Bruce's Journal

[greybeard]

The usual reason for PT warping on deck rails relates to the selection of the individual boards being used, more true if it's pine. Avoid any board with a big knot or grain oddity in it, especially if the knot is within 2' or so of an end. It's guaranteed to curl up or outward if there is a knot near the end..the wood dries out more in the less dense section and the more dense section of the knotted area does not. Sealing it as quickly as possible after building and keeping it sealed helps, but can't completely offset the effects of knots and grain variations. Be very selective when choosing boards for deck railings, looking at each side of the board.
On vertical sections (vertical supports) it is not so evident, but any board installed flat and horizontal will go thru dry/wet cycles as humidity and rain comes, followed by sunny days. For horizontal runs, if it's in the budget, buy premium PT lumber, not the generic pt stuff right off the rack at Lowes or Home Depot. More expensive, but the treatment from the plant lasts much longer. I like to use pt lumber that is rated for below ground on my railings.

http://www.buellinspections.com/not-all-pressure-treated-lumber-is-created-equal/

 

[Pastor Dave]

Well Bruce, it ought to drain better now than having sheets of plywood. Seems like it would have been pretty slick with snow or even when wet before, but now it should function better. Looks good too.

 

[Bruce]

I'm curious about how long that little project took you? I really like some of the design technique you used on this.

Not quantifiable since like everyone else's jobs, it started and stopped. If I had to guess, probably 20 hours, which means more likely closer to 40 Remember the deck framing was put up by the carpenters 4 years ago so that isn't included.

The balusters were kinda rough and not dimensionally equal. Maybe they run them through a planer one direction then a different planer for another side? In any case I ran them all through the open arm drum sander, took off probably 3/64ths over many passes to get them fairly smooth and uniform, still had a little hand sanding on some. Uniformity wouldn't have been as important if I didn't run them through the midline vertical supports (which keeps them in the "angle on top" position) but I sure didn't want to worry about having them not fit since I sealed them before assembly. Really hard to do the ends of the balusters, insides of the midline and backsides of the end pieces once installed Plus rough hangs on to water and snow much more than smooth does.

And of course all the holes in the midlines were really time consuming. The jigsaw doesn't like to cut straight up and down even though I try not to push it, I still get a hole narrower on one side than the other so chisling and hand sanding became necessary. If I didn't care about snow sitting on the balusters (which presumably could speed rot) the holes in the midlines would have been a lot faster, I could have done them pretty quickly on my RouterBoss. But it doesn't slide at angles (other than 90° )

The posts weren't bad since they are bolted to the frame, DD2 helped me with that. The outside deck edge pieces again took time since I had to notch around the posts. As with any other deck the decking was reasonably fast but I sealed the bottoms and ends before installation (again hard/impossible to do later!) and since the sealer isn't supposed to get wet for 24 hours there were some days of delay doing them and the tops. In the end I put a tarp over the deck boards because even though it didn't rain, the nightly condensation wasn't much different. All the railing parts were sealed in the workshop.

I used a Camo Marksman Pro tool to put the decking down. Other than at the board ends that have to be face screwed, the screws are all in the edge of the planks.

http://www.camofasteners.com/hidden-deck-fastening-system/marksman-tools/


I suppose I should put some stairs up to that opening But like many things, there is the "must do first" which means some sort of level landing at the bottom (per codes). Wouldn't be hard if the ground didn't slope there, but it does. And I SHOULD probably go down below frost to support whatever I put there so not started yet, too daunting! There are stairs up to the existing (as usual poorly made) deck behind the south half of the house (I was standing on it for some pictures) so it is just a longer walk, not a jump.

The ice/snow slippery bit on the plywood wasn't a big deal. No reason to go out there in the winter OTHER than to push snow off.

 

[Bruce]

Cassie laid her first egg yesterday, 42g, bluish/green.

 

[CntryBoy777]

It seems that with all the rock ya have there ya could use rock to level out the ground for the step base/foundation, but this is a southerner suggesting it, remember.....
What did ya use as a sealer?

 

[Bruce]

Yes, plenty of rock! Don't know that I want to dig down 4' (frost level) and fill it with rock. I'd probably run into rocks doing it though, I suspect the excavator didn't move more than he needed to when he smoothed the ground. I might just cheat and ignore that frost line thing. Maybe it will be solid enough.

I used Thompson's Water Seal. No idea if it was the best choice or not but I had 4 gallons that were given to us a couple of years ago by friends when they moved to TN. "Waste not, want not" right?

 

[Bruce]

For all the garden efforts:
- 3 sweet potato plants yielded 11 oz of "crop", the largest was 3.4 oz
- 1 russet potato plant yielded 2.25 pounds, the largest was 9 oz, basically a regular size potato
- 30 onion plants yielded 2 pounds 1.2 oz - about 20 onions and some were no thicker than a green onion. None were near as big as the ones we grew last year and be only planted 10. Probably got 3x the weight.
- 10 shallot bulbs yielded 2.9 oz - 6 bulbs total.
- Threw away the 3 Winternut squashes, they were still mostly green and were getting soft. Since the Red Kuri never got started we have no winter squash for soup.



Basically

- The artichokes did well
- The (they were supposed to be cherry tomatoes?!?) 2 big tomato plants have a lot of fruit that are finally getting red now that they are about to die. Not near as much flavor as smaller tomatoes, I sure wouldn't choose to plant whatever variety they are. The "big" tomato I would likely plant is an Early Girl but since DW won't eat tomatoes, DD1 shouldn't (nightshade intolerance) that leaves DD2 and me and she likes the "snacking size" Sungolds ... which is why that is the ONE tomato plant I bought!
- The Sungolds are still producing well, I've rigged an old clear shower curtain and a blue tarp around the tall "frame" hoping to keep them going as long as possible. I know you can put unripe ones in a paper bag but they never get any better than grocery store winter tomatoes (which I don't buy because they have little flavor)
- Got 3 orange peppers off the 2 plants, they finally set a few more but they'll not get close to turning from green so DD2 won't eat them. She only likes orange which is why I bought those 2 plants. I do have a cover for the plants to extend their season a bit, DW and I aren't so picky.

I made some Pico de Gallo with tomato, onion and cilantro from the garden and garlic from the farmer's market, lime juice from a bottle. I don't "do" hot peppers. As mentioned, not at much tomato flavor as it should have since I used the big tomatoes.

 

[Bruce]

Cassie laid her second egg today

Moved the new ramp from running parallel to the back roosts to starting at the right side of the 2' roost and going up over the nest boxes parallel to the new roost. There were 2 issues:

1. Some of the birds are so stupid they hopped on to the 2' pole under the ramp and couldn't figure out why they were stuck. Funny they never do that on the left side ramp!
2. Yue likes to sleep on the far right forward roost and would get fussy with any bird coming up the ramp in her direction even if they hopped to the 4' roost long before they got near her.

Grabbed Penelope and stuck her in the "spare" coop again. She just can't stop annoying the other girls when they try to get up for "bed" and then they run back out of the coop before the auto door closes and get stuck out in the alley when it does.

 

[CntryBoy777]

That harvest is pretty disheartening....I wish I knew what to tell ya or suggest, but I'd either do some heavy research or just forget it all together....and buy local....
Since change is new to the hens, I'd change all the roost poles and put them in a new place, then nobody has a favorite place and they all have to figure it out together.....glad that Cassie is starting out to be regular for ya.....

 

[Mike CHS]

I think you like your milder summer temps but I'll take our somewhat hotter temps. I'm not sure how you can garden at all with your short seasons.