Akita Pool

[bindian]

I hope all you Texans with ponds have good overflow features; it looks like anybody in the southern and eastern parts of Texas could be getting drenched over the next 4 or 5 days. Good luck!

No sweat, flood water from the gully backs up behind the dam as the water in the pond submerges the dam. Easy Peasy.
hugs, Brandi

 

[EddieWalker]

Between rains from Harvey, and goats having babies, I finished the block work on the Akita Pool. 360 blocks and 36 sacks of mortar. As an amateur, I wasted a lot of mortar, but at least it wasn't a lot more.



Triplets where born yesterday



And this little guy was born this morning



Sadly, another baby didn't make it. This was her first time and she was just too wore out to get it out. Karen and I worked for an hour pulling, lubing, and pulling some more to finally get it out. That was the first time either of us had ever done something like this. It's a lot more difficult then I realized!!!!! She only had the one baby.

 

[Bird]

Been there and done that, Eddie, (with both cows and goats) and as you said, it's no fun.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Worst is when it's below freezing and exposed. Nothing like shoving a frozen hand in a cow's birth canal for it to be crushed... Good times.

 

[bindian]

Been there and done that, Eddie, (with both cows and goats) and as you said, it's no fun.

When I was too little to help, I watched the vet and Dad hook up a block and tackle to pull the calf out of my cow.
Enjoy the cute babies and your hard work.
hugs, Brandi

 

[EddieWalker]

Another weekend, another snake. I'm at 14 for the year. This was a very healthy, very fat, water moccasin that was 3 ft long.

Before the snake, I got some work done on my footings for the porch. The porch will be 16 feet by 24 feet. The boy dogs, Matsu and Raidan, like to hang out with me more then the girl dogs. We have no idea why.



I dug my footings and set the sonotubes 1 1/2 inches above the finished concrete height. It's important to me that the posts remain as dry as possible. Then I brought some dirt over to start back filling and bringing the dirt up. The backhoe bucket is great for this. I don't get a lot of dirt compared to the loader bucket, but I do get it really close to where I want it.



The holes are 3 feet deep and centered for the channel iron. That's five feet long. I want two feet above the concrete pad to anchor my cedar log posts.



Once I get the hole mostly full, I level my channel iron. The sonotube is off to the side of the hole, where I want the post to sit. For this, the channel iron is 14 feet from the house, and the post will be 14 to 15 feet from the house, allowing me a foot of overhang.

 

[ustmd]

Another weekend, another snake. I'm at 14 for the year. This was a very healthy, very fat, water moccasin that was 3 ft long.

Before the snake, I got some work done on my footings for the porch. The porch will be 16 feet by 24 feet. The boy dogs, Matsu and Raidan, like to hang out with me more then the girl dogs. We have no idea why.

View attachment 520593

I dug my footings and set the sonotubes 1 1/2 inches above the finished concrete height. It's important to me that the posts remain as dry as possible. Then I brought some dirt over to start back filling and bringing the dirt up. The backhoe bucket is great for this. I don't get a lot of dirt compared to the loader bucket, but I do get it really close to where I want it.

View attachment 520589

The holes are 3 feet deep and centered for the channel iron. That's five feet long. I want two feet above the concrete pad to anchor my cedar log posts.

View attachment 520590

Once I get the hole mostly full, I level my channel iron. The sonotube is off to the side of the hole, where I want the post to sit. For this, the channel iron is 14 feet from the house, and the post will be 14 to 15 feet from the house, allowing me a foot of overhang.

View attachment 520591

Will the post be on the footing and then will you drill and bolt through the channel iron?


I guess I am confused on the placement of the channel iron at the edge of the sonotubes. It looks like it would "easily" pop loose when any racking stress.

 

[EddieWalker]

Hope this picture helps. This is from my gazebo build. The channel iron is in the middle of the hole with concrete all around it except for where it comes out of the ground. The it's only at the edge of the sono tube. The concrete in the sono tube is only on about half of the hole, so a good part of the weight from the post and above is carried all the way down into the hole, but also some of it is resting on soil.

I'll cut two holes in the channel iron with my torch. Then when the log is set in place, I will drill a 3/4 inch hole through the log, insert 3/4 inch galvanized threaded rod, add a galvanized washer and nut to each side and tighten. Then cut off remaining threaded rod.

The log will still move, so I'll keep it braced until I have the roof all tied to it. That will lock it all in place so there is no racking.

 

[bindian]

Eddie,
Why do you choose to use channel iron bolted to the cedar posts, and not drill the posts to have rebar go up into the center of the cedar posts? This is what I have seen Harvey do in the past.
hugs, Brandi

 

[EddieWalker]

Pining the posts is fairly common, but only if there is a a really good way to secure it at other locations, or it's not really supporting anything that might move around.

Log home builders use a blade type of steel that goes into the posts cut out with a chainsaw, then you drill a hole through the post and attach it that way. This is a lot better then relying on gravity to hold it in place with a pin, or rebar. Some of the log home builders leave the bolt and nut exposed, some plug it so it's hard to see.

When thinking of how to keep the cedar from rotting, and make it as secure as I possibly could, I decided on using the channel on the side. The look doesn't bother me, and nobody who has seen it person has every commented one way or another. I think they see the cedar logs and don't even notice the channel iron, but who knows?

60 mile per hour winds on a big thunderstorm are not uncommon. The potential to have even stronger winds exists. I've see porches blown completely off of house and there was not a tornado. Straight line winds are blamed, and they can be very impressive. I hope to be building something that can resist this.

 

[bindian]

Well stated. Thanks!
hugs, Brandi

 

[ustmd]

View attachment 520645

Hope this picture helps. This is from my gazebo build. The channel iron is in the middle of the hole with concrete all around it except for where it comes out of the ground. The it's only at the edge of the sono tube. The concrete in the sono tube is only on about half of the hole, so a good part of the weight from the post and above is carried all the way down into the hole, but also some of it is resting on soil.

I'll cut two holes in the channel iron with my torch. Then when the log is set in place, I will drill a 3/4 inch hole through the log, insert 3/4 inch galvanized threaded rod, add a galvanized washer and nut to each side and tighten. Then cut off remaining threaded rod.

The log will still move, so I'll keep it braced until I have the roof all tied to it. That will lock it all in place so there is no racking.

Thanks for the explanation. I was wondering if the sonotubes were offset.

Makes perfect sense to me.

 

[s219]

I have seen maybe a dozen different ways to anchor posts like that, involving some type of steel and a poured concrete pier. I think they all work. Since I'm out in the country with farmers and scavengers, I figure it must come down to what type of structural steel people have laying around and how they want it to look afterwards.

 

[EddieWalker]

Didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but a little progress is still progress. The porch is being extended quite a bit and to do this, I need to build up the dirt. I brought in 7 yards so far and probably need another 3 for the pad and one more yard for the fill behind the blocks on the far side, that is hard to get to until I remove the cement mixer. I'm a little amazed at the change. I pictured it in my head, but it's never the same as when you actually create it.

 

[dragoneggs]

Looking good Eddie! That soil sure is 'red'.

 

[forgeblast]

Thats going to look awesome when done! Those will be some happy dogs!

 

[dragoneggs]

Thats going to look awesome when done! Those will be some happy dogs!

I'm thinking those Akitas are already pretty darn happy... they will be just a LITTLE more spoiled!

 

[EddieWalker]

So many distractions have come up that I haven't had any time to do anything on this until yesterday. The biggest motivation to start this project was that the current cedar posts for the porch where rotting out. I put them in the ground back in 2005 and started noticing rot after a few years. I though they where ready to fail, and thought that if I didn't get them out now, the porch would fall over during a thunderstorm in the Winter or Spring.

After taking apart the porch, I jacked these posts out of the ground to find very solid wood in the ground. I don't know if the outer layer just rots away and that's that, or if the rot would continue like it has and eventually fail. I was surprised by this.



This morning I woke up planning to get more work done, but my wife was sick and very dehydrated, so we went to the hospital instead. She is doing better, the IV did wonders for her and for the first time in two days, she is able to sleep. I did all her chores today, and went to the feed store. Maybe next weekend I'll be more productive.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Glad your wife is feeling better. No sleep sucks.

Hope you can get going again on the pool.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Eddie,
Were the posts real cedar (like a pine tree) or what we wrongly call cedar in Texas (Mountain Juniper)?

Were the posts the whole tree, maybe with just the bark pealed?

If it was juniper and nearly the whole tree, I think you had the sapwood rot away leaving just the rot-resistant heartwood. Saw it with fence posts growing up.

Usually, the layer of sapwood is fairly thin on Mt. Juniper but I think if it grew in favorable conditions the sapwood gets thicker.