Pray for Suddenarious La'Sam

[Left Seater]

Nice job staging that photo so as the pile looks to beas high as the house. But what the hell is that stuff, a mix of sand and saw dust?

[Derron]

Sawdust as mulch ? I guess you use what you have. We use barkdust. Ground up bark of trees. But you have to have trees and the processing facilities to get that product.

If you are well heeled, you hire an outfit like this to apply it.



If you want to save some money, you go to our local Federally funded health care facility for "undocumented" workers, and across the street these
" undocumented" workers hang out waiting for locals to come hire them to do all kinds of shit work for $ 12 per hour cash. You have to haul them, feed them, and hope they do not shit in your neighbors yard.

[Mikey]

Wood chips here.

We had a bunch of large trees removed last year and had the contractor leave the chips in a pile on our lot. I'm still working through that load. Still have a bunch of oak logs from that project as well.

The local utility has a contractor that goes around trimming trees under the power lines. If I catch them at the right time I can sometimes get them to dump a load in our yard. They don't mind because it's easier for them than taking it somewhere else. I don't use that stuff in the garden, though, because you can't always be sure exactly what you're getting. Eucalyptus is not conducive to plant growth.

Pushing wheelbarrow loads of wood chips up the hill for a few hours is pretty good exercise.

[Dinsdale]

Wood chips... in the yard?

Now you're just being silly.

Round these parts, we make paper out of that shit. And when we chip up limbs to get rid of them (although they always seem to burn just fine), they get dumped out on the Back 40, or maybe used for a crappy parking spot for a crappy vehicle.

The yard? What the hell is wrong with you?

[Mikey]

You obviously have no idea wtf you're talking about.

My "yard" is an acre, BTW, and about 50% of the work is keeping weeds down.

http://puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20chalke ... dchips.pdf

[Wolfman]

We use red mulch made from wood chips, etc.. Comes in bags of 2 cubic feet for about $2 at The Home Depot. Have to be careful as a lot of it is not treated. Had an infestation of ground termites in some I got after hurricane Charley. Bayer makes a great product for killing those little bastards. This is what it looks like when applied to our plantings/gardens.

[Mikey]

Careful with the neighbor's cat might do...

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Omigod! Mrs. Sam here. I came home early and found SS under all this sand! It must have caved in on him. Sudden Sarah's a widow. Omigod.

Hi, gorgeous. My name is Shlomart. I was good best friends with your late husband. We were tight. Really tight.




If you ever need anyone to talk to...

[Derron]

[ I can only do half-shovelfuls and not even half a wheelbarrow load, so it's a damn slow process. Plus, it's hot as all fuck today. I'm cooking me brain.

It's real fine sand...from near a river. Almost powdery.

Dude we have to talk. Wheelbarrow ???

A contractor size wheel barrow is 6 cubic feet. Your are probably getting 4 max in it. The conversion on that is .03704 to convert to cubic yards. That is .15 cubic yards per wheelbarrow load. We are going to go 2800 # per cubic yard. It will take Looking at the size of the pile, it is 10 to 12 yards ?

75 wheelbarrow loads of that shit to move minimum. 28,000 pounds - 14 tons total

You are looking at 8 hours of work min, 1.5 hrs to clean. Add in the old age non efficiency factor and you are probably more like 16 hours if your lucky. Then completely on your ass, unable to do anything for the next 3 to 4 days, and do not kid yourself, it will be all of that.

May I suggest alternatives ?



Small compact utility loader with bucket. Probably rent for about $ 190 to $ 230 per day, delivery / pickup $ 75, and fuel $ 25. I owned one of these, just like having an employee without all the bullshit drama.

Or see if there is a custom equipment operator in your area, with a small tractor or one of these. $ 50 per hour, probably 3 hour minimum.

http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/att ... 1286251052

Conveyor truck. Access is key here, but you can not beat these guys for placing bulk materials. Probably $ 55 and up per yard with probably at least an 8 yard minimum.



Juan and Julio. In the south you cheap bastards probably will only pay these poor souls about $ 10 per hour. Figure 6 hours each - $ 120. Rental wheel barrows about $ 28 each. Cheap shovels and broom, $30. $ 206, say $ 230 in hard costs.

Hopefully Juan and Julio won't turn out like this though...



There are several options for you. Feel free to choose one or none. It is your body.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

You failed to note that I survived.

Darn. There's always next time.

[MgoBlue-LightSpecial]

You failed to note that I survived.

Darn. There's always next time.

Dude. I thought you were dying???

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

You failed to note that I survived.

Darn. There's always next time.

Dude. I thought you were dying???

What? What the hell are you...

...uhhh...I mean...


...oh yeah...not looking too good...~cough~...light fading...~cough~...Qualcomm & Permutationous, we'll be soaring together soon, my brothers......

[Derron]

Anyway, he's gonna use whatever I don't. I'll finish my shit today and he can have the rest. It's worth it to me to get that sand outta there.

Enlighten me here. We use sand as a soil amendment to mix in our clay / silt soils. Mix it in. Rototill and plant it.

Are you using the sand as some kind of mulch or top dressing on your beds ??

[Derron]

We use sand spread all over our yards to give grass a better root system. You'll periodically see yards completely covered in sand. I know sand doesn't sound like a good base, but it's simply spread over entire yards or, in my case, I've put it on places where the Bermuda isn't thick. It sinks in gradually and the grass will thicken up and catch up with the good spots. Doesn't sound logical that sand is good for this, but it works. Made our previous lawn look 100% better when I did it.

I think some people whose yards are on prairie mud use it to lessen the shittiness of that clay. Bad stuff. When it's dry, it's hard as concrete. When it's wet, it's like glue. Houses on that crap crack regularly unless the builder strengthens the foundation with extra rebar and stuff.

I will NEVER do this again. It almost killed me yesterday and I'm going to finish today.

Ahhh...sand capping.

Your merely putting sand down to form a growing medium for the Bermuda to grow in. Since your soil is not soil, but a collection of rock, silt and other mineral structure, just put sand on it and anything will grow, if you water it a bit and fertilize it.

We used to sand cap sports fields all the time. The fields were so fucked up that ripping them all up and amending, and reprocessing and laser grading was cost prohibitive. We would throw down 4 inches of sand, grade it out with the laser, seed that bitch up and in 8 weeks we have a good field.

Works on golf courses real well also. Just keep it watered, and fertilized and it looks fine. Let the water go away on a hot summer day, gonzo. Two courses locally here is built on 6 inches of sand on top of pretty decent native soils. They play real well during the winter when nobody wants to play the mud holes.

http://buckeyeturf.osu.edu/index.php?op ... Itemid=170

[Dinsdale]

[Two courses locally here is built on 6 inches of sand on top of pretty decent native soils. They play real well during the winter when nobody wants to play the mud holes.

Langdon?

Where else?

Broadmoor has that natural silt layer, sitting next to the Creek, which makes it play mighty nice in the wet.

And Sam, you think your clay gets hard in summer? It don't rain here in summer... sin, 330 yard drives.

[smackaholic]

Dins, there is no clay like SEC clay. I have played golf on that shit in August, back in the summer of '85. i think a few of those tee shots are still rolling. Then I had the pleasure of digging about 24 ft of footers for an addition I put on my house in Nashville. It was about like trying to dig through the frost here in the U&R a few years back when my well acted up in January. Fukk that stuff. Not sure why they bother with concrete or asphault down there as the clay is much harder. I can see how a few inches of sand to loosen it up would be helpful. The only trouble is, the glaciers didn't get quite that far south, so there is little native sand. shit has to be shipped in which makes it a little more pricey. Up here all you need to do is dig a few inches and that is pretty much all you have along with a shit ton of rocks.

Oh, and Sam, I am in not so lovely G-port this weekend. I would have loved to swing over and watch you shovel, but, I am wheel-less.

[Trampis]

Sand warms quicker than clay thus a warmer soil can grow some good yeilding crops(or grass)... but you have to water the piss out of it otherwise you fall behind in moisture and never catch up. It also leaches nitrogen worse with all the watering.

I have a field of red beans that i just planted in my sandiest soil and i already have it figured that i will be watering all the time till the rows fill in and the blossoms drop sometime in late July.

A tip of the cap to you Sam, nothing like doing a job yourself and doing it right. And if your wife is anything like mine, she'll be all hot and turned on watching you do your work. :twisted:

[Smackie Chan]

She goes up and down like a yo-yo.

More fun when she goes down, isn't it?

Not talking about the weight, although the same sentiments apply.

[smackaholic]

Yeah, if you got one that still goes down, you gotta keeper. Don't give a fukk how fat and pale she is.

[R-Jack]

You do understand why prisoners get 2.50 an hour right?

I'll give you a hint......crack open a dictionary and look up the word imprisonment.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Wow, you people talk to their neighbors? Hell no, every time I hear from a neighbor they're asking to borrow something or asking for money for something, Im not putting ridiculous lights on my house for xmas or decorating my house for halloween because I do not want trick or treaters knocking on my door or walking on my yard.

Every neighbourhood has someone like you.

Usually, as children, we'd hear terrifying stories of corpses buried in the yard or runaways being forced into snuff films.

Then we'd TP their porch on Halloween and shout "See you later, masturbator! We'll be back to egg you later!"

[Derron]

[Two courses locally here is built on 6 inches of sand on top of pretty decent native soils. They play real well during the winter when nobody wants to play the mud holes.

Langdon?

Where else?

Broadmoor has that natural silt layer, sitting next to the Creek, which makes it play mighty nice in the wet.

And Sam, you think your clay gets hard in summer? It don't rain here in summer... sin, 330 yard drives.

Tri Mountain at Ridgefield. Good 6 inches of sand cap there. Drains real fast.

Camas Meadows also is moving that way. Installed a drain system a few years back, and heavy top dressing the fairways and all t build up a good layer of sand. I heard it plays pretty good as well. I know the guy who did the drains and top dressing.