Behind Schedule

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!!!

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.

T

p-wave travel times (in min):

Building that wall

THANKS Leslie, Jeff and Seamus!

The Humanity!

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

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

3 Dumpsters Full

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.