3R Home and Barn Project

[3RRL]

You know I changed my OEM seat belt out for that new one that rolls itself up. Well, one of the things I thought it did was loosen/relax when there is no pressure on it. And that it tightens (or holds) only when there is a sudden force on it. Now I'm not so sure about the "loosening" part.

While doing all that severe slope tractor work, I was squirming in the seat a lot.(duh)
I noticed that the belt got tighter and tighter on me. So tight in fact, that it was uncomfortably restricting after a while. It did not release/relax back to a comfortable position. I don't know if that's because it was so tight on me that there was always force on it, so it wouldn't relax, or if it just doesn't do what I thought? The good thing is that it did tighten up and for sure I wasn't going anywhere in the event of a tip over.

I will have to check if indeed it relaxes (lets out slack) when I merely buckle up. In other words, when I clip the belt, does it let out to move around or not. I thought it did this before, but I don't remember now.

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Here are some updates from last week.
To start off, their were 2 two semi trucks fully loaded (80,000lbs each) waiting at the end of the culdesac. They said they couldn't make it around the ravine switchback. So the guys unloaded everything right there with a Gradall and loaded them onto trailers which were pulled up by pick up trucks. Then they unloaded them out all over the place before laying them out by numbers.

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Then they got the Gradall and started putting them up on the first floor. And their boom box too of course.



They didn't waste any time laying the first course which is the hardest one to do. It has to be perfect since all the others will pile on top of those. So they spent a good day just doing that.




These are the logs for our stairway. This is the hardware they used to fasten the first course to the headers below and foundation with up to 36" long 1" threaded rods and nuts. Then the other courses are screwed together by 11" long "Loghogs".

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I have a couple photos of the barn pour to share because there was so much commotion going on that day. The barn is 40' x 50' with a minimum 6" slab.

Here is the frame work for the pour.



The first thing that showed up was this thing that pumps the concrete to the site. It was huge. Then the trucks started rolling in and they got to business right away putting it down. This guy (Roy) straightening out the anchor bolts did all the finishing work on the barn and the garage. He also did all the block wall stuff I posted earlier. He is pretty dam good.

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They had 6 trucks scheduled but ended up calling in a 7th because they were short. Each truck had 9-1/2 yards of concrete. They were filling the pump by two's. It was quite a sight as they poured and guys would start working the mud right away.
Of course I was having the time of my life watching all this go down. I'm farmer Rob here.

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Loretta was doing most of the picture taking and she got some great action shots of the guys working.



Roy did the final touches for the barn slab. He then used a "soft cut" saw to put cuts into it when he was all done.

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They had 11 trucks to pour the footings and basement on the house. Then there were 2 trucks for the garage foundation and 7 trucks for the barn. They told me they were all topped off at 9-1/2 yards. Then there should be one more or two trucks later to pour the pad in front of the garage and my walkways (sidewalks) around the home.

I've been busy this week with getting stuff for the well and fixing up my new trailer. I'm adding a bunch of "D" hooks around it and a mount for a small electric winch I have. So I have not had much time between home/family things and my other projects. I'm going back up tomorrow to pick up a 5,000 gallon water tank in the trailer. It's 10' in diameter and 12' tall. Then I'll have to place it on the concrete pad and hook it up.

There is still a ton of brush to clear on that steep slope too. I bought a nice 10,500 lb hydraulic winch so I'll be making mounts for the tractor to use it. Probably make a universal mount that I can move the winch from front to rear and even on the sides maybe? My brush hog project is on hold until this other stuff gets done. On top of that, I have to take my daughter to the airport and pick her up, my cousin is visiting from Holland and I have to pick him up at the airport and drop him off too. There's 4 days of driving around. No time for golf either.
Rob-

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Here are some photos of the garage slab pour. They had 2 trucks come in for this one and only 4 guys instead of 10 this time. It was actually poured 2 days before the barn. Again, Roy was in charge of finishing the concrete work.
They checked for proper drainage slope before finishing it up.



These are some shots of when they were finishing. They used that "soft cut" saw to cut it after they snapped the lines. Also shown is how the garage is located in proximity to the home. Some of these photos were taken from the first floor of the home.
As usual, I am only there to admire and check out their work...looks good to me?
Does it look good?

[3RRL]

I've got a few more photos of the log progress and also a story to tell about picking up my huge water tank. On top of that, I had to get South Camp ready for the Winter again. Plus, my cousin from Holland is coming Wednesday and I wanted camp to look good, so there was a lot of clean up too.

Ok, first is the log progress.
When I got there on Friday, I took these photos. They show the log progress made. Notice that the logs are now above the window and door jambs. It was cloudy and drizzling when I arrived and got down to 36°F at night. These photos start at the left side of the house (master bedroom French doors) and then move to the front and the other side where the garage is. You can see the garage pad in them.

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These are some shots from inside the house.
It's really starting to take shape. I can find my way around and visualize where each of the interior rooms are now.
So far so good and we are very pleased with the progress. I am going back up for a couple days when my cousin comes out and maybe they will have more progress. Only thing there is rain in the forecast, so I'm not sure how much more will get done between now and then.

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Before I get to the water tank story, I wanted to share a couple pictures of the camp I stay at on the South end of the property. Some of you may have read about my adventures at camp in the different threads I've shared in the past.

Anyway, we call it "South Camp" since it's the newer of 3 different camp sites, although we have been tent camping out of this camp for over 3 years now. Out front of this camp is also the meadow where I have my food plot and where we dove shoot. It has been a great camp for all these years. We are going to keep it in shape for the kids and grandkids when they come up to visit. I have built a tree house and a playground for the kids there too, so they can have a great time and at the same time keep them out of my hair.

These photos show the new 30' x 50' tarp which now covers the canopies completely making it even more rain proof. We also covered each of the tents and the bathroom again, but I don't have photos of them. Here is the main deck looking from the inside. We will have tons of shade in the Summer and more protection from rain too. The last shot is the front of the camp site looking from the meadow.



These photos you may have seen before? They are of the playground and the tree house at the corner of the camp.

[3RRL]

Alright then, now to the story of the water tank. I can't believe how many guys were worried about me. I never did get a "Wide Load" permit and decided to wing it to the property. It was closer than I thought and a straight shot to the property. I drove up Friday early to get to the tank supplier between the pick up hours towing my new 16' trailer up from Southern California. It took me a little over 4 hours to get there even going through some heavy traffic in Los Angeles. Once out of that, it was an easy drive even going over the Grapevine pass.

When I got there, there were a couple other trucks ahead of me, one was a dual trailer semi that was loading 8 of these tanks on his truck! I watched how he strapped each one down. Well, when it was my turn, the forklift driver had me pull into the loading area and then proceeded to pick up this HUGE water tank and dump it on my trailer. He just whipped that fork truck around like a toy. Once the dumped it on the trailer I had to start strapping it down.

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It was pretty big and I started thinking about how slowly I would need to tow it. Well, I was right. The wind resistance started pushing it backwards in the trailer and I could see the front dual straps and rope starting to slacken up. I had not put a stop behind the tank, but it was so heavy I didn't think it would budge after I lashed it all down tight. So I pulled over and managed to re-tie everything.

Can you imagine if it blew off the trailer onto the highway? Hahaha man what a mess that would have been..no permit...no sign. There goes all that money I save by hauling it myself. The cops would have given me 2 weeks in the electric chair! ;D

Anyway, I made it up the hill safely. The Blazer pulled the trailer nicely. When I got to the property, I had to figure out where I wanted to park so I could get the darn thing off the trailer and placed onto the concrete pad next to the well. It was now pretty much out of the way after the barn slab was poured. I meant to get this tank installed BEFORE that pad was put down, since it would have been a piece of cake to maneuver around and get to the tank pad. I barely missed some trees as I was looking for a place to park, but I found a good spot.

I was by myself and decided to leave it until Loretta and Wes came up the next day. I figured they would figure out ho to get it off the trailer and place it since my Kama was dwarfed by the water tank. Although there was enough lift capacity, no way was the fel going up high enough to take that thing off. So I went down to camp to work on the Winterizing and new tarp.

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The next morning I fixed some breakfast and started working around the camp. I got all of the new giant tarp tied down Up front it was over 20' to the peak. Loretta and Wes arrived about noon and we finished tying the rear down and fixed up the atrium. If you look at some of those photos, you can see where some parts of that Oak go through the tarp. I had to cut a slot and use Gorilla tape to patch it back up. Then we went up to the home site where the tank was.

I asked Loretta what I should do NOW? She calmly said, "Well, why don't you use the Gradall the workers left up here?" Well, brilliant, why not? I had seen them use it and figured I could drive it. The keys were in it and I saw how there was hydraulics to keep the Gradall level when on a side slope. The rest was easy to figure out. So I re-arranged the lift straps and hopped in the Gradall. I got it lifted up and out of the trailer but soon found there was a tree blocking the path I took.

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Here is a video finding out there is a problem with the route I chose. The Gradall forks were now about 25' in the air. I had to do something else.