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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A Better Look At Gator

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Gator Features (lifted from the JD website):

• Powered by a standard 48V system with 8 Trojan T-105 batteries, Gator TE accelerates faster, climbs hills better, and performs evenly until recharge (optional extended range T-145 batteries available)
• Golf-cart-style drivetrain prevents need for engine re-start
• Tight, 24.1-ft. turn clearance circle
• Directional change control feature slows machine to a stop before changing directions to prevent whiplash and stress on the drive train
• 0 - 15-mph forward ground speed, 0 - 9-mph reverse ground speed. Air speed has not yet been determined (testing continues)
  
• Separately excited controller provides over-speed control, dynamic braking, roll-away control, and regeneration
• Wide flotation tires, especially designed for turf applications, minimize ground compaction, provide good traction in mud, and flex over bumps for a smooth ride
• Wide wheel stance and low center of gravity offer passenger and operator superb stability
• Quiet, electric operation ("sneak-up-on")
  
• 16-gauge-steel, 11.2 cu. ft. capacity cargo box hauls up t0 500lb. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  

I looked for work horse style golf carts at first, thinking that a Gator or something in the same class would be out of my price range; and new ones certainly are, with the Gator Pro at over $17,000 without any accessories. Then we found this Chino Hills golf course back-shop sales place on Craigslist where they sell rebuilt (pieced together from good parts), used and new carts of all kinds for really reasonable, very negotiable prices.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/rvs/1152181660.html

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It's a 2003 or 2004 with 681.8 hours on the meter.



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Small Surgery And A New Ranch Toy

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Wednesday a week ago I had a small surgery at Kaiser. It went well and I will be able to return to the ranch in about two weeks.
While I was recovering I started looking for a utility vehicle, mostly on Craigslist, and I found this Gator:


It's a 48 volt John Deere Gator TE, and it just exactly fits in our 10 foot trailer. It will help with the lifting and carrying and maybe I won't get herniated -- again.
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By the way, I have decided to build a pole barn instead of erecting the metal arch building. The metal barn is still sitting complete with all hardware on it's pallets and is for sale. It's 30x60 heavy duty 20 gauge, and has been approved by county engineering (stamped) for the snow load in high country. It cost $13000 and I would consider $9500 to be a reasonable recovery. Pass the word, please.
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Note to Dave Jr.

Q: Still going strong I see. Everything looks like it's coming together. Nice to see. Take care.

Asked by Dave Jr

A: Thanks, Dave

This week will see the fence on the east side finished and the cattle finally excluded from our land. A most destructive bunch of beasts!

I had to come back to California for two or three weeks to get my lower partial plate replaced. It broke after 18 years of hard service.

When we get back out there (Sharon will be going with me this time) we will immediately begin the storage building, and finalize the order for our house. The goal is to have a livable home by Thanksgiving.

Ask David a question.

BEHIND

Q: Dave, I see that you are a few weeks behind schedule with your updates. I hope that this email finds you well and productive enough to meet your personal deadlines! How is your pick up handling the unpaved roads of your new home? Snow in March? As I read this I looked down and saw a flip flop tan line across my bare feet, are you sure your going to miss so cal? I hope everything is going good for you and look forward to your updates.
Bryan

Asked by Bryan

A: Yes, Three weeks to be exact. The fence, the wind and the cold have all taken their share of my full attention. The inside of my trailer looks like the south end of a north bound Gypsy caravan. I have vowed many times that I would take a day off to clean up around the place and sum up my activities on the blog, but something always interferes. I have spent days with the chain saw clearing the East side fence line. Because of soil erosion at the fence line we could not get secure footing for the "T" posts, so we moved the whole line 18 inches to the west. Doesn't sound like much, but lots of small trees and brush and cactus occupied the new line and had to be removed. Then I used the tractor front loader and a log chain the pull all the old fence posts that had been there since the 1930's.

The quality of the fence is important to the security of the infrastructure for our house. The well, the power panel, the excavations for our barn and house foundations, and the stacks of building materials have to be protected against the free grazing range cattle.

The wind and the cold have also slowed down the start of work each day, and the changing precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail) sometimes force us to knock off early and seek shelter.

The 1 ton Dodge has proven to be exactly the right truck out here. That's why there are so many of them. I have received many complements and comments of "awesome truck". The sound of power alone causes heads to turn. The suspension is stiff; 2400 pounds of water in the bed hardly causes the springs to depress, so it does ride rougher on the dirt roads, but it handles well and always starts first try. Many other diesels out here have to use starter fluid on very cold mornings.

The best thing is that the trailer stays warm and tight and I sleep like a log.

Ask David a question.

Snow Day

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Last night the temperature at 3:30am outside was 16 degrees. (I have a remote thermometer outside that tells me these things). Inside the trailer, with only one 1000 watt reflective dish heater going at full power, it never got below about 58 degrees, and I was comfortable in a hoodie, sweat pants, and heavy socks.


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Even though the snow was not heavy and did not stick past about 2:00 pm, it made a coating of mud that is some of the stickiest stuff I've ever seen. A mud deck and sheltered entry for the trailer is going to be a necessity if I'm going to keep the inside floor clean.
Today I've been cleaning my work boots with a long-handled stiff bristle brush that I bought at Gustins Hardware in Mountainair yesterday morning. It's better than nothing, but the entry deck will have duck boards and heavy sisal doormats, and a place to sit to remove muddy boots.

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No fence work today. We needed to pour concrete for a heavy corner brace assembly at the South end of our West line, and for gate posts in the West line of Wendy and Tim's 57 acres.
The west end gate is a requirement for the electrical CO-OP easement access. Anyway, no concrete work today either.

The forecast is for sunshine and warmer weather tomorrow.
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Some Progress Pictures

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Pulled in at dawn. And naturally I had to jump right out and take pictures.


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The trailer was easier to position than I thought it would be. I'll be able to use existing structure to add summer time shelter for the trailer. The roof system will add rain water capture capability.
This the first phase position of the trailer. After I build the small deck between the shack and the trailer and set the posts for the shelter-roof ridge beam, I'll move the trailer two feet closer to the shack.


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The Northeast fence gate is up as of today.
The North fence line looking East from the gate at the green shack.

This is the Northwest gate leading to the green shack. The North
gates are both sixteen feet.


Looking North along the West fence from the mid line field brace.


Looking south along the West fence from the Northwest corner.
I'll be adding the stays to this section of fence tomorrow.

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The Trailer power cord would not reach the 30 amp plug I had Frank Sedillo add to the shack.
Not his fault, as my location callout did not accurately consider the length of the cord. So I added a separate 30 amp breaker and another power plug on the Northwest corner.

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I plan to add more text to this posting tomorrow morning, and to severely edit yesterday's posting which is still in draft, 'cause I screwed it up trying to be clever.
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Road Trip

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The rest stop east of Barstow and all is well. The truck pulled Cajon Pass like there was nothing on tow.

The first rest stop in Arizona. By this time I was confident. "Yes, it's quiet. Maybe too quiet."


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Across the Mojave, past Kingman and half way to Seligman. More than 40 miles to town in both directions. Some debris on the road and this, at about 4:00 pm:

Trailer, front left. Well, it looked OK when I started.



I called for Roadside Repair,


and two hours and $380.00 later I was on my way back to Kingman to buy another tire. My trailer spare had gone flat, but they were able to patch it and mount it. The tread from the destroyed tire had wrapped around the axle, but didn't touch the brake wires.

Walmart's tire and lube was about to close, so I spent the night comfortably in the Walmart lot with a dozen other RVers. Not one generator running, thank you very much.

Next morning, business taken care of, and a good breakfast, I was back on the road at 10:00am.

One mile down the road the other tire on the left side destroyed itself, wrapping tread around both the axle and the spring assembly, leaving the still undamaged brake wires sticking out of the mess. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that.

Another roadside ($97.00) repair, and back to Walmart in Kingman. This time I had to wait a while for the tire to be mounted. They were so busy I had time for lunch and shopping for odds and ends. Then, rather than wait another two or three hours, I changed the tire myself in the parking lot and was again on my way; not much less than 24 hours after the first blowout.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and, after spending the night in the Walmart parking lot in Grants, NM, I drove on down to the ranch, arriving at dawn Sunday morning.

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Hooked Up And Ready To Roll

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At Last
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