In the garden, and RAIN!!!!

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
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BRENDA

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 10:58 PM

Also off to the chiropractor I go.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, July 11, 2019 5:06 AM

Good to hear it sounds like your brother is doing well Brenda :)

No rain today. Yay! It's been about 10 days without rain now. That's what I've literally been praying for and looks like there isn't much if any in the forecast. Just about 20% chance the next 10 days.

HUGE difference, as far as ant activity. May they all dehydrate and die.

Managed to put a second coat of primer on the existing facia and the two pillars. From the street, everything looks great now. Hell... from up close it looks pretty good too. You'd really have to have a trained eye to tell that something is amiss.

Went out after that and picked up a few gallons of ammonia for the racoon. Thought about mixing it with bleach to really smoke them out, but everybody seems to think that's a really bad idea.

I'm going to try just the ammonia first, but desperate times call for desperate measures. If I have to sleep out in the garage for a few days I will if that's what it takes to get them out. Seeing what I saw yesterday I really don't care if they get poisoned and die. I'm so done with this.

Put two coats of primer on my steps today too. I still haven't built them. I may even put a third coat on after they're built to seal it all in together, then put two coats of the finish on there. That ought to seal it all in nice.

This attic is falling apart. I'm going to have to figure out something to prop that front porch overhang and build new supports, or if I'm lucky, the existing pillars are long enough to put new anchors through at a higher point.

I might have to bite the bullet and get the city involved and get some legit advice at some point. From the street everything still looks fine, but I don't know how long that's going to last. I don't know why everything seems to be falling apart at the same time so quickly.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

BRENDA

Thursday, July 11, 2019 5:42 AM

Thanks Jack. Yeah, he seems to be doing okay.

BRENDA

Thursday, July 11, 2019 5:43 AM

Wire, wire, wire. All I need is a little bit of wire to finish doing up my dad's metals in a shadow box then I can hang them up.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, July 11, 2019 7:10 AM

If mama racoon was up there today, she didn't make a peep while I was stomping around. That's the first time I went fully up there. I was really tentative at first. I had full jeans on, but I had to do it shirtless since it's easily over 100 degrees up there. I was drenched after my 2nd shower of the day. :(

I didn't exactly know how to make an "ammonia bomb", and putting that search into Google gave a bunch of hits to websites that I didn't feel comfortable popping up. I'm probably on a damn watch list now.

So I had a 10 pack of plastic tumblers I bought at the dollar store too. I filled them all up and put them at various places all around the porch attic. I also found two old crappy rags, soaked them, then draped them over the area I knew the racoon used to get into the house attic in an attempt to keep her from relocating in the house again.

Then I poured a bunch of it all over her shit piles. Thought twice about just whipping it out and officially marking my territory...

For now.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, July 11, 2019 9:30 AM

Gorram Ants...

$20 of Lumber

Built like a tank, and smooth as hell...

This isn't actually screwed together or anything yet. I just Lincoln-Logged them together to see what it would look like and stood on them. Rock solid and didn't wobble in the slightest.

I'll have to get pics of the primered pieces, and then I'll take pics of it when I put it together, paint it, etc.

I'm super proud of this. I've never really built anything out of wood since a wood shop class in high school. Only really did rough carpentry hidden behind walls since then.

I joked with my mom today that if the house caves in and I have to sell the land as-is, I'm taking these damn steps with me when I go.

I'd actually kind of like building the larger 2nd step with the hand rail from scratch instead of just making new legs for it since it's so shitty compared to mine. Unfortunately, money is kind of an issue now and I've got better things to spend it on at the moment...

Maybe I'll see if I can't take the old one apart. If the integrity is still there like I suspect it is beyond two of the legs that have gone to the wild, maybe I can take my time and do it all the right way with the existing lumber instead of just half assing it with a paint job.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, July 11, 2019 9:37 PM

Really late start for the day for me, unfortunately. I was exhausted after working out in the 95 degree heat all day, but I couldn't seem to get any real amount of sleep for some reason. It's 20 degrees cooler for the high today and I've already squandered the morning. Oh well...

I think I'm going to put those stairs together and put the finish coat on the columns and the exposed facia today. At least get a coat of primer on the stairs or maybe even the first coat of actual paint too...

I've got to find a countersink bit. Hope I've got one in either my go-to drill bit set or one I've yet to open. I know I have one somewhere, but if neither of those sets contain one I have no clue where it is. I really need to start getting all of my tools organized now that I'm clearing out all of this space.

I'll have more pics later hopefully.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, July 11, 2019 10:06 PM

Hrmmmmmm...

Hindsight being 20/20, I kind of wish I put all the pilot holes in the wood before I primered it. Oh well...

Do Right, Be Right. :)

BRENDA

Thursday, July 11, 2019 10:06 PM

Guess I'll lug my umbrella today. Looks like it could rain.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Friday, July 12, 2019 6:12 AM

So...

My late start meant plans changed. I was really wiped out after working nearly 12 hours in the 95 degree heat yesterday anyhow. It was nice and only in the mid 70's today, so after the garbage men came I decided to fill the cans right back up again.

I got rid of some of the hoard in the garage. I've got to say that it's really nice to have some space on my work bench as well as quite a bit of clearance on both sides of my car when I park it. Even more space if I didn't have my stair project in front of my tool bench right now.

I did manage to assemble the stairs today, but I didn't open up any cans of paint. I've got some company coming over tomorrow and I'm going to spend a few hours cleaning house before I go to bed. I'll probably put on some more paint tomorrow afternoon after they leave. It's so nice to be so caught up on all the lawn and weed maintenance so I can focus on projects and stuff.

Picture time. :)

Here's all of my building blocks with two coats of primer:

The legs assembled (I couldn't find my countersink bit, of course....):

The only screws going into the planks you walk on are from the bottom (at least right now):

I really love the way this looks without putting screws down in from the top. It would also keep any water from building up around the screws and screw holes too. I'm just afraid that it might not be stable enough for the long term. What do you think?

I'm thinking before putting another coat of primer on or any finish paint coat that I'll try to find my countersink bit or bite the bullet and buy a new one. I could then just add a few more screws from an angle coming up from the insides of the legs to get another 1 or 2 into each leg for additional support without screwing through the top. Maybe I'll even spring for some wood filler that's sandable and really do it up right before finishing it?

I took a look at the larger step with the hand rail in the back today that I was considering just replacing the legs and sanding and repainting it. It was really shoddy work. The ends of the plank on top were cut bad, they are different sizes by anywhere from 1/8th to 1/4 inches, and they didn't even bother sanding down the bad cuts, let alone any of the corners or edges. There's also a thin layer of mildew/algae that has grown on it that would probably just gunk up any sandpaper I tried using almost immediately if I tried to save that lumber...

Not to mention that there's about a billion screws coming from the top that not only make it look shoddy, but is the source of a lot of peeled paint too. It's obvious that they didn't even bother making pilot holes first since the wood is split quite a bit.

To be honest, I'm surprised that it's still standing, even without the damage at the bottom of a few of the legs from wood rot and ants.

I'll probably go and pick up more lumber. I already have what I need for the feet. I'd just need a 12' length of 2x4's and maybe two 8' lengths of 2x6's to get it done. And a box of screws... Since I've already got the paint and primer, it might only run me another 20 bucks for the wood.

I'll have to get a picture of the piece of crap that's out there now. :)

Do Right, Be Right. :)

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