This, that, and the other

[mikim]

Hmmmmmm, it sounds like the old gang is feeling the need for a get together project again, hmmmmmmmmmm.

I'm game and I know Glenda is.

YEAH! LET'S DO IT! .....oh yeah .... maybe we outta tell Don & Karen?

Eddie -- I can see the picture of what you described --- It was as close to what I had in my head as you could get.

Don -- since you're retired and not doing anything ... you can go ahead and get those rock columns built ahead of time.......

 

[txdon]

Patrick g, I have my front cattle guard installed and I'll take a couple of pictures of it tomorrow. It looks like it should last many years. The sides are shored up by a huge concrete block on each side. The local concrete company makes the "L" shaped blocks and loaded them on my trailer. They could not be picked up with my tractor so I scooted them around on pipes. Now the trick is tying in the automatic gate on top (for vehicle traffic) and adding the side entrance fences.

Harvey, Glenda's idea is getting the most votes, including Karen's. Eddie's Idea even got a positive "Oh!"

Mike, Yes I do need to start on the base for this project. Projected finish Date June 1, 2008. (How do you do rock columns without the guys napping in the shade?)

Edit: Harvey, Karen Just looked at the pictures again (awake) that you posted of the stone and metal gate and she likes that too.

Edit, Edit:
I have racked my brain trying to figure out how the entrance could match the feeling we want this land to project. Some of the goals that we thought about when we thought of land ownership were that we wanted to keep the wildlife wild and the plants native. To do this begins with keeping the soil organic. Many of the smaller animals and insects do not exist on other farms. Some don't like all the bugs but they are the base needed to keep this little part of Texas wild and beautiful.

Harvey remember that gate we saw on the South fork ranch with the wild Stallions? When you were up close it was hard to see the horses but at a distance you could see the whole picture. We don't have any horses here but we have a lot of other native wildlife: coyotes, birds, raccoons, possums, armadillos, lizards, butterflys, deer, etc.. . along with other native plants and trees.

Now, how does one project all this subtly into the entrance?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Alright! We've got goals!

Okay, how about this?

Don gets the materials ready on site. Those so inclined come in and we have a build.

Here's what I see. We have a rock wing similar to our bridge rock thing on each side of the gate. Where it's different is we weld on quarter inch pins instead of the three eighths ones we used on the bridge. And we put on more pins. Here's why: we do bug and plant murals out of natural stone.

I believe we can lay out stones as pixels and create images. (on my bucket list is doing a very large wall mural with this method) We can create images of natural settings using natural materials.

Then on the gate, we can make it a slide which means we don't need the big hinge post and the worry about sag etc. I'll bring the benders etc and we can make it look like anything we want. While I love the idea of the irregular break like Eddie mentioned it does mean two gates instead of one.

So imagine this, we have the rock entry with the natural images out of natural materials. Then we have a steel gate with say two buggy wheels, one for Don, one for Karen, a pair to draw to you might say. We can pick up a twelve volt solar powered operator for either slide or swing gates that I feel live for a long time.

Here's the way I see it working. Karen and Don come up with an image they'd like. Someone here or there much smarter than me grids the image. That's where the image is broken down into manageable pieces, little squares if you will. That tells us the color and shape of the stones required.

If Glenda and I roll in a day or two in advance we can help Don and Karen set the posts and lay out the metal with the pins for the mural. Then all those so inclined arrive and we get after it. What would be cool would be if those so inclined sent or brought a stone or two for the mural from their area. (hint hint Rox and those who want to be part of a great project but can't make it)

I"m offering suggestions because I believe we can do this, besides that, I need a tbn bud hug every now and then.

 

[txdon]

Harvey, You nailed it! Karen thinks the idea is "so cool".
It is 60' from the front fence to the 16' cattle guard. Below are some pictures of the front entrance now. Our heads are spinning on a design to grid out. (Any artist out there?)
The excitement is rising!
(Oh, I almost forgot, there also needs to be an Eddie Walker snake in the mural.)

 

[patrick_g]

Pat, I've thought about the guard I saw up north. I don't know why you can't make something like that for less cost and more durability. It can't be that difficult.

The only thing I saw that made it difficult was the holding down of the guard for ten seconds or so after the wheels contacted initially contacted it. The easy answer to that of course would be a shock type cylinder like you use on an equipment hauler tilt trailer. But I'll bet there is a simple mechancial answer that would be almost maintenance free.

Let's think about it. We need a cattle guard that is above ground that will flatten to grade when weight contacts it. So we'd need first a spring assisted lift system to hold the guard up most of the time. Then we'd need a locking system that would engage and hold the guard at grade for a period of time.

Nothing to it.

Harv, This particular cattle guard is the responsibility of the oil operator that has the two wells on my place. They hired a klutz to service it and got really bad results. The operator wants me to have a mutual acquaintance fix it to my satisfaction and send operator the bill. I don't want to waste $ or take advantage while spending someone elses money but I want to try to do it right so it will not have to be redone every couple years. I think that will be a better deal for both of us.

When the pit fills with mud/dirt then stock can walk out to the highway. I don't care to discuss whose liability it is, I just want to prevent it while having a cattle guard that works for 18 wheelers too. They truck the oil and salt water with separate trucks so there are heavy trucks over it a lot.

I have considered trying to design and build my own pitless cattle guards but not for this particular entry. I agree that a pitless cattle guard isn't rocket science and a suitable mechanism could probably be fabricated in any of several ways after the usual tinkering and prototyping and testing and rebuilding and...

Pat

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Harvey, You nailed it! Karen thinks the idea is "so cool".
It is 60' from the front fence to the 16' cattle guard. Below are some pictures of the front entrance now. Our heads are spinning on a design to grid out. (Any artist out there?)
The excitement is rising!
(Oh, I almost forgot, there also needs to be an Eddie Walker snake in the mural.)

Don, I love that sign on your fence. We need to use it.

Consider this: on left side of the gate we make a steel disc, I'd say about five feet in diameter. We grid and pin it. We also grid the squirrel image on the sign to fill the disc. That image screams to be stoned.

On the right side we use another shape. Part of me thinks of a cup on a saucer in profile. We put the cardinal on the cup in stone.

I think on the gate we need to consider slide. There are a couple of reasons for this. The most important one is it allows us to build the design without worrying about the trussing required for a swing gate. The other is the spinning wheels.

Yup, spinning wheels, like in a buckboard wagon.

Let's say the gate has a buckboard wagon in it. The wheels on the buckboard ride on the wheels that ride on the angle iron rail for the gate. That way when the gate opens the buckboard wagon wheels turn. They'll turn of course in the opposite direction from what they're supposed to turn. But that's okay, it's art.

We can design the buckboard where it can hold plants blooming in the spring, straw and pumpkins in the fall, presents and such around Christmas if Karen so desired.

I can get our TBN member here locally that's the graphic artist to do the gridding for us with his Apple magic. You have a plasma and a mig, right? We can bring down Lucy and the fifthwheel toy hauler with lots of neat stuff we might need.

Let's have some fun.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Harv, This particular cattle guard is the responsibility of the oil operator that has the two wells on my place. They hired a klutz to service it and got really bad results. The operator wants me to have a mutual acquaintance fix it to my satisfaction and send operator the bill. I don't want to waste $ or take advantage while spending someone elses money but I want to try to do it right so it will not have to be redone every couple years. I think that will be a better deal for both of us.

When the pit fills with mud/dirt then stock can walk out to the highway. I don't care to discuss whose liability it is, I just want to prevent it while having a cattle guard that works for 18 wheelers too. They truck the oil and salt water with separate trucks so there are heavy trucks over it a lot.

I have considered trying to design and build my own pitless cattle guards but not for this particular entry. I agree that a pitless cattle guard isn't rocket science and a suitable mechanism could probably be fabricated in any of several ways after the usual tinkering and prototyping and testing and rebuilding and...

Pat

A couple of thoughts come to mind Pat. The simplest is to make the cattle guard out of six to eight inch pipe for cross pieces. Tie them together with two inch pipe cut through the cross pieces. When the dirt starts to get high then it would be nothing to blow it clean with a pressure washer and it will be good for another six months to a year. A gravel raised approach on both sides will prevent high siding the eighteen wheelers. It will be a little rough for four wheelers but if you make the approaches just right they can jump it.

The simplest way to have a raised guard work I think would be to use the most rudimental of hydraulics. Cylinders to raise the guard with reservoirs or bladders located sixty or so feet on each side. When a vehicle contacts the guard the weight of the vehicle will force the fluid to the reservoir lowering the guard. Then when the vehicle passes over the reservoir it sends the liquid back to the guard raising it.

 

[txdon]

I'm still in a bit of a daze trying to visualize all of this.
The buckboard with backward turning wheels sounds fun.
I do not have a plasma. (Will that be a problem?)

What equipment do I need to have on hand for this job?

I have tractor, BH and forks.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I have a plasma I can bring for cutting the sheet metal so that's not a problem. I can also bring the hydraulic Beaver post hole digger that I used to use for digging twelve inch by six feet holes before I got Iris. So digging post holes won't be a problem either.

The neat thing about rocking the images is we don't need real contrasts to make them, well, rock. We can play with shades, say like beige to pink or pink to red or grey to darker grey etc and so on. The smaller the rocks will mean more definition--and more work/fun of course.

Glenda doesn't like the idea of the buckboard. I do. We'll wrestle while you decide.

 

[EddieWalker]

Here's what I see. We have a rock wing similar to our bridge rock thing on each side of the gate. Where it's different is we weld on quarter inch pins instead of the three eighths ones we used on the bridge. And we put on more pins. Here's why: we do bug and plant murals out of natural stone.

I believe we can lay out stones as pixels and create images. (on my bucket list is doing a very large wall mural with this method) We can create images of natural settings using natural materials.

Harvey,

Would this be like creating a mosaic?

Depending on the rocks, you could cut them with a chop saw. I have a Milwakee metal chop saw that I use for cultured stone and brick with a diamon blade that would probably do rock too.

With all the space that Don has available for his gate, wouldn't block and a cement footing be cheaper then metal with pins? Then the rock would be set in mortor.

How would you finish off the top of the wall? Would it have a cap of some kind?

Running with your idea, what would a cement block wall look like with the native stone used for the cap and colums. Then between the colums, Don could use tile or maybe a cultured stone that would be easy to cut and shape into a series of pictures that reflects the wildlife on his ranch? He could use pebbles, sand, wood, glass or just about anything that he has on his land, or wants to buy.

I think that with the dark color of his native rocks that he could use for the colums and cap, then he could use cultured in a light color, like Austin Stone, for the background.

The mosaics could be as simple as a silhouette of each creature that he wanted to put there. Just print out a picture on the computere on graph paper, cut it out around the edge and then transfer it to a larger piece of paper or cardbord to create a patern. Draw the pattern on the wall and install broken pieces of tile to fit the pattern. For tile, use thinset mortor. Then install the cultured stone around the silhouette for a background with regular mortor.

It's something that is very easy to do, but takes some planning and patience. Don and Karen could work on it a little at a time and with just a five gallon bucket of mortor or thinset.

Of course, he could also make the wall solid stone and cut out silhoettes of metal, then install them over the rock. With a plasma cutter, it would be simple to cut out the shapes for a variety of creatures and plants. Then weld some rods to the backs of the cutouts and attach them to the wall. I don't have a plasma cutter, but I've cut out metal for things like this with my saber saw. It just takes a little longer and makes allot more noise!!! LOL

Eddie