New House Blog: Episode CI - Aftermath

As part of our 100th Episode celebration we bring you a second Episode within 24 hours of publishing the previous Episode.  If I recall correctly, this is the first such occurrence in the history of the New House Blog.

Aftermath 1 - Firewood

In the previous Episode (our 100th, you know) I cut down two trees and mentioned something about firewood.  I am now going to go into a little more detail regarding said firewood.  Both Tree #1 and Tree #2 were made of wood (held together by sap), and it seemed like it would be wasteful to let all of that beautiful organically-grown wood go to the city's composting machines, so I decided to claim a bunch of it for use in our wood-burning fireplace. 

About 98% of the wood you see here is from the two trees.  What you don't see is that I had to leave most of the trunk of Tree #2 at the Parents' House because it was just too thick for me to process with my available tools.

When I took this photo some of the wood still needed splitting and trimming to fit in our fireplace (notice the three logs standing upright in the background).  My hope is that the sun will dry out the wood a bit, and maybe some of the sap will drain out.

Aftermath 2 - Rust

I've mentioned our eSpring water purifier once or twice in the New House Blog.  Recently the time came for its filter to be replaced, and I took some photos of the process.

There is our eSpring, hiding under the sink, out of the way.  It quietly does its job of purifying our water day after day, month after month, year after year.

Why do we feel the need to purify our tap water?  Well, one reason is rust.  Here you can see the aftermath of several months of running water through the filter cartridge. 

Can you tell which filter cartridge is the new one?  Here's a hint: it's not the rusty one. :)

Here you can see actual purified water after it has flowed through the eSpring.  In addition to rust, our eSpring filters out chemicals (including MTBE), and all kinds of nasty little microbes.















Aftermath 3 - Lawn

For the past few years, due mainly to watering restrictions in our area, we have not maintained our front lawn.  Occasionally I would mow it when it naturally grew in the spring, and I might remove the largest weeds sometimes, but that was about it.  This past spring the watering restrictions were lifted, as far as we know, and we decided to try to have an actual, mostly-grass, non-weedy lawn.

The first step was to completely strip the existing growth and basically take the front lawn down to dirt.  This was done manually, with manual tools, by yours truly.  The next time we do this, maybe we'll rent or borrow a rototiller.

After stripping we spread fresh seed, topped it with fresh lawn soil (also called topsoil), and spread some fresh grass food/lawn starter.

To our great delight the new grass seed sprouted and grew.  After a couple of weeks we put out some more grass food.  A few weeks later I put some fresh seed, topsoil, and food on the patches that hadn't sprouted.

Several months later this is the aftermath.  I have mowed the new lawn a few times, and it's mostly staying green.  There is a brown patch under part of the redwood tree, but it was initially as green as the rest of the lawn.  That area does get sun, so I don't think that's the issue, and it gets water, too.  My theory is that maybe the falling needles are somehow negatively affecting the grass, but I don't know for sure.  Any thoughts, anyone?

Aftermoth

We finish up this Episode with a visit from Mothra.

Becky discovered this big beauty on our balcony one afternoon.  It  was still there several hours later, and into the night.  In the morning it was gone.

We believe it is a variety of sphinx moth, possibly a tobacco hornworm.  We don't grow tobacco in our yard (yet), so we don't know why this one is in the area.















As a moth is drawn to a
    bIsh

New House Blog: Episode C - So! Much! Sap!

Welcome to the exciting, action-packed 100th Episode of the New House Blog!  Yes, folks, we finally reached our 100th Episode, and it is packed full of interesting information, including at least one fact you didn't know before.

October is here (I know it's November right now, but I had planned on writing this in October), and that means the beginning of Accursed Shamrock Season.  So far this season we've had to pull fewer than 10 accursed shamrocks from our main succulent garden, and we believe this is due to our relentless policy of pulling them out on sight.  It has taken a few years, but I believe that our succulent garden is finally basically free of these pesky plants.

Brief 'Hood Update

You may remember the House Of The Blue Cars, first mentioned in this Episode.  That house is now for sale: asking price - $1 million (okay, technically they're asking $999,000, but that's basically $1 million).  What is included with this house that justifies the $1 million price tag?  A secret underground laboratory?  An olympic-sized pool?  A 15-car garage?  A private telephone line to the Kremlin?  Nope (as far as I know).  Well, is it at least a huge, fancy-shmancy mansion?  Nope.  It's just your average, ordinary, single-story house in your average suburban neighborhood.  House size is about 1500 sq. ft., on about a 6500 sq. ft. lot.  And this price is not an anomaly - it is in-line with the current housing market in this area.  When I was growing up this house would probably have been closer to $100,000, and only huge mansions cost $1 million.

So! Much! Sap! 1

The Parents' House had two large evergreen-type trees that were planted when we moved into the house 20+ years ago (I was still living with them at that time).

Here you can see my dad with one of the newly-planted trees, which I will call Tree #1.  I remember that my dad and I planted the trees, but I don't remember who else may have helped us plant them.  There were two such trees -  one on each side of the small back yard.

The little trees grew a little for the first few years, then Tree #2 started a growth spurt that never really stopped, and a few years later Tree #1 also started it's uninterrupted growth spurt.  Yes, these two trees just loved growing and growing, and that meant that they occasionally needed trimming and pruning.  In fact, in I did some tree trimming in this Episode.

After my dad's passing last year the trees started getting out of control, and the job of keeping them trimmed and pruned was getting to be too big to reasonably handle, so my mom decided that it was time for the trees to go.  I grabbed my trusty extendable ladder, my work gloves, some tools, and headed over. 

Yes, this is the same tree pictured above, Tree #1.  And yes, that is an ancient, disconnected Dish receiver on the roof of the house.

I got to work chopping, lopping, hacking, snipping, and sawing.  And that's when I discovered the sticky, viscous, flowing, maddening sap.

There were a few abandoned nests in Tree #1, possibly held in place by all of the sticky sap.

This is the tree after several hours of manual labor (I worked harder, not smarter), and several gallons of sap. 

Sap and more sap.  Sap on the blades of my tools, sap on the handles of my tools, sap on my ladder, sap completely saturating my work gloves, sap on my shirt and pants, sap on my skin, sap on the branches, sap on the trunk, sap on the sap....

In the end, I prevailed, and not the sap.  The tree came down after several hours of manual labor.  Tools included Frisky, Pinchy, Bari, and some unnamed clippers and an unnamed lopper.  After taking down Tree #1 I wanted to let my tools soak in a vat of Goo Gone for several days, but instead I left them at the Parents' House and went home.










So! Much! Zap!

You may recall that we have replaced several electrical outlets and light switches at our Improved House, and every so often we find it necessary to swap out another old outlet or switch for a new one.  Recently we found it necessary to change out one outlet and three switches.  Looking back, I think maybe we should have just replaced all of the outlets and light switches before we moved in to our Improvable House.

We chose to replace this outlet because it was quite loose and didn't hold onto plugs very well.

Unless you're new to the New House Blog, you've seen outlet swaps before, so I'll keep this brief.

This is the old outlet.

This is the old, improperly-spliced wiring and j-box.

It seemed like a good idea to replace the old j-box along with the old outlet.

Because the replacement procedure for all three light switches was basically the same, I'm only showing photos for one of the three. 

This is the old switch.

This is the old taped-together wiring that we've seen so often in our Wired House.

I have been assured by an electrician brother that this is a perfectly cromulent method of splicing.  After splicing it was wrapped in my signature yellow electrical tape.

The new switch works great.




















So! Much! Sap! 2

Two weeks later I returned to the Parents' House to start in on Tree #2.  At this time I would like to thank Mr. Sawzall for the invention that bears his name.  And I would also like to thank Mr. Carbide for inventing the material that bears his name. 

This is Tree #2.  It was planted at the same time as Tree #1, and it was larger and had a thicker trunk and more branches (and more sap).

Before I returned to start on Tree #2 I picked up some brand new carbide-tipped pruning blades for my sawzall (inherited from my dad), and I was able to work smarter, not harder.

I noticed that the sawzall blades would get quite hot after a while, and they seemed to be less effective they got superheated, so I made it my practice to swap in a fresh, cool blade after cutting through three or four thick branches.

In the morning, I had the assistance of a nephew who shall remain nameless.  He helped out by cutting up branches on the ground and stuffing them into my mom's yard-waste bin.  After the lunch break (his lunch break was quite a bit longer than mine) he did not return to work with me.  He claimed he was feeling sick from eating too much.  I remain skeptical of said claim, which is why he doesn't get his name mentioned here.

This is Tree #2 at the end of the first day of working on it.  It had at least as much sap as Tree #1, and I tried to manage the sap contamination.  I did this by using a lot of blue nitrile gloves.  I covered my brand new, sap-free work gloves with the nitrile, and when the nitrile got sap on them I peeled them off and put a new pair over my work gloves.












So! Much! Carrion!

The other day, I came home from work and found these friendly creatures in the street.

That's right - turkey vultures.  They're not super rare in these parts, but I've never seen them in the street before.

Upon closer examination, it appeared that they were eating the remains of a small animal, possibly a 'possum.










So! Much! Sap! 3

Day two of working on Tree #2 took place a week after day 1, and this time I had the added aide of a borrowed electric chainsaw (thanks, Derek!). 

This is Tree #2 on day two of taking it down.

Tree #2 is down!  The chainsaw helped a lot, and both it and the sawzall made the job easier.  It was still a lot of work, but it was less work than it would have been with only manual tools.

Look at that placement.  It fell right where I wanted it to fall.

My sap management technique definitely helped with reducing sap contamination, but it was not quite 100% effective.

The chainsaw, however, remained sap-free.

Now the trees are down, my mom's back yard is a lot sunnier, and we have a bunch of new firewood.

There were no nests in Tree #2.












Now to spend some time de-sapping my tools.  Where did I put that Goo Gone?
    bIsh

New House Blog: Episode XCVIIII - The B's Have It

Just a few days ago I thought I would start off this Episode by saying that Pinchy is broken.  Instead, I will start off by saying that Pinchy is repaired (as a quick reminder, Pinchy is our 60" (5-foot, or 6.1-metric foot) pruner, introduced in this Episode).  What looked at first like a simple job of re-connecting the linkage to the pinching/pruning blade turned into an overly-complicated repair job that included disassembling the actuating/pivoting head, wrapping string around a pulley, and lining everything up just right.  Today I tested my repair by pruning our poor pear tree.

Our poor pear tree seems to have an especially bad case of fire blight this year, and today's pruning was actually the second or third pear pruning of the year.  The first pruning of the year, back in May, was quite drastic, and we had hoped that more pruning would not be necessary.  We were also hoping to get some pears this year, but so far we have seen fewer than five pears on the tree, and we have only harvested one of them (if you consider picking it up off the ground to be harvesting).

B1 - Bountiful Berries

You may recall that we planted a loganberry bush last year, and as springtime approached we eagerly awaited its fruiting.  We were not disappointed.

Here you can see several loganberries growing and maturing.  As a reminder, loganberries are a cross between blackberries and raspberries.

And this is an example of a ripe loganberry.  The taste is on the tart side, and they are very juicy.

As you can see here, our bountiful blueberry bush also produced a bountiful harvest this year.

The pink lemonade blueberries did well, also, but there were not as many pinks as there were blues, and birds stole some of them.

Our raspberry bushes produced a mostly-good harvest, but they seem to be smaller and less moist than in previous years.


B2 - Bird

While I was performing the primary pear pruning back in May, I was visited by a friendly scrub jay, whom I am calling Herman.  Herman flew down and hung out with me as I worked.

Herman is a very good-looking scrub jay.  Becky doesn't like the term, "scrub jay."

Here you can see Herman searching for tasty grubs.

As you can see by the large pile of branches, the primary pear pruning, in May, was quite drastic. 







B3 - Bees

We at the New House Blog are a bee-friendly household.

Our sweetpeas attract a lot of bees of various types, but my favourite is the big, black carpenter bee. 

Look at that big, black beauty.  How can you not appreciate this beautiful bit of creation?

Speaking of bees and beauty, we thought it would be a good idea to plant some bright, colourful flowers to attract bees to our strawberry/hula berry patch.  To date, we have not harvested a single hula berry, and we believe that one possible reason for this is a lack of cross-pollination due to a lack of bees visiting this part of our garden.

From left to right we have Wicked Cool Blue Verbena (verbena "wicked cool blue"), Petunia (petunia sp.), and Ideal Select Violet Dianthus (dianthus chinensis x barbatus).

In addition to these beautiful bee-attracting flowers, we also planted corn and various lettuces in our food garden.  Herman visited us as we prepared the garden soil, and he successfully grabbed (and ate) some grubs.

B4 - Box

In this case the box in question is a junction box, hereafter referred to as a j-box because it requires less typing.  In our garage was an electrical timing box inserted between the breaker box and the garage door opener.

 Why the pre-Bishopians thought to connect the garage door opener to a timer is a mystery.

Said mystery is deepened by the fact that the timer function was not connected at all - they used this timer box as a j-box, and connected up all of the leads inside of it.  It seems to have worked, and the garage door opener had no power issues, but it just seemed like a hack (notice the lack of a second cable clamp), so we yanked it out and put in a real j-box.

Just your basic surface-mounted j-box.

Wires are all clamped, spliced, and wrapped with my trademark yellow electrical tape.

Finished, and looking much better.



















B5 - Bricks

Way back in 2014, in this Episode, we installed some paver paths in our back yard.  Over time there have been some subtle shifts in one of the paths, and a couple of bricks were giving us that sinking feeling when we stepped on them.  This was not an optimal situation, so we decided to pry up the affected two or three bricks and re-seat them.

As you can see, we had to pry up several bricks in order to re-seat the original problem bricks.  As you can also sort-of see, there is a gopher-type hole at the left of the excavation, which explains the shifting and loosening of bricks.

Holes have been filled in, new sand has been added and leveled, and the bricks have been re-seated.

A fresh application of polymeric sand in the crevices completes the repair.


















B6 - BYA

Back. Yard. Archaeology.  We have four artifacts to examine in this Episode, including one that may be from beyond our planet.

The first item appears to be a painted metal bottle cap.  I could make out what appeared to be an image of a bagpiper, and the words, "Product of Scotland."  A close examination shows what appears to be a plaid or tartan background image.  There's too much rust to be sure of what this bottle cap once capped, but it is further evidence that the pre-Bishopians had knowledge of international trade.  I don't recall where I dug this up.

Next we present this mysterious rock-like object.  What is it?  Where did it come from?  Why have I forgotten where I dug it up from?

As a size reference, the brick on which it sits is 6" by 9".

At first glance this object appears to be a result of high heat and/or melting of some type (perhaps atmospheric friction as it flew in from outer space?).  Is this, perhaps, further evidence that the pre-Bishopians had contact with extra-terrestrial types?  Could this have been a gift to humanity from some other civilization?

For the first time ever, we present a genuine Bishopian artifact.  Ok, so this one isn't much of a mystery.  It's one of my screwdrivers that I apparently left out in the back yard.  I remember that I last used this screwdriver to probe some gopher/mole holes.  I must have set it down and left it in the grass and forgotten about it.  I rediscovered it after mowing the back lawn, which is a very rare occurrence.

This object appears to be some type of Nerf-type dart.  It may have come from a neighboring house, and not from the pre-Bishopians. 







B7 - Cactus

As is our usual habit, we added to our cactus garden this year.

First up is this Madagascan Ocotillo (alluaudia arocera).  The Madagascan Ocotillo originates in madagascar, and is not a true cactus, but it looks very cactus-like, so we decided to let it into our cactus garden.

Next up is this African Milk Tree, or African Milk Bush (euphorbia trigona f. rubra, a less common, red variant of the normal, green euphorbia trigona).  The African Milk Tree originates in west Africa, and is also not a true cactus, but it looks like a cactus.

This photo shows where they are planted in relation ot each other, and in relation to some of our other cactus.

Our last addition to the cactus garden this year is a true, actual cactus.  Meet our False Saguaro, or Cardon (pachycereus pringlei).  The cardon is native to Baja, Mexico, and it is as close to a true saguaro as we can get here where we live.

Here you see the overview of our lovely cactus garden.  The cactus garden is running out of room for expansion, and we may not be able to fit any more cactus in.





B8 - Vents

Our upstairs heater vent was never very securely attached to the wall, due to poor/sloppy installation by the pre-Bishopians (or by those they hired).  Regular screws and anchors were only slightly effective, and eventually one or more cats figured out how to knock the vent off the wall.

Hmmm....  What's inside there?  Smells interesting...

These toggle bolts ought to hold the vent on securely.

Yup, we're not knocking that off the wall again...


*Note: All cat photos were not posed or contrived.  They were recorded as they naturally occurred.





Only one more Episode until we reach 100, but who's
        bIsh