Finally time to pull the trigger . . . starting on the New (much anticipated) SHOP - Build

[conv67bdere]

An unbelievable New Toy find on CL . . . and another busy week . . .

Got a lot to fill you in on the happening down here in NC . . .

Need to get the lean-to from the old shop cleaned up . . . and the tractor has been giving me grief . . .
But there is "something" missing in this photo . . .

Spent an evening fighting with the 8N and figured out all what was going on and got it moved to the Shop ! ! !
THAT is a much needed accomplishment . . . and glad to finally have it moved . . .

If you've been following along on this build . . . you've seen this hand cart MANY times in my pictures . . .
Use this thin ALL the time to get things moved around on the property . . . the down side - it's powered by ME !
Now . . . to explain how CL comes into play here . .

Browsing through the CL ads stumbled on this thing for sale ( never have seen anything like it ) . . .
Well . . . my "me" powered cart is now motor driven with the coolest set of tank treads ! ! !

This is going to be a game changer for me . . . The hand cart coolness factor has gone from 1 to 10 ! ! !

If you "might" be wondering if I'm really going to use this thing . . . let's get into this . . .
Got that BIG Oak stump that I've been fighting with . . . and making some progress on breaking it up . . .
Got a big chunk of it split off with a cookie sliced out of one side of it . . .

That cookie was also split with a maul into firewood chunks . . .

And the other part of the stump was loaded up for movement . . . behind the shop and out of the way . . .

The dumpling of the bed is really easy as you can see with this big root ball being dumped . . .

This is the bigger part of the root ball . . . had to remove the sides to get it loaded up . . .

And a few of the cedar stumps, that have also been split, got loaded up and moved to the back as well . . .

This thing is really cool . . . it has reverse and 3 forward speeds . . . and so far it's working great ! ! !
The first thing I did was drain the gas, and refill it with non-ethanol to help this thing last longer . . .

Sure you'll be seeing this thing in many of the pics in the future as the build progresses . . .

More Later . . .

 

[kiwigtx]

I'm lovin' that cart Larry.

 

[conv67bdere]

Off to a good start for this week . . . with a hurricane remnants hitting NC on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday . . .

Trying to continue the progress on the yard stuff . . .

Had this big old oak tree stump that is sitting right in the middle of everything . . . it's GOT to go . . .

So the stump has been getting some "attention" to get it split up into smaller, more manageable chunks . . .
( at lest that is the "hope" - to aid in the clean up )

And - it worked . . . the stump has been moved to the back of the property, as 5 pieces, and now it's out of my way . . .

My new inspector is keeping watch on the squirrels . . . ( he sat like that for a bit too )
he's letting his inspecting job slack as his "hunting" kicks in . . . he's fitting in quite well and he's a blast to have around . . .

It's that time again . . . Hold my beer . . . And watch this time . . .

Today's work included an "attempt" to get the last cedar tree down so it can get chopped up . . .

And . . . the Jeep pulled through and helped with the task . . . AGAIN . . . Gawd I love this Jeep ! ! !

The root ball was a bit bigger than I expected, which explains why it gave such a fight to come down . . .
It was 7:30 this evening when this tree finally came down . . . fought me tooth and nail . . .

So, the dog got his walk, and I got to enjoy a nice sunset . . . since the tree fell so late . . .

This means that the last cedar can now get cut up and removed . . . the bad news is . . .

There is another Oak tree beside it that is probably also going to need to come down . . . more digging.

Wore out, calling it a day . . .

More Later . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

Clean up on aisle 5 . . . Clean up on Aisle 5 . . . needed . . .

The tree that was taken down last night . . . needs to be cleaned up . . .

Here's what I had on my plate to start with . . .

De-limb the tree stump and cut up the trunk . . .

Here's the stack of cedar logs that will be used to heat my house . . .
Unless . . . someone want to pick up this puzzle and it's ready to put back together in their backyard ( hee hee )

And the clean up is completed . . . and the back yard smells great again ( still ) with the aroma of cedar

Only had about 1-2 hours to get to this . . . and and took advantage of the time that I had to get it done . . .

More Later . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

The calm before the storm . . . and quick update needed to be completed . . .

this one is going to go a lot differently, we're going to see the sunset first . . .

The sunset before the storm hits NC . . . The calm before the storm . . . so to say . . .
Forecast is showing that we're going to have 4 days of rain . . .

4 days of rain, and I've shown pictures of small leaks when it rains for a day . . . I've got work to get done . . .
Spent all day Thursday, removing what I had in place and redoing the covering better . . .
- to survive 4 days of rain . . . possibly very heavy at times . . .
- winds up to 50 MPH - not blowing the covering off the roof and leaving it exposed . . .

Sad to say . . . so focused on making sure that the work got done - no pictures were taken . . . sorry.

Next project at hand . . . got a few fairly big boulders that need to be moved on the property . . .

Get the easiest one first . . . could pick this one up on place it on the new motorized cart (my new "toy")

The 2n'd one was not going to be picked up by me . . . first I had to get it out of it's hole to see how big it really was . . .

It was a biggin' for sure . . . so it's time for my Jack-of-All-trades . . . to com into play ( again )
And once again . . . it did it's job . . .

The last one need a little more thought and repositioning of the jack . . . to see if I could even lift it . . .

Got the front out of it's hole . . . to get the chains around it . . .

Got it lifted off the ground, and was able to maneuver the cart under it . . . and place it on the cart . . .
In this pic you can see the front track over the hole . . . it almost capsized the cart . . . had to back it up a bit more . . .

Proof . . . the boulders have been moved . . .

Now . . . what am I going to do with the likes of these boulders . . .

More Later . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

Making a little extra room for storing things . . . Using stuff from around the property . . .

Just trying to add a little more space for storage next to the moved building . . .

The ground drops off pretty quickly on this side of the moved building . . . so I'll try and make some level ground
The boulders will be used to shore up the side . . . and then fill brought in to level it all out . . .

Put in some fill ( ABC stone ) to get a feel for where the stones were set ( might move them a bit further )

Got the first of the concrete footers poured for the moved woodshed . . .
Yes - the ground is slanted . . . and I didn't want to dig it out for the boards . . . just set them on top . . .
BUT . . . the concrete is level so when a course (or two) of blocks go on top . . . it'll still be level for the building . . .

Trying to figure out what I'm going to do with this mess . . . one step at a time . . .

More Later . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

Chasing Gremlins ( not AMC ) and trying to keep progress moving . . .

Life has decided that there is not enough on my plate - so it added a "gremlin" . . .
Out of nowhere . . . I've got a circuit breaker, for my family room that is tripped . . .

No clue of the cause . . . and trying to track it down now . . .

Got a lot of odds & ends that are going on now . . . here's the rundown . . .

First . . . think the latest moved shed is in dire need of some metal roof cleaning . . . what you think ? ?

This is my solution, that I've come up with, to support the woodshed . . . no longer will it be portable . . .

Got a couple board for the shed . . . that will need to be replaced . . . they didn't fare so well . . .

Boards #1 . . .

Boards # 2 . . .

Here's the plan for the attachment . . . had some angle iron (scrap) and some cut rebar to go into the concrete . . .

Another angle . . . got all the cross pieces put back together . . . working on getting everything tidied up . . .

Got this side of the shed concreted in place . . .

Here's the inner design . . . added a bend to the rebar to provide a bit more purchase on the hold down . . .

And more work on the side of the shop, and shoring up the retaining wall to level out some area on this side . . .

Little bits at a time . . . it's almost dark by the time I get home . . . trying to get what I can get done . . .

Plus the added "fun" of chasing down an electrical gremlin in the house to top it all off . . . OH BOY ! !

More Later . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

Wiring problem fixed, water problem surfaces, woodshed is planted . . . more . . .

After a week of chasing my wiring "gremlin", I can officially say that the problem is resolved. YAY ! ! !
Took having to cut 3 holes in the wall, filled (2) with new outlets, and pulled a bad wire out of the wall.
How did it go bad . . . No Clue . . . but The bad part has been removed from the equations . . . permanently !

Just as I was about to finish up the electrical "gremlin", I walked into a puddle in my laundry room . . . water leak ? ?
So now I'm chasing a water leak . . . OH BOY ! ! !

Still working in the yard on projects and trying to get back to building my shop - but I've got things that need to get
done before that can happen - they all are needed, just have to be done in order of necessity . . . one at a time . . .

Wonder if I'm still using that cart . . . oh, heck yeah ! ! ! Moving rocks for the retaining wall . . .

Here's what it's looking like from the bottom side . . . The inspector is keeping a close eye on my work too !

And the rest of the wall . . . not looking too bad either . . .

Got both sides of the woodshed concreted in place, and then the center supports added and in concrete too .
So . . . the woodshed is now officially "planted" in the ground ( and not going anywhere . . . )

And with that . . . guess what that means . . .

Thinking of spanning this opening and adding some roofing to cover this are to hold kindling and keep it dry . . .

The woodshed . . . officially planted and in place . . . ( glad to finally have this project done . . . too )

Now . . . let the splitting and stacking commence . . . gotta get this all out of here ( it's inmy way )
And get it all stacked and drying in the newly moved woodshed . . . got my work cut out for me . . .

With the aid of my cart . . . the moving and stacking is under way . . .

Plugging away at this . . . trying to get a little time in each day but the daylight is getting really short . . .

Got the first row of wood stacking just about completed . . . and ready for row two . . . keep me busy and out of trouble

Now to chase down the water leak - like I needed any MORE projects to work on around here . . .

More Later . . .

 

[kiwigtx]

Nice work....I need a beer after catching up on this page.

 

[conv67bdere]

This surely was NOT planned out very well . . . ARGH ! ! !

Figures . . . get in a hurry and something gets missed . . . Guess the staining should have been done . . .

FIRST ! ! !

Now - with all the wood stacked on the first row . . . getting it stained is NOT going to be easy . . .

Oh well . . . get it done the best that I can . . . the other parts are looking really good ! ! !

More Later . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

Putting a big dent in this wood splitting / moving / stacking project . . .

Finally, a day without work and the change to put a big dent in this wood pile . . .

Just a quick reminder . . . this is the stack of wood that I had that needs to be "processed" . . . oh boy . . .

Busted out the stain and got all of the wood stained that would be needed to hold the split firewood . . .

This is a split piece of cedar - the wet wood is more purple but eventually when it dries - turns more red . . .
( like the color that you can see on the side of the log . . . )

Making good progress today . . . didn't know how much I was going to be able to get done . . .
Fully filled the first row with wood . . . and starting on the second row . . .

The day went much better than expected . . . got the second row completed . . . and starting on the third row . . .

Here's what the concrete pad now looks like . . . actually seeing more concrete than firewood . . . That's a nice sight !

And this is Obie's assistance to the project . . .he grabs pieces from the pile, pulls them out into the yard . . .
Chews on them for a couple minutes . . . then he's back hunting for another piece . . . at least 8 pieces here . . .
And then . . . I get to go and pick them all up ( again ) . . . and re-stack them . . . He's such a trip . . .

Really good day today on this project, and hopeful that tomorrow will fill up the last two rows . . .

Actually looks like I'm going to have more wood than storage ( that's a good problem to have ! )
And then I'll have to figure out where to store all the stuff that I have left over . . . that'll be fun . . .

Tomorrow . . . is another day . . .

More Later . . .

 

[Cranky]

Off to a good start for this week . . . with a hurricane remnants hitting NC on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday . . .

Trying to continue the progress on the yard stuff . . .

Had this big old oak tree stump that is sitting right in the middle of everything . . . it's GOT to go . . .

View attachment 1348791

So the stump has been getting some "attention" to get it split up into smaller, more manageable chunks . . .
( at lest that is the "hope" - to aid in the clean up )

View attachment 1348792

And - it worked . . . the stump has been moved to the back of the property, as 5 pieces, and now it's out of my way . . .

View attachment 1348793

My new inspector is keeping watch on the squirrels . . . ( he sat like that for a bit too )
he's letting his inspecting job slack as his "hunting" kicks in . . . he's fitting in quite well and he's a blast to have around . . .

View attachment 1348794

It's that time again . . . Hold my beer . . . And watch this time . . .

Today's work included an "attempt" to get the last cedar tree down so it can get chopped up . . .

View attachment 1348795

And . . . the Jeep pulled through and helped with the task . . . AGAIN . . . Gawd I love this Jeep ! ! !

View attachment 1348796

The root ball was a bit bigger than I expected, which explains why it gave such a fight to come down . . .
It was 7:30 this evening when this tree finally came down . . . fought me tooth and nail . . .

View attachment 1348797

So, the dog got his walk, and I got to enjoy a nice sunset . . . since the tree fell so late . . .

View attachment 1348798

This means that the last cedar can now get cut up and removed . . . the bad news is . . .

There is another Oak tree beside it that is probably also going to need to come down . . . more digging.

Wore out, calling it a day . . .

More Later . . .

Are those my old splitting wedges??

 

[kiwigtx]

This surely was NOT planned out very well . . . ARGH ! ! !

Figures . . . get in a hurry and something gets missed . . . Guess the staining should have been done . . .

FIRST ! ! !

View attachment 1365114

Now - with all the wood stacked on the first row . . . getting it stained is NOT going to be easy . . .

Oh well . . . get it done the best that I can . . . the other parts are looking really good ! ! !

More Later . . .

Staining can be a project you look forward to in about 9 months.

 

[kiwigtx]

Putting a big dent in this wood splitting / moving / stacking project . . .

Finally, a day without work and the change to put a big dent in this wood pile . . .

Just a quick reminder . . . this is the stack of wood that I had that needs to be "processed" . . . oh boy . . .

View attachment 1365589

Busted out the stain and got all of the wood stained that would be needed to hold the split firewood . . .

View attachment 1365591

This is a split piece of cedar - the wet wood is more purple but eventually when it dries - turns more red . . .
( like the color that you can see on the side of the log . . . )

View attachment 1365592

Making good progress today . . . didn't know how much I was going to be able to get done . . .
Fully filled the first row with wood . . . and starting on the second row . . .

View attachment 1365593

The day went much better than expected . . . got the second row completed . . . and starting on the third row . . .

View attachment 1365594

Here's what the concrete pad now looks like . . . actually seeing more concrete that firewood . . . That's a nice sight !

View attachment 1365595

And this is Obie's assistance to the project . . .he grabs pieces from the pile, pulls them out into the yard . . .
Chews on them for a couple minutes . . . then he's back hunting for another piece . . . at least 8 pieces here . . .
And then . . . I get to go and pick them all up ( again ) . . . and re-stack them . . . He's such a trip . . .

View attachment 1365596

Really good day today on this project, and hopeful that tomorrow will fill up the last two rows . . .

Actually looks like I'm going to have more wood than storage ( that's a good problem to have ! )
And then I'll have to figure out where to store all the stuff that I have left over . . . that'll be fun . . .

Tomorrow . . . is another day . . .

More Later . . .

Please tell me you have a hydraulic log splitter or similar.......that is one mammoth task with just an axe and your own muscle.

 

[5.7 hemi]

Work smart, not hard!

 

[Cranky]

Please tell me you have a hydraulic log splitter or similar.......that is one mammoth task with just an axe and your own muscle.

Never owned a splitter and did it all by hand however, don't recall ever doing stumps as big as Larry has been doing lol. With a good maul and enough wedges along with a good chain saw, you might be surprised what can be done.....so long as your back holds up lol.

 

[conv67bdere]

Are those my old splitting wedges??

Yes sir - they sure are ( and they are getting plenty of use here ! )

 

[conv67bdere]

Please tell me you have a hydraulic log splitter or similar.......that is one mammoth task with just an axe and your own muscle.

Sorry - No . . . this was all done with a maul . . . and muscle . . .

But the idea of a log splitter has crossed my mind . . . from time to time . . .

 

[conv67bdere]

Sure not much daylight anymore to get much done after work . . . UGH . . . But I'm trying . . .

Got what I could get done with the little light I had left after work - work ALWAYS is getting in my way . . .

On the last row . . . and it's now about about 3/4 full . . . this was taken over the weekend . . .

And my processing pile is getting slim too . . .

Here's one that I was not sure I was going to be able to split - but I gave it a whack . . . 2 hits . . .
The rotted part in the middle probably helped me out a bit ( or a lot ) . . .

Figuring that (2) more loads in my handy-dandy cart and the woodshed will be full and I'm ready for Winter . . .

Now I'm getting a few other ideas of things that need to be done . . . Oh boy . . .
Looks like I have more wood than place to put it after it's been split . . . that's a good thing to have ! !

More Later . . .

 

[barbee6043]

Back good ole Missouri, for 17 years, all I heated with was wood. A chain saw, splittin mall, and me. Last year there was 2017. I was 69 and frisky when I left there for Texas! Can not do that today!!