Another tree tagged for dropping

Barry, the well digger, came out and looked everything over. No surprise that there is still one more tree to fell. The boom has to go up 40 feet so the branches are in the way. He says having limbs fall on you from 30 or 40 feet in the air is not good. (I picture them turining into killer spears as they fall).
I had asked him out to the property a while back and I asked his advice on everything for the well. He happily shared with me his knowledge, he even threw in advice on building and excavation. Every time he speaks to me I get a little insight into his world. The one where he says no one asks his opinion on the site, as I had, he says he is 'just the dumb well guy' (mimicking customers) and that they just point to where they want the well and say "over there".
Wow, I cracked up because he is second generation well digger and he use to help his father all while he grew up. I can't image not asking his opinion! He told me all the depths of the wells around and to not go up the hill with it (keep it low), make sure it is 25 feet from the house in case I need to have the house sprayed with pesticides, keep the well area accesssible for repairs, etc.
Yesterday he came out and checked things over again, saw a small tree that needed to come down, went home and got his saw, came back and cut it and then cut into the other tree to mark it for felling.
He says there is still too much mud and ruts right off the road, but let's wait for it to freeze up. Next time he says use huge course stone first unless we do use the shale from the mound like we had planned originally.
It is snowing again, so I will have to go back out and shovel tomorrow.

Heave ho

Spent many hours shoveling out the roadway this past week. The well truck needs to get in and there was too much snow and it was way too wet. I am hoping that getting the snow off it will help to dry it up and let it freeze. Temps have been unseasonably high, so even with lots of stone for most of the road there are still muddy areas. What was dry two weeks ago and didn't need stone, now are mud pies.

Toyota truck goodbyes

Here she sits at the dealership when I visited her a week ago.
My loyal Toyota Tacoma has been taken off the road forever as it failed the frame inspection on XMas eve. Toyota had a recall (really and extended warranty problem, something or other) on the frame and has been inspecting 95-2000 Tacomas to make sure they are safe.
So my black beauty failed and will soon be on its way to a .... insert sad face...crusher.
Daughter got me a Priceline.com ticket for about $200. to fly to Georgia to buy this truck. I drove the beauty all the way back up North and have been bonded to it ever since. My little friend, Blondie, rode in the back; my niece and nephew rode in the back; and Smiley and his friend rode in the back all '4 Wheelin', sans the 4x4 part, to or from my campsite!
Most recently my boss heard its wheels spin on his voice mail as I tried successfully to get it up the hay road to check on my campsite while taking Smiley and his friend on an adventure.
Remembering the day Jeff pimped-my-ride with the rain guards he put over the windows.
Remembering the time the squirrels ate through the harness and it cost me $$$$$ and BIL's skillful hands to replace it.
Sad day, but as daughter reminds me ...now I can get a 'new' truck and have fun looking for one, also I am happy to get a 4x4 this time for all my off-roading.

Muddy play

The culvert is in. One truckload of stone has been spread on the new roadway near the stream. Smiley is over there today finishing up but I am missing the action 'cause I am here at work. 

Hay Road

Quick clean up because Smiley and helper had down time while waiting for the power company to finish up with the poles. We were all there waiting to start work on putting in the culvert.

I pulled up to the hill road and there were about 6 or 7 power company vehicles, two pick up trucks, a trailer pulling an excavator (Sammies crew), plus my girly truck! 

All this on the little narrow road at the top of the hill at the turn! What a site! Yellow lights were flashing, cones and flags were out, crazy. And people think living in the country is quiet and peaceful! 

This tree fell on the hay road blocking access to my fort!

This is across the main road.

 

Tuesday morning

Six days from the storms onset, here are the power companies contractors, all the way from Michigan.

Donated culvert

Jeff gave me this culvert! Yeah!

Power lines

Here is the route into the property I am building on. This is what delayed getting the culvert in. I think it is so funny that Bro and I were so worried about knocking trees onto the lines and then a couple of weeks later this storm broke the cross bars on two poles and had trees hung up in the lines all along the access roads to the well site!

 Of course if we had done this it would have cost us TONS of mulla, but since it was Mother Natures destruction we were off the hook.

Ice Storm

Here are a few pictures from our first real winter storm.

These are each from coming up over the hill from the north to south near H's pond.

Ice storm

I'm headed out to the property in a few minutes to check on things. Sammy was going to put in the culvert yesterday afternoon or this morning, but we had an ice storm, so I don't know if it was possible.
The neighbor is without water, power, and heat! She wants to stay there, though, and not go into town. I put a call in to the town to see what's up and found out they have a warming center at the grange and the senoir center.

Save $

Daughter sent me this cool link to an article on building a home.
http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article_sm.aspx?cp-documentid=15304045>1=35000

Well

The well digger, Barry, left me a message yesterday saying he is going away until the 18th and then finishing up a well he already has started. Right after that he is coming to do mine! So by the third week or so in December he will be pounding it. Yeah! So it looks like my major Xmas present will be drinking water!

I am dreaming about M & M ['s]

Yummy, but no, not that kind...Eminem! Yes, the rapper. I dreamt that I was hanging out with him at Ma's and I may have been interviewing him, but it was very casual. There were other people around like friends and his family.

I asked him if he used MacSpeech Dictate when he wrote his memoir. He looked at me in disbelief (at that moment, he knew I knew and so did I) and it took a while for him to formulate words. He asked why I would think so and I told him because

1. he mentioned in his book that he doesn't like to read

2. the writing is as if he were speaking the words

3. lastly, because he is in the music world and musicians use CuBase

It would only be a natural transition for him to one day ask "isn't there a way I can digitize my voice the same way we digitize music from a keyboard in a program that turns it into key notes and turn my voice into editable text"?

Reasonable right? and yes, in my dream he confirmed my psychic notion.

I think I should really buy MacSpeech Dictate now. What do you think? I mean if Eminem uses it in my dream, then I should too.

Afterall, I am writing my memoir.

Nice surprise

Guess what welcomed me yesterday as I pulled up to the property?

It was wrapped around a stick right smack in the middle of the new entrance.

I believe it is a sign of things to come!

Fate.