Doors

Here it with doors. Altho the insulation is not there yet. It looks better with doors. Should keep out the water and the bugs.

Don Littlefield

Doors at last

Finally got the doors delivered and installed them. Had a minor problem with the installation of the doors. The instructions say to use a light weight perforated angle iron to support the back of the door when it is in the open position. It was much too weak so we fabed a stronger angle iron bracket that works much better. Looks pretty good now. The doors they delivered did not have any insulation in them. So called again with more problems. The company is going to UPS the insulation and new springs for the extra weight. They are supposed to call with a delivery date some time today. Hope it isnt long on the delivery.

The last piece of gutter still is not here. I think is is suppose to be here this afternoon.

In the next few days we will go to Portland and Merle Point for a couple of weeks.

Building Electrical

Hello again. I have finished putting in the electrical and am still waiting on the doors. Now to be delivered on Tuesday. The gutters have been installed mostly. One piece of the gutter was formed wrong and it is being replaced. I just got a call and it is to be delivered today in the rain. Must be the guy that came here before and had a hard time getting out of here with his truck. Said come to town for the item. He would not come to my place to deliver. More next time.
Don Littlefield

Electrical Stuff

Lee and I went to Home Depot and got the electrical parts for the building yesterday. Now we have to put it up so we can have lights and power. Cool Huh.....

Today Jeannie and Doris went with me to Oklahoma City to get the gutters and downspouts for the building. Now we got lots of stuff to work with. Lots of fun now.

I finally got the info on the doors. they are to be delivered to Fort Smith on the 23rd. Then delivered here after that.

Don Littlefield

Building update

I have ordered the rain gutters and downspouts to add to the building.
I did not think about them when I first ordered the building. They will make a big difference in the front. Right now the rain is digging at the foundation a little every time it rains. I will go pick up the gutters in OK city next week I think.

The problem with the doors seems to be resolved. They are going to replace the doors with ones built for a steel building. The ones they delivered are for a wooden building. They will be here some time after next week.

Door openers

This time I have installed the door openers. When the correct doors arrive I can hook them up. I cant run the wires to the safety switches yet cause they run on the tracks which are not here yet. They are going to change them out for the Steel Building kind instead of the wood building. Just not the same at all. The track mounting is different and the door panels are not the same either. I bet the hardware is different also.

Found a leak in all this rain. When I got on top I found a screw loose and tightend it up and it stopped the leak. Of course it rained more to check the leak repair.

Well here is a building without front doors. It is complete otherwise. Now we will have to do electrical. Need lights right. And work benches and move in all the stuff. Im going to start cleaning up the floor but it started raining before I got up today. Feels good to have it done.

Here is the roof finished on the inside.


I better do some catching up here. We have made progress in the last few days. I will add some pics.We made a bit more progress here and got some skylights in.

We put up 3 sheets more now and one skylight row. will take a break for a couple of days. Going to take Lee to Doc appointment in Houston. Suppose to rain anyway. Hope it doesnt mess things up while im gone.

As you can see the first row was installed and we got out the second one and rolled it out and found that it was cut short by 2 1/2 inches. After the aggravation was calmed down we figured to add a piece on the sheet and continue. I really hope none of the rest are cut short like that. The roll was labeled as 43 feet but was only 41 so did not stretch far enough to reach to the walls. Oh well problems will always be there.

4 walls up

Here we go. Nearly have completed the 4 walls here. They shorted me 4 pieces of trim for the top of the wall so can only do about a 1/3 of the roof till they get here. They were supposed to be shipped on the 26th and should have been here yesterday. I called and they got put off till Monday. It goes at the top edge of the front wall. Started working on the roof sheets getting them ready to put up yesterday.

better pic

I did a little adjustment on this pic with photoshop. Lets see how it worked.

Well here is the latest pic with two wall completed.

Here is the back wall going up. Still is not finished.

Had to stop here for a rain. Sure slows down the progress
And some more the next day.

A few more sheets and some are even getting installed straight and smooth.
This is the first piece of insulation and the first sheet of metal on the siding. Well it was not too bad. The other side is in the shade so it is hard to see.


It is hard to put all the pics on the page at one time. Here is some more.

starting on insulatin and sheeting the outside

Hey look at that, Im driving the forklift instead of fixing it. Much better way to use this one.
It is big and is hard to position real close to where you want it. Leaks lots less now anyway. Only is leaking from the Power stearing cylinder on one side now. I will have to fix that too I guess.
Hey that is Lee up the lift in this one. He is a great help doing this. This is the first steel building either of us has built so we have done some rework already.
Here is the view from up on top of the lift. Makes me look short Ha.........
Ok Ok lets get started. Now that you are up there. Looking down from up on the lift.

Most of the steel is up here in this one.
All thats left is the big door frames in this one.
Who is that guy and what does he want? Oh that is me again.

Saterday IT is a week today

We started building the shop last Saturday and we finished the steel today, Saturday again. Will start the sheet metal this afternoon. Was lots of work but it is standing there now. A concrete slab and a skeleton of a shop. Another week and well have a building.

Tuesday at the shop

Well we had a little scare when we got up to find it rained all night. Was worried about the insulation getting wet. That is a bad no no. Turned out the tarp and the plastic kept out most of the rain. We were able to get up more of the purlings on the rafters. That is the cross wise beams that the roof sheets will be screwed to. Work seems to go fast but the day goes faster. Just cant keep up with the clock.

Don Littlefield

More pics of the shop building

The steel is nearly done. The rafters are up and the pearlings are getting started.
Now it started raining. I hope the insulation dont get to wet.

That is what it looks like at noon Monday. Wish I could get better shots.
This is out front of the trailer looking over the hydoponic garden toward the shop in an easterly direction.
On Friday morning all the parts came on a truck. The blue tarp is covering the insulation rolls. Our garden is behind the pickup and the chicken house is behind that. Our trailer is in the background on the left in the trees. That is looking west.

Gardening

Here are some more pics of the Garden. There is the Corn patch behind the tire garden Beans.

You can see the Purple Hull Peas on the fence in the back. Cantaloupes in the middle and the Asparagus in the front. Hope the Asparagus will be ready to start eating next year. Takes at least three years to get old enough to eat.



Here is another tire garden of Green Beens.
Just look at the size of them peas and they are not ready yet. They will turn purple when ready. Looks good enough to eat now to me.
Jeannie and Lee did almost all of this garden because I was off working when it needed to be planted.

Gardening

Today we gathered some of the corn from the garden. Got about 70 ears of corn and there is still some left to get later. Found bugs in the end of the ears. We picked most of the ones we thought had bugs. Turned out to be some kind of catapiller.

Getting Shop Started

On July 23 I think the concrete guy came and started the forms for the slab. On the 25 they came and poured the slab. Lee took the picture for me as I was busy not thinking about it. He took on of the slab after they poured it also.

July 21

The concrete guys called and said they would start my slab last Monday, and all week they have been working to get ready to pour the slab. Ive been watching the concrete guys setup my foundation forms. Ready to pour the concrete tomorrow if it is not too muddy. Rained here yesterday and last night, probably 2 or 3 inches at least. I should have about 3 weeks before the building arrives so the slab should be cured well.

Lee built a smoker and we used it to make dinner a brisket for the 4th.
Turned out good. Doris and Dawn came also. Had a nice visit.

June 27

Got the building ordered on Friday and the concrete slab ordered as well. Making progress.
Now have to wait. Maybe a month or 5 weeks till the concrete man does his thing. The building will be here in 6 weeks. I requested the finished concrete to be done so it can set 7 days before the building gets here to put up. I have found a forklift I can use to unload the truck and build the building but as usual I have to fix it first. Both lift cyclinders or shot so I have to rebuild them.

Today and yesterday I worked in the garden. Hope to get lots of goodies to eat out of this garden. Last year we did not get much since I was not here to do the owrk.......................

Home Again

Well I have saved enough to start my shop building. I wont have to go do any more contracts I don't think. I am ordering a building 40 x 50. I am going to talk to the concrete man tomorrow to sign a contract with him for the slab and dirt work. The building should arrive here in 6 weeks. I will erect the building my self. Hope I can do it without problems. I am going to get to use a forklift for nearly free, got to rebuild the cylinders on the lift. Both are blown out. Will take pictures as I go if I can remember.

Here I am in Anadarko Oklahoma. Never thought Id ever come back here again. My daughter Bonnie got married here a while back.
I have been working in a Power Plant doing the check out and now the startup. We have accomplished the first fire in the three gas turbines. They have F15 engines to run the generators. the small size allows them to be called peakers. The term is used for units that can be started and up to speed in 10 minutes. They are used at the peak times in summer and winter when power is needed for short times and at a moments notice.
A couple more weeks and Ill be home again. Hopefully to stay this time.
There is a lot of stuff that needs my attention at home so I better get back there soon. That will keep me off the streets for a while I hope.

New Job

Well here we are again changing jobs. I got laid off in Victoria Texas on Tuesday and have to be in Anadarko Oklahoma on Monday. Got a couple of days home in the rain with Jeannie. Did not get much accomplished this time because of the rain. Looks like brother Larry is having good luck with the dingy problem. Winding up with another new one. Marcy is leaving Africa soon. Change is happening for everyone I guess.

It seems like only yesterday I wrote the last entry. I received my windows xp recovery disk and installed it. Again I have windows. and the programs I am comfortable with. I had been trying to use the open office 2.4 Base but it crashed loosing everything I did, so I was disgusted with Linux again. Ill try to do better. I just dont know why it crashed. I had saved the work several times. When I tried to start the program next morning it said it was recovering from a crash and lost my data.
Don

Testing of the email

Hi World,
I got to go see Larry in San Antonio while he was there. Really enjoyed seeing Larry and Trinda's family.
I decided to get one of them fancy external drives and try to load a version of Linux on it so I would have a dual boot system to play with. I had a minor problem though. I got mixed up some how and installed on my original hard drive loosing my stuff. I have tried to recover it but was useless. I called the Toshiba line and they are going to send me a new CD to recover with. In the mean time I have been experimenting on the Linux versions that a friend at work William has. We tried about 7 or 8 different ones and couldn't get them to work satisfactorily till I tried a version I got out of the latest Linux magazine Ubuntu. Seems to work ok. Now I got to learn how to use it effectively. Has lots of stuff to work with. One big problem is my mapping software is windows so I will have to find a replacement to work with my GPSMAP76 unit. I have gotten spoiled by having a good map to go anywhere with.
Since this is a test I better try it out.

The Boat Show in Corpus Christi

Hi again,
Today I went to the boat show in Corpus Christi Texas. It was disappointing to me as it turned out to be a fishing boat show. All power boats and fishing equipment for the high dollar fisherman. I went with a friend (William) from work. We decided to go to the marina to find out when the next sail boat show will be. We found out that the next boat show will be at the City Marina in April so will probably be gone by then. Who knows.
While at the marina we found the replica of the ship NINA of Christopher Columbus tied up to the wharf. I took some pictures. The ship is in really bad shape like no one has been taking care of the ship at all. Sealer all pealing off and dry rot eating up the wood bad. Will try to add pictures later.
We found the aircraft carrier Lexington was there, and is a museum now. We went on the ship and had a good look around. Saw a lot but missed the engine room tho. Had an enjoyable day.
Don

I saw a garden like this one in the Virgin Islands. I wanted to build one like it. I did not have any space to build on for a long time. I now live in a place where the ground is really bad for a garden. I wanted to have some good vegetables to eat, so I decided now is the time to build the garden. I decided to do a test garden first to make sure I could grow stuff before I really do a permanent one.

This setup is built with 7 pieces of 4" 10 foot PVC drain flashing pipes. I also used two 90's, 1 tee, and three caps. I bought a small water pump from Ace Hardware to pump the water. I also bought a plastic 55 gallon barrel for my nutrient tank. I used 14 building blocks standing on end to raise the pipes off the ground. I don't want to lean over to work on it. It is going to be easier to weed the garden with a weed eater.

I decided where to setup the garden. I needed a level or close to level place in full sun close to the water supply. The first image shows the layout of the garden.

I laid out the pipes so that there are three lines of pipe 20 feet long. On one end I cut the last pipe in half to get two five foot pieces. Cut the bell end off this one. All of these pipes are belled on one end so they slip together. I glued two pieces together for each run. I put the ends without the bells on toward the back. The elbows were glued on. The middle run gets the tee. Put the short pieces between the elbows and the tee. when these lines are glued together be sure they are straight and level so water will run through easily. This makes a fork like layout.

I laid the pipes out where I wanted the garden. I put the blocks along the side so I could level the blocks. I used a long level to set all the blocks to the same height. Then I put the pipes on top of the blocks. I cut the bells off the open end. I put the caps on the pipes without glue so I could clean it out or look in. I put them on with duct tape. I put a fitting in one cap to accept the garden hose in from the pump. That is where I took this photo.

I put some fittings together to make an automatic siphon to drain the garden back to the tank.


You can make layout a different if your space is not the same. You can use 7 or 8 pipes and use a 55 gallon barrel for your tank. The pump I bought was the 1/6 horsepower pump. It is a submersible pump with a garden hose fitting on top. I bought a Walmart timer to turn the pump on and off

New Job in Victoria Texas

Well here it is January 23 of 2009. I still cant believe how far into the future we have come. I have started a new job in Victoria Texas. This is a place that has bought a gas turbine from the now defunct Enron company and moved it here to make electricity. The job I was on in Hobbs New Mexico had turbines number 2 and 3 from the same place. It turns out that this one is number 1 in that mess. I just found out that some of the others were purchased and left on the spot and are being set up to go where they are. This plant was a design of Edison and Tesla. They tell stories of the two being here for the start up in the 20,s. There is a picture of Edison on the wall in the main foyer.

Happy New Year

January 2 already. My how time flies. I first started this blog when I returned from my trip with Larry on the KatieLee. I got sidetracked and did not keep it up. I think I will try to do something with it now. I am interested in Hydroponics. I have some pics of the hydroponic garden I constructed to do some testing to see if I could do it my self. Here is how it looks.

Ahh that worked. I can put up some more pics that show how it was built another day.