6.26.2014

Yesterday was an on/off rainy day - the forecast looked terrible and it was really humid so Jim hated to get started digging.  So he did probably the worst thing you can do when it's humid - trim!  He did a big area and it looks really nice now.  The sticks are where baby pine trees are growing so he tries to avoid cutting those down.

 

He ended up coming home mid afternoon and turning it into a schoolwork day.  We did go out for a walk in the evening but ended up doing the last half in the rain.

 

Jim spent probably 1-1/2 hours on the phone with an electric inspector this morning.  He had talked to him briefly yesterday but the guy was headed out the door and told Jim to call him back before 8:00 this morning.  Once again, we are finding out that some things are so different here than in Ohio.  In Ohio, your permit from the county included all these different inspections.  Here, Jim has to do the wiring from the meter pedestal to the back of the transformer and then has to have it inspected by an independent inspector.  Once that passes, National Grid will come out, open up the transformer and connect everything up - and we'll have electricity!

 

But the phone conversation took lots of twists and turns and turned into this guy telling Jim his life story!  Jim just wanted to run through his plan with someone to make sure of the size of wire and his plan for having 2 different services.  That has already been approved by National Grid.  This guy's fee is pretty pricey - we may call one other guy to see if that's a standard fee or if it varies.

 

Jim started mounting the boxes to the pedestal today but ran into some frustrations.  He bought stainless steel anchors to use but they broke off and caused more issues.  He ran up to the little hardware store in town but they didn't really have what he was looking for. 

 

By this time, Jim got a call from Bobcat.  He had talked to him a week or so ago about the next step up skid steer.  The one we have is great but it's not powerful enough to run a stump grinder or snow blower - both things that we will need on this property!  They have a rental that they were going to sell and they talked about the possibility of a trade-in.  Jim sent pictures and they apparently liked what they saw, the salesperson wanted to come look at it and drive it this afternoon.  So he came and was impressed but he has to go work numbers and they have to work for Jim too! 

 

Then it was back to digging.  Jim is now on the back wall - this is the area that will be stepped up - the lower portion contains the frost wall and the footer is stepped up from there in two different elevations.

Here Jim is crumbing out the first stepped area.

The next step only requires Jim to take 3" or so of dirt off.  That sounds really easy, but with a curved bucket it's tough to just skim off the top and not make a big scoop.  But he's getting it - here he is crumbing out the first section.

This picture shows the two steps in elevation.