Placing rocks

Yesterday I recruited our neighbor and his tractor to move the big rocks that were pushed down the south bank of the new pond. One was actually too large to be dragged (without leaving an enormous trench in the wet area) and was left where it had fallen.

This picture shows them scattered across the wetland area. They were not too carefully placed in the hopes it will look more natural that way when the plants grow up around them. They also are not very flat, so it will still be a challenge to hop across them. The smaller ones were placed by hand. A few more will be added to be sure everyone can get across dry if they try.

Ruts we made can be seen on the right side of the rocks so I still need to use a hoe or shovel to fill in a few of them and to cut some small slots where the ruts are running across the flow of the stream so the water won't pool up anywhere. Let's see what it looks like in the spring.

And today, while I was spreading grass seed and covering it with straw, I found this little guy who didn't seem to care that I had disrupted the wetland by dragging rocks through it.

A better perspective?

It's hard to find a perspective that shows where everything is in relation to the others. Here's a shot that Sandy took from the far side of the wetlands area.

The light green below the white-barked trees is the wetland through which the spring water drains, west (left) to east (right). It has a large colony of mint whose aroma is very strong when it is bruised by walking through it. Sometimes a breeze will carry the mint aroma toward the ponds.

One can see Brian and me inside the larger pond. The south side of the dam has a very large rock in the middle at its top. Just above that in the picture (though actually about 30 feet north) is the large rock on top of the smaller pond's overflow pipe.

Below the rock on the larger pond's dam, on the outside, we have pushed a half dozen or so large rocks to the bottom, out of sight. They are way too heavy to be moved by hand. I hope to get help from a neighbor and his tractor to drag them southward into the wetland so we will be able to rock hop through it without damaging plants or leaving a trail. As it is now we cannot easily cross it much of the year because of the running water.

The light blue spot is a small storage "building", and I use the term loosely. It is just straw bales piled on either side of two side-by-side pallets, covered with a few tarps. This gives us a very temporary dry place to store tools without having to cart them up and down between the barn and the house site every day.

To its left, above and to the left of where we are standing, is the huge pile of dirt and clay excavated from the house site. It has completely overtaken the hillside below the house.

Between and behind it and the temporary building the excavated earthen wall can be seen.

Remember, all construction photos are at http://picasaweb.google.com/ed.paynter/NewHomeConstruction#, even the unflattering ones.

Manual labor crew

Today Brian came down from Indianapolis to help me work on the new ponds. This series of pictures requires more than usual explanation.

In the first, behind me, one can see the south side of the larger pond. If you click on either of the first two and look very carefully, you might be able to make out the thin yellow string along the top of the dam. Though it may not appear so, the string is level. Eventually the top of the dam will be leveled and parallel with but not all the way up to the string.

Notice the water that is still in the bottom of the pond. It might not be necessary to line these ponds since there is so much clay and it seems to be holding.

In the first two pictures we are working on a spillway of sorts that will allow rain water to flow into the bottom pond if it comes off the small hill to the left or off of the east end of the trail that passes above them.

The shiny soil under my feet is a finished stretch of the spillway. If the lower pond gets near to full this area will be under water.

Brian is touching a large rock somewhat smaller than a few we moved on the south side of the spillway. I am tromping on the outside of the upper dam which is also the north side of the lower pond. Next to the rock, though expertly hidden by the crew, a corrugated pipe has been buried to allow water that flows over or along the trail to enter without eroding the upper dam's lower wall.

The clay is not as mucky as it was just two days ago so it did not stick to the shovels much. With two of us working it was easy to raise the dam walls, one placing shovels full of clay while the other pushed and stomped it into place before it could roll down the embankment. Before, with one person working and the soil sticking to the shovel, placing it successfully on top of the dam was nearly impossible.


This last picture shows a wider view of the two ponds. From the top one can see the edge of the trail along the north side, a small trough filled with rocks to encourage drainage from above the trail to enter the upper pond, a line of larger rocks delineating the west side of the pond, the upper pond itself, the overflow pipe into the lower pond covered with a large rock that was placed by the backhoe, and the outline of the lower pond with the crew in it.

I have a pretty complete idea about how to finish off the ponds' walls, inlets and overflows. Early in the spring I'll seed the outside dam walls. After seeing these pictures, though, just one thing still puzzles me: Where the hell has all my hair gone!?

Draining the site

Two posts ago I showed the puddles that have formed on the site after 7/10ths of an inch of rain. Some of that water has evaporated and some has sunk into the soil, but most is still sitting there. Today I scraped a small trench across the future bedroom, hallway and kitchen to get the water to flow out on its own.

The trench runs past the pile of dirt on the left and off down the hillside. It seems to be working. The water level is already falling.

The site is still very muddy, but not as bad as just after the rain.

Tracks

Since the hillside has been partially removed and a huge pile of dirt and clay is covering a lot more of it, one or more of the paths that deer have probably used for years is no longer there. This has caused at least one of the deer, and a rather large one by the looks of the tracks, to adjust his daily route to below the large pile on the hill and onto the part of the trail below the house site that has been raised with some of the dirt from above.

Here are prints laid down over two days, one track each day. They lead off into and through the middle of the larger, lower new pond. There are also tracks in the mud at the house site. I hope the deer will still pass below the house frequently after we move in.

Puddles

Work on the excavation was finished on Friday morning, mostly fine tuning a few spots on the walls and floor. It was a tiring week. Though I didn't operate any of the equipment, I was on the site from 8AM through at least 6PM every day.

Before the equipment was removed, a slight slope was graded at the front to deal with runoff from rain that falls before the footings are excavated. Footing excavation has been postponed until closer to the date the footings will be formed so we won't have a footing moat around the site.

I've been able to sleep late a few days in a row since then and don't feel nearly so tired as last week. I've been working on hand grading the two new ponds we built with the spoil from the excavation and burying some drain pipe into and out of the ponds.

We had a great run of good weather but that has come to an end. It began raining last night and we have a half inch so far. This has caused puddles to form on the house site.

The large puddle covers parts of the master bedroom, bathroom and hallway.

This is a view through the kitchen, living room and all the way to the guest bedrooms. It's very muddy but no pools are forming so far.

Seen to the extreme left is the edge of a huge mound of dirt. We hope most of it will be used to backfill behind the walls over the drains and stone that will be placed first. Frankly, I don't know what we'll do with any that is left over. We have already filled more area in front of the site than I had planned and I don't want to cover any more of the original surface.

Almost every inch of the site and everywhere the mostly clay soil has been moved and stockpiled is now sticky mud. As I walked across a section of the path below the house that has been raised with excavated soil, my boots picked up a few inches of mud. On the other side of the raised section where the path again is covered with wood chips, the mud picked up another half inch or so of chips. I was getting taller by the step.

The first pond below the path hasn't taken on any water yet. The larger pond below is beginning to fill with water. When the rain is over for a while, tomorrow or Thursday, I'll post some pictures of the ponds.

all day, and all through the night...

The excavation continued today with a piece of rented equipment added to the backhoe and dozer. After many attempts to remove some very hard rock over the last few days with only very minor success, we rented a hydraulic rock breaker, basically a large jack hammer operated like a backhoe except it is on the end of a boom.

Here's how it works. Cover your ears.



Scintillating, eh?

Scott worked with this machine all day long and well after dark. First he drilled on the limestone. Then, while the rubble was being scraped away with the dozer or backhoe, he cleaned up another part of the excavated wall. Earlier in the day, the walls were marked with spray paint to show where they needed to be trimmed. The paint marks looked like cave drawings.


He switched between the wall and the limestone, back and forth, while someone else was cleaning up behind him.

This continued until about 7:30, almost two hours past sunset, since the rented machine needs to be returned tomorrow morning. About 6:15, it became clear that we would be there all night and still not remove all of the limestone.


I took a chance that my structural engineer might be in his office and called him to discuss the situation. Luckily, he was there.

I suggested that we could stop chipping away rock when we got it down to the level of the top of the footing to be poured. Then we could taper the footing when it came to the rock and continue it on the other side. He agreed that that would work if we connected the footings on either side of the rock with arched reinforcing bars embedded into each footing. These would be tied to a few bars drilled into the rock and the rebar in the wall when it is added. Additionally, the footing could be widened on the wall's outside. His only concern is that we take extra care to seal the connection between the rock and the concrete to prevent moisture seepage.

There are more pictures on my web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/ed.paynter/NewHomeConstruction#

Excavation - Day 3: Big rocks

We're on the third day of excavation and the big rocks are slowly being chipped and scraped away. Here's a mid-day video. Caution, the volume is high.

Excavation - Day 2

Contrary to the forecast, there was no rain at all last night nor today so a lot of progress was made on the home site.

We got the perimeter staked more accurately and then set all the stakes out another three feet. This leaves room for the concrete crew to work on the outside of the walls when they set up and remove their forms. Since the walls will be nine feet high above the footings, it can be pretty claustrophobic if there isn't enough room between the walls and the soil on the north side.

These two pictures show the same part of the project from two different angles. Sorry they are dark. They were taken just after sunset.

We have found a vein of heavy clay that can barely be broken with the dozer. When it is broken it comes up in sections, some as large as 15 to 20 square feet.

We have been saving the stones that were found near the surface for use in retaining walls near the front door. The large blocks we're getting out now are so numerous there aren't enough useful places to put them so they're being pushed downhill toward the dams.




Each of the stakes in the picture is offset from a corner of the building delineating one of the north-side rooms - from the right, the master bedroom, bathroom, computer/office area and laundry/utility room.

The hillside slopes to the southeast so even though the north side of each room in turn comes closer to the building's south side, the top of the back wall of each one isn't very much below the one to its east. This will help make the building less visible from up the hill toward the barn.

We are designing the ponds as we go since we had no practical way to gauge how much soil would need to be moved and be available for the pond. The plan is to have two ponds: a smaller one to allow dirt and debris to settle out, above a larger one that will be deep enough for wading. The soil is probably 90% clay so I may not have to install a liner in the ponds at all.

The soil near the front center of the building is soft. We are not quite down to the finished floor level so it may turn out OK. Going deeper to get to solid soil is not possible as that would also lower the rest of the building. Since the back wall is approaching the top of the nine foot wall already, lowering the entire floor would bring us below the soil level. And we can't lower the uphill soil level more than inches or we would have to shave the same depth all the way up the hill or install an expensive retaining wall across the entire north side.

It's getting late again. More tomorrow.

I feel the earth move under my feet...

We have finally started excavating for the new home. We've had a string of nice days and it looks like at worst we'll have just a bit of rain tomorrow and then some more nice days. If all goes well we'll have the site excavated and leveled for footing forms, and the ponds done by the end of the week.

Here are a few pictures showing the first day's progress. I tried to upload a video but it failed. I'll keep trying but it's getting late.


No, we aren't building another driveway. What you see is the track along which earth from the excavation is being pushed downhill to build two connected ponds.


Tomorrow we'll place corner stakes that include the extra 3 feet all the way around that the concrete guys need to get their forms in and out.

Fall colors panorama

This video was taken on October 24th, when the trees were showing their best colors. It was taken from the highest point on Greene View Springs and pans from north to south.



All of the low land to the east and south, most of it unseen over the hillside, is in the American Bottoms.

Keep your mouth shut

For a week or so in late October and early November, the air near the apartment is filled with ladybugs. Well actually they are "multicolored Asian lady beetles," scientific name – Harmonia axyridis (Pallas). It seems they have virtually displaced our common ladybug, and these gals bite if you allow them to stay on you long enough.

Here's a picture of them on the outside wall, and then from the inside. They are often even more numerous. It is difficult to work near the barn when they are flying.




The foil and clothespin are used to keep the heat out of the barn on hot sunny days.

Here's just a brief idea of what it's like with them crawling around by the thousands looking for a place to hide for the winter.

Fall pictures

These speak for themselves...

This year's baby

Two years running the downy woodpeckers have raised a male baby, in this picture sitting in the persimmon tree by the window asking,"Where's the suet?"

Watch where you step

Almost exactly a year ago I posted some pictures of crayfish holes. I thought they were pretty big. Last week I found the granddaddy of them all almost at the highest point on the property. Here's what it looked like. I didn't leave the quarter there long for fear it would come out and take it.

Harvest

Though we did plant a vegetable garden this year, and some apple trees in the spring, we haven't done anything in the woods to increase wild food production - mast.

Wildlife biologists term variable seed crops as “mast” from "masticate." Hard mast includes seeds or nuts: acorns, beech nuts, maple seeds. Soft mast is fruit: wild strawberries, blueberries, grapes and apples.

Most of our mast comes in the form of shagbark hickory nuts, acorns, bitternut hickory nuts, walnuts, dogwood seeds, concord grapes and wild berries. We have not harvested any of these. Most are eaten only by wildlife.

We do harvest persimmons. They are noted in numerous earlier posts. Here's what we saw in October after the leaves had fall. Note the hundreds of ripe fruit still on the tree.



Another prolific crop, though one has to work harder to find it, is the hazelnut. Growing all over the Greene View Springs property as a shrub, our hazelnuts seem to fruit irregularly. By that I mean the same plant may have a heavy crop one year but not the next.

The hazelnut shrub - Corylus americana

The nuts grow in husked clusters of 2 or 3 up to about 10

This cluster had five nuts

This one, partially opened, had 3

These came from a single cluster

We probably have 4 dozen hazelnut shrubs on the site. Once one sees a few they are easy to spot from a distance.

Time flys ... Oops! make that "flies!"

It has been more than two months since my last entry. Frankly, I've been discouraged with our progress and have had little to say or show for most of that time.

I have worked with an engineer in New York to verify that the posts and beams we want to use are strong enough to support the living roof and to define the concrete requirements for the house to be sure it will both support the posts and hold back the hillside to the north.

While that exchange was going on I have been gathering cost information for electricity, water, septic system, excavation and various items we will need in the new building.

Then, with the engineer's specifications in hand, it was time to get estimates for the concrete work. This proved to be more difficult than I ever expected.

The concrete specs are not typical in the eyes of all the contractors I've contacted. There are very large piers under some of the most loaded posts. The walls' thicknesses change from south to north, as do the depths and thicknesses of footings. Part of the north wall will have nearly 9 feet of hillside against it, and it is mostly clay soil, about as unstable as any soil could be. Insufficient strength in the wall or the post supports, or the posts and beams themselves for that matter, could allow us to be found some day under a pile of dirt from the hill or the roof.

I contacted five concrete contractors. All but one were given all the specs, plans and pictures. One never got that far as he was offered a large commercial project before we met. One called back to ask more questions, then never contacted us again. Two presented quotes that didn't pick up correct wall and footing lengths from the drawings. Almost all said they would rather use a different rebar configuration than the specs called for.

I encouraged all of them to visit the site so they wouldn't be surprised later by the access restrictions (and be tempted to cut some corners to make up for any extra effort the site required that they hadn't considered when bidding).

I was careful to tell everyone that we would be lining the footings with insulated panels before the concrete was poured. One said, "I won't pour concrete footings on top of insulation." I replied, "Then I guess we're done talking." As you might guess, he stayed to get the specs and submitted a bid.

Each of these exchanges seemed to take a week or so, even the guy who backed out didn't do so until I had waited about 10 days to meet with him.

Finally, after decided that we would deal with the floor and piers separately, I asked for new bids and got one that we can live with. We'll check out some of their projects before we start, but it looks like we've finally got our concrete work lined up.

Yesterday I called our excavator and got on his schedule for next week. The weather has been good and is forecast to be nice for about a week more at least, so we're planning to get this project started.

I have tried to keep busy while waiting for a good concrete bid. Next I'll post a few pictures taken since August.