Blackberry Invasion.

Since major work on the house is suspended due to permit issues, It leaves me some time to work on the other Herculean task … the yard. When we bought this house we where particularly wowed by the yard. The size of it excited all of my American Gothic fantasies. Well..ok maybe not that, but I do fantasize about many an outdoor Barbecue, grilling up a Porterhouse, and other assorted meats.

For the most part the yard is pretty unremarkable, a wide open lot with weeds in the middle. I think of it like a blank canvas. The prospect of which was very exiting for my wife. My only worry is the blackberry brambles that cluster in the rear of the yard against our fences.

For those of you that are not familiar with the plant the best description I can give you is persistent. The I am not certain of the species or genus but this plant is very common in California and the Pacific North West. I am more that sure that there are plenty of varieties but I am not a botanist but so I will just talk about what I have seen in my lifetime.

The blackberry plant is a fast growing spiny vine that bears a wonderful fruit. In the wild it can be a real pest. It grows extremely fast and I have seen it take over entire yards in a couple of months. Unfortunately for us, the Blackberries have taken up residence our neighbors yardson all sides and have made major incursions into mine.

So I got the idea of "Keeping blackberries under control"







This what the yard looked like when I bought the place. If you look close, that greenery is the entire back fence covered with blackberry vines.



My father and I got out the shears and made what I thought was good progress. I come back a week later and what did I find...

The vines mounted a counter offensive










I have since discovered that the Blackberry vines have a very extensive root system (which was total news to me.) I had only been concerned with the vines and never bothered with the roots. To be very honest I have NEVER given it much thought. I always thought that vines did not have roots but rather came from a central location. I am sure the whole world knew this but me. So I began my second attack.

Upon further digging I fond that the root system in my yard is rather extensive. I also seems that the roots form I kind of a stump and form there the vines grow and make others in different locations. A root strand may connect a bunch of separate "stumps" together. I have to admit I was rather impressed to witness the plant's hardiness, and it's persistence as preservation




An example of a root "stump."







The Vines grew up the neighbors tree and began their assault from above.
A most formidable foe.

Revealing the truth behind the lies...pt 2.

To add a little visual perspective to my wife's earlier post, I though it would be help full to add a few photos to illustrate our findings.

This all began with trying to repair the floor in the now infamous add-on section of the house. This proved to be a little more of a challenge than I thought.



If you look closely you may notice the the floor is listing to the left.




After removing the floor boards we discovered lots of nifty things. That were listed the earlier post.

1. The joists were of uneven sizes.
Yes, they where and I am not sure why but they were. I unfortunately removed them before I took a photo but you can get the idea.


2. The joists didn't overlap across the center beam.
This was particularly odd to me. Although not necessary as I have heard from some of the carpenters that I have spoken to. I think this is a think it is a good idea in this house due to the size of the center beam.





In this you should note that the joist barely sits on the beam and not nailed to the beam but rater it is nailed to the block of wood that makes it even with the other joists




All of the joists had this problem. It was a cause for some concern. I was thinking shear, a joist on top of a block of wood on top of a beam with 3/4" overhang does not seem safe if the ground starts to shake. (which tends to happen in the bay area.)

Chips and blocks where all over the place. I was as surprised on how much "board footage" was in the house. Why the floor board where different sizes deifies my comprehension. My guess is that the previous owner used what wood was available. Either it was not going for work for me.

Another nice find was the notches on the joists to make room for the water pipes. This I know for a fact this is BAD BAD BAD. There are rules and calculation about how you can but I go with DON'T.
Things like this may happen:











This split as my brother sat on it. If you can see the wood split right along the grain of the wood starting on the notch. If you want my advice, do not make notches in wood on the underside at all.

Here are some slick files that explain it:

Notching_&_Boring_Guide_A11.pdf
Fig 11 cut floor.pdf

After looking at these issues I admit I was a little muffed. I had some friends that are in the trades to take a look. Most of them said the same thing "This is some really shoddy carpentry I would not bother to try to fix it." I was rather sad to hear that because that is very much outside of my manpower and skill-level. It is hard to ignore the a carpenter and engineer and two stage hands.

Needless to day I had to look for a general contractor.
Lesson learned: It is surprising what can be hidden under Sheetrock.