Greg In The Desert

Sunset Magazine’s Fresh Dirt blog has and article about a couple in San Diego who replaced their pool with a Bocce Ball court. I found this interesting because the people I know who play Bocce Ball usually play on any surface they can find.

The Bocce Standards Association website has information on the international standards of a Bocce court. At 76 x 13 feet, it’s something I could fit in my back yard. I may have to try building one.

I thought I would try to turn a negative into a positive with my scorpions situation by capturing them and keeping in them in a glassed habitat in the house. Perhaps there’s money to be made selling scorpions.

The first thing I did was to clean out a 10 gallon aquarium that was being unused.

I then added cactus from the back yard.

I then added some sandy soil (commonly referred to as dirt), also from the back yard.

I then added a pile of rocks, from the front yard this time.

I then added the scorpion (Vaejovis flavus). This one came from inside the house.

The first scorpion died after keeping it in the tank for about a month. This was despite providing it several crickets that it quickly ate.

Since Saturn the cat came along, I rarely get a scorpion before she kills them. Plus she is has eliminated the scorpion food supply in the house so I don’t know that I will get much more of them. The tank currently sits empty.

In Mid April I started a Solarization experiment where I use solar heating to kill off everything in the soil of my back yard. So far the results have been mixed.

The weather in Rio Rancho has cycled between days of heat and days of cool with rain. The cool days help to create a greenhouse effect under the plastic that cause plants to grow and the days of heat have killed them off. This is good since it’s easier to kill plants than seeds. Hopefully everything that can sprout has sprouted and died.

Since we haven’t had enough days of heat in a row, I don’t think the ground has really baked deep into the soil. It doesn’t appear it has baked the surface enough to decompose organic matter there.

The cycle of rain and heat appear to be over and we are now we are just getting heat. Parts of dead vegetation with sharp edges along with the prolonged time in the heat has caused some of the plastic to break down and break apart. Of the two sheets I put down one has almost completely broken down. The other sheet of plastic is partly shaded and has held together, it is currently experiencing a greenhouse effect with some plants growing underneath.

All the early summer rain has caused a large amount of goat heads plants (Tribulus terrestris) to sprout outside of the solarization area. I did my best to pick the plants but I had to violate my rule of not using chemicals and apply Roundup to a most of the back yard. My concern with using Roundup is the potential of creating weeds that are resistant to Roundup. Also, Roundup is turning out to be toxic.

This will be one of the few times I used chemicals to control weeds. Depending on how much time I have for the rest of this summer, I will try to apply more plastic to the backyard to take advantage of the late summer heat.

Google is mowing their large areas of vegetation with goats. This is a great idea, something I may investigate when I get the grass growing in the back yard.

At our Mountain View headquarters, we have some fields that we need to mow occasionally to clear weeds and brush to reduce fire hazard. This spring we decided to take a low-carbon approach: Instead of using noisy mowers that run on gasoline and pollute the air, we’ve rented some goats from California Grazing to do the job for us (we’re not “kidding”). A herder brings about 200 goats and they spend roughly a week with us at Google, eating the grass and fertilizing at the same time. The goats are herded with the help of Jen, a border collie. It costs us about the same as mowing, and goats are a lot cuter to watch than lawn mowers.

I’m finally hauling off a bunch of crap thats accumulated while remodeling. Most of this has been setting in a trailer in the back yard for a year or more. There’s a lot less here than I thought, but it’s good to get it out.

Some of this might have been perfectly good stuff to use for something else. Most of it requires disassembly to get to the good parts. I’d rather just get rid of it than try to store it out in the back yard. I tried recycling as many 2×4’s that I could and I’ve got a good pile of them that I’ve removed the nails from. I tried to do my part to keep stuff out of the landfill.

I like the industrial look. Things made of metal, not overly ornamental. When I got a deal on a Red Dot VAG-02-C vapor proof light at Home Depot, I had the type of lights I wanted for the outside of my house. Not only do I like the look, but they are practical. After the Home Depot purchase I came across a larger version that works perfectly over my garage. I haven’t been able to to find any more deals since.

I not only haven’t been able to find a deal, I haven’t been able to find anyone that sells this brand except home depot. I’ve found this type of light, but they have been too different looking. I also think the deal I got at Home Depot was a mistake, a mis marked product.

Recently I came across e-conolight’s products. They not only have vapor proof lighting, but they ones similar enough to the red dot brand I originally bought, and they are considerably cheaper. I purchased 5 of their ceiling mount incandescent fixture for the back yard. They were a thrid of the price of the Home Depot version and shipping was only $10, although they did charge sales tax.

The first light to go up replaces the back porch light, a ugly 70’s style light. One problem with the original light is it made a great place for birds to nest in the winter because the heat from the bulb would keep them warm. The vapor proof lights are not warm to the touch even with a halogen bulb.

I’m very impressed with the e-conolight fixtures. Unlike the red dot version, they come with the box to mount the fixture on. They have rubber seals vs. paper on the Red Dot and have a better paint job (actually, they have a powder coating). I’ve got some stucco work to fix on this particular light, the rest are going under the rear eaves.

I was trying to sleep in on my day off this morning only to be awaken about 10am. The noise sounded like someone was pounding on the side of my house with a hammer, WTF? After listening to it for about a minute I started to think, no, it can’t be. It can’t be what I think it is, can it?

I manage to get some clothes and shoes on. I walk out to the back yard and there are a shitload of birds all over the place. And what do I find attached to the side of my house? A wood pecker. It’s removed a large swatch of stucko from the side of my house, just under a window.

I guess it was time to get up anyways.

Update: Apparently it isn’t uncommon to have woodpeckers attack buildings in New Mexico. I found this PDF from NMSU on how to control them.

I need a lawnmower. Despite the fact that I haven’t been able to actually water the lawn, nature has conspired to provide me with weeds. No no. It couldn’t sprout grass, it had to sprout all manners of plants that are not grass. Although my Black & Decker CST2000 12 Volt 12″ Cordless GRASSHOG Trimmer / Edger does a good job, it’s not up to the task of mowing my lawn.

I have no desire to deal with the tomfoolery of a gas powered device. I’m a modern man, and I’m willing to accept the limitations of a electric powered lawnmower and allow the power plant to do the polluting far away rather than generate the pollution in my back yard. Lets then, stick to what I know, Black & Decker.

At first I looked at the Black & Decker MM875 19″ Electric Mulching Mower. I gotta have a mulcher to fill my compost bins, otherwise don’t waste my time. The reviews seem positive, and it seems to meet my needs. Although it may test the limits of my needs, I’ve already said I know going into this that there will be limitations and at about $200 I can handle it. This, however is a corded mower. I can’t bee seen mowing my backyard with a cord hanging off my mower. What am I, some kind of jerk?

Moving on to cordless models I find the Black & Decker CMM1000 24 Volt 19″ Cordless Rechargeable Mulching Mower. Yes yes, I know i read the reviews. I can handle the limitations of a electric mower already. I’m willing to go over the lawn over and over again to get it all cut. One thing I failed to initially notice was the price, at $400 – $500. That’s in US dollars.

I guess I won’t look like some sort of jerk pushing around a corded mower, for that matter any kind of mower. At least for now. By the way, looks like iRobot is going to come out with a Robotic Lawnmower. Oh sure, it will be just as cheap. I will buy two.

I know what I said, that the sprinkler system is going to be my priority. Give me a break thought, the back yard is sitll pretty muddy and now full of weeds. I’m now sure that the sprinkler project will have to wait till next year.

It’s on to indoor projects, the first of which is the master bedroom and bathroom. I had a demolition party scheduled for the end of August, where I invited some of my friends over to demolish the house. Surprisingly, most of them didn’t show up. Enough did to get most of the work done.

For the bedroom the goal was to take the closet from the neighboring bedroom to create a bigger overall closet. This was accomplished.For the bathroom the goal was to remove the framed in shower. Both of these were accomplished. After the demo was completed, with drywall and crap all over the place, is when I questioned what I have done. After two trips to the dump and probably 6 hours of clean up I’m not sure I did make the right decision.

The framed in shower was not usable. It had been leaking pretty badly for quite a while. The lower framing was rotted, the water had leaked into the bedroom and there was even plant roots growing about a foot up the interiors of the wall. One doesn’t expect mold in a dry state such as New Mexico, but there was plenty of mold in the walls.

The next step is to plan for the rebuild. Since it’s a small room, 7 foot by 8 foot, I’d like to put in a corner whirlpool tub with a shower. I think I can get a 54 inch by 54 inch corner tub to fit. I also plan to put in a electric radiant floor heating. The plan here shown is from Warmly Yours.

Can anyone loan me a few thousand dollars?

What is a hurricane doing in the middle of the desert? TOnight we had a massive wind storm, this picture shows the view from my back yard. The news said we had winds around 67 MPH in parts of alb. Check out this Jiffy Lube’s roof in Rio Rancho.

I haven’t gone out to check out my own roof yet, but one of my trees did fall over.