Waning Gibbous Moon

Setting in the west, Tampa, FL, 6:28 AM 2/16/2014

The Chicken Comes Home

Saturday, Feb. 8, 2014

As planned, Sherry and I rented a truck today and drove to Circus City Architectural Salvage in Sarasota to pick up her giant metal chicken.

This is the place to go if you are looking for funky decorations for your house.

An employee helped me load the chicken into our truck.

Back at home, Sherry and I unloaded the chicken and positioned it in front of the house.

The neighbor's dog was not amused.

Sherry and the chicken.  Compare heights.

We had to get a big truck in order to have enough headroom for the chicken to stand up.

The new view from our bedroom.

Unplanned selfie on right edge of the picture.  Fortunately I was fully dressed.

Finishing Up

Sunday, Feb. 2, 2013
There were just a few small tasks left for me to do this weekend.  I trimmed one of the 4x6 beams that fill the channel back by about six inches.  This will permit a gap between the beams, which will provide some finger room, making it much easier to remove the beams when I need to open the channel.  The gap won't be visible because there will be 1x6 boards on top of the beams and these will fill the length of the channel.  Hopefully they will not be very difficult to remove.

I needed a mini retaining wall on the east end, similar to the one I installed on the south side last weekend.  Fortunately I still had enough concrete board for this, avoiding a trip to Lowe's.

I stained the top boards in the channel, using the same stain that I had used on the deck sections.  Again I had enough material left from previous work.  This must be my lucky day!

The final task was to refill the trenches that I had dug to provide access to the retaining walls.

I hereby declare the catch basin finished!

The next phase of work is to install pavers, replacing those that I dug up in order to install the catch basin and extending the patio into the foreground in the picture above.  But I intend to hire a contractor for that.

South Side Retaining Wall

Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014
Last weekend I poured the concrete for a footing that would form the base of a channel along the south side of the basin.

Today I removed the form.  This turned out to be quite easy.

The main motivation for the footing was to provide a stable foundation for a mini retaining wall, which is needed to prevent dirt from sloughing off into the channel when it is opened to permit the deck sections to be opened.

I decided to use concrete board for the retaining wall, and attach it to the footing with Tapcons.  I had two sheets of concrete board available, which I had bought for the other side of the basin but decided not to use there.  I had already sliced the 3' by 5' sheets into halves, each 18 inches wide and five feet long.  In order to attach them to the footing, I had to dig out a trench beside the footing, wide enough that I could use a drill to make holes for the Tapcons.

Sunday, Jan, 26, 2013
I cut one of the 18 inch wide slices of concrete board down to four feet, giving a total of 14 feet from that piece plus two whole slices.  Getting the concrete board slices aligned with the top of the deck was not difficult.  I used a combination of dirt and wood shims to hold up the slices at exactly the right height.

But there was an embarrassing mistake.  Despite my following the old craftsman's adage, "Measure twice, cut once", the wall turned out to be about six inches short.

I still don't know how this could have happened.  I was being very careful with the measurements.  But it did.  I had to cut and add a six inch wide slice at the end.  Extra work that shouldn't have been necessary.  Plus it made the wall just a little bit less solid.