Thursday, November 9, 2017

Rotted Post Removal Complete!

 The panels get delivered tomorrow, and the carpenter and I will go over the gate design, which I'm told "will probably require a bit of grading". I pretty much expected this due to the shape of the backyard (kinda "bowl shaped"), and the requirement for the gate sections to have a flat bottom.

After the gates are up, we can call the landscape guy and find out what the heck some of these "plants" are growing on the property. I think a lot of them are weeds that got out of hand, and our general contractor pretty much agreed.

Some of the posts came right out, some were completely rotted away at the base and fell over, and some were a real PITA to pull. One of the original gate posts snapped the chain they were using to pull it out with. Put a bigger chain on it, and BAM! the post snapped off about 3" above the concrete, and launched itself about 8' up, rotated twice, and came down about six feet away from them.

Quite surprising to me, but then I've seen chains snap before, and I was 10' away when the chain broke.

I've never seen anybody snap a 4x4 piece of wood with a nearly straight, vertical pull. It was just like they put the post in a tensile-strength test rig, and pullllllled it apart.

Made quite a crack, too.......

The furniture we got from American Furniture Warehouse in Fort Collins is even nicer looking sitting where it's supposed to be here. She also got some nice end tables for the den, and a matching coffee table, with real slate inserts. If the love seat we brought with us was reupholstered in brown leather, the whole den would have a nice "western" look to it, which I think is cooler than you-know-what. She's also looking for some "Navajo Type" rugs for various areas.

We've reduced the number of empty, broken down cardboard boxes to the point where if it's still in a box, it's probably my "weird stuff", my books, or (JACKPOT!) a few boxes of networking stuff, home theater stuff, and other "techy" stuff I installed that my wife got used to, and is now asking for. All that "stealth" IT work I did to the house in Long Beach  slowly added up until we had a Gigabit Network all through the house. Our 150MB FiOS service was available at any Ethernet jack in the house, full-speed, all the time, and she never "drove" a fast network before. Transfers between the computers and the Network Attached Storage drive array I had were at Gigabit speeds, and file transfers, photo viewing, document retrieval, all just blazed across the network. So getting her a speedy network again is going to take some doing, most likely involving a length of CAT6 cable from the den where the router is, up to her "office". The easiest way to get it there is.......hmmmm....haven't quite figured that out. of my "Magic Boxes" of what she calls "useless junk" has some highly-modified LinkSys wireless routers running "Tomato" firmware, and packing state-of-the-art (at the time) high gain antennas. If I can't get a good, solid 802.11n connections between three rooms in a frame-and-drywall house, I'll hang up my RF spurs for good. So, I might not have to run an Ethernet cable upstairs if I can get the spec'd speeds for the "n" version of the standard.

And the kitchen cabinet guy is coming by tomorrow at 1400 for a chat. My wife 80% knows what she wants in her new kitchen (believe me, by the time we're done it'll be all new...) but still wants to listen to a guy who's been doing this stuff for 30 years! She's finally getting an appreciation of skilled local tradesmen/craftsmen/specialists that might cost a tad more than 3 Amigos from Home Depot, but they'll do better work because they've been doing good quality work in this area for a long time, and they want to keep doing it for a good long time. It's a "small town" mentality to some people, but I grew up in a small town and watched these things take place all the time. Do bad work, or overcharge excessively, and word gets around. It's new to her, because she grew up in Southern California where it's one big city, and bad workers can just disappear. She's getting used to the different culture here (and it's VERY different than Long Beach, CA!), and she's enjoying it.

I feel like I'm in the "Quantum Leap" episode where Sam leaps back into a cornfield, and realizes he's home.

Well, not quite....

So things are proceeding as planned, or "Track, Profile, and Plan are close". After this initial nuttiness settles down I can get back to doing radio stuff, checking out the local ranges and gun shops, and doing some monument and ghost town explorations going. There's a lot of history to see up here, and I want to learn it!


  1. Best put a thoroughly wetted quilt or blanket on any winch line or chain BEFORE it snaps.

    That aside, it sounds as though you're having a great adventure, one that you deserve!!

    1. Good advice which I didn't know.

      The chains involved were only a few feet long, and were tightly wrapped around the post and one of the forks on the Bobcat.

  2. For the time being, you are living in "interesting times". Hope it all settles down soon.

  3. Would like to see photos of the new furniture, sounds great.

    Good to hear no one was hurt by the chain break. Worst I've ever had break was barbwire while stringing new fence, that stuff can hurt ya.

    Yay, to you getting settled in!

    1. I made it sound worse than it was. The chains were maybe 3', and were all wrapped around the post and the Bobcat fork-lift blade.

      I'm accumulating pix, and I'll have a "pix post" soon...

  4. You know compadre, I hope you don't get all this done and then, the weekend that every last thing is finished and you are all set up and comfortable, you fall over dead....

    Life just couldn't be that unfair, not even in these times. Because once you get all that done, you are going to have a really great home, in a really great place. Every day a holiday, every meal a feast!

  5. Well, if it happens, it happens, and as I fade out from the world, I won't be surprised about it.....

  6. I'm sure you know the tricks, but for running stealth cable, don't forget the half inch gap under the baseboards that the carpet is meant to tuck into. You can get a cat cable into that pretty neatly.

    For vertical runs, don't overlook ducting (if it's there, can't remember if this is the house without forced air...)

    I put $thousands of dollars of networking cable work into the house I rented in San Diego, after all, I'd already been there 7 years and had no intention of moving. Naturally, a month later I got kicked out so relatives could move in. The landlady wanted to CHARGE ME for all the cable I'd put in, as damage. I suggested she might want to talk to someone knowledgeable before she did that, 'cuz I'd just cut 1 foot out of every bundle and walk away... she didn't charge me.

    Those 4 ft long drill bits will help too.


    1. Yep, got some of the "Installer" drill bits from when I used to do Home Theater installs back around 2008~2009, and few more from over the years.

      Unfortunately no ducting, or 'd be buying a spool of "Plenum Rated" CAT6 cable. House has all electric baseboard heating, and no central cooling.

      I was going to make up a nice little package detailing the networking setup I installed in the Long beach house. I would have detailed the coax runs, the CAT6 runs, how it all connected together, and some nice drawings.

      Then the Bozos that bought the place dragged their feet every step of the way, wanted a $5k price reduction at the last possible legal time, and pulled a couple of other boneheaded stunts, so I nixed that idea.

      Let the new owner call Geek Squad or somebody,and pay THEM the $75/hr I used to charge for that kind of work....

  7. I should add, if you have to cut a wall for a horizontal run, remove the baseboard, very carefully, then slot the wall behind, and replace. Saves a ton of drywall and painting....


    1. Most excellent tip! I'll check out the baseboards and various moldings on things. If any of them look easy removable, I'll use those spaces to tuck the cables neatly away.


Keep it civil, please....