Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[ben2go]

  Ya'll just have too much fun out there.

[glenn kangiser]

The kids are a riot sometimes...

[glenn kangiser]

Headed into Yosemite Valley from the South entrance due to the rock slide... lots of snow....



When we came through to the tunnel view on the way into Yosemite, the end of the tunnel was pretty iced over.



Some of the icicles were near three feet long I think.




Sassy wanted me to post the classic view.....so, here you go....




Meanwhile. back at the Underground Command Center.....


We don't usually heat the great room area when we don't have company, so Sassy asked me to make her a shelf for the extra food... kind of a cold storage that is generally in the 40's to 50's during the winter months.  Nice place for things that don't need to be taking up refrigerator space... we only have two... [ouch]

[mtman]

 I really enjoy reading your stories, and looking at the pics. Tell Sassy I like the classic view, really purdy 
Got the EM soap last friday, from the first time I washed my dried out hands it softened them and healed them up. Best they have been in years! I think I've found a new favorite soap and plan to order the bigger batch next time! And talk about fast shipping, 2 days after I ordered it was here!

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks, mtman. 

I am often speaking to myself, but people seem to keep looking so I keep posting.  I kind of try to include day to day happenings at the cabin homestead area, as well as events that happen because of the cabin.  Hard to know if people like the pix, more pix, less pix - I don't know, so since you like them I will include a few more.  [ouch]

I also try to include teaching things - good ideas - bad ideas - whatever - hard to know what to put... but I know that several in other states and some in other countries are learning enough to build their own off of it so I want to try to cover things they might want to know too.  One is planned in China and another in Korea some day that I know of now.

Had to get a pix of Cherry in front of the icicles,





then a bit farther down the road to Bridalveil falls.  I get a season pass to the park so we can bring visitors any time we like.  It is good for the whole carload of people.




Water was splashing up through the frozen surface and the stream continued to run underneath.  Click the pix for a look at it.  I try to remind our visitors not to get too close to the water in their excitement to see the park.  The water generally claims a few tourists each year.....probably under freezing due to it's flowing state.  Only a few minutes to get out if possible before it is too late in many areas.





On to the other underground house I am currently working on - this is the one from the other thread- with the turret, but I think it is better if we continue with the excavation and build here to get all the processes in one place.





It is important to get an uphill patio of some kind to take water runoff away before it becomes a problem in the house.  I put about a 8 inch slope over the 8' wide area and drained it downhill as well as back away from the cabin excavation.





Here we are camo'ing the house with a hill which will also double as a high spot for a water strorage tank to get a bit of gravity pressure here at the site.  The hill is being made from the excavated earth which is about 1/2 or more slate.  It will also take runoff away from and around the building site.  The rock is getting less weathered and harder now necessitating bringing out the jackhammer to speed up the digging and lower wear on the machine.  This is great compacting material so I am building up some of the areas that will need it later as I go too.

[glenn kangiser]

Oh, and on the EM soap, we also found that Andrew and family had prompt, reliable service.  We also like the soap.  I use it all of the time.  

There are things in the soil or just here it seems, that cause a bit of an itch, even after you shower - possibly from the poison oak. I've been experimenting with the AEM spray and it seems to relieve the itch completely.  Spray it on - rub it around and let it dry - seems the itch is gone.  Still checking that out.  EM's are known to eat oil and poison oak is from an easily spread oil - doesn't wash off with soap - just spreads it better....

[glenn kangiser]

More digging today on my customers root cellar type building and a pix of the excavation from the hill I am making for the tank and camo....

 

It is getting pretty hard down in the bottom of the hole - fairly hard slate , so it is pretty hard digging.  I spent most of the day squaring off the bottom a bit and I also brought my jackhammer to finish the hard stuff and get deeper faster.  I try not to over excavate the hole too much so there will not be an excess of loose backfilled soil.  This formation will be self supporting except the backfill also.  Mostly soft to harder slate.




Here is a shot of how the hill blocks view of the excavation as well as prevents some rain runoff.  Today I decided to kind of naturescape the hill since I got it high enough.  I build a hugelkultur bed on top - about 1 foot and a half of logs, brush and wood, then I brought up Bobcat buckets full of natural plants and topsoil.  It was within about 2 to 3 feet of the top of the post when I quit today.  After dark so no pix.  I think the owner will like it.

[glenn kangiser]

Hmmm Whitlock came over today and we went to check the pasture as it seems the cows are up begging for food a lot lately.

These critters are regular mowing machines... About 18 acres - even through the bushes are pretty well mowed to the ground.




Time to start working on fencing the other property I guess.  I asked the neighbor if they would like me to fence across their place to our other place and give them some fire protection.  May hear back tomorrow on that one.  Don't know about that yet.  [idea]




At least temporarily it is time to start feeding again I guess.....

[Ernest T. Bass]

I am often speaking to myself, ....  Hard to know if people like the pix, more pix, less pix - I don't know, so since you like them I will include a few more.  [ouch]

I think that you can rest assured that we all very very much enjoy listening to you talk to yourself and looking at your breathtaking pics. It's one of my favorite threads, and it's cool how it never ends.. It's like your blog nestled into the forum! I mean, yeah.... I guess that's a pretty obvious observation.

Your waterfalls and mountains are better than ours...

[glenn kangiser]

Cool, Andrew.... Guess I'll just kinda keep doing what I'm doing then ... a little of this ... a little of that, and try not to be too boring....

Kind of like a bad soap opera.... maybe a bad western... lots of weird intertwining plots..

Well, I was out digging another fallout shelter today... meanwhile, back at the ranch, the cows were nearly starving to death for lack of grass and they couldn't tell Glenn as they had not yet mastered English......

Actually that will not work in the story line as they talk to me and I talk to them daily almost.... when I hear MOOOoooooooooooOOOOOooooo, I nonchalantly ask, "Whatsa matter Boy... you want something.....?" 

When a couple more repeat the same thing, I get the idea... guess that is why we went to check the field today.....  not too bad on the English after all.... [ouch]

[glenn kangiser]

Oh yeah... about the waterfalls and mountains.... I think Michigan was scooped out of the ground by a glacier, wasn't it... hard to have big waterfalls and mountains if that was the case... but then again, we have earthquakes, Feinstien, Boxer and Pelosi If I recall correctly... looks like the Terminator failed to finish his job...

[Whitlock]

Oh yeah... about the waterfalls and mountains.... I think Michigan was scooped out of the ground by a glacier, wasn't it... hard to have big waterfalls and mountains if that was the case...

How do you think Yosemite formed smart guy

[glenn kangiser]

I knew this was going to happen.....

...of course out here in the Wild Wild West, our rocks are so much tougher.....

along with the battle of the plates continuing to this day and beyond....

I think Andrew is just a bit too far from the West coast to benefit the effect of that.... [idea]

...but what do I know... I'm just a lowly cave dweller.....

.there I go talking to myself again....

[Whitlock]

The single red arrow is Half Dome and the three red arrows are the glacier that scooped out the valley.

[glenn kangiser]

...and to think I was driving under that glacier about a week ago...

Aha... there is your answer... our little glacier took the low road..... Andrews big glacier took off the entire top....  

Very cool don't you think....




The Laurentian Great Lakes were formed nearly 20,000 years ago when the earth's climate warmed and the last glacial continental ice sheet retreated. The glacier, up to 2 miles thick, was so heavy and powerful it gouged out the earth's surface to create the lake basins. Meltwater from the retreating glacier filled the newly created basins. Approximately 3,500-4,000 years ago, the Great Lakes attained their modern levels and area.




With all of that massive bumping and grinding how could they compete with the Sierras?



http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/pr/ourlakes/background.html

[ben2go]

Glenn,you gotta nice little farm going there.When I first became a part of this thread,you and Sassy were just settling in good.Now things have grown into self sustaining homestead.Hopefully one day I'll have my won story.Until then, I vicariously live through you. 

[glenn kangiser]

We keep trying, Ben, but it seems that for every new thing you try to do, you have to do six more things to prepare for it, then if you get that done it creates six more things to do. [ouch]

Still, saved by the old Chinese proverb....... The man who finishes his house dies...... [idea]

So I guess never getting everything done has it's benefits..... Can't go yet, I'm not finished....

[Ernest T. Bass]

Thanks for the interesting history lesson there.

[glenn kangiser]

Never can tell where we might go or what we might learn as we pursue interesting leads on tangentially related topics. 

Still not entirely off the topic though.... like I respect tight adherence to topic.....

Well, I'm off to cut wood, check cows, work on the house and in general get cold in the cloud that has enveloped our mountain.....    [cold]

[glenn kangiser]

OK .........Remember this from above?  Remember I said I thought the owner would like it?


The owner didn't like it.......

I think the owner will like it.

The owner loved it.  [ouch]


Here is why.... I made it look like the surrounding natural area before the guy with the dozer scalped the top of the land off and pushed it over the hillside.  Note the location of the post and 1" water line - it is the same place as it was before in the naked picture above.

The owner had mentioned that the dozer operator had cleared it off  before and they weren't too happy.  I remembered that and used what I thought they would like to see to be sure they were happy with it.   [idea]





I worked a bit more on that today, saving natural plants, Toyon and Manzanita mostly, and added a nice Ponderosa Pine.  I first put about 2 feet of dead brush and rotted logs as in a hugelkultur bed to hold moisture for long periods of time, then brought large bucketfuls of topsoil with the bushes trying to prevent damage to the roots as much as possible.  Some of it I did last Friday and it still looks great today.  I think nearly all of them will continue to live.

I cleaned out the loose rock and dirt from the excavation, then it was hammer time.  This Bobcat has a pretty serious Jackhammer.  It went 26 inches deep until I broke off the welded on extension today.  Now it's about 14 inches but hopefully I will be able to rebuild the old one before I go back tomorrow.






Meanwhile, back at the Underground command center......  The union boss was demanding better eating conditions..... FEED US or we'll break your fence.....






Looks like I will have to fence more land for these hungry critters......       


Working on getting materials for that too....






It barely got above freezing yesterday and the clouds were still froze to the trees today...... Low clouds hung on our mountain, and danged if they didn't freeze there......

[ben2go]

Hey,at least you didn't get 9+ inches dumped in your lap.We got hit hard and fast.At least the weather gurl gave us fair warning.Roads are ice of course and I had to drive my ummm better half to work the past two days.Enjoy the warm weather.LOL

This is the biggest snow event in our area since 1988. 

[glenn kangiser]

It is almost enough to turn you into a weather modification conspiracy theorist like me, huh, Ben?

But then again, in reality, I know that those precise grids left in the sky after the big planes go by are absolutely natural, and this type of weather is absolutely normal... happens all of the time, and that the study by the Air Force - "Owning the Weather by 2025" was just a ....what if? study ... they didn't actually mean they were actually working on it.....  [ouch]



Oh yeah, and the county health official who mentioned it to the Homeland Security guy... he's crazy too....  


http://earthchangescentral.com/eccarticles/WeatherManipulation_Fact_or_Fantasy01.html

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO409F.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory

[ben2go]

Global warming,GLOBAL WARMING!Dang gooberment's fault.

We usually get a little snow or ice event over winter.Rarely ever more than 4 inches.So far this winter(09-10), we have had the first white Christmas since 1963, and the snow we got this past sunday and monday is th worst since 1988.We got 9.25 inches and a .25 inch of freezing rain monday night into this morning.My dad passed Febuary 15th 1987.I was only 9 years old.The next year,febuary 1988,we had that big snow.My mother and I had to be rescued from our house.We weren't prepared for our power to go out and we had no back up heat.It took almost a week and a half for us to get power back.After that,I promptly leaned how to properly use and maintain a kerosene heater.We also use it to supplement our heat when temps get down below freezing which has been frequent this year.

[glenn kangiser]

You got it... .... now send a check to Al Gore...


We have a Toyo Diesel (Kerosene really but burns diesel just fine) at our other house.  Heats the place decent for about $300 -$400 per year.

Monitor is the main one to be sure you do not get....can't find Al's site any more but he said they were an assembler of parts and did not stand behind the product - lots of problems with them.

Ice is gone now but still cold......

Fixed a broken fitting on the Bobcat grapple and dug out most of the way to the bottom of the excavation for the Uhouse above.  Making progress but have to go work at my real job in the morning.  [ouch]

[ben2go]

What happen to the other under ground cabin you were designing?I haven't checked that thread in months.