New House Blog: Episode LCIIII - "Open," Says Me.

New grass is finally growing in the front lawn.  Our latest grass-seeding attempt in the front yard has been highly successful.  New poppies are also growing in the front yard, and there are new plants in the back yard.

Eating Garden Update

The back yard garden has received a second name - the eating garden.  We call it this because it is planted with food crops - both for human and for cat consumption.  In this Episode we provided the following list of planted plants: potatoes, jewel-toned beets, Texas grand onions, red and yellow baby bell peppers, honeydew and lemon cucumber.  Happily, everything except the bell peppers has taken root and is doing quite well.  The ineffective (possibly just too old) pepper seeds were dug up and replaced with various lettuce seeds, which have sprouted.  Added to the front of the garden, between the honeydew and lemon cucumber, was a crystal apple cucumber seedling.  Added to the vacant back area of the garden, behind the potatoes and catnip, were another honeydew seedling, a crenshaw melon seedling, and a green nutmeg melon seedling.  We have no idea what this last melon is like, but its name is intriguing.  Added in the back corner behind the beets were six radicchio seedlings.  So far, all of the new seedlings are doing well, as can be seen.

 The new crystal apple cucumber is between the lemon cucumber and honeydew number one.  The lettuce is in front of the catnip.

From top to bottom - the 6 radicchio, honeydew number two, the crenshaw melon, and the green nutmeg melon.
















"Open," says me.

The garage door, that is.  And open it didn't.  It just sat there, the machinery attached to it making its usual racket but doing nothing productive.  The garage door opener, it seemed, was on strike.  We had gotten used to the clinking clanking clattering of its caliginous cogs and camshafts, and we expected it to continue to clink and clank and clatter as it laboured to open and close the garage door at our every whim, but it decided it had had too much and it refused to lift the door another inch.  Clearly, we can't let our machinery dictate to us when it will and won't function, so we replaced the collection of clattering caliginosity with a new, more powerful collection of quick and quiet cogs and camshafts.  The first step was, of course, removing the old unit.

 Here is the old unit, calmly hanging from our spacious rafter area.  It is a 1/3hp chain-drive Lift Master.

Here is the same unit on the floor.  The rope, looped around a rafter, was quite useful in safely lowering it to the floor.
















That done, it was time to do some framing.  Yes, framing first, new-unit mounting second.  Framing and reinforcing the existing woodwork added considerable time (and labour) to this project.  The main problem was that the prescribed location for the front mounting bracket did not exist.  That is, there was no wood where the front mounting bracket had to be mounted to the wall.  After a trip to Home Depot (and a side trip to Der Wienerschnitzel) we had the necessary wood, nails, screws, and brackets.  A hefty new 2x6 was securely anchored to the existing framework at the front of the garage and the new bracket was securely mounted to this.  Additionally, an older 2x6 had to be replaced in the rafters because of the rear mounting position of the new unit.  And while we were in the area we decided to brace up some of the other existing rafters.  After that the install went pretty smoothly.

The new unit is a 1/2hp belt-drive Chamberlain.  Here it is on the floor prior to installation.

 Here is the new unit mounted and working (note that the door is in the open position).  The rope is not supporting the unit here - it was used to assist with lifting and positioning.

Seen here is the same unit with its lights activated.  They can be manually activated, or motion activated.  You can also see that we used the two-ladder system for this project.

The new unit is much quieter than the old, and after a dose of fresh lubricants the door itself is also much quieter.

Lactrodectus Mactans Returns

As if to mock us and scorn our past victories over its vile kind, the black widow bravely sat itself in the dark corner of the garage and watched our progress as we worked on the garage door opener project.  As usual, the L. Mactans only showed itself when Becky was not present.  It was a brave little 'widow, but it had no death wish, and it was able to hide itself upon my first attack.  I left it alone for the rest of the day and we continued our work.  The next day (it was a two-day project), it showed itself again when Becky was not present, but I had the upper hand this time (due to my larger brain and ability to hold wood planks), and the L. Mactans became a smear on the end of a wood plank.  Was it sent by its new queen to spy on us?  Was it just curious?  Was it the new queen?  We may never know.  This was the first appearance of any 'widow in over a year.

Hooray for wood planks!
   bIsh