Some Good Things

I complain sometimes.  Well, the things that go wrong bother me.  I don't like failures.  But some things have been going right.

1.  In spite of all my measurements for the new double compost bin,  I failed to  account for the 1/2" hardware cloth on the top accurately enough.  I missed it by an inch.  And an inch is enough for mice and even rats (though we don't have rats here to my knowledge).  A rat in the yard?  Marley would catch those easily.  LOL!

So, today, I added 3" boards to the top . I found 6" wide pressure-treated boards among my collection of excess wood.  I cut them to length and then ripped them in half the long way.  I glued and screwed them under the top frames.  That narrowed the gap to be covered with 36 inch 1/2"mesh to 32"'

Even a mouse can't get through 1/2" mesh wire.  Tomorrow, I attach the 1/2" mesh.  That will complete my compost bins.  Well, OK, I can add some chain to hold the tops at 110 degrees when lifted, but for now they can rest on the fence and that is fine.  I'm declaring the project "complete".

2.  The first compost bin is now a foot deep of kitchen waste and cut weeds.  I have a trash barrel full of old soil and dumped an inch on the top.  That will encourage worms to move there.  I am also setting a small area of good lawn covered with a tarp.  That will stay damp and encourage more worms to the surface.  And I will pound a metal stake into the edge.  When I pound it later, the worms will come the surface.  A trick I learned from Dad.  I will collect them and drop them in the compost bin where they will think they have gone to Heaven.

3.  I had the trailer full of old pressure-treated lumber from the old framed beds of 20 years ago and more from the original 25 year old compost bin.  I hesitated to bring the load to the landfill when it was raining every few days because of the mud and then just never quite got around to it this month.

I finally went there yesterday.  The landfill is more user-friendly!  Small customers like me get to just drive a few 100 feet to a dumpster and toss it in.  They haul it to the real landfill area later.  They don't want cars stuck in their mud.  And there was even a guy there to help me unload my trailer!  OK, I know he was doing "community-service work" paying for some minor crime, but he was friendly and I didn't ask for details.

4.  I took out my electric chain saw and tested it to check that the chain was properly tightened.  In the coming few days, I have 6' long  6" diameter oak logs to cut up into 1" "coins" (like cutting a carrot into round pieces) for use in the smoker,  2  dwarf apple trees to cut down (the squirrels steal all the unripe apples anyway).  More good smoker wood there.  And a bunch of shrubs I no longer want and never loved.  And there are new junk trees that have grown 5' high and must be stopped.

5.  And speaking of unwanted stuff, there are the wild blackberries covering an 1/8 acre after I removed a few trees shading the garden..  You can't win sometimes.  I am debating on how to remove them.  Cutting them down with a hedge trimmer works, but drops them all on me thorns and all and they are hard to pull off.  The chain saw is worse because it is shorter and I have to really get under them.

No brush remover company wants to accept the job.  It is either too small a job for them, or they want to use equipment too large for the area (there are spots I don't want scraped clean 6" deep because there are 100s of daffodils planted there.

I think I need crazy handyman with a steel-bladed weed whacker.

6.  I took 4 wheelbarrow-loads of garden pots out of the basement to the new shelves in the old toolshed.  Every wheelbarrow load makes the basement easier to get around in.  I am even close to being able to have a fire in the fireplace.  I have piles of old scrap wood waiting to be burned.

Between the garden stuff being moved to the toolshed shelves and the scrap wood being burned, I will have 100 more square feet of usable space.  That will be wonderful.

One small improvement every day...

7.  I made pizzas 2 nights.  Hadn't made one for a few years.     They weren't round, but they were good.  And I had dough left over, so I made a calzone filled with bell peppers, cubed smoked pork, an italian cheese blend, and crushed simmered canned tomatoes.

I've never made one before.  It was an experiment.  I made it way too stuffed and large.  Crimping the edges was tricky.  And getting it onto the pizza paddle was delicate.  But nothing broke and with the cornstarch on the paddle, it slid off onto the 400F pizza stone perfectly.

I would normally have cooked it at 500 (and the recipe DID say 400), but I had beets baking on the top shelf so I waited.  The crust was supposed to be "golden at 14 minutes".  14 minutes came and went.

I finally accepted the crust "done" after 24 minutes.  And it turned out GREAT!

On the other hand, why bother?  It is just a pizza folded in half.  I'll just make pizza more often.

Funny story:  My sister and hubby visited me 10 years ago and I made pizza then and referred to them having made it for me when I visited them a few years ago.  She kept trying to "shush" me and I didn't catch on at first.  Oops, 2nd marriage...  It was the first guy who made pizzas...  Yeah, I'm dense...

8.  The Washington Nationals baseball team won a playoff game!  They are notorious for losing them.  So when they were losing in the 8th inning 3-1 I was expecting the worst.  But when they scored 5 runs suddenly, I was shocked.  Maybe they have a chance.

I try not to refer to the home teams as "we".  I'm not on the teams.  But I'm glad when they win.   Not sure "why".  Yeah, it is a bit irrational.  Maybe it is because the core of the team are long-term members.  And it is a "built" team, not a purchased one.  Even most of the new guys are from the AAA farm clubs.  That makes an odd difference.

Projects

Well, I got the toolshed shelves finished.  Sometimes you have to stop seeking perfection and "just do it"!

I got the shelves to match up in the corners.  The bottom left shelf ended up 1/4" out of level.  But its a 25+ year old shed, nothing about it is level or square anymore, and it needs a new roof.  So I'm not going to worry about it.

I had to put 2x4 boards behind the shelves to keep small items falling out the back (the sheves are on exposed 4" studs).  I would have used 1x4 boards, but I bought 10" wide boards instead of 12" wide boards and the brackets would have stuck out otherwise and not allowed me to use the front screw hole in the tip of the bracket.  A 10" bracket IS 10" long; a 10" board is only 9 1/2".

Just moving some pots to the new shelves gained me 16 sq ft of basement space, and I have lots of garden stuff still to move.  I expect to recover about 50 sq ft when I transfer more "stuff" from the basement to the shelves.  And there will be more shed floorspace  to store power equipment I seldom use (but use a lot when I need it) when I take small amounts of some stuff out of large boxes and add them to the shelves. 

That will make more sense when I fill the shelves and get some of the equipment stored in there.  I'll take pictures.

In 30 years, I've accumulated a lot of equipment.  Snow-blower, tiller, chipper/shredder, lawn-roller, aerator...

Those things are cluttering up the garage and the REAL shed.  Yes, I have 2 sheds.  More importantly though, it frees up room in the basement for woodworking, and I am determined to make the basement easier to do work in. 

And with Winter coming on, I have some wood-working projects in mind to occupy my time

Those Toolshed Shelves

Those shelves are becoming annoying.  I mentioned last post that I made a template to rest on the floor from a scrap board, thinking that I couldn't possibly have any problems knowing where it drill in the exposed studs to make the shelves perfectly level.


After I got the shelf boards cut a little shorter than the narrow wall of the shed, they all went onto the template-installed brackets beautifully (after I flipped it to account for some brackets having holes on the left instead of the right like the bracket I used to make the template.  I had checked the level on the floor under them first, and it was fine.

So yesterday from the project for the day. I set about installing 2 more shelves abbutting the new ones.  I predrilled holes just like in the first, accounting for the number of brackets I had remaining.  The shelving boards were nice and flat, how could anything go wrong?


The cruelty of the Universe is SUBTLE and unending...

I attached the 40 shelf brackets.  I placed the shelf board on the brackets.  To assure the shelves abutted  the previous ones, I clamped the ends together.  The shelf was 1/2" above the bracket nearest the previous shelf.

HUH?  How was that possible? 

I placed the board template next to the bracket; it was in the right place.  All 4 brackets were.  I was frustrated.  It is possible to be both frustrated and patient at the same tie.  "Frustrated" is a momentary annoyance, "patience" is long term.  Patience usually solves frustrations.

I removed the brackets.  I physically held  a bracket up under the shelf and marked new spots to drill.  I drilled.  I reinstalled the bracket.  Then I checked the shelf for level with a 4' long level.  It was 1/2" off.  Worse, it leaned forward a bit.

Frustrating.  I'm not obsessively perfectionist, but I do want shelves to be pretty much level.  So redid the brackets, changing exchanging the left-hole brackets for right-hole ones to make the holes a bit apart so the lag screws wouldnt get into the wrong holes. 

Then I loosened the clamps holding the shelf to the previous one.  It popped down 1/2".

ARGGGGHHHH! 

I went away from the toolshed for the day.  Trying to solve problems when you are frustrated is not a good idea!

So I went back at it this afternoon.  Well, I should mention something about the shed.  It was built almost 30 years ago.  Because local property assessment laws said a ground-contact outbuilding would be taxed but a "temporary" one (such as a shed set on cinder blocks would not), I built it that way. 

Over the years, apparently, the cinder blocks have settled a bit, and the shed (basically just an empty box with a floor and roof) had slowly twisted to adjust.  The floor is no longer level.  The wall studs are no longer perfectly vertical.  Nothing about it, in fact, is still square! 

Damn!  Well, the structure is still sound.  I do not intend to rebuilt it just to make the shelves level!  But I still wanted the shelves to be level.  So with the new shelf board clamped to the previous new shelf, propped the far end of the new shelf to were it was level lengthwise and and narrow-wise.

Surely the brackets would fit squarely under the shelf...  HA!

Well, I have some packets of shims.  These were as long as the brackets, going from 1/4" to 0.  Holding the shim against the stud and holding the bracket to the shim, it was utterly, perfectly level!

I glued the shim to the stud and went off to weed the garden for 30 minutes while the glue dried.  I went back, knowing I would see the bracket fit perfectly under the shelf!  How could it be otherwise?

HA!

It was 1/4" off.

The cruelty of the Universe is subtle and UNENDING...

I can't make shelves level in both directions in a shed box that isn't square in any dimensions.  I'm sure a professional could, but apparently I can't!

I'm going to just put the last 2 shelves on as best I can, screw a 1"x2" board on the front of the shelves so nothing can fall off, and call it done.  Declare victory and walk away.

I have too many other things to do...

And I should mention that I have a newer real toolshed next to it.  Concrete floor, build like a small house, solid.  Yes, I have that much gardening stuff to need the old one too.  I think I'll have some company build a 2nd like it to store the stuff in the old one and be rid of it.

But I still want the old one until then.  I have 1/4 of my basement filled with stuff that belongs in a garden shed.  And until THAT stuff is removed, I can't set up my shop equipment without crawling over stuff everytime I want to use a tool. 

Fill the old shed with stuff from the basement, organize the basement, do woodworking over the Winter.  That's the plan...

But I still can't believe how frustrating just adding level shelves were...

Busy, Busy

It's THAT time of year again.  The best time.  Planting seeds...

But that wasn't all today.  It was one of THOSE days.  Odd jobs...  Things that should have been done before.  I ahd all the cat-cards from Christmas stacked up and Iza trashed the pile.  So I stacked them (and lost some of the addressed envelopes with the cards) and got them up out of her reach.

But she is a real paper-chewer, so I had a pile of wasted printed paper I use for temporary notes and she chewed up those.  I better get her some jerky to chew up.

I tossed her mousies until she tired and wandered off into the bedroom to nap.

Saw Marley and Ayla snuggled up like spoons there.  Naturally, my camera was in another room.  As soon as I left to get it, Marley followed me out.  No picture of THAT!  I keep the camera in my pocket a LOT, but not that time.

Finished enclosing the garden.  I thought I had before, but I saw Marley in it earlier today.  He found a loose seam and was in enjoying the loose soil as a litterbox.  Quite frankly, I don't want my carrots fertilized by cat-poop, but I will sifting it soon for planting.

Getting near time to mow the lawn, so I'll drive the riding mower up on boards to clean the old grass clippings from under the deck, sharpen the blade, and then take out the spark plugs and such to pretend I know what I'm doing while I clean and gap them.  They are always just fine, but I have to look.  You do what you know to do and hope for the best. 

I suppose the mower would work better if it was worked over by pros.  And I know some good ones.  Every few years I go in for an "annual" tune-up.  Maybe next year;  the mower still works.

I think I need to pull out the chipper/shredder and see if I can start it.  Been 5 years since I used it and I have a lot of brambles to get rid of.  I could haul them to the recycling center in exchange for shredded mulch, but handling brambles is not fun.  Easier to shred then here.

Sanding plaster patches on the walls.  2 year old electrical work patches and I've ignored them too long.  You can ignore things a long time when you live alone.  But I will have family visitors some month soon and can't let those patches be unsanded, primed, and painted.

The front door and garage door need to be painted.  I've dithered about the color.  The new house siding is medium green and the shutters dark green.  The doors are white.  Should I paint the doors to match the shutters or leave them white? 

I've had a fantasy about painting that garage door a really weird color/pattern.  Like a 60's Warhol. 











 Kind of daring for me, and my "cat" would probably look more like a rat.  I can't sketch worth a tinker's dam!  Should I dare try?

If my front door wasn't surrounded by brick, I would love to have a round hobbit door installed...  But maybe I can make it look like wood.  Fantasies that will never happen...

The older shed needs a new roof.  I recall shoving 4x8 sheets of 1/2" plywood up there when I was 35.  I can't lift the stuff now.  But cut in half, I could manage that.  And conveniently, I half 1/2 sheets stored in the basement from what used to be the attic flooring (which I can't use for storage now because there is 18" of blown insulation everywhere up there) and THAT would be manageable for the shed roof. 

My azalea cuttings from last Fall before the soil ridge was removed are all doing fine.  Amazingly, 34 of the 36 cuttings (12 white, 12 purple, and 10 red) have taken root.  I'm not sure where I will put them all, but I sure have plenty to use.

Backyard covered with wild blackberries and english ivy and poison ivy.  I hate to use herbicides, but if ever there was a good reason, this is it...

That's enough for now.

Shed Door

My shed door has a small garage style door.  It came off the track yesterday! 

Its not one of the things I've ever worked on before, so it took some examination.  The track is attached firmly to the front of the shed.  So that hadn't moved.  The back of the door support has a triangle of flat metal pieces hanging from the ceiling of the shed.  But THEY weren't loose.  Bafflement...

OK, the door hangs from wheels in the track with axles going into the door to hold it into the track.  While the one that came loose seemed to have the axle come out, I couldn't see why.  The door has worked for 9 years and I found nothing loose. 

Dang, I hate it when the problem isn't obvious.  Well, I reconstructed (in my mind) the way it SHOULD have looked if it was working properly.  And saw that the axle holding the track wheel was nearly out of the door.  So, to get it working, the axle has to be firmly in the door.  OK, that's a start.

So the track is too far away from the door.  Why?  Nothing loose.  Can't see why it came out.  But I can see how it is SUPPOSED to be.  Can't make the door wider, so the door TRACK has to be closer.  Nothing's loose, so an adjustment is needed.

It only took 2 hours...  Well, seriously, I had to figure out how the whole thing was put together and how adjustments could be made.  It was the back braces.  One was set wrong.  The back braces have to match the front ones AND the door, and the back ones were over 2" wider.

I found the one bolt that had to be removed and set into another set of brace holes.  Was that easy?  Of course not!  All the other bolts in the track were short aluminum ones that easily fit in and out of the holes in the braces.  Not THAT one of course.  It was steel and it was long, and it was rusted.  The original installers must have run out of the proper short aluminum ones and found this one on the floor of the truck.  It was even slightly oversized so they had to screw it into the holes (making threads as they went like with sheet metal screws).

And of course it wasn't easy to get at.  I had to break the rust loose (how did it rust inside a dry shed?) with a wrench and a hammer.  Then turn the nut off the bolt tiny turns at a time.  THEN unscrew the bolt out in tiny turns of a wrench for all 2".

So at least then I could change the hole connections on the 3 flat metal strips acting as the braces.  IE, make the triangle smaller and the track moves closer to the door.  I did that.  Then the track wasn't square to the door, so I had to do the same on the other back side.  That went easily.  Then it took another adjustment to the original side. 

The door slides beautifully now.  Well, it MOSTLY did before, but I think it was only pulling the track close until it finally popped loose and I was just assuming it was the weight of the door that took some effort in raising it.

NOW it works as intended...  Nearly weightless.

* SIGH *  Like I didn't have anything better to do on a nice 70ish day with a list of other PLANNED projects...