Nine Herbs Patio

The cloister at Birchwood Abbey was named Nine Herbs Patio after an Old English charm, as well as the many herbs that grow there. The walled, sunken enclosure is the sanctuary of a hermitage and a snow birds' haven — far from snow and ice — close to Tempe, Phoenix and Scottsdale.

The full chronicles are here.

Current Conditions

Straight from the sensor network every 15 minutes...

Outside:	41.1°C	(106°F)
Pool:	31.8°C	(89°F)
Inside:	27.5°C	(82°F)
Pond:	25.2°C	(77°F)

Outside:	11%	(4°C)
Inside:	47%	(15°C)
More stats...

Amenities

Pool

The heart of Nine Herbs Patio is a 17,000 gallon swimming pool, maintained in sparkling condition by a dedicated pool monk(ey). Pool season here is almost 8 months, starting in March and ending in October. When pool season ends, spa season begins, and vice versa.

Shade

A unique feature of Nine Herbs Patio is an arrangement of screens that can shade more than half of the pool and deck. In the summer sun the deck can get hotter than 50°C (120°F) — too hot for bare feet! Under the shade screens the deck is a pleasant 30°C (90°F). You can stand on it, leave gear on it, and you do not have to get sunscreen all over it, yourself, and everything else.

The haven underneath:

Spa

Nine Herbs Patio offers hydrotherapy in a Thermospa™, under a shady pergola, screened by an unsightly (according to our architectural review committee) diamond lathe garden wall. Outdoor curtains are ready, winter or summer, to provide complete privacy of a kind to make an architectural review committee completely disgusted. An intimate set of speakers and a selection of incenses are available to complete the scene.

Music

Nine Herbs Patio has two rock speakers and a woofer to provide a stereo rendition of your favorite music. Just plug your player into the family room amp, or choose from the house's modest collection. The collection includes old classics ripped from CDs as well as the latest pop hits on Amazon.

The spa has its own set of speakers, set close on stands, so you can hear your music over the jets without blasting the neighborhood.

Fire

Cool winter evenings call for a warm fire pot on the flagstone deck. The deck and an arc of masonry bench keep Fire our friend and out of our woods (a grove of three trashy mesquites).

Chronicles

Here we track the rhythm of the seasons and the flight of the years. For a flip-book-like look at the construction and evolution of the back yard, check out this page.

May 4th, 2020 American Tree Service did what they could with all the stubs the overmatched tree elves left in the most rambunctious mesquites. They especially disposed of a huge, 10 foot, 12 inch log of a stub that wind and angry tree elves had stripped of all its limbs.

May 3rd, 2020 Drained the spa perhaps for the last time, but first ran it with jet/line cleaner. Then could not restart it after it had soaked. The GFCI breaker tripped when the circulation pump turned on. We opened the base and found it moist inside, perhaps from overflowing suds from the cheap cleaner. We used a floor fan to blow dry air through the base for several hours, then the next day all the pumps ran fine. Electricity moves in mysterious ways.

May 2nd, 2020 Used goof plugs to stop a couple leaks in the solar system. The roof elf would have used the manufacturer's recommended kit but the leaky riser tubes are underneath their patented “alligator” clamps, which are going to take some investigation to un-clamp without damaging them.

April 28th, 2020 We tried to ignore the sprinkling of water coming off the south eaves, but knowing it is carefully treated pool water that will likely make the nearby bougainvillea ill, a roof elf was summoned and shooed up a ladder to see "Why us?!"

By now we had assembled the complete repair kit per Heliocol's instructions including especially, crucially, the 7mm chisel. The roof elf allowed that, given the chisel and a little more practice with the insertion tool, future repairs should be quick and effective.

And another irrigation leak appeared just a quarter meter downstream from a recent repair. The irrigation elves requisitioned half a meter of 5/8th inch tubing and two compression couplers, and turned in an old screw-on repair coupler for possible re-use.

April 27th, 2020 Kicked off the swim season by cleaning the pool filter. We were surprised we did not get through more than a winter since the last cleaning.

April 25th, 2020 The pool temperature shot up alarmingly, zooming past 31°, so the cover came off. Swim season was on.

April 19th, 2020 The pool temperature touched 30.0° just 9 days after it was covered, but still dropped to 28.3 (chilly) by morning.

April 13th, 2020 The polycarbonate went back up with a couple tubes of roofing cement. We had not used sealant before except at the lap joint between the two rows, and had not seen many leaks. This time we cemented the panels of each row together as well.

April 10th, 2020 We put the cover on the pool and tried running the Heliocol solar heater. It had survived the winter without any attention from us, and only leaked a little while the pump was running (mysteriously more so after the pump turned off).

April 5th, 2020 Propped up our tube cactus. It is actually a fishhook barrel cactus, a.k.a. a compass barrel cactus, leaning (as they do!) toward the southwest. It had grown so fast and leaned over so far that we worried it would pull its roots out of the ground (as they do!) or start interfering with sidewalk traffic. We used a car jack to lift it off the ground, and every block of wood on the property for two stacks: one to hold the cactus off the jack, and one to hold the jack against the cactus. We gave up at about 45° and leaned it against an old chunk of 4×6.

March 9th, 2020 Finished washing and priming and top coating (twice) the pergola structure (posts and beams and rafters).

February 28th, 2020 New pergola rafters arrived, without the slats! The delivery dude had missed them, but got them to us the next morning.

February 26th, 2020 Lori got most of the slats scraped and washed.

February 10th, 2020 Took down a sampling of pergola slats. Many are well rotted. We decided to cut their awkward 18' lengths in half if they were entirely sound, and to cut out sound 9' lengths from the rest. By the time we were done a couple days later, Lori had saved 64 slats and we only needed 16 new ones.

February 2nd, 2020 Cut the pond a new cozy from blue insulation panels.

January 14th, 2020 Winter rains bring pesky weeds. We keep after them, so that they rarely get to go to seed, but at this time of year we need Weapons of Mass Destruction (Roundup) to keep the upper hand.

January 6th, 2020 Down came the Yule lights, per HOA regulations. If they are going to draw a line, we are going to put our toes right up against it.

December 16th, 2019 Installed a new spa top panel. The old LCD had been losing contrast for a couple of years, but lately it looked... dead. Surprisingly it still controlled much of the spa, if you knew what you should be seeing on the dead screen. The abbess enjoyed this game for precisely 1 standard minute, and Thermospa's customer service was happy to help.

November 1st, 2019 The pond needed its heaters. Insulation panels had been placed on the surface of the pond a week ago, when the pond temperature had plunged below 20°, but it continued to fall almost to 10°, so the pond heaters were installed. These were actually large aquarium heaters whose minimum set point was 20° so they will burn all winter long.

October 25th, 2019 Swim season slipped from our grasp. The pool cover and solar array had kept the pool temperature in the neighborhood of 30° for a month, but now the nights were getting positively cold. Once we took the cover off, the pool temperature fell below 20° in just a few days.

October 12th, 2019 We celebrated a freshly painted house and a new spa season. All of the security cameras and sensor modules were back in operation, the house looked brand spanking new, and the evenings were finally feeling cool. We filled the spa, started it up, and were soaking by evening.

October 7th, 2019 We blindfolded ourselves for the house painting. All of the security cameras and sensor modules were taken down and their cables retracted, leaving us feeling numb.

September 20th, 2019 The pool had not reached 30° in a week, so we covered it and turned on the solar array. It could then get to 30° and more for a couple more weeks, topping 32.5° before the temperature probe went offline for the house painting.

September 17th, 2019 We hired an electrician to replace the spa's breaker box. During the construction of the pergola, probably when the conduit was being moved around, the neutral bar had busted free of its plastic housing. We did not want to try to sell the place with the electrics in such a precarious state.

September 3rd, 2019 We cleaned the pool filter for the first time this year. We had to clean it twice last year, probably because of the re-plaster. The compost bed intended to catch the rinse water had received scan attention over the last year and was thoroughly dried out, so the rinse water just rolled right off, piling the cellulose filter media along one side. Not a big mess, the cellulose cake was easily raked back into the bed.

August 21st, 2019 Shortened the pergola ledger with a handsaw to get it off the spa electrical conduit. The spa and conduit were installed before the pergola was built, at which point the conduit was lengthened to round the end of the pergola's ledger. This left the wires inside the conduit just long enough to reach the breaker box with the conduit against the end of the ledger. Taking 2-3cm off the end of the ledger allows its caulking to be inspected and replaced.

August 2nd, 2019 Fixed another irrigation leak. If they tell you you can bury plastic irrigation tubing in the ground and 25 years later it won't spring a leak every other week, slap them hard.

July 18th, 2019 We had the patio ceiling professionally re-plastered. Our patchwork repairs looked terrible and were already falling down. We decided we needed a professional job done before we could sell. We were fortunate to find a plasterer who really knew what he was doing, and he produced a flawless finish. He also said it is not uncommon for plaster ceilings to fall after 20 or more years outdoors in the Sonoran Desert. The cycling between monsoon moisture and extreme summer dryness seems to destroy the bond between plaster and paper.

July 16th, 2019 We arranged a “bulk pick-up” with the city. We are allowed one per month but rarely call twice in a year. This time we had a pile of garage cabinets and, as always, some mesquite prunings.

July 1st, 2019 Swim season and bean season began today. We did not bother with the pool cover this year, so swim season was a little late. The solar array had been at work for the past month and now the temperature was consistently reaching 30°.

The first of the mesquite bean pods were also hitting the ground. We will spend several mornings a week for the next several weeks picking them up before their sweet molasses smell (like graham crackers!) attracts a mob of crickets, roaches, etc and their fans, the scorpions.

June 20th, 2019 The pool vacuum was rather sluggish, but the pressure on the filter was modest, perhaps 80% of full, until the pool elf rapped on the gauge. The needle had stuck to the warped dial face and now jumped from 20psi to 40psi! A couple pool elves earned double-time that day for an emergency pool filter cleaning (or would have if house elves could be paid). The neighborhood pool store had heard our story many a time, it seemed. They had a replacement gauge in stock.

June 18th, 2019 The old garage cabinets had to go. Some had been damaged when a crack in the RO filter's tubing sprayed water on them all night. Others were leaning over Lori's convertible, slowing crushing their base, which proved to be held together by many staples / finishing nails. And new ones were scheduled for installation on the 19th.

The process of loading the new garage cabinets was surprisingly nostalgic and an opportunity to say good bye to many remnants, dried up paints, "extra" parts, ghosts of all sorts.

June 16th, 2019 When you turn off the spa and it still gets too hot, it is time to drain it for the season.

June 12th, 2019 The pool plaster “chip-out crew” arrived and proceeded to jack hammer us and our immediate neighbors out of our fragile minds. Whatever your troubles, they would have shrunk to nothing in the face of that onslaught. On the plus side, it was an excellent day for scream therapy.

June 4th, 2019 Drove a new ground anchor for Suspension Post #3's back stay. Yes, that is the same post that was replaced 2 years ago, after it cracked and sank, or sank and cracked. Or maybe it didn't sink so much as its corroding steel cable had stretched. Regardless, it turns out that an inquisitive lawn elf, inspecting said cable, can easily snap the corroded steel, even though said elf would know full well that the replacement of said cable would be the responsibility of that same elf.

Now the Nornir can be down-right cruel and, in addition to corroded steel, they can arrange underground irrigation lines such that an ill-fated house elf will drive a replacement ground anchor straight through the center of one. So that's exactly what they did.

May 27th, 2019 The pond pump died. Ran to Home Depot and found a drop-in replacement, a 3600gph pump from TotalPond.

May 6th, 2019 Suddenly all the suspension cables were losing their coverings. When we pulled the screens back, we were stymied by the braided covering, which piled up in front of the blocks. The covering had parted and the near half had slid with the blocks, exposing a frighteningly thin tension member behind it, frightening enough to impel immediate replacement.

First cable #3 lost it, then #4 the next day, then #5 and #6 within a few weeks. Cables #1 and #2 were newer and lasted until August, but even the thickest clotheslines ever lasted much more than 4 years in the Arizona sun, and the thin mason's line that we used to pull the shades out could be snapped easily, with bare hands, after one year.

April 16th, 2019 Had the city come for a bulk pick-up after pruning the big mesquites.

April 11th, 2019 After fooling about with a balky pool leveler, we installed a new float valve that acted even more strangely. It would open to raise the pool level but would quickly stop, only to open again a few seconds later. It took the surprised pool elf almost a minute to diagnose the problem: a blockage in the pipe between the valve pot and the pool. Ancient construction debris that had never been fully cleaned out of the pot had wandered into the pipe allowing only a trickle into the pool. The new valve would fill the pot, then have to wait for the trickle to empty it.

April 7th, 2019 Replaced speaker cables with underground feeder and wire nuts. Poor audio quality had been disappointing us since the beginning of March. We had examined every connection from the amp through a couple underground splices to the speakers. Eventually we pulled up all the old speaker wires and replaced them with the last of the 12AWG UF-B Romex. As with the subwoofer installed in September of 2015, we bent the ends of the buried Romex to stand 3-4cm above the ground, then connected the unburied, shortened speaker wires to them with wire nuts painted to match the ground cover.

April 6th, 2019 The mucking elf was summoned to vacuum out the patio sump. This semi-yearly extra-smelly ritual always brings up fond memories of farm life: catching tadpoles, losing boots, sinking tractors.

January 9th, 2019 The brand new pool pump's front panel went dark. Leslie's elves replaced it in a twinkling.

December 27th, 2018 Used every tarp, drop cloth and king sized bed sheet in the house to protect our bougainvilleas from frost. If we don't they will die back quite a bit, turning an ugly black. Luckily we have only a handful of frosty mornings each season, and this season all the covering and uncovering was done by March.

December 2nd, 2018 When the sun calls it a day before 1800 hours, it's time to put up some lights!

October 7th, 2018 Spa season began a week late, missing the traditional overlap with swim season, due to a long weekend in Flagstaff for Lori's birthday.

October 1st, 2018 Swim season ended abruptly. The previous afternoon's pool temperature was well over 30°, but this day it dropped under 29° and did not reached 30° again (in 2018).

September 30th, 2018 Repaired the busted cedar lathe after the “aggressive pruning” on the 3rd. A large mesquite branch had pole-vaulted into the pergola's lattice wall, sending shards of crispy dry cedar lathe flying. After the cleanup, we were surprised to find all the shards, so we used polyurethane glue, a dozen binder clips to put Humpty back together again.

September 29th, 2018 Replaced the last of the galvanized pergola flashing. The October 2015 repair proved itself, finally, after a couple good downpours, so the extra wide aluminum roll flashing had been ordered and delivered. The last essential ingredient was an extra hot day, hot enough to soften old asphalt roll roofing. If it was not done this day, it was not going to happen before July 2019! The special aluminum flashing had been kicking around the garage for several months (years?) already. Thus cornered, the roof elf was forced to finish the job.

September 27th, 2018 Cut the big back yard mesquite root that was heaving up the pergola slab. We were nervous about the amount of canopy it had suspended over the sidewalk and even the street, but the recent, aggressive pruning had eliminated most of the concern. Even so, when we cut through the root, there was an audible “pop!” and visible tremor, but the kerf widened only a few millimeters.

September 3rd, 2018 Destroyed the old chiminea during a marathon landscaping day. It was a “ruin” that had drowned when the pond formed and offered the turtle an interesting hiding place. The tree elf was up in the big back yard mesquite dropping increasingly thicker limbs into the pond until a thump on the ruin brought it down in a heap of potsherds.

August 25th, 2018 Glued a shade screen block back together with polyurethane (Gorilla) glue. The poplar blocks were a disappointment, seeming to tear at the clothesline even more than the split rings did, and to crack easily. To be fair, shoving a shade out over the pool often allowed blocks on one side to lag behind, twisting them against their cable, even jamming them.

If we were staying longer, we might be tempted to pound metal bushings into the blocks for the cables to slide in, hoping for easier travel, less cable wear, and a reduced tendency to jam, thus crack apart. We would also put a pin through each block and its batten, and through the shade screen cloth too. Myriad forces conspire to pull the battens out of their blocks, and the fiberglass battens are so slippery that a little wind can bunch up the cloth on the leeward side.

July 15th, 2018 Cleaned the pool filter for the second time this year, after it had filtered out a recent crop of algae. Cleaned the cartridges over a new compost bed created for the purpose. Used the hose on “jet” and made quick work of it. The compost bed filtered the algae and cellulose media out of the copious amounts of rinse water. As a bonus, it eats up the dog and elf urine that has accumulated in the same location.

July 7th, 2018 Returned from the annual pilgrimage to Wisconsin to find the pool green and smelly. A little super-chlorination before twelve still days just couldn't cut it in the extreme heat.

June 15th, 2018 Drained the spa one last time (until Fall). Somehow it cleaned and polished itself!

June 7th, 2018 Fixed the solar pool heater leaks using a couple irrigation tubing goof plugs, and a roof elf.

June 2nd, 2018 Swim season began officiously (arbitrarily) today. The pool had stayed above 25° (77°F) most of May, but could not quite reach 30, and our slavish devotion to the numbers means we easily ignored that. And if a lawn elf fell in in a swoon from heat exhaustion whilst doing battle with a vicious gang of creosote, that wouldn't have counted neither.

April 30th, 2018 Cleaned the new pool filter for the first time, spraying four large cartridges clean in the garage sink, a slow process that left a mess in the garage.

April 22nd, 2018 The new pool light arrived via Amazon Prime's 2 day shipping. The abbess had granted a dispensation for the expedited delivery because the pool plaster was looking so dry! The pool elf had the light installed in a twinkling, needing only an extra 10' because of a conduit kerfuffle. So we quickly finished pumicing, rinsed off, pumped out, vacuumed up, and started re-filling.

April 20th, 2018 Purchasing ordered a replacement for the 10 year old corroded pool light, one with a 70' cord. That is 20' longer than the requisition specified because the abbey's purchasing department is older (wiser) than its years.

April 19th, 2018 We spent half a day working out on the pool waterline and, for an extra thorough workout, we addressed the efflorescence creeping out of the grout lines and over the tile. We ran a detail sander on a scouring pad full of scale remover on the pumice grit over the grout lines and the whole wall.

April 18th, 2018 Our tiny portable pump finally finished emptying the pool. Before re-filling it, we started cleaning the scale off the waterline using pumice.

April 16th, 2018 Started pumping out the pool. The pool water had turned bitter over the previous summer, and the chemistry tests had been producing whacky yet familiar colors for weeks. The friendly neighborhood pool shop confirmed that an earlier 25% drain and re-fill had accomplished little. It was time to turn and face the adversary, pry some dollars out of the maintenance fund, and buy 17,000 gallons of potable water from the City of Chandler. That was a tall order for this abbey: over $30 (bazinga!).

February 24th, 2018 Fixed the spa by replacing the GFI breaker.

February 12th, 2018 The Minnesotan refugees arrived. Luckily they did not need de-icing in a hot spa.

February 10th, 2018 Drained the spa before company arrives, and filled it afresh, but it did not re-start. It appeared to, but did not heat nor jet.

December 16th, 2017 We removed the pool cover for the winter. The pool was just 16° now, and we are less worried about the water escaping than about dead things lurking out of sight underneath it. (Drowned palo verde beetles tend to float but lizards sink.) And it was ugly, even if we were to clean it (and then the filters, which are probably 75% full now and would be 110% full after an hour's work on the cover).

September 2nd, 2017 Moved the pool and related sensors to Raspi, a Raspberry Pi Model B. Raspian Stretch had the driver for the DS9490R (USB to One-Wire adapter) in its kernel, and an owserver package in its repository, so moving from a 64 bit Ubuntu Intel machine to a 32 bit Debian ARM machine was trivial, and freed Yavin for more challenging duties.

Raspberry Pis lacked a persistent RTC (real time clock). When they rebooted, they consulted their filesystem for the last recorded time and used that time, perhaps weeks old, until a network server could be consulted. This left bogus timestamps in the weather system's sensor logs. Luckily Lady Ada had a simple solution. Her PiRTC plugs right into the GPIO header on any Pi. (She actually offered 7 boards ranging from $6 to $18.) Again the driver was already in the Raspian kernel so installation was a snap. Chaos loses, amen.

October 30th, 2017 Swim season officially closed. The cover and solar array kept the pool near 30°C for six weeks, but the cool mornings took their toll. This morning the abbess ended the solar array's power allocation. We did not see 30° again until the spring. The cover stayed. It was not pretty but it kept the water in.

October 15th, 2017 With the abbess's blessing (a power allocation) the spa elves got busy and the spa was soon bubbly with enthusiasm.

September 18th, 2017 We enjoyed morning lows we had not seen in three months. This caused the pool to cool rapidly, so we got out the cover and turned on the solar array.

August 8th, 2017 We finally retired the patio lighting transformer. After swapping a flaky socket for the idle socket in the northwest fixture, we decided the power supply was struggling with deep-fried capacitors, not a short in a faulty fixture. The new 300w supply had no problems. (We only use half the sockets in the 12 volt fixtures because we have a lot of astronomers around here, and they are downright hostile to nighttime lighting.)

Sprayed the mesquite trash off the pergola glazing.

July 2nd, 2017 The patio sump pump did not fail but its corroded appearance and missing float switch put it on the short list for replacement. With summer monsoon rains overtopping the sump the abbess insisted on automatic operation so the abbey's interminable purchasing process suddenly got real.

Now pool elves are cheap but they are hardly real, and do not materialize as soon as parts arrive. When they did appear, they quickly disappeared again after some natter about “100% unimpeded flow.” A week after that, with the appropriate check valve on site, the pump was finally installed. By then it had sat for a month in a 40° garage and left a puddle of grease on the floor. We only hope some stayed in the bearing races!

The elves also drained 20% of the pool and re-filled it. Apparently they found the pool chemistry unacceptable. “Out of range” and “whack” were heard yet the 25% dilution seems to have worked.

June 13th, 2017 Shaved off 100-150mm of hard pan for another several meters along the lower patio retaining wall. Striking a slight grade down and away from the retaining wall produced a shallow swale centered half a meter from the boundary wall. We hope to pitch this toward the street if the slope does not run too deep.

June 11th, 2017 Persistently high temperatures in the idle spa called an end to spa season. An army of spa elves to drain, vacuum, clean, rinse, vacuum and polish the spa failed to materialize, so the cover had to wait another couple weeks. Luckily the cover had accumulated a mud hat. This was kept intact as a foil for ultraviolent[sic] light.

The mucking elf, Puck, did show up and vacuum the muck out of the sump.

June 5th, 2017 The first sign of trouble was a couple droopy shade screen cables. A bit of wind can stretch the cables, but this time it appeared Post #3, while holding those cables up, had sunk. It suddenly (seemingly) was noticeably shorter and leaning forward so far that it had cracked at ground level. There was no evidence of water softening the clay underneath so we risked another post ($4 at Lowe's). Chaos moves in mysterious ways.

May 24th, 2017 The pool got dangerously close to 38° with the cover and solar array on. We keep up the free chlorine count, but our pool chemistry was not intended for temperatures like that. We keep a few hundred gallons of water at 38+° (a spa) but we keep a sharp eye on it, and use a more complex chemistry, with aggressive filtration and a silver cartridge to keep it sanitary.

April 10th, 2017 Mini went cold this afternoon, not for the first time. It was powered back up the next morning, but the pool temperature probe never responded again, so Mini was replaced by Yavin and a spare temperature probe was tested and soldered on.

March 20th, 2017 The ugly pool cover and solar array had been on for a week and the pool temperature was topping 31° so Nine Herbs Patio's 2017 swim season was officially open.

November 27th, 2016 The abbess finally confesses that there was no way she was getting in the pool, even just to “clean” it, when the daily high is not reaching 20°. With that admission the ugly pool cover vanished and the solar collectors snapped off as if a frustrated pool elf had been barely restrained by her persistent postponements.

November 20th, 2016 After weeks of fiddling with patio lighting outages the two lights in the north retaining wall went dark for good. The old caulk had not adhered and water had infiltrated. The small spikes on a cheap cable tap had corroded away and the cables were blackened for at least 10-12cm. We shortened the tail to avoid the worst corrosion, and ran new cable direct from the power supply's second circuit posts to the first light box. We used plumber's grease (spa/pool lube) to coat the exposed ends of the cables and fill the new wire nuts, then wrapped the nuts with electrical tape.

When we finally got more than a trace of rain, the whole system pulsed and flickered all night, so we seem to have more work to do. We are too cheap to pull up all of the old cable so we will continue to re-work splices and fuss with it. Such is life in a mountain monastery, so why not here?

Digging up the wiring along the north retaining wall lent itself to the re-grading project which progressed almost to the end. Unfortunately an ever so slight grade down and away from the lip of the retaining wall was taking us several centimeters below the foot of the boundary wall. We needed to decide between making a small retention basin or swale to re-direct the rainwater, or just continuing to pump it all out of the lower patio.

November 2nd, 2016 Swim season ended. The pool cover and solar collectors had been at work for several weeks but could not contend with the recent cold spell. The daily high was not reaching 30° anymore. Yet somehow it took four more weeks before the ugly pool cover retired.

October 21st, 2016 Spa season started late this year because the spa heater gaskets were crumbling. Customer support at Thermospa was happy to send a technician or explain to the resourceful DIY'er that replacement gaskets are a common item, available at almost any pool/spa supplies store. Of course at this time of year in Arizona many people are filling their spas and finding their heaters are leaking, so the common item nevertheless takes a week to arrive.

October 7th, 2016 Spa season began today NOT. The abbess needed her hydrotherapy, yet the spa heater leaked like a sieve!

September 26th, 2016 We continued regrading along the north wall. Matt used another 4 or 5 loads of dirt from the greenhouse excavation to raise the grade for another 3 meters, along the edge of the patio. This should address the last of the big puddles. The only remaining issue was with a small area that currently funnels rainwater into the lower patio.

September 18th, 2016 The pool cover came back after four months. The pool temperature has been falling well below 30° in the mornings so the ugly thing was back. We tried to appreciate it for its effect on evaporation, for slowing the rate of salinization of our pool water.

July 21st, 2016 Moved 4 or 5 more wheelbarrow loads of dirt to bring up the grade around the pool equipment, and get the area covered with gravel before the next downpour, else everything will be splattered with mud, again.

July 17th, 2016 Worked on re-grading around the pool equipment. Wet an area of the greenhouse excavation, to soften the dirt so that it does not come up in large clay brick chunks. An afternoon monsoon bluster (more wind than rain) helped with a 60 second downpour.

July 9th, 2016 The new pool equipment arrived! A new 3hp variable-speed Jacuzzi pool pump and matching filter were installed and the old waterfall pump re-plumbed. The equipment was now as high as we dare raise it while keeping ground level 8-10cm below the house's stucco siding. The new pool vacuum was also installed and immediately started work on the white precipitate on the bottom. The water had stayed clear and the vacuum was very efficient so we were swimming again the next day.

June 27th, 2016 Cut the old pool equipment free and re-graded under the equipment pads. The pool has been stagnant since the filter pump motor failed except for whatever stirring the waterfall can manage. Shocking it with a hypochlorite powder turned it milky white.

June 20th, 2016 The pool filter pump started (only!) humming. Pulled the motor off and took it to Leslie's. Its starter capacitor has grown (shrunk?) so weak that it was not always kicking the armature into action. We decided to get a new pump and filter and cut the remaining two pipes so that we could re-grade along the north wall under the equipment pads, raising them approximately 50mm.

June 17th, 2016 The mesquite bean pods have started falling, right on schedule (i.e. compared to June 18th, 2014). We expect the avalanche to peter out in a month. During that time we will spend 20 or 30 minutes in the mornings, 2 or 3 times a week, snatching them away from the wild life (esp. the crickets and their fan following, the scorpions).

June 12th, 2016 The spa temperature has been staying uncomfortably high though heated only by the circulation pump. Now the water was distinctly cloudy so the abbess called it: spa season was closed. Spa cleaning and polishing would take a couple of days.

June 8th, 2016 We had the patio decks re-painted after Lori scraped away all the loose Cool Deck.

May 5th, 2016 The pool temperature hardly dropped below 30° today. Swim season is officially on.

May 3rd, 2016 Hosed off the pergola glazing.

April 2nd, 2016 The pool filter pump switch crashed and burned.

February 28th, 2016 Cleaned the pool filters for the first time in two seasons. The pressure on the filter media finally increased a full 10 psi. And we broke out a new, thin (disposable) pool cover that is easily folded up and carried away. The extra long pool reel is going on the junk heap.

February 22nd, 2016 The tiny portable sump pump has worked on the pool for a full day and the water level is low enough to start scrubbing the ring. Erasing the waterline only took 3 or 4 hours over as many days. Refilled the pool at approximately 32.8 L/min in 31.25 hours, a volume of 61,500 L (16,247 gal).

October 27th, 2015 Repainted the edges of the patio cover. Put a final coat of plaster and paint on the patio ceiling repair. Cleaned the pergola glazing.

October 20th, 2015 Swim season is over. Even with the assistance of the pool cover and solar array, the pool will not be reaching 30° again until spring. The pool cover has been on and off for a couple weeks but now will be left on. We have grown accustomed to its dusty crumpled appearance and value its effect on the evaporation rate. After watching the water fly out of the pool all summer, and the associated alkalinity and other chemistry problems mount up, we are glad to see it there.

Recent attempts suggest that if we were to try to pull it off, we would just tear it to pieces with many of the plastic bubbles cracking off and floating away. We will have to strain the old cover out before draining and re-filling the pool this spring.

October 17th, 2015 The spa is filled and started, with no leaks!

October 15th, 2015 Ripped out the professionally installed patio flashing, a couple cheap, galvanized steel right angles that did not cover the pergola beam. A little flashing over the hole between the beam and the patio cover had quickly failed, ruining Matt's second attempt to finish the patio ceiling plaster. This time several feet of the steel was torn out and replaced with aluminum roll flashing wide enough to cover the beam and soft enough to easily form drip edges.

September 26th, 2015 Made a pigtail for the new rock speaker, using a heavy gauge round jacketed cord scavenged from an old power strip. Tried to fill the cap with plumbers (silicone?) grease. Settled the speaker on a low mound of gravel too. Painted some wire nuts and used them to attach the pigtail to the heavy gauge Romex (12AWG UF-B) now sticking up an inch above the high waterline. The connection is now not completely hidden (buried), but it is high, dry and serviceable.

September 17th, 2015 Worked on re-shaping the most boisterous mesquite. Pruned it off the smaller tree to its east.

September 14th, 2015 The patio light went out and Matt replaced everything but the switch before he got it fixed again. It was just the switch, of course. He also replaced the pool lamp, reusing the old gasket (well cleaned and re-greased).

September 12th, 2015 A new rock speaker arrived to replace one that had died, possibly because of corrosion of a selector knob. This new speaker has no knob, and no cord either. There are just a couple screw down terminals inside a black plastic cap with one round, gasketed hole to admit a cord.

September 7th, 2015 The pergola slab is noticeably heaving, forming a ridge pointing at the middle mesquite. That tree leans heavily away, so we dared not cut the large root running under the slab. We will need to prune the tree back away from the side street first.

October 17th, 2015 Filled the spa. Three measurements gave an average rate of 31.47 L/min. It took 40.5 minutes, implying a volume of 1275 L (337 gal).

August 20th, 2015 While pruning a wind damaged mesquite, Matt cut himself badly enough to need 5 stitches!

June 30th, 2015 The mesquite bean pods have started littering the ground, a little later this year than last. They will be largely done falling within a month; the crickets will get few or none.

June 9th, 2015 Pruned the creosote, filling the trash bin. Pruned the mesquites too, away from the sides and roof of the house, esp. in the back next to the pergola. Tried to take a whack out of the tallest bough (eventually to be completely cut away) and open up some lower branches to the sun. Stacked the prunings along with some creosote for a final batch to oil the chipper.

Tried to start the chipper but it never fired, and produced a strong smell of shellac. It should not have sat so long in 40+° heat with old gasoline in it.

May 17th, 2015 Spa season is over, a week earlier than last year, but a week after swim season started. Warmer temperatures always make the trick of hot, clean spa water all the more tricky, so rather than work the amazing alchemy of salts and bacteriostats even harder, we said good bye, drained it and cleaned it.

May 16th, 2015 Shaking the crap off the pond pump bag split the hose in several places. After two trips to Lowe's we wound up with 1.25″ barb fittings wound with several layers of self-welding silicone tape. The hose was too rigid to be forced onto a 1.5″ fitting nor clamped down onto a 1.25″ fitting. The tape made up the difference and created two dry joints.

May 15th, 2015 It is hard to ignore the evidence that a little flashing over a big hole is not going to keep the patio ceiling plaster dry. After an inch of rain, the new plaster at the transition from patio ceiling to pergola softened. The ceiling of the front stoop also leaked. Rainwater ran down the wall adjoining the front door!

April 21st, 2015 Continued regrading along the north wall. Moved Lori's idle appliances (an old stove and dryer) onto the regraded and rocked portions.

April 14th, 2015 Drilled, cut and sanded 54 suspension blocks for the shade screen over this Tiw's Day and the following Woden's and Thor's Days. Got all three screens converted from bamboo battens, hung from split rings, to fiberglass, hung from wood blocks.

April 7th, 2015 Made 10 wood blocks to carry the 3/8 inch fiberglass rod. Hammered the block onto the rod, assuming no pin will be needed (until they shrink and crack from the dryness?). 4 of 10 showed thin but stable cracks until Matt learned to taper the rods and clean/ream out the hole a little.

April 1st, 2015 Cleaned the silt sludge out of the lower patio sump. Vacuumed it out and left it to thoroughly dry. Late that night filled it with water lest the gaskets get too dry!

March 22nd, 2015 The pool cover came off and Lori and Erica went swimming for the first time this season.

March 12th, 2015 The abbess finally turned on the AC. The pool temperature has been peaking above 30° for days and recently bottomed above 30.

March 7th, 2015 Put the cover on the pool (for 2 weeks).

February 28th, 2015 Moved dirt from the greenhouse excavation to the low spots on the north side of the back yard.

February 4nd, 2015 Scraped off loose stucco on the north boundary wall. The professional had lain stucco across the joints at the posts, where the 4 inch block fits in between the legs of the H block. Experiencing extremes from 0 to 60° (30 to 140°F) the 10 foot long sheet of block will expand and contract — must slide in and out between the legs (gulp). The stucco in the way was bulldozed, and spalled off in 3-4cm wide sheets within a year.

Matt tried to patch the shallow depressions with three different products, so we now have a 50kg selection of materials in fine, coarse and gravelly textures, and an ugly patch job — uglier than most, but cheap, cheap, cheap! (Is there a pretty patch job?)

January 30th, 2015 Re-plastered most of the south half of the patio ceiling after a little scraping turned into a lot of scraping. Water damage from years before allowed the plaster to get free of the drywall paper and it just hung there by a few small areas.

January 29th, 2015 Started raking the gravel away from the old pool circuit excavation and re-filling the trench with dirt from the greenhouse excavation. Started at the garage side door and raised the ground level as high as possible against the house foundation — just enough to allow a slight grade down to the foot of the boundary wall, to shed rain water away from the house foundation and pool equipment, and to eliminate large, lingering puddles in the low spots.

January 22th, 2015 Re-plastered the patio ceiling where a large sheet had come loose and curled down over a period of many months.

December 30th, 2014 Tried to flash over the hole between the patio cover and the pergola beam, but my old silicone was just grease -- no vinegar smell left!

December 12th, 2014 Found no sealant on the pergola flashing. Bent the galvanized steel up to lay a bead of caulking against it...

November 19th, 2014 The pool cover came off.

November 10th, 2014 The spa is back in operation just in time. The pool temperature, under its cover, has been dipping below 25° lately. It is time for the optimists to face the numbers and the icky pool cover to be retired for the season.

November 2nd, 2014 Swim season is ended. The pool did not reach 30° today but we held onto the cursed pool cover until the spa was back on its feet.

October 11th, 2014 We filled the spa but it leaked. We took it apart and located 3 leaks. Over the course of a month we partially drained and refilled the spa a number of times while trying to fix the leaks. Eventually we ordered a spa & pool caulk via the Internet and applied it to the leaky fittings on the inside (wet side). Thus to Water we pray. Amen.

October 8th, 2014 The unsightly pool cover is back after a week of low pool temperatures (well under 30°). It will keep the pool above 30° for almost four more weeks.

July 3rd, 2014 The first dust storm of the season hit, breaking a few high mesquite branches.

June 18rd, 2014 We have started picking up mesquite bean pods. We start with the sidewalks because the foot traffic will grind the pods into a gummy meal. For two weeks prior to this, we were blowing the walks clear of sticky, spent flowers. The pods will continue to rain down for a good month during which we will collect several bushels. We get them off the ground quickly, part of the cricket (scorpion) abatement program we like to call Scorched Earth.

May 25th, 2014 We shut down the spa. It got away from us in the heat, turning cloudy and heading for smelly. So it was drained, cleaned and polished to wait for September.

May 20th, 2014 We had to take the pool cover off, not to swim, but to keep the pool from turning into a spa. The cover holds the free chlorine in too, so the impact on water quality is negligible. We just think a 37° pool is un-refreshing.

April 21, 2014 We poked 40° today, and it bites. We beg mercy already.

April 5, 2014 Lori cut the new pool cover to fit. She diced up the old cover the previous day, then saw the temperature plummet overnight and made sure it had a cover for the next night. Jenny visits tomorrow. Luckily she is a Minnesotan (née Wisconsinite), so a 29° pool will seem tepid, not chilly.

March 21st, 2014 The pool temp. hit 30° this day. Swim season is here. The temperature rose smartly after the cover and solar array were put on duty, but within a week it was approaching the daytime highs and slowed down considerably. Cool, dry weather was also keeping the highs near 30° and lows down to 12.

March 6th, 2014 We rolled out the 3 year old pool cover one last time. After last year's hard frosts, a moderate winter was a surprise. Three weeks of wonderful, warm weather have convinced us that swim season is just around the corner. The pool temperature already has risen to 18° from its low of 9° in January. With a cover and the solar array's assist, we expected it to get to 30° within a week or two.

November 3rd, 2013 The cover and solar array are no longer getting the pool temperature above 30° so the cover came off for the season. It is 3 years old and starting to flake like crazy. We'll probably trash it in the spring.

September 26th, 2013 Lori started up the spa to speed her recovery from the long drive back from San Diego.

July 18th, 2013 The pool sweeper has started getting stuck in spin-out mode, spinning until it is tied up in its hose and tail. The clockwork still works, but the spin-out valve is sticking. We replaced the manifold, but that did not help much. The leaky valve worked by the clockwork's cam is more the trouble. We would have ordered another part except that the machine is 8 years old now and getting rather yellow and brittle. With some persuasion (spinning the ball against its seat) it mostly works. We will need to replace it soon and its plumbing. Some (leaky!) parts are already unavailable. This kind of sweeper (pressure-driven) has disappeared from the stores. It is considered too energy inefficient!

June 16th, 2013 Drained, cleaned and polished the spa. Spa season is done.

May 20th, 2013 Moved the dry well for the lower patio sump to the extreme southeast corner of the back yard, to make room for a sunken greenhouse.

May 1st, 2013 The pool temperature reached 38° — spa temperature! Removed the pool cover and dumped the excess overnight.

April 8th, 2013 Heliocol canceled because of high winds. They had an appointment to plug the leaking tubes in the solar array but did not want to walk around on our roof with wind gusts over 60kph. They came on the 10th and plugged the leaks while the system was running.

March 19th, 2013 The pool temperature hit 30° marking the official beginning of the swim season here, but the cover stayed on as there was not a lot of immediate demand for swim time. The solar array had not been in use because of its leaks, but those amounted to just a few liters per day, so it was pressed into service to make the cool pool warm.

March 3rd, 2013 Warm days encouraged us to put the solar cover on the pool. The solar array is still leaking, but the cover alone makes a big difference especially with a week of highs over 30°.

January 15th, 2013 After the coldest morning ever, we find water running off our roof. We ran the pool pump all night, every night since the 11th, and this morning water still flows through the solar array. Nevertheless, we now have a significant leak.

January 11th, 2013 A hard freeze is expected tomorrow morning. We covered most of the non-native plants, especially the bougainvilleas, hoping to save them (partially) from the coming frost. We also set the pool pump to run water through the solar array during the wee hours (starting at 3am), but it was frozen solid by then.

December 27th, 2012 Grandma, Jake and Jenny arrive hoping for sunny skies. Ann and Larry arrive tomorrow.

November 25th, 2012 The polycarbonate under the pergola is finally complete. It seems an unwritten House Rule that these projects must be (in priority order) cheap, good, and thus not fast. Counting from the day we committed $500 and bought the polycarbonate panels (September 17th) this one took two and a half months and included one small re-work. We may be waiting several weeks more for a real leak test.

November 11th, 2012 After weeks of warm weather, Fall finally brings us some cool (cold? 10° [50°F]) mornings. The pool's cover and solar collector can no longer keep it anywhere near 30°, so the cover came off. The collector will continue take a draught of heat off the roof every once in a while, but the cover is gone for the season.

October 20th, 2012 Lori filled and energized the Thermospa, certain cure for the cool pool chills.

September 25th, 2012 The bougainvilleas are ravaged by white flies! They are normally not bothered, but these flies are hungry. Every year when the defoliant goes on the cotton crop, we get hammered. They were loving our herbs but a couple doses of pyrethrin soap knocked them down.

September 16th, 2012 We put the cover on the pool. The monsoon is done — just a breath of moisture each from strong lows in the Gulf, then the Pacific. Now dew points are back down from near 20° to under 10° and morning lows are a refreshing 20° after highs like 34° (93°F at 6am in the morning!) on August 9th.

This late into the rainy season we are starting to find fat caterpillars hiding among our herbs. The turtles and fish love the basil and thyme infused morsels.

August 16th, 2012 The new patio furniture arrived. We now have a gliding love seat and matching chair for the upper patio, with custom gliding ottoman and cushion that Lori commissioned over the Internet.

June 23rd, 2012 The spa has been overly hot for weeks. Today we threw the big switch, draining it for the last time this season.

April 1st, 2012 We kicked off the pool season by draining and re-filling with fresh water. The pool chemistry tests were turning cloudy and yellow, and the flavor was off.

Draining the pool was an ordeal for our little submersible utility pump. To reach the sewer we used a new (cheap) small-diameter auxiliary hose. It took three and a half days for the little pump to drain the pool, perhaps twice as long as previously. During that time much of the visible waterline ring was ground off by the pool elf and his pumice stone. Re-filling took less than a day and a half, and with the solar cover in place it took just a few more days to get the pool temperature back up. Note the spike in both high and low temperatures on this plot.

September 30th, 2011 The spa is filled and hot, a welcome chaser for a chilly dip in a 27° pool.

September 9th, 2011 It is now official Fall here at Nine Herbs. The pool temperature dropped below 30°C this morning. A dusty monsoon season is still in full swing, but cannot last much longer.

June 8th, 2011 Drained, cleaned and polished the spa.

June 4th, 2011 Replaced the chaise lounge slings.

May 5th, 2011 Finally caught up on a variety of repairs. Rewired two deck lights. Their underground splices had rotted. Replaced the sub-woofer, which should never have been buried in an inch of clay, much less three. Replaced the crumbling pool cover. It was filling the skimmer with plastic flakes. Removed the misting system from the south-facing retaining wall. The plastic tubing is constantly breaking free of its crumbling plastic clips or glue. The entire misting system could be removed; it is not worth the trouble and cost of a more permanent installation.

April 3rd, 2011 Spring sprang a couple weeks ago, and the pool is already up to bathtub temperature. Yet it is still refreshing. You will appreciate this when you jump out, into 12% humidity. You will be dry and shivering in 60 seconds!

March 9th, 2011 The pool sensor went out again. Bought a new one-wire hub and ruggedized temperature probes. The old ones seemed to have been zapped. Yet the new hub also did not work. Looked for a software problem and found that the one-wire filesystem (owfs) worked the hub correctly, and supported the humidity sensors. Three weeks later the pool temperature was back online alongside inside and outside humidities.

October 26th, 2010 The volunteer palo verde that was sheltering the potted citrus trees had to go. It was like concertina wire, and had started growing into the neighbors' yards.

September 20th, 2010 The pool sensor failed. We sucked a gallon and a half of rainwater out of its conduit! A few days of drying in the sun brought it back.

September 12th, 2010 The tomato vines are done. We stripped the rack and stored the gully out of the sun. All of the tattered shade cloth went into the garbage bin. We will punt trying to grow veg. again this winter, though we will miss all the fun with frost and blankets and wind and rain and a dozen binder clips (not!).

August 11th, 2010 We cut down the wilted peppers and stripped the hydroponics table. Their gully was reaching 40°C (104°F), faithful to the air temperature. Lori started dumping bags of ice into the tomato nutrient reservoir, hoping to get some more fruit, to no avail. She gave up a month later.

July 14th, 2010 Picking up mesquite pods this time of year is important. Years ago we did not get right after them, so they fed up an annoying population of crickets — loud and dangerous because they attract scorpions. Since the Scorched Earth policy went into effect, we have seen very few of either.

June 27th, 2010 The spa is staying too hot, just from the circulation pump. Drained, cleaned and polished it to wait for next season.

June 20th, 2010 As the heat rises the ants make their move. Several new colonies of fire ants had to be “salted” to keep them out of the hydroponics, and off the pool deck. The poison is fast and effective in minute quantities, which is a good thing. The Cudmores (Sean, Sue, Kiera and Drew) arrived for a visit.

June 13th, 2010 Caulked an incompetent flashing job on the new pergola, in vain.

June 11th, 2010 Hired the regular arborist to prune our five mesquite trees.

May 25th, 2010 Got a propane powered leaf blower / vacuum. It is not as noisy and gassy as a gasoline powered blower, but putting too much oil in it helps make it stink. :-(

May 23rd, 2010 Got the new 1-wire hub and USB interfaces. Found that the program that polls the wind instrument cannot use USB. Looks like it is time to write our own!

May 16th, 2010 Lost the serial interface to the 1-wire sensor network. Used a USB interface and digitemp to get reports from the pool temperature probe. The rest will... rest. Ordered a replacement 1-wire hub and another USB interface the very next day. Serial interfaces are coming into short supply! Also ordered an 8 x 12V relay board, whilst dreaming of a solar collection control system. We would like to optimize for dollars (kWhs) per BTU.

April 21st, 2010 Our field of Lupines, from last year's volunteer, has gone to seed. Less than pretty, the house elf has made it vanish almost as magically as it appeared. The hydroponic tomatoes also exploded, requiring more and more extensive pruning and pinching.

March 14th, 2010 Ann & Jake visited.

March 4th, 2010 The tomato roots stopped up the nutrient inlet. They seemed to seek it out, growing upstream. They eventually produced a solid block that had to be pulled out with a cork screw.

February 22nd, 2010 Grandma came down from the Northwoods of Wisconsin (Rhinelander) for a break from the snow and ice.

February 14th, 2010 Josh & Kinsey stopped for a night.

February 10th, 2010 Jenny & Andy visited.

February 8th, 2010 Bought a deck box. This gets the pool toys out of the house yet keeps the wind from playing with them.

January 24th, 2010 Installed another curtain rod (iron pipe) along the east side of the pergola.

January 21st, 2010 The winter rainy season peeked with a record 65 mph wind gust in Chandler. We managed to keep the tomato vines on their rack, and wound up with a new pool toy.

January 13th, 2010 The herbs and veggies are bang'n, and so are the winter storms. Large moving blankets keep the tomatoes producing, but are no fun in the strong winds.

December 27nd, 2009 Julie, Ken, Kate and John visited for a week.

December 21st, 2009 Installed some spa lighting, using strings of white Christmas lights along the bottom of every other rafter. That turned out rather brilliant, so a switch was installed at the end of each rafter.

December 7th, 2009 Strong winds nearly blew away the tomato vines.

October 25th, 2009 Lined more of the turtle pond's sides with flagstones from the ranch. Erica painted the stone bench around the fire pot area.

October 4th, 2009 The turtles were finally turned loose in their new pond. Already the weather is getting cooler and the sun less direct, so there has been some hesitation. Are the basking facilities adequate? Is the water getting too cold?

September 27th, 2009 A girl and her dog soak up some fall sunshine.

September 17th, 2009 The pool water has gotten noticeably bitter and its total alkalinity is way out of spec. It took two days to pump it out, and one day to fill it, and it's “Hello, sweet pool!” again.

September 15th, 2009 Lined the turtle pond with more flagstone from the ranch.

A new scroll saw allowed sturdy brackets to be carved out of a block of laminated plywood, to hold the hefty iron pipe that will serve as a curtain rod for the spa area.

August 21st, 2009 We brought home Sophia, a Labrador mutt we saved from the Arizona Animal Welfare League's shelter. She had a rough first year of life, but we have heaps of love.

August 3rd, 2009 Built a lattice wall along the south side of the spa area.

June 9th, 2009 Worked on laying a brick curb on top of a dike around the new pond. The dike affords three or four more inches of depth for a rather shallow pond.

May 31st, 2009 The essential companion to a garden full of peppers made its debut. With smoking the peppers fully in hand, Lori took to making her own homemade chipotle sauce, and even started canning it. All ready for roughin' it on the ranch.

May 30th, 2009 The spa sprung a leak! It turned out to be a control valve. The valve body broke and let the valve fall below the water level, where it promptly weeped water out an air hole. Propping the valve high enough stopped the leak, and allowed us to continue using the spa while the replacement part was on order.

May 29th, 2009 The pool got to 35 °C (95 °F) so the pool cover came off pretty much for the season.

May 19th, 2009 Placed the old chiminea in the turtle pond. It will shelter a basking lamp, though the space is a little small for the larger turtle. Used what flagstone we scavenged from the pool project to start lining the sides of the pond.

May 18th, 2009 Cleaned and stored the herb gully.

May 17th, 2009 Another weekend saw another increment in the turtle pond project. This increment sealed the liner to the waterfall and cut it to its final size.

May 10th, 2009 Sealed the turtle pond membrane to the skimmer and covered the bottom with coarse sand. Lori took her first swim of the season.

May 3rd, 2009 Buried the turtle pond skimmer and installed the membrane. Matt swam in the pool for the first time this season.

April 22nd, 2009 Lori started transplanting her seedlings into her vegetable bed, and the birds thanked her. We also decided to cover the pool and start heating it up using the solar collectors.

April 1st, 2009 Installed irrigation along the far (east) wall and planted creosote bushes. These are the bushes that perfume the Sonoran Desert after every rain. We look forward to their sweet and spicy aroma.

March 26th, 2009 Started digging a pond for the turtles, which are outgrowing their aquaterrarium inside.

March 3th, 2009 Finally got started painting the new pergola over the spa, and the PVC piping to the solar collectors. Noticed our first volunteer Lupine (a native flowering annual).

March 3rd, 2009 Washed and painted the PVC piping to the solar collectors. The Heliocol crew had begged off, having a limited supply of a dark PVC spray paint with them. They did paint the pipes running up the side of the house. Also started on the new pergola. We were hoping the winter rains had subsided, and were getting close to the deadline set by the architectural review committee (and a personal goal).

February 5th, 2009 The late season tomatoes are popping, but the rack needs to be covered with blankets for protection from the frosty mornings. This became a real chore — covering and uncovering the rack, and attaching a dozen clips to frustrate the wind (which likes to play with the blankets).

January 30th, 2009 After almost three months of immersion in our pool, the ruggedized temperature probe has proved itself worthy. We have a second that we would like to immerse in a hydroponic nutrient tank, and one of the cheaper probes still works. It is rugged enough for outdoors, and will probably go out by the solar still, away from the house, where we suspect the temperatures are radically (3-5°C) different from those we are measuring under the patio roof.

December 15th, 2008 With the slab finished and the spa in place, our electrician was finally able to finish the spa circuit. His work passed inspection the next day.

December 10th, 2008 The seal coat went on the new slab under the spa and pergola, just before the wet winter weather set in. We kept darkening it, to get a more uniform appearance, and the result was a dark brown leather look. We still had to paint the pergola, but the temperatures were already too low.

November 20th, 2008 Our electrician was contracted to finish the new spa and patio circuits, getting them permitted, installed and inspected. This all required the spa to be in place, so he had to wait while we finished the slab underneath.

November 7th, 2008 The flashing between the existing patio roof and the new pergola ledger was installed and the city passed us on our final inspection.

November 4th, 2008 The first RTP ( ruggedized temperature probe) came online. This one should survive constant immersion. At this point we were measuring the rapid close of our pool season. It was soon time to put away the icky pool cover, and let the water temperature fall.

October 31th, 2008 The stone cutters finished setting flagstones over the fire area slab and its masonry bench. The front yard was cleaned up just in time for the Halloween decorations.

October 24th, 2008 The framers got the pergola up and the city approved of it soon thereafter.

October 20th, 2008 The lumber for the pergola was delivered. The framers arrived the next day, but were amazed that we (and the city) expected them to cut away the stucco siding and lag directly to the existing house framing.

October 13th, 2008 The footers and new slab for the spa area were poured. With some insistence, reinforcing mesh was added, sortof. Found that fiber-reinforced concrete had been ordered, for 90% of the slab. The concrete crew ran short and had to mix several wheelbarrows more, leaving themselves with hard troweling hours later.

October 8th, 2008 The old, cracked, concrete slab under the spa, put in during pool construction, was removed. The footers were also dug, except one. That post, near an existing one, fell on an extra-wide, existing footer. Unfortunately, the existing footer was not excavated for inspection, so we failed our first footer inspection (the next day), but passed, after some more excavation, on the day after (the 10th).

October 7th, 2008 Met with the contractor and looked at the pergola site. It has been 99 days since the architectural review committee approved the plan for the pergola.

September 24th, 2008 Got the call from the city to pick up our permit. We let our contractor know right away, then waited a week for an appointment with them, by which time we were on vacation at our ranch.

August 27th, 2008 Picked up a red line on our drawings: “show detail and specify beam size at north side of patio”. It took more than a week to get the part-time draftsman to fix them, and another two weeks to get the permit.

August 14th, 2008 Put 10% down with Unique Landscapes by Griffin, and submitted our city building permit application.

August 5th, 2008 The PVC cement capsule on our temperature probe turned cloudy and the sensor failed after little more than a week in our pool. Rather than putter around, trying to water-proof $15 probes, we found some that are designed for submersion. Embedded Data Systems' RTPBs are “ruggedized” temperature probes containing the same sensor chip (the DS18B20) in a stainless steel tube shrink-wrapped to a Teflon cable. These probes are three times as expensive as the others, but will be well worth their price if they can resist Water. Unfortunately they will not be available until the end of August.

July 27th, 2008 We are tracking the pool temperature again, using a new T-Probe encased in 10+ coats of PVC cement. The latest theory is that the interface between water-resistant coating and cable sheath is critical, and a PVC cement should bond well to a PVC sheath. The main 1-wire cable is also PVC, so 3-4 coats of PVC cement went over the splice and the in-line surge suppression circuit. The first T-Probe did not survive its third immersion. Drying it did not bring it back. While soldering on the new probe, we found the string in the main cable was wet! The suppression circuit is just 8 inches back from the splice, so it may have gotten wet too.

July 25th, 2008 Re-graded the bit of side yard outside the boundary wall. This area was 4-6 inches higher than inside the wall, so that the drainage block at the bottom of the wall did not drain. Removing 6 inches of dirt meant moving most of it around the wall, through the gate, and across the back yard. Used the displaced dirt to raise low areas that were holding large puddles of rainwater. The bulk went into a small hill or “drumlin” in the southeast corner.

July 22nd, 2008 Called a few landscapers about our “pergola” idea, but most begged off, suggesting a general or roofing/framing contractor was required, especially as we were plumb loco — insisting that the work be permitted by the city. Eventually found three general contractors that would bid on such a small project, with such a large portion of landscaper's work (the flagstone fire area) included.

July 22th, 2008 Water worship continues here as we attempt to resist The Great Solvent. After drying our T-Probe in The Sun (for 6 hours in 40% humidity at and around 130F), we are receiving temperature measurements again. The crafters' hot glue may have been a solution, though it turned opaque after a day or two in the water. Water presumably got through a softened, thin spot (bubble) near the tip. A silicone glazing sealant also failed. Perhaps it did not adhere sufficiently to the cable, the molded probe, or the leftover hot glue. The silicone material should have tremendous water resistance. The same sealant forms the leak-less, 150F pan in our 2.5 year old solar still.

July 15th, 2008 We saw a couple downpours with more than an inch in an hour or two. The glitchy pool measurements started about that time, but the most likely cause is a month's immersion in pool water. The water“proofing” (liquid electrical tape) slid off the end of the T-Probe, with no adhesion. Our next experiment involves a crafters' hot glue. This stuff really sticks, and we are hoping it can resist long-term immersion in pool water.

July 12th, 2008 Let the magic smoke out of our pool filter motor. It seems it was too wet to run after a monsoon storm.

July 1st, 2008 The architectural review committee accidentally approved a pergola over our spa. We took it and ran, unwilling to point out their error — that we are the same misshapen cretins that called slats “rods” so many months ago. The approval was conditional, of course. We must get started in 90 days (by September 28th), and be done in 6 months (March 28th), and no cheating, etc., etc., etc.

June 22nd, 2008 We have the beginnings of a 1-Wire sensor network logging some temperature and wind measurements (here). The plots look whack, but that is our weather. We measured 119.6F in the shade of our back patio yesterday (the 21st).

June 16th, 2008 Got some 1-wire software logging data from the wind instrument and a few thermometers. Unfortunately, none of the programs could read the hydrometers. Our impressive single digit relative humidities would go unrecorded.

June 7th, 2008 Had the mesquite trees professionally pruned again, just in time to avoid damage from summer monsoon winds. In such intense heat, the hot glue holding the mist tubing brackets to the retaining wall were giving way. A concrete patch mixture (with lots of latex in it) was tried next. It seemed to stick well to the stone and stucco.

June 3rd, 2008 The solar collectors and pool cover have got the pool up to 32 °C (89° F), but it dropped to 26 °C (78 °F) a few days later. By this time, the ice maker tubing was springing leaks and the tomatillo roots were damming up the vegetable gully. Serious root pruning was occasionally necessary for the rest of the season.

May 13th, 2008 Wired the weather instrument for testing, putting it in a test jig out of easy sight of the street. We were already dealing with bizarre behavior from the architectural review committee, and were in no hurry to make a third application.

May 6th, 2008 The architectural review committee objects to the term “rods” when used to refer to the 2x2... ummm... slats that form the overhead lattice. Of course the exact cross-section of this element of the design was important enough to hold up our application for another two months. And the professionally drawn square 2x2 slats did not seem relevant.

May 1st, 2008 We are bracing for the summer. The solar pool heater is getting the water well over 90F now. We have already had an afternoon top 101F, and many days with relative humidity under 5%. This is extreme dryness. One well-remembered implication: handle shade cloth delicately or be electrocuted.

The latest pseudo-wide-angle shot (on a weekend).

The latest pseudo-wide-angle shot with the icky pool cover still in place. This is the view from the patio most of the week. When the summer really hots up, we can punt the cover without the temperature dropping below 85F.

April 23rd, 2008 Replied to the architectural review committee with new drawings specifying paint matching the house trim and without the lathe lattice wall.

April 22nd, 2008 Dragged a bushel of palo verde blossoms out of the pool skimmer. The neighbor's tree was gorgeous, but a challenge for the pool elf.

The garden elf, meanwhile, was struggling with blossom end rot, presumably because of a calcium deficiency. The garden elves resolved to change the nutrient solution more frequently. Eventually a calcium supplement was employed.

April 21st, 2008 Ordered a weather instrument and accoutrements from Hobby Boards, and dreamt of an alarm system that notifies us when the monsoon winds kick up. That is when we really need to get the shade screens in, before their 40 foot lengths are wrapped around someone else's house.

April 11th, 2008 The architectural review committee disapproves of our planned pergola. They think, after two months of thinking, that the traditional white diamond lathe, just visible for a foot and a half above the boundary wall, will compromise the value of adjoining properties. They were obviously unhinged, so we did not try to reason with them.

At this time of year we also suffer the depredations of aphids, which do not disapprove of diamond lathe so much as approve of cilantro.

April 9th, 2008 Worked on cleaning up the southern half of the back yard, grading the jumbled dirt (dried mud left over from the pool construction!) and covering it with gravel.

March 24th, 2008 We continue to dress the patio, recently picking up some decor from a little shop in Guadalupe, and some spa furniture (and always a lingonberry soda!) from IKEA.

March 20th, 2008 Installed mist emitters under the flagstone caps of the retaining walls.

Installed 30% shade screen (specially ordered) over the vegetable rack, so that the tomatoes can get more of the spring sun without wilting.

March 15th, 2008 Hung mist emitters in plastic tubing across the patio lintel, under the shade screens.

Ran ice maker tubing from an RO filter in the garage to new float valves in the big nutrient reservoirs. Both the vegetable rack and the herb table were consuming many liters of water per day, requiring constant refilling to moderate the swings in the concentrations of the remaining nutrients. Float valves automated the refilling and further smoothed the swings.

March 12th, 2008 The double lounger finally arrived.

February 17th, 2008 Went shopping for end tables and bric-a-brac. Bought some rusty steel agave and geckos.

February 11th, 2008 Sewed together a pair of moving blankets to cover the tomatoes, who were not setting fruit in the cold. Soon had two pairs, covering the entire vegetable rack, with an electric heater underneath.

Sent our application to the architectural review committee, for approval of a pergola over our spa. Called it a “patio cover” as on the builder's plans for a similar option — a solid patio roof in the same size and location.

January 31st, 2008 Finished building and installing a six by ten foot hydroponics rack, for the larger vegetables, esp. tomatoes. Covered it in shade cloth. Added blankets that night against a morning frost.

January 19th, 2008 Installed the spa cover lifter.

January 3rd, 2008 Installed two ceiling fans with lights.

December 19th, 2007 Sent my drawings to a draftsman to turn into plans for the spa's pergola.

December 12th, 2007 The Thermospa spa arrived.

December 3rd, 2007 The pool sweeper stopped spinning out. Its clockwork was jammed up by a large grain of sand. Fooling with it eventually broke it, but a replacement part was soon on order.

September 24th, 2007 Got the pool up to 33 °C (91 °F) with the solar collectors and cover.

August 7th, 2007 Low morning temperatures caused us to start covering the pool and using the solar collectors again.

July 18th, 2007 Installed rock-like speakers and wired them to a new amplifier in the family room.

June 20th, 2007 Set a fourth post and cable (clothesline) to suspend a third strip of shade cloth over the lower patio deck and pool. After a month of experimenting, we settled on the bamboo battens at four foot intervals.

June 14th, 2007 Heliocol installed 10 solar panels.

May 28th, 2007 Had the boundary walls stuccoed and painted.

May 18th, 2007 Started experimenting with suspending shade cloth over the sunken patio and pool. We were desperate for shade, but could not afford a permanent structure (even if that were allowed). This design would have required 10 suspension cables.

April 19th, 2007 Installed low-voltage lights in the retaining walls, and painted the sump grate.

Built a stand to hold the near end of the pool cover reel above the lower deck, level with the far end on the retaining wall. With the reel level, we could lift and roll up the thick (heavy) cover, then swing the reel off its stand and onto the retaining wall, mostly out of the way. The reel had sat unassembled, unused, until the swim season approached. We just dragged the cover onto the lower deck for the occasional cleaning.

February 21st, 2007 Sent an impertinent architectural review committee our plans to add solar pool heater panels to our roof, hoping to get by with a simple drawing and no lawyers. Two or three weeks later, received their “approval”.

February 7th, 2007 Bought an olive tree from the Queen Creek Olive Mill. Transplanted it into clay balls with a constant nutrient drip.

January 6th, 2007 The pool cover is floated and cut to fit. We also specially ordered a pool cover reel long enough to reach across the pool.

December 25th, 2006 Sent a polite note via web form to our home owners' association to let them know we will be adding a solar pool heater to our roof — in a muted, terra-cotta color. We were later informed that, in spite of the law forbidding their disapproval, they demand a complete application for their approval.

December 23rd, 2006 We got our pool start-up instructions. We must brush the interior frequently to remove the initial efflorescence.

November 16th, 2006 Bought two eight foot Aeroduct NFT (nutrient film tech.) channels from Sea of Green.

October 4th, 2006 Bought a Hydrogarden kit from Sea of Green, to grow more herbs.

August 17th, 2006 Excavation of the pool and sunken deck began.

June 15th, 2006 Sketched out a sunken deck and pool with David of Blooming Vistas. He proposed to make the back retaining wall integral with the back wall of the pool, creating a spacious lower deck (in spite of the necessary stairs).