I left the house at 4 AM for the 6~7 hour drive to the wild north east Washington. I had envisioned crossing off the main road over a ditch at right angles, but the reality was different. There was an existing culvert under the main road, pointing down a drainage swale that picked up both sides of the road up hill. It was a great spot for me to set a culvert and cross at a better angle. As you may see, the dirt is absolutely dry flour silt. It flows like water and has no structural capacity. We bedded the pipe with it and since we are on the neighbor's property I was constrained from altering grades or stealing dirt. The goal was to minimize impact there. I carefully hoe packed the pipe, and also the other culvert in the low spot on his property. I knew I had to go heavy over the pipe with the rock. I did not stop to take pictures so I snapped these from the truck as I drove out. This is the 150' of road on the easement. I burned 4 solo loads here to make it finished. In retrospect I could have saved one for the rest of the job, because we only got 7!
I put down a 20' length and a 3' scrap, and covered about 18' of it. It was really nice to get the turn started off the road before getting to the culvert and setting it at the angle determined by the existing swale. It is plenty of room for turning on with a long trailer. Here you can just make out the galvanized culvert pipe I was matching to. It is pretty beat on both ends From the uphill end. We are on the neighbor's property at this point, and much to our dismay at the mercy of free ranging cattle. We did not sleep well at all Friday. They were curious and basically assaulted us all night. I told him I did not need much of a gate, and he opened up 15' for me. I tossed the strippings through the gap with the mini and did all the stripping with it on that 150'. After I got through I used the dozer, and it was a prodigious windrow of organics. I left it there to rot down along the road. All of this was done Friday afternoon after the dozer was delivered. The dozer rental moved up the deilvery from 3 PM to " can you come pay for it now?" at 8 AM. I suggested he hit up the rock delivery guy and we were teased with the dream of 1 PM rock on Friday. By 4 we knew that was not happening I got up into the property and the dozer is on a sidehill up in the distance. The flour was no good for fill, but luckily the place the dozer is sitting on and the slope to the left of it are really bony with nice angular rock mixed in. Very fortunate for me. I cut a slope to the left there, sorry I forgot to take much of a picture of that, and took it across and built a good fill to straighten up the side hill and also soften the approach to that crown beyond. You can just see the tail of that slope in this picture, but I robbed quite a bit off that knob. In retrospect I could have mined the heck out of it and really softened the approach past the leaverite. That was it for Friday afternoon.
Saturday was a late start. I slept in after not sleeping much thanks to the bovines. We got the second culvert set in the area of the greenery and low spot that was below the draw. The driver showed up about 8:30 and was not really pleased about being " volunteered" to work on a Saturday of the holiday weekend. I don't blame him. He dropped that load and I protected the culvert with it. On the next round Mark handed him a $200 tip for coming out on a Saturday, and that put a smile on his face and we went to work.
The second culvert we set down in the low spot by the mini in this picture. That brush to the left is a small draw that plays out to the right, and the greenery there indicates that it stays wet for a while. I cut a very shallow dent of a ditch next to the road, and he can fill that with rock if he likes. It will still do the job of giving water somewhere to go. I also cut another little swale behind the brush to intercept any surface water and divert it to the pipe before it got to the road. You can just see it on the left here. I headed it up to catch the edge of the fill area too. He started gathering up spalls to armor the inlet.
He hired a well witcher and he put a stake in, so I suggested I cut a road to that area for the drillers. They are months behind due to all sorts of low water table and failing wells, but at least I got it done while the dozer was on site. Heading off the knob I had stripped at the top. All I was doing was plucking the big rocks, not stripping needlessly. As I got around the corner it got steep and side hill. Nobody wants to take their $150,000 drill rig onto fill, so I cut it and also laid it back against the hill for security. The stake and ribbon are there on the right. I dug 10 perk holes to get 4 good ones yesterday morning. The other 6 were too rocky to get down to 6' deep. After we got done I had to road the dozer 3/4s of a mile down to where the lowboy could get it. I put 6.2 hours on what was a 16 hour rental. The outfit said they would do a day and a half charge under 12 hours, I hope they stick to that for him. 600 a day plus 300 delivery was not cheap but there were only two choices and we thought they were the best. Unfortunately it was equipped with a winch, which was so handy when tearing out that harder rock......NOT! They do have a ripper equipped D5 but it is very popular. i can see why
We talked on the phone and he had two more loads spread where it was thin by the boulder, and 3 loads of 2 minus on the area I stripped at the top. He was worried about mud and it will be useful for at least a season or two until he finalizes the location of things.
I'm jealous sky! Nothing better than being able to design/build a road or a driveway across virgin ground. No plans, no stakes, no white hat supervisors - just build the best damn drive you can that will last the customer years.
In afterthought I did not build as good a road as was possible. I may have wasted about 2 $250 loads of rock in that area, but when he figures out where the house and shop are going, he can get the D5 with rippers out for 1 day. I can rob that knob of rocky stuff and totally take out that low spot you see, and put a lift that goes about halfway up the leaverite boulder as I go by. It would be about 200 yards of material moving. I will watch how the road performs and suggest it when we go back at it. EDIT: I forgot to include a decent picture of the leaverite boulder.
I am going back to this job tomorrow night for a 3 day marathon to see what I can get done. His neighbor has a D4 not sure which model that we can use for widening the well site prep that I already started. He rented a Case 37 mini to dig in the power, dig the sonotubes for the shop pole building, dig another perk hole and clean one out that the winter had filled, and whatever else I can do. He got it for the week so I will do some pioneering at the house daylight basement dig and see if it can be done without big iron and a hammer. It was 1150 for the week but no real choices out in the sticks. One of the two rental outfits has a 260 excavator for $3000 a week and a hammer for it for $3500 a week. I got in touch with a local lowboy operator who will deliver and pick it up for 750 or so total. That is the right tool if there is bedrock to hammer out for the basement.
The D4 is a C model, in good condition IMO. It has rippers. That's a really nice neighbor! I looked it over, maybe 60 % undercarriage which lines up with the 3350 hours on the meter. It feels about that tight too. His obligation for borrowing it? Baby it, and change the oil. I will grab the serial number for reference. Looking from the neighbors driveway from the seat of the dozer. The house goes in to the right of the RV, a two story log home on a daylight basement.
The dozer blade looks like it's setup for a pin on root rake maybe.Great view from a future house.
Yes I looked around and we found the rake over behind the barn. It's a sweet little dozer He made an adapter for the ripper frame with a ball in it so you can back trailers around. The clutches and brakes all feel good.
It's a cute little rancher's dozer complete with a chainsaw scabbard made out of cedar boards. After I left last year, the truck driver did an excellent job of tailgating out a few loads up on the clear spot, but then the spring thaw and frost heave tore up everything pretty good. I dozed up on there up the road and switched machines. then came back last night and cuffed it all off. Yesterday while he ran for parts, I set a pair of posts for the 400 amp meter base and disconnect cabinet, and trenched up next to the RV for the temp power panel.
Nobody had any stock over here for the 400 amp meter base panel so I picked it up for him and it was all I could do to stuff it in the beetle. That part was $1,432, and I'm doing the exact same thing at our new property so now I know what to expect. It weighs around a hundred pounds.
We got most jobs done and have the last task planned out for when he returns. We both had to bug out last night and get across the pass while the getting was good! #1 priority was getting the power ready for L&I inspection and then the power company will plow in primary wire and set a transformer about 15' from the meter. Gotta love having your own transformer. There is a 200 amp outdoor panel up next to the RV that will be within about 75 feet of the house site beyond. #2 was opening up the well site to a 25x50 work area for the drillers. I cut some from the bank and tracked it in on the downhill side. That happens to be a really cool private spot to park an RV when visiting, so he will probably put an extra run of power there and maybe water coming back from the proper side of the pressure tank up in the house. It also serves as a nice access to the big upper bench beyond that big pine tree. While I was in the neighborhood I filled in the extra test holes for septic design. You can drive around to that area down the well driller's road.
#3 was cleaning out a test hole that had filled in over the winter and digging another where the designer requested it. The septic is going to be located well below the shop and house so all is served by some long gravity runs. #4 was stripping the substantial sod off the 40x60 shop site, and cutting to grade. I have no good picture of that as we were quite busy, so I snapped this drive-by on the way home It was quite the cut to get it down, and I got into some nasty pumping tan clays. It is saturated from the snow melt, and will probably heal up. IF not it gets the geo fabric. The dirt above was this fantastic black soil. The plan is to import 6~8" of big rock and then cap break over that. #5 was digging the 18 pole holes for the shop. We flat ran out of good time for that. It is all good though. With the heavy ex out and import back, the holes will only be 24" deep with some 3x3 box forms on top of the sub grade. We'll set those forms at the bottom of slab grade so the edge form boards can be set right on them. I will come back and doze in and compact the big rock and cap break around those footings, and edge the fill with soils to contain the fill. It was only a small additional amount to keep the mini for the week, so those holes and also some pioneering of the house basement will be possible.
Great story. Great pics. Keep us posted as it progresses. d.d.
The pole barn contractor dug the holes yesterday, then mobed the mini to the other 40x60 shop site and dug those today. He will return the excavator to the rental place and save that charge too.
The poles are stood up and waiting inspection for concrete. His neighbor's dad is the local truck service, and lives just across the small valley. They did some property swapping so junior could get up on his property and they dozed in and rolled a whole new road across the 20 acres from a better direction for the log cabin delivery trucks. He also brought up his 315 and removed that clay gunk in the building pad and replaced with pit run. That is going to take a few loads of rock! I think that is about 1300' of 'driveway'.
Looking good. A 315DL is one of my favorite excavators. Curious question - Is all that black dirt on the driveway topsoil or the sub soil in this area? The rollers rear tires in the last pic are sinking in quite a bit. Will you just put rock on top of that and if so how well will it hold up?
that is some deep black soil, and i think it will be a bit soft every frost season. Those pictures are from a few weeks ago and still quite wet IMO. He'll put that 3" minus rock on it and it will eventually heal up. Digging through it is a no-go, then you get to the really soft tan clay!! By the time you got to the bigger rock you'd have a really long basement excavation, not a road
Got it. Surge rock will go a long way in making an improved surface even on the softest soils.
It is frosty enough that the county shuts down trucks on the gravel roads for a couple of months after the first thaw. They just opened them up about the time that was dozed in, so that's your reference for how tender it is.
The same guy mass exed out the building site with the 315. I came back Monday afternoon to dig footings in there with a case rental 37. It was 108 as I drove up on the hill on Monday. We just made a battle plan and a set of notes for digging. Yesterday it topped out at 109~110. I am sleeping in his pickup camper in the shop. it is plugged in and I run the AC. Last night it was 90 at 9. That was pretty damn bony digging. I think his house is one of the sundown chalet models at this link, it is a prow house with a 5 sided prow footing with some thickened footings for appearance logs and beams. https://lazarusloghomes.com/log-cabin-kits-floor-plans-models-prices/chalet-style-homes/ The footing drops down 2 more feet across the front, the frost depth here is 30" and it is a walkout. I have the two angled footings dug to depth, all that is left is back up and dig a 6x6 hole 4" deeper at the point where I am sitting, for a 4'x4'x16" footing.
Curious question - Since you are digging the footings with the mini why form them and not earth cast them? Here 99% of the footings are all earth cast/trench footings.
we don't see that here so much. This happens a lot, the footing steps down like this. They got a bit of wood set today while I was digging.
On the way home, out in the middle of nowhere I see a car on the side of the road and an elderly gentleman outside the passenger door. He waved at me as I passed and I could tell he wanted a little assistance. He had those wraparound disposable sunglasses you get when you are dilated for a procedure. He had hired his neighbor to drive him the ~100 miles to Spokane to get this done, and the gas gauge was not functioning on his Mustang GT. I made room in the car and we drove into Wilbur, and he got two gallons and a can. It was not enough to get it going, due to the angle on the side of the road and uphill. While we are finding this out a Lincoln County sheriff turned around and set up behind me, and got out to inquire about the situation. He was a pleasant fellow and was guarding our 6, when it became apparent we were going to run the battery down to no avail. I looked in my trunk and found a Cat brand ratchet strap, and set it up to tow him over the hill. The driver hooked it up and we made some plans about what we would do, then I hooked that 3200 pound plus car to my 90hp beetle and got him off the shoulder and up the hill. Off we went with Sheriff's escort, and by the time we were rolling downhill towards the gas station the driver got it fired up, so I pulled over and away we all went on our merry way. The passenger was a fellow union operator, who had spent the last 25 years of his career running the Corps of Engineers barge on Banks Lake. He started working on those dam projects when he got out of the Army in 1963.
The steps in earth cast footings are formed with plywood. Often the footings will jump 8-9' in elevation from basement to main level garage. The footing is formed vertical agains the face of the bank then the concrete wall abuts it. Small steps 1.5-2' are also formed and rebar bent.
The retiree I replaced has a beach lot that his father had left him. They had many happy memories there, but no one has used it since maybe 1990. Mother nature abhors a vacuum and she filled it back in. I had offered to clean it back up for him and this is the weekend. I was going to take the big machine down there but we went with the mini. It did the thing OK, the only real lack was the ability to smash the brush down. The little dump truck sucks for production, but it is what I have. I took the tailgate off with the 120 and made a little plywood gate to keep the dribbles in. We hand trimmed up a load and got it all tucked in there like a loaf of bread. I can dump it tomorrow, and have maybe 5 more loads on the ground to haul. The deer down here are like puppies. They did not care about us or the equipment. The 60 year old picnic table is becoming one with nature. There is water there next to the big fir tree. The windrow on the left is what is left to load out. I'd wish for a 40 yard trash box with steel edges, but then again I'd want the 120 to load that too. Who am i kidding I'd want a 200!
I hauled out three loads of brush and the pit that I was taking the brush to is also the source of the red clay that they use to bridge over the sand in Ocean shores. The old guy that owned the pit for many, many years is still working there. He says he sold a million yards this stuff. I was able to get the back haul which is such a rarity. I got two loads placed and then we're called and moved up a dig that I was going to do on Wednesday to today. That really screwed things up because I was just about done and I was going to finish this morning down there.
That wad of brush on the right is sitting on a spot I wanted to widen with the clay. Oh well. The rusty red posts are the original gate posts from the 60's, we found them and I straightened them up. That red clay stuff has little smooth stones in it. It bones up and seals off the sand. If you just put rock on the sand it trades places with it over time. I found the water meter as I was loading up. It was lost in the brush and luckily I did not knock it in.
I did a little job last month at the site of a fire where we dug up and abandoned services prior to demolition. The new building is similar in size. I worked around a nice little Johnny. Dipping bedding out of the truck. I came back the next day to pick up the machine and drop a few more buckets around the pipe. I did not want to unhook the trailer, so I hung ten.
Back to eastern Washington yesterday to prepare and unload two semi loads of log cabin. He rented an 8042 Skytrak telehandler, about 25K of 4 wheel cookie cutter. The good news is it had a swing carriage and I could show him how that makes you look good He moved all those trailers after this picture, and I tried to take that stock feeder around behind them. That's when I found the bottomless soft spot. Luckily I did not get the back axle in, or we would have been screwed. I went in all the way to the axle where that right trailer is sitting. He filled it in with the kubota, and we did not go there no mo. I did squirt all this across that spot. More of that truckload. The other truckload I landed up this bank. It is soft and we had to double stack dunnage to get out from under the loads.