When the rains first started in Southern California, Ed Heinlein didn't think the damage to his Azusa property would be so bad. Surely, the 65-year-old homeowner thought, his backyard retaining wall, thick as a freeway barrier, would hold back the mud.

But as a precaution, Heinlein and his neighbors wedged plywood and sandbags against the ground-level walls. They took a sledgehammer and pickaxes to a small wall in his front yard to prevent mud from collecting behind it and pressing up against the house's walls.

He evacuated early Friday with five family members, including his infant grandson. He returned Saturday morning to rescue Gizmo, the family cat.

"When we drove up, we knew it was going to be bad," Heinlein said. On Friday, he said, a little mud had been strewn in the street. On Saturday, there was a lot more debris, much of it coming from his own lot.

During about 20 minutes of hard rain Saturday morning, he said, a wave of mud had rolled down the mountain, brimmed over the retaining wall and buried his backyard. The force of the mud bent a metal fence at a 45-degree angle. Only the net and backboard of his 10-foot basketball hoop were visible above the muck.

The back wall of his home seemed stable, he said, but moisture had seeped upward, turning the khaki paint a splotchy brown.

"We've got to find a way to get the one hundred tons of mud out of my backyard," Heinlein said. "We're probably looking at tens of thousands of dollars in damage."

Late Saturday morning, firefighters, engineers and geologists in rubber boots waded uncertainly into the muck, then decided it was too dangerous to do anything before the rains stopped.

Neighbors in the quiet cul-de-sac waited nervously to see if a rainstorm forecast for Saturday afternoon would make the mud any worse. Dennis Sanderson, who lives next to Heinlein, bought a pump in hopes of getting rid of some of the mud in a terrace above his backyard. It didn't work, he said, but might help if it starts to rain harder.

Insurance won't cover the damage to his home, Heinlein said a risk his family took when moving into the home more than 11 years ago.

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Azusa family's backyard buried in tons of mud

Photo by Michael Robinson Chavez

Photos by Michael Robinson Chavez/Los Angeles Times/MCT Louise and Aziz Farnam have spent the past dozen years or so applying various pieces of tiles, plates and glass to their home in Santa Monica, Calif. They have finally finished the exterior of the home, which regularly attracts passersby to stop and take pictures.

Photo by Michael Robinson Chavez

An apple tree (right) is represented alongside rivers and mountains, all made out of pieces of plates, tiles or glass, on the exterior of the Farnam home in Santa Monica, Calif.

Photo by Michael Robinson Chavez

Everyone knows my house, says Louise Farnam. Just say mosaic tile house in Santa Monica. She and her husband, Aziz, collected their materials from secondhand stores, boutiques and Las Vegas casinos.

Photo by Michael Robinson Chavez

Louise and Aziz Farnam have spent the past dozen years or so applying various tiles, plates and glass to their home in Santa Monica. They have finally finished the exterior of the home. The tiles are an eclectic mix in both origin and arrangement. (Michael Robinson Chavez/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

LOS ANGELES The transformation started simply enough, with a molded ceramic tile of a flower framed by Celtic tracery.

Neither Aziz nor Louise Farnam can recall now where they found the periwinkle square, but at their son Amiels urging, they glued it to the upper-left corner of a low concrete retaining wall in front of their 1930s bungalow in Santa Monica, Calif.

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A mosaic-loving family's journey of many tiles

TRURO Colchester County will be making another attempt at dealing with a retaining wall along the main street of Tatamagouche that is at risk of falling down.

Tatamagouche wall

The municipality had initially planned to split the $10,000 cost to remove the wall with the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (TIR), provided the Village of Tatamagouche agreed to deal with any future problems that may arise at the site.

That plan was canned, however, when village officials said they were not prepared to assume responsibility for the site, because Tatamagouche does not own the property.

The wall was erected by TIR in 1990 and is on department-owned land that abuts private property.

As a fiscally responsible Commission, chairman Jim Baird wrote in a letter to council, we felt that we were not able to agree to accept any potential future financial burden for a project that we had no decision in, ownership of, or responsibility for.

That position led to Colchester council deciding not to proceed with its earlier agreement with TIR. But county Councillor Mike Gregory, who represents the Tatamagouche area, suggested the issue could be resolved if the municipality simply took the position that it would not be responsible for any future work that may be required at the site, as opposed to putting the onus on the village for that responsibility.

They dont want the county to say the village is responsible after that, Gregory said.

Based on that clarification, council agreed to approach TIR in an effort to proceed with the original plan to cost-share the walls demolition.

hsullivan@trurodaily.com

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New effort to be made to deal with leaning wall in Tatamagouche

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The cost of the multi-million-dollar Mono Way widening project in Sonora remains higher than originally expected despite a second round of bids by the city.

Three contractors submitted proposals this month for the project, which calls for widening the stretch of Mono Way from Greenley Road to Fir Drive to ease traffic, as well as building a retaining wall, replacing a 36-inch culvert and earthwork.

The lowest bid came from Modesto-based George Reed Inc. at $3.9 million, with Sierra Mountain Construction of Sonora ($4.35 million) and McGuire and Hester of Oakland ($4.9 million) also submitting bids.

The last round of bids ranged from $3.4 million to $4.6 million, and were thrown out because they exceeded the initial $2.7 million project estimate. The Sonora City Council opted to re-advertise in December.

However, Sonora City Engineer Gerard Fuccillo said the latest round of bids also included alternative proposals lowering costs on a retaining wall and culvert replacement that are part of the widening. Under one, a retaining wall that will stretch from Roselyn Lane to Fir Drive would have a typical concrete face instead of a decorative rock facade.

For the full story see today's Union Democrat.

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Mono widening still too costly

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