Concrete Construction

More Progress

Despite the rain, the construction team found a few days to get some more concrete work done.  Notice the concrete truck stuck in the mud... good thing that dozer was there to pull him out!!

A Firm Foundation

The house footers...
Bringing in more rock...

Working on the garage foundation.
Wow, this rock won't budge... gonna have to modify the plan and work around it.
These photo's are courtesy of our builder/contractor, Don 'Logman' Gill.  Thanks Don!!

More Photo's from the Big Dig

Dueling backhoe's work on the basement while the dozer lays out the circular drive.

At the end of the day, the driveway was off to a great start and the basement was completely done and ready for the cement truck.

Big Dig Day

Dawn was awesome this morning with a misty fog settled into the bottoms and the sun trying to break through.

Durrell and I took one more stroll around the build site to confirm the house location and give the final go-ahead.
Don, our contractor, showed up at 8:30 with the 'diggers' in tow. After several hours of surveying and marking and measuring (measure twice, dig once), they were finally ready to begin the big dig!

To be continued when the Big Dig commences!

Heavy Equipment Operators

On a dreary day, the heavy equipment operators all showed up with their equipment to begin the big dig tomorrow. We've had rain, rain and more rain for weeks but with a sunny forecast over the next 3 days, the excavators are planning to dig the basement tomorrow. Yippee!

All Work and No Play.... NO WAY!!

When the sun broke out on Friday afternoon, we all took off to run our trails and play for a much needed break from all the work around the farm. Here's New Bob showing us how to navigate some slime in 6 Mile... Rusty leads the way thru Plumber's Crack with her Scrambler...
Sparky is just happy to be out on the trails again in his YJ... that is until he broke his rear driveshaft and limped back to the barn.

We NEED You!

Vote on what color combo's you like for our new home. Blue or Green roof? Log color? Here are the elevation views of the plans with a little colorization to assist you in your vote. Send your ideas to us at SynthiaB@aol.com. Thanks!!

VOTE TALLY:

GREEN ROOF = 3 Vote(s)
BLUE ROOF = 4 Vote(s)

LIGHT LOGS = 3 Vote(s)
DARK LOGS = 2 Vote(s)

Reinforcements have arrived

The City Boyz Spring Fling arrived at the farm yesterday just in time to help with the homesite cleanup. Durrell used his new King Ranch truck to pull our big trailer full of the heavy root balls after New Bob loaded it up using the JD. It's a good thing New Bob has his heavy equipment operators license cause otherwise I would let him drive my tractor! But, he did a good job and deserves a gold star for his efforts.

More Cleanup OR Many Hands Make Quick Work

While others worked on the homesite cleanup, Rooster spruced up the 'little' tractor and spent the afternoon mowing.

Toolman Paul worked at prepped the fire chimney for the evening bonfire.

Our First Visitors

Woke up early this morning excited to see the sun rise over our new homestead and we weren't at all surprised to see our nosey neighbors checking out the new digs.

Today's assignment is to work on cleaning up more of the carnage left behind by the trackhoe yesterday. Looks like another massage will be in order tonight! Durrell and Wilmer got all the trees cut up yesterday so we're just disposing of the root balls and limbs today. Gotta keep that front yard looking spiffy.

Official Groundbreaking... FINALLY!!!!!

Today is the day that we've been planning and re-planning and then planning some more for the past 14 years. We finally broke ground on our infamous 'log cabin'.

Here are a few 'before' pictures of the landscape where the new house will sit.
Now for the prep work: digging a few test holes to check for rock & soil content to insure that the house site is going to work out.
Everything looks good so it's a "GO!" Let's start removing the trees that need to come out to make room for our Great Room and deck.