Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

[Terrick down Under]

How big of a basement are yo putting on the new house? In your climate I would be putting 4 bedrooms and living down stairs...nice and cozy warm during winter and cool during summer.

 

[jblnut]

Total highjack,, these are for JBLNUT. Go with the private msg I sent him Because tractors

Because tractors indeed

Looks like a nice loader !!!!!

Impressive 202 pages of activity. I've said it before and say it again, "I could never work hard enough to be a farmer". It just never stops.

That's why the company I work for (Parker Hannifin) likes to hire farm raised kids with engineering degrees. They know how to work, they know how to fix stuff, and they got the college smarts.

Thanks for following along !!!

Farmers don't work that hard but we do put in a lot of hours

I think we're becoming a rarer breed with each passing year. It's an expensive industry to jump into and not a terribly profitable one year after year. That being said, there is nothing quite like watching that first stalk of corn pop out of the ground in the spring. All year long watching the crops progress is so amazing !! Come fall when we finally get to harvest it feels soooooooo good to watch the full loads of corn/soybeans leaving the field headed to the bins to sleep safe and sound until we deliver them to market. Gosh I love this stuff !!!

I love my Peat dryer. Agreed that they aren't cheap for $40 but they are worth every penny. My dad liked it so much he got one as well. We've always had a bigger fan unit but a small, radiant one is so much handier to use every night.

I looked at getting a bigger one with the fan but they do not have the same warranty as the original and they're made in China, not good ol' USA

these make the perfect shop TP holder IMO. and the price is right
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbil...Screw-In-Ladder-Hanger-50-lbs-18012/202305456

I looked at a couple of those on a shelf thinking they'd work and as soon as I showed the chunk of shaft to Dad and he said "use the hook, it'll look nicer" I had to use the shaft and make it look nice

How big of a basement are yo putting on the new house? In your climate I would be putting 4 bedrooms and living down stairs...nice and cozy warm during winter and cool during summer.

No basement. Our house now has a basement and the water table is so high out here that it gets wet at least a dozen times each year and is a PITA to deal with. We have a dehumidifier running 24/7/365 to keep it from getting musty. Two story slab on grade is the plan.

Critiques welcome on the floor plan !!!

 

[jblnut]

The dirtwork guys finished the house pad up. It looks just like it did in the last pictures but this is the hole they dug in the field to pull all the fill out of. The math puts it right at 2,100yds of fill total making up the house foundation










Time to chop up some corn stalks !!!!!


Knocking down the acres at 8mph


This stupid phone has LOTS of issues focusing (like it's owner) so this is as good as it gets !!! This was on the daylight savings night and I got to watch the time change. I was a tad tired when I was done in the field


All of the sudden it felt like the stalk chopper was going to shake itself apart !!! Seems like a whole knife D-ring and blades disappeared !!


Hey look !! A new D-ring and a couple used knives and we're off and running again


The weather has gone from 10F and snowy to 74F and sunny so it's time to do some tiling !!! I ran the dozer for a half day to fill in some ditches and noticed something going on in the background .....


There is a "small" hill in the way so we hired a guy with a big powered shovel to dig a trench through it.


A Cat 330 with a 3yd bucket makes quite short work of digging down to the depth we need !!!


Yikes that's a deep trench !!!!!!!


That guy is the guy I own the tile plow with and he's 6'2". That is a deep trench !!!


I leveled the bottom of the trench off with the dozer to help the tile plow be much more happy. The excavator operator had 50yrs of time in the operators seat and it was almost perfect already but the 12' blade on the dozer makes it soooooo smooth


Time to dig in the main tile line


Once the plow hit the soybean stubble the tractor made it a few hundred feet and once it was at 60" deep or so the tractor didn't really want to pull it anymore


Tug time


It looked like a deep trench until the tractor was in there, then it looked like a REALLY deep trench !! All said and done the main tile line will be about 15' below the surface when it's all filled back in


We finished the main line in the dark and called it a successful day. Over 4,000yds of dirt dug out to get through the hill and almost 6,000' of tile laid down in one continuous run




And now we're up to today finally. More tiling to make use of this wonderful warm dry stretch of weather


What a smartass !!!!


I ducked out of tiling mid-afternoon and started raking corn straw.


I got around 50 acres raked today which should be about all we'll be able to get baled tomorrow. There will be more to rake tomorrow and I hope to get 100+ acres baled before Sunday


Good ol' International 884 on the rake. I love this little tractor


So. The fuel gauge on the 884 doesn't work the best. I though to check it in the field and decided to head home to fuel up. I got about 800' from the fuel barrel and it started to sputter. I shut it down immediately so it didn't run out of fuel and added 5gal to get to the fuel pump. It fired right up once the fuel was added so whoo hoo !!!

 

[ripperd]

On the floor plan: watch the fridge swing. You need a little clearance between the wall and a fridge otherwise the door will hit the wall as it opens!

Being on a farm I would heavily consider a good mudroom with attached bathroom instead of the extra deep garage (you have other nice buildings for storage/working too!).

 

[red]

At first glance, with the master bedroom entrance door opening into the room is a bad idea.
Consider moving bathroom door to the right, so the entrance door can open towards the wall instead of your living space.

 

[ronjon1190]

I can't believe I just read that someone on garage journal said to shrink a garage...

Other than that I agree with red, flip the master bath so the shower shares the wall with the mechanical room, and move the door to the bath to the other side, and reverse the swing on the bedroom door.

 

[Slowbuilder]

While we're talking master bathrooms - I'd agree with swapping the shower so it's against the mechanical room, but I'd also push the other end of the master bath out into the garage so that you can add a toilet, and have direct access from the bedroom to a bathroom with a toilet. Think of your kids as teenagers standing around the kitchen island with a bunch of their friends late at night when Dad wanders out of the bedroom in his skivvies to answer the call of nature! There could be permanent scaring...

 

[loganb]

Couple general comments:

-Consider moving the dishwasher to next to the fridge. Yes it makes a slightly longer drain run for the dishwasher and plumber won't like it, but as it is you can't comfortably stand at the sink and load the dishwasher

-Note you won't be able to open the double hung windows behind the sink, the reach is just too far. If your farm is like ours windows rarely get opened because of dust and dirt blowing around so this probably isn't an issue but wanted to point it out

-Consider double outswing doors on the mechanical room, yes makes hallway access a pain when open(which shouldn't be often) but will make the room much easier to work on when service is required in 15 years(cause new stuff never breaks right )

-What's the thought process on not extending that master bath farther into the garage and putting a full master suite in and keeping the "powder room" exactly where it is?

-As you have this sited on the lot...what side of the house is north facing?

 

[Bob Heine]

Mike, I don't have a simple solution but it appears you have a long walk from the garage to the kitchen. Every time you come home from grocery shopping you will have to make one or more trips from the back of the vehicle to the kitchen. Every home we've ever owned had the house entrance from the garage directly into the kitchen.

Because we live near the surface of the sun, ice cream melts at an alarming rate. For that reason our home has a fairly short route from trunk of the car the refrigerator/freezer.

 

[jblnut]

Lots of useful feedback !! Thank you !!

On the floor plan: watch the fridge swing. You need a little clearance between the wall and a fridge otherwise the door will hit the wall as it opens!

Being on a farm I would heavily consider a good mudroom with attached bathroom instead of the extra deep garage (you have other nice buildings for storage/working too!).

Good point. Our fridge swings towards a wall now and it seems to get shoved into the wall once in a while. The mudroom has been a heavily discussed issue around here. I think it's going to happen but not sure yet. I was thinking of a basic cabinet type closet deal with an exhaust fan for my barn clothes and a boot tray at the bottom. Not sure but we'll see.

At first glance, with the master bedroom entrance door opening into the room is a bad idea.
Consider moving bathroom door to the right, so the entrance door can open towards the wall instead of your living space.

That'd be an easy fix and is a good catch. Thank you

I can't believe I just read that someone on garage journal said to shrink a garage...

Other than that I agree with red, flip the master bath so the shower shares the wall with the mechanical room, and move the door to the bath to the other side, and reverse the swing on the bedroom door.

I mentioned it to Mama Bear and she's going to redraw it to see what it looks like. Sounds like a good idea though.

While we're talking master bathrooms - I'd agree with swapping the shower so it's against the mechanical room, but I'd also push the other end of the master bath out into the garage so that you can add a toilet, and have direct access from the bedroom to a bathroom with a toilet. Think of your kids as teenagers standing around the kitchen island with a bunch of their friends late at night when Dad wanders out of the bedroom in his skivvies to answer the call of nature! There could be permanent scaring...

Lol. Good points

Couple general comments:

-Consider moving the dishwasher to next to the fridge. Yes it makes a slightly longer drain run for the dishwasher and plumber won't like it, but as it is you can't comfortably stand at the sink and load the dishwasher
Hmmmm. I like it.

-Note you won't be able to open the double hung windows behind the sink, the reach is just too far. If your farm is like ours windows rarely get opened because of dust and dirt blowing around so this probably isn't an issue but wanted to point it out.
That has been brought up before at home. Mama Bear is looking into different corner sink/counter designs to get the whole works closer to the windows.

-Consider double outswing doors on the mechanical room, yes makes hallway access a pain when open(which shouldn't be often) but will make the room much easier to work on when service is required in 15 years(cause new stuff never breaks right )
Double doors would work well and probably would work better if the mech room was in the garage

-What's the thought process on not extending that master bath farther into the garage and putting a full master suite in and keeping the "powder room" exactly where it is?
Honestly none other than I HATE cleaning toilets so one more toilet is one more to clean lol

-As you have this sited on the lot...what side of the house is north facing?

The kitchen windows will look out to the NW over the meadow.

Mike, I don't have a simple solution but it appears you have a long walk from the garage to the kitchen. Every time you come home from grocery shopping you will have to make one or more trips from the back of the vehicle to the kitchen. Every home we've ever owned had the house entrance from the garage directly into the kitchen.

Because we live near the surface of the sun, ice cream melts at an alarming rate. For that reason our home has a fairly short route from trunk of the car the refrigerator/freezer.

We'll have at least one LARGE chest freezer in the garage and will only be using the fridge freezer for leftovers and such. At least that's what we do now I guess. I do like how close the beer in your fridge is to the garage though !!!

 

[jblnut]

This was too good an opportunity to pass up so let it be shown to all that want to see it. Pops laying down on the job

Off we go !!

We skipped these two runs this summer because there were soybeans in the field and didn't want to run them over. They're done now

Oil change time in the dirt by the new shop. No need to get oil everywhere right away

Once it snowed everyone thought it was all over for the year. Well it's time to rake some corn straw !!!!

Baler guy is here and hard at it already

When I think of a tractor this is the one, or at least the series. John Deere 2wd 4440 with duals. Fantastic tractor !!!

I told him there were a few bales to be made in the meadow if he wanted to. Well it was a tad wet

Yup, that bale is going to be fed right away. It'll turn into a small nuclear oven soon if it's left wrapped up

The baler guy is far enough along so we're going to start picking up bales. The pit crew wanted to ride along

Pretty sure we have enough tractor on the front of those 28 bales once they're all loaded

202 on the pile so far. 431 more to haul home

The shop sink it hooked up. Except for the drain going into a bucket and both sides of the faucet having cold water

 

[jeepxj]

Critiques welcome on the floor plan !!!

thoughts:

move mechanical room to garage. then you can have your HVAC trunk line in a soffit in the garage and put the runs into the joist bays where needed. not sure how you gona do that with the current location. unless you're going mini splits. then ignore. oversize the trunk work on HVAC. biggest mistake made IMO. also the mech room so close to the master bedroom will get annoying with sound levels.

i'd flip shower and bathroom on main floor. and put an additional bathroom door on the entryway to garage. then you can come in for ..... office work.... without tracking dirt all over the house. you can push the bedroom out into garage more to make up for the extra space. i'd also make the closet entrance closer to the wall there. that opens up more dresser space on that wall.

not a lot of cupboards in the kitchen with those corner windows like that.

no real closets on the main floor. where do coats go with guests? where does your vacuum sleep? etc. laundry room is pretty big. maybe a wall of closets there against the stairs for that kinda house stuff?

 

[rlmartinson]

First off, this is a great story/blog. Its taken me about 2 weeks to read it! I have a bunch of comments and probably forgot half, so here goes.

The future house looks great and you will always keep making changes to the floorplan. More bathrooms are better with girls in the house, especially in the teenage years. Maybe turn the mechanical room into a powder room and move the mech. room over to the garage wall? Then you could put the door/access from the garage, maybe where the W/D are now and shrink the landry a bit? Then you could mess around with the master bath locations and I personally don't like bedroom access off the kitchen and I am not sure why... More closets are better, you could add one across from the front door.

I grew up just south of the MN border and helped Grandpa on the farm when possible. He had a small operation with less than 150 acres and a couple hundred hogs. I don't know why I still remember that he had a 986 that looked like your 886, 2x Farmall 300's and 1x 400. Its been 25 years since the auction and I have trouble remembering my wife's birthday!

My sister married into a BIG farming family. When I self toured their machine shed 6 years ago it had 2x quad-tracks, 2x tracked combines plus a 3rd combine on tires. The blue 24+ row planter was in the shop.

Its amazing how big the chicken business is! This is an egg facility near my brother. Each of the 22 big buildings are 100' x 800':
13780 450th St, Thompson, IA 50478

FYI, you were looking for old pics of your property, if you have Google Earth, it has a way to bring up old satellite images. The quality may not be the greatest, but fun to play with. It has a nice image of 5/2015 before you started building and strangely a black and white image of 10/2015 that shows your first building. Sorry for snooping...

We moved out to NH about 2 years ago and your blog had been nice to read and think about home. Thank you.
Ryan

 

[Farmall450]

Wow, quite the trench. Quite trying to move water uphill!!!

 

[jblnut]

thoughts:

move mechanical room to garage. then you can have your HVAC trunk line in a soffit in the garage and put the runs into the joist bays where needed. not sure how you gona do that with the current location. unless you're going mini splits. then ignore. oversize the trunk work on HVAC. biggest mistake made IMO. also the mech room so close to the master bedroom will get annoying with sound levels.

i'd flip shower and bathroom on main floor. and put an additional bathroom door on the entryway to garage. then you can come in for ..... office work.... without tracking dirt all over the house. you can push the bedroom out into garage more to make up for the extra space. i'd also make the closet entrance closer to the wall there. that opens up more dresser space on that wall.

not a lot of cupboards in the kitchen with those corner windows like that.

no real closets on the main floor. where do coats go with guests? where does your vacuum sleep? etc. laundry room is pretty big. maybe a wall of closets there against the stairs for that kinda house stuff?

Lots of good suggestions ..... definitely some things we haven't thought about ..... Thank you !!!

First off, this is a great story/blog. Its taken me about 2 weeks to read it! I have a bunch of comments and probably forgot half, so here goes.

The future house looks great and you will always keep making changes to the floorplan. More bathrooms are better with girls in the house, especially in the teenage years. Maybe turn the mechanical room into a powder room and move the mech. room over to the garage wall? Then you could put the door/access from the garage, maybe where the W/D are now and shrink the laundry a bit? Then you could mess around with the master bath locations and I personally don't like bedroom access off the kitchen and I am not sure why... More closets are better, you could add one across from the front door.

I grew up just south of the MN border and helped Grandpa on the farm when possible. He had a small operation with less than 150 acres and a couple hundred hogs. I don't know why I still remember that he had a 986 that looked like your 886, 2x Farmall 300's and 1x 400. Its been 25 years since the auction and I have trouble remembering my wife's birthday!

My sister married into a BIG farming family. When I self toured their machine shed 6 years ago it had 2x quad-tracks, 2x tracked combines plus a 3rd combine on tires. The blue 24+ row planter was in the shop.

Its amazing how big the chicken business is! This is an egg facility near my brother. Each of the 22 big buildings are 100' x 800':
13780 450th St, Thompson, IA 50478

FYI, you were looking for old pics of your property, if you have Google Earth, it has a way to bring up old satellite images. The quality may not be the greatest, but fun to play with. It has a nice image of 5/2015 before you started building and strangely a black and white image of 10/2015 that shows your first building. Sorry for snooping...

We moved out to NH about 2 years ago and your blog had been nice to read and think about home. Thank you.
Ryan

Two weeks to slog though it isn't bad, it's taken me years to get it all posted

We've gotten lots of very helpful/constructive suggestions about the house and appreciate all of them so thank you for your thoughts.

It's crazy the things one remembers and even wilder the things we forget .... like Mama Bears birthday

Thank you so much for following along

Wow, quite the trench. Quite trying to move water uphill!!!

The Romans did it so we do it

 

[jblnut]

We decided to start putting the plywood on the walls upstairs and the pallet jack came in quite handy to hold it up there whilst nailing it !!


Monday afternoon tillage in the snow. More snow


The chickens left Tuesday morning and I forgot to put the tractor in the nice warm shop. It is 18F and it's all full of snow. I doubt it'll start .....


It fired right off with a sniff of ether


Let the fun begin !!


She's a dirty girl !!!


The hyd motors were all steamy from the moisture and cold outside


Dirty and clean. Goodness !!!

 

[Terrick down Under]

When it gets cold you need a can of this...

 

[jblnut]

When it gets cold you need a can of this...

Even in the dead of your version of winter I can't see it getting cold enough down under to really need ether

 

[Blind1]

No toilet in the master bath proper?

I’d strongly suggest you include one. Using the powder room off the kitchen will get old real quick.

A full 2.5 bath is far more functional (with two daughters....)

 

[red]

No toilet in the master bath proper?

I’d strongly suggest you include one. Using the powder room off the kitchen will get old real quick.

A full 2.5 bath is far more functional (with two daughters....)

Agreed
As you get older, you'll find that you'll spend more time peeing then showering

 

[Sifan]

This fall, helped repair a tile hole ... how would you like to go back to 10" x 16" clay tile? Best Brother in law could remember, the tile was put in 1946 with bucket wheel digger and hand laid tile. Still works great, was running about 1/3 full and was 8' deep. Replaced two tile and filled the 10' diameter hole. Thank God for dump truck and scoop tractor

 

[Sifan]

I'm constantly amazed at how fast the residents of your chicken house turn over. Any idea how many you've raised to date?

 

[XJSuperman]

Bucket trencher you say?

 

[Blind1]

Agreed
As you get older, you'll find that you'll spend more time peeing then showering

It’s not just that, by having the master toilet outside of the room, it will become a universal “powder room” and suddenly your solitary house of refuge will become unavailable.

 

[jblnut]

No toilet in the master bath proper?

I’d strongly suggest you include one. Using the powder room off the kitchen will get old real quick.

A full 2.5 bath is far more functional (with two daughters....)

The bathroom's were setup the way they were for the two reasons of "can we make it work this way with one ******* on the main level" and "we hate cleaning toilets so this is one toilet fewer" lol. We're not at all opposed to a toilet in the mater suite. I'd like to have it and the shower accessible from the garage so I can sneak in there from being outside. Those changes will be put into revision #829

Agreed
As you get older, you'll find that you'll spend more time peeing then showering

This fall, helped repair a tile hole ... how would you like to go back to 10" x 16" clay tile? Best Brother in law could remember, the tile was put in 1946 with bucket wheel digger and hand laid tile. Still works great, was running about 1/3 full and was 8' deep. Replaced two tile and filled the 10' diameter hole. Thank God for dump truck and scoop tractor

There is a wild amount of clay tile that was put in "back in the day" !!! I've watched a few videos and it looks like WAAAAAAAY more work than dropping the plow in and laying a few thousand feet in a few minutes

I'm constantly amazed at how fast the residents of your chicken house turn over. Any idea how many you've raised to date?

"roughly" 800,000 have been delivered so far. Flock #19 comes towards the end of November. Almost 5,000,000lbs of live chickens have come out of the barn and have eaten over 9,000,000lbs of feed. The single 3-1-2" flex auger system has brought all that feed in thus far. From what other growers have said right at 40,000,000lbs things in the main supply auger piping start getting holes worn in them so I've got a while yet before issues "should" start to show up.

Just for funsies they have eaten about the same weight as 2,900 2004 PT Cruisers. Who doesn't want a PT Cruiser ?!?! Or a 1972 Corvette

Bucket trencher you say?

I love watching "how it used to be" and was QUITE disappointed that Pioneer Days didn't happen this year

It’s not just that, by having the master toilet outside of the room, it will become a universal “powder room” and suddenly your solitary house of refuge will become unavailable.

Mama Bear thought having the toilet nowhere near she is will cause less "disruptions" when she is getting ready in the morning and I need to "use" the bathroom for my morning ritual

 

[jblnut]

Suddenly we needed WiFi in the shop so it moved to the top of the list. "Functional" best describes it


There is a little person who needs internet access for school work for a little while due to a COVID exposure at school. I have lots of things to say about COVID but will refrain


She had a lesson we did about cartography so we drew a large Compass Rose on the floor. I had a really good time with her learning about all things maps. I'm an Eagle Scout and my love of cartography 100% started when I was young. Maps and everything they can show are fun to learn about and fun for me to teach so we had a good time


Once we were done with her school work I took her with me to do some Leedstone stuff. The farm we went to has a student in her class that is also out because of the same COVID exposure so we called and asked if we could both come work in the barn and they laughed and said of course. We didn't see another soul all afternoon so all was well in the world of all the COVID rules and such. COVID .... Grrrr .....


I had a dilemma under the shop sink .....


This is what I think is the more proper way but the previous picture looks so much neater with everything up against the wall all nice and neat.


Time to mix up some ****-Die-Soon again


It snowed on Monday and I couldn't be happier to have the bales get snowed on in the field. They are baled and not laying on the ground anymore so let it snow !!!


While Miss Lily and I were doing school things in the shop Pops hauled the bales home that were in the field by my place.


We didn't want to stack them up as they had snow on them so they'll be okay like this until we get them used up.


Mom sent me some pictures of her and Pops picking bales up while I was at work doing Leedstone stuff.


They picked them up and brought them to Dad's place as we intend to sell the ones that were baled in the fields by him to offset the cost of the baler guy.


What a nice sunset !!!

 

[Bob Heine]

Who doesn't want a PT Cruiser ?!?! Or a 1972 Corvette

....

 

[jeepxj]

my vote is leave the sink the "clean tucked away" way with the extra 90 in there. its a shop sink so you're gona be unclogging it no matter what.

 

[ripperd]

I think technically you need to use sanitary T's at the connection to the vertical pipe there. The Y's you used don't allow vent air down, so it can suction the p-trap. Although I don't think I see a vent connected to the top of the pipe, and its a farm shop. So probably no big deal lol.

 

[jblnut]

....

Oh hi Bob !!

my vote is leave the sink the "clean tucked away" way with the extra 90 in there. its a shop sink so you're gona be unclogging it no matter what.

I glued it the other way already. I dunno. I set a bucket in front of it and I can't see it now so all is well

I think technically you need to use sanitary T's at the connection to the vertical pipe there. The Y's you used don't allow vent air down, so it can suction the p-trap. Although I don't think I see a vent connected to the top of the pipe, and its a farm shop. So probably no big deal lol.

It's a 1-1/2" pipe running into a 4" pipe .... I don't think it's ever going to flood the 4" to the point that it'll **** them empty.

I had thought about a simple "under sink vent" dealio on top of it and may if it's an issue. Under the sink in the office which will have 10' of 1-1/2" pipe I'll have a vent as that may be too far to stay happy ....

 

[sublime68charger]

....

Not to high jack but with Bob there is a story with any picture so Bob what story with this picture?

I'd like to think it would be hello ladies or something?

 

[jblnut]

Not to high jack but with Bob there is a story with any picture so Bob what story with this picture?

I'd like to think it would be hello ladies or something?

High jack away !!!


I'm always in for story time

 

[Blind1]

The bathroom's were setup the way they were for the two reasons of "can we make it work this way with one ******* on the main level" and "we hate cleaning toilets so this is one toilet fewer" lol. We're not at all opposed to a toilet in the mater suite. I'd like to have it and the shower accessible from the garage so I can sneak in there from being outside. Those changes will be put into revision #829




Mama Bear thought having the toilet nowhere near she is will cause less "disruptions" when she is getting ready in the morning and I need to "use" the bathroom for my morning ritual

HA! Easy fix. Keep the powder room off the kitchen AND add the toilet in the master bath.

She keeps her sanity and senses in the morning and YOU retain a Solitary refuge.

 

[Bob Heine]

Not to high jack but with Bob there is a story with any picture so Bob what story with this picture?

I'd like to think it would be hello ladies or something?

High jack away !!!


I'm always in for story

Matt and Mike, like most, my life is just a long story. That picture was taken on March 22, 1980 at the Sebring International Raceway during the IMSA 12-hour race. I was having a beer because I had just come back to the car to get a roll of film. A friend gifted me a pit/full course access pass for the race (I worked his pit crew at a Daytona SCCA race). Before the start I was on the track, walking through the grid at the starting line, taking pictures of the cars and drivers. The 8th car on the grid was a BMW M1 driven by Jim Busby, Bruce Jenner and Rick Knopp. A few shots later I looked down at my Minolta 35mm takeup knob and it showed 1 photo. Not a good sign -- I was clicking away with no film in the camera. Thus the beer. The Corvette did not have much luggage space so I had a cooler and a change of clothes in case it rained. I slept on the floor of a co-worker's Coleman tent, thus the grubby outfit and unwashed look.

Porsche fans were on cloud 9, with Porsche 935 teams dominating the Race. **** Barbour Racing (**** Barbour and John Fitzpatrick) won the race in theirs. Interscope Racing (Ted Field and Danny Ongias [yes, of drag racing fame]) came in second with theirs. Wittington Bros. (Don, Bill and Dale) came in third. Thunderbird Swap Shop (John Paul, Preston Henn and Al Holbert) came in fourth.

During practice the day before the race, Manuel Quintana (#67) was killed when he lost control of his Porsche 911. It was the first Sebring fatality in 16 years. In 1966 four spectators and a driver were killed (Mario Andretti's car was involved in the crash that killed the four spectators). I was aware of the danger so my photos from the day were taken behind tire bunkers well away from the turns. We didn't learn of the fatality until we were leaving the track -- Manuel's car was left near the track entrance, perhaps as a reminder to take it easy going home. Home-bound traffic from races always involves a lot of wannabe racers showing why they don't get paid to drive.

To me, those were the glory days of racing, where the cars were recognizable and some were even affordable by mere mortals. If you're interested, there's a web page with more information about that year's race:
https://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Sebring-1980-03-22.html

By coincidence, this year's Sebring race happened yesterday. I didn't watch it but a Mazda won. Not your mother's Mazda:

 

[sublime68charger]

Thanks for the story Bob!

Always interesting things you have done!

I'll be waiting for the lost 35mm photos!
At least you didn't have the lense cap on!

JBLNUT, back to regular thread now!

 

[davo727]

You sure you want a 2 story house?

 

[davo727]

I forgot to put the LOL bonker thing on the above post. I guess its not so bad with the master... oops I mean primary bedroom downstairs. But kids are little so parents will still go up and down 500 times a day.

 

[jblnut]

HA! Easy fix. Keep the powder room off the kitchen AND add the toilet in the master bath.

She keeps her sanity and senses in the morning and YOU retain a Solitary refuge.

I like it and she's in the process of putting all the many changes suggested on here so far.

Matt and Mike, like most, my life is just a long story. That picture was taken on March 22, 1980 at the Sebring International Raceway during the IMSA 12-hour race. I was having a beer because I had just come back to the car to get a roll of film. A friend gifted me a pit/full course access pass for the race (I worked his pit crew at a Daytona SCCA race). Before the start I was on the track, walking through the grid at the starting line, taking pictures of the cars and drivers. The 8th car on the grid was a BMW M1 driven by Jim Busby, Bruce Jenner and Rick Knopp. A few shots later I looked down at my Minolta 35mm takeup knob and it showed 1 photo. Not a good sign -- I was clicking away with no film in the camera. Thus the beer. The Corvette did not have much luggage space so I had a cooler and a change of clothes in case it rained. I slept on the floor of a co-worker's Coleman tent, thus the grubby outfit and unwashed look.

Porsche fans were on cloud 9, with Porsche 935 teams dominating the Race. **** Barbour Racing (**** Barbour and John Fitzpatrick) won the race in theirs. Interscope Racing (Ted Field and Danny Ongias [yes, of drag racing fame]) came in second with theirs. Wittington Bros. (Don, Bill and Dale) came in third. Thunderbird Swap Shop (John Paul, Preston Henn and Al Holbert) came in fourth.

During practice the day before the race, Manuel Quintana (#67) was killed when he lost control of his Porsche 911. It was the first Sebring fatality in 16 years. In 1966 four spectators and a driver were killed (Mario Andretti's car was involved in the crash that killed the four spectators). I was aware of the danger so my photos from the day were taken behind tire bunkers well away from the turns. We didn't learn of the fatality until we were leaving the track -- Manuel's car was left near the track entrance, perhaps as a reminder to take it easy going home. Home-bound traffic from races always involves a lot of wannabe racers showing why they don't get paid to drive.

To me, those were the glory days of racing, where the cars were recognizable and some were even affordable by mere mortals. If you're interested, there's a web page with more information about that year's race:
https://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/Sebring-1980-03-22.html

By coincidence, this year's Sebring race happened yesterday. I didn't watch it but a Mazda won. Not your mother's Mazda:

Thank you for the story Bob !! I was hoping you'd gift us with a memory and you did not disappoint

Thanks for the story Bob!

Always interesting things you have done!

I'll be waiting for the lost 35mm photos!
At least you didn't have the lens cap on!

JBLNUT, back to regular thread now!

I'm not sure what the "regular" thread around here really is anymore

You sure you want a 2 story house?

Fixed it for you

Yup we do.

I forgot to put the LOL bonker thing on the above post. I guess its not so bad with the master... oops I mean primary bedroom downstairs. But kids are little so parents will still go up and down 500 times a day.

I have a few extra pounds hanging around so a flight of steps a time or two or ten a day probably isn't a bad thing

We've explored a patio home and the footprint would be fairly massive for what we're hoping to build. The two story slab on grade seems to make the most sense. It's a large cube that will be efficient to heat and build and it'll look nice when it's done. Part of a house should be taller than the garage and a two story house is an easy way to do that. I guess it's a personal taste sort of thing we both have about the height thing

 

[jblnut]

It was warmish and the snow was sticky so we all built a snowman family


The room above the other rooms in the shop is coming along slowly but nicely


Early last week I went to good ol' ND again to update a camera system on a dairy farm. I put a nice system in a few years ago and we've been adding to it for a while and the poor NVR PC just has it's shorts full so it's time for an update !! A brand new UNVR4 has been installed and it's working soooooo well


I had to bend a piece of 1" conduit in a few directions at the same time and a 2x4 was the perfect size to get the perfect amount of bend


While I was in ND there was a bit of tile installed by Dad's place and I wasn't there to help


It was muddy and smeary and ol' red was needed to pull the 9300 and plow thorough the slimey mud


I may have shown off our hydraulic wrench before but just in case I didn't here is it. There is a bearing out on the Wishek disk and the HUGE nuts are so tight on the disk gangs that we need the mini to loosen them


This bearing seems to have been out for a while


A 3lb hammer and a BIG chisel to knock out what was left of the outer bearing race.


It's loose after a bit of a fight !!!


Pops beat on it for a while and finally just reached in and grabbed it and out it came


The bearings are a pretty good size


The shaft is cleaned up and it's going back together.


A dozer in a field with a tile cart ...... The coldest, muddiest day tiling is still better than the best day working off the farm


It wasn't all that cold yesterday tiling but it sure was muddy !!!!!


The top foot was a slimey mess. The 9300, dozer and 8430 were needed to pull a few of these runs


Towards the end of the day the wind dried things out very nicely so the 9300 could pull most of the runs by itself. This one was going to end up 71" deep for a few hundred feet so we thought it best to put the dozer on to be safe. Good thing too as they struggled a little together to dig that line in that deep !!!

 

[loganb]

I like the hydraulic wrench!

Seeing the mess it takes to get tile in makes me kinda glad we farm where tiling isn't necessary....only kinda because we would trade needing to tile in exchange for the 15 or 20" of additio al moisture you get a year! Instead we artificially make it rain in some fields....tradeoffs everywhere

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