Dump Trucks and Telephone Poles

The rain held off for most of this long weekend and I was able to get a good bit done. We met with the architect on Friday and got another round of plan revisions. One big project was taking down the partially built deer stand. I hoped to be able to leave it and turn it into a nice tree house for the kids, but it sat where the garage will be. The telephone poles were set in 3 feet of concrete, so that made it more difficult. One good thing about wet ground, and a tractor with a front-end-loader, is that I was able to do it all by myself.



I also got two more loads of packing sand and two loads of crusher run rock for the road base. My sand from last weekend was still there, so I got one load of rock on top of that and the other between that and the asphalt drive. Monday started off badly when the dump truck got stuck in the pasture on his first trip in. I was just relieved I was able to pull him out with the tractor, but I couldn't get him out until he dumped the load of sand, and that made for a lot more work getting it where it needed to be. Much rather that than have to pay the tow truck though. The kids and Amanda were there for most of the morning, including that scene, so I at least had a lot of fan support. Evan was pumped to tell all his friends at daycare that his dad pulled a dump truck out the mud with the John Deere. Of course Amanda didn't have her phone/camera, so we again get no exciting pictures this entry. Exhausted is an understatement after today...

Still There...

We went out this afternoon after the rain stopped to see how the road held up. So far so good. I'm keeping fingers crossed that it won't wash out before I can get some rocks on it. The kids didn't fair as well as the road. They found the mud and despite rubber boots and raincoats, we had to hose them off and strip them down to their underwear before we could load them up in their car seats. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of that.

Road Work

Spent most of today working on the first stretch of road leading to the house site. I had a second 15-yard load of packing sand delivered. I think I've now raised it enough to have an actual road and not a riverbed, which it previously had turned into whenever it rained. Steve was scheduled to help me work on the road today, but he messed up his back earlier in the week and spent an afternoon in the hospital. He sent his tractor to help instead. It definitely helped to have one tractor set up for grading and one for packing. I really hoped to get some rock down before the rains got here, but that won't happen, as it is coming tonight. Hopefully the new dirt won't have all washed into the pond the next time I see it.

Staying the Course

After years of pondering, planning, speculation and many ups and downs, we have finally started the process of building what we intend to be our forever home on my parents' small farm just outside of town. When I first started talking about this with my parents, we only had one child (less than one year old) and I was optimistic that this would be a relatively quick process... at least to get started. In the almost 5 years since, we've experienced a lingering economic depression, the birth of our second child, my dad's untimely death, a new job for Amanda, and the news that we would be having a third child this summer. We never gave up on the dream though, and it seems the pieces are finally coming into place to make this happen. It looks like 2012 will be one busy year.

Currently we have an architect and plans, but they are not yet finalized enough to take to a builder. As of now, we're doing what we can in the form of things like clearing trees, getting power and working on building the road we will use to get back to the house.

A view of where the house will sit and of the direction the front porch will face. By the way, I took this photo from my long-time deer stand, which I will greatly miss.