HELLO SPENCER VALLEY....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOFIA!

WE MISS YOU!

Boys' camping on the newly excavated foundation.

Excavation and Forms for the foundation

The original plan was to have the guy that removed the stumps and excavated for the septic come in and dig the foundation but weather delayed him on another job. So....we decided to give it a try ourselves with our caterpillar and a new laser level from Lowes. It was a great learning experience and we all learned to shoot the grade and after 9 hours of excavating and alot of putting our heads together we finally finished. The next day we bought the wood from Lowes to build the forms for the footer. Our geometry knowledge was put to the test as we measured triangles to get the 90 degree angle we needed at the outside and inside corners. We used a plumb bob, the rotating laser level, tape measures and a carpenter's square to check and recheck our angles and measurements, and in the end (we are still only half finished with the forms) our hypotenuse was exactly the right measurement in both directions. HOORAY!

Outside shower on a hot day..

The shed is almost finished.

We have almost completed the shed, so we put up a flag for Memorial Day. The tools are inside and the roof is on and felted (we still need to put the metal roof on) so the kids and Kiana slept in the shed on Tuesday night.

Jerimiah's project is coming along!

A quick trip to Nashville!

After getting in about 4 hours of work on Sunday morning, we headed to Nashville to visit cousins and go to an Arena Football game. We stopped by CMA on the way home from the game and Baine and Ross thought it would be funny to go "redneck" right out front. For those of you who don't know, Ross's wife, Tammy, is a big wig at CMA and I am sure she will love this picture. (Patrice)

Are we still working on the shed?

Our 2 day 12 X 8 shed project has now turned into a 5 or 6 day project, but it is going to look great when we are finished.

Jermiah's project!

Jeremiah has been given a specific project, to stack the wood pile nice and neat.
We have lots of wood, so it should keep him busy and out of trouble for a few minutes anyway.

Local Sawmill

We visited a local sawmill in Jamestown to pick up some siding and roofing for the salt box shed. The guy was super nice and gave us all a tour of the mill, he also gave us a great price on the wood. (Patrice)

The Septic was approved and is now buried and ready for use.

Septic Finally!

Well, we finally got the septic tank and drain lines in today. It rained the entire time that we were installing it and we had to fill the tank 1/2 full to make sure that it did not float away during the down pours. We are glad to finally have it in and will cover it tomorrow after the Environmentalist Specialist comes out to inspect and approve it. We also started our "tool shed" today and Grandma was here to help out. We have enjoyed her visit but there was so much rain that we did not get much work out of her. She did enjoy watching The Sound of Music in the RV with Jordan while the septic was being installed and the shed was being built. We just loved having her here with us...(Patrice)

Stumps are out, Driveway is in!

Yesterday we brought the bulldozer in to remove the stumps and grade the driveway and cabin site. Soon after the bulldozer left the gravel truck came in and dumped 23 tons of 2 inch rock for the drivway base.

You've Got Mail!

We finally have an address, after two weeks of waiting on the Sheriff's department to come out and GPS our location. The address does not seem like such an important thing but the power company would not put in our temporary power pole until we had one. Note the maple post made from a tree off of the property.

STUMPS AND LOGS

Okay, so I have found a piece of machinery that I do NOT like to operate, the stump grinder. What a slow and ungainly creature. It took me eight hours to grind 18 stumps. I think they should call it the "Stump Nibbler" instead. I mean when I think of Stump Grinder, I think of some concentric ringed, titanium toothed, sharks mouth powered by a six cylinder Cummins Diesel engine that actually grinds the stump. The grinding should only take a few seconds, not almost an hour as it was with some of the bigger stumps we had.

The other picture is of me and the boys taking a small load of Red Oak and Chestnut Oak logs to the mill. The gal unloading the logs squashed my fender doing about $200 in damage. They paid us $60 for the logs, so I guess the mill made out pretty good on that deal! (Baine)

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
Patrice and Jordan went to Nashville to take care of Nolan and Callie while the boys and I ran 240 feet of water line, and we also set two yard hydrants. The pressure is great and the water is cool. We rented the trencher attachment for the Cat at the local rental store. With the trencher attachment it took only one hour to dig. I could not imagine trying to cut a 30 inch deep trench for 240 feet by hand in this hard, rocky soil. (Baine)

THORN AND GENOVESE CHILDREN