The Great Escape has Begun

TomS said:

Glad to hear the fire is out and you and your house are safe. Now you can get back to enjoying the tranquility of your new home.

BTW - deer in the yard are nice to have but they eat everything in sight.

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Thanks Tom, unfortunately I'm now back at work in the bay area. I'm well aware of what deer can do. I can't count the number of clients I have had over the years that moved into the hills and then complained about the deer. What ever plants the previous owner planted around the house don't seem to be bothered so they must not be tasty to the deer. Not sure how much wildlife we will get once we move permanently and the dog has free run of the property. She's never seen a deer so I'm not sure what she will do. Our previous dog tried to take of a deer when we were in the Sierras and got her but kicked.

How's life in Nevada?

jbolt said:

The county we are in does not have regular fire service so we contract to one of the two private fire companies in the area. As part of the service they will come out and do an evaluation of the property and make suggestions for improvements. Once the fire season slows down and they are less busy I will have them out to do that.

I have close to 1000 trees on the property which about 30 are dead. I'll have an arborist out to make suggestions on what needs clearing out to keep the rest healthy. Fortunately there is not much in the way of dead fall or branches but there is a ton of needles and leaves that need to be cleared out. Something the wife and I will work on over the next few years.

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good plan - hopefully you'll never need it to payoff, but with the way fire seasons are extending and fires are getting larger it may well do. I went to several research talks by wild fire researchers when I lived up in WA and it was really interesting to hear about different strategies and changes in planning standards some communites (eg. Bend, OR) are considering to improve fire resilience. Lots about things you mention above, but also lots on landscaping and buffer zones.

mattthemuppet2 said:

good plan - hopefully you'll never need it to payoff, but with the way fire seasons are extending and fires are getting larger it may well do. I went to several research talks by wild fire researchers when I lived up in WA and it was really interesting to hear about different strategies and changes in planning standards some communites (eg. Bend, OR) are considering to improve fire resilience. Lots about things you mention above, but also lots on landscaping and buffer zones.

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We will do what we can to minimize our exposure but there is always a degree of accepted risk when choosing to live in a wooded area.

jbolt said:

Thanks Tom, unfortunately I'm now back at work in the bay area. I'm well aware of what deer can do. I can't count the number of clients I have had over the years that moved into the hills and then complained about the deer. What ever plants the previous owner planted around the house don't seem to be bothered so they must not be tasty to the deer. Not sure how much wildlife we will get once we move permanently and the dog has free run of the property. She's never seen a deer so I'm not sure what she will do. Our previous dog tried to take of a deer when we were in the Sierras and got her but kicked.

How's life in Nevada?

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A dog will certainly keep the deer at bay. They don't like anything that makes noise. It's been strange in northern California in that the deer have been eating plants they never touched before. Some say it's because of over-population and the lack of food. Don't know but they managed to strip all of the plants around our pool to nothing but sticks.

Thanks for asking. Nevada is great! Seems there is something going on every weekend and several days during the week. Weather has been wonderful. A hot day here is 100. In Redding 100 degrees can be the low temp. Ask me again January - LOL.

I have to agree about the deer. We live in Paradise, Ca. This is a community in the foothills at about 2,000 feet.
This year the deer are eating plants they have never touched. We have 3/4 of an acre that is landscaped. When choosing plants, we kept the deer in mind.
We have lived in this house for 32 years. In fact, when I get home from work, mama and her two babies come up to me with those soulful eyes and beg.
For the first time, the mom took some graham cracker from my hand. These deer are born and live on our property. They know we are not a threat.
The only thing that I can think of is we lost our 15 year old Jack Russel in May.
Strange behavior.

Jbolt, you seem to have landed the perfect property! Good fortune on the rental and migration plan!

Janderso said:

I have to agree about the deer. We live in Paradise, Ca. This is a community in the foothills at about 2,000 feet.
This year the deer are eating plants they have never touched. We have 3/4 of an acre that is landscaped. When choosing plants, we kept the deer in mind.
We have lived in this house for 32 years. In fact, when I get home from work, mama and her two babies come up to me with those soulful eyes and beg.
For the first time, the mom took some graham cracker from my hand. These deer are born and live on our property. They know we are not a threat.
The only thing that I can think of is we lost our 15 year old Jack Russel in May.
Strange behavior.

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I'm not worried about the deer. The property has been there since 73 and not fully fenced so they must not like what little landscaping is available. I prefer my landscaping on the wild side anyway. No green thumb here.

I'm sure the deer won't appreciate the dog when we finally make the move.

Welcome to Oregon! You are near some of our favorite Oregon country. We are a bit further north (near, but not in, Portland). If you like outdoors activities like hiking you are in a great location. One must-see that's relatively nearby: Crater Lake. Another: Oregon Caves. The latter is a bit unusual because it's not a limestone cave -- it's marble.

homebrewed said:

Welcome to Oregon! You are near some of our favorite Oregon country. We are a bit further north (near, but not in, Portland). If you like outdoors activities like hiking you are in a great location. One must-see that's relatively nearby: Crater Lake. Another: Oregon Caves. The latter is a bit unusual because it's not a limestone cave -- it's marble.

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Thanks Homebrewed. It will be a few years before we can make the move permanently. We just go the house rented out and I'm soooo jealous that they are living there and not me. I love the area and can't wait to be there full time. I used to complain that time went by faster the older you got but now time has come to a slow crawl while I wait for my kids to finish college.

Wife and I just got back from a week in Oregon working on the property. Oregon rental laws are a bit weird in that per our lease agreement we can only be on the property from 8am to 6pm Monday through Friday. Tenants have been great and would probably let us be there on the weekends but we would rather not intrude on their personal time as much as possible.

On our last trip we completely cleared out the shop, pulled out all the in-wall wiring and power washed the floor in preparation for a contractor to come in to install a new insulated overhead door, insulate the walls & ceiling, drywall and paint. He finished up a couple of weeks ago. What a difference.

Shop before.



After.



The photo above is after I did the crack repair and ground the floor in preparation for the penetrating sealer. There is no vapor barrier under the 40+ year old slab and during the winter moisture comes up through the slab. Unfortunately I did not take photos of the crack repair.

The crack repair was done with a urethane crack repair product called Emecole 555. It is a two part system that is very viscus and cures in about 15 minutes. The cracks were routed out with a v-groove diamond blade on an angle grinder to about a 1/4 inch depth. The crack is then wetted with the urethane and back filled with fine silica sand while wet. After back filling with the sand another coat of urethane is put on to saturate the sand. It is a hectic process with such a short working time but allowed me to to the grinding immediately afterward.

Repaired cracks after grinding.



For the moisture issue I found a product Called BoneDry that penetrates the concrete to create a moisture barrier within the concrete itself. Most sealers are not supposed to be used without a vapor barrier under the slab. In some cases the hydro-static pressure can rupture the concrete. As a construction consultant I do product specification and was skeptical of the manufacturers claims. They are also a company who aggressively markets to the DIY homeowner which is not always a good thing when looking for high performance products. Fortunately I was able to find a contractor who does remedial work for the Navy who has been using the product for over 10 years without out any adverse affects so I went forward with it. Time will tell.

Because of the age of the floor it was necessary to grind the entire surface to make sure it would accept the sealer. My wife took a photo of me blowing out the concrete dust after grinding the floor. This was after I swept it out twice!



After putting on the vapor barrier I installed storage platforms on both sides that are 8 feet off the floor to take advantage of the 12 foot ceiling. I won't really know the final equipment layout until I have the equipment there but figured with this configuration I could put in work benches and upper shelves/cabinets or full height storage in some of the 2 foot deep bays.

Me putting on the final surface sealer to protect the moisture barrier.



Despite the hectic week of working on the shop, cutting down a few dead trees and raking another 10 yards of pine needles we loved every second just being there.