Most of the regulars to the forum know that my career has not been in landscape design, nor do I aspire to that end. But my life has been filled with design duties out of necessity; mechanical apparatus, building additions, civil projects, computer software applications, and complex digital electronic devices, for a few. There are similarities to the design process for all of these, especially at the start. The design process for all things generally begins with three things .... 1. An assessment of the current situation. 2. A defining of what would be a successful conclusion. 3. An assessment of the resources available Though the design process may not always involve a graphic, the majority do. Consider the schematics of electronic design or the flow charts of software design. In landscape design, the traditional graphic is a scaled plan view drawing, for good reason. Landscape design is all about the utilization of space. A photo does not define space, but a plan does. A scaled base map carries one through the assessment of the current situation. Those who skip this step short change themselves in the design process. The next error that many amateurs make is that of focusing on a perceived solution to a problem rather than the broader study of what would be a successful conclusion.. An example of this is one seeking to keep mulch on a slope when the rain is continuing to wash it away. This is a wrong statement of the problem. The problem is that the landscape is unstable and requires constant maintenance. The successful conclusion is a landscape that is stable, however that might be accomplished. For landscape design, an assessment of the resources available cannot be completed without quantifying the the available space. And there is no better tool for this than the scaled plan drawing. So why don't more people do scaled drawings. Perhaps it's like the person who doesn't dance that looks to those on the dance floor and says "I could never do that. And if I tried, I'd look clumsy and foolish." The hardest part of learning to dance are those first steps. The hardest part of drafting is drawing the first lines. Let me say that I am not a fan of mspaint. Out of all the paint, drawing, and photo editing software, it would be hard to find an application that would not be a better tool than mspaint. The only good thing about it is that it's already on many computers and it can do the job. It can draw lines and add text to any jpeg graphic. You don't need to go to the store for paper and pens, or download software. You can draw those first lines now. Of course if you already have graph paper or a better software, then use that. There are some advantages to doing the drawing on the computer. You can backup from mistakes. Even mspaint allows you to hold the control key down, press the 'Z' key and undo the last three operations. And it's easy to save copies of the drawing at many stages as you go along. It's in a file form that can be shown here for help and suggestions. Let's look at the first lines. Note that a grid is a pattern of perpendicular lines. In order to relate what is in the real garden to what is on the plan one needs to identify an element common to both. Since the grid is made up of perpendicular lines, one should choose two perpendicular lines that occur on the ground. The most common available element of this nature is a building corner. Where no building is near the project, another straight line element can be used, such as a fence, walk, or property line. A perpendicular line must then be manufactured to the straight line object to mimic the grid of the drawing. Here's a real example. Note that the project area is a part of the backyard. I select the upper back house corner with its well defined perpendicular lines as the primary reference point for both the real and the plan. From this corner I measure the distance along the back of the house to be 33 ft to a jog corner. Starting mspaint, I then open the blank grid graphic. Considering the area for the project I want to locate the primary reference point(house corner) in the lower right of the grid. Note that the grid has a heavier line every fifth square. This helps one to count the distance across the grid by jumping in unit multiples of 5. Since the project will span around 50ft in width, I will think of each square as 2 ft, making the distance between bold grid lines of 10ft. The principle point is placed on an intersection of bold lines to take advantage of this feature. Selecting the straight line tool of mspaint I click the house corner point at a suitable point on the plan. Holding the mouse button down, I shift left counting the distance measured of the house to the correct point on the grid and release. Repeating the process from that point I draw the 2ft jog in the house and repeat again to continue 17ft to the far house corner. The first lines are drawn, the house is on the plan. Scaled drawings are not rocket science.

Well, here's my experience... I have had the Mackissic 12PT10 for about 7 or 8 years or so now... I primarily bought this model hoping to shred my crazy jungle full of palm fronds and giant bird of paradise here in So. Cal. First of all this hammermill chipper/shredder works awesome for any woody type material... it just eats em up without any problems at all.. The circular knife shredder/hopper portion of the unit works awesome for long branches also. As for wet stuff like palm fronds the hammermill can work fairly well, but you gotta have a system down, otherwise the thing will just get clogged up with a bunch of wet mush. Another problem with palm fronds is that they can wrap around the shaft and bind it up fairly easily... Don't put the fronds in the hopper, it will bind and cause problems. Steps to keep this thing from clogging or binding.. 1. the metal screen that comes with 1 to 2 inch holes is no good for palm fronds and wet materials.. I ended up cutting out the holes so that they were about 3 inches or so with my handy grinder. Bigger holes in the screen is better, but can't just remove screen because the fronds will just shoot out and not get shredded at all, so just use a screen with giant holes. Works waaaay better. 2. It's best not to throw full length palm fronds in the hammermill, it will slow it down.. Recommend cutting them first into 12 or 16 inch lengths first before shredding them.. Same with the giant bird of paradise leaves/stems. Note: recently I have been using an electric lawnmower to shredd my giant bird paradise leaves/stems... it will shredd em so dang fast.. just tilt the lawn mower up and open the side exhaust/bag connection shoot and feed the giant leaves (stems first). Whatever is left at the end can easily be thrown into the 12PT10.. 3. Also after a few years, the hammermills do get a bit dull. Just take a cheap 4" carbon fiber grinding disk and sharpen up the edges of each of those small steel hammers.. Doesn't take long. Just remove the screen and you can sharpen them up while they are still mounted on the machine. My yard has about 50 palm trees and 20 giant birds that I need to tend too myself along with tons of other tropicals, so this 12PT10 has come in real handy for creating my super mulch pile.. Beets putting out 12 or 15 cans each week overfull of fronds and cuttings.

brickeyee wrote: "Ufer grounds can easily be created during the construction of reenforced concrete buildings by ensuring bonding of the reinforcement bars electrically (often by welding them together). When they are buried in concrete you create a very effective earth ground." Under the US National Electrical Code a "concrete encased electrode" is usually required for new construction. The required minimum length is 20 ft and can be 1/2" rebar tie-wired together where necessary. I agree they are good. Ground rods are lousy. brickeyee wrote: "The 'surge suppressor' devices (MOVs being a very common type for this) allow for a connection between wiring and ground/neutral when the voltage exceeds their break-over rating. This has the effect of clamping the voltage on the line to approximately the break over voltage of the device. If the surge current is not very large or very brief the power dissipated in the device (current times break-over voltage times time conducting) will not cause destruction of the device" Maximum service surge current is 10,000A per service wire. Service panel protectors with much higher ratings are readily available. The author of the NIST surge guide looked at the amount of energy that might actually be absorbed in a plug-in protector. Branch circuits were 10m and longer. Power line surges were up to 10,000A (as above). The maximum was a surprisingly small 35 joules (based on US wiring). Plug-in protectors with far higher ratings are readily available. brickeyee wrote: "For MOVs it does cause some localized damage that decreases the ability of the device to carry current the next time it breaks over into conduction." As MOVs absorb surge energy they eventually start to conduct at lower voltages. Eventually they conduct at normal voltages, and go into thermal runaway. (Since 1998 UL has required listed protectors have thermal disconnects to disconnect overheating MOVs.) Far as I know MOVs continue to conduct surge currents up to failure. (Protection is not by absorbing the surge, but some energy is absorbed in the process of protection.) brickeyee wrote: "In the most common description the device is said to 'suppress' or 'shunt' the surge to ground. A poor connection to the source of the surge can result in limited effectiveness, and that includes the path back to earth ground for surges referenced to earth ground. The impedance of the ground path ads to the voltage the clamping device needs to turn on, decreasing its effectiveness at liming the voltage rise." For a power service protector the MOVs are connected line-to-line and line-to-neutral. In US services the neutral is bonded to ground and the earthing electrodes at the service. Unless the wires connecting the MOVs are too long they will function as intended, limiting the voltage between hots and neutral. If the earthing path is higher impedance it means that the power wiring will rise to a higher voltage above 'absolute' earth potential. With significant surge earth current it will rise in any case. Much of the protection is that all wires - power, phone, cable, ... - rise together as explained in another post. The same happens at plug-in protectors. All wires to a set of protected equipment has to go through the protector. The protector limits the voltage on all wires to the ground at the protector. As explained in the IEEE surge guide (starting page 30) the voltage at the protector may rise well above the ground at the service but the voltages between wires to the protected equipment is safe. brickeyee wrote: "Luckily the insulation on the phone lines usually fails around 4,000 to 6,000 volts (line to line of each pair) providing at least an upper limit on what is transmitted for many distances." Interesting - I never saw a breakdown number before. In US services, when service panel busbars reach about 6,000V there is arc-over to the enclosure. After the arc has stabilized the voltage is hundreds of volts. (Since the enclosure is connected to the earthing electrodes that dumps most of the surge energy to earth.) Similarly, 15 and 20A US receptacles will arc-over at about 6,000V. I generally agree with brickeyee. ========================== westom wrote "A 33kv wire fell on local distribution. Electric meters literally exploded up to 30 feet from their pans. My friend properly earthed one 'whole house' protector. Had no damage except to his electric meter." MOVs can conduct thousands of amps for the maybe 100 microseconds of a lightning surge. They will be rapidly destroyed by crossed power lines. No protector will say it can protect from crossed power lines. (UPSs and a few plug-in protectors disconnect on over-voltage and may provide protection.) westom wrote "Surges (ie lightning) may be 20,000 amps." The maximum surge current that has any reasonable probability of occurring is 10,000A per service wire - worst case. There is a reference to it in the IEEE surge guide. westom wrote "A protector is only as effective as its earth ground" Next worst surges to lightning are normal and abnormal utility operations including fault clearing and switching power factor correction capacitors. Many of them are line to neutral, not earth. I agree with brickeyee. Airplanes are regularly hit by lightning and have no earth connection. Understanding the protection is not that difficult.

Now I had to go look up exactly what that cord is: 25' Black Power supply lead for LED connection of 12380Bk to 12382BK. CL2 jacket suitable for run behind walls (please check local electrical code for compliance) U.S. Patent Pending Except ours is 10', not 25'. This is one of the few parts of this job we hired out because because between the two of us we really don't have the expertise to do it well and safely. It wasn't just the undercab lights, we also added in 7 recessed lights, moved the ceiling fan, moved outlets/switches and added outlets/switches. I'm big on DIY, but not that big.