Anything Interesting Happen To You Today?

Yeah flies have been bad in the cabin too, don't know where the hell they are from. Didn't have any last year. How big did you build the pumphouse Ab and the price with the stupid cost of lumber? I need to build a new one too, but I think I am going with the oilfield shed stuff again. Built a 10x16 for 3000 and had it done in a day.

Back to the pumphouse...nice set up there Beer, def if a person can find something like that shack that is suitable, that is the way to go. Least you got some room in yours lol.
Mine is basically an 8 foot cube. Back a few years ago when I reworked the dirt around the well pit and laid the ties for the foundation, plans at the time that was good enough. But then things changed...lol
As for costs, only thing I really had to buy specific was the plywood to sheet it inside and out. Everything else from tin to insulation is all materials I have stockpiled over the years. Insulation was bought years ago, was intended for the attic of the shop but then upon closer inspection I found out there was more stuff up there than I thought so left it alone. I am always buying up damaged and oddball lots of roofing metal, damaged lumber and more, got piles of this stuff around, and also have a couple lifts of some poorer quality swamp spruce lumber I got cheap, not something you want to build anything structurally supporting out of, but good enough for lighter duty jobs. So my cost all in be under 1K. I am no carpenter, I hate building things like that, no matter how hard I try I screw up. Give me a welder or a box of tools and I will build or fix anything, but when it comes to wood, I am challenged lol. And even have some nice tools and equipment for that too, but I can measure four times and I'm still out when I go to put it together because I forgot to allow something here or there. One thing that really kicked my ass was that poor quality lumber, f'king dimensions were all off on it, had been cut with a bandsaw and the guy was all over, no two planks were the same...didn't matter on other projects I had used it for, but now here was something that required a somewhat accurate dimensional structure. I did my best, actually come out was really only out half an inch I couldn't pull things into place for, and that was due to a slight shift in the foundation and with everything froze solid, hey once the tin goes on the outside, that will hide those slight gaps with the plywood sheathing on the two corners. Doubling up the doors again for heat savings. Bought a pile of brand new slightly marked up new metal doors years ago for about $5 each, nice to finally use two of them. Windows much the same, bought years ago, was about a dozen or more brand new for the basement of houses, about a foot high and four feet long, again just a few bucks each. Now if a guy had to go buy it all new, including the tin to sheet the exterior, I would guess be all of 3K or better.


I'm putting in a solid 6x6 beam floor on about a third along the one side as there is going to be a 350 gallon holding tank set there. Rigging up a reservoir/surge system, which will allow me to maximize production out of a somewhat poor well, by spreading out the pulling of water from the well itself over a few times per day. Its good for about 150 gal in 40 minutes, so with the tank full, that will give me 500 gallons on literal instant demand which is more than I will ever require from this set up. Then the tank will be refilled over time controled by timers and a float. There will be a separate pump running off the tank, and that is waht will actually feed the various water demands. Idea is lots of water fast. Its not a high demand set up really, its where all my small holding and sick pens are, and one corral when I keep the calves after weaning. Rather than have things underground like hydrants, I go overhead with gravity drain, even at -40, never an issue. Am also going to rig a gravity line into the barn which is right close, no more carrying water in a pail or pull a hose out of the well pit, going rig them up with soliniod valves I can control remotely. Sounds a lot more complex than it really is, but once its all in place, should work like a damm.

Power is coming from the panel on pole that powered well previously, tied into the main supply, underground cable out bottom of box and in ground up into house, second breaker panel there for everything inside. That leaves the old one on the pole for tank heaters ect.
Going to rig a temp control that will turn on an exterior light when low temp is happening, least that way one has a warning something is wrong.

That tank will take up about a third of the house, rest was to be a large old porcelain sink, one of them with the washboard on the side will go under the one window. Be a 120V hot water heater as well plus small fridge for vet stuff. A med sized portable compressor going to get hung above the water tank, want that for those times you need some air quick and that way I don't need to drag the hose out of the shop ect for those kind of situations. Also be nice to have air for drying and cleaning milker parts as well. The pump set up for my Surge milker will be going in there as well, least then if I need it in winter, no prob firing it up. And then a late addition is going to be my big Hotsy pressure washer, that wasn't originally in the plans, so putting that in there as well gonna tighten up space a lot, but got it all measure out and it will all fit.
Have to keep floor area open for a access door into the pit, and also that I can open up enough of the floor if I need to say pull the pump ect that there is lots of room to work and move stuff in and out. Going to use some sections of catwalk and other steel decking to build balance of floor so it can be lifted out as needed, but will provide a solid safe floor for the rest of time.
If I was doing it over again, would have made it bigger, but even by adding that pressure washer, by mounting some stuff to the walls, be a compact little shack that should be easy to heat. Still working out how I'm gonna plumb the chimmney for the washer, I've never bothered with the boiler on it yet, previous owner had bypassed it for use inside and I just used it as a cold water machine, but I want to have it that in the future I can use it. Kind of something you would hook up when needed and remove afterwards, as that would be a huge inlet for cold air.

Was adding it up the other day, a guy gonna have to insure the whole kit and caboodle for about 12K I guess, including contents.
Who would think something as mundane as a pumphouse could get so technical lol

Yea if I could do it again I would def have went bigger than just 8 feet, gotta remember that translates into under 7 inside. My original thoughts were to keep it as small as possible, insulate the crap out of it, my double doors ect so it was easy to heat as well. But as I kept coming up with more things to put in there, some extra footage would have been good. Being able to go vertical with some stuff is really helping to keep floor clear as possible. Sure things like a compressor really don't need to be in there, but I dunno, guys gets a low tire and my idea is be so nice to just have a hose hanging on the outside, flip a valve, pump it up and go, so much easier than having to pull one out of the shop, usually always stuff in the way inside. Since the pumphouse is only about 12 feet from the barn, I can easily run the vacuum line for the milker, keep the pump inside where its warm, not that I use it a whole lot, arthritis I can't milk out problem cows anymore really, takes me forever and gets painful, so thats why I have one of them bucket milkers.
And having the sink is so I can wash stuff without having to pack it to the house and worry about shitty boots and more. Will just have a drain pipe that extends a few feet, house it sort of like up on a peak, downhill all the way around it so drainage no issues at all.

As to washing stuff close by, again the pumphouse and top of well pit are a couple feet about ground level to start with, and its also right on the edge of where things drop off to one direction on a fairly steep slope, and right there is one of main access driveways into the yard, so I have a good solid road base to park on, you're not in mud, everything drains away quick to where it causes no issues, and all that oil and crap over the years has turned that part of that driveway almost into japanese asphalt lol. I'm tired of having to drag out the pressure washer every time I need it when its not summer, and most times it just don't get done. By having it inside where the water is right by the main drive, even like washing the salt off stock trailer in winter time be so easy. I got about 100 feet of hose in three sections with quick couplers, so I just use what I need, but its nice having lots of hose so I can wash even my larger trailers like the lowboy or grain trailer without having to move. When I get caught up someday still planning on building a new yard, and there a guy would take the time to dig in water to other buildings and such, but for now, this works for everything, cows, the house and around the yard. Do have another well where most of the cattle water comes from, that one is drilled and can pull it 6-7 gpm 24/7/365 no issues. Can pull as high as 10 but then it starts producing very fine black sand which eventually causes pump failure, so I keep it throttled down and all is good.
This old one is a bored well, its about 60 feet over all, static water level at @30, I run a jet pump on it, think the jet is set around 45-50 IIRC. Got it wrote down somewhere. Pisses me off can't buy a good jet pump anymore, I sure miss Beatty, they had an adjustment valve right in the pump housing where you could adjust pump output as it directed more or less water back down the drive line instead of the tank. This new one I bought few years ago, its a big Red Lion, 3/4hp, good warranty and such, but only way to throttle it down is there is some plastic inserts that either go in the footvalve, can't remember exactly where they go, but its a PITA system compared to how Beatty did it. So I left it as is, its pumps fast but its all fine and works. It was a problem in the past volume/time wise, and thats what the surge tank is all about. I maybe pull 200 gallons a day at best for cattle out of that well max, so I'll set up my timers that the well fills the tank a couple times during the nite or such, that way it don't interfere with the house either. Another thing about that new pump, damm that effects the shower temp when it kicks in and out lol.

I had not even thought of that AB, its hard to say if there is a known explanation for the fire or not and if it was from human error or a failure of a component, or from an outside source which is on the lunatic fringe as you brought up as that certainly is always a possibility.

Haha. When I was in on a safari I asked the driver what happens if we get stuck. He said the tourists get out and push! :) I can attest first hand that lions do hide in the grass. In the rare cases you leave the vehicle the guide makes very sure there's nothing hiding in the grass. What's interesting to me about the Serengeti is how much it reminds me of the prairies. Rolling plains of grass for the most part. Except that the animals hiding in the grass around here aren't trying usually trying to hunt and eat me.

I'll take a bear any day over a cougar, well the cat kind that is lol.
Nothing puts fear into livestock like a large cat, way more so than a bear. With that said I have had more bear issues simply because there are way more bears than cats, but even from a personal interactive position, even then I will take the bear anyday.
Some advice I was given years ago when I had my first cougar experience with cattle, was don't look for them on the ground, look up, unless they are on the move, they will be up in the trees, usually like Y in the branches ect, where they can watch whats going on and will actually drop onto prey as it passes below.

And for the two legged variety, hey gotta give them credit, most at least know what the hell they want and they know what they are doing at certain times too lol
I think it was in large to hanging out with an older crowd of friends, that I used to attract the attention of a few when I was younger, hey if its all good, why not