Dig Those Stumps

On Sunday Marcia put me to work digging out stumps. We started with 10 stumps along our driveway and 4 more in the front center of the yard. We managed to get all of the first 10 stumps dug out and I'll finish up the other cluster of 4 during the week. The ground was still softer from the past week's rain, but oleander stumps still didn't prove to be easy to remove.

In the pictures, you can see the debis pile for the bulk trash collection, the area where we removed the 10 stumps and the 4 in front that still need removed.

Water and Electrical Don't Mix

Water and electrical don't mix - gotta keep making progress anyway. Here's what I got done this weekend.

I finished the electrical trench outside just in time for three days of rain. We had on and off rain for Wednesday through Friday and in the pictures below you can see the results on Saturday morning. I now have a long and narrow pond. Should I stock it with some fish?





Well, since it didn't look like I was going to get much done under water, I headed to Home Depot to buy my supplies. I had to go to two different stores and it took me most of the day to figure out all of the fittings and get everything I needed. I managed to haul all the conduit home in the Jeep just fine. You can also see where I aligned everything on the living room floor to make sure I didn't forget any fittings.







I also made a trip up into the attic to scout things out. Here are three pictures of the area I'm working in up there.







I also managed to mount the breaker panel inside my shed. It's just waiting for some conduit and wiring now!

Finished Digging Electrical Trench

After work I finished digging the trench for running the electrical conduit. It proved to be somewhat difficult because I had to work around the existing conduit running to our pool pump. My back took a beating from bending over and digging with the pick axe. Here's the finished results. It's about 20-25 inches deep and approximatly 15 feet long.

Getting Back to Work on the House

Ok, so we took Saturday off and had fun up in Prescott. On Sunday I continued working on the landscaping changes we are making. Marcia helped me cut out the row of oleander on our property line and pile them up for bulk trash collection. In the first two pictures you can see the aftermath.





After that, I started working on the electrical for my shed. I had to clean up the existing breaker panel some to make room for the feeder cable. I doing so, I removed a couple unused circuits for the old cooler that is no longer on the roof and also took off the old irrigation timer.

After lunch I started work in the back yard digging the 12-15 foot trench from the house to the shed where I need to run condit for the feeder subpanel. I'm about half done in the picture below and plan to finish digging it after work this week. I would have made better progress, but soon after starting the trench, I hit the conduit that feeds the pool pump and lights. I'm going to dig under that, so I can't go full bore with the pick axe to trench in that area.

A Day Around Prescott

We hopped in the Jeep and headed to Prescott today. It was supposed to hit 100 degrees in Phoenix and only be in the 80's up north. Once we got to Prescott, we did a little shopping and had a nice lunch.

Then we headed south of Prescott on the Senator Highway and went at least 5 miles past where it turns to gravel. Due to a prescribed burn that got out of control earlier this week, they had the rest of the road up to Crown King closed. We took a couple smaller roads back east and then north before coming out near Lynx Lake. In the pictures below, you can see one place where we stopped to take a break.

After getting back to Prescott, we went to Cortez St. and spent some time looking through the antique shops before heading home.

We've Been Working on the House

3-13-07 - I'm dating this post 3-4-07 since that is when these pictures were taken. I just haven't had the time to get these posted in the last couple weeks.

While Marcia was gone on her trip to Iowa, I tried to get a bunch of work on the landscaping done. The palm trees needed to be trimmed, so I got the ladder and saw out and hacked at them for a couple hours. Looking much better now although they are still somewhat brown from the frost we had in January.



Since I had the saw out, I cut out the hideous oleander in the front yard. Now I just need to get the stumps dug out.



Trimming the palm trees and cutting out the oleander made a huge mess. I gathered everything up and got it loaded on the trailer.



With Marcia back on Sunday, we made a trip to the dump north of town. After you weigh on the scales, you drive around to the building with bays to back in and unload.



It only took us about 10 tries to get the timing right, but Marcia was finally able to get a good action shot of me unloading the wood.



One other project I worked on was scraping up all the landscaping rock from the north side of the pool and dumping it over in the area where there used to be grass. We are going to cover that area up and then get a couple loads of new rock to spread over the entire yard. In the picture below, you can see where I got all the rock removed and then we put down the pavers for a walkway and positioned our grill.



Here's a view of where I dumped all the rock. You can see I got the whole area covered except a small part behind the chiminea that still has some grass showing.



On Sunday after getting back from the dump, Marcia helped me haul some more rock. I had a huge pile that I had scraped up a few months back and we covered up the area in the front yard where the red dirt was. The following three pictures show the front after we finished.

Marcia's Iowa Trip

Marcia decided to go to Iowa for a week. Unfortunately, the weather didn't want to cooperate. She made her first flight to Salt Lake City Friday night, but the second flight to Des Moines was cancelled. They were able to get her on another flight that routed through Minneapolis and then to Des Moines. She made it there fine, but her luggage didn't. It was Monday afternoon before it arrived.

Marcia stayed with Matt and Lori at Matt's parents house. They were snowed in most of the weekend, but were able to make it to Ottumwa to visit her grandparents on Monday. First is a picture of the snow from their deck near Des Moines followed by a few family photos.







On the way back from Ottumwa, Lori drove Marcia by their new house. Here's a picture of the street nearby.



Marcia then headed to Tama for a couple days to visit my family there. Rachel has been taking dance lessons and put on a show for Marcia.









Matt and his dad helped take Marcia back to the airport on Friday through the nasty weather. Another storm was moving in fast. Marcia waited at the airport for a couple hours before they cancelled her flight. They rescheduled her for a Saturday flight, so she had to catch a shuttle to a nearby hotel and stay another night. The next picture is out her window at the hotel and then a picture of the Pella Bologna that she was bringing back for her dad.





While Marcia was gone, Virgil did a little shopping. I found a used planer listed on Craig's List really cheap and couldn't pass it up. I didn't have any hardwood to test it with, so I showed Marcia how it works by planing down a 2x4 from 1.5 inches thick to 1 inch thick. You can see the shavings that I swept up and the dimensioned board.