C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 145
July 2, 2011
We pulled the iris bed to get room for a tree…
…and now are too tired to plant the tree.
While this was going on, Jane was digging and preparing the bed, I was trimming iris leaves, sorting what will go to the church that helped us and what will go to the front lawn. This meant a 32 gallon trash can full of iris leaves and we haven't even gotten to the ones next to the pond.
It's a shame to flush that fish-poo rich water down the city sewer, so we have a bucket with a pretty potent pump to sink into the pond, and a hose that runs to a sprinkler. I shifted that hose about the pond edge for 1000 gallons of fertilizer-rich water, and that's quite a job, particularly as the bucket and pump weigh about 30 lbs empty, and about 50 lbs full of water. I nearly broke my neck when the retrieval cord on the bucket wound around my ankle as I was headed down the steps to move the hose…didn't fall, but it's what they always tell you on a boat—don't stand in the middle of a coil of line when you heave something into the water. La!
Now we have the pond refilling.
We've finally gotten a squirrel. I've always wanted a squirrel. Everyone we know has one, but we never have, and finally one fat cheeky fellow has decided he likes our bird feeder. So do the sparrows. And I'm so happy we have a squirrel I've put an ear of dried corn (with which I've been trying to lure one for years) into the bird feeder, hoping he will stay. We can manage to feed both city sparrows and squirrel. Our sparrows are getting so tame they land beside us while we're working. They use the pond for a bird bath.
And our two very baby koi (3″ counting fins) we got to replace some that the eagle took are together and thriving, and are now brave enough to come out and swim with the big koi from time to time. We were so glad to see them out and about this morning!
It's noon, time for lunch, and now my day's REAL work starts. The book is starting to steady down and move again, after all the distress and disturbance. I know I'll have to rewrite the front end, but that's minor: I'm happy writing again; and Jane, who pushed herself way too hard 2 days ago, is well enough to bounce back pretty fast. It's a good sign.
So that's the news from here.
July 1, 2011
Not too surprising…we are exhausted.
Jane, who did the bulk of stone-moving, slept til noon. I got a little work in. I'm concerned about her doing too much and landing back where she was. When she feels better, she hurls herself at a job. But she promised (and kept it) that this afternoon she'd only clip flowers and water. No planting, no digging holes, no heavy raking, no carrying stuff.
Now I'm exhausted. I got Preen spread over everything; got the roses fed; did the mailing (an ordeal); and the shopping; and I swear to you, I have seen a few years, and I freely admit I rely heavily on hair dye, but! I! do! not! park a shopping cart catty-angled in the entry/exit of a major store, while conversing with a gaggle of my friends, and debating whether to use the hand-wipes conveniently provided, or asking who has the coupons and demanding to see same before believing it: people are stacked up with carts 4 deep trying to get in or out. In vain, until they had settled the coupon issue!
When they moved out, they had one cart in the lead, a lady with handwipes and coupons, and they single-filed like ducks, catty-angled across the normal traffic flow. Beyond that, they were everywhere inside the store. After locating what I'd come for, I grabbed my purchase and fled, seeing three of them advancing on the aisle.
June 30, 2011
Amenhotep, eat your heart out, and there will be pix on Jane's site soon!
We just got the big stone out of the car and up to the site, and you will be amazed: it weighed between 200 and 400 lbs dead cement weight.
June 28, 2011
I'm sure Jane will have more on her blog, including pix, but…
…..the Bridge is done.
It holds. We have crossed it safely. It doesn't protest nearly as much with the full arch decked. The boards being all on a curve, it seems to help distribute force—we hope. We are taking suggestions under advisement, and we are going to be studying what we could do to help the thing be a little less—iffy—but we have to think about this. Fir is springy. We have established that. Whether it is safely springy–well, we will find out.
Between the two of us, we push 400 lbs hard, and we were both on it at once. We do not want to do a tapdance on the same board. But we sat there splashing our feet in cool water on an 83 degree afternoon, with the fishes all down at the far end wondering what sort of goings-on this meant!
June 27, 2011
Bridges and barmy Siameses
We have started decking the bridge: the decking planks give a bit disconcertingly: but hopefully once the whole structure is knit together this will be less. I'm used to building with oak and cedar, the choices down in Oklahoma. Fir, a common choice up here, bends. But worse—one of the big curved side timbers which have been laboriously produced over a two year span—cracked, along the line of screw holes, not, thank goodness, in the other direction. We caught it and stopped the crack, which is about 8″ long It was the long deck screws, we suspect, in 2-year-dry wood. We are going for shorter ones, we glued it, clamped it, and have screwed in some reinforcing plates. We also discovered leaving our decking boards to dry has caused the last-painted side to 'pull' the other side and cause a little inverse warp, which we can cure by flipping them and letting the sun heat the other side for a bit. Precision carpentry, eh? But the only terribly serious thing was the linear crack, which is now stopped, glued, clamped, and no way is that going any further: it was a case of a series of too-long screws hitting the grain and wedging it a bit. Shorter screws will do, and I'm going after them.
Ysabel is starting to bat Shu about when he needs it and is eating. We're doing fine now, and she thanks you and we thank you for your concern and expressions of caring. She knows she feels better. She came up for a snuggle before brushing (she didn't want to be brushed the day we took her to the vet) and we were so scared it was going to be like Efanor, but she's doing great, her bloodwork is fine, her organs are functioning except those chancy kidneys, which she was born with, and she's just feeling happy again—as happy as an old lady can be who has a rowdy teenager on her hands.
June 25, 2011
And if the cascade of trouble wasn't enough…
Ysabel, due to her allergies, has never had a kitty treat in her life. When she lost Efanor, and with the new kitten tearing about, she was so down I found one thing she could have—pure human-consumption tuna.
She's gotten a bone stuck in her throat, we think, can't eat, coughing, breathing oddly, and we're off to the vet again. I'm upset. I'm really upset. What can I say?
June 24, 2011
Not El Nino nor yet La Nina: meet La Nada!
The weather has hit a giant 'wallow', where nothing is happening, and the usual culprits, aka, the jet stream et al, have run scampering off.
June 23, 2011
Today…we outright played hookey from other jobs…
And used a template to drill pilot holes for the big bridge decking. This decking is a multi-part operation.
1. pilot holes, quite small, drilled into the painted decking board: 4 each. They don't go all the way through. This part we did. There are 44-45 boards for this bridge. Thats 180 precisely placed holes.
2. next comes the countersinking of the 180 holes: this takes a special bit to center in the pilot hole and take 180 divots out so the screws will be flush or lower than the decking surface. We got the small conical bit to do that.
3. next MAY come the drilling of the top hole all the way through the board, or not: we have acquired a 'hammer' drill, capable of driving a screw into wood. Its ability to drive the screw smoothly through fir is what will determine whether or not it will do a one-shot job or whether we need to drill a slightly wider hole.
5. then we insert a pair of 3/8ths inch spacers to be sure we get a regulation gap between boards to account for flex, heat, cold, and let water and air flow through. And add the next board, preparing to screw it down.
6. having secured one end of the bridge, we then go to the other side and screw a couple of boards on there, to be sure the build is 'true' and not skewed or warped. The boards are of a known length: the crossbraces are of a known length; everything should be on the square, but we learned doing the tiny garden bridge on the dry streambed that getting the build on the square is not a piece of cake and needs to be carefully measured and seen to.
7. then we just build both ends toward the center. If we don't end up with a whole board up there, we'll have to cut it, but hey, it's 'character'. It's more important to be sure we're true and square, and that the line of screws is even all the way.
Having done one, we went to the store, got the bits we needed, and then headed to the Swinging Door, had lunch, and had an afternoon rest. We think we've kind of earned it.
June 22, 2011
Jane's ok!
One more test to run, but we don't think that's it. She's responding to treatment—we think, in short, she sprang a leak from an old surgery under the stress of this spring—and losing Efanor fried it. Transfusions got her back on her feet—and it was dangerous: left untreated, she could have had heart or neurological damage, or worse, but she is fine, we now know that her insides are in great shape (except the leak) and that is being treated with a drug (Prilosec.) Beyond that it's a case of building back her red blood supply.
Many, many thanks to OSG, who greased so many medical wheels we tobogganed from one office to another to treatment to diagnosis, in a case where slowness could do physiological damage; and we are so, so grateful, OSG, no kidding! OSG also went to appointments with us, talked medical talk where appropriate, interpreted for us, and advised, and in short, you couldn't ask better.
Coping with solar storms…
The techniques a conference is developing for minimizing damage from a "Carrington Event."
