Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

Started by glenn kangiser, January 30, 2005, 10:24:03 PM

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glenn kangiser

Yeah, PEG, but my cows have no patience.. If they don't see action they start yelling at the top of their lungs.  [waiting]

The snow started melting heavily yesterday and was down to a couple inches in the afternoon.  I think everything was too warm for it to stay long and the cold didn't hold long.  Currently 39 out.  There was a bit of ice this morning but for the most part lots of melted slushy snow and water on the ground.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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PEG688


  Dairy cows aren't patient either , when they want fed and milked they make a racket to let you know they are ready! 
When in doubt , build it stout with something you know about .


Windpower

Our 2 feet of snow from 15 days ago is all but gone today

we are having thunderstorms and rain at 33 degrees F

weird

Is that a 1919 pick up or sedan


beautiful pics Glenn
Often, our ignorance is not as great as our reluctance to act on what we know.

glenn kangiser



Thanks,Windpower.

It is a 1919 Dodge Brothers Roadster.  

Same year and model that Pancho Villa got shot in.  His is in the museum in Chihuahua, Mexico.

We sent Pershing and Patton to get him but did not succeed.  His own people finally got him in a politically motivated ambush.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Jos-Doroteo-Arango-Armbula-Pancho-Villa



Pancho's car in the museum.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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Ernest T. Bass

Sheesh Glenn, your pics belong in National Geographic or something.. Only problem with living in such a beautiful place is that you get used to it and don't appreciate it enough. ;)


Our family's homestead adventure blog; sharing the goodness and fun!


glenn kangiser


Sorry about that, Andrew.  When I go outside in a couple of minutes to feed the cows, I'm going to try to appreciate it a whole bunch more for you.  :)
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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glenn kangiser

So, since you enjoy the pix, Andrew, I grabbed the camera when I went out to feed the cows and got a few interesting shots and a bonus shot.

I took a pix of my old Huntington mill - about 6 feet across and weighs around 12000 lbs - from the 1900 or so era of the gold rush.



Whitlock set the deal to get it up for me for moving some equipment.  Couldn't let that piece of history be junked.  [ouch]

While shooting a pix of that I noticed something didn't look right with my wind generator. [noidea'

I moved around for a better look and noticed some bird had decided it would be a good perch for hunting from.....

Not the greatest photos, but keep in mind that the wind generator is 85 feet tall so the pix were taken from about 150 to 200 feet away using maximum telephoto on my Lumix  camera while hand holding it.  I steadied it on the windmill and my truck, plus it has a built in image stabilizer.



Here is a little closer shot.



And a short video - again on telephoto...




and last, a pix of Broccoli and flowers in the garden.



"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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glenn kangiser

Looks like the bird is an Osprey - up to 24 inches long with a 2 meter wingspan (6.5 to 7 feet)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osprey
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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glenn kangiser

In the above bird pix going from memory, the nacelle on the wind generator is about 8 inches diameter and the tail of the generator is near 2 feet tall.  The blades sweep about a 7 foot dia. circle as I recall.  The pine needles showing in the pix are on a tree about 100 feet toward me from the top of the generator.  The generator mounting pipe is about 3 inches OD.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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speedfunk

Yeah the fog pic looks awesome from up there Glenn .  Nice place you got there  [cool]

glenn kangiser

We get the view quite often, Jeff.

Trying to get a decent pix of it is sometimes a bit hard though.  Thanks.  :)
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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Sassy

If our "herd" of cows gets much bigger Glenn may have to resort to this...   ;D

http://www.wimp.com/helicoptercowboys/
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free

glenn kangiser

Looks like fun, but my 4 little cows probably wouldn't justify the cost..... [waiting]
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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ScottA

LOL, 4? I used to babysit 100 till I realised I was losing money. Still looks like fun though.  [cool]


jeramiez

Glenn,

I dreamt all night about excavations and building and problem solving... this seems to be more regular as we get closer to the move... (I'm sooo itching to be there!!!!) so I hopped on earlier today to re-read a bit...
and something caught my eye....

somewhere... I can't seem to find it now... but it was recent... you mentioned that Mike's method called for no nails in the outer walls.... and I was all like what???? LOL

you mentioned that the earth pressure settled them into place and such... and I get the logic there.... but it must have been something I missed in the materials I got...

So I am rethinking the outer wall to that idea... (not tough, just different....) and It brought up a couple new questions.... oddly enough I wondered how you hang pictures or heavier items (that one would usually hope to find a stud for...) without poking through the waterproofing membrane on the other side of what I assume is a 2 inch thick piece of wood?  (that bothered me in my beginning research but I forgot until now... LOL) or are such items limited to the posts?


then I went back to your photobucket pages and poured through the pics on "magnify larger image" and that brought up a couple more questions....

The concept of the build that I had in my mind pretty much said but your outer wall or roof material to the posts or beams...  it seems that in a few pics there is almost a 2 inch "shim" running the length of the log between the log and the outer material on both walls and roof... is this a building adaptation? something that was necessary for an irregular plum line or a part of the construction that I hadn't considered as well? could one mill an "outer" flat surface onto the logs used and attempt to line them up as plum as could be to overcome this?

A couple of the pics showed some insulation before being covered by what looks like cedar from my desk chair... especially in the bedroom area... do you have an inner and outer wall?

and finally... in one pic of the front door, the "log door", just above and to the right, from the inside, it would seem that there is a separated "dovetail" seam between 2 of the girders... is this something that happened from settling? does it affect the structure? something to be concerned with? just an odd camera angle?  

not trying to point out faults or anything like that... just, as I look forward, it's a good idea to learn from someone who has 'been there and done that' if I should worry about a growing gap between girders, or posts and wall material? and how does one set a good screw for a heavy wall hanging without thinking of possibly damaging the moisture barrier?

probably over-thinking again...  (that is what I do best at times!!!!  :P  )



glenn kangiser

Quote from: ScottA on February 21, 2011, 07:59:21 PM
LOL, 4? I used to babysit 100 till I realised I was losing money. Still looks like fun though.  [cool]

Yeah, Scott.... 4.  If you count the hours, I am probably making around $.50 an hour.  My uncle told me many years ago, if you want to get rich don't try it with cattle..... but they are kinda fun.... the entertainment has to be worth something.... [noidea'

Jeramie, some of the walls are 2 inch thick - some one inch, but you can put anything anywhere you want,  Just use screws that do not go out the other side.
The solid wood makes it easy.... much easier than putting it in sheetrock.... and , yes ... dreaming about it ... as you sleep on it... that is problem solving time, and when you wake up, you will many times know the answer..... [idea]

hmm..... You looked too close at my pictures.... Good workmanship and good measuring will eliminate problems with fitup most of the time.  As we got going further along things got to fitting a lot better.  I had a friend helping part of the time who did not understand the joint concept and cut some of the joints before thinking them out well.  

In other places we decided to expand the building as we decided to keep digging so some unconventional cuts were made and rather poorly fit to make a splice.  Nearly all of the joints in the second half of the construction are a much better fit.  Neither I nor anyone around here had done this before I did it.  I just goes to show you how poorly you can do it and still have it work out fine.  [ouch]

There are may ways to do a better job than what we started out doing.  Try to get at least a couple of inches (ideally about 8 square inches bearing) on and sitting decent to support the weight.  Mike suggested cutting the outside joints to resist the inward push of the earth also, some of the joints were a bit complicated for beginners with few log joint skills.  Thinking and doing makes it all better.  I'm not worried about them though.  They're just a bit ugly... that's all.

The bedroom pops out of the ground so, yes ...a standard double wall with insulation.  Mike mentioned that he agrees with insulation on popouts and even ceilings if necessary.  That was not in his book but on a forum as I recall.  The earth still continues up the roof on top of the bedroom and a straw bale wall insulates the west wall.  It was a head room issue on an afterthought add on.
The  loose boards behind the posts - yes  - no nails needed and if used may cause gaps rather than settling tight, but the earth will hold them firmly in place -- and there is little to no way to get back there to nail in tight excavations.  Some places a nail or two may help - don't freak out about it if you feel you need to do it.  I find that fast and tight rules are made to be broken sometimes, no matter what they say.

The door was made from mostly cedar log slabs that were green when it was made.  You will find that shrinkage is about 5/8" per foot of width and in a couple years it shrunk as it dried.  You will find that it is impractical to wait for boards to dry if you are making them yourself so you will find ways to deal with it - make shiplap, board and batten, lap edges etc.

Just calculate the thickness of the materials you are fastening and use appropriate length screws to keep from going through the wall.  A one inch board will hold a lot of weight unlike sheetrock.

Better to ask about the things I screwed up than to do it on your own place.. :)




"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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glenn kangiser

#2166
Got the portable electric fence set up on a bit of the neighbors property yesterday and the weedeaters are happily eating away for a few days.



I will have to get up there and check out the rest of the fences so I can expand the area they have to eat.

Here is a short video of them following me up the hill and letting me know they want me to find them food.



Short MP3 on Dexters - has an ad

http://old.brownfieldagnews.com/resource_other/20080721/83dc8fb8-9aa0-1c0d-011c1bb3311522d0/084342/LCL-Long-Show01-2008-July25.mp3?
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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ben2go

The most cattle we ever had on the farm I worked was 30.4 seems easy to manage,if you take the rough terrain out of the equation.We had horses also.Never had to use them.They knew when the hay truck was supposed to be around.

glenn kangiser

After following me back from the airport with hay and grain, these guys expect the Bush Hog to have something to do with food.  :)

Getting them used to following feed and grain really improves the ease of getting them back home.  Glad Whitlock taught me about that.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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glenn kangiser

Finally got some more pretty nice lumber cut the other day and moved it into the great room today.  Sugar Pine 1x12's 16  feet long.  I had to get the saw running a week or so ago and had a log on the carriage so thought I would make something useful out of it.



Some of the trees are starting to bloom pretty good now.  This is the Pluot tree with 4 types on it.  It has fruit continuously for quite a bit of the summer.



"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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glenn kangiser

Nice day today so I decided to start another hugelkultur bed and bury the brush I got off of the brushing job last year.  That will get it out of the yard and let it start decomposing as well as gathering moisture to help keep the garden growing well this summer.  I try to reclaim another new area or two each year.



This one is in an unusable area that was below the fruit trees.  Now we have another 12 x 30 or so flat spot that will be made into garden.



First I dig out a hole saving the top soil, then pack the berm on the lower side to help retain the terrace as the Chinese do on some of their earth terraces, then rather than just filling it with topsoil, I fill it with a couple or more feet of brush as I learned on Permies.com, and then pack it down with the Bobcat and cover it with top soil.  Later I will add some manure, wood chips and hopefully some compost to make better topsoil for the new garden...Above was about four 12 cu. yd. loads of brush that I buried.

I will spray it heavily with EM to help break down the organic material into nutrients that are easier for the garden plants to use.

Here is the completed bed with the topsoil covering the brush.



So a once useless area is now useful and keeps a bunch of brush from being burned and turned  to smoke and ashes as well.  

"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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Ernest T. Bass

Man, I can't keep up with this thread.. Cool paper weight, cool bird, cool flowers, cool cows. My dad has a Lumix--nice camera. Takes good video, too. We made our X-mas music video with it.

Our family's homestead adventure blog; sharing the goodness and fun!

glenn kangiser

I was pretty surprised at how good the videos are from the Lumix, Andrew.

Nice thing about it is that you can go from video to still to extreme telephoto with the twist of a knob on one camera...instantly, and with the image stabilization, you can make shots like the bird one without having to go get a tripod or risk blurring the pix. :)
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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Ernest T. Bass

Yeah, that camera's video was putting our camcorder to shame, especially in low light, so we sold it and got a used Panasonic MiniDV. Now we've got our own Leica lens and image stabilization... And we keep thinking about how much better Indy 3 would have looked had it been filmed w/ our new cam...

Our family's homestead adventure blog; sharing the goodness and fun!

glenn kangiser

Your stuff is always great.  Looking forward to your next one.

Got busy with other things and didn't check on the cows today and they didn't come down..   Didn't hear them...something doesn't seem right...... [waiting]

Guess I'll check them first thing in the morning.....

Maybe they are just too busy eating to say hi.... yeah.... right....... [noidea'
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

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