Wolf Hill

Emily, Violet, and I were determined not to spend another Sunday at home. So we figured we’d go for a nice hike somewhere in Rhode Island. Seemed pretty simple but unfortunately our first few choices were spoiled by either the start of hunting season, or canine prohibition. After a bit of searching for our no-to-bullets, yes-to-dogs criteria we found Wolf Hill in Smithfield. Trading the flat lands of the East Bay for the rolling hills of Smithfield was a fun excursion.

Violet’s Shots

Big V got some great shots today. It was a lot of fun passing the camera back and forth. After we got home we did a little collaborative editing which was also pretty fun.

Easter Eggs 2021

With social distancing rules still in effect, but the promise of vaccinations tantalizingly close, it was another quiet Easter. Rather than paint eggs in preparation for Easter, we decided to spend our Sunday afternoon painting the eggs. Rather than dyes, we decided to use acrylic paints this year for something different.

Trampoline!

Violet and Parker got a chance to work on their trampoline tricks last weekend during a break from the cold weather. Spring is coming…

Birthday!

I had an absolutely marvelous day celebrating my 46th year. Here’s some photos I took in the afternoon before I had a fabulously fun surprise “Great Birthday Bake Off” party on Zoom.

My familiar walk through the woods was significantly more snowy and frozen than last week. The creek was solid enough that I slid out onto it on my belly like a rotund penguin to take this shot.

Managed a few shots of a Tufted Titmouse and a Dark Eyed Junco and a barely in-camera-reach woodpecker.

And a few shots of frozen woodland.

And then some celebration! I got a cozy sweater from Violet, a balloon that I wore all day from Emily, and huge assortment of balloons from Ariadne! And then we rounded out the evening with a huge surprise: a Great British Baking Zoom call with Izzy, Ariadne, Dad, Gwen, Chris, and Ardelia! We all made Hostess Snowballs and then did some taste tests between the original article and our home-baked versions. Home-baked was way better (except for Izzy’s which tasted of soap, she reported). Fun fun fun!

More birds and sunsets

Well 2021 already feels so much better than 2020! New president, vaccine rolling out, and at work we’re busy again for the first time since last February. Good stuff!

Here’s some pics of fabulous winter sunsets near the water.

And a few more shots of some birds as I continue to practice my birding ability, with my helpful helper: Sprocket.

New Years Day 2021 - Birds

Sprocket and I went for a walk in the woods on New Years Day. I took my cheap telephoto lens to make an attempt at bird photography. I caught a few good opportunities and had a lot of fun. The lens doesn’t have really enough reach, and I’m just beginning to learn how the heck to grab focus through all the branches, so these are heavily cropped and blurry. Otherwise, nailed it lol! Regardless, I think the birds provide an entertaining subject.

On the last day of our holiday break, I tromped around the marsh for a bit and photographed a couple more birds.

Pre-Christmas 2020 Roundup

The Tree

I don’t know about y’all, but around here we had a little bit of trouble getting excited for Christmas. Breaking through the inertia of social distancing, lockdowns, pauses, and isolation, took a little extra oomph. Normally, on the weekend after Thanksgiving I’d run out and grab the tree. This year, it took an extra 7 days to build up the motivation. But, once we got over that hump, the rest of the Christmas preparation did seem to naturally fall into place. I got a lovely, appropriately, Goldilocks-sized Frasier Fir tree and put it in our living room for a change of pace (usually we plunk it in the upstairs family room). After we decorated it, we’ve all enjoyed the tree while sitting around the fire place. Looking forward to having Izzy home from college to complete the holiday!

The Storm

This past week, New England weathered its first winter storm of the season. Plenty of snow, but thankfully no power outages here, so it was just a lovely and fun snow day. I was in isolation after COVID close-contact (all good, no infection, just had to sit in the penalty box for a bit), but Emily & Violet made some snow angels while Sprocket leapt like a gazelle from bank to bank. I used my overhead perch in the quarantine room to snap some photos and play around with super-slo-mo video.

Inside from the Snow

A couple of random shots chilling, or warming, inside away from the snow.

Icy Shore

Yesterday I headed out to take some snow pictures before it melts (I think next week it’s going away). The shore line is covered in a thin veil of ice that I think looks pretty cool. Like the waves washed up and were instantly frozen.

Midnight Mist

Went out for a walk last night, long after the Thanksgiving feast. I stepped outside and scurried back to grab my camera. There was an excellent dollop of mist hanging in the air and the streetlights were cutting through it making some great beams and dramatic silhouettes.

Back Deck Rebuild

Preamble

At the end of the 2019 summer, Emily and I resolved to have our deck rebuilt in 2020. It’s a great feature of this house and we spend hours outside on the deck whenever the weather allows. It’s a big deck. Not fancy, but spacious and has all the best qualities of a deck:

  • outside

  • raised above the ground so you aren’t sitting in dirt

  • easy in/out access to the house

We all love the deck. I even strung up some festive lights so we can extend the deck’s operating hours. Breakfast coffee, lunches, afternoon book reading, dinner, after dinner cocktails, midnight star gazing, anytime is deck time.

With the pandemic keeping us homebound more and more, the deck has proven a great spot to visit with friends (socially distanced). It also serves as just some place a little different to hang out when you’re sick of the living room or kitchen. So, the deck is great. But.. it’s a bit worse for the wear. When we bought the house a few years ago, the deck surface had been hastily painted to hide the rot which became hard to ignore.

Though 2019-Gareth figured we’d hire a contractor to rebuild the deck, with my business slowed to a crawl since March, 2020-Gareth has plenty of time to tackle house projects and save a few bucks.

The premise was simple. Pull up the old boards and replace them with Trex composite planks. But like all house projects, the details grow in size and number the more you discover…

Weekend 1 - Oct 3

First step, cut off the railings.

Railings removed

Step 2, pry up all the old planks. The planks alternated 2x8 & 2x6, laid on a diagonal. I used my favorite crowbar to dislodge the boards. It took the better part of the day, but wasn’t too bad.

Planks removed

Planks removed

The next day was spent cutting up all the debris and hauling it off to the dumpster at my shop. It took as long to cut it up and dispose of it all as it did to rip it up.

As you may be able to tell from the photos, the substructure was a little substandard. The next few weekends would be spent correcting some (but not all) of those sins. The problems I wanted to address were:

  • The joist spacing was 24” on-center. This made the deck spongy since the deck planks didn’t have enough support. Since I was replacing the 2x6 & 2x8 planks with composite boards, the problem would get worse. The Trex planks are great for low maintenance and durability, but they are not going to win any rigidity contests against lumber. Therefore, I needed to cut out all the joists and rehang them on 16” centers (adding in a few more).

  • The main “beam” in the deck was a single 2x8. Supported by one central post and secured to the rim joists with some overly confident nails, this was insufficient. I would replace the beam with doubled 2x8’s and add two more posts to properly support the ends of the beam.

  • I would dig out and pour 16” diameter footings for the two new posts that would support the main beam.

  • The railings lacked a few posts, and several posts were only ever attached to the deck boards. I would add more railing posts and secure them to framing directly.

Weekend 2 - Oct 10

Saturday I spent cutting out and removing all the joists. The joists had been toe-nailed into the house ledger, the main “beam”, and the far rim joist. In preparation for the task of cutting through all those toe-nails, I ordered some bi-metal blades for my oscillating tool. I’m fascinated by the oscillating tool. Not because I’ve found it useful, quite the contrary, but I know some people swear by these things and I’ve yet to find a real purpose for it. I’m still looking.

The oscillating tool smoked the bi-metal blades before making it through the third nail. Frustrated, I chucked a 12” blade into my sawzall and got to work. As it has for decades, the sawzall gobbled up all the demolition work without breaking a sweat (which was more than I can claim for myself).

Joists gone, concrete mixed

With the joists and beam out of the way, I dug two 16” footings for the posts to support the beam. I mixed up 800lb of concrete and did my level-best to level the new footings. I did as well with that as I have in the past, which is to say not great, but serviceable.

On Sunday, I found my middle-aged body moved a little tenderly after the prior day’s concrete lumping. So I took my precious time chiseling out a level spot in the footings, setting the new posts, making a new beam, and securing the beam in place. Before I ran out of ambition, I managed to hang the first couple joists as well.

Weekend 3 - Oct 17

I spent the weekend cutting and hanging all the joists for the half of the deck closest to the house. Since the new beam was thicker than the old beam, the joists needed to be shortened. I reused all the old joists, as well as cutting a few new ones (due to the tighter spacing). The old joists were infested with nails, so cutting them took a bit of time. I sacrificed one of my 10” triple-chip blades to the process. Yes, yes, I know that triple-chip blades are meant for non-ferrous metal. But funny story, it works not terribly on nails as well.

The joists were all hung with Simpson joist hangers and screwed into place with the appropriate Simpson fasteners. I flipped all the joists as I hung them, so that the previous deck plank holes faced downward and the skyward edge was pristine, ready for new planks.

October 23-26

I took a few days off of work around the weekend to crank a little harder on the deck (besides, not a lot going on at the shop this year). I got the rest of the joists hung.

…and then added some more blocking to stiffen it up a bit

Then finally, after much preparation, the deck planks could start to be screwed down. I used the Trex hidden fastener system which works pretty well and looks great.

All the boards I bought were 20’ long. The deck is annoyingly 16’-4” wide in the narrow section. Why not just 16’ so that you can deck it with a 16’ board? Heavens knows. So I rough cut about half the board to 16’-5” (leaving a smidge to be trimmed in-place) and moved them from the driveway to the back yard. Just the tromping back and forth took about an hour, but I still had time to secure a few in place.

Nov 5 - 8

So… in the first week of November we caught our first snow. Mildly startled that I was in danger losing my progress to the weather, I worked the next stretch of warm days we had which was enough to wrap up (at least enough until Spring). I got the rest of the deck boards down:

The final day of work was filled with making a new set of stairs. It was a race against the sunset, which I lost, but by the glow of my Makita work light, I got it finished just a few minutes after sunset.

With the planks replaced and the stairs rebuilt, I tied up some temporary ropes as handrails and called it quits until the Spring. After the thaw, I can make some proper handrails, add a facia band, fit some new lattice, and paint the posts (old & new). But for now, we can enjoy the few warm night left in 2020!

October Round-up

Hard to believe it’s been nearly two months since I shared some photos and words. October got a little busy. My weekends have been occupied with rebuilding our back deck (more later), so not nearly so much free time to play around with photos. Not to mention, what time I do have seems to be spent researching camera gear rather than going out and shooting. Also fun, but not nearly as enjoyable to share.

Alright, here’s a smattering from October as we wrap up our 7-month in the COVID pandemic.

Scenes from the backyard

Though most of my time in the backyard has been spent working on the deck (which has been honestly pretty fun too), I did snap a couple of abstract shots one rainy afternoon when I didn’t want to work in the wet.

Earth Movers

I never outgrew my fascination with large, earth-moving equipment.

Halloween

It was a more subdued Halloween this year. Trick-or-treaters were encouraged to start early and wrap up before nightfall. Though significantly less spooky, the kids all seemed to enjoy harvesting candy from bowls and tables left outside. I carved the pumpkin and stole a few shots of it from our socially-distanced candy distribution table :)

The closest vacation ever

For our 22nd anniversary in June, Emily and I did… uh… nothing. June was pretty nuts for the world, and in our small sphere we didn’t venture far beyond our pandemic routine.

So, before we said goodbye to August and the last moments of summer, we decided to have a mini-vacation in Providence. Yep, 20 minutes from our house if you drive slowly. I have a bunch of Marriott points that are unlikely to be used for work travel this year, and with Massachusetts barring entry from Rhode Islanders, spending a couple of nights in Providence sounded perfect.

View from the hotel

On our first morning, we both woke up early and went on the hunt for some coffee and breakfast. We made it down to Plant City and were able to sit outside at a cafe table with Plexi partitions between us and the few other diners.

After breakfast, we meandered around Providence enjoying some waterfront views and admiring the street art from the BLM protests.


By mid-morning it was approaching 90 degrees, so we headed for shelter in the air conditioning and watched a movie. By late afternoon, with the temperature dropping, we walked down the river and had a few cocktails and appetizers. Then we rented some electric scooters and zipped around the city exploring as many side streets as we could find. Those scooters always struck me as a little obnoxious, and then I got on one — pure joy!

We paused to order some take out, and then scooted on over to the restaurant to grab it before scooting back to our hotel. #scoot-life

On the way back, the sky was menacing, but we made it back inside before rain broke loose.

Bridge Troll

Many nights I’ve driven home past the Massasoit Bridge and noted a stunning sunset and thought, “That’d make a nice pic.” Well, tonight I decided to cook dinner a little early so I could purposefully head down to the bridge and wait for sunset to snap pics.

Before sunset, I spied an Egret.

Then I squandered nearly two hours snapping photos. Caught a few good ones. After the sun was fully down, I played around with some long exposure shots. A few I think look better in black and white, even though the colors were tremendous. That B&W drama tho…

Favorite sunset pic


Bees!

I was wrangling a hose in the front yard around 4p and noticed a substantial cohort of bees buzzing around some flowers. I ran inside and grabbed my XT-30 and my XC50-230mm zoom lens to see how much detail I could capture. I’m pretty impressed with the result! Heck of a $200 lens!


Shoreline Summer 2020

It’s gettin’ hot! Luckily the water is pretty cold :-) The clouds and sky are nearly surreal. Such fun color! I’ll miss it when winter comes.

Frosty Drew

We took a drive down to the Frosty Drew observatory to catch a glimpse of the comet and do some stargazing. Couldn’t get a pic of the comet, but ended up with some keepers anyhow. These were shot with my Canon SL3 which I brought along since I’ve got a better suited lens for that camera. However, the high-ISO noise still drives me a bit batty on that body. Though, truth be told, I do like the ergonomics of the Canon much more than the Fuji (flippy screen, touch screen, menus, etc.)

East Bay Summer

Unable to sleep, I headed into work just after 4a to grab a few things that I’d need for the day. On my way home, I saw a picturesque sunrise on the water. Got home, grabbed my camera and rode my bike back to the river to snap a few pics.

This was my favorite combination of colors, composition, and reflections.

And here are the runner ups. I wish I had noticed the bird flying towards the boat and switched to a higher shutterspeed, I only captured it by dumb luck. Ah well, better to have gotten it blurry than not gotten it.


At night, Emily and I drove over to a large field to stargaze a bit. With Saturn and Jupiter so close to each other, it made for some nifty shots. If you zoom in on the close-up of Jupiter (it’s the largest dot in the sky) you can make out 3 of its moons! (and a picture of Scorpio for good measure)


Simmons Mill Pond

Continuing our RI intrastate adventures, we took a short walk around Simmons Mill Pond. The terrain wasn’t as varied and interesting as Blackstone Gorge, but the combination of ponds and clouds were lovely.

Blackstone Gorge

The weather is great for some Springtime hikes. Even after 20 years living in Rhode Island, we’ve embarrassingly not really explored much of our own state. With interstate travel limited, intrastate excursions seem like a great idea! On Sunday evening we drove up Route 146 for a short hike along the Blackstone river.

Got to try out some high-speed bursts with 1/1000s shutter to catch Violet leaping off a rock. Truth be told, it took a few takes for me to nail the settings as well as I could. But she was game for multiple leaps :-)

After our hike, we headed back to the house for a backyard fire and marshmallow roast. Violet’s friends tumbled into the yard to join the fun. I took a couple of long-exposure shots which I have named (in my head) Ghost Stories. I dig the blurry, ethereal images of the children in motion around the fire with the crystal clear, static image of the inanimate yard. The fleeting time of youth is quite a blur.