New House Blog: Episode LXXIII - Phase One

Phase one of our grand winter-spring project is complete.  But since Phase One was completed yesterday, the first official day of Summer (and a certain brother's birthday) we have to call it our grand winter-spring-summer project.  In this Episode we will talk all about the grand winter-spring-summer project, and we will introduce a new initiative we have initiated - Project G.R.O.S.S.S.  Special thanks to Becky's awesome sister, Amy, for helping us with some heavy lifting recently that enabled us to complete Phase One in a timely manner.

Phase One: Part One

It all started with an idea -  Becky and Bish thought it might be nice to have some brick walkways in the back yard, so they conferred and it was agreed upon to proceed with preliminary drawings and then to take measurements based on those drawings.  After the measurements were measured, and estimated square footage was calculated, materials were ordered and/or picked up from Home Depot as needed.

The three pallets worth of brick pavers that we ordered from Home Depot.  We ordered two different paver sizes and three different colors. You may remember the light fixture from this Episode.


Behind the pavers you can see some of the polymeric sand used for our project.

With pavers, drawings, and measurements we set about figuring out what kinds of patterns we might want to make from our pavers.  Below you can see our preliminary test patterns.

Test pattern #1
N ot much to see here - no symmetry, no real order.

Test patterns #2, #3, and #4. There are three distinct patterns shown here.  In the end we decided to us a combination of these three patterns and our own variations on same.



Phase One: Part Two

With materials, drawings, measurements, and patterns in hand we proceeded to the the laying out of our paver paths.  We used twine, a right angle, and a yardstick to lay out our paths, then we started digging out the trenches for the base materials and pavers.

The two sizes of paver are 6"x6" and 6"x9", which heavily influenced our decision to make our paths 3 feet wide (3.65 metric feet (you remember the metric foot, or mfoot, don't you?)).  A secondary influence was the fact that this would be sufficient width for operating the wheelbarrow we have on long-term loan from awesome brother Mike.

Digging is a long, laborious process, and it took us many digging sessions to fully excavate our paths.  In this photo you can see some of the strings marking out the digging plan.

What to do with all of the excavated dirt?  We spread most of it in the low area of the yard and raised it up quite a bit. We also made a small pile for any back-fill we might have to do.

The grass is still green in this photo.  This was the final branch of Phase One.

This shot from the balcony shows the overall picture of Phase One.  You can also see one of our paver stacks, and the pre-Bishopian artifact dug up in this Episode.




Project G.R.O.S.S.S.

Before we proceed to part three we are going to talk about our brand new initiative - Project G.R.O.S.S.S., or Project Get Rid Of Slimy SquirrelS.  Yes, we know that squirrels are not slimy to the touch - what we mean is that the squirrels are slimy in the sense that they are slimy inside; they are slime-balls. Lately they have been raiding our pear tree and robbing us of its bountiful harvest.  We have a lot of pears this year, but in the past week we have lost over 150 of them to the slimy squirrels.  And the slimy squirrels aren't even eating the entire pear - they're just after the seeds in the middle, so they leave bits of pear all over and then leave the 1/2-eaten pears all over.  We want our pears for our own consumption, and we don't like having to pick up all of the pear detrius, so we have initiated Project G.R.O.S.S.S.  So far this involves strategically placing spinners and the use of squirrel repellent.  We don't yet know how effective these measures will be.

 Pear detrius.  This is but a small sample of what we have had to pick up in the past few days.

Strategically placed spinners.  Not seen are the four additional spinners in the crown of the tree and the one tied to the orange tree.






Phase One: Part Three

When we decided to put paver paths in our back yard we decided to do it mostly the right way.  Instead of just digging our trenches and putting the pavers right down on the dirt we decided to put down paver base, then sand, then put the bricks on top of the sand.  This is how the pros do it, and it's what we decided to do.  We did not, however, use edge restraints or screed pipes.

Paver base, for those who might not know, is the foundation for paver paths.  It is a semi-concrete type material made up of small rocks and sand-like materials.  It is spread out in the trench, then wetted, then tamped down with a tamper.  After setting it forms a rigid foundation that should prevent the pavers from sinking.  For Phase One we used 54 bags of paver base.

We had to make multiple trips to Home Depot for paver base. This is a typical load in Becky's truck.  Interestingly, and annoyingly, the first time I was at Home Depot looking for paver base, before I knew its proper name, I asked someone where I could find the paver base material.  He had no idea what I was talking about.  He called a second guy who thought I wanted some kind of plastic.  They called a third guy who also thought I wanted plastic.  I eventually found it on my own, in the garden section, and discovered that it is called paver base, and I was able to point it out to one of the guys I had talked to who had no clue what I was asking for.

This is a nice photo showing the various layers.  Paver base on the bottom, sand in the middle, and bricks on top.

 Here you can see the paver base installation progressing.  It took us several sessions over several weeks to get all of the paver base laid and tamped down.

This photo shows all of the paths with paver base.












Phase One: Part Four

After paver base comes the sand and bricks.  We layed down the sand and bricks at the same time.  As mentioned previously, we did not use screed pipes. When laying down the bricks we decided that instead of making our paver paths perfectly level we would make them ground level.  That is, instead of trying to figure out what would be level in our most-unlevel back yard we decided to have the paver paths follow the natural contours of the ground.

For Phase One we used 46.5 bags of sand - each bag weighing 60#.  This is a typical load of sand in Becky's truck. On multiple occasions the Home Depot personnel were happy to assist us by using their forklift to hoist large loads of sand and paver base to Becky's truck, and then helping us load the truck.

This is our garage materials staging area. The configuration varied as the project progressed.  Home Depot keeps sand in the building materials area, not in the garden area.

We started bricklaying from the garden border and worked toward the center path.

Getting this far took several sessions of bricklaying.

When the garden branch had reached the main path we started on the main path.

Note how dry and dead the grass is, in contrast to the green grass in previous photos.

While laying down the bricks we came upon this artifact, discussed in detail in this Episode.  As you can see, it's right at the edge of the path.  If it had been one inch farther over to the right we would never have found it, and it would still be buried today.

Hmmm...  The lines looked straight when we dug the trench.  Not sure what happened there.

Finally, the last branch of Phase One is bricked.












Phase One: Part Five

There were two more steps to complete after the bricklaying.  The first step was to backfill around the edges with dirt from our dirt pile.  The second, and final, step was to fill in the spaces between the pavers with polymeric sand. Polymeric sand is a special type of sand with added polymers that is used to fill in the gaps and crevices between pavers.  After the polymeric sand is applied to the pavers water is applied gently to the polymeric sand.  When it dries it forms a very tight bond between the pavers and acts like a glue to lock everything in place.  For Phase One we used 1.5 bags of polymeric sand.

 Here is Phase One completed, as seen from our balcony.  Note the multitude of wheelbarrow tire tracks in the yard.

 You can see some of the polymeric sand in this view.

 Phase One as seen from the near The 'Mposter (our composter, for those who may have forgotten).

Phase One as seen from our food garden.













Having a Phase One would seem to indicate that there will be at least a Phase Two.  Such is the case.  Phase Two is already started, but I cannot talk about it here at this time.

Follow the yellow brick
    bIsh

New House Blog: Episode LXXII - Back Yard Bonanaza

And what a bonanza!  We have new plantings, swapped out plantings, and a major breakthrough in Back Yard Archaeology!!  And it all took place in the back yard, except for one find that was located on the side of the house that we use as the path to the back yard.  First up is new plantings.

New Plantings

We planted two new trees in back yard.  As with the other trees we have planted, these two are fruit trees.  We planted one apricot tree and one avocado tree.  But didn't we already have an avocado tree?  Yes, but it had some difficulties adjusting to its new home, and as a result it lost much of its height.  It seems to be doing much better now, but it much shorter and it will take it longer to produce any fruit.  Because of this, and the rumored need for both a "male" and a "female" avocado tree, I had been wanting to plant a second avocado tree for a little while.  The new avocado is a mexicola avocado tree, and we don't recall the variety of apricot tree, although it is possibly a Blenheim (I foolishly disposed of the information card before composing this blog posting).

 Here you can see the trees as they arrived at our New House in the back of Becky's truck.

 This is the new apricot tree, and its spacial relation to the food garden.

The new avocado tree is the further back avocado tree.  Here you can see the relative postions of the two avocados trees.





New Plantings Part II

We enjoy growing peppers - mainly several varieties of bell, but we sometimes experiment with other non-spicy peppers.  To our food garden we recently added six varieties of pepper.  In no particular order, here they are.

On the left is a purple bell, and on the right is a yellow bell.

This is our sweet red cherry pepper.

You can't quite read the tag, but it says that this is our sweet banana pepper.

 Red bell number one strikes a stunning pose.

Not to be left out is red bell number two.










Swapped Planting

Two of the bell peppers in our pottery garden did not fare well this season.  One was a plant from last year that survived the winter, and the other was a new plant that was sharing the same pot.  We replaced both plants with one new plant.  As a concession to my higher tolerance for spicy foods we agreed to plant a jalapeño pepper plant.  I find that jalapeños have a nice flavor and they are not overly spicy for my palette.

Look at that beautiful, healthy jalapeño pepper plant.


















Back Yard Archaeology

Before we talk about the major archaeological breakthrough we will take a quick look at a non-breakthrough artifact that was recently uncovered on the side of the house that we use as a path to the back yard.  It was partially sticking up out of the dirt along the fence, and I don't know why it was not noticed earlier.

 Here it is - a rusty metal flange of some sort.  The brick upon which it rests is 6 inches wide and 9 inches long.  As with other pre-Bishopian artifacts there are questions to ask.

Questions such as: what was this flange used for?  How old is it?  What did it hold together in the past?  Was there a time when it was not rusty?  How did the pre-Bishopians acquire the metal to fabricate this flange?  If we ever track down a pre-Bishopian we hope to ask him or her some of these questions.

Breakthrough!!

And now for the highlight of this episode - our Back Yard Archaeology Breakthrough!!  Our New House was built in 1971, and we have been assuming that all of the archaeological artifacts we have found to date have come from the pre-Bishopian society, but recently we uncovered major evidence of an older, pre pre-Bishopian society.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We now believe that the pre-Bishopians were preceded by another society that we are calling the Old Ones.  There is not much evidence, so far, for the Old Ones, but what evidence we do have is quite concrete.

What you see on the left is a monstrous concrete post foundation.  Note the ancient wood still intact in the center of this foundation.

Here is the same post foundation after extraction from the ground.  It is about 18 inches long, and its top was an inch or two below the ground.

Here you can see the thickness of the concrete and the interior wood post. All of the other post foundations found to date extended no more than about 6 inches into the ground - all but one.

This post foundation was uncovered and excavated in August, 2012, in this Episode.  Note its similarity of depth and roundness to the recently-unearthed post foundation above - the two are similar in size and construction.

As this was the first post foundation to be fully excavated, we didn't think anything of its size and depth: we simply considered it to be a mysterious pre-Bishopian post foundation.

But now, after finding the second such post foundation we have come to the conclusion that these two post foundations are different from all of the other post foundations, and they are different because they were made by a different, older society - the Old Ones.

Consider: these two post foundations were deeper in the ground, they were more uniformly circular, and they were formed from a higher-quality concrete than the other post foundations.

This is the hole from which the recently-unearthed foundation was unearthed.  Note its depth and roundness.  The Old Ones certainly knew what they were doing when they made this post foundation.  But why did they put it there?  What did it support all those many decades ago?  Why was their knowledge not passed on to the pre-Bishopians?  Were the pre-Bishopians even aware of the existence of the Old Ones?  Will we find more evidence of the Old Ones?  Will we ever stop finding things buried in our back yard?

Questions, more questions, and
   bIsh