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Post by Deleted on Jan 20, 2022 11:47:55 GMT -6
Ron, thank you for understanding. It feels so good to let it out knowing it's all being remedied. I've been vaccuming up particle board for years! There were divots in the kitchen floor where I do a turn about on the heel of my left foot. Crazy.
I'm certain there is termite damage. I'm not looking forward to those jobs.
George, that beauracracy is horrible. You're so wise and patient! They really are as you say. I've only dealt with code enforcement indirectly and on industrial in Tulsa. It was a nightmare for contractors unless they were good ol boys.
This type of behavior is something coming up. They've been lenient as a country city can be. But remember: wherever f#d $$$ becomes involved, evil permeates. I pray the God avert their eyes and occupy their minds elsewhere as he has done for us all this time.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Feb 18, 2022 9:10:55 GMT -6
Yep, I recently discovered that our, deck, which is our access via wheelchair ramp, to our front door, had been constructed of particle board, not even OSB, which might have been a little bit better. This particle board was then covered with indoor/outdoor carpet, concealing its existence. Anyways, after more than a decade of getting wet on its outside edge, it began crumbling away. Recently I had to tear out the crumbling particle board, after first removing the carpet, then replace the failing stuff with sheets of 3/4" pressure treated plywood at $60 each. It has been wonderful ever since.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Feb 18, 2022 9:21:53 GMT -6
More recently our transportation, a 2000 Subaru station wagon, was taken out when a cell-phone using driver, suddenly pulled out in front of us. We obtained a 2004 Subaru station wagon as replacement, but after a few months it threw a rod and has been dead ever since - this all happened just before covid. The engine in the 2000 vehicle should be fine as a replacement, and my brother has an engine hoist that should facilitate the swap. However, presently all surfaces on my property are nothing but sand. Not useable for an engine hoist. However, on 12 Jan, we finally received the insurance settlement, so have the resources to help this situation. I needed and had for decades wanted a concrete slab for a carport/solar panel mount. So recently, nearer our front gate, I cleared/leveled/compacted a 14' wide x 26' long area to create a 10' x 24' form for an appropriate concrete slab, which will be poured this Monday, 21 Feb 2022.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Feb 18, 2022 9:44:56 GMT -6
Now, about zoning and inspectors. Back when I was still single and staying at my mother's place, in Marana. I was keeping about six hives of honeybees. Beekeeping is clearly written into our code, but the woman politician who runs our county, has it in for beekeeping. Requiring many things, of beekeepers, that is not written into the code. Including a licensing fee. Of course, I ignored all that. One thing that was in the code - they could have you remove the bees, if they were proven to be a "health hazard" - overly defensive. So twice they sent someone from the public health office to inspect/observe my bees for such tendencies, both times, my elderly mother would escort them back to where the bees were located, they would stand within a few feet of the bees, for at least 20 minutes. No interactions between the people and bees, would take place, at all. My bees passed, with flying colors.
Regardless, I was taken to a hearing about why I didn't pay my $25 licensing fee. The hearing officer had the health departments reports, and heard my story, then fined me $1, and sent me on my way. I didn't hear another word about my beekeeping.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Feb 21, 2022 0:46:56 GMT -6
Yes, it was convenient that I could easily remove the disintegrating sheets of particle board, and fairly easily replace them with pressure treated plywood. But, yuck.
It will be much nicer with a concrete slab to do auto work on, and I'm coating mine with colored hardener (1 part 90 grit white silica sand; 1 part white portland cement, and 1-3% titanium dioxide powder). You sprinkle it dry, semi-generously onto the still wet, recently poured concrete, wait for it to draw moisture from the concrete and become moist, then bull float it into the surface of the concrete below, where it cures to form a colored and harder shell on the slab. Mine should finish with a bright, milk-white upper skin/surface; thanks to my choice of ingredients for the colored hardener. I did test this with a pair of 16 inch x 16 inch thin pavers. So far, so good. Hopefully, my white slab, once cured and sealed, will avoid being stained. The white color is to keep the slab from cooking me during our summers, at least until I have time to erect the cover. I'll need my car and trailer to fetch some of those building materials. I already cringe, when I had to pay $80 delivery fees, twice, because one building supply store did not have the rebar I needed, while another had the 45 - #80 bags of quikkrete I will need later, to create a 10 feet long x 30 inch x 8 inch deep ramp - between the driveway and the slab. For the car, but mostly so it will be safe for Diane in her power wheelchair. I'm too cheap to buy or rent a concrete mixer, so I'll be mixing it, on location, one bag at a time, in a plastic mortar mixing tub. Reminds me of my very first job. At 16 y.o. during summer break, starting at dawn I would setup and supply, two masons as they built a block wall garage, large enough for 4 pieces of diesel equipment, simultaneously. I had to haul and stage the block, on the scaffolding, before the masons arrived, then just deposit them at the base of the scaffolding, since I was too busy mixing and supplying them with fresh mortar, to do both - mix and deliver the mortar and carry the block up onto the scaffolding, though I even did that between batches of fresh mortar. It was my cousins construction company, and back then he had just started under his own shingle. Yep, no more dirt, sand, rocks or oily/greasy sheets of cardboard - and once on ramps or jack stands, it will be much safer. Our 2000 was 10 y.o. when my step-daughter donated it to us, and after taking us on several trips to California to visit said step-daughter and her children and husband; many more trips up and down our pothole filled dirt roads, I had just finished replacing the brake pads, axles. axle bearings, rotors, shocks and struts, plus the many and varied bushings throughout the chassis and replacing the transaxle. And various other, less critical components, too. At least, once I swap the engine, I can then swap out the old engine mounts, for new. Then, take my time swapping any of the nearly new components, for ones the 2004 may need. Then once the broken engine is out, I can have it checked to see if it might be repairable. Old-used, still working versions of this engine, when you can find them, are now going for $6,000 and up. Since they're aluminum blocks, my kind of damage is often not repairable. We will see.
We will always appreciate the time we were able to use the vehicle, before the collision. Many years and miles. Hopefully we will be able to say the same about this replacement - once it has had a heart transplant.
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Post by macmex on Feb 21, 2022 6:22:56 GMT -6
It's wonderful that you have the skills to do this. I agree about the quality of Subaru. I've never heard anything but good about them. Our daughter-in-law drives one. My son swears he wants nothing less for her as it has such a great safety rating.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 21, 2022 11:34:48 GMT -6
I've got an old 1980 CJ5 Jeep sitting in my yard that has been dead since 2007. I need to drag it up the road to Pee Wee's house someday so we can get busy making out a parts list. My dad bought it new in 1980 as a farm truck. It was used for everything from fixing fence, stretching barbed wire, hauling wood, chasing wayward bulls, to pulling the tractor out of the pond a hundred times with a box blade load of mud in tow as we attempted to dig the pond deeper during a drought year.
It has had a rough life. Hopefully, I can get it back on the road this summer.
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Post by Tucson Grower on Feb 21, 2022 23:38:37 GMT -6
I agree about the quality of Subaru. . . a great safety rating. When we collided with the vehicle that had suddenly pulled out in front of us, we were on a 4-lane street running east-west. We were driving east, the other driver pulled north out of an adjacent parking lot, with the stated intention to head west. My mother and brother were in the back seat, my wife and I were in the front. There were too many other vehicles all around us, in the few seconds I had to decide, I decided, my best option was to slow as quickly as I could, and hope he would be able to move out of our path - he almost did, but not quite. He was in a small van, and we struck the passenger door on the driver's side. My back seat passengers were nearly totally unharmed. Diane, had a minor back strain, as the sudden deceleration almost slid her under her seatbelt and onto the floor. My injuries were the most serious - since I was the only one who saw it coming, I had arm, shoulder, and back strain from bracing myself for and during the impact. Despite the airbags failing to deploy, we were mostly quite safe.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 22, 2022 10:32:44 GMT -6
I crashed a '76 Buick like that once. I ended up with both of my arms jammed through the inside of the steering wheel, nearly up to my shoulders.
Cars were built a lot better back then though. I drove it all the way home from Tulsa, 70 miles away. Even though the body panels were crushed, the frame was still straight. I had hit a 4 wheel drive truck with a lift kit, so the damage was above the frame rail. I just took the hood and fender off and drove it like that the rest of the time we had it. That kind of an impact would have destroyed a car built nowadays, but not the old Buick. It probably just got better gas mileage from the removal of all of that weight.
It's crazy what sudden deceleration can do to your body. Several days later I attempted to put both of my arms through the center of the steering wheel, up to the point they had been at the time of the accident. I was unable to do it or even imagine how that was ever possible. I don't remember even being sore the day after the wreck. Adrenaline is amazing stuff!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Apr 15, 2022 16:25:41 GMT -6
Wow. That is a happy day! Good soil, good sunlight, and wood chips. Wonderful!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 5, 2022 12:39:47 GMT -6
I just came back inside from doing some much-needed yard work, weed eating, trimming brush around the campgrounds, spraying for ticks, and whatnot; when I stumbled on to this old Johnny Carson clip featuring Baxter Black, filmed back in 1987. (RIP). After the 100-degree temps, no rain for a solid month, and the grasshopper invasion I've been fighting all week, I really needed a good laugh ... This hit the spot.
It's a piece titled, "The Vegetarian's Nightmare."
Thanks, Baxter, for the many laughs you've provided us through the years!
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Post by chrysanthemum on Feb 4, 2023 21:57:11 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra, I wrote you a reply this morning on the weather thread thanking you for your advice on the tree branch removal. I guess I failed to post it properly because when I went back there just now, it wasn’t there. Anyway, thank you for the advice. I studied on it and read it to my husband before we went out to tackle that branch this morning. We don’t have a truck or tractor, and the branch was inside our fenced back yard, so we figured we’d be best off tackling the branch with a pole saw from a distance. I started cutting as heavy hitter okra advised at the tips of the branches. It turns out that one of the branches was hung up in a crape myrtle tree that grows behind the pergola, and that was holding the big branch in place. As soon as I cut that, the branch rolled away from the bench and broke the small sapwood hinge. (I was standing off the pergola in the opposite direction from how it rolled.) Two years ago when the big freeze and snowstorms hit, the weight of the snow damaged the wooden slatted ceiling of the pergola and pushed it down. We took the cross pieces and bamboo down, and they had been sitting in a pile on the pergola ever since. We placed those underneath the branch to help spread out any blows from the wood. I don’t know if that helped, but the falling wood shattered the bamboo, landed on the beams, and didn’t damaged the floorboard any further. I was able to get the entire branch down and cut up with an eight inch electric pole saw. We needed to add oil during the job, but the chain held up well, and it did a great job. My husband hauled the branches away to keep our work area clear. After I painted the fresh cut on the tree (we have oak wilt in the immediate area, and this is the beginning of the season when the disease-carrying beetles begin to fly), we decided to remove more of an older branch that had broken in a snowstorm in 2017. With the big branch gone, the tree looked pretty odd with a big broken stub on the other side. When we cut that off, though, we discovered a huge amount of rot inside, bad enough that we decided that we really had to take the whole tree down. Back out came my trusty pole saw, and I sadly took down the remaining part of the tree that had seemed healthy. I worked from the edges of the pergola, letting the branches fall and remain there to cushion the blows when the heavier wood came down. We like to keep our work area clean, but I knew that my escape routes would not involve the pergola as I wanted to be on the ground, so we let the branches stay there. It looked messy during the process, but it worked to protect the boards when the bigger trunk pieces started going down. I didn’t take a lot of pictures but did get some toward the end. I put the original picture taken from the house when it was still icy on Thursday just as a reminder of the tree and the branch. Inside the tree trunk, there was a huge amount of beautiful soil. I’m already thinking of various flowers I could try to grown in that stump. I’ve thought of Moss Rose Portulaca or Zinnias or Echinacea/Conflower, or maybe a combination. The stump is over two feet in diameter, and most of it is soil. (The border is an unexpected color because of my needing to paint the fresh cut. I figured there was still sap running in the edges since the tree had appeared healthy up till this time.) I am very thankful that we were able to get that tree down safely today. It was a huge blessing. After that work, we did spent a couple more hours over on the far side of our property where some of our trees had come down into our neighbors backyard. My husband worked with the gas-powered chainsaw cutting up the two uprooted cedars. The neighbors kindly let me plug in our electric pole saw to an outlet on the side of their home, and I worked on cutting down broken branches that were still hanging up in five other cedar trees. We hauled a lot of those branches out of the work area and got things into piles, but we couldn’t finish everything before we started running out of energy and daylight. All in all it was a productive day in the backyard and the “Eastern Frontier.” (We gave lots of parts of our property distinctive and oddball names when we moved in so that we could communicate clearly with the children about where we or they were when outside.). My husband will be taking the day off work on Monday to move more branches and lop and chip them. We haven’t even begun the clean up in the “Southern Paddock” (it’s not a paddock, really) and the “Way Back.” We got the most dangerous stuff done today, though, and for that I’m very thankful.
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Post by woodeye on Feb 4, 2023 22:48:00 GMT -6
chrysanthemum, you folks have done an outstanding job of getting that tree cut down to size, very impressive! I'm sure it was a lot of work, and I'm thankful that you all were able to get it done safely. I hope the remainder of your cleanup is much easier that this looks like it was. Great job!
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Feb 4, 2023 23:32:57 GMT -6
Good work. Glad everyone is okay. Such a headache! And that is one good-looking flower planter. Enjoy, you deserve it.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 7, 2023 17:50:46 GMT -6
Chrysanthemum,
Very impressive job, getting that oak tree cleaned up and hauled away so quickly! You all worked hard on that. I'll bet it was quite a relief to get that job finished, and the extra firewood ought to come in handy the next time you get another cold spell. That will be a double blessing for your family's effort.
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