Log In
Home
21 Feb ’12
Offline
With the trench (and I use the word trench loosely) it was time to grab a load of dirt. So I ran the pickup down the hill to the site where my sister has plans on building a house (yet another future project of mine, likely to become a greenhouse at some point) and I filled the truck bed and hauled it back up the hill to the house.
21 Feb ’12
Offline
As you can see the dirt is pretty chunky. We have lots of clay in the soil around here which is good, because that's actually what you want for building with earthbags. It does however, need to be sifted to get rid of the rock, sticks and big chunks that could cause your bags to blow out when you're tamping them down. So I made one using some wood, and old craft show frames. If you look closely, the bottom set is actually the same type of frame I used in building my hay basket this fall. Who knew they could be so multi purpose?
21 Feb ’12
Offline
It worked really well to separate the good dirt from the rocks. I basically just threw dirt on the sifter and raked it through using the back side of a dirt rake.
The problem was I wasn't getting a whole lot of dirt out of each run since there were only a few inches of clearance from the ground to the bottom of the frame.
This all the dirt I could get out of one run before I had to move the frame and push it all into the truck bed liner I'm using for a holding spot for the finished dirt.
21 Feb ’12
Offline
I decided some slight modifications were in order. so I moved the posts I am using as a frame support in a bit...
...and I pulled the backs of of two old pallets I had lying around.
21 Feb ’12
Offline
I put the pallets down...
... and laid the craft frames on top.
21 Feb ’12
Offline
The finer black mesh you see in the left of the above pic went on top of that. It worked really well, and I managed to be able to sift an entire truckload without having to move the sifter and push the good dirt into my holding area. With plenty of fill dirt, it was time to start running the bags.
Most Users Ever Online: 698
Currently Online:
118 Guest(s)
Currently Browsing this Page:
2 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
easytapper: 2149
DangerDuke: 2030
groinkick: 1667
PorkChopsMmm: 1515
Gravel Road: 1455
Newest Members:
Forum Stats:
Groups: 1
Forums: 12
Topics: 11482
Posts: 58640
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 2
Members: 19842
Moderators: 0
Admins: 1
Administrators: K
