It’s now buried 2 feet under. This is what Bert and Ace/Karen did last week. Buried 1,800 feet of #6 Electric cable from the pole barn to the cabin to replace the temporary cable that was there.
30 sec Video – an amazing machine in action (not Ace, the machine).
Went down this steep hill and thru the fields and woods.
Only a few more hundred feet to the cabin on the creek.
Nearing cabin Almost there
On steep hill, laying cable in trench.
I hooked the elec up temporarily and it works. Next I need to permanently wire the pole barn and cabin breaker boxes then put the walls in the cabin back together.
This is our "nearby" cabin (an hour) where we can go just for overnite. It's very modest with only a TV/DVD, Small Frig, Microwave, LP-gas furnace (needs elec), ceiling fan, small vacuum and occasionally run a skill saw maybe. Oh ya, an electric blanket too.
OMG - that looks like a tremendous amount of work. You guys are powerhouses!
ReplyDeletewell... color me impressed...
ReplyDeleteWow! I think you guys need to come down to Alabama to get away from the cold for a while this winter...I just happen to have a few 'little' things I need to have done around this 117 year old house. Is Ace any good at leveling an old house with a pier foundation? Or perhaps replacing rotten wooden flooring? Plumbing? I know he can handle rewiring...LOL!
ReplyDeleteGeez!
ReplyDeleteWow.... that is one mean machine! Do you have a machine to cover over the cable again too? Or methinks that would be really hard work.
ReplyDelete*chuckling* "It's very modest with only a TV/DVD, Small Frig, Microwave...." Modest? It has more than I have here! haha! Ok, we do have a fridge ; )
Swag - Stef - Bama - Jill - Tint - It was a lot of work, took all day but only 2-1/2 hours to dig the trench. The rest of the time was spent laying the cable then backfilling the ditch and installing conduit on both ends and hooking it up to the Elec boxes. When I lived on the farm things like this were very routine and normal, no big deal. It's more work now.
ReplyDeleteBama - Next time we're down your way I'll take care of everthing ~:<)
Tint - The trencher machine has a front-end-loader bucket attachment which I used to backfill the trench, quite time consuming but not too hard. There was about 100 feet on the steep hill that Karen backfilled using a shovel... hard work.
Karen did it?? And were you supervising? haha! Ok, handy that it has a bitty part to undo the digging part ;)
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a lot of work. Just moving that machine along at that distance is work. It looks hefty, but I assume it isn't that bad, judging by the video and the amount of strain you... uh.... Ace was showing.
Tint - Karen did 100 feet by hand while Ace did ALL the rest (with the machine). The machine wasn't too much physical work but it was a constant strain fighting with it. It weighed 2,000 pounds. We were both quite worn out at the end of the day.
ReplyDeletePoor Karen... but I'll spare you some sympathy too ; ) Those big machines do take it out of you. Ok, I never had to manhandle something quite that big, but on a smaller scale... you can keep the big stuff. It looked like it was a swine to turn.
ReplyDeleteWow, power tools! BIG power tools! My husband would love to play around with that. Thank goodness we don't have one.
ReplyDeleteYa' See!..If Ace had just kept the old snowmobile, and rigged up an old chain saw
ReplyDeleteto it, he wouldn't have had to go all the way to town and spent good money renting
a monster ditch-witch! lol Good job Ace, Karen and uh..Bert!
That is a totally nifty machine! Didn't know such a thing existed. And I bet it would NOT
ReplyDeletelike rocky ground?
You did this in ONE day? I am impressed.
ReplyDeleteBert, you supervised, right? It's a tough job,but someone has to do it.
ReplyDeleteLol @ "The machine, not Ace". It looks like hard work, but it looks like so much fun being out in the open like that! I wanna come with next time! ;D
ReplyDeletewell thats very impressive...and very pretty and a great job. however around here ,,,wouldnt work,,,,blasting would be more the case as we have so much hard limestone ,,cant even get a industrial jack hammer thru it,with a huge pull along compressor, that was going fifteen ft. from well to my house.....lol ,,,I am jealous,,,,,so pretty and the lay of the land makes me homesick for Real country ,,can i come and what do they call that be a squatter........lol ahaha ..have a great nimble evening bert
ReplyDeleteYikes, what a powerhouse!
ReplyDeleteWhat happens when you hit large rocks? Have to go around them?
Our New England soil is usually *loaded* with rocks. Your soil looks great by comparison!
ReplyDeleteTo all -
The farmhouse and Pole Barn are on top of an 80 foot high 4 mile long ridge... which is a glacial Terminal moraine or esker so it is mostly gravel, some clay, and sand but fortunately almost no rocks. Roots were a bigger problem. Digging the trench only took about 3-4 hours but laying the cable and covering up the trench took the rest of the day (hard work)... then finish wiring the next day.
I was reading the words while I waited for the photos to load...then what a surprise, I did not expect a hand-held trench digger!!!
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a killer job on both your backs. We have little sit-on tractor-trenchers the size of that with a back hoe on it to re-fill the trench - get those hens working to lay more eggs and you'll have enough egg money to hire one of those next time. *grin*
Your cabin sounds pretty nice to me.
Loish - The machine was totally hydraulicly operated so required little effort on my part but to guide and control it. However after many hours, yes I was a bit sore.
ReplyDelete... The Chickes are now about 4 yrs old... very few eggs, maybe average 1 per day, but that's just right for us, but no extra eggs to sell.
.... The cabin is very small, but it's very comfortable, just like a real cabin, just smaller. The best part is that it is so remote and private, with the creek just feet away in front and wildlife all around. Sometimes deer are within a 5 feet of the cabin and the don't know we're inside watching them. In spring there are lots of ducks, storks, cranes, wild turkeys, etc and occasionally otters can be seen playing around the water. Our other cabin is even more remote and has no luxury like electricity (But it's bigger).
Well that machine is something else then!! Way better than I was thinking. Amazing. The chickens can relax - lol.
ReplyDeleteThere is something very 'freeing' leaving all the paraphernalia of our homes behind us ( yes even our books and especially the phone ) and living in isolated cabins in close contact to the real world - and yet all the while knowing it is temporary. Even though a high percentage won't have read Walden Pond, I think this universal idea of escape is why New Zealanders love and idealise their boats, their 'baches' in the North Island, 'cribs' in the South Island , 'holiday homes' in the Real Estate magazines - 'cabins' in USA.
loish - Yes, it's nice to just be there and not have a "to do" list... just sit around and relax, and do some snowshoeing, skiing, etc. No chores, no worries, just relax.
ReplyDelete