cjcocn
Silver Member
I really enjoy reading about the various projects here on TBN, from the equipment fixes, the new part fabrications, and the earthworks and buildings. My favorite may turn out to be the tractor restoration projects, but that may only be because I will be starting my own soon.
Here is a project that I did last summer. The project ran from April to August 2006, so it is a bit dated. I decided to post it anyway since it does include pics and I know that some folks on here like pics (including me!).
Here's how it went ....
It was supposed to flood in July 2005 so we put this up ...
Excavator starting earthen dike ....
Earthen dike completed .....
Our septic field was in the front so we opted for sandbags there ......
Starting the process ......
3 days and 4 1/2 feet (high) of sand bags later ......
NOTE: We had just moved into our house on May 20th, 2005, and before the end of June we had these sandbags up. We did not really have a chance to meet any of our neighbors, but they were sandbagging as well and initially I wasn't going to sandbag our home, so went to help one of them (I had gone down to the river and did my own figuring, and decided that the water would never reach us). Turns out a rep from Highways (they had the fancy GPS equipment) pulled into our yard one day and told me that we would have 3 1/2 feet of water in our yard. My wife and I discussed it and decided to sandbag. The first pic shows what she and I did the first evening, but by the next morning we had anywhere from 10 to 15 neighbors show up and help us out. We have GREAT neighbors!
It ended up not flooding, so it was time for cleanup.
Wheel loader removing earthen dike ....
This whole deal really got started on April 12th of 2006 as that is when everything was melting and the water had nowhere to go. We couldn't find a pump locally so I borrowed one and started pumping water (I ended up ordering a water pump and 150' of hose from Boss Tool Supply. They have a lot of stuff for sale and offer free shipping on orders over $69 ... I'll definitely be ordering from them again).
Our drainage really sucked as we had no ditch in the front along the road Right-Of-Way (R-O-W). That, coupled with the diking that went on in our area, basically meant that we were in a basin that was really good at holding water. Two of our girls have rooms in the basement and they had to move upstairs because it was leaking. I didn't want them to have to do that every time it thawed out (they were okay last winter) so I figured I'd do something about it.
Once I decided to fix the problem, I decided not to do it half- .... "baked" and figured that I'd start by wiping the slate clean.
Yard during tree removal .....
I removed the sand bags with a quad that I purchased to help with the work and a trailer that I borrowed. I started right after work every day so it only took 4 evenings to remove about 2,500 sand bags.
Right around this time I hired a backhoe to come in and dig us a ditch along the road R-O-W and install a culvert on our approach. I don't have any pics of the machine working, but it really happened!
Carrying on ......
Weeping tile & new pump-out septic system going in. The installer needed the house to himself for some of this and I had to go to the city, so while he was working I took my only time off during the process and went to Winnipeg for a couple of days with my wife. When we returned, the weeping tile and new ejector system was in.
Below is a pic of the front yard before I taught myself to run a D6. The trees are by the barn and are being used as firewood this winter. I figure that there are close to six cords there. The branches went to the landfill until I got sick of hauling them and the rest went into one of our pastures. I will burn those sometime this winter.
About 1 hour of running time. I was digging a hole to bury my tree stumps that I had already pushed up ......
After about 3 1/2 hours on the D6 - my first 3 1/2 hours ever on that type of machine.
After going through the yard and pulling/picking roots it was time for topsoil.
192 cubic yards of topsoil going on .......
New eavestrough, some of the deck replaced (doing siding/insulation next year and will put up a nice roofed deck then), lawn seeded and grass starting to come in. It looks a lot better now and I was even able to cut it once before the snow fell last year.
That's basically how the project went and after a few months of evenings and weekends it was nice to get done.
The big payoff is that we refinished the basement and the girls are back in their rooms and like it more than ever as we designed the rooms (paint schemes, etc) the way they wanted and most importantly - they are dry!
That's about it.
Here is a project that I did last summer. The project ran from April to August 2006, so it is a bit dated. I decided to post it anyway since it does include pics and I know that some folks on here like pics (including me!).
Here's how it went ....
It was supposed to flood in July 2005 so we put this up ...
Excavator starting earthen dike ....
Earthen dike completed .....
Our septic field was in the front so we opted for sandbags there ......
Starting the process ......
3 days and 4 1/2 feet (high) of sand bags later ......
NOTE: We had just moved into our house on May 20th, 2005, and before the end of June we had these sandbags up. We did not really have a chance to meet any of our neighbors, but they were sandbagging as well and initially I wasn't going to sandbag our home, so went to help one of them (I had gone down to the river and did my own figuring, and decided that the water would never reach us). Turns out a rep from Highways (they had the fancy GPS equipment) pulled into our yard one day and told me that we would have 3 1/2 feet of water in our yard. My wife and I discussed it and decided to sandbag. The first pic shows what she and I did the first evening, but by the next morning we had anywhere from 10 to 15 neighbors show up and help us out. We have GREAT neighbors!
It ended up not flooding, so it was time for cleanup.
Wheel loader removing earthen dike ....
This whole deal really got started on April 12th of 2006 as that is when everything was melting and the water had nowhere to go. We couldn't find a pump locally so I borrowed one and started pumping water (I ended up ordering a water pump and 150' of hose from Boss Tool Supply. They have a lot of stuff for sale and offer free shipping on orders over $69 ... I'll definitely be ordering from them again).
Our drainage really sucked as we had no ditch in the front along the road Right-Of-Way (R-O-W). That, coupled with the diking that went on in our area, basically meant that we were in a basin that was really good at holding water. Two of our girls have rooms in the basement and they had to move upstairs because it was leaking. I didn't want them to have to do that every time it thawed out (they were okay last winter) so I figured I'd do something about it.
Once I decided to fix the problem, I decided not to do it half- .... "baked" and figured that I'd start by wiping the slate clean.
Yard during tree removal .....
I removed the sand bags with a quad that I purchased to help with the work and a trailer that I borrowed. I started right after work every day so it only took 4 evenings to remove about 2,500 sand bags.
Right around this time I hired a backhoe to come in and dig us a ditch along the road R-O-W and install a culvert on our approach. I don't have any pics of the machine working, but it really happened!
Carrying on ......
Weeping tile & new pump-out septic system going in. The installer needed the house to himself for some of this and I had to go to the city, so while he was working I took my only time off during the process and went to Winnipeg for a couple of days with my wife. When we returned, the weeping tile and new ejector system was in.
Below is a pic of the front yard before I taught myself to run a D6. The trees are by the barn and are being used as firewood this winter. I figure that there are close to six cords there. The branches went to the landfill until I got sick of hauling them and the rest went into one of our pastures. I will burn those sometime this winter.
About 1 hour of running time. I was digging a hole to bury my tree stumps that I had already pushed up ......
After about 3 1/2 hours on the D6 - my first 3 1/2 hours ever on that type of machine.
After going through the yard and pulling/picking roots it was time for topsoil.
192 cubic yards of topsoil going on .......
New eavestrough, some of the deck replaced (doing siding/insulation next year and will put up a nice roofed deck then), lawn seeded and grass starting to come in. It looks a lot better now and I was even able to cut it once before the snow fell last year.
That's basically how the project went and after a few months of evenings and weekends it was nice to get done.
The big payoff is that we refinished the basement and the girls are back in their rooms and like it more than ever as we designed the rooms (paint schemes, etc) the way they wanted and most importantly - they are dry!
That's about it.
