Next trip I need to run the dozer down the driveway, the manzanita has come back with a vengeance even growing on the driveway. The last couple of winters have taken there toll as well after the ground cover burned up. The ground cover has now grown back a lot, so the erosion of the driveway should slow down as well. Im on the final stretch on the inside of the cabin, if I had some time I could finish it rather quickly now, but real work is still kicking my ass. I got another year and a half before I have my life to myself.
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The cabin remodel
- Thread starter m1west
- Start date
So Friday I went to the cabin, left home at 6am got there at 11am, the trip was to clean up the driveway and winterize the cabin.
The old D7 pony started so easily it surprised me, I pulled the choke turned the gas on and primed the carburetor with gas. I was rolling it to a compression stroke with the crank to give it a good pull, while rolling it over it just started, the main engine always starts easily after getting the pony to fire. I warmed it up some then started up the driveway, in total is about a 1/4 mile. I intended to film all the fun I was having and put my phone on the seat next to me as I need both hands and both feet to drive it. I got it going straight and went to get the phone and it was gone. I stopped the dozer and pulled the seat figuring I slid under, nope. The whole floor on it has deck plates except the far left side there is a gap the has a 4"x 4" gap that it right over the left track, right ahead of where I put the phone on the seat. I looked all over and couldn't find it so I just kept plowing with the cat, its part of the driveway now. Friday the 13th WTF. I did have a bunch of fun though. I had some pretty good sized down trees near the property line between me and the neighbor about 24" diameter, the old Cat made mincemeat out of them, I didn't do a perfect job but all the Manzenita that was clogging the driveway and most of the bumps, dips and washout was fixed with one pass, it hadn't been cleaned up for likely more than 10 years. I came home Saturday and spent a few hours at Verizon getting a new phone today. While pushing the trees out of the way, it gave me an idea how to get rid of the dead trees from the fire that are now falling down. It seems that there are some severely burned and areas that are not. My plan is to knock the trees down with the Dozer then plow them up into piles out in the open, then while there is snow up there, likely late winter or spring, I will burn it off. Thats a next year project.
The old D7 pony started so easily it surprised me, I pulled the choke turned the gas on and primed the carburetor with gas. I was rolling it to a compression stroke with the crank to give it a good pull, while rolling it over it just started, the main engine always starts easily after getting the pony to fire. I warmed it up some then started up the driveway, in total is about a 1/4 mile. I intended to film all the fun I was having and put my phone on the seat next to me as I need both hands and both feet to drive it. I got it going straight and went to get the phone and it was gone. I stopped the dozer and pulled the seat figuring I slid under, nope. The whole floor on it has deck plates except the far left side there is a gap the has a 4"x 4" gap that it right over the left track, right ahead of where I put the phone on the seat. I looked all over and couldn't find it so I just kept plowing with the cat, its part of the driveway now. Friday the 13th WTF. I did have a bunch of fun though. I had some pretty good sized down trees near the property line between me and the neighbor about 24" diameter, the old Cat made mincemeat out of them, I didn't do a perfect job but all the Manzenita that was clogging the driveway and most of the bumps, dips and washout was fixed with one pass, it hadn't been cleaned up for likely more than 10 years. I came home Saturday and spent a few hours at Verizon getting a new phone today. While pushing the trees out of the way, it gave me an idea how to get rid of the dead trees from the fire that are now falling down. It seems that there are some severely burned and areas that are not. My plan is to knock the trees down with the Dozer then plow them up into piles out in the open, then while there is snow up there, likely late winter or spring, I will burn it off. Thats a next year project.
Today I was able to get the APP on my new phone for the cabin security camera. This picture was taken about 30 seconds before my phone became part of the mountain, this is about where I put it on the seat. Less than a 100 yards later it was gone. I did have a hell of a lot of fun on that old dozer.
I finally made a cabin trip, had a little drama getting the water from the spring going again. First the spring head was completely overgrown with small trees, that I had to cut out with a chainsaw to even get to it.
Then there was 3 places that trees fell on the pipe over the winter that had to be repaired, took 4 hours.
Then there was 3 places that trees fell on the pipe over the winter that had to be repaired, took 4 hours.
This summer I should be able to get back on the place after a couple years of too much real work keeping me from my projects.
Really not much left on the inside now. Just finish work, ceiling walls and floors. It was over a 100 at home but never topped 75 on the mountain and was actually quite chilly at night.
Really not much left on the inside now. Just finish work, ceiling walls and floors. It was over a 100 at home but never topped 75 on the mountain and was actually quite chilly at night.
A few more weeks and I will plan another trip. Next trip will do the insulation on the last wall and get the plywood on it. Almost forgot, I also filled every void I could find with construction foam. Also next trip I need to make a temporary threshold for the from door, thats the last place any rodents could get in.
I listen to Victor Davis Hanson's podcast. He has a mountain cabin and said he can't get insurance on the cabin due to forest fires. Apparently his is in California, has never had an issue, his private insurance dropped him a year or two ago despite never having filed a claim. There is some sort of California insurance available but apparently hugely expensive and a high deductible too?
Do you have a similar experience with insuring your cabin?
Do you have a similar experience with insuring your cabin?
Yes, no insurance company will insure an off grid property. First, it was built to code but the county didn't inspect it because off grid its not required
Second there are no services, electrical, water or sewer. I have all those things but again, not inspected by the county.
My homeowners at home actually insures me up there for liability.
I have heard there are specialty companies that will do a negotiated policy, but never researched it.
Picked up another piece of equipment for the mountain. Caterpillar 955-H track loader, turbo diesel , electric start with automatic transmission. This will be the final piece I needed for the mountain road building and maintenance. This machine along with the D7 and Komatsu excavator should get any earth moving job done up there along with cleaning up the dead tree mess from the fire. I thought about an old dump truck, but with a 2 yard bucket on the loader, I figure it will be easier to just run the load to where I need it with the loader and dump it. Another machine with some life left in it for a song. The trucking to get it to Susanville from the Bay Area is nearly half the cost of the machine. I almost bought a small track loader ( bobcat) for double the price and a fraction of the capability, the thought was I could haul it. It was a hard decision but in the end I thing the bigger loader will be an advantage on the mountain. I plan to haul it there at the end of next week.
So I went to the work cabin to receive the track loader and do a little work.
Arrived Thursday at around 11pm and had lunch in town, then on to the cabin.
the weather was in the low 80's with a strong breeze.
It was 75 in the cabin. The loader got picked up in the Bay Area on Friday and was suppose to be delivered on Saturday, but because of some trouble with the haulers truck, it added some drama. He didn't get the truck fixed until Saturday afternoon then had tomakethe 5-6 hour trip. He got to Susanville sometime Saturday night and slept in his truck sleeper, I was up at 3:30 am and called him at 5am.
We met him on Gold run road, thats the last road before the off grid, because he had a low boy trailer we had to unload at the bottom of the hill and drive it 5 miles up the forest road. It took 2 hours to break down the low boy and unload the tractor and then put the low boy back together. It took me an hour and 15 minutes to cover the 5 miles. The old cat did very well right off the trailer, when I bought it I had a limited space to test it and was happy that it made the trip up the mountain a boring ride. Great oil pressure, temperature was perfect and never tried to get hot, the transmission and steering brakes also performed flawlessly. I am very happy with it right now and its a great addition to the cabin for road building and maintenance. Because of the late unload and trip home, I got back at around 3:30 pm with my ass dragging in the dirt. I also was able to finish the insulation and plywood on the last wall in the cabin and cleared around the spring head with the chainsaw and did some target shooting on Saturday. In all I'm happy with the trip.
Arrived Thursday at around 11pm and had lunch in town, then on to the cabin.
the weather was in the low 80's with a strong breeze.
It was 75 in the cabin. The loader got picked up in the Bay Area on Friday and was suppose to be delivered on Saturday, but because of some trouble with the haulers truck, it added some drama. He didn't get the truck fixed until Saturday afternoon then had tomakethe 5-6 hour trip. He got to Susanville sometime Saturday night and slept in his truck sleeper, I was up at 3:30 am and called him at 5am.
We met him on Gold run road, thats the last road before the off grid, because he had a low boy trailer we had to unload at the bottom of the hill and drive it 5 miles up the forest road. It took 2 hours to break down the low boy and unload the tractor and then put the low boy back together. It took me an hour and 15 minutes to cover the 5 miles. The old cat did very well right off the trailer, when I bought it I had a limited space to test it and was happy that it made the trip up the mountain a boring ride. Great oil pressure, temperature was perfect and never tried to get hot, the transmission and steering brakes also performed flawlessly. I am very happy with it right now and its a great addition to the cabin for road building and maintenance. Because of the late unload and trip home, I got back at around 3:30 pm with my ass dragging in the dirt. I also was able to finish the insulation and plywood on the last wall in the cabin and cleared around the spring head with the chainsaw and did some target shooting on Saturday. In all I'm happy with the trip.
I have finally decided what I am going to do with the ceiling in the cabin. I need to pick up some scaffolding so I can make it happen, then on to the Cedar walls and flooring. All the while doing that, I need to do road maintenance, last winter took a toll on the driveway plus the manzanita is growing in the driveway 3' high, not to mention the down trees everywhere, the plan there is to cut them down and pile them up in open spaces to be burned off in the winter. Now that work has slowed up this summer I can get some things done up there.
Almost forgot, I installed a 3000 watt inverter in place of the 10,000 watt inverter. I had been losing 5-6 volts on the battery pack overnight due to the parasitic drag of the inverter. I didn't realize it going in but research revealed that an inverter will consume roughly 15% of its rated output even when its not being used if its turned on, thats 1500 watts, like having the hot water tank on 24-7. With the 3000 watt inverter it still runs the microwave, coffee maker and hot water tank without overloading. It lost less than 1 volt overnight, thats a drastic improvement.
This is the look decided on
first the insulation, then some recessed 2x2 boards with 1x6 boards nailed to them painted white, the exposed beam will be stained dark. Under the insulation will be ventilation strips to keep the moisture out. As far as the driveway, I'm going to just clean it up to get rid of the washout and the manzanita now growing in it 2' high. I will spend 1 day on the driveway and a day and a half on the ceiling. I bought 2 sections of scaffolding to make that easier.
first the insulation, then some recessed 2x2 boards with 1x6 boards nailed to them painted white, the exposed beam will be stained dark. Under the insulation will be ventilation strips to keep the moisture out. As far as the driveway, I'm going to just clean it up to get rid of the washout and the manzanita now growing in it 2' high. I will spend 1 day on the driveway and a day and a half on the ceiling. I bought 2 sections of scaffolding to make that easier.
Got to the cabin around 1pm on Thursday, by the time I got everything turned on and the truck unloaded and put away it was pushing 6pm, so thats all that got done.
Friday morning I started cleaning up the driveway, first picture is an example of what the driveway looked like. I originally was going to use the D7 but as soon as I turned the gas on for the pony motor, friggin hornets came out of everywhere like drones from the mothership, before I could get off the machine one got me on the ear, needless to say I just used the new track loader. I got my driveway cleaned up and decided to knock some trees down and clean up the area next to the D7 for easier parking.
Friday morning I started cleaning up the driveway, first picture is an example of what the driveway looked like. I originally was going to use the D7 but as soon as I turned the gas on for the pony motor, friggin hornets came out of everywhere like drones from the mothership, before I could get off the machine one got me on the ear, needless to say I just used the new track loader. I got my driveway cleaned up and decided to knock some trees down and clean up the area next to the D7 for easier parking.