Our Backyard

[pdxman]

Came across a $60 digital camera this weekend and thought I'd give it a shake. This is the horse arena my brother in law and I built a year and a half ago. Will try to get a front yard picture when the overcast clears.

 

[GlueGuy]

Looks good for a $60 camera. Arena looks nice too /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

The GlueGuy

 

[JonE]

Nice place and not bad pic for $60!

 

[cowboydoc]

Pdxman,
Great looking arena!!! The only thing I would be careful of is the boards that are nailed on the outside. Horses can get to pushing on them and knock them off. Also if you ride in there I've had as patients and seen broken legs from the horse getting too close to the posts and knocking the leg against the post. I would run a board on the inside where you built your retaining wall just for safety reasons. GREAT looking though.

 

[pdxman]

The boards mounted on the outside of the posts are on pretty good. We nailed them plus lag bolted them on. I have had visions of someone hitting their leg on one of those posts and need to do something about it. When I got home last night my wife told me about her day watching my 12 yr old nieces horse completely fall and roll on her. Both a little bruised and swollen but ok. Horse (6yr Arabian) may have aggravated a previous leg injury causing the fall.

The camera is just a simple Intel PC pocket cam.

 

[jinman]

Great picture and great arena. How much farther does your hillside go up? How did you make your retainer wall? I'm going to be building several retainer walls and I plan to sink posts into the ground and even pour concrete footings in some areas. When I saw your arena, it looked like you had some similar challenges.

JimI

 

[pdxman]

Thanks JimI. We live on a hillside so the slope continues up...and down. Posts for the retaining wall were 18 foot treated 6x6 cemented in the ground about 3-4'. Backside of the wall that was trenched had about 2-3' space and left compacted native ground undisturbed as much as possible. Treated 2x6 were lag bolted from the trenched area side. Put 'deadmen' on each post by using a long threaded eye bolt through each post with the threads coming out the arena side. In the 'eye' side of the bolt we bent heavy 10' rebar to hold onto it and bent an 'L' on the other end and anchored in cement. That way, during normal settling, we can crank on the nut on the arena side to pull the wall back in some. Haven't needed to do this in awhile as I think it's pretty much settled into place. We also put some roofing felt in the bottom of the trench with drain pipe on top. Backfilled with drain rock. I tell you what though, when using those long treated posts, no matter how straight you put them in, once they started drying and sun gets to them, they really get twisted. Guess thats one of the problems of doing something yourself and tend to notice it more than someone else. Another thing to remember, we put the 2x6 boards in wet and butted up tight. This pretty much allowed for maximum swelling and avoided any buckling caused from it. When they dry out though, I can see some half inch gaps between the boards so be sure to allow for this. Anything else, just ask

 

[cowboydoc]

You sure did your homework and built that wall right pdxman. That's exactly how I did mine except I used railroad ties because I had them and didn't have to buy them. I really like your look alot better though. No shortcuts and quite the professional look.

 

[jinman]

Pbxman, thanks for the info. I'm going to save your description to refer to when I start doing my retainer. Mine is along a path I cut beside a pond. See attachment.

JimI

 

[Harv]

Jim -

Excellent picture! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Just curious -- what does the ol' tiltmeter say on that slope? /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif