Botany 102

Hidden object game!  Can you find the still-potted rosemary?

Rotate 90 degrees, trim deadwood, and voila!  Replacement for trumpet vine and garnish for Kai's food.  (Kai helped dig up trump stump on far right).  

Also planted 2 avocados (Reed and Hass) in the backyard.  While we had our eye on a Lamb-Hass because it yields monstrously sized avocados in its formative years, these were sold out and it turned out we could get 2 whole trees for 1/3 the price of the illusive Lamb Hass.  

MaGyver dropped in to fill MacGyver's truck with green waste for our field trip to the Prima Deshecha landfill (outgoing truck load 4/10) and jump start two raised beds for herbs and veggies out of salvaged boards in the yard.  Approximately $110 project ($8 of which was pure bull sh*t).    

More documentation to follow if/when things start to sprout.  

Veggies Planted:  

• Sweet potatoes:  Grab a sack from Trader Joe's, cut into halves/thirds, bury in bullsh*t/leaves/nitrogen boosted soil, cover in mulch (partial shade is OK).  
• Spinach/Mesclun:  Scatter each seed package over approx 6-9 sq foot expanse and cover lightly with more of the above.  Make sure to water daily while getting its start.  Once established, "haircut" periodically for salads.  
• Bell Peppers:  bought a started plant.  Provide a support stake.  
• Cherry tomatoes:  bought 2 started plants (a yellow pear and a red cherry).  Provide a support stake.  Research the cool heirloom varieties we beeline for at Trader Joe's.  
• Peas:  scratch with screw, etc. if you didn't start them in a wet paper towel.  Dump them in a trench in front of a wire trellis for them to grow up.  Best if trellis is towards the back of the bed on the north end in order to ensure the rest of the plants get sun (or in the middle, in order for plants to grow up both sides).  
• Marigolds:  Evidently, these tell bugs to GTFO.  
• Chives:  See above, but slightly more edible. 

Herb garden, (shadier, less trafficked corner under the orange tree because it needs less TLC).  This one MacGyver used whimsically patterned river stones instead of mulch to increase heat, retain moisture, and dissuade weeds.   

• Rosemary: remnant from apartment container gardens.  Rocks in rosemary sweet potato fries (a la Clover food truck at MIT).  
• Stevia: remnant from apartment containers.  This stuff is super hardy and sweet!  It doesn't make hard apple cider (aka MacGyver Redbull) taste any smoother, but works wonders in "Nohitos"
• Mint: because we decimated our last apartment mint plant in our Tim Ferriss no-sugar-mohito summer (mint, stevia, limes, rum).  
• Basil: remnant from grocery store TBM run (aka Operation Caprese)
• Garlic:  MaGyver gift from previous visit-- it might or might not be elephantine.
• Sage:  good in stews (because I cook so many of those...)
• Oregano:  Italiano?  idk
• Thyme:  I really don't know, except some kid in my 8th grade class used it with a seafood dish in home ec that won our "Iron Chef" before Iron Chef was a glint in a producer's eye final.  
• Parsley:  last one was never used to garnish anything and eventually went to seed... hopefully destroying the unsettling symmetry of The Park's ferngully below.  

Homework:  water veggies every morning for 3 days straight. Potentially locate onion start bulbs.  Find uses for above before the bumper crop final.    

Also learned:  carotene (vitamin A) boost Koi color.  Tried feeding cooked shredded carrot to the ghostly trio. No bites.  After killing the horsetail, it would be nice to slide some plants into their pond sometime soon.  Perhaps after I convince MacGyver to relocate it to the front porch... 

Top 10 Surprise Staples in Renovation Relocation

Unexpectedly handy stuff I'm glad we didn't pitch before moving.

1.  Headlamp - originally used for Burning Man, then for Ragnar 36 hour relay, now for nocturnal plumbing adventures.  PaGyver has supplemented with halogen flood lights FTW.
2.  Bic utility lighter- for those finicky older stoves, candle lit dinners whilst waiting for the electricity to be activated, and of course,
3.  Nag champa incense for maintaining zen focus while ripping pee-scented tarpaper from your soon-to-be wet room
4.  Mini fan- "central air" and airing the eau d'old out of the rooms
5.  Camelbak- coveted since Burning Man and a minimally provisioned summit of Santiago Peak.  Now used for sherpa'ing shower supplies to and from company gym locker room as well as Klee Kai food rations to company break room microwave.
6.  TSP- gross heavy duty chemical cleaners!  until you find Charlotte's Compound in a cupboard and then you can never spray enough.
7.  Rags in a box- see above.  Plus they come with awesome ruler and conversion tables on the packaging.
8.  Cooler- bought with REI shareholder credit as my contribution to me and MacGyver's first camping adventure in Joshua Tree...  coming home to no electricity, no a/c, and a cooler full of beer: priceless
9.  Writing utensils- for staying on top of The Impossibly Long List of Things to Do (page 1) and sketching design docs for the next project
10.  Starbucks Gift Card- because comfort beverages are in short supply and if you're raiding the beer cooler before noon, it might be time to take stock of your life

Vermicompost: Say hello to my little friends!

As you might imagine, space in the weekly waste pickup dumpsters is at a premium.  Our gardening endeavors also demand viable soil and amendments.  

Hence, the "tiny tower" worm condo.  

MacGyver:  absolutely not in the apartment, it will stink!
Belle:  er, there are expensive ones on Amazon that don't...

Our cheap ($30) diy one doesn't stink and can scale.

Materials

• 2 (or more if you home cook for a big wolf pack) stackable storage bins with lids ($8.47 each)
• enough mesh to cover the a bin's footprint ($4.98)
• 4 "feet" to elevate the bottom bin like these plastic curtain mount cradles (approx $5.00)
• 1/4" and 1/8" drill bits + drill
• 1 lb (approx 1000) red wigglers ($27.95)
• couple cups of starter dirt (say from the failed hanging garden of bathalon)
• shredded paper (not the glossy worm poisoning ink kind)

1.  line the top and bottom sides of each bin with 1/8" holes (a/c for worm condo)

2.  cover the underside of each bin with 1/4" holes (elevator shafts)

3.  line the interior floor of the first level bin with mesh (drainage system)

4.  put lid on floor concave side up and add stability feet (sewer)

5.  balance first floor bin on stability feet

6.  fill with starter dirt

7.  watch mail diligently for worms (they die and get stinky if they languish in your mailbox)

8.  add worms

9.  slowly introduce organic matter.  Worm populations can double in 90 days, so expect to scale up.

10.  cover in shredded paper periodically to prevent smell

11.  put second lid on top of first floor

12.  when first floor begins to approach full occupancy, stack second floor directly onto first.  Worms will use the elevator shafts to migrate to the second floor.  

13.  bottom floor should smell earthy and ready to go about a month afterwards (your throughput may vary).  

14.  empty it for use as a "3rd" story.  Place its mesh liner outside of the currently occupied second floor.  

15.  you may notice your sewer filling up (particularly if your condo is located on a grade and fill it with watery coffee grounds).  This is worm tea.  It's like MiracleGro but way better and less chemicalicious.  Use it on your most troubled/prized plants.  

General tips for winning the bet with MacGyver that it won't stink:

• Start with small amounts of less stinky, already broken up food (coffee, tea, juicer pulp)
• Liberally cover with shredded paper whenever things start to look swampy
• Empty sewer early and often
• No animal parts or dairy (worms can eat egg shells, but can't keep up with our 4 a day habit)
• Go easy on citrus (sure, it smells lemony fresh, but if you put in the remnants from juicing an entire tree, it will get really acidic, taste like burning and take a hella long time to eat through)

Building a new gate.

Our old side gate sucked. It is the primary entrance for us and it had some pretty clunky chains as a lock mechanism. It was also primarily held together by chicken wire which would often times scratch you when you tried to unlock its clunky chains. It also had a bolt that Belle could not reach [BE:  it had a bolt?!] so we quickly got rid of and relied solely on the chains to keep it shut. Needless to say it was time to go.

PaGyver built some awesome redwood fences and gates for his house in La Crescenta. He used 2" thick redwood throughout and it came out awesome. His was stained a very rich red that I really liked and wanted to mimic. I could not find the exact stain but I think my version came out pretty good although it is a touch darker. I got some Behr outdoor redwood stain but it looked really bad, almost like painting red over the wood. It did not accent the grain and in general looked crappy. I will not be purchasing any of their stain in the future, even though I am a fan of their paint quality. In the end I found that I had some "red mahogany" generic stain over from the fish pond project, so I used that instead.

We also had a deadbolt left over from changing out our locks so using 2" planks rather than "standard" gate material let me use that deadbolt and get rid of the chains! Hooray! It also let us only need a single key to enter our home... /amazing. Now for the details of the build:

Materials:
8x 2"x6"x6' Redwood planks
2x 2"x4" x6' Redwood boards
1x 2"x4"x8' Redwood board for a diagonal didn't seem like it needed it so this can be skipped/
2x 4"x4"x8' Redwood beams (not yet installed)

I had measured the gate to be just over 4' so I figured using 8x 2by6's would put me pretty close and I could adjust the gaps between the boards to get the exact length (turned out to be 49 1/4) which gave me a half inch gap between planks.

I then cut the 2x4s to size and put a screw in each of the two outer boards (kind of built a frame). When everything lined up I added a couple more screws so it would not move. I then did a quick sanity check of putting every board in its place and made sure the 1/2" gap was correct. It was so I worked my way from outside in, lining up the gap and screwing the board in. The center gap was slightly less than .5 but still fine.

Belle and I had decided earlier that we wanted a simple curved top to the gate. I had picked an arbitrary top height of 6' (conveniently the length of the boards) and figured that a bend from 5' high to 6' back to 5' would look good. We knew the length of the gate was 4' so I set to google to figure out the formula for the radius. Turns out that it was not a chord/radius problem like I initially thought but really just a similar triangle math quiz. The answer can be found here but in retrospect it is very clearly a radius of 2.5'. So I measured 2.5 feet down from the top center of the gate and sank a screw into a scrap piece of wood (the screw floated between the center 2 boards). Then I tied some twine around the screw and the other end around a pencil. Holding the twine tight I traced the arc for the top of the gate, some quick jigsawing later and it was cut.

Smoothed the cuts a bit with a file, but my jigsaw work was better than normal so no need for extensive filing. I then rounded the entire front side except for the bottom edge with a router. This was actually the first time using my Ryobi router in free hand and it worked amazingly. It is not a plunge style but that did not matter here, I have been very impressed with the Ryobi line in general even though it is supposedly lower end. Router work done I sanded the top smooth and got to staining. Getting between the boards was tough at first but I really did not want to take the thing apart and stain the boards individually. I did end up taking off the 2x4s to stain the backside, but found that using the flat pencils made it very easy to get the rag inside the gaps. So I kept one 2x4 on at all times and re-lined up the holes. Stain applied it was ready to mount it.

Hanging a door is tricky, hanging a 100lb monstrosity of a gate is even trickier. I recruited Belle for some leveling help but the thing was too heavy for her to hold so I had to line it up while she screwed the massive bolts into the existing 4x4's (I will replace these later as it was getting late). We sat the gate on a small shim of wood to make lining it up easier and got it hung after 30 minutes of wrestling it. The hinges were spring loaded so the door would close a little too far leaving a nice Klee Kai sized escape route. That was quickly fixed with a left over copper bar screwed on as a stop.

I then installed the deadbolt which had some of the best instructions. Kwikset you guys rock. The instructions come with a hole template that you fold around the door and it lines up the hole saw hole and the 1" latch hole. PaGyver left some spade bits so I actually did have all the tools I needed for the install. Everything there went pretty smooth, locked it up and called it a night. Sunday I did some light finish work to it (added hole plugs and installed the handle).

Fun project, came out pretty good but not as epic as Dads. I really like the castle look from the outside, and most importantly only 1 chain lock left. That one will require welding, fun times.

Drain plumbing 201

While Belle and my mother were busy cleaning the orange tree side of the yard, PaGyver and I took on the task of plumbing the upstairs into a fully working bathroom. We were 90% successful, we have a toilet, sink and bathtub all functioning. The shower however will need to wait one more weekend until I can solder the copper together and attach the valves.

This was one hell of a project. We have old galvanized pipe throughout and basically any part of the drainage that was even slightly horizontal is shot. It has had water sitting in it rusting it apart for at least 75 years. The drainpipes lead into massive 6" pipes that when removed are rusted to about a clear .5" center diameter. Its pretty crazy.

We started out planning to just remove the visibly cracked horizontals, and a section of each vertical to attach sanitary T connectors. We would no hub connect to the existing vertical pipe but glue in all the horizontal connections. Everything was going pretty well until I emptied the old toilet into the newly connected bathtub drain only to have it drain out the backside of a completely corroded trap. It was rather humorous as the side we could see looked fine, but the backside was simply not there. It was like someone had sliced the back off it.

The hits kept coming as the sink vertical disintegrated in our hands while trying to disconnect the existing sink to replace it's leaky trap. Shit. Back to home depot, now we need to do the vertical for the sink and no hub to the ventpipe above the waterline (praying that is in good shape).

After that the sink's drainpipe was completely rusted to the trap so we said screw it and got a new sink. Luck was on our side as the one we wanted was marked down 40% because someone hole sawed a 2" hole in the left side... good luck spotting it in our install! I think all in all we removed about 1500 lbs of pipe and plumbing fixtures. Anyone want an old 1930's toilet or a sink from the 50s? The toilet still worked when it came out, but no guarantees!

Botany 101

MaGyver staged a much needed intervention on the yard this weekend.

On The Grand Tour, she identified most of our indigent plant species and their redeeming qualities (if any).  We are the proud owners of a $40,000 ailing Pecan tree, $400 of agapanthus bulbs, a giant bamboo grove, several hideous™ Trumpet Vines, and something ominously named Mother in Law's tongue...  The not-quite-oleander forest remains a mystery.

Then she appropriated a pickup truck bed to fill to the brim with yard debris.  This makes outgoing truckload three.  In the process, she brought the dead Black Widow count to parity with the dead fly count.  

Then we're scavenging bricks from around the lot to build circular wells for deep watering the orange trees.  Dust with citrus/avocado food, add heirloom blue flag and iris and cover with mulch to hold the water in.  Pretty crafty, knowing I don't want to water ornamentals, she plants them on top of my most productive fruit tree.  At any rate, blue flowers contrasted against oranges should look groovy if the color theory video I watched the other day is true.  

Cinderblocks for retaining walls and cow manure arrive to kick start a larger scale composting operation.  Potting bench is relocated near putative vegetable garden.  

Homework:  water compost, mulch Trumpet Vine, cover tree and 100 yr old rose with said mulch, order Felco2 pruners, and get juicing.  

Some bad days

Yesterday sucked to the point of failure. My goal for the night was to split off the romex wire in the middle room run about a foot patch wire and install a new grounded outlet in the kitchen for the big fridge.

Well things started to go wrong. It started off right away with the hole I exposed in the kitchen being right over a stud, apparently the kitchen wall is floating 1/2" off all the studs. Cool, make a slightly larger hole just to the right.

I didnt really have wire cutters or strippers so I was using scissors and a razorblade to cut and strip. Also the existing wire was installed so shitty that there were bare wires due to friction. I didnt have time to rerun the wire so I chopped a little extra off the existing wire and stripped past the bare point. This caused the existing outlet to be very tight when I was putting it back in it's conduit box. Which meant the mounting flanges needed to get dremeled down some.

The backplate of the outlet needed one of its port holes punched out. In doing so I managed to cut my thumb with a screwdriver. When drilling the receiving hole in the wall I once again hit a stud (awesome). No problem I drilled slightly to the side of the stud and the wire was good to go.

Well the 1 hr ended up being 3 and I yelled at Belle because the perishables were sitting on the floor. Somehow despite the power being off in the house and us not having a working fridge at all I got it in my head that this was her fault. Stupid thought which I have spent the rest of the night and this morning apologizing profusely for. At some point I realized that I should have cooked dinner but it was too late to turn back so we went hungry for the night.

To cap the fail off I ended the night by using the fancy new electric flyswatter to obliterate the light fixture above the bed sending shards of glass all over the bed, the floor and Belle.

I suppose on the plus side the outlet works and the fridge is cooling. All of the contents of the mini fridge have been moved. Still just a shitty night after such a productive Monday. Sorry Belle! <3

Some good days

Past week has been pretty good:

Monday 8-29-2011	Schedule competing repipe bids Further clean kitchen
Tuesday 8-30-2011	Intentional day off, we are both wrecked
Wednesday 8-31-2011	Plumbers 2 and 3 give bids We choose plumber 3
Thursday 9-1-2011	Fix leak on water closet toilet We no longer have to shut off the water after use Do some finish restoring on the redwood
Friday 9-2-2011	Trim black walnut tree to prepare for beds Remove some ugly bushes and shrubs
Saturday 9-3-2011	Build raised bed out of extra wood in side yard Plumber 3 gets tour shows where the walls will be cut up Start work on chicken coop Red Sheriff's mom takes another truckload of treasures. Thanks! Ma and Pa Epic fly out and get the tour Dinner at Mike's with Chi too this time
Sunday 9-4-2011	Start removing wood in working bathroom Remove old sink in now semi-working bathroom Get up in the middle of the night because its raining on tools Rain stops 5 minutes later Put roof on chickencoop, sort of Trip to home depot for bathroom ideas and a badger 5 disposal

Labor day 9-5-2011 was awesome. Easily the most productive day we have had on this place. The day started out slow with me botching a key handoff for my old apartment and "accidentally" breaking into some mailboxes to no avail. Left a text message to clear up the confusion, had some good breakfast at Bagels and Brew and got to work.

Finished taking the redwood siding out of working bathroom. Sink and some siding were removed Sunday. Installed the garbage disposal we had picked up Sunday, with some clutch thinking from Belle when I did not have plumbers putty. She pointed out that I did in fact have plumbers putty from the Toilet fix on Thursday. Disposal in, no leaks.

Get to work on the yard, chipper shreddering the walnut branches I cut down on Friday. Also run some more of hideous bush through the shredder.

Text message comes back, pick up the keys and start packing up old apartment. Do a precautionary load of laundry. Dad calls saying he is in the area and can help. Thank God. We move the fridge and Washer/Dryer along with tons of miscellaneous stuff. I am fully reunited with my tools.

Install washer and dryer, but in order to move them in it was just Belle and I and the washer is very heavy. She did a great job but regardless got her fingers hurt by the sheer weight of the thing and the crappy handholds. Also the Koi pond had to move which I was able to thankfully slide and slide back.

Did a load of sheets in the new setup. Hooray!