Construction Journal Entry Week of 11/4/07

11/6-8/07 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 1:20. It was a nice cool day. I figured that I'd better take advantage of the good weather before it snows and gather some firewood so I can have some heat during the winter. The most reasonable place to stack firewood would be under the front porch. But that space was full of odds and ends and the trench for the waterpipe was still not backfilled. That was because there was a drain from the crawlspace also coming out there. After moving in and having lunch, I went to work moving things out of the way and digging that trench back out so I could bend the return water pipe down to make sure that it was always running downhill. Then I buried a 4" flexible plastic drainpipe along with it. I backfilled the trench so it was nearly full, but at least it held the pipes down in place and gave me a reasonably level place to store firewood.

Then I took the wheelbarrow into the woods and hauled a bunch of firewood out and stacked it under the porch. Some of it is pretty rotten. My plan for that is to see if it will dry out under there and then whether or not it is useful as firewood. I'll make sure it is all burned up before spring because I don't want a bunch of rotten wood that close to my house. I also split a bunch of nice sound wood with a splitting maul and a wedge. That was a little more work than my shoulders are used to.

In the evening, just before Ellen called, there was about a half hour of the loudest coyote yipping and barking that I have ever heard. It sounded like half a dozen of them right across the road. Then, to round out the chorus, I could hear Bert's deep bellowing voice responding to each round of yipping. My guess was that they had made a major kill and were all having a party over it. But I really don't know.

On Wednesday, I went across the road the first thing to see if I could see any evidence of the coyote party. I saw a lot of trampled grass and a lot of fresh ground squirrel mounds, but none of the mounds looked like they were disturbed by coyotes and there wasn't any other evidence that I saw that there were any coyotes there at all. I guess what I heard will remain a mystery.

It was a beautiful, clear, still, 45 degree day so I figured I would take advantage of it and go up into the woods to work on my water pipe. I had decided some time ago that the next time I worked on the plumbing up there I would install an air valve at the springbox first. In the past, each time I needed to solder on the pipe, I had to drain the water out of the pipe by disconnecting it from the springbox and letting it drain. That was a time-consuming nuisance. I couldn't just shut the valve off because the pipe was still full of water and it would take forever for the air to bubble up from the bottom to let the water out. What I needed was an air valve just below the shutoff valve so I could shut the water off and then open the air valve to let the air in.

Doctor Dick had given me a half-inch ball valve as a gift some time ago to help me solve a problem with my trailer winterizing system. As it happened, I completely changed the way I winterize the trailer so I didn't use the valve. Now I had a much better purpose for that valve. It will now be a permanent part of the plumbing for my water supply. It will be a perfect air valve.

I brought my soldering tools up to the springbox, opened the union, hopefully for the last time in a long time, and soldered a tee into the pipe just below the shutoff valve. The half-inch stub sticks straight up at right angles to the pipe with the air valve on top of that. The valve has female thread connectors on each end with an eight sided nut as part of the casting. I found that a 1" copper cap fits tightly over the top of the nut on the top of the valve. In fact, it was so tight that I had to hammer it on. The shoulders of the facets cut into the copper cap, but there was still a small air gap between the cap and each facet. Just perfect for letting air in and yet too small for ants to crawl in. And, the cap would keep rain and debris out of the valve. It was perfect.

After installing the valve, I tried it and it worked exactly as planned. I think that now the plumbing at the springbox is complete and final. I took a couple pictures of it to record this milestone.

After lunch and a nap, it started raining lightly. I was glad I did the work in the woods when I did. I spent some more time splitting firewood. I figured that I would do a little now and then so as not to cause any damage to my body. I find that I can't swing a maul like I could ten or twenty years ago.

Next, I installed the lag screws to fasten the back stair stringers to the deck beam. I put one lag screw in each joint. The one closest to the building took a 1/2"x14" screw and the outer one took a 1/2"x16" screw. It was awkward turning these screws in from under the porch and it put more stress and strain on my shoulders yet. But they hold those logs together nice and tight so I was happy to be done with the job. The logs were plenty tight and stayed in place without the screws, but now I am ready for a big earthquake.

When I finished that, I cleaned up and put away the planting pots and sleeves that were left from planting the sequoia trees. I figured out a way to put those nylon sleeves back the way they were with about ten of them nested together. I took a plastic drinking cup, cut a ring out of the center of it, used the bottom of the cup like a needle by stuffing the end of one sleeve into it and then using the top of the cup to hold the ends of the other sleeves away while I stuffed the needle cup into the others. When it got too tight to add another one, I reversed roles of the cup parts and slid the new sleeves (I could only do two this way) over the top of the bundle.

Finally, I went to work on the first back stair tread to get it to fit. It was about 3/4" too high so I worked on the surfaces with a chisel and Rasputin to make them fit better. I made some progress. A chipmunk came around for peanuts while I was working.

On Thursday morning, it was raining lightly again. I spent the morning on the stair tread and finally got it to fit right. It is nice and level both ways, sticking out at the right angle from the building, and it has the correct riser height of 7.78 inches. I didn't fasten it down because I still need to scrape and finish it, treat it with borate, and stain it. I'll do that next week.

During the work, I was visited by the chipmunk, two or three gray jays, and a Steller's Jay. At one point, the Steller's Jay attacked and terrorized one of the gray jays. The poor thing sat on a woodpile a couple feet from me and stayed motionless for five or ten minutes. Toward the end, it would make soft whistling sounds, and finally decided to move and take some peanuts from me. I don't know if it was hurt or just scared, but it had no trouble flying once it decided to. I'm glad it was OK. I left for home at 1:15.



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