Giant vertical ruler on a house (picture)

Factual Questions
41

My bet:

  1. For whatever reason, chimney is removed. Nice gap left in roof.
  2. For some other, unrelated project a 20 foot ruler is needed. Homeowner, being a resourceful chap, whips one up in no time, and put it to use doing… whatever.
  3. Having spent many loving hours on the MEGAruler (MEGAruler hereafter referred to in the feminine), Homeowner can’t just saw her up and throw her away. And to leave her lying in the grass would get her all icky with slugs and the like.
  4. “Aha!” Says Homeowner, “I could stand MEGAruler up against the side of my house, using the oh-so-convenient chimney-gap to brace her.”
  5. Profit.

Look at the second picture, doesn’t it look like MEGAruler leans away from the house slightly?

42

The OP mentioned a windsock and possible ultralight usage. Might a pilot use some sort of a guage to see if he was coming in at an appropriate altitude - say to clear trees yet land on a short runway? Of course, I would think it would be more visible if it were painted in alternating contrasting colors instead of lines. And I would think the features on the house itself - roof peak, second floor windows, etc. - would serve as an adequate guage.

43

As promised, I approached the home owner. I almost backed down, as it was after 9 pm and the house was dark except for a light in the kitchen. But, I’m glad I went ahead, as we sat and talked for hours. He is a very interesting guy! And, happily the answer satisfies Occam’s razor. Occam's razor - Wikipedia

After explaining my curiousity, his first answer was that he liked to keep track of record snowfalls. I must have looked dumbfounded, but he didn’t let me dangling long. The real story is much more interesting.

Back story:
Mr Giantverticalrulerguy (Mr G) bought the property shortly after he married. The original house was a 10’ x 18’ shack made of rough cut lumber harvested from the property. It was covered by tar paper to make it “waterproof”. There was no foundation, just a dirt floor. Shortly after moving in, he and his wife decided to upgrade.

So, he and a buddy began excavating around the house using picks, shovels, and a wheelbarrow. They learned as they built, leading to some funny situations. Once he had the foundation/basement built they realized that things were not level enough to begin the first floor. They corrected this gradually by adding more courses of block, so that the current house has a 12 foot ceiling in the basement!
They put a fireplace in the basement, and its chimney lasted for decades, but was not perfect.

Soooo, the chimney was torn down. At about the same time, Mr G began flying lessons. He was adventurous, and was soon flying an ultralight as well as other experimental aircraft. He bought an old garage from a neighbor (which is at the far end of his property) Here it is: http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s218/vetbridge/hanger.jpg

His yard was a runway, but it was not a perfect runway and he wanted to improve it. He had access to some heavy machinery by this time, but could only work on his project in the evenings and weekends, and he had nobody to hold the surveying thing (he told me what it was called but I forget now) so he made the giant ruler!!! The chimney had just been torn down, so he stuck it where it is to this day.

He has since given up ultralight flight and he has a small airplane that he has offered to take me up in!

Thanks to this thread, I have met a really cool neighbor. :smiley:

44

“In conjunction with a level, the surveyor will use a “level rod” to read an elevation up or down from the level of the telescope. From these observations, a surveyor can determine differences in elevation of different points or transfer an elevation from one location to a distant location.”

Neat story! Thanks for the update.

45

Nice one, vetbridge, you’re a credit to the board with your willingness to follow this one through.

46

Really interesting! Thanks for sharing – how cool that you met someone worth meeting!

47

groman won, then!

48

Yep, that’s what really got to me. I meet people every day in my line of work. Every so often, someone is very interesting. Mr G surpasses all in recent memory. Out off respect for his privacy, I’ve only skimmed the surface.

Sapo/Mangetout: I told Mr G about the whole giraffe idea, and he cracked up.

49

The runway might just be a cover story to fend off curious passers-by and prevent them discovering his trade in black-market giraffes . Did you notice any barns nearby? - they’d be tall, narrow, tapered and locked.

50

I will inquire further when I see him tonight. I have to stop by and ask about his neighbor’s vehicle with the odd front wheelbase/axle. It is visible in the pic of the old hanger:

51

While it wouldn’t have made as interesting of a story, I would have rather you stopped here.

52

You need a wide wheelbase for stability, if you’re transporting something tall, is all I’m sayin’.

53

:smiley: http://www.ekipa.nl/Page-transport_equipment.htm :smiley:

54

Yep. I though it might be one that had been used but was disconnected at the time.

Interesting story vetbridge

55

Whoops. Missed page 2.

56

You seem to have an awful lot of insight into the ins and outs of giraffe transportation. Not that I’m trying to imply anything at all, nosiree. I’m just wondering – has anyone else noticed that the hamburgers at Mangetout’s place taste…well, different?

And just to be slightly on-topic, vetbridge, great detective work!

57

A stadia rod.

58

a well-earned tip of the hat to vetbridge.

If anyone had any doubts about how good the giraffe camouflage is, notice that you cannot see any of them on any of the pictures. Good job, girls.

59

It probably doesn’t mean anything, but I think he has one of these.

60

I understand that he subjects his meat suppliers to the tallest standards.