Blue Flagging
Unfortunately, the water company in a nearby town inherited this infrastructure from this towns water company when they folded.
A field supervisor was here to fix a leak in the main line and said he had no idea if those bolts marked the water line or not. The towns water tanks are actually on my property at the top of the mountain.
While here to repair the gushing 100 year old 6" galvanized pipe he remarked "I'm surprised that line is leaking so badly, it's not supposed to be in use".
Sweet.
Simple Layman's Question about distances>hodja
When we measure steep slopes like this, with a chain or tape, we will measure horizontal by "breaking chain" at various increments. Such that when we hold 0 over the downhill point the front chainman will then hold (usually an even 5' distance, be it 20' or 35' or however far you can go and remain level) at the ground level where the tape remains level.
Make sense? Then add you distances as you go...Using a plumb bob of course to make sure you're over the point!
Do It Yourself, Here Is How You Start
You want to know if 318' is slope or horizontal. First find out what that surveyor did on other lines of your parcel or on other parcels. To do that you need to carefully read and follow your deed around your parcel assuming either is correct. Then you get a copy of all your neighbor's deeds and compare their distances with your's. Assume this 318' line is on a 20% slope. If the measurement is flat it would be 324.3' on the slope. If the 318' were instead a slope measurement it would be 311.8' on the flat. Land can easily be much steeper in WV.
It may be neccessary to read each deed, yours and all your neighbor's for the past 200 years. As you go back you may see differences in distances that represent errors in copying or in differing results due to surveying differences over the years.
After that much work you may be no closer to the truth.
People pay for surveys because it is time and cost efficient to get professional results.
Still want to do it yourself, fine, but I would pray that your child never needs brain surgery.
Paul in PA
Do It Yourself, Here Is How You Start
> Still want to do it yourself, fine, but I would pray that your child never needs brain surgery.
>
> Paul in PA
That was completely unnecessary.
Had you read the thread, you would have seen I am merely curious where the stake is. It doesn't really matter where it is exactly, I'm just curious.
>People pay for surveys because it is time and cost efficient to get professional results.
I don't need professional results. $1 would not be cost efficient. Paying to survey this land would be like getting brain surgery to treat a headache.
The lots around me are vacant with the houses gone decades ago. It's a mountainside, no one cares where the property lines are, I'm just curious.
20% grade? It's actually about a 120% grade.
A fence would serve no purpose, and would cost more than the land.
Do It Yourself, Here Is How You Start
DOn't let Paul's comments bother you. Some of these guys think you need a surveyor to lay out a vegetable garden.
Come on guys, someone's merely having fun
You know how it works. Every once in a while someone gets bored and decides to take a shot at us. They make up a funky persona and start challenging some extremely basic survey practice just to get our motors rev'n.
Ignore the man behind the curtain.
Check this out......
http://www.frogforum.net/members/hodja451.html
Come on guys, someone's merely having fun
> You know how it works. Every once in a while someone gets bored and decides to take a shot at us. They make up a funky persona and start challenging some extremely basic survey practice just to get our motors rev'n.
>
> Ignore the man behind the curtain.
>
That's not correct. I didn't challenge anything.
Funky persona? I have been hodja451 everywhere since the internet started.
The Todd Rundgren page is mine, it shows the same name and email address as I used here, Walter and hodja451. You can see I haven't updated that page in 5 years.
The Frog vivarium page is mine too, you can see it's 11 years old. It also shows the same name and email address as I used here, Walter and hodja451.
I like frogs.
I moved to West Virginia, found a odd frog, and asked on the frog forum what it was. That's me too.
You can find this ID on dozens of forums.
I have a question, I pick a forum, register and ask. So what?
My question was sincere and I challenged no basic survey practices.
I just live on a wooded mountainside and there's no need for a survey because the boundary isn't that important. I was only curious.
Paul's comment was unnecessary.
Do It Yourself, Here Is How You Start
Thanks for understanding. 95% of the posters on this thread were awesome. I learned a lot of details.
Here's my mountainside vegetable garden, note the slope:
Before:
During:
After:
The photos in the illustration are actually my garage on the left, and my house on the right.
Note the land grade in the photos matches the line I drew in the illustration for my question.
Do It Yourself, Here Is How You Start
You Are Looking For What Most Likely No Longer Exists.
Your search must be extensive and it is much more than a search on the ground. Do enerything as I suggest.
I apologize to your child, but will still pray for your family.
Paul in PA
Come on guys, someone's merely having fun
Walter
There you have it.
Read and listen to the Blessed Bovine and Paul in Pa.
Both are fine engineer/surveyors who have given their intelligent responses.
Bovine also offers some classic xenophobic comments from his "small town America POV. Paul's crystal ball gets sort of sooty and a snooty at times. His sarcasm about praying for families is his trademark. He spends a lot of time in prayer in PA
All of this advice is free for the taking. .
the short answer is..
Look for a monument at 318' (taped distance) and if you don't find one there look again at 375.7 feet.
i.e. sqrt(318² + 200²).....375.7 feet
How on earth?
Did you end up in Bramwell, WV?
How on earth?
I came from Long Island, New York. We pretty much hated everything about the place.
I work online, so I searched Trulia for areas of the country with the lowest cost of living. I wasn't interested in living in anything similar to Detroit, or in the middle of the desert. I wanted a nice town where property was cheap because jobs left.
When I found Bramwell, I totally fell in love with the place. There are 300 to 400 people living here, in a town that once had 4,000 residents. You can imagine what that does to property values.
On Long Island, there's a cop on every corner and you are not allowed to own a gun. Crime is rampant. Here in Bramwell, "the law" is one cop. Everyone has a gun and there is no crime at all.
On Long Island, when buying a house, it's a good idea to get a fresh survey, a home inspection, a title search, title insurance, lenders points, mortgage insurance, realtors fees, an attorney for the closing. I got none of that here. All of those things to "protect" my investment would cost more than my investment. I put 5k down and the owner holds a 5 year note at 3%. We closed in the antique store on main street. She's a notary. It's a different way of life here, and I like it.
I bought a 3BR, 2 bath house, 28' square, 2 stories plus a walk in basement. It included a 2BR cottage, and a detached garage at street level. It sits on 1.68 acres that would take a 6 acre blanket to cover. $29k. Not a typo, twenty nine large.
On Long Island, the average property tax is $8,000 per year. My property tax is $114 per year.
And here's the view from one of my 3 porches:
The view from my kitchen table:
How on earth?
:good:
I live in a different part of the state, and I left for about 10 years, but that is pretty much why I moved back nearly 40 years ago.
Hodja
I get asked that question, more than any other question.
In the old field notes, the survey crews had to swear to chain level. That meant to measure level. The old crews had a literal chain, they measured with.
You already have a good assortment of answers.
I have just been working on a survey, where the persons before me, measured along the ground. So, it does not work out mathematically, unless the slope distances are used.
Welcome to our world. Figure it out. That is one of the things that makes surveying interesting.
Sometimes those really drastic slopes were never measured... they were computed from other surveying.
When you have a GOOD survey, there is nothing like it.
When you have a BAD survey, there is nothing like it.
Welcome to our world.
Nate
How on earth?
My wife's family is from just around the corner in Anawalt. We both grew up not too far from there in Logan, although we moved away to Atlanta, GA for about 12 years before moving back. We now live in Huntington. McDowell County is a beautiful area, but very rough.
How on earth?
> McDowell County is a beautiful area, but very rough.
About the only crime I'm aware of in Bramwell was committed by a resident of McDowell County. He came to our only convenience store with a ski mask and a shotgun.
There was one customer and the clerk in the store. He was pointing the shotgun at the both of them while robbing the place.
The customer drew a concealed pistol and shot the robber dead.
The County Sheriff announced that the customer had a conceal and carry permit, and the gun was legal. Case closed. I was very surprised that the Sheriff would not even reveal the name of the shooter.
Contrast that to Long Island, NY. Right before I left, a guy walks into a Pharmacy, robs them, then shoots the clerk, assistant, and 4 customers. 6 dead. Of course the clerk, assistant, and 4 customers are not permitted to carry a handgun in NY, only criminals can have guns.
They put him in jail, then it happened again.
Now the Pharmacies on Long Island don't carry Oxycontin, and have a sign on the door that says so.
So now the law abiding citizens who pay $8,000 per year in property taxes and can't carry a gun, can't fill a prescription either. Of course shooting 7 Eleven clerks is a near daily occurrence in NY.
I am so glad I left.
Almost Heaven, West Virginia......
How on earth?
Sorry, I wasn't talking about crime. I was talking about the terrain. Some of the roughest terrain in the Appalachian Mountains is a stretch that runs south from Charleston down to around Blacksburg, VA.
