You end up with a description like this.
Today, as it turns out the neighbor (whose description I posted), who we've been talking to on this job for days says he was the one that did the survey and our corner is off by about 3 feet.
First, why didn't he tell us this days ago? Granted, he didn't know we were going to 'miss' the original location by 3 feet. This was supposed to be a one day job. We are almost a week in it.
Second, how in the world did I get it that close? I mean the description is terrible (But to give him credit. I have seen worse and I was able to put it on the ground) none of the distances match very well. But we were able to recover several original corners by using the description and guessing and head scratching. All three deeds in the area of about 11 Acres read like the one I posted, but the 'north' is different on one of them. I guess he decided he had north wrong at some point, so he changed it about 180 degrees. That took a bit to figure out itself.
Anyway, I'm going to use his pointed out the spot where he said the corner was. It's the best evidence out there. This old man being the original surveyor and all.
Just kinda burns me up that this old man sat back and wasted so much of my time. I guess he wanted to see how close we could get before he divulged he did the survey himself back in the 70's. No better persons footsteps to follow than the old man standing in front of you.
One distance, down a rock cliff, is off by about 200 feet. The rest are within 10 to 50.
Here are the other two descriptions. The second one (third one down) is the one out by about 180 degrees. Also the common line between the descriptions are the 300 and 612 feet lines as compared to 296 and 594 feet. The guy must have measured it twice, came up with two different distances and used them for each description
If I paid you to do a Survey and you put my name on blast on the internet I would be a little miffed, consider blurring.
It's public record
Surely is, just my perspective. Seems impressive to me that it fit as well as it did, I do not understand the mindset of some folks to want to do everything on their own.
I like the telephone pole POB.
There you go Party Chef. Redacted. It's public record, but I will post on the safe side.
I don't have a copy of the deed but I can remember the first two calls. "Beginning at a pine tree on the north side of XXXX Road; thence about halfway up the mountain to a clump of Sassafras trees;" This is Georgia, there are pine trees EVERYWHERE. I did find evidence of an old fence in a Sassafras tree on the side of the mountain but the attorney for the owner INSISTED that I had the "wrong tree". I asked him where the correct tree was, "That's the surveyor's job to determine", he said. The good thing about this particular job was 70 degree weather, slight breeze, and some great scenery. I did complete the survey and neither adjoiner was happy with the location so I guess I must have done something right.
Andy
One of the first things you might consider doing is asking the owner if they knows where any of their corners are or where they think they are. It might even be good to ask the adjoiners if it's practical.
Actually those descriptions are much better than some I have seen in PA prepared by surveyors.
party chef, post: 428796, member: 98 wrote: I like the telephone pole POB.
Me too. Nails it right down. 😉
[USER=1123]@Andy Bruner[/USER]
Few years back, I did a survey in Smithville that the M&B description started as follows:
"Starting at a stake on the edge of the sidewalk of Main Street (I don't remember actual street name); thence along the edge of the sidewalk xx.xx'......"
Deed had no direction calls, just distances. Found monumentation on the parcel. The field dimensions were within a foot of the deed dimensions.....
You had me at "Beginning at a telephone pole"...
surv8r, post: 428904, member: 4 wrote: [USER=1123]@Andy Bruner[/USER]
Few years back, I did a survey in Smithville that the M&B description started as follows:
"Starting at a stake on the edge of the sidewalk of Main Street (I don't remember actual street name); thence along the edge of the sidewalk xx.xx'......"
Deed had no direction calls, just distances. Found monumentation on the parcel. The field dimensions were within a foot of the deed dimensions.....
A lot of the old subdivisions in Cobb County had only distances. It can be fun to try and fit it all together using only distances. Did you ever follow Mr. Crotwell's surveys. I have been pleasantly surprised with how well it all fit.
Andy
My favorite from a survey we were retracing in TN. Commencing where John shot the big buck in '83. Luckily there was an elderly gentleman that was able to point that approximate location out to me. With that bit of information I was able to reconcile such descriptive pieces of work as a distance call of "thence yonder over yonder there"(I had to ask my grandmother for the definition of a yonder). Once I had gotten said definition and applied it I came to within 10' of the next monument call which was an "old wagon road". Keep in mind this road had not been maintained in over a hundred years and was rather grown over but it was there. We then followed that "old wagon road" back to its intersection with the "main road"(which was dirt). We then followed the "main road" to the next description of "under the old oak tree with the big red dog". While the main road was lined with rather large oak trees we caught a break in that someone thought enough of the "big red dog" to put a headstone with his name prominaty displayed "here lies red". The rest was fairly simple to follow. Looking back I suppose the discription functioned as intended but it took a lot of things coming together to get it retraced properly. Or in this case as close to properly as I could muster.
Mack00079, post: 428945, member: 11516 wrote: My favorite from a survey we were retracing in TN. Commencing where John shot the big buck in '83. Luckily there was an elderly gentleman that was able to point that approximate location out to me. With that bit of information I was able to reconcile such descriptive pieces of work as a distance call of "thence yonder over yonder there"(I had to ask my grandmother for the definition of a yonder). Once I had gotten said definition and applied it I came to within 10' of the next monument call which was an "old wagon road". Keep in mind this road had not been maintained in over a hundred years and was rather grown over but it was there. We then followed that "old wagon road" back to its intersection with the "main road"(which was dirt). We then followed the "main road" to the next description of "under the old oak tree with the big red dog". While the main road was lined with rather large oak trees we caught a break in that someone thought enough of the "big red dog" to put a headstone with his name prominaty displayed "here lies red". The rest was fairly simple to follow. Looking back I suppose the discription functioned as intended but it took a lot of things coming together to get it retraced properly. Or in this case as close to properly as I could muster.
That's funny. Maybe the monument should have said "Here Lies Big Red (the dog)" just to be clear. You need a monument @ the point of commencement that is some kind of stone saying "Where John shot the big buck in '83" 😉
Tom Adams, post: 428954, member: 7285 wrote: That's funny. Maybe the monument should have said "Here Lies Big Red (the dog)" just to be clear. You need a monument @ the point of commencement that is some kind of stone saying "Where John shot the big buck in '83" 😉
Well it was a bit less ceremonial than that, unfortunately. I was still a young and wet behind the ears party chief at the time. I had not come into my full sarcastic sense of humor, as it relates to surveying, just yet. I still had many things to experience that were old hat to my predecessors.
I had to write a legal description of an access easement for a pipeline that began at the end of a county maintained road that was never fully defined. I came up with a solution that was agreed upon by all involved. I had bearing/distance ties to some found monuments, but my opening statement began something like, "at a pk nail set in the center of a XXXX Road where the asphalt meets the gravel....
Felt like it would make someone smile that came across it later.
Had one once that said something like: Beginning at a corner post near the south quarter corner.................
First problem was that the corner post and fence were no longer present. By "near" they meant something on the order of 15-20 feet.
@AndyBruner
Yes, I've followed Mr. Crotwell and his RR Iron monuments many times! And they do fit very well, he did great work.
Somewhere in my files, I have a job where I followed him that I have copies of his field notes, including his notes calculating his invoice...
