Amateur Hour Continues

#15,502
#15,502
1972 Grad said:
It's getting there. It's on a very hidden 3 acres with about 7-800 feet of creek frontage. about 450-500 feet on one side and a bit less on the other. The creek has a concrete dam about 60 feet across, and about 100 years ago, there used to be a grist mill just below the dam. The creek is about 25 feet wide in the part that is dammed up, and up to 60 feet wide further upstream. The water drops about 6-7 feet as it passes over the dam. It is a very strong creek that flows the same year round. There are underground springs that feed it in a couple of places. It is mostly wooded. It actually looks like a park or something. I haven't seen anything else like it around here, or anywhere really.
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That sounds lovely. Any chance you will use the dam water for your own hydroelectric power?
 
#15,505
#15,505
1972 Grad said:
It's getting there. It's on a very hidden 3 acres with about 7-800 feet of creek frontage. about 450-500 feet on one side and a bit less on the other. The creek has a concrete dam about 60 feet across, and about 100 years ago, there used to be a grist mill just below the dam. The creek is about 25 feet wide in the part that is dammed up, and up to 60 feet wide further upstream. The water drops about 6-7 feet as it passes over the dam. It is a very strong creek that flows the same year round. There are underground springs that feed it in a couple of places. It is mostly wooded. It actually looks like a park or something. I haven't seen anything else like it around here, or anywhere really.
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Sounds fantastic. Reminds me of the first house I built... to use the term loosely. When I took that job that I left in 2010 after 23 years with the German company I moved from Hattiesburg, MS to the Northeast. My job was based out of Parsippany, NJ for about 8 years but since I had little money/equity and NJ home prices were relatively high I ended up buying a remote 1-acre lot in the Poconos (55 miles from work) and had a factory-built unit installed on top of a concrete block basement. So the house wasn't much to write home about but the setting was park-like... wooded, steep, with a babbling brook and beaver dams at the base of my lot. Enjoyed living there greatly; was still single and actually had some free time on the weekends; used to take motorcycle trips to the Adirondacks and beyond on long weekends, and every October to Knoxville. But I had to give it up when the Company moved our Catalyst Group to Baton Rouge in 1994.
 
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#15,508
#15,508
McDad said:
That sounds lovely. Any chance you will use the dam water for your own hydroelectric power?
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I have wondered about it, but don't know what you need in the fall of water to make power. I am afraid that if all the water is channeled into one place over the dam that the creek will look crappy downstream (dry in some places). Apparently at one time it was good enough to turn a water wheel, but I don't know what the creek looked like.

There is a square hole (about 2 feet by 2 feet) in the bottom of the dam that was used to feed a sluice down to the mill as far as I can figure out. I heard about the mill from an old fellow who died last year whose family used to make moonshine on the property. It would be a great place for that. You have water and privacy.

I made a cover out of marine plywood to cover the hole in the dam so the water will go over the dam. It looks better that way to me. If you take the cover off, the water level drops from about 4-1/2 feet deep behind the dam to about a foot. As far as hydro goes, I would need to talk to someone in the know to see what is involved. I have read a bit about it online.
 
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#15,511
#15,511
1972 Grad said:
I have wondered about it, but don't know what you need in the fall of water to make power. I am afraid that if all the water is channeled into one place over the dam that the creek will look crappy downstream (dry in some places). Apparently at one time it was good enough to turn a water wheel, but I don't know what the creek looked like.

There is a square hole (about 2 feet by 2 feet) in the bottom of the dam that was used to feed a sluice down to the mill as far as I can figure out. I heard about the mill from an old fellow who died last year whose family used to make moonshine on the property. It would be a great place for that. You have water and privacy.

I made a cover out of marine plywood to cover the hole in the dam so the water will go over the dam. It looks better that way to me. If you take the cover off, the water level drops from about 4-1/2 feet deep behind the dam to about a foot. As far as hydro goes, I would need to talk to someone in the know to see what is involved. I have read a bit about it online.
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If you do, keep me posted. Tia
 
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#15,512
#15,512
RavinDave said:
Sounds fantastic. Reminds me of the first house I built... to use the term loosely. When I took that job that I left in 2010 after 23 years with the German company I moved from Hattiesburg, MS to the Northeast. My job was based out of Parsippany, NJ for about 8 years but since I had little money/equity and NJ home prices were relatively high I ended up buying a remote 1-acre lot in the Poconos (55 miles from work) and had a factory-built unit installed on top of a concrete block basement. So the house wasn't much to write home about but the setting was park-like... wooded, steep, with a babbling brook and beaver dams at the base of my lot. Enjoyed living there greatly; was still single and actually had some free time on the weekends; used to take motorcycle trips to the Adirondacks and beyond on long weekends, and every October to Knoxville. But I had to give it up when the Company moved our Catalyst Group to Baton Rouge in 1994.
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I have a college friend from Reese Hall who grew up and went to high school in Parsippany. He moved to Dallas out of U.T. We stay in contact 2 or 3 times a year.
 
#15,514
#15,514
1972 Grad said:
I have a college friend from Reese Hall who grew up and went to high school in Parsippany. He moved to Dallas out of U.T. We stay in contact 2 or 3 times a year.
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My mother is from Elizabeth, NJ (married a mountain man from Virginia where I was born).

Her folks came through Ellis Island from Sicily. So I have some family there in NJ still.
 
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#15,516
#15,516
RavinDave said:
Sounds fantastic. Reminds me of the first house I built... to use the term loosely. When I took that job that I left in 2010 after 23 years with the German company I moved from Hattiesburg, MS to the Northeast. My job was based out of Parsippany, NJ for about 8 years but since I had little money/equity and NJ home prices were relatively high I ended up buying a remote 1-acre lot in the Poconos (55 miles from work) and had a factory-built unit installed on top of a concrete block basement. So the house wasn't much to write home about but the setting was park-like... wooded, steep, with a babbling brook and beaver dams at the base of my lot. Enjoyed living there greatly; was still single and actually had some free time on the weekends; used to take motorcycle trips to the Adirondacks and beyond on long weekends, and every October to Knoxville. But I had to give it up when the Company moved our Catalyst Group to Baton Rouge in 1994.
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I'd like to build a log home in the kind of place you and 72 are describing. My wife won't even hear of it.
 
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#15,517
#15,517
1972 Grad said:
I have wondered about it, but don't know what you need in the fall of water to make power. I am afraid that if all the water is channeled into one place over the dam that the creek will look crappy downstream (dry in some places). Apparently at one time it was good enough to turn a water wheel, but I don't know what the creek looked like.

There is a square hole (about 2 feet by 2 feet) in the bottom of the dam that was used to feed a sluice down to the mill as far as I can figure out. I heard about the mill from an old fellow who died last year whose family used to make moonshine on the property. It would be a great place for that. You have water and privacy.

I made a cover out of marine plywood to cover the hole in the dam so the water will go over the dam. It looks better that way to me. If you take the cover off, the water level drops from about 4-1/2 feet deep behind the dam to about a foot. As far as hydro goes, I would need to talk to someone in the know to see what is involved. I have read a bit about it online.
Click to expand...

My brother and a friend and I used to go out to an abandoned mill when we were teens. It was pretty fascinating inside ... everything was wood. Might not have been all that safe ... it's completely gone now.
 
#15,519
#15,519
1972 Grad said:
That is what I wanted too. That idea didn't fly. We must have the same wife.
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Hog told me the same thing once. I don't know whether to be happy to know I didn't find the only one, or be concerned that there might be enough of them that they could take over the world ... we're completely screwed if they do.
 
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#15,520
#15,520
AM64 said:
I'd like to build a log home in the kind of place you and 72 are describing. My wife won't even hear of it.
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Ditto on both counts. In principle I could relocate my business to anywhere in the 48 states but my wife is rooted too deep here in the Houston area. What’s more, she considers anyplace north of here the wrong direction climate wise. She is from Belarus and really hates the cold. Just the other day she remarked “It’s colder right now in Minsk than in Alaska!”. What’s a man to do?
 
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#15,523
#15,523
evillawyer said:
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Or several

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#15,525
#15,525
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