The Long and The Short of It

This weekend was another blitzkrieg trip to the ranch, out late Friday night and back Sunday, to install the plywood paneling that we stained last weekend.

When we last left the cabin, the floors had been sealed and the walls were ready for paneling.

We started on Saturday morning with the ceiling panels, which should have fit together in a straightforward fashion, with a course of 4' x 8' panels and another course that was to be trimmed lengthwise to account for the framing that extends inward from the walls and makes the space about 7'8'' wide.

The problem was that nothing was quite square. Things had shifted, and I'm not sure the container was perfectly straight to begin with. So this led to lots of fitting, finding that there were gaps or overlaps, trimming, fitting again, maybe trimming, some more -- you get the idea. It took about five hours to put 10 panels in place. But the results were good, and we continued with covering the far ends of the container before finally breaking for sausages and beer around 4pm.

Then it was on to the wall panels. We had ripped 1' x 8' panels and stained them in three different colors to make a pattern for the walls.

Again, nothing was quite as straight or uniform as we had hoped, and the wall panels required some fitting and trimming as well, particularly around every light switch and electrical outlet. This went a bit faster, and by 10pm we had the entire length of the back wall of the cabin done.

By Sunday morning there were still a few spots that needed to be filled in on the back wall, and the front wall hadn't yet been started. But we were wiped out from Saturday's work and just decided to clean up and organize the site, and take a walk around the property.

This spring has been fairly mild and quite wet, and the weather has had a huge impact on this part of Southern Texas. With all the grass growing, we'll need to bring a lawn mower the next time we come out.

Who knows how long this greenery will last when the triple-digit heat returns to Texas, which it is bound to by July. The new undergrowth may be a concern when drought conditions return and it dies and becomes potential fuel for forest fires. We'll have to keep an eye on that, but for now its a nice change of scenery.

No Pain No Stain

This past weekend did not include a trip to the ranch, but instead a full day of work in Austin preparing the interior paneling for the container cabin. We are using plywood to cover the walls and ceiling, but are trying to paint and pattern it to be more modern and less woodsy.

First we ripped down about twenty-five 4' x 8' sheets of plywood into 1' x 8' strips to use as individual panels for the cabin walls. Then we set to staining all of them, and we even had some help this time from a few of the locals.

We chose four different semi-transparent wood stain colors in muted colors -- charcoal, light greenish-gray, and blue for the walls, and a grayish-white for the ceiling.

After the panels dried, we loaded them all back onto the trailer. Next weekend we will take all the panels to the ranch and start installing them in a pattern on the walls. We are still figuring out what the pattern will be, so stay tuned to see how that turns out.

One More Step

May 31 was a quick (one day), but significant, trip to the ranch to seal the floors and install the air conditioning units, as well as inspect the foam insulation that was sprayed in a few weeks ago.

The insulation looked great. It totally filled in the cavities between the studs and the metal walls, and should make keeping the cabin cool fairly easy.

A little trimming will be required in places when we install the paneling and outlet covers, but this was well worth the cost.

And speaking of keeping cool, since we have the electricity on and the walls insulated, it was time to install and crank up the two A/C window units we had. After a little shimming and bracing we were in business.

And not a moment too soon -- it is starting to get hot in South Texas. Even though the air temperature was only about 90 degrees, the intensity of the sun and lack of shade means that we'll be doing most of work inside for the next couple of months.

So next it was time to prep the floors. Most of the floors in these storage containers are plywood (though ours has a fairly large metal patch in one section), and the wood is treated with strong insecticide chemicals to kill any bugs that might hitch a ride from their native lands. So the wood floor needs to be sealed to prevent the insecticide chemicals from outgassing into the space.

We swept and mopped the floor and patched a few gouges, and then spread on three layers of polyurethane floor sealant. And with that we were done for the day since it needed 48 hours to fully dry. But this means we are now ready to install the wood paneling and kitchen counters and cabinets during our next trip.

It is starting to look like this place is going to be habitable soon...

We've Gone Electric

The weekend of May 9-10 was our latest trip to the ranch to finish up the electrical work and prep the container cabin for spray foam insulation. It ended up being kind of a tough weekend.

For one thing, it is starting get warm in South Texas, which calls for more creative solutions for keeping things cold, such as the cooler-inside-a-cooler technique.

Most of the time was spent wiring all of the electrical outlets and installing the electrical panel on the side of the container.

We also had to dig a 75' trench from the container to the power pole to bury the conduit with the four electrical wires pulled through the pipe. Hot and dusty work in the middle of the afternoon, and we managed to scare up our first snake on the ranch.

While bending down to connect the conduit, I also managed to sit on one of these:

Not cool.

After connecting the wires, installing the breakers, double-checking the outlets, and making sure we weren't touching anything metal, we tentatively flipped the switch on the main box and...nothing (bad) happened. We got power. Which we immediately used for one of the most important things in life.

We also had Mike from Allison Drilling come out to see where we could drill a water well. He brought his water witcher Roger, who walked around the property for a 45 minutes with his copper rods, looking for the "streams" flowing underground. They finally found a spot about 50 yards from the container along one of the ranch roads. The area needed to be cleared of cedar trees so he can get his drilling rig in place. Cutting cedar lasted about 30 minutes until the chainsaw broke and ended that project.

Finally, we started preparing for adding the bathroom addition by drilling into the container and creating the attachment points for the framed room that will be connected to one end of the cabin.

But it wasn't all hard labor, broken tools, sunburn, and cactus. We managed to drink a case of beer along the way, and even got our sun shower rig set up so that we could feel human at the end of the day with a hot shower "al fresco" -- Enjoy!

Deer and Framing

Easter weekend 2014 was on the schedule as a long weekend for work on the container cabin with the main goal of framing out the inside structure to prepare for having spray foam insulation installed. Plans were made, time off from work was scheduled, and materials were bought on Thursday night, with a plan to drive out to the ranch late Thursday and be ready to work all day Friday and Saturday.

Unexpectedly, Thursday also turned out to be the day that the first deer of 2014 was killed. But not on the ranch. In Austin. With my pickup. In Brother's neighborhood.

Luckily the deer was small and I wasn't driving very fast, so the damage was minimal. So after a short delay, we headed West and arrived at the Rockin' P safely with no further vehicular carnage.

Friday dawned clear and fairly warm, perfect weather for another day of building our dream. But no work starts on the Rockin' P until a proper ranch breakfast has been prepared -- in this case, Brother's breakfast tacos.

After breakfast we were ready to measure, cut, and nail our way through the day. We had 92 2x4 boards to use in building out the internal framing on the walls and ceiling so that electrical, water, and insulation could be installed before we cover it with paneling.

The framing started a little slow, trying to determine how best to anchor the studs by drilling as few holes in the container's metal walls as possible. Lots of fitting and figuring to see how it should work.

But once we got it figured out, the work went smoothly on. And on. And on, and on, and on. From nine in the morning until midnight pretty much straight through, with a beer and hotdog break around four in the afternoon. But when you've got busy lives and not much time to spend, you've got to make the most of it. In the end, we completed about 95% of what we wanted to do this weekend.

We also had a chance to fit some of the kitchen counters and cabinets, and visualize how the different living spaces would come together.

Overall, we were pleased with the amount of work we got done. In three weeks we'll be ready to complete the electrical wiring and hopefully have the insulation sprayed in. Then we can focus on finishing the interior and building a bathroom building at the end of the container.

But building the container cabin is not the only work to be done around the Rockin' P. Feeders have to be filled and maintained to ensure the wildlife will be attracted to the property and supported through the summer months of drought.

And our feeders have taken a beating so far this year, getting pulled down (and subsequently cleaned out) by wild hogs and local grazing sheep, and having the battery timers knocked off by deer. So we undertook our repairs and re-filled two of the three feeders with dry corn, putting the third feeder in storage until we figure out where the hunting blinds will placed on the property. This is the work we actually look forward to, and hope to be spending a lot more time on once the cabin is completed.

By 7:00pm Saturday we were basically exhausted, so we packed up our tools, closed up the container, and headed East back to Kerrville to meet up with our better halves for the rest of our Easter weekend with Mom and Dad. A shower and a couple of cocktails later, and we felt pretty good. Can't wait to do it all over again in three weeks.

Welcome to the Rockin' P Ranch

Welcome to the Rockin' P Ranch, our own little slice of Texas heaven in Edwards County, TX. The main purpose of this blog is to track the conversion of a 40-foot shipping container into a hunting cabin that even the wives will want to visit every now and again.

A few details to get started.

The ranch is located in the northeast corner (panhandle) of Edwards County, TX, on the edge of the Edwards Plateau in an area of rolling terrain with prairie grass, juniper, mesquite, cedar, and some oak trees. Elevation at the ranch is about 2,000 feet, and the climate is dry -- Edwards County receives about 22 inches of rain per year, most of it in brief thunderstorm downpours.

It is also home to an abundance of wildlife, including deer (white-tail and exotics such as axis, sika, and black bucks), Rio Grande turkeys, wild hogs, doves, coyotes, fox, and jack rabbits. Probably some snakes too. Probably lots of snakes. We just haven't seen any. Yet.

We got this place primarily for hunting, shooting, and beer drinking (not necessarily at the same time, and not necessarily in that order), and to just have a place to get out of town and work on outdoor guy-stuff type projects. To that end, it has exceeded our expectations so far.

Our ultimate goal is to have a comfortable cabin with power, water, and all the amenities of home. The property came with a shed that the previous owners had been using as a cabin.

But it was in pretty bad shape, lots of evidence of rodents, water damage, etc., and overall it did not fit with our "cool comfort" design aesthetics. The wives would not ever be spending the night in this dump, and we really didn't want to either.

So we started with a 20-foot storage container to use for, well, storage of all our equipment, tools, whisky, etc.

This is where we are also sleeping for the time being, with a set of bunk beds pulled out of the shed.

Its nice and dry, but quite cold when the weather is cool, and heats up quickly in the sun. Like oven-hot even when its only 70 degrees outside.

After setting up the storage container, we had power brought onto the property, courtesy of Pedernales Electric Co-op. Gotta be able to charge those iPhones and run the margarita machine.

The first weekend in April 2014 we took delivery of a 40-foot container that will become the real cabin.

Since we knew we wanted to install doors and windows, we had the container company (TexStar Containers, Miles, TX), cut the openings and install a frame.

Saved us a ton of time and effort to have the openings cut and framed out, and all we had to do was install the windows saved from a previous home remodel, and a set of french doors from Lowes. The results were pretty good, and every thing went in easily, except for the french doors at first.

Before we installed anything, we leveled the container with paving stones across the front to account for the slope of the ground from front-to-back. We jacked up the container with a 2.5 ton car jack and slid the paving stones under the edge. Except that we started in the middle, and the container sagged under its own 9,250 lbs of weight and slightly bent the I-beam running across the bottom. Who knew you could bend a steel storage container? Well, we did it. But a few shims under the door frame to even it out and we were back in business. Not that Bubba, the neighboring ranch dog was too impressed.

Next steps will be to frame out the inside, and run the electrical and water lines to prep for the container being insulated with spray foam. Between the foam and the two AC/heating window units we have, which will be installed in their own openings at the back of the container, the building should be comfortable in the summer and winter. Watch this space for more photos and detail real soon.