Starting along the Fence

2 August 2009

Worked for a couple of hours this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. Despite the August heat, this work was in the afternoon both days. I'm starting to work back along the fence. If I keep up this pace, I think I could be back to the corner by the end of the month.




The digging is fairly unremarkable. I dig out a section and pull the dirt back into the area where I've already dug it out. As I do that, I separate out the roots and the rocks from the dirt. The rocks go in the wheelbarrow and are taken around to the driveway to, eventually, be gotten rid of. The roots go in a plastic trash can to be recycled by the City (into mulch). The dirt gets shoveled up on the pile to the left in the photo, filling in the area that I've dug out already. As the volume of material that was there is decreased by the rocks and roots, I get more space to work in.



The above photo shows the type of soil I'm digging in. There is a top layer of maybe four inches of brown dirt. This is good soil that we have brought in over the past 20 years. Then there is maybe 2 inches of "sandy loam" as it was called -- a lighter colored dirt that the builder brought in. Underneath that is 3 to 4 inches of native soil -- a combination of dark dirt and light colored limestone rocks. So the top layer has roots that need to be removed; the bottom layer has rocks that need to be removed. In the process, all the dirt that is left is mixed up, along with leaves and such, and then thrown on the pile. It should settle down as the organic material (leaves) decompose, and the soil compacts.


At the same time, on Sunday morning, I took advantage of the lower temperatures and added more insulation to the attic, over the kitchen area -- probably mostly over the utility room. I rolled out another 9 inches of fiberglass roll insulation. Should be R30. This was four packs of 15 inch wide, 25 foot long rolls of insulation. This should take it to about R90 total. The blue Styrofoam are left-over ventilation pieces and the shiny foil is an old water heater blanket. These are left over from other projects, and shouldn't hurt, might help.





My plan at this point is to get a home energy audit, since there is almost no place left to over-insulate in the attic and I'm not sure what else I can do.

Garage door repair

One of the springs on the garage door opener broke on Friday morning. Linda opened the garage door and it flew off. At the end of the spring, the wire is bent 90 degrees to form a hook, and that broke off. You can see by examining the broken spot that the wire is cast iron or steel. This is at least the second time this has happened, on these doors, since these are replacement springs. The other door still has the original springs.

So I went to Home Depot to get a replacement spring. They only sell them in sets of two, so I got two. The box suggests that both springs be replaced at the same time. The problem is that there are 7 different "sizes" of springs, and how do I choose the "right" ones for my door? The springs seem to be categorized by the weight of the door. I have two doors -- roughly what, 8 feet by 8 feet? That's not an option, but it's close. The largest size is for 16 ft by 7 ft doors -- that would be like most of the neighbors that have one large door for two cars. But I have two doors, one for each car slot. The size below 16x7 is for 8x7 and 9x7. So I must have doors that are eight 8x7 or 9x7.

Then for the heaviest 8x7 or 9x7 doors, the package lists a 130 lb spring. But since I have wood doors, they may be somewhat heavier, and I expect it is better to error on bigger springs, rather than under-sized ones, so I bought the 140 lb springs.

It took about an hour to remove the old springs and put on the new ones. The new ones come with cables that can be threaded thru the springs so that, if (when) they break, the pieces are "contained", and don't fly all over the garage. I probably had those for the previous set of springs (the ones that just broke), but it seems that I decided to put the cables on the other door, the one with the original springs, from when the house was built. I probably figured that they were more likely to break than the new ones, and it would be better to then be protected with them. Now I have cables on both.

The new springs look to be better designed too. Instead of just the last half of the spring turned 90 degrees for a hook, the new ones tilt out the last two loops of the spring. This should mean less stress on a given point of attachment, and it means there is a complete loop (two!) to thread the cable thru. If it does break, even the little loop should stay put. I still haven't found the piece of the old hook that broke off. It's probably embedded in some wall or ceiling spot in the garage.


Digging more dirt.

In addition, on Saturday, 25 July, I mortared another line of stone onto the rock wall around "the Jungle" where it meets the Bamboo Grove, and then today (Sunday), Lauren and I moved dirt from the big dirt pile (that has accumulated from my various excavations) and put it into the newly dug out area by the Bamboo Grove. I mixed a lot of leaves in with it, to try to increase the organic content and make it better soil. We worked for about 3 hours, digging dirt, moving it, and spreading it out.

Summer in the Bamboo Grove

June and July 2009

So far this summer has been mainly digging in the Bamboo Grove. The wall dividing the Jungle from the Bamboo Grove is in place. The rocks are on top. I need another layer of rock, to make the dividing wall a bit taller, and I have those, although I have not yet put them securely in place. So I've been digging out the Bamboo Grove, at least in those places where the bamboo is not growing right now. I have a ground level wall/divider between the Bamboo Grove and the other area behind the Jungle. I started at that end, digging up the Bamboo Grove.



I can dig down to bedrock. Bedrock is only 6 to 9 inches deep. In doing so, I dig up a bunch of bamboo roots and a bunch of loose rock. The loose rock gets put in the wheelbarrow and taken out to the driveway. When I have "enough" rock on the drive, I have to get rid of it.

The dirt gets piled up in the back. I basically do a trench and fill approach to digging. I dig down to bedrock and then move the edge forward, digging the dirt out and piling it behind me. As I move forward, the pile behind me gets bigger and bigger.




I'm trying to dig out all of the rocks and roots and get to just soil. I mix a bunch of leaves from last Fall into the dirt that there is, and sometimes some compost. I get the cheapest compost in 40 pound bags from Lowe's -- about $1.10 -- and mix that in. In addition, we have our own compost pile, but it takes a long time and doesn't produce very much.



This particular area, the area on the left in the photo above, was a very thin layer of dirt on top of a big mass of mostly crushed limestone. I think when they dug the trench for the electrical, phone, and cable lines, thye cut right thru the limestone bedrock, to get the lines at least 18 inches deep. Most of the rock that was cut out of the trench was just dumped on the ground here. Later the builder put an inch or two of dirt over it, so he could place sod and get things to grow, at least until the house was sold. Normally there is not a lot of debris, and I can just mix it in with the dirt, but in this case, it seemed really excessive. So I shoveled out the
solid limestone "soil" and put it in the plastic bags that the cheap compost comes in. I'll dispose of it, and fill this area back in with real dirt.




I got most of the central area to the left dug out and then continued up on the right. Once around a clump of bamboo, I'm almost to the fence. The objective is to clear out all the dirt up to the fence, over to the rock pond, and make it better dirt -- mostly rock free.



The excavated dirt, mixed with leaves and compost is filling in the area where I started to dig. It will compact over time, so the area needs to be "over-filled" to start with. And I may need to bring in even more, it if subsides too much. And, as you can see, there is still a lot of empty area. That should represent all the rock that has been taken out. I have a pile of dirt in another area that I will bring over to fill in, once I have the rest of the area dug up.

I am thinking now that I should continue to wall in the bamboo on all sides with the concrete wall down to bedrock. The easiest way to do that now would be to finish this section of digging and then trench all the way around the bamboo, next to the fence, down to bedrock and fill it in with the same sort of 4 inch wide concrete wall, topped with a white rock level with the bottom of the fence.

More work on the Bamboo Grove

May, 2009

It's been raining the last two weekends, so it was hard to get much done outside. But this weekend was nice, so it was back to work!

I've got the cement wall poured from bedrock. The cement wall will all be underground. It took about 15 to 20 bags of Ready-Mix concrete, to pour the wall around the back half of the "Jungle". I dug out about 2 feet around it, down to bedrock. I went straight down from the previous stone edging, which allowed me to use the dirt on the Jungle side as one half of the forms. I used simple (cheap) masonite for the other side, with a 1x4 between them to keep the two sides apart. As I shoveled concrete in, I pulled out the 1x4. Let sit overnight, remove the masonite and it's done.

Now the problem is to put the stones back on top of it. I hired a day laborer with some masonry experience to do that, but, all in all, I think I could do as well. And it seems that the one row that he put on is too low, so I'll put another row on top of them. We were low on rocks, so I went to Custom Stone and got another 30 or so (Blanco chop). These were from Austin Custom Stone 400 pounds for $23.82. I've got those placed, but figure I'll put most of the dirt back in before doing the rest of the masonry.


So this weekend it was digging again. Try to go down to bedrock and get the smaller rocks out, and mix the dirt up with compose and leaves, so that it will be more organic and less rocky wasteland. Remember bedrock is only 9 to 12 inches down, so it's not a lot of digging. But it's rocky and rooty.



Another problem that I had forgotten about was the old sprinkler system. There are still PVC pipes for the old sprinkler system. I've taken out most of it, and will work on getting more, but there is at least one piece that goes from the current working area over to the far corner of the fence. I guess it will have to stay until this whole area is dug up.

There is a trench along the back fence that has telephone, cable and electrical lines in it. But that seems to be quite a ways down. They cut thru the limestone bedrock to trench it down at least 18 inches. I dug (carefully) into the trench at least 10 inches and found nothing. So this area should be clear of anything except roots and rocks and the occasional PVC sprinkler pipe.

I got two wheelbarrows full of rocks today, and a pile of dirt. My approach is effectively to dig a trench and then move it forward, putting the dirt behind me, pulling out the rocks (which go in the wheelbarrow) and the roots (which go into a plastic trash can to be taken to the curb for lawn waste recycling once a week).

At the moment I am digging in the Bamboo Grove itself, mainly because I have the opportunity to clean the dirt that is not yet overrun by the bamboo. This will probably take another 2 to 3 weeks of digging. Then I can do the same on the section that is next to it. This area is separated by the cement wall and stones that are to be at ground level (not an edging), to just contain the bamboo. Since this area is behind the Jungle, it's not visible from the house, so we will move the compost pile to this area when it is done.

Replacing a Solar Panel

Our solar system was in the direct path of the hail storm of March 25. Almost every house in our neighborhood is having its roof replaced. The hail was literally golf ball size. We took a direct hit on one of our 24 solar panels. Davis Elementary School, just blocks away, has a much larger solar system, probably twice the size we have. Two of their panels were visibly damaged by the hail. 

Immediately after the hail storm, I tried to contact the company that installed my system to have the panel replaced. Our system was installed in August, 2006, but the company is no longer here in Austin. Of the eight companies that I worked with in getting our solar system, only two are still on the City's directory of participating companies now. Once I was able to find another company (Green City Austin) to work with, we found that the panels I have are no longer being made. The panels are different sizes with different specifications; it's not clear if how they can be mixed. We eventually found a panel in a warehouse somewhere that had been forgotten about and had it shipped here. 

When they brought the panel out to install, they found that it was wired differently, but were able to use parts from the broken panel to re-wire the new panel and install it. 

We have 24 panels, arranged in two rows of 12. Each row is electrically separate, so losing one panel meant that we were generating only 50% of our normal power. Think of it like Christmas lights -- when one goes out, everything in that strand goes out. But replacing the broken panel did not improve our power output. Testing the broken panel, once it was removed, showed that it was working fine. The glass cover was broken, but not the silicon -- it had continued to generate power. (Of course, it was not thought to be working when it was removed, so it's really not functional now). 

But why then were we only generating half power? Since January, the City has been printing how much we generate each month on our utility bill. Those numbers have been consistent, but it turns out, they have been at 50% for months. How long I can't tell. When the system was installed, I carefully monitored it for several months, recording the power generated every day. 

But that proved really boring ... another day, another 14 kilowatts. The system requires no maintenance. I don't need to add gas or check the oil or change the filter or mow it or water it or anything. 

Or so I thought. After a couple hours of investigation, we determined that something -- most likely a squirrel -- had chewed thru one of the power cables. That short circuit was what was causing the problem, not the hail-damaged solar panel. It turned out they had chewed thru not just one cable, not two cables, but three separate cables.

So I have learned several things from this episode: 

1. Solar power is still in its infancy; companies will come and go with great frequency. Any customer needs to be prepared to switch companies as necessary, or take over maintenance and repair themselves. 

2. While solar systems are very hardy, they are not indestructible and they will not last forever. A solar system needs to be designed to be maintained, monitored, and repaired. 

3. The parts that are available now will not be available in the future (not unlike just about anything else in life). So if panels need to be replaced, they will not be compatible in size or appearance (at the least). On a long-lived system (these are supposed to last 20 years or more), expect it to become non-homogeneous -- not all parts will be the same. 

4. Even a system that requires no maintenance will need regular monitoring. 

 5. Squirrels are evil.

Hail storm

March 2009

There was a major hail storm on 25 March. Lauren collected some of the hail stones from around the house. They were quite literally the size of golf balls. My visual inspection didn't show major damage. A lot of small tree limbs and leaves. But both cars were in the garage (mine was still at work); no skylights broken.

There was damage to our photo-voltaic solar system -- one panel (out of 24) has a large white area of damage.



I went up on the roof and checked for obvious damage and didn't see any. But I did notice that the roof vents were being chewed on by squirrels, so I needed a roofer to come repair/replace those. So I called my roofer, Drury Roofing, to take a look.

I also tried to find the company that installed the solar system, but they no longer seem to be in Austin. I tracked down the person who used to be in charge of their Austin work, Kenny Grigar, who is now with another Austin company (Green City Austin), and was able to talk to him. He had me e-mail pictures of the damage. kgrigar@greencityaustin.com

Kenny said that someone would be out to check on the system on Saturday 4 April, from 10 to 12, but no one showed up. I've been leaving phone messages daily but am not getting any response.

The roofer finally came out tho, on Monday 6 April. It will run $200 to $600 to repair the roof vents. But he also showed me significant damage to the roof. It's not visible if you don't know what to look for, but once he showed me, I could both
understand the damage and find it myself. He said that it will show up more as time goes by.

So I called my insurance agent, State Farm, and they said they would submit a claim and have an adjuster come out, probably not for a week (given the heavy load).

Weds, April 8, I got a call from Mike at State Farm. He had an opening from 10 to 12 on Tuesday 14th. I called back and left a message that included my cell phone number and work number with the mention that I am only 10 minutes away from home and would like to be there.

PostScript: The adjuster from State Farm walked around on the roof and pointed out the same sorts of problems that the roofer had pointed out. He declared the roof "totaled". We will need to replace the roof, the gutters, everything. The damage may not be obvious now, but in a couple of months or years it will show up. He wrote us a check for the damage on the spot. We have two years to replace the roof. Given that it still looks in good shape, and there may be more hail, or other problems, I figure we will wait until there is less roofing frenzy in the neighborhood.

Another point. To reduce the cost of our home insurance, we talked last year (just about a year ago, yup!) and raised the deductible to 2% of the value of the house. We pay the first 2%; State Farm covers anything over that (to the amount that the house is insured for). Replacement cost for the house is apparently $550,000, so we will pay the first $11,000 to replace the roof. (I also switched to a high-deductible medical insurance plan, since I for years have had no major medical issues. Sure enough; skin cancer, diagnosed at about the same time as the hail storm. Probably from working outside on the house and yard in the Texas sun.)

Spring arrives for 2009

March 7, 2009 

It's a little early for Spring -- the average date for the latest freeze is near the end of March -- but the plants do not seem to know. The trees are blooming, the daffodils are coming up, and the irises are starting to look perky. So it seems like it would be a good time to do something about the lawn. The lawn, especially in the front is looking worn out. Linda thinks it gets too much shade. But I figure it can not hurt to make sure it has good dirt. So I got 8 cubic yards of Farmstyle compost from The Natural Gardener for $430.40. 

They delivered about 9:00 AM on Saturday and I spent the rest of the day putting it in my wheelbarrow and spreading it around on the lawn. Did not have enough for the full yard -- just the front and one side. Probably needed another 4 cubic yards. And another day to spread it. We went back and got another 10 gallons to put in the herb and flower beds. 

March 9, 2009 

A plumber came to fix the sprinkler system. About two weeks ago, when I went out to get the newspaper, I notice that the driveway was wet -- water was seeping up from near the water meter and running down the driveway. I dug that area up and it was coming from the sprinkler system valve. All the water for the sprinkler system comes off the main line and goes thru this large valve that only allows water to go one way. It has two cut-off valves, one on each end. I turned the water off and then went looking for a plumber. 

The plumber was Jonathon Griesheimer, doing business as Accent Sprinklers. He did a good job of taking out the old pieces and putting on new pieces. It took less than an hour, since I had already dug up the spot and identified the problem. He was easy to work with and did not seem to mind me watching everything he was doing.

The Bamboo Grove

There is a bed area in the backyard that James Conner designed and implemented. His original design was for a two-level planting around the edges, with Nandina and another plant around the existing small oak trees and a couple of mountain juniper trees. He did this in December to January 1990, and over time, it became quite overground. Linda calls it "the jungle".

There is a small triangular area behind the jungle, bounded by the jungle in the front and the fence in the back, that then becomes pretty unused. You really can't see it from most of the rest of the yard, or from the house. There was one old mountain juniper tree in that area, but nothing much else.

So I planted bamboo in that area.

Initially, the bamboo was planted in August 1997. One plant marked as Phyllostachys Aurea (golden bamboo). There are a number of descriptions of it on the web. It likes full sun, and is hardy to 0 degrees F. It seems very happy in this corner of the yard. It took years before it started to spread, but has since become "aggressive".

To contain it, I have been digging around it. The French drain terminus forms one wall to stop it from advancing into the yard. I cut down the mountain juniper and in late summer 2008, dug up the stump and the area around it. This produced several barrels of bamboo roots which I separated from the dirt and recycled. The ground in this area is only 6 to 12 inches deep before we hit bedrock. So it can't go very deep. I poured a cement wall down to bedrock, with white limestone rocks on top at ground level to keep it from expanding to the yard in the other direction.

So the bamboo has only three directions to go -- under the "jungle" bed, or under the fence. Current plans are to extend the cement wall under the rocks that encircle the jungle bed. At this point, I have dug a trench down to bedrock along the jungle bed edge. The trench is about 18 inches wide, and should allow me to work on replacing the edge of the jungle bed.

22 March 2009

Continued work. I used the jackhammer to break up the stone wall around the "jungle" in the back, next to the bamboo grove. I used the chisel point to go down between the stones, in the mortar, so that I can re-use the stones. Then I switched to the big flat blade to go vertically down thru the rock and dirt to bedrock. This gives me a very clean vertical surface from bedrock up to the ground floor of the "jungle". My intention is then to put a concrete wall in to hold the vertical surface while also providing a clean strong separation between the "jungle" and the bamboo grove. I have a little more clean-up to do -- separating out the rock from the dirt and getting a good clean bedrock surface -- before I can pour the concrete.

New Door to the Garage

December 2008

We've had an on-going problem with the door between the garage and the house. This particular wall has settled, and the frame around the door is no longer square. As near as I could tell, it was no longer possible to seal the door -- there was a visible gap between the door and the frame near the door handle. In addition, the heavy wooden door was having problems with its surface -- parts of the veneer have chipped away.

So I decided to replace the door completely. Both the door and its frame. I checked on the web about how to replace doors, and figured it was probably something I could do, but we use this door several times a day, and it would really be better to make sure it was done right. I first checked with Lowe's and Home Depot to see what sorts of doors were available. Home Depot had a nice one -- a steel exterior with a small window. Doors and frames come in several sizes, so I needed the right sizes to get the right door.

I had been real pleased with the work that Dillo Construction did on rebuilding the gable on the back of the house, so I contacted them. They agreed to do the work to install the door. $600.00

I ordered the door from Home Depot, on 7 Dec 2008, for $284.21. It was delivered on 18 Dec 2008. It's a white steel door with a "fan" shaped window at the top, with hinges and frame. 

The replacement process mainly consists of taking off the old trim around the door, removing the door and frame, putting in the new door and frame and putting on trim.

So one problem was the trim. The old trim may not fit or may be damaged in removal, so I needed to have new trim available. The trim in the house is not standard, so I had to have some more trim made. BMC West Millwork can do that, so I had them run 100 linear feet of trim. That should give me enough for any future projects. This was $526.10. I took in a piece of the existing trim, and they made more in a red oak.

The next problem was the hardware. It would have been possible to take the door knob off the old door and put it on the new door, but instead, we got a new door knob, switching to a nickel finish with a lever door knob. I put that on myself. $48.40 from Home Depot, 23 Dec 2008.  We selected a Kwikset Tustin Satin Nickel handle.

The result is very nice. I've been meaning to paint the door, but haven't gotten around to it.

(Update.  The latching mechanism for this door broke, November 2018, effectively 10 years later.  But I was then able to replace it with a Kwikset Interior Door Latch for $6.47 from Home Depot.)

(Update.  Again the latching mechanism broke, July 2023, less than 5 years from the previous problem.  Again replaced by Kwikset Interior Door Latch for $6.47 plus tax, bringing it to $7.00.  Home Depot.  In taking the broken piece apart, there were two little springs inside that broke, so the latch could be pulled back to open the door, but was unwilling to spring back out as the door closed.)

Sidewalk replacement

December 2008

We have a sidewalk from the front of the house to the street out front. This was put in at the same time as the concrete porch and the driveway. Over time, however, the tree by the curb apparently put roots out under the sidewalk and lifted it up. It was an inch or two higher than the curb. This seemed to me to be a safety issue and for several years now I've been meaning to take out the old sidewalk and put in a new one.



The sidewalk is actually 3 or 4 sections -- broken up by 1x2 pieces of wood. The wood lets the concrete expand in the summer without breaking. So I only have to replace the one section that goes to the curb.

The first problem is to remove the old sidewalk. I used my jackhammer to break it up into 8 pieces, roughly square, each about 2 feet by 2 feet. These are just small enough to be manageable by me so I could move them out of the way. I eventually posted them on Craig's list and offered them as concrete pads, suitable for making a walkway. I got several responses, and a guy came and took them away, saying he was going to put a path in his backyard with them.




Next I dug down to bedrock and took everything out. Mostly it was the sand and gravel that they had put under the sidewalk, but once I was under that, there was native dirt and then rock. I dug out everything where the old sidewalk was, plus a little more to leave room for the new framing, going all the way to bedrock. In this area, that's only about a foot.

Next, I put in framing to pour a concrete wall under the edge of where the sidewalk will be, next to the tree. The idea is to create a barrier to prevent it from sending roots under the sidewalk again. I used masonite boards to frame the wall and then a couple of bags of Quikcrete cement to fill it in and make the wall. I only did this on the one side -- next to the tree.

I filled the excavation back in with rock and cement pieces and sand and gravel that I had been accumulating for this sort of project. I used a pile of decomposed granite on top, and watered it all down to try to get it to fill the area. The idea here is to (a) get rid of debris that I've dug up, and (b) make the contents of this area unlikely to support anything growing (like tree roots).

To do a good job on the actual pouring, I asked Dillo Construction to send out a couple of guys to do the final pour. The rest of the sidewalk is a "pebble finish", and they matched it very well. $520.00

To customize it a bit, after it was all poured, I threw a handful of some blue rocks we had on the top. Just sort of randomly tossed and then pushed down into the top of the concrete. Once it set, the top layer of concrete is washed off to create the pebble finish, and these blue rocks are then part of the pebble finish. It adds a nice touch, in my opinion. A minor distinguishing feature.