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The big one, my BIG project

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    The big one, my BIG project

    Well I have started my big project, that once done, should make doing most of my other projects happen easier. I rented a track loader and cleared an area that is about 140 ft. long, by 70 ft. wide. The front half of that area, is where my shop is going to go. The back half of that area, is where my wife's garden is going to be.

    I am going to build a 40X60 shop, not sure how many doors, or where the doors will be. My wife wants the longer length of the shop to run east and west, which is going up hill. I found that from the high point, to what would be the other end of the shop, the ground drops 4 ft. I want the shop running north and south, so there will not be as much difference in the high end and the low end. I have figured out the ground drops or rises at 1 ft. every 15 ft.. So only going 40 ft. down hill, there would be around 2 ft. 8" of height variation from the high end to the low end. Also if we had the longer length running north and south, there would be more room for her garden. How the shop is going to be laid out, has not been determined for sure, at this point.

    I have 260 yards of base ordered, will be delivered next week. Then the following week I will rent the track loader, and laser level again, then get the base moved, spread and leveled.

    Then in all of the buying steel, base and building the shop, I am also going to build a large carport where we park our vehicles. Then the poorly built plywood shed, that the previous owner built is going to get removed. Probably going to put another good sized flower bed, where that shed currently is. The next year is going to be a very busy year. I cleared out an area about 20 ft. by 25 ft. that was all very tall, dense yaupon. That clump was between the house and my wife's greenhouse. I cleared out the yaupon with a chainsaw about a year and a half ago. Then just left it like that, spraying the yaupon, every time I saw green stuff growing. A month ago, I dug up all of those yaupon stumps and roots, that was a lot of fun. So that area is cleared and ready for the next step. I am going to build about a 2 ft. high concrete wall around the area I cleared, then make sidewalks all the way around the wall. Then sidewalks to the deck, then to the front of the house, the driveway, carport area. Then probably another flower bed, on the other side of the sidewalk, where the shed currently is. This flower bed, will also get a 1 1/2 ft. to 2 ft. wall around it, and a walk way all the way around. Then I will make steps going up to each flower bed. Then around the outside wall, I will have about 3 ft. diameter concrete pads. Those pads will be to place my wife's large potted plants, through out the spring and summer. Then those plants, will get put in the greenhouse for the winter.

    Inside the walled flower beds, we are going to fill them up 3/4s of the way, with sandy loam, then plant roses, and whatever else she wants in them. Then hopefully building 1 1/2 ft. to 2 ft. walls around each flower bed, will keep out much of the weed seeds that wash down hill, every time it rains. And hopefully keep most of the copperheads out of her flower beds.

    Then I am going to build up the front and rear yard, with sandy loam, and make ferrows running crossways to the slope of the hill, to slow down the water running down hill when it rains. Currently, when it rains, sand, soil, seeds and rocks all get washed down hill. A lot of our bermuda seed we put out, wound up down at the bottom of the hill, we have bermuda, growing down near the road, we never put any bermuda seed anywhere but the yard.

    Also when I rent the track loader again in two weeks, I am going to widen the trail up the middle of the property. Then make me a much nicer 100 yard rifle range. I will build a nice big berm just past 100 yards. I may even try making a small pond, in the area of where my feeder is. I am thinking dig out a pond and use the soil to build my berm for the rifle range.

    On the surface, we either have sand or some very nice sandy loam, depends on if it is a grassy area or if there is brush or trees, with lots of roots. If it's a grassy area, it will be just sand. But if there are oak trees, or yaupon, the soil is some good sandy loam. So every where I clear out yaupons, I am opening up an area with some very nice sandy loam.

    But whatever is on the surface, is only about 1 1/2 ft. to 2 ft. deep, then you get into a white or red clay, that are like pottery clays. I am sure those two types of clay will hold water very well. I figure I will dig out a pond and line the bottom with that clay. Then see how well it works.


    In the shop, I am going to have an area set up with metal working equipment, my welders, mills, lathe, and eventually a plasma table. Then I will have at least two lifts. I currently have 2, two post lifts. I want a four post drive on lift also. Then I will have my chassis dyno in the floor on one end of the shop. This is all of the stuff I really need to sit down and spend some time arranging. But the way the shop is going to be situated on the area I cleared has to be finalized first, then determine where everything will be in the shop and where the doors will be. I want doors on the north and south ends. I the shop was run north and south, I could get more flow through the shop, with fewer doors.

    Eventually, I plan to cover the walls with spray foam, then line the insides of the walls with plywood. The plywood will help with insulating and sound deadening. Then give me placed to hang banners, pictures or whatever else I decide to decorate the shop with. We are not going to have enough money to have the walls covered with the spray foam or lined with plywood, when the shop gets built. That will happen some time in the future, as we get money, and I find deals on plywood.

    I am going to need to pick up a stick welder with a generator, to weld up the shop, then eventually use it for the front gate and entry way, and corner posts.

    I would guess, that for the next year to year and a half, I am going to be busy with the shop, and yard projects, then try and have the garden ready to plant next spring. Then I also am going to get some bees set up back in the area, where I am going to make the berm for the rifle range, and make an attempt at a small pond. We really need bees, to pollinate our peach, apple and lemon trees. We don't have bees where we are. I want to create a place to make a colony of bees as happy as possible, with as many trees or plants flowering as much of the year as we possibly can. Then hopefully have plenty of water, with a pond. I have been informed we will have to feed them during the winter, but hopefully most of the rest of the year, we will have something flowering to provide them with food.

    I am shooting for having the shop built, sometime in the next six months. Should have the concrete done, building up, doors installed and the building wired up. Then the equipment in the shop, so it's useable. Then as we get money over the next few years, finish the shop, the way I want it. I also should have an second level storage area, on one end of the shop.
    Last edited by RifleBowPistol; 08-13-2022, 08:54 PM.

    #2
    That is a big project! But, a fun one to work through and improve your place. Very exciting. Good luck and have fun with it!!!


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      #3
      It's going to be exhausting, already has been, but will be worth it when it's done.

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        #4
        Last weekend I cleared that one larger area, then cleared out a bunch more yaupon from the other side of the yard, just the other side of where our peach trees are. Then took out a good sized clump of yaupon out of the back yard. That stuff grows fast, starts taking over. I have been wanting to clear out a bunch of yaupon and increase the size of the yard. It has been obvious for the last two years, the yaupon was encroaching on the yard.

        I pushed over 9 good sized post oaks, then piled them up, they are going to be fire wood. I filled a 40 yard dumpster with brush, trash and barbed wire, very quickly. Then did some work on the driveway. Got all of that done in 9 hours of run time on the loader.

        When I was not running the loader, we were picking up and pulling yaupon roots and briar roots. Now we have a bunch of yaupon brush to burn, before the road base shows up.

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          #5
          ...

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            #6
            Following. Love these build project threads.

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              #7
              if you build it.....they will come.

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                #8
                Got 260 yards of base delivered this week, got the loader set up for this coming weekend. So I will be moving base this weekend. Then working on some of the other projects I wanted to do, with the track loader.

                I should have plenty of time to work on widening the trail to make into my 100 yard range. Then making a large berm for a back stop. Then some more yaupon clearing, and driveway work.

                After the base is spread, the next project will be working on the preparing to do the slab. Cutting trenches in the base, laying out the rebar and putting up forms. Then rounding up a concrete crew.
                Last edited by RifleBowPistol; 08-13-2022, 08:54 PM.

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                  #9
                  I have been working on preparing the pad for the slab. The weekend after we got the base delivered. I dug out the high end of the area where the shop will be. I dug down about 1 1/2 ft., on that end. Then piled up the soil I dug out, to use later, either in the yard or my wife's garden. I would guess I have about 50 to 60 yards of soil piled up.

                  I got the base put in the area where the pad is going to be, I used most of the 260 yards. I got the pad looking pretty good, looked mostly level at the time. But since I have figured out the pad still had some slope to it. Then the top of the pad was not the full height all the way across. I had to put more base along the sides of the pad, then more and then some more base. It looked good, then we got some rain a couple times, enough to wash out some of the base, the pad started looking like it needed more work.

                  Then this weekend, I rented a skid steer and a mini excavator. Then we spent some time yesterday, laying out exactly where the slab would be. I then went to work with the skid steer, getting the pad looking better. Then today, a buddy came to the house and showed me how to square up the string lines with batter boards. That worked a lot better than any method I have tried in the past for squaring something up. We got that done and figured out the down hill end of the pad, and one side of the pad, were low. The one side that was low, was mainly right along the edge of where the slab will be. Then the down hill end of the pad, was low, at least 10 ft. from the end of where the slab will be. Then we figured out the high end of the slab, was high, about 1" to 2", the area that was high, started about 15 ft. from the high end of the pad, to the high end of the pad. I tried scraping that area of the pad over and over with the skid steer, did not accomplish much at all. The base in that area, was packed very tight, it was like concrete. I finally got more aggressive with removing some base from that area of the pad. I was able to remove about 2" of height from that area, of the pad. I moved that base and a quite a few more buckets full to the down hill end of the pad. I think it's finally getting close.

                  I am going to check it again in the morning, and see what I have. I had some areas, that looked like they were nothing but very fine base dust, after spreading the base, but what I saw in the bucket, looked like good base. So there were a few areas, that were soft, because of the amount of fine dust in the base. So I soaked the whole pad down thoroughly. I got all of that fine dust soaked in and packed. Tomorrow morning I will put the strings back on the batter boards and get the laser back out and see what it looks like.

                  If it's good, then I will get started digging the trenches for the beams. Then the hole for the dyno, I am putting it back in the ground, so it does not take up so much space. Once all of the digging is done, I will put the plastic down and then the rebar. Then it should be ready for concrete. That's going to be a long exhausting day.

                  It's been a lot of fun working in this heat, today was not so bad, we had some nice winds all day. Just about everyday, that I have worked all day outside, working on this project, it has either rained lightly, been overcast, or we had some cool air blow in, or then the past two days, we have had a nice breeze. I hope we keep having like we have had, when I have been working on this project. I am going to bet, when I get around to working with the steel, it will be just flat hot and zero breeze. I tried to move some rebar around yesterday, that stuff was hot. Today, multiple times either climbing in the skid steer or out of it. I put one of my arms on top of some part of the skid steer, and got reminded how hot it really is outside today.

                  I spent a lot of hours on the track loader, I would say I got pretty good with it. Definitely much improved over my first few hours on it. I really love that piece of equipment. Yesterday, I jumped in the skid steer and moved it around. That's a very different experience. At first it seems very small, there is not much machine around you in any direction, other than the bucket and arms in front of you. Pretty handy piece of equipment. Much easier to level base or dirt, than with the track loader. The track loader, you have to be very careful, or you dig deep ruts in a hurry, that really screws up progress when you are trying to level and area. Basically you have to plan out your moves, so you are not making any tight turns in the area you are trying to level, or you create nice deep ruts, that you have to fix. Since the area I am working on is not flat, and I have the pad built up. I have a drop off on three sides. So I can't just drive off of on those areas. So I was very limited what I could do on the pad, with the track loader. But I did spend a lot of time running it around on the pad, so the base should be packed pretty good. The skid steer will dig shallow ruts, but nothing like the track loader. The skid steer ruts are quick and easy to fix.

                  Tomorrow I am going to get to work on the mini excavator, it will be a little different, the steering should be similar to the track loader or skid steer. Then operating the bucket, should not be much different from a backhoe. Having the cab sitting on a turret, will be a little different. I don't think it will be that hard to run, but I will find out tomorrow.

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                    #10
                    These pictures are from Saturday, before my buddy came out to the house and showed me how to set up the batter boards and how to use them. This is after the four hour circus to get rebar at Home Depot. My wife was ****** off, because I had equipment rented and then Home Depot people wasted a bunch of my time, that I should have been at the house working. I finally got the rebar and got out of there.

                    These pictures were after two or three hours running the skid steer, to smooth out the pad and make it look better, only to find out the next day, it still had multiple problems.
                    Last edited by RifleBowPistol; 08-13-2022, 08:55 PM.

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                      #11
                      Excellent work! Can't wait to see the dyno setup, that's a dream for me. Where are you building this at?

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                        #12
                        On, our property outside of Seguin.

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                          #13
                          This is what the pad looks like as of this morning. Today, I need to dig a hole for the dyno, then dig trenches for the beams. Then next weekend, plastic and rebar.

                          You can see where I had to add a lot of base since Saturday evening, on the down hill end, more so on the driveway side of the pad.
                          Last edited by RifleBowPistol; 08-13-2022, 08:55 PM.

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