The Slow Motion Retirement Plan

[dave1949]

No, I don't think of deciduous trees in your area. Interesting.

I have read that past over-grazing has permanently altered the plant landscape in some areas of the Southwest. You are also on the edge of a region that has a history of fairly large and long variances in precipitation patterns. It will be interesting to see how your tree plantings fare or what techniques you might find to give them some help.

You might be better off renting a machine with a pneumatic hammer or bulldozer for a couple days? That's something you could do later after seeing how it goes with the drainage around the pad area.

 

[cycle_gator]

I'm betting that a lot of readers are reading that to be "reads to two inches" not to "reads to two seconds of angle " which is what you mean. 360 degrees to a circle with 60 minutes to a degree(') and sixty seconds to a minute (").

Exactly, two seconds of angle. Sorry, I forget not all of us work with this stuff on a regular basis.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Exactly, two seconds of angle. Sorry, I forget not all of us work with this stuff on a regular basis.

You have to appreciate the old methods. I thought it was telling that when they compared the old triangulation measurements done with transits and wound up angles. with the new GPS and satellite measurements between Boston and Seattle the difference was only three feet in 3000 miles. Hard to carry that level of accuracy up and over the Rockies.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Exactly, two seconds of angle. Sorry, I forget not all of us work with this stuff on a regular basis.

You have to appreciate the old methods. I thought it was telling that when they compared the old triangulation measurements done with transits and wound up angles. with the new GPS and satellite measurements between Boston and Seattle the difference was only three feet in 3000 miles. Hard to carry that level of accuracy up and over the Rockies.

 

[dhagood]

the first thing i did, almost 2 and a half years ago, was dig a hole. i'm still digging holes. every once in awhile, i dig a trench, but mostly it's still holes.

this hole is for a tree.

my wife carefully and lovingly wrapped the tree for transport. i put said tree in the back of my truck and drove 61 miles over bumpy roads.

i then planted said tree and put up a fence to keep antelope/deer/elk/killerbunnyfoofoo from eating its leaves. the hard part of all this was to get it supported so the blasted wind wouldn't knock it over and blow it to kalamazoo.

and with that done, i'm beat. i have to go out there tomorrow to pay the nice man who is supposedly delivering my barn's building materials, but i'm mostly going to relax.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Are you going to add some drip irrigation for the trees? perhaps a plastic barrel full of water that drains out very slowly.

 

[cycle_gator]

I would stake those trees at least until the roots get settled. Sorry, I am soooo blind, looking again I see that is exactly what you did. Mine eyes no longer "see the glory" only the fog. Three stakes set in a triangle with a padded attachment to the tree with rope or cable. That will keep them from getting cranked to the ground by the wind. Got snow today? I am at DIA and it is coming down, but not sticking.

 

[MacLawn]

dha, I love that western see as far as the horizon look, but how can a tree grow where there's not one other tree in site? That just doesn't look like tree growing country.

 

[GLyford]

Know what you mean about the bunnies, after a hard winter I found most of my wife's apple trees girdled once the snow was gone...

 

[dhagood]

You might be better off renting a machine with a pneumatic hammer or bulldozer for a couple days? That's something you could do later after seeing how it goes with the drainage around the pad area.

dave, the sandstone area i'm cutting back is pretty small and very loose. it's more compacted sand than it is true sandstone. i thought that bigger machinery was overkill. but you are absolutely correct in that i'll see what i'll need to do once the building goes in.

Are you going to add some drip irrigation for the trees? perhaps a plastic barrel full of water that drains out very slowly.

if you look at the "finished" picture of the planted tree, you can see a green plastic sleeve surrounding the bottom of the trunk. this is a watering bag, which is filled with water once it's installed. the water dribbles out the bottom over the course of 6 to 8 hours or so (supposedly). this is supposed to be good for a week's worth of watering. the deciduous tree planting project is an experiment and we'll undoubtedly lose some trees as we learn the techniques that work for our area.

dha, I love that western see as far as the horizon look, but how can a tree grow where there's not one other tree in site? That just doesn't look like tree growing country.

there is a small grove of ponderosa pines on the northern border of our property and there are a lot of pine trees around the area. there used to be deciduous trees in the black forest, near colorado springs, but those were all cut down to build colorado springs as the city grew in the late nineteenth century. i figure if deciduous trees grew in the area in the past, they ought to grow in the area now, but perhaps there are climatic changes that will prevent the tree from thriving. we'll see

 

[dhagood]

i went out to the property yesterday to meet the cleary driver who delivered all the building materials for the barn. cycle_gator, while we got about 6 inches of wet, heavy snow in littleton (where we live now) it was light rain or drizzle at the property. the interesting thing about the delivery was how the materials were shuttled from the trailer, which was left parked on the county road, into my property.

i pulled a flatbed for several years when i was still driving, but i never saw a setup like this. i've driven the donkey forklifts that are usually used in situations like this, and cordially hate the blasted things. they are certainly better than nothing, but they can literally get stuck in wet grass.

i don't know if the truck was equipped with double locker rear ends, but the driver had no trouble navigating around on the damp, bare earth. the lift can change the angle of the main boom and the angle of the forks, but everything else is done with proper positioning of the truck. this driver, who has worked for cleary for 13 years, made it look easy.

and with the delivery done and the truck backed under the trailer, the lift is neatly stowed away. pretty slick setup.

 

[newbury]

<snip>

<snip>

NOW that's a tractor with forks!

How does it do plowing?

 

[farmer2009]

It must be a dryer climate thing. Around here everyone uses a truck mounted moffet. Like these. Truck-mounted Moffett Forklifts | HIAB
They are a 3 wheel drive unit and do pretty good about getting around in wet conditions.

 

[kevinwak]

That is a super awesome delivery truck. I would think he would need a back up cam to guide the forks when picking up stuff

 

[dhagood]

How does it do plowing?

it would be pretty easy to hook up any implement to the hoist, so there is your three point hitch equivalent. some ag tires and you are plowing in style...

 

[cycle_gator]

...and if you do, you would have one of the nicest enclosed cabs on the market

 

[dhagood]

one of the things i've been eagerly awaiting is the construction of my barn. this is very likely the only barn i will ever have built, and i really wanted to watch its construction. so naturally, when barn construction started, i was on vacation. i'm back now, and i'll go out tomorrow and see what's up. my wife took this picture

and now you know as much as i do.

 

[dhagood]

one of the things i've been eagerly awaiting is the construction of my barn. this is very likely the only barn i will ever have built, and i really wanted to watch its construction. so naturally, when barn construction started, i was on vacation. i'm back now, and i'll go out tomorrow and see what's up. my wife took this picture

and now you know as much as i do.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Looks like they know what they are doing.

 

[dhagood]

hmm, that's irritating. i saw the double post, deleted the second one, and now the deleted 2nd post has returned. how rude.

i went out to the property today and spent an hour looking around. things are progressing nicely; yesterday they started with some of the poles loose in the holes (see the picture above) and after two good days of work they are almost done with the basic framing.

Looks like they know what they are doing.

they do indeed.



this is the view from just below our gate. it's kind of interesting how little of the barn can be seen from the road. i wasn't sure they had been working on the barn until i was right up on our gate.







some of the framing details are shown below.



this shows one of the 'posts' cleary uses. these are 3 2' by 6' sticks of pressure treated lumber that are nailed together to create the post. the center stick of the posts are cut short and non-pressure treated lumber is used something like 7' out of the ground. the center section is then custom cut to make sure that the roof trusses meet the posts at the proper height. this also allows the truss to: 1) sit on wood running down to the cement footing 4' in the ground and 2) be supported on both sides by the other sections of the nailed together post.



here is some of the detail of how the roof truss sits down in the center of the nailed together post. i like this detail; this is what tipped the balance in my selecting cleary.



the x-framing in the end wall assists in keeping the building square during wind loading and the like. the other end wall is mostly two garage doors.