Drainage ditch

We’ve always had a garden in our wall by our pool, but dirt keeps washing out of it. Two obvious reasons as to why…1.) Lack of drainage and 2.) A downspout drains directly to the garden.

Thankfully, I knew exactly where the drain was at that I put in last year. After some careful digging, I found it and was able to add a Y. I really lucked out that the power conduit that is next to the existing drain was on the far side…exactly where I needed it to be.

I used 4″ perforated drainage. Except Lowe’s only had one in stock, so I had to create one by drilling holes into it. The full length is then covered with a sock to keep crud out. 20′ of perforated plus a 10′ connector to the main drain = lots of dirt to move.

Here is the finished product.

 Flowers have been purchased. We just need some time and good weather to plant them.

Kansas Cub Fest 2017

I went to my first Cub Fest earlier today, not really knowing what to expect. It was a very relaxing event, with lots of good stories, good food, and even some tinkering going on.

I had the little kids wth me, which had me worried. What would they get into? Would I be able to participate without worrying about them? What would the other people think of me bringing two preschoolers to an adult event?

Well, I should not have worried. Phil and Katy did great, mostly staying out of trouble. I’m pretty sure most of the guys are grandfathers and it showed because they did not seem to mind the little ones there.

Phil even got to drive one of the tractors! (Katy was offered a ride, but she was too shy)

Phil on a Lo Boy tractor

He’s doing a pretty good job steering

Here is the crew enjoying a nice lunch…

Thank you again for the great time! Hopefully I will have a running cub by the next time we meet.

By the way, for anything and everything you’d like to know about this type of tractor, check out http://www.farmallcub.com

Thanks everyone!

Toy shelf

I built a pretty nice toy shelf over the weekend, plus a couple of hours today. Total time was right around 12 hours. This was the first project where I used a pneumatic nailer. I would say that pneumatic shaved at least a few hours off of the project time!

The shelf itself is 5 feet tall, which is what was needed to fit the tall toys. It is pretty sturdy just as is, but no chances were taken (especially with kids), so it is also screwed into two studs.

I did learn a few things with this project…

  1. Different length nails require different pressures. 1 inch nails were about 75 psi. 2 inch were about 100 psi. Both needed additional tweaking at the gun, which was very easy. The trick is to start at a lower pressure until you find what works. You can always use a punch and hammer to get the nail in further.
  2. Shelf pegs only work for shorter shelves. I ended up wasting time drilling holes for them just to find they would not be strong enough. I ended up using 1×2 supports instead.
  3. Side snips come in handy for the occasional nail that doesn’t quite hit its mark.
  4. Always double check you have the correct side (top, bottom, left, and right) before routing an edge. We ended up buying some quarter round for trim instead of just having a router made edge. Oh well. The trim does look pretty good and I got more experience with the nailer.

The nailer I used was a Hitachi NT65M2S 2.5 inch finish nailer. I have it hooked up to a 8 gallon Kobalt compressor, which cycled just a few times through the entire project.  

The main goal of this project was to find a better home for some of the kid’s toys. I’d say missing accomplished!