ArizonaRanch

  More Water Line Installation by admin on Jun.20, 2006, under Water System Final Fitting 17 June 2006. As you can see, prefitting everything didn’t work out all that well. I had to refit several connections, due to my inability to line up the trencher as well as I should have. It all worked out, but took longer than expected. Here, I had to use a shovel to widen the trench to accommodate a little different angle than I had planned for.   A little Off Final Fitting 17 June 2006. Next, I continued with the run to the wash house to the left. Nothing too difficult at this point.   Fixing It Final Fitting 17 June 2006. Again, I had to widen the trench in a few places to account for different angles. I was digging there anyway, due to a root that was in the way.   Fine Tuning the Trench Final Fitting 17 June 2006. At this point, about 15 feet from the wash house, I needed to start getting ready to go back to town. This was late Sunday afternoo...

  Water Line Installation – Con’t by admin on Jun.20, 2006, under Water System Digging Dirt – Again 16 June 2006. As mentioned, digging was a little harder than I expected. Each time I hit a sizable rock, I had to stop the machine and clear it by hand. The ditch is generally 12″ to 18″ below grade, which should be enough to keep us from freezing.   Trenching near Tank Digging Dirt – Again 16 June 2006. There were a few spots in which tree roots prevented digging with the trencher. These had to be cut out by hand, with an axe, pick and shovel. The entire length of the trench had to be cleaned by hand, as much of the loose dirt/rocks simply fell to the bottom, rather than being ejected out the side. I was still able to keep this portion in the 12″ to 18″ depth.   Trenching to the WashHouse Digging Dirt – Again 16 June 2006. This area actually runs directly through a path under some trees. Surprisingly, roots and rocks were not much of a problem h...

  Water Line installation by admin on Jun.20, 2006, under Water System Water Lines 16 June 2006. The next task is to run the water lines from the water tank to the little house site and the wash house site. I stopped in Prescott and picked up this trencher from United Rental.   Trencher Water Lines 16 June 2006. The trencher is a walk-behind model similar to the one we rented a couple years ago for the sewer lines. I found this one to be a little harder to control, due to it’s steering mechanism – the rear wheels turn. It is easier to run while backing up, but difficult to line up for your trench line while going forward. The Blue handle locks or unlocks the rear wheels together. It is easier to go straight when the wheels are locked. The Green handle raises and lowers the blade. The big Orange handle is for steering. It also acts as a dead man’s switch, killing the engine, if you let go. That was kind of a pain… The little orange handle engages the...

  Driving around the North part of the Ranch by admin on May.30, 2006, under Area While we were out looking for buffalo, we decided to continue exploring. We headed East on the road that skirts the western edge of Black Mountain. Even though our map didn’t show a connection to El Portal Road, we were able to get there by some exploration. The route wasn’t even off-road.   El Portal Road On the El Portal Road, in Bridge Canyon, there is Black Mountain Well. It appears that the well is no longer in use, as it is capped, and the windmill is disconnected. It still runs in the wind, but the cable is not connected to the jack.   Black Mountain Well Here is a close up of the well jack. It has a weighted pivot that helps push the pump down on the downstroke. The cable hanging above it would attach to the head up on top and go up and down as the head goes around.   Disconnected Well Jack

  The Buffalo Ranch down the road by admin on May.30, 2006, under Area 26 May 2006 We heard that someone down south of us was raising Buffalo, so we set out to find them. They are down in the flats about 3 or 4 miles southwest of our place. Here is a view of the Buffalo Ranch.   Buffalo Ranch Here are some of the Buffalo there. We think we see about six of them, but have heard that there are eleven total.   Some Buffalo 2 comments for this entry (from previous blog...): Howard Baughman July 19th, 2010 on 7:01 pm I have 20 acres near Snowflake and would like any information you have about raising buffalo in Arizona admin July 23rd, 2010 on 12:43 pm Well, I don’t really know anything about raising buffalo in Arizona. This is just a post about the attempt down the road a bit from me. Last I heard, they had folded up and stopped raising buffalo there.

  Washhouse Electrical & A Little Paint by admin on May.28, 2006, under WashHouse Power Distribution May 27, 2006. Power for the water pump comes from an on-board 12 volt marine battery. I know, a real deep-cycle would be better, but we had this available, and it works for now. We had been hauling the battery back and forth to Mesa for each trip. I was visiting Harbor Freight in Mesa one day, and came across a 5-watt solar panel for $39.99 For that price, I said why not try it? I know it can only replace perhaps 2.5 amp-hours per day, but we are normally only here once a month, and usually only for a couple of days. So we have maybe 20 days of charging between visits. So that’s about 50 amp-hours of replacement charging between visits. So we installed the solar panel on the roof . All of the books I read say that charging a 100 amp-hour battery at 300millamps will not overcharge it, no matter how long you leave it on. It supposedly has to do with in...

  Water Tank Installation by admin on May.24, 2006, under Water System Water System For a few years, our plan is to have water delivered as needed. We can get 2500 gallons delivered for about $70. Later we will add a well, so that we can support growing fruit trees and a garden.   First Water Tank Water Tank Preps 22 May 2006. We start by selecting a fairly level site for the water tank near the little house. It is a couple of feet uphill from the house, which provides for gravity feed to a pressure pump inside the house.   Clearing and Leveling Here, we have excavated a 10-foot diameter circle to level it out, so the tank will not be lop-sided. We did this by hand tools – a pick, shovels, and rake. There are still a few small rocks inside the site which must be dealt with. We don’t want them to puncture the plastic tank. Smooth & Level When our good neighbor, Murphy came down to see how we were doing, he asked if we had any fill for the hol...