An Update for July

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My wife says this picture defines me at age 68. After almost three months out here I feel stronger and wake up each morning feeling better than I have in years. There must be something in the air and in the dirt that re-invigorates a neglected body.

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On Sat, July 25, 2009 at 9:43 AM, Terry Chancellor wrote:

Well Dave, you appear to be having a great time, however, in the photo you look like a goat herder. I enjoy your posts.

Hi Terry,
Well, I tried the 10 gallon hat. It Liked to have baked my brains. And I tried the straw hat, but it had to be tied on. With both of them I spent so much time with my hat in one hand and my bandana in the other that I couldn't get any work done. Then I cut up some tee shirts. you get three head bands by cutting the body of the tee shirt into three equal strips from the lower hem to the arm pits. That worked ok for a while keeping the sweat out of my eyes, but one day I severely sunburned the top of my head and decided to add the bandana for the extra protection. The combination works really well. It absorbs sweat very well and gives back cooling in the wind. Turns out goat herders got it right several thousand years ago.
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I try to work some every day with the tractor. It makes quick work of the standing dead wood.




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Our canine friends and protectors:

Cleo

Russell and Rocky
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When Sharon was here we did some clean up, and one rainy day we had our first outdoor fire.

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As you can see the interior of the green shed needed some attention also,

so I built some shelves from plywood, furring strips, and 1x4 stock.

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Good hard rains near the end of June have given us some new grass in the last few weeks.
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There has always been a need for shade and shelter from the rain, so I put other things aside and completed the carport that I began last year.


I sheathed it with 3/4 inch exterior plywood and placed glued/screwed 2x4 splice blocks to better withstand the wind, and also to bear the weight of a future sleeping platform. There are lots of nights out here when when sleeping outside would be a real treat. Especially during the meteor showers.


It makes a very deep shade when the sun is high and bright.

The area under roof is 16 x 24 and perfectly shelters the Gator and trailer.


I was surprised and pleased to find out the Gator would pull the trailer so easily. At first I only hooked it up to see if I could reposition it more quickly than hitching it to the truck. Now I use it all the time and have left it connected for daily chores and moving concrete and lumber.

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I made some modifications to the well house and plumbing to allow pumping straight into the horse trough. My understanding of the electrical control and hookup of the well pump and pressure system was less than perfect so my first attempt was not successful. A quick call to Walter Elliott got me squared away. Naturally I forgot to get a picture of the overboard flow in operation.

But it does put out a nice flow when the pump is running.

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The large gray box in the back of the reefer van is our wood stove, given to us by our neighbor Tim Hardin. It will make my workshop habitable this winter.

I included the picture above so you could get an idea of the size of the stove. It's made of 1/4 and 3/8 inch steel plate and lined with fire brick. I estimate its weight at over 300 pounds. Tim Hardin and I got it in the reefer by horsing it into the tractor front loader and hoisting it up.

Sharon says it's beautiful just as it is, but I have in mind a new color scheme using black, green, and gold high temperature manifold paint.
The two silver knobs on the door fronts are adjustable vents, and it has a huge control damper in the flue attach box.
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Improvements to the place continue even though at the end of many a day no really outstanding changes are visible.
Here the torque box is complete, sheathed with 1/2 inch CDX, and coated with bright white elastomeric coating for waterproofing while waiting for the roof over the trailer to be done.

Redwood waterproof stain dresses up the raw plywood considerably.

And a fresh coating for the front porch as well.

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The next phase of construction has already begun. I'm adding a 24x24 room to the front of the green shack. It will incorporate the existing 8x16 porch into the new room for the sake of economy and in order to get it done, lined, insulated and heated by the time cold weather gets here. My conservatively optimistic estimate for a completion date is the end of September. My wife is coming out the last two weeks in September to help me with the finishing touches.
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And I got from Amazon a powerful new circular saw to allow me to cut 4x lumber in one pass without having to roll it or get awkward in high places.

Technical Details:

Uses a 10 1/4 inch thin kerf blade; comes with 77 Skil saw motor, 10 1/4 inch blade, and guard kit (assembled)

Has 3-3/4-inch depth of cut and will cut any 4X material in one pass.

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The beam structure that resembles a red saw horse is the foundation for the east wall of the new room. The rest of the foundation will be equally massive, supported at 4 foot intervals by pressure treated 4x6 posts set 30 inches deep in 5000 psi concrete, and bridged together with 2x8 and 4x4 lumber. The floor joists will be supported at their mid-span point by a post and beam structure running perpendicular to the joists.

The floor corner by the front stoop where the wood stove is to be installed will be reinforced to take the weight and protected from the heat with concrete backer board and a layer of brick. The wall behind the stove and the ceiling area will also be fireproof. The double wall chimney is common out here so I'll have no trouble getting guidance for the installation if necessary.


I have made the decision to install an electric composting (low water use) toilet to service my workshop. No septic system will be required as both liquid and solid waste is reduced by the composting process. For some reason there are very few composters in our part of New Mexico, and I have not found any contractor or plumber who is familiar with them. So I will just have to plow fresh ground.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Cholla Flowers

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Driving back in a while ago, I could see several of the Cholla cactus were blooming, so I took Big John (the Gator) all around our place looking for pictures to take. It is surprisingly difficult to get good pictures of flowers. These six were all that were worth keeping of around 30 shots.






Got to get to work now if I'm going to have anything to show today.
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Basic Structure

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Big wind today and heavy cloud cover made it challenging but cool.



What you are looking at is the basic structure of the "pseudo" torque box that will give the roof assembly the ability to stand up against the West wind.
There a few more brace pieces to be added which will give it some character when they are stained "Redwood", and there will be a nearly 34 foot long main beam (built in-place) on top of the torque box posts that you see in these pictures.
In a couple more days the term "Torque Box" will become self-explanatory to those who are not familiar with it.
Those horizontal 2x6 pieces that look like flat roof rafters are really the ribs of this type of torque box, and at the same time, by adding the plywood platform that a torque box requires they will provide a light weight deck/scaffold that I can get up on to do the raftering.
In the future that platform under the completed roof will provide additional storage space.

The plywood attached to the lower outside face of both posts are temporary shear webs screwed to the rim joist and then to the posts after they were plumb. The wind was blowing so hard while I was working I needed all the help I could get.
The angles from which these pictures were taken makes it look like the back door of the trailer would be blocked by a post, but it's not. There is a good 3/4 of an inch clearance. Also the trailer could be pulled straight out with no interference. There is more than 2 inches between the trailer and the nearest structure.
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Tomorrow I'll add the nailing intercostals between the ribs and the "Shear Web/Work Deck".

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Weather, Dog, Deck, Trusses, Our House and Us

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The moody blue and coral of an early June twilight looking WSW from the south-east corner. The trail angling from the bottom left corner of the picture toward the right is our south property line. I cleared it with the box blade of the tractor to facilitate future fencing.

The weather has been as fine as it is ever going to be out here; a little early season rain, cool nights, and moderate days, with a good mix of clouds and sunshine.

I used the front loader and a log chain to pull almost a half mile of old fence posts (one at a time). Most of them pulled right out, but a dozen or so threatened to spill the tractor, lifting one back wheel off the ground, and had to be snapped off and left in place.
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Sharon was able to spend two weeks with me getting to know the place and the people, and was very sad to have to return to California.
The comforts and conveniences of the travel trailer made a lot of difference: good hot water for the shower, electricity for the microwave and lights, and the HughesNet satellite; and the privacy and perceived security of the completed fence and lockable gates made it easier for her to spend time alone with the land.
She fell in love with a smiling red "rescued" Pit Bull named Russell, and wants a "country dog" of her own.

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I have been able to make some progress toward the covered deck area between the trailer and the green shack. Next comes the roof over both the deck and the trailer. There will be some complexity in design and construction because of the fierce west winds we get, but nothing that can't be overcome with the liberal use of Deck Screws, Plywood Gussets, Construction Adhesive, Nailer Plates, Simpson Earthquake Ties, Ring Shank Nails, and good ol' Concrete. Nothing to it!
The deck will be redwood stained, and I have decided to change the color of the shack. I am open to suggestions as to the new color scheme.



And the front deck received a much needed treatment.


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These next two pictures were just too good to pass up. That satellite dish is heavy and needed a really solid mount to stand up to the wind, so we (and I do mean we) bolted it to the ridge beam of the shack. So far so good, and it doesn't seem to lose lock even in a very gusty 35 to 50 mph blow.
As an item of interest: after two years of wind and weather the 4x6 pressure treated posts on which the shack is built show no signs of deflection or compression failure.

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There is a company in Los Lunas called Atlas Truss that often times has trusses that were ordered, but for whatever reason were not able to be delivered. We got this stack of sixteen 40 foot span trusses for $900 (less than 30% of original cost) to use for our barn. I can use eleven of them on 48 inch centers to build a 40'x40' structure, and still have five left over to make shaded parking. All that's needed for the barn application is the gussets and wind braces. Probably a dozen sheets of half inch CDX plywood (for the gussets) and about a hundred 2"x4"x16' (for wind braces and purlins) plus about 38 sheets of OSB (for roof decking) will complete the roof structure. Somewhat easier and a lot less expensive than individual raftering.

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We have finalized the options of our Karsten home and have begun the financing process. Our goal is to have the house ready to move into by the end of summer.
I'll add the floorplan and the revisions as soon as I can figure out how to convert the image from .pdf to .jpg using Ubuntu Linux, which is what I'm working in now.
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Success: Click on the image to see it larger. I used Zamzar.com which is a free on-line image conversion service. You go to their website, upload your image, give them an email address, and in a few minutes you get a link to the converted image in your inbox; simple and quick.

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This picture of us was taken in February, 2009.



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