Everything is looking great!  What is the reasoning for the raised floor behind the bar area?

That's really clever.

I modified the rail protectors so the sling can actually mount.

Well just had a bit of a strange lunch our.  I walk into our local pawn shop looking for .22 ammo since all of the major chain stores are out.  Must be a local shortage or something strange.  Of course they are also out of .22.  But up on the wall I notice something strangely similar to the beginning of this thread.  Sure enough as I look it over closer, Sig Sauer 716, 16", 7.62.  It has a couple tiny scratches from being handled but appeared to never have been fired.  So I start asking questions.  The pawn store has lots of guns but mostly used.  They are an FFL dealer but don't sell many new guns because the profit margin is slim compared to the bigger stores around here.  Apparently someone either special ordered or purchased this 716 online and had it sent to this FFL dealer for pickup.  In between, he ran out of money and couldn't complete the transaction.  So the pawn shop ended up with it.  They have had it for several months, but since they are basically located in an "inexpensive" part of town, no one around here has the cash to take it home.  The gun is brand new, except for being handled and on the shelf for a while.  They had the original box, original paperwork and one magazine that go with it.  He assured me, the original warranty would still apply, though I forgot to ask exactly how long it is for.  So I was sort of half serious and threw out a really low ball offer for the heck of it.  After some haggling, I paid $1900 plus tax and I pick it up tomorrow.  Good deal or no?

A couple questions for the experts, this one did not come with a sling - was that optional from the factory or did someone lose it along the way? I can have them look around a little closer if it was supposed to come with one.  I just wanted to know for sure before I ask about it.

Also the adjustable stock is a slightly different design than the pictures of Don's.  The release is under it instead of in the middle.  Again is that an optional component, or is mine possibly a couple years old?

That was awesome!

OK that's pretty funny.  And she sounds perfect for you.

Any chance you want to post the parts list for this build?  I am new to these guns and considering building rather than buying.  But if I build one I want to know at a minimum I have all the pieces before I start.  You make it sound easy ... but I bet that comes with experience.

I've had friends who ran it. I wouldn't as I believe the pvc over time can become brittle & deteriorate.

Correct, and when the brittle PVC plastic finally fails it EXPLODES and sends shrapnel everywhere.

We discussed using PVC or other plastic pipe. They refused to do it unless it was steel. He said he had seen one shop that used plastic and when it blew it blew a hole in the wall. If someone was standing there they would be dead.

That's a great example.  I have also heard of testing sanitary waste PVC piping with air simply as a leak detection before it's done.  When testing with even low pressure air like 15 or 20 psi, fittings that never got glued can become dangerous projectiles and be shot across the room.  Air when compressed contains a lot of energy so you want the failure method to leak slowly, which metals tend to do.  That's why this new plastic / aluminum combination pipe is interesting to me, it appears to be safe but also quick, cheap and easy.

Similar to cudakidd, we received a wet and heavy 12 inches of snow.  Apparently they had been forecasting it all week?  I dunno, didn't pay any attention.  So it caught me off guard, last weekend was 60 degrees for cryin out loud.  Luckily I had just finished throwing the snow chains on the tractor and doing the pre-winter service.   So it wasn't a big deal.  And I had just enough fuel to get the job done!  Which was also a surprise, thought I had 10 more gallons left.

I have always really liked the power wagon.  I remember seeing the pre-production model at the Chicago auto show where they had a demo unit running circles on a course with a significant 3 wheeled frame flexing section.  The sales pitch was that the truck was built rigid enough to easily open all the doors while one wheel was off the ground.  Plus with the off road options, it seemed like they were pretty serious about it.

But of course like many have commented, I wish the diesel was an option.  Still as a daily driver, the gas engine has some pros.  Most notably for me is that it warms up faster in cold weather.   

Don to your point about using the $8,000 in savings to cover fuel costs.  That's not entirely accurate unless you plan to own the truck forever (for you might be reality).  For the average buyer, spending money on a diesel is more about just tying the money up while owning the truck rather than losing the money.  $8,000 add for the diesel engine new is still close to that in the used market when the time comes to sell it.  So if you drive it for 3 years and sell it, you get almost all of that additional money back anyway.

Truck like that up here would have an asking price around $8-10,000 or more.

I concur.  I have been keeping my eyes on craigslist for a while and there hasn't been anything for a decent price recently.

Plus Chick-Fil-A is just so darn delicious!!!!  And they are the only fast food place that I know of who offer actual fresh fruit in a kids meal.  We've been driving 20 minutes out of our way to go there for years and now they are finally opening one on my drive home!  We're a little bit excited :)

It should be noted that each post to beam connection has a heavy metal strap over the top of the beam to hold it down into the V notch at the top of the post.  Also there are two 12" metal spikes that were pounded down though the beam into the post.  I fully expected to add diagonal bracing of some sort at each joint, but when I was installing the layer of 1/2" plywood on the roof I could basically jump side to side at the top of the peak and the roof didn't sway at all in any direction.  So I never did install any diagonal bracing.

More to follow...

After that the posts were tamped in and leveled.  The tops were all cut with the chainsaw into a V in preparation for the main beams.  We selected the straightest trees we could find, the larger one was already dead and the smaller one was partially dying anyway.  Cut them down and dragged them back.  My son was a great help peeling the bark!





This is where I began to deviate from the original plan.  I wanted to frame the entire roof with lumber I had in the woods.  Unfortunately after further investigation, the trees I have down and ready to cut up are not very straight.  Those all came down with a recent storm.  The only trees straight enough were over 50 feet tall.  I couldn't bring myself to cut down healthy trees for my project, so off to the lumber yard we went.  I guess I would rather use healthy trees from someone else's property than my own.

I decided that I needed an out building, barn or shed of some sort to keep my tractor and implements out of the weather.  After researching the available options, I wasn't completely satisfied with the durability or cost and wanted to build it myself.  Luckily when I bought the property there were several older telephone poles left from when they replaced the line on our road.  So I got to work building the largest structure that I could with the size materials available and that I could reasonably accomplish on my own before winter.

Step 1 was to clear all the trees, brush and re-grade the area flat.  I don't have any before pictures.  But here is what it looked like when I started to layout where I was going to place the posts.

If you try to tighten a harbor freight Chinese bench vise with too much force, the threads in the casting will strip out.  Not sure if that is common for all of them, but mine stripped out pretty easy.  I was tightening by hand, not using a cheater bar or anything like that.  Might have been a bad casting, but it looked fine at first.  Good news is HF traded it easily for another one.  I have been very gentle with the second one and it's a couple years old and still working.

I agree, I see what you were trying to do, but unfortunately the door looks like it was something my wife found on pinterest that was done by one of the under talented, egocentric millennials.

Haha, sorry I don't have any idea where you live.  Shipping it might cost more than the vehicle!

It's definitely not red anymore!

That's a real nice swiss ski chalet you built there!

I know what you mean.  On paper financially, it makes almost zero sense for me to consider buying it.  But when I when I walk out there .... it's hard to let it go without knowing what will become of it.

Earlier I mentioned that there was a push to develop this land several years ago.  I have now done more research and learned that this was prior to the 2007 / 2008 housing crash.  During that time the developer purchased a similar plot of land closer to town, divided it up and has it listed for sale with lots of small lots.  It has been for sale ever since.  You know how many lots he has sold?  None, not a single one.  Ever since 2008 our area has been in a slide backwards, not a growth.  If I look further west of my house, there is another development where the roads actually got installed and a few houses were built prior to the crash.  There are probably 50 lots that are each 1 to 3 acres.  Of the 50 available, maybe 8 have been built on.  So there is currently a very large supply of places to build a house and a shortage of people coming to the area.  This definitely makes me a lot less worried about the land in question by my house becoming developed.

On another note, I have discovered that one of my neighbors is experimenting with growing 18 acres of organic corn to sell to the local breweries.  If that becomes successful, this land would be an ideal location since it is surrounded by forest, road and the 3 houses of which mine is one.  There would be almost no danger of being contaminated by another non-organic farm.

We are straight west of Chicago, right on the Mississippi.  Winters are cold and snowy, summers are hot and humid.  According to the map it looks to be a very similar climate zone to most of New England.

Also worth noting, my dad replaced his furnace and a/c condenser last year for about $8,000.  He considered geothermal, but the well drilling gets expensive.  I think he would have been over $20k for GT.  So it's more than twice as efficient, but more than twice as expensive also for a new installation.  I think his furnace and A/C lasted 25 years.  I would expect the geothermal equipment to be similar.  The difference is when replacement is needed, I don't have an external condenser.  So I bet replacement will be less than $8,000.  So it really boils down to whether you want to spend the additional $12k for the well drilling on day 1 in order to save the energy for the life of the house.  Average rough number is that I save about $1,800 per year.  So the payback is around 6.5 to 7 years.

Would I do it again?  Absolutely!  As long as I plan to live in the home more than 10 years I would always do geothermal for my home.

And don't think I am trying to convince you simply because I was persuaded by a local geothermal company.  I didn't install mine.  I bought my house with it already there.

Koo-T

I like the flail mower concept. I am using a bush hog now because I am mowing trees up to around 2". Could a flail mower handle something that size or is it just for pasture weeds and grass?

2" ?!?  I have always used a hand saw or chain saw for trees over 1" diameter.  If you are trying to mow them down, no wonder you keep breaking stuff on the tractor!  It must make an awful sound when it starts to cut into the 2" trees.