SURVEYING FOR THE HOMESTEAD

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Pencil which won't smear, as wet ink does is best used to record your notes in case of rain when you're out in the field.

Let's suppose you want to fence part of your acreage maybe section off the back 400 feet for a small cow pasture (in which case your problem is to mark off a line parallel to and 400 feet away from the rear boundary of the property). Or, if your land holding is more extensive, you might want to lay out an area 400 X 7,600 feet. In either situation, the main objective is to measure off a specified distance from a known corner point or points.

Place a range pole at the corner from which you want to begin, and set the other pole at an approximation of the desired distance (to help keep you heading in the right direction as you work).

Next, recruit the assistance of your Mate or a friend, and open the tape between you to its full length. The person holding the Zero end is head chainman (H.C.). His partner the surveyor in charge of the 700 foot end is rear chainman (R.C.).

The H.C. marks the starting point with a chaining pin, arms himself with the other 10 pins and walks toward the next corner of the area to be measured, while the R.C. makes sure his companion takes a straight path toward the range pole (see Fig. 5). When the tape is stretched to its entire length, the R.C. holds the 100 foot point exactly on the corner pin and pulls against his partner until the measure is straight. At that point the R.C: yells, "Stick!" and the H.C. pokes one of his chaining pins into the ground at exactly zero (Fig. 6).. The pair once again checks to be sure the tape is tightly stretched between them, then repeats the whole procedure until the entire distance from (the old, known) corner to (the newly determined) corner has been covered. (After 1,000 feet there should be no pins left which is a good way to double check against loss of markers.)

When you place your pins in the ground, incidentally, it's test to insert them at an angle so that the tape can then be held directly over their points of entry. Use chalk instead of chaining pins to mark pavement or other hard surfaces.

Measurement between two trees, boundaries, or other points won't give you such nice round numbers to work with which is where the first foot of tape and its smaller divisions come in. Let's say the distance involved is about 56 feet. Place a pin at the 50foot point, then use the first 6 feet of the tape to determine the remainder. This gives you a figure accurate to tenths of a foot: 56.3 feet, for example. For very accurate work, remeasure the distance you've just stepped off by starting from the finish point and then working "in reverse" back to your original landmark corner. Record your findings on the first page of your field notes and illustrate them with a diagram on the second sheet.

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