Little by little we make progress.
Its been a few months since I posted. We’ve been busy with not just the house, but life, and time got away from me. So here’s what we’ve been up to.
Since we are doing as much of the work ourselves as we can, it is a bit slow going. These projects that involve construction or electrical work are so much more involved and detailed than I ever dreamed. Construction and electrical work is Brad’s domain, I am the trained monkey helping with grunt work.
We finished off the big panel for the panel and meter for the underground electrical.
Brad finished getting all the supplies for the board and dry fitted it before installing to be sure he liked how it looked before it went up. Yes, aesthetics matters even with power.
This didn’t go as fast as you might think. The planning of everything took quite a bit of time, then drilling out the holes in addition to finding the pieces. With COVID odd ball items are out of stock or back ordered, making getting everything a challenge. Who would have thought that breakers would be so hard to get.
In the midst of this we celebrated Independence Day, Brad hosted a 2 week virtual work seminar in the house, we went on vacation, celebrated Brandon’s 18th birthday, and attended his Eagle Board of Review (new Eagle Scout in the family!). We also moved our oldest back to college, and did a bit of canning. (phew)
As we did work and had some R & R we made decisions on how much power to put in each of the buildings. We did measurements and Brad put in his order for wire – lots and lots of wire.
With everything in place we rented a trencher and started ripping up the yard. The wire was due to come the same day – so Brad and his friend Frank got to work, while I waited for a big truck to drop of a pallet of wire.
Brad had an observer that creeped him out.
Are raven’s a good omen or a bad omen? Whether there is any meaning to a raven hanging around or not, it was a little odd and creepy to have this bird just hanging around and not leaving. We both went up to it several times. It would back away, but not leave completely. While we believe that God is in control and fate or luck has nothing to do with it, the bird’s presence was still unnerving.
Well – the FedEx truck dropped off the wire at the other house – 1 medium sized spool. Far short of the 400lbs of wire Brad was expecting. A call to the company revealed that the vast majority of the wire would ship on Monday (this was Friday). Ugh!
Brad found several tree roots and rocks with the trencher, that even as powerful as it is, it could not handle. He did as much of the trenches as he could, leaving spots here and there that would need to be touched up and we called it a day. Brad had hoped to be done in 1 four day weekend, there was no way that was going to happen with the delay in wire and the trench issues. Depressed and overwhelmed we returned the trencher and knew we had to figure out a way to get through the tough spots somehow.
There was no turning back now. The power company had been prepaid to do their part, the lumber, panels, fittings, and wire were bought and the vast majority were un-returnable.
Saturday was all rain. We went out to do a few measurements, and found that in several spots the dirt that the trencher had thrown out so easily was clay and was turning to slickly, slippery, squishy, mud and in spots was falling back into the trench.
Gonna end this post here. I’m already behind on posts, and I’m feeling like being climatic. Yes a very down beat, so not sure if climatic is the right term, but I think you get the point. Regardless, it was depressing. To see the roots (4 – 6″ across), baseball sized rocks & bigger (thanks to the glaciers), and invisible obstacles that impeded the mighty teeth of the trencher you’d be depressed too.
Lannon on the Hill 