At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I have to say I am getting more than a little satisfaction from the completion of the porch project. My wife did the design work and spec'd out all the materials. I'm pleased with how her design turned out. We still have a few little things left to complete, screens, screen door, staining the wood, etc., but the porch and deck are finally usable!

 

[Obed]

My wife built a fire in the fireplace yesterday and today. The fire felt great on a couple cool overcast days. But it underscores how far behind I am in cutting and splitting firewood for this season. It looks like I will be burning not-so-seasoned wood again this year. I have a little cut and split but probably only enough for 1/3 of the winter. Maybe I'll be caught up before next year's wood burning season starts.

 

[Obed]

I've been remiss in uploading pictures. I built the porch steps and temporarilly propped them on some wood blocks so we could use them. A friend's son helped me build them.

 

[Obed]

On Saturday I took the day off and went whitewater kayaking. When I got home I discovered that my wife had moved the steps and started the prep work for putting the steps on their final base. She scraped off the gravel and dug out some red clay dirt. I took over and finished the job. I added gravel to provide a level base that would give the steps the correct height. Each step is a 6 1/2" drop. After leveling out the gravel we sat the steps in place. They feel rock solid when walking on them.

Also, you can see that my wife has finished staining the posts, railing, and rim joists. She also stained the steps.

We will take a break from working on the porch and deck for a while. At some point we will install removable screens on the porch.

My next priority is firewood.

 

[Obed]

Here you can see what is under the steps. A year ago when we were grading the yard, we reinstalled a drain line for the roof gutters. The grading contractor had installed the drain line under the spot designated for my wife's herb garden. So I dug up the errant drain line.



We installed the new drain line in a better spot.



In preparation for the porch steps, we installed a French drain under the gravel and connected it to the gutter drain line. In this way, the top of the gravel under the steps could be level with the surrounding topsoil but not turn into a mud hole.

 

[clemsonfor]

Last night we bought this stainless steel gas grill off of Craigslist for $20. It's in fairly good shape. All the igniters work. One of the 3 burners is starting to rust out but is still useable. A set of 3 new burners costs $13 online. One of the casters does not work. For under $50 we will have a very nice grill when done.

We got our previous grill for free when someone put it out on the street for trash pickup. We replaced the burner for $10 or so bucks and used that grill for 10 years. Our "new" grill is in much better condition than the old one. Unfortunately, the new grill is very heavy so we will need to get the casters working.

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i got one of those $15 replacement burners for my charbroil. It lasted a year? It was a stainless one too? My grill sits under the carport so its not like its getting moisture from rain on it? The grill gets a bit of blown rain onto it is all?

 

[Obed]

i got one of those $15 replacement burners for my charbroil. It lasted a year? It was a stainless one too? My grill sits under the carport so its not like its getting moisture from rain on it? The grill gets a bit of blown rain onto it is all?

Yes, these days it seems really difficult to find quality stuff. Almost everything is made in China.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Our new grass has come in quite well. I need to keep the leaves off the new grass to keep from smothering the grass. Here's how I rake leaves. Raking by hand is for the birds.

 

[jinman]

Our new grass has come in quite well. I need to keep the leaves off the new grass to keep from smothering the grass. Here's how I rake leaves. Raking by hand is for the birds.

That tall green grass doesn't help your leaf problem all that much. Your grass is gorgeous, but it sure will catch leaves. I like to keep mine trimmed so a gust of wind will blow the leaves into the woods. Of course, more leaves blow into the yard too, but it makes a good excuse for not raking leaves. I will probably put my mulching adapter onto my mower before cutting again. Like you, I am surrounded by trees.

About the grill's burners. . . About three years ago, I had a Charbroil Big Easy grill that had seen better days. My wife let me buy a new Weber and I thought I'd fix the Charbroil and sell it. I ordered a burner repair kit for not much money and installed it. In the process, I found that I had removed the burner shield plates when I originally put the grill together. Cooking meat could drip right onto the burners. The old burners were more rust than anything else. After installing the new burners and the shields, I also installed a battery powered igniter to replace the broken piezo-electric one. The darn grill worked like a new one. It worked so well, I decided I couldn't give it up. So now I have the Weber on my deck on the east side of my house where it is out of the afternoon sun and my Charbroil on the west side of my house in the shade of the raised deck on that side. I can grill on either side of my house. I guess grills are like tractors. You can NEVER have too many. The burners in that old grill are still working fine after two seasons, but it may be because the grill only has to do half as much work now that I have the Weber. I love the Weber, but that old Charbroil is still a good performer.

 

[Obed]

That tall green grass doesn't help your leaf problem all that much. Your grass is gorgeous, but it sure will catch leaves.

Yes, I already have leaves all over the yard again. But that's ok. Sitting on lawn mower is much more fun than raking. My wife gets all the credit for the grass. A few weeks ago she put roundup on the onwanted junk that came from the straw we put on the yard when we first seeded last fall. She then re-seeded and fertilized. The yard looks much better now. It has the grass we wanted without the extra stuff. We'll just have to see how it survives next summer.
Obed