The Slow Motion Retirement Plan

[dhagood]

Oh that will green up nice after that rain.

it most certainly did, i have 36" high grass in places. the grass had been badly overgrazed when we bought the property but has come back strong this year. we're going to get some hay put up in the middle of august or so. not the ideal time, but it's the soonest we can get anybody in to cut, rake, and bale it.

in other news, i've got a lot of stuff moved into the barn.

on the other side i park the tractor and also have a work area with an assembly/work table, my table saw, and some other stuff.

this table is pretty ugly, is not yet finished, and isn't all that square. but it's the first work table i've had. ever. i've gotten pretty tired of disassembling and then assembling things while kneeling on the garage floor or where ever. i'm really excited about this. why, i might get all giddy and bolt my vise to the table top so it's actually usable. and if i throw all caution to the winds i might take the middle third of the cavity under the table top and add some drawers.

and i'm still working on building a loafing shed. i've been working on a landscape wall and am getting close to having the first tier down (which takes 90% of the time).

it seems like i don't have much to show for 6 weeks or so of work, but with my parents getting older my brother, sister, and i find ourselves doing more for them. this is the way it should be, so i have no complaints.

 

[vtsnowedin]

i
it seems like i don't have much to show for 6 weeks or so of work, but with my parents getting older my brother, sister, and i find ourselves doing more for them. this is the way it should be, so i have no complaints.

I here you there and I missed out on it as both my parents were gone before I was old enough to be a help to them.
Give them all the time you can and listen to the story you've heard a hundred times another fifty times because it means a lot to them and some day you will find that there is good advice woven into the story.

 

[vtsnowedin]

i
it seems like i don't have much to show for 6 weeks or so of work, but with my parents getting older my brother, sister, and i find ourselves doing more for them. this is the way it should be, so i have no complaints.

I here you there and I missed out on it as both my parents were gone before I was old enough to be a help to them.
Give them all the time you can and listen to the story you've heard a hundred times another fifty times because it means a lot to them and some day you will find that there is good advice woven into the story.

 

[dhagood]

i was talking to one of my neighbors the other day about how the dry creek bed in the valley below had flooded and washed out part of his fence. the cows all got out and he was still looking for his bull. the neighbor said he heard there was something like 3 inches of rain that came down in 45 minutes or so. well, i thought to myself, that explains why the dirt floor in my new barn looks like a river was running through it.

so, i got a lot more serious about getting some rain gutters installed. i couldn't find anybody that was willing to come all the way out there for seamless gutters, so i geared up old school.

seamless gutters are soooooo much better than piecing together 10 foot sticks and then pop riveting things together, but these gutters will be much better than nothing at all. i tried putting a ladder up against the side of the building but wasn't at all happy with the ladder's stability, especially after the deluge washed a bunch of silt down where the ladder had to rest. so, i rented some scaffolding. i am going to buy my own but i couldn't find anybody had exterior scaffolding for sale that wasn't all the way across the denver metropolitan area. plenty of places allow you to buy now and they'll deliver later but i didn't want to wait for two weeks. its been awhile since i worked with this stuff.

i put the first gutter stick by itself to make sure i got everything started correctly.

my daughter and i then tried to connect 30 feet of previously connected gutter to the 10 feet i had installed. i used a very pliable sealant on the joints but i'll be amazed if the joints don't leak. 30 feet is way to wobbly and unstable. i was too tired to take any pictures when we finally got the gutter safely attached. it's not all totally screwed down and all but i just ran out of steam after moving the scaffolding sections around. i'm taking tomorrow off and get back to it this weekend.

 

[prevent]

Lol, We use these at the place i work but they call them Masterlift 5000's. I didn't know other companies had this too (probably where Menards ripped off the design, lol) so crazy

Great when you have a ton of open space, terrible when doing deliveries in residential areas.


Also the way those trusses are hanged (without a header) seems pretty common here in IL intact it's what I'm use too when people ask for headers for their pole barns I think "wow you have a lot of doors"

 

[farmer2009]

I hate moving scaffolding also. In a spot like that I would cheat. Place one or two sections on my trailer. Add a couple of ratchet straps to hold it down and hook trailer to tractor. Mobile scaffold. Works best with a deck over.

 

[Depmandog]

Love the area, in fact we are wrapping up a week long vacation in your area. Rented a VRBO home just east of 83, east of Monument. We came back from Denver this evening and exited at Larkspur - took the scenic drive to Palmer Lake....would love to own a few hundred acres along that stretch!! Watched the thunderstorms build just to the east - quite a lightning show!!

Very nice looking barn!! I sincerely hope the thieves don't find your barn like they did mine. We live in town and our property is in the county but only 3/4 mile away. Two neighbors across the road, with decent views of the building.

I got hit before I poured the concrete - simply dug under the door. After the concrete was poured they pried open the steel man door. I solved that problem by installing 1/4 plate steel on the door that prevents them from working a tool into a prying position. The next theft they cut through the metal siding. I had padlocked the garage door lock, but they just ripped the locking mechanism off the door once they were inside (they used my two wheel wheelbarrow to haul off the loot and needed the garage door open).

I made insurance claims twice. Decided to eat the last one...didn't think they got much, but as time goes on I keep discovering tools that are missing.

I keep adding to the levels of security. My next major security addition will be installing 3/4 plywood on the inside. My shop is insulated with metal building insulation, and over the years the mice have damaged it here and there, so the ply will help protect the insulation as well. Looking for something cheap and easy that I can put behind the ply that would foul a saw blade. Thinking maybe some 3/16" aircraft cable running horizontal thru the vertical posts every 8" from about 3' to 6'. Secured, but not drawn tight might have the desired effect.

Don't mean to scare you, but I saw that new Stihl and I was reminded that it was one of the tools that got stolen. You might want to consider a storage container..?..

 

[BitChin1]

Wow Depmandog - seems it may be time for a more "active" security! Large dog or maybe a few rattle snakes - the latter obviously you need to be careful of also!

 

[newbury]

<snip>The next theft they cut through the metal siding. I had padlocked the garage door lock, but they just ripped the locking mechanism off the door once they were inside (they used my two wheel wheelbarrow to haul off the loot and needed the garage door open).
<snip>
Don't mean to scare you, but I saw that new Stihl and I was reminded that it was one of the tools that got stolen. You might want to consider a storage container..?..

With modern cordless circular saws or reciprocating saws I don't see any chance of fully protecting any building with just a metal skin from "cut through the wall" type theft.

 

[dhagood]

depmandog, that's a pretty depressing tale. any building is susceptible to a "through the wall" assault and other than catching the thieves in the act i don't see how that can be prevented. a storage container makes cutting through the wall harder but it still can be done.

i have completed the rain gutter on the eastern side (the uphill side) of the barn. i will need to do a french drain between the barn and the hillside; the corrugated drain pipe will end up in that trench.

i had been patiently (well, mostly) waiting for the week of august 17th to roll around which is when my well was supposed to be drilled. i had been asked to mark where i wanted the well drilled. so, i cobbled together some white painted stakes with a pink marking flag on top. i was driving out to pound said stake into the ground when i got a call from the drilling rig guys that they were on my property and where did i want the well? we talked about where i wanted it versus where he could drill it to no particular avail and agreed he would wait till i got out there. i showed him the stake which he though was pretty funny. he had backed the drilling rig into an area where he thought he could drill, it met my needs, and off he went.

the well yields an average of 9 gallons per minute of perfectly clear water with no obvious sulfur smell. since my permit specified the middle of the three aquifers available in my area, i was limited to a maximum depth of 445 feet. this meant that i ended up being able to use pvc casing which saved quite a bit of money.

lastly, i finally broke down and admitted that i was not going to be able to get my driveway as smooth as i wanted it to be with just a box blade. i kicked around several potential solutions and ended up with this.

i couldn't find a used one no matter where i looked so i ended up with a new one. i still need to buy a 5' rotary cutter, but will wait until a good used one rolls around.

 

[vtsnowedin]

I still need to buy a 5' rotary cutter, but will wait until a good used one rolls around.

People tend to use a Rotary cutter until all the "Good" is used up. So don't be surprised if you end up buying a new one. Compared to tractors , barns and wells their pretty cheap.

 

[dhagood]

i have several irons in the fire at the moment, but one of the things i'm doing is cutting the grass.

i found a five foot wide international agritech rotary cutter on craigslist for a reasonable price (after looking for about five months) and snapped it up. the gearbox makes a little noise but rotates freely and easily. it needs a little of this and a bit of that; mostly what it needs is to be repainted.

i'm working on getting power to the well, more on that later.

 

[Capricious]

i have several irons in the fire at the moment, but one of the things i'm doing is cutting the grass.

i found a five foot wide international agritech rotary cutter on craigslist for a reasonable price (after looking for about five months) and snapped it up. the gearbox makes a little noise but rotates freely and easily. it needs a little of this and a bit of that; mostly what it needs is to be repainted.

i'm working on getting power to the well, more on that later.

Around here (Missouri) about 90% of the used cutters advertised are 5-footers. Condition ranges from like new to dead. My little tractor could barely handle a 4-footer and I spent a lot of time looking for a used 4 until I ran across a barely-used 42 inch Kubota-brand cutter, which I bought, and which is plenty for my 16 hp. It was the only used 42 inch that I saw advertised the whole time I was looking.

If I could have used a 5, I would have had my choice of many. The things are everywhere around here.

 

[dhagood]

the weather in eastern colorado has turned into winter,

and i'd like to say my construction season has come to a close, but i still have some stuff that needs to be done. one thing is to get power to the barn, which will feed the well. i did the trenching myself with the thought that i'd know exactly where the trenches were located and i'd also save myself about a thousand dollars instead of having a contractor do it. after machinery rental, i'm going to actually save about 320 bucks. it also took me forever to complete the trenches, long enough that the weather turned before the job has been completed. the trencher kept wanting to rotate down the slope whenever there was any kind of side slope which caused me to cut multiple arcs instead of a single straight line. also, my slope was pretty steep in a couple of spots and i was too chicken to drive the trencher into those areas. i ended up doing that mostly by hand. the trencher also struggled driving uphill and struggled more driving uphill on grass. that ended up being a lot of hard, dirty work and all i could think about was my initial impression of "how hard can that be"? i'd like to say this experience will teach me a lesson but it most likely won't :laughing:

the other is to build a fence that will keep the cows out of the barn and well area. that may prove to be impossible given the freezing temperatures over the last week, but i'm going to give it the old college try.

in other news, i finally found the work vehicle for our property. i've been looking for this for six months or so, and finally found one that was in decent shape and at a price i could afford.

it's a 2011 john deere four wheel drive 825i gator with 12000 miles on the clock. it runs and drives well. it used to have a roof, but the previous owner had it blow off while it was on a trailer. i'll get around to replacing that at some point.

all in all its been a productive year, but i didn't finish all the things i wanted to finish. i haven't even started everything yet...

 

[wmonroe]

Your place looks beautiful with the coating of snow. There never seems to be enough time to get all the projects done.

 

[dhagood]

Your place looks beautiful with the coating of snow. There never seems to be enough time to get all the projects done.

thanks, i'm rather fond of the view.

another thing i've been up to is organizing the barn. originally i had almost everything laid out horizontally (ie, on the dirt floor). recently i've been working on going vertical.

and i'm getting a lot of the floor space emptied. this is good, because i've got another car i need to stuff into the barn.

 

[newbury]

thanks, i'm rather fond of the view.

another thing i've been up to is organizing the barn. originally i had almost everything laid out horizontally (ie, on the dirt floor). recently i've been working on going vertical.

and i'm getting a lot of the floor space emptied. this is good, because i've got another car i need to stuff into the barn.

With walls like that get some pallet rack to the ceiling!
Every 8'x4' shelf frees up 32 square feet of floor space!

My one rack in the back

Frees up 120 sq feet of floor space!

And you can assemble them so they are OVER a car.

 

[Green Power]

Thanks for the update DHA, 12k miles seems like a lot for a SxS, but i am sure it has lots of life left. Im guessing the previous owner of the SxS was a rancher? The land sure looks nice with the snow cover.

 

[nvmyhd]

Love the progress, if you need help I’m not that far from you just south in Calhan.
Do you see the windfarm from your place?

 

[vtsnowedin]

Snow in winter equals good grass come spring. Of course where I am it just means deep mud in the roads come spring but I'm on a whole nother planet from you.