Quads And A New Lifestyle

[asbo]

Love the pics and videos xman

[xman]

Nice to know your enjoying Asbo. Just really busting my arse to get this house "wife happy" so I can go do some good man shit. I know there are two old gold mines on the place, open cut, as we have seen them on the quads while exploring the place but I haven't had the camera on me at the time and it involves a lot of walking because it really is hard log hopping on the quads. These mines are from the 1910 - 1920 era and are just at the top of two of the hills. I figure what these guys did with picks and shovels I can do with the tractor in no time and once the tractor is down there I can get some good roads into the mines in the bush. I also want to put in 3 or 4 dams on the creeks down the back of the block because when it rains, the creeks run well but it all goes straight down the valley and into the back creek. Pretty much a waste of water I think and once there is a reliable supply of water in the dams, the animals will stay all year round not that there isn't already heaps of animals. Getting the tractor and vehicles down the back also lets me access all the trees which could be fire wood sales or once I buy the mill, a good source of cash from the wood sales. Looking so forward to start on the property rather than just the house itself. Looks like I got a fine dog coming my way, an Australian Cattle dog. It will be a pup from the Northern Territory my produce and animal feed supplier knows of but I have been after one since we bought the farm so coming from the N.T. is the least of my worries. My import partner has some goats for me to have and goats do go well in the farm's area. I've got a lot of fencing to do before I start animal farming though. Always wanted to do some quail farming as well because they are in high demand out here and very few suppliers. Thought it time I tell you guys what I have planned for this farm rather than just pics of a house being built. I promise it will get more exciting.

[asbo]

I promise it will get more exciting.

Gold mining sounds pretty exciting to me There's bound to be some they missed in the olden days

[xman]

This page had me interested in gold when I first saw it just as we bought the farm..............
http://www.resources.nsw.gov.au/__data/ ... posits.pdf

Unlike all the other gold fields, this place was never mined out.

[restless]

Very envious xman. If I win lotto I'm moving to Australia

[xman]

I spent another couple of days down the farm last week and had a day on the chainsaw to clear out around the house. These trees had me real worried being so close when the bushfire came through and now is the time to remove them and turn the trunks into next year's firewood and burn the heads of the trees at our upcoming bonfire night.
Before............



And after..........






23 trees in all and they were all scrappy trees that were never going to turn into anything decent and a major fire risk being so close to the house.



I had the wife's buggy working hard moving the firewood. Normally I'd use the quad and the trailer to move wood but this buggy worked out better as it had to negotiate in between the fallen trees and the trailer on the quad is an arse to reverse. This buggy did about 12 trips of wood like this and I'm about 1/2 way through. I'll store the cut logs away so they can dry out for next year's season.
As you can see, it's also "Bogon Moth" season. These moths spawn in the Aussie desert and move in swarms over the country to the ocean and continue to fly over the ocean till they drop into the sea where the waiting Australian salmon and tuna are waiting like they do ever season. Seems all the animals have this worked out except the moths themselves...........




On the building side, the main bathroom is about done walling and plumbing wise and the 2nd bathroom / toilet is also well underway.





All the roof beams have now been clad in timber to give the inside of the house that "Shooting Lodge" appearance I've been after.




Just need to install the false ceiling between the exposed beams and it will be done, this side of the house anyway.
That's what I'm up to and will be down again in a week or so. It's getting close boys.

[xman]

Well after another couple more days and a lot of work, progress is looking good I think although as with all farms, the work I have planned will out live me and I'd expect my sons will continue on where I have left off. I now have water running in the first bathroom and now have a vanity with running water to it and at this time of year, believe me, that water is very cold. I also have water running at the kitchen sink so I no longer need to fill the water drum on the kitchen bench which is cool but the water has no pressure so I now need to build a tower for the 1000 liter water tank. I'm looking at building a 4 meter tower on top of the shipping container the tank now sits on and I'm hoping 1st that this will give me the required water pressure and 2nd, I can work out how the hell to get the tank up there.
This is the shipping container with the water tank at present...




I had to go into town to grab some plumbing parts I needed and drove through some of the bush burnt by the recent bush fires and after only 4 months, It never ceases to amaze me how quick the Aussie bush recovers from fire. Here's two pics of then and now.




First bathroom is just about ready for tiling. Good thing I just learnt how to tile walls and floors aye....



Toilet outside walls are all blocked and ready for painting.....




I now have door locks fitted in the up stairs balcony doors so no more needing to pull screws out to go out on the balconys.




I started with the paneling up stairs on the walls ready for painting. Insulation goes in and wood panels over the top...



I had an order of structural steel arrive so I could start to build the workshop roof, kitchen extensions and guest room frames and I suppose now the water tower..




I'm really hoping I ordered enough because getting steel brought out here comes at a cost but I do need to order the roofing sheet in another order, once I work out what size I need so any extra structural steel I need, I can get then I guess.

I also had a go of my tractor and after some teaching from my glazier, I can now drive a tractor. Now I just need heaps of practice. I had a go at getting out a couple of the tree stumps I had left after cutting down the trees last week and quickly come to the conclusion I need a chain to tow the stumps out rather than trying to push them out with the tractor. The tractor just started burying itself as it spun all four wheels. This trunk actually split in two after one, I tried to push it out and then pull it out using the bucket. Short of digging out around the roots and then pushing it out, I think I'll need to chain around the top of the trunk and pull them out although I'm really open for suggestions on this problem. If I can't get them out using the tractor, I guess I'll dig out around the stump and chainsaw the trunk below ground height. I really need these stumps gone now and not wait till they die off.



I have another couple of days next week to get this place ready for visitors we are having down over the long weekend next week so I hope I can finish off a few more jobs by then.

[whufclee]

xman, come on mate play the game... don't you own a chisel?

I've never seen a door hung with the hinges on the face of the door. However what do I know, maybe that's the done thing in Oz

As always, nice work mate. Hopefully one day I'll get over there and help you drink some of that booze.

[Geeba]

xman, come on mate play the game... don't you own a chisel?

LOL! yeah I noticed that!

Still think I would of used the roof blanket with fibre glass attached to it... I know you said about the thermal value of the newer stuff is higher... but acoustic value when it rains?

Looking good thou!

[xman]

Hmmmm, Bloody Pommy Bastards have given me a complex now over the hinge location. Not an issue right now I really want to deal with as I want my water tower up and running and workshop, guestroom and kitchen extensions done so we gain a lot more space but I promise I will rectify these now 5 doors so they pass future Pommy scrutineering. As for the insulation Geeba, what is good about the insulation I'm using is because it so thin, nothing stops me from using multiple layers of it and as I have rolls of the stuff, that is exactly what I am doing. The noise factor is a valid point though and nothing I can really do about that although I have thought of draping shade cloth suspended over the sheet metal roof as more of a heat barrier but this would also work with the noise until the next hail storm anyway.

[Kozz]

Arr yeah nice hinges. but atleast you got them on the inside so someone cant un-screw them to gain access

[xman]

A few of you may remember some time ago I bought a batch lot of non going, much work required buggys and quads at a pretty good price pictured here that I figured if I can't get them going, I have a lot of spare parts............



Well the last couple of weeks I have actually got around to working on the single seat buggy and after putting in a forward / reverse gearbox that it didn't ever have, replace the rear shocks that were shot, found wheel hubs, rims and tires, repaired the wiring harness and God knows what else, I am now up to repairing the rear frame that holds the rear axle and motor so out with the motor......







After removing the motor and the wiring, disconnecting the shocks and pulling the pivot bolts, I'm left with the bare rear frame..............




Now I can remove the old rubbish welds done by the previous owner where the frame had cracked in the past and I can now weld it properly and add gussets in these joints so it doesn't crack at the welds again. I'll give the repaired frame a new black paint job, reassemble, put the motor and axle back in and be back to where I was about 2 days ago only this time I'll have faith it won't break again when it leaves the ManCave / workshop and starts life down the farm.

[xman]

I grinded back all the old rubbish welds so the frame was back to it's original state so I could weld in gussets to reinforce the weak points of the frame so it would stop cracking as it had and what caused the previous owner to try strengthening the frame with his rubbish welds even though it seems apparent, he didn't know how to weld.






This picture shows one of the cracks that he apparently didn't find...



The same joint after I gusseted it and now it won't break again. It should have been made originally like this....



And the back of the frame with all the joints now gusseted and polished ready for paint..........



And now painted ready to go back in the chassis............



Motor and rear axle frame back in, motor mounted, axle fitted, wiring all tidied up, tested and working. ........




New nose cone, it never had one before, it was just an open frame. It now has LED lights fitted to it and mounts the dash face to the back edge of it that hinges up exposing the cavity inside glove box for carrying shit like ammunition, water etc. I also fitted a gun rack to the top.



The metal mesh in the picture will form a grill to bolt in front of the flat wooden nose to give it more of a jeep appearance and make it look less like a stupid box shaped thing. That metal mesh requires a lot of bending to make it the right shape, pain in the arse as I only have a vice to fold the bends. Would be a ten minute job if I had access to a folder. I also fitted a front bar..



Not much to go now and she will be ready for life on the farm. I want to add another two LED lights on the top bar. The LED lights are actually 12vDC 4 watt household down lights. I bought a heap of them from China at $4 each to use in the farmhouse only to find the radio didn't work with then near to it. Miles to much interference so now all the machines gain good, bright , low powered LED lighting. Just to give you some idea, the two seater buggy has 4 lights fitted and each bulb was a 12vDC 17 watt bulb so all 4 lights on was using 68 watts of power. One of these 4 watt LEDs is brighter than all 4 X 17 watt incandescent standard bulbs on at once and with all 4 LED bulbs on, that only uses 16 watts of power. Using less power from the motor's alternator for the lights means more power going back into the battery to recharge it which was always a drama when running the buggys and quads at night time in the past. Now to grab all the rest of the machines lights and headlights to convert them. Changing then from normal car bulbs and sockets to 50mm LED household downlights is some serious modding and imagination, believe me. ..I'll be heading back down the farm in a day or two, I haven't been down for about three weeks now so I'll try to get some more pictures and videos of the farm itself for those that are interested. Until then.

[xman]

I spent another couple of days down the farm and started on the next stage of the house, the guest room/ kitchen on one side and the workshop on the other. I had to juggle inside and outside work with the rain but some of the structure frames went up anyway, just not as much as I'd of liked.






The tractor misses by 250mm so that has changed my design of the workshop door from a roller shutter to a sliding door. Not a bad thing because I can make a much stronger slider than a roller shutter I'd be buying and shutters are relatively easy to break into anyway.




On the inside, I did finally finish the mezzanine level false ceiling. I now need to put it all down and paint it white.



Well nearly. I left this section out because all the house lighting wiring needs to be run down this back wall so you can use the light switches from the front door as in time this end of the house will become the main entrance and not the back door we are using.



The captain's chair has arrived and placed in front of the fire. I can see many hours sleeping in that seat I think..



The local pigs have made a nice mud bowl of my creek bed about 50 meters from the house..



Anyway, on with the Trail Cam pics and vids. Looks like it's kangaroo season at the moment. I put these trail cam pics on here because I am rather proud of Australia's unique animals we have and I'm sure some of you would enjoy seeing some of these animals in the wild rather than in zoos as most of you have probably seen in your own country's.

I thought this was our vehicle crossing but it's becoming apparent we only maintain it. I did the pictures first followed by the videos. If there are dramas with the videos I may change them from PhotoBucket to Google.







And now the videos....

[asbo]

Good stuff xman, always look forward to these updates
Luckily we have a zoo just a mile up the road so I've always been able to see kangaroos and suchlike since I was little
As for the videos they don't play in-browser for me, I get a download prompt so I watch them that way instead.

Also, remember a while back I said we were trying to build an extension? We still haven't get planning permission, after many redesigns! You've built so much in this time whilst we've been sitting around waiting for the knob-heads at the council to get on with things, its exasperating!

[Geeba]

Hmmmm looking good... but not entirely sure I would be sinking down-lighters into plywood.... that stuff is tinder dry, burns like wildfire and I've seen timber joists scorched by down-lighters that were installed in plasterboard but to close to the timber... they get crazy hot!

Hopefully they're LED and not halogen... ?

[xman]

Yer Geeba, they are LEDs but there gone anyway. Well they will all be soon removed from the roof of the mezzanine because I never was able to get them to work in the farm house without interfering with the radio. . Not a big issue because I found a far better use for the downlights anyway. I am changing all the quads and buggys lighting for wait for it, house hold LED downlights. It involves a bit of modding but at least there is no FM radio that they will interfere with as I use AM CB handhelds on the machines, they are lower wattage than the original incandescent bulbs the machines had but most importantly, they absolutely kick arse for light output over the machine's original bulbs. I wasn't going to do a post here about this but I had all the pics I took to show the guys on TeamSpeak as I modded them so this is how I did it and how they turned out.

These are the buggy's lights...........

The one on the left is cutout and the downlight retainer siliconed in place and the one on the right has the old bulb holder half dremelled out....



The one on the right now fully dremelled out leaving the larger 50mm hole for the downlight waiting on the holder to be siliconed in place...........



And this pic showing the downlight installed in the mounted downlight holder without the rear spotlight cover in place, so you can see the mod and the one on the right complete and ready to go back on the buggy. There are four of these spotlights on the twin seater buggy.



This is the mod done on my quad's lighting using the same LED downlights.....

The rear view showing the bulb in place............



The front view of the bulb in the headlight..........



Both lights fitted in the quad's nose........



And now the light covers fitted to the light housings and the panel ready to go back on the quad.....



Now the important part. The light output of one of these downlights is far better than all 4 spotlights the buggy had on at once and they were 10 watt bulbs in each and using 40 watts of power when they were all on. Now they are converted, all four "new" spotlights on draws 16 watts and you can imagine the light.
My quad used to have 18 watt halogen bulbs fitted, (that were an arse to find replacements for), and when both were on they were using 36 watts. Now the "new" quad lights on draws 8 watts. The big difference with the quad light conversion is these lights shine straight ahead rather than everywhere including up in the trees. My old quad lights were absolutely useless at night. I have only tested the quad lights in my backyard here in suburbia but it easily lights up the whole backyard with no dark areas which is amazing compared to how they used to be. I look very forward to testing these lights in the bush used as they are intended. I have another couple of machine's lights to mod now that I know the idea and the mod is good and I'll try getting a night picture to show you guys how good they are in real use. I'm real happy I found a useful job for these $4 Chinese downlights I have a heap of even if it isn't what I originally bought them for.

[xman]

I took junior down this week to give me a hand with the roofing sheet, the insulation under the sheeting actually because the wind loves to piss me off as I'm trying to keep it tight before the metal sheet gets screwed down, but the workshop roof is now done and doesn't it look sweet even if I do say so myself.









We only had one good day for doing roof sheeting as the wind was big on the other two days but that did give me time to get into the guest room / kitchen extension frame and it is now ready for sheeting on my next visit..







Sliding door is in, roof beams are in and it is just the sheeting now to go on and I can start on the inside of the rooms.

We had a bit of a walk around the front forest to see what the wind has done to the trees and come across this one..



I finished off the mezzanine lighting to replace the troublesome LED down lights and am quite happy with the results...



And now some trail cam pics and vids.. The bottom two are videos and you need to "click" on the image to view the videos.









Well that's it till next week . Enjoy.

[asbo]

Another excellent post
what's that creature in the first video?

[xman]

That is a feral cat I think. My youngest boy saw one when we first bought the place but that one was orange and white. Cats grow massive when in this bush, no shortage of food and nothing that can really threaten them other than foxes but then they take to trees to escape.