Most of the projects out here are pretty interesting and there’s a lot to be learned by studying them. Like the small (8X8) deck project that wound up this week with the completion of the railings. As wife (and OSHA site inspector) Elaine puts it “Adds to the house and it doesn’t look so much like a double-wide trailer, anymore.” Indeed, it doesn’t.
The two yellow arrows are worth discussing for a sec.
The top one points to an “outback home” problem that’s pretty common with screen porches. The wild animals all want in, especially if we eat on the porch and there’s the smell of food. Or if it’s raining, Or cold. They all want in.
The solution to this (around the doors and where cats can “take a flier” and land (claws out, of course) on the screen) has been 24 by 36 inch plastic panels which you can buy (five of ’em) for about $4o bucks on Amazon. (like these). Best worked in warm weather, these are not “plexiglass” exactly – not sure about the chemistry – feels more toward PVC (like the stuff used as tabletop clear protector sheets) but it works OK.
That top arrow is where I have some inside (on the house side of the screen) blocking to cut (paint, install) so there’s something to screw the panels into. I run truss head 1/2 or 5/8ths stainless here to eliminate the weather issues.
The second arrow (was it reader Mike who pointed it out?) is the “open beams” which I happen to like. He said it would look better if enclosed (and the wood’s on hand to do that) but I have found that (for whatever reason) the mud daubers/wasps tend to build fewer nests in areas where there is a single joint line. Like they love to have calm air and up in corners. Being open keeps them down, but this is a matter of taste. Although if you have strong thoughts on the curb appeal impacts, drop me a line.
Speaking of curb appeal, there’s another point to think about (Elaine mentioned it). “This makes the house look…oh…more prosperous… I hope that doesn’t encourage the criminal element…” Yeah, I’ve thought about that, as well. But I do like the “look” of a squared away railing. The criminal element can take it’s chances with video surveillance and a “feared for my life” defense – though there’s (ahem) likely to be only one story available to be told at that point…
A couple of readers were wondering where I got the idea for this (nice ) railing. Credit to DIY Ron’s YouTube video: https://youtu.be/w62A0bW2ZoY. In addition to the Vevor 3/4 OD black aluminum pre-cut balusters, which we picked up 101 of for $110, we also borrowed Ron’s hardware suggestions for the 2 by 4 end plates…
Which makes installing the rails a piece of cake. Plus, I spied Ron’s use of plastic post caps which seemed like another great idea worth borrowing:
One Problem Remains
That’s the width of the stairs. I went ahead and did the project anyway, but the width of the stairs (and placement of the stringers) was limited due to the Telco demark box. That will have to be moved and I have that on my list of innumerable small nits that will trigger other things.
For now, feral Siamese (cross) Sam the Cat thought it was fine…when I caught him trying to jimmy the pickup open to go joyriding…
My next project (after the waterworks) will be a new deck (and matching railing system) out here off the 180-Room.
Doesn’t look like it in the picture, but the deck has a good 6-feet in front of the door into the 3-seasons room. I will pop that out at least to 8 feet (and maybe 12) so that away from the house gutter drain doesn’t (visually) “pop” so much when the bright sun’s out.
Hydroponics Table
Another small project to come off the list this week was to get the hydroponics table for the studio put together. As you may remember, we made a decision a while back to use the “music room” (which is heated space) to grow things in the winter, and especially for the first several weeks of even winter crops like cabbage, kale, and whatnot.
There – right on cue – was a 48 by 20 inch table that looked pretty good for $127. Assembly on the back of the pickup truck was a no-brainer…
Hats off to Larbanke for building the table I would build if I had a massive manufacturing country behind me. Everything was precision cut and the holes all matched up perfectly. And check this out – even has measuring marks on the working side!
The other thing nice about the table (because I have a couple of “rubberwood” table tops: Most of them are so thick that you can’t put something like a goose neck lamp clamp on them – without jacking around with the clamps. This one is a bit over an inch, but not one of those 1.5 inch thick tops more suited to heavy (I mean beat on it all day) woodworking benches.
The Waterworks Project
Drinking water hose came in for reloading and Elaine’s working on clearing out the brush as we speak. But it’s time we load up the 275 gallon IBC tote with drinking water.
We we lived on the sailboat, water planning was “just something you did.” Boat carried about 200 gallons which ought to have gotten us to Hawaii, anyway. You figure on minimal rations, a gallon and a half of water per day ought to do (if you don’t mind some, oh…eau d partner maybe. East Texas summertime rations run closer to 5-gallons per person, per day so you could budget a shower every other day.
Three seasons, though, 2-gallons per person per day (not counting the odd shower) is a prepping / survival number. So 300 gallons (the 275 holds more than 275 by a good bit) is 150-days for one or 75-days for two:
That’s not counting, of course, the assorted 55-gallon blue poly water barrels either, I think there’s four or five of them.
This part of east Texas was rolling in the water earlier this year. But we have not even scored a “lick and a promise” in the past two months. The last “useful” rai here was on August 23rd and as of Friday, the next rain wasn’t coming until maybe the 29th. Which means more yard work and deck-building weather next week, too.
The Waterworks Project will have it’s own write-up when I get it done. But, essentially, I should be able to get the whole thing – including 900 gallons of water, breakers and wiring, pump, and planning, done for under $300 bucks.
The system I have in mind should be able to keep the whole house going (with people, running water, flush toilets, for maybe two or three weeks (full use) and up to as much (for the two of us) in the minimal water mode of more than six months.
A lot of people have pretty good food stores – some have generators. But back up pressure water? Now we’re talking luxury, my friend.
Off to hit and get again, but feel free to send in Ure comments and ideas…
George@Ure.net
Green Acres – “Handy Lessons”
Episode aired Nov 6, 1968
Wanting to be a bigger help to Oliver, Lisa decides to learn carpentry. She buys overalls and begins to study the craft from the inept Monroe brothers. Lisa’s talents result in destruction in Monroes’ workshop and earns Oliver a punch in the nose. Lisa nurses his boo boo and ices it until the swelling goes down.
Ralph Monroe: How did you manage to get a power drill stuck in the wall?
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4riqr1
Speaking of water, Italy pounded with rain from north to south. Some areas destroyed.
https://youtu.be/8L_aiUqltKc?si=P_ubZUeChdhJ4JEh
…, damn !
Looks like all of Itay has been hit by a hurricane ! Wow. That dam collapse was spectacular.
The deck looks great. How did you install the deck posts for the rails? It’s hard to see but it looks like they’re surface mounted.
Steel post anchors (more hardware!) https://amzn.to/406lTn3
I built a new deck and have been procrastinating on installing the railing. I had another idea about the posts and railing, but I like these better. Lowes will be seeing me soon.
I got enough of thre balusters to do 19 inchers tall and 400 lineal feet of poles at 4″ spacing…$101 bucks on sale…a buck-a-stick- you can’t make ’em out of 3/4 anything for that price.
Scored an oversized deck storage box with a lock hasp 11+++to store fuel in the shade away from the house. I got a new bottle of diesel stabilizer. I treated the fuel bottles next in line with a 1/2 oz, and the ones more likely to sit awhile with a full ounce.
For now, I’m going to rotate two cans of ethanol-free gasoline. I bought some tight fitting caps with gaskets off Amazon. That should help stabilize.
You might consider a vent at the bottom of the box so any fumes can VENT out of the box.
Of course the vent would need a thick metal screen so critters didn’t get into the box.
You may be right about the exposed beams, it continues an open spaced objects thing.
But definitely get rid of the big yellow arrows.
Hmmm… they aren’t visible with my reality glasses on…
George Ure
October 20, 2024
George, Your project is looking good. I did see one thing you might already be planning for but from my experience with tote’s and sunshine I offer this heads up.
In your photo, there is direct sunlight shining onto the water tote’s. You might want to consider adding some light blocking screening around the tote’s.
Here too in the Phoenix area, sunlight is intense and when I stored water in mine where late afternoon sunshine could get to it, ( before screening out the sun) the light fed the algae production and turned the water into a lovely shade of green in no time at all. Tote’s need to be painted or screened or covered to prevent runaway algae growth…
Thank you – still in the “work in process” but it will be wrapped in one of these which came in on Sept 29… https://amzn.to/4hhaze3
That will turn it green even faster! :-)
Ya don’t miss yur water ’til …
Outdoor storage would create bug ice cubes here. I have (4) food grade 55 gallon barrels but would have to heat them through winter. Nope. We have a well off-flow 70′ away that runs 24/7/365. Bazillion gallons out front for toilet flushes / sponge bath at need. Egor
Not a proper Sunday topic, but time is of the essence:
https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1847793699083980947
https://petition.theamericapac.org/
Is this real or is it a honeypot? This is pinned Elon’s X account so it would appear to be real:
https://x.com/ElonMusk
https://theamericapac.org/
Must be submitted by Oct 21 if you think it’s safe. It’s only for people in swing states. Pay attention to the details.
Musk is raffling $1mln per DAY. Raffle registration is made by signing the petition (or affirmation, or whatever.) The State of Pennsylvania is also suing him, contending his raffle is somehow “Election-related.”
(I’m pretty sure he can beat that suit, since AFAIK neither the First, nor Second Amendment is currently a ballot referendum anywhere…)
ATL: just out with his Lordship (21 YO TomCat) who … followed me out to the end of our pier and had a Spaz attack, thought he was going swimming (which would mean I was too). Breeze is filling in so I plan to go for a sail, get some much needed tiller time, then start pulling apart my water toys. Now that the trifecta: chimney / painting / roof is complete I’m caving to Mrs. E who insists we start shutting down wet stuff. Our annual pier jerk is scheduled for a week from today.
This week I was in comm. with a friend who lives an hour N. Feller has (2) RC boats which match the one I have in a box, plan being to build it this winter. I’ll have a fleet of 3 OD and a meter boat (gold standard in RC sailboats) to boot.
Several bud sailors here are older than me so we can fleet race from shore when reality sailing is beyond us. Or, when it’s cold and our boats are on the hard. Hope to get another year or two in the MC then will hand it off to my Padawan.
Farmers are burning diesel around here. Yearling deer are now shunned by their Mom who hopes to meet the stud buck of the neighborhood (there’s a massive 8-pointer here). Fields cut down are one thing. Hunters in the field are another.
Trees surrounding the lake seem to turn vibrant colors _as_ you gaze at them. Then come the leaves :0/
Egor
I went swimming in Michigan, in an inland lake on Halloween — once.
I can’t really recommend it…
If you didn’t need an Ice Saw in order to get in the water the temps were not brisk enough to really refresh!
High 70’s today almost up to the Bridge. I am sure the squirrels are asking themselves why they worked so hard putting food away all summer long.
Pffft. Try Lake Superior. Even in hot august it’s about 34 degrees. Feet & legs were numb after a quick ‘camper’s bath’. Be sure to have some dry warm stuff ready to wear. Open campfires were verboten in the park.
I’ve skin dived in Superior a number of times (without a wetsuit.) You can feel yourself passing through the thermal layers as you go down.
That’s a very attractive railing. I like how it goes down the stairs, too. There is something esthetic pleasing about evenly placed rods. My brother built a deck for me once and he eyed the placements of the poles. The deck was lovely but not quite right.
The black plastic caps tend to split in the heat. Buy a few extra for replacements.
Check! Got a 20 pack for 3 posts (so far) – but that’s why my shop looks like a hardware store hybrid!
I have a close friend who had a close friend very high up in the NYPD command structure.
That super-cop told us that at 1 pm on election day 2016, the Clintons had cancelled the huge Garucci-built East River calebratory fireworks show. (Their “D” internal polling is WAY ahead of anything generally published for us ordinary citizen slobs.)
They could save a LOT of money under the terms of the Event Insurance policy they had to take out. Cancelling early enough kicked in certain big money-saving policy provisions.
That NYPD super-cop retired this year, saying his shop had gone completely insane with contradictory mandates to the point that all was tied up in craziness. Seeing no end to it, when the opportunity arose, he took it and bailed to live happily ever after — outta there.
So, this year we have no handy intel deep insider to enlighten us in a timely manner.
Cuba’s electrical grid shut down on Friday, putting the country into a blackout after the failure of one of the island’s major power plants, according to its energy ministry.
In a statement on X, the ministry said “the failure” of the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant caused “the total disconnection of the National Electrical System” from 11 a.m. ET on Friday.
Seven of the eight thermoelectric plants that supply energy to Cuba are broken or under maintenance, The Cuban Electric Union has also reported that 37 power generation plants are out of service due to lack of fuel.
Cuba’s energy crisis is not a new problem. The island’s limited infrastructure has not received the maintenance it requires for years and recurring blackouts date back to the 1990s.
The situation was further aggravated in 2022 by a fire at a fuel facility in Matanzas, in the island’s west, which destroyed 40% of the country’s main fuel storage structure. Which has not been rebuilt.
Basically – one solid, devastating smack from a hurricane and Cuba will be spending years in the dark.
Update:
I just made a check – sure enough – Tropical Storm Oscar just turned into a hurricane and is headed for Cuba traversing across the island.., west-southwest.
Cuba’s excellent experience of running a government owned/run generation system is so impressive that the Mexican Government has decided that is the model they should follow!!
This past week or so they passed a law in Mexico that if any energy was available from the Mexican Government owned power plants, no matter what the cost, it HAD to be bought, even if other power was available from private sellers for considerably less, even less than at 1/2 the price.
Well we can all see where that is going to go. The privately owned generation companies will slowly leave the market since they can not sell electricity at a stable delivery rate or on long term contracts since at any point in time during the day, week, month, the government generating company will tell their buyers “HEY, you HAVE TO BUY from us at double the cost because we now have power to sell you”. Now we may only have it for 2 hours, but you HAVE to now buy it from us!”
Isn’t state owned systems with NO competition allowed on pricing GREAT?!! Cuba thinks they are wonderful … and Mexico has decided to go the same route.
Test run for the old US of A
china and Russia have been quick to lend a hand to the Cubans similar to our assistance to taiwan. I believe that it will be fixed..it’s just the cost of having a warm water port just a few miles from the US coastline.
Leaked US Intelligence Documents Related To Israel’s Attack Preparations On Iran Appear Online
A major leak of US classified documents has appeared online Saturday… or we should qualify alleged leaks of at least two TOP SECRET documents, with both marked NOFORN – which is among the highest classifications – given it indicates the specific intelligence cannot be shared with allied foreign intelligence agencies
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/leaked-us-intelligence-documents-related-israels-attack-preparations-iran-appear
Not the first time. The Biden Administration has made (or has allowed) Israel-related leaks several times in the past two years. This is why Israel, for the most part, has kept its own counsel WRT military actions.
“This Is Illegal”: British Labour Party Sending Staff To Campaign For Kamala In Swing States
The Head of Operations of the leftist British Labour Party, which is now in government after 14 years of being the opposition, declared in a LinkedIn post that she is organising a party of 100 staff members to be sent to swing states in the US to campaign for Kamala Harris, prompting charges of election interference.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/illegal-british-labour-party-sending-staff-campaign-kamala-swing-states
It certainly sounds illegal – especially since it’s from the Labour party rather than random individuals. It seems that the stops are being pulled out on both sides, with the daily million dollar raffle listed on X in my post above. I suspect that Elon ran the legalities very carefully before designing the raffle. We shall see. I’m less sure about the interlopers from across the pond.
What a busy day.. been canning milk today.. I am trying the Amish way we shall see how it goes.. the daughter is asking about it to..
I will do cream and sour cream next..
I’d like a bull nose radius on the hard corners. Slows the breakdown of the wood and prevents body creases should one stumble into the edge… but we know that never happens when you get older. And the linear bruise is so pretty.
A nice place to survey your world. Looks fine.
Still don’t float though.
Stiks
I did a decade plus on the Hunter 40, but remember one accident (or in Elaine’s case, two hip replacements) and getting board with a LifeSling is not exactly something you’d want to do a couple of times a day…
stairs can be a challenge when your older.. that’s one reason we have a 1 level house.. what I hadn’t considered when I built it was wheelchair accessible bathrooms ..
I have since converted one and opened the doorway to be big enough for the other..
bidet wands on every toilet .. the next best thing is walk in tub..and the hallway needs handrails..
the grand daughter stopped with our great grandkids yesterday..she started to get after the kids racing up and down the hall.. lol I had to remind her..that’s why grandma and I made the halls double width..so that when she and the other older grandkids were little they could race the hallways and wear some of that energy off… We told her it’s OK honey let the kids play.. we have since found it’s good for wheelchairs to..
Impressive job on the deck George!
“so that away from the house gutter drain doesn’t (visually) “pop” so much when the bright sun’s out.”
The downspout might look better if you use two 45 els at the top and run it down the wall instead of straight down from the gutter. You also could cut the gutter and insert the downspout mid-run to get the downspout away from the window.