An Old Goat Ranch in Texas

[terry.dinerman]

Main Gate - The Old Goat Ranch

Hello Again, Neighbors-

Found some photos of the culvert and front entry installation at my place...

The perimeter fence was completed at this point...fortunately the weather cooperated during the fencing work, allowing the dozer and fence crews to cross the shallow drainage ditch with their trucks...

The concept sketch is done in "Google Sketchup", which I cannot recommend more highly as a tool for ensuring that your ideas are accurately translated into reality. When you can stick a clear, detailed sketch of your dream into the hands of a competent craftsman, half the battle is won....

Since this entry fronts a State highway, therefore crossing a State easement, "TXDOT" (Texas Department of Transportation) is the controlling and permitting authority....which is not as bad as it sounds...the area engineering staff was easy-going and clearly explained the process for gaining approval, provided a list of approved contractors and were in general were very easy to work with. Of course, we took the time to contact them and followed the rules...being "Texas Friendly" has got to work BOTH ways...

The "men at work" in these shots are my Father-in-Law, retired after a lifetime building and repairing railroads, and our "Zen Dirt Master", piloting the CAT....between the two of them, they have dumped more dirt out of the cuffs of their dungarees than I've walked over...you can't ask for more experience...

As the entry is on the high side of a curve, "Dirt Master" counselled us to increase the "sweep" of the driveway....it took a couple more loads of rock...and am I ever glad we took that bit of advice....

Pulling in or out of the driveway with a loaded trailer is a snap...it could have been a real safety issue with the traffic on the highway...

The "take home lesson" here is....seriously consider the advice of anyone who has engaged in a craft, skill or trade for 40 years...sometimes it isn't just the money...

"Dirt Master" did a fine job...up to the high standards of TXDOT and the FIL ...but Final Approval was in the hands of Precious Bride....who you can see inspecting the hinges on our gate.

Needless to say, PB was pleased....always a Good Thing...

Be Safe!

T

 

[Western]

Ahhh, the smell of fresh dirt in the morning..

Good to have allot of "inspectors" on the ground.

I have a couple of relatives and a childhood friend, also doing "time in the max's" as RN's. they say the feel like they ARE doing time too.

As far as your previous post and the Lead inspector (wife) thinking about APM's, I hear Scuds are cheap but not to reliable....

 

[terry.dinerman]

Ahhh, the smell of fresh dirt in the morning..

Good to have allot of "inspectors" on the ground.

I have a couple of relatives and a childhood friend, also doing "time in the max's" as RN's. they say the feel like they ARE doing time too.

As far as your previous post and the Lead inspector (wife) thinking about APM's, I hear Scuds are cheap but not to reliable....

Yep...having the In-Law's down the road helping vett contractors and keeping an eye on things is a comfort beyond words for me while I am 9,000 miles away at work...

But the Inspector that the contractors need to fear is that little woman...she is so cheap she makes me take my glasses off when I'm not looking at nothin, and so mean "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" crosses the street when he walks past her...

...mean...

Be Safe!

T

 

['Bota Fan]

that little woman...she is so cheap she makes me take my glasses off when I'm not looking at nothin

Recall reading you opine that TBN was a great resource for humor. We want you to pull your share of the load, so just remember you are required to use one of these Terryisms in every post. Not saying you're a slacker now, but just don't forget.

We thank you for your support.

 

[terry.dinerman]

Recall reading you opine that TBN was a great resource for humor. We want you to pull your share of the load, so just remember you are required to use one of these Terryisms in every post. Not saying you're a slacker now, but just don't forget.

We thank you for your support.

Aye, Sir...Humor it is...

"I've been in love with the same woman for twenty-seven years. If my wife finds out, she'll kill me...."

 

[bindian]

Terry,
Welcome! Awesome thread. I am over in Montgomery County, East of Willis.
hugs, Brandi

 

[terry.dinerman]

Hello Neighbors-

One of the perks of being posted to a remote site is having a lot of time on your hands...

Plenty of time to plot and plan, and plenty of time to write...so that end, I present to you;


"The Great Container Barn Massacree"

or

"How I Built A Dirt Cheap Barn For Only Twice As Much Time and Money".

The concept drawings show the Plan...four 20' containers on a 40' x 40' gravel pad with a pole-barn front porch sporting a tin roof.

The 4 containers would be used as: A "Feed-Room/Lab/Animal Hospital", "Ranch Office", "Storage Room" and "Workshop".

When it came time to buy said containers, however, for whatever reason and even tho Houston is a port city with used ISO containers piled up like cordwood, containers and transportation to our site cost FAR more than expected....a 20' container was going for $1200 with transport going for an additional $600 to $800 each!!!

Apparently someone forgot to tell Houston there is a World Economic Collapse going on...

Needless to say, those prices were not acceptable or apparently negotiable either...

After a little more legwork, one of my neighbors introduced me to a truck maintenance shop manager who had a yard full of old cargo truck bodies...one thing led to another, and four bodies were selected at far less than the cost of a single ISO container...$800 for the first three, which are 24' dry cargo vans and #4, a 20' all aluminum insulated box which had been heavily damaged, was thrown in free...FREE is good right?

My neighbor came thru again and had no problem finding us a trucker with a roll-off rig and time on his hands willing to haul the boxes at $400 per trip from Houston to our site midway between Huntsville and College Station...with the cost of diesel...I am content.

So we now had 4 truck bodies instead of shipping containers for roughly $2400 vs $8000. It is good to have friends with friends.

Cash changed hands, a delivery date was set to coincide with my presence in the United States...and we waited for the BIG DAY.

Which waited for me to come home from work...6 weeks later.

At the appointed time, the players leapt into action...Precious Bride, my In-Laws and I took our positions at the In-Laws house and out at the building site, our trucker arrived at the truck shop to load up the first box, tied everything down, fired that sucker up and got headed north out of Houston ahead of traffic...and for all intents and purposes the PLAN was spinning in greased grooves.

It was at the very moment that the thought that things were running smoothly flashed thru my head, that the "Great Texas Drought of 2009" ended...

Now, summer weather at our building site is normally far dryer than the surrounding area..."Dry As A Powder-house" is my usual description of it...and conversation amongst the local ranchers at the Cafe tends to dwell on the steady drop in water levels in pasture tanks, the high costs of hay, the low prices for beef during a drought...the usual....

Now of course, since I had 4 containers headed my way, conversation was now swirling around how they had not seen this much rain in quite a while...


That figures...

The intermittant biblical-level deluges pounded the previously rock-hard driveway leading to my gravel pad, which only a little while before had been able to support the weight of the Space Shuttle, into a sandy glop, resembling a bowl of particularly watery grits and which rejected out of hand any possibility of supporting the weight of a 40,000 pound loaded roll-off truck....it would hardly support me on foot.

Foo...

So, we regrouped and dusted off "Plan B"...

 

[terry.dinerman]

"The Great Container Barn Massacree"

or

"How I Built A Dirt Cheap Barn For Only Twice As Much Time and Money".


Part 2 - "DIY"


During the construction of our Front Gate, we had several extra loads of crushed rock spread near the front entrance to act as a parking or lay-down area, leaving the main driveway in its unimproved state until heavy construction work is over.

Since the deliveries were scheduled over several days, I hope the rain might let up enough to let the driveway dry out in time to place a one or two on the gravel pad...

Suuuuuuure.....it rained every night for the entire week....

So....our driver, who managed to get lost only once and only on the first trip, (something was indistinct about "Go Straight, YOU CAN'T MISS IT....) got the four containers up to the laydown area...were they were unceremoniously dumped 1,000 feet short of the goal.

The driver, tho sympathetic, still required CASH on delivery and without a crane or heavy duty forklift, it would be impossible to winch the truck bodies BACK onto another roll-off without welding pulling points on to the frames of the boxes...

Oh well...we got one FREE didn't we?.....oh yeah...it cost $400 to get that FREE box trucked up to the land...

So...cash in hand, our truckie drove off into the sunset....and I had suddenly run out of plans...

All the extra work had used up my home-time and my deployment was rapidly approaching....giving me time to work out what to do next....

And 6 weeks later, on my next return home, we got started...

My approach was as simple as I could make it....Getting these boxes up from Houston involved putting some wheels under them...so thats what we would do to finish the last 1,000 feet....

The fellow that sold us the property, and is now our "Over the Fence" neighbor and Dear Friend provided a mobile home axle slightly longer than the boxes are wide. The axle was cleaned up and readied for the job, I rounded up all the lifting and rigging gear I owned or could beg-borrow-steal and fueled up my tractor.

First things first, I set up a "Field Office" for my "Engineering Advisory Staff" and the "Safety, Health and Environmental Department" otherwise known as my Father-In-Law, who after a childhood on the farm and 40 years building and maintaining railroads, knows a few things about things...

The Office, tho Spartan, has a wonderful view...

On the serious side, you have to understand that moving things bigger than yourself potentialy involves the sudden and catastrophic release of massive amounts of energy should your rigging gear fail....

...and that you are soft and crunchy...

Having a second set of experienced eyes watching over the job to give a little advice during the planning or at the rough spots, tocall "WOA!!!" early in a failure chain and avoid a disaster, or ultimately to call the Fire Department or EMS when the unforeseen or neglected issue bites you in the *** is an absolute essential....

A few trips to the Emergency Room and "Near Hits" over the years have convinced me of the wisdom of a "No Lone Rangers" policy.


Gotta have a Wingman...

So....with the "Office" open for business, the problem-solving began...

To maneuver the axle to its balance point under a box, one end of the box had to be elevated to at least 3 1/2 feet. My John Deere 870 tractor, tho willing, was not up to the task, with only 1,800 lbs lift on the 3 point hitch, it was over loaded and lifted the front end without any sign of budging the box so the old standby "Hi-Lift" jack was brought out to provide the lift.

One foot into the initial lift immediately revealed potentially dangerous lateral instability, as the other end of the box was actually standing up on it's central supports? pair of 3" I-beams 28" apart on the center-line of the box?nd even the light wind was making the box rock on this teetering point?o the 870 was snugged up alongside the box and a come-a-long used between it and the roll cage of the tractor to keep a firm contact between the box and the rear tire. This provided ample stability both on the up and down stroke and easy adjustability as the geometry changed.

Tho a firm foundation of treated 2x6 was under the foot of the jack, the "Hi-Lift" design is inherently failure resistant and the box was well tied to the tractor and secured against rocking, to provide a margin of safety while working under the raised box, cribbing blocks were used to build a "jack-stand".

NEVER EVER EVER work under a suspended load.

Now, my Precious Bride is a genius at scouring up "unloved" surplus materials so I have an endless supply of bits and pieces when I need em.... so it was no problem rounding up enough blocking to build a proper support.

I didn't even have to cut any! I love my Texas Women....

During the jacking and cribbing work, my old Fire Service instructor's voice was clearly howling in my head..."Jack an inch....Crib an inch!!!!"

30 years later and "Bear" still shows up, in spirit at least, when I need him....I sort of missed his gloves smacking the back of my helmet tho...he is still keeping me from killing myself after all these years...

The lift went off without incident, and with the box resting gently on both the cribbing and the jack, a good shaking showed the box was rock-steady....

Which was a good thing, as a good bit of work needed to be done under the box...

Besides just sliding in the axle, 4x4 support blocks were needed at the outboard ends of the axle to spread the load over the full length of the pipe....the boxes centerline foundation beams would have concentrated the bulk of the load in the center 28" of the axle and most likely bent the pipe like spaghetti...so a pair of 3 foot 4x4's with a vee-notch to hold them over the axle were quickly cut and then fit between the axle and the floor beams, spanning 3 or four beams in the process and providing excellent support at the outboard ends.

Once up in the air, it was no problem rolling the axle underneath, setting the support blocks in place and then securing the axle assembly to the box with a cargo strap...the axle was placed a foot behind the measured center-point of the box, ensuring that the load would be slightly heavy at the towed end for stability.

Careful measurements also assured the best possible steering geometry for straight tracking during the tow to the gravel pad.

 

[texasjohn]

Dang, Terry, I'm all sweaty from following you around as you have been working on this project..... and am turning blue holding my breath waiting for the rest of the story... don't keep us in suspense... I'm looking forward to the photos of how it all works out after all the stuff is moved.....

Stupendous post..keep it up!!!

And, stay safe out there!

 

[terry.dinerman]

"The Great Container Barn Massacree"

or

"How I Built A Dirt Cheap Barn For Only Twice As Much Time and Money".


Part 3 - "You Gotta to Move-it Move-it"

With the axle secured, the jack and cribbing were removed, and using my "carry-all" as a forklift, it was now no problem for the 870 to slide the forks under the heavy end and elevate it.

The "hitch" was made up of two C-clamps fixed to the front of the box, where a 3x3 steel rim-joist provided a secure pulling point....short chains wrapped around the lower crossbar held the load down on the forks then provided the pulling connection.

The system proved very maneuverable, and although "creeper" gear was not required to move the boxes, keeping the load low and the speed slow is the only safe way to move a peculiar load like this...so I chugged slowly on down the road with the first box and enjoyed the view....

It was no problem making some very tight turns, and only one spot, a 90 degree turn into the home-site required any backing....once I figured out the right point to start the turn, the remaining boxes went thru that choke-point without stopping....

The edge of the gravel pad proved a bit too steep for the 870 to pull the load up and over, but after a little grooming with a shovel, using a couple of short 2x12's for ramps and the lowest gear in the transmission, the tractor pulled the box up on the pad without even puffing.

Safely moving this first box was the "engineering on the fly" portion of the job...it took most of an entire day to approach the problems of each phase and then analyze, adapt and overcome the unique challenges presented...but at the end of Day 1, a system had emerged from all the uncertainty.