Float On

So, I pulled the forms from the counter top and was pretty pleased with the way it came out.  As you can see, the concrete has cured to a fairly light color but once I polish it a bit and seal it, it will be a much darker gray.
I set a piece of concrete backsplash up there too and some of the glass tile I will use for the back also, just to kinda see how it will look.  Once the concrete is sealed it will be very close to a grayish slate color and match the glass tile well.

I was fairly pleased also, with the finish I got on this pour, although I think I actually got a smoother finish on the hearth slab.  It's fine though.  I will run over this a bit with 100-200 grit diamond pads and it'll be slicker'n owl shit.  I have no idea where that saying comes from or what it means but I used to hear it all the time on construction sites.  Ha!
It's also quite hard (to me anyway) to get a good slick finish right up to the edge because you can't follow through with your stroke but that is easily smoothed with the diamond pads and I'll round that top corner off just a tad.  The front face of the edge had a few little bug holes in it but I don't really mind that.  It makes it look more like concrete, to me, and I want that to be obvious.  I just really like the look of unstained, natural concrete.

 It's really hard to explain to somebody else how to finish concrete and I looked around for some YouTube videos that might do a good job but didn't really come up with much.  Most of them show how to float concrete, which is good, but none I could find show how to trowel it to a hard finish and that's what takes such finesse.
In the photo above I have the tools most commonly used for concrete finishing and they are not interchangeable.  The one on the left is the float and the one on the right is the trowel.  Since my pour was so small I did not need a screed or straightedge but you need those on a large pour.

The float has a much thicker blade and is longer; some of them are up to 2 feet long or so and this is what you use immediately after placing the concrete.  On really small pours like mine you can use the float sorta as the screed to knock the mud down to the correct elevation.  Then you pass over the concrete in sweeping motions to smooth it down nice.  Now, at first, it's not going to look that smooth and that's okay.  Once you float it off good, with one pass, you just then let the mud sit.  Water will begin to rise to the top and you will see a pool form.  Let this water evaporate!  Do not keep working it back into the mud.  Once the water evaporates you can see the surface begin to "tighten up" as we say.  Make one more pass over the concrete with the float.  Water will rise again.  Let it evaporate.  At this point the mud may have tightened so that you can move to the trowel.  When you go over the mud with the trowel you will begin to get a much smoother finish.  As you can see, the blade on the trowel is much thinner.  And, it's pretty much the same rhythm; trowel it off, let the water rise and evaporate and etc.  Now, at this point, hardly any water will be noticeable on top but you can tell it's happening.  This is the part that is really hard to describe as it's something that a person has to see and do to really "get", but it's much like burnishing clay or similar.  Also, the tighter the concrete gets the harder you have to press down to get a smoother finish.

If you really want to try pouring something like this and have never worked with concrete before I would strongly suggest pouring some little practice slabs first.  Maybe pour some steps or a small patio just to get the hang of floating the mud and those things don't require a really hard finish.  In fact, you don't want to get them too slick or they will be very slippery in wet weather.  Then maybe pour some little stepping stones or maybe a bench seat to practice troweling a smoother finish.  Good concrete work is much harder to do than most people realize but it's not rocket science.  It just takes a little finesse, as I said.  If all else fails, hire a finisher.  And you can polish counter tops once the concrete is cured, to hide a multitude of sins.  I've done all my own concrete work here at my house but I'll say this:  the work I did as a carpenter and welder was pretty hard sometimes, but I always got through it.  I don't think they could have paid me enough money to place and finish concrete however. 

Okay!  I'll be putting this finish on this top before long but we had to order some new diamond pads so it may be a bit before I have another post on this.  And, I have to find a suitable sealer to use on these since they are in the kitchen and would come in contact with food.  But I'll have a complete post on all that when I'm done.  Any questions?

Hot Fun In The Summertime

 I don't think I've done an update on the garden in a while so I thought I'd show ya'll how that is going and include a new recipe I found that came out very well I thought.  The garden is really producing well this year, especially the tomatoes.  I guess the cooler weather this summer has not hurt them after all.  In fact, it may be helping some, I'm not sure.  Anyway, I got scads of them, even with the Romas kinda being a bust, what with them coming out so small.  Now, I did pick up a box of local tomatoes from a farmer at the market the other day.  My Rutgers were just not coming in fast enough to can in any decent batch so I thought I'd help them along.  Plus, they were local and the guy offered the box full for $5.  It was about 15 pounds of tomatoes, or more so that was hard to pass up.  I combined them with a good many of mine and got a sizable batch of marinara sauce to can, for now.  I still want to put up plain tomatoes for soups and a good bit of salsa and hopefully, now that my tomatoes are coming in at a faster clip, I may can do it with all my own stock.
We are getting a fairly good corn harvest but not near what I got a couple of years ago.  I've always been under the impression that corn was pollinated by the wind, rather than bees, but I am beginning to wonder if it's not still helped by the bees.  See, the last couple of really good corn crops I got were 3-4 years ago and I remember distinctly the bees were just swarming the corn those years.  This year and last year the corn was mediocre and I have seen very few bees on it.  So??  I know it is very going to be some bad s#*!t if the bees keep dying.  I notice fewer and fewer honeybees at my place each year.  Fortunately, I have lots of mason, bumble, leafcutter and such bees and other tiny pollinators, so we still get pretty good crops, but the honey bees do so much for large scale crops.  And people just keep right on spraying their *$%@#%!! Roundup and whatever, which they are pretty sure is what's killing the bees, combined with other fungicides and herbicides.  Maybe when their kids and grandkids are starving to death in another 8-10 years they may start to care.  Or not.
The peppers, raspberries, onions, beans and pretty much everything else is doing well too.  Even getting some nice sweet cantaloupes this year!  Yum!  Not sure if my watermelons are going to have time to ripen but we'll see.

 So, here is the marinara sauce recipe.  You can double, triple or whatever to get enough to can if you want, or just make a batch to eat now!

Basic Marinara Sauce:
 4-5 lbs fresh, ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded (about 12 cups).  I also run mine through a food processor just a little because I like a smooth sauce.  But do whatever you like.
2 yellow onions, peeled and diced (about 2 cups)
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced  (about 2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons dried herbs (basil, oregano, thyme etc.) mixed, total
1/2 cup red wine

In a large soup pot, heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil.  Add onions and cook slowly on medium heat until they start to carmelize.  They should be evenly brown and soft.  Add the garlic and herbs and cook for 5 minutes.  (Dried herbs hold their flavor much longer than fresh so if you want to use fresh add the herbs right at the end of cooking the sauce.)
Deglaze the pan with the 1/2 cup of wine and cook for 2 more minutes.  Add the tomatoes with juice and stir well to combine.  Bring to a simmer and cook on low for t least 2 hours or longer depending on water content.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
This recipe yields about 2.5 quarts.

 Okay, now here is what I did.  I tripled this recipe basically, maybe a tad more, and I added probably 1 tablespoon of sugar to the whole batch to cut down on the acid.  I also did not have any red wine at the time so I skipped that step.  It came out fine.  For such a large batch I let it simmer for probably 5-6 hours and came out with 6 quarts.  Just keep tasting it about every hour until it gets to the concentration and flavor you want.  I thought it was very yummy.  Oh, I also used a little parsley instead of thyme but use whatever herbs you like best.
When I felt it was ready I poured it up into hot, sterilized quart jars, capped and ran through a hot water bath for 30 minutes to seal.  I can't wait to try it this winter!  Well, I can wait plenty for winter to get here but you know what I mean! lol!
EDIT!!!!!!  It is apparently, no longer safe to water bath can any tomato based product or tomatoes themselves as they are no longer the way they used to be.  (Along with most everything else in this world)  It is advised to only pressure can tomatoes from now on.  Look it up.  Do what you want but don't blame me.

Since I had everything going that day I also canned 6 quarts of peaches and 5 half pints of peach jam.  We are getting yet more rain today but tomorrow is supposed to be clear and I hope to put up a good bit of salsa and pickles.  If ya'll are interested I'll give you my recipes for that.

Doggone It!

Even though I don't write about it very often I think most of you that have read my blog for very long know pretty much how I feel about pets and livestock versus this "furkid" mentality.  I love all my animals, even my chickens, but they all have their duties here and that's the way it has to be.  We don't have the money or time to have slackers around here; everybody works in some way.  And, because I love all my animals, even my chickens, and the fact that they work and produce for me, I am very determined to give them the best life I can under the safest conditions.  Which leads me to the real subject of this post.  I have known for some time that many people do not share my attitude towards animals, preferring to look at them as 4-legged children, and this is something I have learned can turn into a very dangerous situation for all involved.  A lot of people have apparently lost all common sense also, when it comes to animals, so I felt it necessary to post a bit of explanation or cautionary tale to those not familiar with farm or country life.  Of course, I know full well that all of MY kind readers already understand all this and would never do such a thing....it's just so you can warn your friends about it.

The basic premise it this:  Do NOT, under any circumstances, bring your pets (of any species) out to someone's farm or land unless you have specifically been told it is okay.  Apparently many people believe that if a friend or acquaintance has a large tract of land that it is a free call to bring Rover out for a "play date".  We don't do play dates.  It astounds me to no end that there are people in this world who would not understand this but I have had people actually show up at my house with a car load of dogs, pet birds and other creatures.  Do not do this.  EVER.  I can assure you, just as nobody can stand a little brat kid, no one is going to think your little Spot or Snookums is anywhere as cute, smart or funny as you do and if it gets loose (or God forbid you turn it loose) on my property and it chases one of my animals, you will not be happy with the results.  My chickens provide me with food, fertilizer and companionship.  They are very valuable to me.  If your dog kills or maims one of them you have taken money from my hand.  It is not cute or funny (as I have actually heard it described by one pet owner) to see my chickens terrorized by some @#$$%#^&%& stupid dog and their owner that can't control them.  If your dog gets loose, and I catch it in the act of killing any of my animals, I WILL stop it by any means necessary. 
Secondly, my dog has a job too.  I know if you meet Chigger she is all playful and cute but she is trained to protect the other animals and she does her best.  She understands to alert us of strange animals on the property and she has been specifically trained NOT to play with other dogs so she does not see strays or neighbor dogs as "friends".  She does not need a play date either.  She has her cat to play with and we play catch and frisbee and various things with her and that's enough.  Even if you do not let your pets out of your vehicle she knows they are there and is going to be very upset.  I do not like this and she does not like it either.  Speaking of Callie Cat, who is our resident mouser and vole catcher, Chigger protects her too, just like the chickens.  If your dog tries to chase my cat, like many dogs are prone too, Chigger is not going to like this and I can just about bet you the situation is not going to end well for somebody.  It better not be me or my animals.
Your pets can also bring disease to my animals, especially bird to bird, or your animal could contract something from mine.  It's best to not even give this an opportunity to start.  If a virus is brought in that runs through my flock and kills them, you just cost me a WHOLE lot of money and heartache. 

Now, I know this is a very stern and maybe even acrimonious post but I would bet money that most all homesteaders and country folk would agree with me and ya'll know that I'm not one to really mince words anyway.  Also, from what I see around me, many people nowadays are so far removed from country life and dynamics of having livestock, poultry etc. that they can't even comprehend that their pets may not be welcome at everyone's house.  To people like this it would literally be like telling them not to bring their kids.  Well, I'm not too keen on those little ankle biters either, but I guess most of them can be tolerated to some extent. As long as they leave my animals alone.

That Smell

With the recent painting renewal it also became time to deal with an issue that, over the past couple of years, has become a serious problem.  Carpenter bees have been eating select parts of my house, or trying to anyway.  Now really, they were only going after the few pieces of wood on the house that are pressure treated.  I don't understand that at all.  You would think they would avoid the chemically treated wood and go for the natural stuff but I guess these bees aren't interested in the 'green' movement.  When they first started coming around I didn't do much because it really hurts my soul to kill these creatures and they were just chewing on some boards that are probably going to be replaced anyway when I put up the real porch columns.  However, one thing I learned is that the offspring of these little piggies return each spring, somehow, to exactly the spot where they were hatched, even using the same holes sometimes.  Well, after enough generations these holes fill up faster and it's time for expansion!  Time to move to the suburbs!  When I noticed they were now crawling up under my roofing trim and flashing to get to the tops of my rafters, I said 'No more'.  I know you are a great pollinator.  I know you are a vital part of the ecosystem.  But I cannot let you eat my house.  I really, really, really hated it but we did kill a number of them to get them out of the rafters.  I do not want to continue such a thing though; neither the killing or the eating, so I did a little Google-fu and found this stuff.

It is an all- natural carpenter bee repellent that you mix in paint or just water and apply to whatever you don't want them to eat.  I was a little skeptical but willing to try.  It is also supposed to be time released so it lasts for several years.  Today I mixed it in the paint that I use on the rafters and some other trim and got to work.  Let me first just say that the odor is.....STRONG.  I would use caution if you have a bad problem with strong odors.  Secondly, nothing came near me the whole day I was painting.  No bees, skeeters, bugs, Jack, gnats, nada.  Even the dreaded deer fly stayed away if I had that bucket near me.  One dirt dobber buzzed around my head a couple of times and then flew off screaming.  Finally, towards the end of the day a lone carpenter bee appeared after I had put the paint up to do some caulking.  I got the paint back out and eased over to the rafters he was scrutinizing.  I gently brushed on some paint in his general direction.  He eased on down the other way about 8 feet.  I followed.  Little more paint near him.  He quickly buzzed off and went up to check out the eaves.  I followed.  A few more slaps of paint and he said the heck with it, I'm leaving.  Now, I don't know that it was the smell but whenever I came near him with that paint he left and I was being real quiet about it to try not to spook him.

It says that it will also repel other bugs; ants, spiders and such so I think I'll mix some in some water and spray my foundation and bottom run of siding.  I don't have any problem with bugs coming in the house now but it never hurts to do a little preventative work.  I wonder if it would repel chickens??

Oh, one note: I realize the bees are not actually ingesting my house.  They are chewing it up and spitting it out.  Same thing.  Same problem.

Cracker Box Palace

Well, today has just been a real Monday all around; very frustrating.  I was having so much trouble with Blogger I wasn't sure I was going to get anything posted or not.  But I persisted.  I trudged on for you, my dear readers!  Ha!  I know this blog has really had ya'll on the edge of your seats lately, ya know?
Anyway, these I-beams and tube steel are what I've been working on lately.  How did I get those heavy pieces of steel up there, you ask??  Well, us construction workers are not as dumb as people think!  We have levitation abilities!  No, not really; not anything that exciting.  There was simply decking over the openings when I was working there.  They wrecked the decking today to make the area ready for the elevator men.

 Just thought I'd give ya'll a few different views of the job site.  So far, they have made just over 200 concrete pours on this job.  I have no idea of the yardage.

This is (will be) the courtyard area.  Right now it's a staging area.  If you enlarge the area you should be able to see a lot of the sorted rebar and some finished column reinforcement waiting to be set.
I know sometimes I probably sound like a broken record talking about being safe with projects and stuff and maybe even kind of an alarmist type but this is what I know.  This you see is serious.  We are not playing around and this, in this photo, is one reason why it irks the hell out of me to see these jackleg bloggers giving people dishonest views of concrete and building.  Now, I know ya'll aren't building anything like this.  I know that pouring a patio slab or some other similar DIY project is rarely ever going to end in any serious injury but you have to be careful.  Accidents do happen.  And any structural concrete needs steel reinforcement.
 

I was trying to get both cranes in the shot but it's kinda hard when you are up close.  My stamina is improving and I've been working in the shade the past few days with this welding, so that has helped.  It's not near as hot as it was but even a cool day gets warm if you are welding in the open.  That comes later!  Ugh!
I tell ya, I sure didn't want to come back last night.  I hated to leave home but I keep telling myself it will be good.  I will be able to finish the house and it will look so good and be even more enjoyable to live there.  Well, bedtime comes early these days!  See ya'll!

Reach A Little Further

Well. After about 21 years of trying, I finally created an art object that fully represents what I have seen in my mind. I finally... made the perfect mug. Now, it really doesn't look much different than many of the other mugs I have made. Not to someone else anyway. But, to me it does. And when I pick it up, I cannot feel any error in it. Not see, mind you. Feel. I will not sell this one. This one is mine.
I suppose some would say that if this is a first after 21 years that I am being a bit too picky. Maybe they would be correct. Maybe not. Unless yo have a creative nature if is very difficult to explain to someone how most artists are not satisfied with their work. I mean, you can be satisfied with many pieces that you have come reasonably close to your mind's eye but it is a very elusive thing to hit it dead on. That's why many artists are so prolific; it's a constant struggle to get closer and closer to what you see in your head. It's like target practice with a bow or gun, except you are wearing a thin blindfold. You can see just enough to know what to create but you don't know if you've hit the bull's eye until it's completely finished.

I know also that in my building I am probably overly picky also. I overbuild. This is good to some extent and I'll let you in a a little secret. I do it partially because I'm lazy. Once that projects done, I don't want to ever have to fool with that again. As per many comments I have received in person and such I apparently came off as being a psycho, maniacal control freak in the post "Distant Early Warning". Now everyone I know if afraid to let me see anything they have built or even any drawings they have made for building. Let me clarify some things, please. I don't have any problem with people that don't know how to build. Not everyone in this life knows how or cares to know how. Or even could do it well if they tried to learn. Some people just don't have that talent but they have other talent. (Like making lots of money so you can pay a good carpenter! Ha!) What I have a problem with, and I tried to explain but I know I don't have the talent for explaining, is people that don't know how to build but present themselves as an authority to others. Now, I have a BIG problem with that and unfortunately, the Internet gives these people a very wide audience to spread their misinformation to. And even if they clarify that you should do your own research and such there are many people out there that make building sound overly simple, that if those dumb ol' construction workers can do it I can too or that they used to do a little house framing so now they know how to build a high-rise. Building is not rocket science but you do have to understand some basic laws of physics and geometry. I was only trying to say to please, watch who you get your advice from on these blogs. Be very careful about building anything exactly like you have seen it built on some website. A lot of these bloggers like to present themselves as the true Edifice Rex! (joking!) because they know you can't see their work in person. They know they would get laughed off a real job site so their blog is an area where they can pad their ego. You can't see the back side of that wall where their form blew out. You can't see that footing that cracked all to hell or their rat sill that rotted out because they didn't use pressure-treated lumber. They may occasionally tell you, "yeah, I made a little mistake" but if you notice, they'll never show a close enough picture for you to see how bad it really was. And, as I said, even watch what I do because it may not comply with code for your area. I have done things to my house, say, because of the threat of termites, that people up north don't have to do. If nothing else, some of these people will cause you to do a lot more work than is needed simply because they don't know how to work efficiently or do not know the products available. I have seen them pour walls (concrete) that took over a year, multiple pours and about twice the money simply because they didn't know how to form a wall correctly using the hardware available now that would have allowed it done all at once or two pours at the most. I want to make one other thing clear too: I was NOT referring to anyone whose blog I link to or who is a regular reader/commenter here. I would never link to anyone that I felt was misleading people, no matter how entertaining they are.
So, call me a hard ass or a smart ass if you want, but I'm looking out for you! Buyer and builder beware!

Tell Me 'Bout It

I thought I'd include a quick photo to show ya'll how the little craps are growing and starting to look like big chickens now. They are a lively bunch and never ending source of entertainment. Very few of them are actually the breeds or the number thereof we were told we were getting. I don't believe I'll be too quick to buy from that guy again. Well, live and learn...

Now, on the main subject of this post: I thought it was funny that yesterday's post title got way more hits than even the "Great Big Knockers"! But, Ron, you shouldn't have deleted your original comment on that last post! I was not put off by it and you have a right to express your opinion. I hope my reply comment did not come off as brusque or snippy. I was in a little bit of a hurry yesterday to get going and kinda rushed through a few comments that morning. I needed to go into Birmingham for a multitude of errands and meetings and it was about 10:00 last night before I got home. I intended to continue answering comments but during the last hour of my trip I developed one of my tri-annual migraines and made it home limping and dragging. I had trouble reading, much less typing something legible, so thought I'd just respond to comments here. I feel somewhat better today but am a bit fuzzy still from the meds. At any rate, I don't want my readers to feel they cannot dispute me or argue their point. Ed has disagreed with me a few times and I still let him come around! LOL!! Sometimes it's hard to remember to make absolutely every point you want to within one post. I certainly did not want to make it sound like regular Joe's (non-construction people) can't do a good job. Certainly they can. And I have seen, in person, some horrible examples of "professional" work. I actually meant to include such in my original post but my memory leaves me sometimes. I'll never forget once, Allen and I watched a crew of home builders pouring a footing for one of your typical McMansion type houses in a suburb. This was probably a 2,500 sq.ft. home or more, so a sizable footprint. Now, they were pouring directly out of the truck and we noticed that they only moved that truck once. You see, the concrete was SO wet, it RAN all the way around the footings. We call that pea soup at work. And that is one reason I would never want a licenced home builder, other than Allen, to build anything for me. Sure, the mud set up. But what it's going to do 10 years from now when the ground has heaved a little here and there.....
And what Jenn said in comments about a commercial block building that they didn't even grout or throw their rebar in...Dang! I wonder how that got past inspection? but stuff like that does occasionally happen. That was one reason I was so reluctant to ever work for another construction company than the one I did. We did our work right! We never cut corners on our concrete or reinforcing. We were proud of our work and rightly so.

But yall, please, if you don't agree with me on something, feel free to say so if you're inclined. I would love to get more comments than I do because I like discussion and I am not up here just to spout out what I think is so. I show what has worked, or not worked, for me and I show some building techniques I know to be correct because I know a lot of people want that information but I am not an authority and somebody can always come up with a better or easier way. We always said at work; a good carpenter is NOT one that never makes a mistake. A good carpenter is one that knows how to fix his mistakes. You can always learn from others too. I know I may have a terse manner sometimes and some of my comments may seem snippy but it's just years of construction work and that environment. I know that sounds like a lame excuse but, well, you work on those sites for 20 years and tell me what you think. lol! Either way, I welcome all comments. Unless, you tell me I'm a bitch; then I'll kick your ass!

Distant Early Warning

The photo here does not directly relate to what this post is about but is more of just an example to make my point about something. Now, I don't want this post to come off as pissy or elitist or some other such; it's just my thoughts on some stuff that has bothered me for a while. Of course, I know I'm preaching to the choir, so to speak, on this subject because all of my readers are smart and savvy enough to know what I'm fixin' to tell you but just in case....
Over the years of blogging I have come across a number of other blogs on building, as you would expect. Mostly it's regular people building their own home or barns or such. And that is great. Ya'll know that I try to encourage everyone to try their hand at building, especially women, for a variety on reasons. And in the course of reading some of these blogs I have noticed some of them have quite a few readers. Unfortunately, it seems that the blogs of people who are least qualified to be showing other people how to build something are sometimes the most heavily read. Let me just say, just because someone is being adventuresome in their construction; say, building in some exotic location, does NOT mean they know what they are doing. Now, some of these are fun to read regardless and I am not promoting myself as some all-time expert; I make mistakes too, which I will also show you. That said, I do have almost 20 years of construction and safety training and with that I say please, PLEASE, be very careful who you take construction advise from and what their qualifications are. I don't care how much experience they say they have in concrete, if they don't know what a snap-tie or a johnny clamp is, you run from them, quickly. They are an idiot and have never worked in the industry. In fact, we used to have a game we played when I worked construction. We often had fellows drop by our jobs looking for work and they often claimed to be form carpenters or whatever. This is common in commercial construction. Now, they wouldn't have a resume or anything but would just tell the super what their experience etc. Now, if they promoted themselves as super-carpenter, one who had done all and been all, and even if he uttered the famous words of one guy, "when it gets too rough for everybody else, it's just right for me", we, the crew, would immediately start taking bets on how fast this guy was going to drag up. Not, IF he was going to drag up but just how fast, because when people start talking like that they are full of shit. We never were wrong about a one. Keep that in mind when reading these blogs.
I have also noticed that many of the self-sufficiency types and all really like to get out of the city limits where there are fewer, if any, restrictions on building. Now, I don't have a problem with this. I'm only in the county and didn't have inspections on my house BUT, it is still built to code. Now, I agree that many times the building codes are stupid about some things and the city just wants the revenue. However, for the most part these building codes are for your protection. They are there so that JimBob doesn't put your rafters on 3 foot centers and have the ceiling or roof collapse on you. It's there so your neighbor isn't shitting in a 55-gallon drum and having it overflow onto your property. It's there so your well-meaning cousin doesn't burn your house down because he really didn't know how to wire that junction box anyway.
I have seen some of the stupidest things done, by way of building, on some of these blogs. I have seen people frame a two story house and not put the first header over a door or window. That's fine until about 2 years down the road when things have sagged so bad they can't open any of the doors or windows. I have seen a lot of unsupported spans on outer floor bands and rafters; no piers but in the corners. Code will tell you how far you can span according to the size lumber. I actually saw a couple install rafters with the wide side down. Now, I don't know how anyone can look at that, no matter their experience or lack thereof, and think,' yeah, that's the way those go'.
Granted it was just a chicken coop (a big one) but, holy hell! how do you do something like that.?? I have seen people install roofing in about every bad way imaginable. Granted now, roofing can be difficult and you really need to have help if you don't know what you are doing.
And Lord O' mercy, don't get me started about people pouring concrete. Concrete is a wonderful and versatile medium. It is astounding in it's strength and beauty. Under the right circumstances, it will kill you deader'n a hammer in seconds if you make one mistake. Concrete is not something to screw with and you especially need to watch who you get your advice from. Now, it's hard to make a deadly mistake pouring a slab for a patio or such but you can mess up and waste an enormous amount of money if nothing else. The photo above is of some formwork from one of my old jobs. We were pouring foundation piers and footings that were 2-3 feet deep. You can see some of the massive amount of rebar that went in those footings and the steel sticking up was just part of what was stubbed up for the walls that would pour on top. And, in all honesty, these were kinda wimpy footings for commercial work. I've seen one guy, on a blog, pour walls where he only put a stick of rebar every 4 or 5 feet and then claimed that was overdoing it. And NO, fiber in the mix does not help on walls. Fiber is to help keep slabs and walkways from cracking. It is NOT structural. Nothing over his doorways, windows etc. Please, please, please, consult with an actual concrete professional if you are going to pour walls, even some retaining walls. Walls must be tied into the footings correctly and with sufficient steel and the footings themselves must be sufficient to hold the wall up. Now, I know footings for a house are nowhere near what commercial construction calls for but, as I have actually seen, a 2-inch thick little spread footing is NOT going to hold up a two story house, especially when it was poured right on top of the topsoil! They didn't even dig down past the frost line or to substantial enough earth to meet resistance from a probe. You can get into a lot of trouble with concrete in a hurry if it is done incorrectly. The form itself can fail, which I have seen, and that can hurt or kill someone. Concrete (reinforced) weighs around 140 lbs. per cubic FOOT. That means one yard is way over 3,000 pounds. Concrete is expensive nowadays and hard to get back out once it has set! If you screw it up it can be costly to repair.
It just pains me to no end to watch people install such piss-poor foundations for their houses and such and you know, come a year or two or 5, everything is going to be so damn outta whack the walls are going to be cracking and all kinds of hell. The foundations, however they are done, must be done correctly or the rest of the house will suffer for it. And you too, I might add.
So, this is my rant. Just please, take most of what you see online with a grain of salt. Even me. For one thing, I have come to realize that something that is code down here might not be advisable in another climate and some stuff I've seen done up north (because it was code) I would never do here. MUCH depends on your climate, the geology of your region and the building materials you are using. Please, please be aware of these things, research your ideas for your region and know and go by the building codes, even if you don't have to.

You Are My Sunshine

Well, I'm finally back and with photos!! Just a few pics to show how things have really sprang forth over the past week or so. I've a bit of catching up to do however, with pics of the garden and chicken coop. Progress has been made on each front when I am not busy potting.
Generally, I prefer the Japanese iris over these Dutch or 'bearded' iris but these are quite stunning.

They have really gone bonkers this year. Someone gave these to me and so I have been able to continue adding to this bed without spending much money. I like seeing just how many flowers I can scrounge. The yellow ones you see are basically just a weed around these parts that I cultivate. They don't normally bloom so profusely but then most people mow them down. If given some fertile ground and encouraged they really become full. I like them.

The dragons are out in force again! It took a little while but they are really blooming also. Sometimes there are so many flitting about I can't even begin to get a count on them. I have tried to make them feel welcome because they eat so many pests. However, I read the other day, they also will eat bees! Not a good thing. But, I guess you got to take the good with the bad sometimes. They apparently don't like to hassle with bumbles though because I have more of those than I care for! Nah, I like the bumbles... but they also like my pressure treated lumber. We are going to have to come to some sort of agreement over that!

On another note, I found something out the other day that was quite surprising. I had gone in a couple of weeks ago for my yearly exam and the results came back from my blood work. I have a fairly significant vitamin D deficiency. At first I could not figure out how. I mean, I'm in the sun all the time. But then it hit me; yeah, but I wear sunscreen. Completely blocks your body from producing D. I don't wear it as much now (because it is shady in much of the areas I work at home) but when I worked construction we practically just had to wear it or we would have roasted ourselves. Many of the jobs offered no shade at all. Nothing but bare concrete reflecting the sun back up on you, so we all wore lots of screen. I tried the natural stuff too but if it protects against burning it's not allowing the other either. So, I looked up what foods we get D from. Fish and beef liver mostly. Bleh. I don't care much for either of those. Some comes from eggs but not enough for me apparently. I had noticed that over the past couple of years I have been having some major bone and muscle pain but just figured it was my work. And seemed my forgetfulness and fuzzy thinking had been getting worse. I hope that I can blame all these things on the lack of D; they are the common symptoms. If I can, then that means they will get better now that I am taking a supplement. I hope so.
So, ya'll that use a lot of sunscreen keep this in mind. I would have never made the connection between the symptoms and the deficiency if I had not had that blood work done.

Oh yeah, how is the new layout and design? Please, please tell me if this blog is ever hard for you to view or read. I had been think for some time that the old one was a little hard to read but wasn't sure. I assure you, I will not get upset. Having funky colors or something is one thing. That is a personal preference, but simply making the posts legible is my duty to you.

Progress

I piddled around yesterday enough to get the forms lined (straightened), the vapor barrier in and started on the rebar. I think I've mentioned this before but a vapor barrier underneath concrete is very important if there is ever going to be any enclosed structure on top of the concrete. If you don't have it you can get sweating on top of the slab and, inside a structure, this is not good. Also, I always put my stakes and kickers about every 3 to 4 feet down the form. Any further apart and you tend to get bows in the form. If I were using actual beamsides or forms (plywood backed by 2x4's) I would not need kickers on such a short form. Always kick both sides of all corners too. I used the turnbuckles for my kickers because, 1. I had them and didn't have 2x's and 2. the form had a little wiggle to it so I could pull it out with the turnbuckles.
I just scrounged out what #4 rebar I had and threw that in there. I think it's on about 16" centers. This slab really didn't need much but you do want to have some steel in any slab or sidewalk. Heavy wire mesh would have been fine also. I'm hoping to pour Monday or Tuesday.

The flowers are really kicking in here. Things are real starting to grow and blossom.

The broccoli has gone gangbusters! I picked a large mess for supper the other night and it continues to produce these shoots just all over the plant. I am curious to see how long they will do this. I guess until it gets pretty warm. And so far, knock on wood, I've not had any problems with pests.

Tell It Like It Is

These little guys were just everywhere today while I worked on siding, although these pics depict just one. I was checking how much propane I still have left and he was checking to see if I was going to try to eat him. Their little fingers and claws are so delicate. I like having them around.

Some of the comments on my post about how stupid I was, got me thinking some more about why I post some things and I guess, why some people don't. I came to the conclusion that I feel somewhat obligated to tell the whole story. Let me explain....
I get tons of women all the time telling me that they wish they could do some of the stuff I do and how they wish they had my skills and all that, so I try to use this blog to encourage and show women (and some men I guess) that they CAN do what I do, if you put your mind to it. Of course, I'm going to show when I make mistakes or whatever because that is part of it and you shouldn't be ashamed of making a mistake. Be ashamed of not ever trying.
But when it comes to safety and being honest about just what you are getting into, I feel very obligated. See, if I'm going to get up here and call on women to pick up the tools and do stuff, I've got to tell the whole truth about what else might be involved. And in that line of thought, I would encourage most all women to do more around the house, learn to use tools and all that but I don't know that I would actually encourage many to do what I do for a living. Not that I think I'm some kind of Superwoman! It's just that my line of work can be very dangerous and I just happen to start out young enough that my body grew and adapted to that kind of work. Not always a good thing either, by the way.
I'm reminded of an incident a few years ago where a YWCA in a nearby big city started a program to train women in the trades. You know, teach them how to be plumbers and carpenters etc. Now, I'm all for that. It would help a lot of disadvantaged women get decent paying jobs without a college degree and this was their objective. So, they contacted me to teach a class for them. That was fine with me and they asked me, as someone who has worked in the trades for a long time, if there was anything else I thought they should be teaching these women. Well, after talking to the directors for a while, I realized that they were not being entirely honest with these women. They were promising them instant jobs as soon as they completed the course and pay at a commercial journeyman's rate; not as a residential apprentice, which they would be, IF they could get hired. Women are not unheard of in the trades but it is a hard break to get, to get one of the contractors to take you seriously.
So, I voiced my concerns to the directors and told them exactly why. They should also have courses on safety and such and proper behavior on a job site, i.e how to dress and conduct yourself on a site with 100 men.
Well, I guess they didn't really want to hear the reality of the work (and didn't want the women students to hear either) because I never heard from them anymore. I often wonder just how many of those women actually got jobs after the course or did many of them just become discouraged and go back to working at McDonald's.
At any rate, here on this site, I'm going to tell you that if you chose to do some of this work that I show, you must know that it can be dangerous and, at times, incredibly physically demanding. More than one man has run his fingers lightly over my arms (and other places, heh!) and asked about the scars that adorn them. But the work is also very rewarding and empowering. Especially welding! Talk about giving you a great sense of power! I am proof, if nothing else, that you can do just about anything you put your mind to, even by yourself. There may be a little more head scratching involved but you can find a way.

*Aaron Neville

Dare To Be Stupid

Some bloggers write only about the happy, successful events of their lives, choosing to present a Pollyanna view of their world to their readers. Other bloggers seem to use their writings as a vent-all for everything wrong in their lives and others still just avoid all personal references all together by simply posting photographs. I don't criticize any of these; it's every person's right to blog how they want to! But I do, on the other hand, try to present an even flow, a happy medium between senseless joy and head-banging dismality. Even so, I thought seriously about not presenting this post. Just wipe it out and none of you would be the wiser. However, it does have a good lesson in it; one that is best learned by you observing someone else's stupidity, rather than risk yourself. And lest any of you think that I am truly, always Queen of the Universe, I do present this story to remind you that even I don't always know what the hell I'm doing. There is much to be said for sheer determination in the face of adversity but there should also be much said for not being impatient and getting aggravated easily.
So, you know of the problems that occurred last week with the water pump and my struggle to correct this malfunction, which I did. Well, not one day after my 'success', I was thwarted again when I got up that morning and realized I had no water again. I resigned myself to the situation and walked down to the spring and pump house to see what the problem was. Upon arriving at the spring, I saw that an old, rubber coupling had let go (I failed to check if it was still tight) and the water line was just laying open. Now, here is where I made my first mistake. I forgot that this end of the line had a backflow preventer installed, so the water in the line would not run out in such a situation. It also has a regular shut-off valve below the preventer, and knowing this was open, I assumed all the water below the pump had run out. This meant, in my mind, that the pump and all lines below, would need to be reprimed. So, I put the line back together, actually moving the footvalve back to the original spring (more about this later) and then going up to the pump house to see what was going on there.
When I got to the pump house, the pressure tank was registering about 40 lbs, but knowing that just air was coming out of the lines at the house, I was skeptical that was water in the tank. I opened the drain cock on the pressure tank, and sure enough, just air came out. So, I thought I bled the pressure off the tank. Second mistake here. I was tired and aggravated and I guess I just didn't wait long enough to see that all the pressure was off. Now, some of you who are knowledgeable of such things may be grimacing and squirming in your seats right about now. You can guess what I did. I got my other tools and checked the fittings on the pump. Everything seemed okay there. All the new iron fittings had held, no apparent leaks etc. So, thinking that the line coming into the pump was dry and the pressure tank was empty, I knew I needed to prime the pump and lines so that it could start to draw water again. So, I unscrewed the plug on the top of the pump. Now, if you have never been busted in the face with a one inch, steel plug going oh, about 40 mph, it is a difficult sensation to describe to you. The odd thing is, I can't really say that it hurt. I think pain of that magnitude just goes over to shock. I knew right away something was wrong but couldn't really say what. Then I saw blood dripping on my shirt sleeve. At this point I just sat down and called Allen. He was the closest person that I knew would know what to do. After a few moments, I regained some sense (not much) and saw that the bleeding had stopped, so I went back to work trying to get the pump going. It would run but didn't seem to be drawing water. Allen arrived after a while and when he walked up I could tell from the look on his face that something more was wrong with my face. I thought the force of pressure had just bloodied my nose a little. Not so. The plug had cut a line from my nose down to my lip and it was swelling now. Real pretty. I am extremely fortunate that it had not hit me in the eye or forehead though. In the end, Allen got the pump running again. I had just not let it run long enough and while it took a considerable amount of time to get the air out of the lines, everything cleared out and all is functioning well now.
So, the moral of this little story is this: not much is so bad that it can't be fixed, so don't go to work on something with a crappy attitude and get in a hurry. You are the one that is going to suffer if something goes wrong. Check out the whole situation and if you are not sure about something, ASK somebody who would know.

*Weird Al Yankovic

Eight Miles High

The recent crane collapse in New York has caused some talk on the job lately. Unfortunately, cranes falling are not that uncommon even here, away from the real high rises. I mean, it doesn't happen all the time but I know of several incidences in my short career. These photos are from my one time in a tower crane several years back. We were building onto a hospital in Anniston, AL. This crane was only at about 200 feet but to me it was pretty high. They sway so much that I actually felt motion sick as I reached the top. Another thing that is about as common is to have the crane operator die in the crane of natural causes. I guess since most operators are usually older men and the cabs of the cranes get very hot, several of them have had heart attacks. By the time anyone knows what is going on and can get to them (it takes about 15-20 minutes to climb to the cab) they are already dead. One we know of died during a concrete pour. A lot of the high rise floors here are poured with a crane and buckets that holds 2-3 yards of concrete. The operator had enough wits about him when he realized what was happening to hit the emergency stop on the crane but he unfortunately, passed away.
I took this photo while I was sitting in the operator's seat. The floor of the cab is Plexiglas so you can see straight down. I gave me a really uneasy feeling at first. Another thing the surprises a lot of the guys is when they find out that often times in the summer, the tower crane operators will be nude. It gets so hot in the cabs, as they are essentially glass boxes, many of the operators will take all their clothes off. This was the case with another one that died in the crane and when our guys got up there to him they were quite surprised with what they found.
There was another young man killed on a site this week not far from here. In fact, it was on a job that my company was supposed to have gotten as general contractor. Two construction workers in less than a year is a little unusual. From the reports it sounded like he was electrocuted. You know, when I see some of you out there working on construction projects of your own and I say, please be careful etc., I don't think that you all are stupid or don't know what you are doing, it's just that we see so many bad things, it makes you constantly aware of what can happen. We have safety crammed down our throats and stuff still happens every day on jobs and it happens in the blink of an eye. I mean, I know of 2 incidences where I was just 3 or 4 inches from buying the farm myself. You maybe don't really find out how close you came until later and it is very sobering. So, please be careful anytime you are climbing on something, working with electrical or gas or working under an object that is not completely secure.
I haven't felt like posting much lately even though I have several things going on at the house. My mood is still kinda flat and I just don't feel like I have much to say that would be of any interest to anyone out there. I learn so much from all the other blogs out there and hope I provide some new ideas maybe, to someone, but I guess I feel like I don't have anything new to share. Anyway, maybe I won't be away too long. Ya'll be safe.


*The Byrds

Second Time Around, Part 2

Well, the pour went fine after all and now I have a great, slick concrete floor for my new studio! We had a little excitement at first though. I was not able to arrange a finisher so Allen assured me we could do it but we did have one laborer lined up to help place the concrete. He canceled at 7:30 in the morning so I had to scramble to find someone else. My work buddies came through for me and we got some help. Then the truck was a little late and when he pulled up to the house the transmission decided it didn't want to work so for a while he could only go backwards and that was not a good thing. The driver crawled under the truck and messed with some stuff and after a while it started working. It's always something. The rest of the pour was pretty much uneventful and I did get a few photos. I hurt so bad today from finishing that concrete though I was so happy when we got rained out! Of course, it was close to quitting time anyway, but hey! I'll take it. I don't know if there is enough money in this world that would make me want to finish concrete for a living; it is extremely hard and really takes a lot of skill. All the guys at work were glad to hear I got poured out finally.
These photos are from some work I did over the weekend. I have had to replace a couple of sections of sub-flooring in the house. It took me so long to get the house dried in that the floor got wet several times and a couple of pieces of plywood started to delaminate. We sprayed everything heavily with water seal but it didn't stop all of it. Maybe it helped some. I think I have a couple of floor joists with a more substantial crown to them than I previously noticed that contributed to these pieces becoming lumpy also. The new pieces were glued and screwed down well since they do not have the tongue and groove edge that the original decking has. It used 3/4" CDX for the patches. A lot of people want to use chip board or particle board (OSB) for their sub flooring and I will tell you; just bite the bullet and pay for the CDX. You will hate the other and will save yourself many heartaches by using real plywood. Same for your sheathing. We are going to try to start moving my pottery equipment this week to my new studio and setting up. I'll try to get photos soon. Oh! and I received my first UPS shipment to my home yesterday!! I'm a real person now!!

Second Time Around

OK! We are set up to pour again Monday morning about 10:30 a.m. so keep your fingers crossed for me. I wish we could have gotten mud earlier but that was the best we could do; I just hope we have enough daylight to get a good slick finish on the slab. I could not arrange a finisher either so looks like me and Allen are going to be pulling double duty. I told him if he would run the troweling machine, I would be the one to get down on my knees and do the hand work. I was able to get everything back together and ready on Saturday so I had Sunday free to work on the inside. I mucked out all the soft stuff and put the plastic sheeting back down. You need to do this anytime you have a slab that is going to be in an enclosed area or you will have moisture wick it's way up through the slab and make the concrete sweat. That causes all kinds of problems. Always use at least 6 mil poly too for this. My rebar is laid out on a 2'x2' grid; all #4 bars. You could use that welded wire that has the 6"x6" grid but I had salvaged this rebar; it's easy to come by. You must put something in your slab though. What most people don't realize is that concrete is going to crack. I don't care what people tell you; it's going to crack and if there is not some kind of reinforcing in the slab, pieces can begin to float up or down and then you've got a mess.
This is the western edge of the slab that will one day (when the other half of the house is built) have a door here. There will be a block wall laid on this edge and since I don't have a footing for that, pouring this edge thick will take care of that. That is a 6" edge form there made of 2x4's ( the slab itself is 4") and we dug out from that form about 8-10" to form a horizontal flat area that slopes up to the normal 4". There are steel drive pins about every 4' behind the edge form to hold in but so much dirt washed behind it also, that thing ain't going anywhere.
We determined the top grade of the slab by measuring down off the bottom of the floor joints. The house is level (yea!) so this should give us a consistent measurement. We drove these rebar pins (at grade) about every 10 feet to give us something to screed to on the dirt bank side. On the concrete block side we just popped a chalk line.
I had to scrap in the rebar since it obviously was not made to order, so that means lots of filling in places and laps. Lap your rebar at least 16". I saved all of the drop from when Charles laid the concrete block and made all those cuts and that is what I am going to use to chair the rebar up with. Works great. Rocks work great too if you don't have anything else. The rebar should sit about in the center of the slab. It's best to leave the rebar laying on the ground and just have the little blocks nearby so you can roll a wheelbarrow over the steel, if you are going to have to do that and I think we will have to wheel just a little of this. The slab is just about 13'x 36' and 4" thick so that's about 5.75 yards of concrete. Hmmm, Allen said he just ordered 5 yards. Going to have to see what size he figured. Do you know how to figure concrete? It's not hard but you have to know how to convert inches to decimals for the slab thickness. Anyway, 5 yards is a piece of cake. The biggest pour I was ever on was only 700 yards. That's 70 full concrete trucks minimum. We worked 16 hours straight that day. Allen has poured upwards of 1,200 yards at one time, I think, when he worked on a cement factory.

There is something always kind of exciting about pouring concrete. On days of a big pour, most of the guys are always in a good, festive mood. I'm not sure why. It's almost like the same kind of excitement I feel when I am firing a big load of pottery. I think it's because you have spent all this time building these forms ( like giant molds) which can sometimes take weeks, and when you pour it's like you are casting your piece of art. We sometimes even have a special lunch or something if a big pour comes off well.

I'll try to have photos soon of the finished slab.