Rain and snow have been a huge headache. In fact if it weren't for snow, we would have had our well a long time ago. Back in May, our well driller just happened to be in the area and decided to stop into the property to scope things out and determine where the well should be drilled. (Right in the middle of my wild, of course, and right off the driveway....but I'll find a way to make it look good.)
He sent this photo to Scott indicating where he would like to drill the well, and get approval - because if he could get his truck in, he would just go ahead and drill the well while he was there. We were ecstatic.
You can guess what's coming, right? He couldn't get in with his truck and we still have no well.
That was about 5 days after the road restrictions were removed, and we were all excited because the following weekend Nick was supposed to come and start on the site prep.
No. Nick's truck broke down and he had to get that fixed before he could bring the dozer out to the property and get going. *sigh*
We did accomplish some great stuff in the meantime. The best of which is my SWING SET!! I've wanted this for several years. I was hanging out with my sister and her kids at a playground one evening, swinging, and thought how relaxing it was and how great it would be to have one of my own, built for adults to use. So, I've been daydreaming about it for years, and this year we finally build it. I told Scott I needed something big and sturdy enough for two women my size, who are drunk, to be able to fling around with complete abandon.
He helped me design and build THIS:
It's AMAZING!! I love it so much! We sprung for the more expensive commercial grade swing hinges and it was totally worth it. They are so great - they're perfectly smooth and completely silent, and once you get going, it doesn't take a lot of effort to keep going. It's completely glorious and I spend time on it everyday we are at the property. I even had a few wonderful late night swings under the stars. I'm in the process of decorating it up a little, and still working on the concept of some kind of drink holder for the actual swing, because I CANNOT manage to grab one off the shelves while in motion.
The next best thing that that we got (and many would argue this would rank higher than the swing set) is....ELECTRICITY!!
We had to test it out right away...
SUCCESS!!!
We set up a little electric station with a coffee maker, power strip and a couple battery chargers for all the tools. We even have a small refrigerator in there now (not pictured).
We did a little work towards the future of the property. Scott knows a guy at work who is an arborist, and each fall he brings in order forms for fruit trees, and creates a big group order. So last fall, we ordered six - two apple, two apricot and two pear trees.
This spring (early May), the order came in, and the arborist had a big garage party one Saturday with coolers of beer and people standing around shooting the shit. And throughout the day, everyone came to pick up their trees. We went mid morning so we could hang out for a bit, but still have lots of time to plant the trees. So - we have now established our orchard. So far, it doesn't really photograph well, because you can't make out the trees at all, so I'll leave you with this instead:
Scott had a cool idea to create a compass rose to embed in the concrete floor of the great room - since no one can get the directions right on our property - something about the shape of it and the fact that the road is at an angle really messes with people's heads and it tough to convince them which way is north. So we designed this and took it to a guy we used to work with when we had the sign shop. He does metal cutting and has also made all the timber brackets for us. (He's also currently making a sign for my swing set).
Next - we finally got our timbers!! These were also significantly delayed, which was kind of frustrating, but considering we were behind on everything else, it hardly mattered. It's a big weight off my mind, though. I was very worried this guy might be a crook, or the stuff he would supply would be shit, or not what we ordered, etc. So when I saw the truck, I was hugely relieved to see that all was as it should be. Nick came with his skid steer and helped unload - on just two wheels much of the time! This stuff is HEAVY.
Look at those big beautiful posts! The two huge ones will go at the front of the house. The other ones are the corners, and then all the other timbers are the ones that run along the sides.
And then, of course, we have been back at the log prepping. This spring we bought a very good chop saw, and have been trimming all the blackened ends of the logs off. Then we take a drill with a nylon brush attachment and give them a quick once over to knock off all the dried dirt and ick that got on them last fall when we had so much wet weather and had to leave logs on the ground more than we would have liked.
I think I will do a separate blog post about that so I can put lots of photos without making this post ridiculous.
I will leave you with a photo of our planning assistant, Smudge
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