COUCH POTATOES?

ANIMAL COUCH

Who do you think you are?.

There’s room for one more.

KRAZY KATZ MAN

cat

Tommy

Dusty

Here are some of our cats in action or not.

TUCSON DAY

Today I will be doing Tucson.

To enter Tucson on foot, one must go through the fangs of the giant rattlesnake that goes across Broadway Blvd.

Don’t bielve me? Just look.

on edge

TUBAC AZ YESTERDAY April 6, 2008

silo

NOT NATURES WRATH, flowers!

peaceful landing

Blooms on a bean tree mesquite

SKY PILOT PEARLS plus bonus feature mammatus clouds!

APPEARING AT A WEB POST NEAR YOU!

Upon seeing a special on UFO evidence, this kind of contrail was described as belonging to a top secret aircraft that flies from area 51, across Arizona and the US, then over Russia and China. It is said to travel at 8,000 miles an hour based on satellite contrail evidence. The “pearls” are claimed to belong to a futuristic pulse engine. Who knew?

Could this photo be evidence of one?

SKY BLUE WHAT’S UP?

and a few mammatus clouds to the left, often associated with the overflow spilling downward of intense updrafts, usually thunderstorm related, (or on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS science fiction like movies) as far as I know.

A more recent (July 200 cloud photo from home below.

JUST TO LET THE LIQUID ROCK LOVERS KNOW (concrete use)

I will find some more photos on concrete projects I have done for all you who come to check on them. I will get some on this post in a while, since so many of you are going to those projects here today, I thought I would let you know I will show more and talk more on the subject.

I worked on concrete pools in Chicago area in the summer of 1967, I think. That was all grunt work, wheelbarrowing and standing knee deep in concrete, throwing it up on the sides of the future pool until it stuck and quit sliding like an avalanche back down. The wire mesh and re-bar did not hold well when the slurry is so wet. Because of soil freezing there, at that time, the final four feet of the pools were fiberglass.

(I took photos of photos just now at sunset. Color and shadows are not quite right but one can get the idea I hope.)

This is a section of a front patio at the Tucson house I last lived at. Concrete was colored on finishing by applying cement dies to create stone like effects in a “puzzle” patio and walk. I did one section at a time in one area. Line in middle is approx. 18″ long.

ROCK STEADY

In construction in Tucson in the 90’s and even before, I did many footings and things such as that, helped with the occasional sidewalk or pool patio. I was geared more into tile work as time went on at the job as far a masonry work. Primarily, after being many things like, landscaper, pruner, home remodelling, furniture designer, art painting way back when, then carpentry and most aspects of house construction. But concrete is such a cool medium because for a while at least, it is so flexible as a material.

One reason why, with tints and additives plus your own possible experiments at materials to lighten its weight or add to it to reveal in grinding later, it has many more dimensions than traditional construction seemed to have placed it in the heavy (flat plane) industry. If you are making your own mix, you need to have the “right” cement and sand and gravel or other aggregate formula for your project. Some light weight pots for instance, might have a high cement ratio, to peat moss and pearlite, or sand. Martha Stewart can even give you a formula for that!

CONCRETE NEEDS BONES AND MUSCLE FIBERS ITSELF?

Reinforcing it by metal or other material will be crucial to the long term success of most projects. For home building, local codes or inspectors can tell you what requirements are needed for load bearing, and where in the pour these must be placed and how they are connected or suspended. To get a permit will probably require you to have plans that state these, plus the inspector will be called a bit before pour day to check and advise you on any issues.

For the do it yourself homeowner, they (inspectors) can be very helpful information wise on the future steps required by code. I would tend not to try to do a project on a major scale without getting experience or having someone experienced there. It might be a disaster to go on just having watched home improvement TV, or read some books.

Experience gives you that thinking on your feet awareness. While stepping stones or such might be do-able first try with a little self planning and thought. Pots and other things made in moulds might be done first try too. Those are up to your confidence level on crafts. Concrete is usually caustic and should not be on your skin for long. Clean tool used well. It is good to know where you can put some leftover mix. At times homeowners get a almost free small pad or step done by using up leftover mix in the truck.

Photos to come.

Here is the puzzle like effect, actual color of sections is way off in this photo.

That is a hat on left edge. Our cat Smokey chillen’ in the shade. Shadows caused much variation in the actual varying colors of sections too.

Water from rainstorm would flow down and into a concrete “gutter” sloping to this trees water well.

Flowers and other pots I made used in varying ways in yard. I put a branch as a kind of fence to keep one from drifting unknowingly off of patio.

Below. Looking to home from street. Flowers blocking most of patio view

An architect bought the home to live in.

I tiled the steps with sandstone like ceramic tile.

(I probably have much better photos of this and other concrete projects, just have not gotten around to organizing them.)

Here is a block wall I just did. I connected two short 4 foot walls and a gate.

Tucson yesterday

Home with African Daisy’s

and

including a volunteer cactus who reached the sun for this winter

Not edible? oranges fall at same home as last two photos

also at that home up front not far from orange tree

a mesquite tree with two plus inch thorns on top

and at a Tubac event at sunset, cottonwoods beginning to leaf out

and an old fireplace

here is a party

ONE FOR THE ROAD

Images from near a Tumacacori AZ road.

and

and

and that’s all folks.

THE CONCRETE STEPPING STONE PROJECT

TODAY’S SUNSET FROM MY BACK YARD

THE CONCRETE STEPPING STONE PROJECT; Matching a pre-existing pattern done by someone years ago.

AND ALONG THE SIDE

The work on the wall I mentioned in my mornings post went well.

Of course I’m full of complaints on how my body feels after mixing concrete and then hoisting it over blocks. I also had to lift blocks over the 7 foot vertical rebars which was added fun.

The cool thing will be that when it is done, a whole new environment will exist in that stepping stone area. I have a metal object that I am going to frame and use as a window. Might want to bring the tile saw to avoid all the dust and make the cuts easy.

Now wasn’t that one exciting bit of info from someone you do not know?

TODAY, JUST A DAY AT THE WALL

Not some wailing wall. Not the boarder wall.

It will be a wall to finish off a Zenish courtyard, (where I already cast many irregular steppingstones, now surrounded by black river rock). It is already half built by brick. I’m filling in a doorway and raising it all a bit, then stucco over it all.

Today is drilling anchoring for rebar beams that will go vertically and horizontally. Horizontal to tie the two sections together even though they are on a continuous footing. At the door I get to establish two rebar connections to the footing not covered by block. The old block is not all “grouted” so I can tie in some rebar along it as well. It is all a short 12′ section. Now that we are above freezing forever, there should be no complications from that.

The gate and wall at home that I made. Not the one I am closing in.

That wall and gate from the other side, below
That’s all for walls. I must get moving.

THE VULTURES

No, not the human kind,

fooled me, snow above,

birds below

am I ready yet?

CAT—A—TONIC

YES I WRITE ABOUT MANY CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECTS

BUT SOMETIMES ONE JUST NEEDS TO LAY DOWN

AND TAKE SOME WEIGHT OFF

Shadow watching

OUR NEW CAT, DUSTY

TUCSON GEM AND MINERAL SHOW NOW 2008

Well I did get to two tent-hotel areas by foot over two hours today. Maybe seeing 2 % of what is around town.

Here are a few photos. They can be blown up by Snap.  Possibly clicking on photo.

Inside shows like above

Even more outside like this below

and

and this a one foot sqaure close up of a 4by6 foot sedimentary fossil piece,

and below, a smalll area of a big tent,

and this was an ice crystal in a concrete bowl of mine this morning.