Large Scale Central

Rocks! Big 'uns

General Discussion
#1

They are putting a sewer down our street. I asked the contractor if I could have the boulders. He said sure, we just have to haul them back to our gravel pit and dump them. He said, “Take all you want.” So he puts them on my parking strip as they dig along. I own a bobcat loader, so I figger I can get these to my backyard easy. They’ll be great on the layout. Some of them are as big as a Volkswagen beetle! (Well, almost :slight_smile: :slight_smile: ) My eye’s were bigger than my belly. I bit way off more than I can chew. :slight_smile: :slight_smile: I can’t even budge these puppies. I can handle up to 1200# with my Bobcat–Now called a Bobkitten. So me and my neighbor got together and decided to hire a friend of mine to come by with his bigger loader and move them. A real loader: not a bobkitten. :slight_smile: :slight_smile: We have about 50 boulders between us, and they haven’t finished in front of our house yet. Anyway, we’re havin’ fun now. Thot you’d all like to see my “project.” jb Here’s my bobkitten next to the excavator’s bucket. They’re about the same size!

Here’s some of my “free rocks”

#2

they are not boulders John they look like moutains

#3

That’s a great deal! It would cost you a fortune if you had to buy rocks like that.

#4

I heard a story yesterday about 54 sticks of dynamite and 2 dumptrucks of dirt to eliminate a boulder in Manson, near Wapato…
and it took 12 more sticks to finish the job.

#5

At least you have the bobkitten.

I have a strong back, a weak mind and a wheel barrow. “I can lift those, honey.”

"I got it,… I got it,… I got it… I don’t got it.

#6

Watch the toes!

#7

Last night after it cooled down a little, I moved about 15 from the parking strip to the back yard. Two I couldn’t budge, so they are still out there. One I barely managed to lift and drag back there. Tonight I’ll move a few more, then scout the neighbors for others.
I am going to use them as a retaining wall around the layout. Unlike those concrete landscaping blocks–no leveling needed. Just drop them in place and back fill. Looks more natural, too.
I’m still prolly goin’ to have to buy a couple big ones. I want them placed after I back fill, so the train goes between them, like a big rock canyon.
j

#8

John,
You are a lucky man. I love rocks. Here in Delaware there are no rocks. I either have to buy them, or steal them from construction sites. I have done both. A friend gave me a truck load that he moved here from Connecticut. We are desperate.
It will look so cool to see your train coming out of that rock canyone. Pictures please.
Paul

#9

Well, I couldn’t get my buddy to come over right away, so I started moving the rocks my Bobkitten could lift. The big giant ones were left to the contractor. (However, I’m working on “sucking up” to the loader operator to move some big ones to my backyard. He said he would, but his loader was to heavy-30,000#- to drive across my asphalt driveway. It would damage the asphalt in this heat–100 degrees+ these last few days.) Anyway, I go out in the evening after it cools down and pick up a few. Now I’m getting obsessed! I gotta have more rocks! As long as the pickin’ is good, why not? It will help offset the $6,000 it’s gonna cost me to hook up to the sewer. I couldn’t stand it, so I took a pic of a caboose next to one of my prizes. jb

#10

To quote my mother, “You have rocks in your head.”

#11

Only six grand?

Around here, 7500 frontage to the sewer district, Ron Sims has decreed to pay for the new treatment plants, 6K on hookup.
3500 MINIMUM for the side-sewer contractor, plus the permits, and then I get the priviledge of paying sewer fees every month.

We re-did the drain field 15 years ago, in the new plastic pipe, old concrete lasted over 30, and I don’t HAVE to hook up.
Nobody on the street is hooking up.

#12

And only the other day , an American tourist told me that Britain is quaint and backward . Hmmm . We put sewers in before houses .That’s backward . I see .
Mike
ps oh , dear , forgot to put the jokey smiley in . tut .

#13

Well, I’ll tell ya, Limey.

Around these parts, when this house went up, there were no sewers.

Of course, what I saw in London and surrounds, when said vaunted sewers dumped right into the Thames, untreated…

Course they fixed it now, right, after the Black Death.

Ooooops.

Hell, man, even the Romans had trenches for the stuff.

Septic is far less invasive of the environment.

#14

By golly , bet there were no roads either .
Mike
ps I had a septic finger once . That wasn’t too good for my environment .

#15

Dave,

You guys had a choice? When we got our sewer line about 12 - 13 years ago it only cost us $800 to hook up and it was manditory. One of my neighbors roughed up his yard to make it look like he did the install and got away with it he paid the sewer bill for the past dozen or so years with out being hooked up, then he had to sell the house last year. Due to the fact that they were doing about 100 hookups a week he got passed the inspectors. Until he went to sell the house.

The county took most of what he got for the house in fines after he did the hook up which now cost him almost $10,000.00. Needless to say he thinks he was the wronged party! But this is the same guy who would not pay his homeowner Assn Fees and then complain about the snow removal.

Ron

#16

<Only six grand?>

Yeah. That’s the going average rate today. We don’t have to hook up until 2010, but by then it’ll be prolly ten grand with inflation. So we’re doing it as soon as the freaking line is working.
Then pump the septic tank, fill it with sand, and cover the drain field with a nice new layout.
During this whole process, I lost a tree (Crabapple–hated the messy thing anyway) and my fence was damaged. The mailboxes have been missing for two weeks, but at least the paper boy leaves the paper in the driveway.
But by golly, I got rocks! :slight_smile: :slight_smile:
Gonna sneak over to their pile and steal some more this evening. By then they should all be picked over. I’ve left the big monsters for them to worry about.
jb

#17

“The county took most of what he got for the house in fines after he did the hook up which now cost him almost $10,000.00. Needless to say he thinks he was the wronged party! But this is the same guy who would not pay his homeowner Assn Fees and then complain about the snow removal.”

God how I love to hear a story like that. It does the heart good.

#18
Mike Morgan said:
And only the other day , an American tourist told me that Britain is quaint and backward . Hmmm . We put sewers in before houses .That's backward . I see . Mike
Mike:

That may be in the part of the country where you live, but when I was resident for ~8 years during the late '70s in Blackheath, SE3, I remember that one of the on-going discussions was the lack of sewer connections and the use of outhouses on numerous very small lots just down the hill in Lewisham. We found it interesting that the discussion wasn’t about unsanitary conditions, but rather the fact that old folks had to go outside in bad weather to use the toilet.

The Borough authorities were going to work on rectifying the situation. I’m not certain if that meant installing inside bathrooms or if they were just going to provide some public paid assistants to help the elderly to and from the outdoor facilities!!

John, All:

We had over 80" of rain here last season (Novemeber to April). We live on a flat valley bottom with 100% heavy clay soil. We couldn’t use our septic system for a couple of weeks at the end of the rainy season. I wish we could get a community sewer system here in Boonville, but the outcry is that it will encourage growth!

I’m jealous of your new rocks. I have a 17 hp Kubota diesel tractor with a loader, but it is limited to about 300# at the pins, so the rocks I harvest are very small compared to yours. I have gotten some that were too big to lift, but have been able to skid / roll them into place. None as big as yours though.

Happy RRing,

Jerry Bowers

#19

Well , at least one of you knew I was joking .
Thanks Dave .
Mike

#20

<I’m jealous of your new rocks. I have a 17 hp Kubota diesel tractor with a loader, but it is limited to about 300# at the pins, so the rocks I harvest are very small compared to yours. I have gotten some that were too big to lift, but have been able to skid / roll them into place. None as big as yours though.>

Last night while trying to roll a big one off the pile (and not hit my bobcat with it) it rolled right into the bucket. It was huge! I tried to lift it, but the rear end of the Bob came off the ground. I could hear the pumps groaning, so I dumped it. I didn’t want to blow the hydraulics.
I have an uppermost lift of #1000 lbs, but I can skid about #1500 along if I leave the bucket down.
jb