Posting

Sometime around the first official day of summer, during the very height of fire season here in the northern front range of Colorado, my neighbor's son-in-law got back to me about my proposal to replace the fence we share with his mother-in-law. The timing couldn't have been worse but he gamely pointed out that the following Saturday would be the last 'Free Drop-off' of the year for our municipal trash service and were we to commit to removing the old fence right away, we could potentially save a fair chunk of money. I sighed and conferred with Kimberly.

Flash forward to August. Somewhere between the extended hours at work due to severe fire conditions and a brief assignment on the Waldo Canyon fire, I managed to get all of the posts for the fence put in place. The apparent beefiness of the posts is partly an accurate reflection of reality, partly an illusion of perspective. The two posts in the fore are 6x6 while the rest are 4x6 with the wider dimension facing the camera. The 6x6s will have gates hanging from them whereas the others will merely be holding up 6 foot by 8 foot panels that will have to somehow buck the winter Chinook winds (90mph+).

Over the course of my post-placing adventure, I have decided that I learned the following:
0. Make sure you have a post-level and a string-line-level (non-traditional tools). Also some duplex nails.
1. Find out how much the grade changes from one end of the fence to the other BEFORE designing and committing to a particular shopping list. If the order has already been placed and say you wanted a 6 foot tall privacy fence along a line which drops 6 inches from one end to the other, plan on having a 6 foot fence at the lowest end and a 5'6" tall fence at the highest. Or maybe step it if you can stand such a thing. 2. Put up the end posts first.
3. If using tube-forms, which I like, then only use them for the top 1 foot or so of the pour. There is no real reason for tube-forms beyond esthetic and there is no real need for esthetic several feet below grade.
4. Try to keep the diameter of the hole below the tube-form to within a couple inches of the diameter of the tube-form, but definitely bigger.
5. Plan to have the buried part of the post be equivalent to 1/3 of the exposed part of the post.
6. Dig AT LEAST 6 inches lower.
7. Determine which faces of the post will be on the 'outsides' and scribe a line across the center of the top that runs the direction you want the fence to run. 8. Take a pair of 2x2s or 2x4s which are at least 2' long and cut the ends at 45 degrees. Drill a hole at the other ends which is the same diameter (or a little bigger) that that of your duplex nails.
9. Use gravel to fill the bottom of the hole to bring the top of the post up to the right level. Gravel is wonderful in that it compacts quickly, drains well and a post can be 'lowered' a little bit if there is too much gravel by screwing it back and forth.
10. With the post-level in place, maneuver the post until it is level on the x & y axis with the mid-line scribed line along the line you want the fence to run.
11. BEFORE putting the braces in place, make sure the tube-form has been put in place. It isn't a bad idea to use a couple short pieces of 2x4 and a couple 1/2" screws to hold the form where you want it and level. Plus it makes it a lot easier to ensure that the top of the form remains at about an inch above it's adjacent grade.
12. Hammer the braces onto one of the east/west faces of the post and one of the north/south.
13. Push the post away from the tips of the braces just a bit so that their tips are just past where you want them then bring the post back to true, driving the braces in place to do so. This should lock the post to true.

14. I just so happened to have a bunch of chain link fence laying around doing nothing so I cut a strand free, cut it to the approximate depth of the buried part of the post, and laid the 4 pieces in the hole before pouring. This is probably COMPLETELY unnecessary but hey, I have a bunch of chain link fence laying around. Why not make a poor man's rebar?
15. Concrete and shovel it in. I've discovered that a short D-handle shovel is my favorite tool for mixing concrete, probably because it functions so similarly to a canoe paddle and a J stroke seems to be a great way to un-earth hidden pockets of dry mix. Also, one 80lbs bag of quikrete seems to reach about the perfect consistency with 4.5 quarts of water.
16. Stop shoveling and confirm everything is true after the first couple scoops.
17. The best trowel to use to round the tops of a tube-form is a simple garden trowel.
18. After getting up the end posts, stretch a line between them which draws over their mid-line across their tops.
19. Use a plumb-bob of some sort to determine the center for all subsequent holes, commit to a couple inches to create a definitive start, then use the plumb bob to re-confirm. (Adjusting holes is no fun at all, at either end of the process.)
20. Repeat 3 thru 17.

Accomplishments of the Spring

The weather this year has been exceptionally wet and so it is my primary excuse for having accomplished so little. Kimberly has finished planting the raised beds (more or less), leaving me with my lone, primary task: create a new bed along the west wall in which corn, squash and beans will be planted. Aiding in the creation of this new bed has been Kimberly's birthday gift from her folks: an electric roto-tiller (tip of the hat to Terry).

Even after learning that this wonderful device works even more wonderfully against sod when half the teeth are removed, there was still a fair amount of sweat involved. Visitors may remember a couple of bushes along that west fence. It is worth mentioning that pulling the stump of a tree is a fair bit easier than pulling a bush (in my experience). Once the stumps were up and out and the grass ground down, I lay some recycled two by material in for a border and set out to get some fill dirt. It took most of a yard to fill the new bed, the rest tucked into the other beds.

The finishing touches before planting were 8" extenders for the existing sprinkler heads and a 'dog proof' fence which Cooper broke through a day after I'd planted. And plant I did. At the northern end are a variety of sunflowers. Then there are three parallel N/S rows of corn in which four varieties of corn are evenly divided. Three of the four are popcorn, the final fourth sweet corn. A couple days ago I lightly sprinkled some straw over the top to help hold moisture in and tonight I have found my first corn leaf(s) poking up.

There have been a couple other bullets on my action item list this spring which the wet weather of late and the future warm weather have helped drive. Two weeks ago we reduced the size of the dog run dramatically, eliminating the eastern two thirds by tying the fence in to the corner of the house. This help speed up a recent goal of mine to 'pave' the dog run, thereby eliminating the muddy paw prints through the house on rainy days. Additionally I have always thought it would be good to shade the run as much as possible. With the new, smaller footprint, it seemed to me that both of these (admittedly minor) goals were pretty feasible.

The traditional pavers available around here run, at the cheapest, $1.55 a square foot. However, after digging a little I discovered that Home Depot had cinder block capstones for $0.79. They are 8x16, which is a little more interesting anyway, and nearly half the price. In this picture you can see the progress I have made to date which is about 1/3 of the total. I can't say that digging up 'rich' soil has been my favorite task, but neither is mopping floors.

And in the fore are three honeysuckle which I hope to nurse up into an as-yet unmade pergola which will provide the aforementioned shade. For those of you who have ever wondered just how geeky I am, check this out. In order to determine just how high and wide to make my pergola, I used Excel with the 'Solver' add-in. The variables which I allowed Solver to adjust were the height above ground, the overall width of the canopy and the amount it hung over the dog run. The constraints I fed it were the width of the run and ranges for the angle of altitude on the north and south edges of the run. I targeted a range in the spring that would have the run starting to receive shade between May 15 and May 31, as well as a range which would have the run starting to receive full sun between Oct 15 and Oct 31. Long story short, the pergola will be 9 feet above the ground, 8 feet from north to south with 5 feet hanging directly over the run. Thank you Solver and Professor Yinyu Ye.

Finally, at the same time I was looking for vines with which to get my dogs some shade, I was also looking for some to create a sort of privacy screen for the planter area in the carport. I would have preferred to use the built in planter but I have been assured that perennials cannot over-winter in planters... and I'd rather not plant something more than once if I don't have to. So I picked a pair of clematis to put along side the house and I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will get enough sunlight to survive. And rather than crush them into the gravel driveway I went ahead and made yet another bed of sorts using recycled redwood. The distance from the wall is about the same as the projection of the gas meter on the other side of the gate, natch.

The Wood Shed

After a ridiculous amount of time invested, that which was originally slated to be our chicken coop has finally been converted to a shed. To the right here is a picture of the coop shortly before K & I came to the realization that 2010 was not the year to become urban chicken-eers. I'd probably put about a hundred hours into it at that point. This astronomical amount was due to several factors. I could only work for a handful of hours at a time, a goodly chunk of which was eaten up by setup time. Each cut took a fair bit of setup time since I was working with the bare minimum tools. I also took a pie-in-the-sky approach to construction with lap joints and rabbets for setting the screen, etc. Anyway, now it's a shed.

I have misplaced some of the shots I took of the 'foundation' but you can sort of see it here. Fortunately K was there to help move the skeleton onto the foundation. Another benefit of having married a strong woman =).

Another thing you can see in the shot to the left is the end result of a moment of crisis, so to speak. As I was trying to pound everything together (and it wasn't going well) I might have lost my temper a little. Anyway, it marks the turning point where I shifted from idealistic coop to get'er done shed. No more rabbets, no more lap joints, no more dowel fasteners. Butt joints and metal straps, any screw will do and nails have been the tactical satisfaction of this new strategy.

Now Where Is That Camera?

My second week back at work has passed relatively uneventfully. I didn't get to get out and play with the boys... I'm sequestered in the office until I get my new Captain and Engineer hired. I have the Engineer cert and a lot of great resumes from which to choose. Monday I'll see the Captain cert (I hope). The only other news at work is about my desk. The Thursday before Ada-Ruth was both I'd raised it up to become a standing desk. Since then there have apparently been complaints since I was looking over the cubicle walls and I was asked to return to ground level. Bah! Conventionalists!

Ada-Ruth news: no only is she smiling more, she's reacting to our actions more as well. I can almost make her smile at will, provided she's not being fussy. And she's increasingly fussy. Last night it took two hours to get her to fall asleep and during those two hours she didn't seem to have a position of comfort.

Speaking of position of comfort, our repertoire of soothing skills is increasing every day. One thing we've discovered is that she enjoying doing the twist. She also enjoys being lifted by her arms. And... I think she enjoys being fussy for the last couple of hours of the day.

Still More Snow

Today I realized that this weekend is our first stab at our new 'normal'. We have been admittedly fortunate in that both Kimberly and I have been able to take so much time off from work for Ada-Ruth, not to mention all the help we've enjoyed from friends and family. It's certainly helped us ease into our new life. And Kimberly will remain at home for another month and a half, so the easing does continue. But after working this week I'm struck by how much more there is to do on my weekends. Or perhaps, more accurately, how little free time I feel like I have. Knocking out a couple chores a day is no longer adequate.

But let me hasten to point out that things are still going swimmingly, relatively speaking. Granny Southern is still able to come up and help out around the house and I am currently working a 4-10 schedule at work, so the place hasn't fallen completely apart.

In other news, Ada-Ruth continues to be a joy. Our most recent scare occurred last night shortly after I re-arranged the entertainment area. With the couch relocated the light fell differently upon her head, highlighting her little fontanelle. Since it was the first time that Kimberly or I had seen it in such sharp relief, we were concerned that it might be sunken, a symptom of dehydration. Naturally when we went to change her diaper and check, she peed all over and giggled.

Finally, it has snowed again. I realized with chagrin that we have more sidewalk and driveway to shovel than we'd had in Chicago. Fortunately all of the snow to date has been powder and fairly easy to move. Even still, I think I want a snowblower, preferably a tractor mounted one....

5 Weeks Today

Sometime later this evening Ada-Ruth Lorraine will be 5 weeks of age. Where has the time gone? She's heavier, longer and ... fussier. Somewhat. She's still wonderful and seemingly happy. She's smiling more and her once seemingly random collection of facial expressions is more or less resolving into a discreet handful. There's the 'smile' (see either side here), the thousand yard stare of the merciless killer (see the pic with Granny Southern on left), the sassy, brassy, 'in your face' street-wise urchin (see on the right here), and then there's still the random collection which she whips out when she's having a movement in your lap. And if what we are reading is correct she's on the verge of 'talking', not with words of course, but "with increasing goos, gurgles, and grunts". For the record, her 'word' of choice is the grunt.

In other news I went back to work this week. It's admittedly been nice to be able to get out of the house and spend some time out burning the world down. It has raised a couple problems, however. The first and foremost being sleep. If Ada-Ruth gets up three times during the night and stays awake for an hour each time it was a no big deal when I didn't have to get up at any particular time. But when the alarm goes off at 5 and my total sleep for the evening amounts to roughly 2 hours, it makes for a relatively long day. Fortunately Ada-Ruth is fully prepared to nap when I get home each night. And so is Tycho.

The Daily?

Okay, so now I'm no where near being daily with the Ada-Ruth Lorraine postings. Please forgive me. The past two weeks have been so fun-filled I haven't had the time.

First and foremost, Ada-Ruth continues to grow and change. This past week we took her in for her first pediatrician visit (with Dr. Fabio). She weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces and was at 21 inches in length. This puts her at the top end of the normal range of growth which is a relief. Going into the visit we already knew she wasn't in the same sort of low-growth danger our lactation consultant had expressed some concern about a couple weeks ago, so Fabio's info was reassuring more-so than surprising.

Other Ada-Ruth developments aren't as definitive. It seems as though she's becoming more expressive, but as with her earlier facial expressions nothing is particularly lasting or predictable. The other remarkable change since the last post has been her desire to move, thus creating a third reason for her to cry. The first two were hunger and dirty diaper. Now she'll start to fuss, refuse to eat and have a clean diaper. So I'll lift her upright and bounce her gently up and down, seemingly the only act which will calm her. And so I have become a Johnny Jump Up.

The other big news here has been the Thanksgiving week. As mentioned in an earlier post, Gramma and Grampa Weber came to visit for the whole week, joined later by the Grandparents Southern, David and Melissa, Paul and Anita, Jeffrey, Jeannie and Becky and ... well, that was it. At this time all the reports are in and all are favorable. Everyone managed to get home without incident in spite of some weather in the Midwest. We even got a few inches of snow a few days later. Somehow Judy even managed to get all of the leftovers into our refrigerator.

David, Melissa, Paul and Anita all spent their last night (in the area) at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park of which Anita got some excellent pictures.