Each Little World

The babe in the bath

There is nothing that gives me more outright garden fun than giving this little lady seasonal hats. Here's her latest. She's on the bathroom vanity along with a lacy maidenhair fern. Both the Coleus and the Heuchera leaves have rooted, so — with a little luck — she can wear a green hat all winter.

My Garden Odyssey: Tea house stucco, Pt. 3

PART 3: ADDING COLOR AND CLEAN-UP

HE SAID: At the end of the last post I was applying the brown coat and doing test colors for the final coat on the outside.

In the picture above you can see that I've added another color over the first on my test panel. There are additional colors on the other side. The Quickcrete product I was using suggested adding one 10-oz bottle of pigment to one 80-lb bag of mix. To do my tests I would add 1/2-oz of color to 4-lbs of concrete mix if I wanted to test a straight color. My choices were buff, red, grey, terra cotta and brown. If I wanted to mix two colors I'd divide the 1/2-oz of color proportionally. I borrowed the kitchen scale and a set of measuring spoons to keep the proportions accurate.

However, despite all my charts and careful calculations I still managed to screw up the first panel I did. In this picture you can clearly see the difference between the far right panel and the others. I had measured out tablespoons instead of ounces and ended up with a surface that showed more of the grey stucco mix. Fortunately Linda had reminded me to start at the back of the tea house where mistakes would show the least.

On the plus side, I decided that the "mistake" would make a good color choice for the interior of the tea house. It would be a softer, less intense color in the enclosed space.

The exterior finished at last! We were very please with the way it looked. The color was very much like a number of Japanese tea houses we had seen in our books. The texture of the surface had a pleasing, irregular, weathered look. That was partly due to a technique I used called a "heavy float." That involved using a rubber float or trowel over the surface while it was still a bit wet causing the sand in the mix to rise to the surface.

I was pretty tired by this time and toyed with the idea of closing the building up and waiting for Spring to finish the interior. But taking a day or two off renewed my enthusiasm. I also thought the interior would be easier. Silly me!

First of all, working with ladders, tools, and plastic sheeting in the restricted space made planning and clean-up all that much more difficult. And because there were structural elements inside that I had to work around, I found myself engaged in some fairly involved gymnastics to reach areas under the eaves. Although it was good working off of the level surface of the floor instead of the sloping landscape outside, I discovered a serious disadvantage. On the exterior, because I was standing below the bottom of the wall I was working on, I didn't have to bend very low to apply the stucco. On the interior I was applying it a couple inches from the floor. I hurt in new places after a day of working on the interior.

The tokonoma and storage area required stuccoing free standing panels framed by round timbers. They involved extra masking and care to follow the irregular edges. Also working in the confined spaces meant having to take special care not to mar newly-covered adjacent surfaces.

I mixed a warm grey for the color coat inside the tokonoma display area to set it apart from the rest of the interior space. This was also the only area of the building where I used a white stucco mix as apposed to the grey mix on the rest of the building. The white base gives color a little more intensity. (I hadn't ordered the white mix, but they sent me one bag by mistake. Another happy accident.)

This winter I plan to work on my designs for windows and doors. I also plan to look for someone with more skills and tools to help me with the cabinet work for the interior. The roof still needs copper for the ridge and I think I've found a good person to supply me with gutters. There is still a lot to do, but with the stucco finished the worst is behind us.

An account of this project wouldn't be complete without talking about clean-up and waste. Whenever I cleaned my tools I would store the wash water in 5-gallon buckets until the solids settled out and then re-use the clear water. As much as possible the clarified water I didn't need went on the garden. 

Used plastic sheeting, leveling boards, piles of masking tape, all added up every day. A lot of it could be thrown out with the normal weekly trash; but some things, like the 200-lb test panel, could not. It took more than a little effort with a heavy maul and wire cutters to break it into pieces I could handle.

The panel, concrete solids, as well as a number of other heavy items that had been accumulating in our yard all went in the truck to the the Dane County landfill. It cost $22.00 to dispose of 720-lbs of stuff. I still have a few tools to clean and put away, but I can look forward to winter with a real feeling of accomplishment this year.

My Garden Odyssey: Tea house stucco, Pt. 2

PART 2: TOOLS AND TECNIQUES

HE SAID:

Everything takes longer than you think it will. This seems to be a universal truth when it comes to projects, big or small. However, I've found that time spent preparing is always well worth it. "You Tube" proved to be a very useful source of information on the technique of stucco. And the Portland Cement Association provided me (for a price) a booklet called the "Portland Cement Plaster/Stucco Manual."

Another rule is that the right tools, and quality tools, will make the job a lot easier. The stucco manual provided me with a list of the tools I would need for the job: hawk, floats, scarifier, corner trowel, darby. I, of course, was unfamiliar with many of these tools and had no idea where to find them, but a short time with the yellow pages and $150.00 set me right up. The clerk at the construction materials company said he could find someone to help me if I got into trouble and wished me good luck.

I decided that another useful expenditure of time would be to do a test panel to hone my non-existent skills. In the picture above is the 2-foot by 5-foot wall section I built to practice on.

And here I am only looking like I know what I'm doing. The first thing I realized is that cement is heavy! The second bit of insight I gleaned is that applying stucco is not like brushing on paint. Not only is it hard to hold up ten pounds of stucco on a hawk for long periods, but it takes a lot of effort to force the mix into the lath hard enough to make it adhere to the wall.

While planning the project I thought of renting a cement mixer from Home Depot. You can rent it by the hour, day or week. Since I thought it would take more than a few days to complete the job I considered renting it for an entire week. Had I gone with that idea it would have been a financial disaster. As it turned out, even if someone had done all mixing for me, I physically couldn't apply more than four 80-pound bags a day — and I needed 50 bags to finish the job. Under the brown tarp above are 4000 lbs of stucco mix!

Having gathered tools and materials, practiced my technique, and screwed up my courage, I started on the tea house itself.

In this shot you may be able to see the stainless steel wire tie that I spoke of in the previous post — just below and to the left of the right side blue nail head. I also used screws along the edges (near the other nail) to hold the entire panel centered on the framing.

Here you can see the first coat of three, the "scratch coat," on the panel with the circular window. In order to make a tape mask prior to putting on the second or "brown coat" of stucco, I had to build a jig to locate the center of the window. Then, using a pencil and a rotating beam, I was able to establish a circular line around the frame of the window to stucco to.

After drawing the pencil line I cut the tape with a mat knife and peeled off the outside portion of the tape.

I could then stucco over the frame, up to the tape line, securing the window frame into the wall structure.

The stucco manual said that I should make sure the material cured slowly by keeping it moist. I did this by misting the surface periodically with a garden sprayer and also by covering it with plastic to keep the water from evaporating too quickly.

In the end it took about ten weeks to stucco the tea house, but much of that time was spent cleaning tools, hanging plastic sheeting, applying masking tape to protect the wood, and moving scaffolding necessary to reach the higher areas of the walls. I'm still a little amazed that, given my makeshift efforts to level my work platforms, I didn't fall off the narrow plank I spent so much time working on.

The sprayer I used to ensure slow curing.

In this shot you can see the exterior with its first coat complete. It was time to start thinking ahead to the third and final coat — the "finish coat" or color coat.

As I worked on the brown coat on the tea house I also started making color tests on the practice panel.This step proved to be extremely important. I only had five shades of colorant available to me and no idea how they would look when mixed with stucco. Also, the color when first applied looked nothing like the color of the coat once it was dried — which took a couple of days. 

My Garden Odyssey: Tea house stucco, Pt. 1

We wrote 36 Garden Odyssey episodes describing the process of designing and constructing our gardens. We're still on that journey but we've given up the numbering system! That said, this is the first of three posts describing the process of covering the tea house with stucco.

HE SAID: We planned from early on that there would be a "tea house" located at the top of the rise near the upper pool. It's indicated in the plan below by the small black rectangle on the upper right. (The large black shape in the center is the house and deck).

While we worked on the pond and other structures in the garden, I went through a whole series of design ideas for the "tea house." Sometimes it took the form of a tool shed; sometimes a roofed bench. At least one design combined the two.

Eventually there came a time when I had to make a decision. After working with a mock-up made of a few blocks and boards to get a sense of an appropriate size, I committed to a 7 x 9 foot building. 

From the beginning I pretty much made it up as I went along. There were constant adjustments based on standard sizes of materials. For instance, I didn't want to have to cut any of the tumbled, colored cement blocks I used for the foundation. So their size determined the final footprint.

As much as I might have liked to use traditional Japanese joinery to construct the frame, I knew my carpentry skills were not up to it. But about this time, I inherited a radial arm saw from my father that allowed me to make a reasonable facsimile of traditional joints.

Roofing the tea house with cedar shingles was also a challenge for me. I'm grateful for all the great information available on the internet. I'm not sure I could have managed this project without it. An interesting side note on the roof: because the underside was going to be exposed, I used four different lengths of roofing nails, depending on the thickness of shingles in any given spot, so the nails wouldn't poke through.

After doing the mockup in 2004, the roof in 2006, and making little progress in 2007-8, I was finally able to install the 2-inch pink styrofoam in the walls in summer of 2009. I then made temporary windows of 1 x 2 inch frames covered with plastic sheeting to fill the window and door openings. This protected the interior from the elements — and squirrels — for the next two winters.

My concept was to fill the 3 and 1/2 inch wall spaces in the timber frame structure with a "sandwich" made of 2-inch styrofoam with a 3/4-inch layer of stucco on each side.

The only place I had seen something like this was in factory made panels that would be assembled on site. There was little or no information about how to do what I had in mind. Once again I found myself making it up as I went along.

The problem was how to get the stucco to adhere to the styrofoam and how to get the whole sandwich to stay in place.

I started by "nailing" expanded diamond lath to all the styrofoam surfaces, inside and out, with plastic headed nails. The lath has a proper up and down as well as a back and front. If you put it on wrong the stucco will tend to fall off when you try to apply it.

Everything seems to be harder and take longer than you expect. Cutting the lath to fill all of the odd spaces on the tea house was definitely hard on my hands; but over several weeks I got it all cut and installed.

The plastic headed nails I used to hold the lath in place on the styrofoam were only temporary. They didn't have enough holding power in the insulation to be of much use in holding the stucco on. To create the "sandwich" I drilled sets of holes through the styrofoam and tied the interior and exterior lath together with loops of stainless steel wire. I made a wire loop approximately every square foot. This may have been excessive, but I figured better too many than too few.

The tea house nearly ready for stucco.

. . .

SHE SAID: For readers using the metric system, 1 inch = 2.5 centimers and 1 foot = 0.3048 meters to give you an idea of the size of the elements that Mark is using.

My Garden Odyssey: Tea house update

SHE SAID: One of the benefits of creating a master plan for our garden is that there is always a project or two or ten waiting for us to tackle. Some can be done in an hour or an afternoon or are on-going for far longer than we ever imagined. Our back fence and gate took three years to build. On the other hand, it is gorgeous and has become a major feature of the garden and well worth the time, effort and money.

The fence from our neighbor's side (the gate is open and not visible).

Designing and building a Japanese-influenced tea house is the current long term project that Mark is engaged in. I am engaged in keeping up his spirtis when they flag, feeding him, and parking my car in the driveway instead of the garage which is a summer construction workshop. When I say "long term" I am talking seven years. You read that correctly: seven years! One of the great advantages of digital cameras and garden journals is that one can go back and see what you did when.

2005: Design the tea house structure, construct the foundation and the basic framework of the building.

2006: Add the roof and shingle it.

2007: Record rainy summer and exhaustion from the previous two summers meant no tea house work done. Instead Mark created a sloping gravel path from the Moon Garden to the West Gate. (Every area in the garden is named).

2008: I lost my job, we traveled to visit family and friends and Mark's mom moved from her little house on the Mississippi to Madison. We enjoyed the garden as a refuge and didn't do any extra projects!

2009: The pink insulation board walls of the tea house finally go up and its ultimate shape is much more obvious. Mark did a lot of work on the tea house in addition to converting the back garden paths from bark to gravel.

2010: Mark re-built the first stone wall he ever constructed which fell down at the end of the winter. And he worked with the contractor on a major interior re-modeling project.

2011: Mark retires and can garden full-time! First he replaces the front bark paths with gravel and then he begins the final work on the tea house. But I will let him tell you all about that himself.

For those who are interested, a complete description of constructing the foundation, the structural elements and roof can be found here. And Mark's explanation of putting up the Styrofoam walls and cutting windows and doing the interior structural work can be found here. You can also read posts about doing the back path, the front path and the remodeling.

To read the entire Odyssey of our gardens, click on My Garden Odyssey in the categories list.

Collector's Breakfast before the Art Fair

 

4th Annual Art Fair 

Collectors’ Breakfast and Lecture

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

Saturday, July 9 · 8 am

 

Planning on hitting the 53rd annual Art Fair on the Square nice and early this Saturday? Then join the two of us for breakfast at Fresco, the restaurant atop the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. We're the featured speakers at MMoCA's special "collector's breakfast" before the fair opens.

As artists, Mark and I make art, but we also collect it across cultures, styles, and media. We'll talk about collecting as couple, learning to appreciate each other's "eye" and taste. We'll share our "rules" for collecting and a list of favorite books on collecting and displaying art. We'll also bring a few favorite artworks along to share — visually. It should be a fun and casual way to start the day and get you in the right mood for meeting artists and finding that special treasure to take home from the Art Fair.

Reservations are $20 for MMoCA members, $25 for non-members. Participants will also receive an “Insider’s Guide” to Art Fair on the Square and coupons for a complimentary beverage and brat at the fair. For tickets, contact Elizabeth Tucker by Tuesday, July 5, by email or call her at 608.257.0158 x 245. 

Editor's note: Though I collect ceramic teapots, the one pictured is not from my collection.

Birds

HE SAID:

I've been trying out a couple of telephoto lenses lately. The other night I played around with some images in Adobe Lightroom to see if I could reduce them to their essential "birdness." (The 5th photo is a robin bathing in our pond.)

Let my people go ... in

HE SAID:

Another interesting day at the Wisconsin State Capitol. As I was walking out the door Linda said that she had just read that a judge had issued an order requiring the Capitol to be opened to the public during business hours. My first thought was that maybe I had overdressed. No need to worry; I never got inside.

 When I arrived there was the usual rally with PA system and a line of people waiting to voice their opinions. I believe the brick layers brought the blow-up "Fat Cat."

 This little girl was enjoying a slice of Ian's pizza. The latest figures I saw said that Ian's had received orders from all 50 States and 60 foreign countries in support of the protestors.

 It was readily apparent that the doors of the Capitol, despite the court order, were not open.

 And the protesters were not happy about it.

 I had ditched my sign supporting Kloppenburg for the Supreme Court in a bush while I took pictures, but when I came back it was gone. It didn't take me long to find it - in the hands of this enthusiastic gentleman. He thought it shouldn't go to waste.

  

 I then circled around until I found a spot next to the police line protecting the entrance. Because I still technically work for the University Police Department and looked like I knew what I was doing with a camera they didn't ask me to move off the steps. It was a perfect location to observe and document the action.

 The reactions of people who tried to gain entry to the Capitol were varied and fascinating to see. This man, in spite of his best efforts, did not get in.

 He was told, like so many others, that he would have to stand in line. Then when someone left the building others from the head of the line would be let in. I saw this happen for maybe a dozen people in three hours.

 This Madison street worker did not get in.

 Nor did this intense young couple.

 "Flat Stanley" was also denied entrance, although his companion took it in good humor.

 Another way to get in was to contact one's Representative, as this man appeared to be trying to do. Representatives were given a limited number of badges for visitors - 8 or 9 - that they could give out. The Representative or an aid had to come down to the door and escort the visitor in.

 This woman was explaining to the officers that she had a tag and that the dog she had in her bag was a "service animal."

 Much to my amazement she got in - with the dog!

 This woman, who did not get in, seemed not to understand how the police could ignore a judge's order. She was not alone.

This man was very patient and polite and was eventually escorted in.

 The ever delightful singer/song writer Lou Berryman also got a pass from her Representative.

 This group, who had passes, were only allowed in after a great deal of discussion.

 And this little girl should have gotten in on "cute" alone, but didn't.

 Just before the Governor began to present his budget most of the crew at that entrance surged half way around the building to the State Street entrance in hopes of being heard by Walker and his audience. It was not looking like a great day for Wisconsin or "Forward."

 The crowd did their enthusiastic best to drown out Gov. Walker's speech.

While across the intersection five City of Madison police continued to protect the city from the protesters.

One day longer, one day stronger

WE SAID:

I received a comment on our recent posts from a reader of this blog who said she turns to the the blog "for enjoyment and to get away from the conflict and stress bombarding me daily from television and radio these days. Please get back to home and garden topics."

I am sure a number of you feel the same way. The problem is that conflict and stress have become our daily life here in Wisconsin. I spoke to members of a local garden club at their annual luncheon at Black Hawk Country Club this week; but all the conversation, before I began my presentation, was about events at the Capitol. It is impossible to ignore and impossible not to take a stand.

As a former newspaper editorial writer and editorial page editor, I could not witness this historic moment without commenting. Mark and I both feel that it is our duty as citizens on the scene to present to you our unfiltered experience so you can truly see what is happening here including what we saw when we again took part in the protests at the Capitol yesterday. 

The Wisconsin Assembly passed Gov. Scott Walker's Budget Repair Bill after debate had gone on for 60 hours and 15 Democrats were still waiting to speak when the vote started around 1 a.m. Friday. According to an AP report, Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, R-Waukesha, opened the roll and closed it within seconds. Only 13 of the 38 Democratic members even managed to vote in time. The GOP majority, of course, did not need the Dem's votes to pass the bill in the Assembly but it is another example of the way this group works.

Meanwhile our fourteen Democratic State Senators continue the fight from Illinois. Though Walker and the GOP keep telling them to come back and get to work, we think they are working where they are and doing what they're doing. The Fab 14 gained us enough time to shine a light on this bill and to reveal all the hidden agendas buried within it from loss of federal transportation funds to cut backs in Badger Care and Senior Care, to plans to sell off (without public debate or open bids) the state's power plants to taking away collective bargaining rights of public employees.

Here in Madison, the Capitol has turned into a mini city with its citizens given aid and information on any subject that might arise if you are spending days and nights in the building. It is these little things that are so touching — and give the lie to any talk of thugs or chaos on the scene that some commentators seem bent on perpetrating. These are the things that get missed by the large news organizations who are so enamored of the clever sound bite.

As artists and painters will tell you, blue tape is low tack and will not harm surfaces.

The young people especially are keeping the building clean, safe, and looking after people's health.

This is one of the walls covered with print-outs of e-mailed messages of support sent to the protesters via moveon.org. The Republicans have also passed a small law this week that makes it "legal" for them to lock people out of the Capitol during night hours. No doubt these walls would be cleared if that took place. Authorities have already begun to cordon off more areas of the building and the numbers of visible police officers has increased noticeably. Standing in one spot Mark counted 25 officers standing at posts — with no suggestion of any threat at all from the crowd.

The folks at Ian's Pizza on State St. continue to deliver pizzas to the crowd courtesy of supporters around the country and the world. They have temporarily stopped taking local orders but were handing out free slices in the store no matter which side you support. 

The crowd yesterday afternoon was smaller but still vocal. Not really surprising as it was a work day for everyone and there were also concurrent protests at the Koch Brothers offices in Madison. Other folks are planning on attending evening events, like Amy Goodman's appearance at the Orpheum. For the first time, we saw airline pilots carrying placards as well as a member of the Screen Actors Guild. 

We saw friends, as well current and former co-workers. And we even came upon an impromptu performance of local musician Ken Lonnquist's great new song, "Fourteen Senators."   

And yes, we even saw some of those "outside agitators" we'd heard about. I talked to a woman (standing next to me in the line for the rest room) who was here as part of a contingent of supporters from LA. A group of about 140 Angelinos (from 60 different unions) chartered a plane and were here from Wednesday morning until 10 p.m. Thursday night.

This drummer came from Illinois while teamsters from the Upper Midwest... 

joined members of Joint Council No. 39 from Wisconsin. 

But the majority of protesters — and those supporting them — are still Wisconsin residents. Lindsey Lee, who owns these coffee shops bought our Spaight St. house when we moved to the west side. A typical instance of the small world character of Madison, and indeed Wisconsin. 

We even saw the owner, and sometimes barista, of the EVP coffeeshop where we hang out.

We leave you today with two great men from Illinois and Wisconsin; Republicans of reason and vision whose party has deserted them.

Now, 100 years after the great Fighting Bob La Follette took on the rapacious robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we are sending a message to Scott Walker and today's Republican party. Out of Wisconsin will come political reform, will come political change, will come principle before profit. This was La Follette's fight and it is not over.

Little things mean a lot

HE SAID:

Since the Legislature is adjourned until Tuesday, the weather is terrible, and I'm coming down with a cold, I'm taking the day off today. 

But I wanted to share a special moment from the time I spent on the Square yesterday. With the mixture of sleet, rain and snow I figured correctly that not many protesters would be inclined to march outside. So I deliberately dressed with that in mind: boots, rain pants, down jacket and rain hat. Over all of that I wore the rain poncho that John Nichols brought back for Linda from the 1999 World Trade Organization protest in Seattle Washington: "The Protest of the Century." Well, that was last century!

Compared to the several thousand protesters inside, there were maybe a hundred hearty souls, including one elderly woman with a walker, marching the eight blocks around the Capitol. We were encouraged once in a while by a driver with a raised fist and a honking horn. Then from several blocks away we heard the loud insistent blast of an air horn, joined by a second. Two City of Madison snow plows were driving side by side sounding their horns continuously as they made their way — not once, but twice — completely around the square, spreading road salt as they went.

It was a beautiful gesture that went a long way toward taking the chill off the day.

SHE SAID: I thought of those two guys as I was tossing and turning this morning at 1:30 a.m. and heard the snowplow scrape past our house.

You can find a minute-by-minute account of what's happening here at Madison's weekly publication, Isthmus.

And a nice history of how Wisconsin gave you the weekend and worker's comp, among many benefits ALL workers enjoy today.