(big exhale breath) The GRIT blog is finally back. After the first couple days I had withdrawal set in. After a couple more days it was difficult to catch my breath, and life support was emanant if something didn’t happen soon. The word came down that the blog was fixed just in time before slipping into a coma. Now you know that I’m just kidding, but I did miss the daily blog reading from all the great GRIT bloggers.
The weather seems to be undecided in Nebraska. We are now preparing for Storm Walda. Here on the east side of Nebraska, storm Walda will only be rain with maybe a dusting of snow. The temperatures are mellowing with night time lows in the upper 30s and 40s. Last night it was practically 50 but then the high for today is not much higher then 50 degrees. All the snow is melted and the ground has that damp spring smell to it so I would say that winter is finally over. Rain is in the forecast for at least another couple days.
One sure sign of spring is when the neighborhood kids come out to play. Those that have followed my blog know that I built this structure a couple years ago for my grandson Bradley. It does attract adventurous boys. The next addition will be a set of regular stairs up inside the cage to the fort and maybe a zip line down the hill. It’s all an evil plan to keep my grandson in the backyard so I know where he and all the rest of the boys in the neighborhood are.
Another sure sign of spring is when the Crocus flowers are in bloom. With daffodils and tulips in bud the Crocus is always the first one to display its color. My neighbor is a camera buff and snapped this picture. The amazing thing about this flower is that it’s a part of a whole row of Crocus flowers in the space between the sidewalk and the street in front of my house. I call it the dead zone. It’s where all the snow from the salted streets is piled up. Still after four years in the worst of soil conditions, these Crocus flowers bloom there heart out every year.
As more days warm up above 50 degrees, work proceeds on the pallet to garden fence panels. To keep the lettering uniform, a plan was devised to make crude letter stencils of sorts. This is the what I call the Nova fence panel. A sharpie was used to trace the lettering before the painting began. As I have stated before, my abilities for art work are limited but with a little planning a fairly decent panel can be the result.
Two fence panels are complete. One more panel with lettering “Gardens” will complete the main part of the fence visible from the street. I have researched just how much pressure wind will put on these panels. The Internet is a wonderful place for getting answers. For those that are interested in the formula for finding wind pressure on panels, it’s as follows: Wind speed in MPH squared times the constant .0072. The answer is in pounds per square inch. My panels are 8 feet by 54 inches. Doing the calculations my panels will be enduring about 100 pounds each with a 40 MPH wind. Wind can be as high as 60 MPH in gusts so a sturdy post structure will be used. Therefore a post every four feet anchored in concrete will be needed.
So hopefully we are back on track with GRIT blogs and I won’t see the light at the end of tunnel for a long time.
Have a great spring day hopefully in the garden.
