Electrical Service - Removing Old Equipment

When the electric company visited a couple of weeks back, we discussed options for obtaining electric service.  They prefer to install above ground service where the customer's meter/breaker pole is 20 to 25 foot from the main service pole.  

There is an existing pole on the property but it is about 50' from the main service pole.  I'd already decided against using this pole for the electrical service for a few reasons:

1. The pole is on the wrong side of the drive for entering the property resulting in electrical wires running over the drive.
2. The existing meter and breaker box could not be used as the brass connectors are all incredibly rusted and are only for 100 amp service.
3. The existing location is a real eye sore as it is very visible and the new location would be in the far corner of the property.

I decided to leave the pole for now but remove all equipment from the pole.  Later, I might decide to remove the pole or just use it to mount a light which could be used to light up the area around the cabin.  After removing all the hardware, I leveled the ground around the pole and then stacked a few rocks around it to keep weeds and grass from growing right next to it.

The utility pole only had one line running from it to a small RV pole right in front of the new cabin location.  I was not opposed to leaving the small RV pole but considering I would be using a new meter pole, I'd have to rerun all the wiring to it so I decided to remove it too.  Luckily, the wiring from the meter pole to the small RV pole was only about 6 inches below the ground so I was able to pull it up by hand.  This cleaned up the area even more and will open more options for installing the cabin.

I've kept all the equipment as I might try to use the breaker box, the metal outlet boxes or some of the other equipment in the shed later.  For now, I'll just put them in the shed for storage.

Cabin Preparation - Preparing the Cabin to Move

The cabin was placed on my parents land as a place to stay overnight when out at the land working or hunting.  The following picture is of the cabin being delivered back in 2009 or 2010.

Initially, the cabin was just a place to get out of the elements and stay the night.  A generator was placed in a storage building outside the cabin to power lights, a few outlets, and a window AC unit.  It stayed this way for quite some time and we ate meals at the picnic table, used the AC to stay cool inside on hot days, and my wife and I even stayed the night in the cabin on two or three occasions to go hunting.  

In May of 2014, we decided to put up cattle panels around the cabin so it would not be damaged by cows which were added to the property.  This gave us a little more flexibility as the dogs could stay with us overnight.  We could then let them out at night without fear of them running off.  It also kept wild animals from getting right next to the cabin at night.

In 2015, electricity was added to the property for a future house build.  The electricity was run to the cabin and there was no longer a need for the generator.  I did not use it a great deal in 2015 but my parents did as cleared the land for the addition of their house.  Once their house was finished in November of 2015, the cabin became more used for storage than anything else.

Today, after winding down after Christmas morning, we decided to remove everything from the cabin.  We loaded all the contents into my truck and my dad's and moved it to his shop.  We then disconnected the electrical lines to the cabin and a water line he had running in to a sink.  We still have the fence in place and will remove it on the day they move the cabin as we don't want cattle up on the porch causing damage.

Aside from removing a few tree limbs at my property, I think we are ready to have the cabin moved.  I called earlier in the week and they said that they could get it done the second or third week in January as long as the weather is good.  I'm ready.

Cabin Site Preparation - Installing Piers 2

I'm still in shock over what we have been able to accomplish.  As we make progress, I start to realize how long this would have taken with my plan to do it myself with hand tools and renting an auger.  

When we left the day before, we had 12 of the posts complete leaving only 12 more to do this morning.  I arrived a little early to meet the electric company as I'd called them to evaluate adding service to my property.  They gave me a few options and stated they would send me a plan by email in a few days.

Shortly after the electric company left, my dad arrived and we started up on our third and final day of work.  After refining our plan over the past two days, we made quick progress digging the holes and installing the piers.

All of the piers are at least 20" in the ground but the posts along the front are deeper (~24").  The back holes were hard to get deep because we kept hitting really hard clay.  However, I though was that if we could not dig any further with the weight of the skid steer on the auger bit, the hard packed clay should be enough to hold the cabin well.

We moved at a rate of four posts per hour which was pretty good.  It was hard to get the 8" auger centered exactly so I ended up using a post hold digger to clean out the holes and line them up so all the posts were installed in a straight line.  Our pace slowed incredibly on the last hole when we encountered two very large roots.  We suspect they were part of the trees we removed as the back of the cabin is now where the trees were at but we were able to remove enough that the bottom of the post was on a firm footing.

We stood back and admired the work for a while and then decided to start putting up some of the tools we had laying everywhere.  My dad leveled out the land a little more and I started using a small disc he had to break up the top soil where he had driven the skid steer.  I was able to drive between some of the post but not all of them.  Where I could not go, I used a small rake to level out the ground around the piers.  As I finished leveling the ground, my dad threw out some rye seed he had in hopes that it would sprout and help hold the loose dirt in place over the winter.

The following pictures show the state of the land as we were leaving at the end of the day.

Cabin Site Preparation - Installing Piers

My dad and I made incredible progress yesterday on preparing the cabin site.  I'd taken off three days to work on the land not thinking we would get as far as we did.  After working on it yesterday, my dad volunteered to keep working on it with me and push through to get more done.  

After working on the land yesterday, I took my dad out for mexican food and margaritas and then we stopped by Lowe's.  We now have a total of 12 pressure treated piers which we will cut up to become piers for the cabin foundation.  The piers are 6"x 6" and are 8' long.  The goal is to end up with 24 piers with six running down each of the skids which run underneath the cabin.

The skids which run underneath the cabin are 4"x 4".  The 6"x 6" piers will provide us with a solid structure but also with some flexibility.  Since they are larger than the skids, it will be easier for the moving company to put the cabin in place.  This also makes it such that any slight variance when installing the piers does not make the foundation questionable.  

Before digging the first hole, we needed to put a few corner posts in the ground to layout the cabin footprint again.  With the tree stumps removed and the ground leveled, we were able to move the cabin back a little further from the road which is great.  It took a little time to measure out the footprint and ensure it was square with corner measurements but we were able to get it done.

The skid steer has an 8" auger bit which was used to make holes for the piers.  I'd originally thought I would dig these by hand or rent a post hole digger.  The skid steer made quick work of the holes.  What is even better is that my dad would lift the front wheels of the skid steer placing all of its weight on the auger bit.  We went deep enough that it would not dig anymore which should give us a much firmer foundation than I would have been able to accomplish with any hand held option.

We worked out the location on the four corner posts first.  We took our time working on the holes and putting in the post such that they were square.  We relied upon my pictures (posted here previously) of the cabin skids to ensure that the piers would land immediately under them.  This obviously meant that the piers are not at the corners of 16' by 32'.

With the corner posts all firmly in the ground, we stopped to eat lunch.  When we resumed, we ran sting to ensure the rest of the posts across the front and back would be in a straight line, of the same height, and then used a level to ensure they were perfectly level.  My dad would dig the holes with the skid steer, I'd cut the post and put it in place, he would hold it level, and then I would back fill with concrete, or gravel depending upon the post.  Regardless of if the post was put in place with concrete or gravel, they all had 2" of gravel put in the hole before the post was added to keep the bottoms from rotting.

At the end of day two, we had the front four piers in concrete, rear four in concrete, and four along one side in gravel.  You can tell from the picture below that we were able to level the land some but there is still a fair amount of elevation change.  This will place the front of the cabin a little high but will at least ensure that there will be plenty of water runoff so we don't have water sitting around the bottom of the cabin or piers.

My dad and I were completely exhausted at the end of the day.  We pushed ourselves really hard over the past two days.  I was starting to get easily frustrated and the two of us started making small mistakes as we were no longer as quick witted as the beginning of the day so we decided to stop.  We went back to his house, at some chicken, and just sat on the couch for a few hours to recover for another day.

Cabin Site Preparation - Stump Removal and Ground Leveling

My dad and I started work today on removing tree stumps and leveling the ground for the cabin.  My dad met me at the land with his New Holland LS180 skid steer which incredibly impacted what we were able to accomplish.  We arrived at 8:30 and he immediately started work on the stumps.

The stumps were rather difficult to remove as the roots had all grown together.  As he dug up around them, I cut a few of the larger roots with my chainsaw.  Ultimately, the answer was to just keep digging deeper around them with the skid steer and essentially slam the skid steer into them until the roots broke.

The largest tree was as expected the hardest to remove.  We somewhat expected it would break loose and leave most of the roots underground.  However, it did not and in the picture below you can see that the skid steer was used to dig almost three foot deep before the stump could be removed.

To my surprise, by 9:45 all the trees were removed and he was able to level out the land a little with the bucket of the skid steer.  Needless to say, I was shocked at what was possible with his skid steer.  

We spent the next few hours loading up the stumps and root pieces and dropping them off in the fenced area we call the garden.  We now have a burn pile there which we will burn once the wood all dries out.  For now, we have done way more than I imagined.  The project is really starting to look good now.