Red Sunset Maples And Zombie Squirrels
My wife informed me that we were going to plant some trees in the front of the house. The trees would, eventually at least, provide some shade. Now, it's important to keep in mind that I don't get anything like an actual vote on things like this. She decides, I dig. She's absolutely right, though. The morning sun beating in the windows during the summer months can make the front rooms of the house stifling hot, despite central air.
So even though I don't get a vote in the process, I still get to provide some input as to species. One local place had some rather nice "Red Sunset" maples. They were around ten feet high, over two inches in diameter and very healthy looking. They were also on sale; always a plus when buying trees. We bought two and she handed me a shovel. We moved the trees back and forth until she said, "That's where we want them. So I started to dig.
And promptly hit the Invisible Fence wire buried in the lawn. I'll be splicing that later.
So we moved trees around again until they looked just right, and I began to dig again. Because it has been fairly wet, the soil was soft, but clumped together, too (we have very unusual soil in the area we live in). But it wasn't too awfully hard to dig. Then, I had a bright idea. We have a post-hole auger from back in the day when my wife had her horse. If you've never seen one of these, it's sort of like a corkscrew for dirt. You turn the whole device by the T-shaped handle and extract a clump of dirt. It actually works better if the soil is clumping since then you can pull the whole lump out and dump it into a wheelbarrow. So I asked my wife if she could get it for me.
She was gone for a few minutes since the auger was around back in the shed. When she came back she handed me the auger and said, "The squirrel is back". I must have looked very confused, because she clarified for me, "The dead squirrel came back." That cleared it right up.
Three or four days ago, a squirrel had decided to go for a swim in the pool. Unfortunately, it didn't know how to swim. My wife had found it halfway into the skimmer. It had been there a while, too. It was definitely dead. So, she'd done what anyone would do who found a dead squirrel in the pool skimmer. She used a long handled swimming pool net, fetched it out and threw it over the back fence.
Now, that may sound kind of odd to city dwellers, but what's on the other side of the fence isn't a neighbor's yard. It's just a patch of scrub and weeds. We have thrown the occasional dead critter over there before. It disposes of the carcass and feeds the scavengers. Sort of a circle of life kind of thing (not to go all Disney on you). But nothing that we've ever thrown over the fence actually came back before, either.
So my wife took a shovel, retrieved the dead squirrel (which looked somewhat worse than the first time she'd dealt with it) and this time really threw it over the fence. With English. I continued planting trees. But I got to thinking about that squirrel. Maybe one of the cats dragged it back into the yard, though I have no idea how it got it through the fence. But if that squirrel is back again in a few days, we may need to call a good exorcist.
Humor, Personal Thoughts | Gaius Sunday, 24 September , 2006
By Brass, Sunday, 24 September , 2006 @ 3:11 pm
That’s what happens when you buy a house sitting next to an Indian burial ground. Warn your wife that if she sees you sporting a mustache and goatee, it may be the Evil you.
By Gaius, Sunday, 24 September , 2006 @ 3:22 pm
I’m already an evil twin. Just Barking Mad says so.
By Black Jack, Sunday, 24 September , 2006 @ 4:05 pm
The trees are a good idea, but until they grow to effective size, you might want to consider tinting your windows, or replacing them with double pane glass. The other alternative is awnings, which work well, but don’t always fit with modern designs. Good wall and roof insulation is also a sure bet to help with temperature control.
I’m in the process of replacing interior drywall. I took it down to rewire, clean up the stud walls, replace any mold and mildew damage, and insulate. I also furred out my north wall to 6″ to take R-19. It was a lot of work, but the pay-off is huge and lasting, both summer and winter.
By Gaius, Sunday, 24 September , 2006 @ 4:14 pm
Actually, the house is relatively new and has good insulation (6″ outer walls) and double pane windows already. It has more to do with the way they oriented the house in relation to the road (It runs straight North-South, the windows face due East. The morning sun just beats into the great big double windows. I would have skewed it a little off the North-South axis if I was having it built. There is only one smaller window in the South face of the house.
By Black Jack, Sunday, 24 September , 2006 @ 5:02 pm
Well then, its trees for a long-term solution and awnings for the mid-term. Don’t try to tint double pane glass, the heat build-up blows out the seals.
I have a similar orientation problem. My kitchen window faces East and my ocean view side with big windows and French doors faces South. I get hammered all day, but my biggest headache was the afternoon sun pounding the West side bedrooms. It was often 10 degrees difference between the living room and the bedrooms, and made sleeping somewhat uncomfortable in the Summer months. The lack of insulation made the Winter months uncomfortable too. Hence the furring out of the North wall.
The jury is still out if my remod is going to handle all the problems, but so far it looks good. The temperature issues were big contributors to the decision to rewire. I put in a new 200 amp service and did a total re-rope with all the modern bells and whistles. I’ll know for sure how it all works out come late January.