Friday, May 9, 2008

Bugs and stuff - part 2

Bugs...
Don't worry - No pictures this time!
The kids and I were driving home from church the other night about dusk. It was a beautiful, warm, clear, spring night. All of the sudden, it looked like snow in the headlights! And it sounded like rain on the windshield ... oh my - those are BUGS! Yuck!

Electricity
So exciting! Are you ready for this? We have power TO our property now. However, we do not have power available just yet.

This is truly a learning process for us.

They will allow temporary power for us, but we have to supply the pole, AND put it in the ground ... to their specifications! It really doesn't make sense to me, but that is what we did. We picked up a pole yesterday. OK - picture this ... the pole is 18' long. Our truck bed is maybe 12' long ... so, the person where we purchased it put the pole diagonally across the truck and it stuck out the right side at least 4'. We then drove about 30 minutes home. We tried to stay on back roads as much as possible, but we tried to "keep it light" by saying "whoa - that was close" at anything that was remotely close ;) It then became a game of wanting to at least brush something (tree branch or something). Once we were on our road, it was narrow enough that we picked up a few vines along the way.

When we finally got to the property, this is what it looked like (taken out the window):



Pouring down rain! We waited until it calmed down a little, dumped the pole and came back to the trailer. John then went up this morning very early and set the pole. What a man!
Footer
We have strated digging the footer by hand. We have 2 sides almost completed, but have hit spots of rock. The remaining side that really needs dug should be pretty soft earth.
Timeline
We are hoping to have the electricity hooked up, the pump installed, water lines ran to where we need them this weekend. If all goes well, we may be able to move up next weekend. Any progress at this point makes me thrilled!
Have a great weekend!
Shirley

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your electricity! When we installed ours the PUD(our electric company) made us dig the ditch, line it with pipe, put a rope into the pipe(to pull the wire through),in the end cover the ditch back up....and on top of all of that it still cost us over $2,000 to have them come to do their part. Then the funniest part was still to come. ... 2 big PUD trucks pulled into our property, then men got out, went to the back of one of the trucks and there on the truck was a coffee pot plugged into the truck. They brew their coffee on the outside of the truck while they are out driving or working. These men showed up, got out their mugs, filled up and all sat down for a coffee break! We could not believe that as we were paying a huge sum for them to come! It was funny. .... anyway it sounds like you guys are coming along! Wow it also looked like you had your share of rain this week! I'm sure you are doing your share of laundry to keep up with the mud! Continued blessings on this journey!
    Kim at Ross Cottage

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  2. Oh how excited to be moving up there soon. Electric, water - WAHOO!! Oh wait, telephone/cable so you can continue to blog? ;-)

    Hand digging the footers - WOW! And those darn rocks - I hear ya! ;)

    I hope your man had a wonderful birthday and I hope that you have a wonderful Mother's Day!!

    Miss ya!

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  3. Happy Mother's Day to you Shirley!
    I am going to give the burning of dandelion thing a try real soon. Sounds fun to see. I have never even thought to try that before!
    Bugs hitting the windsheild and thinking it is hail is a wow moment! That has got to be a lot of bugs! And one big mess on your car? I bet with each new season you experience in Alabama you are exeriencing many new things! Things that are not "Northwest" like at all! To me you are brave to be out of the familiar and into the throws of learning a new area!
    Have a very Happy Mother's Day, enjoy the day!
    Kim of Ross cottage

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  4. Hi There!
    Hope you had a wonderful Mother's DAy. Thanks for stopping by my blog! Sounds like you all are really roughing it...but what an incredible experience!!

    Take care!

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  5. OH.MY!!!!!!!!!!! How crazy is that! That you had to put up the pole, as if you have the equipment for that! I guess you know how to do it now! :)

    On the bug note... did you EVER have bugs in Pa?? I don't think they have them in Al but when we were in La the "love bug" season was the WORST! You could hardly see out of your windshield b/c of the bug gunk from the day's drive.

    Be on the look out for a rather normal looking spider (about the size of a nickel - including the legs). This kind of spider has it's babies immediately when you squash it. We learned this the hard way and now we catch it and dump bleach or cleaners on it and then flush/chunk it outside. FYI!

    I think Pa sounds better and better everyday - no bugs??!! Sounds like heaven! :)

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