Prep work for the Carriage House!
Good morning everyone, it has been quite a journey getting to this point but the carriage house pad is now ready for us to drill holes and start setting poles. We ended up bringing over 40 front end loader buckets of dirt from the horse arena area up to the pad and still needed two dump truck loads to get the dirt level ready for gravel. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to the Staff Sergeant Dustin M. Wright Foundation for donating the tractor to Piece Mountain Ranch so that we can accomplish this vision and mission to reach out to veterans and those in need. After all the dirt was in I had to drag and level the entire pad so that I could bring in 3 to 4 inches of gravel. Part of the pad was already gravel so that helped out with the amount of gravel that I needed for the pad. Once the trucks got here with the gravel, I was able to take the tractor and level it out so that we could start the squaring of the building pad.
I have never built a building this size and therefore really never had to be too concerned about making sure it was square and properly positioned. I looked on Facebook and watched a lot of YouTube videos to get an idea of what to do. What I learned was that there is a concept called “setting your batter boards.” During this whole Peace Mountain Ranch build, I have learned to embrace the mantra, “when at first you don’t succeed try try again” In this case I thought I had a grasp of what to do with the batter boards but I was wrong. I had to go back and rewatch some of the YouTube videos but eventually I figured it out and the building site is now square. Let me tell you how to do this.
The first thing that you do is set pins at one of the links of your building, minus inches for your exterior boards which the siding will be attached to.Then, you apply the Pythagoras theorem to get the next two pins. In short, you take a Calculator, which you can upload through your apps on your phone, and it will give you the diagonal measurement. To get the third and fourth pin you take the length of your other measurement and The diagonal measurement from the Calculator and where those two measurements intersect is your third pin. You reverse the Pythagoras theorem triangle and you will get your fourth pin. You then set up your batter boards. You set your strings to cross over those pins and then you remeasure your diagonals and if those measurements are correct your building is square. What a wonderful lesson I have learned.
The horse arena project has been quite an adventure as well. I did not have the material to build it but a next-door neighbor had a fence which went through his property and he did not want it to be there. I asked him if I could take it down for him and in return be able to keep the polls and fencing material. He agreed and the project begin to be undertaken. I have built many fences but I have never taken one down. This was a first for me but my other land mate gave me great tips and insights on how to remove them with as little effort as possible. Once I received the tractor from Staff Sergeant Dustin M Wright Foundation, I was able to use the post hole auger. I was able to begin setting the new arena polls. This again is something I had never done before. Many years ago and before the military, all we used was a post hole digger and a shovel. I will say that with a post hole digger the whole is much smaller and therefore does not take quite as much effort to put the dirt back to refortify the pole. But I am so thankful for the quick and easy effort of the auger to dig the holes. It took me two days but we were able to finish getting over 25 polls put in. All I have to do now is put the wire on the poles and put some gates on. Before long it will be filled with round pen work and horsemanship engagement. Watch out Riella it is about time to get to work!!!
