Lost my Sub-rural card?

   / Lost my Sub-rural card?
  • Thread Starter
#11  
Okay--here are the pictures to prove that it happened.

IMG_0370.JPG18f06e29-e4b4-47cf-a1da-e9dc98cb0c0e_cdv_photo_001.jpg
 
   / Lost my Sub-rural card? #12  
We had about the same problem a few years ago. I started digging and had a small hole when son-in-law, 6'7" and 300 pounds, got there. Who needs a backhoe!!! He had a hole six by six in no time. Found the leak BUT it was the old black rolled pipe that had been installed over thirty years earlier. And this was the second leak in two years. So......next day called a contractor and had entire line replaced from the meter to the house. Expensive but better to get a recurring problem repaired correctly at a cost now than nickel and dime yourself to death the next ten years.

RSKY
 
   / Lost my Sub-rural card? #13  
Lived in the boondocks for past 17 years. If there's on lesson I've learned it's ... HUMILITY! Just when you think everything is under control, random chit happens! :rotfl:
 
   / Lost my Sub-rural card? #14  
Yep. Had a flooded basement 2 years ago. Took me until middle of summer to fine a broken waterline right outside the basement wall. Fixed that - dry basement again.

Sooo...last spring I go down and find 3" of water everywhere. Finally traced that to where a new spring had forced a leak just above the footing. sump pump must not have kicked in soon enough. It was running when I found the 3" water.
 
   / Lost my Sub-rural card? #15  
Had to clear this area for a prefab shed. They wanted the stumps out. Nothing too big, right?

IMG_0085-M.jpg


Thought about renting a small excavator but hired our neighbor instead. He took a look and came back with this.

60183492-ED67-41E2-98B9-8AB204C4E290-M.jpg


He gave me the choice of hauling the stumps away. Tried to move them and they wouldn稚 budge. So definitely a good move to get contractor-size equipment on the job. Only thing I built was the ramp.

2017103018104188-IMG_1061-M.jpg


H
 
Last edited:
   / Lost my Sub-rural card? #16  
My wife called a pump guy when we had no well water. I had disconnected and checked ohms on pump, decided it was likely control box. My wife had picked up control box and new pump and she arrived home a few minutes before pump guy showed up. He checked a few things and replaced control box. I asked him what made him decide it was control box, he said, it is either the pump or control box, I never put a new pump in without a new control box, so either this fixes it or we need to put a pump in too. He was not cheap, but he did use the control box we purchased (saved us $90 and was same box he carried).

We found out we had a bad pressure tank, so had him drop one off so I could install it, asked for quote on new pump/pipe/wire and ended iup having him come back before Thanksgiving and take care of that... We have done all that in the past, but we are both done with that and make enough to pay someone else for some things.

If you have the money, and don't have the time, nothing wrong with supporting local business. When we were younger, we did not have the money.

I figured out, a long time ago, that one either has time or one has money. There is seldom a point in your life when you have both. So, you either have the time to fix it yourself because you don't have any extra money, or.... you have no time because you are making money, so you have the work done by someone else.
 
   / Lost my Sub-rural card? #17  
... one either has time or one has money. There is seldom a point in your life when you have both. So, you either have the time to fix it yourself because you don't have any extra money, or.... you have no time because you are making money, so you have the work done by someone else.
Then you age out to where you have the skills, time, money, but not, in this case, balance. First photo was 10 years ago, 2007. I was over 60 then. I greased the windmill turntable so it wouldn't moan as the wind shifted direction. Now 10 years later and any minor work on a roof has convinced me that my sense of balance isn't as acute as it was 50 years ago when I worked construction and climbed stuff routinely. I'm looking for a local windmill specialist to do the greasing this time.

Related - The Redwoods adjacent have grown up to conflict with the windmill tail. This summer - 2017 - I climbed the nearest redwood and topped it (second photo).

Then I discovered the next tree over conflicted also. The heck with it. I paid a pro to come out with a bucket truck and cut the conflicting branches off that one.

P1020761rWindmill-Climb-2007.jpg

20170709_161534rOnTopOfRedwood-2017.jpg
 
   / Lost my Sub-rural card? #19  
That'a a cool looking building by the windmill! Is there a little history with that?
Watertower! These are classic in this region, the wine country north of San Francisco and other parts of Northern California, where there were working farms before electricity. I've always assumed they were everywhere but I've been asked this question enough that apparently they aren't everywhere. Functionally equivalent to the elevated naked tanks found nearly always with windmills.

There was a 1500 gallon redwood water tank in the top story for a century. Primary water supply for the farm until the modern well and pressure tank, then maintained to quickly gravity-fill the 600 gallon orchard sprayer that needs multiple refills per application.

Then 20 years ago Dad took out the tank and made the top story into a man-cave where his wife couldn't climb the steep ladder to pester him. He already had the original workshop in the first story and a smaller office/retreat he had made in the second story. Presently the top story is my son-in-law's artist studio, second story is storage, and the first floor is my shop with drill press etc.

Many people convert these to livable space. For example a neighbor was mostly on the road in a motorhome but had their water tower kitchen and bedroom to come home to, while their primary farmhouse was rented out to pay for their nomad lifestyle.

I went looking on Google for more examples like mine - searched 'watertower' and 'tankhouse' - and found a variety of unrelated styles. But all the ones I've ever seen around here are just like mine.
 
   / Lost my Sub-rural card? #20  
Had to clear this area for a shed. They wanted the stumps out. Nothing too big, right?

IMG_0085-M.jpg


Thought about renting a small excavator but hired our neighbor instead. He took a look and came back with this.

60183492-ED67-41E2-98B9-8AB204C4E290-M.jpg


He gave me the choice of hauling the stumps away. Tried to move them and they wouldn稚 budge. So definitely a good move to get contractor-size equipment on the job. Only thing I built was the ramp.

2017103018104188-IMG_1061-M.jpg


H

That's a beautiful building.
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2020 Kubota SVL 75-2 Skid Steer (A51573)
2020 Kubota SVL...
2020 JOHN DEERE CP690 LOT NUMBER 204 (A53084)
2020 JOHN DEERE...
2023 FORD TRANSIT VAN (A52576)
2023 FORD TRANSIT...
2025 New/Unused Wolverine Ripper (A51573)
2025 New/Unused...
2018 FORD TRANSIT T250 CARGO VAN (A52577)
2018 FORD TRANSIT...
2020 BOBCAT T76 R-SERIES SKID STEER (A51246)
2020 BOBCAT T76...
 
Top