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

New House Blog: Episode LCIII - On The Fence

Robert Frost has a poem with the line, "Good fences make good neighbors," and I am not convinced that this is a true saying.  Our fences, when we moved in to our New House, were not good fences, yet we had, and so far continue to have, good neighbors.  I suppose it's possible that the fences were once good, a long time ago, and at that time the neighbors became good and just stayed good; but I think it more likely that our neighbors' goodness, or lack thereof, is not related to the condition of the fences.  That being said, there are other reasons for having good fences at one's house, and we now have two good fences and one mostly good fence at our New House.  We will talk more about this later, after we provide an update on our front yard garden.

Front Yard Garden, Take IIII

Our front yard garden is now complete, unless something dies and needs replacing.  We added a few more succulents to fill in some gaps, and we added some drought-tolerant non-succulents and some water-appreciating non-succulents.  As with our initial round of planting, we chose our succulents based mainly on their appearance and not their names.  Behold the updated front yard garden.

First up is an overview of the updated Aloe Arboretum, which received two new species of aloe.  The shadows in this picture are real, but they do not indicate that the sun's position in the sky has shifted dramatically to the north - the shadows indicate that this picture was taken at night with the aid of our trusty worklight, held aloft by Becky.

 The first new aloe to be featured is the Gasteraloe "Green Gold," which is a hybrid between Gasteria and Aloe (according the label on its pot).

Next up is the Aloe "Blue Elf," which is another hybrid of some sort.

 Moving toward the house we see one of the two Ripple Jades (Crassula Arborescens Undulatifolia).

Here we see the other Ripple Jade in a larger context.  Can you remember (without looking up) the names of the other plants in this picture?

This little guy is known as Kalanchoe Millotii (yes that is spelled correctly).  It is one of three in our front yard garden, and all three are native to Madagascar, as are the Pencil Cacti.

Meet the Echeveria Gibbiflora Hybrid (Echeveria Gibbiflora X), or, as we call it, the Undersea Plant.

Moving ever closer to the house, closer than even the Madagascar Pencil Cacti (native to Madagascar, by the way), we meet the three Petite Butterfly Sweetpea plants (Polygala Fruticosa 'Petite Butterfly), which are native to South Africa.

And finally, closest to the house, in the shadiest zone of the front yard garden, we have three (even though it looks like only two from this angle) dark-colored Calla Lillies.

Alas!  I almost forgot to include this Split Rock (Pleiospilos Nelii), one of two in our front yard garden.  These are quite small at this point, and easy to miss or overlook.

Good Fences

Something there is that doesn't love a wall, or a fence in this case.  That something is rain, and termites, and sun, and earthquakes, and wind.  From the time a new fence is installed these forces (and possibly others) wage a constant war against the fence, until one day the fence succumbs and falls over.  Optimally one would replace the fence before such falling over, but in our case the fence succumbed before it was replaced.  I remember it well.  It was a dark and stormy night, a wind-stormy night, to be specific.  The wind raged and flowed and broiled through the area, making loud noises that sounded like several jet aircraft were flying over our New House back and forth.  Eventually we were able to tune out the noise and get some sleep, but the morning sun revealed the awful result of the windstorm - our fence had succumbed.  It was severely leaning along the back side, and it was leaning and split in two on the side side.  Fortunately we were able to rig up some temporary braces and install a temporary patch on the split section, and even more fortunately the fences held up until the new fence installers went to work.

Take a gander at the post-windstorm fences.

This is the back fence, shared with Neighbor Joseph.

 This is the side fence, shared with Neighbor Peter.  The rope is attached at the point where the fence split in two.

This is a close-up of the split part, after the temporary patch was installed.  Note that the rope is for support and is not holding the fence together.





Fortunately for us, both neighbors were quite agreeable and no one argued about cost or timing.  We made the arrangements with Golden Gate Fence, based on their glowing Yelp! reviews, and we are quite happy with their work.  As an added bonus, they invoiced the two neighbors separately, so we did not have to collect any money ourselves.

These next four pictures show the progress after the first day of work by Golden Gate.

 Old fence boards are piled up near our pear tree.

 We discovered that Joseph's yard is several inches lower than our yard.  We don't know why this is.

This is looking into Peter's yard.  It is at the same level as our yard.



















These next three pictures show the finished fences.

 This is our new gate (on the left).

 This is the new back fence.

This is the new side fence and gate.













More Helicopter Madness

The other day we saw yet more mysterious helicopters flying overhead and hovering not far away.  One of these helicopters appeared to be mostly black.

There are two helicopters in this photo.

Again, two helicopters are visible here. They appear to be news helicopters, but why would news helicopters be hovering near our neighborhood?




What's really going on?
    bIsh

New House Blog: Episode LCII - Year Two Begins

Year Two of owning our New House, and year two of the New House Blog.  In honor of this momentus occasion we visited the San Jose Flea Market.  We had not previously visited said Flea Market, despite living near it and driving past it several times a month.  Before we get to that, however, we must provide an update about our back yard garden.

Back Into The Garden

Most of our food crops did not survive the winter, and we did not actively do anything to help them out during the colder months of the year.  The peppers and tomatoes all died.  The lettuce never grew.  The stir-fry greens throve (thrived?), but we did not utilize them and they became wild and un-tamable.  The strawberries and catnip survived and are doing well.  The accursed shamrock plants took over most of the garden area, but with the arrival of spring and the cessation of the rainy season they have been dying out.  Their seeds/bulbs, however, remained in the ground, waiting for the next rainy season.  This picture shows the  garden after a bit of weed, shamrock bulb, and dead plant removal.

This next picture shows the garden after a lot more cleanup.  The foreground plant is catnip.  The background plant is strawberry.

We have planted, so far, potatoes, jewel-toned beets, Texas grand onions, red and yellow baby bell peppers, honeydew and lemon cucumber.

The garden looks pretty much the same post-planting as it did pre-planting, so there is not an additional picture of it.

As of this Episode, we are starting to see some sprouts coming up through the soil.

Garden Visitor

As we were working in our garden, cleaning it up and disposing of shamrock bulbs, we were visited by a little blue friend.  See for yourself.

The bird did not go after the ant bait.











The San Jose Flea Market

In honor of the first anniversary of owning our New House, we decided to walk down to the Flea Market and peruse the various wares.  We had heard rumors of the bountiful produce within, and we were not disappointed in this regard.  Fruts, nuts, and vegetables were in great supply, great price, great variety, and great price.  Many items, such as jack fruits, are not sold at all in our local Safeways or Luckys.  In addition to fresh produce, just about everything else is for sale by someone at the Flea Market.

 Seen on the way to the Flea Market.

 We walked by the location of a BART station that is under construction.

 More of the under-construction BART station.

This picture is looking down the track where the BART will someday run.  We don't know if it will be above or below ground at this point.

 This is the Flea Market entrance we used.

 This is Becky walking in to the Flea Market.

 A small park-like space deep inside the Flea Market.

One of many eating/snacking areas in the Flea Market.  Not seen in this view is the nearby snack shack.







Bonus Pictures

The first bonus picture is of a mysterious helicopter that flew past our New House recently.

The second bonus picture is of Becky among some weeds in our back yard.  This picture was taken to show how tall some of our back yard weeds have become.  No trick photography was used, and no photo manipulation was used.

The weeds really are as tall asBecky, as the photo shows.  The light shafts are also from the original picture, and not added in later.







Happy New House Year!
   bIsh

New House Blog: Episode LCI - Year In Review

Yes, we have just completed our first year of home ownership, and it has been a grand adventure so far.  We took possession of our New House on May 4, 2012, and the New House Blog was launched on May 5, 2012.  This Episode will be a brief review of some of the highlights of the past year, in not-necessarily-chronological order.

We have learned a lot this past year - we have gained some new skills and relearned some old skills.  Pre-House-Buying, or PHB, I had never changed out an electrical outlet or re-piped a drain.  It had been many years since I had done any real yardwork, and even more years since I had done any drywall repair work.  PHB I had never replaced a shower valve, and it had been a long time since I had planted a tree.

Getting The Keys

Obviously, getting the keys to our New House was a major event in our first year of home ownership.  The very first thing we did to our New House was to change out the locks on the entry and exit doors, thus rendering the previous set of keys useless.

Starting The New House Blog

Also obviously, starting the New House Blog was a highlight of year one of our being home owners.  Here is the link to Episode I, the Episode that started kicked off the New House Blog.

Vanquishing The Queen Of The Black Widows

I'm sure you remember, from this Episode, my harrowing escape from, and exciting defeat of the queen of the black widows.  Episode V contains the last confirmed lactrodectus mactans sighting (and killing), to date, at our New House.

Tenting For Termites

Have I mentioned that termites are not rare in these parts?  Our New House was tented, and termites were terminated.  As of this writing it's almost time for our free annual inspection.

Welcoming New Team Members

Throughout the past year we welcomed many new team members to our various teams here at our New House.  These team members include: Longspade, Shorty, Scoopy, Sweep, Sweepy Junior, Gulp, Pick, Spike, Buck, Bari, Sledge, El Toro, Pipey, Pipey 2, Moony, Snips, Fang, Rakey, Reggie, Squarehead, Dusty, Flop, and various unnamed tools.

Replacing Sinks And Drains

We replaced all of the sinks and their associated drains and faucets.  We also replaced the three vanities that were in the three bathrooms.

New Linoleum Flooring

All of the linoleumed areas in the house - the bathroooms, kitchen, and front entryway - received new linoleum.

Painting

We painted the walls in every room in the house, with the exceptions of the coat closet by the front door and the cats' closet upstairs.  The white and off-white walls were just too boring to not paint, and Our New House was crying out for some color.  We are happy with the results of our painting.

Electrification

We have replaced a lot of electrical outlets, and a few light switches, during the past year, and we discovered a few that had actually burned inside their j-boxes.  We also replaced the light fixtures in the three bathrooms, and one of two light fixtures in the kitchen.  In the course of replacing outlets and fixtures we had to do a fair bit of splicing, and we had to relocate a few outlets.  The most involved electrical job to-date was straightening out the horrendous splicing mess that was in our attic.  It was hot and dusty, it was uncomfortable, it was hard to find good footing, it was cramped, and we had to make a Home Depot run in the middle of the job.  We also lost two rolls of electrical tape while doing this job.

Visiting The Landfill

Visiting the Zanker Road sanitary landfill is always a fun adventure, and we had three of these adventures in the past 12 months.  Our first trip was mainly the junk we found piled up on the side of the house.  The second trip was mainly demo material from the three bathrooms.  The third trip was mainly concrete from the back yard.  

Digging Up Concrete

There were a lot of concrete post foundations in our back yard, and we think we have extracted all of them. In addition to the post foundations we discovered a small concrete mine and extracted all of its concrete.  Sadly, we were unable to sell any of our mined concrete and it all ended up at ye olde landfille.

Back Yard Archaeology

We discovered a lot of ancient historical artifacts in our back yard, and a few artifacts in other locations around our New House.  Some BYA highlights include: dozens of blue mosaic tiles, the sand pit of Winnie the Pooh, rusty nails and bolts, rusty tools, one plastic coin, two real coins, broken CD-ROMs, string, a chunk of asphalt (or possibly a meteorite), PVC pipe, romex, and a boy's belt buckle.  We are still trying to piece together the mosaic tiles to see what the original mosaic was.  We are also still trying to piece together the mosaic of pre-Bishopian history.  Who were these people?  Were they pirates?  A Roman legion?  With whom did they trade?  Pirates? Romans?  Extra-terrestrials?  Did they have contact with A. A. Milne?

Moving In

The biggest highlight of the past year was, of course, moving in to our New House.  We moved in on July 21, 2012.

Planting Two Gardens

Our back yard garden was planted in August, 2012, and the plants mostly thrived (throve?), but the also mostly died out during the cold, harsh winter months.  Survivors include the catnip and the strawberries.  Our front yard garden was planted in April, 2013, and so far the plants are doing well.

New Appliances

The two appliances included with the house were not fully operational and they needed replacing.  The other appliances were not included with the house.

Getting An Internet Connection

It would be difficult for me to continue the New House Blog without an internet connection.

Window Replacement

Like the old appliances, the windows were not fully operational and they needed replacing.

Driving Mike's Truck

I got to drive awesome brother Mike's truck on several occasions this past year.

Deck Rebuilding

Our deck also needed replacing.  It was not really safe for occupation when we bought our New House.  Time and termites had done a lot of damage to it, and it had not been correctly connected to our New House.  The new deck is a favorite hangout  for the cats.

New Water Heater

Another item that was old and in bad shape was the water heater, but we did not initially know that it was in bad shape.

Our First Fire

We really like our fireplace, and we made good use of it during the colder months.

Discovering Large Anthromorphic Animals In Our 'Hood

We discovered the Big Crow, and Biscuit, the bear, living in and around our 'hood (neighborhood).  The Big Crow is a happy-looking giant crow that stands at a certain intersection and holds advertising for both car insurance and tax preparation.  Biscuit stands outside of, and wanders inside of, the Black Bear Diner that is in our neck of the woods.  We have not yet discovered why anyone would name a bear Biscuit.  And we also have not determined why biscuit contains an i.

Victory Over The Giant Mutant Ants

We battled the giant mutant ants on several fronts, and due to our superior intellect and tenacity we were victorious.

The Arrival Of Our John Deere Backhoe

DR in the RV said he would give us a John Deere backhoe, and eventually he came through with a John Deere model 315SJ.  Despite its roomy cockpit, great maneuverability, and ease of being stored, it has so far seen very little use, possibly due to its small scoop sizes.

Special Thanks

We want to extend special thanks to those people who helped us with our New House.
Thanks, Dave, for helping us do work at our New House.
Thanks, Amy, for helping us on many occasions at our New House.
Thanks, Derek and Ethan, for helping us move in to our New House.
Thanks, Monika, for helping us move in to our New House.
Thanks, Mike, for the use of your truck on several occasions (and thanks for getting the rear end fixed).  Thanks also for all of your helpful electrical advice, and for giving our fuse box a tune-up.
Thanks, Matt, for all of your helpful electrical advice.
Thanks, DR in the RV, for the John Deere Backhoe.

See ya next
   bIsh