Archive for the ‘Chronicle’ Category
Risking It
Why did we take the risk of leaving the canopy up in the high winds of the last two days? Multiple things contributed to that decision. Admittedly, the shade sail manufacturers all caution that their sails should be taken down in high wind or heavy snow conditions, so that seems like a logical and prudent thing to do.
One problem I have with that philosophy is determining what the measure of wind is that would trigger bringing down the sail. If I wanted to get precise about it, I could mount a wind speed gauge on one of the posts and have it trigger an alert at some safe level that would give me time to get down to the paddocks. One obvious shortfall is that I would need to be home to do something about it at the time.
I have been swayed away from being that obsessive about it by hearing from other people who have shade sails and paying attention to sails that exist in commercial settings. Our farrier told us she NEVER takes her shade sail down. In winter, she just knocks the accumulated snow off it to keep it from getting stretched out. Of course, if I choose to go that route, I would need to be home during snow events.
Yesterday’s high wind gusts seemed like a chance to watch for possible weaknesses in our post installation. I stood beneath the canopy as it was being buffeted up and down, and could hear where the braces creaked against the pressure. I’m very pleased to find that there was no indication of movement at the ground level of each post where the soil had been packed against the wood.
Having survived the gusts yesterday, I’m less worried about winds on an average day. One factor that’s harder to pin down is how much of a difference the stresses might be depending on which direction the wind is coming from. That spot is somewhat tucked away from direct exposure in every direction, so high wind at the house doesn’t necessarily translate to high wind below the barn.
After a few days of walking around the property and getting a variety of views of the structure we erected, I will be talking with Justin about making some minor adjustments to the geometry. He did all the calculating to determine our heights and take into account the slight slope that puts things at different levels. I want to discuss deviating from the calculated level a little bit to compensate for the visual appearance to the naked eye, with the ground as reference.
We are particularly thrilled with the lack of any negative reaction from the horses to this flapping new distraction in their midst.
It’s a risk, but we will never know what the limits truly are until we pass them. If a tornado strikes, we will lose a lot more than this canopy. Short of facing that level of calamity, I’m comfortable waiting to see how the whole setup withstands the usual variety of weather conditions we experience.
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Early Test
The shade sail had barely been up for 24 hours when a line of thunderstorms closed in and weather watches and warning alarms started pinging our phones. As the wild-looking radar scans reached our area, I stepped outside to see if the sky looked as spooky as the Doppler readings and warning boxes on our screens. Rain had started to fall, but I was outside during an early pause in the precipitation.
When I came back inside, it was announced that our county was under a tornado warning for the next half hour. Did we run to the basement? No. We were hardly getting any rain, and there was very little wind. The sky seemed to be getting lighter instead of the expected threatening darkness.
When the line of storms had moved beyond us and all the warnings had expired, we went out for a walk. The asphalt of our driveway beneath the trees wasn’t even wet. Not only did we dodge a severe storm, but we didn’t even get enough rain to water our plants. We thought it was going to be a big test for the new canopy in the paddock. A thunderstorm wasn’t the test.
Behind this line of storms, we got slammed with heavy, gusting winds. Serious gusts. Suddenly, I heard the distinctive sounds of wood cracking and raced to look out our back doors to witness the top of one of our big maple trees crash to the ground in a cloud of shredding branches and leaves. Wind gusts were reported around 40mph.
The tornado didn’t materialize, but we still suffered the loss of a big tree. So many maple leaves that just popped open in the last week, snuffed out in an instant.
We went for a walk to check on the shade sail. It was holding its own amid the gusts.
I took some pictures showing more details of the turnbuckles we are using to anchor the canopy and how we ran the eyebolts diagonally through the corners of the posts.
Here is a shot from Wednesday showing the level of shade the canopy provides in the hot part of the afternoon. The old willow tree never offered that amount of solid UV protection in its heyday.
Speaking of the old willow, I noticed the other day that it is refusing to give up entirely.
I don’t think it will be offering much in the way of shade this summer, but it is probably making a statement about what it thinks of the new shade-maker taking its place.
First thing yesterday morning, we finished reconnecting the electric fence and took down the temporary barrier between the two paddocks, which gave the horses access to the automatic waterer again.
I’ve been waiting a long time to get that stretch of wood fence standing straight up again. It’s very rewarding to see.
Throughout the evening, I frequently checked on the canopy through our surveillance camera down at the barn as the wind continued to blow. It was definitely being pushed down or puffed up at different times, but not in a way that looked worrisome.
Since I’ve heard from several people with shade sails that they leave them up in the wind, I’m feeling less skittish about taking our chances with it.
Yesterday was a pretty dramatic first test. So far, so good.
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Sail Up
The next milestone on the shade sail project has been achieved; the sail is up in the small paddock, hanging from 4 new posts. We aren’t finished with the project yet, as there are currently extra braces in place, and we plan to add some 45° angled supports to the header boards and then cut off the extra length of each header. At that time, we may also trim away the extra post height at the top of the two posts where the sail attaches at a lower point.
Leaving all the extra lengths is just a precautionary decision in case we decide we want to make adjustments to the geometry for any reason. We are leaving the temporary supports in place to allow time for all the earth we dug up to settle around each post.
At first, the holes appeared to be dry at the bottom, but we soon saw water flowing into them. More evidence to Cyndie and me that either the water table is pretty high here or we have a natural spring in the vicinity, about 3 or 4 feet below the surface.
The goop coming out of the holes was like the vintage 1960s playset, “Silly Sand.” That made it a challenge to get the holes as deep as we wanted.
We even tried a sump pump to remove standing water, just long enough to establish a base of concrete blocks and gravel fill. Pumping was only moderately successful.
When all four posts were vertical and Justin got the eyebolts in place, it was time to retrieve the sail from the barn.
I just unhooked one corner at a time and said, “Cyndie, hold this,” for each one. Soon, she had the entire sail in her arms.
Even though there was a slight wind to contend with, the outdoor connections weren’t troublesome to make at all.
A shout-out to the heroes who contributed greatly to my attempt to bring this vision in my head into reality:
- My son, Julian, for his technical expertise in creating a virtual sail for me to play with and see how the shadow would move as the sun crosses the sky.
- Architect (mostly retired), Mike Wilkus, for his willingness to listen to me describe my thinking and offer counsel on possibilities.
- New online connection and friend, Emily Pratt Slatin, for her engineering insights from her career in the Fire Department, dealing with equipment tolerances and code enforcement.
- Contractor, Justin Schneider of HomeWorks Consulting, LLC, for the hands-on skills, tools, knowledge, and experience I lack in this otherwise DIY project.
We are relying on the header boards to counter the pull that the tightening of the sail will apply to the posts. It will clutter the super cool visual of the hyperbolic parabola of the sail, but I chose to angle the boards to offer support to that twisting look. If I change my mind after a few days of looking at the structure, there is still an option to square up the header boards around the top and leave a clean visual of the sail geometry below them.
It was a really long day in the hot sun, which made it all the sweeter when the sail went up, providing some very welcome, precious shade. I think the horses are going to find this to be a very nice addition to their living quarters.
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Not Panicking
Just because my pet maple tree that we transplanted to the middle of the labyrinth hasn’t sprouted leaves yet, while almost every other tree around has, we’ve chosen not to panic. New buds are visible, but they just haven’t made as much progress as we expect at this point. There are a small number of other trees of a variety of species that are similarly delayed compared to the majority of broadleaved trees and bushes around here, so there is that. It’s not alone.
Since we have been enduring a long span of hot, dry, sunny days, our cool-headed response to the situation was to put a watering bag around the trunk to keep the little guy well-hydrated. We are hoping to see visible progress of advancing leaf buds soon.
I had another opportunity to not panic yesterday afternoon while mowing. As my confidence and control on the zero-turn riding mower have improved, I find myself pushing beyond some of my previous boundaries. I’ve started mowing a half-swath beside some of our pathways with the deck at the highest setting to control the walkway narrowing from tall grass on the sides bending over into the lane.
Cutting it back with the riding mower is a great improvement over my previous effort of walking along and swinging the hedge trimmer blades across the too-tall grasses after the fact. That is laborious, back-aching work.
While making a first pass along the edge of our path around the back pasture and hay field, the front wheels suddenly jumped, and the mower deck bottomed out on a tall mound. The mower was pointed down into a bunch of scrub brush trees along the drainage swale. With the deck stuck on the mound, the drive wheels had no grip on the ground. I couldn’t move forward or reverse.
I do believe my years of experience were revealed in a complete lack of cursing and tantruming. I simply walked all the way back to the shop and got the ATV and a come-along. After a couple of futile tries, I realized I needed Cyndie’s help. I pulled out my phone to call her and found she had texted me.
“We’re walking off leash & see you on ATV- need help?”
Since she has never operated the zero-turn, I offered her the ATV, and I spun the wheels on the mower. Nope. No progress, but I had a hunch.
I asked her to try the mower, and I got on the ATV. The throttle just needed to be goosed with a little more oomph, and we pulled it right off that mound.
When success comes without having put myself through the angst of getting overly upset at the outset, the reward of solving the dilemma is that much sweeter.
It pays not to panic.
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Last Steps
We are down to the last preparation steps before erecting four new shade sail posts. I have been holding off from doing this work because we wanted to minimize the disruption to the horses’ normal routine. Since they appear to be coping just fine with the changes I’ve made prior to yesterday, Cyndie agreed we could temporarily relocate where we hang their feed buckets. That meant I would no longer need the hoakie fence I put up a few days ago, and instead close off the small paddock entirely.
I quickly went to work installing a different temporary barrier that finally allowed me to remove boards from posts, pull up a second post, and relevel two leaning posts on either side of the waterer.
Using all that I learned from pulling the first post, trying to straighten a leaning post, and installing the first temporary fence, everything I worked on yesterday went incredibly smoothly for me.
Posts are standing straight up, and the two spots along that line are open, ready, and waiting for the new tall posts to go in.
Is it obvious that I am chomping at the bit to get this done? Just have to wait one more day for my professional help.
What will I do with myself until then?
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He Scores!
Inter Miami and Lionel Messi came to the Twin Cities to face our MNUFC Loons yesterday, and Cyndie had a chance to be at the game with a friend.
The Miami team is loaded with talent and performed impressively, holding possession for many more minutes than the Loons could, however, Messi only scored one goal. The Loons scored four. Well, three plus an own goal.
Before the game started, I put up the hoakiest-looking temporary fence in the small paddock. I seem to be in a mode of remission from my habit of perfectionism lately. The horses spent a lot of time just staring at the new monstrosity now cutting their space in two. I think they all noticed it was a pretty wacky-looking barrier, but at least they didn’t demonstrate a need to defeat it.
Not right away, anyway.
I spent the first part of the day risking my health due to tick bites by crawling around in the leaves to weed out more volunteer tree sprouts around Cyndie’s strawberry patch. After finding three ticks on me in the three previous days, I somehow escaped getting more yesterday, even though I was doing everything wrong in terms of tick avoidance.
By the time the soccer match got underway, I was safely back in the house to watch it. We got everything we wanted out of the game, seeing Messi score and the home team getting the win handily. It was the best of both worlds.
Speaking of best… a shout out of “All the Best!” to moms on this Mother’s Day! You know who you are.
We are headed to a brunch shortly for a celebration with our kids and Cyndie’s mom. Moms RULE!
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Wrong Use
We put out a water trough to give the horses an alternative place to drink on the days I will cordon off their automatic waterer to install the new shade sail posts. They took to it right away and seemed to appreciate having the drink available up close to where we serve their grain twice a day.
Unfortunately, Mia considers the large tub an ideal place to wash her feet. I guess since Paddock Lake has dried up again, it’s the next best choice for her. We have seen her splashing her hooves in the Ritchie waterer and not entirely understood her motivation. The girl just loves to splash, it seems.
I tried to catch a photo of water spraying everywhere, but wasn’t quick enough. She can be seen resting her left front foot on the edge of the trough.
Also visible is the static electricity built up in her tail. Is that from the splashing? I don’t know. None of the other horses are showing signs of being staticky, despite our notably low dew point, which triggered warnings to be careful burning outside.
I could tell her tail was bugging her because she kept trying to swish the phenomenon away, which tended to only make it worse.
Eventually, a long lie down in the pasture for a nap seemed to ground her sufficiently. If we’re lucky, maybe that will teach her that splashing in the water trough is the wrong use of that amenity.
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Maple Weeds
They are everywhere. Young sprouts of maple trees grow like weeds on our property. Our perspective on that fact has evolved over the years we’ve lived here. We used to feel every tree was sacred and would struggle to cope with trees popping up in places that would become problematic ten or more years later. It led to plenty of attempts to transplant new sprouts to more suitable locations.
Our percentage of successful relocations was not very high. It gets a little depressing to put effort into trying to keep newly planted trees alive only to watch them wither and die within a year or two.
After enough years of witnessing the incredible number of new maple trees sprouting annually, we’ve developed a new confidence in taking lethal action against ones that show up where they are not wanted. Yesterday, I terminated a grove of new maple trees with extreme prejudice.
Now you see them…
Now you don’t.
This was an area near Cyndie’s gardens that we are trying to keep open to allow more sunlight to reach her plants.
The pile of little maple trees I had harvested shows that I was able to pull quite a few of them up by the roots. I much prefer doing it that way whenever possible, but it takes a toll on my hands, wrestling with stems that almost come free but eventually require a tool. When we have to cut the stem at the ground level, it usually leads to needing to come back later and cut again after new shoots appear from the same root system.
The ubiquitous presence of new maple trees sprouting everywhere they shouldn’t has me starting to refer to them as maple weeds.
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Drying Out
Ground moisture has changed dramatically in the last 36 hours, which bodes well for my planned post-burying project scheduled for next week. The current 10-day forecast continues to show nothing but sunshine until next Thursday, the day after we intend to auger post holes. Color me eager to get that next milestone accomplished.
I had a little episode yesterday that felt like my brain might be drying out because I couldn’t find two things in the barn that I knew had to be there somewhere. After much searching for my tape measure and one of the 6” turnbuckles, I gave up and moved on with an effort to tighten the snugness of the shade sail hanging inside the barn. While moving a ladder from a rarely visited corner, I spotted the turnbuckle hanging on a hook near where I had been making adjustments a week ago.
A few minutes after that, something clicked in my brain, and I realized I had left the tape measure in the hay shed when I was cutting wood blocks for the posts. I guess it’s good to recognize that there is nobody else to blame for my missing things, but I’m a little sour about the evidence of gaps in my memory about them.
Is it possible the dry conditions are putting a bend in one of the posts waiting to be raised for the shade sail?
I noticed the bend going sideways yesterday, so I turned the post to see if gravity would make any difference in the amount of curve. If the bend remains, I figure we can use it to our advantage against the pull of tightening the sail if we install it just right.
The trickiest part of this installation for me is definitely going to be achieving the proper dimensions, which is why I contracted a professional for assistance. Well, that and the operation of a power auger to drill holes as deep as I want them. Oh, and whatever the mechanism is to get header boards attached at an angle 8-to-10 feet overhead.
We are getting closer every day to the point where I want to put up temporary barriers to block the horse’s access to the space where we will be working. It’s a balance of trying to minimize the disruption to their environment, but give me adequate time to do as much preparation work as possible before next Wednesday. I don’t know what the ideal number of days is. I’ve been going through the steps I think will be involved in my mind repeatedly, but that has yet to help me definitively decide when to start.
At this point, I figure I’ve thought about it enough that the horses already know exactly what is about to happen, so I probably don’t need to worry about them at all. I expect they just want me to get on with it, give them the shade, and be done with the whole project.
If that is true, then it just shows we are of like minds. I would like to be done with it, too.
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Season Swing
The pendulum of spring weather has swung decidedly in the direction of summer in the last few dry, sunny days. The forecast for our area was in the upper 70sF, but the reality yesterday had us well into the 80s. There are still plenty of tree leaves that are still in the bud phase but it felt like summer is considering an early visit.
Did someone mention trillium? It is an extra thrill whenever we spot some on our property in places where we definitely didn’t transplant them.
Yesterday morning, I noticed one right beside one of our busier trails. Way to go, ants! (Ants spread the seed pods.)
The higher daytime heat has our grasses growing significantly from one day to the next. Mowing is once again becoming an almost daily activity for me. On Monday, when I parked the riding mower and pulled the six batteries for charging, I was shocked to find that one of them gave me a flashing red LED of failure. I called the service number to report my problem, and the recording on their end said the call center had closed early for the day. I wonder how many days that message runs.
As Asher and I were on our way back from feeding horses yesterday morning, I stopped to grab the battery from the shop. However, before doing that, I plugged it in one more time to confirm the failure still existed. Good thinking, John. This time it worked! I’m pretty glad the call center went home early on Monday.
While I did some much-needed mowing in the heat of the afternoon, I left Asher in the house on his own. Cyndie was visiting her mom in the Cities. When I finished, I gave Asher a chance to go for a walk. We made it about halfway around the property, and he decided the shade of the evergreen tree at the end of the driveway looked too good to pass up.
I chose not to join him on the ground because I have had wood ticks crawling up my legs much too frequently for my liking over the last few days. The ticks must be enjoying the arrival of this warm weather. There was no reason to rush Asher because I knew a secret that he didn’t.
Cyndie was going to be coming over the hill within five minutes or so, and knowing how much Asher loves riding in cars, I figured Cyndie would be happy to give him a lift back to the house. This time of year, the house holds the cool evening air nicely throughout the day while the outdoor temperature heats up.
Every day without new rain brings us closer to putting in posts for the shade sail in the paddocks. Our current target day for the work is next week on the 14th.
I have a feeling the horses will be wishing for more shade every day until then.
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Relative Something 