Fall to tear out the old 25 year old ones (and which were not my best work (being unlevel and too shallow).  I bought wood to construct more and larger and taller ones.  I got 5 of 6 finished before the ground froze and it was too cold to work outside.

So the first thing was to build the 6th bed, then move all the remaining good soil from the old ones.  That took some time.  The ground stayed frozen well after the air warmed up in March.  Then I had to wait for the yard to dry enough to bring in more topsoil and compost.

I waited because there were 2 ways to do that.  First (because the lawn was soft from thawing) was I could get the soil and compost from a landscape supply place in the hauling trailer, park it in the front yard at the street, bring the lawn mower with the yard trailer (3x4 feet) to the hauling trailer, shovel it full from the hauling trailer, drive it around back to the garden, and unshovel it into the beds.  I've done that before and its a lot of shoveling!

Second, I could wait for the lawn to dry enough to drive the hauling trailer straight back to the garden and unshovel the load once (and right next to it).  That's an iffy trick of getting between Spring rains and not wanting to wait too long to get it done.

Now, the new beds had some decent soil from the old beds, and I wanted to mix compost (a lovely black and crumbly local leaf compost called "Leaf-Gro") into the existing soil.  I did that 2 weeks ago.  That got most of the beds half-filled.  But the last bed had little good soil and the rest had settled about 4" down.

I went back to the landscaping supply yard expecting to have to get more topsoil on one trip and then more compost on a second.  But Wonder of Wonders, they had something NEW.  A thoroughly mixed 50-50 blend on the Leaf-Gro and topsoil.

I examined each of the 3 carefully, crumbling handfuls, smelling it, and looking at the color.  Their pure topsoil is very good stuff, the Leaf-Gro is very good stuff, and the 50-50 mix seemed to really be 50-50.  To explain how I knew, I found clods in the 50-50 mix and crushed them.  Half were topsoil and half were Leaf-Gro.  And the color of the really sifted parts (99% of the mix) was right between them in color.

Sure beats mixing the individual parts together with a spading fork one forkful at a time over 160 square feet of beds! 

I got two front-loader buckets of the mix (about 2 cubic yards or a bit over 1.5 cubic meters) according to the landscape place.  I think they underestimate the front-loader; I think I got 2 cubic meters (from measuring the volume in the trailer.

But having the trailer right at the garden SURE made things easier.  Sure, shoveling is tedious.  But straight off the back of the trailer into a wheelbarrow once and dumping it only 10' away into the beds was shoveling it once rather than twice.  And I had EXACTLY enough to fill ALL the beds to the top (the soil will settle a bit).

Pictures...

Half-done last Fall.  There is JUST enough space between the beds for my wheelbarrow.

More done last Fall.  BTW, you can see how I attached the lower and upper frames.  The dark wood on the inside is a 1"x6" pressure-treated board that attaches the 2 together.  There is one on each long side of each bed. 

All built by this Spring.

The tarp-covered trailer of 50-50 topsoil and compost mix.   Oops, didn't get a picture with the tarp off...  But you can see it was nearly filled.  5'x8' trailer filled 1.5 feet high = 60 cubic feet = 2+ cubic yards).

Filled all the beds to top (it will settle a bit).   The beds are 4' wide, 3' and 4'.  With 2' between them and allowing 2' on the outsides, it is a perfect 20' square for the framed chicken wire and pipe enclosure!

Did all the emptying/shoveling in 2 hours!  And had to slather muscle-rub on my hands when I went to make dinner later when the muscle cramps started.  OUCH!  Its been a long un-excerising Winter...  But I recover fast.  Oh, and just how did I scrape the trailer so clean, you ask?  Two words.  Snow Shovel!

And I have 2 trash barrels full of leftover pure Leaf-Gro compost  to use on the flowerbeds!

Now I just have to build the PVC pipe and chicken wire enclosure to protect the magnificent new garden from the Evil Squirrels, Evil Rabbits, and Evil Goundhogs.

Well, what is life without the next project?  LOL!  And I have plenty of them on my list...

Garden Renovation

Wow, it's been a week since I last posted...

I started renovating the garden area in April and found really hard work there.  I had put down various layers of weed-blocking material over the years, and they got covered with dirt.  LOTS of dirt!  Vining weeds grew among them and tree roots from the neighbor's' trees got in there too.

Pulling and cutting them all up was HORRIBLE!  It all falls into the "I can't believe I thought that was a good idea at the time" category!  I pulled the stuff up by brute strength mere inches at a time.  I shoved a 6' breaker bar under it all and pried it loose.  I cut it into manageable chunks with a curved rug-cutting knife and a razor knife.

I estimate it took 40 hours of hard frustrating work.  And it's not complete YET.  But is IS cut and removed for the area I want to rebuild framed beds with a chicken wire enclosure to keep the evil squirrels out.

I'm 64.  I can't do the hard work like I could when I was 35.  I had to do all of it 1 hour work, 1 hour rest inside and drinking gatorade to replenish.

But I finished it...

A few days ago, I hooked up a small yard cart (about 2.5 feet by 4 feet) to my riding lawn mower and started heaving the heavy sodden pieces of underlays into the trailer.  Then I drove my mower to the front yard and heaved those pieces into the 5'x8' hauling trailer.  It damn near killed me.  Then I drove the hauling trailer to the landfill, along with other junk and regular trash I have collected.  And hauled it all off again.  That means I had to handle each damn piece of underlay 4 times. 

Fortunately, I designed my hauling trailer so that I can remove the back and just drag all the junk off the back end.  And pulling the junk DOWN is going to be  LOT easier than lifting it UP.

The rest of the work is moving good garden soil from the existing (falling-apart) beds, breaking the old frames apart (and removing the old wood), leveling the new surface, building new beds, and moving the good garden soil to the new beds.

And even THAT won't be straight-forward work.  Since I'm rebuilding where the existing beds are (only place in my yard with half-decent sunlight), I have to do it in stages.  My old beds were small 8'x3' framed beds; the new ones will be 16'x4' (more space efficient because there is less wasteful path-space between them).  I will more than double my planting area in the same overall space.

I've moved enough existing soil and old frames to built the first new 16'x3' bed.  Then I will empty the existing beds soil into that.  Then I can tear THAT old wood apart and level THAT space and built the 2nd new framed 16'x3' bed. And THEN finally tear the old frames apart for the 3rd new framed bed...

WHEW!  And because the new beds will require more soil than the old ones, I'll only be filling each 1/2 way with existing soil.  So I'll be hauling in compost to mix in and fill the new ones. 

The good news is that the soil I've already dug up and piled onto other beds is now loose and easy to move.  The old soil had vine and tree roots in it and was Hard-As-Hell to dig into and move and I also had to spend time pulling the roots out of the soil lest they grow new Evil Plants.

My main gardening is not going to happen this year.  By the time I finish this rebuilding project, it will be too late to even plant crops for Fall harvest.  Fortunately, I took some space from my annual flowerbed to plant heirloom tomatoes, flat italian beans, and seedless cucumbers.  And I have bicolor corn, fingerling potatoes, and leeks growing in large containers.  Those are my favorite crops, as they are either expensive or difficult to find in local grocery stores.

Some pictures...

Prying up the old carpet.  Note the black plastic below that.  And there was synthetic (unrottable) "burlap" below that.

Had to pry it loose from below and the sides.

One of MANY piles of heavy pieces of cut carpet.  The pieces are deceptively heavy.

The lost herb bed.  I finally just dug it all up.  I'll start a new herb bed,

A 4" diameter tree trunk I had to dig out.  With axe, shovel, and pry-bar.

The first area cleared of soil, vines, unwanted tree saplings, and old frame wood.

A corn-planting container.  I have 3.  It's a month-old picture.  The 8 corns are 6" high, and I've planted leeks in between the corn .

I won't have a "normal" garden this year, but I'll get by.  Next year, I'll have a fine new enclosed garden the damn squirrels, rabbits, and groundhogs can't get into!

Deck

Well, I had a deck builder come by yesterday to discuss replacing the old deck.

When I moved here 27 years ago, one of the first major things I did was build a 2-level deck.  The main floor had sliding glass doors 10" above ground level and a pre-made fence section nailed across the outside so that no one could accidently open the doors and fall out.

But below that was a sunken patio with a cinder block wall around it.  So it seemed like a good idea to use the cinder block wall to support deck posts, and I sort of wanted to use the sliding glass doors for "something".  I bought a book on building decks, designed one, ordered the lumber for delivery, and recruited a friend and a friend-of-that-friend to help.  I'm a by-the-book builder.  I follow "the rules" (Dad was an engineer, and certain habits get passed along).  Like bracing posts using small boards to anchor the posts.  The friend had the carpentry skills of a hippo (zero) and his friend was a "just do it fast" type.  It was not a good combination.

But it worked out OK.  They did the initial cutting away of some vinyl siding (I couldn't watch that part)  and heavy lifting to get the ledger board attached to the house.  I did all the rest myself so I could do it "my way").  Even today, the deck guy pounded and jumped on the deck and said it was still "damn solid".  But even pressure-treated wood does not last forever, the deck was never build "to code" (I had no idea there were codes at the time), and it is ugly as hell.  You can build something to engineering specifications and still have it "ugly".  My artistic skills are not outstanding.  If I had design physical things for a living, I would starve to death.  Let's just say that if life was a ballet, I would be a hippo!  My constructions are very functional, but that that's about it.

Plus, it is a 2-level deck.  The higher level is 12'x12' and the lower level 12'x16'.  I had in mind throwing parties in my new house.  I learned I couldn't fill a closet with "friends" and I'm am not a party-thrower...

So the new deck will be a slightly larger upper one and no lower deck.  The new 16'x16' deck will have very sturdy composite flooring (it used to be cheap and flimsy, but the current stuff is as solid as real '2" by 'wood, and will last longer than I will.  And it is colored right through, so no staining required. 

It will take a several weeks for the deck guy to get the building permit, which is good because it gets me past my dental work next week and also into the drier time on the year (the front yard is muddy in April/May and it is a LOT easier for him to bring the lumber into the back yard by small truck).  I can't wait.

BTW, I mentioned only one builder.  I'm good about competitive bids.  I had 4 estimates last Fall.  So I took the one I preferred among those and asked him for a revised estimate.  Since the revised estimate was so close to the previous one (even with a couple of changes) I just accepted that one.

Some Projects Are Hell, Part 2

I mentioned explaining the obvious solution to my problem with the light fixture yesterday.  Here it is...

Had I seen the insides of the light fixture after the wooden frame was off, things would have been simpler.  I sort of casually assumed that the wooden light frame was equally fitted to the light fixture at both ends.  So I just chose the end least visible to attach the hinge.  Had I chosen the other end, things would have gone as planned. 

As it turned out, the wooden frame was attached tight to the light fixture at the other (most visible) end, meaning that when I attached the hinge to the opposite end, there was no freedom of movement.  What I unknowingly did was pull the end of the wood frame tightly against the opposite end.  When I installed the hinge and then pulled the opposite end of the frame down (with some effort), I couldn't push it back up. The wooden frame hit the metal of the light fixture from flex.  Even levering the wood frame with a screwdriver could not overcome the problem.

Had I realized at the time that loosening the screw at the hinge end would have given me 1/4" clearance, I could have saved myself an hour of frustration and adjustments that had no effect. 

Well, at least I know now!

The hard but sad rule of DIY home projects is that you could always do them better the 2nd time but seldom ever need to.  That's where professionals get the edge; they made the same mistake the first time but have learned and done the same thing right afterwards a few dozen or hundred times.

But I'm still going to DIY it when possible...  LOL!