Forest Fire in my area

[quikduk]

Bummer about the concrete and the mud (or would that be bummer about the mud and the mud???)

At least your fire danger (for now) is nil.

[GuglioLS]

May 16, 2008 9:52:27 GMT -5 studor said:

That driver must be the guy who was supposed to deliver my concrete a couple of weeks ago! I'm still waiting .
Did you try and yank him out after he dropped the load too?
Too bad about the load -- sure you could have dreamed up all kinds of uses for it (like a pressure washing pad ;D)
Oh well -- it never rains -- it pours
regards
Steve

Steve,
That cracked me up, so your still waiting on some cement? LOL. I later found out they got two trucks stuck out here so it's gonna a be a while before you get yours.

By the time he dumped his load, it was starting to get dark, plus it had continued to rain all day, so the conditions were allot worse than when I tried to pull him out earlier. All the left side wheels are stuck in a deep ditch. The problem is the road is too narrow (large hill on one side) to pull it at any sort of angle, so all I could do was drag him forward or backward making the ditch he was stuck in deeper.

I just got off the phone with the cement company dispatcher. I told them to hold off on getting a wrecker. By tomorrow afternoon(Saturday) the roads should have dried up and I can get him out with the dozer., He might even be able to drive himself out by then? In the mean time, I'm keeping a eye on the truck so it does not get vandalized. Man, I got to work out some sort of deal where they owe me for life ;D I need a slab for a dozer pressure washing station just like you mentioned.

Larry

[studor]

Larry
Yeah -- the guy was supposed to deliver a half load to me after he dropped a half nearby -- well it turns out the first guy under estimated so the truck never showed -- now I have to wait for another half load opportunity I was a little ticked but unless I figure out where to put a full load I'm kinda SOL.
Up here I usually have to haul out a couple of guys every winter who think that a gravel road can't get icy This winter wasn't a problem -- if you slid you just bumped off the 6 foot snow banks!!!
Glad the fire risk is gone -- only problem you have now is the rain will grow a new crop of fuel!!
Regards
Steve

[GuglioLS]

Steve,

I know what you mean about yanking out cars and trucks. Every time it rains or the snow starts to melt, some poor soul (idiot) gets stuck in a bad way. Yours truly gets the honors, usually when it's pitch black and freezing cold. So you had 6' snow banks? yikes, sounds like a bobsled track.
Maybe tell us about your concrete project.

This afternoon I took Goldie out to check on the Cement mixer and to asses the situation with the "roads". The ruts are deeper than I thought, now they are lined with cured cement What a mess. Tomorrow should be interesting when we try to pull this thing out. Maybe Esther and I will tag team with Goldie and the Dozer, perhaps even break out the old '53 Ford.



Larry

[red]

Larry-
What's the composition of the Mud? Cause the fill I got is mostly clay and it dries like concrete! Until it gets wet again. Is there anyway that the truck can be jacked up to fill in under the tires? When they were putting the water main in on our private road the idiot operator was resting one of the tracks on a metal culvert and flipped the (huge) exacavator on it's side. Had to use one of those monster tow trucks to winch the exacavator back up by using a 18" wide tree as a pivot point for the cable and a backhoe to help lift! Good luck -Ed

[studor]

Larry
I kinda embarrassed to talk about my concrete project . Basically the river (large creek) that flows through my property has several large culverts that allow me to cross it. For the last few years I have been getting a raging torrent in the spring and the water rises about three feet. I noticed that this is causing erosion around the face of the culverts and rather than fill it in with rocks etc, my plan is to
divert the water temporarily,
pour a concrete "facing" and
drop rocks in the wet concrete for "looks"
I did this last year on a smaller culvert but I'm getting too lazy to mix the bags of concrete required for the bigger ones ;D
Steve

[GuglioLS]

May 17, 2008 4:31:09 GMT -5 red said:

What's the composition of the Mud?

Dirt and water - LOL

Biomass mountain top soil composed of finely ground limestone rocks, decayed organic matter in the form of, decomposed trees, weeds, pine needles, animals, a little calcium in the form of dissolved lime stone,very little silica sand. The only time it gets hard is when it's packed down and bone dry.

May 17, 2008 4:31:09 GMT -5 red said:

Is there anyway that the truck can be jacked up to fill in under the tires?

Perhaps, I don't think there are any volunteers willing to crawl under that thing in the muck to place a 50 ton? bottle jack.

They called about an hour ago asking if it was dry enough to pull it out. I told them to wait until about 1 or 2 pm. Well see.


Larry

[red]

Larry
GOod thing I don't live close enough I would have been one of those idiots volunteering to place the bottle jack under the truck! -Ed

[GuglioLS]

LOL Ed, I would have loved to seen that. If by some miracle you did manage to jack it up, then what? HaHaHa you would need a giant redwood board about 100 foot long by 24" think by 3 feet wide to put under it.

Well they never did show up to extract their cement mixer, but they did call to let me know they are bringing out a Loader and dump truck to clean up the mess sometime on Monday. I should go strip it before they get here . I've been out there drooling over what I could make out of all the steel. I could turn the hydraulic cylinder and metal that actuates the rear axle assist wheels into a ripper for my dozer and the giant hydraulic motor that rotates the drum could easily be turned into a super heavy duty winch. ;D

Larry

[quikduk]

I should go strip it before they get here . I've been out there drooling over what I could make out of all the steel. I could turn the hydraulic cylinder and metal that actuates the rear axle assist wheels into a ripper for my dozer and the giant hydraulic motor that rotates the drum could easily be turned into a super heavy duty winch. ;D

Concrete truck? What concrete truck?

or

I thought you guys already came and got it.

;D

[3RRL]

Larry,
What an episode!
If it isn't one thing it's another. It's tough enough living in the boonies and dealing with adversity and then to have some clown add to it like that. When he dumped that load, it's too bad he didn't dump it right in the middle of your road. You could have smoothed it with Goldie and had a concrete road for a small section. Heck, that would be better than the mud in that area. He must have been really stuck if you couldn't get him out with the Komatsu. That thing has oodles of traction. Must have been way to muddy like you said.
BTW, what was he doing there anyway? Just lost?
Rob-

[GuglioLS]

Rob,

Yea poor guy just got lost, missed a turn 3 miles back and kept getting deeper and further into trouble. The mud here is both slick and sticky, many have no idea how bad it really is until they experience it first hand. I bet Ken has never fully cleaned it off his RV when he drove through it trying to get to my place. The dozer just spun in the muck, the tracks on it are trashed really bad, I pressure washed it best I could, the rest will have to be chipped off by hand.

Larry

[3RRL]

May 19, 2008 23:53:22 GMT -5 GuglioLS said:

....The mud here is both slick and sticky, many have no idea how bad it really is until they experience it first hand. I bet Ken has never fully cleaned it off his RV when he drove through it trying to get to my place. ....

Hahaha, knowing Ken, he'll still be working on that by 2010 between TKD lessons, school, projects and whatever he always says he's got to do first. ;D

I can hear it now, ...
"I've been thinking about doing that too after I get my ...(etc etc etc) ...done first, but my pressure washer broke. I need to rebuild the 1/4" diameter nozzle that's attached to the gooseneck but I was thinking of silver soldering an extra attachment after using a tube bender and a flaring tool to get the correct angle I need. I want to use some Ø1/2" DOM and reinforce with 1" angle iron drilled with lightening holes and maybe make it out of stainless steel or extruded aluminum. Then I will braze it all together and check the new high pressure pump which I got here Triple High Pressure Pumps so that I'll have ten times the normal force."

lol ... Know what I mean? ;D
(sorry Ken, couldn't resist that one)
Rob-