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Survey Tales
Posted by nate-the-surveyor on May 29, 2020 at 12:38 amOne day, long ago, when total stations were commonly used to survey sections of land, we surveyed a section. The E 1/4 corner was a tree fence corner.
We drove a nail into the tree, at about 6′ up off the ground, as a tie point to the fence corner. We finished our survey. Then, another surveyor called, as he had a job near this 1/4 corner. We sent him a coord list, worksheet, and copies of our field book.
He later told us he had spent over an hour trying to find that control nail, at the 1/4 cor. He finally looked up, and to his amazement, there it was. He later looked, and there it was, in the field book copy, “set ctrl na. 6’up in tree”.
He just was not anticipating it to be UP. Just a funny story. Up near Mena AR.
We had done it, because it was also a backsite reference, that we turned angles off of.
We often did that, especially on the first, or last shot of the day. If we didn’t shoot the dist, we’d put a dummy dist in of 100′. And, put in parenthesis the estimated dist.
GPS is easier. Way easier.
N
chuck-beresford replied 2 years, 7 months ago 11 Members · 23 Replies- 23 Replies
That reminds me….about 20 years ago running the gun through the Mizzurah woods. I was always told to set a nail the a tree near me that I could turn an angle to. Get the backsite and turn an angle to a nail and book it. Tell the kiddos to do that now and look atcha with glazed eyes…
Met a surveyor a few months back still running a transit and chain in the Ozarks. God bless him.
Many years ago we did a survey where we set some reference nails to a monument that was a corner of our survey but not a section corner category of monument. About a year later the daughter of the client calls and wants to know which nail is the corner. It took a while but I finally figured out exactly which property corner she was referring to but the part about the monument being a nail made no sense at all. I knew we had left behind an iron bar driven soundly into the ground. She had seen the three reference nails. She wanted to know which one of them was the corner monument. Two were driven into random fence posts and the third into the side of a tree of about 12″ diameter. She honestly believed one of those horizontal nails was the corner.
I was 3/4 mile back in the woods once doing some recon and we found an original stone. We were only about half prepared as all we had on us was a shovel, pin finder, two 40d nails in my pocket and a 25′ Lufkin tape. Needing three ties for our Certified Corner Record we used the two nails and for a third I used an old house key off my key chain. And yes, we drove them in trees with the shovel. Blazing bark is easy with a shovel. Driving nails, not so much..
I use to get a phone call every now and again from surveyors that had been there and found our references. Theyalways had to ask, “Why a Schlage house key?”
So I tell ’em the story…
@paden-cash added that one to the memoir…only Surveyors would appreciate that story.
because QuikSet keys make lousy references, the Schlegel has that little nub on the end opposite the blade.
- Posted by: @nate-the-surveyor
One day, long ago, when total stations were commonly used to survey sections of land
You young Whippersnapper.
Old man response (in typical loud voice of old men)
BACK IN MY DAY THE TOTAL STATION HADN’T EVEN BEEN THOUGHT OF. WE USED A TRANSIT AND WALKED NOT RODE IN ONE OF THEM GOLF CART THINGS. Continue ad nauseam until fade…..BREAD WAS 30 CENT, CIGARETTES WERE 2 DOLLARS A CARTON, WALKED 30 miles in the snow to school, girls were girls and men were men……….
????
@flga lol, the same thought came to my mind right away! 🙂
I just noticed that iOS “helpfully” changed Schlage to Schlegel. It really doesn’t like the word Schlage for some reason, it tried to change it to something else when I typed it so I changed it back but often spell correct activates when hitting post so it snuck that change in. You would think it would give up after the third time fixing the “correction” but it can be very persistent.
@flga
don’t tell Nate, I still use a Total Station to survey sections.
I can stare at a transit for hours, and memories flood my mind. Some are good, and some scare me!
🙂
N
- Posted by: @nate-the-surveyor
One day, long ago, when total stations were commonly used to survey sections of land …
I hate to burst your bubble but not all boundaries are located in Ozarkian woodlands and open fields. Somebody has to keep the urban canyons of the big city in order.
Pow! There goes me bubble.
@norman-oklahoma yeah, I do spend way too much time in urban canyon land.
You can keep your “big city lights” and “urban canyons”.
I have to wait for the second green light in town once in a blue moon.
Around here on many occasions, I can make the 7mi trip to town and not meet or be followed by another vehicle until I get to US59.
I’m right there, with A Harris.
When you cannot pee off your front porch, due to traffic, and neighbors, it’s time to MOVE to the country.
(Of course, I have daughters, and so this has CHANGED my thinking, and I have to duck back in the woods now a days!)
N
I actually enjoy the challenge of surveying in the “by the square inch” territory. It’s a challenge. And when people have paid $8,000,000 for 50′ of street frontage they aren’t so tight about the survey fees. I could do without all the traffic and the tacky people who somehow manage to saunter right down my sight lines.
@norman-oklahoma
In 1988 or so I worked on a section boundary in an extensive ‘urban canyon’ not far from here.
It had a laundry list of every sort of survey debris that could be imagined…highway, RR, multiple corners, platted and non-platted, old and new…all in one of the densest traffic areas in the metro. It nearly ate our lunch. The only good thing we had going for us was a new top mounted Nikon EDM. The survey took almost a year (on and off). I never got so sick of ‘return trips’ to satisfy the folks in the office.
I work mainly in rural areas by choice nowadays. My hat’s off to anybody that earns their living in these “urban canyons”.
Stress on the crew:
Once upon a time, circa 1971-1974, I lived in California. Dad was a surveyor. We drove a 1957 Ford Panel truck. My brother, me, and Kevin, (my brother’s buddy) were the Crew, for the day. I was always the tail chainman, with a nail in the end of the tape, so as to not “Curl and crystalize the end” It was a simple task. Go to a small place SE of Oakhurst, Somewhere near and partway up the north side of Deadwood mountain. The client had bought a tract, about 10 acres.
I remember this client, because he had a small toy steam engine, on the kitchen table. It burned alcohol. Fill the water tank, and the alcohol tank, light the wick, and in about 20 minutes, spin the flywheel, and it would run.
He was dividing his property, into several pieces, since a road had been built into it. The client was working my dad real hard. “OK, lets put the line here”, and we’d run it, and dad would give them an acreage. They would get another idea, to use the road. And, redo it, and then the acreage. By the time they had settled on what they would do, it was a 20 minute meeting, dissolved into 2-3 hrs. Something had happened, and my brother, and kevin were in a fit of laughter. Dad was very un-amused. The stress was in the air. It went on for a while. I was feeling the stress. As I walked, an acorn fell out of a tree, near my feet. I picked it up, and threw it up, in a big arc. It fell near vertical, and landed in Dad’s BACK POCKET. This sent Kevin and Brother into fits of laughter. They nearly hurt themselves. Dad was in NO MOOD for this.
On the way home, dad sat in the truck, driving. Suddenly he leaned foreward, reached his right hand back, and extracted the offending bump out of his back pocket. He held the acorn in front of his face. Fits of stifled laughter erupted. It nearly hurt them, to see dad wonder how that had happened.
Fall is in the air. School buses are getting ready. Deer season is right around the corner.
Nate
You guys are speakin my language! I found a bunch of old line posts today and i would imagine who ever set them wasn’t working alone but im just a glutton for punishment. Damn Mondays????
Here’s a true survey tale that happened today. Found all four corners of out lot project that were 1″ iron pipes set in 1952 and consistently about eight inches below today’s ground level. The measurements were nearly perfect with record. BTW, that 1952 subdivision was designed and surveyed by a PE. Wasn’t much of anyone else allowed to survey here in 1952.
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