Progress is slow and inconsistent, but still present. On Monday the surveyors came and staked out the building envelope. Yesterday our friend Grant used his brand new track loader to grade the site. He moved around a lot of dirt with an efficiency that Annie could never match. Hopefully the surveyors will return tomorrow to lay out the exact locations of the footings. Then digging, pouring, laying block, framing, roofing…
We actually didn’t end up going to Monteagle until yesterday (Saturday) morning. Things got a little hectic on Friday night and so it was better to briefly postpone. The drive was uneventful – I took my typical route of the interstate to Manchester then Highway 41 up to Monteagle. It was a pretty drive, as usual, but not yet as green as I was hoping for. We didn’t have much of an agenda other than relaxing and of course visiting the goats on campus. We drove to see them and it was really cool because they actually left their big, round bale of hay and came to check us out. That thrilled Liz and she took lots of pictures and videos. I also snapped a few photos with my phone.
We had lunch at the Mountain Goat Market and really enjoyed sitting out on the porch. The afternoon was spent reading and napping. We went to Lake O’Donnell for sunset. I used my new camera for the first time and really enjoyed it. I haven’t put the pictures on my computer yet, but will try to this evening.
We returned to the Mountain Goat Market for dinner and again enjoyed the serenity of their patio. Being there is always so nice and relaxing. We went back to the cottage and read and talked some more until bed time. This morning I woke up at the crack, but it was super overcast, so I didn’t go out to photograph. We took it pretty easy through the morning before coming back to Nashville. I have no idea when we will be able to return to the mountain, but I hope it won’t be too far from now. Of course it will be a little more complicated with the coming third member of our party.
Today has been a thoroughly unexciting parade of paperwork (and alliteration, apparently). More in the figurative since though, as it was mostly online/computer type stuff. I updated my expense spreadsheets for the house and nascent business, paid a couple of bills, and really organized a lot of files and folders on my computer. I also did a lot of cleaning and organizing on the condo. Mostly boxing things up. On the fun side, I was able to start setting up the two external computer monitors that Liz got me (for free!) from her office. And yes, they know that she took them. They are 23″ Asus full HD screens. Not top of the line by any stretch, but still quite nice. And free. I’m not sure if my laptop will support running both at the same time. One is connected via an HDMI cable, while I ordered an HDMI to DVI cable for the other one from Amazon. We’ll see if that works. I promise that I am done with acronyms for this post.
This evening we are headed up to Monteagle. There is a chance of thunderstorms this evening and tomorrow morning, but other than that the weather should be glorious. I hope to hike some, relax, read, take a lot of pictures, and eat at the Mountain Goat Market. There should be lots of pretty blooms both on campus and in the parks.
…everything looks like a nail” – Mark Twain, possibly
That is a nice saying, but I have an updated version. “To the man with tractor and front-end loader, everything looks like a target for destruction”. After today I can verify the truthfulness of that statement.
Getting the fire started this morning took more diesel fuel than I would have liked, but eventually the big pile got to burning pretty good. All of the house debris burned along with most of the tulip poplar that was on top. I also threw on some old cedar logs. I debated saving them, but they were in fairly rough shape.
Annie and I also uprooted a number of trees. Below is one of the bigger ones. The still soft ground makes pushing over certain types of trees pretty easy.
As the pictures show it was a glorious day. Hopefully spring is here, although I wouldn’t mind one more good snow storm. I’m worried that a relatively mild winter will mean lots of bugs this year.
I have kept messing with the SketchUp plans for the farm house. Below are new (and blue!) updates to the design. The final house will be white, but I decided to make a colored version because it makes it easier to see details.
Today wasn’t as productive as I would have liked. I broke the quick attach handle on my loader. I guess it will need to be welded back on. I bought a crescent wrench and a pipe wrench at Lowe’s, but neither of them worked really. I eventually got the bucket off by beating the pins from the bottom. The pallet forks went on easily. I dug up a few stumps and moved around some cedar logs. Tomorrow will be another beautiful day and I will try to burn the last of the house debris as well as a lot of the recently downed trees. I’m not sure if I will attempt to burn the stumps or just throw them into the dumpster. There is a bit of space remaining, but weight could become an issue. We are restricted to 8000 pounds.
I was hoping that the engineer would come today to lay out the footings, but he didn’t. Maybe tomorrow. The sooner the better so we can take advantage of this nicer weather and get to work.