An Old Goat Ranch in Texas

[terry.dinerman]

The Great Underground Power Massacree 3

"Digging In" or "$5,000 Light Bulbs"

When we last left our Hero, "The Most Dangerous Man In The World" (TMDMITW) was headed off to Africa to make enough $$$ to come back home and start burying 800 or so feet of conduit.

This latest trip to Equatorial Guinea was just perfect....no serious illnesses and no injuries whatsoever....what a GREAT crew...! Even the strikes in Paris didn't create much of a problem traveling....tho the airport was like a ghost-town....which, considering how much I dislike airports in general, is a Good Thing.

I arrived home in good order and after catching up with homestuff and honey-doo's, I packed up my Precious Bride and my tools and headed north to The Old Goat Ranch.

We love the ride thru the backroads....this is the Texas I dream about when I am off at work...and PB was lucky enough to be born into...

Once in Navasota we bought the traditional offering of charred animal flesh and pickled veggies at MIL and FIL's favorite Barbecue, checked in with the Commissariat of Power and, as promised, the District Engineer had gone out to the property, approved of my conduit and staked out the road crossing.

The Customer Rep for New Construction provided me with a copy of the Engineers notes and a Bill of Materials.

So....It was time to pay up.

PB and I signed the service agreements and other assorted paperwork and then coughed up a little over $9,000.

That covers the poles for the road crossing, all primary and secondary wire, the transformer and a junction box all the assorted bits and pieces required to put it all together and the labor as well as our hook up fees to the Coop.

Interestingly, along with our receipt, we were given two brand new compact florescent light bulbs and an oven mitt....and I stole several nice ink pens just on general principle.

I am planning on using one bulb as a "night-light" at the pole when the Commissariat hooks us up, and mount the other one in a shadow box to hang on the wall for poster-ior-ity.....how many folks can say they have a $5,000 light-bulb, after all?

At this point, it is all up to me...as soon as I complete the burial and get the final approval from the Inspector, I can call for the Commissariat to put in the road crossing, pull the wires and do the final hookup.

So...time to get down to it.

We set up camp in MIL and FIL's guest house and enjoyed a little family time...

The next morning we headed over to TOGR and sure enough, the flags and stakes for the road crossing were in place.

I called in my request for digging clearance from "Texas One-Call", tidied up a bit...got the conduit out of the path of the trench...cut down some brush that had grown up in the last month...not a lot to do without a clean dig permit...

So...PB and I had a bit of a relaxing weekend with the In-Laws....went and located a well stocked equipment rental yard in College Station and set up a trenching machine with a 5 foot stinger...puttered around town a bit....sort of the calm before the storm...

As luck would have it, PB had to return to the Coast and her job....seems they NEED her to help count all those beans....so we headed back down south...another delightful ride, but it's just too bad she is going to miss all the fun...

Well...there will be a lot more pipe needing to be buried....the electrical lines to the house pad and the barn, water lines and another conduit for communications...she will get her chance to dig in the dirt...

 

[jinman]

Wow Terry! If you can just get your crew down to zero serious illnesses and no injuries, you can stay home and just get paid your $$$ like politicians.:laughing:

Way to go! You ARE making progress and I look forward to more of your photo-journalism and TMDMITW stories.:thumbsup:

 

[terry.dinerman]

Wow Terry! If you can just get your crew down to zero serious illnesses and no injuries, you can stay home and just get paid your $$$ like politicians.:laughing:

Way to go! You ARE making progress and I look forward to more of your photo-journalism and TMDMITW stories.:thumbsup:

Well.....

Human nature and physiology being what it is, I won't be seeing any "No-Show" paychecks anytime soon...and I am not nearly a good enough liar to make even the "B" team in politics...


Tho we haven't had any major wrecks, the crew still keeps me busy enough treating the usual minor complaints associated with travel, eating "on the road", tight quarters, and hard work...lots of colds, belly aches, jet lag, sore muscles and such....and we do have the "cold and flu season" to look forward to...so I can hold my head up when I collect the paycheck....

...and of course "Precious Bride" would get tired of me hanging around the house and find WAAAY too many "Honey-Doos" for me....

...it's better this way....by the time I have had enough of "Projects" and PB has had enough of ME....it is time to go back to sea again...

...you don't want to get on PB's "reserve nerve"....she's a crack shot and pretty good with a knife...

 

[brin]

Well.....

Human nature and physiology being what it is, I won't be seeing any "No-Show" paychecks anytime soon...and I am not nearly a good enough liar to make even the "B" team in politics...


Tho we haven't had any major wrecks, the crew still keeps me busy enough treating the usual minor complaints associated with travel, eating "on the road", tight quarters, and hard work...lots of colds, belly aches, jet lag, sore muscles and such....and we do have the "cold and flu season" to look forward to...so I can hold my head up when I collect the paycheck....

...and of course "Precious Bride" would get tired of me hanging around the house and find WAAAY too many "Honey-Doos" for me....


...it's better this way....by the time I have had enough of "Projects" and PB has had enough of ME....it is time to go back to sea again...

...you don't want to get on PB's "reserve nerve"....she's a crack shot and pretty good with a knife...

Terry....You are a mess.... I enjoy reading all of your posts ! You should think about contacting your local newspaper and writing a column for them..No Joke..you might be surprised ..they would like to have you write about your experiences overseas and with your writing style the readers would beg for more..Keep on keeping on..:thumbsup:

 

[terry.dinerman]

Terry....You are a mess.... I enjoy reading all of your posts ! You should think about contacting your local newspaper and writing a column for them..No Joke..you might be surprised ..they would like to have you write about your experiences overseas and with your writing style the readers would beg for more..Keep on keeping on..:thumbsup:

...you are too kind...!

Now, I don't foresee a writing career in my future, but one thing life has taught me is to NEVER say NEVER.

I am just afraid that "producing" to some editors schedule, instead of when the Muse decides to perch on my shoulder, would take all the joy out of it...

I think I'll keep writing for my pleasure, and for folks like you and the rest of the mob on TBNet for now...

Thanks again, My Brother....

 

[dcyrilc]

...you are too kind...!

Now, I don't foresee a writing career in my future, but one thing life has taught me is to NEVER say NEVER.

I am just afraid that "producing" to some editors schedule, instead of when the Muse decides to perch on my shoulder, would take all the joy out of it...

I think I'll keep writing for my pleasure, and for folks like you and the rest of the mob on TBNet for now...

Thanks again, My Brother....

Well....


...as long as you keep writin', I'm just a gunna keep on readin'.

Brin is right that your writing is a pleasure to read.:thumbsup: Can't believe that it's already been a month though. I must have been busier than I thought.:confused2:

 

[terry.dinerman]

Well....


...as long as you keep writin', I'm just a gunna keep on readin'.

Brin is right that your writing is a pleasure to read.:thumbsup: Can't believe that it's already been a month though. I must have been busier than I thought.:confused2:

I hope this is a case of time flying because you are having fun?

 

[terry.dinerman]

The Great Underground Power Massacree 3

"The Big Coverup"

Monday was spent in blissful sloth, and by Tuesday morning "Precious Bride" was up to her elbows in other peoples financial foibles, so I loaded up quick and got back on the road to The Ranch.

This time, when I passed thru Navasota, I picked up the transformer and junction box bases from the Commissariat of Power...the yard-man showed me the transformers and such...

The bases resembled nothing so much as big green fiberglass flower boxes...and when the transformer and junction boxes are bolted on, they will look like olive drab refrigerators....

I can see Precious Bride painting some flowers on them or something....

No burnt offerings were needed this time as my previous load was still resting comfortably in MIL and FIL's fridge...so I drove on down the line.

On arrival at MIL and FIL's an online check with "Texas One-Call" showed I did NOT yet possess a dig permit....so I got on the phone with their regional office, who provided me with the number for the local "Locator".

This was not a Happy Thing, as "One-Call" is SUPPOSED to get a site cleared within 2 working days of the initial call...

Well it seems "Locator Dude" was covered up with service orders, and would reach my site by Wednesday morning....he said his records showed only one line anywhere near my property and nothing inside the lines...a fiber-optic line passed by out front in the ditch....so it would be no problem to clear the site quickly.

I made a date to meet him there....and then called the equipment rental yard and scheduled the trencher for noon....

With that done, I rolled on up to the Ranch, dropped the transformer bases and the trailer and collected up my tools.

A nice BBQ dinner with MIL and FIL and a good sleep rounded out a day.

The next morning "Locator Dude" was good at his word....right on time....and as promised, marked up the site and authorized a dig permit right from his truck.

The guy apologized about a thousand times while he did his thing...and during our discussion, I discovered that there seems to be quite a bit of new construction going on...not bad for a recession...

Anyway....once I waved goodbye to "Locator Dude" I busied myself staking and flagging the water-main running across the front of the property so the line-crew doesn't park a bucket truck on it...

As requested, the truck bearing my trencher showed up about noon....

After unloading and inspecting the unit, I discovered that the rental yard had disconnected the "auto-pilot"....it seems users were engaging the thing and then dismounting the machine...and getting into all sorts of mischief...!

Well....never having run a trencher this big, and paying a premium for this one....I had sort of hoped to have all the bells and whistles...but....I can cope.

I waved goodbye to "Delivery Guy" and fired the trencher up....moved into position at the front fence and lowered the stinger into the ground....

The thing is a monster.....!

The sandy clay in this side of the property has had all summer to bake into the equivalent of a fire brick....you need to loosen it up with a pick just to stick a shovel in it....but the chain on this trencher has carbide inserts on every tooth, just for this sort of thing....and tho I had to be very careful with my speed to avoid overloading....it chewed thru the hardened ground beautifully....with the stinger down as far as it could go, the machine was churning out spoil so fast the augers had a tough time kicking it all to the sides....but the fines that filtered back into the trench wound up making the equivalent of a nice sand bed at the bottom....

This is definitely the right machine for the job...

I steered on down the driveway....experimenting with the controls until I got everything spinning in greased grooves....my flags on the fence showed I was ticking along at around 250 feet per hour...

That doesn't sound like much when you are sitting on top of the machine watching fence posts creep by....but it beats the **** out of what I might be able to do with an excavator....

I neared the first area I felt might be a problem....I had to cut pretty close to some large oak and pine trees that flank the driveway....beautiful things that are part of the reason we chose to go underground....

But aside from having to slow down a bit to let the teeth chew thru the dense tangle of surface roots and having to back up a couple of times and stop while the teeth chewed thru some deep tap roots....everything went along just fine.

The lack of an "auto-pilot" meant I had to pay a bit more attention to the hand throttle, but it was not really an issue....

Having passed the trees, I figured it would be smooth sailing until I got to the Big Curve...and it was...for a while anyway...

I was ticking along, minding my own business, enjoying the mild afternoon and congratulating myself on my excellent choice of equipment when barely 10 feet short of the start of the Big Curve an impressive "CLANG!!!!" and then grinding split the air and rocked the machine, causing me to pull the Emergency Shutdown....

When the dust cleared I discovered that I had slung the chain off the guide bar....

Now HOW I did this was a mystery....as you head into my property the soil gets sandy-er as you go, and the area I was cutting was far from any trees or such things.

Checking the trench did not reveal any roots, previously uncharted well-heads, pipes or cables, buried trash, rock ledges, Jimmy Hoffa....NOTHING but dirt....

Oh well....it was getting late in the afternoon, so I called the rental yard and we agreed that if they would cut me some slack on the pickup time tomorrow (I only rented the machine for one day) I would be happy enough to see their mechanic first thing the next morning.

They agreed immediately...nice folks...

So I shut it all down and headed back to MIL and FIL's for the evening....a little saddle-sore but pretty well pleased with the progress thus far.

:cool2:

 

[jinman]

Terry, I don't know about your machine, but the older models I have rented all used grease to maintain chain tension. If that is the case, they should have told you to keep plenty of grease in it to keep tension on the chain. You just raise the boom and pump grease until the chain tightens right before your eyes. Maybe the newer ones have an improved method.

 

[terry.dinerman]

Terry, I don't know about your machine, but the older models I have rented all used grease to maintain chain tension. If that is the case, they should have told you to keep plenty of grease in it to keep tension on the chain. You just raise the boom and pump grease until the chain tightens right before your eyes. Maybe the newer ones have an improved method.

You are ABSOLUTELY correct, Chief....the small stuff uses screw jacks of some configuration like a big chain saw, but this big boy has a hydraulic ram built into the boom that is connected to a grease zerk under a screw cover located at the side.

According to the rental yard, this setup is supposed to maintain tension automatically....but we all know a lot of things that are SUPPOSED to work but don't...

...Marxism, socialism, command economies, disco, pineapple pizza....and now this...