Larro Darro
Super Member
Day before yesterday I decided to start work on a camp on our pond land. A few years back, Sister and I divided that 40 acres, 28 to me and Margie, and 12 to Sister. So the first thing was to step off 132 yards from the north crossroads to get the land line between us.
With that done I started looking for a good site. I wanted a view of the pond without being too close in case of high water. The good high ground is all in the direction of the road, and you don't really want your camp to be visible to passing cars. So I found the crest of the hill where it crosses the road and came back to the south until I could see the pond. You can still see a flash of color when a car passes on the road, but I'll plant some trees to take care of that. I didn't nail down an exact location, but I knew it would be close, so I unloaded all my tools and started thinking about building materials.
I have a couple of tin buildings across the road from the pond that need tearing down, and I was planning to use the tin on the camp. But the drive coming in goes right by the old corn-crib. It's a concrete block building that got most of the front wall knocked down by an oak tree several years back. Building underground had been in the back of my mind all along. I figured block would be about as good as it got for an underground building material. So I backed the truck up and started loading the block off the ground. Soon I was done with them and having to pull blocks from the wall. In two loads, I got 76 whole block and about a dozen half blocks moved.
This was what was left of the front wall {the few upfront}. I was using a 2X6 to "gently" loosen some of the block, but these were more secure.
I got back to it this morning. I worked on the south wall to round out a load. {about 40 block} The south wall is kind of hairy. When the front wall went down, the rafters broke along the top of the wall and the roof made an A-frame. I will have to shore it up before I remove many more blocks. I stopped when I had my load today.
As I was stacking the block on the pile, I found a few rat nests. I'm set for fire starting material now.
When I got the block unloaded I started doing a yard by yard survey to locate the best spot to go underground. This is where I chose. I marked off a 12' X 12' square.
With that done I started looking for a good site. I wanted a view of the pond without being too close in case of high water. The good high ground is all in the direction of the road, and you don't really want your camp to be visible to passing cars. So I found the crest of the hill where it crosses the road and came back to the south until I could see the pond. You can still see a flash of color when a car passes on the road, but I'll plant some trees to take care of that. I didn't nail down an exact location, but I knew it would be close, so I unloaded all my tools and started thinking about building materials.
I have a couple of tin buildings across the road from the pond that need tearing down, and I was planning to use the tin on the camp. But the drive coming in goes right by the old corn-crib. It's a concrete block building that got most of the front wall knocked down by an oak tree several years back. Building underground had been in the back of my mind all along. I figured block would be about as good as it got for an underground building material. So I backed the truck up and started loading the block off the ground. Soon I was done with them and having to pull blocks from the wall. In two loads, I got 76 whole block and about a dozen half blocks moved.
This was what was left of the front wall {the few upfront}. I was using a 2X6 to "gently" loosen some of the block, but these were more secure.
I got back to it this morning. I worked on the south wall to round out a load. {about 40 block} The south wall is kind of hairy. When the front wall went down, the rafters broke along the top of the wall and the roof made an A-frame. I will have to shore it up before I remove many more blocks. I stopped when I had my load today.
As I was stacking the block on the pile, I found a few rat nests. I'm set for fire starting material now.
When I got the block unloaded I started doing a yard by yard survey to locate the best spot to go underground. This is where I chose. I marked off a 12' X 12' square.
