New Piston Rings

Well, the new hydraulic cylinder seal kit finally came in. The repair was simple.. well, the concept was simple, the repair was painful. The cylinder nut (the back one) was torqued to 275 ft/lbs and had lock-tight. For every 1/4 turn I had to hang from a 7 foot cheater bar which was attached to a 3 foor pipe wrench. WOW! and !!@%^#*!. Maybe I can actually start the foundation some day soon.

Cylinder
Old Piston, New Piston.
Old Gland Nut, New Gland Nut.

Old O-Ring, New O-Ring

Refurbished ram ready for installtion.

Bucket Forks

Well, it was a pretty rainy weekend, and I'm still waiting for the replacement seals for the backhoe cylinder, so I decided to make my bucket forks. Construction details are HERE

Still Chasing Hydraulic Leaks

Well, you get what you pay for ;-) Everytime I replace an old hose, the next weakest one shows. This time the seal on the left bucket cylinder blew. 10 days to order :-( Oh well, shit happens.

Different New Home

OK, I know this isn't exactly related to the new home theme, but it's new to me . I bought this duplex that in the long run should pay for my other house :-) Two 2-bedroom apartments with cathedral ceilings, 2 full baths, and sheetrocked garages. Parish, NY about 1.5 minutes from I81. Should be about a half hour commute to Syracuse or Watertown. I won't mention the lake effect snow when I have to rent it ;-)

I Think Summer is over...

It didn't even come close to starting :(
I blasted my way back in my truck, but, in the half hour I spent trying to get the backhoe started, another 3 inches of snow fell. I BARELY got out of there! I guess I'll have to fire up the generator and hook up a block heater...

I saw this on the way :-)

Great weather for a drive...
I was pushing snow with my bumper all the way down Babcock Road... Boy If you thought is was quite in the summer ;-) No Deer tracks at all?

My lumber pile is dry, but I can tell I need to keep it clean...

No more sunlight after work!

My little SONY digital doesn't like working at night, but I finally got some exposures (with the help of photoshop).
The generator works great. In fact, it's going on 15 hours on the first tank of fuel :-) Granted, it has only been running lights, but I can't imagine a gas generator would last this long :-)

Water!

Well( no pun intended), we pulled the pump and hose from brothers old well Saturday. After figuring out how the connection worked it was trivial. Transferred everything to my property and everthing worked :-)

The Pump...

The hose, electrical, and pull rope...

With hose attached and ready to be submerged...

WATER!

Final version of the garage plans... maybe.

The lights in these pictures will actually be fluorescent, but "3D home architect" only has track lights :-)

"Green" Tree House, er uh... I mean Stand

This is a tree stand built, by Hovak and friends, from "scraps" I had left over after cutting the boards for the garage. Crooked, wet, undersized, with bark... PERFECT!

Old Jed's a millionaire

Water Found!

82 feet deep @ 15 Gallons Per Minute :-)

Water Soon

Well, the well guy showed up today. I should have water soon, hopefully very soon $$$ :(



Notice the ladder in the last shot. I couldn't resist a few aerial photos. Let me tell you it's higher that it looks!

The first picture shows the approximate location of the house. The area above the backhow needs to be cleared for the garage and leech field.



The trees on the ground were all dropped by Dave so that I could have a little sun, although the moon rises have been pretty nice too. I should probably clean up those trees before the snow falls :(

Trusses for my 28 x 60 garage

Well after many nights reading the New York State code requirements, tons of calcuations, and numerous discussions with my architect, I have come to the realization that I cannot cut my own wood for the roof. Being in the Tug Hill region means that my roof must support 70lbs per sq foot of snow! I would have to cut monsterous rafters, or put in supporting posts all over the place. So... I made the call to the truss engineers and ordered 44 scissor trusses. This will give 12+ foot high ceilings in the middle of the shop and no center supporting beams. Is the garage excessive, yes, but it will also serve as my apartment as I build the main house. The bedroom will make a nice wood shop or spray booth down the road. I wonder if anyone else has 240v outlets in the bedroom :)

Generator

No word from Niagra Mohawk Power Company yet, so I got on ebay and picked up a generator.

Katrina

Well hurricane Katrina provided the most rain I've see so far since I bought the property. Everything looked good except the low part of the driveway. I had planned on a culvert and a couple a feet of fill to raise the driveway through this low part, I just haven't got around to it yet :-(

Utility Vehicle

A must for 40 acres...
I have been able to get to the back of the property and grab some nice timber with minimal impact..