What's Been Going On - 1

I have, obviously, been very absent from working on this blog. Firstly I have run straight in to the brick wall of apathy. I always have plenty of projects so I can switch from one thing to another as the mood strikes. Unfortunately the mood hasn't been striking for building or painting. Plus there is the annual garden prep which is where my efforts to building something have come into play.

Starting back in late April, early May, my wife and I made plans for garden projects. Planting a Colorado garden can't realistically start until Mother's Day and even that can be iffy. My wife likes to wait till Memorial Day (which is pretty early this year but we went with it). Since the garden was going to feature a lot of squash and some other climbers I wanted to replace the little A-Frame from last year with something much more substantial. I also wanted to remove the very ugly anti-hail "covers" that we have used for the last couple of years with something more effective and easier to put up. We spent way to much time taking the covers on and off last season and I wanted to avoid that this year. Those covers were never meant to permanent anyway.

I basically built these climbing frames around the existing raised beds. The new anti-hail frame (basically a very big pergola) started after I finished these. We found some anti-hail netting and it was on order and, of course, it was delayed. In the meantime pergola construction started and my wife planted the seedlings that she started in the greenhouse (squashes, peppers, zucchini and pumpkins for sure, I can't keep track).

The east side frame, this is built around a 6' raised bed.

The west side frame, this is built around an 8' raised bed.

Then this happened

The storm started around 10pm which was strange to begin with. This is the mix of sizes we found the next morning. Yes, there were tears.

This is a piece of golf ball sized piece of hail. This is after it had lain on the lawn for  about 8 hours. Punched holes in siding, cracked to dome skylights, dented all the gutters and our poor Jeep Gladiator was outside and the hood has about 50-60 dents in it from hail strikes. Fortunately it did not shatter the windshield and the removable composite roof and fenders as well as the bed were undamaged.

Between the beginning of construction and the arrival of the anti-hail netting we got pummeled by major hail storm on May 30th. This ruined an entire weekends worth of planting, not to mention major damage to the rooves on all four buildings. Gutters were not only dimpled on the bottom but on the sides from ricochets. The east side of the garage actually had holes punched into the siding. 

The netting arrived the next day and I pushed through and finished the pergola and got the netting stretched across it. Which was good because we had another, much smaller, hail storm that week. The netting worked like a charm.

East side of the pergola. On this side its either anchored directly to a raised bed or is supported by a cedar 4x4.

Cross members looking towards the south.

On the west side the pergola is anchored to the fence. Its all cedar 2x4s on this side as are the cross members.

On this side the netting is fastened with hooks on the top rail of the fence.

This is the smallest netting we could get which is 50'x30'. Which means we have a lot of extra but we can't really cut it because of the edging. On the east side its just held down with bricks.

I have a couple of ideas to be able to keep the netting above head level but still be able to pull it down to cover the ends in case of a storm,

It actually provide quite a bit of shade on the inside. I have since taken down the supports for the old anti-hail covers.

Outbuilding Work Continues

The garden is planted, all six beds, looking forward to fresh vegetables from that later this summer. The roses are in full bloom as are all the other early summer flowers so the backyard is quite colorful. All of that is thanks to my wife because the last thing you want is me trying to plant anything, I am cleared to water though!

The greenhouse still has one wall to seal up but the baseboard vents have been cut in and framed. Really just need an hour or so to finish that wall and then I can turn my attention to the exhaust fan and figuring out how to setup the solar power. That means insulating the ceiling will need to wait.

If you were paying attention to the interior pictures of the shop you would notice that the only rafters present are at the ends supporting the lofts. Since there is a distinct possibility of carousel animals coming in for repair at this point I have added a complete set of 2x6" rafters. The ability to add a pulley system of some kind to lift horses and what not up and off the poles is important, for instance the lion weighs in at close to 700 pounds and he needs a new base as the current one is beginning to sag. 

In addition this will allow me to add can lights over the workstations if we need to. It will also make insulating that ceiling a whole lot easier. Getting those rafters up took most of a morning, a very hot morning. That building is definitely going to need a good exhaust fan as well. Now it just needs power!

The north end toward the northwest corner. I got a good deal on insulation so I bought everything I could and now have to work around it.

Looking north towards the east corner. That swatch of sunlight is from the skylight, wish there had been on option to add another one. It let's in an amazing amount of light.

Looking south towards the western corner. I added a total of seven rafters 2x6" beams.

Looking south towards the eastern corner. I doubled up the rafters where the lofts were built. That will give me ability to add more flooring up there if we need to. I'm mostly thinking a strip around the edges in case we need to add can lights above the tool stations.

The Back Porch - For Relaxing

This is the spot where my wife and I enjoy our evenings. It faces to the east so its a very comfortable spot in the evenings. Its a great spot to just enjoy the evening and its big enough to entertain as well.

To the north, is the main seating area under the pergola. We keep most of the furniture covered till we need it. You can just make out the first fountain, built into the seating wall, near the left center. I finally managed to fit a pump into it big enough to run it properly. You can see quite the profusion of roses this year as well.

The arch that leads to the path to the "outback" as well as the second fountain on the left and the "pig pen". The "pig pen" contains the large talavera pottery pigs as well as other talavera pottery animals. The large metal flowers behind the fountain is something new we are trying out this season. You can just make out the smoker to the right of the archway.

The main dining and kitchen area. I have a good sized grill, which sees a lot of use. The table seats 8, and also kept under cover. This area can get quite hot during the day and into the evening. There is an extendable awning that covers almost the entire area to keep it cool.

The Outdoor Project - What keeps me away from the workbench

We have reached a point in the year when its relatively safe to actually plant things in Colorado. Spring can be a dicey proposition here for planting as the threat of snow can extend well into May. We had to perform a rescue mission at one point and bring all the potted plants indoors as we did get a couple of those nasty May snowstorms this year.

Last week was spent planting all the flowers and vegetables and getting the whole patio ready for summer entertaining. That included a little bit of back breaking labor putting in a path where the dogs have managed to wear away all the grass as they run to check out what our neighbor is doing. 

I also managed to replace the third brake light on my jeep. A little less than an hour job turned into about 4 hours until I realized that the issue was a blown fuse. Once I replaced that things worked like a charm and I managed to eliminate the "periscope" brake light that obstructs vision through the rear view mirror. All of that occurred because the tire carrier for the spare tire had cracked and needed to be replaced. That turned out to be the easy part!

Where the new concrete path will go. You can see one of the culprits giving her approval.

Digging the trench, 4 inches deep, two for the gravel bed and two for the concrete pavers.

Gravel in place, tamping has begun and will continue for a bit.

Some of the other work. We fenced in part of the flower garden by the patio so that it wouldn't become a digging ground for the dogs. I decided that this would be a good, safe spot for the large Talavera pottery pig I received from my Mom (She is in a condo in Boulder now and no longer has a garden for the pig), with the addition of a few more smaller pigs its now the pig pen.

A Talavera snail by the fountain

And an escaping pig in that odd space between the fountain and the fence.

And a Talavera pottery donkey complete with basil to help keep away mosquitoes. I really like the metal peacock on the table too.

Garden Renovation Finished

Like any contract job the garden demolition and renovation ran into some unexpected difficulties which stretched the time it took to finish out quite a bit. The crew was back out on Monday to finally finish the work. They still have to remove all the concrete but I'm quite pleased with the final look. Right now its sitting at three blocks high but I'm contemplating going to 4 blocks high. Still unsure about it so I would do that work myself. I had them leave enough blocks to do that and I'll return them myself later depending on what I decide. But its finished! The irrigation line is in and I have to add the soakers but that's not much work and can wait till spring if I want to.

As you recall this is the problem corner, the remnants of the 2' tall concrete wall mostly buried on the west side. Just to add a twist this is where the irrigation line that we want to use cuts through the concrete.

The Bobcat finally getting a chance to just move dirt instead of breaking concrete

Checking the height of the blocks. At this point its going to be built three high. A forth row would bring it up level with the foundation of the garage though.

A closer view

And there we go! You can see the stack of blocks I asked them to leave on the right. I'll have to move them so I can get into the third garage bay back there.

The rather large pile of garden dirt. Right next to the rather large pile of mulch resulting from the removal of a dead willow tree last year.

Renovating the Garden - Round 2

We learned even more interesting things about that wall today. One its like an iceberg with more concrete underground than above. I think its about 20" top to bottom (the contractor is estimating a full 24"). The long side and one short side are out but the concrete on the west side is almost completely buried. Also the earth is so compacted after years of use that its almost like concrete itself.

They brought in a Bobcat instead of my predicted jackhammer. The Bobcat just didn't have the torque necessary to really dig into something this compacted but they made it work, mostly, in the end.

If all goes well this morning, then they will be able to install the paver wall on Thursday.

The primary tool for the day, none of that electric jackhammer business. They wanted a bigger version of the bobcat but this is all that was available on short notice.

Serious progress by noon.

Finally the east wall gives up the ghost. Note that it came away in three large chunks rather than the hoped for easy to handle pieces. It took about an hour to get this part of the wall out.

End of the day the west wall stands alone

There is still a lot of dirt to pull out of there. Hopefully the grapevines aren't going to suffer to much.

The pavers ready for installation, we hope on thursday

A pile of large concrete pieces. Earl didn't mess around when he built the wall for his garden.

Taking out the west wall will be a challenge since its mostly buried.

Renovating the Garden

The house sits on a L shaped lot with approximately a half acre in the front and almost a full acre in the back. This is right in the middle of a residential neighborhood that was created from old five acre horse properties, when it was at the edge of Denver.

Keeping the back acre mowed was quite the chore, so the decision was made to sell it off. This required that a long drive way (120' long or so) 20' wide would be carved out of one edge of the property to provide access. The land has been sold and now the vegetable garden extends on to the new property and has to be revamped to fit on to our property which is now only extends 2' from the south wall of the garage.[There is a reciprocal use agreement that allows the two properties that are next to each other to access their garages using this driveway. Talk about twisted legalize!]

The vegetable garden is approximately 10' wide and 42' long and runs along the wall of the garage. It is surrounded by a concrete wall about 12" high and about 6" or so thick (it might be 8" I didn't measure it). Originally I thought I could just take a sledge hammer to it so I talked to the original builder and asked if he used rebar in it. He said no, although he didn't mention what he did use. This wall was poured about 30 years ago and in that time it only developed one crack in it. That should have been a clue.

Since concrete would have to be removed and dirt relocated we decided to contract this little job out. They started yesterday figuring that they would have all the concrete knocked out and broken into nice size pieces for handling. 8 hours later they hadn't even managed to get a third of it knocked down, let alone move any of the very compacted earth that was behind it. It was thirty year old concrete and they figured it would come apart pretty easily. The electric jack hammer just wasn't cutting it. They didn't count on the fact that the builder poured concrete for a living and replaced a good portion of the flagstone sidewalks in Denver. He really knew what he was doing and didn't cut corners just because it was a wall for his vegetable garden. The foreman said that if they still built foundations this way no one would ever have cracked basement walls.

Seems that while there isn't any rebar in there, the builder did use some braided metal wire pieces that kind of look like barbed wire, but quite a bit thicker. Today they are coming with a real jackhammer, the kind that uses compressed air. If that doesn't work I'm not sure what they will do.

Here is the garden in full bloom one year. 12 Kale plants, 30 zucchini and 60 tomatoes by the end of the season.

No planting was done this year because the land was up for sale. Although the grapevines produced a bumper crop this year. They will stay in place.

The crack in the wall was here. They didn't make much progress,

Did better over here.

The pile of concrete. Not to many nice sized chunks though. Some of those will still have to be broken up.

The culprit. A six inch piece of twisted wire with hooks at the ends. It really holds things together.