Author: Steve Hardin

I was supposed to buy fence posts

Steve HardinLeave a comment

The plan this morning for Tex and I was to go help my mother at her old rental that she is fixing up to sell. She needed some yard work and digging done, Tex duties, and me to look at some other stuff. The other stuff was easy and before I could get out of there to go to Home Depot she made me get a haircut. I am a grown man and I truly believe that 3 or 4 haircuts a year are sufficient. I have felt this way since I could voice an opinion and it has not changed. My mother’s haircut belief system falls more in line with the military’s view. She thinks I need one every 3 weeks or sooner. So to ensure I got a haircut she brought the tools up to the house we were working on so I had no excuse to get away. I have a very nice haircut now.

I drove to Hermiston to return our tile samples and possibly place an order. Now it was a spur of the moment decision so Annmarie did not know I was going. Once at the tile place I managed to find a 6×6 inch tile that Annmarie liked via the wonders of text messaging and photos. She was not digging the Art Deco tile I found, 8×8 inch. I loved the bottom right corner and wanted to do the entire floor in it. No such luck. I ordered the tile she wanted and we got the prices for the rest. There was a hangup about the backsplash we wanted and the amount of water it could handle. The saleswoman called the company and called me back to say it would be fine. We will be ordering it after I get the floor installed. The floor tile was only $230, amazing when you only have a 60 sq ft room.

At Home Depot I was going to buy 4×4 posts for the fence yard build as Gizmo and Zeke keep getting out. I needed 100 feet of woven wire small enough that Gizmo cannot get through. They did not have it. So I gravitated to the concrete blocks they had out by the front door. They were incredibly cheap at just over $1 each. So I got a pallet of 100. I figured now was the time to get the stairs in on either side of the spring in the barn lot. I wanted some steps so the sheep and horses don’t tear up the dirt banks and keep making that area wider or steeper. It went in fairly well and we only used 40 blocks so we have 60 for the opposite side.

Its a good thing we have more blocks as that side is taller than the other. I will try and take down that side by 8 inches tomorrow. We are looking at getting those blocks installed tomorrow, the gravel spread out in the machine shed and the gates on the machine shed.

We got all the equipment moved around and now I just need to spread the gravel into the last bay before we install gates. We will take measurements in the morning. Before I can go to town we will need to offload the scrap metal I picked up last week. Its still on the trailer.

Machine shed madness

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I remembered to order gravel for the machine shed on Thursday. I ordered 50 yards of gravel, 5 dump trucks. I had them dump a load in front of each bay opening. Sarah was coming out anyways so I had her go around and drag metal salvage to the scrap pile. We have The Scrapper out and he is taking it all away. I thought we had gotten most of the scrap but every time I say that we find another 5 plus ton of metal. He is keeping track of the amount hauled away and we are striking a deal for the old tires to vanish and maybe get some new tin roofing that he salvaged. I help load the big pieces of metal with the tractor or he uses his winch.

We also had another small dumpster brought out and have filled it once from the machine shop. We are going to cut up all the old plastic fencing and pull it out of the concrete rounds from the old vinyl fence. The vinyl will go into the dumpster and the concrete will go somewhere, I am not sure where yet. Sarah scooped up gravel and spread out piles throughout the four open bays. She was very careful as I told her if she hit a support post the roof would fall on her. Now that might have been a slight exaggeration but the likelihood of a board falling on her head was high!! She was very careful and did not hit any beams. When I got home I helped load the scrap metal then dumped the bucket off of the tractor and just used the box blade to spread out all of the gravel. It is a lot easier to move around inside the building with no loader on the front. After a couple of hours I had it all spread out.

When Tex comes out on Friday we will move the pile of stuff we are saving and I will get that last bay filled in and leveled off. Then it is just a matter of purchasing and installing gates. I got an email to contact the shipping company as my hay equipment is on its way!! Finished just in time.

Machine Shed Mania

Steve HardinLeave a comment

It was another incredible day with lots of satisfaction. Tex and I started out by burning the wood pile, it was very large and took about 2 hours to completely burn up as it was impregnated with lots of petroleum products of the last 80 years. We then finished cleaning out the right hand side of the shed. I was hoping to salvage a few of the wooden cabinets or shelves that were in the back right corner. Unfortunately, water is leaking from the back of the building under the stem wall and soaking the ground causing a lot of wood rot in all of the cabinets. I was only able to salvage one metal cabinet.

We then drug out all the dirt until the concrete pillars were all exposed. You can see that they built the shed with an inherent slant. When you take a tape measure and measure all the pillars they get progressively longer the farther you go to the right. Its amazing how much forethought went into some things they built.

After lunch, we have been eating from the deli at the minimart, we started in on the broken beam over one of the entrances. They used to just hang a chain over the beam and use a chain lift to hoist engines out of equipment. We opted to use an old beam we salvaged from the fuel storage area. The new beam was a little thicker than the old. We did a basic overlap joint then recut the old truss members. It was nice to reuse all old wood. Tex did the cosmetic repair to the outside while I started in on the upright beam repairs. I had him go get a weather 1×12 from the pile that has been out in the sun for a year. It blended quite nicely. It should not take it long to blend in.

We used a 20 ton jack and a 3×8 inch board that I kept cutting to length. Luckily, I inadvertently started on the tallest end so I just kept cutting the support board shorter as I moved across the front repairing beams. Each concrete pad has a 3/4 inch x 5 inch tall metal rod sticking out of the middle of the pad. So I cut the beam off at 6 inches and then drilled out the new spacer to go over the rod. There were some spare metal drilled flat stock laying on one of the shelves that I saved instead of tossing it in the scrap pile. I was not sure what I was going to use it for but I figured they would come in handy. One day later and I used four! The beams had to be pulled out away from the pad after jacking them up. We used the tractor to pull them out 6 inches. I love how flexible old wooden structures can be.

The patch material was slightly smaller but once we pulled the jack out the beams dropped down and are solid. All we need now is gravel and gates. I will order in 50 yards of 3/4- gravel this week and have them dump it in front of the machine shop. Once that is spread out I will install five matching gates over the front and it will be done. I may even decide to run some lights inside the building. If so that will happen late summer or fall.

Tex is missing

Steve HardinLeave a comment

I made arrangements with Tex last week to come out again for the next three days. We need to get the machine shed cleaned out so we have a space for the hay equipment that is coming. I had to call the dealer on Monday and found out that our baler from Italy won’t be here until July most likely. This is obviously a problem as I need to start cutting hay in the next two weeks. The company is sending us a loaner at no cost to us. They will pay for the shipping to us and then back to them when ours shows up. It is hard to be upset when they have customer service like that. The CEO talked to me on the phone and he was a little surprised and happy at how reasonable I was being. I said it was easy when they were doing everything possible to make us happy and allow us to get our hay crop put up.

I made breakfast for Tex and I Friday morning but Tex did not show up. I resorted to taking a picture of the food and texting him. No answer. He never answered during the day. I went out and started in on the machine shed myself. That evening Tex did agree to come out on Saturday and Sunday. No body can be perfect and we all have flaws.

I started in on the machine shed. I figured if I just started sorting burnables, trash and scrap metal I could make some headway on cleanup. A couple of hours into it The Pickerman called and said he was going to come out and get a load of metal.

I called Meathead and had her come out and help me fill the trailer. She had a few hours left to put in this week so she finished her homework and came out to the house. We worked on getting all of the loose stuff out of the machine shed. We found a handful of items that can go to auction and the Pickerman will make that happen. We had the trailer filled by 1600 and off they went. She was very helpful and did a great job helping out.

I did get a text confirmation from Tex Friday night that he was coming out. The plan is to hit it hard on Saturday and maybe we can be done by Sunday.

It doesn’t look like we made a great deal of headway but we got a pickup load of burnables out, a trailer load of metal and a pile of keep stuff that I will need to find a home.

Spraying necessary

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Sunday of this week Tex came out and finished fencing on the upper prime pasture. It needed wooden stays and to fix the spring crossing. He worked on that all day while the sheep continued to mow our front lawn.

I spent the day on the tractor trying to spray our upper middle field. It is growing gangbusters but it needs some weeds eradicated. I am only able to spray about a 6 foot swath at a time. I went to a fixed sprayer with no boom but the pump cannot keep the pressure up in the tank so it varies in its spray application rate. Its causing me enough problem that I have started to look back into a boom system. Luckily, I kept the 12 foot boom from the old four wheeler, I tossed it over by the metal scrap pile and never made it go away! I just need to mount it on the 55 gallon spray tank frame. Using that I can change out the size of the nozzles to control flow rates. I will be able to spray about 50% faster than I currently can.

I spent all day on the tractor and simply ran out of time. The middle prime field is done! There is about a half an acre of soggy ground in that field but the grass looks great.

Annmarie and I talked about it and I am going to dig a ditch to collect the water and make it run in a narrower channel. Hopefully, this will prevent it from forming fingers throughout the entire field.

I spent the next three weeknights after work trying to get the upper field sprayed. I found even more wet and muddy spots. There is about 1/3 of the field that I cannot get into due to the mud and soft ground. This is going to cause us some problems.

My hope is Tex and I can crank out the machine shed this upcoming weekend and I can get back to spraying.

I may even have to mow the lawn. Annmarie is getting tired of the dogs rolling in sheep manure and Gizmo keeps making himself sick from eating too many turds. It starts to make the cost more than its worth.