Mother Nature is BOSS

 We are not exempt...

Do we think we are exempt from the whims of Mother Nature?  Sometimes we do magically luck out, sometimes there are 'narrow misses'.   The worst and most extreme bad weather events always happen 'somewhere else'.  A third world country, some 'other' unfortunate place. At times it seems the poorest of the poor countries get hit the worst.

We caught some bad weather last night.  TTT ad ETS were edgy;  animals always seem to know when bad weather is on the way,  so Tilly the Tall and Ebony the Short were not impressed. It suddenly began to rain. But good. Not at the level of a tragedy,  no tornadoes or earthquakes,  no lives were lost,  let's make that clear, but the weather was 'difficult' if being 'dry' is your thing.

Heavy, sudden rain,  a virtual deluge,  and  lightning--  a major strike close to our house sounded more like a major explosion than the usual, casual rolling thunder that accompanies sweet, gentle summer rain.   After the smackdown boom we still had our chimney, roof, and trees surrounding us; upon inspection,  everything seems to be intact with the exception of our digital TV converter which apparently did not appreciate the power surges.

Municipalities are reporting roads washed out all over.   Highways closed. Flooding. We only  measured 18mm of rain. Curiously, my flooded garden plot does not look any worse than yesterday.  It doesn't look any better either.  Still ponding on the surface.  Still not planted. I may have to plant water lilies. Just kidding.  I'm not complaining.   It will dry sooner or later. If it doesn't rain some more. Maybe.There are people worse off.

Down in the city of Thunder Bay,  for example.  They had hail too. A mall is flooded.  Big stores with water floors.  Acres of water in parking lots. Basements are flooded.Water everywhere.

Northwood Mall  in Thunder Bay, On May 28/ 2012

 In the City of Thunder Bay, the main waste-water treatment plant is flooded.  A state of emergency has been declared.

Who's boss now? 
Apparently Mother Nature is BOSS and we should not be forgetting that fact.
We should consider ourselves lucky and blessed. 


Is that incoming I hear?

Renovating: Tile took a While !

The Ceramic Tile is Done!

From 30-year old vinyl composite floor tile to modern ceramic tile in a flash!  That's what I thought would happen. Oops.
 At Incoming Bytes, all DIY'ers are advised that when you choose to do a renovation project, seven other essential projects immediately line up and get in the way first.  Par for the course. To be expected. *sigh
Loyal readers will recall the ceramic wall protection we installed to keep our wannabe escapee team  --Tilly the Tall  (T.T.T)  and Ebony the Short  (E.T.S.)  from shredding the drywall  and trim around the door (and the door itself!) for the third (or was it the fourth? ) time.
We did it. Turns out it was a fantastic idea!  Uh-huh...
 Don't you think it's amazing how something shiny and new makes everything else look worn and tired?  You got it.
So--we tackled the floor. That was a fantastic idea too, it really was looking kind of dull. A couple of pieces of  the flooring were showing cracks and signs of loosening, -- and the old self-stick tiles had even shrunk just a tiniest bit, allowing water staining of the sub floor plywood.
Onward we went.

The floor managed to go from this;










  It only took seven days.
( to just after grout sealing, tile complete,  but before all of the baseboards were reinstalled.)
  
To This.

Tile's Done! (before baseboard install)

                                                                                                 

 

Tile took a while.

 It seems in any do-it-yourself project there is a lot of digression, putzing around, and injected in-between stuff that can be both necessary and a genuine challenge. 

 This is "all"we had to do to complete  this simple  DIY'er tile project!

•  Measure the area carefully and best-guess extra required for tile cuts.
• Go shopping, choose tile, haul it home. 
• Clear the area of all boots, shelves and closet stuff
• Remove all of the baseboards
• Remove all of the brittle old composite vinyl tile bit by bit
• Cut off bottom of all door jambs, door trim, etc. to allow for tile installation,
• Scrape off  hardened glue lines left by the old self-stick tiles
• Test the sub-floor plywood to make sure it is solid.  (It was stained but perfect).
• Sand the floor and joints, 
• Remove loose nails, set raised nails, add screws where necessary.  
• Procrastination and Delays and Preemptive Strikes: Executive Decision to upgrade insulation in crawl space below floor which required:
• Accessing crawl space by cutting hole in floor (Remove  a section of sub-plywood and plywood)
• Removing old, inefficient, damaged fibreglas insulation from crawl space

• Power vacuuming out all dust, bits and pieces, spiders* and cobwebs.  The garage shop vac worked perfectly.
• Disposing  of all old tile, old insulation and other bits of wood and trash; 
• Re-insulating under the floor and walls
• Closing up the access hole in floor   

  Progress resumes!  

After the minor delay and annoyance created by executive decisions,  we had to:

• Reinstall plywood on access hole:  plywood and sub-floor plywood with screws.
• Prepare floor, screwing down all areas tightly where required, final inspection for squeaks, movement, clean, and vacuum
• Loosen and lift stairs and prop up temporarily
• Contemplate the dry layout of tiles; decisions, decisions.....
• Plan and pre cut to fit tiles
• Forge a mixer blade for the  electric drill on the anvil by heating steel rod red hot. What!?

Making stuff !........a perfect distraction for the quintessential do-it-yourself  tile-worn type!   
About that time I wanted to hammer on something nonchalantly for a while anyway, practice smacking moving targets with BIG hammers, mop the brow,  etc.  
Bottom line,  'a change was as good as a rest '  to  'distract the troops with R&R' ,  to 'use built-in ingenuity',   'create something' --and all that. 
We digress....back to tile for a while eh?  We also had to:

• Mix up a half bag of thin set  (acrylic-modified dry cement, looks like gray, gucky pudding)
• Lay tiles using spacers and straight lines.
• Keep the  T.T.T. and E.T.S.  C.P.B. (curious puppy brigade)   and all curious comers off of the tiles for about 4 hours.
• Clean grout lines of all excess thin set before it becomes set like a rock and was too hard to remove;
• Mix coloured grout (This cool stuff looks like chocolate pudding!)
• Fill grout lines, both floor and wall.  (We pointed (finished) the grout  using my favourite custom  tool made from 1/2" copper pipe.)
• Clean floor tiles using the two-bucket system which works beautifully, for the record.
• Admire floor for 24 hrs as everything sets hard as a rock
• Seal grout lines (including wall tiles,  remember those?)  with special grout sealant
• Set stairs back in position and re-trim
• Reinstall baseboards, including replacement of broken, ugly, or scratched sections.

Finally, we were able to  relax, admire the tile job completed, have coffee and wonder how come it took this experienced DIY'er team 7 days. 
um..........I know. Any excuse in a pinch.
We apparently work diligently and do good work...or something, I bet!

 Hmm....now the next floor looks kind of worn too. *sigh.   Imagine that.

Is that incoming I hear?


 *Worth noting:  A  DIY'er and Homeowners Caution

 
 During the insulation upgrade portion of this project,  I chance-encountered  a *Brown Recluse spider in the  crawl space. They are not supposed to be in this geographical area, but in the last few years, clearly do NOT follow the rules.  
All DIY'ers and homeowners must be aware this is a dangerous North American species of spider. 
Necrosis of human flesh can occur if a bite from this species of spider is not treated in a timely manner. 
The range of  this spider has clearly expanded northward into Canada.
  Also known as the 'violin spider' or   'fiddle back' spider for the violin-shaped marking on it's back,  the Brown Recluse spider is typically found in undisturbed,  enclosed spaces but can be encountered in woodpiles, closets or undisturbed, unused clothing such as gloves or boots. 
Caution is warranted.  If bitten by a Brown Recluse spider, seek medical advice.

Update: The Intruder....Guess what?

 Would you like Butter with that?

Loyal readers of Incoming Bytes will  recall our  recent post and call for information and identification of an unknown plant, an invasive  nuisance, an unknown intruder  that we are blessed with.  Or plagued with, depending on how you look at it.
 We asked "What's this? " 

Here is the original picture of the plant we were attempting  to identify.  The intruder:

Various helpful suggestions were made including sub-varieties of poison oak, poison ivy and other nasty plants . A common thread was "it looks familiar"  and 'it looks poisonous',  but nobody could quite put a finger on it.

I would like to, but I cannot take credit.   Well, okay,  my personal gardener, another green thumb type, to be specific--- discovered the identification,  true nature,  and characteristics of the intruder.

The plant is  Aegopodium podagraria from  the plant family Apiaceae .  
 Isn't that nice?  What's that, you say?  Eh??   Do you know what that is?  I sure didn't !   

  It is commonly known as  Ground Elder  (by everybody except us, apparently)    and is also known by  various names such as Bishop's weed,  Goutweed, Goutwort,  'Snow-on-the-Mountain', Garden Plague, and Herb Gerard!  --( **and many other historical names, see below)
 It is a perennial, and a variegated green/white version of the plant is sold for artistic, decorative ground cover. Here is  our original variegated Ground Elder in the back yard :

Variegated Ground Elder

 Apparently, the variegated version can revert to plain, old annoying GREEN Ground Elder! 

 Am I surprised now?  Well....um........no.   
We did plant the white variegated version in that location a number of years ago and  for some reason it 'didn't show up' the following spring.  We assumed it died.  Transplanted stuff does that.  No such luck.  It seems the plain old green one appeared instead.   

For further confirmation, both plants have  the same triangular cross-sectioned stems, same leaves,  same roots and  plant structure. No wonder!    
 
Here is  what Ground Elder looks like 'officially', and the link gives the complete scoop on it.
 You can even eat the stuff, it is a pot herb,  it tastes a bit like celery.  Cook it like spinach if you like, --but out in the garden,  it's really hard to get rid of!  The roots, flowers and seed pods are all identical to those observed on our intruder. 

*Ground Elder  1.0 

Now what?  Did you know that variegated plants could change colors?  Some flowers can too, in different soil, different environments!  The soil in the problem area is different, quite acidic, and moss grows on the shaded, damp surface.
I guess there's not much point in trying to get rid of it. It's supposedly good medicine for gout and rheumatism too.     
 Hmm...it does taste a bit like celery or spinach, or 'something like that'.  
 I tried it.  
Guess what?  Food! The dried roots can even be ground up for flour.  It is worth a buck!

**addendum:   (2.0)   Here's another great link with a lot more information about Ground Elder  that was brought to my attention by W. Diane van Zwol :  http://www.spookspring.com/Umbels/Ground_Elder.html
There are many  historical additional traditional names, botanical data,  uses  and other information on Ground Elder in this link, so check it out!   Thanks, W. Diane !

Is that incoming I hear? 


1.0       Photo credit  'Ground Elder'  and information  courtesy of  www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk
2.0       http://www.spookspring.com/Umbels/Ground_Elder.html