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| Bananas growing in one of the trees at the Botanical Gardens. |
On Monday we took the car in to Service King to be repaired. We have a black Toyota Camry as a loaner, so all is good. We are supposed to get our car back tomorrow. I hope they were able to fix everything to Rick's satisfaction.
The hard rainstorm we had last week convinced us that we needed to take the downspout on the north side of the house and send the runoff through an underground drainage system. That was our project for today.
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| Our trench needed to go around the garbage can and HVAC pads, so we dug out four feet from the house. |
We started at 8:00 this morning and did not finish until 4:00 this afternoon. The bad part of that last statement is that we are only 50% done with what we need to do, and we are both so stiff and sore that we can hardly move. I'll blame inactivity rather than old age at this point. (Yeah, right.)
We needed to trench from the northeast corner downspout out about four feet since the air conditioner would be in the way of a straight shot down the north wall. We also wanted to carry the HVAC condensation pipe away from the house and down the same drain. That caused a bit more planning, but our results, so far, have been successful.
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| A redesigned drain will carry condensation water away from the house. |
The trenching itself was problematic only because we still have numerous roots from either the holly or ear pod tree that we took out, or they may be roots from our neighbor's trees. The largest root was only about an inch in diameter, so the size of them was just annoying. The other problem on the north side was the stones... or bricks, I should say. Apparently when the house was built in 1960, the masons who were forming the peak of the house did a good job of cutting the cement block to the correct shape. Sadly, whatever they cut off they simply dropped and buried. We threw numerous smaller pieces in the garbage, and we have gathered a 5-gallon pail of larger pieces of which we will have to figure out how to dispose.
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| The trench includes feeds both from the downspout (in back) and from the HVAC unit (in the front). |
We trenched out just beyond the front gate and then used our quickly dwindling energy glueing the pipes together and finishing the first phase of the project. If it rains tonight, we are in deep trouble. Thankfully, no rain is predicted until Friday.
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| The mound of dirt from the trench had to be stored temporarily in the back yard until we could fill the area back in with dirt. The remaining dirt we put along the fence. |
Our main climatic problem today was the temperature and the wind. We never got out of the 50's today, and the brisk wind we had throughout the day reminded me of the "wind chill" readings we encounter in Wisconsin. We both dressed in layers, and I actually could have used one more!
The connections are made in all of the pipes to just beyond the gate. Tomorrow we will trench the last 35 or so feet in the front yard to take all of the water away from the house. The front should be easier because we can put the dirt we dig up on tarps next to the trench. We could not do that on the north side of the house. We had to wheelbarrow it to tarps in the back yard, dump it, and then shovel it back in to fill in the trench when we were finished. Rick figures we moved about a yard and a half of dirt today.
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| The 4 inch pipe awaits connection to the downspout. |
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| The first phase of the project is complete. Phase Two starts tomorrow with the front yard. |
I am out of shape and not sure that my back will every be the same. Rick is walking around like an old man also. We both reached for the Advil the minute we came into the house. I also am exhausted, so bed tonight will feel good. I just hope I can fall asleep before Rick starts to snore!
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