Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[Tickhill]

Glenn, wish Sassy a quick recovery. I have had 3 of these micro lumbar disections over the last 17 years with the last one done this January. It was an outpatient procedure that lasted 45 minutes.
I have a bucket truck to work on my wind turbines but it only goes 32 ft. Wish it had about 70 ft of stick.

Tickhill

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks Tickhill.

She is in recovery now.  I think it was the same procedure.  Doc said it went well.

I wish I had more too.  I have to have an assistant raise me above about 40ft.  Out of ccontrol cable.  I have 31 ft of stick plus 12 ft pivot to ground max.

[glenn kangiser]

Looks like my Android locked my topic today.... [ouch]

Sorry about that.....  Those little screens are so much fun to play on......

[ben2go]

Looks like my Android locked my topic today.... [ouch]

Sorry about that.....  Those little screens are so much fun to play on......

It took me 10 minutes to post a 3 sentence response to a forum yesterday.I duuno if it's the phone,my bad eyes,of my fat fingers.I have to type the words 2 or 3 times before I get them correct.

[glenn kangiser]

I think I took about 30 minutes after shutting off auto-insert words... or whatever they call it... let alone what the fat fingers did to everything else..

Sassy is walking noticeably better now I think with just the expected aches and pains after the operation and from various old parts... [ouch]

For the intermittent flow hydroponics I previously found that the troughs needed to be wider.  I used 2 inch by 4 inch plastic gutter before.  I am making 3x8 wood troughs this time. 

As Todd mentioned, NFT was or is usually constant flow.  I read about the intermittent flow in only one study as I recall.  Haven't Googled it in the last 10 years.  It worked great the last time I did it though.  It is interesting to me as we are on solar and reduced power use is always good, though the little pump I switched to is only .8 amps.  The one pictured above had oil in the motor and it was leaking so had to get rid of it.

[poppy]

Hey Glenn, I hadn't checked your thread for awhile and found that I was about 4 pages behind. 

Great pics. and stories about your visitors.

Being from a Farmall family (I have my dad's 1948 McCormick-Deering Farmall Cub), it was good to see that you have saved your granddad's McCormick-Deering tractor.  It looks like it might be a 10-20 Gear-Drive Orchard model?

There's some pretty good info. in International Harvester Tractor Data Book by Cuy Fay.

Here's me on the Cub with the trophy for the best original tractor at a Labor Day festival.

[glenn kangiser]

That's a nice old tractor, Poppy.  Mechanical lift for the cultivators or hydraulic?

Yes - it is a 1020, and I think I have the International book down at the other house.  As I recall it is 1924.  I think it is destined to remain yard art for a long time as everything is frozen.  I have unstuck a lot of engines but this one is probably more stuck than I want to bother with.  There would be sufficient parts on the other two I have to fix it but then it would not be the same tractor....[ouch]

For practical purposes I need to spend the time keeping my Bobcat repaired and running.

[poppy]

Glenn, the cub has the optional hydraulic lift, which cost my dad $300 back in the '50s to add.  A manual lift cub has a big hole under the gas tank and a big lever lift arm by the right rear tire.  Something else also cost him $208.50 at the time, maybe the electric start and lights.

It would still be neat to get that 10-20 running; no one but you would know where the parts came from. 

[glenn kangiser]

Modern conveniences on the cub.  It could do a lot of work with that cultivator setup.

You have a point there on the 10-20, Poppy.  Maybe by the end of summer I will have the two parts tractors up here and we can reconsider.  I have kind of wanted to put the steel lug wheels back on it too, but I guess that would be going a step back in the wrong direction.

Another group of International students is scheduled to be here tomorrow night.  UC Sacramento and a couple other colleges from that area I understand.  Yosemite should be really great now. 

[glenn kangiser]

Took more trees out yesterday.  Where trees are in a critical area and a danger to a house or building as here I sometimes put a cable on them preferably with a nylon strap stretched well to be sure it gets an assist in the right direction.



I put several thousand pounds preload pull on the strap and have an assistant start winching in as I am sawing the back side cut to make sure the tree goes the right direction.  Since it is headed straight toward the truck it is critical to be sure to measure the distance from the tree to the truck and be sure to add some extra.  A crushed cab is not a pretty sight.  I attached the cable from the winch about 30 feet up.



The pine that is down in front of the truck measured about 80 feet.  I had previously estimated the height at about 100 feet and put the truck back at 110 feet to the front of it.  The tree had been dead about 2 years so I told my client that it could fall any day as soon as the roots become rotted enough to let it go.  Termites had been working on it already as well as the beetles that killed it.  Tops had broken out of even healthy pines due to the heavy snow load.

Meanwhile back at the ranch.... 

The vegetables are starting to grow on the Holzer style above ground hugelkultur bed.  Due to the extreme heat we get I am sure some drip will be required the first year but last years experience tells me it will not need near the water that our normal soil requires.



Today will be a day to unload the logs from yesterday, prepare for our guests tonight, and get a few more things done around here.. maybe work on the hydroponics a bit more.

[glenn kangiser]

Long day today.  We have four great guests from various Sacramento area Colleges.

Tried out my new Camera today and am very happy with it... getting used to the new video format and software for the pix.  The newest model was not rated as well as the slightly older model so I got it.  Lumix DMC ZS7....  Here are a couple of pix from today.

Some splashy water....



Some sun shining down through a tree....



...and a different way to look up a tree...



also a short video to check video quality....

[Alasdair]

Wow! Great pics Glenn! 

[PEG688]

Some splashy water....



Some sun shining down through a tree....



...and a different way to look up a tree...



also a short video to check video quality....

  So you got a new camera and you're gonna go all art-ize  fart-ize / tree hugger on us eh!!

  Nice photo's 

[glenn kangiser]

Thx Al... and PEG.....

"What are you talking about PEG?", my little friend says.....



ummmm PEG... I'm not a tree hugger.... I was counting up how many board feet were in that tree......



A Fen from the park pix...



and the story..




Our International friends went home today but we will be in contact and many of them that can plan on coming back again.  



Our guests at the Underground Complex...  Edgar from Mexico and Vu from Vietnam.....

and



Josh from the USA and Christian from Nigeria/and South Africa.

The above were the students we had the privilege of hosting here but we made many more friends during the hike and dinner afterward as well as at the feed today before they went home...


The guys requested a bit of target practice this morning as I had mentioned it yesterday.  Some had never shot a gun before so we made sure they could hit a can with the shotgun before we stopped.




A few of our other friends.....




Our friends, Jeronimo from Angola and Judith from the Congo.. there were at least 18 countries represented and we think there may have been more....traveling without leaving home... What Fun..

Many of the students signed a gift they brought for us all... a very nice papyrus art work - The Tree of Life but the greatest gift they brought us was their time to spend with us and sharing a bit of their life and culture.  





One girl from Taiwan/Singapore wanted to give us a donation.... I said "How about a hug..."  They had gotten lost on the way down and drove for 6 hours on back roads and by chance ended up at one of our groups houses in the middle of nowhere and said they were lost.... or maybe they had some help.  We receive free - we give free.... Nice to see their appreciative attitude.

Another wildflower in our yard.



Will catch a few more hike and other pix soon.

[glenn kangiser]

Here is a link to a PDF of more of the trip and Sacramento Area student pix for anyone who may be interested in seeing more or downloading them.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B5SW-g69h3L0Y2NlZTQzMzMtZDE2OC00MTg1LTk1NjItNWQwMjNkNWNkMTk0&hl=en

[ben2go]

Great pics.Just caught the raven vid on whotube.Turned out good.

I do have a question tho.I know by now everyone has heard about the tornados that went through our area.The more southerly states got it worse than us.I have seen a lot of devastation after tornados.The thing that got me about these, is the fact that they ripped up the ground.They usually only flatten grass,small bushes,and rip up trees and bigger stuff.This got me thinking about my,hopefully, future U house.My plans are to build close to the top of a hill and only have 12 to 16 of soil over the roof.Should I reconsider the soil depth on top?Maybe 18 to 24 inches?I'd like to stay as protected as possible in the event we do take it on the nose by a tornado.

[glenn kangiser]

The design of the house was engineered for 24 inches of earth and 12 inches of water.  Mike recommended reducing the load to 18 inches of cover for additional safety margin besides that in the design.  

If going toward maximum loading and knowing it in advance of the build I would keep log strength (sizes) above minimums set by the engineer in the tables.  Mike did state that there was a good safety factor in the tables also though.

Having light from all 4 sides as Mike recommends would be a safety factor also.  Wind or vacuum from the tornado could then pass through without having as much effect on the structure assuming windows would blow out or implode.  There is no doubt on my part that you would be hundreds of times safer than you would in an above ground house.

[glenn kangiser]

I intended to get a different video than the Raven but vids were only listed by file name and after I uploaded it, I saw it was not the one I intended but worked for the test anyway.  The format is different and I didn't know if Youtube would take it.  

Here is the video I intended to load - apparently my computer or Firefox was getting overloaded as it worked properly today...best on full screen if you can handle it. Shot on a bit of telephoto about 20 feet away.   .....click the pix to view it





The dry stack rock walls along many of the trails in Yosemite are still standing without failure.  Water does not stand behind them and blow them out and they can give a bit during earth movement without problem.  They are my favorite type of wall here around the underground complex due to those qualities.



Yosemite Falls has a lot of water now as do the rest of the waterways in the park.   I usually get a shot of it from the car window but we did stop at a viewpoint on the way in this time.  So much to do - so many new friends to meet - so little time. [ouch]



A few of my new International Family friends as we got ready to hike up to the falls..

[ben2go]

Awesome pics!Thanks for the tornado vs. U house info.My wife's nickname is mallard,so I had to show her the video.Her real name is Mallie and a receptionist got it wrong and called her Mallard,so that's my pet name for her now.LOL!   

[glenn kangiser]

Glad you liked the pix, Ben... Mallard.... Nice name...

More logging tomorrow getting trees away from corrals and kennels.

Hearing from lots of our International extended family on Facebook.  Good place to stay in touch even if it is a CIA front....

[glenn kangiser]

Just got the after breakfast interview uploaded...this one is missing Josh but we got the International visitors in it.  Click the pix to see it.



Always a blast when our extended family is here.

Running late today, fixing trailer tires and wheels ...off to work.  [ouch]

[glenn kangiser]

As usual... the hub I found had too small of bearings in it.

Kept looking.  Went to my pile of unnatural resources and there, on a pallet I found another hub with the bearings all wired together with it so they wouldn't get lost.  Guess I must have done it years ago.   Sometimes I am such a genius, I amaze myself......

Other than that.... never made it to that job yesterday but did call and make new arrangements.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the phone was ringing incessantly.  I got a call from my regular sub-contract job......

A Safeway project in Metropolis had several problems and I was needed to go troubleshoot and repair it.....147 pages of plans.....fun.... Up, UP and awaaay.....


So... I'm off to the Bay area.....

[ben2go]

Facebook?A front for the CIA?LOL I haven't heard that one before,but I believe it.They gotta keep up with the smart people.LOL

[glenn kangiser]

Not actually a front for them but free and easy open access to them....

Every electronic device we have is now monitored but all of the agencies love Facebook.  Easy for them to keep an eye on us there.  

http://www.network-7.com/2011/05/02/assange-facebook-gives-nsa-cia-and-fbi-free-and-total-access-to-your-data/

Cell phone companies have our whereabouts for any time and place in the past pretty well.... and the future as long as we have one.  America the free.... [ouch].... the free world... not....

I guess if I had anything to hide from them I wouldn't use my name and would use a proxy etc... but ... there is no place to hide anyway and I don't really care.   I think I am likely just a little fish in the fishbowl and I likely don't splash enough water for them to want to stop me from it.  

Got a couple of the problems and reason for them located today.  Requested permission to fix them from the engineer (RFI - request for information).  In this type of work you always ...ALWAYS cover your back side.  Leave the blame on those who get paid to take it... document everything - photos, notes, etc.  then when the paper is in your hand or assured you can do the fix.  

Doesn't matter how bad they want it.  I could do it but I may have to eat it if I do it without proper permission.  I get paid  to do it right... per code and inspections and engineering specs..... never thought you would hear me say that did you?....

For others I am a slave to the system and play the game like they have contracted for, and I am fairly good at it...

For my cabin, Mike's generic engineering tables will suffice.

[ben2go]

Oh that's it.I am throwing all my electronics out and running away, into the deep forest of Alaska.