DIY Wire Dobies for Embedding Rebar in Concrete

While the rain has kept us from doing any excavations, we have kept busy doing a little prep work. We cut some posts and cross beams for the batter boards. Those will be going up as soon as the ground dries a little more. We've also been creating some wire dobies for when we lay the rebar for the footings.

For this project we needed:
Quickcrete
16g galvanized wire
Modeling clay
Disposable cups (get cups that will lift the rebar to the appropriate height ie. if you need the rebar three inches off the ground, get cups that are three inches tall)
A scrap wooden board
Wire cutters
An x-acto knife

All total, these materials cost me about $14. There are 50 cups in the package so this will make 50 dobies. For comparison, the big box stores sell a pack of 100 plastic rebar chairs for $60. Add one more package of cups, and you can have 100 dobies for a quarter of the cost of the rebar chairs. Not too shabby.

We experimented with a couple ways of doing this. For the first method, we started by cutting a hole in the top of the cups.

Place the cups upside down on the wooden board and sealed the bottoms with modeling clay.

The wire is bent into a long narrow "U" shape.

Mix a small batch of concrete in the wheelbarrow. I placed the board across the wheel barrow to make filling them easier.

Fill them from the top. Gently tap the board to tamp the cement down and release any large air bubbles. It's not necessary to get all the air out, just any big pockets. They just have to be strong enough to hold your rebar in place; they don't have to be pretty. You want them to be completely full and level with the top. Press the wires into the cement, making sure they are centered.

They're like little volcanoes, except they're not

This is what happens if you tamp it too hard. The seal can and will break and concrete will go everywhere. Don't do it. It's messy and not the good kind of messy.

After the concrete has cured just peel off the cup and you have a dobie. Congratulations.

This method worked well, but we have a lot of dobies to make. After several batches the clay began to get cement in it and it became hard to work with. So we got lazy, er, creative. Yeah, that's it.

We just stuck the wire through the bottom of the cup and poured the cement in. So long as you keep the holes small and the cement thick, it works very well. You also need something to set the cups on that will allow the wires to hang down. A mesh grate or a wooden pallet may work for you. We used the side tray on my husband's gas grill. He may or may not approve of this use.

Bwa ha ha, he doesn't have a choice

There you have it. Dobies.

Finally, if you really love your dobies and they have served you well, you can present them with an item of clothing.

#justharrypotterthings

Edgar, the Seven Foot Tall Piranha Plant

Last year, after purchasing our land we set out to get three things done before permanently setting up shop: water, electric, and a storm shelter. Getting the electric installed was largely in the hands of the bank, as they had to send contracts and land tract information to the electric company. The other two projects involved digging. Lots and lots of digging.

In order to use our little house as a temporary residence, we need to have a permit. I knew this from reading through the building codes. I didn't see anything that prohibited us from storing it on the land so we moved it out there and used it largely to store our equipment. There were also three separate non-consecutive nights where we slept in it since we were tired and didn't feel like making the forty minute drive back to the house only to turn around and drive back the next morning. In my mind that's not using it as a residence, that's camping on my own damn land (but, admittedly, I may be have been stretching things a bit).

The morning after that last over-nighter, I rolled out of bed and started some breakfast over a campfire. As I was finishing up the eggs, a white pickup rolls up the driveway. A man gets out, identifies himself as being with the building department, and informs me that I am in violation of zoning regulations.

This was an absolute nightmare scenario for me. I had planned on setting up a meeting with the building department when we were ready to start applying to for permits. I wanted to talk about our plans and get to know the inspectors. Instead, here I was, filthy from the previous day's digging, hair a mess, in my PJ bottoms and scroungy t-shirt being told that I was doing something illegal. The only way it could have been more uncomfortable is if there had been a dead hooker or some blue meth sitting nearby.

I tried to explain what I was doing but he told me that a "neighbor" had called to complain and had said we were living out there. I'm still floored that not even a month into working some nosy son-of-a-bitch had to run and tattle on us for working on our own damn land.

So rude.

So we had to move the little house, which cost us money. We had to pay rent on it's new location. We stopped working on the water main trench and storm shelter until we got everything sorted out (neither one needed a permit. we knew that). By the time everything was sorted, the trench and the shelter excavation had filled with rain and the trench had mostly collapsed in on itself. All in all, it was an expensive pain in the butt over nothing.

Something about being run off of the land that we had worked so hard to make our own triggered a territorial response in me. I felt that I needed to leave behind a symbol of defiance. Something to mark my claim. Something that said I would not be cowed. I considered leaving a flock of pink flamingoes behind, but that seemed a little cliche. A little pedestrian. I needed something that said, "I'm an adult, and I do what I want!"

So I got out some plywood and some masking tape and began to pixel-art.

... and I art-ed some more...

Jack supervised.

Finally, Edgar the Piranha Plant was installed next to our driveway. He will be where we display our building permits (as they ARE required to be displayed, you see), and he will tell the world that we are totally adults and we WILL do what we want. Nosy neighbors be damned.

Herb Garden, Part Deux

As part of this spring's plantings I had put in an herb garden. Sadly, I did not make my little herb garden monsoon-proof and just about everything in it drowned. I had planted everything in a wading pool buried in the ground (a trick I learned from my grandma to keep the more aggressive herbs from spreading) but I failed to  provide adequate drainage. I think it would work if I put a good layer of sand under it, so maybe I'll reuse it for some mint next spring.

Now, a dead herb garden simply won't do. How am I supposed to make delicious salsas, sauces, and pickled things without any fresh herbs?

Today I dug out the pool and moved it. There were a few sprigs of sweet basil that survived and all of the garlic chives pulled through.

There can be only one!

I dug out a new plot and mixed a lot of peat moss, compost, manure, and sand into native soil. It may not be a raised bed (this year) but hopefully it will keep all the new plants happy.

Jack supervised.

And here we have rebuilt it. Better... stronger... faster. More herb-y than it was before... well, except for the dill. I'm still searching for a nice dill plant. The pickles aren't going to dill themselves.