Outdoors

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Simondale Excavating from Warriors Mark, PA

Simondale Excavating is doing an excellent job of leveling some ground on a hillside.  If you need any excavation work in the Altoona/Tyrone/Huntingdon/State College area (or nearby), do not hesitate to call Jim or Matt at (814) 632-8590.

Upon meeting Jim Simondale and Matt Simondale, I was very impressed by their knowledge, demeanor, and interest in my project.  I met with them 3 times on site prior to starting this project, and every detail has been covered as discussed.

This may seem like a small thing, but I appreciated that all of their equipment (trucks, excavators, bull dozers, etc…) were newer models, very well maintained, clean (as is reasonable), and had their logo painted neatly across.  All signs of being professional.

[As I understand it, they are also do quite a number of septic systems and sand mounds.]

Update: June 2011: Matt and Jim and their crew came out again and did another whole round of grading, moving, and excavating.  They built and/or surfaced over 1/4 mile of slate covered roads, dug a pond, corrected some frost damage to earthen banks, and made everything really nice.  I thought the price estimate was very fair, and they came in dead on, despite doing a number of extras.  Here is an updated photo:

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Outstanding view from the top of the hill.

See how nice the grading of the bank is?  All done with the large excavator pictured above.

And Mr. Ezra, standing on top of the hill…

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Trees, Trees, and No Trees

Loggers hard at work, clearing enough ground to build a road and level part of the mountain.

This photo is epic, considering the perspective of two youngsters overlooking that much mountain and trees and streams and huge equipment that looks like toys.

(Epic, adj, “Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size”)

A view up the hill from the bottom.

And lastly, a view north where the road is planned to come in.

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Felling a tall hardwood tree with Lofty Heights Logging, LLC.

UPDATE: Lofty Heights Logging LLC. Now has a website!

www.loftyheightslogging.com

Lofty Heights Logging hard at work clearing some ground for us.  In this 1 minute video, you can see a tree go down.  In person, the whipping sound made by the twigs was impressive, and the crash when it impacted the ground sounded almost like an explosion. If you are anywhere near the Altoona, PA area and need any timbering, logging, or tree cutting, I highly recommend you call Earnest Ebersole at (814) 201-0331.

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More wooden pegs

We’ve been refining the art of driving wooden pegs.  By the way, if you get a high end cordless drill, I recommend Hitachi over  Porter Cable.  The proter cable (18V Lithium) didn’t have the power, or battery life to drill these holes, and the gear box eventually stripped out.

The Hitachi drill powers right through and keeps going.  Even it’s drill setting will “slip” if subject to too much torque, but it seems to be a reasonable point that is adequate for heavy duty drilling.

 

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A big measuring tape and a right triangle

Just a good picture of Eli (with Ezra and Anna in the background) holding a 300′ measuring tape.

We needed to make a right angle, so I explained to them that a triangle with the sides

3, 4, 5

will be a 100% right triangle.  So we measured 15′, 20′, and 25′ around three stakes, and that is how we got our right angle :)

For anyone who has been out of high-school long enough to forget, the equation is:

A*A + B*B = C*C

That is…

3*3 + 4*4 = 5*5
9 + 16 = 25
25=25
True

See more about Pythagoras and his Pythagorean Theorem at Wikipedia…

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A square peg in a round hole?

Yep.  We are building a rough wooden table out of the trees we cut down for a clearing on our land.  Rather than use screws or nails or saws, we opted for the axe, drilling holes, and wooden pegs.

Actually, almost all of the wood pictured was cut with a Friskars Chopping Axe.  Eventually, I got tired of chopping and purchased a nice Stihl chainsaw to help out.  Regardless, the hewing and fitting is still done with the axe.

The top boards are half-logs of a maple tree.  The pegs, also, are green maple, that we squared off with a knife and pounded into 1″ holes.