Digging A Hole To Save Energy

Here it is on a sunny day as the dust slowly settled.

It began with  this job listed on our energy audit:

78.0 points

4 Stars

Increase:
2.5 pts, 1 step
Install R-25 rigid foam board to interior or exterior side of wall. Does not include cost of coverings.

Location - Below- (part or all) Grade Wall: Garage masonry, West + North

[I'm reading this laughing because there were several different recommendations about the garage masonry and I see this says R-25, but the others say R-30 and that's what I ended up doing.]


We had the audit at the end of last December.  You have 18 months to complete as much as you can to get a rebate from the state on the work done.  The limit is $10,000, but in our case, since we are starting from an initial rating of 3 Stars plus, our maximum rebate is $7,500.  We didn't feel much pressure.  We went to an Alaska Housing workshop, which we thought was going to tell us how to read the audit chart.  We should have read the notice better.  It was about heating.  It was well done and we learned a lot, but heating was not on our recommendation list.  But they got us to the right place - the Research Information Center at Boniface and Tudor - for the workshop on how to read the audit report.  (All the workshops are free and held frequently, see the links.)

So, I decided to do the garage walls, lower part, which are uninsulated cinderblock.  The choice was interior or exterior.  We went to the insulation workshop.  It wasn't nearly as good as the heating workshop and while it pointed out issues for me, it didn't answer the questions.  But I did decide that since R30 means 6 inches of board, that would take up a lot of space inside, I would do the exterior for the west wall.  We don't go to that side of the house much and there was a long neglected flower bed and a cement path.  (The path is so covered by old leaves and soil you can only see parts of it.)

So I started to dig.  But I still had questions.  Which foam boards should I use?  What adhesive did I need to glue them together?  Against the house?  How deep did I need to go?

I looked on line but couldn't find my specific answers.  I called the Alaska Housing Authority, but they just recommended more websites.  The sites may have had the answers, but I couldn't find them.  I went to Lowe's to see my options.


This board is R-3.9 per inch, so it would need 7 or 8 inches (and boards) to get to R-30.  There was a blue board that was R-5 per inch. I asked about adhesive and the stockman pointed to this foam, but said this wasn't his expertise.

I had an email in to the energy audit rater and called a friend who'd done the same project a couple years back.  He said no glue - the dirt will hold the foam against the house.  And to get a metal cover.  He sent me to Combs Sheet Metal.  But I was going to hold off on that until I knew exactly what the measurements would be.


I took things easy.  No more than an hour a day so as to not mess up my back.  Actually, the digging was like going to the gym and it felt good.  But it took some time at that pace, but it also let me get more information.  The energy rater called me and added some foam on the bottom horizontally.  He said 2 feet, but I didn't have that kind of room, so we settled for 18".  And he suggested 6mil plastic for vapor barrier.  I'd thought some sort of plastic cover between the boards and the dirt was a good idea already.

I decided to check out Home Depot and the prices were about the same as Lowe's and so I got my foam there.  This was R-5 per inch in 2" boards.  The trusty van had room for it all. 





You can see time passing - now there are leaves on the ground.  But the hole is getting deeper.   In the third picture, the horizontal foam is on the bottom - with some dirt on top - and the vertical foam against the wall.  I was starting to have trouble on one end with cave-ins as I dug.  But the foam was down and it was time to work on the 6" foam against the walls.  Lots of measuring and cutting.

The 10/21 shot has the metal cover on it.  That was amazingly easy to arrange.  They just needed to know the dimensions and the color and it was ready the next day.  I have no idea what it should cost, but at $160 didn't seem that much.  But what do I know about sheet metal prices?  Nothing.

In this picture you can see the first panel.  I got the 2 feet X 8 feet X 2 inch panels.  But the hole was 35 inches deep after the horizontal panel went on the bottom.  So I wrapped up three panels here and then I had to cut the others to go on top to fit to the edge of the siding.

Here I've got all the panels - two 8 foot packages of 3 and one 7 footer.  Then on top of those the same thing but only 12 inches instead of 24.  And this picture has one of the pieces of metal to cover it.  There's a lip that goes under the siding.  They come in 10 foot sheets, so I had two of those and this smaller one for the middle.

Now all that is left is to fill in the dirt.  And it hasn't snowed yet.  I got a fair amount in yesterday.  I think I'll just fill it up to where the metal goes and then in the spring I will add some compost and manure.  The sun's just come out so I'll go out and finish this off.  I'll add the pictures to here later.

So now I've got to do other things on the energy rater's list. This was the west wall of the garage, and I still have the north or back wall of the garage. I'll do that on the interior side because it's much harder to dig in that   part of the yard.  And now that I've read more carefully, I only needed 25R, so it won't take up as much room - 5, not 6 inches. And the front is two small panels that I might just do inside as well. They'll be relatively easy. And then there are other things to get us up to the next level.

It's nice to do something you've never done before and get past the obstacles of ignorance.  The only hangups were knowing what I needed to do and what stuff I needed to buy.  And this should save us a little on heating costs and certainly pay for the materials in a couple of years.  And I have a much better understanding of how all this works now.  And I'm pumped to do other projects around the house I have no idea how to do.

UPDATE 9:40pm:  Here's what it looked like when I finished today.  I might leave it like this until spring when I'll put in some compost and manure or maybe I'll even do that now if there's enough time before it snows.

Theory U and Other Textbooks For Rent

 I'm trying to catch up with older unfinished posts. This one's from the George Washington University bookstore in DC from our Labor Day visit for a post-wedding reception for B&J's DC friends and relatives.

University bookstores are always interesting and in the short time I was let off the leash, I perused a couple of shelves.

Maybe most noteworthy is that students can rent their books these days. The rental price wasn't a whole lot different from the used prices, but I guess it saves the hassle of trying to sell it back. And, of course, there are also digital books available online.

Here are a few that were on the shelves.  Note, I'm not recommending any of these because I haven't read them.  I'm just throwing you some brain candy.

"The Theory U (also called "U" methodology) is a change management method targeting leadership as process of inner knowing and social innovation developed by Otto Scharmer and originally based on a process known as the U-process or U-procedure (also called 'bath tub' and 'U Way') developed by Dr Friedrich Glasl and Dirk Lemson of the NPI (Netherlands Pedagogical Institute) in 1968 (Bos, 1974 and Friedrich Glasl & Leo de la Houssaye, 1975) and presented systematically from the 1980s. It has been a valuable tool in organisation development and social development since that time (Allison, 2008, GOSH Trust, Büchele, U). Recently it has been elaborated as Theory U by Otto Scharmer.

"The initial method developed by Glasl and Lemson involved a social process involving a few or many co-workers, managers and/or policymakers proceeding from diagnosis of the present state of the organisation plans for the future. They described a process in a U formation consisting of three levels (technical and instrumental subsystem, social subsystem and cultural subsystem) and seven stages beginning with the observation of organisational phenomena, workflows, resources etc., and concluding with specific decisions about desired future processes and phenomena. The method draws on the Goethean techniques described by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, transforming observations into intuitions and judgements about the present state of the organisation and decisions about the future."  (From Wikipedia)

Barnett (2001) in his theory-laden book The Meaning of Environmental Security, looks at the increasingly global recognition of environmental problems by examining what he calls the “collision of environment and security.” He places the concept in the realm of politics, though embedded in an increasing awareness of the interconnectedness of modern problems. The traditional approach, which Barnett calls a view of environment and security, is that the state is the object to be secured, and this view is consistent with strategic concerns about warfare and territorial defense and is influenced by political and international relations theory.

The alternative approach of including the environment as a dimension of security advocates the security of the biosphere and its ecosystems as a means of protecting the habitat of all life on Earth, emphasizing that it is the eco-systems and ecological processes that must be secured (that is, their health, integrity, and functioning maintained). By shifting the focus to the ecosystem, the concept of ecological security concerns the overall welfare of the planet. (From Haven D. Cook, "Transboundary Natural Area Protection: Broadening the Definition of National Security")

Just Give Money to the Poor:

Amid all the complicated economic theories about the causes and solutions to poverty, one idea is so basic it seems radical: just give money to the poor. Despite its skeptics, researchers have found again and again that cash transfers given to significant portions of the population transform the lives of recipients. Countries from Mexico to South Africa to Indonesia are giving money directly to the poor and discovering that they use it wisely – to send their children to school, to start a business and to feed their families. (from Kumarian Press)

The publisher of Irony has this quote from Barack Obama on its website:

“[Niebuhr] is one of my favorite philosophers. I take away [from his works] the compelling idea that there’s serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn’t use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away . . . the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard.”—President Barack Obama

 From The Irony of American History which was first published in 1952:

 Our dreams of bringing the whole of human history under the control of the human will are ironically refuted by the fact that no group of idealists can easily move the pattern of history toward the desired goal of peace and justice. The recalcitrant forces in the historical drama have a power and persistence beyond our reckoning. Our own nation, always a vivid symbol of the most characteristic attitudes of a bourgeois culture, is less potent to do what it wants in the hour of its greatest strength than it was in the days of its infancy. The infant is more secure in his world than the mature man is in his wider world. The pattern of the historical drama grows more quickly than the strength of even the most powerful man or nation.  [Copyright notice: Excerpt from pages 1–11 of The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr, published by the University of Chicago Press. ©1952 by the Estate of Reinhold Niebuhr. All rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that this entire notice, including copyright information, is carried and provided that the University of Chicago Press is notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the consent of the University of Chicago Press. (Footnotes and other references included in the book may have been removed from this online version of the text.)]

And here's where they'll gladly take your money.

Dinner Slices

Providence Alaska Medical and Animal Park

I went to get my stitches taken out today. (Monday I had a basal cell carcinoma removed.)  I also had to go pick up some metal siding (that will be another post about insulation as part of our energy audit recommendations) so I drove.  As I got toward the end of the parking garage I noticed a woman staring off the balcony. 

At first I only saw the two young moose in the front.  The security guard pointed out the mom on the right and suggested I go the other way around.

Some places have stuffed moose or bear in the lobby.  Providence has them unstuffed, outside.  (Sorry about the reflection.  Putting the camera up against the glass got rid of the reflection, but I didn't like them.  I did look for a light switch, but decided that wasn't a good idea either.  I'm just not dedicated enough I guess.)

So I went upstairs and the stitches were out within ten minutes of parking and moose watching - and no, I don't need a bandage any more, though the nurses remarked on people's creativity in covering the stitches with band aids.  The spot is just too long and too close to the eye for normal band aids to fit right. 

In any case, she assured me that in six months it will be hardly noticeable, something about it being along the cheek bone.  Check back April 21.  The black eye should be gone much sooner.  (You can see what it looked like Monday here.) (Since I've only seen this in the mirror, it looks like the wrong side to me, but it's on my left cheek.)

Then back outside and the moose had wandered a bit.  Here they are from the second level of the parking garage.

And then Mom modeled terrible behavior for the calves by not looking as she crossed the street.

But the babies weren't even looking at her anyway.  So I guess it doesn't matter. 

I read today that Alabama farmers can't get people to pick their crops now that Hispanics are leaving the state because of the new immigration law.  Maybe they should contact Providence about their moose gardeners who trim the landscaping.  I should have stopped earlier to get a picture of the fifty or so Canadian geese fertilizing and weeding a lawn on the Providence grounds. 

To be fair, Providence along with UAA across the street, has by far the best landscaping of any company in Anchorage.  They take this seriously and it makes for a much more pleasant experience.

How to Put a Link in Your Blogspot Comments

Over the years Blogspot has made it easier for bloggers to automatically insert links and pictures, etc. without knowing HTML.  But they haven't done that for commenters.  In the last couple of days I've had comments with long url's in them.  It's not that hard to put in the link.  (When I wanted to write this post before, I couldn't write the HTML without blogspot interpreting the code.  Now they have an option (in Post Settings, Options, Compose mode, Show HTML literally.)  So, here goes.

The basic code is:

<a href="[put url here]">[words that will be linked]</a>

So, between the "quotation marks", insert the url you want to send people to.  Between the > < put the text you want to have the link.  You might just want to have the url itself linked.

Sample Code

Check out <a href= "http://www.tomasserrano.com/index.html">Tomás' new website</a>.

When blogspot publishes your comment (and in the preview mode) it should look like this:

Check out Tomás' new website.  

(You really should check out his new website.)



[Note for the technically curious:  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to have both "Show HTML literally" and "Interpret typed HTML in the same post.  After all, if I changed the setting under options, wouldn't that change it for the whole page?  So I copied the whole post and then I went into HTML mode to do the line above and it seems to have worked.]

Iditarod Winner John Baker About to Speak at Alaska Federation of Natives Convention in Anchorage - Listen Live on KNBA

In much of the US, Native Americans are pretty much invisible unless you work hard to find them.  That's not true in Alaska, yet much of non-Native Alaska knows little or nothing about the world of Alaska Natives, the people who survived at least 10,000 years without any help from white folks.

The annual meeting of Alaska Natives is taking place now in Anchorage's Denaina Center.  Mayor Sullivan and Rep. Don Young have already welcomed them.  You can listen and at KNBA radio, 90.3 FM.   If you aren't in Alaska, you can still listen live on their webcast.

Here's the AFN Convention Site.

Signs of Wall Street Occupiers

photo from Wild Ammo

From WildAmmo -
50 of the best signs at Occupy Wall Street.  Here are two:



It seems like ADN editorial writer Paul Jenkins (ADN won't claim him as such, but he's there often enough) is using Fox talking points as his starting place lately and he's doing more in Anchorage than anyone to push folks over the edge and to support the Occupy Wall Street folks.  Here are three different letters responding to him 1    2    3   in today's paper.  We don't take him any more seriously than he takes the rest of us either 

And this Henry Ford quote...

photo from Wild Ammo

We sometimes find ourselves agreeing, however narrowly, with someone we would otherwise oppose on many social issues. I can find this citation attributed to Ford in a number of places, but not any detailed source.

It's quite possible that he said it. But he didn't mean the same thing I think this woman means by it. A quote following this at Wikiquote  says:

"The international financiers are behind all war. They are what is called the International Jew -- German Jews, French Jews, English Jews, American Jews. I believe that in all these countries except our own the Jewish financier is supreme... Here, the Jew is a threat.

* 1920, Ford to a New York World reporter"

[I realize that some folks might agree with Ford so I looked for a post I thought I did some time ago looking at the Boards of Directors of the 10 or 15 largest banks in the US to see how many Jews there were.  Not many at all that were obvious. I can't find the post. Unfortunately, white supremacist and neo-nazi websites are the ones that come up first if you google Jews and Banking and the Anti-Defamation League's piece on this is not very strong.  For now, I can only tell you it's my strong belief that while there are Jews in banking, the idea that Jews control banking or use it for some nefarious purpose is baseless.  I'll either have to find the old post or write a new one.]

In any case, did anyone study (that means more than a paragraph in a history book) anything about how the US banking system works in high school?  Maybe it's time to talk to school board members and state curriculum committees to get them to develop material on this.  And even most college economics classes tend not to get into to very deeply.

Hairy (not Downy) Woodpecker Makes Brief Visit

I was surprised to see the mask that hangs on our deck bobbing so wildly in the wind.  I'd just been out front and there was no wind.  But then I saw there was a woodpecker checking it out.  I pulled out the camera quickly and took a picture.  Then a Steller Jay chased the woodpecker off and it landed on the railing, so I got another shot just before the Jay swooped once more and off it flew.

Then to the bird book. It was down to a Downy or a Hairy Woodpecker.  They look alike.  But the key difference is the Downy "has a stubby bill, obviously shorter than the head."  And this one has a long bill.  Also, the Downy is about 6 1/2 inches and the Hairy is 9".  This one was big.  And when I measured the mask after looking at the photo, it was clearly about 9 or 10 inches.  I also emailed the pictures to my bird expert, Dianne, who confirmed.  Unfortunately my other bird expert, Catherine, is no longer with us, but I'm sure from somewhere she's nodding her head that it's a Hairy.

Oh yes.  Where's the red on the woodpecker's head?   Only the mail has the dark red on the back of the head.

Checking my "Guide to the Birds of Alaska" by Robert H. Armstrong, I notice that I wrote on the Hairy page "11/23/01 or Downy backyard."  I didn't get a picture that time so wasn't able to check the key characteristics.  But today is October 19, so it seems that this is a good time for woodpeckers in our yard. 

For those who have always wondered, I did a post on why woodpeckers don't get brain damage in July this year.

Note to self:  Add wash the kitchen window to the todo list. I really wasn't trying to prevent this woodpecker's friends from knowing where he was this afternoon by blurring his face.

Red, Red Mt. Ash

This tree in front of our house has always kept its leaves longer - sometimes through the winter - than the other trees.  It's the second half of October and the temperatures were moderate - into the low 40˚ F (4.4˚C) range today - and the sky was blue after Monday's grey. 

I also noticed that this tree and the one to the left (a few reddish leaves are still near the top) don't have many berries this year.  The Bohemian waxwings will be disappointed when they show up in the winter.

Yamato Ya Moves North 2 Blocks

Yamato Ya restaurant has moved from its spot on the south end of New Sagaya on New Seward and 36th, across the street and north into the old Yen Ching restaurant building at 3501 New Seward.

Here's their new sign. 


While lots of chi chi sushi bars open up all over Anchorage, Yamato Ya, even with new owners in the last couple of years, has kept its food real and its prices reasonable (by Anchorage standards.)

Today I got to check out their new digs over lunch and it reflects the tasteful but low key fixes they did in the old spot. 

Our cards keep filling up.