scrubbedexpat099

Bit early for rain?

username.exe

I cut down a huge yucca in my front yard, and have been chipping away at the root ball for months... literally, every weekend, for months. The thing is a monster.
So I was genuinely interested to read about your swedish candle, but the I remembered this is California, so permits. Started reading through the city municipal code, then realized it would be easier to just keep chipping away at the root ball .

This weekend I built two sheds (flatpack things), planted a couple of king palms, bird of paradise, bougainvillea, some climbing roses and some star of jasmine. Sunday night I had really bad heat stroke.

Next weekend I need to replace the picket fence.
Btw, we had the place tented and fumigated successfully. Looks like the buggers are gone. Now I need to replace all the dead wood around the place. One day I'm going to have a weekend where we just have fun - no maintenance projects!

Matt Sabre

I hate my magnolia tree. The bastard just drops big annoying leaves and seed pods all year round. Does it ever stop? The leaves are also big enough to make vacuuming them with the blower a chore.

Thank god I persuaded the missus to let me take out the one that was next to it. We were getting swamped.

scrubbedexpat099

You can rent a machine to grind out stumps, I would if one was near.

Another way to get rid of them is to drill a series of holes and then pour in some gunk that rots the stump. You then soak it is diesel light match and retire.

I have a burn permit but only need for large fires, not your S'mores type fire pit.

Pulaski

If I had a quarter acre yard, inside the city limits, I probably would grind it, or get it ground. But where it is/was it wasn't worth the time and effort. ..... That it is close, and I'm not exactly sure how close, to the end of a septic line would also make me cautious about sticking a stumpgrinder into the ground there.

Anyhow my goal was fun and education as well as removing the stump and it's burned down a good 18" below ground level now, so I'll go ahead and empty a wheelbarrow of dirt into it sometime in the next week or two, and scatter some grass seed on it.

My experience using a petroleum accelerant is that the accelerant burns much more than the stump, like wax burning much more than the wick of a candle.

Pulaski

I love magnolias - they have spectacular flowers, but they are messy trees and perpetual work to keep tidy.

I also like it that they are an example of the sort of evolutionary "missing link" between pine trees and deciduous hardwoods that many people in my neck of the woods deny exists.

scrubbedexpat099

I have half a dozen or so stumps, but they are near the building, will have a go once the snow melts.

petitefrancaise

can I just vent please?

the previous owners of our house installed new a/c units upstairs and downstairs in 2009. Apart from the air handler in the attic which dates from 1984. The f****king morons did not put in heatpumps which would have been the cheapest to run. The morons put in units that have R22 refrigerant in them. That'll be the stuff that has been banned from 2020. Anyway, the ancient air handler evaporator coil is leaking and the chance of finding a replacement is low since it is so old. So, Im looking at having to replace the whole sodding upstairs a/c inspite of the fact that the outside compressor is working fine and is only 7 years old because it runs on sodding R22.

Anyone want to buy a perfectly good outside compressor?

rant over.

jjmb

That is tough PF. They were probably told at the time it would be a cheaper option for them as new regs were adopted that year. It like the water heaters. Ours clapped out just before the new regs for them were adopted last year. The new ones are taller apparently so don't fit into the place where most people have their water heater, the attic or a special closet in the house so a new place has to be found. The next time we have it replaced we will have to redesigned the space the current one is in as it won't fit! Wish we had gas, so we could have tankless one.

petitefrancaise

I've decided to use it as an excuse to investigate multi-zone ductless mini splits. My friend in Sydney had this in her very energy conscious house. You can now get ceiling ones that just look like vents. We'll see.

newadventure

Anyone with any electrical experience on here?
We have a chandelier-type light fitting that has stopped working. All the individual light bulbs are fine. It is on a double switch system (ie able to switch on and off from two different places) one of these switches is a dimmer. I was doing some initial investigation with my multimeter yesterday, i am getting 110 v at the normal switch, 25v at the dimmer. If i remove the dimmer from the circuit, the light still doesn't work. The lighting circuit is on the same circuit breaker (and therefore same circuit?) as the ring main. Which i thought was odd. Not sure what to do next, the wife is assuming this is a sign that she can get rid of the chandelier, but the circuit still needs to be sorted. Any ideas?

scrubbedexpat099

Are the bulbs dimmable?

No loose wires?

newadventure

err...i thought all bulbs were dimmable? It had been working fine for 12 months.

Can't see any loose wires. Nothing obvious has happened, unfortunately i was away when it stopped working so not sure what the exact sequence of events was

scrubbedexpat099

Not all bulbs are dimmable, says on the packet.

Replace the dimmer switch with a regular one and see how that goes.

newadventure

Ok, thanks, i will check the bulbs. But as i say, it had been working fine.
My initial suspect was the dimmer switch, but i took this out of the circuit and still no lights, so i don't think it can be. I am not sure why i am getting less voltage across the terminals of the dimmer switch cf normal switch and whether this is relevant