Hide Site/Bug Out Location Construction, Part 6

[Flyin6]

Looks good, dogs like it too.

I guess the 97 is the only thing running right now?

I also have the excavator up and running, and would be hammering that pond today, except that I have a sleep study to go to tonight.
Tractor may be running, dunno, it's at the shop

[cj7ox]

Don, the place is looking good! I am a little disappointed that you put a "French" door on your barn. That just seems like a potential point of failure if the barn gets invaded. Couldn't you find an American one? They are historically much better at holding the line! ;-)

[Flyin6]

That Kubota is a darn good machine. Everyone loves ours. We did have trouble with it running right. Changed fuel filters a few times and so far so good. I talked to the dealer and he said a few others had the same problem. Figures must have been contaminants in the fuel system from the factory. Shouldn't have to change fuel filters multiple times in the first 20-30 hours.

No issues with mine and already at 70 hours.
I think those things are fantastic. Honestly they all but eliminate the need for a tractor.
Speaking of which, I have toyed with the idea of buying that front mount bush-hog and canning the pto tractor mount thing. If I do that, then I no longer need a 73 horse tractor, and could get by with something like a little hydro 40 HP since all I need to run is my chipper.
Those front mount bush-hogs have two large bowling-ball looking wheels on the front so you just lower and drive away. The Kubota cutter has like a 6" cut capacity so just slinging grass with it will be no issue at all.

[Flyin6]

Don, the place is looking good! I am a little disappointed that you put a "French" door on your barn. That just seems like a potential point of failure if the barn gets invaded. Couldn't you find an American one? They are historically much better at holding the line! ;-)

Well, in my humble defense, when I think of the "French" I don't think of poodles or toast or unused rifles.
Nossir, I think of General Layette who whipped the American national guard bums into a fight force effective enough to send the British scurrying for their very lives.
They may not be all that numerous, but there are a few who mattered.

[Flyin6]

Don, the place is looking good! I am a little disappointed that you put a "French" door on your barn. That just seems like a potential point of failure if the barn gets invaded. Couldn't you find an American one? They are historically much better at holding the line! ;-)

Oh and I sent you a PM, check yur mail!

[cj7ox]

Don, the place is looking good! I am a little disappointed that you put a "French" door on your barn. That just seems like a potential point of failure if the barn gets invaded. Couldn't you find an American one? They are historically much better at holding the line! ;-)

Well, in my humble defense, when I think of the "French" I don't think of poodles or toast or unused rifles.
Nossir, I think of General Layette who whipped the American national guard bums into a fight force effective enough to send the British scurrying for their very lives.
They may not be all that numerous, but there are a few who mattered.

So, you're saying your door was either made in the 18th century, or by French Underground veterans? ;-D

[Atkinsmatt]

De Fluery was the French Engineer who help the revolutionary folks defend West Point.  The highest Engineer Medal in the Army is named after him.  One of the few good things from there.

[Bigdave_185]

Got any full pond views or updates on them fancy fish?


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[Flyin6]

Excavator is back down...Grrr
When we reassembled the hydraulic lines, we picked O-rings from a kit I have of a thousand of the things. Well, apparently some (Or all??) are not sealing. I was getting an oily rain, during the rain, but the machine was digging up everything. Darn I like using that thing.

So to recap. This summer it is all about getting the barn done and all the dirt work done.

That dirt work is: Finish the pond
                          Build the stone wall around the barn
                          Cut the banks back on the road
                          Finish the pond
                          Get the gravel in
                          Cut a new parking pad near the shed

So far I have all the roads cut in and ready for seed. I have the stone wall around the barn complete. I have ordered gravel every week for almost two months and have not gotten the first load in yet ??????? The pond work sits at 50%-60% complete at the moment.

So I am well into it, but fighting nature's deadline that starts with the autumn rains that will all but stop any heavy machinery from being able to effectively operate.

[Flyin6]

Been working in the rain the past few days

[Flyin6]

Me/the dogs have suffered as a result:

[Flyin6]

The excavator, despite having leaks is killing it. I have new O-rings ordered which I can install in a couple hours once they come in.

That beautiful Hyundai 380 is my neighbors. Man, what a machine. Has a 60" bucket. Oh and I thought mine had a 42" bucket, but turns out I have been digging a 48" 1+ yard bucket!!!

[Flyin6]

You may not be able to tell, but the dirt deck on the left is four feet taller than before. The idea is that the road around the pond becomes a perimeter with a nice sloping grass lawn to the pond's edge. About half of the dirt has already been moved. I use the Kubota to dig the soft soils, then the excavator to dig out the rock base and do all digging underwater.

[Flyin6]

To add a little architectural interest. I have added another stone retaining wall to one side visible from the barn

[Flyin6]

I also stacked up tons of logs, big branches and the like to cut up for firewood. Making decisions for the barn, I am going to wire it up soon, after I get that elusive concrete pad in, and place Pex in for water lines and a future water boiler. I am thinking also of tossing a pond loop in that freshly excavated pond to run to a future cooling unit for the same barn. Not sure what I may do with it, but cooling it may allow me to do projects in there during the summer when I am over 100 years old...Just plannin' ahead!

The road in and out is undergoing a major transformation. Currently, when it has not rained you can drive a car in to the farm. After gravel, you could drive a nice car in there which will open the figurative door to my wife being there full time.

[dave945]

Did you kill the tire on the John Deere?  It looks flat. Other than that, everything is looking really good.


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[JR]

Love my Kubota, but it needs a grab handle on the right.

Just a few o rings and no leaks, great.

[rpar86]

PEX in the floor for radiant heat, or just for domestic water?

[JR]

My understanding is the PEX is "oxygen free" type for in floor heating.

[Flyin6]

Did you kill the tire on the John Deere?  It looks flat. Other than that, everything is looking really good.


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Neighbors tractor. I just felt a "kinship" with it (since it's there and its broken!)

[Flyin6]

Setting up for the concrete floor.
Corey wants to do a 6" pour reinforced with 1/2" rebar tied together on ___' centers.
Price is $12K for the gravel to grade, forms where necessary, rebar, labor, crete, saw cut and sealed.
I told him to do it. Maybe 2 weeks.
After that, wiring, lights, panel, then a wall up front and importing cabinets and benches.
I'll leave some benches up in the shed for now, since I will be doing a ton of work in there soon.
Paying for every bit of it with earnings from the BitCoin investment.

[stlaser]

Who’s dozer?

[Bigdave_185]

That is an amazing price on mud and prep!! Sold!!


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[Bigdave_185]

We poured a little bit today $2800 worth for a approach and 10x18 square to hold up my gates


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[rpar86]

They didn’t crack your driveway again did they Dave?

[Bigdave_185]

They didn’t crack your driveway again did they Dave?

Nope it was a pretty empty truck with only 4 yards or o left in it,   I did however last week  crack it with the 12k skid loader when cleaning snd spreading gravel


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[Flyin6]

Who’s dozer?

Neighbor owns three. two D-6's and a D3K

[dave945]

Who’s dozer?

Neighbor owns three. two D-6's and a D3K

If he needs a place to park and exercise one of the big boys, he can come flatten the ridge top out back.


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[Flyin6]

Who’s dozer?

Neighbor owns three. two D-6's and a D3K

If he needs a place to park and exercise one of the big boys, he can come flatten the ridge top out back.


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You'd have to ask if you could even afford the gas. That "R" model is using about 300 gallons a week!

[Flyin6]

I've been steady at the dirt work. Thing is, you can't spend a full 8 hours just moving dirt. Heavy machinery takes its tool. It demands your time. I have to work on my Excavator nearly every day. It needs greasing all the time, about 1-2 tubes a day. Pins will walk out, somehow shearing the retaining bolts!!! Wires, leaks, broken this and that's, its never ending. But when they run, man can you move dirt!

[Flyin6]

Look what you can pile up in just 10 minutes:

[Flyin6]

I now have almost all the land graded all around the pond to final dimensions. It has been a mammoth task, but it is my summer goal to finish the pond and forget about it

[Flyin6]

Now all the ground around the pond, which is down three feet due to all the digging, slopes toward the water.
Most of the big drop offs have been removed, and a nice amphitheater like structure has been built up. Just look at how much dirt I have stacked up over now, three years:

[Flyin6]

The roundish area with the stacked bolder backdrop has now been all dug out and is ready for fish

[Flyin6]

Everything is excavated except for the shelf where the remaining cattails are growing. Once that is out the digging here will be complete.
The huge volume of added earth still to come out will be used to build a ramp up the side of that steep dirt wall/berm. That will reinforce it and provide access from below for tractors, 4x4's, or whatever.

[Flyin6]

The access road into the farm continues to improve:
As a side note, trees from all that dozing have provided me with all the firewood I'll need this winter to heat my home
(Also a view looking back into my place from that freshly dozed area.

[JR]

If that pond clears up it will be really nice, fish's job, right?

Poor grader looks tired, did abuse it?

[TexasRedNeck]

Makes me sweat just seeing the ex that close to the edge


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[rpar86]

Makes me sweat just seeing the ex that close to the edge


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We need a like button on this site. Lol

[Sammconn]

Makes me sweat just seeing the ex that close to the edge


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We need a like button on this site. Lol

I thought of you immediately Charles. 

[Flyin6]

Makes me sweat just seeing the ex that close to the edge


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We need a like button on this site. Lol

You want the job? From what I see, I don't really own the place, well, that's not true, but I don't control it (Very well). You all just point it in the direction you want and ride off, so if you want a Like button for the site, whatever that is, go get it...Coordinate with Me or Nate or Ken, or Shawn, or any of the other people who think they run the thing, and one of us will hook you up! ;-)

[Flyin6]

Ex hasn't been in the pond, but my new CTL nearly rolled off the embankment!
Was tracking in some mud I just dumped over the side with one track on and one off. The bank let go and just like that I was listing heavily. I knew I was going over on the roof a couple of times so my only real question was whether or not I should try and get out. Then I had a thought. Just try and point the thing down hill. That got the nose pointed downhill, but with no hope of ever backing out, but it did not roll.
I got the Excavator and from below reached way up and grabbed onto the bucket and pulled it around to a straight up nose down attitude.
You should have seen it! It was so nose low, I feared it might endo, but the sticky mud held it in place like flypaper. So I scrambled up there and drove it straight down that embankment!
That ex saved the day...Then I realized I had set my camera on the track before moving...
(Just kidding about the camera, it was my sun glasses...Got cha!) Ha!

[JR]

Been there a couple times in the KUB/Dug, what a weird feeling, maybe like flying with you?

[Flyin6]

Been there a couple times in the KUB/Dug, what a weird feeling, maybe like flying with you?

No more like when I was in my buddy's GTO and we had just cut a power pole in half and was rolling down a hill...At least that's what I was thinking at the moment

[EL TATE]

Been there a couple times in the KUB/Dug, what a weird feeling, maybe like flying with you?

No more like when I was in my buddy's GTO and we had just cut a power pole in half and was rolling down a hill...At least that's what I was thinking at the moment

missed the pole, went about 5 yards into a freshly plowed cornfield, about 2 ft to the right of the irrigation canal. pretty sure we had the same buddy.

[Flyin6]

So...

Something odd came up

My neighbor who is building that road through his place to mine offered to trade his farm in another county even up for mine

I'd be giving up my 91.27 acres for his 121 acres...even us. He has a solid tobacco barn, fields like mine, electric power, a cistern, and he said I could have the double wide mobile home to. It is far from new and I'd likely just get rid of it.

Interesting...something to think about.

[Flyin6]

Been there a couple times in the KUB/Dug, what a weird feeling, maybe like flying with you?

No more like when I was in my buddy's GTO and we had just cut a power pole in half and was rolling down a hill...At least that's what I was thinking at the moment

missed the pole, went about 5 yards into a freshly plowed cornfield, about 2 ft to the right of the irrigation canal. pretty sure we had the same buddy.

We were racing (ourselves) and he did not make a turn. Slid off the road at 70-80mph and hit the pole almost even with his door. He was crushed up against me with a head injury. Then we rolled twice crushing the roof almost all the way down and tossed the engine out while doing so. Pretty hard impact. He was hospitalized. Me: nada, checked out and sent home

[rpar86]

So...

Something odd came up

My neighbor who is building that road through his place to mine offered to trade his farm in another county even up for mine

I'd be giving up my 91.27 acres for his 121 acres...even us. He has a solid tobacco barn, fields like mine, electric power, a cistern, and he said I could have the double wide mobile home to. It is far from new and I'd likely just get rid of it.

Interesting...something to think about.

First question… what’s wrong with his other farm? ;). You’ve poured so much blood, sweat, tears, sunglasses, cameras, chainsaws, brush hogs and tractors into this place.

Makes sense for him to have two properties side by side.

[JR]

Like I said Don, sounds like flying with you.

Is this "another property" next to yours? I thought you had around 140 acers?

[Flyin6]

Like I said Don, sounds like flying with you.

Is this "another property" next to yours? I thought you had around 140 acres?

It's not close by. I looked at it. Kat nixxed it. Monster power lines overhead, I would not consider...Head is already on fire, don't need that too.
No, my current property is 91. Looking to add my neighbors 78 for 169 total