We broke ground today on the shop!
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P8110901.jpg)
My logger / contractor buddy up there - Pat Landers and his helper worked at that while I fell some trees.
Tig was the supervisor in charge over it.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P8110903.jpg)
Then about the time they were ready to do the fine grading the heavens open up with lighting and then it rained - no make the poured. They shut down and took off. They had to go to four wheel drive to get out. I went to the fifth wheel and repaired the shower and then the sun came out and I finished bucking up the logs so Pat can skid them to take to his mill. Ellen and I finished up the day piling limbs to burn after the first snow. If we get enough rain in like Oct or Nov I might set them on fire then but I really like to do that when there is like six inches of snow is on the ground. I know we are not going to have any surprises then.
That's some serious ground-breaking equipment! I like the supervisor, too. I'm looking forward to watching your progress.
Sassy mentioned that I should point you to an alternative for the limbs rather than burning. Bury them and use them to hold water for a garden.
A link to where I got started posting on Paul Wheaton's forum.
http://www.permies.com/bb/index.php?topic=17.msg40357#msg40357
Glenn tell Sassy thank but there is a method to our madness. We have an out break of Western Pine Beetles. Two years ago a forester told us if we pile our boughs and tops it will attract the adults pine beetles and they will lays their eggs there rather than the live trees. Then in the fall / winter set them afire. It seems to have worked as we have not seen as many this year. We of course cut all that is stove and fireplace size up for that. The logs go to a saw mill for our own use and so about the only thing we have left is the boughs and small tops. I am really taking a lot better look at some management practices. Our grand kids may well see a good improvement over the neighboring forests if it stays in the family for another couple generations.
MushCreek that old Komatsu crawler has more hours than Glenn and I put together. But it has had a lot of maintenance. The owner bought it new and it has not been babied at all. It still logs and builds road today as hard as when it was new. But it never misses a service and the owner operator really believes in preventive maintenance.
This is couple photos of it logging on our place last year. We only took out beetle killed timber and that was one very large load. I never got a picture of it loaded.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P8200391.jpg)
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P82003952.jpg)
That's good information too, Rick. Thanks for pointing out the reason.
Those old Komatsu's were real powerhouses. I used to install ROPS on them for Saf-T-Cab....of course I had to play with them a little.
Re the pine bark beetles. Freshly cut timber can be covered with clear 6 mil plastic. Make the piles small enough to be able to drop the plastic down all sides of the pile and bury the edges with dirt. Leave sit for a summer. The heat will kill off the beetles and any larvae. But you need to bury the edges, simply weighting them down will not work. Trust me on that; the pile we did with timbers holding down the edges showed traces of beetle activity while the one that had dirt buried edges (as per the local forester) had no traces (beetle dust).
All it takes is one season. Old wood does not attract the beetles.
I don't know if burying the slash completely with covered with dirt would also eliminate the beetle breeding problem, but suspect it might if totally dirt covered. The beetles want to lay their eggs in the fresh soft layer right under the bark where the larvae can hatch and feed. Fresh cut ends make for easy entrance points.
This morning I attended a meeting with a building inspector and the carpenter I hired to do my shop. I am way way to busy with work to attempt this and get it dried in before winter.
Building inspector did not want to give me agricultural status on my shop feeling it was not going to be used for such. We did convince him that indeed 640 acres could use or need a shop. And he did accept our plans as drawn. Pay the man $250. Next thing planing and zoning says is we have to get Southern District Health to 'sign off on it'. This is strange because it will have no plumbing. So I drive over there. They hand me a form I fill it out and they want $130 so the inspector can drive up and see that the building sight is no where near the septic tank or drain field. Even though I had to sign a document stating that I could not build or drive over such when final was done. GRRR pay the man $130. Next planing and zoning wants the country highway district to sign off on it. They agreed to sign off but they pointed out to me this was a total waste of time for them and me. They pointed that my property does not enter their road rather enters a shared private road and would have no effect to traffic nor could they require me to have a engineered entry nor borrow-pit drainage because it was all private ground. They signed off and required no money but offered to take some if we want to pay them.
So we have $2000+ in a survey we really did not need but required. $250 in a building permit that a couple years ago was $50. Plus will have to pay the inspector a minimum for three trips up there for inspections. $130 for a health inspector to drive to the ranch and agree we are on the other side of the creek from the septic and well over 300 feet from the tank and drain field. Ahh!!! the taste of bureaucracy in action. Love it.... The country is out of work except for ...... :-X
Parasites, Rick.... Parasites.....
They take your money and pretend to work and pretend to justify the theft and extortion.... pretending to be important to rip off the public and seeing that their cronies get a piece of your butt too.... such is the system... [waiting]
Remember:
. . . said the focus was safety, not filling town coffers with permit money . . .
Sorry . . . My new catch phrase.
/.
GOOD NEWS!!!! Believe it or not the health inspector called today and and told us that inspection was not needed. They were refunding our money and he was signing off in the project. He was sort of confused himself why they wanted the inspection when the site plan we submitted shows where the septic and drain field is located and where the shop will be located and they are not even close to each other.
Good to hear that sanity can sometimes prevail and that somebody knows how to read and relate to a plat/map.
All is not necessarily lost; it just seems that way
Good deal.
I hauled up three rolls of concrete mesh, 70 number 6 rebar, j bolts, rebar seats, electrical conduit to be poured in the footing and walls....All this means is we were awarded our building permit and it was agricultural exempt!!!!! I did find a concrete finisher who was willing to come to the sticks and pour. Actually he owns or leases a place up there. So next week we should have a footing or footer poured and maybe walls to show you! So far for the last couple years everything have been done has been buried. It will be nice to see something sticking up in the air.
Is there a difference between a footer and a footing? When I worked concrete like 35+ years ago it was all footings. Now I see the term footer... ???
I'm not smart enough to know the answer to that, Rick. I call them footings. Glad to see things going your way. :)
One's redneck and the other is crimson knaped :)
We got the footings formed. The rebar was not required because we are not in a seismic zone. But I did use it anyway. It sits on plastic chairs.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P8300025.jpg)
My electrician friend had me add the ground wire.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P8300028.jpg)
I also grounded it to the frost-free as well.
We got the footing poured and next day the walls formed.
I did not get a picture of the electrical conduit coming up under the footing. (By itself) - I did inside the wall form. Nor did I get a picture of the the vertical rebars which were wired to the horizontal rebars so they never touch the earth. This prevents the rebar acting as a conduit for moisture and rust.
Picture of conduit, ground wire and vertical rebar with horizontal rebar in the wall .
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9020036.jpg)
We left the one end open so we could fill.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9020041.jpg)
The guy I had hired split a piece of plastic pipe and wired it around the frost free in the footing I thought that was a very good idea and am passing that along.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9020034.jpg)
When we got enough materials inside and leveled off and the backhoe out. We put the tamper in and shoveled off the ramp. (Well what Pat the backhoe operator could not get.) His skill with his equipment just amazes me so much. It was close to dark thirty and I still had a long drive home all most two hours so we just left the end open as the cement for the walls was not to be there until 11:00 the following day.
Looks good, Rick. Good use of Rapiform clips on top and under the form boards. They make it easy.
Walls are poured, string lined - straightened and J bolts are in. Tis a good feeling -
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/047.jpg)
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/052.jpg)
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/055-1.jpg)
Base is watered down and compacted and tamper is out. The backhoe operator had one two inch high spot in the middle that might have been four foot long by three feet. We had to work that down. Not bad for having to wrestle the back hoe around in side the forms. Around the edges were just a little low where the doors are going to be. This being a shop building we left them a little low to add a little more strength there.
Concrete wire is down. I think I would go with the flat panels if we pour another one of these. I had forgotten how much I disliked rolled concrete wire. The finisher hates it more than I do. I did receive a well deserved 'cussin' for buying it. He will hook and pull it up when he pours it rather than trying to put it up on chairs. Being rolled wire that is what makes the base wavy. I was around concrete for several years in my twenties before I went railroading. Still do some but not that much. I did hire this done but have put in my share of time on it as well.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/054.jpg)
My finisher said he wants to pour the floor Tuesday if at all possible. Me I don't think I will be there for the flat work. I will set forms and pour footings and walls anytime but I hate flat work. 8)
Are you using exterior sliders or inside mounted roll up doors, Rick?
If using the inside mounted rollups I like to slope starting about 2 inches inside the place where the door seal hits and slope it down about 1 to 1 1/2 inches toward the outside - otherwise rain hits the door and runs inside the building. Maybe not a problem but thought I would mention it.
I like to slope the walk door areas a little or seal down a threshold - usually just a slope though.
Glenn thanks for pointing that out. I am really thinking sliders because of the amount of snow we get up there. When we back filled next to the footing we tapered it off a couple inches to 14 foot and compacted it. The water runs away and then toward the creek. I would like to pour a longer and deeper apron but with ready mix at $175 a yard up there it really bites into the budget.
I thought our $125 or so was bad. [ouch]
Quote from: glenn kangiser on September 06, 2010, 12:00:35 PM
I thought our $125 or so was bad. [ouch]
I am sort of in a quandary about ready mix. The biggest part of the quotient is how long a truck is held away from the batch plant. No matter if there is a load available or not. Time away from the plant equals money that is simple. The roads up to the location where the ranch is at is very good now compared 'the old days'. They can get in and out very well now, but it is still forty miles. Twenty five or thirty on dirt mountain roads yet very wide and very well maintained. So I guess it is a fair but a high price for sure.
Coming along nice. Also nice to see the surrounding countryside in some of the photos.
Floor is now poured. They also poured a couple slabs on the out side today
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9070070.jpg)
Today had to stop and admire this big guy or gal! Really don't know how to tell the difference. Do know that I don't want to get a hold of one to find out.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9080077-1.jpg)
Seasons are changing here. It is getting colder. Coming out from the ranch this evening I stopped and watched a group of 10 or 12 young bucks all forked horns or spikes just hanging together. I would bet the larger bucks are started to chase them off. Was up there till after dark last night and had to come out. We saw a lot of does and fawns in the road, one beef calf, and a owl. The owl just stood there in the middle of the road. I locked them up and he disappeared from sight in my wife's Charger. I backed up and we both just laughed. It still just set there then begrudgingly flew to the side. It had to be inches from BOOOM!
Believe it or not the finisher I hired brought up concrete blankets! We spread them out this evening. Second week of September and concrete blankets! He said as expensive as this stuff has become up there, he was not going to take a chance. I really feel he has done us a 110% good job. Top that off it is predicted a good storm up there tonight. When we left we had it all covered.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9080082.jpg)
The building package came as well today. My buddy taking the wraps off the truck here owns Kuna Lumber - we meet the first time up hunting in 1963 or 1964. Old friends... the best kind...
I would like to cut down that old snag quaking aspen in the back ground and several others like it that are scattered around the place . But my word in the spring time they are a buzz with wrens and other small song birds. I will put up with eyesores like that as long as they keep returning! We are on what is called the Blue Bird Trail up there. There are hundreds of blue birds that visit that local area in the summer. There is an old man that tracts them every year. He bands them and measures the females because he can capture them in the nest box. Counts the eggs and and does a census on all the nest boxes.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9080091.jpg)
This is a road we put in going up to the orchard we are in the process of developing. Not real large about an acre and should be large enough to hold one hundred trees. (Mostly apples) We are about there...That will give us plenty to barter with the neighbors and sell to hunters. It is completely organic up there so far!
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9080087.jpg)
You may have stated before, but what's your altitude there?
Nice to be dealing with someone as thoughtful as the concrete finisher. Probably did nice work too.
Nice to find a good concrete man. It looks good.
MD we are right at 5000 ft there where we are building.
Great site!
One question: 100 trees in an acre? I'm so new to gardening and growing fruit trees that I can barely tell one tree from the other but if you can put 100 apple trees in one acre I'm thinking "Awesome!" Since I'd like to put in a few trees on our 20 acres.
Though my biggest problem is that I can't pump massive amounts of water in August-September without putting my pump a lot further down in the well and even then I might not pump a lot more. I'm trying to rig it up so I can pump maybe 50+ gallons every couple hours for 100 to 300 gallons a day depending on how I set the timer (and what I find works) but I've only got a 1000 gallon tank so have to factor that in.
I think a tree needs about an inch of water a week -- if what I remember is correct from my reading -- but I have no idea how many gallons that translates too....
Anyway, don't mean to highjack the thread but that comment really caught my attention :)
Nice land by the way!
Quote from: OlJarhead on September 10, 2010, 02:46:10 PM
One question: 100 trees in an acre? I'm so new to gardening and growing fruit trees that I can barely tell one tree from the other but if you can put 100 apple trees in one acre I'm thinking "Awesome!" Since I'd like to put in a few trees on our 20 acres.
Partly it depends on the type, normal size, semi dwarf or dwarf. Anywheres from 90-100 regular up to 400+. In Europe some orchards with dwarf trees are measured in the thousands. Our pines were in the 500+ trees per acre range before we started thinning.
One inch of water over an acre equals 26,968 gallons(!) :o
The orchard is a good hobby for us right now. We lease the ranch out at this time. So the orchard does give us a point of real possession, and real responsibility. And it is a good reason just to go up there. Next year I am planing on retiring from the railroad as my primary vocation. (No intentions at all of retiring from work at all.) So next year or the year after we will build a house up there and move.
The fruit trees only require about 5 gallons of water once a week when they maturing. When they get rooted good and depending on somethings I have not learned as of yet, do require I understand a little more. Depends sort of what is happening at the root level.
We do not pump water from the well for the orchard. We capture water from a spring that feeds these two home made stock water tanks. They in turn overflow unto a overflow pipe in the center of the lower one or closest to the camera.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P6120301.jpg)
From there the water is then piped via gravity to a Craigslist Special used 1200 poly tank. We do pump out of it via a hand me down jet pump.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9130420.jpg)
This is the orchard a couple years ago. Before we hooked the spring up to the poly tank. Trees are starting to really take off now. The deer fence is eight foot tall, we got by pretty good deal there. My buddy that owns the lumber yard had a lot of used field fencing from his acreage that he just gave me. But I bought the big long posts from him. I had the gates sitting around. We use them for panels and things like that on the ranch. I am kind of like Glenn and all the rest of the scroungers on the forum. :) One reason I like this forum so much feels like home! ;D
If there are water problems then the trees should be on drip irrigation with timers. We get one gallon a minute from our well but still manage to get water to 35 or so trees and lots of garden area. I use a Raindrip analog timer that is very easy to set and change and is battery operated.
Most publications I have read discourage the use of drip line for fruit trees. I have talked to several orchard men they also promote the five gallons once a week. This promotes deeper root growth and better anchored trees. That said if I were Ol' Jarhead and wanted to grow some fruit trees the drip line is a very good option. Especially where he is not there as much as he wants to be right now. I think it is a great hobby and very rewarding as well.
Several years ago we tried some fruit trees with very limited success. Certainly not to the degree we have here. But since then I have done a lot of reading and talking to people, not at the nurseries at the big-box, but real orchard growers (Some of those big box people do know a lot and are very good.) Our success is tremendous this time around. I am learning a lot about fruit trees. I now know what root stocks will work for us up there and which ones to stay away from especially in the apples. I know to use the times when we are watering to look at the leaves and the bark. You can see what each tress is telling you from it leaves. The leaves tell you if it is stressed, does it need fertilizer, which insects are feeding on it, is it getting to much water or not enough. The bark can tell you a lot as well. Stuff you just learn asking questions and reading. Learning about something is not hard when you know nothing about it. Those that go to something thinking they know something sort of spooks me.....
We have plenty of water of everything in the orchard area, if we use the holding tank. If we do not use the holding tank and use the well it takes all day or seems so! ;) That spring we never have measured how much it runs. However we have emptied out the 1200 gallon tank on the evening to do plumbing and the next morning it is up to the over flow. Plus have cattle and wild life drinking out of the stock tanks. Granted spring and early summer not so much the wild life and cattle for that matter at the tanks. However this time of the year when the interment creeks have all dried up they know where all the stock water tanks are.
I am certainly not against timers and drip lines. We do use a multi-station timer on a drip line for the berries that we have growing around the perimeter of the orchard fence. We have four different verities of raspberries and one verity of blackberry at this time and will add more berries next spring. They were certainly way down on our time line. Our blue berries however we deep water water once or twice a week out of the holding tank.
Also we are not all Nazi about the water. 'You stupid trees you only get five gallons of water so ration it.' If the temp is up there are hovering up there in the nineties for a couple weeks as it does some years in late July and Aug. or may be a couple days even in the century mark. We well especially give the young ones a little more attention. However a 5000' in the Idaho mountains as soon as the sun down you are look for a coat. Meaning you do not have a lot of night time evaporation.
If you ever need to be away keep in mind that you can set the timer and drippers to apply 5 gallons once a week with the proper drippers and amount of time. :)
I made it up to the property today September 16, 2010. The shop is defendantly starting to take shape from over on the road!
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9160129.jpg)
The framing is done except for the Douglas Fir beams that will be headers over the two drive doors. And of course the trusses.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9160116.jpg)
Next Tuesday the trusses are to be here. The guy that did the excavation is also a logger and will bring over his self loader and swing the two beams and the trusses or so is the plan.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9160117.jpg)
I went over to his sawmill today, these are logs we have harvested off our property for the last two years. He has them decked there. We have been saving them up to use for the 'board and bat' siding on the shop. What we do not use there will be used in a couple more sheds we are going to do like a chicken coup and maybe a start on a new live stock barn. They were all beetle killed pine.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9160131.jpg)
Some more of our logs going into the sawmill on the feed chain.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9160132.jpg)
I got over there just in time for a break down. He did have the two beams cut out of Doug Fir before the carriage in the mill hooked a hydraulic line and pulled a lot of stuff loose. They will be unbending and welding into the night.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9160133.jpg)
Good on the progress on the shop Rick. Pretty fast.
Looks like he has a - what.. 48 inch or so circular sawmill?
If you get a chance - pix of it would be nice too. :)
Quote from: glenn kangiser on September 17, 2010, 09:44:29 AM
Good on the progress on the shop Rick. Pretty fast.
I really wished I was there all the time to help or to do it. However I had such a narrow window to get this done and dried in. I really did not have much choice but to proceed as I am. Next year we should be on the house right now. The shop needs to be completely done for that. (I do have a time line to get everything done in.) Top that with my real vocation my boss says I really need to protect my assignment :D
Quote from: glenn kangiser on September 17, 2010, 09:44:29 AM
Looks like he has a - what.. 48 inch or so circular sawmill?
I don't know how big his saw is, or how big his head rig is or (how big a tree it will take). I have helped him there in the mill a little, and he can squeeze some pretty big logs in there. Actually he has a portable band saw mill set up inside the saw mill as well. That way he can roll the cants off the carriage on to the band saw mill if he wants to or needs to. He uses it most the time like sort of like a resaw.
Quote from: glenn kangiser on September 17, 2010, 09:44:29 AM
If you get a chance - pix of it would be nice too. :)
I have wanted to do just that. I have access to a couple of these old saw mills. I think it would be a very good thing to show the process of falling, bucking, skidding, loading, sawing and then the boards.... Certainly would not be a modern computerized mill but one that could be utilized in such a fashion especially if the going gets much rougher.
I did sneak up there today and I noticed it is getting fall.....
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9170151.jpg)
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9170152.jpg)
So rather than help with the building. I opted to till around fruit trees and apply liquid fertilizer. :( Have you ever looked around and the summer has slipped away? Or is it just me?
The trusses are up. My friend the logger brought over his self loader logging truck. They had them up and pretty well secured in a couple hours.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9230189.jpg)
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9230188.jpg)
Our beams we used over the doors for headers worked very well I think. The trusses company liked our design and notched out those trusses for them.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9230183.jpg)
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9230181.jpg)
We also got a load of boards and battens from the sawmill.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9230193.jpg)
Looks good. I plan to do some board and bat. There are old houses around here with board and batten that are over 100 years old.
I can not say enough good about John's booklet titled READ ME FIRST that comes with the Whole Enchilada Plans.
After reading and rereading and digesting it several times I have had a whole different attitude biting off this project. Number one I have had to come to terms I have to hire it done. It is that simple. Because of time constants and other items on my plate it just was not do-able. I might have the foundation poured by now if it were just me. So in effect I have had to act as the general contractor. I have had to do so on several projects in the past. That 'aint hard' I guess and I gain more confidence in each of these projects. I am there some times to help - sometimes to just answer questions and some time be the gopher. I have had to make the drive out and in and out and in in the same day over the years several times. (Mostly having to do with building.) I am not below cleaning up, toting boards or helping pour concrete.... I still love to do that....
This time around I have really taken it to heart from John's booklet and it really helped me get a grasp on this project. "Your highest use is not pounding nails or pulling wire but carefully controling the money flow and getting the best materials and labor for the money you spend.
I work full time for Union Pacific Railroad and am gone a lot. When I am here this time of the year I am up at the ranch. Yes it is a real ranch but until now bare ground --- well from the time my wife and I tore down the last barn. (My dad built it in the late thirties) And I burnt down the last house a couple years ago it has been just bare ground with the exception of one small shed. Though we do lease it out, there are still certain things we have to do.
This shop is the first of the building steps we have to take to move up there full time next year when I retire. Up until now every thing has been underground. Septic is in, 1200 feet of poly pipe and frost frees are buried and is about that much direct burial wire and 500' of 220 conduit to our RV pads. A well of sorts is in, we are still questioning if we are going to have to re-drill or huge tank -- that is another tread in the future.
So last Saturday we took the last of the lumber package up. Then we came back down and I went to work that night. I worked home the following night got in Monday morning. I got a couple hours sleep and got up and headed off to the ranch again. This time stopping off at Costco picking up some RV batteries for the fifth wheel - those lasted huge - since 2004 - but they were done. The builder and his helper had made very good progress I thought.
House wrap is on the south and east sides and the boards are started on the east side.
East side
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9270227.jpg)
South end
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9270230.jpg)
My wife and I took time to get the berries fertilized. They are coming along very well. I am hoping that the black berries we picked out will handle the winters up there. About four thirty I knocked off and ran over to the store and got the builder and his helper some soft drinks and ice cream. It was very hot and they had put in a very full day. We got our stuff loaded up and came out as well this time with the flat bed. We will have to haul up the metal roofing next.
I did get the metal roofing ordered today. We will be able to pick it up Friday morning. My builder says he can not believe how smooth this whole thing has gone except for one day with the building inspector who is sort of confused on code for what we are building. I think that all has been resolved. We are getting everything ready for the autumn - into the winter thing. As soon as we get a few storms we will get some more fire wood cut. If all goes correctly we will be living up there this time next year and working on the new house... [cool]
Very cool indeed Rick [cool] [cool]
what type of siding is that? I like it.
Thanks; that is simply rough sawed Ponderosa Pine that was harvested from our property that had been beetle killed. The blue is a stain caused by a natural fungus. It is completely harmless in most cases. Don_P I think mentioned one client he had that had a reaction to it. That is the only case I ever heard of. There is a hint here and there of it on PineCones latest posting as well.
http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=8030.120
All the walls will also receive battens or 'bats' as we call them.
I use the blue stain with no problem too, Rick. Looking great.
There are people who will pay extra for the blue stain. Back home it was called silver pine. I sorted a truck load of 1x's at the local lumber yard one summer. made three piles/grades. No blue/silver or very little, lots of blue/silver and a medium amount. The medium amount was for me. I got it at the non blue/cheaper price.
Very interesting time up at the ranch and the shop. Someone apparently notified country building and zoning that we have deviated from our building permit and are building a structure to live in. Next some one notified them we are building an apartment or living quarters up there in those trusses. Though I can not find who my accuser is I do know the county is getting a little ticked having to send some one up to take a look. We just laugh. We did have a set of plans with a one bed room apartment over a garage that we had showed to a lot of people up there as something we might build.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/PA010237.jpg)
I am still trying to figure out where the master bath goes and the master bed room ??? I think I found a spot for the breakfast knook! ;D
We did get the paper on the roof in between rain squalls.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/PA060252.jpg)
Joseph the laborer cut off a about a twenty inch piece and it floated to the ground. I went and got it and carefully rolled it up and placed it in the burn pile and kidded him about wasting my valuable building materials. Be danged I had to go get that piece. We were just about 14" inches short. Kuna Lumber sent just enough; thanks Dave.....
Pat my logging, excavating friend came back over and finished up back filling and dressing things up
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/PA060260.jpg)
Everything drains away from the building straight to an intermittent creek or hooks around to the intermittent creek.
Pat had another job going or several others, no one has informed him there is a recession so he loaded up the excavator after I had him dig out another about forty yards of material in case we need it.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/PA060274.jpg)
Wow amazing job guys! Love all the progress pics. This is the most fun part to watch for me.
Looking good and fine progress!
Isn't it always an exciting adventure? Problems and opportunities, they just keep rolling in... sometimes in clumps.
Great looking country.
Thanks BK and John. It is a neat time to be doing this. I just wish I could be up there all the time to help out.
My folks always wanted to do this but my dad could never come to terms of living up there in the winter again. My mom on the other hand would have lived up there year round in a sheep herder tent I think.
My Grandfather who was a real cowboy. That was his vocation, his real nick name was even Rawhide. I am not making that up. He went to his grave hardly ever called George but he was Raw or Hide or Rawhide. He did homestead part of this property. (Where this is being built is on his 180 acre homestead.) He was the first non Indian child up there. He came up there strapped on a cradle board strapped to a pack saddle. My grand father received as a gift 80 acres from his mom when she lost her part of the ranch during the depression. Great grandfather homesteaded this around 1887. So I am the forth generation to own part of this property.
Family outing in the 1890. My grandfather is the little guy ridding doubling in the back.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/sc00419222.jpg)
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P8040344_1.jpg)
Same spot today. I took that picture just after a huge wind we occurred coming out. I had to stop as it was blowing so hard it was actually blowing sagebush across the road then suddenly zero visibility. Then it quit as quickly as it started, calm as could be. It was a Kodak moment. I jumped out and started taking pictures. Ellen down loaded the photos when we got in and matched this up with an old family photo. Year was unknown but would have been 1890s some time. I knew where that old photo had been taken but never actually tried to match it up. Sort of one of those God things.
Great part of history when you can put something together like that of yours. I keep reminding myself to make a notation of events surround my build. It will be a interesting conversation piece for my son later.
Last winter just after the first snows, my camera went on the fritz. It had to be replaced or go to the shop with some major metering problems. So I really was unable to post anything. Having become really in tune to a picture is worth a thousand words, I sort of dropped this project. That and the fact the snows came early. And there was a lot of it right from the start. Boy was there ever!
The builder I had working on it, I told him to not mess with it. It was not worth it, taking a chance getting injured and the hundred mile round trip drives he was doing. Then to get there and shovel snow, finish that in time to leave to go home. This part of Idaho in the winter it gets dark real early anyway. That and it was not like this was the number one thing on my list of things that had to happen.
So I paid him off the total. I know this is not the smart thing to do regardless. But hey; I know him and his dad. I know their work ethic. I am in touch with him all the time anyway. In short they are friends, and the last thing they would do is stiff another local from up there. Not that I think they would stiff anyone..
A couple weeks ago my wife drove up to the ranch. She needed to get some dormant spraying done in the orchard. I had to work. >:( She came back saying there was about a foot snow in the orchard at the most. So a couple days ago I needed to get out and get away. (Cabin fever) I took a vacation day. Me and Tig my red healer dog loaded up my quad and drove to the top of one of the summits. I unloaded there and rode the road up to there. I put on a little over sixty miles round trip. In Idaho we can ride them on dirt roads except federal highways as long as insured and the quad is licensed.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P4150483.jpg)
Things seemed to have wintered very well and nothing seemed to have been molested over the winter.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P4150477.jpg)
The overflow on one of my economy stock watering tanks was plugged with a couple sticks, pine needles and algee. I unplugged it and it all leveled out back to normal.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P4150479.jpg)
The orchard looks very good. Wintered very well. This year is the last year of planting new trees. We have another twenty five coming from Adams County Nursery http://www.acnursery.com/ We have found them very good to work with. They helped us a lot choosing what will work and what will not. Very good input as to root stocks and verities.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P4150480.jpg)
It is so hard to believe that Tig the little pup that is my logo is now almost four. She is very protective of the grandkids and me. Ellen my wife has her own dog another healer. Tig seems to cover me and the grandkids and has the energy to get'er all done. They are certainly not for everyone but for us and our life style they are the best fit having had a wide verity.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P4150447.jpg)
Next thing on the agenda the cattle will have to come up and turn out the last week of this month. Someone else will do that for us this year with my work schedule or I might just take time off. Then we will have to take the old fifthwheel back up and set it up. I /we hope this is the last year for it. Although that has been a great thing for us and we are only out about $2500 on a very small cabin. Yet even some days John's Builders Cottage is looking better to us all the time.
We sure would like to build the house we have talked about. The plans and engineering are all done but..... more on that latter. Right now it is count our many blessings and be glad we are out of debt. Well except for a couple years on the mortgage on the house and acreage in the valley. Certainly not bragging as we have lived there for about fifteen years and is so low that we could get that retired in very short order if we chose to.
The middle part of next month, we have trees and fifty blue berry bushes to go in. We want to fence and plant a garden spot up there this year as well. Then there is a couple fences about a quarter mile long that need moved and .... and I am wore out thinking about it.... Good thing I am about to retire.
Sounds like fun, Rick.
Our current dogs are part healer and we have had a couple of others that were full Queenslands. Good dogs.
I like those tanks.
Quote from: glenn kangiser on April 17, 2011, 09:43:20 PM
I like those tanks.
There are several benefits using this type of set up. They can freeze solid in the winter time and will not hurt a thing. They utilizes free to very low cost resources. They are bull and cow proof. A big 2000 pound bull can rub in them all day and not hurt a thing. When they are filled as they are here, small mammals and birds use them and can get out safely. Sadly with metal tanks this is not true without providing an escape ramp. They will never rust out as will a metal tank. These they have been in now maybe four years and have a fair amount of cattle usage May through November. As you can see there is very little erosion around them. Last year in the evenings in the summer, we are noticing more and more deer using these. Especially when the other watering holes were not producing very well.
I had a deal at the time with one of the local Les Schwab tire stores. We got all their big monster tires for free. I have a few more 'stock piled'. I cut the sidewall out of them with a sawzall. The whole trick to that seems to be keeping water on the sidewall to help lubricate the blade. I have seen them cut them out with a hand saw as well right out in the field.
The spring where this water comes from is about 250 feet way and up hill from there. We opened it up with an excavator. After making sure we had a good flow, we then laid down a bed of gravel. We used what was available locally, it was more like very course decomposed granite sand to two inch gravel. On top of that we laid down perforated pvc drain pipe with a homemade end cap with a poly fitting fitted into it. We coupled 1.50 inch black poly pipe to it and ran it down the trench to where the tanks are now. On top the drain pipe we laid down more gravel and then a couple layers of heavy plastic sheeting. This prevents the soil from entering the drain field and fouling it again We then back filled over the top.
At the tanks, the black poly comes up from the bottom. That can be held at any level short top of the tank but lower than the spring of course. Place another length of black poly looping it out under the first tank to the second and then the third or as we did waste it to a creek for the time being. The tires we held up off the ground eight or ten inches and level. We used some rocks as stands for this. We then mixed concrete and cemented the supply and the over flow poly pipes and the center bead of the tire. We worked the cement under the tires completely around under the tires. We then poured those pads around the exterior. This gives a very good water tight seal and stops the erosion that occurs around stock watering tanks.
You set the level of the water in the tank to the height of the over flow. We wasted the water at the time into a creek bed. Now we use it in the summer time to water fruit trees, piping it in to a large poly tank. If I can get it fixed right with a proper over flow this year. After it fills the orchard tank, I will waste it again into a cistern we put in about 25 years ago. The cistern is maybe another 300 feet away. We never really were able use it as we wanted to. That would utilize that cistern as we then would pump out of it for our garden spot we are planing up there. More and more we come to realize water is our most important natural resource.
Thanks for the details, Rick. That will help anyone wanting to do the same thing. Makes good use of the worn out tires too.
I was just thinking about ways to use our rainwater better and get it stored in the ground but it will require equipment work to do that. Our spring is at the bottom of the mountain so pumping will be required to get it up here.
We finely got the final on the shop. It went a lot longer than we intended and did not work out as planed. The build inspector and the tax assessor all were stating to wonder???
I roughed in some wiring in the shear brace wall. Do not have the electrical permit yet because electrical will be done next year I hope! I hope they do not require me to show them that wall because in order to get final on the building permit it had to be sheeted both sides and insulated. So I took lots of pictures and they will see my other work.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9020627.jpg)
I did split the insolation and worked the wiring inside the bats. I used spring wire to hold the bats in place rather than staples. I still do not know if I like that better. I think I do, however some wires did not hold the best.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9050636.jpg)
Wall sheeted with OSB one side was screwed on because I might have to remove it to let the electrical inspector have a look. Boy will I ever be @#$#$ if that happens! Other side is nailed with 2" ring shanks.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9050641.jpg)(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9050643.jpg)
Soffet and batts on the back side
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9050645.jpg)
North side all but the big doors trimmed out.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9050644.jpg)
Glenn you asked one time what we were going to do for doors. I thought I wanted slider or rollers because of the snow issue. We decided on regular old hinged doors for a couple reason mainly was cost. Two was with the direction of the building and the winter wind direction. That and that cement pad there we should not occur a lot of drifting there. Three if we are living up there year round as planed I will have a tractor and blower or a frontend loader to take care of the snow. Four the locals all said I would be happier with them in the long run because I could seal them up better. And hey if they do not work then we can do something else.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9140649.jpg)
Bats
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9140651.jpg)
Bats
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9140652.jpg)
Yep you got it more bats
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9170656.jpg)
Very sad day for the guy in the basket on the man lift. This is the day after the tragedy at the Reno Air Races. He always goes to the air races in Reno. His dad and brother were there. Their very good friend was the pilot who's Mustang crashed and killed and injured so many. This year because he had work up there for another contractor he did not go. He came over and worked for us that Saturday.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9170655.jpg)
I think that man lift was the neatest thing I ever rented. [cool]
Manlifts are great for getting the job done when it is high work. I use them an just about every job. I don't think there have ever been two manlifts made that have the same controls.
Looks really great! That was sad for your friend & the pilot...
Quote from: glenn kangiser on October 09, 2011, 03:33:31 PM
Manlifts are great for getting the job done when it is high work. I use them an just about every job. I don't think there have ever been two manlifts made that have the same controls.
Having to go three high with scaffold even though I have it did not make a lot of sense. The front of the shop is 53 ft. long with the total roof line and I am thinking like thirty thee feet high sticks in my mind. So having to move it multiple times. We did the two ends off scaffold two high. Available vacation time starting to run out. (Right in the middle of this marathon I almost lost my father. So I had to trow my tools in the pick up and come out. Then spend a week in the hospital with him. And move him to another facility when he was discharged!) We just had to press on hard to get it all done. So the man lift was the only way to go.
I finished trimming out the last drive door at noon the last day of my vacation.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9270661.jpg)
By the time I was done picking up board ends and stuff and the tools and loading all that into the trailer for firewood. Plus loading my new used cheap table saw and strapping it down and discovering the trailer had no tail lights and trying to fix that. It was way past dark thirty and the trailer was still up there when I got home! :D
Compared the danger of scaffold versus man lift. The chance of some one falling is always there but greatly reduced. Plus I am not as agile I once was. And the fact that heights are beginning to scare the #$&%W out of me.
Quote from: Sassy on October 09, 2011, 03:45:53 PM
Looks really great! That was sad for your friend & the pilot...
That young man is quite a guy. His fee for working for others is strictly via donation. You have to pry it out of him what he sort of wold like to receive. Then some times he does sort of bartering, sort of trading. He works up there where ever he can. He is a very skilled builder, handyman, ranch hand and horseman. He flies not near as much as he wants to anymore. He is sort of assistant pastor at the Prairie Bible Fellowship. He certainly has a huge respect of people up there. Even those who are anti church and anti Christian will admit Joesph is not a bad guy.
He handles the Sunday morning service while the Pastor preaches in the morning over at Pine another very back woods community. The evening services are the main service at Prairie Bible Fellowship when the Pastor preaches there. Works out great for him because he lives there and has a short drive after services rather having to return all the way from Pine.
That is huge. Great job.
Quote from: Squirl on October 09, 2011, 07:04:26 PM
That is huge. Great job.
Thanks it measures out at 26 by 50. I wanted to do 30 by 50 but that made the shed roof way too tall. Another four feet on a 5 : 12 and it was going to have to go way too high. As it was it escaped engineering because it is a non commercial ag building. It was the only way I knew to keep the snow from sliding down in front of the doors.
We used a product out of Canada that is become extremely popular up there called LifeTime Wood Treatment. We sprayed it on with a garden sprayer. Some people up there build a trough and dip their boards.
Here Ellen is top coating where we were a little thin.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9270662.jpg)
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/P9270659.jpg)
This week we were up there to tend to the orchard. Shop looked sort of lonely sitting there with a back drop of gold.
(https://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/rick91351/PA200687.jpg)
Next year at this time prayerfully and hopefully we will be dried in at the house. And we will be working on the inside. But that is whole 'nother thread.
Nice work! Also like the color from the fall leaves in the background [cool]
I so love the board and batten look! Very nice!