Five Talents - May 12 Update

Carol Reed

In Memoriam
Messages
5,533
Location
Coolidge, AZ
Two things to report.

The first is that I met with Kevin, my civil engineer last Friday. He did a topo survey, recording every tree, shrub, rock wall, drainage ditch, utilities, etc. From that he will design a septic plan for the county. That will also serve as the site plan to determine the location of the house on the property. Should have something in a few weeks. The good news is that he thinks all this is doable and maybe in half the time I had budgeted. His target date is completion by the end of this year! WooHoo. I better go earn some money to finish this!

Second, you all know about bringing Big John home. Then I got the small storage shed from park management. I currently live in a mobile home park with my MH. My space is limited. Big John needs some work and a Pickentote to build for it. I need some shade to work under. Since I cannot attach to anything here, I decided to build something I can dismantle when I move and reassemble at Five Talents - sort of like the London Bridge! Even got park management approval, as long as I don't attach anything permanently and move the entire thing out when I leave.

Here is a sketch.

shade.jpg

It is sized for the finished size of a 12x16 silver tarp from HF. All the space I have here - and probably there! Estimated cost is $250 and it will support my HF hoist - another one of my back-savers.
 
Adding four 5 gallon buckets filled with concrete/gravel and tying down the corners to them would help it stay in place if you get any wind. Alternatively (or maybe also :D) I'd make the tarp sacrificial and tie it on weak enough to that it could blow off without making the rest of the structure go airborn. Concrete would be my first choice for the buckets because you could embed some eye bolts into it and have an nice solid place to attach the tie downs.

edit: Oh and congrats on making progress, glad to hear its looking easier than anticipated for the first parts!
 
Thanks, Ryan,

I have a bunch of experience keeping my tarps in the same county when the wind blows. This is made of 4x4 headers and legs and there is a lot of wood in the roof framing. There should be weight aplenty. But if it lifts, concrete buckets are certainly an option. The other key is to keep the tarp are taunt as possible. Any billowing is added ammunition when gusts strike. That's why this structure is sized for this tarp. Each edge will be wrapped around a corner and screwed tight with 1" fender washers. Nothing to flap or billow. My experience shows this works.

Yeah, and I am amped that Five Talents may see completion long before I had planned. :highfive:
 
Boy it must be nice to be building something!

Are the four corners of the shade structure just standing on the ground? I'm sure there is not chance that with a hoist in the middle lifting some weight that the four corners could splay outward, but for my money I'd want to pin those four vertical 4x4s to the ground somehow. I understand you can't dig them in, but what about a metal bracket of some sort that you could drive an 18" long spike through, just to keep each leg where is is supposed to be? When you leave that spike could be removed with next to no damage to the ground.

Just thinking outloud here :D
 
Standing on concrete here, Stu. The 8 corner braces are unlikely to let the legs splay. This is designed with timber framing principles. If I have problems here I will know what to do when I reconstruct it at Five Talents.

The hoist is capable of 800 pounds, but I have never gotten close to that! I lift sheets of plywood to get them on a saw table for breakdown. I also use it to lift assemblies to 'muscle' them around while under construction. And when Big John gets an engine transplant, I see a motor being lifted.

And, yeah, I really anticipate the smell of sawdust soon!
 
More good news about Five Talents. The east neighbor was described to me by his neighbors to be a cranky old man, the self-elected curmudgeon of the neighborhood.

I just met the mail carrier for the area who finds the old gentleman a really nice guy. He has a facial disfiguration that causes him to be somewhat reclusive and he collects stuff - lots of stuff. One man's trash, one man's treasure, you know. I am looking forward to meeting him!
 
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