Some good stuff happening

[Watermann]

Sorry, I'd just came in from Budski's latest thread... :lol:

 

[Decker83]

Yeah, all that yard work is looking great.. Wish I had half that much yard to work in..

 

[redneck joe]

Looks to be about an acre?

 

[BWR1953]

Yeah, all that yard work is looking great.. Wish I had half that much yard to work in..

Yep, it's pretty nice. And I'm glad to finally be able to work outside again after all my health issues over the last 7 - 8 months. (I was in the ER again 4 days ago but I'm okay). My lot was raw land when I bought it almost 10 years ago and I've made huge improvements to it during that time. Doesn't look like it, but the cleanup over the years has been a lot.

Here's an example of some of the junk I had to haul off the property when I first bought it in 2006.


This is the tree island outside my living room as it looked at the beginning. I cleared that stuff by hand with loppers, pruners and a bow saw. Took awhile.

Looks to be about an acre?

With the driveway included, it's just shy of 1.5 acres.

 

[Decker83]

From then to now is a major difference.. Sure is good to have a buddy with a tractor..eace:

 

[BWR1953]

Went out to see how much stuff was left in the burn pile that needed to go to the dump. It was still smoldering! The boy immediately jumped into action with the garden hose and found every remaining hot spot and put them out. He would make a great Fire Chief someday. :joyous:


Some post-cleanup and post-burn pix. Still have to clear the burn pile and remove the remnant concrete blocks from the old garden site, but things are definitely shaping up around the property!


NE corner facing SW.



SE corner facing NW. This area was full of dead trees and fallen logs, all gone now!



The budding Fire Chief in action! :lol:



Near the SW corner facing N.

 

[BWR1953]

From then to now is a major difference.. Sure is good to have a buddy with a tractor..eace:

It sure is! :thumb:

 

[BWR1953]

The last few days have been interesting to say the least. A couple days ago we loaded the leftovers from the burn pile into the back of my truck to take them to the dump. Wasn't enough there to fuss with burning it again. So off we went. Didn't make it in time as the dump had closed 7 minutes earlier. Had to turn around and go home with the load still in the truck.


We had a surprise on the way home and I don't wanna talk about it... LOL! :faint2: :facepalm:



And 3 days after we thought the fire was out, it was still this hot inside. So we doused it again.




So yesterday we loaded it all up again and successfully hauled it to the dump.


On the way to/from the dump yesterday we saw 4 of these. Pretty cool.

This morning I went out to knock down the remainder of the burn pile with my garden tractor and box blade. Made some progress. And there were still hot spots in that pile! Fortunately, my wife was there to put them out as I worked.




Until I bent the box blade!



Tomorrow morning I'll hook up my York Rake to the little tractor and drag the yard to remove what we can. The rest will have to wait till my buddy is available again.

 

[BWR1953]

This is my place as seen on Google Earth. Wish I still had my drone so that I could take some aerial footage.

The yellow outlines show some of the trees/shrubs which have been removed. More were removed at the bottom of the picture but I don't know exactly which ones so I didn't circle those. That large outlined area was a tree island where those big pine trees had been. And inside that area can be seen the blue color of the donor boat. The tent shelter, my truck and my wife's prior car (the one she killed) are also visible. The map pin is where the burn pile is now.

 

[redneck joe]

That size of a burn pile could go a week, easy.

 

[FrankenCub]

You're gonna have one heck of a boat yard when you're done I love trees but sometimes ya gotta have room. With your truck, well...hahahahaha :lol: Just between you and me, I burned up one of my trucks next to a burn pile once shhhhh, don't tell anyone else !
We had a pretty good fire going after a few days of rain and was making trips from the yard to the fire to empty the limbs I had onto the fire. Well after 8-10 trips the path I'd been taking finally turned to mush. Even with my off road tires and Toyota in 4x4 I couldn't move. Was about 5' from the fire and watched it get bigger and bigger. I hear my aunt yelling at me to look at the side of my truck telling me to get out of it so I stick my head out the window to see the new paint peeling up and getting blisters on the front tire. That'll make the heart rate jump ! I hammered on that Toy for all she's worth and finally got away from the fire. The driver's side was so hot you couldn't touch it. Boy did I feel like an idiot for even being that close to the fire. Ehh...live and learn lol.

 

[BWR1953]

Got the concrete blocks from the old garden plot moved this morning. Was so good to feel that I had the strength again to do that. Just 3 weeks ago I couldn't even pick one up by myself. Today the boy and I got all 14 of the blocks into the tractor trailer and moved. The boy picked up the little pieces and I managed the big blocks all by my lonesome self without a problem. Got 'em all moved in 5 minutes! Whew!

Then we hooked up the York rake to the tractor (after going to Tractor Supply to buy some hitch pins) and got started on the yard. After about 20 minutes, I let the boy switch places and put him behind the wheel of the tractor. He did a great job and I'm very proud of how well he's doing! The first time he let the clutch out he was a little nervous but after a few minutes he had a look of joy on his face each time he popped that clutch! :joyous:

He done good, Bubba! :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Ov_ogx6Sk&feature=youtu.be

 

[BWR1953]

Got more stuff done today, including working on boat stuff!

We swapped the trailer jacks around on all 3 boats. The one which had been on the Chieftain was bad and needed to be replaced. Instead of buying a new one I switched them around.

The one on the donor boat had previously been on the Kingfisher, old style but still works fine. The one on the Kingfisher had come from the donor boat and is the swing-up type. So we pulled the old Kingfisher one from the donor and moved it back to the Kingfisher. Then we took the swing-up off the Kingfisher and moved it to the Chieftain and put the broken one from the Chief on the donor.

Whew! Maybe I should have included a diagram! :lol:

After that we moved the tent shelter from the driveway down to where the boats were parked. This gives more working room for my buddy to use his tractor to build up a nice level pad for me up by the driveway. Dunno how long that will take because I have to wait for his availability. :noidea:

Tomorrow I plan to open up the tent shelter side panels so that they provide cover for the Kingfisher and donor boats. We'll also cover the KF with a blue tarp as well.

My buddy just came over a few minutes ago and unscrewed the 15" augers from the ground... using his fingers. I'd asked to borrow a pry-bar and he just yanked them out of the ground himself with little effort.

Moving along here!

 

[Watermann]

Keeping busy I see, the place is really looking nice and clean. I am surprised that Chief fit under the cover, they sit so high up with the upper windshield.

 

[BWR1953]

Keeping busy I see, the place is really looking nice and clean. I am surprised that Chief fit under the cover, they sit so high up with the upper windshield.

Yup, I measured the Chief height on the trailer as 7' 2" and the tent shelter peak is over 9' high so there was plenty of room.

The new pad will be something like 30'x30' which should provide plenty of shelter space. My buddy thinks he can drag more dirt from around the property up to the pad area. That'll save me $200/load for each 16 yard load of clay/sand mix. Could take 3 or more loads (48 to 64 yards) to level everything if I go that route. I'd prefer to save the 600 or more bucks!

Then we'll rent a plate compactor and pound the sand down solid. Assuming we can get it done fairly soon. May is the driest month of the year around these parts. And mid-to-late June starts the rainy season. Don't want the pad to wash away before I can get it covered again! :tongue-new:

 

[BWR1953]

Forgot to post these pix of the boy after we completed working on the 14th. He's wanting to go fishing!

 

[BWR1953]

Started to open the tent shelter side panels this afternoon but the rains came and we had to stop. Did get the KF covered though. We're supposed to have rain every day for the next week which is contrary to what we usually have in May.

Will try to get the panels opened when the weather cooperates.

 

[BWR1953]

Wellll... that didn't work! :facepalm: :suspicious: :rant: :yell: :grumpy:

 

[jbcurt00]

Bummer....