Long road to home.

   / Long road to home.
  • Thread Starter
#41  
Ready for the last of the gravel tomorrow. Going to be up early, will post another pic when gravel is down.



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   / Long road to home.
  • Thread Starter
#42  
Ok, got 13 of the 20 loads of gravel that I ordered. Apparently when the guys got to the pit this morning the main loader wouldn't start. So they used the other loader while the mechanics worked on the main one. It wasn't until 2:00 that they got it fixed and boy could I tell the difference. The main loader takes 1 1/2 buckets to fill triaxle, the other one takes 5 buckets. They cut the turn around time from 35 minutes down to 20, big difference. We probably could have finished today had the main loader been up all day. That's ok though just means more seat time in the a.m. Here's a picture of today's work all done by the Mahindra 5530.



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   / Long road to home.
  • Thread Starter
#43  
Seven loads finished off the driveway base exactly. Glad to have that behind me. Wife wants me to move camper back there now. Only thing is we will lose our electric hook up doing that. I have a generator, just don't know that I want to listen to it run. Next weekend I am hoping to remember the laser so I can shoot some elevations for the pole barn pad.


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I couldn't resist the smiley face!
 
   / Long road to home.
  • Thread Starter
#44  
I spent this morning plowing over a couple food plots and then ran the disc over them. This was the first time using the two bottom since I added coulters to it. I have to say that they really do make a difference. The grasses and weeds did not get caught up on the shanks at all. I will be going back Thursday for a long weekend and will run the disc over the food plots again. I know I should do a soil test for ph, then add lime and fertilizer. I have never done this before so I apologize if this sounds like a dumb question, but does it make a difference if I use pelletized lime or bulk(powder) lime? Thanks for any help.
 
   / Long road to home.
  • Thread Starter
#45  
A couple updates, food plots are in. Then I spent the afternoon cleaning up the last of the topsoil around the driveway that I left last week. We had a torrential rainfall this evening and the gravel did well, minimal run off.
I shot some elevations for the pole barn pad with the laser transit. I am going to need another 10 loads to raise it up a foot and then level the site. I am thinking about using screened gravel for the pad, it will make it easier to get a good grade with the smaller stones.

Thanks again for following our progress.



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Here is another picture I took tonight, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for once!


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   / Long road to home.
  • Thread Starter
#46  
I haven't posted anything since end of July as we haven't done anything major, just been picking squash, squash, and more squash. I think next year I will ration out the squash seeds to my wife. We spent this weekend at the farm closing it up for the season. :bawling: I had to finish up a hydraulic project on the tractor Saturday (Added two hydraulic circuits to FEL). Then I used it to load all the implements onto the trailer and back the trailer into the garage. That garage is almost full now. :applause:
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Today we all pitched in and got the camper winterized, so this will probably be it till spring. :thumbdown:
 
   / Long road to home. #47  
Great thread. Just read it all for first time. I know about what a bummer it is to close up shop for the winter. I try to get up several times in the winter, but it is rather inconvenient when you have the trailer all winterized, then try to use it. I have also hauled so many truckloads of limestone that I lost count. My drive is about 900 ft and it was a lot of work removing all that topsoil. I was well into it before I had heard of fabric, so I never used any. It has been holding up well though.
 
   / Long road to home.
  • Thread Starter
#48  
Monday I met with the local power company. We discussed our needs and because of the distances involved this is the plan:

1-Set two poles, one mid span on their existing line other side of the road and the other along roadside on our property
2-Run primary underground cable to a transformer 320' off the road. Cable length will be longer due to route it takes and going up pole.
3-Set 15kv transformer on ground vault
4-Run secondary line to nearby 200A meter then outdoor 200A feedthrough panel with room for 8 additional circuits. from there to house once built.

All this for around $8k, but wait there's more.....:confused2:

Power company supplies and install two poles, overhead wires to cross street, and 15kv transformer, makes all connections.

Power company does NOT supply or install trench, primary underground cable, conduit, transformer base, meter pedestal, meter cabinet, or outdoor feedthrough panel. Everything beyond the meter is all our responsibility, which is normal. That's right folks all that is on top of the $8k estimate, plus I have to install it all. I knew that there was going to be a hefty bill to get this done right. I was surprised when the line engineer said they don't run the underground cable, only make the connections. We are glad that we have the time to get the site work done ahead of time, this will really help keep any mortgage on the actual build down.

Today I had to drive out to a supply house local to the property to order the approved primary cable. The local supply houses near where we live currently don't know how to get it, since our current power company supplies it for you. On the bright side I was able to get it for $0.40 cheaper then two other places I called out there. It should be in middle of next week. We are planning on doing the install as soon as weather breaks this spring, there's just too much going on the next couple months to get it done before the snow starts to pile up. :rolleyes:
 
   / Long road to home.
  • Thread Starter
#49  
Got the call from the supply house primary wire is in, that was quick. My neighbor and I got up and on the road at 6am this morning to go to the property. We had to unload the implements off the trailer and get to the supply house and return to the farm by 12:30 to meet the electrician at 1. We were taking the trailer because the supply house said the spools wouldn't fit in my Tundra's bed. Well, once we got there and got turned around in the small parking lot they brought out the spools on a forklift. Guess what....they would have fit in the bed of the truck, easily. We put them on the trailer anyway since it was there.

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Got back to the farm in time to unload the spools, reload the tractor implements onto the trailer, and back it into the garage for the winter, again. After a great lunch at a local diner we met the electrician. He was down to earth and straight forward with his ideas. Best part is he is willing to oversee the work and let me do most of the labor, best thing I've heard all week. Still waiting for the power company to give me a firm quote on their portion. I will have to drive a piece of 4" conduit under the 24" culvert since there is not enough fill above it to be 30" below grade, at least I get to play with an excavator!

Has anyone ever tried to drive a conduit through the ground?
 
   / Long road to home. #50  
I will have to drive a piece of 4" conduit under the 24" culvert since there is not enough fill above it to be 30" below grade, at least I get to play with an excavator!

Has anyone ever tried to drive a conduit through the ground?
I've never heard of doing that. I'm curious to see how it goes for you. On my property, I can't imaging being able to "drive" a conduit through our hard red clay.

Obed
 
 
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