Small Projects

I've had a couple of small projects that I wanted to get done, but had more pressing things to do. I finally found time to do them last weekend while I was feeling lazy.

The first project was to move one of the fence gates. Whe the EX put up the fence, one gate was placed at the corner of the house that is directly next to the lowest end of the ramp. At the time that made sense as it was protected by the eave of the house, so the gate entrance wouldn't get muddy. However, since having the standing seam roof put on last fall, I found the placement just didn't work anymore. The problem is from the roof dumping the snow, which is normally a good thing. The dumped snow compacts to a very hard mound and I was having trouble trying to keep a path from the yard to the gate open. The snow blower was not effective, so I had to chop and shovel.

Well, the obvious solution was to place the gate at the section directly across from the ramp. This improves the situation two ways; the gate is outside the area where the snow dumps, and it makes it more convenient to snow blow from the propane tank into the pen and up to the ramp. Of course the project took way longer than it should have because I went thru every socket I had to try to loosen the nuts on the bolts, then finally had to go buy a deep socket to reach - but at least the job got done. The first picture is the section placed where the gate used to be and the 2nd picture is of the gate's new location.

 Another project that came to fruition was staining the landscape timbers to the front gardens. I had to wait for the pressure treatment to dry out enough for staining, and it was finally time. I think the stain helps distinguish the garden are from the house nicely. Also seems to help the plants look more "green" for some reason (all to the good of course).

 And then the town almost completed a project; on the 28th I rode home from work and was delighted that they had laid some asphalt! I think they still have one more layer to go, but this is a vast improvement over the previous pavement and the dirt after it was torn up. When I rode in on the 27th, it was mud as apparently they had either oiled or watered the dirt (it hadn't rained) and that was a bit scary feeling the bike slither around. Anyway, I am quite happy with what is there now - and there is no big sinkhole directly in front of my driveway!

Comments

[Ruth]

I definitely like the look of the stained wood!

[Cop Car]

It does look good, and your description of the timbers matches the timbers that I had. Don't recall whether I had bought mine or whether a neighbor gave them to me/abandoned them.

[bogie]

Thanks!