Tub Plumbing and Shed Foundation

I had a busy weekend. Usually I work at least one day of the weekend but I'm trying to cut down my work schedule these days, so I had the whole weekend off and instead of working I went through a bunch of stuff in the basement. The basement right now has literally a dozen random boxes full of odd little bits of hardware. You know how a lot of building materials come with extra bits of hardware? Like a few choices of wall anchor or three different sizes of shims? Well, literally every piece of hardware installed in the renovation came with this extra pieces of hardware, and they are all in boxes in the basement and it is time for them to leave this house. So I pulled out a bunch of those boxes and sorted through them to make sure there weren't things we wanted to keep, or spare parts for things that wear out. I also did a bunch of garden stuff.

On Friday I tried to put Hive B on the cart, only to discover that the bees had stuck two boxes together with comb, making a superbox that was too heavy for me to lift alone. I didn't have time to deal with it then, so I came back to work on it on Saturday, armed with a bread knife. I wedged the boxes apart and used the knife to cut the comb. I pissed off a bunch of bees but I was able to lift the boxes onto the landscape cart. (That upper box on Hive B was at shoulder height for me which was exciting.)

Both hives on the cart

So now both hives are on the cart, and I can slowly move them away from the area of the new shed. That needs to wait for Noel to come back from a trip out of town, because as it happens I'm not a total dummy and I know that the surest way to tip over a pair of beehives is to bounce them around on a cart unsupported. With a second person to help, one person can stabilize the hives while the other pulls the cart.

While we are waiting for that, I have started removing the turf in the area where we plan to put the new garden shed. This shed is going to help a lot, as we have a bunch of pieces of yard equipment that are too large to all fit into our small shed, but too dirty to haul into the house.

Starting the shed foundation

The chickens asked to come out and play while I started digging, so I had a little audience as I worked my way around the marked-out foot print, and they enjoyed digging in the exposed dirt so they were almost helping. I've basically finished all the parts I can do before we move the hives out of the way, though. There needs to be room to turn the cart around.

The other thing I worked on was putting the hardware on the tub bog garden. I leveled the tub yesterday, which was easier than I expected. Only one brick was out of level and it was the brick, not the foot. So I packed soil in, lifted the tub with my shoulder, and dropped it onto the brick. It took a few tries to get the level right but then it was perfect. After it was level I washed the dirt off so I could get a better idea of the condition of the inside.

Tub leveled out

When that was done I pulled out the hardware kit. I am a little upset about the hardware situation, because I bought the tub with hardware attached. I had the tub and its hardware in the back of the truck when some folks borrowed it to make a dump run. I told them they could use the truck as long as they didn't mess with the tub or hardware, but they threw the hardware away. Well, it's not like I could go get it back, so I had to buy new hardware which made me grumpy.

Cutting the tub fittings to size

The way these drain kits work is that the pipes all come extra-long, and you cut them to fit your tub. There are so many models of cast iron clawfoot tubs that this is easier than trying to choose exactly the right set.

The cutting process was a little tedious, but once done everything went together well.

Tub fittings dry-fitted

I dry-fitted the pieces and they look good. I need to buy some more fittings, because naturally our giant box full of PVC fittings didn't have the ones I needed. I'm going to be making a drain system that will allow me to adjust the water level seasonally. And before I do the final install on anything I still need to do some more rust treatment around the drain holes, and I want to clean up the appearance of the inside of the tub. But this part is all fitted now.

No cherries this year

And finally, it looks like we don't get any cherries this year. I didn't net the trees because I wasn't sure we'd keep them -- I'm still not as they are in an awkward spot -- and the wildlife in the garden ate all of them.

posted by ayse on 06/06/21