McPheeters & Associates

Friday's Fieldwork - We hiked in about a quarter mile to the back of the lots expecting to find corners set in 1980 (front corners were in). The 1st corner had been pulled - The rock mound was still there, but only a hole where the pipe had been. This was our first sign that things might not go as planned. The 2nd and 3rd corners were also out - Appeared the area had been dozed (fire protection measures). The 4th corner was found leaning against a tree about 15 feet from t...he true position. Eventually we found enough monuments to re-establish and set the clients corners. We drove our pipes into the ground, tagged, made small rock mounds and put some color on them. Things often take longer than expected and are not as "simple" as one might think when initially preparing a cost/time estimate. We are committed to doing it right and not cutting any corners. Grateful for longer days with more daylight, no ticks and no snakes today. #boundarysurvey #landsurveying #surveyingmonuments See more

Here is an example of a benefit of hiring a land surveyor The property owner started to build a fence and then hired us to mark the property lines to confirm it was being installed in the correct location. Money well spent! We verified the monument locations and marked intervisible points along the property lines. As you can see in the photo the fence was about 10 degrees off. If the owner had continued on that line, they would have been off by over 500 feet when they got to the back of the property (about half a mile away) resulting in about 16 acres of land not being fenced. #landsurveying #boundarysurvey #markingline #WhyHireaSurveyor

Ticks - This guy fell off my hat into my trail mix at lunch. Poison Oak - constantly along the property line. Sharp stick - in the eye pushing through the branches. Somedays you have to put effort into looking for the silver lining (wildflowers, fresh air & sunshine).... #surveyinghazards See more

Celebrating our profession this week!

Monument Monday - This Section Corner set in 1880 and perpetuated in the early 1900s by Scott McKay (County Surveyor 1902-1918) survived the 2020 Creek Fire and controls 4 square miles in the Alder Springs area between Auberry and Shaver Lake. We verified remaining ties and set new ties to help perpetuate the location going forward. It is sooOOooo important that others know and understand the importance of monument preservation, so property rights are protected. #PLSS #landsurveying #AlderSprings #CreekFire #cornerrecords #MonumentMonday

Don't forget to service your fire extinguishers annually. Home, office & vehicle. You'll want this to be working properly when you need it. #safetyfirst

Monument Monday - Realizing old brass tags last better than a new plastic plug when property corners are impacted by fire. The corner set by James McPheeters is still readable, but a newer corner is not (melted). It is important that survey monuments be protected to preserve property rights as lots are rebuilt. Thinking of ways to preserve my surveying monuments going forward. #creekfire #landsurveying #surveymonuments

October brings these guys out every year. I ususally see them crossing the road on the way to and from the job site.

TBT - Usually the end of September beginning of October many of us are at the The Big Fresno Fair but Covid-19 has made this year different. Here is a look back when Dan W. Chamberlin (LS 1185) was laying out the horse track at the County Fair Grounds for the Fresno County Chamber of Commerce. The first two pages are his calculations. His survey work was done in August 1920 - over 100 years ago. #landsurveying #constructionstaking #geometry

Monument Monday - When surveying Swamp and Overflow land you should expect some corners to fall in the water. This property had eight property corners. Four of which (50%) were within the San Joaquin River. We set the ones we could and several witness corners.

Term Tuesday WC = Witness Corner "A witness corner is a monumented point near a corner. It is established only in situations where it is impracticable to occupy the site of a corner with a monument or a mark. A witness corner is a witness to the true corner point. When the true point for a corner falls at an inaccessible place, such as upon a precipitous slope or cliff where the corner cannot be marked, a witness corner is established at some suitable point where the monume...nt may be permanently constructed." - Section 4-16 from the Manual of Surveying Instruction 2009. This particular corner fell on a bedrock slope where setting a pipe would be impracticable. The surveyors came over online until they found a location where they could get the monument in the ground. Witness corners are not set a any particular distance from the corner. Thus, is it very important to review the map and notes to know the true position. I think you can see how, without reviewing the map and notes a layperson might erroneously assume the monument is the corner. Often the witness corner monument is marked with WC, but not all monuments have stamping like these. It would have been practically impossible to find the chiseled cross on this mountain slope of granite, but once we found the Witness Corner to reference from, we had a much smaller search area and discovered the chiseled cross easily. Witness Corners are set often on boundary surveys when the corner falls in locations such as a tree, stream, road, etc. #PLSS #witnesscorner #manualofsurveyinginstruction

Monument Monday - Another original 1924 GLO monument. The corner fell on a bedrock face where they couldn't set a pipe, so they set a chiseled cross in the granite at the true position and set the pipe near by (witness corner - see tomorrows post for more information). Both original pine bearing trees were still in with healed blaze scars. #GLOcorner #landsurveying #cadastral #bearingtree #blazescar #PLSS #wardmountain

Term Tuesday - CHAIN - The Surveyor's Chain is both a tool and a unit of measure. It was used for measuring distances. The Chain is 66 feet long, and has 100 links, of 7.92 inches. These units of chains and links can be seen in the notes and plats of the early land surveys. 1/4 of a Chain (16 feet) is called a Rod, Pole, or Perch and 10 Chains (660 feet) is called a furlong, a unit which is still used in horse racing. An Engineer's chain is basically the same as a surveyor...'s chain, except that it is 100 feet long, consists of 100 links, each 12 inches long, and the wire used is usually much stronger. The Engineer's Chain was used on construction projects, such as railroads, flumes, and roads. Fifty foot engineer's chains were also manufactured. W. & W. E. Gurly, and Buff & Berger, were two well know companies who manufactured chains and other precision surveying instruments #surveyorschain #origialsurveys #boundary #plss #mdshs Courtesy of Mount Diablo Surveyors Historical Society

Monument Monday - Amazing Blazes! This 1924 GLO Section Corner still had 3 of it's 4 original bearing trees. Bearing Tree #2 was a 20" Pine that was dead in 1974 per USFS notes (less than 50 years). #PLSS #GLOcorner #cadastral #landsurveying #bearingtree

TBT - This, young whippersnappers, is a "Typewriter". We used typewriters before computers to create written documents such as deeds. Thank you Gary Dixon of Dixon & Associates, Inc for demonstrating (pic is from 9 years ago). Other tools used with the typewriter were "carbon paper" (pre-copiers/printers) and "correction tape" (pre-spellcheck/autocorrect). Oh, and phones used to have cords. LOL #typewriter #landsurveying

Monument Monday - Found this "Lucky" Quarter Section Corner from 1924. The USFS notes mentioned one of the two bearing trees and said they couldn't find the corner without the notes. But that lucky horse shoe was working and we found both original bearing trees. The Juniper blaze was still open and readable. The Pine blaze was closed, but the scar still visible. Section corners were set every half mile, how many corners and accessories do you think you have walked by and never seen? #GLOcorner #landsurveying #cadastral #bearingtree #blazescar

Lots of survey monuments out there to find. Check out Kevin Nehring's blog to see lots of benchmarks. I'm sure we aren't the only one's who enjoy these quests.

Gratefull the GPS base unit could be left alone all day and someone didn't have to endure this seranade. Turn up the volume to enjoy. Can you imagine being set up here all day behind the total station?