There has not been much to post lately because it has mostly been raining. We had another 4.5″ of rain over the last weekend. Fortunately, Pete was around for much of the time and by digging various strategic channels, like that in Figure 1, help minimize erosion of the slopes that have been graded and compacted, but not stabilized with plantings.
As shown in Picture 2, Pete is something of a opportunist in these matters. One of our constant struggles is against the gophers, whose tunnels honeycomb parts of our hillside. When one of these tunnels opened up, Pete simply channeled water into it to help inject the water into the ground — on these hillsides the mantra is to slow the water so it sinks into the ground.
Before the worst of the rain started last weekend, the roofers did get the Peel & Stick material down on the second floor roof — the white material in Picture 3. This is an adhesive coated, waterproof underlayment that will go under the metal roofing that eventually will be put down on these roofs. Unfortunately, the first floor roofs, although they have sheathing, still need additional structure and so were not covered.
As Picture 5 shows, the areas without this roofing material — such as the foreground in this photo — got quite wet over the weekend. However, the areas covered by the roofing material — the area further back in the photo — stayed fairly dry.
Before the rain started, the mechanical crew began work on the ducting. Picture 6 shows a return air vent in the hallway on the second floor. Unfortunately, as Picture 7 shows, much of the ducting simply got wet in the house.
One thing that happened about 10 days ago, but that we forgot to document, was the removal of the old shed that used to sit at the top of the driveway. This needed to be demolished because it is in the way of the construction for the new retaining wall that will extend from the back of the house. However, it was an old wooden structure that was rotting away and would have been a fire hazard so close to the house.
Finally, we leave you with an image of one of the plants that are so wonderful in these hills.
