Wet & Wired...

My friend Denny Weaver dug the trench for the drain field, and I connected it to the septic tank. The drain field is 144 ft. long and 3 ft wide. Our county health inspector came up yesterday and approved the system, so we can now cover it up.




Things are really starting to come together. Ray Pattan, my electrician, Clayton Russell of Gem Pump & Supply, and Denny Weaver got together to install the upper booster pump and pump house and connect the water lines and electrical conduit to the house. These guys really make it look easy. I couldn't ask for a nicer, more capable bunch of guys to hold my hand through this construction adventure.


This is what the upper pressure pump looks like. It was necessary due to the loss of pressure caused by the 80 feet gain in elevation between the well and the house. With this additional pump, I'll be able to maintain pressures in excess of 65psi. at the house, as opposed to around 25psi without it. Ray will connect the electricity as soon as the power company energizes the permanent circuit box and moves the meter.

Hitting the road...

Many years ago Whitlock Gulch, which runs through the ranch from east to west, was logged. To facilitate the removal of the harvested trees, a road was bulldozed into the gulch. Over the years, the hillside had pretty much returned to normal, and the road had become impassible, even for a 4-wheeler. There are several large dead trees back in there that I want to use for firewood, so I had Harvey use his small dozer to reopen the road. It is narrow, with no place to turn around, but it will allow me to get my Willys in there to winch out the old trees. I estimate that there is a two to three year supply of firewood just sitting there waiting for me.




The next day, Susan and I decided to walk to the end of the road to look for animal tracks. We found coyote tracks, black bear tracks and tracks of a mule deer doe and fawn. We have been watching several does and fawns over the past weeks, so it was fun to get to see the tiny tracks in the dirt.

Here's a picture of an old wagon axle assembly that we found half buried along the old logging trail. It still has some of the original orange paint on it. It's hard to imagine that there was a time when this axle assembly represented the state of the art in farm and ranch transportation. We are looking forward to unearthing more treasures as we continue to explore the property.

Dishing the dirt...

Susan and I have spent the last week backfilling around the basement walls. I have backfilled the north and west basement walls, and compacted the soil around the front entryway. I have begun backfilling the east wall, but cannot finish until the utilities and sewer lines are connected to the house. That is scheduled to be completed this coming week. While backfilling, I installed hydrants on the northwest corner and the center of the east wall. The area around the house is beginning to regain the contour of the hillside, and looks pretty good.

In the meantime, I have dug the trenches for the garage footings, which will be poured next week. If all goes according to plan, we will pour the basement floor and the garage floor the second week in July. There is still some backfilling and compacting to do on the basement floor.

While I've been moving mountains of dirt, My friend Denny Weaver installed the septic tank for the house. He will now dig the drain field for the system in the hillside below the tank.

Shifting gears...

The bathroom in the shop is finally finished. It got its final plumbing inspection yesterday and passed with flying colors.


Now that it's done, we can shift out attention to the house. We installed a French drain around the footings of the foundation. This will handle any water that the Battle Drain channels down the walls. After covering it with about six inches of gravel, we buried it under four feet of dirt. Our next step will be to install the second four feet of Battle Drain and backfill the remaining four feet of foundation wall. I never realized how small the bucket on my tractor was until I began this backfilling operation.


On the way down the driveway this evening, we spotted this momma mule deer with her triplets. A sighting like this is a great way to top off a day of hard work.

More rock, more gravel, more dirt...

For the past three weeks we have been finishing the driveway and parking area around the shop. Harvey did a great job widening the tight curves in the driveway, and grading and graveling the area surrounding the shop. I finished grading and smoothing the gravel with my tractor and rear blade. Susan was excited to finally get all the stuff off the hill in front of the shop. We moved our little camper trailer, my three trailers, my M37 fire truck, the firewood, the communications shelter we were using as a storage locker, the fencing materials and all the miscellaneous items that had found their way onto the hill over to the rear of the shop. I also returned the crane truck that I had used for the shop construction to its owner. I will likewise move the tractor implements to the graveled area as I use them. I must say that it does look a lot better.

The bathroom in the shop is almost finished. The room has been sheetrocked and painted. I built a small cabinet for the sink, and covered the countertop with laminate. The fixtures, water heater, light and fan have been installed, and the door has been hung. All that's left to do is paint the door, door trim, and cabinet.

Our next project was to install a product called "Battle Drain II" on the outside walls of the daylight basement. This product has a plastic backing, honeycomb center, and felt front. It is designed to channel any ground water that may come in contact with the basement walls down to the French drain that will run along the base of the foundation. The picture shows the first roll installed. We will install another roll above this one, making the coverage eight feet high. As I reported in a previous post, we have already applied two coats of waterproofing to the walls, so this might be considered overkill. That's OK with me. If we don't have any water problems, I'll consider it a job well done.

With the first course of Battle Drain installed, we will now install the French drain and backfill the first four feet of dirt. Once this is done, we will install the second course of Battle Drain, and lay out the piping for our outside water hydrants.

In the meantime, we are coordinating with the well pump guy, the HVAC people, the electrician, and the plumbing inspector to get their respective jobs done so we can pour the basement floor.