Intro post, 27 acres in Finchville

[Rob_O]

Both ducts have cable, I do not know why.

Finished backfilling today, just need a brace on my temp pole and I will be ready for inspection and a meter

[considerations]

My $500 trailer, not everything as advertised but still worth the price

HOME SWEAT HOME!

[Bob S.]

Maybe since the cables are still hi-voltage before the transformer you need two cables?

[Rob_O]

And after 6 weeks of getting rained out I finally got to camp with grid power for the first time this weekend. Used almost a dollars worth of electricity keeping the lights on and the camper warm!

Getting a little more voltage drop than I'd like with my current cabling, I'll have the solution to that problem ready for the next trip

[Mad-Dax]

Bump from the dead. It's 2012 and I'm finally getting my power lines in the ground. This weekends project, 500+ feet of ditch and double that in conduit.



If it passes inspection tomorrow, we will be backfilling and setting the temporary pole next week. Wish me luck!

I'm baffled...what size cable are you running in those conduit to reach 500+ feet...and may I ask how much this cost? (wire only).  Reason is I was going to do the same with only 250ft. and the wire is so thick it is like $6.50 a foot for the copper x3 cables to run underground...freakin' almost $5k just for the wire and nothing else??  So I gave up on underground electricity real quick.

[Rob_O]

I'm baffled...what size cable are you running in those conduit to reach 500+ feet...and may I ask how much this cost? (wire only).  Reason is I was going to do the same with only 250ft. and the wire is so thick it is like $6.50 a foot for the copper x3 cables to run underground...freakin' almost $5k just for the wire and nothing else??  So I gave up on underground electricity real quick.

The wire is #1 aluminum. At 7200 volts it doesn't take much wire to move a lot of power.

[Rob_O]

Last weekend I moved the trailer back to my original spot, it's about 150 feet from the power pole and a #10 extension cord will run the rooftop A/C or a space heater without a problem



Picked this up today, craigslist find. 550 gallon tank for $200, I think it was a pretty good deal. Previous owners kids threw some sticks and rocks in there so it's getting a trip to the carwash before I fill it with rainwater.

[Rob_O]

Water is most useful when you have it where you need it, so I got a pump. Best and biggest I could get (for $100)

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-horsepower-shallow-well-pump-with-stainless-steel-housing-68387.html

Going to set it up so I can pump water from the big tank to a hose, or from a smaller tank into the big tank. Hard to collect rainwater without a roof so I'll have to haul 55 gallons at a time from the neighbors house. That'll do for now

[Rob_O]

Apparently the home stores do not stock a 1" Sharkbite male adapter, so I was unable to get the tank connected to the pump this weekend.

I did, however, have the Trackcat out to do some work.

We started with this


He did some of this


And some of this


And ended up with this


So I could have this

[Rob_O]

So when I moved the trailer a few weeks back, I knew it was going to be moved again soon and did a half-assed job of setting up the support under the tongue. Last Sunday we got 2" of rain over the course of the day and when I got there Friday I found this   



There's enough weight on the tongue of this old beast to destroy any body parts that get caught underneath so jacking it back up on the soft clay soil was a real adventure. 

[Rob_O]

Been a long time since I updated, mostly because nothing has really happened since my last update. Making real progress now so I'll bring things up to date...

Felt it would be useful to have a truck that could pull equipment so I bought one


And since I had a truck that could haul heavy stuff, I bought some heavy stuff to haul.


The bucket loader is a real bucket, and the truck isn't much better but they have earned their keep

Other than the new lawn ornaments not much changed in the year since my last post, most of the time was spent eating hamburgers and watching the grass grow



My little white dog in the picture on page 1 had a stroke in Spring of this year and went to doggie heaven so I rescued another dog to keep my big girl company. Truck has been a great dog, he came crate trained, knew some basic commands and doesn't freak out when we're playing with things that go boom

[MountainDon]

I love skidsteers!! You can get so many different and useful attachments!   

[Rob_O]

I thought 2013 was going to be the year of the driveway, but plans changed and I decided a structure would be more useful than a driveway so now I'm building a 28 * 36 Gambrel roof garage with an attic.

First step was to take down a few trees


Concrete guys built me a frame


I added some plumbing


And they covered it all up with concrete. The far end is the garage and the near end is a 28 * 24 parking pad/ramp

[Rob_O]

I love skidsteers!! You can get so many different and useful attachments!   

I've had to pass on a few attachments that I really wanted and were priced to sell so I could do what I'm doing now. Like I said, my bucket loader is a real bucket but once it finally starts it stays running... although I am tired of it sprouting a new leak every time I get another fixed

[Rob_O]

So while all that was going on, I thought I should clean the place up a little. Anything green is better than dirt so I had been letting the area that was cleared last year just grow. Some areas were as tall as I am so I hopped on the tractor and mowed the lawn


All the hard work I put into sipping adult beverages while the grass was growing paid off, and last years mudpit is looking pretty lush now


It has been a wet Summer, so I was able to burn off some piles



And the brush pile is finally getting smaller.

[Rob_O]

The lumber fairy came by this morning and left this for me


Going to be a long weekend...

[Rob_O]

Woke up Saturday with a debilitating migraine and spent the majority of a beautiful day in bed with a pillow under my head and another on top  . Managed to get rid of the headache and get to camp and set up by dark-thirty

Was in no hurry to get started this morning so I dragged some brush off the pile, lit another bonfire and played with that for a while. After about 90 minutes it had burned down enough to cook lunch and by the time we got going it was already past noon...

1:00


2:00


My friend showed up around 3:00 and we started raising walls

3:45


4:15


By 5:00 he had to go on daddy duty so we stopped here


With a couple helpers and an early start I could have framed the whole first floor in a day. I didn't have either so I'm feeling pretty good about the progress made today and I hope to have the rest of the walls up next weekend. The next wall is going to be a heavy beast with 56' of 2*10 header so I'm hoping for lots of extra hands next time around

Hope everyone is enjoying the show...

[Rob_O]

Last weekend I decided it was time to fix the other blown cylinder on the loader. Couldn't get the pin out of the top of the cylinder so I just loosened the hoses and pulled it apart on the machine



Something looks a little funny here...



But it was a Saturday and I had the seals so it went back together anyway



And it works! So I started working on digging out a stump and maybe 15 minutes in it blew this hose



So... I lost a day of work, and still have a busted loader

[Rob_O]

So Friday evening I met with the crane guy about setting the trusses, and although we had been having spotty showers it looked like the worst was going to go North of us... but it didn't and we got about 6 hours of steady rain... weatherheads said the property got about an inch... So much for Saturday!

But all was not lost. I live about an hour South of this little track called Kentucky speedway. And last night they were having a Nationwide race at that track. And a friend posted on facebook she had tickets to give away. And a few hours later I was here



Turned into a late night, and I let my girlfriend sleep in so it wasn't until about noon that I got to the property and got going. First thing I found was a gift one of my neighbors had left me... wish he had left a feeder to put it in 



Before I got started, I got a picture standing on top of a 7' ladder. This is going to be more or less the view from my bedroom window. Bottom of the hill looks like a great place for a deer feeder



Had a bunch of wood cut and laid out from last time, so within an hour I had the first new section standing



Then I started laying out the rest of the walls. Cut, measure, drill holes for... wait? Where's the drill? Fortunately I had a friend coming out later in the day, so while I was waiting for him to show up with the bit I needed I cut and laid out everything for another 36' of wall and we got it mostly standing. By the time I decided to pack it in I had made it this far



Trusses are scheduled to arrive Friday, and the crane guy will be there Saturday. By then I need to get all the headers in the wall above, and build a wall for this end of the building



Going to have the crane guy stand it up for me, he's a friend of my neighbor and several other people so I'm hoping he can stand up the wall Friday night then come back Saturday AM to set the trusses, he lives right up the road so hopefully he'll help me out a little

Comments and criticism are welcome

[Rob_O]

Just talked to the truss guy, he will not be able to deliver Friday 

Was supposed to go on vacation the following weekend, looks like that is cancelled

[Rob_O]

Gotta have windows to enjoy the view. Found two of these at the Re-Store, there was also an arch window that would have fit perfectly over the pair but I didn't have the headroom