What's your hoe doing?

[NH575E]

Apparently the bar part of the forks got lost in the mail, so they are sending another tomorrow. And they aren't worried about getting the 12 extra brackets back, so it was a buy 4 get 12 free deal! If anyone needs one (or some) let me know, you can probably have them for the low, low cost of shipping, which won't be low, because again, they are heavy!

Glad to hear they are taking care of you!

 

[T-town]

Opened up 400' of trench.... awaiting a power pole to stick at one end and some wire to throw in the bottom. Then we can cover it back up.
It will be useful to get power on site.

 

[Swetz]

OMG, T-town, your dirt looks dry. Not too many rocks compared to mine either.

It is great to hear that you are making progress! Also, that your machine is still healthy...that would be a loooot of digging by hand...LOL

 

[T-town]

Hey Swetz....
Yeah.... dry dirt is good...good thing about being up on a ridge. And a big AMEN on the machine hanging in there! Next up is digging footers.
The area in the pic is the one area of the prop that had been used for pasture a century ago. I've pulled a lot of that fill for use on the property...and thankfully the trench had to go thru that part. Easy digging for sure. But as the trench follows the bottom tree line and turns left I hit shelf 2 ft down... so I guess a "regrade" is in order in the spot.... at least I don't have to buy the fill.
Are you able to get anything done yet this spring?

 

[Swetz]

Are you able to get anything done yet this spring?

Well, about 3 weeks ago, I got 2 days of good work in. The nights were in the teens and the days beautiful. I dug and pulled out about 20 stumps. Cut down a couple of trees. One of which was the largest that I had to remove, and was a triple. Was glad to get that one down without issue! I was also able to dig a swale across the mud flats...LOL...Although not prefect, I am hoping a lot of water will drain so I dry out sooner this spring. Last weekend, it was flowing well. That made me happy. We are still real wet tho! And, looks like we will have a fair bit of rain in the near future too.

I have not hit solid rock anywhere I have dug thus far, but have found some whoppers.

My biggest need will be fill dirt in order to level the pad for the shop. If my property was near my house in NJ, I could get 1000s of yards delivered for free. Up in PA, whole nother story. They want a couple hundred dollars a load. I may dig a hole on my property this summer for fill, if it ever dries out this year.

 

[aighead]

I was going to mention the same rock-free-ness of that dirt!

 

[NH575E]

Nice work T-town!

You would be in trouble with that trench where I'm at. We've had 12 inches of rain over the last 2 weeks.

 

[T-town]

I am lucky to have that much reachable fill material on site. Spent the afternoon today 'scratching' the top foot and a half of that rockless fill material from my 'stash' area... then scooping up loads, hauling it a hundred yards and dumping, spreading and packing the dirt to reach the grade depth needed( 3') for the trench in 2 key spots.
Was supposed to get wet but it held off and I scrambled to get that job done. looking wet the next few days.
Glad to hear you progressing Swetz.... big step getting that water to flow.
All that water down your way 575 should keep the fires at bay no??

 

[Swetz]

big step getting that water to flow

Agreed...hopefully it is enough to dry it up in that area.

 

[casey518]

Opened up 400' of trench.... awaiting a power pole to stick at one end and some wire to throw in the bottom. Then we can cover it back up.
It will be useful to get power on site.
View attachment 255441

Cool. I have to dig a power ditch too. Are you running 3 wire power from a transformer at the roadside?

 

[Willie B]

Cool. I have to dig a power ditch too. Are you running 3 wire power from a transformer at the roadside?

My formula:
46" deep in your latitude. Take a potato hook (hand rake with 5 long tines), rake the ditch bottom. No sharp rocks bigger than 1". If rough, add 6" of sand. place schedule 40 conduit in the bottom, I make a sweep from schedule 80 that goes from horizontal at bottom of the ditch. In extremely difficult pulls I'll use Rigid galvanize at each end. In every case, schedule 40 is only horizontal in ditch bottom.
Vermont standard is 6" of 1" or less soil below & above conduit, (remember conduit is 3-4" diameter) might have 16' of sand.

I prefer to place conduit 10' at a time, then cover.
My formula has worked 100% successfully more than 50 years. I brag that I've never replaced a failed underground I installed. I have replaced hundreds of underground supplies installed by others.
It upsets me that people try to cheap out on underground power lines. NO WAY IN HELL IS IT CHEAPER TO DO IT TWICE!!!

 

[T-town]

From the road they ( power co) are bringing their line voltage line thru the trench 500' onto our property to a pad transformer. They are using direct burial cable for that. Then out of the transformer, thru a short run of 4" to the meter base and a couple of disconnect panels that will split the service into two directions.... one to feed the future house, the other to the future barn.
Power co spec on the trench is 36" deep. Min. of 12" 'bedding sand' above..... 3" sand below if the soil is rocky.

Hey Willie.....what do you do with rock. I would imagine you run into it quite a bit.... do you bust it up to get to your depth?

 

[aighead]

I spent the day out with the neighbor, freezing our butts off, while he welded on the brackets for the forks! It is done! I didn't get any pictures yet. Seems like they'll work beautifully. Now I just need to figure out how to see the ends.

I need to go add it to the Did something dumb thread, but I also, upon driving back to the barn, was too focused on the front with the forks and proceeded to break my cable internet line, yet again. Grr! I'm thinking I should put the modem and router in the shed and forget about it otherwise.

 

[Swetz]

I didn't get any pictures

We look forward to the pics.

Or run the cable underground.

 

[NH575E]

Got a deal on some crepe myrtle trees yesterday. Spent the afternoon planting. Great not having to dig 5 big holes by hand even when you have a great SIL on hand to help.

 

[aighead]

I was standing in the spot where I broke the cable, cussing loudly, when it struck me that I could have saved myself a lot of trouble by buying 10-16 feet of black iron pipe to run the cable line through. I'm pretty sure I could run that over a billion times and it'd bury itself.

I'll try to get some pictures tonight.

Anyone happy with a camera system that doesn't cost a billion dollars, so they can see the forks (I remember this question going around but I don't remember if anyone got anything)? I'm thinking of attempting rig up a spare tablet to the top of the bucket and turn on the camera so I can see through there, but I'm not sure a 7" tablet is big enough, or if I can figure out a way to do it where it won't fall off. Or if even the tablet I have works anymore...

 

[aighead]

I just bought this one, we'll see how it goes in a few days when I get it hooked up.

 

[nova481]

When I clicked on (this one), it came up on Amazon as the one I bought 2 years ago for our old GMC snow plow truck rear view camera. It works pretty well. I think you had to cut the white wire for it to work forward facing.

 

[aighead]

I hope so but for 50 bucks it's worth a shot.

 

[aighead]

I'm an electrical dummy, and I'm mostly afraid of messing things up... That said, supposedly this camera can hook into any 11v-24v line and be powered through that. I'm thinking of splicing it into one of the head or tail lights, if I can find the wiring to it but is that as simple as it is? Find the wire going into the button, peeling some insulation and twisting the camera wire around it and taping it up? Is there a better option? There's a cigarette lighter option as well, but I can't remember if there's one of those on the hoe or not.