Paul’s Hardware Blog

I made another skirmish in the battle to take back my yard today.  I sprayed the weeds with Fertilome Weed Free Zone.  I will put up the results in a few days.

As I was mixing the herbicide solution I decided to do a little experiment.  You know, anything to put off  actually doing the work.

We always recommend that our customers add a surfactant (High Yield Spreader Sticker) to their herbicide mixtures.  A surfactant breaks the surface tension of the solution being sprayed and allows it to stick to the plant better.

Notice in the picture above that the sray beads up and a lot of it runs off.  Only a small part of the leaf is actually in contact with the herbicide.

Notice that in this picture the solution sticks to the leaf without beading up.  All of this leaf is in contact with the herbicide.

I finally got the yard sprayed after I took these pictures and put up the camera.  Some strange looks from the neighbors though.  I guess it did look strange.  Spraying leaves and then taking pictures of them…

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I had to drive 30 miles to deliver a trimmer last week.  It is a long story but we messed up on a special order.  It wasnt the customer’s fault so I thought I should deliver it myself and apologize. 

They had a really nice yard.  They had a couple of trees that I had never seen before.

  The customer told me that they were Magnolia acuminata or Cucumber tree.  I looked it up and found that they are common in the north but arent often seen in the south. 

Anyway, I thought they were interesting.  I apologize for the pictures. I didnt have my camera and had to use my phone to take them.

 

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There is a controversy right now about whether or not the ethanol in our fuel supply is hurting the small engines on outdoor power equipment.

There have been news stories talking about the problem.  Ethanol supposedly causes a breakdown of some parts and also releases built up sludge in the fuel system.  Everything gets clogged up.  The gas companies claim that as long as the percentage is low there wont be a problem.

I don’t know which side is right.  We do have a product that will prevent the problem though.  It is a pre-mixed gas and oil that contains no ethanol. 

The only catch is that it costs a good deal more than mixing it yourself.  I think it is worthwhile for people who have a small yard and don’t use a lot of mixed fuel.  The shelf life is about 2 years.

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Ok,  so you have all heard about the Cobbler right? You know, the part about his kids having no shoes.  So I’m sorta feeling like the cobbler when it comes to the condition of my yard.

On of the things our store is most known for is giving gardening and lawn care advice.  We take classes, go to seminars and read trade publications all of the time.  So I know how to have a virtually weed free yard.  Guess what?  This is a picture of my front yard.  It wasnt always like this.   A few years ago there wasnt a weed to be found anywhere.

So how did I get to this point.  One year it was the drought,  then last year I was so entangled in the Springville disaster that I didn’t have time for anything else. 

I have really felt bad about the conditon of the yard.  After all if  our customers saw it they wouldn’t think I had a clue about weed control.  I am getting strange looks from the neighbors too.  I am afraid the lady across the street is about to come over and start pulling.  She once emptied my mailbox for me when she thought there was too much mail in there so it is a possibility.  It is time to get it done.

Over the last few weeks I have decided that I am not the only one in this predicament.  Many of our customers have asked how to get a yard that has been let go back into shape.  I thought that I would share the process.

The first thing I an going to do is get rid of the bulk of the easy to kill weedsand prevent new weeds from germinating.  Since the weather is still not too hot I am going to spray with Fertilome Weed Free Zone.  It is the best weed killer I have ever used.  It wont get everything though.  There isn’t any one product that will do that.  Next I am going to put out a Fertilome granular fertilizer and weed preventer.  That will help the grass (Zoysia in my case) get healthier and fill in the gaps left from the dying weeds.  It will also keep new weed seeds from germinating.

It takes time to completely get rid of all the weeds in a yard.  There are many different varieties that require different treatments.  My plan is to start with the simple and move to the more complex.  I will share the steps along the way. I have sprayed with weed free zone today.  I will take another picture in a week to show the difference.  Then we will look at the weeds that are left and how to control them.

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I got a lesson today in the common problem of overlooking the obvious.  It is so easy to make something that is  simple complex.

The church that I go to is over 140 years old.  Sometimes keeping a building of that age in good repair is a challenge.  We are always working on something.

This winter our utility bills have gone up dramatically.  I am not talking a few dollars, they have almost doubled. We have had this come up at our last two monthly meetings.  Many different ideas have been discussed.

We decided the meter was defective.  The company checked.  It was fine.  We thought maybe someone was coming in and adjusting the thermostats. I didn’t think this was too likely.   We had insulated a few years ago so we didn’t think that was the problem.  We never could come up with a good answer.

Today, I was walking around the building looking for fire ant beds to destroy with Results fire ant killer,  when I noticed some dried leaves blowing out from behind the air conditioning unit. 

No wonder the bills were high.  It isn’t completely clear in this picture but there is an inch and a half gap in the duct leading into the building.  It was putting out a lot of air.  I went in the building and almost no air was coming out of  the vents.  So we have been heating the great outdoors all winter.

It never occured to me to actually go and look at the unit.  I made the simple complex.  What really got me to thinking was the realization that this isn’t an uncommon occurence. I do it all of time. From now on I am going to try to remember, when trying to solve a problem, to start with the simple.

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OK.  I normally don’t do house calls.  Not to actually fix anything anyway.  We go out all of the time to look at lawns and plants with problems.  Every once in a while though, something interesting comes up that I can’t pass by;   especially if it is for a nice customer and presents a challenge.

One of our customers has a limestone fountain ( 30 – 40) years old that was broken in three pieces.  She had purchased it on a trip to Florence (Italy, not Alabama as I thought at first) and the cost to replace the bowl was prohibitive. I don’t remember if it was hit by a tree or frozen.  She asked me if I could find someone to fix it.  I asked everybody I could think of but they all just sort of smiled and slowly shook their head no,  in a way that just screamed “ARE YOU STUPID.  THAT CANT BE FIXED.”  Not a good sign.

There were several problems:

1.  Nobody was willing to try to fix it since a good long term result was doubtful.

2.  The fountain was about 4 feet in diameter and made of carved limestone.  It was heavy.  The limestone was also soft. Pins and anchors would tend to pull out.

3.  The fountain sat in the center of a 12 ft circular pond that was about 4 feet deep.

So I decided I would try to fix it.  Smart.

Note to Mr. Mountain Brook Business license inspector:  This was done as a fun project to help a nice customer.   No costs of material, fees, delivery  or labor were charged.   

Mr Business license inspector and I have met before.

So anyway I decided to fix this fountain. 

I guess at this point it becomes obvious why I am not in the handyman business.  I had great intentions.  I went and got the broken fountain pieces to test glues.  I ordered a book on working with stones.  Then I put the pieces of the fountain in the back room of the store for a year.  I thought about it from time to time.  Especially in the middle of the night as I sat bolt upright thinking of all the things I had put off.  Fortunately, she was very patient. 

Finally, when I got the courage to face her again I decided to get serious about this project.  I called one of the local stone companies and convinced the owner to tell me how he would fix it if he were dumb enough to try.  He suggested this super duper high strength epoxy made especially for bonding limestone.  It cost $50.00 a quart.  I thought hmm, this must be some good stuff.  So I ordered it. 

When it came in,  I decided to do a trial run with the pieces before we went to the actual site.  I very carefully mixed in the hardener and applied it, clamped the pieces together and waited.  When I took them apart they immediately separated leaving a thin sheet of the epoxy glue.  Not so Good.  “Moisture”, said the manufacturer.  Not a complete impossibility since it had been under water for forty years. 

So I was back at square one.  I am really beginning to worry.  All of my ideas have failed and even though the customer was patient there is a little edge to her voice now when she calls to see, “how it’s coming.”

What am I going to do.  I have to glue 3 heavy things together that have been soaked in water.  That is when I looked at the shelf of Gorilla Glue in the paint department.  I hopefully read the instructions.  Stone okay. Moisture not a problem.  Sounds good.  But could a 5 dollar bottle of glue really fix this fountain when my high tech special order epoxy failed.  I decided one way or the other I was going to glue that thing together.  It might last a minute or a day but I was going to get it done.

The first problem was how to get to the fountain.  I got a 2×12 pressure treated board 15 feet long from one of my buddies with a lumber yard.  We attached two 2×4 peices to the bottom of it for support.  This made a good walkboard. We still were pretty tight but at least we could get to the fountain without getting wet. 

The next problem was how to clamp the pieces together once we applied the glue.  The outside of the bowl was irregular and I couldn’t think of anything to use to hold it in place.  We finally decided to use a ratcheting strap placed around the center of the fountain to pull everything together. We applied the glue, tightened the clamp and stood back.  Everything was holding.

The only thing I didn’t take into account was the fact that Gorilla Glue expands as it dries.  I should have brought plastic sheeting to put under the fountain but I didn’t.  We got a few drops in the pond.  If you look to the left of the Lilly Pads you can see a film on top of the water.  I got a spoon and dipped out as much as I could while she was distracted.  To my knowlege no plants or fish were affected. 

So I left with high hopes that everything would hold.  The next few days I would anxiously call to see if everything was still together.  We did this late last summer and so far it is still holding. 

So if you have a tough gluing job I can recommend Gorilla Glue.

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