Finishing the stone work along the fence

We have stone, on top of a cement wall going down to bedrock, along much of the fence, from the driveway, along the raised garden, the South bed, and all the way to the electrical box in the middle of the back yard.  The next section to do is from the electrical box to the Bamboo Grove.

 The basic approach is to dig down to bedrock,

 and just continue that until we get to the other end.

After we extend the ditch far enough, we mark the fence and attach a black plastic sheet to separate the cement wall on our side from the earth on the other side.

And then we can create the forms -- sheets of Masonite, separated from the fence by 1x4 and 2x4 pieces (to create a 3.5 inch gap).  Bags of mulch and compost hold the Masonite sheet in place.

This first form is only about 14 feet long.  After it is done, we extend it along for a second section.

And when these forms are removed, we have the basic cement wall that we want for this section of the fence.

The third portion of this work extends the digging along the fence all the way to the Bamboo Grove.

and we can then trim it up along the fence to get a clean line for the concrete pour.

We frame it up and pour the concrete -- 10 bags of it.

and removing that finishes the concrete wall support, all the way from the electrical box to the Bamboo Grove.

Adding the limestone blocks on the top of the concrete wall finishes out the construction for this area.

This took two bags of masonry mix.

Then we have to move the pile of dirt back into place, filling the yard up next to the new limestone blocks.

We still have a small pile of dirt left over.  Presumably we will need that when the dirt next to the fence settles, over time.

This whole process took about 2 months, from Aug 1 to Oct 1 (but there were other things going on at the same time).

Irrigation system water usage

If we are going to be able to reduce the amount of water that we use for lawn irrigation, it would help to know how much we are using for each Zone.  So I ran each zone by itself, reading the water meter before and after.  Our water usage now is:

Zone 1      42
Zone 2    136
Zone 3    279
Zone 4       0  (currently off)
Zone 5    164
Zone 6    167
Zone 7    165
Zone 8    215
Zone 9    174
Zone 10  246
Zone 11  146


That gives us a total of 1692 gallons.

When I did this, I notice 3 leaks in the system and fixed them.

When I just read the meter on Tuesday night and then again on Wednesday morning, after the system has run its entire sequence, it seems to take 1128 gallons.

Digging up the East Lawn, Part 3

We have dug up the East lawn close to the Monterrey oak and then next to the part that had already been dug up.

The last part of the East Lawn that needs to be dug up is this last part that hugs the stone wall.  We have to remove the top level of dirt.

And then remove the rock that is under the top layer of rock.
 

 And then move down and remove the top layer of dirt

 and break up the rock that is underneath to clean it all out.

We still need to trim closer to the stone wall.

Another day of work finishes that off.

And now it is just filling the hole back up with dirt.  That just takes a couple of days for all the dirt we have, but we are seriously needing more dirt.

We satisfied the need for more dirt by two orders of dirt.  Each order was for 8 cubic yards.  The first went to Austin Landscape Supplies for Grower's Mix -- $378.87 for 8 cubic yards ($35 a cubic yard) including a $70 delivery charge (8/19/2014) (and tax).  That order was not enough, and not really of very good quality, so the next order was to Whittlesey Landscape Supplies for  8 cubic yards of Professional Mix  -- $434.30 ($40.15 a cubic yard) including a $80 delivery charge (8/21/2014).

Finishing the walkway

The walkway has been completely defined at this point.  It goes from the fence to the raised garden, around the raised garden, and then over to the back patio.  It was designed to be 36 inches wide and follow the slope of the yard.  It has two walls, of cement, going down 2 to 3 feet to bedrock, topped with limestone blocks.  The area between the two walls is filled with rock rubble and then topped with decomposed granite.  It has been allowed to settle for months now.  Seems like it is time to put down the flagstones over the decomposed granite, so that it matches the patio.

My  rough measurements show that the actual width of the walkway varies from 27 to 36 inches (between the limestone block edges).  From the fence to the raised garden is about 17 feet.  The raised garden is about 17 feet by 20 feet, and then 60 feet from the raised garden to the back patio.  So assuming it was 3 feet wide, that's about 450 square feet of surface.

The back patio is covered with "Oklahoma thin".

We need to find a source for the stone, and stone people to put it down.

Saul's Masonry did a good job the last time, so we went back to them again.  Now they are working as "Max's Masonry".  They looked it over and figure it will take at least a week to do.  $2000 for labor.

Plus materials.  We found the same stone as the patio at Austin Custom Stone: Oklahoma Thin MC.  Plus 2 cubic yards of masonry sand from Austin Custom Stone and 10 bags of Alamo Portland Cement from Home Depot.

The delivery from Austin Custom Stone was scheduled for Thursday.  The two cubic yards of sand have to be moved around back.

 And we have 3 pallets of the Oklahoma Thin MC flagstone. The pallets are 1.70 ton, 1.73 ton, and 1.92 ton.

Total cost for the sand and the flagstones -- $1718.01.  The Alamo Masonry Cement was $73.73 from Home Depot.

They started putting the flagstone down on Thursday, starting at the far end, where it meets the back patio.  The flagstones are selected and cut to fit (this is the hard part, selecting one stone out of all of them and then making it fit).  Then a layer of mortar is laid down on top of the decomposed granite to allow the flagstone piece to be levelled and held in place.

This continues, one piece after another.  Some pieces larger; some smaller.

until the entire area is filled in.

Then it continues around the corner over to the raised garden.

The pieces are selected and cut before they are mortared in place.  Around the raised garden.

It took 5 days to finish laying the flagstone.  Once it is in place, I put three 50-pound bags of Techniseal RG+ Polymeric Sand (Southern Grey) on it to fill the cracks between the stones.  $36.49 per bag from Ewing Irrigation (14 August 2014).

Digging up the East Lawn, Part 2

Having dug down to bedrock around the tree, we now turn our attention to the other side of this section of the back yard.

It appears that we have one very large rock under this patch of the yard, so first lets try to outline the rock.

And then take the dirt off the rock between these two sides.

Once we remove the dirt, we can see that it is not one big rock but two big rocks, plus something there in the far back.  So the next problem is to break it into manageable pieces. 

And then haul the pieces out to the front of the house, leaving a big hole where the rock had been.

A little clean up and we are done with this part of the backyard.

Digging up the East Lawn

Most of the East part of the backyard has been dug up and rebuilt -- Zone 2, the North bed, the raised garden, the South bed.  So there is a small part left, between the stone wall and the path.  With the Monkey Grass moved out into Zone 2, it is now clear to be dug up and rebuilt.

 Standard stuff.  We start digging, putting the dirt in a pile behind us, and the rocks out to the driveway.  I need to get up to the rock wall all the way to the section near the raised garden.  Parts of this have been dug up before (like the small section right next to fence, and the part over where the Monkey Grass was).

There was an old sprinkler line that kept getting in the way, so I tried to dig along it, to get it out.

This actually seemed like a reasonable line to split the area around the base of the Monterrey Oak tree on the one side, and the more ordinary lawn section next to the rock wall.

And digging next to the tree produced a large number of rocks.

But with a lot of prying and some jack hammer work, I have most of those out, down to "bedrock".

Working on around the base of the tree, I can extend the digging all the way to the section that was dug up when I was extending the water supply over to Zone 3 in the South Bed.

 and then clearing the dirt off the top of this rock shows one very large rock that needs to come out, to lower the rock level and allow plants to grow.

This is mainly an issue of using the jack hammer to fracture the large rock into smaller pieces that I can pry out and roll out to the front.  Split off the one end.

That leaves two larger pieces, plus a lot of rocks the size I can handle.  The rocks are moved out to the front curb.

 And we then break up one of the two pieces.

Leaving just the one piece.

 Which is also broken up into smaller pieces.

And all of these are taken out to the front, leaving a big empty hole to fill back in with dirt.

And with a lot of rock out at the curb to be picked up.

Refrigerator Failure

Back in December 2012, we got a new refrigerator.  About 4 May 2014, I notice that the new fridge was not creating ice effectively.  After trying to see if there was a setting to fix this -- are we just using too much, too fast for it to keep up? -- I stuck a thermometer in and found that the freezer was at 15 degrees, while it was set for 0 degrees, and the main refrigerator compartment was at about 45 degrees (instead of 37).  So I called for a repairman.  I figured it had a freon leak and would need to be fixed and recharged.

The repairman came on 8 May.  Apparently this model (WRF989SDAM00) was special, so he called Whirlpool and spent about an hour and a half on the phone with them.  Somehow he put the fridge into a diagnostic state and then could get it to run internal tests and display the results on the display.  When he finished, he said "it's no longer my problem; Whirlpool will get in touch with you", and left.

Since Whirlpool did not get in touch with me by the next day, I called them.  The customer service rep found the internal file on this (1-1261232732) and said that the repairman has determined it was "unrepairable", but it would take 24 to 48 "business hours" for them to determine the problem, but they would call me back by Tuesday at the latest.

Come Tuesday (13 May), and no call, I called again.  They were having trouble assigning it to an "Exchange Team", but would call by Thursday (May 15).  Since it was a fridge, this was a "priority" issue for them.

Linda expressed concern that they were going to replace one unrepairable  refrigerator with another unrepairable refrigerator, since, as near as we can tell, the problem was a design problem, not simply a manufacturing problem.

Come Thursday (15 May), with no call from Whirlpool, I called again.  This time the customer service rep said that it had been assigned to an Exchange Team, and would be exchanged.  This would be done by J.B. Hunt, a trucking company.  They would remove the old fridge, and install a new one.  This could take 7 to 10 days, but they would call once they had the new fridge.

On Monday (19 May), J.B. Hunt called, and said they would be here on Thursday (22 May), but would call on the previous Wednesday to give me a 4 hour delivery window.  And true to their word, they called on Wednesday and said they would be here between 5:45 pm and 9:45 pm on Thursday!

So I spent Thursday digging in the backyard.  When I came in for some tap water (no fridge, no ice), my daughter asks if they were here yet.  I explained that they would not be there until 5:45 at the earliest, and she says "Oh.  No.  They called and said they would be right over now."  She had neglected to mention that to me.  And they showed up about 3 pm, took out the old fridge and put in the new one, and left by 4pm.  They took off the doors to make the fridge thin enough to come in thru the garage.

We were missing one of the plastic bins for the left door, but I called Whirlpool back and they said they would FedEx a replacement by Tuesday (Monday being Memorial Day).

In the meantime, the new fridge is cooling, and freezing, and making ice. 

Looking it all over, this is model WRF989SDAM02.  So it's possible that they have modified the design (hence the 02 instead of the old 00 in the model number), and maybe this will work better.

How do we prepare for 2 weeks without a refrigerator?

More dirt for the backyard

We want to move the Monkey grass from its current temporary location back to Zone 2.  We have finished the excavation of Zone 2, but in the intervening time, the ground has settled substantially.  So we need more dirt for Zone 2.

We order 8 cubic yards of Grower's Mix from Austin Landscape Supplies, at $35 a yard, plus $70 delivery fee (Total of $378.88 including the tax).  They dumped it in the front yard.

Using the wheelbarrow, we moved it around and put it in Zone 2

In the lavender bed (North bed).

Where the old olive tree was in the South bed (it had settled).

In the herb garden (still needs more)

And we have some left over, for the lawn, when we finish it.

This gives us a clean front yard again.
 

Since it was delivered around Noon on Saturday, it took half a day
on Saturday, plus all day Sunday to move all the dirt.