I found all but one of the many monuments I was looking for today. Finished 2 of 3 field projects. I had many satellites, cloud cover, cool temps, and every favorable condition one could ask for. I rehabbed two of the monuments that were bent over on the top. Spinning and pulling them with the channel locks left perfect holes for nice shiny two bit rebars to go back in. I added a cap to them since we were the original surveyor back in 1971 and also did a resubdivision on the same 20.4 acres in 1990. The old school crew chief left good notes on where he found the monuments at that time (distance from back of curb and depth of soil cover). Had some great ant trails to view as I took my shots. The red harvester ants seemed to dominate the field. I do believe the horny toads have plenty of food supply out here as of yet.
I am sorry I have nothing controversial or problematic to post. Perhaps I can come up with something on Monday when I do the analysis of todays projects. As Deral would say, it was a hiperiffic day, but in a Leica sort of way.
Oh, I did work through lunch. But I went to Wingstop on the way home, so not a big problem. Maybe I'll post some pics tomorrow.
Andy,
I had a very similar day on Monday. Found 14 of 15 monuments, all but one were GPS'able.
Gotta take the good days with the bad ones.
Enjoy!
Jimmy
Andy,
You must have done something horribly wrong.
Toss and turn tonight and it will come to you.
Today I found all of the monuments and all the adjoining monuments to my newest project.
Problem, 3 of six deed descriptions have a misclosure of S45°W, 30ft. Can't wait to study this one closer.
> I rehabbed two of the monuments that were bent over on the top. Spinning and pulling them with the channel locks left perfect holes for nice shiny two bit rebars to go back in.
Well, that's controversial. In my opinion, considering that this is Texas, you should have straightened the original bar and reset it (assuming it wasn't inadequate for some other reason) unless you were writing a new description that would have ended up in the public records explaining that you'd substituted a new marker for an old one you found.
To me, rehabilitating a monument means simply giving the existing monument a new lease on life.
Interesting theory you posit there, Kent. Not sure if it matters in this case. The original 20+/- acre Block 7 of the original subdivision plat was filed in 1971, IIRC. As was typical of the company's plat at the time, the description of the monument type set was completely absent. Just little circles and/or hatch marks on the linework (circles for lot corners, hatches for PTs and PCs). Now, I suppose the competent surveyor could recover enough monuments to come up with the conclusion that 1/2 inch uncapped reinforcing bars were the original corners not described as being set in 1971.
In 1990, the north 10 acres of Block 7 was cut off by deed by the same company (us). At that time, three of the original block corners were not found and reset with 1/2 inch reinforcing bars with yellow plastic caps that had our company name and "Co., Inc.". When I reset the corners today, I set 1/2 inch reinforcing bars with yellow plastic caps which do not have the "Co., Inc." on them. I am sure the prudent surveyor will notice the difference in the monumentation and will also realize that all the monuments were set by our company.
Ultimately, I would hazard a guess that it is not such a bad thing to have blurred the lineage of these replaced monuments since I will be preparing (what does our Wisconsin friend say?) an updated description to be filed with the public record indicating that I found the original monuments, as not previously described, in a damaged condition and replaced same with new 1/2 inch reinforcing bar and standard cap. Please advise if that is sufficient.
> Interesting theory you posit there, Kent. Not sure if it matters in this case.
Well, the idea that original monuments ought to be preserved when possible isn't exactly a theory so much as it is one of the central principles of the profession, isn't it?
As long as a description ends up in the public records that clarifies that your new marker was a replacement of an original (and describing the size and pattern of deformations on the original so that bit of evidence isn't lost), I don't see that much harm done, although I personally think it's a better practice to reset the originals after straightening them, which usually isn't that difficult to do.
I'm cheap. I straighten the original rebar with a 4 lb hammer and vice grips and push it back in the hole from whence it came.
Pipes - forget it! They don't straighten very well.
> Pipes - forget it! They don't straighten very well.
Hey, I thought that was what hacksaws were for. If only a short section of the top is bent, I've pulled the pipe (after referencing the center of its plumb base), sawed off the bent part, and replaced the pipe.
Sometimes it works better to replace the pipe upside down so that the freshly cut end is down and the pipe looks its age from the surface.
