Summer sleeping quarters

JustinLonghorn said:
You are definitely cut from the same cloth as your pops, Troy.

I love this project. It is beautiful, my man.




JustinLonghorn said:
You are definitely cut from the same cloth as your pops, Troy.

I love this project. It is beautiful, my man.

thanks brothers. I really appreciate the kind words. My ol man is really special to me. This project is probably just as much about our journey together as it is about the finish line. I was recently motivated by a beautiful short film posted on Le Container. If you get a few minutes it's definitely worth a watch:
http://vimeo.com/20658635

Well, Its been one heck of a day. Started at 4:30a and i finally quit at 7p. The rain held off and the building is sitting on the trailer at the pond. The owner of the trailer is an old friend and without him we couldn't have pulled this off. WE pushed hard and worked pretty much non-stop. I hope at 70 i can do half the work of my Pap. Delbert is even older and works just as hard. He is a retired farmer and happens to be the person we purchased much of our hay equipment from. A few years back he had an accident and cut one of his arms off in a hay bailer. It was re-attached but has very limited use. He tried to return to farming but decided to retire and that's when we got into the hay business.
Dad and I started before the sun came up with a long list of things to do. Since we are working in fenced pastures we had to lock the animals in the barn and take down about 30' of fence. We cut the stumps to ground height and dad attached some braces to the headers. Since the building has to skid across the tops we didn't want to knock anything loose.
DSC_0368.jpg

Sun up:
DSC_0371.jpg


It took us about 5 hours to get to this point. The trailer just didn't want to go in. The slope gave us all the wrong angles. Took many many tries and a bunch of hand digging.
Delbert looking on:
DSC_0380.jpg

DSC_0382.jpg


lots of hand digging then lots of jacking and blocking
DSC_0389.jpg



The building is still sitting on the post at this point:
DSC_0392.jpg



Happy moment. The three of us take a minute to pose for a pic right after finally getting the building down on the trailer. All the post have been cut away and removed.
DSC_0396.jpg


The slope leading into the building can be seen here. After we got the trailer under it had to be unhooked from the truck in order to jack and block it to meet the building. To get hooked back up the area where the truck's tires would hit had to be dug. There is a fairly steep bank on the lower side which also limited what could be done.
DSC_0402.jpg

DSC_0406.jpg



It's moving... The second photo down the trailer started pulling hard down the hill and the truck started sliding in the lose soil. Things started to get a little tricky
DSC_0412.jpg

DSC_0413.jpg

DSC_0416.jpg


Earlier in the day we had to climb these trees and cut limbs. I also lifted my dad in the tractor's bucket to trim limbs. It was super tight working our way around the trees. We ended up almost against the tree at the end (about 1/2" away). Delbert and dad somehow kept the building from hitting it but things got real slow at that point. Not seen in these photos is the tractor chained to the truck. The building trailer started pulling hard on the truck and in the lose soil the truck couldn't hold it back. Took some quick rigging ;D
DSC_0417.jpg


The truck is sitting in what was the emergency spill way. I spent about 3 hours today scrounging to find enough dirt to create a land bridge on to the dam. Ended up not being wide enough and one side ended up down off the side. Not only this place but there were also lots of other low places along the way so we had to use what ever we could to put under tires (notice the wood just behind the trucks front tire ;D ).
DSC_0421-1.jpg

DSC_0422.jpg

She is not on the headers yet but that can wait a day or three. We are in need of some much needed rest. I finished the day filling in holes where the posts for the building were so animals wouldn't break their legs. We also replace the two fences we took down earlier. next on the list is to talk to Rich about a possible road trip over the weekend ;D
 
No problem on my end - as long as Meg isn't in labor. We don't have anything planned for the weekend so just let me know when is good for you.
 
That is awesome (Meg). To be honest I've been afraid to ask. She must be close? Things going well? I'm super super happy for the two of you.
I leaning toward Sunday. Does that work? I'll be coming alone, wonder who we can get to help load? also, any luck on a door or any other windows?
 
Thanks for sharing this with everyone Troy - inspirational on many levels.
 
She is doing ok - had some false labor Wednesday night. But the doc said it was nothing to worry about. She is about 37 and a half weeks along now, and is.......um....... not enjoying it.

Sunday shouldn't be a problem at all - I'll try and get hold of the local guys to lend a hand. And no word on the other materials yet - sorry. I will let you know if anything changes .
 
Nice work Troy, Pap, and Delbert! Made it look easy in the pics but from the looks it was lots of hard work. Rich, tell Meg to hold in there, it will all be worth it in the end and make sure you run out everytime she gets a weird craving ;D oh and if she gets up and decides to do some kind of major chore, be ready. The night before Jill gave birth she mowed the lawn, 1 acre with a push mower 9 months pregant! I couldn't stop her, she would have tore me apart. Not 5 hours later we were off to the hospital.

Cheers
 
Tim said:
Thanks for sharing this with everyone Troy - inspirational on many levels.
Very welcome Tim. I'm glad to have a place to share it!
 
Big Rich said:
She is doing ok - had some false labor Wednesday night. But the doc said it was nothing to worry about. She is about 37 and a half weeks along now, and is.......um....... not enjoying it.

Sunday shouldn't be a problem at all - I'll try and get hold of the local guys to lend a hand. And no word on the other materials yet - sorry. I will let you know if anything changes .
I'm happy Meg held off so we could see the two of you I have to say she looked fantastic and was really glowing. I'm so happy for the two of you.
Can't thank you enough for the window!
 
Maritime said:
Nice work Troy, Pap, and Delbert! Made it look easy in the pics but from the looks it was lots of hard work. Rich, tell Meg to hold in there, it will all be worth it in the end and make sure you run out everytime she gets a weird craving ;D oh and if she gets up and decides to do some kind of major chore, be ready. The night before Jill gave birth she mowed the lawn, 1 acre with a push mower 9 months pregant! I couldn't stop her, she would have tore me apart. Not 5 hours later we were off to the hospital.

Cheers
Thanks Mike. You know, looking at the pictures I couldn't believe how much they left out and how easy they made everything look. I really enjoy the engineering part but have to admit that its taking much longer than I'd hoped. I do have to say though, everything has gone very smooth.
Excellent advice to Rich BTW!
 
valvesprung said:
This is am awesome project, can't wait to see it all done!
Thanks man, you and me both. The finished product won't come for a while though. Once we get this to the point where we can stop we will move onto other pressing projects. Then I'll work on this one when I have time and money. For now though I really want to get the front wall with the windows done. My wife still can't see it and I'm hoping that'll help ;D
 
Ha! Mike, I missed your post somehow.

Hold on, let me ask Meg about cutting the gra.............she said hell no. ;D
 
Dad and I drove to Pittsburgh yesterday to pick up the monster window. The pics didn't do justice the thing is massive! Got to see Rich and his glowing wife Meg. Even got to see Rich's bike. He did an awesome job on it and should be proud.

So anyhow, after a full non stop day today the building is standing above her new headers. It's all blocked up and the trailer has been removed from under. Due to the trailer's height, the center header had to be built after the trailer was removed. A floor joist had to be replace (prevous builders ran out of material and used a 2x4 :eek: ) so it was much easier to replace while blocked up. Tomorrow hopefully we can get the header built then lower the building into place. Might even start removing metal from the front wall. Can't wait to see that window in there!
 
Big Rich said:
Ha! Mike, I missed your post somehow.

Hold on, let me ask Meg about cutting the gra.............she said hell no. ;D
hahahaha
 
Monster Window from Rich and Meg. Can't thank you two enough! My wife, my dad and myself unloaded this monster late last night.
DSC_0490.jpg


Lots of jacking and blocking so rollers could be placed between the building and the trailer
DSC_0442.jpg


Building sitting on Rollers (pieces of cut off pipe) and landscaping timbers.
DSC_0446.jpg

DSC_0427.jpg

DSC_0425.jpg


placed a telephone pole on the headers for the end of the building to roll on once it came off the truck far enough.
DSC_0434-1.jpg


DSC_0438.jpg
 
We kept jacking and blocking the trailer until it sat about level with the headers on the ground. If not, the building rolling crooked could have rolled off to one side and upset. Anyhow, hooked a chain to the headers on each side. Was a little nervous to pull from here but the building moved very easy on the rollers
DSC_0429.jpg


Rolling the building off nice an level
DSC_0441.jpg

DSC_0449.jpg

DSC_0448.jpg

DSC_0464.jpg

this series of pics don't show how much time it took to get to this point. It took a tremendous amount of time to get all the rollers properly placed. Then pulling the building off was relatively easy however was pretty slow going. For instance there was very little room for the tractor to pull from so we could only pull a couple of feet before having to unhook and start again. That was ok though because it gave us time to keep an eye on everything. Mistakes could have been real bad.
 
Once the building was in position and blocked up we pulled the trailer out
DSC_0462.jpg

DSC_0467.jpg

DSC_0487.jpg
 
That last pic says it all man! Don't worry, Suz will be sleeping in there in no time! Great work brother, and give your pops a big ol' bear hug for me.
 
Heck yeah Troy! It's starting to show it's potential now.......I'm glad you guys like that window (and it arrived to your place in one piece). What did the Mrs. say about it when she saw it? It was good to see you guys again - throw another hug in there for your dad from us.


On a side note: yes, those guys showed up after you left. So the CR60 is sold. And I'll talk to my father in law about that other stuff.
 
Back
Top Bottom