So, I removed the old 3-way switches, and made mental note of which wires went where. But, upon putting the new ones on, I couldn’t get them to work right. One of them would work correctly only if the other way turned on. If the other one was turned off, the first switch wouldn’t work at all. Now, this could have been an early sign that the first switch was bad (as it did stop working at all later that night), but at the time, I really couldn’t figure it out.

Thankfully, my network equipment is all on UPS, so I still had internet access. And let me say, this page and this page are what saved me. So let me summarize if you can’t figure out the 3-way switch wiring thing…

1. Disconnect both switches completely (with the power off), then turn the power back on. Use a current tester to find the wire that is “hot”. There should only be one. That’s the wire that connects to the “common” of the 3-way switch that is your “hot end”. The other two wires are “travelers”… we’ll get back to that. Now turn the power back off.
2. Now, have someone go to your “leg end” (that is, the OTHER switch location that we didn’t just work on), and take a meter set to measure Ohms, or resistance, and touch two of the wires. Now, on your “hot end”, touch the two remaining wires together. The person with the meter will either see nothing, or see resistance drop. If they don’t, move on to another pair. There’s only 3 possibilities, so it shouldn’t take long. Having found the ones that register lower than infinite resistance, connect those wires to the traveler (the light colored terminals that are not the ground screw, and not the common terminal (which should be darker than the other terminals) terminals on the second switch. The remaining wire can be connected to the “common”.
3. Last, connect the remaining 2 wires to the “hot leg” travelers terminals. These should be the two wires you touched together in the previous step.
4. Turn the power back on, and all SHOULD be well. If not, please refer to the pages I linked above.

All that said, I’m pretty sure the way I ended up connecting them that worked, is the exact same way they were when I started… so I’m not convinced that the switch that ended up breaking didn’t start out partially broken. But, whatever, I figured it out.

This switch process alone took 1.5 hours. I finished well after dark, and had to use my flashlight for the bulk of the work.

To add to the frustration, after I got everything done, and turned the power back on, I noticed my TED wasn’t receiving a reliable signal. Looking at the “Link Performance” (Gotten to by holding $, > and ^ together for 3 seconds), showed me 002. So, for every 100 seconds, it was getting 2 packets. This is crazy since the new outlet should give it a better signal than the old crusty one. I cycled the breaker for the sending unit, and cycled the power for the RDU. Neither helped. So in frustration, I went to bed. This morning, I wake up, and it’s working flawlessly. Link Performance of 90. Huh. So I go to work, figuring it’s fixed. Get home at 17:30, it still works. Looking again at 7:00, it’s stopped working. What, the, hell. I think about what’s changed, and realize that maybe the CFL I have on a timer from 6pm to 12am shining on my Plumeria could be the culprit. I turn it off… TED works. Turn it on, TED stops. Huh. So, why? I figure that it’s similar to putting a new antenna on your HAM. Sure, you get better signal, but you also get more noise. The new outlet works better, and therefore allows more noise from the CFL. Figures. Anyway, I don’t really need the CFL at this point, and when I do need it again, I’ll install one of these I have laying around, and it should resolve the issue. I installed one “in front” of the Smart Strip SCG3 I have in another room, and it prevented it from sucking up the TED signal.

So, the lesson? First, for the love of god, use some tape to mark the “common” wires BEFORE you remove them from 3-way switches. I knew this, but I figured my brain, and “sorting” of the wires would be sufficient. Alas, it was not. Second, new receptacles mean better power flow, but also more noise. So, TED and X10 owners, take note. =)

We removed about 1/4 of the total foliage I would guess. But, I would say after 3 years of doing this, we now have a maple that looks presentable (at least skeleton wise). We will have to see what it looks like once it leafs out.

Acer palmatum dissectum, Summer 2008

You might think it looks spartan (below image), but given what it used to look like, a giant blob (gumdrop, right image), this is a huge improvement. This is more what you would expect from a japanese maple you’d see at a Japanese garden somewhere. I’m no expert, but I know the basic theory of removing crossing branches, parallel branches, branches that move directly toward or away from the viewer, and opening up the structure to allow the viewer to admire the structure of the tree. We also removed or trimmed branches to keep the leaves off the ground when it does leaf out (this was an issue last year).

Overall, the goal is to produce a tree that looks like an older, larger, more mature version of itself or similar tree.

Acer palmatum dissectum, Winter 2010

Not sure if we succeeded, but we do believe it looks better. My only hope is that we didn’t open it up so much that we get bark scalding during the summer, but that shouldn’t be an issue since it will be leafed out enough by then, as well as the fact that it barely gets any direct sun anyway. We have Douglas fir’s that shield it from the south sun. It gets a bit of late evening sun, but that shouldn’t be an issue either.

Also pruned the Rhododendron next to the lamp post in this picture (it was rather blob-ish). This should cut down on the aphid infestations it gets during the summer. Aphids tend to dislike airflow. Also gave all the rhodie’s in the yard a spray of iron to help with chlorosis.

I’ll try to remember to post some more photos once the maple leafs out and we see how it looks. So, expect more on this in about 4-5 months. =)

Acer palmatum dissectum, Summer 2010

UPDATE: Here is a picture of the maple after it has leafed out. You can really see how the width has been reduced from the 2008 picture above. You can see the trunk line in the image as well as the first branch comes off at just about the perfect height (it’s a bit low, as it should be at 1/3rd of the way up the tree, but it’s not bad). While it needs a bit more refining, it’s pretty close to where I’d like it to be from now on. I also need to clean up a couple wounds on the tree. I’ll need to get some concave cutters, and hollow out the stump and seal up the wound. Hopefully I’ll take care of this during the summer. Try to get some “cut paste” to seal the wound, and make it match. There is a hole in the canopy that can’t be seen from the front that needs to fill in as well, since heavy sun on the wood of a maple like this can cause scalding, and the death of the branch. I’ve wrapped it with some trunk wrap for now, hoping that it won’t burn before the hole fills in. All and all, it’s taken 3 years to get this far, and from now on, it should just be simple maintenance. I think it should look even better once the new mulch rots a bit and turns “black”.

First, just a house and home update. We just sold our bird, Pablo, to someone else in the area. $20 for all his stuff, which easily was over $100 is equipment. It’s going to be weird to not have him wake us up anymore. But, he’s a pretty noisy bird, so all and all, it’s a good thing. He is/was a probably 10-12 year old Parakeet. Yeah, they don’t normally live that long, but they can apparently live to be 20-25, so I guess we’re just “lucky”. =)

I replaced the webcam, so the image on the front page should “work” now. Though, this camera has a bad habit of making the sky purple with the macam drivers. It’s an Intel CS430 PC Camera Pro. It’s ancient, but it works. I have another camera I might try later, but at this point, it should work.

I haven’t been working on my website in a while, but I hope to start that again soon. There are some errors in the code for the summary of power data (mainly the power used since last reading).

We’re going to have the plumbing installed for a laundry sink end of this week. It’ll be sweet to get a sink down there. I hope to install an RO filter under it, so that I have clean water for plants (carnivorous plants, as well as epiphytic orchids prefer squeaky clean water). Once we have the plumbing installed Tara’s going to build a cabinet for the sink, and we’ll buy the sink (Thermocast Kensington). It’s pretty sweet, it has an integrated washboard.

All and all, that’s about it. I’ll hopefully post more tonight or tomorrow about work related stuff. Since 10.6 has shipped since my last post, and a few other things have happened.

Plant bench, pre-plastic

Based on that picture, Tara drew up a basic diagram. It required 4 2×4′s (8′), and 5 1×4′s (8′). The picture indicates one large table. I modified the idea to split it into two areas. One that will hold Bonsai, and other “normal” outdoor potted plants, and the other that will hold carnivorous plants.

Parts list is:

2-2″x4″x8′
10-2″x4″x18″
18-1″x4″x21″
2-2″x4″x10.75″

40(ish)-8×3″ deck screws (for the framing)
36-8×1.75″ deck screws (for the slats)

So, two full 2x4s, then 2 of the 2″x4″x18″ pieces create the narrow sides (interior attached, so the actual dimension is 8′x25″). Then install two more of the 2″4″18″ pieces in the center to surround the middle legs. Legs are also 2″x4″x18″, attached parallel to the the short sides, on the interior of the “box”. The two short pieces of 2″x4″ go between the outer legs to make it a rectangle area rather than a wonkey “plus”. Then just attach the slats. I think ours are about 1.25″ apart.

We then got some deck stain/sealant, since the wood is just Douglas Fir (not the best for outdoor longevity), and stained/sealed everything. Put some extra just on the bottoms of the feet. I’m thinking I might make some slices of pressure treated wood to put on the bottoms of the feet, just to be extra carpenter ant safe.

Last part will be to line one side with plastic (probably put some type of fabric under the plastic to help prevent any punctures), and staple the plastic to the top of the frame. Then run 1″x2″ around the perimeter to cover the plastic and make a nicer edge.

Our only regret at this point is not using nicer wood. If we were to do it again (which we probably will in the next few years when this one wears out, or we need more space), we’d use Cedar.

I’ll post another couple pictures when I’ve got the plastic on, and then when I’ve got it “populated”. Maybe also post a design drawing.

Lined and Populated

UPDATE
Here’s the “bench” with the plastic installed on one side, and plants in place. Obviously I have some room for more Carnivorous plants. My Bonsai side, however, is a bit crowded. It’ll be better once I transplant a few of them into proper pots instead of gallon nursery pots.

Only issue is there’s a small hole in the plastic, so there is a slow drip on that side. This isn’t a huge deal since carnivorous plants, by and large, don’t like to be waterlogged so much as wet. So the water level slowly dropping via evaporation and the leak are okay. I still plan to replace the plastic with non-leaking plastic (probably pond liner), but it’ll work for now.

The final task is going to be running the 1″x2″ stained and sealed “trim” around the top edge. This’ll make the whole thing look nicer, and hide the plastic on the carnivorous plant side. The whole thing does make watering a heck of a lot easier. And once the plastic no longer leaks, I figure even in the hot summer, I’ll only have to refill the carnivorous plant side once every couple days.

Only issue will be, in the winter. how I try to keep the water level down to prevent root rot. I can either elevate the plants, or I could install some type of drain. I’m liking the drain, but I’m not sure how it’ll work. Guess I post a new item when I figure that one out. For now, this post is done. =)

I also planted some Glycine Max, or Edamame (variety Misono Green) in a raised bed. I planted 6 plants, hopefully I’ll get some nice Edamame out of it. =) I’d love to try making Tofu. Here’s some info on growing beans in the Valley: OSU Extension.

Work has wound down at this point. At the J-School, most projects are due dead week, and there are few finals. So, most students will be gone next week. Which means I should be able to start on my summer projects. I’ll probably start building a new image from scratch starting tomorrow.

Progress with AppleCare has kinda stalled. I ran some software they wanted, and got them more info. At this point, sounds like a 10.5 fix is unlikely. Hopefully we’ll see a fix in 10.6, but they can’t tell me one way or the other given Apple’s rather over zealous policies given unreleased products. We’ll see what happens. At this point, I’m looking at implementing NFS home directories as a short term “stop gap”. We’ll see how that goes… right now, I can’t get it to work at all.

Tomorrow is the WWDC keynote. My boss is betting we’ll see the new iPhone, the 3.0 iPhone OS, and possibly even 10.6 (or rather, a release date for 10.6). The rumor sites are saying a new beta build will be released to attendees… perhaps the last before GM. Who knows… I’d love to update to a new phone, since mine has been really laggy the past few weeks… but, I’m hoping 3.0 will help with that. I think the 2.x OS could use some help with memory reclamation after exiting an App. =/

The weather here is supposed to be fairly mild the next week. I’m hoping to get a bunch of yard work done before it warms up again. I’ve been trying to the last 2 years to remove the Morning Glory (Convolvulus sepium) from the yard. From reading online, it sounds like it’s nearly impossible. You just have to continually remove it. Unfortunately, it sounds like it’s pretty efficient at food storage, so just a few leaves can replenish food stores.

This is a pretty good PDF on Invasive Plants in the Willamette Valley: Remove Invasive Plants.

More later… maybe once I have some progress on NFS Home directories at work I’ll post again.