Weekend #7

Friday, July 24th, 2009...House-sitting for friends again this weekend gave us lots of time to work at our house. First, here's a teaser from the front door:
That's it...that's all you get to see until you come to visit!


Another shot of the "bones" of the great room:

And some raccoon tracks I found on the south side of the house, in a dried-up puddle:

We continued work on backfilling inside the foundation walls. This window-less opening made getting stones into this area pretty easy.

J-Bird pitched right in to rake and level the stones. It's wonderful to have a strong, young man on staff...I'm getting too old for this kind of work!

The younger crew kept themselves occupied for awhile by playing hangman on the wood pile:

It was about 7:30 pm by this time...the sun was setting...shadows growing longer...

Word games sure make me thirsty!

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Friday's sunset was beautiful...

"Crossing the Bar"

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Space
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.

- Alfred Lord Tennyson

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Saturday, July 25, 2009...Jesse arrived early this morning to work on the grading around the house and septic tanks.

Shaving some material from the bank to use as fill:

Adding fill material to the south side of the house:

Now we have some semblance of a backyard, and a flat area for the kids to play:

Jesse also backfilled around the septic and peat tanks:

The boys were fascinated by this machine...compact, powerful, maneuverable...even air conditioned! They decided we needed one of our own!

And the tanks as they are still now...waiting for us to install the connecting PVC pipe, connect to the house output, dig a small hole and install the UV light (stage 3 of our septic system), and run about 200 feet of PVC down to the stream for the effluent discharge. We'll get to that, but right now getting the house done is our priority!

Meanwhile, Hubby, J-Bird, and my Dad continued working to get the under-slab plumbing completed. Here Hubby is digging the trench for the 4" PVC that will carry all the household waste and gray water out to the septic tank. This was not an easy job. He had to position himself perpendicular to the trench, instead of parallel with it. This prolonged the process, but his persistence paid-off, and pipe installation proceeded promptly.

Here you can see his dilemma...he was only able to take small buckets of material out at a time:

And Dad had to do some hand-digging, as well:

Finally they got the pipe positioned with the correct amount of "fall"...(1" per 4', I believe), and we were able to fill in with stones to hold it in place:

And, here's the rest of the pipe install...not an exciting or glamorous shot...unless you know how much sweat and hard labor went into arriving at this very moment. I don't think I'll ever take indoor plumbing for granted again!

And...what did Sissy do while the rest of us were toiling?

Heavy rains filled the tire tracks with deliciously muddy water:

She tried unsuccessfully to coerce her brother to join her:

I'm thankful for the "well-loved" hand-me-down clothes we've been given...so I don't have to worry about how they'll ever come clean! What joy to be a child at this age...living in this moment...she loved every minute of it, and didn't mind being a bit cold and more than a bit wet! She was having a wonderful time...and I wasn't about to stop her.

Could YOU say no to a face like that?

Stay tuned,
Kris