Table Deck

What good is a door to nowhere. Let's put in a deck for access and leisure outdoor activities.

One way to keep the posts from rotting is to keep them out of and off of the ground. These cardboard tubes make easy forms for a footer to set the posts upon.

And once the concrete has dried and cured a few days with a galvanized bolt in it, just mount a handy base to set the post upon, and you have a post that will be there for a long time.

Given the lack of horizontal stability due to the post mounting and lack of attachment to the house, stout diagonals are in order.

By cantilevering the the joists you can use smaller ones and stiffen their support.

The decking complete after 2 screws per joist per board. Given a 12' board needs 20 screws and a 12' x 12' deck needs 25 boards, that's 500 screws. You may think that I am almost done at this point, but the stairs and railing are half of the time spent on most decks. The posts, joists and decking are very straightforward.

I have seen too many stairs weakened by poor design and the ravishes of time. So, I have decided to make my stairs far more sturdy. That begins with a good foundation. I poured the bottom post holes full of concrete and made a concrete footer for the 4 stringers. Here I have the space dug out and am making a temporary support for the stairs so that I may build them while the concrete cures.

In the following picture, the posts were set and plumbed and then screwed to the outside stringers. Posts and stringers had tar applied to prevent rot which occurs most at the interface of ground and air. The concrete is poured and curing and the first two riser pieces are screwed down to stabilize it all.

The stairs are finished with end posts.

I have seen many stair stringers barely hanging onto the bottom of their end joist. I install extra support.

With railing finished, I think they look quite nice.

A sword of heavenly light pierces the completed deck.

The railing is sturdy and symmetrical.

Many diagonals stabilize the posts.

This should add value to the house.

          Clean up and then it time to go home. Another job for which to thank God for His provision.

Home Repair Guy

Dead two seasons they said. I was allowed to drop it in a ditch and leave it.

My saw wasn't cutting well and I ended up heavily notching it. But I observed that the wood was solid, and it definitely dropped it where I wanted it.

The bar on my saw is 24 inches, so this tree ranks in the top 20 of large trees I've felled.

When I say rotten, I mean like turned to soil, like humus city (not hummus).

Under the wood was roofing, which thankfully was still intact. I did have to seal the nail hole, of course.

Yeah, it was bad.

I cut the posts off just above the rot as requested.

I replaced with treated wood, caulked, and matched paint. Treated plywood was at an all time high price at this time, so they opted for replacement of just the rotten part.

By the time I caulked and painted you could barely discern the joints.

They said that they don't really use the porch, but that it was unsightly. I think we fixed that, and hey, it's functional, too.

Following are a few pictures of the segment of sidewalk demolition. I completely forgot to capture the final result. It looked pretty good.

17 bags of concrete and no motorized mixer. How do you do it? Well, the old-school and third world (so I'm told) way is to pour all of the dry concrete into the hole, add water, step in, and stir until thoroughly mixed. That sounds like a cake mix recipe, but it is actually a fairly fast setting jello.

I was so busy with working on the long checklist at the next house that I forgot to take pictures. Oh well, you've seen one mailbox post, you've seen them all, right?

I actually found a replacement socket at the hardware store.

So, it turns out that the problem with the doorknob originated with popped rivet below the hole below the tie wrap. The tie wrap held the piece firmly together which resulted in the whole thing going back together and functioning correctly. I don't think that it has any significant stress on it, and don't really know why the rivet failed. Perhaps it was originally faulty. Anyway, I think it will function smoothly for long past my tenure. The doors and hardware had a very French look to me, like, I mean imported French look.

I didn't think to take pictures of the many things I did at this house, but I do have two pictures of the skylight. I always forget to take a before picture, but I do have a during and after. They were so excited. That very night they say the full Moon through the skylight.

39th year of wood gathering

 

The tree is quite large and the wood was standing dried.

                                        Splitting on site whether by hand or with this landowner's handy hydraulic splitter saves several steps.

I had it tighter on my face while I was sawing.

Hidden Cascade

Being a mother is a 24/7/365 proposition. Sometimes a mother just needs a break, even if ever so short or isolated.

My daughter asked if I wanted to go on a hike. What a silly question. I always want to even if the circumstances don't allow for it at the moment. Little man and Mamaw were napping, so we headed up the road. Sometimes I just walk in the woods, but often I ask my hiking partner and myself the question, "View or waterfall?" But instead I answered that I wanted to go somewhere I had not been or at least not been in a while. We found it. I hadn't been there in perhaps 20 years. So, we started up the trail, crossed the creek and continued upstream. 

The stream had plenty of rock, and so plenty of rapids.

A few hours away does bring a smile to one's face. The trail starts at the end of a gravel, Forest Service road, decently far back into a deep draw and then goes further up the draw away from any road. It is pretty isolated.

I haven't yet mastered the art of candid looking selfie.

Partridge Berry adds a little color to the forest floor.

As we went along, I heard some loud crashing of water in the creek below the trail. I told my daughter that we should check it out. I had been up this trail several times years ago, but had never seen this cascade. The large potholes suggest some tremendous flow and scouring. If it had been warmer weather, I believe this would be a great swimming hole.

Following is the view downstream. The total vertical drop of the cascade was nearly 100 feet. Check out the disc shaped boulder resting precariously on the outcropping and upturned boulder.

Above the large potholes

Pigskin Puffball?

Further up there was another cascade. I think a person could slide down this one.

Owl pellets in the wild! After eating so many vermin, they get rid of the bones by regurgitation. 

This cascade was steep, hitting a transverse boulder and abruptly turning 90 degrees.

Quiet noise..........

Just before we got out of the woods we saw a muscadine vine covered with varying degrees of rippening fruit. We found some very sweet ones.

The time away seemed like many hours, but was only four. It amazes me what a change of venue in nature can do to quiet the soul and recharge the adventure batteries.

 

My Lord Draws Nigh

 Click here to hear me singing DW Whittle's poem, or here to see the notes of the tune that I wrote.