Monday, November 28 Winterization Checkup

This past Saturday, I winterized the water lines to the garage. The previous Saturday, I blew out all the irrigation lines. Today, Wally (irrigation) called and said he was in the area and wanted to stop by and check out the irrigation system. I told him I had already blew the lines out but he was certainly welcome to stop by and check it out. He arrived and said everything looked good. Whereas I purchased the plastic insert for the back flow preventer, which has a tap to connect to a compressed air source, Wally said he normally just hooked up to one of the cocks on the body of the preventer itself. He normally leaves the iron back flow preventer in place through the winter. He did suggest leaving water inlet and outlet ball valves one-half open and partially opening the cock on the inlet side of the preventer. I told him I used my high pressure low volume compressor instead of the low pressure high volume source recommended by Rain Bird. He said that was fine as long as I had air blowing out each of the heads, which I did.

Winterizing, Saturday, November 19, 2016

Today I winterized the irrigation system. This entailed removal of the back flow preventer and installation of a special adapter which permits one to hook up a line from an air compressor. I am disappointed that the guy who installed the system never bothered to teach us how to winterize it. I did the research to find out. Our irrigation system is a Rain Bird. They recommend using an air compressor that puts up 10-25 cfm of volume at no more than 40 psig. Our little compressor is rated for 2.6 cfm at 90 psig. At 40 psig, this flow rate is 3.5 cfm. A compressor able to deliver the volume rate recommended would cost thousands. Anyway, before starting, I ran each of the thirteen zones and documented on our map the location of each head in each zone. We have 13 independent zones with a total of 75 spray heads and two soaker hoses. Each zone was blown with air twice until no water was visible out of the heads. Have not winterized the water lines out to the garage. While night time temperatures have dropped below freezing a couple of times, we are not expecting a real freeze within the next couple of weeks.

Earlier this week I brought in all the tender plants we have had in pots around the backyard. Also I installed the "kayak" storage system in the garage. We don't have a kayak, but we do have a car top carrier. I have suspended the carrier right above the Audi. This not only gets it off the floor, but will also make it so much easier to mount the carrier on the car. I also hung a drawer storage rack.

We still have okra and pepper plants yielding fruit and some green tomatoes. The leeks are about 1" diameter and we are planning to harvest them to make a vichyssoise before too long. The pond water is still above 50F, so we are still feeding the fish.

Friday November 11 - Fence Gates

Over one month ago, on or about October 9, Steve (fencing) stopped by to look at the gates. He promised he would do whatever was necessary to make them work properly. He said it would not that week, but hopefully the following week. Today, he finally showed up and worked on the gates. This is at least the third or fourth time he has been out to work on them. When he was finished this time, he told me that the gates were not installed properly and now they were. The do seem to be closing properly, but we will see how long that lasts.

He gave me his card and told me to call if problems arise. I assured him I would do so. We have not had a freeze yet this year. In fact it has been unusually warm. We are getting some color changes and the ash in back has lost essentially all its leaves. The sweet gum in front has not even started dropping its leaves.

Junipers and Boxwood, Thursday, November 3

This morning I got a call from John saying the junipers had arrived. His crew came out about 10:30 and replaced the two junipers (southern most and second from north) and the one dead boxwood (fifth from south) on the west fence. Our east neighbor asked the crew what they were going to do with the junipers they removed. Apparently they told him they would just throw them away. He suggested that he would be willing to take them. They agreed and even planted them for him. I asked the crew what the specific mulch was that they used. They said it was a dyed brown or chocolate.

I had mentioned to John previously that two of the azaleas were mostly dead, but I did not press the point this morning. I need to make sure we know the exact variety of these in anticipation that we will need to replace them. I sent John an email today asking him for the exact variety of these azaleas and reminding him that he repeatedly promised to provide us with a complete and detailed list of all the plants he installed so we could replace in-kind if desired.

Tuesday, October 25

On Saturday, I went ahead and restained the west porch. This was originally done last fall. We used the same Penofin pretreatment and INTERIOR stain. Looks better than before.

I need to also restain the MIL second floor south balcony deck. I have essentially exhausted the Penofin stain. At $80/gallon, I think I may try a different product on the second floor deck.

Yesterday, I cleaned the deck around the hot spa and the entry deck with Murphy soap. Looks a lot better than it did.

Also yesterday I finished cleaning all the sunroom windows. It is not perfect, but it is much better and I learned a lot about window cleaning. The sunroom has 78 window panes (each with two sides to clean). I also cleaned the fireplace interior and exterior glass panels.

Friday, October 21

Three weeks ago, John said he would be out to address the items on our list, including the dead boxwood, the two dying junipers and the azaleas. On Monday, I sent him an email asking for an update. With no response, I called and left a message on his phone asking him to call. He has not. My patience is about gone. May go to filing complaints with the BBB next.

Dead boxwood

Two dying junipers (they are easy to pick out)

Early this week I decided it was time to plant the hollyhocks we grew from seed this summer. We had eleven. Five went along the west fence, two on the south face of the main house, two along the east porch of the main house (very shady), one on the southeast corner of the sunroom and one just south of the Canadian cherry.

Two hollyhocks and two dying azaleas

Today, I decided it was time to finish the staining and sealing of the Tigerwood decking. There were the boards that Mike replaced in front of the hot tub, the railing and steps on the west porch and the railing on the 2nd floor balcony.

This week we also received the Garage Gator I ordered. It is a motorized lift system which I intend to use primarily as a lift between the garage and its attic. We also received a hoist that we will install in the garage to store the car top carrier above the center bay.

One of the items on the list that John was supposed to attend to was to have Wally (irrigation) show me how to winterize the irrigation system. Today, I surveyed the system and could not find any point where I could hook up my air compressor to blow the water out of the water lines. The only thing I could guess was that the answer must be around the Wilkins back flow preventer. Sure enough, Wilkins sells a module that can be installed in place of the check valve component with two ports to which one can install a purge fitting. I ordered one today. Wally never mentioned this to us.

Friday, October 7 - Bat House

We have not heard from John (landscaping) since he promised to be out two weeks ago.

This morning, Morgan assisted me in installing the bat house on the side of the main house. He has a hammer drill and offered to let me borrow it to drill into the bricks. In retrospect, we did not use the hammer function as the bricks are pretty soft. It was good to have his help and advice however.

The bottom of the landing board is about 14 feet above the ground. Now we will watch and see if anyone takes up residence.

I also received and installed a photocell on the the landscaping lighting. The transformer is a Kichler 200W Pro Series SS (15PR200SS). The photocell is also a Kichler product (Photocell Remote
15534BK) which I ordered via Amazon.

It was easy to install. I've set the lighting timer to come on at 3:00 pm and off again at 11:00 pm. Then on again at 3:00 am and off again at 9:00 am. However, the photocell will not allow the lighting to turn on unless the outside ambient lighting is at a specified level. Tonight, T will tell me when the twilight is such that she wants the landscaping lights to come on. I will then close the photocell aperture until the lights come on. After that, in the evening, the lights will come on (and in the morning turn off) when that level of twilight is reached. This will eliminate the need to make seasonal adjustments to the timing of the lighting.

Yesterday, I got an email from Joann at the Glass House. This is the company that fabricated and installed our glass ceiling above the hot tub. Joann asked if we had any additional pictures of our project. The ones I sent previously were in the dead of winter. I sent her some pictures I took this summer.

We have been very impressed with the okra we planted this summer. The plants are about five feet tall, have blossoms that resemble hibiscus and have provided us with a lot of okra.

Monday, October 3, Weed n Feed

Started working on the garage interior today. The weather is cool and it is very nice out there with all the doors open. My plan is to have the garage organized and the basement cleared out before winter. Doing a bit every day or so will achieve this. I am still considering installation of a "heated" cabinet in the garage for paints or other things that should not freeze.

I applied the first treatment of Weed & Feed to the fescue grass. I am using a product which says to apply it in early fall while the weeds are still growing. I used our Scotts Easy Hand Held broadcaster on a setting of "2". The stated dosage rate was 2.8#/1,000 sq ft.

Yesterday, our new pond de-icer arrived. We bought one last year but it arrived DOA and it was returned. This new one is from a different company at about 1/3 the price. It is only rated for 250 watts where the other one was rated for 500 watts. Both had very good reviews. so I thought it was worth a try. So far, the only thing I am concerned about is that it only has a 12 foot power cord which may limit where I can position it. I also notice that, due to its design, this product may be more susceptible to problems of orientation. The other one I bought had a "just throw it in" design. Unfortunately, when I threw it in, it did not work.

I also applied the third and final coat of paint to the bat house. Getting close to the point of actually installing it.

Saturday, October 1

I got a call from John last Tuesday. He asked what I thought still needed to be done. I told him that I sent him an email with a list on it on earlier in the day. I also reminded him that he left here two weeks ago with his own list. He apologized and said he would be out later in the week. Not a surprise, but we did not see or hear from John later in the week.

On Wednesday, we received the single chamber bat house kit I ordered from Habitat For Bats. On Friday, I assembled it and today I put on the first coat of paint. We have tentatively decided to mount the house on the south face of the main house. The guidelines for where to mount included a minimum of four hours of direct sunlight, 15 feet off the ground, more than 20 feet from any trees, close to water and not mounted over windows or walkways.

The kit

The house is intended to house 50 to 100 bats, depending on the size of the bats. Doing a bit of research, while there are nine species of bats common to Missouri, there are only three bat in our area that normally roost in buildings. The three types are:

• the big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus)
• a large bat, perhaps twice the size of the little brown bat, but still weighs only half an ounce. This species lives throughout Missouri and roosts by itself or in small groups in caves. Big brown bats commonly roost in buildings, where they sometimes hibernate
• the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus)
• a brown, mouse-sized bat that occurs throughout Missouri. It hibernates in small numbers in Ozark caves during winter. In summer, it sometimes takes up residence in attics and buildings, where it rarely causes damage.
• the evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis)
• present in Missouri during the spring, summer and early fall. It migrates south in winter. It roosts in buildings in summer

There is no doubt we have bats in the area. I see them hunting overhead almost every evening. One of our neighbors (behind us and which we have never met) also has bat houses. We don't know if they have any residents. I notified Morgan (east neighbor) that we were putting up the house just in case they might have any objection. He did not and offered to help mount it on the side of the house.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016 Garage Apron Sealant, Landscaping

Beautiful autumn day.

I got up, moved the car out front and applied the third coat of sealant to the garage apron.

I got a response from John (landscaper) this morning. He said he would be back in town today and said he would call or I could "text me what else you're thinking we need to do". This is really irritating. Two weeks ago yesterday, John came out (he needed more money) and made a list of what else needs to be done. He also promised the work would be finished THAT week. Of course that did not happen. Last Friday, his crew did show up and straightened the zelkova, trimmed the junipers and replaced three of the boxwood. I responded back to John that other items on HIS list were:

• There are two junipers that need to be replaced
• There is one more boxwood that needs to be replaced
• You were going to work with the fence guy on these gates
• You were going to advise us on what we might do about these "growths" coming out of the Canadian Cherry root ball (I have cut them back numerous time now)
• You said you might have some more of the polymeric sand you used on the chessboard paver joints
• You said you would get with Wally regarding showing us how to winterize the irrigation system AND regarding changes to some of the irrigation heads

John has several times mentioned that he has already replaced the junipers twice. Again, while this is not relevant, I mentioned to John that the original junipers (and boxwoods) were installed on October 30, 2015. On March 8, 2016, he replaced three of the five junipers. The two that he did not replace are the ones that now need to be replaced.

The landscaping saga continues.

Monday, September 26

I talked with our east neighbor this morning. He said that John's crew showed up early last Friday morning. They stayed only about 45 minutes and trimmed the east junipers, replaced some (I believe three, #3, #4 and #7 from north) of the west boxwood and straightened the zelkova. I believe another boxwood still needs to be replaced (#9 from north). Our neighbor told me that he mentioned to the crew that two of the east junipers probably needed to be replaced due to the amount of dead material on them. He said the response he got was that they were only told to trim them. I called John today to find out what to expect next. Of course I only got his voice mail and I left a message. We will see if he responds.

Today feels like fall. After a weekend around 90F, the high today is supposed to be 74F. It is supposed to stay in the 70's throughout the week.

This morning I spread some more Snapshot (germination inhibitor), did some more pleaching on the hornbeams, pulled some weeds, took cuttings of the coleus' along the east fence line (Campfire" and on the south patio pot (Fish Net), harvested some more okra and cut out all the growths coming out of the Canadian Cherry root ball. I still need to apply the third and final coat of sealant to the garage apron aggregate, but decided to do that tomorrow morning. Also still need to apply sealant to the Tiger wood on the west steps and the MIL balcony railings.

More pleaching of the hornbeams, crossing some branches.

More pleaching of the hornbeams, crossing some branches.

 Potted 'Fish Net' coleus

East fence line 'Campfire' coleus

Spike on patrol

Hollyhocks doing very well in their pots

Juniper (second from north) showing lots of dead branches

Juniper (southern most) showing lots of dead branches

#9 (from north) boxwood with dead branches