Backyard Patio

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

Wasn't it Mountain man who said he almost got in a fight on a golf course?
Reading that I thought, what an asshole, Then I realized that almost happened to me twice. Not my fault of course.

Originally Posted by ElKabong

Happens a lot I hear, mostly the covid era new wave of golfers with no clue of etiquette. I played all through the 70s until I was 24, quit, then started playing when I fully retired and moved out of dfw. The game has changed so much. Lack of respect of other foursomes being one

Watching Mark on the mountaineer feed yrs ago I can see him taking no shit from "difficult personalities" on the course. Every course needs his type to level it all out

The first incident was on the first hole I played in my step dad's foursome the group in front was waiting on the green to clear. I was teeing off last and waiting on those guys. Forgot the guy's name but he asked what I was waiting on. I said I needed to wait till the guys made the green.
That was a course where the black tees
probably averaged at extra 50 yards more than the low level men's. On the insanely long south course there were 3 men's tees and one lady's. It looks like now the shorter north course has 5 total tees. On the monstrously long 18th on the south course the black tees are 144 yards behind the regular men's.


https://losserranosgolfclub.com/south-course/


This guy who could be an a-hole told me to hit the f**king ball. I don't think they are even 300 out. When I told him I could hit that far he said BS
and said if I did he would give me $20. So I hit and the ball rolled past those guys, boy were they pissed. I even apologized and said I am only 15,
twenty dollars is a lot of money. I got the $20, but the A-hole, now I remember his name was Don (I am in concussion protocol) kept jawing at the other guys and said how the hell was he supposed to believe a kid could out drive a pro.That was when most everyone still had wooden drivers. Don was yapping at those guys every time we caught up to them.

[tucker6]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

This guy who could be an a-hole told me to hit the f**king ball. I don't think they are even 300 out. When I told him I could hit that far he said BS
and said if I did he would give me $20. So I hit and the ball rolled past those guys, boy were they pissed. I even apologized and said I am only 15,
twenty dollars is a lot of money.

My experience is that if a group is 300 yards out and you hit into them, no one is pissed. They are impressed with the shot and forgive the mistake. Heck, even at 250 they would probably forgive it. So I'm not sure I believe this part of your story as it doesn't jive with my experience. I couldn't drive into people but I played with plenty of guys who could kill a ball and never saw a bad reaction. Only time I ever saw people get pissed was when someone would hit into a green from less than 200 yards when another group is on the green. Sometimes the ball would get thrown back at you. Depended on how apologetic you were.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

Happens a lot I hear, mostly the covid era new wave of golfers with no clue of etiquette. I played all through the 70s until I was 24, quit, then started playing when I fully retired and moved out of dfw. The game has changed so much. Lack of respect of other foursomes being one

Watching Mark on the mountaineer feed yrs ago I can see him taking no shit from "difficult personalities" on the course. Every course needs his type to level it all out

I had to hang up the clubs 25 years ago. It seems then and before at the more expensive public courses that tended to be harder the players as a whole were much better behaved. If you wanted to run into A-holes the cheap easy municipal courses were full of them. The 3 brothers I played with were kind of on the cheap side and long courses full of hazards ate them for lunch. My step dad's group was the opposite. With my game I pretty much shot the same long or short, hazardous and non hazardous. The best round I ever shot was a 77 on that par 74 course with a 76.3 rating, that I linked to.
Last round the only post back surgery round I played shot an 81 on a course rated in 69.8. Most guys I played with would shot 15+ strokes higher at a course like Los Serranos, their 85 at the now closed 6200 yard Paradise Knolls
would turn into 100+ at 7500 yard Los Serranos South Course.



I could never get the brothers to go to Los Serranos. With me you play the back tees unless you are a beginner, elderly, female or a kid. I showed the brothers a score card and got a FTS.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by tucker6

My experience is that if a group is 300 yards out and you hit into them, no one is pissed. They are impressed with the shot and forgive the mistake. Heck, even at 250 they would probably forgive it. So I'm not sure I believe this part of your story as it doesn't jive with my experience. I couldn't drive into people but I played with plenty of guys who could kill a ball and never saw a bad reaction. Only time I ever saw people get pissed was when someone would hit into a green from less than 200 yards when another group is on the green. Sometimes the ball would get thrown back at you. Depended on how apologetic you were.

No reason to lie, I think my step dad's friend caused things to escalate.
I think they were about 275 out. If my memory serves me right a couple 250 drives a round came out of my step dad's people & they were all in their 40's, this was before metal woods were popular. I just had a gift of
being able to swing as hard as I could and make solid contact. That was the only incident where I drove into people. I once was hit in the face with a tee shot. I did not spill a drop of beer. One of the brothers hit a 45 degree angle tee shot and I was standing forward and to the right. I never stood in front of someone hitting anything more than a putt again. I wonder what the rule is on that? The ball ended up O.B., if did not block it
the ball would have been in play, but in the opposite fairway.



Damn, a large bucket of range balls is $14 now.

[Inner Dirt]

Back to the patio if you are going to run natural gas out there might as well get water and electricity at the same time. As for water even just having an extra spigot can come in handy a roll of PEX and it is quick and cheap.

[ElKabong]

250y for a 15yo with 1970s drivers is impressive . Not unheard of back then but impressive. I knew only one kid in ft worth pre 1974 that could get 250 in the fairway. Lindy Miller (Arlington Hts HS) made the tour in 1979 or so and he could only get 240y at best in HS.

Club tech is soo soo advanced now. I get 230-240y off the tee now in deep east texas (250plus at dfw with harder ground, less humidity), 230y in the 1970s was about my max without wind aid etc, in the fairway. I'm shorter off the tee than most as I was in the 70s

If you hit 250y back then , you'd get 290 easy today (I'mjealous). The tech is that good now

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

250y for a 15yo with 1970s drivers is impressive . Not unheard of back then but impressive. I knew only one kid in ft worth pre 1974 that could get 250 in the fairway. Lindy Miller (Arlington Hts HS) made the tour in 1979 or so and he could only get 240y at best in HS.

Club tech is soo soo advanced now. I get 230-240y off the tee now in deep east texas (250plus at dfw with harder ground, less humidity), 230y in the 1970s was about my max without wind aid etc, in the fairway. I'm shorter off the tee than most as I was in the 70s

If you hit 250y back then , you'd get 290 easy today (I'mjealous). The tech is that good now

At 15 I weighed 210 and could already bench over 300# so I wasn't a typical 15 year old. I even looked much older. I was far from getting stronger, I did all the other lifts well also. I got a metal driver at college age in the early 80's.
I could then hit 300+, longest drive I recall was driving the green on a hole I believe was 359. Can't look that up as the Scientologists bought that resort that had the golf course on it and turned it into their world wide headquarters. I found a scorecard for the closed 5 years ago easy course I played with the brothers, called Paradise Knolls, the 10th was a measly 308 yards. I drove around, on and over the green often. It took a while to master that hole. It was impossible to reach in one unless you wanted to gamble, the green was even down hill from the tee box. It was a sharp dog leg left. It probably only played 230-240, if you cut the corner, but you had to clear a bunch of trees. 4 iron off the tee was the ticket for me.



I think the power lifting killed the short game as it did my ability to shoot a basketball.

[ElKabong]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

Back to the patio if you are going to run natural gas out there might as well get water and electricity at the same time. As for water even just having an extra spigot can come in handy a roll of PEX and it is quick and cheap.

True on water. I / we built a sink and cabinet next to the grill, we'll finish it on spring break or in May. Next step is connection and drain. If Mark doesn't mind cleaning outdoors it's an awesome add

[mountainman]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

Watching Mark on the mountaineer feed yrs ago I can see him taking no shit from "difficult personalities" on the course. Every course needs his type to level it all out

Away from work I am more physical and rougher around the edges than I might come across as on the show. And you're correct, sir, it is unwise to provoke me. Please don't mistake me, I am assiduously polite and deferential to strangers. But do not mess with me. Ever.

The same goes for my constant golf companions. I'm pretty sure one packs "protection" at ALL times, and the other has for long periods been a guest of the state. The guy with a record likes to fight, is crazy long off the tee, and purposefully will hit into slow groups up ahead if I don't read him the riot act about it.

He unveiled a new driver today with the vaunted "jail break" technology, and I belabored the obvious jokes for most of the afternoon. On the course, we constantly talk the nastiest, most profane, and insulting trash imaginable to each other.

I think that's a side of me that perceptive viewers probably suspect exists, but not one they will ever witness.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

True on water. I / we built a sink and cabinet next to the grill, we'll finish it on spring break or in May. Next step is connection and drain. If Mark doesn't mind cleaning outdoors it's an awesome add

I wonder if in some locales it is legal to connect a drain to a mini leech field.
This house and the one before it have septic. California had all kinds of stupid
rules regarding septic systems that made no sense. My favorite you could not have a horse corral or barn over a leech field. If you really want to be astonished ask the building inspector why. My favorites were guys inspecting electrical installations. No two of them will grade a job the same. I made a mistake of telling one how stupid he was and why. He basically failed everything I did. I then went to battle with the county building and safety department. I just had to do the one stupid request and a supervisor okayed the rest of the work.



The thing that set me off was wanting a rubber grommet instead of a screw connector on the solid copper Earth ground. Reason so an earthquake does not shear it off. If an earthquake is strong enough to shear of a #8 solid copper wire the whole building is coming down.

[Inner Dirt]

This is just a small part of the crap I am dealing with. Since I will run out of time to edit I will cry my river in a following post. There was basically next to nothing right about this house. This is just the laundry room. I might post a few more pics of issues.

[Inner Dirt]

In the laundry room years of leaky copper pipes behind the walls had caused mold to grow in the insulation and into the drywall. You could not even fully open the door to the electric service panel because the water heater was in the way. The code rule is a minimum 36" away, it was less than a foot. The drywall job was horrid. The drain was at the front laundry room entrance not the back so the dryer vent and plug were on the opposite wall of the wash machine drain. The water connections for the washer were on a wall 90 degrees from the drain. Because of the connections being in the wrong places the wash machine and dryer were touching each other but clocked differently 90 degrees off.


The electrical in the house had issues and since it fed my machine shop it created issues there as well. I would blow computers and light bulbs like they were going out of style. I left all the old 120V wiring in the shop to run the lights and computer, just adding the 240V single phase and 3 phase. I finally said screw it and tore out and replaced all the 120V wiring also in the shop.


I was just patching the copper pipe leaks in the laundry room that I had torn the walls out of till one day the feeder pipe to the water heater got a pin hole leak peeing right on the electric panel door. I put two extension hoses on the water heater and moved it into the adjoining kitchen and re-plumbed the laundry room in PEX. The acidic well water here if untreated eats copper pies.


Installed a new electric service panel and replaced a lot of faulty wiring
As much as I hate to admit it has been 3+ years and I haven't finished the laundry room or the closet I tore up to move the electrical. My problem is I now move slow and spend too many days on IR. No lie I work 1/8 to 1/4 speed of what I did 25 years ago. All those metal braces are because the 63 year old me does not like framing hammers or nail guns. I like cordless screw drivers and drywall screws.


The stuff looks odd but will finish fine, the framing is on top of the old as they repurposed warped wood and even some termite damaged stuff. You could tell wood was reused as it had termite damage but no termite droppings. I repurpose wood also but it was straight and strong.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

We put a pergola over the 32x16' deck we built ourselves last spring. Comes with advantages and adds a desirable look

If he's looking to use pavers he should be able to have a fire pit if the pergola is 10' off the surface and the space is clear. My property has a lot of excess wood and timber (20 plus mature trees, 3 are over 150 yrs old) so a firepit in the backyard is going in this fall

Did you make that deck and pergola out of wood, composite or something else? I had a trailer bed out of composite that machine casting feet punched through when it tipped over when my neighbor was loading it with his tractor.
It was not very heavy as it was the base only. I honestly think real 2" x 6" wood would have survived.


Moving from California to Virginia you have to totally relearn construction methods and what materials to use. Wood siding on a house too much of a maintenance issue, tile roof cannot take snow and ice, stack fire wood by a deck or house you just invited termites, acidic well water eats copper pipe, etc,etc.



Obviously composite is easy to maintain unlike wood what I was wondering how it compared cost wise to using wood. Of course you can go with out painting the composite, correct? That should even make it a quicker job.
I am probably just being curious as a deck and cover at my rate are past my life expectancy.

[ElKabong]

Pressure treated pine (yellawood) 0.15 pcf

Bought at McCoy's, free delivery. Forklift off their trailer , delivered right where we asked in the back yard. For building materials, no need to deal with home depot or Lowe's.

[ElKabong]

My last post reminded me of something. We used a GC to redo our kitchen last summer. We needed him to do some work in a hall bathroom but he was in poor health, suggested his daughter do the job and guaranteed the Quality of work

The work his daughter did was top flight. Couldn't be better. She works oddly enough at home depot in the paint section. Talk about a waste of talent. I'd guess she makes more on the side, on her own. Like my wife learned diy from her dad, so did that young gal.