Busy Month. After a 6 week dry spell, we finally started to get some rain late in the month. Progress was made on lamp posts, gate posts, and a fence and trellis.
Could not find the lamp posts I wanted so I bought a piece of 4″ x 4″ x 34 ‘ piece of steel, had it cut in half, and then removed the rust, sanded it, primed it and gave it two coats of Tremclad. I then drilled holes and mounted motion sensitive lights, a junction box and GFI, wired them up (I had run wire to the locations when we built the house) and fashioned a top that was intended to invoke Guimard’s Paris Metro entrances. The tops will be replaced with glass and steel in the fullness of time. A friend helped me drill the holes, place the posts and concrete them in. All that is left is a few paint touch ups and having an electrician wire them into the panel in the electrical shed. One post is near the gate and the other about 300’ further along. Also decided to replace the gate posts (they did not work as planned) with pressure-treated 4x6s clad in 2x cedar with two bags of cement in the post hole. The motion detectors installed last month on the gate and further up (to alert us when we have visitors) are working well. Decided to finally employ these Japanese screens that I have had for 30 years. 4 were used to hid the propane tanks. I built a fence with one post in the gabion, one in concrete, and one in a saddle drilled and epoxied into the rock. The idea is partly artistic and partly practical – to partially screen the tent garage I shall be erecting once I get and place more gravel base. If we don’t like the result, I will use them for a tea house to be built next year and replace the screens with something else.The gumboots of one of our neighbors, restored with duct tape. Should be good for another few years yet.Have also used some old shoji’s that I have had for 30+ years (Mizuho was instrumental in freeing them from an old yakitoria in Tokyo that was being demolished). They are intended as a trellis for the clematis and to provide some colour in the winter – this is the view from the kitchen window.Had a bit of a mishap when installing the shoji. I replaced the 1.5″ brad nails with 1/2″ staples in the airgun but there were a few nails left in the gun. One went into my index finger. It hurt, bled and then it got infected and swelled up. After a course of antibiotics, all is good and David is yet again even wiser.
So, an eventful month. Next month will bring news on the automotive, earth moving and gardening fronts.
