Spring Floods: A Reverse Bathtub

[capnjuan]

"... Oh my bucket's got a hole in it, I can't buy no beer " or how to prevent attacks by angry fish.

I guess the place with the tarpaulin is the in/out?

 

[fronobulax]

Wow. Quite the picture and homestead. Thanks.

 

[geoguy]

Very impressive . . . I hope it holds.

 

[coastie99]

Man, he's dooh-deep if that thing breaches !! And real quick.

 

[cjd-player]

So where does he dock his boat? :shock:

 

[hideglue]

Nearly unbelievable... and such a nice, neat job.
Cheers to the excavator!

 

[capnjuan]

The dike is so new, it doesn't look like it has any grass/weeds on it yet.

FL is flat; everywhere it's flat, fill dirt has a premium attached to it; if you need dirt, you can't dig up your yard to get it and no hills to level; somebody has to dig a hole that produces dirt that nobody wants. As a result, clean fill costs a fortune down here.

I wonder where he got it? In sub-Saharan Africa (as in collecting Guilds), a man's wealth is determined by how many goats he owns; this guy is the King of Fill :shock:

 

[hideglue]

capn, is there a back-story link to this? I just need to know more. If it's real, I'm in complete, engineering-geek-awe.

 

[cjd-player]

... If it's real, ...

I'm definitely thinking Photoshop.

 

[hideglue]

I'm definitely thinking Photoshop.

I know, the (small) trees' height & pole height don't add up (never mind the absurdity of the entire premise) but a dang good job shadow/light wise.

 

[Ridgemont]

Bad time for a mole infestation.

 

[cjd-player]

I'll bet he's from the Netherlands. :wink:
I think I see tulips in his yard.

 

[fronobulax]

The URL is http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/US/05 ... vee.gi.jpg which implies a linkage with CNN and indeed I found it included in a slideshow at http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/12/missis ... f=obinsite (Scroll down and bring up the gallery linked on the left labeled "Gallery: Floodwaters on the Rise".

Looking at similar photos in that gallery I'm inclined to believe they are all real.

 

[capnjuan]

Real? you'd have to ask CNN :wink: where I ripped it off. I'm still hung up on the volume of dirt v. level of effort v. the apparent value of the house. Okay, a man's home is his castle but that's a lot of dirt, work, money, and earthmoving suggesting the owner owns his own loaders, trucks, and scrapers ... Commercially, that might be $50,000 - $75,000 worth of work ... but not if it's your dirt, gear, and the operators work for you.

Once the ground gets saturated, he may have <ahem> septic system issues.

 

[AlohaJoe]

If it's real, I'm in complete, engineering-geek-awe.

Wow! You can say that again! Amazing! BTW, I like your avatar... think my drummer used to play a Mandelbrot set.

 

[hideglue]

BTW, I like your avatar... think my drummer used to play a Mandelbrot set.

ba-DUM-ching!

 

[CA-35]

RE;

I'm still hung up on the volume of dirt v. level of effort v. the apparent value of the house.

Capnjuan; not only the monetary question what about the time to do such a task. That's a lot of dirt to move in a short period of time. Your talking hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of dirt here people. How much notice did this guy have before the flood? 4 weeks?

 

[capnjuan]

Capnjuan; not only the monetary question what about the time to do such a task. That's a lot of dirt to move in a short period of time. Your talking hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of dirt here people. How much notice did this guy have before the flood? 4 weeks?

Hi Scott; yes, had to have been done in a jiffy ... still willing to bet a nickel that he owns his own equipment or his bro/BIL does.

There might be a moat around the house ... a huge ditch ... a ditch created by excavating the dirt used to build the dike; that would keep him from paying to haul it and ... happily provide him a convenient place to put it once the water subsides.

I can't imagine anybody going out on the porch for an evening smoke and staring at that mess: "Hey honey, come on out and look at the sun setting over the dike" :? :wink:

 

[CA-35]

Re;

still willing to bet a nickel that he owns his own equipment or his bro/BIL does.

Don't most farmers pull a tiller behind a small tractor with wheels? Or they have John Deere harvesting equipment that are also rubber wheeled. I think I see tread marks from a caterpillar. Farmers plant, tend and reap. I don't think they have the time to learn or have dyke building specialties as a hobby. The other point I will make is that this dyke is almost perfectly symetrical; sides are the same angles , the width at bottom and top is equal all the way around....who ever did this does it for a living and with GPS positioning equipment. This was not their first dyke.

And as someone before me commented "He better pray that thing doesn't breach in the middle of the night."

 

[adorshki]

This was not their first dyke.

And it's pretty wet, too. Somebody muzzle me...PLEASE! :lol: