Putting on the "Big Top"

In addition to all the other nick names this project has been given; it now has another ... the circus aka the "big top" because it looks very similar to that and because activities on this farm often seem like running a circus.  Anyway, back on topic.  Tues Terry Weaver and his sons came to measure and remeasure and prepare for the big job on Wed.  The cement wall was 1 1/4  inches too small.  Not bad for a structure 100' in diameter.

The crew from started Wed morning @ 6:30am and finished setting the last piece at 9:30 Thurs morning.  I have to admit I was in awe of what these men and their machines could do just as I was with the cement crew and the trucking guy and everything else related to this project. Everything started out really smooth with setting the panels on the bolts that had been drilled into the cement on Tues.  However, when they got close to the half way point the weight of the panels began to put uneven pressure on things and started to shift.  No problem, just a little good farmer ingenuity as my husband calls it.  He brought out a tractor, excavator and dozer and attached cables to stabilize everything.  Problem solved.

The dozer & tractor with cables attached

But remember that inch and a quarter, well they started to address that by grinding a little off each panel and the excavator was relieved of it's duty as cable holder and was no used to hold each new panel in a little tighter.  Finally they were ready for the final panel.  After a little discussion it was decided to take the header out and bring in the final panel in from the bottom and bring it up.  The left side had to go under panel # 1 and over panel # 33.  While the crane lifted, Dave's loader tractor tipped it while the guys muscled it into place.  It took a little bit but success!!

The ho holding the panel tight

The discussion on how to get the last panel in

Now the header needed to be put back into place.  If it was a little tough getting it out, it was going to be a lot tougher getting it back in.  With the help of the crane which lifted it a little, Dave on the tractor and 2 guys on ladders it was finally wedged back into place with a good ol' sledge hammer putting on the finishing touches.

Whew, that must have gotten his heart rate up there

All that was left to do was to put on the top cap.  The two pieces first had to be bolted together and then lifted into place.  This was a piece of cake after what they had just completed.  The crew just has to finish up tightening a few nuts and bolts and their job will be done.

I have taken a bunch of pictures but I have to tell you; you had to be here in person to really appreciate it.  It was really impressive and definitely has the WOW factor.  Kyle will be putting it to good use right away as he has a couple of real greenies here for training and I think we'll use it for a place to have lunch during the upcoming Lucinda Green Clinic (June 3-4)

Many thanks to Vincent from Great Lakes Construction who was the person in charge of removing the domes from the City of Akron's Water Treatment Plant and who answered Dave's countless questions, to Doug Davidson for hauling and helping to unload the 5 loads of panels, to Precision Poured Walls for a great job of pouring the walls, to Chapel Zimmerman who brought the 162 yards of concrete, to Tony Weaver and the rest of the crew of Weaver construction for putting on the big top AND of course to my husband Dave!!  He is the one who saw the ad in the Farm and Dairy and asked what I thought, spent a lot of time on the phone gathering information and finding the right contractors (good job on that one)  and spent countless hours preparing the site which was on the side of a hill.  All of that and he won't even have a use for it himself!  Well not for its intended use anyway. Although I do think he had a little fun with this project ;)

For those of you who haven't been here is awhile you can see where the dome is by going to this  link to the Google map of the farm which was taken about a month ago.  If you zoom in you can see the site for the dome between the east dressage arena and the stabling barns. Enjoy the pictures and come out and see it some time.

Jackie

Panels waiting to be put in place

The center support was on a platform on top of a lift

The airlift it the third of 34 panels

Fourth Panel

The crane was inside the structure to begin with

Window panel preparing for liftoff

We have liftoff

Gliding into place

A 1/3 of the way done (the easy 1/3 as it turned out)

Inside looking out

8 left to go

Putting into place is getting more precise

Dave looks like he's flying a kite 

Taking the header out

The last one!!

Guiding the last one into place

Tipping it into place

Getting closer

Just a little more

Quick, get those bolts in

Crane removing some of the pressure so the header can get back in

Tightening the bolts before the top goes on

The top cap

View from the east (driveway side dug into the hill)

View from the west

View from the North  (the arena side)

View from the South (the barn side)

From the top looking up the hill

A new judge's stand ?

Dave's "Big Idea" - Let the Building Begin

Today is the start of the final phase of Dave's Big Idea aka known as the dome, covered round pen, the space ship or as Dave has been calling it "the $2 steak".  The $2 steak you ask ... that's when you go to the grocery store to buy a $2 steak & end up spending a whole lot more money on other things.  Well that's kind of what happened with this project ;)  In any case, I have missed blogging about the beginning of the building phase of this project, putting up the cement wall.

The site prep took the better part of the month of April and the wall was poured the week before our Winona Horse Trials on Mother's Day weekend ...whew  Dave was a very busy guy.  As they say a picture is work a thousand words so I'm going to let the pictures do the talking.

A 6' cut into the side of the hill

Digging for the footer ... follow the dotted line

Hauling topsoil to make a berm on the south side of the new show jumping arena

View from west to east - footers have been poured

A different perspective

Pouring the footer

More pouring of the footer

Rebar in the footer - Wie's ears ;)

Unloading the forms

More unloading of forms

Setting the forms and rebar

3 of the 7 trucks that each brought 2 loads!!

Pouring cement

The boom had a reach of more than 100'

The boom is above the trees

Finished product from the inside looking out

The outside

Packing up the forms 

It took 30 days for Dave to prepare the site and 3 days to pour the walls!!

If you missed the earlier installations of Dave's "big idea"  here are the links:

http://stonegatefarmeventing.blogspot.com/2011/12/daves-really-really-big-idea-phase-1.html

http://stonegatefarmeventing.blogspot.com/2012/04/site-prep-for-dome.html

Well I have to go and see what this crew has gotten done so far.  Stay tuned, we should have the roof on in a couple of days.

Jackie

Multiple Major Projects

Whew, Dave has been busy with several major projects.  He has been working hard for the past couple of weeks preparing the site for the dome.   After stripping the topsoil he had several huge piles of topsoil.  Since the south side of the new show jumping arena drops off significantly Dave hauled numerous loads of topsoil to the show jumping ring.  The borrowed dump trailer couldn't manage to dump a full load  so it took almost twice as many trips to get enough topsoil to build up a berm.  But the time and effort will be well worth it when we get the first BIG rain and the footing doesn't get washed away.

Now it was time to get the ring finished.  The drainage trenches that Dave dug in the middle of the winter sometime were now pushed back and Dave did a final rough grading before Dave Frey came out with the the magic machine; the lazer grader.  A really slick machine that uses a lazer level to adjust the grader.  My Dave had done a pretty good job with the rough grading that it only took Dave Frey about and hour and a half to finish the job ;)  Over the weekend Dave Frey came back with a vibrating roller to compact the base.  This week we get the sand and except for building the banks and landscaping the arena will be done.

The Berm

The Lazer Grader

Dave & Dave riding the vibrating roller

Looking from the NW corner to the SE.  Last pic before the sand!!

 Speaking of the banks (which will be used for the NEW Jumper Derby in Oct) there will be a two smaller banks at the east end of the ring, a one stride step up for Training in the middle and bounce banks on the west end.  I had wanted the one stride to come into the ring about 12' so you could also go up and across the bank.  Dave was adamantly against it until he discovered that the pesky little wet spot was actually a spring!  He put a tile in and it's doing a good job of taking the water away, but he decided that putting a bank on top of it might be a better solution ;)  Since Dave has to return the dump trailer soon and he has a lot of subsoil to get ride of, he spent the afternoon hauling dirt to where we're going to need fill for the banks.  I have no idea if those are going to be done before the event or not but at least the fill dirt will be there when we're ready ;)

As you may recall, we put in a tile line to help dry out the area near the ditches.  To further improve the footing in the area Dave brought over some topsoil to bring up the ground even more.  Unfortunately the top soil was loaded with stones which took a few hours to pick up.  I felt like I was cleaning a giant outdoor stall picking out stones with a pitchfork!

The sand will be delivered this week and Dave hopefully will  finish prepping the site for the dome wall so that can get poured the end of the month and between all of that we have a horse trials to get ready for ;)

Prepping the dome site by digging the subsoil and moving it down the hill to level the area

Stay tuned for more details on these and other projects on the farm.

Jackie

Site Prep for the "Dome"

The mild winter and early spring has us a little ahead of schedule on the "dome" project.  For those who are unfamiliar with the "dome" project; it's basically it's a 100' diameter fiberglass water treatment plant top that we bought last fall to make into a large covered round pen.  The only catch is we need a 10' cement wall to mount the dome to.

Dave has contacted several contractors and the cost of the cement wall was quite a bit more expensive than we had anticipated but when we got a bid for several thousand dollars less we decided we better jump on it before the price goes up. The contractors came out last week to check out the site and the dome and said that they could pour the wall by the end of April. Since the weather has been cooperative and it's going to be a major earth moving job; Dave started preparing the site this weekend.  The east end of the site has be lowered and have that dirt pushed to the west side to get the entire area level.  But before beginning to level the ground Dave had to strip all the top soil and pile it out of the way..

Sadie playing queen of the mountain ;)

Feb Farm Projects

          Tile trench to the east of the ditches                 

It's hard to believe that we have been able to get outdoor farm projects done this time of year.  The first weekend in Feb found Dave digging a trench and laying a tile line by the ditches to help keep the ground in better condition no matter the weather and prepares a site for a new Beginner Novice ditch.  That ditch won't be ready until the fall event because we have to level off some ground and push that down to the low spot in front of the Novice and Training ditches and we don't want all that fresh dirt before Winona.  By pushing some dirt into the low spot combined with the drain tile; the footing should be pretty high and  dry.

Draining the ditch jumps and the site of the new Beg Novice ditch

When Dave was done with the tile line he took his min excavator back to the woods to dig some drainage ditches in four of the wet spots and laying 10" clay culverts to essentially make dirt bridges over the wet spots.  I''m glad Kevin was home to help because those culverts were pretty heavy.  The plan is to let things dry out and do the final grading this spring so they will good to go for the spring Hunter Pace. The following pictures show Kevin & Dave setting one of the clay culverts, the excavator giving the culverts (2 -3 150lb culvert) a gentle nudge ti get them in  place, and a look at the whole Dave had to dig to get enough dirt to mound up over a low wet spot we haven't been able to use in years.

The second weekend as cold and snowy but the third weekend, although a bit chilly was good and dry so Dave got the mini excavator out again but this time it was to transplant some trees and bushes.  We planted 4 trees back by the new stadium area so spectators can have a shady place to watch the show jumping or clinics.  I'm afraid they won't provide much shade this season, but hopefully it won't be too long before they are producing enough shade.  As you can see; I am being very optimistic about the weather, plenty of sun.  The way I look at it; we paid our dues with the wet weather last year and we should have good weather this year :)

In addition to the trees, we had to replace two of the tall bushes next to the water jump.  These bushes are a little smaller and in better condition than the ones we transplanted last year so hopefully these will make

it.                                                                                                       

Next on the list is aerating the dressage warm up.  The ground has dried enough to get a tractor on it without making a mess and it will allow the spring rains soak in a little better. Here's hoping that we have normal spring rains this year.  That's it for now.  I hope you all have been enjoying the nice weather we have been having this winter.

Jackie

New On-line Forms for Clinics and Competitions

I have been working forms that you can fill out and submit on line as well as the option of paying on line.  I am hoping that you will take advantage of using these forms as it will not only hopefully will be more convenient for you but it will streamline that data entry for me as well.

Check out forms and the online payment forms on the Camps and Clinics page and the  Competitors' Corner.