11.13.2013

Okay - a week has gone by and I haven't updated a thing on here!  I love that a couple people have actually written to make sure all was well - nice to know that someone is reading all my ramblings!

Jim continues to be very busy - here at home working on some work for the University of Akron and at the land.  The weather has turned colder - although we haven't gotten any of the snow that Ohio has seen!  Jim is busy tracking down all the parts for the well pump and planning out that job.  Obviously the pump has controls to operate it - since we don't have a structure for that yet, he's rigging up the back of the truck to do that job.  That's why he needed the generator to operate that as well as tools he needs to do that job as well as others. 

As far as the damaged generator, Jim contacted the company and they are sending him a new pull area that was damaged and took some money off the purchase price to compensate for the dent in the frame.  Jim was satisfied with that resolution.  He had to make some plugs and connections so that he could plug his tools on so he was doing that here in the living room and then taking them out. 

It's difficult losing all of his parts sources, so he's spent a lot of time tracking things down here and finding things online.  This giant spool of pump wire arrived by UPS yesterday - it's pretty heavy and the UPS man joked about having to drag it up our stairs! 

That's a lot of wire!

Jim is still spending lots of afternoons at the land working on cutting in the driveway.  It's really tough with just the Bobcat skid steer - you really need a bulldozer to do this kind of work.  He looked into getting a dozer blade for the Bobcat but they are pretty pricey.  He went and talked to the people at the Bobcat store here and they said he could rent one to see how it works out.  So there's some decision making in the works about that.  It looks really good though and he's making lots of progress.

 

 

11.6.2013 - First surveying

When I got to the land at lunch time today, Jim was working on rebuilding the stone wall that had to be destroyed at the site of the utility pole.  Looking good!  Eventually we want to rebuild and clean up these stone walls.  Besides the one all along the front of the property, there is one halfway up the driveway and some on the sides of the property.  One of the National Grid workers told us that they used slaves to build these walls.  As sad as that fact is, we'd like to preserve this piece of history on our lot.

After we ate, we did our first surveying on the property.  Jim needs lots of elevation references to be able to figure out exactly where driveways and structures will be located as well as what kinds of changes he needs to make in the slope of the driveway that's already there.

 

Jim got us started by having me use our new measuring wheel to mark off 100 feet lines on the driveway until the area where it turns to go downhill.

Then Jim set up his optical level to get reference points.

I was the trusty stick holder.  After taking lots of different measurements around the carriage house and the new driveway going back to it as well as the driveway already in place, we went down to the street and started up the driveway doing the same thing.  This time we marked off 75' references. 

 

Obviously since the land is a giant hill or mini-mountain, the grades changed really quickly.  The pole will only measure a max of about 9'.  Many times on the driveway, we could only go about 50' before we would max out the measuring capacity.  So Jim had to keep repositioning the scope over and over to try and get measurements.

 

Now comes the hard part - he'll take all those numbers and start plotting them out so we have our own elevation map to work from.  Obviously this was just our first time out - they'll be lots more surveying in our future!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11.5.2013 - Trench is all done!

While this picture makes it look like nothing but a dirt pile, this is actually very cool...this is part of the driveway back to the carriage house.  We have decided that we will build a barn to hold the equipment - Bobcats, lawn mower, mortar mixers, and on and on.  So Jim has started building up this area with dirt to let him compact over the winter (the darker dirt in the picture below).  He got a lot done this morning.

After lunch, we got back to work on the last bit of trench left to fill in.  Unfortunately, although it was a little stretch, it was hard because it was off the driveway, in between trees and the stone wall.  We couldn't do things in layers like we normally did either because of the tight quarters.  So we had to stay in one area and do it all to build up an area where Jim could work from for the next section.

We were able to work that way for awhile with the Bobcat but then Jim ran out of room to work so he went up and brought the excavator down.  With that he was able to reach across and drag some dirt into the trench - still having to retrieve rocks all the while of course.

But then the excavator stopped working well but by that time he had gotten enough area done that the Bobcat could work again. 

Then we ran out of accessible dirt!  Since Jim has done a lot of grading all down the hill, that used up more dirt than we took out of the trench.  So then it was back up the hill to where he's working on the driveway to try and scrape some dirt off to use.  We probably made 3 or 4 trips up to get dirt and bring it down.  I did get to sit on the bucket during these trips up and down the driveway - kind of reminiscent of sitting on our old Betsy Backhoe when we built the last house!

So then it was down to the last little bit!

We unrolled the tape for the last time...

and cut it off by the pole!

And this is all we have left to do!  Just a few more scoops right on top!  But since it gets dark so much earlier now and we still needed more dirt, we decided that we would wait until tomorrow.  But quite the happy day - the trench is done!

Just a few scenic pics from the day...

I took this one looking down the street...such a pretty drive to home!

11.3.2013 - Kyle & Julia Visited!

Kyle and Julia came up to the northern part of the state today to visit and to drop off the Honda that we had given them.  On top of the $200/month to park the car, it was going to cost them $6,000/year for insurance - crazy!  Kyle is still looking into things to see if he can get anything cheaper, but meanwhile, the license plates and insurance are ending so we needed to get it back here so there wouldn't be any issues.

They got in a little later than they wanted - the NYC Marathon took place yesterday and it took them almost 2 hours just to get out of the city!  They kept getting sent on detour after detour with road closings.

They finally got in about 2:00 - we had lunch on the property and walked them around showing what we had done.  It's one thing to talk about and yet another to see it in person.  Jim wanted Kyle to help him get a storage cabinet from the Corinth storage loaded into the truck.  That way Jim can get it set up with the tools he's going to need to work out of the truck.  So they did that while Julia and I warmed up back at the apartment.

Then we went to Dango's in Corinth to grab a bite to eat and watch some of the Browns game.  This could be our go to place for Browns games when the weather turns - they have the NFL ticket subscription and you can watch any game you want on a flat screen TV right at your table!  Plus the food is good - they even have chicken nachos on homemade chips that we will have to try to see how they compare to Bags!  It's nice too because it's right down the street.  And our waitress is my new favorite because I had my phone on the table checking time, got up to go to the bathroom, and then we left - we were across the street going to the car and the waitress came running out with my phone!  Whew!

We left Dango's at halftime - we wanted to get the truck back up to the property.  Today was the first day of the end of Daylight Savings Time so it was DARK when we got to the property.  And the stars were unbelievable - absolutely no light pollution so the sky truly twinkled and sparkled.  We've looked at lots of starry nights but really nothing like this - it was so dark and clear and you could just see layers of stars.  We could see the Milky Way going across the sky.  Gorgeous!

Kyle & Julia had to be back at the casino to catch the bus at 7:00 so it was a short visit.  But it was good to see them!  (But why did I not take any pictures today?)

And...the Browns ended up beating the Ravens to break an 11 game losing streak against them! 

11.2.2013

This morning I decided to go to the Saratoga Farmers Market.  During the summer, it's obviously held outdoors and we just never got there.  But this was the grand opening of them holding it indoors for the months of November-April.  It's in a beautiful old building - Lincoln Baths - which is part of Saratoga Spa National Park.

It was fun to just wander around and look at all the things - there was everything from produce and fruit (potatoes, lettuces, apples, etc) to fresh lamb (eww yuck) and eggs to fresh juices and yogurt.  There was also homemade peanut butters (I bought my mom a jar from this company before - they also sell it in a few grocery stores in town) - I bought Adirondack Jack this time which is a combination of peanut and almond butters, cranberries, flax, sunflower seeds, cinnamon...yum.

But I felt like a real city girl...I had no clue that Brussels sprouts grew like this!  I'm not a big fan of them but Jim likes them.  I will definitely get one of these once but I think the stalk is bigger than my refrigerator!

Saratoga Springs is just such a "happening" kind of place.  No matter when you go, there are just people walking around downtown, in and out of the shops.  It's nice because although there is traffic on Broadway, the main drag, there are lots of parking spaces off that road so it doesn't feel so congested.  It's mostly people walking.  It's very unique.

Meanwhile, Jim went up to the land and was working in the truck, getting things tied down and organized to become a place to work out of.  I joined him early afternoon. 

First we started just dragging up some of the debris left by the people who had cut the trees down before we bought it.  We want to get the area behind where the carriage house will go cleaned up a bit.  There will be some trees that have to come down just because they will be a little too close to the building.  We didn't have the chipper, but we just spent an hour or so dragging things up and out of that area into these piles...

I wish I would have taken a "before" shot but here's what it looked like "after"!

Then we went down the side of the property where we were throwing rocks when we were doing trench work.  We picked up all the rocks left behind on one side.  Our rock pile is getting really big - and this is just one pile - there's another at the bottom of the hill too!





Tonight Daylight Savings Time ends.  We usually love this time of the year - the darkness comes earlier and it's a good time to just come into the cozy house.  This year is a little different - at least for now.  Kind of hate to see it get dark earlier when we are still working.  But in another month or so it won't matter.

All Saint's Day!

Another rainy day so no work on the land today either.  We're working on schoolwork/fire school work this morning, have church at noon and then hope to do some organizing in the box room this afternoon.  We'd like to get some more things over to the book storage and open up enough space to get the guest bed in there.

It appears that Kyle and Julia will be coming at some point this weekend so he can bring back the Honda.  The insurance rates were crazy for him to keep the car there plus there was the price to pay for parking it.  So we need to get it back here before the insurance and tags expire very soon.  I don't think they are staying the night, but I'd still like to get the room a little more situated.

Update:  We kind of changed our plans because after lunch, the sun came out and Jim wanted to go to the land to do a few things in the truck.  Our new generator was delivered yesterday so he wanted to unpack that and get it set up. 

It's orange - love it!

Unfortunately, as it seems to go sometimes, even though the box looks fine with no damage, there's a nice big dent in the frame.  So we'll have to look into that - another fight, yay!

 

Jim said that things were good at the land but in some of the areas where we worked, there was a little erosion.  Which is to be expected since we moved a lot of dirt around!  He had to put it in 4WD to get up the driveway because it was kind of muddy.

 

 

Happy Halloween!

Kind of a sad Trick-or-Treat night.  It was raining most of the day and on into the evening.  Although there were a few brave parents and kids we saw, none came our way.  I was looking forward to sitting outside to pass out candy - it's been a lot of years since we got to do that.  But I wasn't going to sit in the rain.  Since there are no set days/times here, we may see some tomorrow night.  Otherwise, I have a giant bag of candy that I will have to give away so we don't eat it all!  After all our candy corn/redskin peanuts we've been eating, that's all we need!

Since it was rainy, Jim did schoolwork in the morning and I worked on fire school most of the day.  Jim did go out to the barn in the afternoon to try and find a few things that he will need for the pump work.  He also was still searching out some supply houses but didn't have too much luck on that front.