Mid-Summer Intermission

Top down:

(1) We got experience some great sunsets out there in the field, this one is looking towards the wind farm.

(2) Some of the wheat country scenery.

(3) The combine doing its job with a nice old barn in the background, couldn't resist the temptation to take this one!

(4) This is the tractor I got to drive pulling the "bank out wagon" basically a big trailer that the combine dumps into, then I drove it to a semi where I offloaded into its trailers via the auger. Then the semi hauled it to grain elevators on the Columbia River. This tractor and bank out combination was big, measured in at 13'6" wide and fully loaded with grain I figured it to weigh around 110,000 pounds!

(5) This is another picture of the combine offloading into the bank out wagon. This unloading process usually took place on the move, while the combine was still cutting/thrashing I would received the grain from the combine's offloading auger in the bank out wagon. However for picture taking I couldn't get a picture of this while on the move so I had to wait till we the combine operator finished a section and dumped while stopped. If I get lucky, and can convince the farmer, I will post a picture or two of this process on the move as he took a few while we were working close to the semi reload area.

(End note) Wheat harvest is a pretty enjoyable time, but very weather dependent so very hard to schedule anything around it. Makes it a bit frustrating to be in the middle of construction while doing this. But hey I get paid for it so its like paid vacation!

New Foundation!

Here it is, weight set down on the new foundation. Getting the steel lifting beams pulled out and doing some back filling. Nice to have it back on terra-firma!

Almost re-founded.

I had hired the foundation work out and this guy was quick with his form work. It also saved me having to get more form material that I probably would have to store for an eternity.

New foundation preperation.

This was the process of digging the new foundation. Got to use my brother's new mini-excavator before he ever got to "truly" use it! Nice little machine!

Getting ready to go up.

The building needed to be lifted in order to be clear of the excavation for the new foundation and the foundation itself. Here I am placing the steel under the building in preparation for the lift.

Down!

Right where I wanted it! It was out all cleaned up by the end of the day. I gave it away on Craigslist. A nice couple came with a trailer and made three loads to get it all, it worked out perfectly!

Getting ready to go down...

Before I got too carried away with this project I thought I should open up the working site a little bit more. First thing to do was take this 65 foot Douglas Fir down. In this picture I had already climbed up the tree and topped about 15 feet out of it to make sure I wouldn't land it in the street or sidewalk. I think I picked one of the windiest days to do this little task!

Demo

I filled one 30 yard dumpster with all the non-wood debris out of the tear down and hauled about 35 cubic yards of wood waste off the the wood recyclers. Some of which can be seen looking out of the second floor window into the driveway. Good times! this was a mess of a clean up... many layers of shoddy work on top of the next.

Demo

I was getting my moneys worth out of the dumpster!

Carriage House, summer of 2009

This building is on the back lot of the house I have here in Corvallis. It is my summer project that I hope to have done before school starts back up in the fall. Work on this building is a whole rebuild (foundation, internal structure, plumbing, wiring, windows, insulation, and all the internal needs to make it livable again). When I got this building it was set up with two one bedroom residential units, one upstairs and one downstairs. When I am done with it it will be a two bedroom single residential unit.