The Open Source Backyard

Raccoons: Or Why We Need a New Cat Door

2009-05-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Progress on the KD2000 (KatDör2000) is going well and I look forward to the day when raccoons won't be able to pry their way into the house and knock over 30 pounds of cat food, which is what happened just before I filmed this.

Of course, more power to the raccoons, but don't come in the house please.

Gooseberry (ribes indecorum)

2009-03-27T13:49:00.001-07:00

Gooseberry, originally uploaded by andrethegiant.

Spring is here officially. The flowers are blooming and it is spring break.

The photo is of a california native gooseberry (ribes indecorum). We've got it growing underneath our chinese elm. With such a horrible invasive tree, it's good to have some native shade-loving plants like this gooseberry and the heuchera.

Spring is here

2009-03-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Spring is here, thank goodness, and things are beginning to warm up. The ceanothus are taking off, so is the artemesia. Unfortunately, so is the oxalis. That stuff is a pain. We've been seeing more birds and insects too:

Rain!

2009-02-07T14:28:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness! We've gotten about 3 inches of rain the last 3 days, bringing us close to 9 inches for the year. Our natives are starting to go crazy. The cleveland sage and wooly blue curls are growing fast. A chamise we just planted took all of 5 days to start growing. Of course, the mandarin orange tree is so full of blossoms that when the rain stops the air will be full of perfume.

Wow. Winter is good around here.

Cataloging plants

2009-01-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

We've suddenly realized we have quite a few natives. Here's a list of what natives are currently growing.

Brewer's Salt Bush (we think)
Cleveland Sage (x2)
Manzanita (1 ground-hugging, 1 Howard McMinn)
Wooly Blue Curls
Deer Grass
Ceanothus (several types)
Artemisia (California Sage)
Island Bush Poppy (Catalina Poppy)
Primrose
Sugarbush
Desert Lavender
Chamise
Galvezia Speciosa
Heuchera
Fuschia
Willow mint/coyote mint
Buckwheat (2 kinds)
California poppies
Tufted Hairgrass (I think)

Backyard is coming along

2008-09-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

Well. It's been a long summer, but the patio is taking shape now that the wall is done. We might actually have some time to blog it now!

I'll be taking some pictures of the setup tonight. Until then, here's VP (Veeps, Veepster, etc.) among the capstones.

Pictures...

2008-08-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

Hi, Everybody. Thanks to all our friends who've been helping us out, we're nearing completion of the wall. That means we actually have time to post!

Picture 1 (Has nothing to do with the wall): Leslie, Jeff and I ran the SF marathon. It was as hard as...building a big wall. Picture 2 is just the wall, and Picture 3 is Anne and Jeff laying down geomat.

Building a Block Wall

2008-08-15T18:28:00.001-07:00

More time-lapse photography to document the hard work of all our friends. We're building! We're building!

Thanks to Jeff, Leslie and Seamus!

Still digging, after all these years.

2008-08-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

but until then, we wanted to bring a word about:

SEDIMENTARYAND VOLCANIC BEDROCK UNITS
La Habra Formation, undivided (late Pleistocene)Siltstone, thick-bedded friable sandstone, pebbly sandstone, and pebble-cobble conglomerate; locally abundant clasts of platy white siltstone.

This stuff is really hard to dig. Also, it wasn't created 6000 years ago, but you can believe that if you want to.

Behind Schedule

2008-07-31T15:20:00.000-07:00

It's funny to look at our to-do list that we made a few weeks ago:

Needless to say, we're way behind.

Earthquake!!!

2008-07-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

It's quite odd for me, not being Californian, to feel the earth move back and forth and up and down. Add to that the fact that I was standing right above a wall we had just built, and you might have an inkling as to what I felt when the earthquake struck this morning.

We heard a rumbling, creaking sound coming from the neighbor's and then the shaking started. I started looking around wondering whether I should actually be on top of a newly built wall, then a jolt hit and my feet started sort of doing little circles while I tried to hold still, like I was standing on a ball or something. Anne said, "You looked like you didn't know where to run." Probably true.

In any case, the wall, our friends and neighbors, our cats--everybody made it through just fine. Pretty extensive testing, I'd say.

Of course, I was on the USGS website in about 2 minutes, so you know I'm going to share some pictures with you.

One of the most interesting is this first one, which is the "intensity map." It's showing that here in Whittier, we felt it at a level VI, which is similar to what they felt a few miles away in Chino and Yorba Linda. Though it's not depicted on the map, it was also interesting here in that the p-wave didn't seem to come from the east, but rather the SW. You never know how the shock waves are going to bounce around.

p-wave travel times (in min):

Building that wall

2008-07-25T07:13:00.000-07:00

THANKS Leslie, Jeff and Seamus!

The Humanity!

2008-07-24T12:45:00.000-07:00

Folks may be wondering why it's been so long since we reported back. The reason: clay. The hardest clay known to humankind can be found about 3 feet below the surface of Whittier. It's basically rock, and we picked and shoveled and picked and shoveled until we had a trench. Then the engineer came and said, like a cheap porn star, "deeper!" So we picked and shoveled more. The last 3 or 4 yards of "dirt" (as in rock) we removed were by far as time consuming as the first 40, and it was done pretty much by hand. Yes, we had a trencher, but even it was just gave us a basic 3" wide trench to work with. That means we dug the other 21" out by hand.

(We're partially way through the work in the picture.)

We could not have done it without friends. Thanks Seamus, Leslie, Jeff and James.

Pictures will be up soon.

5 days of work

2008-07-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

We've just completed our 5th full day of work on the yard. I was gone to a conference last week, so nothing much got done in terms of digging. Anne coordinated a huge materials order, though, so were slated to get 8 tons of gravel and half of our block delivered Tuesday and Wednesday.We're about half way done with the trenches. Once they're dug out completely, leveled, etc., we can put in the drainage pipe and compact the gravel.The patio area is not really flat yet, but we've decided we're probably going to be putting in concrete, so flatness is not too much of an issue. Still, the grade needs to be right so that the concrete can be thick enough throughout the slab.In the back of my mind is where we'll run the water and electrical line, especially if we do concrete. Once it's in, it's in.We're crossing that bridge when we get to it, I guess. It can wait.40 tons of dirt gone. We are so sore.

Digging

2008-07-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

3 Dumpsters Full

2008-07-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

On this Fourth of July, we spent the morning finishing filling the third dumpster with 10 tons of dirt. We thought it would be our last but it looks like we need one more. We have some pictures of the Big Dig so far. They show Andy driving the Bobcat, he has done most of the digging. I have spent most of my time raking and shoveling the
dirt, especially to even it out in the dumpster. We also demolished the brick wall behind the garage yesterday. I liked the sledgehammer more than I thought I would. I have to remember to demolish things when I am stressed during the usual semester. We also got rid of the brick border on one side of the front yard and in the back around the garage. There has been considerable progress but the Big Dig will last another week. Although we only have a few more days of work, Andy has a conference next week so digging will be on hold for 5 days.

Houston, we have a permit

2008-06-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

As promised, Nuñez Engineering got their plans to us on Friday. I was amazed. After taking the cat to the vet, I rushed over to City Hall to get a permit. The whole process, while a little more intricate than I thought, was not that bad. First you go to the Planning Department. They give the plans a thorough look, ask you questions, inform you of code. In planning they seem mostly concerned with the cosmetic side of things (color, height, etc.). Once done there, they send you to Building Code people on the other side of the room (10 feet away). Here they take a second look at your plan and determine if the engineering looks complete and up to code and whether you need additional permits (grading, sewage, etc.). Buildings sent me downstairs to see if I needed a grading permit. Apparently I didn't. A few papers to fill out, a dash to the cashier, one check for 366 dollars...And we're off.

I spent Saturday and Sunday watering the areas to be excavated so that the soil would be loose and easy to get out.

Things to do today: 1) Head over to Quinn rentals to give them my credit card for a bobcat rental. I'm going to check and see if I should go ahead and rent a plate compactor too and just keep it on site the whole time. 2) Head back over to city hall to order a 30-yard container where we'll be putting our excavated materials. Because of the size of our yard, we don't have a choice but to get rid of our dirt. Besides, given the our soil type (clay), we couldn't use it in construction anyway.

Tomorrow the real work begins.

Still Waiting

2008-06-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

I hate to wait by the phone. That's what I'm wanting to do today.

We need those specs. We need those specs.

Of course, if we get the specs, we'll need a permit.

Inclined to change

2008-06-26T14:12:00.001-07:00

Anticipation

2008-06-26T13:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Thursday. We are supposed to have specs for our backyard tomorrow. In light of this prospect, however distant it may be given our past experience with deadlines, I'm making plans to start work.

First I called Quinn for a bobcat. Apparently bobcats are quite easy to get. With any luck, they'll be easy to drive too. If not, we'll probably have some new ventilation holes for our house.

We've decided to rent the Bobcat for a month. The price will be $1090, plus sales tax 8%, 14% insurance/risk, 1% environmental fee, plus an $85 dollar delivery fee each way. I figure that comes to about 1500 dollars.

I also called the city for a 10-yard container to put all the dirt in. 437.95 cents will do it for that.

2000 bucks and work hasn't begun!

Delays

2008-06-20T15:57:00.000-07:00

Before I could even catch you up on all the delays we've had, I just heard of another one.

We were supposed to be getting our engineering plans from Nunez Engineering on Tuesday. It looks like that's delayed because of some software compatibility issue.

Here's how this works/How we got here:
After thinking for months about whether to get a permit or not, we decided that, yes, permitting is important, especially in our situation. You see, our backyard is on a slope that rises about 1.4 feet for every ten feet of run. That's pretty steep and the main reason we need retaining walls. Given the slope and the amount of flat area we would like, we figured that our walls would range from 18 inches in height to 48-56 inches. Anything over 3 feet means you're retaining a lot of dirt, which is especially heavy when it rains. We wanted to do this right.... So we go to the city.

Last April, then, I went to city hall, wrote my name and address in the booklet and waited to be called. Ten minutes later, I was talking to a city engineer who said "We won't permit that unless you have an engineer look at it."

You see, city engineers (A) don't want to be responsible, so they make you pay another engineer (B). After that engineer evaluates the site, the city gives you a permit. That way, B can say to A "You permitted it," while A can say to be "You designed it." It's neat. Anyway, this is what happens when you "do it right."

So, we called Nunez Engineering, right here in Whittier. They came around may 10th, they made a topo map and then... nothing.

We're still waiting.

Supposedly we're getting the design next week. The current delay is that the software for the Allan Block* material isn't working on their system. Now the topos and stuff are being sent to Allan Block so that they can put the final touches on the design: number of blocks we need, yards of dirt to haul away etc.

I should say though that even though the engineers are doing the drawings, all the design is our own. That's right: Home grown.

*Allan Block is, we hope, a stackable block that doesn't look like other stackable blocks. It's a little more complicated to put together, but we think the look will be worth it. Here's a picture from the AB website:

We must cultivate our garden

2008-06-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

"Il faut cultiver son jardin."
Voltaire, Candide

Introductions
This is the first post of what I hope will be many about our backyard. Why am I backyard blogging? Well, after two long years of waiting, wanting and at times needing a backyard, we're poised to actually begin work. We've talked to landscape architects. We've been to nurseries, we've been to city hall, we've talked to builders, we've talked to engineers, we've examined our ecological footprint, we've badgered friends, bored relatives and, well, you get the idea. Here's the thing, though, we're doing all the work ourselves, with (we hope) a little help from our friends.

Rationale
Why, you ask, are we doing the work ourselves? I would like to say that it's because we know what we're doing and that we're licensed landscape professionals. That would be an egregious fabrication, however, because I teach French and my partner teaches child development. (You can begin laughing, crying or sweating now.) We are landscaping neophytes but we've come to the conclusion that we can't afford professionals except where absolutely required by law. All I can say to your protests and to your mockery is "we know already!"

But here we go anyway.

You see, we've talked to landscape architects and contractors and searched the world over for all the solutions to our backyard yuppie dreams, and all of those solutions start at 50,000 dollars.*

F-i-f-t-y-t-h-o-u-s-a-n-d.

Maybe you didn't know it, but steel and concrete costs are way up. This is true. I didn't believe the contractor's bid, in fact, I ~~laughed~~ cried as I screamed "Get the hell off of my property you shyster." But then we started shopping around, doing more research and we realized that we we're dreaming when we thought we could start the work on the yard for anything less than 30,000. Reality: we didn't and don't even have 30k to spare. I haven't seen the contractor again. Hmm.

A New Backyard at 15,000 Dollars?
We have about 15,000. Within that budget, we hope to have a livable, environmentally friendly backyard with flat living spaces, terraces, retaining walls, sprinkler system, lights, etc. Can you get all that for 15k? We'll we're not sure, but, by the sweat of our brow and the seat of our pants we're hoping for it.

If we fail we've got some good advice from our colleague's wife, who put it this way: "When it gets to that point where your relationship is in trouble because your backyard renovation is not going as planned, hiring a contractor might be more efficient than a therapist."

Lost to the sands of time?
So we haven't so much as stuck a shovel in the ground, but we've actually spent a lot of time fretting, thinking and dreaming. Talking to prospective landscape architects, nursery visits, books, phone calls, going to city hall, figuring out materials all takes energy and time. We don't want our efforts to be lost to the sands of time and we hope that our story here will be of help to the outside world. So we'll be showing you our plans and talking about where we've been, and we'll be posting pictures and information about the building process as we go. That's what this blog is about.

I don't know how things are going to turn out, but I'm looking forward to the next couple of months. I hope that our experiences, both good and bad, can be informative.

*As you'll seen in later posts, the number is high because we need to terrace our backyard. That means walls, and walls mean money.