3R Home and Barn Project

[3RRL]

Rob, you are making great progress. Things are starting to look much more finished. I can identify with moving rocks because I've done a reasonable amount of that myself. The only suggestion I would have is for you to put some smaller rocks below your large ones on the slopes as rip-rap. I'd choose grapefruit to cantaloupe size. This will keep the soil from eroding below the bigger stones from runoff and direct rain. If the slope undercuts your upper border, it will start sliding and moving down the slope. Of course, grass is a big erosion preventer, but it will be awhile before you get good grass. Maybe you should plant some wheat in that area to get a quick growth of vegetation. If you keep it trimmed, it will look neat and give you some time to get your grass going.

Hi Jim, always nice to hear from you.
Thanks for the sound advice you provide. I am a little apprehensive of the grass to grow this year. Probably a Fescue mix with some Kentucky blue and rye so the growing season will still be here for me. I didn't think about the wheat though. The rock wall foundation is prepped like you suggested. Erosion has been a big concern for ne and was the driving force behind all this grading and terracing.
Thanks for the input.

 

[3RRL]

Rob,

After following your project for the last year I just had to take a moment to thank-you for the time you have spent to share with all of us on TBN. What a beautiful place you and Loretta have created. You two should be very proud.

I wanted to share a little side story I thought you and Loretta might enjoy. The other day I noticed Louise, my best half, had been reading on TBN for an hour or so. She like Loretta has her own tractor and at times will read some of the posts here on the forum. As I was walking by Louise said,禰oney we should talk about doing a remodel. Now over the last few decades I have learned that when the sentence starts with, Honey we should talk about....... it translates to, 的 have decided....? So I ask her what brought that up and was told she just read 27 pages about the ?R Home and Barn Project? My mind immediately said 閃ark you are in big trouble this time?

So Rob and Loretta thanks again for sharing your project, I think. We will BOTH be looking forward to the latest updates.

MarkV

Mark, don't worry, and don't let those other guys kid you. I have found it extremely enjoyable just to be able to work with my wife on these kinds of projects. I'll bet secretly they all wish their wives had tractors and could do the same. (OK guys ... maybe not?) I'm very pleased that your wife Louise has taken the time to read this thread. I know it's a long one. lol ... Also makes me proud that I kept it "G rated".
Hope you guys find lots of time to work together on you remodel then!

 

[3RRL]

Poor Mark...

He was a good man. He will be sorely missed.

(I'm kinda glad my second wife is no longer around. She would have beat Louise to the punch.)

Defective, you are a crack up and probably smarter than all of us!
Thanks for your many suggestions that helped during the construction of this place.

It might be some time before I can post more progress and photos which are meaningful. There are a lot of "little" things to tend to which will take our time but of no value or progress on the home itself. Just little things to tie up or get squared away. For example, I popped the Delrin plastic end off my Koyker joystick and it took me several hours to fix it after ordering a new control cable from them. We are running back and forth to Rancho a lot too.
Now, I think it's best to prepare and seed those areas which are already leveled before leveling and building the rock wall for the last level ... I dunno?
Which reminds me, I have to get off my butt and get out there to work now!
We just ordered 15 yards of compost which will be here tomorrow.

 

[RedDirt]

We have not added automatic sprinkler systems yet but will do so at a later date.

Rob,
Nice stones and rock work! It will look great with the grass. But..

A golden rule for landscaping/hardscaping. Irrigation system first (at least main supply lines), hardscape second, landscape third. I know the terracing is high on your agenda but be careful not to box yourself in for the "later" irrigation system. Like if you need a water line installed below that rock wall.

When we built we knew we would not get to landscaping for some time but when I ran the water mains I branched out and placed hose bib risers around the homesite (where we thought we may irrigate). Before the hose bib I placed a "T" and cap for future irrigation valves. While the trenches were open and available I ran irrigation wires too. We did not have a planting plan and I'm now having to be a bit creative on planting due to underestimation how many stations were needed where, (and I have too many wires at some spots) but we at least have several options available versus tearing up stuff already built.

Another thing I did while the ground was torn up in construction phase was to run a couple of "future-proof" conduits into the building, in our case the garage where the irrigation controllers are located, and dead ended them out in an accessible place. These are for running lines you don't think of now but are needed or wanted later. One of these has already saved me when we decided to irrigate a section we never thought we would and I needed to add another five irrigation stations in two outlying valve boxes. The added extra conduits were in place so I never had to trench up to the building, cross driveway, cross house and hydrant water main,etc.

Not having a fully baked planting plan in the first place taught me something the hard way is when you run your main irrigation supply piping place a "T", short straight, and cap every hundred feet more or less. This gives you an easy "add-on" tap-in opportunity; much easier than trying to "T" into an existing single, unbroken, buried, irrigation main.

I build my valve manifolds with a "T" and cap past the last valve for easy add on too.

Now you may be way ahead of me on the above suggestions and have all this stuff worked out...if not hope these things can save you some frustration "later". So if you haven't yet run irrigation wiring to your controller location, when you do, add some extra wires and maybe some future proof conduits so you only have to dig up that area once.

oh yeah, the platinum underground utility rule, keep track of your work. On our job sites we use a digital theodolite and record survey coordinates of our as-builts but I posted my home-owner method HERE.

The red-tail hawk photo was great. In the Oregon outback we watched from our dining table window a mother hawk teach her two youngus to fly. Alas, no photos. Thanks for sharing.

 

[3RRL]

Hey Ray,
Thanks for taking the time to make such a great post. It is very valuable. This is something I know nothing about. I have never done any irrigation valves myself, so it was something ... another learning curve to avoid for the time being.

A golden rule for landscaping/hardscaping. Irrigation system first (at least main supply lines), hardscape second, landscape third.
Plus the platinum rule, which I already broke and paid for when I ripped out a gas line. Actually, I had an idea where it was and the yellow tape that is supposed to be 6" or 8" above it was wrapped around the line, so I had no early warning.

Geez, I told Loretta what you said but she about the irrigation, which I wanted to do, but that added another project on the plate. Anyway, she said she would do it later. So I guess I'm going to have to do it later, know what I mean? Right now she's got a hose sprinkler that she moves around (like in the 50's) and she also ran some drip lines to the plants on the low side of the rock wall. Yes, your worst nightmare ... I will have to add some valves and irrigation for that too. I had no idea what or where the irrigation would need to go, nor what the terrace levels would end up like. So at that point, I thought to establish that first and add those rocks. Fortunately, I will be able to get in there later to dig, etc.
Here's what she's done so far...



One thing I did do was what you said, I ran "T's" to all the areas where we thought we might need to irrigate, so that is a good thing. I have 2" lines running from the well and the water tank. The well line is under pressure but the tank line is gravity feed. I only have about 20' rise to the tank so my pressure from it is low, like about 5psi maybe. Is there anything that will work with that low of a pressure? I was thinking of flood irrigating the hillside below with the tank water, but I see from a test that it soaks in and then finds it way into the ground squirrel holes and squirts out somewhere below.

 

[rox]

Rob it looks to me that in that second picture a lot of the water has run onto the road. Could be a shadow. You know the irrigation emmiters as sold adjsuted for how many gallons per minute. Perhaps you might look at a reduction of water going out of the emmiters. Example instead of 7 gallons per hour emit 3 gallons per hour. it drips more slowly soaking in the areas you want and not on the road. Wheck out www.RainBird.com They and Torro are the biggest irrigation manufacturers. Personally I lean towards RainBird. I worked for a very large irrigation Distributor years ago and for some reason I jsut hought the RainBird products were/are better. Plus I think they are out of California if I am not mistaken. Also I like the T connectors where you don't need hose clams. If your pressure it to great so that the T connectors pop off then have to go with the ones with hose clamps. Irrigation is a whole nother project isn't it?

 

[RedDirt]

Rob,
I am just a beginner with irrigation too, big learning curve. There is a good web primer I have found valuable but it is bookmarked on another computer; I'll post later. I also pick up the freebie handouts at the box stores from Toro, Lawn Genie, etc, little how-tos to get you started.

As far as low pressure irrigation I think most of the auto irrigate stuff wants about 35psi, 25psi minimum, even the drip emitters. Most (many)irrigation controllers have a pump connection that will turn on an axillary pump when you are irrigating. You may need something like this.

But maybe you can just spot irrigate with open-ended irrigating tubing with no emitter. This would take a bit of experimentation to get the volumes correct. The drip emitters make this relatively easy as you they are sized at various GPMs. You can increase of decrease volumes to individual plants on the same timed station by changing emitters, or adding or deleting emitters. This is a factor to consider, especially in start up landscaping, as the demand will change as the plants mature.

I know what you mean by another project on the plate. I'm constantly amazed at how many "side jobs" are needed every time I start something. Right now I'm preparing to put in a 6 tree orchard in the fall. The ground is tight clay, no drainage. So before the 3x3x3 tree holes go in (what I started to do) I'm spending 6 weeks of weekends putting in a drainage system. Then, since the orchard is relatively close to the house, might as well run the drain line farther and connect that pesky roof downspout that puts a stream across the front yard in the winter. The 15ft tree spacing layout needed to push them too close to the existing berries, so move the berries. But the best place to move them needs an irrigation line...another job to the list. Always reminds me of the alligator in the swamp, "When you are up to your axx in alligators it is hard to remember what you started to do was drain the swamp."

The good thing is lots of seat time. These are jobs I've wanted to do for the past few years since we moved in but never wanted to tackle with a pick, shovel and wheelbarrow. Having a great time with the BX.

 

[dfkrug]

I have 2" lines running from the well and the water tank. The well line is under pressure but the tank line is gravity feed. I only have about 20' rise to the tank so my pressure from it is low, like about 5psi maybe. Is there anything that will work with that low of a pressure?

Remember, you get 0.43 psi for every foot of elevation head, so you will have
9 psi. There is a lot you can do with that kind of pressure, if you plan for it.

 

[3RRL]

Thank ya'll for the added input.
Funny thing is, those irrigation companies, Rainbird, Toro, Hunter, Lawn Genie, Hardie, etc. were all my customers at one time. I still build molds for the Toro Co. in my spare time. I made a living build molds ... fully automatic unwinding molds for all of them. Just never used or installed their products myself. I always got samples from them too ... should have saved them all.

I share a couple more photos of what we've been up to.
We are STILL moving boxes from the barn into the basement of the house. That means we are also spending time putting some of it where it goes. In the mean time, I've been arranging my shop in the barn, someday I'll get it up and running again.
Here's Loretta with her handy dump trailer and a load of boxes.



In addition to all that above, we are also going around the property collecting more rocks and boulders for the last terrace. We used chains to drag the bigger boulders out and then used the backhoe to fill the dump trailer.



Some of these boulders are just huge. We used the FEL grapples to pick these big ones up. I think they would crush the dump trailer. We will need more than these and more time to plant them where they need to go. But it takes a long time to chain, drag, reposition or grapple etc.

 

[3RRL]

We also took time out Monday morning, dove season opening day to shoot our lunch.
Although we only got six, that was really fun.



Then for more fun, we bought his and her's 17 HMR rifles, a righty and a lefty.
They are Savage model 93. They shot pretty good right out of the box.
That Accu-trigger is fantastic. Check out the groups at 75-80 yards once we got them on paper and dialed in.
So we have been enjoying ourselves a little bit too for a change.