Pulling Wire

With the entire length of conduit installed, I went Friday and bought wire. I was contemplating over pulling a string through first to get a good measurement, but ended up estimating by how much conduit I used (about 80-85 feet) and just bought 100 feet of cable. I got a good deal at Home Depot since Ace Hardware had wire cheaper, but HD does a price match plus beats it by 10%.

After thinking things over, I decided to pull the wire from the shed towards the main panel. Originally, I had thought it would be easier to pull from the house out to the shed, but decided against that. By doing it that way, Marcia didn’t have to try to get up into the attic with me.

We started by having Marcia outside the shed at the junction box and me up in the attic at the next junction box. I tried to push the fish tape from the attic out towards Marcia. It kept getting stuck about 15 feet in right where I used the flexible elbow exiting the attic and going down the side of the house. After some thought, Marcia put the vacuum cleaner on the shed end and I let it suck a string through. At that point, I tied the string onto the fish tape and she pulled the fish tape past where it was sticking. Then, we were able to hook the wire on and pull.



From there, we went outside up by the main breaker panel and fed the fish tape in again until it came out in the attic where I had just pulled the line. We hooked everything back up and Marcia pulled from the front corner of the house as I now fed her the wire from the middle point in the attic. Then all we had to do was feed about 12 feet through my big conduit on the side of the house and back feed 5 feet up into the shed breaker panel. It was about noon by then and getting really hot on Saturday. I was nice and sweaty up in the attic. Blown in insulation feels great stuck to your sweaty arms and legs.

On Sunday I was able to finish making the connections in the shed breaker panel. I still haven't hooked anything up in the main panel so we are not live yet. I also drove in the two grounding rods with the sledge hammer. That actually went in much easier than I had expected. I used the deep root watering spike attached to the garden hose to drive down the first 3 feet. With the hole started, I put the rods down in there and began hammering. Both went difficult for the middle 2-3 feet, but the last 2-3 feet hit some softer soil that went quite easy.

Now I need to get some wire to connect the ground rods to my sub-panel and make the connection at the main panel and the shed is electrified. It ended up being about 85 feet total. With a couple feet scrap at each end, my extra cutoff was only about 10 feet. I'll probably use that up wiring the outlet for the welder.

Jeep = DEAD

The good news. The Jeep looks great with the recent upgrades. Here is a picture of it out on the trail Saturday.



The bad news times two.

1. When we got home I was admiring our new tires and spotted a nail sticking out. Well, it wasn't leaking so maybe it just was stuck in the tread. I grabbed the pliars and pulled it out. SSSSSSSSS!!! Crap, it was leaking. I put on the spare and we were good to go. Marcia took the tire back to Discount Tire tonight and they couldn't repair it since the hole was too close to the sidewall. The good news is Discount Tire is going to replace it for free since the tire was only 3 days old. Wow, we lucked out. Hooray Discount Tire!!!



2. So, a little bit later I went to start the Jeep up and it just clicked. The battery didn't have enough power to turn over. Well, we were going to replace it in the next week, so I guess we'll do that TODAY!!! Long story short, new battery is installed and the Jeep fires right up.



Here's a picture of under the hood just for fun. After removing the battery, I blew the dust out with the air hose, so it's a little cleaner now.

Ready for Wire

The conduit is finally completed. Now, I just need to buy wire and get it pulled. In the picture, you can see the last section I had to complete from the main panel into the attic. I had removed a 3/4 inch flexiable conduit that the previous owner had instlled for some additional circuits in the garage. I used 1 1/2 inch EMT conduit for my outside run because I'm going to rerun those circuits I removed, plus my feeder for the garage in one conduit. Once painted to match the house, this should be a much cleaner looking install than originally done.



Here's a picture of the conduit on the back corner of the house after I got it secured and filled in the trench.



I would have got more work done, but I had to stop and restack the wood that my dad brought me. His stack only lasted 3 months. The firewood pro that he is, I expected a little better than that. haha.

Sheep Bridge Meetup Trip

After getting the lift spacers and new shocks installed, we had new tires put on the Jeep also. They had to order the size I wanted, but we were able to get them installed by Wednesday night. Here is a picture of Marcia standing next to her Jeep with lift kit, new shocks, and new tires.



I'm not going to post any photos for this trip since I posted 30 photos HERE. Just open that link and click on "See all photos" on the right side. Not only can you see my photos, but the other member's photos also.

We met up with the group at a QuikTrip on Cave Creek Road north of the 101 in the morning. Eight vehicles headed out at 8am north on Cave Creek Road. The drive takes us through the towns of Cave Creek and Carefree and then past the turn off for Barlett Resevoir. Another few miles and we pass the turnout for the Sears Kay Ruins and soon the paved road turns to gravel. This is FR24 which enters the Tonto National Forest. This road passes a couple hiking trailheads and a turnoff that takes you up to the top of Humbolt Mountain. (The one that has the radar station at the top that looks like a huge golf ball.) The Seven Springs campground is closed for the last couple years, but there is still camping available in the area at some other nearby spots.

We kept heading north and passed the turnoff for the Table Mesa road that heads back to I-17. For the most part, the road has been really smooth with just a few washboard spots along the way. As the trail continues, we came to C.P. Butte where some of the members climbed up and back down the hill there. Another few miles and the road comes to a T. At this point you can go left on the Bloody Basin road which connects back to I-17 or go right 12 miles to the Sheep Bridge.

The sheep bridge road is narrower and a one lane road for the most part with wider spots for passing oncoming vehicles. There were a few water crossings where the water was approximatly a foot deep. Also, the road is no longer nice and graded, but has quite a few small boulders to drive over and around. The group made it to the sheep bridge around noon and ate lunch on the sand bars down by the Verde River.

After lunch, Brian and Pat decided to challenge their vehicles. As you can see from the pictures, Pat made it through the swift and deep river crossing, but Brian flooded out. Luckily, there was another large truck there with a winch that pulled Brian's Bronco backwards out of the river. Then, Pat attempted to come back across the river and also got stuck and needed pulled out. You can see that as Pat got about half way across, the current actually started taking his rear end downstream.

A few members decided to camp out overnight, but the rest of the group headed back at 2pm after checking out the sheep bridge. On the way back, we took a detour up Humbolt Mountain to see the views from the top. In some of the pictures, you can see Horseshoe Resevoir. We made it back home by 6pm.

Garage Sale and Jeep Lift Kit

Please buy our crap! We started off the morning by having our semi-annual garage sale. Got the new signs out by 6:30am and the customers began rolling in. By 10:30am most of the traffic had slowed down and we were getting tired of sitting in our driveway. We packed away what was left and counted the cash drawer. Woo hoo, a profit of $104. Here's a picture of everything right as we got it set out.



After taking a break for an early lunch, it was time to begin installing the lift kit and new shocks on the Jeep. Here are 2 before pictures.





I started by jacking up the front end and getting it on jack stands. The first picture below is an action shot that Marcia captured. With the tires removed, the second picture is of the old setup before I removed anything.





I had to take out the old shocks and remove the springs to fit in the spacers. The shocks were fairly simple with a bolt at the top and bottom. You can see me removing the top bolt in the first picture. I had to get a step stool to reach with the Jeep so high off the ground.



In the next two pictures, I am all done with the front. You can see the new white shocks and the shiney black spacer at the top of the spring. To get the spacer to fit I had to compress the spring and disconnect the sway bar to give me enough room to fit everything in.





In the next picture, I had put the wheel back on, but the front end is still up on jack stands so there is more space in the wheel well with no weight on the suspension yet.



Done with the front, we turned the Jeep around and got the back end up on jack stands. In the first picture, you can see the old setup before I began.



Everything was very similar in the rear except the shocks mount slightly different. Here's what it looks like when all done.



And here are the after pictures with everything put back together. Not really noticable from looking at it, but the new shocks are awesome. We soon realized the old shocks were way past being worn out. The ride is noticably better/smoother now. Next update, tires!

Garage Sale Signs

Tonight I painted in the arrows and removed the tape when it was dry. Marcia helped stencil in the words SALE on each one.

Testing the New Camera

Marcia picked up a new camera on sale and I am testing it out.

Here we go:

First, we have the garage sale signs I am making. I had some scrap 1/4" plywood that I cut into three different sizes. I plan on placing the biggest ones out at 40th St. and Union Hills, the medium ones at 40th St. and Topeka, and the small ones at the entrance to our cul-de-sac. I painted them white first and in the picture you can see where I taped off for the arrows. Tomorrow, I'm going to paint the arrows and the word "SALE" on each one.



The next two pictures are of my progress on framing in an opening for the window A/C unit in my shed. I have it almost completed except for lining things up and installing some trim on the outside.





Here is a picture of the current status of the trench with the conduit between the shed and house. I was able to strap down the shed half and filled it back in with dirt. I still need to add some straps to secure the conduit near the house, so I held off on filling that part in yet.



Last is the cactus in our back yard. It got some rain recently and is wanting to grow and grow and grow.

Finally Time For Conduit

I first had to dig my trench out from where the rain had filled it in with dirt. It was mostly loose soil and fairly easy to clean out. After that, I was able to rough in the conduit from the shed to the house. I cut the holes in the shed and dry fitted everything in place. That's where I stopped on Saturday in the following two pictures.





I recruited Brett to come up on Sunday and help out for a couple hours. With him, we were able to fish the conduit over the vaulted cieling in our master bedroom and make the needed connections in the attic. As of right now, everything from the shed underground and through the attic to where it comes out on the other side of the house is completed. I still have a few other small sections to complete and connect to the main service panel, but it's almost ready to have cable pulled.

I didn't get very good pictures of our progress on Sunday, but in the following two, you can see where we finished it on the outside. The clamps I bought to secure the conduit to the house were not going to work and I'm going to have to go back and buy a different type. You can see in the picture that the conduit is not straight and that will be fixed once I get the proper clamps.