440 Feet Later

Well, gone are the days of dowsers with their divining rod searching your yard for the best place to find water. Today, a spot is chosen and that's where you drill until water is found. It eventually happens (in this area anyway). However, this spot is not arbitrary. It must be:

• 50 feet from any property boundary, including the road side


• 150 feet from your leach field or any neighboring one


• 25 feet from the house


• 15 feet from the driveway


• accessible enough for the drill rig to get to

After lots of measuring, we found a few square feet that satisfied the criteria and put in a stake to mark the spot.

We hired Henshaw to do the job. Kirke has a great reputation and his business has drilled most of the wells in this neighborhood.

As you can see, it's a big rig:

This "slurry" is composed of very small particles of rock produced during the drilling. When wet, it feels like heavy sand.

Water was found at 440 feet -- a fairly deep well for this area. The water was tested and the results came back fine. And here it tis -- the finished well:

Where have all the logs gone?

This is one of many piles of logs that appeared after Phil and Jason finished cutting the trees.



Most of the big stuff is white pine, hemlock and oak. There are other piles of smaller logs (maple, oak, black birch), that will be cut into firewood. There's lots of firewood, and it will be used to heat the house using the wood stove and masonry heater.

Given the severely depressed timber market, we feel fortunate to have found a local resident, David Lashway, from Highland Community Lumber, who was willing to take the big logs. He will mill beams for our barn from the hemlock, and the remaining hemlock and all the pine logs will be sawed for one of his customers. David will saw all the oak, then bring it to a local business that will kiln dry it and mill it into flooring and stair treads for our house.

Below are some photos of David Lashway and his rig taking the logs off to his nearby mill:








Here's an article relating to David Lashway from Highland Community Lumber:
http://www.umassextension.org/index.php/news-events/newsletter/spring-2009/314-in-common-spring-2009

Perc-y?

Perc tests apparently are not that exciting. Who knew? I really wanted to be there to witness ours, but had to be at work. John told me, "Oh, it's pretty boring..... just people waiting around, and staring into a hole in the ground."

Jackie (the health agent), and Mark (the engineer) watch the "perc":


Sure enough, that's what it looks like. The test passed easily. To everyone's suprise, the soil was quite sandy -- perfect for percolating.

Here's Gary digging the hole:



After Jackie approves the test, Mark draws up the design. Then we can check these items off our "to do" list for a building permit.

Jackie and Mark making big decisions about our future:

Chicken Coop for Rent

What??? What's renting a chicken coop got to do with building our house, you ask? Here's the deal: It's about John building a chicken coop for our wonderful neighbors' chickens a few doors over in exchange for renting their barn. The barn is currently John's workshop and is essential for the house building project. We hoped to build our own barn first (before building the house), so that it could serve as the new workshop. However zoning laws will not allow this. Rules, rules rules.

Here's the coop:

The door for humans:

And the door for chickens (the run is still being built):

One of the girls (she can't wait to decorate!):

The finished coop a few weeks later.
"Tired of that 'cooped-up' feeling? Try Sarah's Air Fresh Eggs today!"

We're Stumped

It been almost two weeks of steady work clearing trees from the site. Phil and Jason will soon be finished. What an excellent job. It's amazing how much talent it takes to fell these large trees.
Unfortunately, the camera was not around while Phil and Jason were cutting the trees. With amazing agility, Jason climbs with his chainsaw in a holster and de-limbs the tree as he ascends. Once at the top, he cuts the top of the tree off. Back down on the ground, the brush gets chipped. Phil then fells the remainder of the tree with extreme precision. It falls exactly where he intends it to be.
Here are some photos of Jason climbing and cutting at our previous residence:

And here's what Jason leaves for Phil to finish (these were taken at our current site):

View from house site looking out toward street:

View from street:

There really is sky up there

The clearing continues and we can see the sky now. Lots of laurel was hand pulled from the house and well site. This makes it easier for Phil and Jason to cut the larger trees.

Little Bean helped Grandpa cut one of the trees:

And Rachel helped too:

And then she took a break upon the soft mattress of woodchips:

Future oak flooring is everywhere:

Day 2: Site Clearing Begins

(John and Phil)

Beginning yesterday (day1), Phil and Jason started clearing the undergrowth where the driveway, barn, and house will be. They are amazing. Room has to be made for all the large trees that will have to come down. Room needs to be made for the logs that need to be sorted into firewood, and wood that we'll mill and use in construction. The smaller brush needs to be chipped or piled for burning later. There's a variety of tree species: white pine, hemlock, black birch, white birch, maple, oak, and a dense under story of mountain laurel.


(Phil's tractor)

We took some photos of us in our future living room today. The rotted log will eventually move over be replaced by our "cushier" sofa.