• Current Projects     The Kitchen     1920's Bath     Foundation Repair     The Tunnels     New Siding     Guest House  • Special Projects     Homemade Scafolding     Crawlspace Beams     The Swimming Pool     Root Cellar Steps     Mailbox of Death  • Completed Projects     Replacing the Flat Roof     Underground Conduit     New Power     2nd Floor Closet     2nd Floor Heat Pump  • Treasures Found     Baseball Cards     Civil War Bullet     China Plate     Old Bottles     Bear Bottle     Extract Bottle     Liqour Bottle     Marbles     Brick with Print  • Photos     Nature Tour     Photo Album  • History Lessons     Historical Documents Found     Historical Groups  • Critter Watch     Snake in the Ceiling     Hatching Baby Keets     The Guinea Hens     Possums     Ground Hogs     Alison's Doves     Cactus Jack     Backfire  • Tutorials     Standing Seem Roof     More to come     More to come  • Other Junk     Web Site Info     Sponsors		Electrical Conduits One of the first things I needed to do is get the two car garage turned into a full blown work shop to help out with the extensive renovation. While trying to figure out why there was no power in the garage I discovered it was wired into the guest house on a 30 amp 110 volt fuse. The guest house fuse box was a structure fire waiting to happen so a chain reaction of electrical upgrades started. This single electrical wire couldn't run half the equipment I own. I needed a huge amount of power directly from the meter. To get this long cable to the garage from the meters on the main house was going to be a challenge. I decided to leapfrog from outbuilding to outbuilding, upgrading the power of each building as I go. The first leg of the project was to dig a ditch between the garage and the guest house. I started the ditch on a Saturday afternoon with my mini backhoe and finished by that night. The next day I laid a 3" PVC pipe and two 2" pipes. Two of the conduits would be used for security, computer and phone. I used 45º elbows to make snaking wires at a later date a lot easier. I went ahead and put the 600 volt, 200 amp cable in the 3" pipe because it was far to stiff to snake later. I also put an air line in the same pipe so I could have compressed air on the side of the guest house to fill tires on cars and bikes. It could also be a closer connect for air tools when I remodel the main house and kitchen house as well. I placed a rope lanyard in the two 2" pipes so I could pull data cables later. The next step will be to continue the power cable across the driveway to the root cellar of the kitchen house. From there its only ten feet to the power meter on the side of the main house. We will have Virginia Power do the actual connection. This shot shows the conduits rising up under the guest house. You can see the red air line and the gray 200 amp cable as well as the two ropes. I filled in the ditch by Sunday night. I was also swollen with the worst case of poison oak I have ever had. Both my hands and forearms looked like something out of a horror film. Evidently the light foliage behind the guest house contains a lot of poisonous plants. I have never been bothered by poison ivy so I am inclined to think it was poison oak. I was going insane for about a week. The area I was infected led me to believe as I used my forearms to lift myself out of the ditch I continually pressed down on the plants. Many people believe that there is no poison oak on the east coast. They are wrong. The Atlantic Poison Oak grows everywhere around here.		Sponsors:

Rhus toxicodendron, or Poison oak is more distinctive than some other types of ivy. Some people call it oakleaf ivy while others call it oakleaf poison ivy. Poison oak usually does not climb as a vine, but occurs as a low growing shrub. Stems generally grow upright. Leaflets occur in threes, as in other ivy, but are lobed, somewhat as the leaves of some kinds of oak. The middle leaflet usually is lobed alike on both margins and resembles a small oak leaf, while the two lateral leaflets are often irregularly lobed. The range in size of leaves varies considerably, even on the same plant.
Atlantic Poison-oak (Toxicodendron pubescens or formerly Rhus pubescens) is an erect shrub that can grow to 1 m (3 ft) tall. The leaves are alternate, with three leaflets on each. The leaflets are usually hairy, and are variable in size and shape, but most often resembling white oak leaves. The leaves are usually 15 cm (6 in) long, turning yellow or orange in autumn. The fruits are small, round, and yellowish or greenish. This species is native to the Southeastern United States westward to Texas and Oklahoma. Approximately half the state of Virginia is infested.