Notes For Me ( and You)

A few weeks ago, a stong, gusty storm ripped off several rows of shingles, in a section about three feet long, starting on the west side of the front of the house. We did not have a leak – the tar paper underlay is actually the real water barrier with the shingles there to protect it from the elements and for looks – but it needed to be fixed before the spring thunderstorms start in earnest.

Now I do tackle most home stuff myself, but for this I wanted to get a professional in, mostly because I thought the risk/reward of working on the roof wasn’t a good deal! So I contacted a local company that was recommended by some friends. They came by one day – we were not here – and mailed in an estimate. The cheap option was $600, the expensive option was $1,200. Although it was a small repair, they said the shingle style/color was no longer made and they proposed to pull off some from the back, replace those with new, non matching, and reinstall the used shingles on the front – hence the price.

I then thought again about doing it myself. I took one of the pieces of shingle that had blown down and went to the main roofing supply house to find a close match ( maybe). The guy behind the counter took one look at it and said it was ” such and such” – and they had tons of that in stock ! I bought a couple of bundles and went home via Home Depot for a few new tools, then up on the roof (carefully). One hour later – all finished and looking good! Cost of materials used – maybe $15 ( not counting the unused shingles in the bundles). New tools, $30. A profitable afternoon.

Almost a month after I started this one-weekend project ( interrupted by illness and other stuff) I managed to get a couple of hours in the garage to assemble the bottom pieces and build a frame for the twin wall polycarb sheet.

The frame was build of cedar strips. I used three passes on  table saw to notch the strips about 3/8th deep to receive the twin wall.

All that is left is to hinge the top to the frame, create a means to prop it open, apply a sealing/preservative coat. It might still make the garden in time to be useful this season.

I started on a quick project to build a small portable cold frame to start and/or harden off plants in the veg garden. The size (3 x 4) was determined by the dimensions of a piece of twin wall polycarbonate that we had left over from the solar projects we did in earlier years. The side walls are cedar so they will not need much treatment to last a while in the garden.

Here are the pieces all cut out ready for assembly. These are cut from  1″ x 8″

Cold Frame Sides

again sizes dictated more by available material than any preset design. The sides and back were held together by straps and glue.

Cold frame back panel

All the parts are now together, and next time I will assemble the box and start on the frame for the polycarb sheet.

The Christmas break has finally ended. School is open and Nancy and I are back to work. 2009 will be a big year for our family, the main event being (hopefully ) the graduation of Alex from school and his departure to a college or university somewhere.

The break was nice and relaxing – maybe too relaxing since there were a lot of “to-dos” on the list going into the holidays and not many of those became “to-dones”. Still, I caught up on sleep and on some minor chores and I will just have to get to everything else as time allows.

Thanks to the desires of the Italian-American community, many folks, including myself and Nancy, had yesterday (Monday) off in observance of Columbus Day. However this holiday did not include the schools – they have had several days off already to meet the desires of the Jewish community. So we had an empty-nest day!

I managed to fix our washing machine – a $10 switch. One of the “finds” in home repair has been a place called Tribles that so far has been very successful in supplying parts and pieces to keep our appliances working. There are many places on line that are great – but it is better to see the part on the counter, compare it with the one in your hand, and walk out confident that at least that part of the repair is going well. Plus most of the time I need it fixed NOW – and even overnight shipping may be to long.

I also cleaned out half the garage and started clearing the garden plots of the withered vegetable plants. We are just about finished with the carrots, the last of the summer crop, but new lettuce rows are about ready to start eating.

Sports went well over the weekend, and this was the first indoor swim meet for Jake.

It is now the last week of the school vacation. Football practice is in full swing and dry, brown leaves are scattered under the trees. My cucumbers are on their last legs, and the tomatoes too have peaked – although there are still many more to come, the rush is over. The mini-pumpkin plants are doing well, so well in fact that they attracted the attention of the deer this weekend. I moved the last piece of netting over from the carrots – the deer can munch on the carrot tops all they want at this stage.

This weekend also saw me complete my new plumbing project, installing a facet on the deck to help with the watering of the baskets and pots. This plumbing extension also included a branch down to the veg area, complete with 24V DC solenoid valve, which will be the start of the automated drip watering system for next year. This was my first adventure into soldering pipe and there were a lot of joints as the copper piping snaked it’s way around the deck and into the basement. To my surprise there were no leaks!

The forecast of this week is bone dry, unless the remnants of Tropical Storm / Hurricane Fay get here by the Friday.