u/BudIsMyBuddy

Going to try and make a long story short.

We are adding onto our home which the existing is single story, tearing down a non-load bearing wall with a gable end, and opening it up for our addition.

Initially, we didn’t have a soil boring test done, that was until the proposed footing depth on the addition went beyond the called for 4’ stem wall as it was about 5’5” down from the floor elevation due to the grade of the property.

Soil borings were completed. Boring taken near the house showed red clay about 4’ down and they hit limestone at 15’. Second boring at the opposite corner/furthest point from existing but a couple feet from the addition showed no clay until 6’ down and no limestone was hit all the way to 20’ down.

Plans called for a 2x2 pad thats 16” thick to support the load for a 6x6 post that will carry 50% of the load of the addition. Now structural engineer is backtracking saying that pad needs to be 4x4 and 18” thick, and after communication with the geotech they’ve concluded that helical piles need to be drilled into the existing foundation to support the load of the header because the existing is too close to the clay and that’s the only way to beef it up.

My only other option is to change the truss layout, which has already been built and I’d be out about $10k, so that the addition ties into a gable ending versus a hip and the load is more evenly distributed across the new stem wall. I’m leaning more towards that option, but my foundation guy says in all his time building foundations he has never had two engineers go so far down a rabbit hole like this and has never heard of helical piles outside of marshy areas or coastal regions.

I am mostly venting because I will never, no matter what, ever do a home addition again. Were over 10 months in and have gotten basically nowhere, and have spent hours on the phone with engineers.

I plan to seek out analysis from another geotech firm as well and see if they might be willing to conduct their own independent analysis and foundation recommendations based on the borings that I have.

Hi all,

First time heifer calved on Mother's Day, naturally at the worst time of the year/dead heat of summer in central Florida where it's been hellishly dry and hot.

Calf has contracted tendons, so it could not walk well enough to nurse. We've got it colostrum day it was born, and have locked up Mom in our pen. Problem is it's not covered and it's hot as h*ll out. We had calf locked up with Mom to encourage nursing, bottle feeding the calf to build it's strength and hopefully get it to take naturally to Mom.

Problem is, my lane/headgate setup is not perfect. We've been able to get Mom locked up each day but she's increasingly more aware of what's going on and doesn't want to get into the headgate. We've been able to feed grain and place the calf close to her, where he has found the teet and nursed some, but not nearly enough. Today, he got stuck between a bunk feeder and post, and clearly stressed himself out to where he can't even stand up again and clearly was overheated.

We brought him home to our goat pen from cow pasture, and let him cool down/gave him some more milk replacer so he's got his morning 2 qt in his belly.

I have taken to vet, they gave him La200/oxytetracycline, which vet said will resolve issue with up to 3 treatments. Planning on taking him back tonight to the vet.

Anyone had similar situation with calves? The last two that dropped calves were first time heifers and both had problems. First one had no interest in being a mother (very skittish) and completely deserted her calf, this one is a great Mom but her calf can't nurse properly. So both ends of the spectrum frustration.

I'm really only able to manually squeeze milk out to relieve pressure from Mom and keep her bag filling up, but I'm hoping this little bull calf comes around soon, especially after the setback today.

This post is mostly a vent, but curious who else has dealt with contracted tendons and if anyone has used La200/oxytetra to resolve and how long maybe, some anecdotal insight can't hurt. Want to see this guy come around / back to life and also want to give Mom a chance to be a great Mom that I know she will be without her bag drying up.

Thank you all