summer projects

Well.. the fun continues. This summer we will have the root cellar built as well as have the garage done.. I hope. I have posted some pics of the beginning of what will be the raised beds as you can see here.

Moving dirt via modified Subaru brat (another hobby of mine), since the Nissan Titan is getting deer damage repaired. Had to cut some rail road ties for the end caps for the wife and use the bucket of the M to do some leveling.


This type of chore will be turned over to my grader blade on the cub thanks to sale from sod buster. I am waiting till the cheesy cubfest to get it on thou.. because we don't already have enough to do there..


and before some one asks the reason I have not sheet metal on the M is because the exhaust pipe coming off the manifold was busted off by the guy I bought it from. The nose cap is off because I just got done doing the TSP treatment to the radiator.

Here you can see my father in law and girls in the distance planting the fruit trees and doing some worm hunting.. We now have 17 tree plus a few grapes.

Dude!

You and your wife certainly don't let any grass grow under your feet, do you?? Great pics of the land and work you are doing...

It will be great to see you at the Cheesy Fest!!

Mike in La Crosse, WI

That field down behind your father in law looks like a good place for a big time garden. If but half of the stuff planted made, you would still have a plenty.

Billy

That field down behind your father in law looks like a good place for a big time garden. If but half of the stuff planted made, you would still have a plenty.

Billy

It's more of a valley then a field.. pretty steep one at that. We plan to put a cow down there or a pig or a goat.or a pond.. who knows. I let my wife decide that type of stuff. If you look in the middle of that same screen shot you can see my only mature apple tree.

Looks kind of lonesome don't it. As for the "valley", hogs are good eating, cows = milk and butter and a calf to butcher, goats = good bar b que, or pond with fish. All are good choices. Everything I plant or set out on my place will make me something to eat. Pretty things are all right but they don't make good gravy. (grin)

Billy

Well I don't have my grader blade mounted on the cub yet and we needed to level the ground so we took out the Montgomery ward tiller to do it. This tiller was given to me by my father in law. It must be pretty old because he is in his 60's and it used to belong to his dad. It still had the original spark plug in it and the air filter media was missing for heavens knows how long. So when I pulled out the spark plug (which need a breaker bar) and looked in the cylinder head it was very interesting to say the least and half of the electrode was gone on the plug. Heavens knows how long this thing was sucking in dirt. I changed the front gear oil and motor oil and add a bit of mikes M.O. put some sea foam in the gas and put a new cj 18 spark plug in it as well as some air filter media and it fired up on the second pull. I need to sharpen the tines but I am pretty happy with it. It needs new belts and bearings need to be lubed also. Here is a pic of the Tiller with my partner running it.. Oh yeah what would a dirt working picture be with out a bit of farmers crack.. . Thanks to my oldest.


Oh one more thing kind of off topic but if I pull the head to clean this motor do you think that there is any gasket paper out there that I could use to replace the old head gasket?

I love it all, wish I was able to build like that where I am at. I think we are gonna try to find us a better spot and fairly flat a little later on. I am in dire need of a barn/shop. Good job and Good luck.... Mandel T.

We are going to start construction on the root cellar this month we have to get all the dirt from the cave in cleared out . I guess we will see how good My "M" skill have gotten.
In this pic you can see some of the leveling work I have done pluss the brand new built trellis my father in law put up. It will be the gate way to the road that leads to the front of the root cellar and to the back of the house.

I love it all, wish I was able to build like that where I am at. I think we are gonna try to find us a better spot and fairly flat a little later on. I am in dire need of a barn/shop. Good job and Good luck.... Mandel T.

Thanks we still have alot to do. This summer I plant to expand the dog kennel build another retaing wall. Finish the root cellar and get the concrete pourd for the garage floor. That should at least keep the coveanets nazis off me..

Now it is time to lay up our second retaining wall.
I had some grading work done here (via cub) so the ground would be mostly flat so the M could get close enough to move some dirt.


Now it is time to unload the Ties, I like using my bucket on the M to do it but the tranny fluid is low so it will sit this one out. Pluss all you realy need is a big dumb mamal.

The grab


The toss


The catch


The rest.


And my wife and one of my daughters, removing the last bit of dirt for the footings. Time for some more rebar.


I hope to have this done by the end of this month. Then comes the Root cellar

Hey John,

How is that grader blade working for you?? Let's see some action shots of it!!

You guys are great at keeping the projects rolling... Way to go!!!

Mike in La Crosse, WI

You putting deadmen in to hold the retaining wall from blowing out? How tall will the retaining wall be? Lotta cool projects!
.
I had a root cellar out front, but took it out for all the granite that they built it with.
It was 33' long by 6' wide and 5' deep. It had some huge pieces of granite covering it. I then dug a root cellar that I can get to from the cellar of my house. I also dug the house's main cellar down to a full 8'-0 deep. The house was built in 1881 and the cellar was only 6' deep. I poured a new floor and painted it to look like granite/stone flooring. The door to the root cellar is in the pix beyond the stairs. Did all the digging by hand, and poured all the concrete retaining walls by hand and lugged hundreds of bags of concrete down there. Glad that is done. [img][/img][img][[IMG]http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss302/Chuckwheat_Farm/Picture088.jpg[/img]/img]

You putting deadmen in to hold the retaining wall from blowing out? How tall will the retaining wall be? Lotta cool projects!
.
I had a root cellar out front, but took it out for all the granite that they built it with.
It was 33' long by 6' wide and 5' deep. It had some huge pieces of granite covering it. I then dug a root cellar that I can get to from the cellar of my house. I also dug the house's main cellar down to a full 8'-0 deep. The house was built in 1881 and the cellar was only 6' deep. I poured a new floor and painted it to look like granite/stone flooring. The door to the root cellar is in the pix beyond the stairs. Did all the digging by hand, and poured all the concrete retaining walls by hand and lugged hundreds of bags of concrete down there. Glad that is done. [img][/img][img][[IMG]http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss302/Chuckwheat_Farm/Picture088.jpg[/img]/img]

My cellar will be all cinder block with a gravel or dirt floor. Storey county has a nice pamphlet on how to do it even if your a one man team. I will be putting in some deadmen What ever rail road ties I have that are not up to snuff will be cleaned up with a chain saw and use as so. Do you know that "dead men tale no tales"... Sorry a little pirate humor there. I can not see your pics because I am at work but I look forward to seeing them when I get home.

Grunt,
One of my pix didn't post right. The main cellar floor is pretty cool. The root cellar has a dirt floor and concrete walls. It's under the farmer's porch that wraps around the front of the house (another big project).
The whole house was a big project. I put on 4 additions up and out. Mostly by myself but have had 150 friends at various times chip in. Anyway my root cellar has concrete walls because building forms and pouring was easier for me than blocking up.
Arrrrgh keep the pirate humor coming!! Chris

Hey John,

How is that grader blade working for you?? Let's see some action shots of it!!

You guys are great at keeping the projects rolling... Way to go!!!

Mike in La Crosse, WI

Ask and you shall recive



Here is the finished wall. All that is left is for us to level the dirt then there will be room for the lean-to green house next year.



Now on to the root cellar!!