Hide/Bug-out site construction thread, Part 2

[Flyin6]

I stopped when the inside light began to fail, since I still had some stuff to do outside with the last rays of the sun.

[Flyin6]

I had time for some additional smoothing, however I still need to fill a large area to properly contour the ground

[Nate]

nice

[Sammconn]

Lookin good there chief!

[JR]

Really nice work there. Looks like it is time for a couple of lights.

For the water, the spiral is cheap and easy using drip water line. Not the easiest to keep from freezing. A couple of those in a 4x4 frame would be good start.

[Flyin6]

Back at it tomorrow...

[TexasRedNeck]

Nice work.  You are a brave man pre fabricating all that stuff at home.  I'd be like 4 inches off somewhere and not be able to figure out where I went wrong.....

[Flyin6]

You cursed me!
I got to looking at the stairs and darned if they aren't tilted a bit to one side!

Not the worst thing though. Yesterday I was tugging at this old hard cedar stump. My technique is to open the 4-1 bucket essentially forming a big mouth. I then "bite" down on it and back away. Yesterday the stump was stubborn so I was flooring it trying to yank the thing out. I discovered the tract ice effort of a medium 66 horsepower tractor can exceed the weld strength of the bucket attachment pins. As the stump pulled free the bucket did as well...sort in concert with each other. So that ended my bucket operations for awhile
Time to get sarge down here!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[stlaser]

Yeah the jd isn't a dozer........... But look at the bright side you found the working parameters of that piece of equipment!


& the great thing about steel is it can always be fixed.

[BobbyB]

Yesterday I was tugging at this old hard cedar stump. My technique is to open the 4-1 bucket essentially forming a big mouth. I then "bite" down on it and back away. Yesterday the stump was stubborn so I was flooring it trying to yank the thing out. I discovered the tract ice effort of a medium 66 horsepower tractor can exceed the weld strength of the bucket attachment pins. As the stump pulled free the bucket did as well...sort in concert with each other. So that ended my bucket operations for awhile
Time to get sarge down here!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Why don't you just burn it in place? Remove most of the mass then remove the remnants.

[OldKooT]

I may do a stump removal how-to latter this spring. All you need is a stump, a cordless drill with a auger bit, a stick of TnT and something to hide behind.

[JR]

Well, at least the stump came out. But crooked steps?

[stlaser]

I agree I believe Don needs to refine his "technique" ;D

[EL TATE]

I may do a stump removal how-to latter this spring. All you need is a stump, a cordless drill with a auger bit, a stick of TnT and something to hide behind.

At the scout camp I worked on the rifle range at, we had several stumps that needed removin'. drill, black powder, tannerite targets for safe distance ignition, loads of fun!

[JR]

Not BSA approved, but had to be fun!!

[EL TATE]

closed camp, weekend action. me, Vietnam vet range master, and some other O.A. guys.

[Flyin6]

Yeah the jd isn't a dozer........... But look at the bright side you found the working parameters of that piece of equipment!


& the great thing about steel is it can always be fixed.

Exactly!
I'll just weld it back together and CM

[Flyin6]

Yesterday I was tugging at this old hard cedar stump. My technique is to open the 4-1 bucket essentially forming a big mouth. I then "bite" down on it and back away. Yesterday the stump was stubborn so I was flooring it trying to yank the thing out. I discovered the tract ice effort of a medium 66 horsepower tractor can exceed the weld strength of the bucket attachment pins. As the stump pulled free the bucket did as well...sort in concert with each other. So that ended my bucket operations for awhile
Time to get sarge down here!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Why don't you just burn it in place? Remove most of the mass then remove the remnants.

I've been yanking with success so far!
This one bested me I'm afraid

[Atkinsmatt]

Sarge ready for deployment?  I am sure that he is waiting on a mission. Otherwise he is just sitting around waiting to start leaking.

[Flyin6]

Still out in da woods... Three days so far of work but got sick yesterday! Worked anyway but paid for it last night. Feeling better today...back to sheeting the second floor.

Have developed a ton of ideas for the place.

Need a tower...multiple platforms for antennas, solar panels and wind generator. I am never without wind here. Think I'll wrap around the deck enough to tuck a power and battery room on one corner...wood closet on the other to feed the wood stove.

Thought about the solar water heater. Think I'll add a coil into the wood stove routed to the hot water tank or to a field of radiant floor heating for the shed as an experiment to see if burning wood could heat the whole thing and make hot water for the shower...

Question: if I use cedar posts for the tower I wonder how long they would
 last in the ground? Figure I'd use a 7-8" post for the first level maybe 10-12' out of the ground. Tie them together and brace up then slip down a steel pile a couple feet over the exposed end. Sand the ends round then just slip in the next section into the pipe. Thinking using steel or treated 2 X 12's for the bracing and decking. If I went three sections I'd have a good observation platform. Run a pole up from that for the wind turbine and I'd have the blades I. Almost 40 feet of air

Put the solar panels on the top deck mounted from the sides like  flower pedals then strap on a VHF, a HF, a FM, and a TV digital antenna and I'd have a pretty good spot to shoot deer and turkey from!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Flyin6]

Sarge ready for deployment?  I am sure that he is waiting on a mission. Otherwise he is just sitting around waiting to start leaking.

Like any good NCO, Sarge is ready

Also like any NCO, he will not go quietly!  ;-))

[BobbyB]

Need a tower...multiple platforms for antennas, solar panels and wind generator. I am never without wind here. Think I'll wrap around the deck enough to tuck a power and battery room on one corner...wood closet on the other to feed the wood stove.

Thought about the solar water heater. Think I'll add a coil into the wood stove routed to the hot water tank or to a field of radiant floor heating for the shed as an experiment to see if burning wood could heat the whole thing and make hot water for the shower...



Put the solar panels on the top deck mounted from the sides like  flower pedals then strap on a VHF, a HF, a FM, and a TV digital antenna and I'd have a pretty good spot to shoot deer and turkey from!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

There's a guy up in this area that has 2 wind turbines. Bought 1, and after 6 months got enough money back from the power company to buy the second. But his towers are narrow single poles with guide wires. If you can find one of those old style TV "towers" that used to be by peoples houses; you could re-task it to how you want it. More than enough surface area to mount antennas.

[OldKooT]

Don, take a look at a wind mill tower and you'll get an idea of the strength required for a small wind turbine. Today here in good ole Neb we have a steady 35mph wind with gusts higher, which translates into me having to lock down the windmills to avoid excessive wear and tear. Then the towers really creak and groan.

Don you should look into a small biomass gassification boiler. You could then heat multiple buildings, your water, and have a very low electricity draw for just the circulation pumps. Translated, easy to run on a gen set or battery bank when required.

where is Sarge? I'd have thought you'd have that ole boy down there remodeling the landscape first chance you got.

[JR]

As a note, windpower is very minimal compared to solar, but you have it 24hrs even when cloudy. Wind is not cheap either and it has the drawbacks as noted by Norm.

I like the coil ides for hot water. You could still use the little brushless motor to move that around, just add a valve.

[Wilbur]

Hey Don one thing you might think about are a couple of passive solar heaters like this:



I built one of these (the angled one like the one on the left) more for sh**s & giggles than anything else and I was really surprised at the output. It takes in the relatively colder air from the house on the bottom side, the air then comes into the "heater" portion which is the top half of the unit and then flows into the house. I need a fan to run it more efficiently but it raises the temp by over 40 degrees. Plus its kind of a cool project for the kids to be part of. There's plans all over the web for this stuff and all the materials were easy to grab at HD.

A buddy of mine designed his house in CO using a passive design and he has a small 8x10 room on one corner of the house. He has a sliding reflective shade that controls the amount of sunlight that comes in and a slider into the rest of the house to adjust the airflow into the room. The ceiling of the room is 2x6's with gaps to allow the heated air into the upstairs of the house. He uses about 1/3 of the heat as all his neighbors with similarly sized houses. Now CO and its 300 days of sunshine make it an ideal place to do that but even a little unit can provide a big change if for no other reason than to "take the chill" off a room in the winter. Plus you can just close it off in the summer when you don't need it.

I am somewhat on the fence for wind....I agree it works at night which is good. But I am not sure the cost is that great and it also totally advertises the location that SOMETHING is there which might invite nosey or other folks. I might look for tall trees for radio antennas that could somewhat camouflage them as opposed to a big tower. 

Just my $0.02. I am done telling you what to do with your money for the day.

Well....for the next 10 minutes anyhow!  ;D

[KensAuto]

How much wind occurs at night anyway? Not much around here, but we do have plenty of sun.

[OldKooT]

LoL If you live in Neb the wind all day long is the power maker, it actually calms down in the evening up here on the prairie. I like wind for pumping water, and small battery bank charging is real doable as well. But I don't see it as a cost effective way to generate power in larger doses.

Those passive solar deals are very effective. I built a cobbled together version once for a deer stand...it was very cozy. I keep meaning to build a more polished out version for my wife's work out room, but the cold air makes her exercise faster for heat, so I have yet got around to it.

Maybe I will build one for the grandkids playhouse deal we are going to build. That would be fun and handy to have.

[Flyin6]

Need a tower...multiple platforms for antennas, solar panels and wind generator. I am never without wind here. Think I'll wrap around the deck enough to tuck a power and battery room on one corner...wood closet on the other to feed the wood stove.

Thought about the solar water heater. Think I'll add a coil into the wood stove routed to the hot water tank or to a field of radiant floor heating for the shed as an experiment to see if burning wood could heat the whole thing and make hot water for the shower...



Put the solar panels on the top deck mounted from the sides like  flower pedals then strap on a VHF, a HF, a FM, and a TV digital antenna and I'd have a pretty good spot to shoot deer and turkey from!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

There's a guy up in this area that has 2 wind turbines. Bought 1, and after 6 months got enough money back from the power company to buy the second. But his towers are narrow single poles with guide wires. If you can find one of those old style TV "towers" that used to be by peoples houses; you could re-task it to how you want it. More than enough surface area to mount antennas.

Thought about those old school towers.

Trying to do things on the cheap. Especially retasking things I already own, like 10,000 unwanted cedar trees. I have to cut them down anyway, so other than selling them I plan to use them everywhere.

They should start showing up in the photos here before summer, I'd suspect...

[Flyin6]

So, just getting back from a three day mini vacation down there. Worked my butt off and have the carnage to show for it.

So without further adieu, I ripped the tractor bucket off yanking on an old stump...

[Flyin6]

I yanked both of those pins off but stopped before I tore off the lines. They survived, and I'll just weld the thing back together and drive on.

That stump was a gnarly thing!

[Flyin6]

But the loader arms worked fine still so I hooked into the bucket and carried it over to the trailer

I guess I yanked the cross bar apart as well, so I'll have to buy that little specimen

In retrospect, you win some and you lose some. Overall the day was G-T-G!

[Flyin6]

I did manage to continue grading with that excellent box scraper. I like the newly contoured landscape. Almost ready for some black dirt and weed seed!

[Flyin6]

The berm on the other side of the "Road" has Sarge written all over it. It is going to go away as I do a total reshaping of the grounds around the THS (Tactical Hideaway Shed)

The camper soldiers on, producing no new challenges for me this time. It has a water leak at the toilet from something freezing and splitting this past ice age, but for $50 I'll be back to a normal flush.

The Generec seems to have found it's groove. That little trooper will run for 12 hours on a tank of fuel and still have some left over. I'm amazed...did it break in or something? It was eating a tank every 8 hours last summer running the AC...Maybe the lower power demand from the gas furnace is helping matters?

[Flyin6]

So onto the interior of the shed. Time to get those joists up starting with these shorties in front of the staircase

[Flyin6]

The 7' ceiling height is a bit confining, but cutting timbers and slinging 8 foot sheets of 3/4 plywood posed no added problems for me or it.

The process is laborious when working by yourself with heavy and ling beams. I cut them to 181 5/8" length, shoved one end into a hanger, then did a military press with the other end of the beam, doing a tippy-toe maneuver to drop that sidewinder into the opposite hangar and not my foot.

OK, note here: When doing this sort of thing and the other end comes out, let go and run! Do not try and hang on. You have no idea how destructive wobble, vibration, kinetic energy, bouncing, and old joints can be. If you like hanging on to things like this, maybe you could hold onto a bush hog blade when the pto is engaged! I suspect the resulting discombobulation is about the same!

[Flyin6]

I was just far enough to throw up the first piece of plywood. which I nailed down like the big dog.

Recommendation: Do not nail down tongue and groove plywood like a big dog if you ever anticipate sliding another piece of tongue and groove in to attach to the first piece.

[Flyin6]

That big time stiffened up the WSWDI (Wobble Shed Wind Deflection Instrument)

And the process continued, joist after heavy joist...

[Flyin6]

Now clearing the wall, I was getting good at the process, throwing the rest that I had in an afternoon

[Flyin6]

Ranger was always close by, even when the deer came wandering by

[JR]

Don, just thinking as I don't remember how all this is going in. On the second floor, does it end on another interior wall, or just end?

If the end is not over that wall, I would run a 2x4 up the wall to the bottom of the last floor joist.

Looking at the last pics it appears you some overhang but the joists have no support vs the hangers on the wall so I would think about that..

[Flyin6]

As Norm would say, I kept tossing up plywood, but finally ran out of space due to my lack of 10 more joists to finish the floor out

[Flyin6]

Don, just thinking as I don't remember how all this is going in. On the second floor, does it end on another interior wall, or just end?

If the end is not over that wall, I would run a 2x4 up the wall to the bottom of the last floor joist. 

JR, it spans end to end with an opening for the staircase. The floor will anchor all four walls with a thousand Chinaman ring shanked nails

[JR]

You are a busy man, get Sarge going!!

[Flyin6]

Its greening up...

Closest neighbor. Pic taken with 40X

[Flyin6]

You are a busy man, get Sarge going!!

Its getting hauled down soon!

[Flyin6]

My watch that I wore in the dust of Afghanistan from 2009-2011 died today, a bit after 11!

A moment please...

[Flyin6]

Safety First! Or last, or not at all!

I mounted this fire extinguisher near the glock, err, I mean door.

I can't decide if it's charged or not?!!? Guess I'll wait until something critical is on fire to find out! ;-)

[Flyin6]

Wanting to do something fun that didn't involve struggling against some unwieldly, heavy thing, I thought up a folding table.

It started like this:

[Flyin6]

I wanted something near that window. I was thinking setting late winter seed pots, and other temporary tasks now and then

So I temporarily screwed the top to the wall, shoving a couple legs under, then screwed some hinges to the table and the studs

[Flyin6]

I ran out of hinges, but the legs are to be hinged to the underside so that they, to, can fold up out of the way