10.18.2013 - Time Warner Cable in!

Jim had to be at the lot early again today - all week he's had to be there before 8:00, which if you know Jim is really early to be up and out of the house!

Today the sand was supposed to be delivered early and Jim had to make sure the chain was unlocked.  Once the sand got there, Jim was back spreading sand on top of the electric wire. 

And then...lo and behold...look what showed up!  A truck with cable!  Apparently, this guy is a contractor who works for Time Warner putting cable in.  He said that our Time Warner friend had just called him about 10:30 and he wasn't busy so he came out.  Hmm...not to sound ungrateful, but our Time Warner friend was supposed to do that yesterday and told us the cable would be there yesterday or this morning - when he hadn't even called!  But - no complaints!

 

The guys said that this was the nicest trench that they had seen - no surprise there!  Jim takes no shortcuts!  But I think these guys were wishing there was a shortcut.  Once the wire is fed through the conduit under the driveway, they have to pull it up the hill - and it's no small hill. 

 

Once they were up on top, they had to get things wired up and hooked into a cable box.

 

Obviously, Jim will have to set the cable box in when things are all graded and set in the transformer area but it sure is nice to see it in the hole!

Since these guys were contractors, there was no mention of price and Jim didn't have to sign for anything.  Jim said this is really big cable - they had told us that what they use for normal residential installations is only good for 300'.  So I'm sure this cable was expensive!  But since no one ever gave us an estimate or discussed price with us, they better not come back with a bill.  Jim said he'll tell them to come pick up their cable - ha!

After they left, it was back to trench duty for Jim.  As a recap, after digging the trench, Jim had to put a bed of sand in the bottom.  Then the electric line went in and had to be covered with more inches of sand.  Then the cable wires went down, and yet more sand goes on top of that.  At this point, Jim is about halfway through that last layer of sand all the way through the trench.  It's a really physical job - he scoops the sand up with the Bobcat, brings it to the area he's working in and can dump some, but he has to do it mostly by hand - digging and placing.  Jim is going to figure out an approximation of how many tons of dirt, sand and rock he's had to deal with doing this trench, so stay posted for that!

But what a celebration day - I told Jim that we really haven't been here long - just a little over a month.  First and foremost was all the moving we did in the beginning, plus he made a few trips back and forth to Ohio in that time too.  So to have gotten the trench dug and to have dealt with these major bureaucracies to get both lines in at this point is amazing!!!

 

10.17.2013 - Transformer installed!

Our National Grid friends were back on the lot fairly bright and early - and installing our transformer!

Setting the transformer into place...

Getting it all wired up...

All done!

It took them til about lunchtime to get all that done (well...with a little chatting time figured it!).  Then they went to lunch and came back a bit later and turned everything on - so it's "hot" now!  We still have to get things ready for meters, but we probably don't want it actually working until spring - no sense paying those minimum charges all winter long.  Jim wants to get a portable generator that he can use now.  So...we have POWER!!

Then this afternoon while Jim was back in the trenches covering up the lines with sand, he got a call from our Time Warner friend that they are bringing cable out tomorrow!  No price was mentioned so we'll see how that goes. 

Jim ran out of sand so has another order in that will be delivered in the morning.  It's just SO exciting that these things are all coming together. 

Since Jim ran out of sand, he figured this would be a good time to go get his 4Runner inspected - you only have 10 days to do that.  He felt confident about this car since he has done so much work on it.  But...it failed!  He said they spent over a half an hour going over every little thing - probably bound and determined to find something so they can make a little money.  But one of the lights in the upper rear window was out and they failed him for that!  So he has to get a light bulb, replace it, and go have it reinspected.  I know that it's a good idea to make sure cars that are on the road are safe, but wow, kind of crazy!

Leaves are coming off the trees a little more and you can really start to see the mountain ridges in the distance. 

10.16.2013 - Electric wire is in!

Another Red Letter Day!  Not too long after Jim got to the land, he was calling me that National Grid was back!  They were still in their trucks strategizing when I got there...and Jim was back in the trenches getting rid of some of the tree roots.

 

Back in the trenches

Before long, they got busy working on our poles - one truck at the pole by our driveway and the other truck to bring the electricity from across the street to the new pole they put up down the road.  The first thing they did was start stringing wire from pole to pole.

After that, they had to put lots of brackets and hardware on the pole to get it ready to receive the big transformer unit.  Here it is making its way up the pole!

 

 

In this picture, if you look closely you can see the wires going in between the poles!

 



Once the transformer got up to the top, they got it all secure and then started hooking it up.

They worked a couple of hours and left about noon.  They said they would either be back in the afternoon or tomorrow to put the underground wire in!  So this crew obviously was in charge of inspecting the trench and it was fine to them - yay! 

Jim went back right after lunch and again it wasn't long until he called me that they were back.  He said he was up moving some rocks and the next thing he knew, the trucks were coming up the driveway with the spool of cable!

It was easy to get it into the trench until they got to the conduit crossing the driveway.  After that, they had to really pull and haul the wire the rest of the way up the hill to the top where the transformer will be - I'm sure that was quite a workout for them!

 

There's our transformer on the back of their truck ready to be put into place.

 





 

Setting it down next to the pad where it will go...



 

By the time I got there it was all done and they were pretty much packing up.  I was just in time to hear a lineman's joke...Why does a transformer hum?  Because it doesn't know the words!  Whew...they need to come up with some new material!

Here's the wire in the trench from the pole....

up to the transformer! 

 

They said they would be back tomorrow probably to get the transformer all hooked up!  Amazing - after all this time and starting with nothing, we have electric lines on our property!

 

After they left, Jim called our new favorite Time Warner guy and told him that the wire was in the ground.  So he's supposed to come out tomorrow and hopefully bring the cable that will go in the trench too.  He sidestepped the question of cost though, so that will still have to be discussed.  If it's still $6,000 he'll have to take his cable away.

 

Of course, now Jim has lots more work to do.  The next step is to put layers of sand on top of the wire all the way down the 750' of trench.  After that, if we can get the cable company to put their cable in, he'll have to put more sand on top of that before finally being able to backfill.

 

What an amazing day!

 

On a side note, Jim helped me get our dumpster diving table set up in my office last night - he still has to do some computer wiring to get my address printer over there, but I think it looks pretty good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

10.15.2013 - Utility poles up!

WOW!!!  What an exciting day!  Once again, Jim headed out bright and early to wait for the utility poles. 

In the morning, I had a bunch of mailings to take care of at the post office and then headed into Hadley to talk to the printer about all the upcoming work.  As I was nearing home, Jim texted me that the utility workers were there.  But the big news - he talked to them and they said, no problem, they would move the pole where it was supposed to be and where it was marked on the street.  So we don't have to move the stone wall or do all that work - I told Jim it was a miracle!  Jim said it was worth a shot to ask them, but we never figured they would move it since the pole anchors were already set in place.  But these guys were really nice (they all have been) and said it was fine.

So when I got there, one pole was already in place farther down the road and they were just setting up the one by our driveway.  It was really fun to watch them - they certainly have it down to a science and put these things up pretty quickly.

Men working ahead - good sign!

We have a utility pole!

Then they dug the hole to place the second pole...

 

After the pole is in place, they backfill it and use a small compactor (looks like our concrete vibrator) to compact the dirt around the pole.

 

 

 

After they were done, the two guys who did all the work stayed and talked to us for about an hour.  They had 2 new kids - the ones doing the flag work on the road - that just sat in their truck waiting while these guys talked.  Really, everyone here is so nice.  They all love the area and are just happy to talk to you about it.

 

One thing that was a little bothersome - our utility planner told Jim that he had to buy all the specialized conduit for making the transition from the pole to the trench and then it's about 10' in the trench from the pole - along with all the fittings.  So of course, that's some of the stuff that Jim bought when he was in Ohio last trip.  The line guys said - no, we put all that in.  So now we have all this expensive stuff and don't need it.  And it's not like it's an easy return to Wolff Brothers from NY.  Oh well, price of doing business sometimes.

I went home, got lunch and some hydraulic fluid for the excavator - another issue, one of the cylinders is leaking.  Of course, Jim has no place to work on these things.  Will have to be another winter project somehow.  But it's not major - he can still use it.  Just needs to make sure it doesn't run out of fluid.

Meanwhile, Jim got back to work.  Now he can finish the trench work from the pole to meet up with the rest of the trench.

 

Then before long, another crew shows up to get the poles ready for the wires!  It was also interesting to watch - one crew worked on one pole and the other on the pole by the driveway.  You can hardly see them in the bucket in the picture below but they are putting up the framing.

And here's what it looks like all done!

 

They were just finishing up, when a Time Warner truck pulled in the driveway!  This guy was amazingly nice.  He understood our frustration.  He said that someone had come and done an estimate at one point when we weren't there - over $6000 to get cable up the hill!  That's not a typo - $6000!  But apparently, most of that money was trenching the line.  We can't have the "normal" cable line that people have to their homes - that can only be 300' or it loses signal strength.  So we have to have a high-powered line to go 700'.  But because we have the trench all done and we told him we were going to have 2 structures on the property, he said that figure was crazy.  So we don't know what the new figure will be, but he took all his measurements and said he'd get it all drawn up.  Jim told him that the electric would probably go in this week so we'd like to get the cable in after that.  He seemed to think that would all be good - he gave us his personal business card with his cellphone number (no more calling customer service!).  He just told Jim to let him know exactly when the electric is going in and he'd make plans to have someone out here after that. 

 

So quite the amazing day - everything we were waiting for all happened today!

 

These are just leaves on the ground but they looked so pretty - all the different colors kind of made a mosaic!

Update...Jim got the trench dug from the pole to meet up with the other trench!  And he got it all crumbed out.  So the only thing left is to get a layer of sand down on this section.  Quite the day!

10.14.2013

Today Jim spent more time waiting for utility poles and Time Warner...neither of which came through.  I feel bad because Jim is trying to get things accomplished but still be able to listen for the phone - kind of hard with major machinery running.  But the driveway to the carriage house is taking shape and looking really good.  As soon as Jim gets it rough cut (his rough cut looks amazingly flat and perfect to me), we're going to shoot grades and see where we are.

Driveway to carriage house

Jim said we are officially fitting into the Corinth lifestyle...I made him take something our of our neighbor's trash!  My new postage meter has an automatic feeder which I really like but makes it huge so it's on the floor.  Then the address printer is pretty big and I don't really have a good spot for it.  So we said we are probably going to have to buy some sort of table to put them on.  Then I was driving home and someone in the building threw away this big, heavy TV stand that looked like it would be perfect!  So after he got home, tired and beat, I made him go out and we dragged this thing upstairs.  Hey - the price was right and it's just temporary!  I have to obviously clean it up and we'll see how it works.  I told Jim if it doesn't, we'll just put it out in the trash next week!

One man's junk is another man's treasure!

10.13.2013

Another gorgeous day in upstate New York!  I was busy with fire school work today but went out to see Jim early this afternoon.  He had gotten the chainsaw tuned up and working well, so he had gotten both trees that he cut down yesterday cut into sections and moved to our pile.

Jim said he needed to take me sightseeing for a bit - so we got in the 4Runner and took off.  Actually, we had been to this park before when we were up here last year, but it was always hard to get your perspective on the layout of the area.  This park is probably only 3 miles from our lot.  This is the Hudson River and just up from where I took this picture, there is a dam and power station with a gorgeous waterfall area.  Unfortunately, you couldn't stop along the mountain road to get a good picture, but we've seen a scenic pull off on the other side of the river outside of Corinth.  So we're going to try and go there this week and see if we can get a picture of the falls.  But isn't this gorgeous?  Again - pictures don't do it justice!

Jim was working again on cutting a driveway back to where the carriage house is going to be.  It's so exciting to see things find their way from ideas in Jim's head to areas on the lot!

The website has taken down the boil alert for the area so that's happy news.  We've had well water for so long that we haven't had to worry about anything like that.

 

10.12.2013 - Started site work for carriage house

We discovered this morning in the newspaper that there had been a water main break in Corinth and we were under a boil alert - the schools were actually closed yesterday.  We don't typically drink tap water but I certainly use it for coffee, cooking, teeth brushing, dish washing - whatever.  So I'm doing my best to be conscious of that.  Keep checking the website but not sure how much they update that in this little village!

 

I stayed at home in the morning and worked more fire school jobs while Jim headed out to the land.  He's kind of at a standstill on the trench work until National Grid comes back, so he's actually doing some site prep work, which is exciting.

 

I took lunch out and took this picture on my way.  The picture doesn't do it justice but this is on Angel Road and the sun and trees were just so beautiful.

When I got to the land, Jim gave me a tour of the carriage house!  It's hard to see from this picture, but Jim has a basic footprint taped off just to get an idea of placement.  He's trying to cut the driveway heading to this area so he needed to figure out where things are possibly going to go!  I love the ideas he has and can't wait to see things really take shape in the spring.  But it was very exciting just to walk around and talk about what's going where. 

 

After lunch, Jim wanted to cut down some dead trees.  Again, pictures are hard to convey size - but check out how little Jim looks getting ready to cut down this giant tree!

Here it is on its way down!

You should have heard the sound that tree made falling down!  Then it was on to another one.  This one is more shaded so it's really hard to pick out Jim next to this tree - but it's another giant one.

And down it comes too!

And cutting it up so we could use the driveway.  Jim's big chainsaw was acting funny, so he had to use his little one.  He'll have to see what's wrong with the big one before he does any more tree work.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JULIA!!