The Squamidian Report – Oct. 25 / 08

 

Issue #335

 

Including:

The Ontarion

 

Hi All,

 

One of the things we do where I work is install underground services. This means stuff like putting in sewer, storm, and water lines as well as running the conduit for hydro and communications. We’ve started installing the underground services for a commercial complex that well house a dozed or so small businesses that will be in the units of the three proposed buildings. Because the whole valley bottom, including where this development is going, is now and has been flood plain for centuries, the land has to be prepared for development before any development can happen. Preparation means removing all the overburden right down to the structural, clean gravel, often to well below the water table. It wasn’t always done like that. There are many areas in the valley where the buildings and roads and infrastructure are sitting on 10 feet of mud, logs and stumps. Like most of the downtown!

 

This particular lot we are servicing is in the industrial park, but was never properly prepared. A 4-foot deep top layer of gravel had been spread over the lot and a pre-load had been placed quite a while ago, but no one paid any attention to what was actually underneath. Don’t know how it got past the design engineers. This lot has belonged to the local concrete company and it turns out that they used it for decades as a place to dump extra concrete and to wash out their trucks. So once we started to excavate, we very quickly found that there is a layer of concrete under the gravel that covers the whole lot. In some places it is only a foot or so thick and the big 330 Deere that I am running has no problem cutting through. However, we are finding sections where the concrete is a good 5-feet thick. That’s just a bit too much to ask of any machine. Our trenches are going down to about the 10-foot level so we have to get all the way through. To make it worse, under the concrete is mud, stumps and shmoo.

 

Anyway, I needed to dig through the thick concrete. One solution was to get a hold of a big breaker but none is available. So after way too much pounding and banging and abuse to the excavator I came up with an idea. I went hunting on the undeveloped lot beside our site, for a very large rock. I found a perfect one about the size of a refrigerator and carted it back. It was too big to fit in my digging bucket but we have thumbs one these machines so getting a good hold was not a problem. All I needed to do was lift the rock up to about 15-feet above an area of concrete and let it drop. Two or three drops and the old concrete would break enough for the 330 to pull out. Just that easy.

 

So we have adapted this rock as our ‘pet rock’ and have named it Freda. Don’t know why that name but it seems to fit. Our big pet rock is now sitting in a place of honor on our job site, waiting patiently for when we dig into the next section of thick concrete. And the best part is, there is absolutely no danger that anyone will walk off it!

 

doug

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THE ONTARION REPORT

 

Hello everyone!

 

With fall reaching the mid way point, it’s that time of year where people start to pack away all of their outdoor summer items. I’ve spent a day or so each of the past couple of weekends readying things for the oncoming cold season. The pond is closed, the garden gnomes are hiding in the shed and it’s time to pack the outdoor furniture away. That means emptying the shed and reorganizing whatever we have that usually fits in the shed for the winter. Gotta bring the snow blower out and place it in the garage. The patio table and chairs go in the shed along with the pond pump and fittings. Adam and I spent a day replacing the lighting in the garage. I had older fluorescent lighting fixtures on the ceiling and they have been getting dimmer and dimmer with each passing year. Adam being an electrician brought home a half dozen new style fixtures to replace the old ones. He bought the new ones because they are designed to work efficiently at sub zero temperatures. Since we work in the garage year round doing different projects we need good lighting out there. The new lights are amazing and are much brighter than the ones they replaced. We finished installing the last two fixtures today and got a good start on clearing up the items that collect in the garage over the summer. We’re going to store the MG and the two motorcycles in the garage this winter and keep both cars outside. It seems the toys are more precious than the everyday vehicles. LOL!

 

When you start to take a good look at the number of things you own and have to have a place for it amazes me. I guess after 36 years of marriage you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. We may just be in a position where we have to start unloading some of the collectables. I’m sure that’d mean beginning with the wife’s stuff first because a guy only accumulates stuff that is absolutely necessary to life and should only part with whatever it is when he gets a better version of that item. So the garage is the last place that should be culled of its tools, gadgets and thingamabobs when more room is needed. There always seems to be a place for whatever a guy has to store. Garages don’t look right unless they have shelves and cupboards loaded to the hilt as well as hooks nails and racks of all kinds on every wall. A mezzanine above the garage doors is always a bonus for stacking boxes of stuff as well. After taking a good look around in there today I’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t need to get rid of a thing. We just need a larger garage!

Now all I have to do is convince Carole of that and we can start shopping around for a triple or quad garage with a nice little house beside it and we’ll be back in business! Hahhahaaa…… I guess that’s not the best idea I’ve come up with lately so maybe I’ll just drop that one and keep packing my stuff in a more organized manner. As it turns out, everything we have inside the house has too much sentimental value to part with so asking Carole to sell off or just toss out any of that stuff is out of the question as well. What’s a guy to do?

 

 That’s about it for this week.

 

Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report.

 

Bye for now… Greg.

 

PS: Something To Think About>

They used to say “A penny saved is a Penny earned!”.

These days the saying is “A Loonie saved is 76.2 cents earned!

 

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Have a good one..

the doug

http://www.thedougsite.ca

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