11.28.2014

Around noon, Jim and Kyle decided to head out to the land to see what they could accomplish.  First, cold temps and snow required them to put on the coveralls and extra sweatshirts!

Julia and I decided to head out to a couple stores to buy our presents for the giving tree at church before tomorrow, but we followed the guys to the land so Julia could see all the progress.  It had really snowed on Angel - I think we have our own weather system up there!  There was probably close to a foot of snow on the ground!  In fact, Julia and I decided to park at the bottom of the hill and trek up on foot - not as easy as it sounds in kind of deep snow.

The decking has a beautiful quilt of snow on top!

As much as we wish the temps were still warm and we could work, the snow is certainly picturesque, especially with that bright blue sky.

While we headed out, Jim and Kyle decided to build our temporary walls.  Here's Kyle measuring...

By the time Julia and I got back, we had wall studs!  We were so surprised to see all they had gotten done in the short afternoon - especially considering the weather and the fact that there is a trench between the building and the truck, treks to get tools in the snow weren't real easy.

Here Jim is screwing the studs into the top steel channel.  He came up with a way to use C-clamps to clamp the top channel to the beam so that he doesn't have to make any modifications to the beam, since this wall is just going to be temporary.

 

All it needs now is some plywood - unfortunately, the line on the truck is frozen so that can't happen at the moment.  But a great day's work - it's really exciting to stand inside the building and feel that there are now walls all the way around you!

 

High 30/Low 9

11.27.2014 - Happy Thanksgiving!

To all our family, friends and anyone else reading the blog today - Happy Thanksgiving!  We miss those that aren't with us but are so thankful for so many blessings over this past year! 

Even though I failed miserably to take pictures, we had a wonderful day - way too much good food and lots of fun with Kyle & Julia here. 

It had continued snowing overnight - we probably got 6-7" in Corinth.  It was gorgeous outside.  Once we got dishes cleaned up from dinner, we set out for a walk through the snow to burn off some of those calories before we had dessert!

11.26.2014

Jim spent a couple hours working at the land in the morning.  He took my old tires out and put them away for the time being - we'll try and sell them online since they are still in good shape.  Then he worked for awhile on the compactor - unfortunately, it appears to be clogged up again so he's going to have to take the whole fuel system apart and flush it out.

Our first big snow storm of the (fall!) season was today - it started snowing about noon.  Kyle and Julia were due in about 3:45 - they were delayed about a half an hour which wasn't bad considering that we had some heavy, wet snow falling most of the afternoon.

While we waited at the train station for their bus to come in, we got a glimpse of the station turned into the Polar Express for the season.  It was so cute to watch families come in with their kids in pajamas ready for a magical ride to the North Pole!

It was great to see Kyle & Julia get off the bus and thankfully the snow had slowed down a bit for the ride back home.  We're so glad to have them here with us for the Thanksgiving holiday!

High 38/Low 31 - first big snowfall!

11.25.2014

While I was fighting the crowds doing some last-minute Thanksgiving shopping, Jim was very busy at the land.  After a couple tries, he was able to get the truck up the hill, thank goodness.  He had to do some repair work with the Bobcat to get some of the ruts out.

These are the infiltrators!  They look very cool and just snap together at the bottom of the trench.

This is the end cap on the first line of infiltrators.

Jim also got the second trench just about dug by the time I got there.  You can see how he piles up the dirt in between the trenches so that it will be easier to fill them in when the time comes.

Again, lots of measuring.  Every time he repositions the excavator, he gets down and takes measurements to make sure the depth and the slope are correct.

This is a good view of the layout.  The big hole in the front is for the tank, then the distribution box.  That box will have 3 pipes to feed the infiltrators.  So in this picture, two lines and two trenches are dug from the distribution box.

Completed second trench.  You can see that this trench is more narrow than the first.  The infiltrators that were first discussed were wider and would therefore require a wider trench.  Once he picked them up and clarified the order, he could make the trench more narrow - which certainly helps the digging process.

Once the trench was dug, it was time to play rock pick up with the Bobcat to clear the way for the final trench.

Here Jim's measuring and figuring out the location of the final trench as well as the trench for the pipe leading to it.

The daylight was fading but Jim wanted to see if he could get the trench dug for the pipe.  The first scoop of dirt...

...was of course another giant rock!

So let's try that again!

He was able to get the trench dug for the pipes and will be ready to work on the trench next.

 

Jim tried to see if he could get the stone delivery rescheduled for first thing tomorrow morning, but they were booked solid all day.  He's very disappointed because that causes everything to be pushed back - the stone is required before the tank can be set.  We are due for snow tomorrow so the freezing of the ground causes issues for the trenches too, as well as fear of them collapsing.  So, this is one of those times when you have to be resilient and just play it out and see what happens and what the weather will allow us to do.

 

High 49/Low 29 - Partly sunny and cooler



11.24.2014

It rained overnight and was a little drizzly this morning.  The plan was to go to Sam's Club and get the tires we ordered put on my car and then go back to the dealer and get my oil changed with a great coupon they sent.  However, the forecast changed from being an all-day rain event to just a little in the morning.  So I made Jim stay here while I took care of my car - which ended up being an all-day event in itself.  But it's done and I'll be in good shape for winter.

This is what the land looked like when Jim got there - warm temps moving in after the rain caused our own little cloud to appear on Angel.

Jim ended up spending all day doing parts pickup and arranging.  Look at the truckful of parts he got!  Most of this is for the septic system but the steel will be used to make our temporary walls in the carriage house for winter.

 

Unfortunately, the combination of the frozen ground thawing out and then rain on top made the hill impossible to get up.  Here's the poor truck stuck on the hill...

 

 

Jim had to eventually park the truck down near the street.  After that happened, he had to call and cancel the stone that was to be delivered as well as the septic tank that was supposed to come tomorrow.  So that's disappointing but he couldn't take the chance of paying delivery fees and their big trucks not being able to get up the hill to unload or, worse yet, get stuck. 

 

We are supposed to have a winter (fall!) storm on Wednesday - they said we could get up to 8" of snow!  Not good for Kyle & Julia traveling as well as working plans - so we'll just have to see how everything goes.

 

High 63/Low 40 - drizzly in the morning, nice and warm in the afternoon

 

 

11.23.2014

Today's temperatures warmed up - however, since the top few inches of ground had been frozen, that equaled some muddy ground at the land today.

This isn't a good angle, but Jim got the area for the distribution box all finished and crumbed out.

Then we figured out where the first of the 3 lines for the leech bed will go and got the lines marked.  Each line has to be about 36" wide and 32 feet long.  There are chambers called infiltrators that will go in each of these trenches.  This is a totally different system than we used in Ohio - that had an aeration tank, which we won't have here.  The septic design that we had to have drawn up for us is fairly vague, so Jim is figuring out some of the specifics as he goes!

So then it was back in the Bobcat to start digging.

Again...just a few rocks to keep things interesting.

You would think that this would be an easy dig - straight line, just keep moving backwards.  But unfortunately, there is a slope to the ground here which is good for what we are doing but makes digging difficult.  If Jim lined up the tracks with the trench, the excavator sits on a slope and would make one side of the trench deeper than the other.  So he has to position the tracks to go across the trench area and dig that way.  Which is fine, except that you have to constantly reposition - made a little tougher with slightly soggy ground.

Then the other fun part of this is that the slope of the trench has to go down 1/16th of an inch every foot.   That's really precise when you are digging with an excavator!  Every time he would dig an area and need to move the excavator, he would get down into the trench, hand shovel to crumb out the area, and then we would take laser measurements to make sure we were at the right levels.

I'm thinking that when the septic designer is sitting at his desk designing this system and specifying that the slope has to be precisely 1/16" every foot, he's not planning for encountering gigantic boulders like this one!

That's a huge boulder - kind of throws off the calculations!

By the end of the workday, we had a beautiful trench, perfectly sloped, and almost got to the end of where it needs to be.

 

High 49/Low 33 - mostly cloudy

 

11.22.2014

Jim spent some time getting the lot ready for the septic tank delivery - like moving some of the steel decking pieces we had stored nearby, moving the truck out of the way, and then moving our rebar pile.  Thankfully, he was able to use the forks on the Bobcat to pick up the rebar. 

Then we moved the cradles that the rebar sits in to a spot in front of the bricks - then he lowered the rebar back in place.

He also crumbed out the big hole for the tank and then we marked the area for the distribution box.  We also got the laser level back out and pounded a stake in the bottom of the hole to mark how deep the gravel needs to be so that the tank will sit at the proper level.

Then it was back to digging for the distribution box.

 

It was still a cold day, especially so once the sun disappeared behind some clouds in the afternoon.  We had decided to go to church in the afternoon and it started to sleet/drizzle a bit as Jim was cleaning up, so we called it a day.

 

High 35/Low 31



11.21.2014

Jim went to order our septic tank this morning - it will be delivered Tuesday!  Which means everything has to be ready by then.  So after lunch, Jim went back to digging.  Since the trench is all done for the main sewer line, he concentrated on getting the area for the tank dug.

Reminders from last winter's digging...dirt sicles!  The top couple inches of ground is all frozen so it comes up in chunks.  Plus, because the ground is frozen and there is a little layer of frozen snow on top of that, it's slippery.  The excavator would sometimes slide when Jim was digging, making me incredibly nervous!  Of course, Jim has it under control but it's hard to watch.

After awhile of digging, Jim had to get the Bobcat out and push the dirt out of the way.

To accommodate the tank and all the requirements for stone under and dirt above, Jim has to dig a hole that is approximately 6 feet deep, 6 feet wide, and 11 feet in length! 

And what fun would digging be without a few little rocks?

 

Jim had to use the Bobcat to get some of the big rocks that he dug out of the way.

Making sure that everything is the right depth...

 

 

All finished digging!

 

What all the fashionable people are wearing in New York this year - ha!  (These are Kyle's hand-me-downs!)

 

High 28/Low 13 - breezy and chilly!