El NIÑO'S POWER PUNCH

I have been remiss in blogging - mostly because there haven't been any fun projects to speak of lately. The reason for that is quite simple. El Niño has decided to make good on its promise to deliver large quantities of rain to California. That has resulted in the mad scramble to de-clutter gutters of the massive quantities of leaves our beautiful, but high maintenance trees bestow everywhere; look for potential flood points around the house and come up with novel, quick and cheap solutions to avert any potential problems; and mostly just try to keep from floating way. Fortunately we are not in imminent danger - just pesky pooling of water that can make its way under the house or into the garage. 

Now no self respecting house in the Midwest or on the East Coast would have these air wells which can also catch water. But then, admittedly, when it is so dry the majority of the year and the average annual rainfall can fit into a Champagne flute, I guess builders were lulled into a false sense of security. So, using a few bricks and some mortar I built up the sides of the air wells and found some plexiglass from old picture frames to create a cover so the majority of the rain slides off and away. In my haste, I didn't get as tight a seal as I thought, but with another layer of concrete, that should do the trick nicely.           

In other news of the opposite kind, the majority of the time, especially during times of draught, water retention is the problem. And I lucked into a way to line some areas of the property to keep water escaping over the curbs and into the street. At one point in my rambles about the neighborhood, I happened upon a construction site. They had just finished installing a massive fence and had cut off the tops of the dog-eared boards to make them straight. The end cuts were going to the dump. I asked for them and the foreman was only too happy to help me load them into the car. Initially I thought to make bird houses from them - they're the perfect size, they're redwood, and they would be cute and beneficial placed about the property. Then reality hit. With no fine carpentry skills, it all turned out to be more time consuming and ham-handed looking than anticipated. So I kept them around for ages before lightening struck. If I used them as edging, making an overlapping double row, they would keep water where it belonged. Not to mention, looking rustic and neat. So that's what happened. It actually came out very well and the look is exactly right for the areas. Compared with the serrated brick edging, it's far more subtle, but the brick, handsome as it is, doesn't do anything to retain water.

Interestingly, when I put the wood edging curbside in front of the house, I hadn't counted on people on the passenger side willfully damaging the edging by slamming their car doors against it. I had naively assumed that drivers and passengers would assess the situation, allow the passenger to disembark in the driveway, and then the driver would neatly park the car. Apparently that idea escaped the brain neurons for everybody. So I had to take defensive action and put logs and stones behind the edging to discourage idiocy. Sigh - people still don't get it. Maybe when the pointy, nasty succulents behind the logs grow up a bit, they'll see the light. Though frankly, as I watch a father allowing his daughter to jump up and down on my beer bottle border with abandon, I don't really have much hope for those people who are so entrenched in car culture, the idea of not being able to pull up and get out anywhere just doesn't compute.