Root cellar footers - building off grid // E131

[@d.j.robinson9424]

More Meg...👍👍

[@wshauck9527]

It sounds GREAT. Thanks for the improvement.

[@robfox5892]

Keep after it Jon, you totally got this! One bite at a time.

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Living the dream!

[@martincanella3738]

Glad to see you and your Family Again !. Makes my Morning coffee Soooo Much Better! Take Care.

[@janicedalesandro1190]

Good job John and family. Glad you're ok. Mic great.

[@bryanoutman4664]

Microphone is great. Perfecto!!!!

[@les3d50]

Yes we missed you ! nice job with the footer, I would have knocked down the rock as well, and nice to see the whole family laying the foundation of their future home; awesome.

[@williambox6664]

Good to have you back

[@lindamoore691]

Great video ! Lovely to see you all ! Thank you for sharing ! 👏😀❤️

[@MicBruise]

Welcome back. The sound is excellent!

[@MichaelBrookes-c9o]

Your mic is great. Music can go down a bit. Love you videos and glad your back.

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Cool, good feedback!

[@redhawk4859]

Great Job I learned a lot

[@darmst9940]

Missed your videos. It's nice to see you're all well and enjoying your project.

[@AlAmantea]

Put some food coloring in the water for that water level. MUCH easier to see it. Super accurate, simple to make, and easy to use, but as you said, you have to hold the bar plumb! Great job so far!

[@robinpearson4583]

Jon, The mics fine, thanks for considering your viewers.... Cheers Robin.

[@rockmandaveproger]

Hi stranger, welcome back... lol 🤘😎🎸

[@stevecollier1810]

sounds good so far

[@AnotherUser-z1k]

Microphone sounded great. Nice work.

[@VicShoup-ec6jb]

So glad you are back. Missed you!

[@davidcharles3131]

Not thing wrong with sound. You are definitely not afraid to work. Decent job on footer, block mortar will fill any unevenness. Thanks for sharing, glad your back.

[@bethjohnsen2768]

It was so nice to see the whole family. Miss you guys. Happy you are making good progress. Kudos to Jon’s problem solving. HUGS to all!🥰

[@ralphsullender2474]

That footer will work great you got the rebar in and level around to build the walls on. Good to see the girls help and learn.

[@jamesseltenreich652]

Great to see you guys today, looking good, your Alaskan friend 🙏❤️

[@patrikpersson9446]

welcome back! a touch of colour for cake and candy should make it easier to se water into the hose

[@kennethcoder2989]

glad to see you back. Nice job.

[@phuongvo3051]

I just found your channel , I can’t wait to see your progress coming , SUBSCRIBED

[@jasonkumnick]

Loved the knot tying... I went deep down a youtube rabbit hole learning different knots for camping. We do a big 24x24 tarp on rainy weekends that looks a little like your setup. I prefer a truckers hitch over the taut-line hitch (friction knot you showed). Bonus though... I use a prusik knot loop and a stick through the grommet so that I can put up the tarp quick or take it down and leave a Ridgeline in place. The prusik loops still let you move the tarp or adjust tension...

[@funnyfarmdad9997]

WELCOME BACK JOHN!!! I’ve been worried about you guys. Glad to see the progress you’ve made.

[@johngersna3263]

Been missing you guys. The new microphone sounds great. Also I'm glad to see the progress that you guys are making. I'll make sure to watch the video after this one today. God bless and know that you guys were missed. 👍👍🙂 P.S. In our area of PA. anything under a thousand sq. feet doesn't need a building permit. I also think that it's great that you can drive a car up to the homesite now. I have one other observation, and that is that you did a great job on that footer. Anyway, I'm done now. God bless.

[@pudellvr]

Go Chants! Watching from the Pee Dee region! Great channel. Enjoyed the snatch blocks!

[@elliejackson6907]

A tip for anyone working with cement based products. Cement is very alkaline, between 12.0 to 13.8. As such it can 'eat' into your skin quite badly if it is not removed after contact. Sometimes, washing it off with water is not enough, particularly if it was there for a while. I have found that washing with methylated spirits and then soapy water seems to stop the corrosive effect of cement. Cheers, EJ

[@RonaldGunn-z8m]

Glad you and your lovely family are back really missed the videos .

[@rinsekoornstra1801]

I work as a soundman, and you sound perfect! nice mic! very clear, no volume issues.

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Thanks so much! It was tricky because I had half the scenes with the mic and half without. I was worried my balancing between the two would make it frustrating on viewers, but it seems the extra effort was worth it.

[@nigelgrant9693]

Well done 🎉 good going blessings

[@Billy-ro5ws]

You did good, Jon. Great job! You're putting in some hard work and it's paying off!

[@normp.3657]

Enjoyed the episode John. Always like watching you figure out how to do things. Just a regular guy trying to do things himself, becUse he can, and wants to! Welcime back!

[@caseyspringston7124]

Glad to see what is going on

[@jdgibs3446]

Been missing you John. Hope & prayers for you and family. Blessings in all your family's efforts. Praying for everyone's safety, health, strength, wisdom and success in Our Redeemer's Awesome Name. ☝️🙏🙌💪❤️🇺🇸🎯

[@kenz-e9o]

looking GOOD, you are making great progress on the homestead. PS amazon, sells a bit holder that is sticky taped holder that you place on the head of the driver to hold bits, seen it Perkins brother's builders channel. ,, keep up the good work. I had your dream too of building my home, but a spine injury while working so, it won't happen for me, but I'm really enjoying seeing the progress you are making.

[@martinwyke]

Two tips I've been given, keep the barrow and mix wet between mixes. When you're dumped add water from your next batch to the mixer to stop it clarting up. You can also use drink bottles or cans on the ends of rebar.

[@chrisbartlett6022]

Good job, in fact GREAT job. Lovely to see you back but great that you have had a break from the filming / editing. Think it works well this way, means you can get on and use editing days for work if you want. The Mik works well I think. Going to watch the next one now 🙂

[@frankmc4294]

Glad to see you back again ... was wondering whether you were getting on and how far. Looking good and getting your experience for the important part. Keep up the good work and see you in your next instalment !! 👍👍👍👍

[@rogerdudra178]

My friend living in the Bull Mountains near LaVina Mt. has built a 8 X 11 foot greenhouse out of translucent vinyl to beat the frost quite successfully. You did well in laying that concrete. I often ponder all the education I endured.

[@djaspurh]

Looks great Jon. Im glad everything is going well. A little trick when pouring forms: use a reciprocating saw without a blade and vibrate the forms to settle the concrete.

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Yep, cool tip. I wonder if a palm sander would work too.

[@debfromthemill6945]

Great job John for your first time pouring concrete. Nice seeing you all again. Take Care

[@jamesharless5357]

Great job!👍🏻

[@rogerdudra178]

Here in Montana that caterpillar is called a 'wooly worm'. My Bronco would get there easily. Those wooly worms were the first flies I tied as a little boy in the late 1950s.

[@leonkaczor2405]

The new microphone sounds great. Have you thought about hanging the air hammer from the boom of the back hole. You could swing it to where you need it. Great video.

[@brockwagner939]

I call that knot a taut line hitch. I use it to rig my backpacking tarp guy lines 👍

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

A little tricky with nylon, but paracord or something similar would be perfect. That big spool was $20 for 600ft so I couldn't pass that up.

[@TimBeverly]

Awesome Meg and Jon, glad to see yawl are doing good and progress is continuing to move along. I was in yawl neck of the woods the other week coming back from Tennessee. We went to Dickenson Co. Va, to pay the taxes and came home the same day. Stay safe and yawl be well.

[@careyhaner]

You & Ricky work really well together. You work so hard . God Bless you all

[@leisureshoot]

You are truly living the dream with your family! Here's wishing for continued success to you all.

[@mikeyjordan6035]

Meg and John, Nice to see the foundation to your homesite underway! You may have considered this already. Being that the root cellar will house your battery room, you may want to get a smart Yolink water leak detection setup or something similar in conjunction with your sump pump. A while back I think you mentioned that the long stones you dug up looked like Stonehenge pillars. Since you have a 360 degree mountain top homesite, you could stand some stones up that mark the Vernal & Autumnal Equinox and the Summer & Winter Solstices. Have you submited your permit plans for Picasso's pond? 🐢😂

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

The funny thing is, I have some pointy boulders set aside for a jedi temple one day in the middle of my woods. It would be neat to set them as a sun dial. I like the way you think.

[@Nena84734]

Heck yeah I missed you guys! Dang John, you work so hard, looks awesome and I love the new microphone!

[@robinpearson4583]

Jon, A drop of food colouring would make the water level more user friendly. Cheers Robin....

[@DaveS-gf4ik]

i just started watching i love the video thank you this will be fun to see go up i do not why i like root cellar but i really like them dave s from ct

[@thaddeustroyer]

Hey, glad to.see you again, missed you. You are doing great, one bite ata time sir. Its a little late now but for future holes in the ground, make yourselves a ramp in and out of the hole, that way you can get Ricky amd Taky in to spread everything around or even dig deeper if necessary. Fill the ramp in when done and you have saved yourselves a ton of effort and time. Machinery can do soooo much more than we can, ive learned from experience. Keep up the great work and look forward to your videos and progress reports. Gonna be a wonderful place when you're done.

[@richardtruesdell8289]

the microphone is perfect! Don't change anything.

[@francisbaker9366]

Good work, have you thought about putting food colouring into the water of the bucket of your level to make seeing it easier

[@bobbybaldeagle702]

YES I SURE DID MISS YOU KIDS! But I understood... You sure got a lot done in a short time. It's awesome seeing the progress you've made. I liked how you let the girls help you out by plugging the holes. It sure saved you some time so you could get other things done... NOW as for the length of the video. Speaking for myself, you could of gone on for longer I didn't realize you went for an hour. I was enjoying it. Now there are some videos that go for fifteen minutes and it feels like they went on for and hour get so board. Then there's videos like your's that seem like they're over and it feels like they just got started... Thank you for checking in it was good seeing Meg and the girls. I'm looking forward to your next vlog... Much love and prayers, be blessed in Jesus name... BBE...

[@robinpearson4583]

Jon, A couple of tips that I believe will assist you in the future using the concrete mixer. First, it would help if you created a platform , just to lift the mixer so that you can empty it without coming into contact with the wheelbarrow. Secondly, after you empty each mix, pour a little water into the drum to prevent a build up of concrete on the paddles...Hopes this is of use to you as the construction progresses. Cheers again.. Robin.

[@tracymankey9314]

Nice job

[@Ferrosteph]

Hi John Nice video as usual, Thanks for the tips with the ropes :) the new micro is really good

[@Joe-dt9gt]

Hey John, I use the water level for years what I did is add food colouring so you can see it better

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Thought about brewing some dark coffee. Haha! Probably swapping the water for rv antifreeze (pink) as it gets colder. Can always add some red drops to it 👍

[@MrBrewner]

You can use your hammer drill/chisel to vibrate the form and that will help getting the concrete to the hard to reach places. You could have also made your mix a little wetter to get it to pour a bit easier.

[@Love72Yourself]

How do you get the shots from up high?? Very impressive video on all levels. More men need to get out and build with their own hands. This is 👌 awesome. Love watching the whole family.

[@brentpatrick75]

listening on my laptop speakers the new mic sounds great

[@elliejackson6907]

Great to see you back at it Jon. Yeah, I know you haven't stopped working. Cellar is starting to take shape ... and looking good. Excellent idea to make the cellar a dry run for the house and Iron out the the little issues ahead of time. Nice seeing Meg and the girls in the video. I wanted to ask, have you already run a drainage pipe in that ditch or is that yet to happen? Keep up the good work with the videos, also, the microphone sounds great. Cheers, EJ

[@kevinholland4156]

I'm glad you are back at it. I thought maybe you had moved back to the city.

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

If I ever moved again, it would be even farther from civilization. 👍

[@budbradbury208]

Sounds good!

[@hpw59]

agreed that water levels are accurate, but only if there isn't any bubbles in the line and both ends of the lines are open to the air so that they can equalize

[@brockwagner939]

The Mic sounds perfect, I don't think you need to tweak the settings at all. And as far as finishing the concrete under the spreaders, don't worry about that, it's a footer, that will be covered up. Just vibrate or tap the forms a little more next time and it will flow under the spreaders and be fine. One part that I was a little worried about was how the rebar stopped at the protruding rock. Ideally that would have bent up and continued over top of the rock. I'm a little worried that footer may crack where it's very thin on top of the rock. Otherwise it's looking good, soon you'll never want to see another pallet of concrete! 🤣

[@careyhaner]

If you could find an old used larger jack hammer that uses the air compressor on wheels they have so much more power. I used to use one when I was your age. You could fix any problems it might have to make it work better. You are as handy as a pocket on a shirt .l, ll be 70 in dec. 2024.😊

[@hubertclark8619]

new mic works good

[@PeaceIntheValley]

Good job, John! Would’ve been easier to break the rock with drilling holes and pouring Dexpan in like you had before? The holes only took about two minutes to drill each and you probably wouldn’t needed more than a few.

[@PeaceIntheValley]

Sorry about the spelling. Voice to text doesn’t always do you, Jon, right

[@nookworm1]

Good to see you back. The girls are growing tall! What are the lime-green things on top of the vertical rebar? I must have missed the explanations for these.

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Hi Gere! They are safety caps to prevent someone impaling themselves with the rebar.

[@Sawmill.skills.indonesia]

Beautyful

[@francismcdermott459]

When tying to the corner of a tarp, just put a round pebble in the corner of the tarp, fold over it and knot around the pebble. It will stop your knot from slipping.

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Yes, they call that a button I believe. Knot tying is such an invaluable tool.

[@darmst9940]

Sounds good to me

[@johnny-jr5iz]

If you put some food coloring in the water level it’s so much easier to see,,

[@ronnieferguson5706]

Microphone sounds fine

[@southernyankeehomestead3230]

You actually don't want a smooth top on your footers. A course but level layer helps with your mortar bonding when you start blocking things out. If you did a garage floor smooth then the mortar can be dislodged very easily. So don't worry about your crossbars, they will help stick your blocks to the footer.

[@vdubbsxb]

Sorry if I missed it, but how many bags of concrete did it take to pour the footing and did it take more than one day to pour it all? Great job and I do enjoy the updates, look forward to them.

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Hi and thanks. It turned out to be 48x 80lb bags, which is only a little more than a yard³. Did it all in one session. The footers have a gap where the stairs will be, so I was able to go from one end to the other and keep a wet edge the whole time.

[@hpw59]

To avoid honey combs tap the outside of your forms as you are pouring with a hammer repeatedly or use a running palm sander to help consolidate the concrete

[@stevecollier1810]

footer is not a biggy because you will add mortar for block to seat and level as you go

[@Ratherbemilling]

getting a lot of work done with the Takuechi! I just picked up a grapple similar to yours, tins are bent on mine as well ... or are they supposed to be like that? The quick connect on the machine do not seem to want to work easily ... any tricks to make it easier to connect the grapple hoses to the machine?

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Hey man, you asked at the right time. I just figured out the magic combination the other day and was going to demo it in this video, but it was getting kinda long. I'm sure your 140 has the same 2-way/1-way flow switch. Turn it on so it's in one way. Now your foot petal only works with your heel, so press the petal forward (the inactive side). Plug in your top hose with the petal pressed forward and then you should be able to insert the bottom plug like normal. What this does is open the return valve on the inactive side and relieves the built up pressure. Try it and let me know!

[@Ratherbemilling]

@@WalnutsandWineberries awesome, it’s the same basic concept as with my excavator… when I put the hammer on it the hoses are very difficult. Not sure why I didn’t think of it! Thanks so much. My machine doesn’t have foot pedals, just joysticks … same difference though Thanks so much.

[@PAINFOOL13]

👍🏻👏👍🏻👏👍🏻👏✨️

[@rogerdudra178]

I see you have cicadas hangin out there.

[@garymixson687]

Wonder if maybe a French drain system for future drainage to keep the celler dry?

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

I thought that too, but being that it's mostly clay soil, I think a sub-pump would work better. The water just doesn't drain through that clay and I don't think that French drain would ever get a chance to perform. I could be wrong, but that's the logic I'm going with.

[@garymixson687]

@@WalnutsandWineberries you would have to dig a trench and pipe it to a low side so it could drain out. That's what I found works best in clay.

[@bethbale956]

But most importantly :-) did you rescue the turtle before dropping rocks on it??

[@mikejoyal4855]

Coastal baseball? Carolina Coastal?

[@WalnutsandWineberries]

Alumni. So is Meg!

[@mikejoyal4855]

Rockin groovy 😎

[@rogerdudra178]

I was surprised that you used quickcrete to make that foundation.

[@PAINFOOL13]

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@rs2024-s4u]

Water levels do not need the verticle leg to be level, water stays level no matter what angle the sight tube is held. Ray

[@kestersansnom8184]

Suggestion; Put some food dye in your Water Level ... Your welcome 😏

[@fredbays]

as to ur quick hitch U need to tighten them Just out a wrench on the nut of top and turn. I know this b/c mine came to tight and loosen them now ur water level. put a nail in top attach string to nail. On other end of string put a big old nut. Walla u have just put a plumb bob on ur water level.

[@davidserna7265]

If you put colaid it tint the water mayking easier to see

[@sobconners]

If you wave your water level back and forth. Whatever is the low point is vertical

[@ronnieferguson5706]

Watch concrete with the houses when it comes forms

[@kris7822]

Put food coloring into the water level apparatus bucket