One 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.
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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...?ÿ
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.?ÿ About a year later the daughter of the client calls and wants to know which nail is the corner.?ÿ 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.?ÿ I knew we had left behind an iron bar driven soundly into the ground.?ÿ She had seen the three reference nails.?ÿ 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.?ÿ 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.?ÿ 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.?ÿ 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.?ÿ And yes, we drove them in trees with the shovel.?ÿ Blazing bark is easy with a shovel.?ÿ 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.?ÿ 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.
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..........
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@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!
🙂
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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.
