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21 Feb ’12
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After a move away from the hot/humid coast of the Pacific in Costa Rica to the mountains of San Jose, the time had arrived. After wavering on starting a real garden project on the coast, well kinda. We built a small farm and a square foot garden and a 120 unit 2 lt drip garden but the year that has past seems like a eternity ago. The main excitement of the move was perfect weather for horseradish!
The move to the city had some bad luck with the first two houses having not very good landlords who never fixed the issues like heavy water leaks in the ceiling. Always try and see houses during the season splits (wet/dry), would be good advice. Eventually we landed at a rather cool spot which is owned by a customer of ours at the butcher shop.
So the house is on a hill, most would call the hill a mountain. The back yard is a mountain of a hill after going up and down it thousands of times. Over 50 feet it drops 30 feet. The first couple months the 7 year old was setting the pace up the hill, after that the old man legs/knees started feeling stronger again. The 4000 plus feet above sea level might also of had something to do with my slow ascends.
With a lack of flat land both in the front and backyard I was walking around trying to figure out how to get the most space from a system. Figured it would have to be a system due to the hill angles. We have a river running down beside the house that the neighbors would be cool with us pulling water from or using a little water power generator on it. The same river is our house water it is just collected way up the mountain. One water outlet around the exterior of the house, one exterior wall outlet for electricity in the back yard. The only yard which gets sun when it actually pops out through the mountain clouds is the back-yard. So the back yard it is.
The first project of course was setting up a garden for my wife and daughter in the front yard. Diversion tactics ... it worked.
21 Feb ’12
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At first since I had all of this bamboo kicking around I figured I might as well make use of the renewal construction material. So up the hill I go to plot the lines and track the sun movement. Finished laying out what at the time seemed like a good strip of hill that would get sun from roughly 8 am till 4:30 am.
Young gun and I set off to build some work horses out of bamboo. Mostly what I learned from bamboo is that you are better off screwing it together. Wring and such only does so much. The laptop with all the pictures up till this first picture are now hidden on a hard-drive till I get around to fixing it. Young gun and I get to this point after a month and a pair of shoes worn out on the hill, getting pulled from one project to another which was more important.
21 Feb ’12
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I admit I had a bit of a moment of pride the first time all 5 of the work horses made of bamboo had not fallen over by the time I got to my picture spot. Right after I took that photo 3 of the workhorses collapsed in unison. At least I got my photo. Sigh, small steps and wet season is coming quickly.
Like most people the hardest part is starting a project. Ha, the hardest part is is having the patience to see it through, problem solving and not wanting wife asking you what you are going to do with the materials that keep falling down the hill after workhorses collapse. That and I wanted to follow the lead of a gentlemen I know who has finished many awesome projects and shared his experiences. thanks KVR
Fine, remeasure the hill angle. Off by over 1 meter a tube section, yup that is more extreme now. Also notice as we start rainy season that the line of the sun has changed. The taller bamboo trees on the property are now leaning into the grass area and creating a cascade of leaf material landing on the system.
Back to the front yard and up the ladder with a reciprocating saw. Cut down thirty mature bamboo trees to bring more sun into the front yard and Wife's garden. So much scraps, warning burning bamboo may cause explosions as the gas heats up and expands inside each of the sections. What a fantastically fun yet dangerous bonfire that was. Shards shooting close to twenty, thirty feet with thunderous explosions. Yeah, now we are enjoying having a fenced in yard.
Time to get the trees in the back yard trimmed before I try another build attempt. Drop around 60 trees in 1 hour. Most are around 40 ish feet tall. I knew they would fall across the system, but I was going to be lazy and not move it off the hill. Only the last tree landed with enough pressure to unsettle my shoddy bamboo workhorses. Must still be some Canuck left in me.
Off to the closest hardware store to find materials for stronger workhorses. Figured might as well stick with the first thought in design and see how far I could take it. Even got the welder out and the once over before going. This be earthquake country and that hill will not defeat me. I will over design this and bring home victory. At least that was my thought before costing materials.
They let me wander around their warehouses for materials which is great since I am not going to know it's name and they got tired of playing the guessing game with my crude sketches. After a hour of my awesome daughter and I wondering around and many questions that started with "what is this", we settled on this as the new material.
21 Feb ’12
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I know fancy right? All that self talking of victory and stepping up my game. When costing my materials though I have been vigilant on the purpose of the project, keep the budget within reason as related to production of food and the cost savings. So I bought I think six pallets for $20 dollars and I knew when I bought them that one of them was Asian Mahogany wood, score!
OK at least I am working with wood now. Back up the hill using the third pair of shoes which are sure to get destroyed as well. Rain is coming daily now, the grass is returning. Measure again angles, figure out the height needs of all the different units. Recheck the sun projections through a full day.
Back to garage, lets build some workhorses.
21 Feb ’12
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Stripped down the wooden pallets and made the individually required cuts per workhorse placement on the hill according to how much height I had to drop over the 9'6" length of pvc tubing. Considered the weight load of a full tube, yup time to rethink how strong these workhorses need to be. Starting to feel a little unorganized after I finish cutting up all the pieces and my shop is destroyed from painting, metal and wood projects running at the same time.
Ugh, the 120 pound German Shepard is trying to herd me in the garage while I work. No worries, might as well train him to be a shop dog while I am at it. Something reassuring about a good shop dog.
21 Feb ’12
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The only real thinking in the workhorses of interest might be the center bridge build which the legs connect onto. I guesstimated on the table the angle of the cut but it is around that much. Sorry, been working around wood on and off for a while and this is still in my mind the experimentation stage for the build. Main thing is I am hanging out with my daughter and the dog is coming along well at not herding me back into the house from the garage.
21 Feb ’12
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After I cut all the pieces I realized that I am going to have a lot of plant pods to fill and made a indoor 1/2" pvc framed germination greenhouse to start getting some seeds up and running. Was a solid design and I got to germinating to learn that I had sat on my outstanding seed collection for to long and not done enough for proper storage. Grown up decision time, put wife in charge of germinating seeds. After all her garden was going awesome, I could use some progress on my project concerning germination.
Daughter and I move the wooden workhorses into the back yard and start moving things up and down the hill till the third pair of shoes rips along the side. No problem I have duct tape, lets get this going. She decides she should call Mom at this point and make sure I have the go ahead for the obvious chaos which will likely ensue.
Yup, we got the go ahead.
21 Feb ’12
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We setup as close as we could figure was level using a level and adding water to the system as we went to give us a impression of how it would sit under load.
Daughter, lucky for me she loves projects and experiments so I am saving a bit on duct tape today.
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