Dendy Engineering & Surveying, Inc.

Dendy Engineering & Surveying, Inc. Professional Engineering and Professional Surveying

Consulting Civil Engineering and Land Surveying Firm specializing in civil design engineering and land surveying services; including water and sewer system design, roadway design, subdivision and site planning and design, boundary and topographic surveying and mapping, ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys.

More pics from today's work.
08/29/2026

More pics from today's work.

Fun day in the woods!It was kinda warmish today, but we had a good breeze. It was tol'able.I discovered (again) that bo...
08/29/2026

Fun day in the woods!
It was kinda warmish today, but we had a good breeze. It was tol'able.
I discovered (again) that bob-wire has really sharp points, an that a metal tpost is made of really brittle hard steel. I found a tpost that I believe marked a section corner, and it was leaning over almost to the ground. With little rain lately, the ground was as hard as concrete in this Chickasaw County red dirt. The bottom on the tpost was firmly anchored and I leaned into it pretty hard to bend it back up straight.
A little more, and SNAP!!
It broke off at ground level and sent me flying backwards. Oof! - landed flat on my back on that concrete dirt! My legs were up in the air before they came back down! My smarty phone fell out of my cargo pants pocket and was partially under the leaves I discovered later when I wanted to use it with my onXhunt app to see how close I was to the corner on the app. I had to backtrack and scratch around a bit in the landing area to find it.
Oh, well. So it goes!
I am a little sore now, so me and tylenol are resting up a bit. I got new deeds to plot for another job around the Anchor community that I will start on after I finish with this job. Another job coming up is to try and straighten out a really messy area near the Hot Air community dealing with some really old surveys calling for a 1320 line that is over 100 feet too far east. My clients and a timber company worked out a deal to get some new deeds to fix the problem area for three parcels. Sometimes surveying is not too bad, and sometimes it's a mess! I will need to go deep in the woods, cross a few creeks, and try to find some old section corners and quarter corners to retrace the old section lines. I have to remember that I am retracting those old lines established 190 years ago and look for the best evidence I can find for the old "set post" section corner markers and any evidence that I can find relating to the perpetuation of the old section lines. I call retracement work "forensic surveying," and that's what it really is. I am not the first guy there, and I have to look really hard to find the best evidence that I can find.
Thank goodness cooler weather will be coming soon. We usually have our first frost near the end of October with a few more heat waves between now and then. I like it cold!

07/24/2026

I worked in a subdivision in Lee County today. I overlaid a CAD drawing subdivision plat on top of a georeferenced aerial image and rotated it a little to match a cul-de-sac and a street. Then, I created some "LOOK" points and uploaded them into my LS+ GPS system and headed out. The front two corners of my lot had been graded out and were missing, so I went to the back corner on the subdivision to look for lot corners. I staked one look point and then started searching with my magnetic locator for a 1/2-inch re-bar called for in the legal description. I got a signal by an old rotten pine stump a little over two feet away and under some wood debris. There it was, with some old flagging still on it and still standing upright and a few inches out of the ground. I used that point to calculate a new stakeout point going toward my lot by using the plat bearing and distance, but only found pieces of flagging on an old downed fence line. My Schonstedt did not get the strong hit that is typically associated with a half-inch re-bar, but picked up a lot of wire. I kicked out an area and dug up old pieces of wire, but no corner marker. Then, I went to my next calculated point. I got a weak signal and found a big flagged nail; not the 3/8-inch re-bar called for in the deed. The distance checked a little short back to my first pin, but within an acceptable tolerance. I went to the next point on the adjacent lot and found another big flagged nail at the deed distance. I then realized that the other surveyor set big nails for the corners, so I accepted them as found monuments. I set my 1/2-inch re-bar in the nail hole on the previous point and calculated a new point back along the line to my lots' other corner by the flagging and old wire fence. As I was walking the point in, the point of my GPS pole struck something hard at my last move. Guess what! I hit a 1/2-inch flagged re-bar hiding amongst the old buried barbed wire pieces. It had a very weak signal with my magnetic locator, and not much different from the previous nails found.
I patted myself on the back, located the found pin, drove a stake marker down, and called it good.
I love it when a plan comes together and things work!
I then had enough data to calc and set the two front corners and head home.
It was not near as hot today as it has been the past two days. My socks did not get squishy down in my boots today. It's pretty tough working outside this time of year. Lots of Gatorade and water was consumed.

Kinda hot outside. 96⁰Feels like the blast furnace doors were left open.I lasted until about 1 pm when I got too hot and...
07/21/2026

Kinda hot outside. 96⁰
Feels like the blast furnace doors were left open.
I lasted until about 1 pm when I got too hot and stopped for the day.
I saw a couple of interesting things today, too. See pics.
Also, somebody deliberately pulled up my base station nail on a job I was not finished with yet. I went back to set the corners today, and to use my base nail, which was set up about three feet past "the mow line" in some taller weeds that I had stomped down, and about 100 feet off a county road. It was not in the way of anyone, and I had a little unobtrusive blue pin flag standing by it so that I could find it. Lo and behold, some gizmo pulled it up. WHY?!
Schonstedt said "NO FERROUS METAL DETECTED.
I used my rover's network setting to stake out and set a new nail back near the destroyed setup nail. I will compare the two points later after post processing. I should be good.

07/15/2026

Harold Dendy marking the grave locations

07/08/2026

Interesting post.

I don't think anybody is home.
07/02/2026

I don't think anybody is home.

It was hot today (92⁰) and was hot, wet, and steamy yesterday. I went around 160 acres (2 miles!) yesterday and laid out...
06/09/2026

It was hot today (92⁰) and was hot, wet, and steamy yesterday. I went around 160 acres (2 miles!) yesterday and laid out a half-acre lot in Houston. I got soaked by a 20% chance thunderstorm, too. I finished as the second of two KA-POW lightning strikes hit nearby. Sheeeesh! I did not want to be caught holding a metal surveying pole up in the air when one of them thangs whammedthe ground nearby! Whew!
Today was a 40 acre survey, one mile around. I made some far-away section corner ties and located several iron pins and concrete right of way markers. I dodged a few bush hogs, dump trucks, tractors, and at one time, had two side-by-sides with helpful people inside. It sure does help to have people knowledgeable about the area to lend me their information. I made pictures with my smarty-phone of some survey plats and warranty deeds that will be a big help. My Schonstedt magnetic locator (not a metal detector) impressed those who saw me use it, which led to a discussion on how they work. No, I cannot find gold, silver, or any non-ferrous metal; only the magnetic field of a ferrous metal object, like an iron pipe or steel re-bar. I also find nails, screwdrivers, pliers, hammerhead, axe heads, wood splitting wedges, mallet heads, vehicle parts, steel belts off automobile tires, chewed up steel reinforced right of way markers, tractor parts, chains, wire, bolts, and a bunch other steel and iron stuff, too. And, survey markers.
Now, I need to post-process two days of field GPS data and spend some time making the deeds fit what I found on the ground. I spend about as much time in the office as I do in the field. And, when outside, I drink a lot of water and Gatoraid, which "has electrolites." Coffee in the morning gives me a kick-start for the day.
Y'all stay cool, and drink lots of water!

Second day in a row to finish at dark. I got a little necessary paperwork, deed plots, and calculations done before head...
05/28/2026

Second day in a row to finish at dark. I got a little necessary paperwork, deed plots, and calculations done before heading out both days.
Today's problems: face gnats, mosquitos, wet, gummy mud, one "are you hiring," several pipes and pin corners found, three corners destroyed by recent construction, and one concerned neighbor.
Typical day!
And, it is starting to get hot. Thank goodness I was in open sky, mud, and relativly flat territory today with a good wind blowing, keeping the face gnats away.
Yesterday was concrete surfaces, a nearby creek, hungry mosquitos, more face gnats, several "whatcha doing's", several corner markers found, one "X" cut into the concrete, and conversations with a few friends.
My magnetic locator found a rusty pair on lineman's pliers, a s***f can, a little pair of channel lock pair of pliers, several links of a chain, two bent corner pins, several muddy pin flags, and three marker t-posts laying down near their corner pins.
I went by the car wash today and power washed my boots, and squirted my ATV tires. Mud is still stuck on my tires, too. West Chickasaw County mud has a lot more "stick-um" power than other places, and you can't easily stomp off the mud when it seems to be glued on!
I found an iron pipe, too. It was laying beside the highway, probably having fallen off a truck. One day, it will become an iron pipe set! I like free stuff. However, a #4 re-bar 24 inches long costs $3.92. One 48 inches long costs $3.87. Go figure....
So, I buy 48 inch re-bar and saw them in two to get twice as many for a few cents less.
I filled up my Honda Rancher for $10, and my diesel pickup for $175. Ouch.
A new diesel pickup cost somewhere north of $75K, so Big D, my '04 dependable Paid For Ford F250 6.0L Super Duty diesel truck, needs to keep rolling. It's a good one. 265,000 miles and still going. I bought it several years ago with 235,000 miles on it. Former owner said lots of highway miles we were made and was still in good shape. No problems, and only a few quirks, ready for more years of service.

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1322 CR 413 PO Box 325
Houlka, MS
38850

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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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