Maybe I can start posting about BLM policies on subdividing sections?
Certainly looks like we could use a good survey thread!
Keith
Confessions of a BLM surveyor....
Well, maybe you could start by telling about your biggest 'Oops" moment while at the BLM. 😉
maybe that would make a good thread. everyone tells a story about their biggest "Oops" or blunder in their survey history. I don't mean damaging equipment or vehicles but a boundary or survey decision that got really goofed up.
We all learn from mistakes...right..
well, I'm not going to start since it has been along weekend with pre-dawn wake ups but I will think about a tales of woe be me, if others join in.
Confessions of a BLM surveyor....
I did a section breakdown, resolved the 1/4 1/4 1/4's and pinned out 10 acres in the wrong quarter. Easy fix, coupla hours lost. Keep that in mind if you think speed is better than right in any case.
Confessions of a BLM surveyor....
I reset the N.E. Corner of a Section 13 double-proportioned. Referenced, filed, drawn-up and sold before I realized what I had done.....
Redid everything and had to beg my original drawings back from the client..
It only moved the corner a quarter-chain west...:-$
Now for the beginning of a discussion
You caught your mistake and corrected it - GREAT!
But what if you didn't catch it and 20 years had gone by and some other surveyor discovers your error. Should he accept your corner or correct your mistake? And would it have made a difference if you were a BLM surveyor or working for BLM?
What if the time period was 1 year? Or 10 years? Or 50 years?
Please do. You tease us again.
Make forth with the tales of woe and wonder oh Dalai BLMma! 😉
Otherwise we just get "I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna..."
And actually there been so many great surveying threads recently. Very educational.
I learn something new each time I look at the site.
Confessions of a BLM surveyor....
Not me. Another guy. Really!
He clearly goofed somehow on his traverse when he took a sideshot to a monument at the center corner. His references were perfect but his location was something like 50 feet to the west and 20 feet to the north of the monument. He then laid out a 10-acre aliquot based on an erroneous center location.
Confessions of a BLM surveyor....
Double proportion on a Township line. Big OOPS. At least you were the one to catch it and got it corrected.B-)
Any one here part of the "Six-Mile Club"? We did a 1 day control survey (4-man crew) and a day of topo (2-man crew) for environmental concerns (vernal pools/Ferry Shrimp). Had it all in the bag and then we were told that we were in the wrong township! I wondered what the heck was so important about that a corn field any way. The first indication that we were in the wrong place should have been the rancher, unaware of the survey, taking a direct route through the corn field straight at me behind the gun. Man was he hot! You shoulda seen the ears of corn flyin' off the windshield of his old Ford truck!
Found a survey that was done in the right place, but, the description and all labeling said it was done six miles further west. Simple to fix, but, awkward to explain to your client who has already filed a deed and mortgage with the wrong description. The guy who did that survey was VERY happy that I caught this so soon after he had done the job.
I was going to do a job in the section his survey SAID he did the job, knew his clients, so knew what he had done. One of the blessings of recording surveys.
In another case, a firm from two counties away, filed a survey with township, range and county name all indicating it was done in their home county instead of where the surveyed property actually was located.
I really hope that I caught any and all mistakes that I may have made and especially those moves that may have been moved in the wrong direction.
I did catch at least one move that was not right and it dawned on me after a couple of more moves, that we did in fact move in the wrong direction.
I do know that our accuracy was not nearly as good as is being experienced now and I can only shake my head when I read of corner monuments being ignored if they are off a finger length distance. That is not land surveying; that is the work of a measuring technician.
But, have said it before and it just keeps on going and going and going.
Keith
Now for the beginning of a discussion
Has it been commonly used and accepted or is it the 1st time anyone has seen it. What kind of survey am I doing?
Confessions of a BLM surveyor....
I don't think it was a Township Line, but was a Range Line.
Long ago, was a draftsman at a firm. While filling out the paper work for a proposed deep oil well drill site, I realized from some road names that the crew had staked the well head off by 6 miles. Would have been a costly mistake. I got a "attaboy" the crew :'(
Confessions of a BLM surveyor....
We were hunting for a benchmark in a 14 lot subdivision which consisted of a rectangular parcel with a subdivision road thru the center and 2 acre lots on both sides of the road. The property owner came by and asked us what we were doing. Turns out we had the map upside down. It may not have been the biggest mistake but we sure felt stupid.