Progress on the garden

So, Sam and I got home tonight about 5 and Aimee welcomed us home.  The drive was wet and crazy, with several people driving almost dangerous, cutting me off once and a lot of others just being stupid. I won't go into the details cuz I could go on and on... you already know if you have been reading my blog.

Anywho... it was clear out when we got done with dinner, so I went out to check the garden and did some watering on the second bed that was under the canopy I have up to shelter the third bed until I got it together. Then I noticed that Aimee hadn't put the new fertilizer I got Wednesday on the tomatoes and other veggies, so I went about putting the fertilizer around all the plants and found a couple piles of cat waste in the second bed. Yuck. I don't want that in my garden.  I took it and all the dirt around it out, but I need to find a way to keep it from happening again. I am hoping with the dirt being wet from watering it won't be as desirable for a litter box.

Aimee offered to get Sam to bed so I started in on the third bed and started drilling the pocket holes for connecting the sections together. After trying to put the short section in the second row, I found I made it an inch too wide, so I put it on top and unscrewed one side to screw it back in at the right width; with the ends poking out the one side, figuring that I would cut them later.

The sections screwed together quickly after the pocket holes were drilled and I then found the plastic I cut when I put in the first bed two years ago, amazingly, and got it stapled to the top of the bed box. The landscape fabric took a couple staples to keep it in place and then I started moving the sifted dirt I did last fall and started filling the bed, mixing in some bagged garden soil as I went. After I got the bed about half fun I put in the soil conditioner bag and mixed it in so help keep the "native" soil a little more help to not get sticky like in the other beds.

I put the rest of the pile in the bed, which wasn't much and I don't have enough.  I still have two more bags of garden soil and one more of the conditioner soil to add to the box but I am going to need more sifted dirt; guess what I get to do tomorrow. At least I should be able to sift it right into the garden bed, which will save me from double digging it, or actually triple digging it since it is already moved at least once.

Oh and I found a nice friend under the cover I had on the sifted dirt pile. He was cold and pretty sluggish; I was kinda sorry I had to throw him over the fence. ( I really don't like his kind in reality and was glad he wasn't snapping at me like they usually do when I discover them.)

Adjustments

I built the 3 1/2" section for the third raised bed, to bring it up to the same height as the first one, and got it all screwed together before coming in for the night. It will go on top of the bottom full height section, cuz it is already in the gravel and level. The end screws were not going into the end grain of the one side board straight so I put pocket hole screws through the top to hold it in line. The end ones then went in and everything held square. If you enlarge the photo you may be able to see the one at the top on the left side; the right side ones went in just fine so they don't have pocket screws.

So today, if the rain holds off and I can get out of Costco (with the unusually crazy mass of people here today), I need to get out and get all the levels of the third bed screwed together.  Then, when I find the plastic I cut to line the box, I can start filling it with garden soil, sifted dirt from the yard, soil amendment and sand. We hopefully will get the watermelons and pumpkins in the ground before they die in the starting pods.

Update (5.3.2012): BTW, I didn't make it back in time to get the bed screwed together, had to put Sam down for a nap he didn't want to rest for and go to our Parenting class that night. I will get back to it this weekend, after I get back from taking some time to visit my mom, who is recovering from double pneumonia; cooking, cleaning, straightening up and trying not to urk my dad too much with requests for new vacuum bags and other cleaning supplies he can't figure out where my mom put them (she doesn't remember either in her over-tired state).  Anywho... back to it on Saturday when we get back.

YouTube convert

Outside of watching funny videos with Sam, I really have not liked YT or the kind of junk videos that are 98% of what is out there. The ease of posting videos by the average person has really diminished the quality of the videos out there. Don't get me wrong, there are some pretty cool videos that people come up with and I say I am impressed on occasion.  However, I do not subscribe to the typical totally pointless videos that seem to be popular.

That being said, I have come to find that there are a lot of instructional videos, some better than others, on tools and processes that I am looking to learn or invest some money into for a project. For instance, I have been looking at the HF Flux Core Welder for a long time but have been uneasy about how easy it would be to learn, knowing what material I would be able to use and  how to do it safely and produce a weld that would be not only attractive and safe under load.

Watching a few of these videos, for the specific HF welder I have been looking at, has allowed me to gain some familiarity with the process and some idea of what gauge steel it can handle and what it can't; which has let me feel more comfortable with it being able to handle the types of metal I would want to weld together for projects and repair work.

Raised bed progress

Today, after sleeping in til almost 12 noon, I got up, ate "lunch" and then went out to cut the raised garden boards to length. I had to figure out how to support the long end of the boards as I cut them and found that two scraps of 2x6 and two pieces of 1/4 inch plywood did the trick. I should have screwed them all together to keep them from falling over when I was trying to position the board for the cut, but just dealt with it.

I got them all cut then realized I needed to go get more gravel before I could take them out and put the boards together. So I borrowed my neighbor's truck again and went to get a half yard of 3/4" Open gravel from the local landscape yard. It took 5 wheelbarrows full of gravel to empty the truck, with Sam's help. Sam then helped me sweep out the liner and get the truck ready to return.

With four of the five wheelbarrows of gravel in with landscape fabric underneath it, I was able to finally able to take the lumber out and start putting it together.  I made a drilling template to be able to evenly space out three screws to connect the lumber together. It made it really easy to get them located in the right place, square so the screws went in right and evenly spaced; aesthetics, you know.

While I was out there finishing up the drilling, I noticed there were a bunch of birds flying around above us. It turned out that it was 7 hawks of some kind just swirling around pretty close to each other. It is kinda hard to see them in the photo but the black specs are them.

With the drilling done, I had to put together and level out the gravel for the first level. It went much more smoothly than I expected for only having a 4 foot and two foot level out there to level the gravel around the perimeter of an 8 by 40 inch frame, two feet away from the other raised bed. After the leveling of the first layer, the other two levels went together even easier. The last wheelbarrow of gravel went in the bottom and put a final 2-3 inches in the bottom for drainage. There will be quite a bit more dirt in this one since I didn't fill it up with gravel like I did the other ones; a good depth of soil for carrots and beets.

They are just stacked on top of each other right now, but tomorrow if the rain holds off, I will be able to pocket screw them together like I did the other one in the picture. I ended up with the new bed two and a half inches lower than the bed beside it and the middle bed is an inch lower than the first bed, to the right of the picture. So I think I am going to make a three and a half inch spacer row for the last bed then put a small cap on the top to it is easier to lean on and sit on. Then I can make a cap with a 1 inch spacer to put on top of the second bed and just put a cap on the first bed. They should all end up about the same height.

Aimee weeded more of the rest of the yard; in front of the shed, a little under the cherry tree, next to the house in the back, more around the flowers by the deck area.  She had done the strawberries, out front by the house and finished along the back fence including the raised beds by the garden. It really is looking quite nice, especially since I haven't had to do much weeding this year.

Longest day

Today started with getting up at 7:30 wondering where Aimee was; she had evidently opted to sleep on the couch in light of my rampant snoring when she came to bed. That got me up and going since my mind wouldn't calm back down, even though I would have normally crawled back in bed for awhile.

I started the projects for the day by getting the planer running and planing the boards for the garden bed. I had to cut down the 14 foot boards from the deck in two: 8 and a half feet and 5 and a half feet boards. This allows me to have room for the gouge out at the end of the board as it leaves the first roller and the blades dig in a little more; allowing me to get the 8 foot and 40 inch boards I need for the raised bed.

The boards planed really easy once I had them cut to length, with the exception of a couple I had to back up the depth a little bit due to some cupping that wouldn't let them feed through at the depth I had set. I re-ran these boards again at the same depth as the others, keeping track of how far back I turned the depth knob.

The melamine board I was using as an extension table in the planer, with the melamine skin worn off from planing the deck boards (please pardon my phone, it sometimes has issues corrupting pictures).

Once those were done, I went to HF to get the 12" Compound Sliding Miter Saw I have been wanting to get; I had a coupon for $119 for a saw that retails at $199 and usually never on sale for less than $149. I am pretty happy with it, with the minor exception of the saw's table not being level with the center portion of the saw that swivels with the angled cut.  I even didn't mind the tuning I had to do to get the blade square to the fence and table. oh and there was a slight adjustment i had to do with the extension arm to get it to be level with the main part of the saw table involving a hammer and a block of wood, those arms are surprisingly tough to bend. 

With the saw put together and "tuned", I turned my attention to lunch and then to preparing the garden for the last raised bed. I had to relocate the wood chips I had spread out over the ground to keep it from being so muddy. The chips moved and the landscape fabric pulled back, I started measuring where I needed to dig out for the gravel for drainage.  It was going to be tight and pretty close to the fence, so I fudged it a little ways toward the other beds and marked 6 inches wider all around for ample drainage area. I got it dug down about 4 inches and to make the area drain that much more due to the muck, I borrowed my neighbor's post hole digger and dug six holes down to the sandy soil that is below the clay surface soil.  Sam was a great help during all the digging, taking shifts to help put a shovel full of dirt in the wheelbarrow or dig out the edge of my hole. 

I only had a small amount of gravel left from the dry wells, but it was just enough to fill in the 6 holes.  I will have to go get more or steal from my driveway extension in the front. That will have to wait till tomorrow since it was getting to be dinner time and we cleaned up, ordered pizza and came inside to eat. After sitting here in my chair for a couple hours now, I can really feel that I worked hard digging in really sticky soil that weighed a ton, and the post hole digger really worked a lot of muscles that haven't been worked in a while. Translation... I hurt; wrists and hands being the worst, but my quads are a close third. I don't really understand why my quads got such a workout, but it was a day of about 8 wheelbarrows full of heavy dirt that I dumped in the front and one of gravel that got dumped in the holes. 

After the first wheelbarrow of dirt from today, the dark dirt on the ever growing pile.  

Halfway? through digging out for the gravel. 

After I was finished digging.

The picture of where the holes were roughly located.

and without the stamps so you can actually see the gravel filled in holes 

Sam and Aimee planting Marigolds in the garden beds; they are suppose to have pest repellent properties, so we thought we would try it out. (I like his nonchalant pose.)

Aimee finishing up the last of the flower beds against the back fence. She has been doing a great job weeding out the beds and making it look fresh for spring. Now to get landscape fabric down, Preen weed preventer, and some bark down to keep the weeds at bay.

Plane great separator

I spent last night trying to clear off my work bench and ended up putting up another section of peg board above my bench after taking my One+ charger and drill holder off the wall there and hanging my One+ multi-charger on the end of the cabinets, out of the way but within reach.

The bench got cleared but I know now that it was there cuz i didn't know where to put it; it was stuff that didn't have a home yet. Still looking for that home for most of it still. It is sitting on a make-shift bench, plywood on saw horses, behind where I was taking the picture from.

Then tonight I finished putting together the dust hood for the planer since the order with the dust ports for it finally came yesterday. I wanted to build a longer support table for it too, so I went to HD to get a melamine shelf to use and ended up getting a garbage can for the chip separator ports that came also; it will collect the chips from the planer so they don't clog the dust collector. I tried it out without the separator and it lost suction after a short time since the planer chips would not pass through the screen protecting the motor blades.

The garbage can should probably have been bigger, but I bought the cheapest one, 20 gallons. The ports went in really easy since I was able to cut the holes for then in the lid with a utility knife. With the smaller can, there are some chips that get through to the collector, but it does separate most of it out.

The table went together pretty easy too, with the hardest part figuring out what the right height to make the supports for it, the legs, so that it was level with the planer. I used my new Kreg jig to put pocket holes in the legs to secure them to the melamine board. I probably should have bought a sheet of melamine instead of buying a shelf; the skin on the shelf is quite thin and has come off with just the couple boards through it. I may have to veneer it with formica or something a little more durable.

I should be able to start planing the boards for the last raised garden bed this weekend. Hopefully I can get it planed and built with enough time to dig out the area where it will go and get out installed. We really need to get the last of the seedlings in the ground.
All in all it was a good project night.

Little helper, lots of garden

Sam helped me sift the rocks out of the second raised garden bed by shoveling dirt into the sifter. He had so much fun getting dirty.

We now have most of the garden starts planted, with carrots and onions to start from seed once the rain lets up this next weekend. We will probably need to buy some lettuce starts since they didn't seen to make the transition to outside, but I want to try it again and see what may have gone wrong.

Oh and I got the trellis up for the peas and beans to climb. What we did last year didn't work very well so we are trying a basic frame with string wrapped up and down it so the vines have something to grab onto. Should work; it is  similar to what I remember my grandparents did in their garden.

Praying that everything survives the rain we in the next couple days. The beats have been a little on the wilty side but I think they just may pull through. We will see in time, I guess.

Second raised bed, planer dust port started

It wasn't raining for a little bit tonight after we got done with dinner, so Aimee suggested we spend some time out back. So we got out work clothes on, bundled up a little bit due to the cloudy weather and went outside to directly take the bundling back off since it was like 80% humidity and almost 70 degrees. Anywho, I started by going through the leaves of the second raised bed and finding all the lava rock, then started loosening up the dirt and pulling out any rock I found.  It was slow going and so mucky that I was having a hard time with it; I decided to try the dirt sifter and see if it was any better going. It was, slightly.

Sam did have fun helping to shovel dirt into the sifter so I could push the muck through the grid uncovering the rocks. There don't seem to be as many in this bed but there are a lot of smaller rocks. I only got about halfway through the bed before it started getting dark and we realized that is was well past Sam's bed time; time to go in. So I helped Aimee weed the last bit she was working on in front of the lilies by the garden.

We picked up and Aimee got Sam in while I put the tools away. I got Sam in bed and then went on a search for my glasses; still haven't found them btw. I ended up just going out in the garage without them to try to figure out how to put a dust collection port on the Delta planer my brother has let me "borrow", well he hasn't asked for it back yet, for several years now.

It took some doing and I first started by taking off the deflector but that didn't work very well. It all has to do with a port off the motor that directs air through ports in the deflector; presumably to help eject the shavings, but it was impossible to figure out how to build a port around it. So I left the deflector on and build a surround that collects the shavings as they come out. To keep the dust port hose out of the way, I think I am going to put the port on the top but I may have some difficulty attaching it until the Dust-Right port comes from Rockler. I was going to see if there is anything at HD or somewhere else local, but may just have to wait til next week.

Cleaning up the garden

I took a stab at cleaning up the raised garden beds yesterday. Sam and I went to Costco and got potting soil and blueberry bushes; and of course I found leather gloves and MiracleGrow on a good price so ended up with those too. Oh and I got a 3 pack of organic tomato plants that looked really healthy.

Since Costco only had potting soil, we had to stop by HD to get the garden soil and I ended up getting a bag of soil conditioner to put in with the blueberry bushes since they are getting planted along the fence where it is a little clayish (or whatever the form of that word would be to describe clay soil).

After Sam fidgeted through his nap when we got home we went out and ground up the leaves I had put on top of the raised beds with the electric shredder/chipper. It didn't go too well since the leaves were half decomposed sitting over the winter on top of the soil, under landscape fabric; it really gummed up the shredder. I did the best I could to do the dryer, less composted leaves and left the mucky bits to just mix in the soil.

In the process of going through the leaves, I found that there was quite a bit of lava rock from under the cherry trees where we took the leaves from. So along with the lava rock that was under the leaves, as I was breaking up the soil and finding that it was quite sticky with clay and fortunately full of wonderful worms, I ended up pulling a small pail full of rocks out of the soil too.  I hadn't had a sifter to sift the soil from the yard I had put in there and it had a lot of rock in it; but how has much less and should be easier to dig in now. Luckily I do have a dirt sifter now, so I will be able to keep the

The first bed was topped off with a half bag of garden soil from last year before Aimee called me in for dinner. So I covered it back up with the landscape fabric and went inside with Sam to clean up and get ready to go to our Birth to Three Thrilling Three's class. BTW, we had a great time and it should be fun to get to know the 6 of the 7 other families we didn't know from previous classes; (that sounded like we wouldn't have fun with Tara and Scott, who we know from previous classes, but it now what I meant).

Now to wait out the rain and get that first bed mixed up and the second one started. At least we have the veggie starts conditioning to outside started today so we should be able to plant them in a couple days. I figure I can start working on the third raised bed while I wait for the weather to clear up this weekend; getting a dust port built for the planer and planning the deck boards to clean up the weather wear from the old deck. I just have to figure out how to build the dust port, which I guess will be easier when I get the planer dug out from underneath my workbench.

Spring cleaning start-off

Don't think I have ever been this glad it is raining and I can't go outside to work on digging out the lilac roots. I am really sore and tired from the weekend; cleaning out the garage Saturday and pulling out the lilac and rhodendrons against the backyard east fence. It included moving about 8 wheelbarrows of dirt to the front so I can eventually take it to the yard dump; my neighbor took the dirt I had piled up there for his weed barrels so I had plenty of room.

Saturday, we worked on getting the garage cleaned out and I got most of the stuff either thrown out or recycled or packed into the front brother of the garage. The biggest help was moving the entertainment center into the master bathroom to use as a storage cabinet for the bath stuff. It is unfortunate that it is too big and won't work long term, but ary least it isn't in the garage any more.

Sunday was spent at Costco shopping, a longer than expected nap, but then finally got outside with Aimee and Sam. Aimee was weeding and generally trying to clean out the garden beds. I started digging out the dirt piles left in the backyard and ended up taking out all the bushes on the east side fence cuz they were ask routed out. I basically yanked out one of the rhodes but had to use the come-along to get the lilac stump out, except that it was so rotted that it just broke off at the ground.

3 megawatt production

Finally passed three megawatt production on the solar system. Not bad for about 11 months of production.

Screening

I have not been doing a lot project-wise for the last couple weeks since Sam has been home with me; two weeks ago for the babysitters vacation and last week for sickness.

It was actually quite scary to wake up to Sam coughing hard, doing a croup-like bark trying to get his breathe and crying uncontrollably because he was so upset. It took two doses of his inhaler to just get him to calm down and then two more doses, and time in a steamy bathroom, all within about 45 minutes, to get him to get the coughing cleared enough he could lay down and sleep. I was planning on staying up with him in the rocker so he could sleep sitting up against my shoulder but after about 30 minutes the medication really started working and opening his lungs up that I figured he would sleep fine for the rest of the night. This episode came on Tuesday morning after just one day back at the babysitters, being exposed to the indoor playground they go to and playing outside after afternoon nap now that the weather has changed to have a definite chill to the air.

Anywho... I was able to get out on the garage for an afternoon on Thursday with Sam and put together a dirt screen so I could remove the rocks larger than a half inch from the dirt I am filling in the trenches and dry well holes in with. Friday night I sawed grooves in 4x4s to make tracks for the screen's wheels to ride in. Then Saturday morning I connected the tracks with 2x4s, set the whole track base on two saw horses out front and screened all of the dirt piles out front and on the east side yard (where the cats have been using the loose dirt like litter). I got about three wheelbarrows full of rock out of it all and used it to fill in some of the drainage trenches that didn't have gravel yet. I even almost got the front well hole filled in level, but will have to move a little but more from one of the other piles to finish it off.

The weather was overcast but warm enough for me to just wear a t-shirt and it only sprinkled on me a little bit. I was kind of worried I was going to get wetter this afternoon since it rained last night and had been sprinkling on and off all morning but it held off while I was out there.

I can definitely tell I have had time off. My body is wondering why I am abusing it so badly and letting me know in no uncertain terms it doesn't like it. I was relaxing watching tv for a while last might and almost couldn't get out of my chair when I decided to go to bed; at 11 o'clock, which seemed liked much later given my level of exhaustion.

Anywho, next is to level out the ground in the front yard and get landscape fabric and bark down. Then to work inside till spring when I can get the back yard ready for grass seed and the patio area for a deck. I need to try to finish the master bathroom, drywall, floor, vanity connections and reinstall the toilet before we have guests for Thanksgiving. It might be a little over ambitious, but we will have to see how much I can get done... I tend to do better when there is a deadline.

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Hating the rain

It has been raining since last weekend and I haven't been able to get outside to work on anything cuz everything is all muddy. It is really amazing how day the weather went from the 80s and sunny to rainy and 60s. There was only about a week of 70s and on and off clouds between the two.

I need to finish the sprinkler repairs but can't when it is wet. I actually got a lot of the sprinkler repairs done last week but finishing them up will probably have to wait until this weekend when it is suppose to be dry for a couple days. I have to get the filter installed before I can eventually cap all the sprinkler heads, pressure test all the lines I repaired (actually that is all of them), purge all the lines to get out any dirt left in the lines and then install the sprinklers and adjust them

I also got the downspout on the east side of the driveway connected up with the drain grate and the grate set in gravel ready to pour the cement around it and fill in the gap in the driveway. I may try to do the cement this weekend, if the weather is as nice as they say.

I just realized that I also need to get the gutters cleaned out since there is a lot of debris left over from roofing on the south side of the house and to get out the general buildup from tree needles and moss in the rest of the gutters. I really don't want all that stuff down my new drains.

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Continued progress

After cleaning out the sprinkler valves last week, I found that they were still leaking. Seemed like they held for a couple days but the other zones started spraying again, even though they are not set to turn on at all. I don't understand how that happens. So anywho, I got a filter meant for drip systems today that should filter the rusty particles out and keep this from happening, I just need a couple more parts to get it connected up.

On to what I did late last week ... I finished the connection from the west downspout in the back to the dry well on that side, got the trench filled in with gravel and started filling it back in with dirt. At the end the day I was planning what to do next and realized I needed to run the extra sprinkler line through that trench before I filled it in so the next day I dug the dirt back out of it. I hate rework!

Since I needed to get pvc pipe for the sprinkler run, I decided to go back out front to work on the driveway drain and connection to the west downspout. So Wed and Thurs, I got the trench for the downspout dug out, the hole for the driveway drain dug and connected up all the pipe from the downspout to the driveway drain to the drywell.

I had gotten a chiropractic adjustment Wed and although it went well it left me pretty sore in my lower back and between my shoulders. I worked through it but it got increasingly hard to ignore.

Even though it was getting hard to work, I was finally able to fill in the rest of the gravel in the front dry well, cover it over with landscape fabric and start covering it with dirt. I need to fix the sprinkler pipe there so I could only full it like halfway but at least it isn't a big gaping hole now; just like a foot deep hole.

Sarah was here with the kids on Friday so I spent most of the day outside trying to finish the east side downspout drain lines and found I had hit a pvc line that went from the known sprinklers under the grass area I removed and where I dug the trench and ended in an open threaded connection, I had dug out completely out before realizing it was just a three foot section I could have just capped off, so I will redo the line so I can put drip lines into the planting bed on that side.

The weekend hit and I was so sore from working on digging out that sprinkler line that I just had to take it easy.. I was thinking I may have pulled something but most likely that adjustment is just going to take some time to stop inflaming, cuz icing it really helps.

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Labor days - the next week

So far this week I have:

• raked out the dirt over the pond and tamped it down, with Sam's "help"
• cut the drainpipe in the front, on the east side of the garage, to length
• filled dirt and gravel in around the drain pipe and installed the connector for the downspout
• dug out the gravel from the driveway trench
• dug out halfway, another 4-6 inches of dirt from the driveway trench; to a total of about 12-16 inches
• dug out more on the west trench in the back to slope it down from the downspout to the drywell
• Connected the drainpipe on that back west trench to the drywell and filled it the rest of the way with gravel, covered the gravel with landscape fabric and then with some dirt, that Sam also helped with tonight even though he is kinda sick right now.
• cleaned out the valves for the front sprinklers so they wouldn't leak when I watered the new tree.

will update this post and add pictures as the week progresses...

Battle of the bees

I have been battling bees the past couple days. I had to hit one with my little trenching shovel three times before it either had enough or I knocked it out for good... the last hit was quite solid and made a ping sound. I don't know if they like my white shirt, my sweat, or my deodorant (since it is the only fragrance on me). I keep walking away but for some reason they keep showing back up as soon as I start working again. I am sure the lady walking down the street when I was sweeping the layer of dirt off the end of the driveway where I was going to be working got quite a laugh with me swatting at the bees and briskly walking away every couple minutes. 

That aside, this Saturday, I got the trench cut in the asphalt at the end of the driveway so that I can put a driveway drain and connect up the downspout on that side of the garage to the dry well. I got to use a new power tool too, a concrete saw. I started by putting one of the pieces of plywood down and measuring my cut width from the cement driveway and using spray paint along the edge of the plywood to make a line for me to follow.

When I first started sawing, I didn't have the water hooked up right and it wasn't flowing to the saw, so the saw was putting up this massive cloud of dust. With the water working right, it was relatively dustless and probably overkill for me to have the dust mask on; don't I look menacing.

I had to rent the saw for 4 hours even though it only took like a half hour to cut the driveway and another 10 to cut the slab of sidewalk in the back that I had to break to be able to lift. The slabs came out good and I will be able to use them as a transition through the gate on the east side of the house once I get the fence redone on that side. Here they are laid out end to end, cut ends to the outside since they didn't end up exactly square.



This is one of the pieces after I broke it, before cutting it off



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I tried to borrow a sledge from the neighbor directly across the street from me, but he didn't have one. So when his next door neighbor, the guy who helped me shovel gravel for a little bit during the week, was out getting his mail, I borrowed one from him. It took forever to break and pry up that 6 inch section of asphalt. I finally got it all up and realized there was a lot of digging to make room for the drainage pipe and culvert I was putting in, not to mention the trench needing to be dug in the gravel on the west side of the driveway to the west garage downspout. I dug out all the asphalt and loaded it in the trailer, but left the rest of it since it was really getting hot.

I really didn't do much on Sunday, cuz I was mighty sore and needed a little break.  I think I ended up digging in the trench a little bit out front Sunday night when it got cool, but for the most part, I took it easy.

Here is a video of me cutting the trench, in case you wanted to see it in action:

Labor Days, the rest of the week

So for the rest of the week after Labor Day I worked on:

• digging the rest of the trench to the downspout on the east of the garage including tunneling under the front sidewalk
• filling up the hole in the front with gravel to the drain ports
• installing the drain pipe from the east garage downspout to the drywell and filling in the trench
• capping off the sprinkler lines I hit so I could still water the tree in the front
• digging out the rest of the trench to the downspout on the west side in the back, including tunneling under the sidewalk
• breaking up the sidewalk over my tunnel in the back and removing the cement pieces (I was able to break them by putting a broken piece of cement under one corner after prying it up with the pick axe, then when I found I didn't have a sledge, I jumped on it and it broke)

It was pretty hot that week so I really only worked in the mornings when it was cool and picked Sam up early from the babysitter and had him nap at home. I got to spend a little more time with him once he got home, before his nap, got to put him down for a nap by reading a book to him and got to play and hang out with him when he got up from his nap, when he woke up before Aimee got home that is. On Thursday, he had fallen at the library with the babysitter and had a pretty big goose egg on his forhead, so he slept really good that afternoon. The pictures don't do it justice, especially when the babysitter, Sarah, said it was at least twice as big right after he did it, prompting them to go home and ice it.

Here are some pictures from the week:

Front drywell filled to ports with gravel and trench extended to the sidewalk

Front drywell drain line in, under sidewalk

before I started extending the trench, but after removing some of the loose dirt from the machined trench.

trench under sidewalk

removed sidewalk

Trench under the sidewalk with sidewalk removed

Labor Day #3, Sept 2011

We had a quick breakfast on Labor Day morning, day 3 of the work weekend. Aimee's dad got started doing the hole for the sump pump and I went and got another load of gravel I was thinking I would need for the holes and trenches, hopefully another 2 yards isn't going to be too much.

Dad worked with a short shovel I had and that 5 gallon bucket on it's side cuz it barely fit under the floor joists when upright. I emptied the first couple buckets for him, but Aimee helped out the rest of the day so I could work in the holes in the yard. Is it just me or does he not look too amused I took his picture?

He got quite dusty working under the house and crawling around to run the electrical line and the garden hose out the vent at the other end of the house.I am kinda excited about this being done, but kinda not looking forward to running the electrical line over to the panel in the garage and snaking it down to hook it up.

Dusty Bob.

Anywho, I dropped off the trailer at the rental place after I dumped the gravel in the driveway and then proceeded to dig out the end of the trench going to the east side drywell, wrap the hole and container with landscape fabric, insert the drainage pipe coming from the downspouts, fill the hole with gravel, put an extra piece of landscape fabric on top and start filling the remaining 12 inch deep hole with dirt. By about noon, I had gotten all the loose dirt around the hole scraped back into the hole, about half filled. I will have to move more from the other pile in the back, but after I get the other holes buttoned up to at least this stage.

Hole with gravel in the bottom and well container



Well and hole wrapped in landscape fabric



fabric folded over and dirt starting to fill rest of hole

After filling the east hole with dirt about half way, which is when I ran out of loose dirt by the hole, I think I had lunch and then started on the west side drywell. We hit some gravel which looked like some kind of drainage field, which would have been under the grass; maybe something left over from a septic system, I don't know. It will help disperse the water though so we left it alone.

It didn't seem like it took that long, but I got it wrapped and filled with gravel to the drainage pipe holes. I will need to empty the trench and grade it to the hole and fix the sprinkler lines I hit with the trencher before I can put the pipe in. I did realize that working in the full sun was really hot and put the canopy over the hole. It was hot that day, like close to 90 I think, but this made it at least manageable. Now I know why Dad wanted to work under the house instead of outside; much cooler, but more dusty I think.

Second drywell on west side of back yard, there was some kind of pre-existing drainage field that we hit, maybe from an old septic system?

West drywell filled to the drainage pipe connections, .