At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

I plan to add a generator connection at the outside electrical pedestal that can feed the house if power goes out. This way, I can back the tractor up to the pedestal and use a PTO generator to power the house essentials. I figure that I can just turn off non-essential breakers in the downstream 200A house panel in order to limit the power usage. An advantage to having the generator connection at the outside pedestal instead at the house is we won't have to hear the tractor running or spell the exhaust.

Since we are on a well, I figure we need a generator. We've never had a generator before and did just fine. When we lived on the coast, we went 10 days without power without too much inconvenience. I would rather have running water than electricity. We can burn wood in the fireplace for heat and cook on the gas stove without power. But not having running water for 10 days would not be much fun.

 

[Obed]

Obed, on my water line I lined the trench with pea gravel, and then put a thin layer on top of the pipe once it was in the trench. I ran a 2" black PE pipe, but I need good flow and low pressure drop on the 800' line for my residential sprinkler system. I would take a loader bucket full of the pea gravel and spread/level by hand for the length of the trench. Same goal as you- keep the pipe off of sharp gravel and rocks. ...
Pete

Pete,
My wife is going to try to get a pickpup truck load of sand that we can use for backfilling the waterline. We are hoping it won't cost too much if we go get the sand in our truck.

Obed

 

[Obed]

Tile Work Begins
The pictures show the underlayment being laid in the kitchen, master bath, and hall bath. The orange waferlike underlayment is called Ditra. On top of the Ditra, the tile guy laid the grey Thin-set, a type of mortar that provides the base for the tile.

 

[Obed]

We have finally found a concrete guy to lay the concrete for our front porch and basement porch slabs! He did the stamped porches of one of our neighbors. We plan to stamp the front porch and have a standard broom finish for the basement porch. Both porches will use dyed concrete with fiber. The front porch will have rebar cross hatched in the concrete slab.

I believe the only sub we are lacking is for the overhead garage doors. We will probably install the closet shelves and bathroom mirrors ourselves.

 

[dstig1]

I plan to add a generator connection at the outside electrical pedestal that can feed the house if power goes out. This way, I can back the tractor up to the pedestal and use a 3pt hitch generator to power the house essentials. I figure that I can just turn off non-essential breakers in the downstream 200A house panel in order to limit the power usage. An advantage to having the generator connection at the outside pedestal instead at the house is we won't have to hear the tractor running or spell the exhaust.

Since we are on a well, I figure we need a generator. We've never had a generator before and did just fine. When we lived on the coast, we went 10 days without power without too much inconvenience. I would rather have running water than electricity. We can burn wood in the fireplace for heat and cook on the gas stove without power. But not having running water for 10 days would not be much fun.

You will still need to put a current back flow preventer at the point where the generator connects to the panels/system. That is a major safety issue for the linesmen working on the downed system. Yeah you COULD manually disconnect the system, but it is too easy to convince yourself to skip that hassle when it is dark and stormy out. The generator panels handle this automatically (typically), but there are manual ones where you just throw the switch as needed. They are code required, but also just a really good idea.

Key things to run are fridge, freezers, heat, well, and then a couple circuits. If you plan lighting properly for this setup, you can get a decent selection of lights throughout the house on one circuit. Then a couple outlets here and there is good. Other good ideas are to make sure you have some power in the kitchen and at least one fully functioning bathroom. Having the TV running is just to make the neighbors jealous

 

[Obed]

Friday Digging
I took another vacation day from work Friday. With the days getting shorter, there's not enough daylight after work to get all the outdoor work done that I need to do. I needed to finish digging trench for the water line that will run from the well to the house. I left the end of the trench that crosses the driveway for last to minimize the amount of time that the driveway would be unavailable. I have to time things so that no big house supply deliveries are scheduled when the driveway can't be used.

I marked my trench with some paint. I hooked up some PVC pipe with 90 degree angles and used them as templates for marking the lines. I started digging at the well and dug along the painted lines until I met the rest of the trench that I had dug a few days ago.

 

[Obed]

I had plenty of big rocks I excavated when digging the trench that I needed to dispose of. I dumped them below the culvert to use as rip-rap.

 

[Obed]

When I got close to the trench I had dug a few days earlier, I straddled it with the tractor while digging with the back hoe.

I've learned a trick for maneuvering the backhoe. In tight spaces, I lift the rear tires of the tractor off the ground using the back hoe. I then shift the rear of the tractor right or left while the back tires are off the ground.

In the picture above, the tractor was pointed straight down the trench before I repositioned the rear of the tractor using the backhoe. Doing so made it easy to back the tractor out of the tight position between the two trench ends.

 

[dcyrilc]

When I got close to the trench I had dug a few days earlier, I straddled it with the tractor while digging with the back hoe.

When you learn how to get the machine off that strattled trench without caving it in, you'll know you've spent way too much time digging.:laughing:

 

[Obed]

I finally joined the trench together as it got dark.