Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[glenn kangiser]

I think your wall is more work than mine, John.  All of my rocks are so big that I have to set them with the Bobcat, except for a few of the smaller ones.  The rocks that chink the holes will be able to be set by hand. 

I am getting pretty good at rotating, flipping and setting them with the digging bucket.  The grapple is probably slower than the digging bucket and my few crude skills.

I don't think I would want to hit a wild turkey - even with my truck, Rhino.  We have a lot of them around here too.

[Redoverfarm]

More or less it is still work.  If I recall I used 654 blocks @ 90 # each at a cost of $7.50 each I am glad that the only thing I had to do was lift and not pay.

[glenn kangiser]

I know that feeling.  I got $1500 for a load of rocks the same as I am using but mossy and delivered about 75 miles away.  That was about 30000 lbs of them max.

I am currently getting close to 500,000 lbs of rocks in this wall.

[Sassy]

The snow was melting fast while we were out walking around this morning...  here's another picture of the grandkids in front of the new rock wall. 
It's hailed, snowed, rained & the sun has shined so far today...  supposed to be more snow & thunderstorms. 

[PEG688]

  Spring eh  Don't like the weather , wait a minute , it'll change. 

[glenn kangiser]

You can see that spring sprung here this morning - but.... back to sun for a week again - up to around 70 by next Saturday, when my mommy will be here. 

[glenn kangiser]

Bobcat frustration today.

An air leak in the fuel line has been plaguing me for a week and I finally traced it down to a line that went under the engine up to the elbow for the suction tube at the top of the tank.  If you have never worked on a Bobcat or tried to figure out what went where from their parts manual or repair manual  then you have not really lived.  

The book said pull the engine and pump for where I thought the leak was.  Not if I could help that - probably at least a 3 day job.  More looking and I suspected it may be almost reachable and on the tank rather than the fuel pump as the book lead me to believe.

I managed to stand on my head following the rays of a flashlight through the hoses, wires, grease and dirt in the bowels of the Beast they call a Bobcat.  Using an air ratchet I undid the clamp - pulled out the hose and sure enough there was a leak. 

After an hour of contortions, that leak was repaired with a new line.  Tested it out and air again.  Only one place for it to be.  The pick up hose below the grommet going into the tank.  I pulled it out - grommet and all and was just in tiime to see it break off the rest of the way and fall into the tank.  grrrrrrrr

No big deal - a consult with the book showed a piece of hose 20.08 inches long and a steel elbow on the end for weight  and pick- up.  I made one with good hose and tried to put it back- the pipe and hose end went into the tank tight -- no frikken way to get the fat hose through the grommet though.


After much knuckle busting and head banging I managed to get it out - tear it apart and brainstormed.  [idea]
Saws had that kind of hose - the thin yellowish clear hose.  I called and sure enough they had it.  A trip to town and within another hour it was finally back together and tested.  Running like a top.

Now to look at that little hydraulic leak..... OH NO --- not again -- leaking behind the pump in the deepest guts of the Bobcat.  About 20 minutes looking with an inspection mirror and flashlight revealed a small hydraulic hose peeing about as big a stream as I could.  Another 45 minutes and that hose was off - just in time to rush down to the NAPA store and get a hose made. 

I slide into the parking lot - 15 minutes before closing - "OH good, you made it in, what can I do for you?" the parts lady asked. 

I knew it..... she was mechanically challenged and could not run the hose machine nor did she offer to let me when I told her I knew how to do it.....

7AM she said --- when the guys get in....in the morning.... right before my root canal.....  arrrrrrgh..... it's driven me nuts...



....and that was the short version of it minus all of the profanity.  Yes I am intelligent enough to know lots of words.  I have a large vocabulary, thank you.

[MountainDon]

I think Bobcats and their cousins are the most fiendishly designed machines ever. My neighbor with the Case skidsteer had a hydraulics leak last year. The manual stated "remove engine".  James kept putting off the inevitable until last fall. Then he somehow managed the impossible and R&R's the bad hose with the engine in place.

[glenn kangiser]

It is a killer.  Like trying to get your #10 foot into a size 8 shoe with a shoe horn.  I used a tire iron, several screw drivers, a concrete stake, a rock to hold the hood up on the back- a double cardboard chest protector and eventually 2 helpers for actual help and moral support. 

I got a bad headache and was nearly beside myself.  I actually started on it day before yesterday pressure washing it out and working in the mud.

One - multiple problem down... the hose will not be fun either - in the 2 inch space between the pump and the motor and through all the hoses, brackets and wires.  No wonder I don't care to mechanic much.

[glenn kangiser]

Bobcat is together and once again it is the all powerful.... 

Why does it have to put me through this though? hmm

I got my root canal yesterday and it was truly more fun than monkeywrenching on the Bobcat.

OK - back to my cob and rock wall.  It is nearly 10 feet tall now in Scottish Blackhouse style on one side and cob on the back side. 

I used the Bobcat to do the cob plus added the Bouncing Betty to tamp it down on the top  in rammed earth wall style.  I ran the Bobcat over it with a loaded bucket in the earlier stages - Should have been around 18000 lbs concentrated on the front two wheels in the tracks as I was near tipping most of the time as I was compacting the cob.

Here is the cob wall as I tamped it into the rock wall on the opposite side.



I ran the Bobcat until it was near vertical packing the wall - at least until the tail hit the ground.  The front of the tracks would climb right up the wall.

Ride along with me to share the fun.



Here it is at the end of the day's work.

[glenn kangiser]

Here is a pix earlier in the day just after I got off the wall and started side packing.  I added the straw on the ground and squished it in with the Bobcat rather than my toes.

[glenn kangiser]

Not a whole lot getting done here lately.  I did build a stand for a 500 gallon gasoline tank and already put in a 1000 gallon diesel tank. 

Thinking about getting a few calves so bought T posts today and ordered 5 rolls of barb wire.

My problem is not that I'm lazy.... ... OK ... so that's a problem but a different one.

My problem is that people are offering me money to work and being the little whore that I am, I'm taking it. 

It seems that if you are a bit diversified in skills, then it is possible to be in demand even in these rough financial times.

I was referred to a customer for brushing with my Bobcat.  Steepest roughest terrain you ever did see.  After the neighbor saw what I could do he wanted me to do some at his place.  Some other people came by and asked if I would look at their place and do it, so I am checking it out tomorrow.

With the tracks and high horsepower my Bobcat can do things a dozer or other machines can't do.  Nice to have a monster Bobcat.   

Everyone is amazed that I take it on the steep mountains and sidehills.  It's so much fun I should really be paying the customer to do it, but then reality sets in and I have to charge for my work....

[glenn kangiser]

A cool house - made of junk -- I mean - recycled stuff - like I like to use.  Thanks to my friend, Tal for sending this.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30221438#30203871

[ScottA]

Did you notice it was in Oklahoma?

[Source_to_Sea]

Hey Glenn - how's the plunger floor in the bathroom holding up? I'm been interested in trying that out since about, oh, 1986 or so when I read about it

We poured soil-cement in some stalls when I was a kid. Held up fine, especially considering it was constructed by two 16 y/o boys more interested in chasing tail than working in the barn in the middle of July. We'll probably do a cob/adobe floor when we build if we can get away with it.

[glenn kangiser]

Did you notice it was in Oklahoma?

I hadn't, Scott, but all I can say is that Oklahoma is way too cool.  I liked it.

[glenn kangiser]

Hey Glenn - how's the plunger floor in the bathroom holding up? I'm been interested in trying that out since about, oh, 1986 or so when I read about it

We poured soil-cement in some stalls when I was a kid. Held up fine, especially considering it was constructed by two 16 y/o boys more interested in chasing tail than working in the barn in the middle of July. We'll probably do a cob/adobe floor when we build if we can get away with it.

The floor is doing fine- can't tell it from a 4" thick floor by looking at it.  No problems. 

I did a variation of it around the pool last summer - just a jute and stucco type floor - documented here somewhere - but no plungers as I wanted it to follow the ground in case it settled some .  There was about 4 feet of fill, packed dry with the Bobcat.  A very little bit of minor spalling from freezing last witer, but no major problems.  It is easily patched with concrete bonder, cement - fine sand and color to match.

We have several soil cement floors here - a bit softer, but still an interesting floor.

[glenn kangiser]

I spent most of the day remembering how to read a compass and finding our property lines. 

Somehow I decided I wanted to put a few steers on our property down by the spring with the ability for them to come up as high as the underground complex.  The steers are now being taken care of by the neighbor who got them for me but I need to get the fence in soon.  The flow of the spring has slowed but I found that the pipe has just plugged and the water is collecting about 50 feet up hill from the pond  around the spring box so no worries.

There is a 450 foot elevation drop on that side of the property so it was quite a day.  I used the Bush Hog, a chain saw and the Bobcat to remove the brush on the fence lines and there is still about 300 feet to clear by hand. 

Hmm hmm, this gives me an idea - how about an underground barn?

[speedfunk]

I have this different Idea of 5 people mashing cob with their toes   

Respect that cat named bob.

[glenn kangiser]

That's the way it's supposed to be done, but I'm so lazy, and the BoBcat is the perfect Mixmaster...

Ladies and kids really love to get into it though...

[glenn kangiser]

I expanded my Bobcat grapple bucket width to 7 foot 8 inches yesterday and added digging teeth to it so now I can brush, dig rocks and grab them and put them where I want them.  The grapple bucket was 6 feet wide with no teeth and it pushed rocks under the tracks trying to tip me over on sidehills.  Now it is a few inches wider than the tracks on both sides so it works great. 

I took it down the hill today and put a bit of road in across a gulch so now the fencing for the cows will be a bit of an easier chore in that area.  I also wanted the ability to take the Bushhog down it for fence repairs.  I made around 4 hundred feet of road on around a 40% slope and across about a 10 foot deep gully.  Cuts were around 6 feet deep in the side hill in hard clay and rock.  Fun.

I also found that my property line was about 30 feet farther than the rats nest in the live oaks.  The rat had snagged the ribbons for his nest but the stake was about 30 feet farther in the brush.  I found the metal marker with a yellow cap with my metal detector.  Nice to know exact corners when making fence line.  As I recall the fence goes 1 foot in on the side of the owner making it.  No need to waste any extra land. ...

After that Sassy and I went down to the spring box in the Bushhog  and dug it out.  Over the last 6 years or so, about a foot of dirt has covered it and roots have plugged the pipe.  Looks like a good time to replace it and get water down to the fish in the pond soon.

[glenn kangiser]

Finally - that pix everyone has been holding their breath for - the Grapple extensions and teeth



As most of you know - I am not here in the forum to harass you as much as  I am out of town selling my body for money.

It happened that a reporter for the Business Journal showed up on my side of the project and I even got quoted before I sent him in to see the PM and owner. 



I am putting up the canopies in the picture on this page



and the balconies on this pix at the Iron Bird Lofts



Got to make enough money to keep up the improvements on the underground complex.

[Bishopknight]

LOL Glenn, thats definitely one way to tamp Cob

Btw, I love your rock wall! Inspiring. So are the pictures from that guys website!

Question, is that your white bulldog/mastif in the picture? What kind of dog is it?

[glenn kangiser]

hmm The pictures of the Fulton Plaza/ Iron Bird Lofts were just pix I took of the last weeks Fresno Business Journal.  Reza, the owner/family partner has been redeveloping parts of old Fresno and was a friend of my son before I met him.  The Business Journal reporter took the other pix.

Spike is our dog.  I found him when prospecting about a year and a half ago.  He had been shot in he left fron shoulder.  He was - rough guess about 4 months old and had likely been dumped on our road.  Some of the others he was with had growled at a few residents. 

Suzy - my other dog actually found him in a gulch we were prospecting.  He is an American Bulldog - solid muscle - about 80 -90 lbs and very good natured although a bit overly strong, and you have to be careful playing with him to not get him too excited and rough.

[glenn kangiser]

Thanks for thee compliment on the wall.  It is staying up well.

Here is a later pix of it I don't think I posted yet.



The rocks run from a few hundred to about 10000 lbs calculated on volume, with most averaging from 1000 to 4000 lbs.