New House Blog: Episode CCXIII - Yet More Wildlife Fencing

We like our berries.  In particular, we are particular to blueberries and raspberries, and we have been told that they do well here, and that now is the time to plant.  And planting a garden here in deer-friendly territory can be a major undertaking.  Because you can't just dig up the ground, plant plants, and hope the deer don't eat them.

Fencing I - Planning

First you must plan for your fence.

And the first step for us in planning was to mark out the area and then take measurements.  We chose the area on the far side of the Wadi al Bish because it gets the most direct sunlight throughout the day, and it is already relatively flat.

What's under the blue tarp?  Sawdust and garden soil.  Our initial thought was to use the sawdust as mulch.









Fencing II - The Berries

We learned that the right time to plant blueberries in this area is right now - January to February, so we went out one overcast day to the local nursery and bought some blueberries.  And on impulse we bought some raspberries, also.  This put a time crunch on the whole project, as we wanted to get these puppies planted as soon as possible.

Here you can see our four little bushes.  Because of my work schedule, plus three days of fence-building, they had to live in the garage for several days.  The blueberries are on the outside, and the raspberries are on the inside.


Fencing III - Cutting

We based our fence design on one of my brother's successful deer fence designs.  Basically, it consists of multiple wooden frames connected together, with a steel mesh running around the outside.

We went to the local Lowe's to get our lumber, and all was going well as the lumber man stacked the needed lumber on the lumber cart, but when we wheeled it all over to their lumber saw we found a notice that said, "Out of service."  D'oh!  The lumber man called someone on the radio and confirmed that their lumber saw was out of service.  Rather than take more time to drive to Home Depot to get lumber cut to size we just got the uncut lumber and went home.

Fortunately, I have my dad's old circular saw, and two brand new sawhorses (and a fresh blade), so I was able to cut the lumber myself.  What would have taken mere minutes at Lowe's took me around three hours, working alone.  And in the process, the saw fell on the ground and the safety guard broke.  The saw still works great, but is it safe to use again in the future?

The result of all of that time and effort was these 37 cuts from 36 boards.  The longest is 84" and the shortest is 36". 








Fencing IIII - Construction

Based on advice from the same brother mentioned above, I pre-drilled the holes and used deck screws to connect the lumber and construct the frames.

Here you can see the two main sizes of frames - 75" x 84" and 70" x 84".  There was also one frame of 36" x 77" for the gate.  In total there were 9 frames - 8 for the walls and one for the gate.





BYA Interlude

One step of preparing the ground for our garden was clearing shrubs and rocks from the area, and there were A Lot of rocks to clear.  While clearing shrubs and rocks we found some ancient artifacts.

First up is this mishmash of miscellaneous detrius, including what appears to be a Nerf-style projectile.  Was some epic battle fought here in ancient times?

We found another mysterious brick, which matches the mysterious brick we found in this Episode.

Thirdly, we have this seemingly-random length of steel cable.












Fencing V - Assembly

After cutting the wood, pre-drilling holes, and assembling all of the frames, I carried said frames out to the garden area on the far side of the wadi al Bish.

I then proceeded to connect the large frames into pairs and spread the steel mesh across the open spaces.  This is where I left things at the end of the second day of work.

I resumed work on day three.  here you can see two walls erected and connected. 

All four walls are standing!  I used more deck screws to connect all of the frames together, and some steel connectors to add some rigidity and strength.  As with the initial construction, I pre-drilled most of the holes.

The completed structure.  Note that I accidentally got two different sizes of hinge.  D'oh!  That can be fixed later.  The important thing is that my Dewalt cordless drill and impact driver worked great and did not leave me stranded.

The view from afar.  As you can see, we chose to use a green mesh so as to blend in more with the surrounding surroundings.

This is how I left things at the end of day three.  Three berry bushes were left in the new garden, and one was left in the garage.  Notice that a goodly portion of the ground has been cleared of weeds.



Snowy Interlude

Yes, snow.

On the night of the third day we got some snow coming down at our Texas House.  This picture was taken from our back porch/deck (you can just make out the new fence in the background).

The morning after there was still a little snow on my vehicle.












Fencing VI - Finishing Up

The snow did not seem to hurt the exposed berries, or the new fence.

I spent most of the day preparing the soil and planting all four berry bushes.

More ground has been cleared of weeds (and more rocks), and the plants are planted.

The decorative rocks are all from on and under the ground right here in the garden area.

Yes, they are all a little closer together than is ideal, but it was late, and I was tired, and I didn't want to dig any more holes or mix any more soils.

So far all four are still alive and well, and the deer have not eaten any of them.  At this time we are still looking into what other types of fruits and/or vegetables we should be able to grow here.

Fencing VII - The Plans

I thought it would be nice if I shared my carefully drawn fence plans, with exacting measurements, so that you, too, can duplicate what I have done.

Hmmm....  That don't look right.  Something must have happened when the film was developed....









Take that, deer!!
    bIsh

New House Blog: Episode CCXII - Water Everywhere!!

Ah, water - the staff of life.  In this Episode we will be surrounded by water, and water-related events and projects, with some possible wildlife sightings.

Wildlife

Let's get right into it with one of those wildlife sightings.  You may recall from this Episode that I had the privilege of witnessing some turkey vultures dining on the street near our California House.  Well, it seems that they do that here in Texas, also.

That's right - some turkey vultures were dining on something in the street in front of our Texas House.

I'm guessing that these are not the same birds I saw in California, but I didn't look closely, and I didn't ask, so who knows?  Stranger things have happened.







Water I

We have talked in previous Episodes about some of the traditions we observe when we buy a new house (tree replacement, PVC repair, garbage disposal replacement).  Another of our traditions is replacing old, worn-out, water heaters.  Our story begins one dark night, not too long ago; or maybe it was an overcast afternoon - who can remember such trivialities?  I turned on the water in the shower, and out came the water - cold, as expected.  Unexpectedly, however, the water temperature never increased past tepid, regardless of how high I turned the temperature.  Tepid showers might be okay on hot summer days, but on cool winter days they are less than optimal, and it was an unpleasant experience, but I needed to be clean.  Very shortly thereafter, an inspection by a local plumbing technician revealed that our water heater had filled with enough sediment/scale that it was interfering with the heating part of the water heater, and it made the most sense to replace the entire unit rather than try to repair it.  We agreed with this assessment, and the same day said plumbing technician delivered and installed a brand new water heater.

Water is heavy, at just over 8 pounds per gallon, so it seemed like a good idea to drain as much as possible before removing the old water heater.

Did I mention that the water heater resides upstairs, right next to the furnace, in the furnace room?

Rather than just letting the water run freely down the stairs and out the front door, we decided to use a hose and direct the water to a more suitable drainage facility.

We chose to use the large basin sink in the laundry room.  Here you can see a little bit of the scale that flowed through the hose and into the sink.

Old Bradford White meet new Bradford White.

Out with the old, on the left, and in with the new, on the right.  Note that the plumbing technician used our dolly to move the water heaters up and down the stairs.  He also used one of our garden hoses to drain the old unit.

Installation is complete.  The water on the floor is just residual from draining the old water heater.  It dried up quickly, and the new unit does not leak, so far.
















Water II

Whilst doing nothing in particulars, I noticed water seeping out from under the back side of the kitchen sink island.  This is not a normal condition, so I investigated immediately.

My initial attempt to stem the flow was a bit inadequate.

Stronger measures were required to stem the flow and seek out the source.  Fortunately, the under-sink area was dry and leak free.  Only one other thing in that area uses water.

The dishwasher!!  I had to unfasten it and pull it all the way out to pinpoint the source of the leak, which turned out to be where that metal flange connects the inlet hose to the dishwasher.

I have some very good battery-powered LED work lights.

I replaced the flange with a much better spare that I had on-hand, and that stopped the leak.

Satchmo tried to help, but he has trouble holding on to the tools, and his concentration wanders easily.










Stump Removal

In this Episode we had our mostly dead elm tree removed and replaced with a young cedar elm.  The old stump was not removed at that time.  In another example of services randomly coming to us, a tree man mistakenly showed up on our doorstep one day.  He was looking for an address on a similarly-named street, and he found us instead.  He offered to come back later to remove the old tree stump (for a fee, of course).

Not being ones to simply turn away services that seek us out, we agreed to pay the tree man to remove the stump.

He returned with his stump grinder and ground down our stump.  Here you can see him operating the stump grinder, or can you?

We moved most of the sawdust to the back yard for another project, and spread some around the area where the stump used to be.  The discoloration on the driveway was caused by some heavy rain leaching color out of the pile of sawdust before we moved it.  Subsequent rains have removed some of the discoloration.

Cute Cat Time

Edgar likes to explore the shower after it has been used.  He doesn't seem to mind getting his little paws wet.


















A River Runs Through It

Well, sort of.  It's dry most of the time.

Here you can see the Wadi al Bish during a good rain session. 

Another section of the Wadi al Bish, full to the brim and flowing downhill.

More of the Wadi al Bish.

This picture was taken about a week after the previous three.  The Wadi al Bish does not retain water for long, but it is nice when it is flowing.
















House Numbers

In yet another New House Blog tradition, we added house numbers to our Texas house.  There were existing numbers already, but they are just a few shades different from the part of the house where they are mounted, and therefore hard to see from the street.

We purchased the darkest, largest-sized numbers from Home Depot, and mounted them to the bright stonework arch above the garage window.  As you can see, the house numbers really stand out now.


BYA Update

Yes, folks, we continue to find ancient artifacts at our Texas House.  This being a younger house than our California House, we did not expect so rich a trove of archaeological treasure.

First up is this mysterious bone.  To me it looks like it might be some kind of bird's bone, but I am no ornithologist.  It appears to be quite weathered.  As usual, the glove is just there to show scale.

A second mysterious bone.  This one is even more weathered than the possible bird's bone above. 

Next up is this ancient glass bottle neck.  At this time we have not yet determined which brand of beverage it once held.

This is just an ordinary-looking piece of plastic to most people, but to my trained archaeological eyes it appears to possibly be a hatch cover of some sort.

It could also be a panel cover of some sort.













Preview

Here is a brief, mysterious preview of the next Episode, which should be published very soon after this (possibly within hours).

What is this?  Is it the foundation for a guest house?  Is it going to be a helicopter/UFO landing pad?  Will we be forming our own micronation and declaring this spot to be independent of the USA?


Stay tuned.
    bIsh