I purchased the land the range is on November of last year. I have been in the welding and fabrication business for 18 years. I have skidsteer and implements, and a Deere 4430 and implements to service and repair living on the property. I also don't have a place to store them. We will be building a house on this property within two or three years. And after speaking with the CPA it made sense to go ahead and build me a big ole' shop on the place. I will put in the driveway (800'), hire out the foundation, I will frame it, hire out sheet metal with insulation (I'm not fast enough and don't want to jeopardize getting hurt and can't work at the FD), I will wire it, and I am building an office/ bathroom/ bedroom under one of the awnings on the side so that we can stay the night up there as we please. The shop will be 40' x 60' on slab, and each 60' side will have a 30' deep shed roof.

I plowed the location of the shop and what will later be the "yard" around the house and shop. So the next step was to figure out where I wanted the shop located. This is on the highest point on the place with a 40 acre front view, the rifle range, and an acre and half stock tank.

Location. There are small wooden lathes to locate the corners of the 40' x 60'



But where to get all the fill dirt? Easy, I have terraces on the place and they're way too tall. I folded the wings on the 20' tandem disc and plowed right on top of the terraces. I "harvested" dirt from the nearest terraces to the building site with the skid steer shuttling dirt half a cubic yard at a time.

Starting to look level.



This would be looking into the front (south) door of the shop. View is south to north.



I feathered that edge off yesterday by adding several more yards of dirt so that this rain wouldn't collapse that edge. I just didn't take a pic. I was scrambling to get this dirt moved the last three days, ahead of this rain. I'm glad it got some rain on it, it'll help to pack it in.

I also covered about half a mile of terraces to pile up this 5" of loose top soil I created. These piles are 200-300 yards from the shop and future house site. I need to rent a dump trailer to move them, because I'm not shuttling that much dirt that far, half a cubic yard at a time.



Stay tuned. This will take months and lots of work to complete.

Going to be a great thread, great pics & good luck.

I feel like the guy in the yellow shirt in your sig.

I couldn't even afford the damn concrete! That's gonna be awesome

wood frame building or metal frame?

I said I'm a welder! 10" 23# I-beam on a 4:12"



I can't either but the lender can.

Look forward to following the build

I did learn that windows in a metal building are a pain in the @$$. Make sure none of your window sides split a panel rib.

When that happens you rely on the J-trim and maybe some silicone.

You have such a beautiful property. Shop with a bedroom and bath. Slice of heaven. Congrat's and look forward to pic's of y'all's progress.

Wood rods brudda

Going to be nice, at least you don't have to mess with trees and roots

Janie, the things you appreciate makes you one of the coolest women ever.

The trees that will be on site will be planted by me, and they'll be strategically located.

NICE!!!!

Looks good Jason, The shop is going to be awesome. I hope one of these days I will get to put one in.

Walter

I'm thinkin a 2015 THF get together aka house warming party!

Love these threads.

I hope to have it 100% complete by the time we have the rifle match. This shop sits 200 yards north of the zero line.

WOW...you're going to have a busy winter. Dang dude.

Thanks for sharing will be fun to watch

I have accepted the fact that I am a work-a-holic. The rest of the world needs to accept it as well...

Water tower. For wetting down the dirt pad.

Course if it would rain I wouldn't have to do this.

Going to take allot of those totes!

Yessir.

Went to Tractor Supply Wednesday for the parts to reduced down the discharge and looked at pumps. One I can draft water from the stock tank, fill my tank, and discharge it onto the pad. It took about two hours to drain the tank gravity flowing it. Looks like I'm about to drop $400 on a pump. I want the rig for watering trees and keeping brush piles in check anyway.

Well worth the $ and effort for a solid base and you can still use the pump for many things as you mentioned

After you get it moist, how are you packing it? I used the H2 Hummer we had at the time for mine, at over 7k lbs it packed 3.5 ft of fill great ( in lifts) Those round wheels will out-pack a dozer track all day.

Deere 260 skid steer with tires. 6600 pounds.

I layered up about 4"-5" each layer. Back drag it, then turn 90 and drive over it. Next layer repeat
I was about halfway up with the pad and it got about an inch of rain. Two days later I drove over it in parallel lines then layered up again. The shop pad is done. I've now got the house pad pretty much finished. It will get to sit for 6 months to a year before we start forming on it. The longer the better, but I cant wait to build a new house on it!