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New Carport Tarp

Last sunday while we were recovering from the previous nights party, Amy and I remembered about the Yuma Bargain Warehouse and decided to go see if we could find a new tarp for the carport. I had guestimated that it would be a 20' x 20' tarp...and after measuring the tattered rempains of the original that was looking about right. At the warehouse we found a good selection of tarps, of course the one we liked best (green mesh) they were out of in 20' x 20'. But they had black mesh, heavy duty white and silver in that size. The black mesh was tempting...but being a mesh we weren't sure if it would give as much shade as we wanted - and it was over double the cost of a silver or white tarp. The silver we didn't like the looks of so at $37 the white tarp won out. We also picked up 2 - $2 bundles of nylon rope and headed home. Last night we finally put the tarp up, took a little over 30 minutes.

From the backyard the shade difference between the original canvas tarps and the new vinyl tarp is immediately obvious:



From the front it looks ok (though replacing the other original tarp to match will make it look better.) and again the difference between this tarp and the original style is fairly obvious if you look where the sun is shining on them.


I included this shot just because I haven't posted any of our house from this angle before. See why? We're kind of hidden from the south and you can't appreciate the front yard behind all those oleanders.


And another shot showing that basically, yeah...it's a $37 tarp and not a permanant replacement.


Now that we know for sure 20' x 20' is the right size, and that it's not that hard to put up the search for a permanant replacement is on. This does give shade...and the shadows on the ground are about equal it seems...but under this section it's MUCH brighter since the whole thing kind of lights up instead of being a heavy opaque cover like the old canvas cover. To be honest I think I could get used to it...it seems like enough shade to stay comfortable in the summer. But at the same time the extra light makes it much more nicer under there if you're trying to do something. If I stayed with white though I'd want to get a heavier less translucent white like we have in front of the front porch. But the 75% shade mesh tarps are kind of intriguing...if only they weren't so much more expensive.

At lest this gives us shade and didn't cost too much so we have plenty of time to shop around and find the perfect replacement for the entire carport.

So the winds are gone...

Well, the winds are gone...and so is half of our carport tarp. As I mentioned in my last post the high winds on sunday really did a number on our carport. Here are some better photos of the destruction in action:




Since it was still blowing while I took those it was hard to time it when the full extent of the tear was possible. Thursday evening I ended forgetting to take any pictures before taking down the remains. At the time these photos were taken it was torn past the first seam visible, shortly after they were taken it tore past the second seam visible - just before the top. Had it stopped there I could have patched up an half cover that would look like it was done on purpose. But the winds would have nothing with that and continued to tear it past the peak and the next seam.

I borrowed Rich's 16' ladder to try and get it down...and it just grazed the top. So apparently the top of my arch is right about 16'. Just for the record the width is 177" (Just over 14') and althought I've measured it I've already forgotten what the height to the bottom of the tarp is. The tarp sections are 20' long so it's a 40' long canopy. I'm recording it here so I'll be able to remember it later! I have to measure the tattered remains to find out how wide of a tarp he used...I suspect it's a 20' x 20' but I have no idea what that curve is and I'm not about to try and calculate what size tarp I should need when there's a chunk the full length that I can just measure.

After riches ladder didn't reach I thought about calling Mark to see if he could bring by his scissors lift ... but as I pulled Amy's truck in I noticed that it looked like I may be able to reach the top if I just stood on her truck cab. We've used the roof of Matt's suburban to support a couch and 4 people many times in the dunes and at the sand drags. And I've had 2 people relax on the top of my old Ramcharger in similar situations. Before I got a ladder I ofen used my Ramcharger or Amy's truck to access the roof of the house we lived in previously...so I'm pretty comfortable with working from the roof of a truck.

Amy wasn't quite so comfortable with it. Even with the truck moving beneeth me I felt more stable than on a rock solid ladder...but Amy was afraid to move the truck with me up there, even when I was on my hands and knees. The working height was perfect though. On my feet I was able to easily reach the entire structure...but not hit my head on any of it. The width of the truck meant we had to make two passes since one side was tied too high to reach from the ground - but otherwise it was super quick and easy.

It's looking like a new tarp won't be too bad. I'm just still researching materials and debating the various options available.

Overbrew! brewverflow?

Overbrew! brewverflow?

Posting form my phone is a little annoying - but it's better than nothing. The text above was all I sent - but I had to remove 3 paragraphs of drivel that Verizon felt they needed to add. And of course being a phone it's hard to enter much of a message.

The cause for such spur the moment updating however is our critical capacity on homebrew. The Yuma Brewers have been busy this year even if we haven't been updating our old blog! Matt's fridge is at capacity - plus J has some kegs at his house in his new converted freezer. Mark found us a pile of new kegs and Rich just got a used fridge for $10. And don't forget my own cooler project.

Matts freezer/fridge above is holding 7 kegs and a 20lb CO2 bottle, we could move the CO2 out to make room for one more keg...but he's basically at capacity. We did finish one of those last Wednesday, and one will be coming over here tomorrow for my birthday party. Thanks to Tommy we'll also be tapping tomorrows beer with Nitrogen which will be an exciting experiment. But we've got more waiting to go into kegs so it's a good thing more homes for them are becoming available!

Wind sucks today

Better photos to follow later but I wanted to test posting from my phone. As the title says the wind here sucks today. The front half of our carport tarp has been destroyed...it's actually gotten worse since I snapped this photo and is now torn all the way to the very top - right through the double stitched anti-rip sections :(

I kind of knew it was going to happen. I was never very happy with the choice of material the previous owner used for the carport, he claims it was UV rated but it's only a few years old and already it's badly faded and I could tell it was getting weak. In fact just yesterday I was looking at some tears that had started around the grommets in it so I knew it wouldn't be lasting forever.

I'd like to go out and take it down before it gets any worse...but with 45MPH gusts predicted (Though I think they're bigger based on how much our trees are swaying!) I don't think it would be a wise idea for me to go outside and play with a large sail in high winds on top of a ladder. Since it's a total loss at this point anyway I'll just let the wind have it's way and start thinking about how to deal with it.

I'd love to make something that could be rolled back for occasions where we want some sun...or when the wind gets like this :D But for now I'm just hoping we can find something we can afford as a replacement. I'm hoping my old boss Gwyn at Racecraft can help me get some vinyl impregnated awning fabric like she uses and help me sew it up to be the right size. Going to have to make some phone calls this week it looks like!

Crazy project update (Take 2)

Hmmm, didn't get any images with that. Apparently Picasa's blogging features still have some issues even if you stick to their <=4 images rule. So here goes again:

Well, with my dad posting his much anticipated big reveal - I figure it's time for me go to the other direction and post an incremental update on my latest crazy project. Namely the conversion of our back cabinet into a beer/whine fridge. When I last blogged about this I left the insulation specifics somewhat up in the air. Since then I've spoken to our resident refrigeration expert and decided on my final plan of attack (Well for everything except the doors. The first layer will be aluminum foil to act as a reflective heat barrier and somewhat as a moisture barrier. After that will be a layer of plastic to make sure I've got a good external moisture barrier. I've been working on layer one since before my last post about this, but it was just today that I finished it:

While I do expect the aluminum to help as a moisture barrier...I didn't go crazy making sure it was 100% airtight since I still have the plastic layer (and a few other layers) coming. I did use 3M Super 77 spray glue to bond the aluminum to the walls and itself so even where it appears there are gaps usually there's a layer underneath and it is all sealed at some point. Lines for more serving taps will require more holes in the future...but for now I just want to keep the holes as small as possible even though my tap is insulated inside.

Oh yeah, I also picked up some Brasso and cleaned the tap tower back up again. It had gotten real nasty looking living outside as long as it had without being cleaned. And I picked up some vintage tap handles cheap on ebay...well most were cheap. This one I paid a bit much for..but I just had to have it to go with my Schlitz ball and in memory of many a happily wasted evening at the union. Goes rather nice with the brass tower I think!

So layer one is finished. Tomorrow I'll try and do layer 2 - the plastic moisture barrier. Once that's up layers 3 and 4 should go quick and easy since I have them on hand...but just what they are I think I'll leave up to the imagination for now.

I've had a nasty virus the past week. Saw the doctor on thursday and he gave me some cough medicine that really does a number on me. It does a great job at what it's supposed to, manages my coughing and dries up the mucus like nothing else. But it leaves me pretty wonked out and mentally kind of "out of focus". Today I was starting to feel better. Instead of being light headed and woozy from the virus and the medicine I'm down to where I can be light headed and woozy from either the virus or the medicine. The medicine woozy is just slightly more tolerable than the virus woozy.

So when Rich called to remind me that tomorrow is our pickup day for the citywide cleanup I just explained that we had already got rid of a ton of stuff to move and don't really have much more built up again yet. He then told me about how well he trimmed his trees - and offered me his trimmer. Heck he's only a block away and a nice long pole trimmer would let me do a nice job. I may not feel safe to drive a car or stand on a ladder under the influence of this medicine...but a pole trimmer within walking distance. I guess I can try that.

The activity did me pretty good actually. My ears unplugged and with my blood flowing I started to feel better - my throat is still pretty rough from all the coughing but overall I'm feeling a lot better. And the yard is looking at LOT more open. Here's a quick pano I snapped. It's got a bit of a focus problem in the kitchen, and the last frame showing the empty ficus area was unusable...but compared to the shot I uploaded a few days ago you can see how much more open the main backyard tree is now.



Oh yeah, it also shows off how our yard lights up at night. This is without the kitchen "work" lights on.