Getting Closer

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Sweetheart's Mom mentioned a particular type of plantain that is even better than the regular one I am familiar with.

Here is what we've been using.





And I'm wondering if this is what you were talking about, SM?





We tried to get as early a start as we could yesterday, to beat the heat. With the rest of the metal sheeting in place...





...we turned our attention to digging the French drain above the deck.





Adding a little water to make sure there is a drop in level toward the direction we want the water to flow.





That ended up being perfect. Now we had to direct all the rainwater collection off away from the pool dugout. I made this up myself, so I sure am hoping it will work. LOL





We tried to save the turf for reuse.





Now digging out a bit deeper for the pipe.





I forgot to take photos of laying the special pipe for French drains, but if you go to my tag on French Drains you can see how to do that there.

It's finally ready.





Now to cut the PVC pipe at a difficult angle. Directly above the deck is the normal French drain type of pipe. But out in the open lawn we have to have something that will support the tractor for mowing, and some way to have it out there without it being in the way of the mower blade. This is what I came up with.

Normally, cutting PVC is easy with a variety of tools, but the size and thickness made all of those ways difficult without special tools which we do not have.

I had heard of using string to cut PVC, and we found this video...

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-cut-pvc-pipe-nylon-string-218323/

So COOL!

So off we went to work some magic!





Only it didn't work. The string kept breaking.





I have no idea why. I thought it could have been because we had to get a start on the pipe with the hacksaw since the cut was to be at such an angle, but we also tried it straight across on uncut pipe and that did not work either.

After about 50 failures, I was back on the internet trying to come up with solutions. But while I was gone, Michael did it the old fashioned way. Hack away at something until it doesn't exist any more.





It took a while, but it was effective. Awesome!





So we laid it in, attaching it to the drain pipe.





We tried to get it as flush with the ground as we could. The problem is that in order for it to be perfectly flush, the angled pipe cut would have to be a good three feet long. That is not feasable.





And here it is, all covered up with the remaining gravel from the pile in the driveway, and utilizing only a couple of turf squares we'd set aside. The grass will quickly grow over the remaining earth. We'll have to mow over it carefully to get a feel for how high to have the blades.





Lunchtime!!! Michael went for the dark lettuce in the herb garden, and I went to pick lettuce from the shaded bed.





Some of you wanted updates on this particular project. They are doing fine. They are a little spindly, just getting a bit of dappled light in the afternoon, but they taste wonderful. The leaves are more delicate and tear easily.





I had also taken a couple of pear tree trunk suckers, put rooting hormone on them, and stuck them in this very light and rich soil mix. They seem to be doing well after a month.





We washed our lunch outdoors, enjoying the cool water from the hose.





Then we took turns spelling each other on mowing the place, and continuing digging out the caved in banks around the edge.





I am hoping the more gradual slope of the banks in combination with the redirection of water flow will keep erosion to a minimum. I don't want to buy retaining wall stones as they are too expensive.





Now to focus on the deck. We checked to see where we were at for level on all the boards. Of course, to make it perfect we would have to dismantle the entire thing and redo it. Not gonna happen.





So instead we reset the blocks and added a support post where necessary.





And that was where we had to stop. The deck boards have shrunk significantly over the years and we needed another board to add in, as well as new deck screws. We grabbed those really quick on the way to Men's group and Ladies Night.

Can you pick yourself off the floor at the cost of screws? It kills me!

~Faith

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Government, Pommel Trainer, and Rototiller!

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I don't know about you, but I've had to become much more politically active lately. I called about 15 congressmen yesterday, and wrote to the President this morning.

I also received our census form yesterday. See that little mark on the first page? That's all the information the government is legally allowed to ask of me. I gave that to them.

There are two people living at this address that I am confirming by sending the form back.





The rest of this is none of their business. Not this:





Nor this:





And now it's ready for mailing. Very easy.





Very good friends kindly brought over a rototiller for us to borrow for a few weeks. What a tremendous gift!





Here's Gary, showing Michael how to operate it.





And we finished up the pommel trainer yesterday. Here is the uncovered version.









I looked for padding at the fabric store and it was ridiculously expensive. So I bought a twin sized mattress topper instead.





And this fabric. It's not really fabric, is it? What is it, anyway? Is it vinyl? I don't know, but I like how it feels when you pick it up, soft and leather-like. I got a great deal on it, 2/3 off the yardage.





Getting ready to cut the padding.





I only tacked this one on because I was originally planning on adding a second layer over it. But Michael thought that would be too much, so we stayed with this.





And apparently I got so involved in stretching and stapling the upholstery over it that I didn't take any photos of the process. We still need to put a handle on the end for easy carrying.





Ready to practice pommel horse activities!





This one will take some getting used to. Michael has only used mushrooms...





and they are higher than this oblong type that we built. There was a discrepancy between the photos I saw of this lower pommel trainer (see previous post) and the measurements people were passing around on how to make your own. I decided to go with the measurements, hoping that those who had made them had found the best way to duplicate it. However, I wish now that I'd gone with an estimation based on the shape of the model in the photo. This is lower and wider than I was hoping. Regardless, it is fine for practice, and we can make another at a later date if we so choose.

I hope to take this into his Monday class and get some pointers from his coach on using it to the best advantage.





Last night a bunch of us ladies tried our feet at ballet, hip-hop, and swing dancing. If only we could all be on Dancing With the Stars!

Today! Sun! 67 degres! Bliss!

~Faith

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Floor Horse or Pommel Trainer

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I keep waiting for sunny days and they are so few and far between. This winter has been the cloudiest, coldest one yet in our 11 years here. There is another promise of sunny weather from weather.com, but the last promise fizzled out, so we'll have to wait and see.

Someone forgot to turn off the water to the horses...





After bill-paying errands, including property taxes, OUCH!, we headed over my parents' house in town to borrow my dad's jigsaw to finish cutting out the pieces for Michael's pommel trainer.

Oh, before I go on --- I don't know if you might have an interest, but I am currently watching a web cam of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. I often do this, I believe right now you can hear the rioting from the Muslims in the background of the city. There is always something interesting to see or hear there.

http://english.thekotel.org/cameras.asp

Also, a friend, who often helps us with our computer issues and is mentoring Michael in computer education, set us up with an amazing program last year that I recommend to everyone. If you want to have the clearest, most detailed view of what is on your computer, this program will do it. It's very visual and easy to understand. It makes choosing what should stay and what should go on your pc so much easier to figure out, especially if yours is full, like mine. We've been deleting things this morning and still need to move photos off and into a storage device yet again. Anyway, please check out this free program, you'll be so glad you did.

http://windirstat.info/

So, back to our project.

This is for Michael's gymnastics training here at home. We've built some practice parallets for him, have purchased rings we need to hang, and now we are building this:





My incredibly detailed plans.





There are better ways to build this, but we are on a tight budget so I planned this for the least expensive way I thought I could build it and still get a few years use out of it.

My dad is a good craftsman and I knew he'd have some good ideas for us. Rather than getting out the jigsaw, he already had his scrollsaw set up for us by the time we arrived. These will be the arched end pieces, cut from a 4 foot 1 x 8.





Michael and I build a lot of things together, and this was a great chance for him to work on a project with his Grandpa, so I used the opportunity to snap photos and visit with my mom. Here they are setting up.





This is like Wilson on Home Improvement.





Michael cutting out the first piece.





He did a great job.





Look! My folks have crocus out!





Trying out an idea that was later discarded.





From the time I was a kid, I always loved this simple method of storing itty-bitties (ehem... small parts) in used jars.





The only drawback to having my dad work on these projects with Michael is that I don't get to do a step by step tutorial for you. But there are other chances for those.

Using the drill press.





Using the power saw.









Screwing the 2 x 4s onto one end piece.





And here is where we had to call it quits. Michael had his gymnastics class to attend. We'll try to get over there and finish the basic construction today.





I've got to go do my Constitution class homework now, with Michael. We are doing week 9 of 12 tonight. We are enjoying it so much!

Hoping there is sunshine on your face today!

~Faith

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