New Tractor Shed

[awemawson]

My friend mesured 1/2" of rain on his weather station last hight hear in Ashford .

Yes I can easily believe that, it absolutely teemed down here over night and was still going strong at 5:30 when I got up

[SwarfnStuff]

Golly Andrew, have you walked under a ladder, run over a cat, broken a mirror or summat? 
What an adventurous life you lead without leaving your own bit of turf too!
    Hopefully things will go way more smoothly from now on.
I for one look forward to an interesting read from your posts.
 Regards,
John B

[awemawson]

Today the rain eased off considerably - more a very light drizzle barely needing a coat 

First load of hardcore arrived as I was mucking out, so about 07:15, and the second just before lunch time, so I think we now have sufficient hard core.

9 am brought the first load of subsoil of the day, and the driver would only tip it at the edge of the pad - don't entirely blame him as it was wet.

New source of top soil arrived at about 10 am with Gary, an owner driver, and did it show in his common sense and capability  The others have been employees and far less helpful. I suggested he used his grab to put some drier stuff over the puddles and run it over that, and he was able to get right to the back with very little mess. He then brought in a further two loads, again sensibly placed

Best day yet with four loads in - I have Darren booked for 3 pm to level and track it, and then we can get a good idea how much more we need. Total so far is eight eight wheeler loads of sub soil. I've another two booked for tomorrow morning and a third for the afternoon if the weather holds 

[awemawson]

So true to his word Darren returned this afternoon to push those four loads about and track them in. It's gone down nice and tightly. Beau came and cleared away the scrub to give him a bit more room to maneuver

Now that lot's flattened down we could make a reasonable guess at how much more we need, it seems probably another four 

So Gary the independent driver is bringing three more, hopefully in the morning in his eight wheeler grab lorry, and I've an eight wheeler Ro-Ro lined up for the afternoon.

Hopefully that lot will bring us up to level (it will be a total of twelve lorry loads!) and we can move on to the next phase.

[howsitwork?]

Andrew

I assume your done the water divining  trick on the area ? Don't want the alps to develop a water feature do you?

That's a lot of material your putting down! Hope the weekend goes well. Monsoon here yesterday so river is well up.

Regards Ian

[awemawson]

I've no doubt all that basically semi-dry clay will shrink a bit. I once lived in a house in Bedfordshire where the garden was solid clay. In dry summers you could literally lose a tennis ball down the cracks in the lawn, yet later in the year there was no sign of it.

Significant weight in all those loads - perhaps 20 ton per  load 12 subsoil, 4 topsoil and maybe the equivelent of two hardcore so 20 x 18 = 360 tons 

Might make a local depression in the earths crust 

[Pete W.]

I thought, looking at the photos of your sub-soil, that it was probably Wealden Greensand.  One of my other vices is microscopy, majoring on sand, and I was working up courage to request a sample.  (A 35 mm film canister is about the right size.)

It used to be when any of the Utilities were digging a hole in the road hereabouts, one member of the crew would be appointed look-out to warn them in case I happened into the vicinity!
                  

[awemawson]

Pete,

It's pretty clayey - I'll post you a sample for your delight and delectation

[awemawson]

Pete - envelope awaiting posting 

So today brought four more eight wheeler loads of 'subsoil', though perhaps not quite as 'sub' as I'd have liked - there's a bit of topsoil in with it.

Hopefully this is the final delivery and we have enough - I sincerely hope so - thankfully this lot were buckshee as the hauliers save masses on dumping fees and in most circumstances I could charge for them to bring it in. However as this was a last minute rush to get the materials their saving was their bait as well 

Again Darren is intending to come back this evening and spread it around, but at the moment the "Sedlescombe Alps" have returned like giant mole hills - as soon as you move them they re-appear 

[mattinker]

Pete - envelope awaiting posting 

So today brought four more eight wheeler loads of 'subsoil', though perhaps not quite as 'sub' as I'd have liked - there's a bit of topsoil in with it.

It's looks a bit brown! I seem to remember that the tractor shed was scheduled for birthday festivities, is it going to be for tractor scraping too?

[Pete W.]

Pete,

It's pretty clayey - I'll post you a sample for your delight and delectation

Andrew,

With all that you've got to do, it's very good of you to take the time to do that, I'm very grateful.                   

Actually, after I'd pressed the 'post' button, the thought came to me that the next post would be from Ade saying I ought to come and collect it, remembering to bring a shovel and wellies!! 
Would have been no less than I deserved!                   

[awemawson]

Matthew, Daren is tracking it in as I type this, and surprisingly as it is squashed and tracked it looks far more clay like than in the piles 


Hopefully it will be up and functioning for the December scraping class, but as it's unheated it may or may not be suitable. Pete Rimmer and I had talked of getting space heaters in, but they don't make for the most pleasant working environment, and you don't want precision bits and bobs going up and down in temperature too much anyway when working to tenths of a thou.

PeteW, you'd be very welcome to come and visit, but probably post is easier for you

[mattinker]

So we'll be quit close together in December!
 Are you going to insulate the Tractor shed, could make all the difference!
 

[awemawson]

No, it's a Tractor Shed NOT a workshop 

[NormanV]

You are mollycoddling your tractors. Mine used to live outside and it always started.

[awemawson]

But it was too cold in the Falklands for your tractors to rust Norman 

So Darren has flattened out those last four loads, and we've been able to go over it with the laser level and concluded WE NEED ANOTHER LOAD

That'll make thirteen - lucky for some I suppose 

So Gary is delivering #13 at 08:00 Saturday morning, and the plan is to track it out and get some profiles up on Monday ready to sink the pits for the concrete pads in which hopefully will be poured in the coming week.

[Jo]

But it was too cold in the Falklands for your tractors to rust Norman 

Actually I suspect that any rust that attempted to form was blown off by the weather

Jo

[NormanV]

"But it was too cold in the Falklands for your tractors to rust Norman  "
A popular misconception. If you check the climate you will find that although the Falklands are cooler than the UK they never get as cold. A lot windier though.

[mattinker]

No, it's a Tractor Shed NOT a workshop 

Well that's a bit clearer, you haven't said anything about what it's going to be like nor talked about anything beyond it being a new tractor shed, which could be a shed for a new tractor, which would surprise me! So a new tractor shed could be a euphemism for all kinds of things it could be insulated just to stop the temperature dropping too much at night! Any way, doesn't sound at all good for scraping in December!!

[vtsteam]

Looking forward to seeing this new workshop.

[awemawson]

You'll all just have to wait and see ......


As for me I'm just waiting for load #13 which is due in a few minutes

[awemawson]

So load #13 has just arrived ready for Monday when work resumes.

Again rather top soily, but it only has to support the slab - the pads for the steelwork will go deep into the original ground.

[AdeV]

Actually, after I'd pressed the 'post' button, the thought came to me that the next post would be from Ade saying I ought to come and collect it, remembering to bring a shovel and wellies!! 
Would have been no less than I deserved!                  

Haha! Damn, I missed my chance there, didn't I. Oops!

[howsitwork?]

Does this mean that the scraping classes are actually just a cunning. Plan for you to save money on heating Andrew by having "healthy volunteers" working them selves up in to a lather and their body heat curing the concrete for the shed faster??? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Or perhaps manual scraping. The spoil heap with shovels to get the general ide before you let them near anything too technical such as metal?

Looks good so far. Putting much mesh in to reinforce the floor to allow for the load of model engineere😉

[tom osselton]

Hmm in floor heating?