Officially Fall

Fall has officially arrived and even though I have been preparing work for this time I am still having trouble believing it is here. I have to figure out what I will do with all the leaves that will soon be falling to the ground. I need to rake now. I need to fertilize now.
I gave myself some pain lifting the small piece of concrete into place on the addition of the grill. It has taken some time to get over that. I'm in the mood to procrastinate. Fortunately I have put myself in the position that I must force myself to act. I set goals and sitting on my thumbs means failure. So I have to get my mind and body up to do what needs to be done.

I grilled some chicken yesterday evening. Only the second time I have used the new grill. It does take time to get up a good fire in the grill. With a gas grill you just fire it up and it is ready in minutes. But you have to deal with gas cylinders, unless it is hooked up to the house gas. But all in all I like taking the time to do it right. I have to start early so that we don't eat late. Everyone raved about the chicken. I fixed it two ways: half was marinated in Italian dressing and the other half got bar-b-que sauce at the end. I have had shortcomings before by having the chicken under done. I use a cooking thermometer and at 160 degrees the chicken was underdone. This time I went to 180- 185 degrees and it was perfect.

I did not do a thing in the yard except take the blower and move the leaves off the porch and patio. I sat by the fire thinking about all I could have been doing instead of staring at the charcoal. I've got to get the energy up in my mind to get up and get on with the work I want finished this fall.

Grill Add- on

The top photo is the new grill when I had just finished building it. The brick stack supplying the project is just visible beyond in the extreme left, next to the fence. The bottom photo is with the addition of the piece of old concrete counter top incorporated into it. The brick stack has shrunk noticeably.

The brick was formerly a patio. Before the patio, this brick was part of the front and back porches. It is the same brick the house was constructed of. When I pulled it up from the patio I ended up stacking it in that back corner. Then I took some of that and stacked it up for a pedestal to set the steel tub on and screen soil which is the stack in the foreground. I make believe that this brick is a capital store similar to silver ingots. Just sitting it is worth whatever this type of brick is worth- maybe .50 to .75 each. Employed as a temporary grill, this brick is still worth the .50 or .75 and it is also useful in additional ways.

Experimentation in grill construction imparts insight useful in building something first class. This hands-on exercise stimulates insight into understanding masonry discipline. This construction also enables me to reign as the grill master serving our table. At the same time it still serves the purpose of storage for the brick until I can employ it in some project worth more than a temporary grill. So was this effort worth the exertion? I think so.

This exercise should lead to a greater project on the house which will require all the brick in a permanent construction. Something that will see these brick employed with mortar in the joints and incorporated into the house. That project should add some real and lasting value to the property. At that time I will be done with these bricks and I will be finished with the struggle of employing them most profitably.

Progress is pushing me

I have only fired up my new grill one time since I constructed it. Mostly because most of the weeks of days since have been rainy. I had planned to use a piece of the old counter top in the grill when the time came that the job was done. Now that is done and I have these pieces out back.

I was at a loss as to which piece to use and how to incorporate it into the structure. I had that gnawing anxiety that these pieces may lay like tombstones for dead dreams. But then an idea came to me to use the small piece leaning against the grill as a side counter and a picture of how to do that sprung to mind and I instantly thought, "I will do it that way." Then I remembered that I wanted to use the rectangular piece on the front of the stack as a top for a work bench in the basement. This grill as an intangible idea begun in my mind many years ago has taken on a life of it's own and is now driving me instead of my pursuing it. Now I've got to get up and do some work.

Lemon Tree- crop report

This spring our lemon tree flowered and then set fruit. A month or so later all but about 5 lemons dropped off. That's what it did the year before when we first got it. But mid summer it flowered again and set several more lemons. They survived the falling off time and are now ripening along with the original fruit.
In the bottom photo are visible the more mature lemons on the lower left. The smaller late fruit is to be seen all over the tree. I wonder if the late fruit will reach maturity? And to think that I pooh-poohed Becky's desire for a lemon tree and that it would produce anything in the middle of Arkansas. Last year we harvested a dozen lemons. A neighbor told me the grass I have cultivated in the pot would starve the tree, and that I should pull it out. Well, the grass grows around the lemon trees in Florida, does it not?

West gate improvement final

Here is the completed project. I know that this is substantial construction. It is not a little gravel sprinkled on the ground around the gate. If in a year or two there is call to further improve this gate for some reason not knowable at this time, I know I can build on this. Ultimately, my standard is to be able to walk all the way around the house on some kind of improved surface, while pushing the lawn sweeper, and not be impeded by anything except the gates.
When we first moved in the only things here were the little pad under the air conditioner, two very large holes like from an old, collapsed septic tank, which slowly swallowed large concrete chunks, a large pile of brick, and weeds growing in profusion. I'm really itching to connect this footing with the patio. Hopefully all these separate, small projects will begin to crystallize into a whole, well-fitting landscape that adds value financially and improves our quality of life.

West gate site work

This is the completed excavation. I have this nice, little garden spade that works wonders. It made short work of getting down to business. It is leaning against the grill in the photo. The photo can be viewed by left clicking it. The spade is a Rigid tool. The business end of it is a little thicker than a shovel and the edge is flat and serrated.

Scraping an inch or two of the gravel screenings up was not difficult, either. The material came up in the same condition it was spread- perfect. It has rained for ten days. I now know that this material is best handled damp.
And here I am filling it in. It has to be filled in and raked out, tamped down, dump in some more, rake out, tamp down, more material, rake, tamp...until it is worthy. The only hard thing about this was going back for more. I told myself, "One more load ought to get it." about ten times until I was satisfied I had not cheated.

As I review these photos, I realize that this process would have worked better had I dumped the material in the middle of the excavation and spread it all the way out to the corners, building the whole level up gradually. Instead I dumped the material in piles and then raked off the top to level. Then dumping another pile next to that. While doing the final loads, I kept finding soft spots. Tamping a layer a half inch thick will have more uniform results than tamping material two or three inches thick.

West gate ground work

Today I decided to do the west gate project. I want to excavate under and around the gate. Then I want to back fill the area with the gravel screening material from the patio. My son, Sam came by and I told him that I had planned this a couple of years ago, long before we even had the fence. I believed that one day we would have a fence and that there would be a gate here on the west side of the house. I had excess screening material on purpose for this project. Even so, I was hesitant to do it, because it felt like I was losing something. I think it was greed. It is strange how the mind works. But I had these plans laid for a long, long time, so I forced myself to follow through.
Even though I know all this well, I still took a survey. Here's the gate, and here's where I'm getting the gravel. By my estimate I have at least two inches of material to take off the top.

Gate on the west side

I want to use the gravel screenings I quarry from the patio around this gate. That has been my intention when we first began planning to install the fence. I planned to have excess material for this purpose and others. In this stage of the project I want to get these projects right the first time. I could easily use all the material I take from the patio around the gate and alongside the utility porch in the top photo. But I have this feeling that I want to skimp and "go cheap". I want to hoard as much material as I can for something else. Skimping may bring poor results, if I want to take that chance. Maybe that boils down to just plain laziness. If Sam was here he'd say, "Do I detect a note of timidity?" (That's a line from the movie "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", I think.)

But there is this Dudley Doright side of the human psyche that challenges the hero in us. I should enter into this improvement to do the thing right so that in the future I'm not sorry that I skimped on an important improvement. If it turns out wrong for some unforeseen reason I have the ability to recover the screenings. I just want to do this once and I want it to result in an improvement with far more value than it cost. Is that too much to ask?

Searching for the way

Rain has fallen daily for at least ten days. I am feeling out of touch with my garden project. More rain is forecast the next couple of days. There seems to be no end in sight. I have been searching my photo albums for direction. The photos of the back yard in the morning sun brightened me. I could do some grade work on the patio without getting muddy and soaked, so maybe that's what I should work on now. The conditions for moving the gravel around could not be better.

The photo reveals the grade work I did yesterday in the lower left. There is a swath about four feet wide coming from the gate into the patio and grill area along the fence that I consider close to the final grade. The swath meets the grade of the new grill just as I want. The runoff flows between the grill and fence into the compost area.

To the right of the swath grade the patio area remains about two inches high over almost to the white chairs. Maybe that area is about twenty feet by ten feet, two inches deep... that makes something like thirty three cubic feet of material? I'm not sure about my math. Anyway, I will have a good, little pile of gravel screenings freed up for other purposes. First on my list for this material is the gate on the west side. But that is a study in itself.

Shaping the Landscape

We have had nine consecutive days of rain with more forecast. I managed to mow the yard yesterday. This morning I observed rain runoff patterns etched in the gravel. I discovered that the conditions are excellent to grade and contour the gravel screening patio base. So I set to improving the grade in this area. There is a gentle slope down from the gate to the grill. The area was high to the inside so I worked on establishing a path from the gate to the grill by cutting down the high side and spreading the material to the outside by the fence. This created a flat berm which is slightly sloped away from the fence, sort of down the middle. This will keep the runoff water away from the fence and moving past the grill. The area past the grill is way low. The runoff should flow down there and gradually migrate out of the yard along the back fence. Eventually I hope to have a drain path which will move all the runoff water to funnel out of the yard under the gates in back.

The top photo is my start to re-shape this area from the gate along the fence. The bottom photo is how I left the area. The material was easy to loosen with the spike sandals and easy to rake. Breaking up the material like this, with it wet, keeps the fine material from separating from the coarse. I raked a rough grade and then soaked it with a hose. Then I better shaped the area, according to the water patterns, with the steel rake. I soaked the area again and repeated raking and shaping, then soaking again four or five times until I got as good a slope as I could get for the time being. This process evens and settles the very fine material and leaves a thin layer of coarse material, which is fine gravel, on the top. By then the gravel on top is clean and crunchy.

I had the fence put up a little high along this line. The gravel creates a dam under and along the fence three to eight inches tall with a twenty inch wide base to buttress our yard against the low area in the lot on the other side of the fence. This is the high baseline. From this baseline it appears that I may be able to remove, or reclaim, two inches of material off the top of the patio to form a good overall contour. It was my intent to have extra material on the patio which I could later reclaim for other projects, like a path in the front yard, when the time comes. I had to get all the gravel material I was getting into the back yard before the fence went up.

Rain

Rainy weather the last few days have kept me indoors, except to clean off the back porch and the door mats. The kitchen floor gets tracked with mud when it rains and that is something which I am working to eliminate. The rain is forcing me to work on my plans. The yard will be in need of mowing when it finally dries out.

Give me what the ancients used.

I have begun to level and grade the patio in preparation for construction of the table. It is like a game to me. I aim at something I call "Egyptian Quality", or, "How would the early builders solve this basic problem?" I can only use the tools and materials I have on hand. The primary tool is my imagination.
I took everything off the patio and put on my spike sandals. I walked all over the patio until all resistence to the spikes was gone. Then I began experimenting with different methods which will not strain my back.
First, I tried a flat shovel. Then a flat piece of steel. Then a board. Then a thing I once built to use as a tamper. I tried dragging, pushing and pulling these "tools" back and forth, but none of these things really showed promise. Then I realized I needed an instrument. I needed something better than my eye to find the level grade. So I set up this string line level. That was when I realized this first attempt was an exercise in engineering. The first thing is accurate measurement with a definite grade target. Mastering the level is not as easy as it seems. Yet, wisdom will make this simple.
First I diddled around. Then I got smart and realized I was dumb. But I read somewhere that wisdom is everywhere trying to enlighten hearts with knowledge and understanding. That's what I need for this project. I need some wisdom, knowledge, and understanding.

Love Leads The Way

I understand that a plan of any undertaking has to be definite and plans have to be clear. Actions must be taken. Failure is to be avoided. But, the plan must be fluid. It is easy to confuse definiteness with rigidity. We are making definite progress. We had a general idea and when a step is taken new possibilities arise which were unforeseen. Rigidity causes blindness. Real progress requires definiteness and action and fluidity.
Becky was blown away when she saw the new grill. She was standing on the spot of the former grill, which in this photo, was in the middle of the patio between the table and the swing. She looked around and said, "Put the table right here!" She gestured lengthwise parallel to the house and said, "Put it here, this way, right in the middle." With the grill over there I agree totally. This location is better than under the tree. It feels like a final decision.
This experience inspires me. Our marriage gives me part and gives her part. The two parts work together and make a greater whole. Trust, hope, faith and love are the true ingredients of success. These are things that come alive in activity. Causing these things to come alive are like doing anything worthwhile - it takes work - a labor of love.
So with a slight course adjustment, we sail on, more sure of our way.

Grill - Fini

This is the finished grill with the top course. Looking over the pictures I saw an error. I discovered I made a mistake in the directional orientation. Fortunately, it is easily remedied. Looking back over my drawings I saw my weakness. Those marks were fuzzy. I was not clear about north or south or east or west. But I got it done and I can't wait to try it out.

With the old grill gone the patio is clear to re-grade in anticipation of the new table. And, oh yeah, I did not lay out any cash to construct this grill.

Grill Going Up

This is how I constructed the grill. I stacked a square wall and filled in the interior. I alternated the directions of the inside brick each course. This part is seven courses high. There is a top course to finish it off. That course will have some fire brick for the fire box. I also want some space around the fire box for trays, cold beverages and cooking utensils.
So far, so good.

Grilling Up the First Course

I used this piece of steel and the torpedo level to survey the site for the grill. After putting on four or five layers of screening material, and soaking with the hose in between, the spot came out level. I checked, double checked, and triple checked my drawings and I made double sure of the orientation. Taking time to make sure everything checks out in the beginning is essential. I found a couple of errors in all this that would have thrown me off.
I used the iron and a rafter square to mark the layout. I set each brick with care and squared it up. Then I stood back to go over everything one last time.

Grill Construction - A Firm Foundation

I used a flat piece of steel that is about three inches wide and forty five inches long with a small level to survey the area where the grill is going. Based on those readings I began to shovel the material into the area. Then I raked it out as level as I could get it. I stepped back and sprayed a shower of water all over the area until the water puddled up good. I waited a few minutes for the water to soak in and then I shoveled in some more material and repeated the raking and the sprinkling. I did that four or five times and each round required less material. I wanted to avoid getting too much material on the spot so I started low. Gradually the bubble found the middle and I was satisfied the spot was level and large enough to start stacking.

New Grill - Location and Design

In order to set the table I must re-grade the patio but the grill is in the way. I decided I had to do something or be stymied. I took the pencil and paper and just drew it out. That probably took me all of fifteen minutes. When I had it drawn I looked up and realized that all my uncertainty had disappeared. I thought to myself, "I can do this." This is the first time I used graph paper to draw a brick design. This was very easy to draw. Using pencil, paper, and imagination is much better than scrabbling around in the dirt experimenting with bricks trying to figure something out. DUH, REALLY NOW?!

I decided that I would put the grill this side of the table in the picture. The next thing to do is to lay a solid base on which to stack the grill. I will take the freshly loosened screenings I was going to use for the table to do the base. I feel rich having all this gravel material and bricks at my disposal to do whatever I am able to dream up.

Garden Table - Feasibility Study - #1 What about the grill?

The top photo is the view from the kitchen sink. I placed the grill so that there is an unobstructed view of it from the kitchen sink. That has worked out well. I don't think there is any call from any quarter to put the grill anywhere but where it is now. I plan to use a piece of concrete from the kitchen counter when they are replaced in the new and improved grill. This will be the third grill I have constructed so far. All have been temporary being made out of crudely stacked brick. Seeing how construction of a righteous table requires grading the entire patio, I think it is time to think about a permanent grill. I love having a fire pit lined with fire brick. That makes the heat so very even. With a concrete counter top on the side I will have enough room to place the hibachi there. I think, "Yeah, it is time for the real thing." But the thing is, once you start out to do something real, the possibility of failure becomes real. I could fail. What if I choose to ignore the fear of failure and set out to build the grill I know needs to be built?

The table will find it's exact spot. Meanwhile I won't be afraid to shove this one around with the chairs and mess up my nice, neat pile of gravel. It can't be lost.

Garden Table - Preliminary Plan

My first thoughts of building our outdoor table were weak. That's not so bad. On the one hand, my first idea got scrapped. On the other hand, I have been alerted to new and better possibility. I accept that this process will take time. Therefore, I will create a deadline of Thanksgiving to complete construction of the table. This is the best idea I have had on the subject so far.

This project requires me to re- grade the whole patio. I have to invent a method to level the whole patio and provide a proper foundation to bear the load of the table and pedestal while not overloading my spine. There's the slab on the porch in the top photo. I want to put it where the table is in the bottom photo. I have to cause the slab on the porch to float down the steps and across the patio to the base. Then the slab has to be turned to the horizontal with all the care of a space shuttle maneuvering to dock with the space station. Finally, the slab has to be set in place on top of the base and this job is done.

I may use something other than brick for the table pedestal. Becky may want the table lengthwise parallel to the fence or lengthwise parallel with the house or at some point in between. We have time to carefully consider the details.

Garden Table - First Step: We Agree and Believe

Becky and I confirmed that we both believe the garden table should stand in the location visible in the bottom photo scratched out in the gravel. Our agreement is an important first step. We want our table to provide maximum hospitality. This is the dream and this is the time and place of our first step; our garden table groundbreaking.

The groundbreaking took place while I was getting the grill on for Becky's Booster Block Party Planning Committee Meeting. I took the opportunity to move a little gravel. My spirits were high and I was thinking that all I had to do was move a little gravel, level it out, stack the bricks and put on the top. Two factors popped up to dash my preliminary concepts. Number one, I knew in my heart that this effort would be inadequate. Number two, the sheer weight and size of the concrete top means that to set it on top of a base will require an effort equal to ten stout, young men directed to lift and carry the piece.

During my painting days our crew helped the marble guys on a remodel job years ago move a counter top made from a slab of black African marble. That slab was about the same size as our concrete slab. We carried that slab from the truck to the kitchen. Installation of the counter took every bit of the strength of ten stout workmen to move and set. The boss marble guy had to buy us all a good lunch to get our cooperation. Transportation of a massive, breakable object is a huge and perilous task in itself. Break it and the project is dead. Set the top poorly and it stands as a monument to poor administrative skills. This is to become our outdoor table. I can't let Mother-in-law have anything but good things to say about it.

I am forced to go back to the drawing board. That's a good thing.

Late Summer Clean Up

Becky is the president of the neighborhood association. Every year the Boosters, as the association is called, has a block party. She had the block party planning committee meeting at our house. Sprucing up for the party I cleaned the patio furniture.
I used a product called Jomax. It is a cleaning chemical that is mixed with water and bleach. Jomax is easy to apply with a garden type sprayer. When I was a painter I always used this stuff to get rid of the mildew, the scale and cobwebs and such, as the first step of preparation to paint.
The photo of the white chair before and after pretty much tells it.
I once picked up one of the black chairs and a giant spider came scrambling out of one of the spaces underneath that serve as supports. It had a nest there. On the top side the chair looked clean enough. I could imagine the event of one such spider crawling out on a neighbor.
This is a photo of my cleaning pump sprayer taken apart, cleaned and drying. I don't use this sprayer for garden chemicals and I don't use my garden sprayer for cleaning chemicals. This sprayer did not cost much and it is now at least 8 years old but it still works good as new.

My Gravel Quarry

This photo shows how I quarried gravel for the maple tree project. There was about three inches of loose, clean gravel in the area of the shovel marks. This patio is composed of about ten yards of screenings. I was generous with my order for Mr. McCowan of screenings for this very reason. Some water and a rake will bring another crop of gravel.
I calculate that I can remove at least 2" off the top over time and still have a sufficient base. I foresee this area, in it's more permanent form, to be covered with pavers of some sort. My thinking is that with all the raking and messing with the screening base, it will become more level and settled. After some time it will be a fabulous base for a top treatment that is more solid, more clean. While the rest of the landscape is developing, this remains fluid, and that is what I wanted.
There was some petrified cat poop mixed in with the gravel. The cats expressed a little displeasure towards me for taking away their gravel litter.

Maple Tree Final

To finish off this round of improvements to the Japanese Maple tree I topped the planter off with medium screened compost and raked it smooth and pretty. Then I brought some more gravel from my quarry to fill around the outside of the planter.
To better position the swing I needed to adjust the patio border out a little. The area under where the swing had been also needed re-surfacing. Using my spike sandals I tromped around the area. This loosened the gravel enough to rake it out to a better line.
Brody seems to approve the work. Not bad seeing how I did not spend a cent on this project.

I was told this tree should reach about 30' tall. I foresee people sitting underneath this tree, years hence, in a neat urban design. For the time being we can just sit next to it.

Japanese Maple Planter Construction

The top photo shows the general idea of the first course of brick on the gravel base. I did not have enough of these whole bricks to lay two courses. I replaced the whole bricks of the first course on the patio side with half bricks. They are below the grade and not visible. With the bricks I took from there, and bricks I took from the fig tree planter I had enough to do two courses with one full brick left over.

The middle photo is my pile of detritus, from which I took enough to back fill next to the brick to the top of the first course. The bottom photo shows the finished two course wall and detritus back fill.