Gerald and I headed up for the land on Friday afternoon to meet with Paul, our builder. We had hoped he'd be able to get a shell dried in for us before he was due to begin his new job in Missouri, but the permits took nearly all of the month we had available. So now Paul is commuting. He flew in on Wednesday, but had to leave on Saturday morning to be home for Father's Day.
While Paul was there, he was able to install the septic system.
The footings were also dug. Paul had contracted out that work, but it wasn't done to his satisfaction, so he spent some time on this, too.
Meanwhile, Gerald and I picked up a trailer full of wood for the porch planking from a custom miller in Congress. We spent the morning on Saturday spraying the back sides of each plank with sealer. Then we stacked the wood in the barn with sticks between each layer so the planks could dry and cure. Our goal was to finish early. The forecast was 110 in the Valley, which meant it would be in the low-90s at the land. We nearly finished the job before the sprayer went kaput. We marked our place with the red rag.
We took a nap in the afternoon, and took it easy for the rest of the day. We solved the bug problem with this tent. It was great. The only problem is that it was harder to chase the shade, so for part of the day it was hotter than we would have liked.
To get some relief from the heat, we took the truck and explored some of the roads we had not driven. One of them took us high on a ridge line overlooking our property. Here's what it looked like from that vantage point. You can see the meadow and the barn in the foreground. To the right is the road we put in. Directly above the barn you can see a clearing of dirt. That's our construction site.
Early the next morning, Gerald got busy with his wood chipper mulching piles of brush that were cleared for the building pad. He wanted to get done early, before it got too hot. He worked while I went to church. We had lunch, then headed home.
