Garage Ducts

Our garage had two vents hooked up to our AC/Heater. We did not want to pay to heat and cool our garage, and even with those two vents closed we were still wasting air.


So I ventured into our cramped attic and found the spot where the duct branches off to the garage. It takes about 15 minutes of army crawling across 2X4s and dodging air ducts and insulation to get there. I had planned everything out ahead of time, but of course nothing went like I expected. I ended up having to crawl over there twice, and the second time I spent about an hour and a half removing the duct and sealing it off. The duct on the right splits into two and goes to the two garage vents.

Sheet metal covers the hole where the duct was.

Hillary turned on the air while I was up there so I could verify it was air-tight.

Fruit Trees

 
We planted three semi-dwarf fruit trees on December 3. The nursery was running a sale and they were $15 each.




From right to left (above):
Beverly Hills Apple, Shinseiki Asian Pear, Puget Gold Apricot.



We planted the trees in a low spot in the back yard, where all the water from the roof runs off and collects.
That nice mesquite tree provides no shade for the house and will interfere with the fruit trees, so unfortunately it will become firewood after I get a chainsaw.

Den Door

Brother-in-law Paul offered to help put in a door while he was here. I was very happy to have his help, because it was a little beyond my abilities. I definitely would have had to hire someone to do it if he hadn't been here.

The somewhat finished product. After finishing the drywall, molding will go around the door and make it look nice. We re-used a door that we had torn out from one of the old bedrooms.

Pulling up tile

A few weeks ago - Dad pulled up all the tile in the den, while I finished putting up the first coat of drywall mud.
Now, I have finished sanding the first coat too.

Left to do:
2nd coat of mud
texture
put door in entrance to room
paint
carpet

Bobcat

I saw a big bobcat on our road when I got home around 2 am last night. It was the biggest one I have seen so far, probably about 30 pounds or more. Watch out Murphy!

Megetra Punctata Blister Beetle

Found this weird looking beetle walking around the yard recently. It has a tiny head and a huge body that it seems to have a hard time moving. In fact, it drags its tail and leaves little trails in the dirt everywhere it walks.

Pickles

I found this frog or toad hopping around by the house when I mowed the lawn on October 1. I still can't figure out what kind it is. Haddie and I named him Pickles and put him in a pitcher of water and watched him swim.

Coyote Gourds

Haddie and I picked these Coyote Gourds from our front yard out by the road.

Beautiful afternoon in Arizona!

 

Sonoran Coachwhip

 

This big pink Sonoran Coachwhip was stuck in our garden fence. They are non-poisonous, extremely fast, and apparently they can be aggressive and quick to bite when cornered. Hillary told me there was a dead snake in the fence, so the next day I went out there to look at it. It looked dead, but when I grabbed its tail it started moving all over the place! It was still alive, but it had really gotten stuck bad in the fence.

I didn't want to kill it, because they actually eat rattlesnakes! But there was no way I could cut it out of the fence without risking getting bitten. It was stuck so bad there was nothing else to do but kill it.

We've only seen one rattlesnake since we've lived here, and that was 10 months ago (knock on wood). Maybe this guy had been eating them.

Drywall

Before

After

I spent the weekend hanging drywall in the den. I rented a drywall lift which was a HUGE help for getting those heavy sheets onto the ceiling. It took four 4X8 sheets of drywall to get the job done. Next step will be to use drywall tape and mud to fill in the seams. That's going to be the messiest part because it involves lots of sanding. 

Great Plains Toad

Spotted this toad a few nights ago on the back porch. I had to read a lot and look at a lot of pictures online before I could classify it, but I finally decided it was a Great Plains Toad. Apparently it stays underground most of the year and only comes out during monsoon season.

Box Turtle and Tarantula

We went for a walk down our road on Thursday evening, and came across an Ornate Box Turtle walking across the road! They are native to this corner of Arizona, but they are described as secretive and difficult to find. I didn't even know there were turtles around here until I did some internet research trying to figure out what kind of turtle it was. Apparently it's against the law to even pick one up.

Then, while we were observing the turtle on the road, a huge tarantula came walking down the road right towards us! The tarantula ignored us and the turtle and just walked on past. I think it would have walked right over my shoe if I hadn't moved out of the way.

Den Demo Finished

This is how the den looks after clearing most everything out. I forgot to thank Sally and Joe for helping in my last post about the den. Joe and I finished the demolition in one morning, which would have taken me at least two full days to do by myself. Sally even helped throw drywall and wood onto the trailer.

I have decided not to put drywall up in the den until I buy some speaker wire. I'm going to wire the room for surround sound and then put up the drywall.

Garage

Hillary and I got the garage organized a little today. We hung two bikes, a jogging stroller, and a bike trailer from the ceiling and organized some other stuff.

The two other walls are still junky but we at least made a little progress.

Den Demolition

We filled this trailer to overflowing twice and took it to the dump. We dumped a total of 1600 pounds of wood, drywall, etc cleared from our demolition.















We are very happy with the size of the new room after we got all the walls knocked out. We hired an electrician to put in some new dimmer switches for our light fixtures and fans. 

Garage Door Opener

Last week I finished getting the garage door opener installed! Our garage is really coming together now.

Garden Intruders

Our two tomato plants were eaten - again!

We were trying to figure out how birds could have gotten through the net, and then we found two holes just like the one above. Judging from the size of the holes, it was the work of mice or rabbits. Whatever it was ate both our tomato plants and left everything else alone. So I bought some chicken wire to go all the way around the garden fence to reinforce everything. I don't think they can chew through metal. We are really learning some lessons for next year.

One of our tomato plants is growing back on its own, and we bought another one at Lowes to replace the other.

Stucco First Layer

This is what it looked like after I cut the hole in the wall and got the door up. The exposed wood needs to be refinished with stucco. 


















Before the stucco can be applied, the surfaces have to be covered in black construction paper, then covered with styrofoam, then covered with chicken wire. This was very tedious work. The stucco, which is basically just concrete, is applied onto the styrofoam and chicken wire.
















Hillary was a huge help putting up the first layer of stucco. She figured out that it worked best to just pack it in place by hand. I had to run into town to get more stucco mix, so she ended up doing almost all of it while Haddie napped.

Now we need to apply a second layer to make it look nice and try to match the texture on the rest of the house.

Garage Door is Done!

The rear track hangers were a big source of worry and headache for me, and I was feeling really relieved when I finally got this first one up. Then Hillary asked "How are you going to get the ladder out?" Oops.










This is me opening the garage for the first time after finishing everything. It works! But it has to be opened by hand because there is no opener yet.











Now I need to install the opener and finish clearing out the garage. And I need to stucco over the exposed wood where I cut the hole in the wall.

Garden: Round 2

 

Today we planted a new garden. This time we are equipped with a bird net recommended by David. We will see who will win this round!

Birds: 1  Culps: 0

Screen Door

The screen door that was here when we moved in was full of holes and would not have kept bugs out. A new screen door would be $50, but I found an $8 kit from Home Depot - I was able to keep the screen door frame and just replace the screen itself.