This, that, and the other

[txdon]

Harvey, ouch ouch ouch!

Those good looking cedar logs sure have a lot of red wood in them.

You have got me in the mood to start to work on the front entrance.

Below is the before picture - that's all for now.

I have made the "CALL BEFORE YOU DIG" and the utilities are marked. We will have one county water line to watch. I now have a 16' cattle guard on property ready to install.

I will get some extra gravel at the entrance this week to straighten out that curved road a bit. (Tractor work woo hoo!!)

I can either get some 16' concrete beams for the cattle guard to rest on ($250+ delivery +install) or for $350 I can get 5 yards (minimum) of concrete delivered and frame it in the ground myself. I'm leaning toward the latter however I will have 3 yards of concrete left over. Any Ideas where best to utilize the 3 yards at the entrance?

It's starting to get fun! I don't have a clue what the finished entrance will look like.

 

[MF1455v]

Don, not sure how much the delivery fee would be but we can go get the beems, I have plenty of trailer for that. Problem might be picking them up. Maybe a tandam lift with 2 tractors. But the extra concrete would make a nice aproach pad to the guard .

James

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Let's see, we figure eighty square feet at four inches per cubic yard, that's two hundred and forty square feet of approach in my book.

Don, you haven't seen anything yet, we're going to be making bacon in the next week, it's going to get interesting, I'm getting excited.

What I'd like you to consider is enough of a drive in or approach if you will where you can pull in out of traffic with a trailer behind the truck. So think about that as far as where you want to locate your gate and or cattle guard.

We could put the gate centered on the cattle guard. What I would want you to do would be to put eighteen inch plugs at each end of the cattle guard when you pour your pad for it. We'll drill down six feet or so in those plugs to set your posts.

 

[txdon]

James, Thanks for the suggestion. I would have to include the price of the local BH guy because the beams would be too heavy to lift with my Kubota. I need to keep it simple. I think I will go with a pour. I was pleasantly surprised that Kubota was able to pick the cattle guard off the delivery trailer. Your suggestion of a larger approach pad sounds the easiest, unless Harvey thinks it can be used somehow in the entry boarder.


edit: opps we were posting at the same time. Harvey the cattle guard has wings, it was already made and can be modified, I'll take a picture tomorrow. The 18" plugs - is that the diameter?

The cattle guard will be sitting back 50' from the road, about where the mesquite trees are.

HMMM 7ft approach pad on each side - doable.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Some years ago a bunch of folks gathered at my shop in Wylie. It was to build an ATV bridge for txdon and Karen. We had a great time that weekend.

For me it was especially wonderful. I got to watch an idea come to fruition and share the pleasure that I enjoy making things. I know some who were there thought it was a memorable event because they've told me so. But I have to confess that the person that had the most fun was me.

One of the attendees was a TBN member. I asked him tonight what his username was and he couldn't remember. I know I cut it in for him with the plasma in the state of Texas on the bridge because he wasn't there when we did the signing. But I can't remember his user name either.

This TBN member is the one with the cedar staircase. This evening on the way in I stopped by his house and took some pictures. What we have here is a lot like what happened with the ATV bridge. I came up with an idea and convinced someone that it was nothing but a thing. They believed me and made it happen.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Here are some more. I don't know if you can tell, buy I'm prouder'n punch as they say in France on beautiful spring mornings. (be quiet Rox, it's my illusion)

 

[txdon]

In one word - WOW!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

James, Thanks for the suggestion. I would have to include the price of the local BH guy because the beams would be too heavy to lift with my Kubota. I need to keep it simple. I think I will go with a pour. I was pleasantly surprised that Kubota was able to pick the cattle guard off the delivery trailer. Your suggestion of a larger approach pad sounds the easiest, unless Harvey thinks it can be used somehow in the entry boarder.


edit: opps we were posting at the same time. Harvey the cattle guard has wings, it was already made and can be modified, I'll take a picture tomorrow. The 18" plugs - is that the diameter?

The cattle guard will be sitting back 50' from the road, about where the mesquite trees are.

HMMM 7ft approach pad on each side - doable.

Don if you want to have a combination cattle guard gate then I need eighteen inch openings for me drop down the auger for the gate posts.

If you are planning on having a gate and then inside of the gate the cattle guard then we'll worry about the hole location when we get down there.

In the next week we'll be posting updates on the gate entrys up here. In fact we plan on Wednesday doing the cutting on the cedar gate posts. I'm as nervous as can be on this one. It's literally a one shot deal and it's got to be right the first time.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I don't know if this is what Harvey meant by "This, that, and the other," but I'll give you a little background and a link to the rest of the story.

Silt Happens

Shane, that's a picture my wife took of me while I was finishing the job of digging out my pond in late 2005. I had a dozer dig out a huge layer of silt and he left me a bit of a mess to clean up. I finished it over several months before we ever got any rain. In that photo, I'm descending down the pond dam while scraping the loose silt to the bottom where I'd load up my bucket and bring it back up to dump on the back side of the dam. I kept expecting to see the oil pressure light come on because I figured all the oil ran to the front of the oil pan. Luckily, that never happened and my tractor performed flawlessly. I hauled hundreds of yards of additional silt out of the pond. The avitar brings back lots of memories, all of them good.

Here are a few attached photos also.

Hmmm, Jim that's what I was talking about.

As for the angle of your dangle, around here we'd call that a pucker string tester.

 

[txdon]

Harvey, don't go to bed I have something for you in the next post.....