At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Last week (not this week) we spent a week with friends at their family's farm in the NC mountains. The farm is leased out to a man who trains horses and raises a few cows.

We had a nice relaxing week hiking and playing with the kids in the barn and in the yard 100 year old farmhouse. I didn't have access to internet so I couldn't update TBN for several days. Sometimes it is nice to go offline for a few days.

While I was there, they tilled up the garden area with a 6 ft 3PH tiller. It took at most 20 minutes. Man I was jealous!

 

[Obed]

My wife painted the tops of the floor joists for weather protection and so the rim joists would not be as noticeable between the deck boards. She put on a coat of grey primer and a coat of brown paint the same color as the deck boards.

Friday morning I took a hard fall while walking across the framing. I stepped on a loose Trex deck board that was lying across the floor joists. The Trex deck board was damp from the morning dew and was slick as ice. My wife saw the fall and I had to quickly tell her that I was ok because it looked pretty bad. She thought we might be going to the ER. I did bump my kneecap and elbow solidly. I'm ok but I have a couple tender places.

 

[scott_vt]

Good Afternoon Obed,
Glad your OK !!!

I really like the shot of the tractor rototilling in front of the barn, very nice !

 

[RoMad]

something you might do to prevent another fall, or worse yet your wife falling.
When I am reflooring over open joists I put a couple of wood screws into my temporary walkboards even though they are crossing joists. The joists hold them up, the screws keep them from getting moved when kicked, or dragging an extension cord. It only takes a minute to put in a couple of screws ant them take them out later.
It is a lot less painful than falling between two joists and skinning a big place on your shin. (guess how I figured this out).

 

[Jesse masterson]

I've used sf before it a good product but I have a Honda foreman with 800 miles on it and it's carb overflows with gas when it's parked I tool the Needle out of the float and sanded it lightly with tooth paste didn't help Any suggestions

 

[dstig1]

Yeah loose boards on top of joists are killers (sometimes literally). Plywood is better as it covers more area, but it still helps to drive a screw or two in as Romad said.

Uhhh Jesse you might want to start your own thread on that topic in the right subforum...

 

[clemsonfor]

I've used sf before it a good product but I have a Honda foreman with 800 miles on it and it's carb overflows with gas when it's parked I tool the Needle out of the float and sanded it lightly with tooth paste didn't help Any suggestions

What!! This is a major HIJACK! You dont even use the Name Seafoam, just "sf". No one knows what your talking about as that was so many pages back. You need to start your own thread in the ATV forum. But i would start with a carb rebuild. You cant just sand a needle, the needle and seat are usually a set. I know my 4trx the seat is permanant, but changing the needle area changes its design. Its spring loaded and a preset length to work with the float. A kit is less than $25 shipped to your house off EBAY, start there. Taking the carb off is way harder than actually rebuilding it.

 

[Obed]

Good suggestions about the walking boards over the joists. In my case, the board didn't move; my foot slipped on top of the morning dew covered plastic covered Trex deck board. I now know that we will have to be careful walking on the deck when it is finished. That's a big negative regarding using the expensive plastic deck boards. We had heard that they could be slick so we picked a model that is "extra coarse" for what good that did.

 

[Obed]

I didn't like the way the double rim joist was attached to the ledger board that is mounted against the brick. There was no joist hanger and only one of the two joist boards had nails attached to ledger board. Since this rim joist will support posts that support the roof, I felt the rim joist needed more support. So I supported the rim joist with a 6x6 post.

I was a little nervous about drilling the hole in the top of our retaining wall but the hole drilling actually was very easy using a masonry bit and the hammer drill. Also, it just worked out that I was able to drill between the bricks which reduced the chance of breaking them during the drilling.

I originally intended to cut the 6x6 with my sawzaw but felt that I could make a straighter cut with the hand saw. I wanted a good square cut because I didn't have much tolerance for fitting the post just right under the rim joists. An eight of an inch too short and the post wouldn't touch the rim joists.

I remember being in awe when growing up on the farm at how fast my grandad could cut a board with a hand saw. I'm still in awe. He could have made short work of the 6x6 much quicker than I. Growing up on a multi-generational farm seems to me to be about the best kind of life a kid can have. It's too bad fewer and fewer kids get that opportunity.

The post fit in its spot just right. I was very satisfied with the result.

 

[Obed]

I finished installing the last two posts after adding the 6x6 post support for the rim joist at the end of the porch.

 

[clemsonfor]

In that pic of you with the hand held sledge it looks like you have ash smeared all over your face or a face paint for camoflage. I had to see full size to see if your were trying to work in hiding or what. It looks to just be a shadow/camera trick.

 

[brin]

Maybe it is an optical illusion but it looks like your joists are going up...not level...??

 

[Obed]

In that pic of you with the hand held sledge it looks like you have ash smeared all over your face or a face paint for camoflage. I had to see full size to see if your were trying to work in hiding or what. It looks to just be a shadow/camera trick.

clemsonfor, I wear camoflage face paint as part of waging war against the carpenter bees.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Maybe it is an optical illusion but it looks like your joists are going up...not level...??

brin, it must be an optical illusion. I put a level on the rim joist and it's basically level. The deck slopes down away from the house a little. I told the framer to slope the deck slightly to facilitate water running away from the house and it appears to slope just like I wanted. The slope is not enough that you could tell visually without a level.

Obed

 

[Obed]

In that pic of you with the hand held sledge it looks like you have ash smeared all over your face or a face paint for camoflage. I had to see full size to see if your were trying to work in hiding or what. It looks to just be a shadow/camera trick.

clemsonfor, I wear camoflage face paint as part of waging war against the carpenter bees.
Obed

The astute observer will note that I chose a shirt that would blend in with the brick so as to appear invisible to the carpenter bees.

Score:
Obed 14
Bees 1

I have killed 14 carpenter bees with the tennis racquet since I've been working on the back porch. A carpenter bee in the garden stung my little girl on the finger this week. The bee had made a hole in a stake in the garden.

 

[Obed]

Deer in the Garden

Yes, we realize critters are going to be a challenge. We might end up putting up a removable fence but are trying a couple easier things first.

I just ordered two of these motion activated alarms.



I'm also plan to order one of the these Scarecrow Motion Sprinklers.

Monday morning I saw a deer standing beside the garden when going to work. I got out of my car and scared it off. Then Friday morning my wife saw a broccoli plant that was missing the top third of the plant. A couple other plants had also been nibbled on. We had not yet installed the motion detection alarms but it was apparrently time. We installed the devices on 3 corners of the garden. Two of the alarms flash blue lights and make play a recording that says "WARNING. WARNING. PROTECTED AREA". I hope the deer speak english. The third device sprays water when it is set off.

We heard the alarms go off a couple times Friday night. Last night we heard and saw the alarms go off about three times. This morning my wife saw deer tracks beside the garden but could not see any plant damage. The deer tracks appear that the deer bolted. So far, so good. We have heard that sometimes deer will become immune to these scare devices when they find that nothing actually happens. We'll see how things go.

 

[Obed]

The Trex deck boards we received were 1/8" narrower than advertised. 24 boards x 1/8" equals 3". Thus we temporarilly laid out the boards on the deck with the hidden spacers between them to see exactly how many boards we really needed. The boards in the pictures are not fastened down; they are just lying on top of the joists. I turns out that we are one board short. At $65 a 16' board, we did not want to order any extras because the color we chose is special order and we cannot return them. Because of the difference in the advertised width and reality, we will be short and will need to order a couple extra boards.

 

[Obed]

I couldn't resist posting these pictures of my helper for the porch project. For some reason she decided to wear a C-clamp.

 

[Obed]

After laying out some of the 16' boards, it became apparent that the boards were not quite long enough to overlap the last joist as much as I would like. So I nailed some scrap PT boards to to the side of the joist.

We also trimmed the tops of three more joists that were bowing upward. My wife then had to paint the new blocking and the three joist tops that we cut off.

 

[RadarTech]

brin, it must be an optical illusion. I put a level on the rim joist and it's basically level. The deck slopes down away from the house a little. I told the framer to slope the deck slightly to facilitate water running away from the house and it appears to slope just like I wanted. The slope is not enough that you could tell visually without a level.

Obed

I don't know about that... I bet Brin has level calibrated eyes... There is this guy I met at the grill that could site a 2 degree down bubble'!!!!
We tested him once... Lost that lunch bet!!!