Look at the bones, man!

I'm back in my little house in the country trying to get settled back into hermit life. I am working on things in order of how much they bug me. The wobbly gate bothered me more than my computer arrangement so I started working on that before I emptied the kitchen cupboard to replace the UPS that seems to have had a battery failure in the hot summer.

I put in this 4x6 pressure treated ground contact rated post in 2004. I felt pretty confident I did my usual thorough job of it, but it became unstable a few years ago. I braced it in the closed direction but it would bend and let the gate drag when I opened it. I was blaming the moles that dug all around it. I tried putting more concrete around it but it didn't work. So while I was gone it got a lot worse. I resigned myself to just digging it up to repack it. 

But it turned out that wasn't it at all! It had just rotted in two! I DID do a good job setting that post. The bottom part was rock solid. It failed right at the point of maximum stress. I wonder if flexing the post made it open up and let water into the wood grain? It's an interesting failure mode. I hope that's it because I built my house with 4x4s buried just like that and I hope they aren't all going to do that. There's no live load on them though, not side to side. I hope they'll last about 40 years.

I dug it up a lot then tried to pull it out with my car. The tires wore little trenches in the dusty soil so I had to dig up the post some more, get it loose. 

Then my little front wheel drive car was able to pull it out of the hole for me.

What I learned: When you put a lot of concrete in a post hole it's a great idea to let it spread out at the top so you have something for a chain to get a purchase on later when you have to get it out. Everything has to be replaced one day.

I am not in shape for this kind of work anymore. It made me very tired so I had to stop at this point and go to Home Depot to see about getting more concrete and another post. That hole is so big already something larger is in order. An 8' long 6x6 is $18.97 and would stink up my car. I think I'll try to use the middle out of a longleaf tree instead. My uncle cut a tree into 7 1/2' lengths in my yard about 6 years ago. All the sap wood is burned off and it's just a large solid column of pitch pine now. (And it's way more than 6" in diameter. I'm expect it's going to make my galvanized pipe gate look like a joke.) I just have to figure out how to get it up my driveway and into that hole. I think leverage will be involved. And that chain.

Since I have no gate tonight I redeployed my guard rabbit. Some miscreants have been drinking Busch longnecks in my driveway (judging by the litter I collected) and must have knocked my rabbit off the post for fun. I got the masonry bit on the drill and made deeper holes in his concrete butt and used longer Tapcon screws to attach him to that scrap of Trex decking and then screwed it to the bracing post again with a 3" Deckmate screw. He should be good to go. Too bad it's only humorous and not dangerous. It amuses me to no end to have that rabbit up there with that pile of deer bones. I think the miscreants might not be Monty Python fans though.

Leaving Again

Bye little house! See you again in a few days! 3 hr drive to Jacksonville to return this truck, get on a plane, and be reunited with my trusty car in Austin. I'm coming back by the scenic route, if I can find one.

Back in Beachton, just one night

I made it back to Beachton today. It was raining all day long. A whole summer of drought so I had to just roll with it. The woods looked very nice, but not as flowery as they would've been if there hadn't been two months with no rain. 

The little house was in very good shape for being closed up since January. There was hardly any dust or dead bugs. Just one scorpion in the kitchen sink strainer. I tried plugging in the modem and turning on the uninterruptible power supply on the network equipment and it didn't work. Tried my test phone and had no dial tone. Had to just leave it and get on with the unloading the truck while my friend was here to help. Got out plastic bins and boats and the bike in the shed then went to my mini warehouses and unloaded my bed and washer and dryer and the big chair. Then he went back to town and I commenced troubleshooting. First thing while it was still light was to check the well pump. I let water out of the tank until the pressure gauge was down to 25psi but the pump didn't come on. I took the cover off the relay and it was all spider webs and dirt dauber crud in there. I got a paint brush and dusted it off and it made a spark and a puff of smoke and burned off the corrosion and started running. 

Then I checked the phone network interface device with the test phone. Had dial tone there. Hmm, that meant it was in my wiring. Checked to see if there were any tooth marks on the wire under the house. Nope, looked good. Went inside and took the outlet down off the wall. It was sootier than it ought to be. I cut the wires back and reattached them. One was really blown clear in two. It might have been part of the lightning strike I found at Christmas last year. I didn't take that part off the wall then because it was still working. It must have corroded and stopped conducting since then. I don't leave the phone jack plugged in when I leave now. I have to work on my grounding. Phone and power are grounded about 100' apart. That's wrong. Anyway, I fixed it and now I have internet. I'm using my TV computer in the loft now and uploaded these photos from my phone.

The only other problem is the double pane plate glass window in my south wall seems to have a compromised seal and is pretty much ruined. It's really just an old mobile home quality sliding glass door I got from my grandparents when a tree fell on their sunroom. I used 4 of them for windows in my house. This is the only one that isn't holding up. My grandparents had their sunroom rebuilt with some awesome low-e plate glass windows. I think I'm going to sell something else so I can get a real glass company to come put one of those in here. Being in the south wall this is my biggest heat gain in the summer and cold spot in winter.

More states

Made it to Tallahassee. Florida is clearly the state most invested in tourism. They have the best highways and rest stops. Jets on sticks. Mississippi has a space center, but it isn't open on Monday. Alabama had their flags at half mast. For Dan Weldon I guess, the Indy race car driver who died this weekend. I liked comparing the picnic shelters in the different states.

Notes from the road

I made it to Slidell, LA last night and collapsed at the Hampton Inn.

Technical note: I confirmed that the TV here has HDMI in. My laptop-free traveling concept seems viable. I'm seriously considering making a case for my Mac Mini, keyboard and trackpad with cord storage. Beachton ________ Works needs a product page. That could be on it.

Cultural note: Texas near Beaumont reminds me of Ocala, FL. I do not understand redneck pride. I have a good friend from Beaumont so I don't think this is a universal affliction, just an unfortunate one.

Energy note: Gas stations cap purchases at $90 even if you use a debit card. $90 does not quite fill up this Uhaul.

Environmental note: Louisiana feels compelled to warn people about snakes and alligators but they don't say anything about the real bloodsucking swarms that get you the minute you exit your vehicle. Thanks to the Texas drought I had forgotten all about mosquitoes. But they do have a fish cleaning station at the rest stop. I had to cut myself an oak toothpick to eat my sardines because my implements are in my other bag I left in Austin to come on the next trip in my car. I had fun feeding the leftovers to blue crabs in that bayou. Then I washed the olive oil off my fingers in that nice stainless steel sink.

Interior design note: There's a conflict in nomenclature on the shower at the Hampton Inn. Go by the colors. The letters lie.

NPR note: I listened to the Wait Wait podcast with Patton Oswalt yesterday while I was driving and they asked him about processed food shapes. When they said Popeye's had chicken shaped like a spoon I was picturing something a lot less delicious looking, smoother, with a handle. The gas stations in Texas and Louisiana all have fried chicken chain restaurants combined with them. It actually seems more appropriate than a combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, but it wouldn't make a good Das Racist song.

Blogger for iPhone note: These pictures come up in a completely random order. Consider it a game to match them to the notes. Actually, I bet it's not random. They are probably in order by size. First one to finish uploading wins.