Building a Giant Grizzly Sifter to Backfill our Trench with Rock Free Dirt
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
- We have a huge job ahead of us to back fill our entire 540 foot electric trench. The challenge is to avoid adding the rocks that we dug out initially.
A member of our viewing community suggested building a series of large sifters to help pick out the big rocks out of our backfill dirt.
We Bryan went to task and built his own- and it worked out great!
Find the Tools We Used Here:
One ince Hardware Mesh:
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Porter and Cable Crown Stapler
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Half Inch Staples:
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Bostich Nail Gun:amzn.to/2QnTJ0e
You guys are great. We took the easy way out and ordered filtered top soil for our cable buffer then filled over it.
We could have done that too but around here could be waiting 2 weeks for dirt to arrive lol!
Good Job Guys. Glad to see you went all the way; from hand screens to a grizzly. That will make the job easier with the tractor and will really help to sift and mix a lot of soil mix for raised beds and landscaping. The choice of 1" screen will be perfect for soil prep on a large scale. And a second pass through a 1/2" screen into a wheelbarrow will give you soil mix for pots, containers and seeding beds. With the small stones in the bottoms for drainage. Put a small square of landscape fabric on the stones in the pot to keep the soil mix out of the stones. Happy gardening dreams; spring will be there faster than you think. And small 1/2" PVC. pipe hoops over a 4'x8' raised bed will provide a small greenhouse for early gratification. If you make it 2' high fill the bottom foot with manure and straw ( large animal bedding) the composting process will provide the bottom heat. In the first year of the garden I would start small with no more than 6-4'x8' beds but dream and plan big. Also look into square foot gardening for intense planting in raised beds. With succession planting the total yield will surprise you. the old guy Bert
Dreaming of garden beds! Really looking forward to building a greenhouse next year too:) Thanks for all the help!!
Good idea! Cool video enjoy the adventures your sharing with us
Absolutely!
I think Brian needs to get Amy up on that tractor. Amy, you could actually get a lot of the sifting done ahead of Brian and make backfilling a lot faster. Don't be scared, Tractors are fun machines to work with. They sure make life easier.
Been up there a few times- I've got about 5 hours of experience- Bryan has about 500.
Thank Y'all! Cool idea...
Turned out pretty slick-huh?
Turn the grizzly (your screen) 180 degrees. Load it from the high side and let the oversized roll off away from your pile. That lets you load faster and avoids loading rock more than once. I have a homemade grizzly made from 1/4 x2"flat stock. with a 1-1/4" spacing, more than 80% of material is over sized. We live on a pile of glacial rock over 200' deep.
Smart!
nice job. sifting the dirt helps from any big rocks from cutting the line.
good job! It will be great to drive to the house again.
For sure!
Making progress. Glad that part is done before the ground freezes. Not much you can do after that happens. You sure have rocky ground.
Gotta make some headway this week- gonna pull some rocks today before the sun goes down.
Nice Work!
Thanks!
keep your chin up guys your doing great. have a glass of wine and be proud of how far you two have come. thanks for taking time for editing these videos in your busy lifes
Thank you sir for your kind understanding. It is so hectic right now.
Pro tip : you can watch movies at flixzone. Been using them for watching loads of movies during the lockdown.
@Merrick Thomas definitely, I've been watching on Flixzone for since november myself :)
@Merrick Thomas yea, been using Flixzone for months myself :)
@Merrick Thomas Yup, I've been using Flixzone for months myself :)
Glad you got your driveway back. Looks like it was a long way to walk.
Me too!
Nice build. Looks like you have our rocks relatives. They come in big and small.
LOL thanks!
I remember when I had a back that strong.
eAsy to take for granted when we're young.
Great job not easy I know but ingenious.I’m sifting dirt to grad with currently.
Thanks! You can do it!
Could you eventually use the bigger rocks on the driveway to get more traction?
Yep- -exactly.
You could always use it again as a garden trellis. Give it some more life.
Cool idea!
Hi snow already! What are your plans for a garden seeing as you're on very stoney glacial deposit? Loving this channel and your energy Amy.
Thanks! We actually have quite a bit of topsoil on our property, so have some dirt to work with- can amend with fertilizer. Going to do mostly cool weather crops and get a greenhouse started for other things. Successfully grew strawberries, zucchini, spinach, kale and arugula and potatoes (in a pot) this year.
Oh man, that sucks having to do some of that with a shovel. Nice job though ❤️
Just that one section- ain't no one got time for that for the whole 500 ft trench!
Lol true, but any amount of shoveling just plain sucks.
Stay warm ya'll. It's getting cold.........Hugs
Thanks!
Nice work! That was the power line ditch ?
Yes
Good job! You guys are learning, Brian must have some experience. Doing all this the wrong time of year in the Rockies. But, who has a choice some times,. Looks like Eastern Slope of the Rockies, not the West?
Thanks! He has some home remodeling experience but really learns a lot on CZcams. Time sure ran out on us- but yes- good eye- eastern slope!
You may be time and trouble ahead if you were to buy a few loads of :back fill sand (generally 1/8th inch minus ) and "shade" the cable.
When I was in the business years ago,the utility company s required a bed of 6 inches under the cable and 18 inches above, then the tape followed by the "native" material that was originally removed.
The utility company s would not connect the line until this was done and verified.
Food for thought
Great food for thought- we may be able to "prop" up the cable during the backfill to get some additional dirt under it. When the inspector came by the other day, he didnt' seem to care at all about the cable/rockiness or condition of the trench. He did say- "one little nick and you'll be out of power and never know the location". So I thought a padded bed layer would be wise.
Your "sifter" is actually in the business called a "grizzly" FYI. Another machine that grades the rock down even farther is a trommel. Hope this helps with the terminology. And being in the area where you are, try panning some of that dirt to see if you get any color. Good luck.
New terminology- awesome! Would love to find some golden flakes! Maybe in the well-drill!!
Have they inspected the power line yet? I hope it passes it would not where I live but everywhere is different. Hope you get your well permit and have water soon.
Yes- he came by the other day and mentioned the ground rod at a 30 degree angle, otherwise, all set to cover it up. Waiting on the well- hopefully hear something this week!
Good for you.
Nothing like having a tractor/ backhoe.
Bryan excavated the entire foundation with it- and septic!
Amy you are married to a genius!
We borrowed the idea from a viewer- but he sure put it together quick!
Guys you did all that hard hand shoveling when your tractor with a backhoe and front end bucket would have gone over the trench easily.
Maybe, but also would have dumped in a bunch of rocks into the trench again with uncovered cable- don't want to short out our electric before we even turned it on!
@@ColoradoMountainLiving did you not make a bed of sand for the buried cable? 🤔
@ColoradoMountainLiving you could have used the tractor WITH the screen, and as he said, with a bucket and a hoe, you could easily cross the trench.
But great job on the build.
I'm wanting to build one like it, but with a hinged top to have a variable angle to screen topsoil....and then I can use bucket to shake screen to help with clump buildup.
I would have found a way over that trench with the tractor for sure!
Yeah could have put the bridge back down I suppose, but would have also been digging rocks back out of the trench again.
@@ColoradoMountainLiving I'm not trying to hate.. Trust me, I am sure you guys get judged at every step. I was saying get the tractor over and use the grizzly. I think you guys are doing awesome. Keep the hard work!
Thanks man!
Why use a shovel when you had a bucket loader?
Precision
Thought you where gonna be panning for gold LOL
Hey- maybe in the future well drilling video!
I think that I would've just ordered a couple of dump truck loads of crusher reject for a couple hundred dollars before I went to all of that work. if you do order any reject tell them that you want reject, it's the same thing as pipe bedding but for some reason they charge you more for bedding. ;-)
Around here, no telling when you get your truckload deliveries- sometimes it takes 2 weeks! Great tip on "crusher reject". Will have to ask about that.
I don't know your elevation but if your 7 or 8 thousand feet it can get deep
over 9000! Heard 12 years ago they got 7 feet in one weekend - yikes!!!
If your in the mountains you haven't seen deep yet lol
HAHA! We heard a story of 7 feet of snow in one weekend- like 10 years back.