Movies Again

I changed it enough to repost it...

You ever have one movie that you can just watch over and over?  It may seem odd, but for me it it "The Incredibles"; the 2004 animated Disney tale.  Mr Incredible is super strong, Mrs Incredible is super stretchy, Viola can become invisible, Dash can run superfast.  Baby Jack Jack only shows up latter as being able to change his body form and elemental structure. 

They aren't the regular superhero family.  They live in surburbia under a government "superhero protection program" because superheroism is banned due to the massive destruction to property.  Mr Incredible is an insurance adjuster (who quietly helps clients beat the company rules - well he IS a "good guy") going gradually insane from the restrictions.  Mrs Incredible is a seemingly happy mother and wife (and may be showing some angst there - Disney may not have been comfortable getting into that).  The kids have powers they have been taught not to use, but do (guiltily) at times in minor ways.

There is, of course, a villian.  "Syndrome" was rejected as a sidekick by Mr. Incredible years before (having no special powers) and becomes a tech mastermind in revenge.

Mr Incredible loses his job and seeks income when a secret message invites him to "help test weapons".  He sneaks off on a "business trip".  And he and then they get into some trouble involving Syndrome...

I can't describe everything;it would take all night.  But the action never ends, the morals of the story are great, and there are scenes I love over and over. 

Mr Incredible tells his wife (Elastigirl) that he is too weak.  Weak, because he thought he lost her once and he can't handle losing her again...

Elastigirl telling the kids that they aren't going to to die out in the ocean if they just trust her...

Dash learning he can run over water (coolest single scene ever)...

Viola the first time she made the energy field after failures.

Syndrome catching the 4 Incredibles (Jack Jack shows no super ability yet and is back at home) and focuses on Mr Incredible, but then sees Mrs Incredible and the matching uniforms.  "You married Elastigirl"?  Then realizes the 2 kids and says "And you got BUSY"!  Cracks me up every time...

But I can't help thinking they were a homage to the Marvel Fantastic Four.  The leader was strong (like The Thing).  Elastigirl was stretchy (like Mr Fantastic).  Viola was able to go invisible and create force fields (like Invisible Girl), and Dash was able to move real fast like The Torch.

I liked that too.

But mostly, the action is ON nonstop.  If you haven't seen, do.

I can watch that every couple weeks always.  For some years so far...

Not to distract from The Incredibles,  but speaking of scenes in CGI superhero movies, I would like to nominate one scene from an Avengers movie as "funniest".  Loki faces the Hulk and says something like "you can't defeat me, I'm a God".  Whereupon the Hulk grabs him by both feet and beats him back and forth on the floor like me trying to break a baseball bat on concrete in a fit of rage (an allusion, don't worry that never happened).  The resulting immortal Loki is left broken and wheezing noisily and pathetically.  The Hulk walks away muttering "Puny God". 

I laugh at that scene everytime too. 

Movies

Youever have one movie that you can just watch over and over?  It may seem odd, but for me it it "The Incredibles".  The animated Disney tale.

The action never ends, the morals of the story are great, and there are scenes I love over and over. 

Mr Incredible tells his wife (Elastigirl) that he is too weak.  Because he thought he lost her once and he can't handle losing her again...

Elastigirl telling the kids that they aren't going to to die out in the ocean if they just trust her...

Dash learning he can run over water (coolest single scene)...

Viola the first time she made the energy field after failures.

But I can't help thinking they were a homage to the Marvel Fantastic Four.  The leader was strong (like The Thing).  Elastigirl was stretchy (like Mr Fantastic).  Viola was able to go invisible and create force fields (like Invisible Girl), and Dash was able to move real fast like The Torch.

I liked that too.

But mostly, the action is ON.

I can watch that every couple weeks always.  For some years so far...

Games

I love games.  The best are complicated.  I'm better than average at most but better at some than others.  I play Hearts well for example, but I couldn't win a night at poker to save my life (bluffs and counting cards are not my strong point).  My games involve tactics and some open-ended thought.  And I'm better at some in my later years than others.  I can't play chess worth a damn anymore.  But I play backgammon, cribbage and Risk pretty well.

And I've been playing a lot of Risk at Pogo.com these days in my spare time.  I learned the game at about 10, lost track of it in college as there was little time for such games with all that classwork.  Picked it back up a few years ago.

It's a fascinatng game with many ways to play.  The basic rules are that there is a world map with general nations defined.

 You need to take all the nations to win.  But there are complications.

You get armies in some nations to start.  You battle other players armies to take nations.  The dice decide the winners by repeated rolls for each army unit (and the dice are not generally good to me).  The more nations you have at the start of each turn, the more armies you get to spread around.  And if you control a whole continent (the different colors) at the start of a turn you get more (Asia gets 7, North America and Europe each get 5, Africa gets 3, South America and Australia each earn 2).

And then there are cards.  If you take any nation in a turn, you get a card.  The cards can be Cavalry, Infantry, or Artillery.  One of each or 3 or one gets you extra armies too.  So the gains are from number of nations, continents, or cards.  Deciding where to attack can become tricky.

And the cards change in value.  In one version of the game, a set of cards can increase.  They go from 4 armies and slowly increase to about 60 max (4-6-8-12-20, etc).  The nation count and continent values stay the same.  So the importance changes gradually from number of nations held, to continents held to the value of card sets.  And according to what you have, the values of each change. 

In another option of the game, the card sets are always worth only 8 armies  (8-8-8).  I don't like that game very much.  Its a game of super-cautious attrition.

So I said all this to explain THIS...  You gain player-points according to how many games you win.  You start at zero and the highest score I've seen is about 30 million.  I have 6.5 million.  Which is higher than average but no great shakes.

I lost almost 20 games in a row (meaning among 4 or 5 players I did not come in first even once.  So in frustration, I retreated to the game option of playing only "bots" (like playing the computer at chess).  I knew I was losing something at the strategy of the game.  I played the bots several games per night for a week. 

The Bots aren't pushovers.  They can calculate odds of winning any individual battle between nation armies better than I can.  But they can't (yet) think all that well strategically.  They can decide (for example) that they are likely to win a specific battle, but not hold a continent for that bonus of armies.

And here's what I didn't mention.  If you kill all the armies of a particular color, you gain all their cards.  Ans later in the version of the gain I like to play, that matters.  So I spent a week playing the bots to teach myself to focus of the continents and killing the colors (Bots). 

I lost the first couple games because I was still focused on the individual battles.  Then I learned to look at the long-term.  I gathered my armies not to hold nations but to kill off the Bots to get their cards.  Then I won every game.

If you've ever played pool, you learn that it isn't enough to sink the next ball, its where you are placed to sink the following one.

I rejoined the human player group 2 nights ago.  I won 5 games in a row outright against some 20 million point players.  They knew me and my history of losing lately.  They were NOT thrilled.

I don't expect the winning streak to last.  The other players will adjust.  They didn't get their many points by being stupid! 

But I'm sure gonna enjoy the winning while it lasts!  LOL!

The Garden Enclosure

I finally got the tightening on the chicken wire right.  It wasn't easy.  With new things, sometimes you gotta do it wrong a few times before you get it right.  But I did.  Now I have the tops as tight as is possible.  The two other sides will be easy.  The chicken wire there will just hang.

And because I have the top complete, it means I don't have to worry about dragging wire across the beds so I can finish planting corn and beans and cukes.  A bit late for this year but I'll get some harvest.  Next year will be the real start under the enclosure.

My tomatoes are doing very well.  I have 8 heirloom tomato plants in cages, one hybrid Big Beef (for backup if diseases hit) and a cherry tomato for snacking.  The bell peppers are growing well.  And I have 2 whole beds now for Fall crops of Bok Choy, Leafy Celery, Radishes, Spinach, etc.  I'll plant some garlic in a back row for harvest next Summer.

The screen door to the enclosure still needs adjustment, but it is closable enough to keep varmints out.  The last remaining chicken wire is just going to be hung from the sides, and after all the exoerience of the top and other sides THAT will be a piece of cake.  It is SO good to be nearly done with this project.  I've had mostly better ones and this was about the worst.

Relining the pond will be simpler and I will be glad to get at that.

There is always SOMETHING.

I think that if I didn't have something to look forward to doing, I would just fold my cards and die.

But not today.

The hardest part of this projects has been the exteme physical work.  Not general hard work, but the specific work my body isn't used to.  Like pulling the chicken wire real tight by hand.  It didn't seem all that bad at the time, but my hands cramped up seriously afterwards.  I could barely prepare dinner later! 

I m sure that if I did the same work daily, it would be just fine.  But doing unusual things on an irregular basis is brutal.  It was so, bad that I couldn't hold a kitchen knife.  And since I was preparing a stir fry, there was a lot of knife-work.  I had to take 2 ibuprofen and smear my left hand with a muscle relaxing cream.  And even that took an hour to take effect. 

Nothing like hand cramps to make preparing dinner hard...

One Of Those Days

If you are of a "certain age", you begin to worry more when you forget things or lose track of things.  I know perfectly well that I have forgotten things or lost track of things all my life, but I WORRY about it more these days.  So the last 24 hours were annoying. 

First, I lost track of a kitchen timer over the weekend.  I use it as a sleep timer actually.  My hours are irregular, so its easier to just click up 9 hours of the timer than fuss with a real alarm clock.  So I hadn't been able to find it for days.  I looked around the bed.  I looked in all my pockets.  Because I have a waterbed, I had to dig down between the waterbed mattress and the frame (find cat toys that way all the time.  I even looked in the kitchen in case I had actually used it as a kitchen timer for real

Last night, I finally remembered where it was.  I hadn't found it because I hadn't gone outside, because it had been raining for 4 days.  I had used it to time the flowerbed watering before the rains came.  So it sat out there.  In the rain.  For 4 days!  I've disassembled it and set it to dry for a week, and I'll hope it works again someday. 

Second, I bought one of those small coiled hoses to water the container plants up on the deck.  The attachment points didn't match the ballisters so I decided to mount it to a piece of plywood and attach THAT to the ballisters.  But the only right-size piece I had was unfinished so I wanted to stain and varnish it today.

Now, rather than use a brush that needs to be cleaned afterwards, I like to use a soft cloth (held in a disposable latex glove) for work like that.  I have a box full of nice soft worn-out cotton undershirts that as just perfect for that (not a speck of lint left).  I just cut off a piece from one and use it once.  So I did that and went to get my can of varnish.  I haven't seen the piece of t-shirt since!

I spent 15 minutes this afternoon searching for that damn little piece of cloth this afternoon.  Not because the bit of cloth was valuable, but I really needed to know where I had lost it.  I know absolutely that I did cut it off the old t-shirt.  And I couldn't find it.  When I got to the point where I was checking completely illogical places like the M/W oven, I stopped.  I decided that if it was in the refrigerator or someplace like that, I really didn't WANT to know. 

So when I drove off on an errand at dusk, I completely LOST it!  Backing out of the garage, I slowed down to put on my regular prescription driving glasses.  I don't need them legally but it's close enough that I wear them voluntarily.  It was a deal between the optometrist and I.  He signed off on my eye test and I would wear the glasses voluntarily.

I also I also have prescription sunglasses for the same purpose.  As I stopped to put on the regular glasses, I heard (but did not see) the sunglasses slide of the dashboard.  So, I stopped at the end of the driveway to retrieve them. 

Couldn't find them.  OK, they got under the front seat.  I felt around under there.  No sunglasses.  I checked on the top of the front seat, the sides, and underneath again.  No sunglasses.  So I turned of the car to search more thoroughly.  I checked above, below, around the front passenger seat.  No luck.  The little compartment between the seats was open, so I checked around in there.  No luck. 

I felt around the back floor.  Now admittedly, I have a cluttered car.  I'm the only one ever in it these days, so I stack the back floor with the containers of useful car stuff (its an SUV so there is no trunk for stuff like that).  And I've had battery problems so I even have an extra battery in the back.

I removed all the containers from the back floor and felt around VERY carefully.  No luck.  OK, weird stuff happens on the bounce, so I felt carefully up into the seat springs.  No luck.  At that point, I was out of places to look and some slight concern that I had imagined hearing the sunglasses slide of the dashboard.  And lest you suspect the obvious, I had carefully checked the dashboard, the glasses-holder above the rear-view mirror and all my pockets; everywhere glasses OUGHT to be.

I was reluctant to drive, because I just KNEW they would slide underfoot and get crushed.  But I had to give up.  I drove off to do my errand.  Upon returning home, I of course had to open the drivers door in order to get out.  The drivers door has an open pocket for maps and "stuff".  I looked at the door pocket with an "oh damn" feeling,  closed my eyes, and reached in.

There they were.  Sunglasses found...

Why didn't I look there while searching the car so carefully, you ask?   Because the open car door was BEHIND me!  ARGGH!!!  You don't look where you can't see...

Now the only current mystery left is where that damned little piece of cloth is...  I can't WAIT to come across THAT someday. 

A Mystery Computer Reception

OK, this is going to be a bit weird, so please forgive any confusion in advance.

30 minutes ago, a short story flashed onto my screen in Word.  I do not know why or how.  I do not recognize the story, I have not used Word recently, and I cannot find any email with any such attachment.  It appears to be a short story about Ayla from Clan Of The Cave Bear about her days before the books began.

I certainly did not write it myself any time because it uses letters I cannot create "Çocukdünya". it is not in my writing style , It mentions "Iza" who is a character later in the COTCB book, and an original name for Ayla (Nefeyli) that has never crossed my mind.  A Google search for Nefeyli, Iza, and Grub (another character in the received short story) yields nothing.  I am baffled.  But interested...  

If you are the person who somehow sent it to me, or know anything about this short story or author, please contact me more directly at cavebear2118 AT verizon DOT net, post on my blog, or do anything you please to contact me further.

For now, I don't care how or why it suddenly popped up on my screen, I just want to more about the story's origin and why I received it.  And anything you want to tell.  I've saved the story adding a note to the top that it is not mine so that I won't get too confused seeing it again years from now and wondering about the origin of it.

But, whoever you are, I really do want to hear from you again...

Mark 

Update:  Never mind, mystery solved.  It was an attachment I did not see in an April email .  Why it suddenly opened now I don't know, but everything is OK.

Mark

Online Cat Food Ordering

OK, I'm annoyed.  I got an ad from PetCo about their online great prices and selection.  So I checked them out. 

Of the cat food I order, their prices were $5 higher per case over the place from which I've been I have been ordering (which I won't name here as this is not an ad for them) and they had fewer of the stuff my cats like.  OK, every company has their price-points and offerrings.

But when I tried their "contact us" site to ask them about that, I hit a wall.  To send my email, I had to undergo CAPTCHA werds.  And they were BAD ones.  I tried twice and "no go".  I clicked through a dozen looking for ones I could see the characters of.  "no go"  I made my best guess several times and "no go".

I couldn't even TELL them about their high prices, and I was trying to be HELPFUL and INFORMATIVE.  They probably assume "no complaints, no problems".   Well that's because I couldn't even get through to them past the worst CAPTCHA characters I ever saw.

Sometimes you just can't help some people even when you want to...

Hey PetCo, you contact me if you want information feedback.  And I promise no CAPTCHA challenges from MY end...

Mark

That Garden Enclosure

I don't want to mention much about it until it is done,  but I had to correct an error.  The existing chicken wire is black vinyl-coated.  Because of a silly mistake in thinking of the length of the sides, I was two 50' rolls short of complete coverage. 

So I ordered more.  Wrong type.  Non-vinyl-coated and gray.  I envisioned it.  Alternate strips of black and gray...  Functionally irrelevent.  But it would have bothered me for 20 years.   So I ordered 2 rolls of the black vinyl-coated chicken wire today.  Should arrive in several days

Better to pay to make something right in a week than be annoyed for 20 years...  I'll find a use for the gray chicken wire elsewhere eventually.

Memorial Day (Observed)

I had elders who fought in the World Wars...  They survived.  Others did not.

And I do not forget that THIS day is for the ones who did not...

Those who did not come home changed our history.  On the battlefields to be sure.  But also in our current world.  Some of those who did not come home would have had children, but they did not.  Some of those children who never were might have grown to become doctors who cured diseases, engineered better buildings,  made inspirational art,  developed new varieties of plants to feed the hungry, or just been that good neighbor you needed when times were hard.

We will never know.  Their loss may ripple through history.  What next genious, what next innovative doctor, was never born through the untimely death of some soldier?  So when we remember those who gave their lives to protect us, we must also consider what bravery, focus, skill, and dedication was also lost to our present.

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...

Soil

OK, this isn't about the garden enclosure I said I wouldn't mention until it was completed...

But while digging the post holes for the screen door for the (*coff, coff*) thing, I noticed something interesting.  The soil in that area when I moved here was clay and gravel at the surface and lower,

In the holes I've dug, there is 4" of topsoil at the top now in the most neglected area. 

4"!  In nature, it takes a 1,000 years to make an inch.  I got 4" in just 28 years just by sowing grass and leaving the mowed clippings on the surface.  And some very mild organic fertilizer...  And fertilizer doesn't create soil.

What if I have another 28 years?

Milestones

We all have milestones in our lives.  The years depend on your culture, but they are generally when you first walk, get your first adult kiss, can drive a car, etc.  I've been through those a LONG time ago.

Today I'm 65.  I get accorded "senior status".

Whoppee...It means I get $2 off my haircuts at my usual place.

I suppose it means I'm supposed to start considering my own mortality.  But not...  Things change.  When my grandfathers were 65, they WERE old.  They looked it.  65 WAS old in their day.  They were weather-beaten, tired and wrinkled, face hanging loose under the jaws, etc.  They had harder lives.  My Dad was less "old" at 65.  He was far healthier and active.  But he still looked "older".

I've had an easier life.  As best I can tell, MY 65 is the Grampa's 45 and Dad's 55, and I might even be better off than that.  You probably recall how some guys matured early in high school.  They were the athletes, the school presidents and that sort of thing.  I wasn't one of them.

It was really irritating at the time, but I am enjoying the benefits now!   Nothing is perfect; my hair thinned out at 30 (paternal mom genes).  If you are a guy and want to know the future of your head hair, just look at your Mom's Dad, LOL! 

But otherwise, I'm the beneficiary of modern medicine and healthy food, and don't look 65 (in the terms of my ancestors).  I slipped in after good child medical care and before fast-food.  I ran (was allowed to run) wild as a child and was exposed to all the good dirt that I could get into.  If there was any microbe in the State that I didn't lick of fingers, it wasn't from lack of trying!  My immune system is outstanding.  I haven't caught the flu since I was 12 and only then because my younger brother caught it at school.  And it bothered me mildly for 2 days.  My younger more protected brother was in bed for a week.  And he is sometimes sickly to this day.

But I wasn't.  It shows.  You can't find a blue vein on my body.  I noticed a tiny wrinkle on my neck while shaving last week, but I had to look for it carefully. 

So why do I mention all this?  Because sometimes I can be really annoying LOL.  But more because I love the fact that many of us my age are literally in "middle-age at 65" and have so many years left to us.  My grandads were old at my age.  More accurately, OUR grandads were old at OUR age, and we are not.  WE are going to live to 90 in generally decent health.  And mental health matters too.  I have continued to learn all my life and learned to do new things that are challenging.  My mind might outlast my body decades from now. 

And THAT's what I am celebrating today!

Physical and mental health for decades to come... 

Mark, 65, and only 2rds through life!

Awkward But Slightly Humorous

Some of you may recall that several years ago I had these really insane neighbors across the street.  A Mother and Son, and a Wife, with baby.  The couple were obsessive late-night screamers, always fighting.  The Mother was utterly inept at resolving the issues (why she lived with them, I do not know).  The baby was often the hostage. 

They would start their screaming episodes at about 2-3 am in the Summer and wake me up.  The guy would take the baby into the car, the woman would would go out yelling, he would take of in the car, and she would spend the next hour laying in the street screaming.  Or she would take the baby and sit out on the street screaming first.    We got tired of calling the police...

They even had their friends park their cars on my lawn when they threw parties.  

The woman would even stand in front of the car and scream until the guy PUSHED her with the car.  I always assumed that EVENTUALLY they would both be arrested and child-care would take control of the baby, but that never happened.  

I had some lapses when I went yelling at them to just STOP!   LEAVE!  Move OUT!  (it was a rental)

One of the happiest days of my life was when I saw them packing up and leaving.

But guess who lived in the McMansion next door to them?  The guy's dad.  Really! 

So guess who has moved in with Dad this year?  The Crazy Guy!  Its been a bit awkward.  I'm perfectly fine with the Dad and have been for years.  We used to help each other on minor projects.  But with Crazy Son (without Wife and Child there - I assume she escaped him) the past few months,  it hasn't been the same.  Crazy Son has always been out there on the front lawn anytime I could talk to the Dad.

So I drove out last night on an errand, and a dog ran in front of the car.  I wasn't moving forward, so waited to see where the dog went.  Couldn't see it anywhere around the car, so I couldn't move.  I saw The Crazy Guy in the street, so I called out all friendly (and pretending I didn't recognize him), "Hey there's a dog near the car and I don't want to move so I don't hurt it".  Can you see where it is?"  So he came forward, calling his dog.

And since I had my car door open, the dog came over and acted friendly, so I scritched its head and talked nice to it.  Told it that was a Good Dog!  Crazy Guy saw I was being nice to his loose dog, so he came and got it and had to thank me for being careful.

I mentioned that dogs are friendly and all that and I was being careful with it being around the car.

I could tell it was KILLING him to have to be polite to me because I was being considerate of his dog, LOL!  GOOD!  I enjoyed every second.  I pretended not to know who he was.  I have a long memory for Crazy People, but sometimes it is good not to officially recognize them when you don't HAVE to.  I'm not sure the Crazy Guy knows I know who he is (and I'll keep it that way if I can).

I'm completely willing to let the past be the past.  He isn't a screamer NOW, and that's all that matters to me.  But he sure had a tortured look as I was caring about his dog and I'm still enjoying THAT!  He knows who I am...

Garden Enclosure

Its all worse than I thought and I'm not going to say another damn word about it until its done...

Different Day, Same Subject, New Problem

Two Garden Enclosure Fun Surprises...

1.  When I assembled the PVC pipe frame, the pipes jammed into the connecting fittings so tight I couldn't even pull them out again.  No need to cement the top pipes together.  And the rest of them sat with gravity.  The only pieces I cemented were at the bottom, because they merely snapped on to other pipes and had upward pressure from attaching the chicken wire tightly.  And with the sides all closed with taut chicken wire, the top pipes couldn't very well come loose.

RIGHT...

2.  The enclosure is 20'x20'.  So five 4' wide rolls of chicken wire had to fit across the top exactly!  5x4=20, right?

RIGHT...
 -----------------------------------
Dang I'm stupid sometimes.  Well, OK  "inexperienced".  I continue to try to fight "Murphy's Laws".  It's not that I don't recognize their reality, it more that I never see ahead of time when they will apply.  Actually, that may be the secret of Murphy's Law; it WHEN you don't think it can apply that it does...

Take the item #2.  The 4' chicken wire rolls are, after checking, 4'11".  The 10' PVC pipes are anywhere from 10' to 10' 1/2".  And each PVC connector adds about 1/4".  The result is that the chicken wire comes about 5" short of covering the top.

OK, a little thinking, and I realize that if I leave the gap at the edges, I can cover the gap with the chicken wire coming down the sides by starting 4" over the top.  If that's not obvious to picture, just trust me.

So to do that, I have to slide all the wire over the top  along the top PVC pipes.  The first roll I tried to slide, one of the pipes came loose and fell to the ground.  With the weight of the wire on them, it took me 15 minutes of struggling to get it back up, and I realized I would have to cement all the top PVC pipes after all.

Most of the pipes were in solid, but I wanted to cement all the joints.  So I had to tap most of them loose with a rubber mallet, apply the cement, then tap them tight again.  Half the effort was moving the stepladder around in tight areas.

It only took 2 hours, but I resented every minute of it.  It was 2 hours that I THOUGHT I was going to spend making the final tightening on the chicken wire from the top to the bottom.  So that I could start the last part of the project setting the screen door in place.

And that wasn't the last.  I had been fastening the chicken wire with nylon ties.  Those are thin ribbed straps that hold tight once pulled.  In fact they are SO tight, they won't slide along the PVC pipe.   So to make the chicken wire move along the pipes, I had to cut most of them loose.

When I got that done, I stopped for the day in relative disgust.  Fortunately, I had gone grocery shopping, so the fridge was full of my favorite foods.  I pan fried a chicken thigh, cooked corn on the cob, steamed asparagus and made a light cheese sauce for it, and made a very complex tossed salad.  With Zinfandel (and I don't mind saying I had several glasses)...

But I'll be back at it tomorrow!  Just my luck, Saturday and Sunday are forecast to be hot and humid...

Another Garden Enclosure Post

I'm beginning to wonder when this is going to end!  When I started it last Fall, I expected it would take most of 2 weeks.  Sad laughing at THAT now!  A day to break up the first couple of old rotting raised beds and transfer the soil to the other beds, build a couple new ones, transfer the soil to the new ones and then remove the other old frames. 

Then a day to dig holes for the new frame (15 minutes each, right?), and the rest of the day to construct the basic frame (just "tinkertoy" stuff, right?)  Another day to toss chicken wire over the frame.  Then a day to tighten the chicken wire all around.  And then a day to build a screen door into the structure.

Oh what fools we mortals be...

I keep finding problems to solve.  Now, I'll grant that solving problems is an enjoyable challenge.  But "2 weeks" has turned into "2 months" (given a break over Winter), and it's not finished YET!  I am both HORRIBLE at foreseeing problems AND estimating time to do work.

In my defense, doing things you have never done before in any way is difficult.  But I PLANNED this and had a pretty good idea of the work.  Sort of...  Well, I didn't expect digging a simple 2' deep hole wouldn't take just 15 minutes, but 30, and after several I was worn out for the day.  I bet my estimate of the total time is only 1/2 was it was, but what I didn't realize was that I couldn't keep at it 6 hours a day.

I then there were surprises.  Who knew chicken wire was so heavy and resisted being pulled tight?  Who knew that tolerances for fitting PVC pipes (with steel conduit inserted in the PVC pipes for rigidity) would be so important?  Who knew that making the tops of the frame would be so tricky on ground that sloped East/West AND North/South.  And I assumed the hanging chicken wire would be easily attached to the ground with 6" landscaping staples.

So today, I decided I needed to attach steel conduit reinforced PVC pipe at the bottom of the frame (to attach the bottom of the chicken wire).  I went to the local big-box DIY store to buy them.

The idea was to use something called a "snap-tee" to attach the PVC pipes at the bottom of the frame to attach the chicken wire using nylon cable ties.

It fits over existing PVC pipes by friction, but can also be cemented.  So I bought more PVC pipes and the snap tees and conduit steel pipe, and got them home.  Brought out my can of PVC cement and read the instructions.  The instructions mentioned that if the cement was "jellylike", DO NOT USE .

So I opened the can of cement and of course, it was "jellylike".  Well, it WAS 10 years old.  So back to the DIY store for fresh PVC cement.  Everything takes more time than you expect...

OK, I had the cement, the PVC pipes, and the steel conduit rods for rigidity.  I was confident the rest would go well today and quickly.  I had set the upright frame VERY carefully, so the  PVC pipes at the bottom HAD to fit perfectly, right?


Of course not!  So much as a 1/4" off and each cross pipe at the bottom required cutting to size.  And with the fitting, the steel conduit pipes had to be 1 1/4" shorter.  Argh!  I had to cut each steel conduit pipe shorter and the PVC pipes shorter by varying amounts (they are NOT all exactly the same lengths, varying by as much as 1/2").

There was a lot of cutting involved...

It's all maddening, sometimes!

So, I was ready to use the snap tees and cut-to-length between each individual set of uprights pipes.  That should be all that was required, right?  No.

The snap tees weren't exactly what I thought.  I thought they fit over half the pipe, so that another could be placed opposite each on the other side of the pipe.  But they fit 2/3ds over a pipe.  So you can't put one opposite the other on the same pipe.

They have to be one above the other...

If I had it to do over again, I would have made a jig to cut the snap tees to fit half the pipe instead on 2/3rds, but I was half done before I realized the problem.  And when the PVC cement sets after 10 minutes, there is NO undoing it.

It sets in just several minutes.   So when it is put anywhere, it STAYS there!

So I had to figure out another adjustment...

Doing some dry-fitting experiments, I figured out  could I place one snap tee over another.  In effect, all I accomplished in 2 days was attach 7 PVC pipes with steel conduits in them along all the bottom of most of the structure.  My guess before would have been 1 hour at worst.  It took 4.  O the hottest day of the year so far...  90 degrees and 90 humidity.  ARGH!!!

But like every other problem, its done!  Another unexpected problem solved...

At least I can next attach the chicken wire at the bottom tightly tomorrow!  Unless I discover some NEW problem to solve.

Next will be installing the screen door..  That's going to take more hole-digging, but at least I know how slowly that goes into the dry gravel/rock/clay soil.  I've been delaying that, seeing forecasts of rain to soften the soil a bit.  But it hasn't rained (naturally) so I'll have to do it the hard way like I did for all the upright pipes.

I have the screen door framed with 2x4"s.  The holes I dig will hold 4x4" posts set 2' deep.  The door frame holding the screen door will attach to the 4x4 posts.

And I bet something will just NOT work about that.  What would this project BE without one more surprise...

A Brief Planting Interlude

With the chicken wire overhung on the PVC frames, I realized I was able to do some planting in the beds below without worrying the draping of the chicken wire would rip them up.  HURRAY, I can start the garden in the new beds!  I had lots of home-grown seedlings waiting to go in the ground.

Here are broccoli, celery, leeks, and bell peppers...  I can't get full celery stalks here, but I prefer the leaves anyway for the stronger flavor in salads.

And some cabbages...

I have 9 heirloom tomatoes planted in large sturdy remesh cages.   2 Brandywines, 2 Cherokee Purple (my favorites),

1 Aunt Gerties Gold, 1 Striped German ...

 1 Prudens Purple, 1 Ponderosa Pink, and 1 Big Beef (a decent-tasting hybrid for backup)

Tomorrow, I'll be planting seeds in the other beds.  Spinach, radishes, carrots, scallions, beets, etc.

And one bed is reserved for the "3 sisters".  That's corn, pole beans, and melons.  The corn is a bi-color type (love bi-color corn for the combination of flavor and sweetness), the pole beans should climb the corn stalks, and the melons should cover the soil and shade out the weeds.  It's an American Native pre-Columbian practice.  We'll see how it works...

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...

And Yet More Garden Enclosure

OK, I've been making progress on the enclosure.  I built the frame around the screen door.  I wanted to make tenon joints because that means twice the glue surface.  But the the tenoning gadget has to have the boards straight up from the table saw, and there isn't 8' above the table saw to the ceiling.  So I went with half-lap joints.  With glue/screws/corner braces, that ought to last as long as the preservative-treated wood itself.  Which is about 25 years.  And in 25 years, I'll be 90 and probably won't care.

So I did the half-lap joints...

Don't worry, the joints fit better than it looks.  The pictures were taken before the glue/screw.

So the idea was to have 2x4 boards attached to the door, and then attach the 2x4s to 4x4" posts set in the ground.  A couple days work, and the exact placement depended slightly on matching the chicken wire.

But I was getting anxious to plant my tomatos.  I couldn't do it before I had the chicken wire overhanging the garden frame.  The chicken wire was going to drag along the raised beds as I installed it and that would rip up any tomato seedlings.  What to do, what to do?

And building the door itself would take days.  So I was looking at a delay of planting the tomatoes (and some other stuff) almost 3 weeks after the proper planting time after all this work was done. 

Ah blessed non-sleep!  I sometimes do my best thinking lying in bed trying to go to sleep.  And yesterday was no exception.  As I lay there, turning over the problem in my mind, a solution struck me.  I could lay the chicken wire over the frames of the closest 2 beds without doing the final tight attachment work!  As long as it was generally up on the frames, I was home free to plant in the 2 left beds...

Hurray!

I did that today.  The chicken wire is hard stuff to handle.  It comes wrapped tightly coiled.

The coil has a memory.  It has to be unwound, turned over, and rewound the opposite way for an hour or so before it lays flat.  THAT is an adventure in itself!  I start by unrolling a foot and putting a cinder block on it to hold it in place.  Then unroll the 50" length.  It gets harder to unroll toward the end, being tighter and smaller roll.

At the end, you are fighting tight wire in a 2" roll.  But placing a board on the unrolled part prevents rerolling.  And the last foot is straightened by hand.

Chicken wire usually has sharp wire edges.  Fortunately, this stuff I bought (Jackson Wire, and it is a personal unpaid recommendation)

is black vinyl-coated galvanized wire with (mostly) no sharp edges!  It is unusually easy-to-handle chicken wire!

So I spread the first roll out the 50' length in the direction it wanted to roll up.  Then I turned it over and re-rolled it up the opposite way.

After an hour, the wire memory was neutral!  It laid FLAT!


I was able to drag the 4' wide 50' length over the top of the frame.  Not easily.  I had to do it 10' at a time.  It worked.  Not like sliding a tablecloth over a table, but sure well enough.

So I did that that and with the wire overhanging, was able to plant tomato seedlings safely just as the rain started at 6pm.  And into the house I went to make myself a fine steak dinner with asparagus in cheese sauce, a tossed salad, and home-fried potatoes...

Next time:  The draping-the-chicken-wire-over-the-PVC frame-process...

More Garden Enclosure - The Door

This may be a bit long...

Well, I was ready to start draping the chicken wire over the conduit-reinforced PVC framework around the new raised frame garden beds, when it occurred to me that it might be a better idea to make a door first.  No sense in wasting chicken wire by covering a spot and then having to cut it out later.  And a lot easier to work in an open space than a close one cut to size.

Not that I didn't expect to need a door, but the order of construction matters.  I'd considered the door before, but kept putting it off because I wasn't sure exactly how to do it.  How do you build a screen door into a chicken wire wall?  I HAD a screen door.  In fact, I've had it for 25 years.  And thereby hangs a tale...

Not long after a neighbor moved in, he came over asking if I wanted to buy a lightly used screen door.  He was replacing his front door for a fancier kind that came with a front door and screen door together as a unit.  Well, I didn't have one on MY front door, and assumed I should.  So I bought it cheap.  And then, being busy, let it sit for a year in my garage.  When I finally went to install it, I discovered it was larger than my front door.

It was a surprise to me.  Being new to owning a house, I assumed all front doors were the same size.  I considered building a slightly larger frame around the front door, but decided that would look dumb.  And then I wondered why I need a screen door at all.  So it sat in the garage...

Well, I decided to see what I needed to do to use the darn thing in the garden enclosure.  It didn't seem promising.  There were some side attachments, there was actually acrylic panels covering the screen, and I couldn't even find places for hinges.  There were even medieval-looking point bars on the front.  But knowing that there HAD to be some way it worked, I backed the car out of the garage and spread the pieces down on the garage floor.

After some examining, moderate enlightenment arrived.   The medieval bars could be removed!  That done, the whole door was lighter and easier to handle.  Then I examined the 2 thin strips of unattached molded metal that came with the door.

AHA!  there were 3 hidden hinges folded into them.  Shifting each around in various ways, I discovered one side of the hinges fitted into a slot in the door opposite the handles.  Well, that's where the hinged SHOULD be, of course.

I tried to slide the molded metal strip along the track the hinges belonged, but it was blocked by screwheads.  Damn!  Hmmm, when I removed the screws, I saw the holes matched other holes in the door.  Hurray, that was how the thin metal strip attached to the door.

Some of this may be obvious to any Do-It-Yourselfer, but as many projects I have done and things I've built, I'm not really mechanically-inclined.  Each project is a new experience in re-inventing the wheel.  I have to figure out everything as if for the first time, every time!  If you have a job that involves building or fixing things, you gain experience through repetition.  I, on the other hand, seldom have cause to do ANYTHING twice.  So its always something new to me.  Fortunately, I am persistent.  And if something has been built to go together, I know there ought to be a way to put it BACK together.

Sooo, I finally figured out how the thin molded metal strips attached to the door and then a frame around a door opening.  Still didn't have a frame to put the door INTO, though.  I dreaded the idea of constructing a frame solid enough to hold the door in the enclosure, yet precise enough to fit the hinges and door lock to close firmly.

Discouraged, I went to Home Depot (a local Big Hardware Store) to see if there was a decent screen door already built into a frame to make it easier to install.  I bought in interior wood door like that years ago when I built a "powder room" in the basement.  No luck.  But I DID notice that the display doors were built into wood frames that were then attached to metal frames.

EUREKA!  If I built a 2"x4" frame around the door using the metal strip attachments I had now attached to the doors, I would have a frame I could attach to posts in the ground with a couple of inches of adjustment ("wiggle") room.  THAT I know how to do!

I haven't decided whether to just half-lap the corners of the wood frame and attach corner braces, or make a tenon and glue-and-screw, but at least I know a way to attach a door to the garden enclosure tightly enough to keep squirrels out.

Half-lap :

Tenon:

The construction and connection of the frame will take a whole day.  Digging holes for 4"x4" posts at the enclosure and squaring them up, etc, will take another.  The attaching of the framed screen door to the posts afterwards should only take an hour, but I will want to give the 4"x4" posts a day to set in the tamped ground to be solid enough for some weight, and I'll brace everything for a few extra days.

I won't need to use the door until I'm done covering the framework with the chicken wire and I expect that will take a couple days itself.

But the result will be that there is a sturdy frame with 4"x4" preservative-treated posts set 2' deep in the ground  with a similar top and base at ground level about an inch wider than the frame of the door.  To which I can easily screw the door frame into the posts having inches to spare in all directions to make the door straight up and easy to open and latch.

Whew!  That is one big worry off my mind.  In this project that threatens to never end (but will), there are solutions...

I can start work on that tomorrow after I go to Home Depot and buy three 2"x4"x8' preservative-treated boards .  One 8' board for each side and one to cut in half for 4' pieces.  After some hesitation about how to proceed with the door, I'M ON MY WAY AGAIN!  YAY...

An Award

I've never gotten an award for this blog before.  It comes and goes.  Its random.  I always hope some people like what they read of course, but I don't think I have much of a regular following.

But I was given an award.  And with so many kind words, I blushed reading them.

Its the Very Inspiring Blogger Award...

Pretty Fancy, huh?

I'd say I don't really deserve it, but that would suggest that Ramblingon made a mistake, and I don't want to suggest that.  No one ever knows how one appears to others, you know?

Thank you Ramblingon!  I don't read many blogs other than cat ones, so I think I will just hold on to this award for a few days until I look around a bit and find one I think is "inspiring".  I WILL, just need to expand my reading.  And maybe that's the point of these awards.  To make you think about other blogs.

But I do want to say that receiving this award makes me feel like the best tree in my back yard at full bloom...

I will sleep happy tonight!

Garden Enclosure Again

I'm pleased to say that I set the last post and cross-piece of the garden enclosure frame yesterday.  Most of the posts are set 2' deep in clay and gravel (and the soil around them is tamped down hard), so they should stay secure.

The ground slopes both ways, but the top is level, which was more complicated to construct but will look better.  One thing I've learned over the years as that a couple days extra work makes things better forever.

The framing is 1" PVC pipe, but I put metal conduit pipes inside them for strength. 

Note that the upper cross-pieces don't sag...

I got the basic structure from a website HERE but I had to make some improvements.  First, there are some parts of the site's plans that seem to require at least 2 people.  Second, mine is larger.  Third (and forgive me) but I couldn't make PVC connectors fit onto metal conduit like the site suggested. Fourth, the site hung the chicken wire horizontally and that seems harder.  I am draping the chicken wire over the top and down the sides to use the frame as a support while I work.

Yes, I could hire someone to help, but part of the point of doing this is doing it myself.  I could have just hired a crew to build the whole thing.  A big part of my life has been "Mark Do", LOL!*

Today I made sure all the posts were as level as possible as I tamped the clay soil around the posts with a piece of 4"x4" post (checking with a post level all the way around).   


BTW, I just grabbed that image now.  I had had some difficulty attaching the level to the PVC pipes conveniently with a bungee cord.  When I saw the rubber band in the image it was "slap forehead time".  DOH!  Live and learn...

So today I went and checked the posts for solid footings.  They CAN move; it will take weeks for the clay soil to settle and harden.  I've done that with other uprights (like birdfeeder poles and trellis support 4"x4"s) and it is strong/solid eventually.  But I'm going to be throwing and dragging heavy rolls of 4'x5-' chicken wire over the tops and pulling it tight, so I wanted some temporary bracing.

I considered screwing some 12' boards diagonal across the posts (leftovers from building the fence years ago), but decided rope would do.  Pounding some 3' metal bars into the corners, I tied ropes along all the diagonals until the whole structure seemed solid enough for some pushing.

I'd show a picture of that, but my long ropes are camo colored and simply don't show up.  So just trust me they are there.

But before I can cover the structure completely with the chicken wire, I have to build a door.  The website I based the design on was going for "cheap" (under $100) and used gifted old window screens.  I'm not trying to waste money, but "better" is more important that "cheap".  The original design site is several years old; I wonder how solid the structure is now?  I need this to last 20 years. 

Instead, I think I will buy a good screen door, build a frame for it, then mount that in line with one of the paths between the framed beds.  That way I can get a wheelbarrow inside the enclosure.

I haven't decided on how to build the screen door frame and attach it to the general structure, so I will probably over-build it so it can stand on its own.  "Over-building" is my fall-back position when I'm not sure how well things will work out.  I'm thinking a frame of 4"x4" posts to attach the screen door with 8" flat metal braces on all corners and on both sides and some 8" lag screws in each corner both ways for peace of mind.




Did I mention I "over-build"?  Well, it's better than "under-building".  Have you ever heard a bridge-builder say "I think I'll under-build this one?  Would you want one to?  LOL!

Getting the rolls of chicken wire over the structure is going to be a bit tricky.  I have 3 stepladders (8', 6', and 4'**), so I  can set one up at each post across the frame.  The balancing of them across the top baffled me for days, but last night I envisioned laying some of those old 12' boards across the 10' spans like railroads.  Is THAT cool or what?

So the chicken wire rolls will unroll across the top on the boards and down both sides.  And I will leave an extra foot of chicken wire at the bottoms to fold outwards to thwart squirrels or groundhogs digging under the edges to get into the garden.

I am slightly dreading the effort to cover the whole structure with the chicken wire.  It isn't going to be easy.  I expect some frustrating moments.  But I expected (and had) some frustrating moments setting the posts in place and getting the cross pieces attached.  So I'll get the chicken wire rolls laid across one way or another.

Pictures of that as it goes next time...

* "Mark Do" comes from childhood where I demanded to tie my own shoes when Mom tried to do it for me.  I didn't do it well at first (she told me years later), but my shoelaces were never loose.  My adult guess is that Mom had a challenging and independent child.  I don't remember it.

**  My box black oil sunflowers seed bird-feeder is up on an 8' pole.  The 8' stepladder is heavy and awkward.  So I bought a 4' one.  It was too short to reach above the box for refilling.  So I bought a 6' one.  As Goldilocks might have said: "Ah, just right"!  So I have 3 stepladders...

The Garden Enclosure

It progresses.  I discovered some real problems as I went recently.  I want the top of the enclosure to be level.  But the ground slopes front to back and right to left.  That makes digging the holes for the frame real tricky.

I tried to measure the slope of the ground first.  That got me a general idea that is dropped 1.5' in both directions, but it wasn't very exact.  I suppose I could have lived with that, but my Dad was always one to point out minor flaws in anything I ever built (no matter how well built), so I have a reaction to that even though he is gone now.  Old habits die hard.  And there IS a point to seeking perfection in any project, Dad criticisms or not.  A few extra days work means years of admiring work well done.

So I wanted to make sure that, even though the ground was sloped, the top of the frame should be level.  If I had surveyor's equipment, that would have been easy.  But I don't.  So I thought about it a few days.  With some complicated ways that seemed really awkward in reality.

As I was trying to get to sleep the previous night (and I did the construction yesterday, so that was 2 nights ago), I kept turning the problem over in my mind.  It finally struck me...  A water level!  I would build the enclosure from the top down!!!

For those of you not familiar with the idea, water in a bucket with a long tube attached will stay at the same level as the bucket even when you move the tube around.  It's not a new invention, but it was a new thought to me.  I found a nice (free I hope) picture to describe it...

Well, saved me the effort of drawing and scanning it myself.  And I wasn't cutting off the tops of the PVC pipes, I just dug my holes a bit deeper to make them match at the top.  I marked each PVC pipe 8" down from the top and made the water level match it THERE.  So the tops of all my PVC frame uprights are level.

The garden enclosure is 20' by 20'   with the raised framed beds I built, that gives me 2' between each bed and 2' around the outside of them (inside the enclosure).  I hope that makes sense.  When I post this in a few weeks as an instructional post, I'll add diagrams.

But the point is that it finally solved my difficulties with the sloped ground.  Some pictures of the general steps...

The holes dug.  The digging was horrible.  The basic soil in the back yard is gravel, clay, and more gravel.  A post hole digger wasn't sufficient.  I had to use a breaker bar.  That's a 5' solid iron rod about 1.5" in diameter, with a chisel point at the bottom.  It weighes 12-15 pounds.  You lift it, you pound it down, you swivel it about.  Its the "breaker bar 2-step dance".  LOL!  THEN you use the post hole digger to scoop the loosen debris out.  It's great (but unwanted) exercise.  Good for causing hand blisters too.

This is the lowest end of the yard.  The higher end holes got to 2.5' deep

Here are the PVC pipes sitting in the holes at one end.  They may not look all in a row, but they are.

As each one was individually set at the proper depth so that the top was level, I shoveled dirt back in and stomped it down hard.  There is still some "wiggle" room to allow for attaching more pipes at the tops.

 Here is a corner, showing the connections.  It's not easy, being just me to be at both ends of the pipes, but I set up ladders to hold one end of each pipe while I set the other end in tightly.  I'm used to having to construct "helper" supports on projects.  A 6" spring clamp atached to a ladder makes a nice "V" shape to hold the far end of a pipe temporarily...

I initially thought it would be easiest to start at one corner and work my way around the perimeter, but it  wasn't.  Doing all the north/south first was easier for supporting the pipes!  BTW, see the spring clamp attached to the ladder there?  It was a very good "third hand".

And a secret.  The PVC pipe is too flexible for a good solid structure.  Metal is better.  But I couldn't find the kind of connectors I needed that fit the metal conduit pipe (unlike a site I found about building such a structure said I could).  So to get the rigidity of metal conduit pipe AND the connections that fit PVC Pipe, I put metal conduit pipe into each PVC pipe! 

THAT solution took a few days thought last Winter...  And metal conduit pipe is inexpensive, so that was not a concern.

I have most of the uprights and half the crossbeams in place.  Took two days but it will be worth it.

Why am I doing this?  Well, the squirrels and groundhogs developed a taste for my garden seedlings a few years ago and basically ruined my garden 3 years in a row.  When I cover this frame with chicken wire, they won't be able to get in.  And I will place bent chicken wire at the bottom to stick out 2' to prevent any tunneling.   Bwa-Ha-Ha!

I will have a garden yet...