Post and beam barn build

[dieselcrawler]

Yup... south of walmart about 2 blocks, East of the railroad tracks. Viking Glass was in full swing when the dam was built, closed in the early 1990's. Sat vacant for years, my boss bought it about 10 years ago.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I remember viking glass. I used to go to the drive inn movies in New martinsville growing up.

 

[dieselcrawler]

I remember going to see 'Raiders of the Lost Arc' and 'On Golden Pond' with my parents at that drive-in, I was little... it's long gone now, built apartment buildings there 6 to 8 years ago.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Made a little progress on this project earlier this evening. Started leveling the area where I plan to build, with the tractor and box blade. Slow going, will need to move alot of dirt... a dozer would be nice. No pictures, was dark when I finished.

Over the months since I last updated this thread, I've acquired more logs for materials, but little else has been done.

 

[Dadnatron]

I will tell you, I was going to tackle the dirt work of my road with a 100hp tractor and a 6yd dirt pan. After doing a bit of other dirt work, I recognized that, over the course of the project, I would likely spend the same $$$ on diesel as I would on a dozer rental.

I went with the dozer and I am very glad I did. I had never operated one before, and it took a little bit to get the hang of it. But it was well worth it in every way. I moved more dirt in one pass than I could have done in an hour with my tractor.

My recommendation is to really look at the thought of a rental. I had it delivered, which wasn't cheap, but obviously was the only way to get it to the farm. If you decide to get it, don't get one which is too small. After talking to a lot of excavating contractors, they ALL recommended going big, ie D6K, rather than a smaller D5. They said you could certainly get the work done, but when you are renting, the little saved in $ up front costs much more $$$ in time required to have it on site. They all recommended getting the "K" version which was a hydrostatic trans. You simply push the stick forward to go forward and pull it to reverse. No 'shifting, gears, etc'.

My final recommendation, if you do this, is the same as one guy told me... "just crawl... keep it slow... you will get it done and done well and make fewer mistakes that need fixing". I'm glad I did, because while a 6-way blade can be learned, there is definitely, as I found out, a learning curve in putting it where you want to get the results you want.

Oh... and one final thing. Get them to show you how the 'floating blade' works and how to use it. I didn't know it even existed... and most of my 'fixing' would have been solved had I not been 'gouging' while trying to simply clear waste.

I rented from Whayne's Cat in Lexington. They were great. If there is one near you, I would recommend it, very highly.

 

[dieselcrawler]

I work for an excavating company, and there's an equipment rental store next door to our shop, where I work. Totally understand how convenient a dozer would be, and could even run one if I had it... but not likely to be in the cards, for several reasons. I am happy whittling away at it with my box blade. The area I'm working in is small, and something I can dabble at, and hour or two at a time, as the opportunity arises. And it's easier to get a few gallons of fuel at a time than talk the wife into several hundred dollars all at once. I'm in no rush, as one might be able to tell by my slow progress on this!

 

[Soldier415]

Following

 

[M E Cook]

I work for an excavating company, and there's an equipment rental store next door to our shop, where I work. Totally understand how convenient a dozer would be, and could even run one if I had it... but not likely to be in the cards, for several reasons. I am happy whittling away at it with my box blade. The area I'm working in is small, and something I can dabble at, and hour or two at a time, as the opportunity arises. And it's easier to get a few gallons of fuel at a time than talk the wife into several hundred dollars all at once. I'm in no rush, as one might be able to tell by my slow progress on this!

can you not use equipment from your employer ???

 

[dieselcrawler]

can you not use equipment from your employer ???

Perhaps, if the planets align, and there's a perfect storm at the same time... so, no, not likely. Most of the equipment is too big, and out on jobs making money. I also work at the wrong shop to be 'in the loop' about equipment, that and big trucks are service at our other shop, the one I work at takes care of crew trucks (pickups) and small stuff. And I'm not in the right 'click' with the 'inner circle' to get many favors. I would be more likely to be able to borrow something from the rental place next door. And I might do so, if the opertunity arises.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Spent another 2 hours or so scraping dirt this evening. The heavy rains in the days since I was last out there made it quite the muddy mess on the lower side. But the upper side was dry enough, and I made good progress.

I wish my photobucket app was working, I miss being able to easily share my adventures with all of you.