ok. So we are building an MSE (Mechanically Stabilized Earth) Wall along a roadway starting next week. And we've done a few retaining walls over the years, and I did designs during school for them. My thoughts are this. The way this is built, you basically could have sloped it off and put the french drain at the bottom, it would be almost as effective. Because the blocks are just sitting on the ground (which isn't very good as you show!), they really can't do anything to stop rotation or movement of the slope, other than what their shear weight can handle. What you've done will do a fantastic job of draining water that gets to the wall. However, the soil above it can still get saturated and liquify if too much water comes through. If that happens the grass really can't do much to stop the underlying material from moving.
That wall will move closer to the road every year, there isn't even a question about it. But how fast or severe it will be we will see i guess. He could at least dig some holes and anchor it tho. Their solar farm is also not secured, it might stay there 30 years but one strong storm with heavy rains and it will slide down the hill..
Yeah. I'm not even an engineer and I don't really understand how this changes the problem. A "retaining" wall would need to be a bit higher, and even retaining walls move over time, just more slowly, without reinforcement. I feel like the next time this happens, the mud will just move right over top of all of this. The "hydraulic pressure" as he is calling it isn't the real problem, it's the mud, and this won't/can't stop that with just a one-layer "wall". He thinks this helps drain the water, and sure, it will, but the real problem is the water/mud further back being too heavy to stay up and this wall doesn't solve that problem.
I reckon he should have put a couple of runs of Agi pipe to help direct the water down hill under the rock, then dug under the road and let out down hill the other side..? The french drain I put in at home has never moved as the water has a way of escaping through the pipe..
@@Matty12787 yea i agree, though ag might be a bit too weak for the amount of weight, unless you bed it really well. then i would do a few drains across the road to the gully or what ever is over there. also the rock he is using is worthless for draining. crush run is basically what this is only with larger chunks and that does not perc. the small rocks fill the space the large rocks leave. i would go get some gabion rock. you can even get it caged to fit with block if you want. some times stuff just is going to cost you.
The retaining wall can be built using Rock Gabions. Gabions are cages which can be filled with small interlocking rocks, medium size rocks and then these cages are placed like bricks to form retaining wall. There are many mountaineers regions around Maharashtra and around Kerala where we have contracts building roads and we regularly used the KBS. This is a very efficient and reliable technique to be retaining walls in do we get a try. Give me an wall has the Gabion wall has much bigger advantage in the long run as it can also drain water slowly and retail the dirt. Amazing content.
Get a trigger switch on the torch handle for that type of TIG work. Also, a bit of flux helps with the silicon bronze. Yes, the TIG torch is shielded, but the flux still helps clean the metal, the shielding just keeps oxygen out of the hot metal.
I agree with you. In a separate comment I mentioned some ways to improve it, mayby when they have to redo this or another part of the road. It seems they dont read these particular comments, or choose to ignore them. Can't be sure though...
I was thinking the same thing along with using caged rock blocks. I'm also thinking that the saturation area began much higher up the hill and that hasn't been mitigated.
As a non-engineer and someone who knows nothing about the ultimate solution ( because you don’t own the land uphill) and watching your channel , can’t wait for the next mudslide, video and temporary fix!!!
3 месяца назад+2
your garage door, it has dropped down i note, please when it is up, make a steel post to sit on one side in or near the side track, so that if a cable breaks again - so it does NOT hit any of you good folks, i want you alive!! paint it yellow with a red cloth tag so u can see it is in place and remove it before you lower the door down again. you guys are great at what you have done on yr land, stay safe.
If you were to do this again, here are some tips (I build these walls for roadworks, not by myself but my crew does the work). - Base of angular crushed rocks or crushed concrete (cheaper sometimes). - first block should be partially buried. - drainage pipe with crushed rock, all about the same size. It not only drains the water but also slows it down and works as a buffer. - the heigth of the wall should follow the land with some steps if needed. - let the blocks have a little step in to the hill. What you did wil still work, but I predict that it will shift. Good effort!
My thoughts exactly. I'm not a roadway professional, but I feel like with the weak base they set those blocks on that the wall can shift and maybe break apart.
@jaypeeters Yep, haven't even finished the video yet. It doesn't make sense to me to just "wing it" on this big important project. For the french drain shouldn't there be a preferred 4" drain line at the bottom, covered with 2" gravel, then covered with the drain fabric? Plus everything else you said. He didn't do proper research on this job. Welp,Good luck with it. 🤷♂️🤷♂️
When they set the first block I thought "where's the base?" That think is almost certainly going to settle. With the key on the top and bottom of each block how would you step them into the hill? I don't remember but since they are keyed they are designed to be stacked flush up to a certain height.
With all your natural rock and Riley's penchant for welding, I'm kind of surprised you didn't build gabion baskets for your retaining walls and stack them a couple layers high.
I hate to say it, but some of us warned you at the time. You can't just repair and move on, you have to go uphill and trace the water routes before the next big downpour, and prevent any channels from forming above the road. Very tricky when your road is always going to be downhill from something, but if you don't prepare you are always going to repair. You need to get a handle on how water moves through your land, and be very careful with culverts. They speed up and funnel the water, making it more destructive. You have to include methods to slow the water down as early and as often as possible along your danger zones.
The soil base still has a large clay component, will absorb/retain water, and flow down hill. Hydro seeding will help. But, this seems like just one band-aid with more to come. I would recommend that they get a geologic engineer to give some expert guidance.
That does seem to be an aqua flow underground type stream, channel coming down through there. When it’s wet weather what you’re seeing is it’s the actual overflow. I had a similar problem. I had the room to dig a 4 foot deep ditch which I filled up with pit run. It solidified the road right there but 200 feet downhill from the road consequently, two years later,a 1000 sqft area (which was actually my lawn) the land sunk approximately 2 feet. Which was weird. My guess was the underground water dried up and sunk in. In large I’m guessing because I diverted the underground stream . Maybe something you might want to consider when checking out that whole area when it dries up. It might weaken the downhill side of your road. (I’d take a few pictures and compare it every year? ) Great vid! 👌you’re getting good ont that machine.
@@C3Cooper Yup . I imagine it would’ve been hard to dig down a couple of feet to lay a ditch channel of gravel first. But that would’ve been an option to keep the underground water draining before it becomes a problem.
You said more road work and you delivered. Impressive that you did all this work over months and still found time to make content for weekly videos. Yes good friends are special. They qualify for free boat use for a getaway weekend.
Behind your retaining wall is a valley. You should have added a culvert to allow water access to cross the road. That's something you will probably need to do in the future I feel like you are still going to have problems with all that water coming off the hillside. It has to go somewhere. But good luck on your project.
Buddy of mine up in northern Idaho owns a 79 acre homestead up in the mountains and he built Gabon walls along his roads and he grew some kind of tree (looks like a willow type tree but i am not sure how it survives up in the cold) that has a massive root structure to hold up the banks with some kind of drainage system using 24 inch culvert pipes. He has told me that his road/driveway was the most expensive part of his property
@AmbitionStrikes, Riley, I would have stacked blocks at least two rows high on either side of the firewood access road. Even with the grass, you can still have a slide which can bury the single row and cause more headache than it's worth, and make for a lot more digging. The angle of that slope is such that it could cause an under-slide effect because of the shallowness and its ability to hold water, which is witnessed by the soupy, sticky, consistency of the dirt that slid onto the road. Another option I would consider is to dig channels on either side of the firewood access road to alleviate too much water from running down the entire surface of the hill.
i have mentioned this before you need to make a skid that the skid steer can lift with hand rails and a place for the welder that you can move around easily and stand on with your welder or other tools.
i've lived off grid part time for 50 years. 50 years ago, my 4 mile dirt and rock driveway was a problem often. Over the years, with culverts, more rock, etc, now it is that 4 miles that is fine, where the county blacktop is not. Being aware and making sure that water is allowed to drain well, is the key. Yeah, personally, I would have excavated and filled in the trench with rock, and had a drain away from that, either a culvert or a trench that had a good place for the water to escape. Your ground there is saturated. Unless it is rock, it is going to turn to mud. Putting a barrier there looks good, but unless you have a way for the water to run off BEFORE it saturates the dirt, you are potentially even making it worse... With a good way to let the water escape, i'm not sure you needed all that concrete retaining wall. I get a lot of rain too, (60" a year average in No Cal on the coast) and I have no such problems anymore.
Great job folks! You might consider adding a wildflower seed mix to that grass seed mix, there is a multitude of benifits and reasons why, also might consider once the grass takes off good, add in some native ferns as well. All these things together really helped me with a far worse and steeper hillside problem before.
@millsy.g, I agree. The surface water will still be a problem. Guys, you could help to minimise this by planting shrubs, large ones, like buddleia, ceanothus and spiraea japonica all big shrubs which would all need that water in the spring just as it's on the rise. Planting these along the embankments will also give you a WOW of colour and form and thicket to protect the rd and yourselves from falling debris. Plus they are perfect for bees 🐝 and butterflies 🦋 ❤😊xx
Fractured rock behind the wall will not let enough water through. Bull rock or round rock lets water through. Having a 6" perf pipe run through will move water. Nest winter you can tweek it.
You where doing real good till you back filled all the way to the cement blocks. You should of left at least 6 feet flat on top of the blocks so any movement above had a place to land on and rain water could stay up above the blocks and drain down instead of over the blocks into the edge of the road. Also wait for spring next season your wall will move slightly because its above ground. Wish you luck with your repairs.
We have always undercut about a foot below grade, put in drain tile and gravel then put the block above it then put drain tile behind the block at ground level and in several sections up the hillside covered with dirt to divert water out of the bank to avoid water saturating the dirt causing a slide. Hydroseeding does stabilize the hell out of a bank too
You guys and the crews you assembly are so fun to see how you come up with solutions to issues and deploy the ideas. Just incredible what your 2 have built together!! True love for you and your family, and these video's. Thanx for sharing!
Out at My 11 Acre property, we ended up digging out 3 ft trench in 2 different places along the road where the mud/water was worst. Then laying down corrugated pipe 3ft diameter. buried them so now the water just flows safely under our road.
We had a similar problem with our driveway. The mud slides were coming from the neighbors place. They have a good bit of flat land then a drop off towards our property. We got permission and put in drain tile along the ridge and tied it into a down hill drain. It did the trick the water hits that drain tile and escapes instead of building up. The neighbor even paid half as he was upset he was losing pasture land from the slides.
4 месяца назад+6
Talk to your local logging co. Im sure they will be happy to give you a few pointers about culverts, cross ditches etc.
That will work, I think it should be backed up with perf pipe too but hydroseeding will help a lot. A normal winter with a slow spring thaw will pack that slope in tight. next spring the vegetation should be really thick which will hold the embankment in place way better.
Your ingenuity is amazing project after project. Your road fix is another great achievement. I love how you have bought and built the tools needed for your homestead
Sounds like a reunion of families every year on the homestead. Its great to see you have the equipment to make the job fun. Watch the tyke though, be safe.
I think you need a bunch of fast growing trees of a type that like your particular latitude and elevation, in addition to the drainage considerations and hydroseed
I just found your channel about a month ago and I can't get enough of it, y'all have an amazing place and an amazing life thanks for sharing your life with us it's very inspiring looking forward to your future projects can't wait to see what's next!
You might want to add a swale upslope at the wall to limit how much surface water is coming over your wall. Looks like you will be adding more wall next year.
Nice job with the French drain. You're home made hydroseader works amazing. It's way more cost-effective than having it done by a contractor. You 2 have matured a lot sense leaving California. Best move you could have made for raising your family in a healthy, happy environment.
Not usually the sort of thing I'd watch but it came up in my suggestions. I started with yr septic build and thoroughly enjoyed it so I watched this. Great work guys, I've really enjoyed yr posts. Hey from North Queensland Australia 🙂👍
"right way" I'm not sure, but from my retaining wall experience the bottom block needs to be below the lower grade, at least partially. The wall probably needs to be higher, and the more courses the deeper the first block needs to be. By 4 courses above ground you probably have at least one course below grade (total 5 blocks high). If you end up with blocks and mud on your road, you'll get a chance to do it again!
Riley, you read my mind when you said maybe you should have backfilled with rock and made a better foundation. I would've done that and also angled those blocks several degrees, leaning towards the hillside Instead of making them plum.
I think you should have a traditional grizzly rock screen to help you filter soil from rocks. I think as you dig and move soil around for various projects.... being able to filter out soil from rocks would help you tremendously. It being portable would allow you to deal with a project here or at base camp.
Mechanical concrete, look it up and learn about it it looks like it would be your best friend. Utilize his tires bolted together filled with rock or dirt, they build roads out of it
looks and sounds like might also need something like retaining pile sheets, they get drove down into the ground several feet. Nothing left to really move after that. You will need underground water drainage as well. just a tip
When this video first started, I was thinking "snow"! I live in Idaho, and we've been experiencing triple digit temps. Then it gets to the "a few months later." ohh yeah.😂 good video guys, enjoyed it.👍
If you get a Big rainfall, as the blocks are just laying on the ground, they may wash away.!!. You said it Riley, should have put stone underneath, Then lay the blocks on that, then maybe then Rebar to hold them in place, doesnt a French drain have a Culvert pipe running at the back??. Good job and having fun while doing the job x x x.
My 48kw battery weighs 2700 lbs. very happy it wasn't one piece. When the snow melted my 500lb propane tank started leaning, all I could do was pile a mound of crush on the low side and it almost leveled out over 3 weeks. Fun watching your yard transform over the years, thanks for sharing you have helped me a lot in building my own off grid space.
Just a thought about riding that block -- chains do pop sometimes and its pretty violent when that energy is released.. you might not straddle a chain under pressure in future ;)
Living in the Sierras, I've fought these very situations many times over the years... I really wish you would have put some perforated pipe (drain tile) in before you started filling your fabric with rock. If it's in your budget, think about running a second course of Junk-Block. The extra height really helps and by staggering the joints you keep the bottom course in place. But, if a mud slide wants to happen... it will. All you can do is rebuild.
Nice job guys you might have wanted to go to blocks high all the way around for better protection so dirt won’t spill over during heavy rain and snow melt but it will hold up good with what you a done should have perf pipe in first then rock cloth then dirt but it will work just fine that way but will not drain as fast like if you had pipe in whole. Love you content keep up the good work stay safe and blessed
The problem with loading your seed spreader with the paper base, head over to Lumnah Acres and see what they did to fix their problem. They built their own seed spreader as well. Nice save on the hill slide! Love your videos!
This is one of the many projects I see you Guys contend with and accomplish it’s beautiful and fun watching what you’ve managed to achieve yes great help with Tyler coming back for next serve 😂😂😂😂
If it was me, I would have put a layer of heavy plastic at the bottom of the gravel, so you can direct all the water away from the retaining wall. With permeable fabric at the bottom of the drain, it will allow the water to undermine your wall in time.
t-shirt for Tyler. Fuel gauge with "Empty" on one side... "Pizza and Cookies" on the other. (or an automotive fuel fill door which instead of "Diesel Only" says "Pizza and Cookies only"
That's a lot of work done in 35 minutes 😆 i was waiting for the pipe to go down on top of the rocks. What's that saying. We do it nice because we do it twice. Go two feet taller with the block. Then y'all can paint some happy trees. I say it's a nice job.
Most people, seeing their road wash away in a mudslide, would be sad and upset, but not these two! They immediately have big smiles on their faces and are ready to get started working together to fix the issue. Ambitions Strikes again!
Why not put in a drainage pipe in the “ French drain”? Another idea would be to put another French drain up the hill to move warmer around the area. Anyway this is a big improvement!
I wonder if you could plant prairie grass on the bank there. Native prairie grass has roots that can go down as far as 8' into soil. If they could survive there, it might be helpful with keeping the soil in place.
I wonder if Hesco containers would have been easier and stronger. scoop out a place to set them up, fill them up and stack. I imagine you could even plant something like ivy or even kudzu (if you dared) to give the wall a more decretive look
Looking good so far! The water is draining down the side of the road. No worries, an Andrew Camarata collaboration if this wall fails in the future will make a great video.
You were very smart to gather equipment, make a dump truck out of an army truck. I loved those early videos. I knew you were building a tool set, to build a life. It seemed to work pretty good didn't it?
Im no specialist or anything so im sure this application will do what your wanting it to, but i woukd have added perforated pipe, not sure a footing would be needed since it doesnt seem ur stacking those barriers, but for water diversion it should work
As has been said many times in posts on the road, there needs to be drainage channels on both sides of the roadbed so water doesn't flow on the road. This area is a prime example. Setting yhoseblocks on that "pumping" soil is a waste of time, as you said yourself. How can you expect the "drain" to work if there is already water beneath it?
You all did a great job on that slope reclamation project. Will you be putting some additional rock on that service road it might help whenever it's used regardless of the weather conditions. What headsets do you use for communications? My wife and I are full time RVers and we need to find something that enables us to communicate between the tow-vehicle that I drive and the backup vehicle that she drives? We currently use some marine radios, but the distance is limited to about 1 - 1.5 miles even though they are supposed to be good for 10+ miles.
So happy to see that Oliver is there to deliver INSTRUCTIONS, I am telling you the boy will Very shortly BE IN CHARGE. Now at first I was afraid the project would fail but I sadly underestimated your determination in completing it. Great Job!
ok. So we are building an MSE (Mechanically Stabilized Earth) Wall along a roadway starting next week. And we've done a few retaining walls over the years, and I did designs during school for them. My thoughts are this. The way this is built, you basically could have sloped it off and put the french drain at the bottom, it would be almost as effective. Because the blocks are just sitting on the ground (which isn't very good as you show!), they really can't do anything to stop rotation or movement of the slope, other than what their shear weight can handle. What you've done will do a fantastic job of draining water that gets to the wall. However, the soil above it can still get saturated and liquify if too much water comes through. If that happens the grass really can't do much to stop the underlying material from moving.
That wall will move closer to the road every year, there isn't even a question about it. But how fast or severe it will be we will see i guess. He could at least dig some holes and anchor it tho. Their solar farm is also not secured, it might stay there 30 years but one strong storm with heavy rains and it will slide down the hill..
Yeah. I'm not even an engineer and I don't really understand how this changes the problem. A "retaining" wall would need to be a bit higher, and even retaining walls move over time, just more slowly, without reinforcement. I feel like the next time this happens, the mud will just move right over top of all of this. The "hydraulic pressure" as he is calling it isn't the real problem, it's the mud, and this won't/can't stop that with just a one-layer "wall". He thinks this helps drain the water, and sure, it will, but the real problem is the water/mud further back being too heavy to stay up and this wall doesn't solve that problem.
I reckon he should have put a couple of runs of Agi pipe to help direct the water down hill under the rock, then dug under the road and let out down hill the other side..?
The french drain I put in at home has never moved as the water has a way of escaping through the pipe..
@@Matty12787 yea i agree, though ag might be a bit too weak for the amount of weight, unless you bed it really well. then i would do a few drains across the road to the gully or what ever is over there. also the rock he is using is worthless for draining. crush run is basically what this is only with larger chunks and that does not perc. the small rocks fill the space the large rocks leave. i would go get some gabion rock. you can even get it caged to fit with block if you want. some times stuff just is going to cost you.
Tyler is the perfect addition of the team, he's calm, funny and has another big smile! Have fun guys!!! :)
The retaining wall can be built using Rock Gabions. Gabions are cages which can be filled with small interlocking rocks, medium size rocks and then these cages are placed like bricks to form retaining wall. There are many mountaineers regions around Maharashtra and around Kerala where we have contracts building roads and we regularly used the KBS. This is a very efficient and reliable technique to be retaining walls in do we get a try. Give me an wall has the Gabion wall has much bigger advantage in the long run as it can also drain water slowly and retail the dirt. Amazing content.
Wouldn't it allow water to continue to flow out onto the road that way, through the gabions?
Get a trigger switch on the torch handle for that type of TIG work. Also, a bit of flux helps with the silicon bronze. Yes, the TIG torch is shielded, but the flux still helps clean the metal, the shielding just keeps oxygen out of the hot metal.
As an engineer, I think the wall should've been 3 or 4 blocks high. I'm afraid the mud is just going to pour right over it next year. I'm sorry.
If he is lucky the wall won't just tip over
I agree with you. In a separate comment I mentioned some ways to improve it, mayby when they have to redo this or another part of the road. It seems they dont read these particular comments, or choose to ignore them. Can't be sure though...
@@jaypeeters more views when it fails. They are using youtube smarts ;)
@@danthehomelessman5533 must be that! 🙈
I was thinking the same thing along with using caged rock blocks. I'm also thinking that the saturation area began much higher up the hill and that hasn't been mitigated.
As a non-engineer and someone who knows nothing about the ultimate solution ( because you don’t own the land uphill) and watching your channel , can’t wait for the next mudslide, video and temporary fix!!!
your garage door, it has dropped down i note, please when it is up, make a steel post to sit on one side in or near the side track, so that if a cable breaks again - so it does NOT hit any of you good folks, i want you alive!! paint it yellow with a red cloth tag so u can see it is in place and remove it before you lower the door down again. you guys are great at what you have done on yr land, stay safe.
If you were to do this again, here are some tips (I build these walls for roadworks, not by myself but my crew does the work).
- Base of angular crushed rocks or crushed concrete (cheaper sometimes).
- first block should be partially buried.
- drainage pipe with crushed rock, all about the same size. It not only drains the water but also slows it down and works as a buffer.
- the heigth of the wall should follow the land with some steps if needed.
- let the blocks have a little step in to the hill.
What you did wil still work, but I predict that it will shift. Good effort!
My thoughts exactly. I'm not a roadway professional, but I feel like with the weak base they set those blocks on that the wall can shift and maybe break apart.
@jaypeeters Yep, haven't even finished the video yet. It doesn't make sense to me to just "wing it" on this big important project. For the french drain shouldn't there be a preferred 4" drain line at the bottom, covered with 2" gravel, then covered with the drain fabric? Plus everything else you said. He didn't do proper research on this job. Welp,Good luck with it. 🤷♂️🤷♂️
When they set the first block I thought "where's the base?" That think is almost certainly going to settle.
With the key on the top and bottom of each block how would you step them into the hill? I don't remember but since they are keyed they are designed to be stacked flush up to a certain height.
@@ToddKing Hi Todd, you are correct, these blocks are not ment to be 'stepped in'. I Would have chosen a diffrent block to begin with.
With all your natural rock and Riley's penchant for welding, I'm kind of surprised you didn't build gabion baskets for your retaining walls and stack them a couple layers high.
I hate to say it, but some of us warned you at the time. You can't just repair and move on, you have to go uphill and trace the water routes before the next big downpour, and prevent any channels from forming above the road. Very tricky when your road is always going to be downhill from something, but if you don't prepare you are always going to repair. You need to get a handle on how water moves through your land, and be very careful with culverts. They speed up and funnel the water, making it more destructive. You have to include methods to slow the water down as early and as often as possible along your danger zones.
Unfortunately this isn’t our land, so we are limited to working within the road easement.
@@AmbitionStrikes That's a bummer.
The soil base still has a large clay component, will absorb/retain water, and flow down hill. Hydro seeding will help. But, this seems like just one band-aid with more to come. I would recommend that they get a geologic engineer to give some expert guidance.
That does seem to be an aqua flow underground type stream, channel coming down through there. When it’s wet weather what you’re seeing is it’s the actual overflow.
I had a similar problem. I had the room to dig a 4 foot deep ditch which I filled up with pit run.
It solidified the road right there but 200 feet downhill from the road consequently, two years later,a 1000 sqft area (which was actually my lawn) the land sunk approximately 2 feet.
Which was weird. My guess was the underground water dried up and sunk in. In large I’m guessing because I diverted the underground stream .
Maybe something you might want to consider when checking out that whole area when it dries up. It might weaken the downhill side of your road.
(I’d take a few pictures and compare it every year? )
Great vid! 👌you’re getting good ont that machine.
@@C3Cooper
Yup . I imagine it would’ve been hard to dig down a couple of feet to lay a ditch channel of gravel first.
But that would’ve been an option to keep the underground water draining before it becomes a problem.
You said more road work and you delivered. Impressive that you did all this work over months and still found time to make content for weekly videos. Yes good friends are special. They qualify for free boat use for a getaway weekend.
Behind your retaining wall is a valley. You should have added a culvert to allow water access to cross the road. That's something you will probably need to do in the future I feel like you are still going to have problems with all that water coming off the hillside. It has to go somewhere. But good luck on your project.
On the upside
This road is a great content generator!
Buddy of mine up in northern Idaho owns a 79 acre homestead up in the mountains and he built Gabon walls along his roads and he grew some kind of tree (looks like a willow type tree but i am not sure how it survives up in the cold) that has a massive root structure to hold up the banks with some kind of drainage system using 24 inch culvert pipes. He has told me that his road/driveway was the most expensive part of his property
Junipers maybe?
@AmbitionStrikes, Riley, I would have stacked blocks at least two rows high on either side of the firewood access road. Even with the grass, you can still have a slide which can bury the single row and cause more headache than it's worth, and make for a lot more digging. The angle of that slope is such that it could cause an under-slide effect because of the shallowness and its ability to hold water, which is witnessed by the soupy, sticky, consistency of the dirt that slid onto the road.
Another option I would consider is to dig channels on either side of the firewood access road to alleviate too much water from running down the entire surface of the hill.
i have mentioned this before you need to make a skid that the skid steer can lift with hand rails and a place for the welder that you can move around easily and stand on with your welder or other tools.
i've lived off grid part time for 50 years. 50 years ago, my 4 mile dirt and rock driveway was a problem often. Over the years, with culverts, more rock, etc, now it is that 4 miles that is fine, where the county blacktop is not. Being aware and making sure that water is allowed to drain well, is the key. Yeah, personally, I would have excavated and filled in the trench with rock, and had a drain away from that, either a culvert or a trench that had a good place for the water to escape. Your ground there is saturated. Unless it is rock, it is going to turn to mud. Putting a barrier there looks good, but unless you have a way for the water to run off BEFORE it saturates the dirt, you are potentially even making it worse... With a good way to let the water escape, i'm not sure you needed all that concrete retaining wall. I get a lot of rain too, (60" a year average in No Cal on the coast) and I have no such problems anymore.
I agree, there are three key goals to manage in a gravel road, water, water and water.
Great job folks! You might consider adding a wildflower seed mix to that grass seed mix, there is a multitude of benifits and reasons why, also might consider once the grass takes off good, add in some native ferns as well. All these things together really helped me with a far worse and steeper hillside problem before.
@millsy.g, I agree. The surface water will still be a problem. Guys, you could help to minimise this by planting shrubs, large ones, like buddleia, ceanothus and spiraea japonica all big shrubs which would all need that water in the spring just as it's on the rise. Planting these along the embankments will also give you a WOW of colour and form and thicket to protect the rd and yourselves from falling debris. Plus they are perfect for bees 🐝 and butterflies 🦋 ❤😊xx
Fractured rock behind the wall will not let enough water through. Bull rock or round rock lets water through. Having a 6" perf pipe run through will move water. Nest winter you can tweek it.
You where doing real good till you back filled all the way to the cement blocks. You should of left at least 6 feet flat on top of the blocks so any movement above had a place to land on and rain water could stay up above the blocks and drain down instead of over the blocks into the edge of the road. Also wait for spring next season your wall will move slightly because its above ground. Wish you luck with your repairs.
We have always undercut about a foot below grade, put in drain tile and gravel then put the block above it then put drain tile behind the block at ground level and in several sections up the hillside covered with dirt to divert water out of the bank to avoid water saturating the dirt causing a slide. Hydroseeding does stabilize the hell out of a bank too
What an exciting video. Lot and lots of work by all of you! Tyler is a Beast of help doing any job. Hi Oliver
You guys and the crews you assembly are so fun to see how you come up with solutions to issues and deploy the ideas. Just incredible what your 2 have built together!! True love for you and your family, and these video's. Thanx for sharing!
Thanks for watching! ☺️
Out at My 11 Acre property, we ended up digging out 3 ft trench in 2 different places along the road where the mud/water was worst. Then laying down corrugated pipe 3ft diameter. buried them so now the water just flows safely under our road.
Thar was great. Glad to see the hydroseeder again. Thank yall for what you do.
We had a similar problem with our driveway. The mud slides were coming from the neighbors place. They have a good bit of flat land then a drop off towards our property. We got permission and put in drain tile along the ridge and tied it into a down hill drain. It did the trick the water hits that drain tile and escapes instead of building up. The neighbor even paid half as he was upset he was losing pasture land from the slides.
Talk to your local logging co. Im sure they will be happy to give you a few pointers about culverts, cross ditches etc.
That will work, I think it should be backed up with perf pipe too but hydroseeding will help a lot. A normal winter with a slow spring thaw will pack that slope in tight. next spring the vegetation should be really thick which will hold the embankment in place way better.
Yep - culvert/pipe would probably have been a good idea 👍
Use the rocks on site to make gabions. Cost effective. Strong. Allows water to pass thru.
Those large blocks will do well at staving off a landslide, and the french drain will direct the water away downslope! Looks like a win-win!
I think it's great that you have learned to train your drainage, I think it's beautiful awesome video thank you.
Your ingenuity is amazing project after project. Your road fix is another great achievement. I love how you have bought and built the tools needed for your homestead
Thanks for the news, Take care of you and your family out there, from Sweden
Sounds like a reunion of families every year on the homestead.
Its great to see you have the equipment to make the job fun.
Watch the tyke though, be safe.
I think you need a bunch of fast growing trees of a type that like your particular latitude and elevation, in addition to the drainage considerations and hydroseed
I just found your channel about a month ago and I can't get enough of it, y'all have an amazing place and an amazing life thanks for sharing your life with us it's very inspiring looking forward to your future projects can't wait to see what's next!
You might want to add a swale upslope at the wall to limit how much surface water is coming over your wall. Looks like you will be adding more wall next year.
Nice job with the French drain. You're home made hydroseader works amazing. It's way more cost-effective than having it done by a contractor. You 2 have matured a lot sense leaving California. Best move you could have made for raising your family in a healthy, happy environment.
Not usually the sort of thing I'd watch but it came up in my suggestions.
I started with yr septic build and thoroughly enjoyed it so I watched this.
Great work guys, I've really enjoyed yr posts.
Hey from North Queensland Australia 🙂👍
"right way" I'm not sure, but from my retaining wall experience the bottom block needs to be below the lower grade, at least partially. The wall probably needs to be higher, and the more courses the deeper the first block needs to be. By 4 courses above ground you probably have at least one course below grade (total 5 blocks high).
If you end up with blocks and mud on your road, you'll get a chance to do it again!
Riley, you read my mind when you said maybe you should have backfilled with rock and made a better foundation. I would've done that and also angled those blocks several degrees, leaning towards the hillside Instead of making them plum.
I'm in Canberra Australia in winter 32f ATM and yet this video is still making it seem warm
Hey, the end of the project it looks great. Your hydro seed will definitely help hold back the that hillside.
I am enjoying your channel I enjoy watching good people doing good work and enjoying their lives. May all your dreams come, true, good luck.
I think you should have a traditional grizzly rock screen to help you filter soil from rocks. I think as you dig and move soil around for various projects.... being able to filter out soil from rocks would help you tremendously. It being portable would allow you to deal with a project here or at base camp.
Mechanical concrete, look it up and learn about it it looks like it would be your best friend. Utilize his tires bolted together filled with rock or dirt, they build roads out of it
looks and sounds like might also need something like retaining pile sheets, they get drove down into the ground several feet. Nothing left to really move after that. You will need underground water drainage as well. just a tip
When this video first started, I was thinking "snow"! I live in Idaho, and we've been experiencing triple digit temps. Then it gets to the "a few months later." ohh yeah.😂 good video guys, enjoyed it.👍
If you get a Big rainfall, as the blocks are just laying on the ground, they may wash away.!!. You said it Riley, should have put stone underneath, Then lay the blocks on that, then maybe then Rebar to hold them in place, doesnt a French drain have a Culvert pipe running at the back??. Good job and having fun while doing the job x x x.
My 48kw battery weighs 2700 lbs. very happy it wasn't one piece. When the snow melted my 500lb propane tank started leaning, all I could do was pile a mound of crush on the low side and it almost leveled out over 3 weeks. Fun watching your yard transform over the years, thanks for sharing you have helped me a lot in building my own off grid space.
Just a thought about riding that block -- chains do pop sometimes and its pretty violent when that energy is released.. you might not straddle a chain under pressure in future ;)
It's beautiful there, you two have really enjoyed putting in the work, and I have enjoyed watching your videos
Living in the Sierras, I've fought these very situations many times over the years... I really wish you would have put some perforated pipe (drain tile) in before you started filling your fabric with rock. If it's in your budget, think about running a second course of Junk-Block. The extra height really helps and by staggering the joints you keep the bottom course in place. But, if a mud slide wants to happen... it will. All you can do is rebuild.
Nice job guys you might have wanted to go to blocks high all the way around for better protection so dirt won’t spill over during heavy rain and snow melt but it will hold up good with what you a done should have perf pipe in first then rock cloth then dirt but it will work just fine that way but will not drain as fast like if you had pipe in whole. Love you content keep up the good work stay safe and blessed
Sure nice that Riley has a lot specialized equipment for jobs like this.
The problem with loading your seed spreader with the paper base, head over to Lumnah Acres and see what they did to fix their problem. They built their own seed spreader as well. Nice save on the hill slide! Love your videos!
are looking forward to see how the seeds are growing, nice tips and good work. best rgds fm Denmark ;-)
You should have put some Lime down to help dry the dirt then you could also put stone like you said
Getting things growing to hold the banks and a few ag drains
That's a lot of work! Hope it holds up.
This is one of the many projects I see you Guys contend with and accomplish it’s beautiful and fun watching what you’ve managed to achieve yes great help with Tyler coming back for next serve 😂😂😂😂
If it was me, I would have put a layer of heavy plastic at the bottom of the gravel, so you can direct all the water away from the retaining wall. With permeable fabric at the bottom of the drain, it will allow the water to undermine your wall in time.
t-shirt for Tyler. Fuel gauge with "Empty" on one side... "Pizza and Cookies" on the other. (or an automotive fuel fill door which instead of "Diesel Only" says "Pizza and Cookies only"
Yes!!! 😂
Place is becoming incredible.
It's almost like the trees were holding the soil in place 🫠
Yes we all need a Tyler on our live at some point
You certainly repaired the landslide guys...Good job.... well done....Stay safe you all and see you soon
That's a lot of work done in 35 minutes 😆 i was waiting for the pipe to go down on top of the rocks. What's that saying. We do it nice because we do it twice. Go two feet taller with the block. Then y'all can paint some happy trees. I say it's a nice job.
You need to plant some trees along that hill. The roof structure will stabilize the hill and control water run off.
"The Team of Three" did another fine job working together as they stabilize the hillside. Blessings to you all.
Team of 4, the baby was supervising lol
Most people, seeing their road wash away in a mudslide, would be sad and upset, but not these two! They immediately have big smiles on their faces and are ready to get started working together to fix the issue. Ambitions Strikes again!
Ambition fueled by Rice Krispies!!
Yes you are placing it on a saturated mud, so this wall can lean and collapse by itself even without any pressure from the mud above/behind it ...
I love have the both of you are not afraid of any projects. The videos are amazing 🤩
Why not put in a drainage pipe in the “ French drain”? Another idea would be to put another French drain up the hill to move warmer around the area. Anyway this is a big improvement!
I wonder if you could plant prairie grass on the bank there. Native prairie grass has roots that can go down as far as 8' into soil. If they could survive there, it might be helpful with keeping the soil in place.
You guys are awesome. Everything done with a smile and thumbs-up.
Nice job, I have no doubt it will work. Keep us updated on the progress of the seed growth, please.
That's how you learn where to add culverts and retaining walls.
I wonder if Hesco containers would have been easier and stronger. scoop out a place to set them up, fill them up and stack. I imagine you could even plant something like ivy or even kudzu (if you dared) to give the wall a more decretive look
Looking good so far! The water is draining down the side of the road. No worries, an Andrew Camarata collaboration if this wall fails in the future will make a great video.
You all are awesome ! My wife and I love to watch. Thanks for sharing. ❤
I use a CK sliding fingertip tig control for greater situational adaptability.
You were very smart to gather equipment, make a dump truck out of an army truck. I loved those early videos. I knew you were building a tool set, to build a life. It seemed to work pretty good didn't it?
Im no specialist or anything so im sure this application will do what your wanting it to, but i woukd have added perforated pipe, not sure a footing would be needed since it doesnt seem ur stacking those barriers, but for water diversion it should work
As has been said many times in posts on the road, there needs to be drainage channels on both sides of the roadbed so water doesn't flow on the road. This area is a prime example.
Setting yhoseblocks on that "pumping" soil is a waste of time, as you said yourself. How can you expect the "drain" to work if there is already water beneath it?
Fixing this issue looks like alot of fun to actually do & figure out.
I believe those blocks are 4000 pounds each.
Also Fast growing Vines and/or any kind of Vegetation you like with large "deep" root system. All the best to you guys.
Great Team job Courtney, Riley and Tyler.
It was good to see Tyler again, and it looks like it will work - but then again, what do I know?
It was so much fun having Tyler back on another road project!
Have you considered installing Gabions instead of blocks? Gabions are so good for the application you’re working with and they just freaking work.
🎉🎉🎉 WOW kids I’m so sorry that this happened.
Not a good thing. But I know you guys and I know that somehow you will fix it.
Blessings,Carlos ✝️🙏❤️😊🇺🇸
You are right everybody needs a Tyler!! He is the Man!!!
You all did a great job on that slope reclamation project. Will you be putting some additional rock on that service road it might help whenever it's used regardless of the weather conditions. What headsets do you use for communications? My wife and I are full time RVers and we need to find something that enables us to communicate between the tow-vehicle that I drive and the backup vehicle that she drives? We currently use some marine radios, but the distance is limited to about 1 - 1.5 miles even though they are supposed to be good for 10+ miles.
Gabion baskets and a culvert in that location. I think I suggested reinforcing some of these areas with gabions when you built the road.
Absolute fantastic job, Grüße aus Deutschland , greetings from Germany
Oliver, I saw your Momma and Daddy's snowverlanders track design in a commercial... it was really cool seeing it broadcast to the world!!!!!
Time for a bigger trailer. Top shelf trailers, check it out
Great job...no reason it won't work....love the teamwork....nice to have the "Tyler team" there too...🙃
So happy to see that Oliver is there to deliver INSTRUCTIONS, I am telling you the boy will Very shortly BE IN CHARGE.
Now at first I was afraid the project would fail but I sadly underestimated your determination in completing it. Great Job!