Baymule’s Journal

[Simpleterrier]

People hear have used shingles for fill like that here. U could buy them by the dump truck load and they would be cut in strips. And yes shingles will still let water up threw and down threw them. Has anyone seen a flat roof with shingles. The answer is no. Because shingles only shed water if they are on a pitch. Hellooooo anyone ever seen water run up hill. Haha

 

[Baymule]

Water doesn't go thru....pee is stinky water. I see that as a consideration, eventually a stinky, muddy later..?

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Pee build up……stinky.

Gonna get a roll off box.

 

[farmerjan]

Looking at the turn into your driveway, I wonder just how big it is? It looks alot wider than some of the places we have to maneuver around here.... But then we have narrow and very tight places everywhere up here and you learn to drive that way. It often takes a few tries to get some things done here...

 

[Ridgetop]

People hear have used shingles for fill like that here. U could buy them by the dump truck load and they would be cut in strips. And yes shingles will still let water up threw and down threw them.

If you want to cut them in strips and then use them like Simpleterrier says it might work but it would take a lot of work to cut enough of them unless you tried laying them with space between them so the water could seep between and through the spaces.

 

[Baymule]

Looking at the turn into your driveway, I wonder just how big it is? It looks alot wider than some of the places we have to maneuver around here.... But then we have narrow and very tight places everywhere up here and you learn to drive that way. It often takes a few tries to get some things done here...

It’s 20’ wide, off a narrow road that takes a 90 degree sharp turn in the opposite direction, with no swing room. Mailboxes right next to it don’t help any. County dug out the ditch in an effort to improve drainage so now there is a deep hole at end of culvert. Son used to drive/drag trailer over those few inches of “extra” space, now a wheel would fall off in the hole and cause problems. Son has a long wheel base dually, with a 20’ trailer, has to rock back and forth, going in or out. It takes awhile, try not to hit and rip fence, pain in the butt, so why fool with it, just fix it. 18’ trailer or smaller is fine, but a 32’ just ain’t gonna happen. At some point, will have two 40’ shipping containers delivered and have to be able to get them in here. Plus I just don’t like everything being a pain and hassle, just trying to do simple things. As I do things around here, I consider ease of movement, talk things over with son and value his advice.

The fence narrows down just past the two 10’ gates at the entrance. So while the truck may be coming out at the 20’ entrance, the long trailer is still in the 16’ driveway. Turn and the back end of the trailer hits the fence.

If I had put up that fence, I would have allowed a little more room. I widened the yard, the fence did come along driveway past the house and there was NO room to maneuver. Especially for me, with my lack of trailer skills. Now that I’ve been here for almost a year, I need to reconfigure that a little bit.

 

[farmerjan]

The distances are deceiving in the picture. It looks more open to jockeying around.
I don't blame you for wanting to get it opened up to make it easier to do stuff. We had to convince one pasture owner that we could not get the truck and 20' cattle trailer into the driveway , because the fence went right to the end of the driveway at the road and there was no way to make that turn... even using both lanes of the road to try to make a swing... DS is VERY adept at putting a truck and trailer where he wants it... and he said, NOPE NO WAY... We use a long wheel base supercab truck for most of the trailer pulling... his dually adds that much more length and makes it impossible to take it some places...
So we took out the corner posts and re did the fence to go off at angles so that you could get in there... and it is still difficult but doable with the 20' trailer... CAN NOT do it with the 24' trailer though.... Now we just unload and stand so they don't go down the road and go up the driveway and in... but we have to use the shorter trailer to go in there to bring them out from the catch pen... Besides , getting a longer culvert in will give you all sorts of options in the future.
Amazing how things were originally designed for the "old days" of smaller and shorter vehicles and a different way of doing things. Most places here had a big mound of dirt where farmers would back up their trucks that they hauled cattle in, so that they could walk the cattle onto or off of the truck..... long before anyone had trailers to use... all the loading chutes at barns had a chute that was built up so they walked the cattle up them to load on the trucks with cattle racks and such. All the sale barns had places to back up to with the loading docks so the trucks backed right up to them... with maybe one spot for the occasional trailer to unload... Now, 90% of the cattle that come off the farms in areas like this, are hauled in on trailers and very few are brought in on straight trucks. Of course they still load out into tractor trailers for large loads and long hauls...
We had an old dodge 2 ton truck with racks that I used to train the pigs to go up on to eat so I could load them easily to take to the stockyard... I miss that old truck.

 

[Ridgetop]

Baymule: You said that honey locusts don't rot and wil make forever fenceposts. Do you have any honey locusts that you are taking out? If you could split those trunks and lay them on the ground where you want your barn to go you could use them as a foundation. Maybe even without splitting the trunks. The original part of MJ's little house in Yelm was built on a redwood foundation and it did not rot out. That was common in the Pacific Northwest 150 years ago when her original cabin section was built. Also use the larger branches (after knocking off those wicked long thorns) together with the trunks or sections of them, make a raised foundation for the barn. Cover the trunks and branches with road base packed firm. Urine and water would flow through the road base, trunks, and branches without rotting them, and you would have a raised barn floor.

Did you say that you have a friend or acquaintance with a small sawmill? Maybe they could rip the locust trunks and branches into planks for you to use as a barn floor. The ones around our fence lines are not too big, but I have seen a couple in the pastures that have a fair size trunk. But maybe removing the thorns and paying for the sawmill work would be cost prohibitive.

Or how about renting a shredder and grinding or chipping up the honey locust branches. Then you could spread that as a base for the barn. It wouldn't rot but would allow drainage.

 

[Baymule]

Only one locust in the front fence row. It might make a fence post-maybe. I hate them.

 

[Ridgetop]

Shred them for non-compostable chips?

 

[Baymule]

Been enjoying my family. DD and family came in on Sunday. Yesterday we went to Lowe’s and exchanged a ceiling fan and bought another one. Also got window film and DD and DSIL put the film on 3 large windows in the kitchen/dining room. They are storm windows, one on the outside and one on the inside, so they had to remove the inside window to put the film on the inside of the outside window. It was a job and took them all afternoon to do the 3 windows. Son came over and hung a ceiling fan in the guest bedroom.

DD, DSIL and oldest granddaughter are leaving today, I’ll keep the 2 youngest granddaughters this week.