9.30.2013

Thankfully, Jim got into Ohio without any issues last night.  Bryan and Cindy are graciously putting him up again (thanks, guys!!) and Bryan is going to help him unload the storage unit.  Jim also wants to get the truck's tires balanced and rotated - he was told that you need to do that more often with this kind of truck.  Since he bought the back tires there, he wants to get it done when he's in town.

I spent all morning working on fire school mailings again.  Before heading to the PO and store, I headed up to Angel to see if any poles were going up - but nothing.  While I was there, I hiked up the hill and took more Leaf Peeper pics...

 

The weather continues to be phenomenal here - today was a Simpson Sky as my mom and dad would say.  (As an aside, Kyle still wonders why we wouldn't let him watch the Simpsons growing up but Grandma and Grandpa loved it!)  It is in the low 70s and just gorgeous.

 

Update...I heard from Jim a little bit ago and it was after 4:00 by the time he got everything done.  He got the truck's tires rotated, went to Wolff Brothers and bought all our supplies that we will need for the electric meters, emptied out the storage unit, and went to the neighbor's to pick up some things from there.  That's a lot to get done - and I hated the thought of him starting home at 5:00 at night.  Bryan and Cindy offered to let him stay one more night, so I'm grateful that he's taking them up on it.  I want him home and I know he wants to be home, but it's not worth the risk of driving late at night after a day of moving.

 

I also heard from the landlord.  It appears that things are moving forward with her selling the building.  The maintenance guy just dropped off some paperwork that we need to fill out for the bank - which scared me at first but it appears that the bank wants to cover themselves in case of a foreclosure.  In that event, we would pay the rent to the bank as opposed to the new owners.  The maintenance guy said that he thinks everything is going to stay the same - it's supposed to be the owners of Cleveland Landscaping (ironic!) and they also live on Angel (ironic again!).  John said they were good guys and it should be a good thing.  Fingers crossed - we don't need a rent increase at this point!

 

 

 

9.29.2013

We got up and went to church this morning and the view was absolutely gorgeous.  It was a cool morning and there was a thick fog/low cloud over the mountains that are so close to Corinth.  It was really breathtaking.  Of course, I didn't have my phone so I couldn't take a picture.  But we sure enjoyed the view.

After breakfast, Jim got ready and took off to clear out the storage unit back in Ohio.  I got busy working on fire school mailings.

Mid-afternoon, I decided to go make sure all was well at the lot and take a couple of Leaf Peeper Pics.

Love the reds starting to turn!

Then kind of on a whim, I decided to go into Saratoga for the grand opening of a new independent bookstore (how could I pass that up?).  I really like this downtown area.  There were lots of people just walking around, browsing through stores, eating ice cream...what's not to love about that?  The bookstore was very nice and there were lots of people in there too.  I didn't stay long, but enough to soak up the gorgeous day and the new town we live in.  I'm really excited to call this area home now.

 



9.28.2013

Jim again headed out to the land in the morning to resume trenching and I had some fire school work to do.  After I went to the post office, I wandered over by the Corinth "beach" - how pretty is this though? 

This little beach area is called Jessup's Landing...and I learned some history!

Some Corinth history

Then I wandered around front because I had seen the library...it is so tiny and cute that I decided I had to have a library card.  There's obviously not a huge selection but they do have access to the entire library system online plus you can order books to download.  Just in case I ever run out of things to read...well, probably not in big danger of that.  But you can never have access to too many books!  Plus it feels like another step in being part of this community.

Corinth Free Library

Then I packed lunches and went to the land.  Just before I got there, Jim texted me this picture - this is the biggest rock we have found so far!  Jim said it weighed at least a ton.

He finally managed to get it in the Bobcat bucket but then it was too heavy to lift the bucket, so he had to just set it aside.

That's a crazy big rock!

Today's trenching went a little differently.  As you can see from the picture below, the ground isn't level in this area, which means that the excavator is sitting at a precarious angle and the trench wouldn't be level at the bottom.  So Jim's solution was to dig a scoop, rotate on the excavator, and place the dirt behind him - building up a flat area that he could work from.  So that obviously took a little longer than straight digging.  My job was to pick out the big rocks in the scoops he took, throw them in the bucket of the Bobcat awaiting Jim to dump it when it was full.  (Lift with your knees, Sharon!)

Trenching and building up

I'm not a great estimator, but we probably have less than 150 feet to go.  Of course, then there's a lot of work to do to get it ready (sand and compacting), placing conduit down at the road by the pole, and getting the pad area dug and ready for the transformer.  But great progress!



Looking down toward the driveway

So much progress that Jim is planning on going back to Ohio in the morning.  Monday is the last day we can have the storage unit there so if he clears it out now, we won't have to pay another month's rent.  Plus then he can have the majority of his things at least in the state!

Today's Leaf Peeper Pics...

 

9.27.2013

Jim went off this morning to do more trenching and I headed to Hadley to pick up some envelopes so I could do a fire school mailing.  This place I found has turned out to be kind of pricey so this may be my last trip there. They happen to be located on the road we took to get to the 20 acre parcel that was a strong contender when we were looking for land. There is an incredible view of the falls and rapids from this bridge, so with the leaves starting to turn I couldn't help but stop.  There were 2 couples there also taking pictures and one of the women asked me where I was from. I told here that we had just moved here from Ohio a couple of weeks ago. She said they were from Allentown PA and had come to the area on vacation. She was going on about how beautiful everything was and how much they loved Saratoga Springs. It was an interesting feeling to know that we lived in their vacation spot! That's one of the things that Jim always says - being up here is like being on vacation.

Falls in Hadley

I took lunch and we ate it at the land.  This was the first cloudy day ever had here - no rain though.  Jim had really made good progress on the trench.  The road is well in sight - he's probably less than 200 feet away.  He's still pulling out crazy big rocks.

Giant rocks Jim has gotten out of the trench

After lunch, the plan was to work on the driveway area.  National Grid requires conduit underneath and there are exact specifications on how to place it.

The first step was to crumb it out, getting all the rocks out of the bottom and making a smooth surface.

Then Jim had to place sand in the bottom...

...and get that all smooth and level.

Then it was time for compacting.  We got to use the compactor Jim got from Craigslist for the first time. Unfortunately, he went to start it and the starter pull rope broke.  Thankfully, he was able to make it work by tying it off and just having a shorter pull.  But then, it didn't run well.  He played around with it for awhile and got it to run better but he said he'll definitely have to work on the carburetor.  Which of course isn't as easy as it sounds now that we have no garage and tools all over the place in various storage units and states.

Anyway, then we had to get the compactor into the trench.  This thing weighs a ton - there's no way you can just lift it.  So Jim tied one end of the rope to the compactor, got into the excavator and brought it over, I hooked the other end onto the teeth and he pulled out up over the trench and carefully set it down inside.

Thankfully, once the compactor was running it did a good job and ran well.  Jim just had to baby it to get it running okay. 

Of course, then you have to haul the compactor out of the trench to keep working.

All compacted!

Then it was time for the conduit.  Specs require 2-30 foot sections so in case something happens to one, you've got another.  They come in 10 foot sections so they first have to be glued together and then you put end caps on to keep them clean inside the trench.

All glued up

Then Jim and I put them down into the trench.

Then it became a repeat of everything we just did.  So first more sand on top of the conduit...

Then loading up the compactor to put inside the trench...

Compacting...

Then it was time for some backfill.  Even with all the rocks that Jim got out when he made the trench in the first place, there are still lots of rocks that you don't want in there, especially on top of the conduit.  So I would stay in the trench and throw the rocks out while Jim was backfilling.

 

 

After that layer was done, it was back to compacting...

And repeat...

Until it was time for the final layer...

 

...and more compacting...

...and we have a driveway again!  Jim got to drive the machinery over it as he was cleaning up to leave.  Success!

Leaf peeper pic 2 didn't show up the leaves too well because of the clouds.

9.26.2013

Jim texted me this picture this morning when he got to the land.  That white speck in the sky is the moon!  And it's another gorgeous day here.

Today was the day that National Grid was supposed to place the utility poles at the road.  Of course, this date was given to us weeks ago so who knows what might have happened between then and now.  They never showed so we'll see when they do.  Meanwhile, Jim is still busy trenching and moving rocks!

When I got there this afternoon, he had finished going across the driveway and started going down the hill.  He started moving the rocks that he has to remove just out of this section and piled them in a spot he cleared up the hill.  We'll definitely have lots of rocks to rebuild the stone rocks and do whatever else we want with them!

When Jim was leaving, he took this picture from down the hill...he's made incredible progress and probably has about 500' done!  Just about 300' more to go!

9.25.2013

Jim finally got a day with few interruptions to get work on trenching.  He's making great progress.  When I stopped to bring him lunch, he was just rounding the bend from the top location at the future transformer spot.

Jim measuring the depth of the trench

Starting to round the bend!

How's this for a lunch time spot? 

I had to run some errands for Jim - caution tape is now necessary! - and when I got back, he had gotten so much done and was going across the driveway!  But check out that giant rock in the middle of the trench.  He was working on getting that out - it was in so deep that it wasn't budging.

Getting to be a very long trench!

Going across the driveway!

Jim texted me this picture in the evening - he had finally gotten that giant rock out - look at the size of it! 

Fall on Angel - can't wait to see all the leaves change!  I have this app on my phone called Leaf Peepers.  It kind of tracks the changing of the leaves with a color coded map - I figured I'm going to take my own Leaf Peeper pictures (say that a couple times!).  So things are just barely starting to change today.  Stay tuned!