Sticks going up

Jason took some pics out at the site today. Ron is on the skidder and I am on the trackhoe.


This was the first wall up and I was there to help them put it up. That is the bedroom window frame, not a door. 2x6 walls in the basement walls.

Cheryl is standing in the double window in a bedroom on the "view" side.

Pending good weather, the framing should be finished in a month.

Moving dirt

Ron and I moved dirt from the excavation pile to backfill the poured walls hole. We rented equipment -- a skidder from a friend of his and a Bobcat Track Hoe from the dealer.

LOT

We had a picnic out at the barn with the Barnetts, Bradys and Edens on Monday night. We really enjoyed out time together -- LOT retreat. Mike B calls us LOT -- Larry's Old Team.

Almost ready for basement slab

The view is from the "front" of the house - up the hill -- looking into the basement. A bedroom will be where the sawhorses are. The black is the waterproofing. After final inspection of gravel placement tomorrow, the slab will be poured on Friday.

We start putting up the building next week. The sub-contractor has ordered a load of lumber to be delivered on Monday, so the "sticks" are going up right away.

We have water at the barn now. Cows have eaten down the back pasture and the bull walked through the fence to get to some grass in the garden site. Good thing we came along right after he got out. I had to put the cows back in the front pasture with the calves for them to have more grass. No rain for three weeks, so I will be out of grass in a few days if it doesn't rain. I am thinking that I need to sell some cows or calves next Thursday -- sale day.

The bare spot is where I moved some dirt in a low spot. The dirt in the background behind my pond is where Stephen is still spending money on his pond trying to get it to hold water.

Back at Brian

Good to see you on the blog, Brian. Not sure if Jeremy and Kimberly have seen that yet. Jason and Kelli are still in Idaho. Right about now they are wishing they were in a lodge with a hot tub rather than being "hostages." Cheryl, Allison and I leave with the three girls in the am to go to Greenwood to see my folks. We will celebrate my dad's 80th birthday on Saturday and on Sunday we will have a family reunion -- my Mom's side.

hi everyone

its me Brian...good to see all the coxes last week...even if some of you were on skype...i won't hack your blog anymore

The water line to the barn is going in. We are taking the water line from the barn on down to the garden plot--350 feet away. By the way, all that I got planted this year in the garden plot is okra. I planted that late because of the drought, so hopefully in a couple weeks we will have some okra.

The pump is hooked up at the well at the house site and we have tasted the water-- a bit of iron flavor that we will have to treat and work on, but it is good cold water.

We have electricity at the barn! We also have a light on the power company pole near the barn on the road below the barn. It comes on automatically at dusk.



The plumbing is in and ready for inspection on Monday. Next step is filling in with the gravel, then the slab. After that we will be ready to put up the "sticks." We have one framing bid in now and are waiting on the second bid. Hopefully by the middle of September we will have the whole house framed. That is the part that goes quickly. After that it will slow down as we wait on sub-contractors to show up for work on schedule.

Notice the short wall on the left side of photo. That is a "wingback" to turn water away from the front of the house. The pvc pipe going up the back wall will serve as the drain for a future bath in the second floor (loft) -- should someone else decide to have a bath up there and develop the other two future bedrooms.