Hide Site/Bug-out location Construction, Part 5

[KensAuto]

That looks really_other  :)________ Don. My back hurts just thinking about it.
BDE (Big Don Edit)Edit: Ken, you forgot a word...Choose one (Good, Bad, Neat, Crappy, Useless, Cool...Other)
I've watched some of those "fancy pool" shows, where they use similar stones from Tennessee (and probably the tuck among others) to build grottos and such.

[Bigdave_185]

That rock looked pretty darned massive, that's the best place to put it?


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[cudakidd53]

That rock looked pretty darned massive, that's the best place to put it?


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It's there to protect the water house from damage.....

[Flyin6]

That rock looked pretty darned massive, that's the best place to put it?


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Well, that's as far as the tractor could move it!

[wyorunner]

When chief grows a thumb you might have to reposition that massive piece of creation.


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[BobbyB]

Watching it dig in the hands of someone who actually knows how to work it was a pleasure

Bet he didn't break anything/cause an unintended leak/dent/scratch.. or cause any otherwise pricey problem...

[TexasRedNeck]

   Don there is something about stones being put in an orderly fashion into the landscape that lends an air of permanence and quality. Nicely done sir.


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[Sammconn]

Yes looks real good.

[Flyin6]

When chief grows a thumb you might have to reposition that massive piece of creation.


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You come up here, and you can install that thumb!

[Flyin6]

   Don there is something about stones being put in an orderly fashion into the landscape that lends an air of permanence and quality. Nicely done sir.


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Three elements

Rock, glass, wood

I'm keepin' it simple

[Flyin6]

Well the last couple days, I took the newly modified Armee trailer down farm side transferring 84 gallons of dino oil to Sarge, Chief and into the rebuilt storage tank.

That storage tank is now at around 75 gallons, whilst, Chief has 56-70 and Chief has another 75.

I can run for awhile on that thank goodness!

[Flyin6]

The first afternoon and into the night I moved dirt with Sarge to track in and enlarge the levee impounding my canine swimming hole

[Flyin6]

The next morning it was rock n' roll time. (Load up the rocks, and roll them up the hill with Sarge

[Flyin6]

Then I finished stacking in the southeast wall. One down, four to go!

[Flyin6]

I'll throw in some 12 vdc wiring for landscape lighting next time down there before final backfilling

I honored my alma mater with the proper T-Shirt!

[Flyin6]

Then I moved to the front entrance, 3/4 mile away and cleaned all that up

[Flyin6]

My neighbor and I will add in a 20 foot gate in the immediate future to secure his property and double secure mine. Two grand old trees sit opposed to each other and make perfect posts and sit perfectly for a 20' fence

[Flyin6]

Its funny, I was loading boulders easily weighing over a ton and likely closer to 3,000 lbs for an hour and no worries.

Dare to push on a cedar tree and Whamo...a CARREP

Another broken loader cylinder!

[Flyin6]

I think the cylinder rods must be sintered iron. Otherwise, why are the welds not penetrating?

Oh well, nice thing about a project this big, is that there is always something else to do...Back to earth moving

[Flyin6]

Those two work so well together!

Chief can dig a pretty big hole in a short space of time for sure

[Flyin6]

But this little gizmo started leaking again. I must have a bac O-ring, so I'll replace that and be back in business in no time

[Flyin6]

No other leaks anywhere on the machine. I tell you, this is a great piece of hardware!

[Flyin6]

In a fairly short time, I moved a lot of dirt. the excavation down to the "Shelf" is going rapidly

[Flyin6]

And on the levee side that thing is widening quickly. I also cleaned up the field below it to make room for the coming flood

[Flyin6]

Some settling has occurred, but very minor IMO

[Flyin6]

Chief is fast approaching some fresh paint. I have it all figured out except for this bad door, and rocker panel (Can I call that a rocker panel?)

[Flyin6]

Everything seems AOK and only needs cleaning and sanding to be ready

[Flyin6]

Everything seems AOK and only needs cleaning and sanding to be ready

Look at these huge "Builder-Bob's" I found in that hillside. Couldn't be better for stacking into another wall

[stlaser]

Its funny, I was loading boulders easily weighing over a ton and likely closer to 3,000 lbs for an hour and no worries.

Dare to push on a cedar tree and Whamo...a CARREP

Another broken loader cylinder!

Don, two ideas. First bevel the end of that rod back a 1/4" on the diameter. When welding triple pass it. First weld will be the root weld filling that bevel back in. Second or first rather get you a temp stick (welders supply stores sell them in varying temps) mark both the rod and the collar then pre heat them before starting the root weld.

Edit: after further review it also appears from the crap pic you may have porosity in your weld....

[Flyin6]

Its funny, I was loading boulders easily weighing over a ton and likely closer to 3,000 lbs for an hour and no worries.

Dare to push on a cedar tree and Whamo...a CARREP

Another broken loader cylinder!

Don, two ideas. First bevel the end of that rod back a 1/4" on the diameter. When welding triple pass it. First weld will be the root weld filling that bevel back in. Second or first rather get you a temp stick (welders supply stores sell them in varying temps) mark both the rod and the collar then pre heat them before starting the root weld.

Edit: after further review it also appears from the crap pic you may have porosity in your weld....

I thought it may be that that rod material needed to be preheated prior to welding
I concur, I should grind a good bevel first before filling with weld.

Are the rods Iron by any chance? Or some sort of super hard cast steel? I mean there is NO bending them back, they just pop like a freezer hardened hershey bar that my wife is tryin' to hold onto and one of the pre-rangers wants very badly!

[Flyin6]

I repaired the broken cylinder

THis time I cut a deep bevel into the steel rod, about 30% of its depth, then made three very hot passes around the exterior in a skip weld fashion. It looks strong to me, but time will tell. It goes on tomorrow

[Flyin6]

And, I finished the service trailer all except for the canvas cover which is coming at a later point so I can get this puppy into service now

[stlaser]

I repaired the broken cylinder

THis time I cut a deep bevel into the steel rod, about 30% of its depth, then made three very hot passes around the exterior in a skip weld fashion. It looks strong to me, but time will tell. It goes on tomorrow

The shaft is hardened steel & then chrome plated. Hardened steel doesn't like being bent in a press as you found out.....

[Bear9350]

Hard steel also does not weld very well.  There is some porosity there but the weld isn't what failed.  It doesn't look like there was any penetration into the shaft.  Hopefully the beveled edge will give it a little more area to hold onto and the extra hot welds will get some penetration into the shaft.

[Flyin6]

I think this weld is many times stronger than anything that was on there to begin with.

And the shaft was welded to the pin by someone at some point...

[TexasRedNeck]

I guess we'll find out this weekend


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[stlaser]

I agree with bear that hardened steel welds different. It needs more heat essentially, thus the pre heat idea. However, the fact Don triple passed it does essentially the same thing. It's tru on his first pass the starting portion wasn't preheated. By the time he was coming around his first pass if he welded hot the unit was essentially preheated. The subsequent final two passes were then laid in while the unit was toasty. It should hold, however former ARMEE piluts (particularly this one  ) have been known to break bowling balls with rubber ducks so time will tell.

I'm also positive that all the local welders near Don are living a much more peaceful and carefree life due to the fact he welds all his own stuff.....

[Flyin6]

Yep, time will indeed tell.

The rewelded cylinder is now bolted back in place and the other broken one is back at my home shop for repair also

[Flyin6]

For the time being, I am running two different cylinders, but I will return with the repaired black one and have a matched set again

[Flyin6]

I worked on the newest pile of dirt, this time from the opposite side. I am continuing to stretch our and widen the levee portion of the pond

[Flyin6]

The dirt is all tracked in which really packs that clay/dirt solid.

I am about to do a property wide bush hogging. It sure needs it.

This year I allowed the natural grass to reach maturity so it would provide cover for the animals, and go to seed to scatter on the wind to replant the bare spots. It does this quite well.

The short spots are where that new JD 2720 with its 72" deck made short work of the weeds and grass

[Flyin6]

The new trailer was put to work right away, topping up the water tanks to their 660 gallon capacity

Its parked in the pasture near the saw mill for now

[Bigdave_185]

How is the solar water heating system working for now? Has it cut back on the Gas usage on your trailers water heater? Are your catch funerals working?


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[Flyin6]

How is the solar water heating system working for now? Has it cut back on the Gas usage on your trailers water heater? Are your catch funerals working?


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The output temp of those solar collectors is surprising. Mind you, only a small bit of them are exposed to sunlight because of the summer heat, but with only the small patch exposed the output is 10-20 degrees more than the ambient temp.

I'd expect to see ambient + 50 degrees of better when I unshroud the collectors.

Heated water for now is on a different system. Gas useage is minimal. I installed that tank last winter and it has only now hit 50% capacity. I'll fill it when the weather breaks to the cold and this year run the furnace to keep the place 50 degrees when i am not there.
Seeing the potential of this free solar heat, I am definitely not finished developing that technology all over the farm. I want to add a hot water coil to the roof of the camper to heat the underbelly area of the camper to cut down on gas consumption, and maybe even provide for hot water for showering.
That project is just an idea at this point, I have to complete the water collection tank and solar panel mechanical room first....Then the well house, finish the gabion wall, connect the rooms, build a bunch of other stuff, wreck the barn.

Oh and I had a cool idea the other day. Looking at the property, you can't tell by the photos very well, as they tend to push the view toward the two dimensional, but there is a deep valley which narrows at its exit between my camper area and the far field. If someone were to clear out the trees and build a dam across that, it would produce a cool lake. Then that far pasture would be a grassy hill overlooking all of that. That would be one perfect spot for a little country church. A white one with a steeple. A place off the grid to come to worship, or come to be married, or to meet with your creator. I wonder if he gave me that vision or its just me??

[Flyin6]

Another building trip in the bag.
On the collectors, with half of the thing exposed to afternoon sun the outside temp was 73F and its output temperature was 113F. That's a cool +40F delta. THat ought to keep some water in a liquid state during the cold pushed which are fast approaching!
Should have photo'd that, but forgot to.

[Flyin6]

Picked up this new set of earphone noise deadeners. The old sets have succumb to tractor tires and immovable objects. I used these awhile on Sarge and I have to say they are great. They advertise a 34 Db noise reduction. Not sure what sarge puts out, but it was pretty quiet. Normal conversation is 55-60 Db so Sarge is probably in the near 100 range.

[Flyin6]

I moved more dirt over to the growing retaining wall which is well over twenty feet tall on the low side. Things were going pretty well for a couple hours, then for some reason I drove into a pile of dirt and started to lift, and the bucket wouldn't lift anything. Before it was killin' it, just muscling through everything. Now" NADA!

[Flyin6]

First thing was to check and add hydraulic fluid. I had misplaced the key I locked the tank up with, so out came the bolt cutters

I added a gallon to the tank which seemed fine and rechecked. It still wasn't working. I guess I have some bigger issues going on

[Flyin6]

These coffin sized boulders which were going to be moved by Sarge a couple hundred meters to a site where I am building a retaining wall are now the tractor's problem to deal with

[Flyin6]

I was going to fix that leak on Chief, but since Sarge gave it up, there was no need to make the pile of dirt any larger when I currently no longer have a means of moving it. Moving that with the John deere is laughable. Heck, I'd be a month os sundays moving all that dirt!